我們認為，基於過去 Internet 打下的良好基礎，由 AI 及 Blockchain 所延伸出的數據應用，以及去中心化的價值交換模式，是下個十年創業者必須槓桿的新巨大板塊位移。隨著越來越多的人才、資源與能量投入 Web3 / DAO 領域的新創，區塊鏈技術將為傳統的金融、商業、娛樂產業帶來巨大的改變。
作為此區域領先的 Web3 創業者社群，所有創業者形成一個緊密的新創網絡，這個創業者社群就是你的大家庭。Web3 / DAO 的創業者，不論是要開發新產品，或是建立 DAO 型態的社群、打造代幣經濟體系，以及希望尋求各種協助資源，AppWorks 每位同事的重要任務之一，就是在其中穿針引線將資源與人脈引介給各新創團隊，並從中不同創業者身上，交流學習各種創業相關經驗與秘訣。
Founded in 2010 by Jamie Lin, AppWorks Accelerator is a startup community created by founders, for founders. We are committed to fostering the next generation of entrepreneurs in Greater Southeast Asia and to accelerating the region’s transition into the digital era.
Every six months, we take in founders trailblazing on the frontiers of web3 / DAO, AI / IoT, and Southeast Asia, equipping them with the necessary resources, mentorship, and guidance to get their ventures off the ground.
We know there are many considerations for founders when applying to an accelerator. That’s why we’ve created an FAQ page to help you decide whether or not AppWorks is suitable for your startup.
As of May 11, AppWorks Accelerator #25 is open for applications. You can find important information about the Accelerator experience on our main page.
The FAQs
1. What do I need to know before joining an accelerator in Taiwan during COVID-19? What is AppWorks doing to help founders make the most out of the accelerator before it’s completely safe to travel and congregate? How are you helping founders deal with the impact from the pandemic?
The world has seen nothing like the COVID-19 pandemic, and we can confidently say that no founder we know had this on their disaster mitigation plans. But the experience of being a founder is all about learning and adaptation, even when things look dire. We are here to support you to do just that, no matter the circumstances.
Since 2020, AppWorks has designed a hybrid online-offline program with a variety of online activities for both local founders in Taiwan and international founders abroad. As the majority of the population is fully vaccinated in Taiwan, the government is likely to ease the COVID-19 restrictions soon. We will be adjusting online & in-person activities dynamically based on the COVID-19 situation, and make sure that founders have the best experience during the program. At the same time, we also encourage founders participating in AppWorks Accelerator to vaccinate as soon as possible to protect themselves and reduce the risk of infection.
Currently, up to six hours of online and offline sessions per week are provided, ranging from office hours with AppWorks Partners to meetings with mentors and peer founders from all over the region. Such meetings include founder mentoring sessions with veterans of the technology industry who have launched startups from zero to one, and even listed several IPOs. You can rest assured that you will get to meet hundreds of investors, journalists, corporate executives, and other partners who can make a positive impact on your founder journey through our hybrid activities.
If you’d like to leverage AppWorks to test out the Taiwan market or set up a technical team during the pandemic, we can still provide suitable introductions to our network through online activities. However, based on our experience, we recommend that founders invest the necessary time and effort after the government eases the travel restriction to personally understand Taiwan’s market and environment if you are interested in doing business in the country.
We will continue to monitor visa and travel restrictions in a timely manner and update you accordingly throughout the application process. It is likely that by the time AW#25 starts in September, travel restrictions will have loosened up, making traveling to Taiwan much easier. We know that physical face-to-face engagement is still extremely effective for building strong relationships, and thus encourage founders who are vaccinated to visit Taiwan and attend the accelerator in person for the most optimal experience.
2. Why wouldn’t AppWorks admit founders working outside of web3 / DAO, AI / IoT, or SEA?
We believe that AI and blockchain are based on the good foundation that the internet has built, and the extended data applications and the decentralized model will be a huge disruption that founders must leverage in the next decade. As more talents and energy are pouring into web3 / DAO startups, the blockchain space will create something so immense that will ultimately transform traditional presence in finance, commerce, entertainment, and beyond.
At the same time, SEA’s digital revolution is well underway, with a young, ever-expanding, and increasingly affluent middle class driving brisk economic growth across the region. SEA also features one of the world’s largest populations at over 650 million people, many of which are digital natives and early adopters of technology, lending itself as a hotbed for entrepreneurship and innovation.
Therefore, this is the focus of our attention for now. In the last 10 years, we’ve seen the popularity and penetration of mobile internet. If you want to seize the opportunities in the next decade, think about how to leverage these key areas to create the future.
