In just a day Taipei has seen two horrific knife attacks in public spaces, one after a 27-year-old named “Kuo” wounded four people at Zhongshan subway station, and another when a 15-year-old junior high school student randomly attacked one man and a woman with a kitchen knife.

Luckily there were no fatal injuries within the total of 5 injured people but the events have already became one more dai in a dark year in Taiwan for man-made tragedies. A series of attacks in public spaces have shocked a country with one of the lowest crime rates in the world, leading the Taiwanese government to use the death penalty freely in order to placate public opinion.

After in May last year Cheng, a university student in early 20s, killed four people and injured more than 20 passengers in a stabbing spree on a Taipei subway, the attacker was quickly handed multiple death sentences by the New Taipei District Court. After the killing of a 8-year old in a public school, five death row inmates were also swiftly executed, with the killer awaiting a similar sentence.

However we’ve seen very little of the “deterrent” effect claimed by pro-death penalty defenders, with the two attacks only one month after the executions.

The real issue the media and the Taiwanese government should be addressing is not how can these people be put down quicker, or repeating endlessly CCTV videos of the attacks in loop, but the real issue behind these attacks.

Namely the serious problems such as possible mental health issues and social alienation that led a 27-year old long term unemployed men and an underaged boy to strike society.

Society needs to address in a rational conversation of the background instead of focusing only on the results and the aftermath of these horrible actions. Demonising is a route that leads to no solutions and won’t prevent future events like these.

Sources: Focus Taiwan, Numbeo

Photo credit by AFP/Mandy Cheng

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Originally published at buzzorange.com on July 21, 2015.

The Undiscussed Reasons Behind the Two Knife Attacks in Taipei was originally published in BuzzOrange Global on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

BOG — An interview of Chelsea Chen, CEO’s Special Assistant of Zillians to the blog Start Jeffrey Up. Zillians is a Taiwanese startup focusing on building next-generation cloud architectures, more known for creating CatFi, a smart cat feeder that managed to raise US 240,680 in an Indiegogo campaign.

• 1. How would you describe your business or startup to someone you meet for the first time?

Zillians has spent years researching and developing GPU computing and artificial intelligence solutions. Based on our image recognition and deep learning technology, we built CatFi (originally named Bistro), the world’s smartest cat feeder that can track appetite and weight change for cats with innovative cat facial-recognition technology.

• 2. What appealed to you about this startup idea rather than the many other startups you could have been a part of?

At Zillians, we believe technology can make a profound impact on the world, and our goal is to “make technology that benefits zillions of people.” That’s why we spend many years on developing GPU computing and deep learning technology, where the former can change the way we deal with big data and the latter is one of the emerging trends in artificial intelligence and has a significant effect on the world. We built a deep learning platform called JARVIS.AI and applied its image recognition technologies to our B2C product, CatFi, which can improve not only humans’ but also pets’ lives so that more precious memories can be created between humans and their beloved pets. It appeals to me to be part of a team that is trying to do something meaningful in the world.

CatFi feeder

• 3. Who are your target customers and what is your business model?

We target the cat owners who care about their cats’ health. Nowadays, people treat pets as their own children. According to veterinarians, cat owners usually don’t know how much their cats eat or drink, though such information is critical to the cats’ health.

Through the cat database built from CatFi users, we can precisely know every cat’s eating habits as well as health status and can therefore recommend more suitable cat food and feeding strategies for each cat. Partnering up with pet food suppliers, we’ll share the recurring revenue for each sales referrals. We’ll also cooperate with and charge service fees from pet hospitals, as CatFi is a wonderful platform that links veterinarians and pet owners and can help the pet hospitals to build great doctor-patient relationship. With CatFi working like a CRM system, veterinarians can keep track of the cat patients’ current health status, take precautions against their disease and can immediately notify cat owners of any anomalies in their cats’ appetites.

• 4. Who are some of your direct or indirect competitors? How do you seek to differentiate yourselves?

While there are already many kinds of cat feeders in the market, there’s no product that can help owners track their cats’ dietary status. With the world’s first cat facial-recognition technology, CatFi can help owners to keep track of cat appetite and weight changes for each one of their cats. With GPU-accelerated deep learning technologies which we’ve been working on for many years, we want to revolutionize the pet gadget industry in an innovative way.

• 5. How are decisions made in your company? The advantages and disadvantages of this process?

As a startup, we adopt a parallel organization structure which encourages every employee to be involved in the decision-making process. Everyone is a stakeholder in the business. The benefit of this structure is that it motivates every employee to contribute to the company’s goals and brings under-utilised but talented employees to the forefront. On the other hand, sometimes it may also make decision-making process too long or inefficient compared to traditional hierarchical organizations.

• 6. What has been your best marketing investment to date?

As a startup, we always try to make the most of limited resources. PR and social media are two of the most efficient marketing solutions to enhance the brand awareness of your business. During our Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign (http://bit.ly/bistro42), we tried to leverage the media resources and was reported by 200+ international media including TIME, WIRED, Engadget, CNET, etc.

About Chelsea:

• 1. Why entrepreneurship? Why not entrepreneurship?

No matter being an entrepreneur or not, I think entrepreneurship is a spirit everyone should have. To me, entrepreneurship means you’re willing to face the challenges, to solve the problem and to make positive impacts in the world.

• 2. What is one great experience you’ve had working on your startup? What is one not-so-great learning experience?

