XFail 2019 Conference, an occasion for entrepreneurs to share their experiences of failure to improve startups' chance of success, will open in Taipei on December 14.Speakers sharing their experiences of failure at the event - to be held at Syntrend Creative Park - include AirSig founder Pokai Chen, Hope Bay Technologies chairman Ben Jai, Singularity University graduate Ju-Chun Ko, digital influencer Luke Hsu and US angel investor Greg Hao.The annual XFail conference was first organized in 2015.Figures from Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) show that up to 90% of entrepreneurships in Taiwan will end up failures within a year and among the remaining 10%, 90% will go out of business within five years, indicating that only 1% of Taiwan's entrepreneurships can last over five years.XFail 2019 Conference to open on December 14Photo: NARLabs

Successfully starting his own business twice, Gwong Lee, managing director, Translink Capital, sold his second firm for a high price 15 months after its establishment and he was named one of Silicon Valley's top-10 most important persons of the year. Afterwards, Foxconn chairman Terry Gou invited Lee to serve as chairman of CyberTAN, a Foxconn subsidiary, and guide Foxconn Technology Group's investment deals. Drawing on his entrepreneurship experiences, Lee offers some thoughts and advice for Taiwan startups.Without a market, even a strong startup team is uselessTranslink Capital mainly invests in US-based startups during Series A and Series B rounds and helps them build partnerships with leading Asian high-tech firms. Lee pointed out as many Taiwan-based firms are looking to transform themselves in hopes of spurring further growth and Silicon Valley has a host of startups that can inspire large enterprises with ideas for new business models, they can join forces. Translink Capital currently works with Taiwan-based firms including Foxconn, Quanta, Inventec and UMC.When evaluating whether a startup is worth investing in, Lee mainly considers three aspects: the market, the product and the leader. Among them, the market is the most critical factor. Without a market, even a strong startup team has no use. In 1987, Lee started his first business, Digicom Systems, specializing in point-to-point communication by integrating digital signal processing chips in products to replace traditional devices. Digicom Systems was an instant hit and got OEM orders from AT&T in its second year of operation. In the five years from 1988 to 1993, AT&T remained the biggest customer contributing to more than half of Digicom Systems' revenue. Still new at entrepreneurship at that time, Lee thought technology was the key to his success and customers would automatically come to him if he had the technology they were after. Paying no attention to market needs, he made no customer visit at all in six years. In retrospect, Lee regrets not making efforts to strength customer relationships and understand market needs as well as customer plans. If he had done so, Digicom Systems might have had more opportunities. Fortunately, Digicom Systems was acquired by Singapore-based Creative Labs in 1994, which turned out to be a happy ending.When starting his second business, TransMedia, in 1997, Lee was well aware of customer needs and TransMedia could develop products in as short as 15 months and began proof-of-concept validation with customers. Cisco Systems then acquired TransMedia for US$500 million. 3Com and Nortel were among those that also bid for TransMedia at the time. Lee suggests that startups select buyers not just based on the offer price but should also consider if they share a common business philosophy and comparable professional capabilities, which will sustain their future development together or else there may be compatibility problems after the merger.Whether a startup has a right product is the second consideration in investment decision-making. A startup team must find the right people to make the product or find a mentor to provide guidance. Many startups can design a good product but don't know the first thing about hardware or system so they can only outsource product manufacturing. However, it can be a challenge to manage OEM and control product quality, indicated Lee.The third factor is the team and the leader. Lee places importance on three leadership qualities: pioneering spirit, persistence and focus. In particular, he said many entrepreneurs are full of ideas and want to do a lot of things. Without focus, they have too much on their plate and end up achieving nothing due to limited resources. They put out too many products but have no one in charge of promoting them. The results are certainly unsatisfactory. As such, it is important to have focus.Applications combining hardware, software and cloud are suitable for Taiwan startupsThe investment deals that Lee is currently overseeing at Translink Capital center on Industry 4.0, IoT, AI, machine learning, AR/VR and industrial applications. In general, he favors startups that already have customers. A startup pitch with only a few presentation slides or prototypes will unlikely secure any funding.Half of the firms that Translink Capital has a stake in also receive funding from corporate venture capital of Translink Capital's partners. They provide different perspectives that complement the investment deals made by corporate venture capital of Translink Capital's partners, which may sometimes be too focused on certain areas to have an overview.With respect to the startup ideas for Taiwan, Lee suggests the combination of hardware, software and cloud. The omnipresent Internet has been around for two decades but Taiwan has yet to foster any outstanding Internet companies with the only exception being PChome. Most software engineers work for the semiconductor industry, resulting in a poorly developed software industry. As such, now for active startup developments, Lee advises Taiwan startups make efforts toward applications combining hardware, software and cloud.It is never easy to start a business. One of Lee's friends has extensive experiences in funding high-tech firms. The friend has invested in HP, Intel and Apple and received handsome return but has also engaged in 50 angel investment deals that all failed. Although Lee rarely does angel investing, he will join the game in Pre-A round funding if he sees a team with very good potential. Whether an angel investment deal can succeed hinges on the angel investor's experience and connection. Even if the angel investor is not funding a business in his own field of expertise, his business know-how, such as management of cash flow, logistics, product R&D and talent recruitment, can still apply to different industries.As a final piece of advice, Lee emphasizes that startups must have a clear go-to-market strategy, including sales channels, marketing and pricing plans, as well as how to build the visibility of the startup in the marketplace. Only one out of 10 startups receiving angel investment gets to proceed to Series A funding. Whether you end up being the one or among the remaining nine depends on how well prepared you are.(Editor's note: This is part of a series of interviews focusing on the problems and opportunities that Taiwan-based startups face. The interviewees are venture capitalists and angel investors from Silicon Valley and Taiwan.)Gwong Lee, managing director of Translink CapitalPhoto: Joseph Tsai, Digitimes, May 2018