3. How can AppWorks Accelerator help a web3 / DAO founder?
Since we started accelerating and investing in blockchain teams in 2017, we have witnessed the incredible growth and promise of decentralization and its applications in permissionless, trustless, and transparent digital value storage and transfer. Compared to 5 years ago, the web3 world is now much bigger and more mature, with various chains, wallets, exchanges and the likes, serving as the infrastructure with lots of quality development tools available, allowing founders to run lean, experiment, and launch disruptive projects fast. The creation of DAOs is also one revolution that has helped create community-driven organizations enabling participants to have skin in the game.
As our web3 community has grown, so have the opportunities for partnerships, knowledge exchange, and founder-to-founder support. We recognize that developer communities and network effects are critical for web3 / DAO startups, and AppWorks provides this community as a unique value-add for our web3 / DAO founders.
As a web3 / DAO founder, you can expect these from joining AppWorks Accelerator:
a. Grow with one of the largest web3 founder communities in Greater Southeast Asia
Entrepreneurship is a lonely journey. After starting your own business, most of your friends and family won’t understand the ups and downs you’re experiencing as a founder. If you can share these experiences with fellow founders who are as capable and determined, who understand when you encounter setbacks, you will be more motivated to continue. In addition to about 50-60 other founders accelerating together in the same program, we will hold frequent alumni gatherings where you’ll meet many alumni who have gone through the 0 to 1 stage.
The web3 ecosystem within the AppWorks community now consists of 93 active teams with a total of 181 founders. These extraordinary web3 startups include Blocto (AW#19), a mobile portal to the blockchain world featuring seamless integrations with different wallets and web browsers; Lootex (AW#20), a digital marketplace that runs NFT auctions; and Pendle (AW#20), a DeFi yield-trading protocol that enables the tokenization and trading of future yield.
As one of the most flourishing web3 founder communities in the region, we can help support founders working on web3 products / DAOs who want to learn the ins and outs of entrepreneurship through introductions of resources and connections in the startup ecosystem. Moreover, founders can learn together with fellow founders as driven as you about tokenomics, DAO, and community-building.
b. Stay ahead of the game as the ecosystem rapidly evolves and access to premium development partners
In web3, startups developing on the right public chain and working with the right partners can help create synergies and accelerate scaling. Within the AppWorks web3 ecosystem, 90+ teams have developed their products on various public chains, including Ethereum, Solana, Terra, Cosmos, and so on. If you are a founder building on these chains, you can always find a connection within our ecosystem.
AppWorks is proactively building a vibrant ecosystem for web3 startups to explore and connect with each other. We are one of the investors in the public chain Flow, developed by Dapper Labs, the creator of CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot. If you are interested in developing a new business model on Flow or the chance to talk to various stakeholders in the Flow ecosystem, you can receive more direct resources and support from AppWorks and Flow’s collaboration. Founders building things on Flow Chain will be able to enjoy support from Dapper / Flow Team with Flow token grants.
At the same time, AppWorks builds partnerships with essential development tools, platforms, and cloud services such as Animoca Brands, Alchemy, and AWS to make sure that blockchain startups gain adequate support to grow.
4. What does AppWorks look for in applications?
When AppWorks reviews applications submitted by founders, we pay special attention to a founder’s North Star. Some questions that might help you think about whether AppWorks is a good fit for you:
Why do a startup?
What problem do you want to solve and why?
What do you believe fundamentally needs to exist in this world that doesn’t already?
What kind of future do you want to create and how will you get there?
What have you already done to demonstrate your commitment to tackling this problem?
AppWorks Accelerator’s online application covers about 30 topics related to team background, product/service, business model, market analysis and more. It is very detailed and requires time to complete. It also includes a required one-minute self-intro from the founder (CEO).
5. Does AppWorks Accelerator cost anything?
No. AppWorks Accelerator has always been free for founders. We will not charge rent or service fees, nor will we require any form of compensation, such as sweat equity, tokens, options, revenue, or profit-sharing. Our exclusive mission is to help founders.
6. We need funding now, can we get investment by joining AppWorks?
The short answer is you will have much better access to us than non-AppWorks accelerated teams. We will discuss with you and help you figure out at this stage of your startup’s journey, if capital can significantly enhance its strength and competitive advantage, and/or there are other more burning issues, e.g. product-market fit, go-to-market strategy, co-founder recruiting, speed, etc. Any AppWorks founder is welcome to start a discussion with us on fundraising anytime. We will do our best to advise and support you with US$212 million in total fund size.
Please note, AppWorks Accelerator will never require teams to accept our investment before joining the accelerator, nor will teams ever need to provide any form of equity or revenue / profit share in return.
7. I am not a technical founder, or I need to find an engineer to help scale my idea, can I still apply?
Yes, you can. In a manner of speaking, you have come to the right country.