There are always lots of ups and downs on the startup journey. We have made mistakes — lots of mistakes — and try to learn from them. We may fail and fail again until we succeed, but I think the most valuable and memorable parts of my startup journey all came from the mistakes. I cannot tell you which experience was great and which was not, because every experience is a lesson and an opportunity to learn and grow.

• 3. What helps you keep going in the face of challenges and obstacles?

Doing a startup is just like life — you have to face lots of uncertainty and take risks. It’s uncomfortable and even painful sometimes. When facing the challenges, I always look back at my goal, and try to ask myself, “why do I want to do this?” “Why is it meaningful to me?” “What impact can it make?” Then I’ll keep such answers in mind and carry on.

• 4. What skill has been most useful to you in your entrepreneurship journey?

The world is changing fast, which means the knowledge you learned yesterday may not work today. Therefore, I think the most important skill nowadays is learning ability. You have to be open minded, be willing to learn new things and learn fast. In a startup, you have to adjust yourself as well as your strategies to the rapidly-changing markets.

• 5. What do you need to learn or improve to take your business to the next level?

We’re expanding our team and are planning to set up new branch offices in Beijing and Silicon Valley in the next 3 months. To achieve this goal, I need to make myself familiar with these two different places and learn how to run cross-cultural operations.

Read the original interview at Start Jeffrey Up

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Originally published at buzzorange.com on July 17, 2015.

How a Taiwanese Startup Used Advanced Facial-Recognition Technology To Create a Smart Cat Feeder was originally published in BuzzOrange Global on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Birth is a demanding affair, and making sure mother’s experience the least amount of pain during is a righteous area for innovation. It was for that noble purpose that National Taiwan University teacher of Anesthesiology Wei-Zen Sun (孫維仁) created Innovfusion Pte Ltd, a startup that just won the Singapore Startup Challenge.

The Singapore-based medtech startup besides winning a US$22,000 (684,000 NT) prize, will also have the chance to compete against international winning teams at Techventure, one of Asia’s largest startup events, International Startup Challenge Finals.

All thanks to EPIVA, a smart infusion device for women undergoing childbirth that provides personalised pain relief for every birth and managed to impress at the Singapore competition.

Before Techventure, Meditech will receive mentoring from the Challenge organisers, the National Research Foundation (NRF) and ACE (the Action Community for Entrepreneurship), which designed the challenge as a way to promote startups located in Singapore from technology areas, such as biotech/medtech and clean tech/energy/environment.

The final winners of the Techventure International Startup Challenge could win an incubation space and US$36,600 (1,4 million NT) in cash and an incubation space.

Source: e27, Innovfusion

Photo Caption by © Steve Hix/Somos Images/Corbis

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Originally published at buzzorange.com on July 16, 2015.

Taiwan University Teacher Wins the Singapore Startup Challenge With Birth Pain Relief Innovation was originally published in BuzzOrange Global on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

BOG — An original article by Taipei Trends about Roland Bloch, a Bavarian who after travelling all over the world mastering his beer brewing craftsmanship, landed in Taiwan by chance and started Bloch Brewing. So far he’s already managed to see 3 of his beers receive the Best Beers in the World and Asia at the World Beer Awards.

What does it take to be a brew master? Well, if you were a German brewer, maybe you would start with an old-school apprenticeship in the heart of Bavarian beer brewing country, learning the 1000 year old trade of bocks, lagers, and dark beers, and slowly working your way up the ranks. But that wouldn’t be enough for Brew Master (official title) Roland Bloch.

Roland Bloch loves beer. It wasn’t always that way. He once dreamed of becoming an underwater welder, very much opposed to beer his family introduced to him at the dinner table. But as many dreams come and go, Bloch was able to find his passion for brewing beer after seeing a hiring-poster of brewers wearing suits and drinking beer and thinking “Yeah, I want to do that.”

Slowly becoming a master of his craft, Bloch learned first on traditional machines, moving up to the latest technology, and committing to memory the ins and outs of German brewing methods.

This is where most brewers stop though, becoming a professional in a certain region’s beer, maybe trying to tweak it here and there, or inventing something new in the hope of finding the next big thing; not Roland Bloch though.

Picking up and moving to Dublin, Ireland with less than a basic English skill set, Bloch found a job at a Sushi restaurant, serving up raw fish and honing his English. Soon after, he was able to land a job at an Irish brewpub as a bartender, mastering the tastes and technique of Irish Stout. Within two years he was the manager.

From there, he moved all around the globe, working in breweries and picking up on an assortment of truly authentic brewing know-how in each place he lived. Ales in Belgium, Bitters in London, Craft Beer in Australia, and afterwards on to Japan. He eventually even went to work in a whiskey distillery in Scotland. Needless to say, Bloch has moved beyond mastering one range of beer, or falling into the trap of creating trendy brews. Instead, he bases his techniques on authentic traditions of the best beers around the globe. But as it happens in every passionate person’s life, there comes a time to move on to bigger and better and personal projects.

• From Globe-Trotting to Globe-Winning

While in Japan, Bloch set out to start his own beer. He was very close too, until the Fukushima earthquake devastated the country. Thinking it wise to steer clear of possibly radioactive ingredients, Bloch put his plans on hold. Thank Goodness.

A few years after, Bloch was on his way to a business meeting in Thailand when it was canceled the night before his flight. But instead of cancelling his trip, he changed his plans and headed to an island he had never considered before in search of the perfect brewing spot. That island, of course, was Taiwan.