Having started three businesses, two of which successfully went public, founder of Vivo Capital Frank Kung set foot in the biotech sector in the 1970s. Thanks to Kung's decades of experiences in investing in biotech firms in the US and Greater China, Vivo Capital has made itself the largest biotech venture capital fund in Chinese communities worldwide, managing over US$1.7 billion in capital including the Taiwan Silicon Valley Technology Fund. Furthermore, Kung often attends the Taiwanese government's Bio Taiwan Committee meetings and offers advice for the development of Taiwan's biotech industry.Know the difference between healthcare products and consumer productsAccording to Kung, biotech products include healthcare products and consumer products. Investors must have a clear understanding on the difference between the two to avoid making blind bets. Many investors don't have the slightest idea about the nature of business of the biotech firm they invest in. They are merely betting on the assumption that it will be acquired by a big enterprise later on. Such wishful thinking can be problematic. A major difference between healthcare products and consumer products is the former have to undergo a series of tests and obtain approval from government authorities, such USFDA or Taiwan FDA, in order to go to market while the latter, such as dietary supplements and facial masks, have to overcome challenges in marketing and product differentiation. Both the investors and the entrepreneur need to have a clear objective as to whether the startup they are funding or founding is selling a product or technology. If it is selling a product, they must know whether it is a healthcare product or consumer product. Only by having a clear picture can investors further assess the potential and market value of the startup.In talking about healthcare products, Kung pointed out Taiwan's current conditions are rather unfavorable for startups endeavoring on healthcare product development. There are three elements to startup success - technology, talent and capital. Taiwan must be able to eliminate obstacles with respect to these three elements in order to foster a flourishing biotech industry. First of all, in terms of technology, Taiwan has very few firms specializing in making innovative healthcare products. Many pharmaceutical firms only produce generic drugs or new forms of old drugs. Strictly speaking, they are not working on biotechnology applications, let alone making innovations. As such, for a Taiwan biotech startup to succeed, it must have unique technology to be able to establish market presence.With respect to talent, Taiwan lacks the human resources to develop healthcare products. In fact, Taiwan has plenty of professionals doing medical research but few of them have the capability to commercialize research results. Rather than recruiting medical scientists from abroad to do product research, Taiwan should seek specialists in commercializing healthcare products. This will be more helpful in pushing the development of Taiwan's biotech industry, suggested Kung.As to capital, it is not easy for biotech startups to obtain funding in Taiwan. Taiwan's venture capital funds mostly invest in mature companies and impose more stringent requirements on startups. Furthermore, having accumulated more than a decade of experiences in funding biotech businesses, investors have gained a more in-depth understanding on the industry but the capital funneled into biotech firms is still insufficient. As investors are still drawn to pour fund into firms with promising technology, Series A funding is generally not a problem. However, despite lower technological risks in Series B funding, startups face the challenge as to how to enhance their market value and find experienced professional investors to support them. What's worse is that regulatory restrictions have deterred foreign investments in Taiwan's biotech businesses. As a result, the third and fourth rounds of financing become even more challenging, which also makes investors more conservative during earlier-stage funding.The development of healthcare products is a long and risky process. It's time consuming and capital hungry. For example, it took TaiMed Biologics 10 years to have its new drug Trogarzo approved by FDA for the treatment of multidrug resistant HIV-1 infection.Taiwan should create a healthy investment climate and relax regulatory controlTake Vivo Capital for example. The biotech firms that Vivo Capital invests in mostly already have their new treatments in clinical trial with human experiment data and case studies available so they can better spur investor interests. Although there are many medical centers and medical professors leading research projects in Taiwan, without a good judge of talent, these projects mostly end up as papers in academic journals and have no chance of being assessed for their commercialization potential. Kung advises that entrepreneurs aspiring to biotech development should take some time to study market needs so that they are able to come up with the best startup idea.The supply of talent is a big challenge to biotech industry development. Although many biotech research organizations have instituted technology transfer programs, most of them are just following the trend without extensive know-how. The lack of talent specializing in commercializing healthcare products is Taiwan's greatest weakness in its endeavors to promote biotech industry development, reiterated Kung.In terms of technology, it will be a long way to go for Taiwan-based firms to develop new biotech products from scratch. It may be a better idea to bring in validated technologies from abroad. However, the basic consideration is still whether there is a favorable environment and incentive fostering biotech development. What the government can do is to relax regulatory control and create a healthy investment climate, rather than using state funding to support a few biotech firms, which can only generate short-term benefits but not sustainable long-term growth for the industry.Nevertheless, the outlook for the Taiwan biotech industry is not all bleak. Taiwan-based firms still have opportunities in consumer biotech products. For example, Fitbit took the market by surprise with its success at wearable devices for healthcare purposes. It is even leading the competition by a widening distance. If Taiwan-based firms set a goal to develop consumer biotech products, they must have innovative ideas, know the competition well and realize what it takes to penetrate into the market. They also need to overcome technological barriers so that their products can cater to consumer preferences. Kung emphasized entrepreneurs endeavoring on biotech development need to stay on top of market conditions and establish a clear market position. Only by doing so can they minimize the risks when starting a new business.(Editor's note: This is part of a series of interviews focusing on the problems and opportunities that Taiwan-based startups face. The interviewees are venture capitalists and angel investors from Silicon Valley and Taiwan.)Frank Kung, founder of Vivo CapitalPhoto: Frank Kung

Co-founder of Translink Capital Jackie Yang has accumulated 21 years of experience in venture capitalism since he first set foot in the field in 1996. Having witnessed the rise and fall of Taiwan industries and changes in technologies, Yang thinks although the PC and semiconductor industries that have fueled Taiwan's economic growth are experiencing market saturation and maturity, startups still have a good chance at success if they are able to capture opportunities. He gives some pointers and suggestions to Taiwan's entrepreneurs based on his experiences in funding successful startups.Five things to focus on for startups looking to bring innovations to people's livesOver the past decade or so, venture capital funds in Silicon Valley mostly invested in startups endeavoring on innovative hardware devices. This is called the "Hard Tech" sector including network equipment, optical communication and semiconductor firms. However, these businesses have begun to face market saturation since 2000. Not a lot of startups were emerging and new companies were mostly spin-offs from large enterprises or founded by people originally working for large enterprises. Venture capital funds today mainly invest in startups that bring creative changes to people's lives, such as Uber, AirBnB and e-commerce firms. Yang offers five suggestions to Taiwan startups that wish to venture into lifestyle innovations or consumer devices.Get familiar with the local cultureLifestyle innovations have to be largely based on how local people live. For example, if you live in San Francisco, you'll know that not only is it difficult to hail a taxi on the street but it is also expensive to take one, not to mention the fact that taxi service there leaves a lot to be desired. Then, you can understand how Uber could quickly rise up in San Francisco. However, for Taiwan startups looking to work on lifestyle innovations, the local market is too small. If they target the China market instead, they need to have someone familiar with the China market to join the team and they also need to work as aggressively as young people in China to be able to compete in the China local market.Target niche market segmentsCamera drone maker DJI and action camera maker GoPro both chose to target a specific