Taiwan graduates over 25,000 hardware and computer science engineers each year and is world-famous for the engineering and computer science mastery that has boosted the quality of international companies like Apple and Acer in hardware and Google and Microsoft in the software category, to name but a few.
We strongly recommend founders who come to Taiwan check out the country’s vast human talent resources. Part of the founder journey will be about learning how to hire, and there is probably no better place in Asia to do that engineering hiring than here.
8. My service (or product) has not yet started to make money. Can I still apply?
Of course! There probably isn’t a better time to learn in an accelerator than as a founder just starting out. This period before a founder has built a startup into a scalable business model with Product-Market Fit is called the “seed stage”. During this period, founders always need more than funding; they need a variety of entrepreneurial-related insights, inspiration from other founders, and room for trial and error. AppWorks Accelerator was built to provide these, and more.
9. I already raised a Series A / I’m profitable, is AppWorks right for me?
The most important thing for us is to identify where a founder is in their journey.
Reaching a funding goal can be a cause for celebration, but it’s also a relatively minor part of the growth of a founder. So many more things can go right or wrong, even with a funding round. There are many other facets to master. When we admit founders into the program, it is because we have carefully considered what they need as a founder, and how our resources and network, and Taiwan’s unique market and supply chain position in the world, can help them grow.
Joel Leong and Henry Chan at ShopBack had already built a business model and received seed funding in 2015 when they launched in Singapore, before they came to AppWorks Accelerator #13 in 2016.
Joel told us that had the team known about Taiwan’s massive US$ 42.2 Billion GMV a year e-economy and how it made it possible to figure out crucial e-commerce and engineering solutions for them, they would have made the move to Taiwan sooner. It demonstrates that funding rounds and business model maturity do not limit founders to learning something new. As long as you think that AppWorks can help you in the entrepreneurial learning process, you should apply.
10. Since I am not a Taiwanese citizen, can you help me obtain a proper visa?
International founders admitted to AppWorks Accelerator, according to your qualifications and needs, AppWorks can help with your application for the Gold Card or Entrepreneur Visa in Taiwan. This enables founders from overseas to concentrate on work in Taiwan without having to travel abroad to sort out troublesome visa issues. We have professionals at the Accelerator who can offer advice on this process.
The Taiwanese government resumed processing Gold Card applications in March 2022. We encourage international founders who are interested in setting up a company in Taiwan to apply for the Gold Card and explore the Taiwan market in-person.
AppWorks will closely track the government policies and provide adequate support as the policy changes.
11. Do I have to set up a company to join AppWorks Accelerator?
Not necessarily, but we would recommend an overseas founder to set up a Taiwan office, especially those of you that are B2B facing. This may better enable you to find business partners and negotiate commercial agreements later. AppWorks has professional accounting and legal specialists who can assist in handling procedures for landing in Taiwan.
As Andrew Jiang, co-founder of Soda Labs (AW#17) told us, when you take the time to physically show up in the market, you get “10x the attention and focus of potential customers and partners” you seek in your business development process.
12.What is the difference between applying during the first round vs. the final round?
The application period is split into two intakes, with interviews and admissions facilitated on a rolling basis. Based on past experience, teams that submit their application earlier tend to have a higher chance of being admitted, and are also immediately granted access to all the resources that AppWorks Accelerator has to offer.
We hope the above FAQ can help you clarify your questions about AppWorks Accelerator. If you seek more clarity, please write to: a@appworks.tw and we will try to answer your questions.
If you’re a founder working on web3 / DAO, AI / IoT, or Southeast Asia, you’ve come to the right place! Applications for AppWorks Accelerator #25 will be open until Jul 21, 2022.
Editor’s note: We’re thrilled to join Flow Ecosystem Fund to provide developers with support in building applications on the Flow blockchain through investments, FLOW token grants and in-kind support. The press release from Flow is below:
・a16z, AppWorks, Coatue, Greenfield One, Liberty City Ventures, Union Square Ventures and other global firms to support Flow developers through investments, FLOW token grants and in-kind support.
・Largest joint ecosystem fund to fuel next-generation of applications.
Flow, the Web3 platform powering next-generation games, apps and digital assets including NBA Top Shot and NFL All Day, announced a new $725 million Ecosystem Fund designed to hypercharge innovation and growth across the Flow community.
The largest joint commitment made towards any blockchain ecosystem, the Ecosystem Fund participants will provide existing and future developers with support in building applications on the Flow blockchain through investments, FLOW token grants and in-kind support.
Participants include industry-leading firms that have backed several of the most successful Web3 companies, such as a16z, AppWorks, Cadenza Ventures, Coatue, Coinfund, Digital Currency Group (DCG), Dispersion Capital, Fabric Ventures, Greenfield One, HashKey, L1 Digital, Mirana Ventures, OP Crypto, SkyVision Capital, Spartan Group, Union Square Ventures, and Dapper Ventures.
