"Strong Story Founding Story" Entrepreneur Forum Seminar: Watering Entrepreneurial Dreams with Passion
Invited by Lucy, a school girl from the institute, I came to the first exhibition hall of the CLBC (opens in a new tab) that I am familiar with this afternoon to participate in the [“Strong Story” hosted by the Institute of Digital Education (opens in a new tab) and co-organized by Shell Zoom (opens in a new tab) and Dream Market (opens in a new tab) Founding Story” Entrepreneur Forum Seminar Event](http://w3.iiiedu.org.tw/BSDetail.php?BSC=99 (opens in a new tab)), listen to the sharing of several successful entrepreneur friends.
According to the explanation on the official website of the organizer, it is clearly stated that the “Strong Story Founding Story (opens in a new tab)” Entrepreneur Forum seminar is determined to be Taiwan’s first platform for entrepreneurs to share their entrepreneurial stories. It hopes to bring people innovative and diverse thinking through the personal understanding and experience sharing of different entrepreneurs.
Today’s event is hosted by Sandy Wu (opens in a new tab) who is also starting a business. She also shares some of her experiences in founding Pinby (opens in a new tab) from time to time, which is quite interesting.
The first one to appear is Jenn-Yu Lim (opens in a new tab), a gamer from Malaysia. He is also the co-founder of the well-known independent game development team Appxplore (opens in a new tab) in Malaysia. To be honest, I have been away from the gaming industry for a while. I have never heard of his name before, but I have some impressions of the games developed by their team.
Jenn-Yu Lim mentioned that he has been addicted to games since he was a child. He got started with the game console given to him by his father. Judging from his current achievements, he has successfully combined his interest and career. What’s interesting is that he mentioned that he didn’t understand the game industry before, and believed that only the United States, Japan, and Taiwan were capable of developing games. Later, he invested in game production. After several years of development, he gradually switched from the perspective of a participant to an entrepreneur.
When it comes to the original intention of starting a business, Jenn-Yu Lim (opens in a new tab) hopes that she can lead the team to complete a good game. Of course, investors want more, to create world-class games and even make big money. Appxplore had a smooth start, and its works were recommended by the App Store. Just when he thought he was about to enter a smooth road, his revenue quickly declined like a slide after two or three months.
In order to support the company’s expenses, Jenn-Yu Lim initially engaged in outsourcing and made some money. However, he soon discovered the problem of unbalanced resource allocation and realized that he should focus on the development and production of his own games. Therefore, he began to seek investment opportunities, hoping that larger investors would invest in the Appxplore team.
When it comes to the fundraising process, Jenn-Yu Lim said that they only do three things: first, prepare a complete business plan (BP), and second, attend various events to find targets and distribute information. Finally, participate more actively in investor gatherings to gain exposure. Appxplore (opens in a new tab) has experienced several capital increases, and last September it was chosen to be [invested] by Fat Fish from Australia (http://www.fatfish.co/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Sunraysia-Daily-13.09.14.pdf (opens in a new tab)). Talking about the reason for choosing this company, Jenn-Yu Lim said: “They not only respect our original team culture, but also do not interfere in the direction of game production, giving the team a lot of room for development.”
Jenn-Yu Lim also reminded the entrepreneurs attending the meeting that while finding funds is important, you must also find comrades and investors who are willing to work together, so that your business can be long-lasting. He also mentioned that Taiwan is a paradise for the game industry. Regardless of whether this is a pretentious statement, I also think that domestic entrepreneurs should not belittle themselves.
The second person to take the stage was Chen Yating (Claire), the founder of the local gaming team representative Carry Co., Ltd. (opens in a new tab). I also don’t know this entrepreneur, but from the moment she stood on the stage, I could deeply feel that she is a person with a story.
As expected, she seemed to open up a conversation when talking about the story of entrepreneurship, mentioning that she was inspired by i-mode and Mari Matsunaga, and then embarked on the journey of entrepreneurship. She mentioned that her English was not good, but she still participated in exhibitions everywhere, and even went to the United States to participate in an exhibition one year, and lost her important mobile phone (all her works were installed in it). Although I cried and was depressed, I finally overcame everything with fearless courage.
In the past few years, Claire has been suffering from physical discomfort, but she has been able to overcome the pain and become famous in the global gaming industry. It is not easy! Recently, she was invited to serve as Advisor (opens in a new tab) (Advisor) for Casual Connect Asia (opens in a new tab) 2015. She can really be said to be the light of Taiwan’s gaming industry!
The third person to share on the stage was Jiang Zhifeng, CEO of Pinqu Internet Co., Ltd. (http://www.mofang.com.tw/INnews/10000054-10007312-1.html (opens in a new tab)) (Jack). He was originally a program developer, but he later turned to the game industry after seeing the prospects. He got good results in his first test, which also gave him the idea of starting his own business.
Although the performance was good at the beginning, it soon faced bottlenecks, such as performance that was not as good as expected, and problems such as employee resignations. Jack used a chart to explain the different stages that entrepreneurial teams will go through, and the guests at the meeting nodded, as if they could relate to it.
As difficult as it is to start a business, Jiang Zhifeng feels it deeply. He put forward the “Law of Entrepreneurship”, which made everyone feel the same. For example, he mentioned that “the faster your performance grows, the worse your mood will be.” This may seem counterintuitive at first glance, but for friends who are starting a business, it may be familiar to them.
The last entrepreneur who shared the finale was my Facebook friend Lin Dahan (opens in a new tab). Although I had not had many opportunities to talk to him before, I still knew a lot about his entrepreneurial projects. At a young age, Da Han has a sense of confidence that he is not afraid of failure. He speaks very fast, which reflects his leaping thinking logic to a certain extent. He is indeed formidable. Dahan frankly shared the background of his dismissal from his former company. Just after leaving flyingV (opens in a new tab), he founded the crowdfunding consulting company Shell Amplification to assist domestic and foreign teams to achieve good results on various crowdfunding platforms.
Dahan believes that entrepreneurship is about integrating the following four things, including: what you want to do, what society needs, what you are good at, and what you can earn income from. If you have these four elements, you have a chance of starting a successful business.
At present, their company has 18 employees (from fundraising platforms, online media, manufacturing plants and market research, advertising and design companies). For a new startup team, the scale is quite large. In the Q&A session after the meeting, someone asked about the results of Beike Amplification. Dahan revealed that so far, only one company that received consultant guidance has failed to meet the standards, while the others have successfully received funding injections. Well, it’s really great!
These four entrepreneurs from Taiwan and Malaysia each have different stories and life insights. After listening to their most sincere sharing, I was not only moved, but also seemed to have taught me an entrepreneurial lesson. Thanks to the Institute of Science and Technology and the relevant co-organizers for carefully arranging this event.
Further reading
- Seizing the craze of game audio and video live streaming, Twitch makes money in a good way
- I read “Dreams Can Be Earned: The Key to Doubling Profits for Small Businesses to Make Big Money”: a good book worth recommending, but it should be better
Next step
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Vista Cheng speaks and runs workshops on AI workflows, writing and content systems for companies, schools and public agencies.
