New Taipei City, the largest municipality in northern Taiwan, has been selected by Intelligent Community Forum, an international organization, as one of the global top-7 smart cities for three consecutive years due to its achievement in promoting application of smart city solutions to its administration and services, deputy mayor Yeh Hueh-ching said during a recent interview by Digitimes.The large population of nearly four million people of diverse background and the big gap in urban and rural developments have been motivating the government to enlist smart city slutions to tackle its problems and provide services, Yeh explained.Smart city hall and energy managementThe city hall is highly automated, including its lighting, air conditioning, ventilation, and elevator systems. Air conditioning on each floor is adjusted based on the estimated number of users via monitoring the use of elevators.The city is experimnting in two of its districts smart micro-grids which feature integration of rooftop PV systems, small wind turbines, energy storage systems and smart energy management systems for adjustable power supply. Such micro-grids enable stable power supply when communities suffer power outage or shortage during peak-load hours. The city also monitors power use in each building and household, understanding their power consumption for reference in energy saving education.Private fundingDdue to insufficient budgets, the city has adopted a PFI (private finance initiative) model to replace 220,000 mercury vapor streetlamps with LED ones in three years without spending any government money. The LED streetlamps save power consumption by 185 million kWh a year, equivalent to carbon reductions by 96,000 metric tons. Many of the LED streetlamps are smart ones equipped with air quality sensors for cloud computing-based detection of air pollution.Many municipal elementary schools have adopted a PFI model to install LED lighting systems. LED lighting suppliers are accepting the PFI model that gives them opportunities of valuable experiments, Yeh explained.PV-powered e-paper bus stop displaysWhile the city is promoting smart bus stop displays, it is difficult to install such displays in remote areas, especially those in the mountains, because of supporting power supply systems. Thus, the city has cooperated with Chunghwa Telecom to install electronic paper (e-paper)-based smart bus stop displays with small PV modules for charging.An e-paper-based smart bus stop display consumes power of only 63Wh daily, much lower than 630Wh for a regular one, and a single charge is enough for the display to run 14 days. And there is no need to dig up roads for laying power conduits. E-paper-based smart bus stop displays are currently in trial run in two remote areas and will be installed in others later.Cross-boundary bus servicesTo facilitate residents commuting to and from neighboring areas, such as Taipei City, the New Taipei City government has developed a bus app allowing users to customize their own commuting routes by specifying the time, the origin and destination. The app, which works on a ride-sharing concept, will then propose the route, waiting for others to subscribe to it. Once 20 people subscribe to it, the bus operator managing the app will start providing the customized service for those subscribers within 20 days.The customized service is characterized by fewer bus stops and more direct routes based on passengers' needs. The first customized bus route came into operation in 2015 and there are now 15.Smart day care centers and othersThere are 56 city-commissions public day care centers in New Taipei. The city government will encourage them to upgrade to smart operations via cooperation with high-tech companies. Smart day care centers will feature real-time monitoring of indoor temperatures, humidity and air quality as well as smart management for children's health.The main municipal library has adopted facial recognition to manage the lborrowing of books. Facial recognition is also used in three small unstaffed smart libraries.Capitalizing on big data analysis of 1.47 million entries of information concerning high-risk families, the city has developed portable risk calculators to help social workers make immediate assessment of risks and give early warning for possible family crises, Yeh said. The city also has established a social security network for assisting families with high-risk children and teenagers by integrating 10 of its departments, private organizations and groups. The network has so far assisted 117,500 such families, he noted.Other smart city solutions include cloud computing-based online teaching platforms for use by very small primary schools and smart farming, Yeh noted.New Taipei City has served as a site for experiments for many smart city solutions, some of which have been adopted by others after successful runs in New Taipei, Yeh said. For example,the smart library solution has been introduced to cities in China and the smart LED streetlamp solution to cities in other Asian countries, Yeh noted.Commenting on the challenges in promoting smart city solutions, Yeh indicated that they should be based on innovative ideas and system integration, and it is important to have everyone motivated, which, however, is not easy.New Taipei City deputy mayor Yeh Hueh-chingPhoto: Shihmin Fu, Digitimes, August 2018A rooftop PV system as part of a micro-grid in a large communityPhoto: New Taipei City governmentAn e-paper-based smart bus stop display equipped with a PV modulePhoto: New Taipei City government