Now two years on, Bloch Brewing has won Taiwan the honor of not 1, but 3 of the best beers in the World and Asia at the World Beer Awards in the Strong Bitter Beer, Light Bitter Beer and Fruit Beer categories:

His secret is not only in the techniques he picked up on his way, but also in the care and patience he has for brewing.

You see, most brews only need one month to mature before being shipped out, ready to drink. In fact, most brews would go bad if matured any longer. However, for Bloch’s first batch of beer, he orchestrated his finest concoctions to mature for 13 months. Something most brewers would never dream of doing. And the difference in quality is outstanding.

So where does shoe shining come in? Well, Roland Bloch was never a shoe shiner. A 3rd generation German from the heart of Bavaria, Bloch is proud of his uprising, but also of his heritage, which is French.

Bloch is actually a French family name, but it was certainly not just any ordinary family. In fact, they were the shoe shiners of the French royal family once upon a time. Sure, that may not sound glamorous, but it was good enough to get them an official family crest, which can be seen on the Bloch Beer label. The colors have been changed to represent Bavaria’s blue and white, but the crest is real, and officially sanctioned by the French government.

The first batch of Bloch beer is available in Taiwan, and gaining exposure quickly. Surprisingly enough, the Dark Beer and Wheat Beer, are loved by the Taiwanese community, and are on the verge of selling out, but don’t worry, Bloch is well into his second round of brews, and they are coming soon. Currently Bloch has 8 beers in production:

Red Emperor Ale — Belgian Beer Four Season’s Ale — Amber AleGerman Dark Beer German Bock German Lager Wheat Beer English Bitter Mango Beer

He won’t be maturing the beer for 13 month anymore, 8 months will do just fine, but you can expect the same amazing quality and refinement, plus a lot of the delicious new flavors listed above. They are tasty, and I’m not just saying that, we actually went to the brewery and tried the fresh batch (The dark beer tastes like liquid chocolate…thinking about it now and drooling).

I’ve even got an awesome video for you, so you can get a sense for Bloch Beer right here:

Look out for Bloch beer at the Tasting Room, Little London, Alleycats, The American Club, Vapiano, and much more!

For more news, pics, events and info, check out the official Facebook fan page here.

Read the original article at Taipei Trends

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Originally published at buzzorange.com on July 15, 2015.

A German Globe-Trotter is Creating Some of The World’s Best Beer in Taiwan was originally published in BuzzOrange Global on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

BOG– An interesting interview by TaiwaneseAmerican.Org with Jonathan Chen the CTO and Co-Founder of FiscalNote. Chen is Taiwanese-American, and his startup uses artificial intelligence and big data to predictive the impact of governmental action. Besides having raised almost 20 million in a Series B round, FiscalNote was named by CNN one of “10 emerging companies whose products have the potential to transform industries, help the planet’s less fortunate or become a handy part of our lives.”

Read the original interview by Ho Chie at TaiwaneseAmerican.Org

• Ho Chie: Great to chat with you again, Jonathan! It’s so amazing how far you’ve come in such a short time. Please tell us a little about yourself.

Jonathan: Thank you Ho Chie. It’s wonderful to get a chance to tell my story to TaiwaneseAmerican.org. Like many Taiwanese Americans, my parents were both born and raised in Taiwan and moved to the United States in their early 20s. I was born and raised in Montgomery County, Maryland. I spent my entire academic career in the state of Maryland. I graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a degree in computer science and had the great honor of delivering the student commencement speech at my graduation ceremony. It was at University of Maryland where I truly discovered my Taiwanese identity after joining the school’s Taiwanese American Student Association (TASA). Most of my friends today have been involved or are still involved with TASA. In addition to my involvement in TASA, I was also heavily involved in many entrepreneurial activities on campus. I was always building cool apps at hackathons and trying to turn those apps into real world ventures. I joined an entrepreneurial living and learning program my junior year. That same year I happened to start a company called FiscalNote in my dorm room with a couple of my friends. Since then we have grown to 50+ employees and we are now headquartered at Metro Center in the heart of Washington DC. Because of the amazing growth at FiscalNote, my co-founders and I have been named Top 40 under 40 entrepreneurs in Washington DC.

• H: That’s amazing! How about outside of work? How do you spend your time?

J: Outside of work, however, my hobbies are very diverse. I have a strong passion for music. I have been playing violin and drums for 10+ years and I am currently teaching myself piano. I also have a deep love for martial arts especially jiu jitsu and wrestling. I occasionally wrestle around with my college roommates and my brother. I also like to snowboard and I am an amatuer card trick magician. If you ever get the chance to witness one of my card tricks, you will seriously question the laws of physics.

• H: Haha! Next time I see you, I will bring a pack of cards and be prepared to be even more amazed! Anyways, congrats on all the success with FiscalNote! What exactly is it and how do you hope it will make an impact?

J: FiscalNote is a platform that aggregates government data consisting of legislation, regulations and case law. We apply advanced analytics over all this data in order to map out valuable relationships, hidden trends, and forecast future outcomes. For example, with legislative data, we are able to predict the passage of a bill with 95% accuracy. Our goal is to add more transparency to the government and the data that they provide. Before FiscalNote, it was extremely challenging for organizations to track and analyze government data. But because of our platform, organizations ranging from nonprofits to large corporations have the ability to easily understand the impact that the government has on their industries, and as a result, these organizations can make better decisions.

H: That is such an innovative idea given how complex and bureaucratic governments and legislation tend to be. It sounds quite useful.

J: Yes, and we have raised just under $20 million in capital. Some of our notable investors include Mark Cuban, Jerry Yang, Winklevoss Capital, and RenRen. FiscalNote has been featured in the Washington Post, Silicon Valley Business Journal, Washington Business Journal, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, and more. FiscalNote also has been named CNN’s Top Ten Startups of 2014 and Inc. Magazine’s Coolest College Startups of 2014.

• H: Let’s go back in time a little bit. What was the inspiration for all this?

J: My co-founder Tim Hwang has always been heavily involved with government and policy. While working in the government, Tim was irritated with the process of tracking and analyzing pieces of legislation. Born out of frustration was Tim’s concept of creating a platform that would make this process simpler and more manageable. He shared this idea with me and we decided to tackle the problem together. We entered an entrepreneurship competition at the University of Maryland, College Park with just the idea embedded in a few Powerpoint slides. To our surprise, we placed 2nd. The judges loved our idea and encouraged us to pursue it. Shortly after the competition we brought on our 3rd co-founder, Gerald Yao. Together the three of us created FiscalNote.

• H: It’s been some time since we first met at the TACL Leadership Conference now known as GLO. How did this experience influence your path, if at all?

J: I credit a good amount of my success in leadership to you Ho Chie. Even though we had only met briefly at the TACL Leadership Conference at Columbia two years ago, I still remember how encouraging you were and the lessons you taught on leadership. I still utilize some of those techniques in my company today. For example, the brainstorming lesson you taught us has proven its usefulness many times over at FiscalNote. Giving everyone the chance to speak their ideas and then going back and systematically eliminating the bad ideas one by one based off of a majority vote has been a technique I have used frequently at FiscalNote. Also, I am glad to have had the chance to get connected with amazing individuals such as you Ho Chie, Teddy Liaw and many other great leaders in the Taiwanese American community.

• H: Wow. That is so kind of you to say. I was always super-impressed by your ideas and vision even back then. Tell me, have you been involved in the Taiwanese American community in other ways?

J: In college, I was heavily involved in the Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association (ITASA). I was the ITASA Representative for the University of Maryland, College Park chapter my senior year. Additionally, after college I got involved in the Taiwanese American Professionals DC chapter (TAP-DC). Although I do not hold an e-board position, I frequently attend the events to try to connect with other individuals who are also interested in Taiwanese culture. I gave a presentation on start-ups at the ITASA & TAP-DC 2015 Professional Development Day earlier this year. My goal was to inform students what life at a start-up was like. I will also be hosting a workshop at the 2016 ITASA East Coast Conference at the University of Maryland, College Park next year. So if you are interested in hearing more about start-ups and FiscalNote’s founding story, I encourage you to come!

• H: If you could offer a piece of advice for students or young professionals, perhaps with an interest in the start-up tech industries, what would you tell them?

J: I believe that the best piece of advice that I can give those entering the start-up world is to make sure you find great people to work with, whether they be co-founders or employees. Ideas are a dime of dozen, but the team that you build is priceless and often times hard to replicate. Find people who you trust and respect. Find people who are willing to live and put up with you for the next 10 years. In a start-up, you are practically married to your co-founders. Everyone must push each other, believe in each other, and hold each other accountable. With a great team, anything is possible.

• H: Great advice, indeed. So what’s next for FiscalNote?

J: By the end of the year, FiscalNote plans to grow to around 80+ employees, nearly doubling the size of what it is today. Although our headquarters is located in Washington DC, we have a small office in New York and plan on growing that office to around 10+ people by the end of this year. Additionally, FiscalNote is aiming to expand internationally as well, targeting Asia and Europe. There is a vast amount of open data out there and so many organizations that can benefit from our technology. Our goal is to reach all those organizations on a global scale in order to help them extract the true value of open data so they can make better decisions.

• H: I can’t wait to see how we might use this to predict passage of bills that affect the US-Taiwan relationship. Amazing stuff you’re doing Jonathan. Good luck to you and the rest of the team! Thanks so much for your time today!

J: Thanks, Ho Chie!

Read the original interview by Ho Chie at TaiwaneseAmerican.Org

Press and coverage on FiscalNote: CNN: httpp://www.cnn.com/interactive/2014/10/tech/cnn10-startups/ NBC News [Video]: http://www.nbcnews.com/video/meet-the-press/56301150 DC’s 40 under 40: https://www.bisnow.com/washington-dc/news/tech/40-under-40-part-v-42715 Washington Post: http://wapo.st/1bSs1TL Washington Business Journal: http://m.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/techflash/2015/03/fiscalnotes-early-path-stress-swiped-food-and-the.html

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Originally published at buzzorange.com on July 15, 2015.

How a Taiwanese American Co-Founder is Using Big Data To Make Governments More Efficient was originally published in BuzzOrange Global on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In our new section Crowdfunding Formosa, BuzzOrange Global looks at the most interesting and exciting projects looking for crowdfunding in Taiwan

Writer Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club) once had this thought on culture and young people, “The first step — especially for young people with energy and drive and talent, but not money — to controlling your world is to control your culture. To model and demonstrate the kind of world you demand to live in. To write the books. Make the music. Shoot the films. Paint the art.”

So what to do when there is no way for young people in your country to access their own culture? Or the only alternative they have is to use some other country’s culture where you don’t understand any of the references?

Just magine it as if your childhood school only had Murakami books donated by Japan as available reading material, and you couldn’t understand any of the references to bento boxes .

• Giving Ugandan Oral Culture a Book Publisher

It was this problem Teresa Wang, a 24 year-old volunteering as a Peace-Corps in Uganda, saw on the many schools for impoverished communities in this Central African country with one of the youngest populations in the world, with half of the population under the age of 15.

Due to quick urbanization more and more children are sent to towns to study and grow up in western children’s books donated by foreign donors, distancing themselves from the non-written tribal culture and identity.

This lead Teresa to create the Nambozo Books: Ugandan Folktales Publishing Project, a publisher based in Mbale, a town situated in Eastern Uganda that would focus on publishing Ugandan folktales for children between 6 and 12.

Their creative method is based on collecting stories from the elders in the villages, and hire local writers and illustrators to produce books in English and the local dialect Lumaasaba. So far they’ve already published a children book called “The Secret of Egrets and Crows”, and Teresa started a crowdfunding campaign at the Taiwanese website FlyingV.

They originally aimed to raise US 4,809 (149,980 NT) in order to publish 3 books every year with 2000 copies, however Taiwanese proved to be generous enough to already have donated almost US 8000 (248,931 NT), with a month to go.

Books will be sold for US 1.5 and people can buy one to offer children in need. However the publisher is also planning to create audio books for local radio stations and organize storytelling events in schools and libraries.

Culture is a fragile precious good that too many times disappears within the memory of the people who die without passing it. Hopefully this campaign can help children in Uganda keep one of the most precious elements life has to offer, their own culture.

Know more about the Nambozo Books: Ugandan Folktales Publishing Project campaign at FlyingV.

Photos by Nambozo Books

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Originally published at buzzorange.com on July 20, 2015.

Crowdfunding Formosa — A Taiwanese is Helping Preserve Uganda’s Culture For Its Children was originally published in BuzzOrange Global on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

One of the advantages of being a journalist is that sometimes you can drink at work and call it “research”. That’s what I was thinking when Taiwanese startup Alchema gave me a taste of their new home made Dragon Eye fruit wine.

It was a light (only 5%) refreshing wine for a scorching Taipei Summer day although really sour. But as a native from a World Heritage wine region in Portugal, I tried not to demand too much of a wine that only took eight days to make.

Alchema is planning to offer you the possibility to create your own wine at home.You just need to buy the company specialised 3L bottle for US 300 (9,300 NT), download their app and think what kind of fruit you want to use besides the orthodox grape.

The app will then give you all the instructions of how to mix the ingredients in the bottle (you can buy the yeast from Alchema) and allows you to monitor the fermentation progress during the 1 or 3 weeks that usually takes to create.

“Our favourite is strawberry wine,” says Oscar Chang CEO and one of the co-founders” but there’s people who do it with Pineapple or Cherry.”

Its strange that an idea for this project came from an electric engineer and a filmmaking student, but it came up to Oscar and Angel Huang from a strange source, as great innovations normally do. More precisely the numerous unsuccessful attempts of a friend’s mother at producing her own wine.

After looking for a teacher with knowledge of wine fermentation, asking a friend with 3D printer to create the special fermentation bottle, Alchema was born.

“We didn’t have any knowledge about wine before but now we’re all alcoholics,” says Oscar.

Angel Huang COO second from the left and Oscar Chang CEO in the middle

They have only started with a 30,000NT capital last May , but in two months already gathered a ten people team and have been having fun winning innovation competitions.

They won US 4800 (150,000 NT) at the Mediatek Mobile Heroes, and were recently one of the best 5 teams chosen at the FITI government competition, winning US 64,000 (2 million NT).

For now the raised money will be used to develop their bottle prototype and the Alchema app, so if you have any ideas creating your own guava wine you’ll have to wait a bit.

The team is planning a crowdfunding campaign for February next year, aiming to raise US 440,000 (14 million NT) and assess the possible interest in the product. Because they know Taiwan is not a market with a big interest in wine, they’re planning to use Kickstarter, an american crowdfunding website, and target the US market, namely the world-renowned wine region of California.

You may think that somethings should be left to the professionals, but as wine lover what would make you prouder than offering your own batch during your wine parties? Just don’t make it Dragon Eye fruit wine, there some reasons why grapes have been used for wine since the beginning of time.

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Originally published at buzzorange.com on July 14, 2015.

You Can Make Your Own Bordeaux At Home Thanks To This Taiwanese Invention was originally published in BuzzOrange Global on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

BOG -In this article by Tim Ferry for TOPICS, we see how Taiwan is attempting to shift from a conscript military to a volunteer military in a very short time frame. But can the army recruit enough personnel to maintain a credible defense in face of threats from China?

In 1973, when United States began its transition from a conscript army to an all-volunteer force, no one was sure whether the move would succeed. Forty years on, the U.S. Army is considered the most agile, advanced, and lethal in the world, and has earned a high degree of regard and trust from U.S. citizens.

Now as Taiwan tries to make this same transition with Chinese missiles staring down on it from across the Taiwan Strait, it doesn’t have the luxury of time. Instead, it would need to complete the project in as little as three or four years. Taiwan’s complex relationship with China and volatile domestic political environment, as well as the numerous scandals that have affected the military, only increase the complexity of recruiting and fielding a modern and effective armed forces.

Volunteer armies are also costlier than conscript armies, as it takes better benefits and higher salaries to recruit soldiers. Taiwan has raised both benefits and pay, but is still lagging in recruitment — and with so few recruits, the army risks becoming top-heavy with officers.

As explained by defense expert J. Michael Cole in a recent story for The Diplomat, originally the Ministry of National Defense (MND) set a goal of some 28,000 recruits annually, but in 2013, the first year of its recruitment drive, it only reached about one-third of that number. As a result, MND lowered its target to 10,000 soldiers in 2014 and actually managed to recruit 15,000. This year’s goal is 14,000, and as of April a third of the target had already been achieved.

The low recruitment numbers have forced the MND to postpone conclusion of the transition from the original date of 2015 to 2017. Also, the planned total number of military personnel has been reduced. In 2012, Taiwan had 270,000 personnel in its armed forces, and the initial proposal called for an eventual force of 215,000. The revised target is 170,000 to 180,000.

These reduced numbers have prompted some to question the wisdom of the transition. A survey released in April conducted by Academia Sinica reveals that a majority of Taiwanese in all age brackets want to return to the conscript-based system to “enhance (Taiwan’s) military strength.”

“Now the military has the problem of too many commanding officers and too few soldiers,” said Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim in widely reported press comments. “According to the government’s current fiscal constraints and staff planning, it is not possible to convert to an all-volunteer military.”

The MND responded by saying the process was irreversible, and Tsai Ing-wen, the DPP party chair and presidential candidate, later qualified that she supports the transition but thinks it may need more time to be carried out.

The obvious success of the U.S. military in creating a volunteer army provides some encouragement for Taiwan. But with only half of one percent of Americans having served during the previous 10 years of continuous conflict, the Pew Research Center in 2011 warned of a growing disconnect between the U.S. citizenry and their military.

A conscript army is often seen as building national identity through the universally shared experience of helping defend the country. Considering that the endgame of an “asymmetric strategy” is a local militia engaged in guerrilla warfare, can a population distanced from its military engage in armed resistance to an invader? In apparent acknowledgement of this potential weakness, Taiwan actually is not eliminating conscription entirely. Instead, draftees will undergo a four-month training program to at least become familiar with firearms and gain some combat training.

Alexander Huang, a specialist in military strategy, says the instilling of patriotism is not simply a matter of whether the military is conscript-based or volunteer, but of how those recruits are trained. “If you have a training program with commanders who know what their troops need and give them the right kind of education, then the young men and women will feel honored to wear that uniform,” he says. “But if you are wearing that uniform but are treated like a house helper, that will actually undermine patriotism.”

Huang is a strong proponent of the transition to a volunteer army, citing the needs of modern warfare for extensive training in advanced weapons systems. Professional soldiers would serve longer terms, perhaps even whole careers, providing the time needed to develop weapons systems proficiency. Military education likewise needs deep reform.

Read the original article at TOPICS

Photo credit by John Yavuz Can

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Originally published at buzzorange.com on July 14, 2015.

Taiwan’s Volunteer Army Shift Called into Question was originally published in BuzzOrange Global on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Ou: Being a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and also having served as an Associative Dean at Taiwan National University’s College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, do you think that studying electrical engineering and computer science is a good course of study for getting into startups? Are there opportunities to combine technology with creative cultural products, and does this create higher value?

Chen: In the global supply chain for the electronic information industry, Taiwan has always played the role of making resources for development more abundant, and this gives students in departments related to electronic engineering opportunities for creative development. However, for most types of technological evolution or improvements in manufacturing processes, the biggest obstacles to be overcome are in brand-new hardware startups. In comparison, these obstacles are lower in software startups, but you must look for a very unique starting point to enter the market.

In terms of creative cultural products, to be honest, I currently still haven’t seen too many actual successful cases. In the future, the road for creative cultural products will be more arduous. However, hardware, software, and creative cultural products will all have to unearth a kind of demand that the users will have a genuine need for, and that is of utmost importance.

In the past, Taiwan followed the OEM model, and there was no way to come face to face with and understand the clients’ genuine needs. In order to be able to change the fate of perpetually following this OEM path, I believe that we must start from the level of education; therefore, during my time at Taiwan National University I started the Creativity and Entrepreneurship Program. Starting with fine arts education, students are challenged to deeply reflect on the relationship between products and customers’ experiences and hopefully to move away from Taiwan’s consistent adherence to the OEM model.

Ou: Could you share the specific ways that creativity and entrepreneurship is promoted at National Taiwan University? Chen: After being employed at the National Applied Research Laboratory and returning to Taiwan National University to be Vice-President, I formally established NTU Garage as an entrepreneurial platform program to recruit students who aspire to be entrepreneurs or who would like to understand entrepreneurship and give them instruction and genuine hands-on experience. It is also designed to allow for further interactions and experiences exchanging information between students and entrepreneurs with experience in Silicon Valley.

Aside from completing the establishment of the Creativity and Entrepreneurship Program, training strategies are also necessary for planning and examining how to cultivate talent. Universities take students from all over the country and bring them to the campus in order to open up students’ fields of vision, teach students better professional knowledge and abilities, and also to allow students to devote and offer all that they have learned to society after graduation. I hope students will not invest four years of time to acquire a university diploma just for the sake of finding a job.

In the university system, as long as a student has entrepreneurial intentions and ideas, schools should cultivate the student’s knowledge and abilities that are related to entrepreneurship. They should also assist students in gaining entrepreneurial experience, and during their educational training, they should endow students, who have entrepreneurial aspirations, with training experiences that enable them to genuinely act and implement tasks.

Ou: There are numerous academic departments at NTU. How should students understand and make use of the NTU Garage creativity and entrepreneurship program?

Chen: I believe every footstep leaves its imprint. Progressively through NTU’s creativity and entrepreneurship program, professors who have transferred their skills into experience play the role of kindling, and then students’ entrepreneurial aspirations are ignited and nurtured. Through regularly scheduled two-way meetings, they have opportunities to collectively discuss future technologies and entrepreneurial plans. In the United States, there are many universities that have established entrepreneurial planning in hopes of not just educating students, but at the same time, educating professors so as to mutually enhance one another’s learning.

I hope that during the process of being trained in entrepreneurship at NTU, the entrepreneurial spirit of American garages can be embraced, allowing students to learn the required entrepreneurial knowledge and to cultivate their entrepreneurial abilities. After a student graduates and leaves the campus gates, the student will be able to create a job opportunity and not just go into the workplace and snatch up a job.

Ou: Could you talk about what is the motivating force that supports your energetic drive to establish the creativity and entrepreneurship program?

Chen: I was born and bred in Taiwan. Regardless of whether I was attending school or going to work, I always stayed in Taiwan. Therefore, I have sentiments for Taiwan that are difficult to part with. In the early days, people had to rely on themselves for everything in all of their undertakings so that they would be able to pass their days existing in an agricultural era. During that time, Taiwan did not have any exceptional resources. In order to survive, everybody had to rely on one another and collectively work hard together.

It cannot be denied that many industries in Taiwan have the follower mentality (little brother strategy), and they often will only enter the market in the mode of OEM manufacturers after certain products have already succeeded in opening the market. As a result, it is not difficult to find that among the students trained to enter into industry jobs after graduation, the vast majority develop and manufacture products that are identical to the other ones on the market. In contrast, I believe in making the students’ entrepreneurial style closer to the style found in Silicon Valley. Because new-born calves are not afraid of tigers, they will have the courage to apply the results of forward looking research into starting new enterprises.

Therefore, the motivation and concept of establishing a creativity and entrepreneurship program originated mainly from seeing successful cases of entrepreneurship among the classmates and friends in my vicinity. I saw them leave Taiwan to go to Silicon Valley and do startups, and in just a short time they earned considerable wealth. This is in contrast to many people who immerse their whole lives grinding away at work in Taiwan. When people with inferior competitive strength encounter a decline in prosperity, they usually are only able to groan and sigh.

Each year NTU has 8,000 fresh graduates. I believe that among them maybe only ten to one hundred of these graduates will choose to be entrepreneurs. I also believe that among those students who choose to be entrepreneurs, according to the so-called 20/80 theory, maybe only a minority will succeed. However, these people will be able to create market opportunities for the majority of Taiwanese people. This small possibility makes the creativity and entrepreneurship program that I have established a worthwhile endeavor.

Ou: According to my understanding, in Singapore, promoting entrepreneurship has already become a national target policy. National Singapore University places the same degree of importance on the cultivation of entrepreneurship as it does on education and research. But to make an observation about creativity and entrepreneurship in Taiwan, it appears that there have been some difficulties putting the energy into practice. Why is this?

Chen: Essentially, entrepreneurship is a simple matter. Because it is unlike a skill that one studies, academic institutes have only been able to copy one another and produce generic results. The difficulty with entrepreneurship is that it is difficult to duplicate, and innovation is necessary to successfully attract market interest. Singapore’s weak point is that the scope of its market is far smaller than Taiwan’s, and as a result, local startups have difficulty taking shape.

I believe that capital is not the only problem because in the process of creating a startup, it is not necessarily a requirement to use large amounts of capital — only enough is needed to support the startup’s basic needs. Nowadays, Taiwan’s entire business environment is different from in the past. Currently what is most needed is a shift towards a creativity and entrepreneurship ideal. I hope to be able to take the entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley, where grass-roots roads are found in abundance, and transplant it to Taiwan where it will gradually take root and flourish.

Read the original article at CTimes by Chen Weizhe.

Main photo by 臺大創意創業學程. Portrait photo by Linding Hao

Originally published at buzzorange.com on July 13, 2015.

How to Create the Next Big Taiwanese Entrepreneur? Vice President of NTU Has an Idea How was originally published in BuzzOrange Global on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

BOG — In last May the Taiwanese government has finally allowed online platforms of equity-crowdfunding such as DITstartup, making it possible for people with an interest in a startup or business project to get a share of the company after their investment. In this article on e27 by Yon Heong Tung, the major differences between reward and equity crowdfunding are explained, and we can see how this methods changed the global startup scene.

Since its inception more than a decade ago, online crowdfunding has been a godsend to both entrepreneurs and artists, turning their dreams into reality.

One of the earliest platforms, US-based ArtistShare, was launched in 2003 as a means of helping music artists fund their projects through donations from their fans.

Its first success story was a jazz album by Maria Schneider, which raised US$130,000 and went on to win a Grammy award in 2005. Depending on their contribution amount, fans received rewards ranging from a digital download of the album to being named as an executive producer of the album.

Over the years, online crowdfunding has spread its influence all over the globe, spurring the growth of startups in Taiwan, Brazil, and China. A 2013 World Bank report even predicts that crowdfunding in China could hit US$50 billion in 2025.

It has bankrolled projects such as the Pebble Time watch, which had the backing of 78,471 people to the tune of more than US$20 million. By 2013, the online crowdfunding industry had raised over US$5.1 billion.

Crowdfunding has also attracted the likes of celebrities and industry leaders.

Some have leveraged their popularity to fund their campaigns. LeVar Burton, famous for TV shows such Star Trek: The Next Generation and Reading Rainbow, raised US$5.4 million fromKickstarter to fund the revival of Reading Rainbow. Hollywood actor, Zach Braff, famed for TV show — Scrubs, launched a Kickstarter campaign, raising more than US$3 million for his film, ‘Wish I Was Here’.

Read Also: The Doors are Slowly Opening For Investment Crowdfunding in Taiwan

Other prominent people chose to lend their support instead. When India-based startup,Connovate Technology, raised US$50,000 through Indiegogo for its Bluetooth device, it attracted one very prominent backer in tech industry — Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak. Hollywood comedian and producer, Seth Macfarlane, pledged US$4 million to Reading Rainbow’s campaign.

The allure and pitfalls of the rewards-based crowdfunding model

Some of the notable Internet crowdfunding platforms include Indiegogo — which sees 15 million visitors monthly and has hosted more than 275,000 campaigns — and Kickstarter — which has successfully funded about 88,000 campaigns, raising more than US$1.8 billion.

Like ArtistShare, both Kickstarter and Indiegogo operate on a rewards-based framework, i.e., backers are offered a plethora of incentives, ranging from merchandise to exclusive meet-ups depending on the amount they chose to pledge.

The core difference between Kickstarter and Indiegogo is that Kickstarter uses an “All or Nothing” (AoN) model, meaning to say that if the project fails to reach their funding goal, the money would be refunded to its backers.

Indiegogo, on the other hand, is more flexible; offering both an AoN model, and a “Keep it All”(KiA) model, which allows the campaign owner to keep the entire amount pledged to it, regardless of whether it has reached its funding goal, refunding the campaign’s backers is optional. Indiegogo would, however, collect a higher fee if the campaign fails to hit its goal.

Rewards-based crowdfunding may sound like an ideal platform for startups, especially those offering tangible products, but there are several drawbacks to this system, especially to its backers.

While backers get to reap immediate rewards once the campaign succeeds, they have no say in the company’s trajectory nor would they share in the company’s future profits despite effectively laying the foundations of its success.

A prime example would be the Oculus Rift Kickstarter, which saw nearly 10,000 donors left in the dust (save for a t-shirt or an early prototype of the product) when it was acquired by Facebook for US$2 billion. Many backers felt short-changed and betrayed as they believed that Oculus Rift’s success was the direct result of the Kickstarter campaign. In addition, major investors who backed it after the campaign saw manifold returns. What’s worse is that because their contribution qualified as a donation, not investment, they could not get a refund.

To compound that problem, about 75 per cent of projects fail to hit their delivery deadlines, and 60 per cent fail to hit their funding goal. On the upside, only 0.1 of the campaignsturned out to be frauds.

Can equity-based crowdfunding be a better alternative?

What if crowdfunding gave backers the opportunity to accomplish more? Giving them a chance to be more than mere donors, but angel investors or even evangelists of the product or service.

Equity-based crowdfunding offers such a value proposition to backers. Instead of fixed instant rewards, backers are given a share of the company in return for their contribution, effectively becoming investors.

Read Also: Advantages and Disadvantages of Crowdfunding for Startups in Taiwan

Such platforms include Fundable, which offers both reward-based and equity-based crowdfunding. AngelList offers equity and debt-based investments, it also allows startups to recruit and hire incubators. Crowdcube, a British equity crowdfunding firm, has raised over US$144 million to fund more than 270 startups.

RocketClub offers a different take on the equity-based system. Investors do not need to fork out a single cent to back a startup, instead they help the startup to gain traction by accomplishing certain tasks.

In the case of Spottly, a travel startup on its platform, investors have six months to refer the company to at least two friends, complete one feedback survey as well as post a spot on its app every four months.

In return, Spottly allocates two per cent of the company’s stake to all its investors on RocketClub. The first 1000 investors will receive a combined percentage of one per cent, meaning to say each of these recipients would own 0.001 per cent of the company. Considering the company’s current valuation at US$3 million-US$5 million, backers can expect to receive up to US$50 for their share.

That sum may sound minuscule but the Co-founder of RocketClub, Erik Chan, says the investors shouldn’t be focussed on the current value of their share, but look at the long term potential of it.

“Early-stage company valuation is really an art, so I wouldn’t look into the numbers too much. It’s really more about the upside potential of these shares. The key is the multiplier on that share, not its existing value today,” he tells e27.

“Our goal is simple — to align the interests of early adopters and companies and offer alternatives for companies to build traction,” he adds.

In the future, the startup might see a profitable exit. Investors who have the foresight stand to benefit more in the long run.

For startups that are working to gain more traction and exposure, this form of equity-based crowdfunding platforms will provide greater benefits than those that offer rewards. Many of RocketClub’s clients are startups that provide services in the Fintech, Foodtech and Traveltech industries.

The scalability of their platform as well as valuation to future VCs or other angel investors is heavily dependant on how much traffic and how many users users it has.

There are limitations with the equity-based crowdfunding model — some equity-platforms such as MicroVentures and CircleUp are open only to accredited investors.

The space for crowdfunding is expanding and its framework is constantly evolving, startups now have a greater array of choices when it comes to pooling resources from a community that goes beyond monetary value. The backers can also choose to be mere customers, opting for a one-off transaction or be an active investor, holding out for a bigger payoff.

Read the original article at e27

Photo Credit by © IMAGEMORE1/Imagemore Co., Ltd./Corbis

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Originally published at buzzorange.com on July 13, 2015.

Can Taiwan Benefit More From Equity or Reward-Based Crowdfunding? was originally published in BuzzOrange Global on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.