“The dream is for all of them to become unicorns,” Chen added, using the industry term for unlisted startups with a market capitalization of more than $1 billion.
But even those with the necessary knowledge often lack the international exposure and connections overseas that can help them build businesses that can grow outside of Taiwan, Chen said.
After a long period of stagnation, Taiwan is riding the wave of AI demand, with double-digit growth in exports
After a long period of stagnation, Taiwan is riding the wave of AI demand, with double-digit growth in exports
“Silicon Valley is not an easy place to start a giant company,” he says. “Most of Taiwan’s 23 million people do not receive enough external exposure.”
Chen co-founded YouTube in 2005 with former PayPal colleagues Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim. Mr. Chen and Mr. Hurley sold YouTube to Google in 2006 for his $1.65 billion. He became Google Ventures Entrepreneur-in-Residence from 2014 until 2018, and returned to Taiwan the following year.
The “batting average” of these emerging teams will be their acceptance rate into Silicon Valley’s accelerator, Chen said. Accelerators help startups grow through mentoring and education with the goal of raising capital and launching products.
He found 40 or 50 foreigners with gold cards who could “nurturing the idea” and partner with Taiwanese engineers to launch the business. This matching method will serve as an alternative to the “coffee shop” culture that is ubiquitous in Silicon Valley but absent in Taiwan, Chen said.
Great technology, but lacks global market sense
According to data from Taipei-based 104 Job Bank, the number of job openings in Taiwan has increased from 555,000 at the beginning of 2020 to more than 1 million by December 2023, with an average of 2 job openings. One local applicant is currently applying.
But Chen found that Taiwan’s “engineering resources” are far greater than Silicon Valley’s, and that salaries are only a fraction of those offered by comparable companies in the United States. Every dollar raised “goes further in Taiwan,” he added.
Singapore’s government already supports connections between local technology companies and Silicon Valley, and Korean startups have been visiting California’s technology cluster for years to raise capital.
Analysts say Taiwan’s smaller domestic companies are less likely to invest overseas because they don’t have access to overseas funding sources or haven’t established a clear idea of what their customers want internationally. It is said that deployment often fails.
“It’s great technology, but it lacks global market sense,” said David Chan, general secretary of Crossroads, a nonprofit group promoting Taiwan’s global expansion. “I think the overall problem we observed at the end was a lack of competency among Taiwanese founders.”
Camila Saenz, 28, a Guatemalan national who originally came to Taiwan to study abroad, launched an internet platform four years ago that matches students with 110 mobile language instructors. She is considering expanding the platform, called Tuteemi, to Japan and South Korea, but she said most of her startup’s “mentors” in Taiwan offer advice that is too locally focused. Ta.
She said that in Silicon Valley, “everyone is very connected” and that she sometimes meets the heads of major international technology companies. “Taiwan could always use more when it comes to startups and funding.”
Chen admitted that starting life in Taiwan can be difficult compared to places like Singapore or Dubai.
“I think in some ways Taiwan has more disadvantages than advantages in the global ecosystem, but it’s still difficult to find anywhere else where you can find such good resources and engineers,” he said. Told.