Taoyuan City has been selected by Intelligent Community Forum as one of the global top-7 smart cities for two consecutive times. Cheng Wen-tsan, mayor of the northern Taiwanese city, pointed out during a recent interview by Digitimes that the core mission for a smart city is to solve problems by virtue of innovative technologies to hike efficiency and quality.Taoyuan began to promote its smart city project in 2015 and particularly focused on smart solutions and services for daily life, transportation and tourism in line with the Asia Silicon Valley Development Plan implemented by the National Development Council, Cheng said. Smart city solutions and services are human-centric, using IoT (Internet of Things), big data and AI (artificial intelligence) technologies to collect, analyze and integrate data, Cheng noted.Master plans and innovative thinkingWhile there are many systems and software solutions for promoting smart cities in Taiwan, smart city projects' effects on a city's competitiveness and the improvements to citizens' daily lives cannot be easily assessed because there are no readily available benchmarks, Cheng explained. Therefore, every city should have a master plan as guidance for city employees, giving them clear ideas about smart city, Cheng indicated.The city's Department of Information Technology is mainly responsible for promoting the smart city program. As of May 2018, the department had provided 1,443 items of data collected by the city government, including traffic, residential, vehicle thefts, flood water levels, parking facilities and air pollution attributable to factories, for open use. Since such data originally differed in format, the department has introduced OpenAPI Specification to shorten time taken by internal system developers to use such data. The city government aims to make every in-house-developed system avialable to the public.Citizen Cards are an example of smart city solutions, Cheng said. The card features multiple functions including personal identification, transportation tickets, electronic wallets, entrance control and access to various daily-life services. For mobile electronic payment, the card supports Apply Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay currently.Since it was launched in September 2015, the city government has issued over 1.1 million Citizen Cards, nearly half of the city's population, Cheng said.Industrial parks are under close environmental monitoringThere are six large industrial parks in the city and the city government has deployed sensors to monitor hot spots of pollution and use big data analysis to identify pollution sources.In response to frequent complaints about air pollution, the city government has cooperated with the Environment Control and Hazard Mitigation Technology Center under Chung Yuan Christian University to develop drones equipped with air pollution detectors for real-time monitoring of air quality at the Guanyin Industrial Park as a pilot project.Such drones undertake real-time detection of air pollutants including carbon monoxide, nitric oxide, sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds, PM1, PM2.5 and PM10 every two seconds at varying altitudes and turn out a set of data every 30 seconds, with data transferred to ground monitoring computers via wireless communication for analysis of hot spots of air pollution. The city government plans to match detected abnormal signals with data collected by nearby weather stations and air quality sensors to trace pollution routes and the sources.Smart management of infrastructureCheng said smart disaster prevention is also important. In precaution against flooding, the city government has deployed 61 flood water level monitoring stations and 28 rainfall stations since 2015, and has integrated measurements with flooding data collected by other agencies and developed a flooding information system.The city government has converted many sewer maps into a GIS-based digital database and set up sensors at sewers for cloud computing-based monitoring. So far, map data on more than 15,000 sections and manholes of sewers have been digitized.There are six water resource recycling centers (wastewater treatment plants) in operation in the city, with each equipped with testing instruments and cameras for transferring real-time data on water quality to the monitoring center and monitoring staff's smartphones.The city government has installed 160 smart LED streetlamps for demonstration and will another 450. Smart streetlamps include a lighting control system, data displays, an AI-based image search and recognition system, GPS tracking based on smart wearables, and free Wi-Fi services.Over 200 of the top-500 Taiwan-based enterprises are stationed in the city. There are about 11,000 factories and over 2,000 logistics service operators in Taoyuan. With the Taoyuan International Airport, and the proximity to the Taipei metropolitan area and Hsinchu Science Park, the city has the advantages to develop smart city solutions, Cheng indicated.For Taiwan's New Southbound Policy, the focus is not about moving factories to or selling products in Southeast and South Asian countries, but about establishing platforms for economic cooperation, Cheng explained.The city government will, in line with Taiwan's Asia Silicon Valley Development Plan, introduce more software-based smart solutions, boost Industry 4.0 and upgrade industries' business operation, Cheng indicated.In addition, the city government has been keen on promoting startup businesses: there is a project focusing on communication software via cooperation with the National Development Council; and another on Internet of Vehicles (IoV) and testing autonomous driving, Cheng noted.Taoyaun mayor Cheng Wen-tsanPhoto: Shihmin Fu, Digitimes, August 2018A smart LED streetlamp with mulitiple applications in Taoyuan Photo: Taoyuan City Government

