“Technology in Changning, scenarios across the globe.” This phrase captures the reality of Changning’s science and technology innovation landscape, which is being deeply cultivated and put into practice. At the Digital Silicon Lane Incubator, tech teams are exploring application scenarios for superconducting materials. At the East Hongqiao International Youth Sci-tech Innovation Center, several post-90s founders are pursuing their innovation goals with the lightweight “One-Person Company” (OPC) model. Within the old factory buildings of Tongchuang 717 and Suhehui, hardcore technologies are gradually taking root through urban renewal. Hongqiao Smart Zone is becoming an industrial hub for intelligent agents and embodied AI. Together, these spaces form Changning’s “spatial matrix” for tech innovation. In the second installment of our series on Changning’s tech incubators, we visit the OPC super ecosystem community of the AI era – the East Hongqiao International Youth Sci-tech Innovation Center.

As the wave of AI-driven global productivity transformation sweeps across the world, the “One-Person Company” (OPC), empowered by AI tools, is evolving into a “super individual” capable of rapid productivity growth. Changning District has precisely captured this trend and built its first OPC super ecosystem community – the East Hongqiao International Youth Sci-tech Innovation Center. Operated by IGS, which has 15 years of incubation experience, the center is also part of the Hongqiao • Haichuang Bay innovation and entrepreneurship platform, established in collaboration with the District Science and Technology Commission and the District Talent Work Bureau. It provides full-lifecycle support for innovation and entrepreneurship, creating a new business closed loop of “physical space incubation + AI deep empowerment + global order delivery,” turning the concept of “one person as a team, AI as squad mates” into a tangible reality.

Breaking away from traditional incubation  

A startup community tailored for OPCs

From its initial planning, the East Hongqiao International Youth Sci-tech Innovation Center has embedded “OPC thinking” into every detail: 5,800 square meters of operational space, with plans for more than 200 OPC workstations, all within a 5-minute walk from the subway. Open shared office areas, multi-sized meeting rooms, 24/7 air conditioning and ventilation systems, 960 underground parking spaces, and public area OPC project displays together create a free and efficient entrepreneurial atmosphere… As the first professional tech incubator focusing on “global expansion + AI + OPC,” the center is strategically concentrating on three core industries: global expansion economy, life and health, and tech consumption, while simultaneously deepening AI application innovation. To date, it has secured agreements with more than 20 AI+OPC startup teams for move-in.

Located in the national-level Linkong Economic Demonstration Zone, the East Hongqiao International Youth Sci-tech Innovation Center connects the innovation resources of the Hongqiao International Central Business District and Shanghai Silicon Lane, building a full-chain incubation system. In the “Life and Health” track, the building is equipped with dedicated exhaust ducts and laboratory facilities, allowing for environmental impact assessments, solving a key pain point for medical R&D teams in the central city area. For the “Global Expansion Economy” track, the center enjoys a uniquely advantageous “golden triangle” location, within one kilometer of both the Shanghai Hongqiao One-Stop Service Center for Overseas Talent and the Hongqiao Global Expansion Corporate Headquarters Cluster. Foreign and returnee talent can complete documentation, office selection, and global expansion services in one go. In the “Tech Consumption” track, the center deeply connects with leading companies in the region, providing entrepreneurs with brand cooperation and order opportunities, making it possible for “big-company traffic to empower small-team entrepreneurship.”

“I am a standard ‘one-person team’ myself, relying on AI tools for much of my work, so I understand the pain points of the OPC model intimately.” As an “OPC individual,” Liu Bin, CEO of IGS and chief business environment officer of the East Hongqiao International Youth Sci-tech Innovation Center, deeply understands the needs of OPC entrepreneurs. Affectionately called “Uncle Liu” by the entrepreneurs he serves, this veteran of incubation operations founded the first enterprise in Shanghai to use the term “Maker Space” in its registered name back in 2013, and has since incubated and served more than 1,600 startups. Leveraging its qualifications as a national-level maker space and Shanghai municipal entrepreneurship demonstration base, the center significantly reduces physical space costs in exchange for attracting high-quality teams.

Open 365 days a year  

Full-cycle, accompanying startup services

The core pain point for OPC entrepreneurs is that small teams struggle to handle a myriad of complex administrative tasks. To address this, the East Hongqiao International Youth Sci-tech Innovation Center has launched the “365 days – Entrepreneurship Never Stops” service plan, creating a comprehensive service system consisting of “six professional supports + five free benefits.” The six professional supports cover technology R&D, industry matchmaking, capital and financing, brand promotion, professional services, and intellectual property. At the same time, eligible talent can enjoy five free policies: a six-month free workspace, free financial and tax services, free legal services, free high-speed broadband, and free talent apartments. This truly fulfills the promise: “You focus on starting your business; leave the rest to us.”