group of users. DJI focused on developing drones for professional users right from the beginning. This group of users come from all over the world and form an online community, where they engage in communication and help DJI build up a strong brand reputation. The success of GoPro is a good example demonstrating the effectiveness of word-of-mouth marketing. Among the slew of camera suppliers, GoPro was the first to make cameras for extreme sports and put the captured video footages on YouTube, which served as powerful advertising. Taiwan-based MSI, specializing in gaming PC, is another successful firm that focuses efforts on a niche segment.Creative sales approach: direct marketingOne thing GoPro and smart wristband maker Fitbit have in common is their direct approach to product sales, which is not often adopted by Taiwan-based firms. Besides GoPro and Fitbit, Xiaomi also makes use of such a creative sales strategy and actually saved a large sum of marketing costs in its early-stage expansion. In addition to selling products directly to users, Fitbit is able to achieve great success also because it chose to add network communication capability to its pedometer early in the development stage, which is a critical feature to consumer devices and enables data sharing with smartphones.Differentiating featuresThe success of Fitbit has spurred a slew of followers making smart wristbands. However, startups should not make me-too products and instead must come up with differentiating features. Despite being a follower also making smart wristbands, Misfit did a survey before they entered the market and found the biggest complaint from users is battery life, so it came up with wristbands requiring no charging, allowing it to successfully penetrate into the market.It is not easy for startups to develop differentiating technologies, especially in the case of mature industries that hold a high technological barrier. On the other hand, in the case of emerging technologies, there may be fewer people with specialized expertise to compete against but this also means it is more difficult to get help when you encounter a bottleneck. Taiwan-based startup Appier, focusing on AI technology, is among the few firms that possess its own R&D strength. It provides AI-based big data analytics to help enterprises with advertisement placement and digital marketing. Having accumulated a myriad of successful use cases, Appier generates impressive revenues, half of which are contributed by overseas clients.User base is the keyAside from consumer devices and AI-based application services, Translink Capital also invests in social media. According to Yang, as long as a social media site gains a sufficient user base, its profitability is just a matter of time and the business model is usually not a real concern. The key point is whether it can operate across borders and not be limited to a single region.The automotive industry is undergoing revolutionary changesAs a venture capitalist, Yang is often asked which industry he is currently taking an interest in. In response to the question, Yang said among traditional industries, the automotive sector is the one faced with the biggest challenges in recent years. All automakers are bracing themselves for impact. "C.A.S.E" – each of these has the power to turn the automotive industry upside down. "C" (connected) means cars, like smart wristbands and watches, must have network communication capability to become connected cars. "A" (autonomous) refers to autonomous driving backed by a multitude of sensor, software and AI technologies. "S" represents "smart city" or "sharing" which includes the innovative services, such as Uber, and even Zipcar car sharing, changing how people choose means of transportation. "E" refers to electric car, which is undergoing flourishing developments in China.Self-driving cars combined with ride sharing or car sharing services will bring radical changes to user habits. For example, consumer demand for vehicles may go down or it is more precise to say that consumers may no longer be those making car purchases. Automakers are acting prudently to cope with future changes and many of them have begun to invest in or expand into ride sharing services.Amid rapid technology advances and market changes today, not only do startups need to capture opportunities but large enterprises also sustain significant impact. When the market becomes saturated, how can large enterprises maintain growth by fostering innovations? Yang suggests that every firm should allocate at least 0.5-1% of its budget for startup investment. Startups can serve as a unit doing advanced R&D for large enterprises, especially when their internal R&D units have problem keeping up with new trends and are falling behind schedule. Samsung, wishing to take a different approach from the competition, makes active efforts to work with startups and has a well-developed policy in this respect. Among Taiwan-based businesses, Foxconn is the most aggressive in startup investments.Japan's second largest property insurance firm has recently funneled investment into Translink Capital in hopes of gaining an understanding on innovative technologies through Translink Capital. In doing so, the Japanese firm not only seeks partnership opportunities but also looks to prevent emerging FinTech services from grabbing its market share.(Editor's note: This is part of a series of interviews focusing on the problems and opportunities that Taiwan-based startups face. The interviewees are venture capitalists and angel investors from Silicon Valley and Taiwan.)Jackie Yang, co-founder of Translink CapitalPhoto: Joseph Tsai, Digitimes, May 2018

Co-chairman of SVT Angels and co-founder of Acorn Campus Ventures, T Chester Wang taught college courses in Saudi Arabia and invested in real estate in Silicon Valley before he began angel investing. From investing in real estate to investing in high-tech startups, from investing by himself to founding Acorn Campus Ventures with friends (Wu-Fu Chen and ‎David Tsang) and investing with a group of angel investors, Wang has many success stories as well as bad investments such as the one in eBay made without a real understanding of new business models.Drawing on his experiences, Wang calls on the Taiwan government to leverage Taiwan's strength and focus attention on the development of healthcare technologies while instituting flexible policies to allow exit mechanisms for startup firms so as to foster burgeoning startup developments.If a startup firm fails, the problem is either the market or the startup teamWang spoke frankly that he learned from his years of experiences that it is easier to invest in real estate than high-tech startups. For real estate investment, once you get to know the neighborhood you look to invest in, all you need to do is come up with the capital and find the ideal timing to enter the market. The real estate market operates on a boom and bust cycle based largely on supply and demand. Even if you get caught in a recession, you can wait for a few years and still be able to sell the property. Your biggest loss may be just the interest you have to pay. In contrast, angel investing involves professional knowledge of different industries. Moreover, as you invest in people, a wide range of factors can lead to success or failure. If the deal goes bad, you get zero return.Analyzing Acorn Campus Ventures' angel investment cases, Wang found that startup failures were rarely because they were unable to make the products but mostly because they targeted the wrong market, they failed to stay keen on market conditions, or the startup team had problems. With the US Telecommunications Act of 1996 in effect, new telecom technology companies were burgeoning at the time. Among them, Wang was optimistic about Anda's technology and therefore made an investment. Instead of accepting a merger offer of US$500 million in 2000, Anda wanted to proceed to IPO. Unfortunately, a year later, the 911 terrorist attack caused a stock market crash. The capital market became tight and firms were cutting down expenses by continuing to use existing telecom equipment and calling off their replacement plans, which seriously affected Anda's sales. Unable to make ends meet, the company fell into dire financial difficulty.What Anda encountered was a market problem, rather than a technology problem. You may not be able to avoid unexpected incidents but you can