The advent of the smart car era is providing an overtaking opportunity for latecomers that can master domain know-how at the client end and know how to develop profitable product design, packaging and sales models based on the latest market trends, according to Wu Hsueh-liang, professor with the Department of International Business at National Taiwan University.Wu told Digitimes in a recent interview that the communication industry used to be dominated by telecom operators, but later a forked way emerged to allow entry by IT firms. Likewise, smart cars, autonomous cars or electric vehicles have allowed many non-car players to enter the traditionally closed auto market. Wu said that some of his former students in the display industry used to see their companies devote much effort to supplying ever-larger panels for computer and TV applications, but they later turned to developing small-size, car-use LCD panels that can withstand high in-car temperatures of 70-80 degrees Celsius following 7-8 hours of sunlight exposure, which is hard to achieve with larger panels.Among similar niche products, industrial PCs see only a few makers in Taiwan as such PCs involve a certain technological threshold. For an enterprise, Wu indicated, whatever it wants to sell, such as solutions, products, components or raw materials, will entail different business models that are closely associated with profitability, strategies and organizations. Three major elements for solutionsMany think selling solutions will involve higher gross margins than selling components, but they may not know well what constitutes the solutions. Basically, solutions represent a close integration of hardware, software and domain know-how, with none of them dispensable. Among them, domain know-how associated with the client end is the most difficult to grasp. Those who possess domain know-how certainly know well where the solutions will be applied - hospitals, supermarket chains, or transportation systems - as well as the habits of users and their usage environments. Accordingly, they will know how to tune up related hardware and software to achieve the best user interface and experience, as well as operating efficiency, according to Wu.Many Taiwan tech firms tend to supply standardized modules to system integrators, enabling the latter to sell integrated solutions to terminal customers for much higher gross margins. This in turn has prompted the tech firms to transform their business into offering solutions, but the lack of domain know-how has made the transformation a difficult job, particularly for suppliers of IT components. But if led by system integrators, the transformation will become more feasible. Taiwan's Yulon Motor, for instance, can lead some component makers from the electronics and other industries to develop smart cars for global sales, and this will be a more feasible way Yulon can take toward the production of smart cars, Wu commented.For outsiders, Wu opined, the development of new products such as new airplanes will provide the best timing for them to tap into the supply chains as long as they possess leading engine or electrical control technologies and become members of the new plane development alliance.Likewise, Wu noted businesses will have a very good chance of joining smart car development alliances initiated by first-tier automakers once they have unique technologies and boast high international recognition.Front-stage operation capabilityIn the PC era, Taiwan's manufacturers got accustomed to backstage-driven business models, thus developing strong backstage operation capability and high operating efficiency. But in the mobile network era, they have suddenly lost the shelter of major brand vendors, having little idea about where to go due to their weak front-stage operation capability, according to Wu.Wu said that a US documentary film titled "The Merchants of Cool" can present lessons for Taiwan enterprises concerning how to carry out front-stage operations. The film features success stories of some famous US brands such as Nike and Sprite versed in grasping market trends and turning abstract concepts into concrete products. The brands have succeeded in analyzing the consumer trends implied in the catchword "cool" popular with the young generation in accordance with diverse data, and finally turning the trends into highly profitable product design, packaging and sales modes.If Taiwan firms can switch part of their massive investment in backstage operations to market research to learn the "pain and gain" factors of customers, they can start to accumulate domain know-how and know what customers actually need and why.

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

Power supply product maker Mean Well is seeing steady growth in sales from the industrial power sector - a sector that it has been working in for over 30 years - as more factories switch to automated manufacturing. The company's LED drivers business has also witnessed staggering increases in orders from the consumer lighting, plant lighting and medical care equipment segments. The firm currently is staying firmly as one of the top-tier power supply makers worldwide.Digitimes recently visited Mean Well to talk to the company's executives: Yvonne Chen, marketing manager of Marketing Department; Alfie Yu, regional manager of Sales Department; and Alex Tsai, director of Marketing Department, to talk about the industrial power industry's current status and Mean Well's operations.Q: What products does Mean Well sell? What kind of business model does the company have?Chen: Mean Well was founded in 1982 and is a company primarily focusing on supplying own-brand standard LED drivers and power supply products for industrial applications. At the beginning, the company was an OEM/ODM service provider, helping to manufacture PC-use power supply devices for brand vendors, but it turned to the industrial power supply market after four years and created the Mean Well brand in 1986, as it expected better business potential in the area.Currently, Mean Well has around 500 licensed distributing partners worldwide and 70% of Mean Well's revenues are generated by these partners, while the remaining 30% are earned through the company's direct account.Yu: The LED driver is currently the largest product line of Mean Well, surpassing the industrial power supply, which was the company's main revenue contributor 10 years ago.Q: How is Mean Well's industrial power business performing? How is the business' outlook?Yu: Most of Mean Well's industrial power products are for automation applications and can be applied in places such as factories, equipment and power rooms. Unlike our LED driver business, which enjoys a rapid rise catching the tailwind of market's surging demand, Mean Well's reputation in the industrial power supply industry was slowly earned through clients' positive feedbacks.LED drivers currently contribute 40% of the company's revenues, while industrial power products account for 30% and emerging applications including gaming, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, occupy the rest of the 30%.Tsai: Demand for industrial automation and IoT devices is on the rise, and Mean Well will continue to benefit from the trend as these machines will require more sensors and communication modules to function, translating to more demand for power supply products for these components.Although Mean Well's industrial power supply business is not seeing a surging growth similar to that of the LED driver, the company will continue to experience stable revenue growth from the business since the industry is always seeing the emergence of new technologies such as automation and artificial intelligence (AI).Q: What is Mean Well's status in the LED driver market?Chen: According to a research firm's figures about 2017's LED driver market, Mean Well was the second largest LED driver supplier worldwide with a 6.6% market share, behind only Phillips.Yu: Mean Well's advantage in the LED driver business is at its medium-to-high-wattage product lines. Demand for our above-100W drivers is especially strong due to their competitive price/performance ratios. We are currently developing an above-1000W driver, which is scheduled to be released in the near future.We also cover small-wattage products, but the sector is not one of the priorities of our current operation as it has already become a battlefield of fierce price competition.Another advantage Mean Well has in the market is that we are able to provide LED drivers that meet the regulations of different markets as each market may have different rules on power products. Our products also feature in-house designed power efficiency technologies to help client save costs.Mean Well was one of the earliest players in the LED driver market, launching its first product in 2006. The years of experience in the development of the product line have given us a competitive edge.Tsai: The LED market has been growing rapidly for the past few years with demand initially coming from governments' infrastructure projects such as streetlight installment, and then gradually penetrating into the consumer lighting segment.Despite the fact that consumer LED lighting products have been enjoying strong sales, the growth will eventually slow down because of LED's slow replacement demand as a result of its long product life of at least five years. To avoid the risk, Mean Well has been actively pushing its products to non-consumer areas including automotive and biotechnology.For the biotechnology industry, Mean Well is seeing strong orders for plant lighting applications from North America and Europe and has seen our LED drivers being adopted in medical care applications.Since plant lighting systems are usually required to be in operation 24 hours a day to keep the plants under steady temperatures, related players need to have reliable LED drivers with high wattage output that can work steadily and are power efficient. Mean Well's expertise in the LED drivers is able to satisfy these players' demand in product quality and stability and we expect the business area to have a strong potential in the long run. We have already received many inquiries for our upcoming new high-wattage drivers from plant lighting clients.Q: What are Mean Well's main target regions? What new markets does Mean Well plan to expand into?Chen: China is currently our largest market, accounting for 45% of Mean Well's revenues, followed by the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region with a revenue proportion of close to 30% and Pan America 13%. The rest is from Asia and Taiwan.However, around 50% of our power product shipments to China are later transported to Europe and North America in our clients' final products such as lighting devices or automation equipment.Because of the high revenue share from China, we have been pushing expansions, aiming to boost our sales from other markets to lower the risk. For 2018, we are targeting several emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, India, as well as South Korea for the expansion plan and have increased our effort in these markets' operation.Tsai: Mean Well currently has distribution partners in all of the markets we have entered and is planning different business strategies for each region depending on their specific characteristics, to widen our reaches.Q: Is Mean Well developing products for any new applications?Yu: We have seen increasing orders for emerging applications such as IoT devices and gambling machines and also orders for power supplies used in arcade stores' claw machines and game consoles.However, Mean Well does not have a specific product line for these particular applications so the clients usually procure power supply devices from our existing industrial power series for their needs.Mean Well executives: Alfie Yu (left), Yvonne Chen (center) and Alex Tsai (right)Photo: Joseph Tsai, Digitimes, August 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