OnePlus founder Pete Lau sets sights on becoming global smartphone brand

OnePlus' office in Shenzhen has all the vibe of an edgy start-up and the associated perks - table-top soccer, billiards, a gymnasium and even a company dog named Una.

Founder Pete Lau does not have his own corner office. Instead he sits at a desk with the employees and, unlike other Chinese bosses, insists that colleagues address him by his first name.

"My colleagues call me Pete or brother Hu. I like that. I've been to the offices of Facebook and Twitter, I like their corporate culture. And we've adopted a similar one here," Lau said.

A graduate of one of China's top universities, Lau was a latecomer to the world of smartphones. He began his career as an engineer in 1998 at Oppo, a Guangdong-based electronics manufacturer, spent the next 14 years making high-end DVDs and rose to be vice-president.

He only paid attention to smartphones in 2012 when he was made head of Oppo's phone marketing division. But a year later, he and four colleagues quit Oppo to launch their own start-up, OnePlus.

"The smartphone has a much bigger impact. It's something everyone needs. So to make an influential brand globally, nothing is better than smartphones," Lau said.

Lau decided to venture out because he was dissatisfied with the phones on the market, and he was certain he could make high-quality phones at a modest price despite the domestic competition from giants such as Xiaomi, Huawei and Lenovo.