definitely prevent failures due to human factors. Wang thinks the founder plays a critical role in the startup team. It is important whether the founder possesses the characteristics: persistence, willingness to share, focus, modesty and leadership. Can the founder persist through hardships in the process of starting his own business? For example, when the firm has trouble paying employee salary or when product development runs into a wall, does the founder try everything to work things out or does he change direction every time he faces a problem? There will always be new problems ahead even if you change direction.Whether the founder is willing to share the fruit of success also affects team spirit. Some founders are selfish and boss team members around. It is unlikely such teams will succeed. There are also some startup founders who do not handle fame very well. When they get all the media attention and give speeches everywhere, they become so full of themselves that they lose track of what they do best, putting themselves on the road to failure.Taiwan holds advantages in healthcare technologies and traditional Chinese medicineYears ago, SVT Angels had a program to foster Taiwan's startup teams and sent a group of outstanding teams to Silicon Valley for a close look at how American startup firms operate. SVT Angels also helped them develop their projects and products. As one of their mentors, Wang observed that young people in Taiwan have excellent qualities and a visit to Silicon Valley can broaden their horizons.Before they came to Silicon Valley, they avoided talking to people about their startup ideas in fear of disclosing their trade secret. However, the visit to Silicon Valley made them realize that discussing their ideas with people can help them validate market needs, broaden their horizons and open their eyes, said one team member under Wang's guidance when sharing his experience. Enhancing English proficiency is the suggestion that Wang gives to Taiwan startup teams. In contrast to teams from other Asia Pacific regions, such as Singapore and Hong Kong, Taiwan startup teams are not fluent enough in English. The world is flat and competition is more intense than ever before. You cannot engage in profound discussion with people without fluency in English.Excellent teams still need good startup ideas. Wang suggests that Taiwan startup teams work on healthcare technology development. Wang once assisted a Taiwan startup team at Stanford University obtain FDA approval. According to Wang, 70% of investments in the medical field are for development of new drugs. Although Taiwan lacks advantage in this respect, startup teams can still work on small-scale clinical studies. Furthermore, Taiwan's unique national health insurance database also gives startup teams an edge in their endeavors toward healthcare technology development.In addition, traditional Chinese medicine is also an area that Taiwan startup teams can work on. The most popular keyword searches by Americans in Chinese are for information related to traditional Chinese medicine. With clinical practice dating back to 4,000-5,000 years ago, traditional Chinese medicine is a proven science and worthy topic of research for commercialization. Acorn Campus Ventures has investments in a Taiwan-based postpartum meal delivery service firm, which also plans to expand into China and Malaysia, targeting the local Chinese population. The firm is generating good profit.Taiwan has many additional advantages. For example, six degrees of separation (the theory that any person is connected to another by six or fewer acquaintances) works very well in Taiwan, a small society where it's easy to find out if someone is credible and thereby build a trustworthy team. Moreover, with market mechanisms and systems more in line with international business practice, Taiwan can be a reliable partner for international businesses planning to enter the China market, where it may be difficult for foreign firms to quickly establish trust amid its massive market scale and unforeseeable circumstances.Last but not least, Wang advises that to foster a booming startup industry, the Taiwan government should adjust its policies to allow startups to have exit mechanisms, for example, easing control on merger deals. Acorn Campus Ventures invested in Crown Bioscience, a research firm providing services for new drug development. Soon after going public, the company was acquired by a Japan-based corporation for US$600-US$700 million in cash. Although Crown Bioscience was then delisted, the deal gave the founder and investors a sizeable return on investment. More such success stories will spur investor interests in startups and more capital funneled into startups will encourage entrepreneurship. Wang thinks instead of supporting a few companies to go public, the Taiwan government is better off instituting flexible policies to provide startups exit mechanisms or easier merger opportunities."When money flows out of the capital market, it has a chance of flowing back," said Wang.(Editor's note: This is part of a series of interviews focusing on the problems and opportunities that Taiwan-based startups face. The interviewees are venture capitalists and angel investors from Silicon Valley and Taiwan.)Chester Wang, Acorn Campus co-founder and co-chairman of SVT AngelsPhoto: Joseph Tsai, Digitimes, May 2018

LuxNet chairman, Hsing Kung, has founded three companies. Among them, SDL was established in 1983, specializing in manufacturing optical communication devices. It was sold for US$41.1 billion 16 years later, awarding early investors a 10,000 times return on their investment. Then, Kung soon started Pine Photonics in 2000, which was acquired four years later. During the same time, Kung also founded LuxNet. Both his own companies and those that Kung had stake in underwent the burst of the Internet and optical communication industry bubble in 2000 and sustained great impact. Kung has tasted both the sweetness of success and the bitterness of failure.Now as a partner of Acorn Campus Ventures, Kung enjoys sharing his experiences on entrepreneurship. He thinks with a good foundation and system, Taiwan should encourage investors to make early-stage investments in startups to spur a burgeoning startup scene.Focus on core business and build up corporate value before burning all the cashThe dotcom boom in late 1990s attracted many people to invest in Internet and optical communication businesses. The bubble finally burst in 2000, causing many companies to go out of business. The venture capital community was busy picking up the pieces and stopped making investments. A firm supplying microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) that Kung funded in 1999 was among those that went belly up. The team that started the MEMS firm actually had quite extensive experiences. The firm was even named by a magazine as the private company with the most potential. Kung also held very optimistic outlook for the firm. However, after the startup team received investment from a large venture capital fund, they asked the team to hire an outside CEO. Both the fund and the CEO were eager to prepare the firm for IPO. Unfortunately, with the dotcom bubble bursting, the firm didn't get to go public and couldn't find a buyer, so closure was inevitable in the end.LuxNet, which Kung established on his own, faced a similar situation at that time. After LuxNet finished the final round of funding in 2001, it encountered the dotcom bubble burst. The startup team decided to move back to Taiwan in 2003 to start all over again. Combining Silicon Valley's R&D strength and Taiwan's manufacturing advantage, not only did LuxNet manage to pull through but it also generated impressive results. Kung said in retrospect that the MEMS firm should have tried to cut down expenses and focus on making core products before it burned all the cash. When a startup gets caught in a difficult situation and the CEO and venture capitalist have different opinions, only the startup team that won't give up can save the day.Having experienced the bubble burst himself, Kung remarked in earnest that a business must focus on what it does best, rather than follow what others are doing. In the startup stage, it must try its best to build up its value - make the product or find the customer before it uses up all the venture capitalist'smoney or else it won't be able to carry on.Competence and a