He Keqin, a 27-year-old AI-focused entrepreneur in the global expansion space, knows this well. Using an AI-empowered efficient system, her two-person team has already turned a profit. Her team once helped a leading global AI model’s API aggregation platform grow its user base from 500,000 to 5 million in just 10 months. Yet even with such success, she was previously distracted by a wide range of trivial administrative tasks like tax and legal matters. “As an OPC entrepreneur, we need to focus our energy on core business. Choosing a good incubation platform allows us to seize business opportunities faster,” He said. She noted that her team will move into the center soon. The free policies provided by the center will save her tens of thousands of yuan in initial expenses, and the computing power subsidies for AI companies will further reduce the technical costs of her automated customer acquisition system.

“The center’s ‘Chief Service Officer’ system assigns us a dedicated ‘entrepreneurship butler,’ giving us access at any time to expert resources in R&D, industry matchmaking, capital financing, and other fields,” He added. Through the center, her team can also directly connect with leading companies such as Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, iQiyi, and Black Lake Technology, as well as top universities and institutions like Tsinghua University and Gobi Partners, greatly saving the time and cost of sourcing these resources on their own.

Collaborating with OPC Global  

Helping teams move from “using AI” to “making money with AI”

A core advantage of the East Hongqiao International Youth Sci-tech Innovation Center is its deep strategic partnership with OPC Global (One-Person Company Global Alliance). This leading global co-creation organization has pioneered the “0.5/3/2” high-efficiency paradigm – using half the time to achieve three times the output and double the income – a model that has been widely validated among the teams at the center. “This model not only helps those facing the risk of AI displacement to transform, but also offers a Chinese solution to the unemployment challenges of global industrial transformation,” said Guo Feng, founder and secretary-general of the OPC Global Council.

Unlike typical training that only teaches how to use AI tools, all of OPC Global’s courses are anchored in real orders. According to McKinsey Global Institute estimates, up to 375 million people worldwide may need to change occupations by 2030 due to automation. Amid the turbulence AI is causing in the global job market, OPC Global has built a tripartite collaboration system of “co-creation coach + coach partner + OPC unit (one or more persons)” to bridge the gap between professional expertise and practical results.

The co-creation coaching team, drawn from top universities such as Tsinghua University and Fudan University, provides entrepreneurs with comprehensive support in marketing, technology, and more. Under the supervision of professional coaches, teams at the East Hongqiao International Youth Sci-tech Innovation Center can directly accept digital delivery orders from around the world through OPC Global’s global order distribution and compliant profit-sharing system, truly realizing the principle of “learn what you earn.” At the same time, using OPC Global’s L1-L3 international coach certification system, the center helps experienced managers across various industries transform their tacit knowledge accumulated over many years into explicit courses and consulting services, opening up a second growth curve for entrepreneurs.

“Our goal is to become long-term partners for entrepreneurs. Through the collaboration of ‘co-creation coach + coach partner + OPC unit’ and project-based practice, we want to help more people make good use of AI and create value,” Guo said. He added that they will work with the center to run a series of special training camps and industry exchanges to improve entrepreneurs’ real-world business capabilities. In the future, they aim to share profits through a reasonable dividend mechanism, sharing risks and rewards with entrepreneurs, and creating a replicable incubation model for the AI era.

Ecosystem aggregation  

Policy support to build an OPC entrepreneurship hub

Policy support helps entrepreneurs travel light. Since its establishment, the East Hongqiao International Youth Sci-tech Innovation Center has received strong backing from the District Talent Work Bureau and the District Committee of the Communist Youth League. For example, the District Talent Work Bureau has launched ten major measures to support tech innovation and entrepreneurship. Eligible innovation and entrepreneurship projects settling at Hongqiao • Haichuang Bay can receive up to 300,000 yuan in startup subsidies, as well as comprehensive ecosystem solutions covering talent program applications, resource matchmaking, housing security, and more.

Moreover, the two aforementioned units have also partnered with IGS to create a Youth Economy Incubation Academy, providing early-stage startups with dedicated entrepreneurial mentors, a series of open entrepreneurship courses, and one-stop empowerment services including policy matchmaking, financing connections, and ongoing support. In addition, the District Talent Work Bureau will establish a Talent Innovation and Entrepreneurship Academy at the center, offering a systematic training system tailored specifically for OPC entrepreneurs.

To build a premier destination for AI thought exchange, the East Hongqiao International Youth Sci-tech Innovation Center hosts monthly events such as startup competitions, talent development seminars, and industry exchanges. It will also partner with the “AI Principal Talk” platform to create a live podcast space where investors, entrepreneurs, and media professionals can speak freely about industry trends and share startup stories. As Liu puts it: “The most important things for entrepreneurship are trends and atmosphere. One person can go fast, but only a group can go far.”

In this new era where AI is reshaping industrial structures, the East Hongqiao International Youth Sci-tech Innovation Center, with its high-quality physical space, professional services, and comprehensive resources, is becoming the premier destination for super individuals in the AI age. Looking ahead, the center will continue to leverage its professional OPC operational advantages to help more youth innovation dreams take root and flourish, drive the high-quality development of Changning’s AI innovation industry, and collaborate with quality institutions in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and beyond to build a cross-regional OPC entrepreneurship network, striving to become a highly influential benchmark for AI OPC incubation in Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta.