It's clearly more challenging for entrepreneurs seeking VC funding for the first time.

Cutting prices is not enough -- it's time to make your services free and affordable for all of China's entrepreneurs and consumers, ... Free is the right business model for China's current conditions.

They still have to have vision, the ability to undertake an ambitious project, to leverage resources, to manage financing. We thought it would be very useful for the students to look at a situation that was very different from the normal one.

They're really applying the principles of entrepreneurial management even if they're not making a profit.

The basic pattern is the more money that comes in, the lower the returns.

The probability of VCs investing in a start-up is far less likely than it was in 1999. And that's bad news for entrepreneurs.