little bit of luck will add up to startup success. After Pine Photonics was acquired, Kung chose to retire and join Acorn Campus Ventures to begin angel investing. Some Chinese engineers on the original Pine Photonics team wanted to start their own business and approached Kung. Kung and Acorn Campus Ventures then helped them found InnoLight, specializing in high-speed optical transceivers, in 2008. As there were already firms producing high-speed optical transceivers in the US but not in China, which mostly imported the products from the US, they decided to set up the company in Suzhou, China.InnoLight got off to a good start. China not only has tremendous market demand but also plenty of engineering talent as well as high-quality and hard-working labor. When Google raised demand for 40Gb/s optical communication devices for its datacenters in 2012, InnoLight was able to beat a dozen competitors and got the project. InnoLight has made itself the world's No. 3 optical communication device supplier in as short as 10 years, with annual revenue reaching US$750 million.Taiwan should leverage its advantages and encourage entrepreneurshipDrawing on past experiences, Kung thinks entrepreneurs should have a clear idea about his company's competitive edge, which may be certain differentiating technologies or intellectual property. This is also the first question that venture capitalists ask. It is not enough for a startup to succeed if it is only targeting an untapped country or market. If a startup team has extensive experiences in a certain field or specific know-how to solve certain problems, then it has a shot at success. Furthermore, the entrepreneur must be willing to share the fruit of success with his team and angel investors, who have taken risks to help bring dreams to reality. Everyone will be keen to fund an entrepreneur with a competitive edge and willingness to share.Amid global competition, Kung suggests that Taiwan-based firms should have a clear understanding of their own strength. Taiwan still has many advantages including the business climate and mature governing system. In Taiwan, you don't need government connections to be able to operate a business. The Taiwan government also places importance on intellectual property (IP) and institutes laws for IP protection, which favors the development of high-tech businesses. Moreover, its stock market is open and healthy, where share prices mostly reflect earnings and profitability in the long run, rather than market speculation. As such, the Taiwan government should leverage these advantages to attract investments and particularly make active efforts toward encouraging entrepreneurship and early-stage investments in startups. Most of Taiwan's venture capital firms are rather conservative. However, only investments during early-stage development can drive a burgeoning startup scene. In addition, academic institutions can also provide more entrepreneurship courses to help students bring startup ideas to reality.With regard to startup ideas, Kung suggests that biotechnologies and medical equipment are suitable areas for Taiwan. Taiwan has many good medical colleges, educating abundant professional talent. Acorn Campus Ventures has stakes in several startups endeavoring in healthcare technologies. Kung, however, focuses his investments in startups specializing in optical communication technology, which is more in line with his own expertise.According to Kung, widespread popularity of cloud computing and large-scale datacenters in recent years has created a great influence on the development of the optical communication industry. Telecom operators and network companies, such as Cisco, generally require optical networks to provide reliable connection. Datacenters, on the other hand, look to speed up data access and thus have higher demand for bandwidth than before. When market demand changes from reliability to speed, opportunities arise. Optical network data rate has evolved from 2.5Gb/s in 2000, 10Gb/s in 2010 to 100Gb/s at present, possibly reaching 400Gb/s in 2019. Kung thinks the optical communication industry still has plenty of opportunities and a great number of startups will keep endeavoring in innovative R&D of related technologies in this area.In addition to technological startups, with compassion for humanity, Kung has been investing in social enterprises in recent years. By fueling energy into the development of social entrepreneurship, Kung hopes to engage more efforts to help change the world.(Editor's note: This is part of a series of interviews focusing on the problems and opportunities that Taiwan-based startups face. The interviewees are venture capitalists and angel investors from Silicon Valley and Taiwan.)Hsing Kung, LuxNet chairmanPhoto: Joseph Tsai, Digitimes, May 2018

Technology only accounts for 25% of what makes a startup successful while the CEO's leadership can contribute to 50% of its success, said Chun P Chiu, national policy advisor to the president of Taiwan, InnoBridge Capital's Senior Advisor and an angel investor, who has funded more than 100 startups over a 20-year period.Born in Taiwan, Chiu received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Waseda University in Japan and a master's degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University in the US. He designed the industry's first computer system-on-chip (SoC) and later engaged in R&D of DRAM, SRAM and flash memory chips. Chiu was in charge of mini computer research at Hewlett-Packard (HP). After he left HP in 1980, he founded Integrated Device Technology (IDT) with four partners, working on the development of SRAM fabricated using CMOS technology, an area where there was little research at that time. Four of the founders including Chiu were of engineering backgrounds and didn't know the first thing about fundraising. Later they recruited someone from AMD to be their CEO and the company successfully went public in 1984.Angel investors have valuable business connectionsDuring his time at IDT, Chiu transcended from his role as an engineer and took on challenging marketing and sales work. He established a Japan subsidiary for expansion into the Japan market, which has always been known for its stringent requirements on product quality. Chiu was lucky to have old classmates working for distributors and his customer Fujitsu so they were willing to try out IDT products and help with the testing. Following Fujitsu, Toshiba also became IDT's customer, making IDT the only American company successfully penetrating into the Japan memory market, which contributed 10% of IDT's revenues. Having completed his mission, Chiu decided to retire from his position at IDT. Afterwards, in 1989, based on his technological expertise and experience, Chiu founded another company, QSI, and made himself the CEO. QSI went public in 1994 and was acquired by IDT in 1998, when Chiu formally retired and began angel investing to this day.Drawing on his 20-year experience as an angel investor and venture capitalist, Chiu spoke frankly that more than 70 startups that he invested in went belly up, 10 are barely alive, five successfully went public and seven were acquired. The most successful one is network security equipment provider Netscreen, which was the first to make use of ASIC chips. Going public in 2001, Netscreen was later acquired by Juniper Networks for US$4.3 billion in 2004. The deal gave Chiu 200 times return on investment. Chiu helped recruit Frank Marshall from Cisco to join Netscreen as an advisor. Chiu thinks the move contributed to Netscreen's huge success. Marshall not only recognized Netscreen's technological strength but also helped the team set a product R&D direction. He also invested in the company himself and assisted in the search for a suitable CEO. As he thinks a company's success hinges on whether the management can work as a team, Marshall insisted all three founders must reach consensus on who should be hired as the CEO. Then, everything worked out.The deal that took Chiu by surprise the most was Azalea Networks in 2008. The wireless mesh network communication technology the company developed was very competitive at the time. Chiu thought Azalea Networks had very promising outlook and provided pointers for company operations at monthly board meetings. However, the founder from China was not satisfied with the slow growth in the US market and decided to return to China to bid for a 2008 Summer Olympics