'Rapid startup' story makes front page of People's Daily

During the Chinese New Year holiday, Zhang Bo stayed in Shenzhen instead of returning to his Sichuan hometown so he could “get a head start” on his newly formed company. Working out of a 10-square-meter cubicle in the iMakerbase International Accelerator in Bao’an District, Zhang describes himself as a “one-person company” (OPC) handling product, technology and marketing alone.

His rapid startup — going from a concept to a registered company in just over two months — was highlighted on the front page of the “Two Sessions” special edition of People’s Daily on March 4, in an article titled “Taking Reform and Innovation as the Fundamental Driving Force.” The story spotlighted the iMakerbase accelerator and used Zhang’s experience to illustrate how Shenzhen’s digital government reforms and continuous optimization of the business environment are delivering faster services and a more supportive urban ecosystem.

Startup employees discuss at iMakerbase International Accelerator in Bao’an District. Photo from Bao’an Daily

“Before I thought setting up a company was complicated. I didn’t expect it could be finished in a few days,” Zhang said. He credited Shenzhen’s online registration system — the One-stop Services for Enterprise Registration platform operated by the market supervision authorities — for the speed. Entrepreneurs log in, complete real-name verification, submit information and upload documents; the system then automatically matches and verifies the data. “One website handled everything. The guidance was clear and the process convenient,” Zhang said.

With his business license and official seals in hand, Zhang pressed ahead during the holiday. “If I had waited until after the holiday, we would have had to delay operations. Now with the paperwork done, the holiday was the best time to race ahead,” he said.

Shenzhen’s move to digitize and streamline company registration has repeatedly shortened startup timelines. The city’s authorities say the average time to start a business fell from 24 days in 2018 to five days, and was later accelerated from five days to one day. Today the online platform covers 11 services across 10 departments, from business license to social security registration, under a “one-time notification, single-form application, one-window acceptance, online processing” model that substantially reduces the time and cost of launching ventures.

Zhang’s startup was enabled not only by government efficiency but also by an emerging support model for solo founders. The One Person Company (OPC) model has been gaining traction in Bao’an District, offering a tailored path for individuals to commercialize AI hardware and other hard technology. On Jan. 13, Bao’an’s first AI hardware OPC community was launched in Hangcheng Subdistrict. The community leverages the district’s manufacturing and supply-chain strengths to resolve technical and sourcing bottlenecks, integrate global resources and empower individual founders.

“Shenzhen has the world’s most complete hardware industry chain, and the OPC model allows that advantage to be deeply integrated with AI,” said Ding Chunfa, CEO of iMakerbase and president of the Shenzhen Maker Supply Chain Association. “We hope every ‘super individual’ can efficiently start here, achieve 0-to-1 breakthroughs and grow future unicorns.”

To address common early-stage difficulties such as financing and market access, Bao’an moved quickly to build supporting finance and supply-chain networks. On Feb. 8, the Shenzhen OPC Ecosystem Alliance, under the Shenzhen Maker Supply Chain Association, and the Greater Bay Area OPC Angel Investors Alliance were officially established in Bao’an. The alliances aim to “fill gaps and strengthen weak links” by offering end-to-end support, from product R&D and supply-chain management to global marketing and early-stage investment, for OPC teams.

Zhang’s entrepreneurial story — one person, a tiny workspace and a digitized registration process — has become a vivid example of how policy, platforms and private-sector ecosystems are coming together in Shenzhen to speed up the path from idea to company.