project. Unfortunately, Azalea Networks was unable to collect payments after completion of the project, which put the company in dire financial difficulty. Chiu came to rescue again and finally helped find a buyer - Aruba Networks - to acquire Azalea.Marketing and sales play a pivotal role in corporate successDrawing on his experience in starting his own businesses and angel investing, Chiu gives suggestions to Taiwan entrepreneurs with respect to the preparations they have to make in order to reach success.Know what the market wantsMarketing and sales is key to a company's success. A business leader has to figure out what the market needs and whether the company's technology matches the need. What Chiu used to do was to call field application engineers (FAE) stationed at customer sites back to join sales specialists and R&D engineers in brainstorming meetings every quarter so that the company could stay on top of customer needs. Chiu warns that entrepreneurs with engineering backgrounds often think they have the best product and the market will scramble for it. That is the biggest mistake when you start a business.CEO leadershipA startup is already halfway to success if it has a good CEO. Many startup teams have technological strength but they are going nowhere. In most cases, it's because they are unwilling to work with outside professional managers to help with their business operation. After a startup receives the first round of funding from an angel investor, it will have to develop the ability to raise additional capital by itself. In general, Chiu does not hire a CEO at the beginning but instead allows the startup team to experiment on its own. If they can't make it, Chiu will try to hire an outside CEO.Entrepreneur characteristics: humble and coachableAccording to Chiu, the most important characteristic of an entrepreneur is the willingness to stay humble, keep learning and engage professional talent. When Chiu was doing DRAM research, a few Japanese engineers were very humble so Chiu taught them everything he knew. Later when a Japanese firm got an outsourcing contract for computer chips, they analyzed the chip and came up with a better design than IDT's. The ability to take advice and communicate is another characteristic that Chiu places great importance on. An entrepreneur does not have to follow everything his mentor says but must be able to listen and communicate.Execution of business model combined with strategy planningA startup must have a clear business model and an understanding of how big the target market is, how strong the competitors are, what its own advantages are, how it is going to sell its products and what its market strategies are.Concise business proposalVenture capital funds get a lot of business proposals every day. They need to quickly determine whether a proposal has any potential so they usually just read the first page. As such, an entrepreneur looking to persuade venture capitalists must be able to present his point concisely on one page.Japan's technologiesFamiliar with the Japan industry, Chiu thinks although the Japanese marketplace has a reputation of being conservative, Japanese enterprises hold special technologies and are now gradually opening themselves up to partnerships with foreign businesses. The Taiwan manufacturing industry known for its agility and efficiency is a good complement to Japan. Furthermore, with Japan's trust in Taiwan, now is an ideal time for Taiwan and Japan to join forces. However, it will definitely take some time to build trust in a business relationship with Japanese firms.The whole world is in search of the next unicorn. Hardware is Taiwan's strength but future growth may be limited if it continues to focus only on hardware development, said Chiu. Instead, by combining hardware and software (application) developments, Taiwan will embrace tremendous opportunities. Furthermore, Asia offers more room for growth than other regions in the world. Taiwan, with geographical advantages, is an ideal testing ground for problem-solving applications. Taiwan can also work with other Asian countries holding different advantages to complement each other.But Chiu warned against putting too much emphasis on China due to market uncertainties there. Nevertheless, Taiwan startups should not hesitate to take the first step. "Just do it and you can always make adjustments later," he said.(Editor's note: This is part of a series of interviews focusing on the problems and opportunities that Taiwan-based startups face. The interviewees are venture capitalists and angel investors from Silicon Valley and Taiwan.)Chun P Chiu, senior advisor of InnoBridge CapitalPhoto: Joseph Tsai, Digitimes, May 2018

Co-founder of Acorn Campus Ventures Bob Lin started six businesses, three of which succeeded and the others failed. In addition to being an angel investor, Lin is also the author of top-selling books. Lin has been through it all, from making a fortune to losing every penny. He put his thoughts and wisdom gained from four decades of experiences in his books in hopes of helping more people. Lin declined the title of a venture capital guru in modesty, stating that he continues to make investments and keeps writing about the industry he observes closely.Lin is also the founder of Multidimensional Angel Group and co-founder of Healthilink China.Finding a direction for TaiwanAs he often gives advice to Taiwan's National Science Council and Miinistry of Science and Technology in regard to the country's innovative startup development, Lin suggests three major directions for Taiwan to develop its own unique startup scene.Stand on the shoulders of giants and make continuing improvementsIn the past decade, many Taiwan startups have been focusing on developing peripheral products for the semiconductor and display panel industries, for example, improving clean rooms, masks or production equipment. With the growth of industry giants, many medium businesses got to go public. Such a development model can still carry on but it should be noted that many industry giants have reached maturity and their growth is slowing down, which has resulted in a decreasing number of startups in related fields.Duplicate US and European startup scenes in TaiwanSimilar to China, many Taiwan startups try to copy how US and European firms operate. For instance, after America's largest online restaurant reservation service company OpenTable was launched, quite a few similar services began to emerge in Taiwan. It is not a big problem to duplicate other people's success model in China because of its massive market size. However, for a Taiwan startup, even if it makes No. 1, future growth may be limited. Talent, technology, capital and market are the four elements to startup success. Lin thinks for Taiwan startups to survive, they have to make major breakthroughs with respect to the four elements. It's not a problem to copy other people's success model. However, startups must have a close understanding of market needs to be able to thrive.Leverage Taiwan's unique advantages to develop new business or expand existing businessTaiwan has abundant natural resources and has made great achievements in agriculture, fishery and aquaculture. Some sectors have even made themselves well known around the world with no help from the government, such as pineapple pastry. Other sectors with differentiating features include cultural and creative industries, tourism, healthcare and biotechnology. Among them, developments with respect to healthcare can include food safety further to pharmaceutical and medical equipment segments.Lin is prepared to invest in a Taiwan startup team which combines a special local delicacy with another Taiwan strength - automated production equipment made with precision machinery technology. Such a venture has the potential to change consumer habits and therefore is a real innovation.Investing in four major sectorsHaving successfully fostered 30 startups, Lin still gets in touch with about a dozen startup teams and invests in three or four of them every year. He mainly invests in four major sectors.Healthcare sectorOptimistic about the healthcare sector over 10 years ago, Lin funded Winning Health Technology Group, China's largest hospital management software provider, in 2006 and has enjoyed the company's rising share price ever since. He also started Healthlink Services with a Chinese team in 2008, providing emergency medical services and DNA testing. Healthlink Services serves as a third-party platform matching patients, insurance companies and hospitals. It provides members emergency medical transport and emergency medical instructions over the phone. Healthlink currently has 30 million registered members in China. All their medical information from the time they enter a hospital to the time they are discharged is put on record, which also serves as the basis for Healthlink to further pitch its health examination services including genetic analysis. There is also E-call service directed at medical assistance for car accidents. Furthermore, Lin has also recently made investment in gene therapy, which is a hot and trendy topic nowadays.Automotive industryLin had a stake in electric vehicle battery supplier Farasis 10 years ago and has served on the board of directors for eight years. Co-founded by American and Chinese entrepreneurs, Farasis holds very specialized technologies. Its automotive battery shipments ranked No. 1 for six months out of the past 12. It has also received funding from China's largest automaker. Jingchi, a Chinese autonomous driving startup, is another company Lin has poured capital in. Jingchi was established by a former Baidu employee in charge of Baidu's autonomous driving research.Data-related businessFour years ago, Lin provided capital to Paxata, specializing in big data analytics tools. In the business world, raw data has to undergo a complex compilation and redundancy deletion process before enterprises can do any analysis. In view of this, Paxata provides tools for business analysts to quickly turn raw data into useful information and begin model building. Paxata has also received investments from Microsoft, Intel and Cisco. Another startup Lin has invested in is R2.ai, which helps enterprises create data models using artificial intelligence (AI). Data scientists often spend a large amount of time trying different data models in order to find the best one. With R2.ai's tool, it only takes half a day to find the best model, significantly improving data modeling efficiency.FintechLin began investing in Fintech years ago, for example, in BaseVenture, headquartered in San Francisco. BaseVenture mainly helps fund administrators and fund managers in the alternative investment industry simply and automate how private funds are managed. It provides a platform for administrators, managers, clients and investors to work together and securely exchange documents.Often invited to deliver speeches or provide consultation, Lin put emphasis on the four elements to corporate success - talent, technology, capital and market, wherein market and talent matter the most. Lin drew an analogy between operating a business and building a house. Before you build a house, you have to find a good piece of land, which is like the market to a business. The market has to be large and rapidly growing. A company will not succeed in a market with problems. Talent is like the foundation of a house. With a good startup team, even if you select a wrong topic, you can always make adjustments and still have a shot at success. On the other hand, if you work with wrong talent or your team cannot work together, after your startup burns through all the cash, the game is over.When you have all four elements, you will have differentiation. There must be at least one element that makes you stand out from the competition. That is, you have to build up an entry barrier. For example, have your intellectual property protected or else it will soon be copied or stolen. There are many ways to start your own business. Opening a breakfast place or restaurant so that you are your own boss is one choice. However, engaging in an innovative startup that can fundamentally change the way people live will positively impact the world.(Editor's note: This is part of a series of interviews focusing on the problems and opportunities that Taiwan-based startups face. The interviewees are venture capitalists and angel investors from Silicon Valley and Taiwan.)Bob Lin, co-founder of Acorn CampusPhoto: Bob Lin

In a media career spanning nearly three decades, Tally Liu served as senior vice president of Knight Ridder, in charge of finances, operations, internal audit and new technologies at the second-largest newspaper company in the United States. Liu took part in Knight Ridder's investment deals and gained extensive experience in Internet business investments. Liu, now an angel investor, is a certified public accountant (CPA). He was also chairman and CEO at Newegg, a well-known online retailer of computer hardware and consumer electronics, giving him plenty of e-commerce know-how.Six things to do before starting a businessTo people looking to start a high-tech venture, Liu advises from the perspective of business operation that technology is only one of the ingredients to startup success. There are many other things to take care of. According to Liu, 50% of startups invested by venture capital funds don't last beyond five years and only 10% get to IPO. Many startups fail because their business models don't work or they lack administrative support or customer service systems. In view of this, Liu draws from his past experience and offers six pointers to those who are set to embark on an entrepreneur career.1. Not just the technology, you should also get to know the business side of operating a company even if you are running a high-tech startup.2. Know your competitors well. Your competitors will keep launching new business models and new strategies and you will have to do the same. Especially with innovative e-commerce models emerging rapidly, it's imperative that you always stay on top of the latest development.3. Know your customers well. Customer preferences change, especially when your competitor's strategy changes. Take the automobile market for example. Lexus reshaped customer service for the automotive industry after it entered the American market: 24-hour service was no longer just for VIP customers. Its rivals had no choice but to follow suit. Kia Motors also led the industry to offer 10-year 100,000 mile warranty. Furthermore, consumer preferences are diverging, said Liu. Either shopping centers featuring bargain deals or specialty stores targeting high-end consumers are packed with customers. Other businesses with no differentiating features are going nowhere fast.4. You need a great leader. A great leader is an all-rounder. There may be only 3,000 to 4,000 individuals that are CEO material in the US. More importantly, a great leader must be able to create vision. For example, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is a CEO capable of leading disruptive innovation.Liu also pointed out that every business has to do strategy planning. From an outsider's point of view, ask your management team what is being innovated and where the competitors are. When the current business model cannot carry you forward, you need to figure out a new direction.5. You need a team. If you look to start a high-tech business, you especially need a management team. It's unlikely that one person can have all the expertise in management, human resources, finances and production. You need in-house professionals to head each of these important departments, rather than passing the responsibilities to some third-party companies. Moreover, hire professional executives to oversee your company's operation and show respect for their professionalism. Do not put family members at key positions. The best example of a failed family-operated business would be Wang Laboratories.6. Follow laws and regulations, especially in the US. Learn from ZTE's case. As American government rules and regulations are constantly changing, it's critical for Taiwan businesses to have specialists keeping an eye on these changes. There has been news about companies being busted for tax evasion and getting delisted after IPO.An entrepreneur must have worldview, financial knowledge and English proficiencyLeading six SVT Angel startup teams, Liu thinks although many young entrepreneurs in Taiwan have PhD degrees, their education did not provide them practical work experience and they need to further strengthen their capabilities to be able to compete at the global level.He suggests that entrepreneurs develop a worldview. Take the TradingValley team Liu is counselling for example. TradingValley develops an online trading platform so Liu advised them to become a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) in the United States, with which they can provide services around the world.Furthermore, entrepreneurs should familiarize themselves with basic financial knowledge with respect to IPO so that they can communicate with venture capitalists without problems when they make a pitch to get funding. Also, they need to work on their English proficiency. If a CEO has trouble getting his point across, he won't be able to get people to invest in his business venture. All three entrepreneur qualities are essential to startup success. You may not be able to triumph even if you have all three but you'll definitely flounder if you lack any one of them.With the Taiwan government actively driving a burgeoning startup scene, Liu thinks Taiwan-based firms still enjoy great advantages as suppliers to leading American brands, for example, making components for iPhone or batteries for Tesla. In terms of OEM opportunities, although India has grabbed most of the software outsourcing work, there are other outsourcing opportunities such as product R&D and customer service for Taiwan. Last but not least, Taiwan-based businesses should try to capture Internet opportunities as e-commerce remains an area where players compete for market dominance and it's not bound by borders.A high-tech startup team has to realize that failure is inevitable regardless of the field of choice. Liu spoke frankly that almost all high-tech teams failed at one time or another. Full-blown success will unlikely come without at least 15 years of hard work. Experienced mentors help you learn the ropes faster but this can only work on the basis of mutual trust.(Editor's note: This is part of a series of interviews focusing on the problems and opportunities that Taiwan-based startups face. The interviewees are venture capitalists and angel investors from Silicon Valley and Taiwan.)Tally Liu, former senior vice president at Knight Ridder and currently an angel investorPhoto: Joseph Tsai, Digitimes, May 2018

Sandy Chau, co-founder of Acorn Campus Ventures as well as an active real estate investor, engages in investment undertakings throughout the United States and Greater China. His success in startup investment and business operation can be attributed to what he experienced as he was growing up. Born in Shanghai, Chau received primary and secondary education in Hong Kong and Vietnam as he travelled back and forth between the two places. In Vietnam, he witnessed social unrest including the Vietnam War, political coup and student strikes, while in Hong Kong he saw the social stratification and inequality between Chinese citizens and the British ruling class. He learned how to quickly adapt to new environments and figured out how to survive and thrive. Such characteristics helped him reach success.Eight golden lessons from Chau to entrepreneurs In the 20 to 30 years of time from his childhood to adulthood when Chau first began his business, he frequently had to transfer schools and move to new cities. He transferred schools six times and lived in seven different places, staying an average of four years in each of them. Having to constantly adapt to new environments, Chau has learned that past experiences may not always apply to new situations and he must be able to look at things from new perspectives. This works for venture capital investments as well. Drawing from his years of hands-on experience and realization, he offers some suggestions to people who look to start a business.Success is the mother of failureAn ancient Chinese proverb says, "Failure is the mother of success." Having experienced small failures helps people cope with major defeat. However, to business starters, success is the mother of failure, Chau believes. When people who have had everything going their way face a new situation and have problem carrying on with their success, it's because they are limited by their old success models. Chau thinks it is like learning to play ping pong - breaking old habits is more difficult than starting anew. In other words, the biggest challenge in high-tech venture is not whether one is able to analyze the issue but whether one can think outside the box and learn to look at things from new perspectives.Be open-minded and keep learningPeople in the high-tech business have to keep learning and always stay on top of the trend, especially as business models are constantly evolving. If you think you are successful and become full of yourself, you will probably stop learning and fall out of reach. A young entrepreneur who Chau once counseled became CEO at the age of 30. After receiving investments from large venture capital funds and private equity funds, the entrepreneur followed their advice to acquire other firms. Then, he grew arrogant and thought he knew everything. Eventually, he stopped learning and his business also stopped moving forward.It's more important to stay flexible than to stick with the original startup planA business plan is only good on the day it is written because afterwards, the market is changing every day. As such, it is imperative to stay flexible than to stick with the original business plan.Leverage technology to manage your businessA high-tech business needs competent R&D professionals but the efficiency and quality of the management team is also critical to a company's success, particularly their ability to use high-tech advances to manage business operations.Reach deep into the marketLook deep into market factors in the planning stage of your business. Without first knowing where your market is, even if you have the best technology in the world, you have no one to sell it to.Engage in teamworkNo one can do it all alone. You need professionals of multiple disciplines to build a dream team. A business founder should be open-minded and search for talent that can complement the team. The founder is usually a creative person that can come up with new ideas but corporate management requires people with control and managerial capabilities. As such, the founder should be able to recruit talented professionals and adjust or enhance the original business plan.Finish what you start and see what you are capable of achievingIt generally takes 12 years from the time a high-tech startup develops a product prototype to the time it goes public. Many people try to sell their companies in the fifth year just to make their investors happy. The decision is made merely for investment returns. Their startups have no chance to develop into full maturity and they have no chance to unleash their personal potential. Therefore, as a startup grows from one stage to the next, the founder has to think carefully how to proceed. With investments pouring in, there will be pressure on how the company should operate, which may be for the sake of investment returns, rather than for the good of the firm.Step out of your comfort zone and take on a challengeYou will have a shot at success if you are bold enough to be different and travel a new path. Have the courage to try and innovate. Step out of your comfort zone so that you don't limit yourself. When an entrepreneur originally working at IBM's German subsidiary started his own business, his plan B was to drive a taxi for a living in case he failed. As it's important to have some stability in life, with a contingency plan in place, he was able to get his wife's support and went ahead with his venture.Chau came to Taiwan to invest in real estate in 1986-1987, so he is no stranger to Taiwan. Chau pointed out a group of daring young people created Taiwan's high-tech business in the 80s but most young people today stay in their comfort zone. They are not willing to venture out to explore opportunities or study abroad. They may dream big but do not follow up with actions. They talk like a wolf but act like a sheep. He asks those who with the drive to start a business not to be deterred by failures. If you stumble and fall but you get up and stand tall, you'll earn more respect."Many people are afraid of making a mistake so they hesitate to make a decision. That is a bigger mistake," said Chau.(Editor's note: This is part of a series of interviews focusing on the problems and opportunities that Taiwan-based startups face. The interviewees are venture capitalists and angel investors from Silicon Valley and Taiwan.)Sandy Chau, co-founder of Acorn Campus VenturesPhoto: Joseph Tsai, Digitimes, May 2018