“We are thrilled to see such a strong vote of confidence in the Flow ecosystem from some of the world’s leading investors in Web3 through their commitment to this Fund,” said Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs. “With their active participation and support, the Ecosystem Fund has the opportunity to become a real game-changer for the 7500+ strong and fast-growing developer community in the Flow ecosystem.”
With a focus on enabling more distributed and equitable Web3 opportunities to developers around the globe, participants will focus on providing support for gaming, infrastructure, decentralized finance, content and creators. The resources are expected to be used by developers for product development, product scaling, team expansion, user acquisition and general operating expenses.
“The Ecosystem Fund is an opportunity to power the next generation of developers across the global Flow community,” said Dan Rose, Chairman of Coatue Ventures. “Coatue has already backed multiple companies building in the Flow ecosystem including Dapper Labs, Crypthulu and Faze Technologies, and we are excited to play an active role in enabling more Web3 opportunities.”
In addition to financial support, the developers in the Flow ecosystem will be able to leverage expertise via informational events, office hours, accelerators & incubators, subsidized office space and similar initiatives. For example, investors will provide Flow teams office space in cities such as Berlin (Greenfield One) and Asia (for AppWorks Accelerator program), and Liberty City Ventures will be providing two scholarships for college students to work on Flow-related projects. As a Venture Partner for Bybit and BitDAO, Mirana Ventures will also help catalyze strategic collaboration opportunities for Flow projects.
“As web3 accelerates and sophisticated app developers search for the best platforms, Flow is perhaps the best decentralized blockchain built for the scale, security, and ease of use most modern startups need to succeed.” said David Pakman, Managing Partner at CoinFund. “The Flow Ecosystem Fund will be a huge accelerator of innovation and growth on the platform and we at CoinFund are excited to work with this talented community to help drive innovation and growth.”
Originally developed by Dapper Labs to create more efficient, secure and scalable proof-of-stake blockchain experiences, Flow is an open-source, developer-friendly and energy efficient blockchain built for consumer applications. With global partners including the NBA, NFL, UFC and Dr. Seuss; unicorn developers such as Animoca and PlayCo; and emerging projects such as Genies, Fancraze and Cryptoys, Flow has seen daily transactions triple since September 2021 as it has grown into the leading blockchain for non–fungible token (NFT) sales by number of NFT transactions.
Flow is the blockchain designed to be the foundation of Web3 and the open metaverse, supporting consumer-scale decentralized applications, NFTs, DeFi, DAOs, and more. Powered by Cadence, an original programming language built specifically for digital assets, Flow empowers developers to innovate and push the limits that will bring the next billion to Web3. Created by a team that has consistently delivered industry-leading consumer-scale Web3 experiences including CryptoKitties, Dapper, and NBA Top Shot, Flow is an open, decentralized platform with a thriving ecosystem of creators from top brands, development studios, venture-backed startups, crypto leaders, and more.
A: BSOS 是 2018 年成立的，在區塊鏈這個領域，我們創業的時間不敢說很早，但我覺得也不算晚。BSOS 是我第二次創業，在此之前的 2008 到 2018 年約莫十年中，包含創業或是更早的工作經驗，我都在 Internet 領域的相關公司，這段時期，剛好完整經歷了 Mobile Internet 起飛，在 2012 年整體產業進入流量紅利期，然後逐漸紅利消失、邁入成熟這一段週期。2018 年決定再度創業時，我最深刻的感受，就是我們過去那種 Internet 車庫創業的時代已經過去了。
倒也不是說 Mobile Internet 完全沒有機會，而是這個產業太集中化了，它變成是一個資本驅動較多，然後更集中少數科技巨頭的產業。對於沒有太多資源，那種還沒有辦公室，只能先在車庫裡、靠幾台電腦創業的新創，機會已經沒有那麼多。過去做出個小 App，只要有需求、用戶參與度夠高，基本上有許多流量自然成長的方法，很容易做成一個 Business，但這個時機已經過去了。
A: 我們會把自己的定位再放寬一點，就是要用區塊鏈技術，去解放實體世界資產的流通性，打開我們官網的第一句話，就是「Liquidize Real-World Assets with Blockchain」。區塊鏈最核心的應用，就是拿來做價值交換，不管是比特幣、以太幣或是其他區塊鏈資產，過去幾年來，已經充分驗證了價值交換這件事情，但除了這些，還有更大的一塊是 Real Assets，它在傳統上很多價值是不容易被表彰、創造流通性。
A: 根據我們實際走過的經驗，我相信 Web3 這邊的順序，會非常顛覆我們過去做 Web2 的三觀。過去，Web2 企業，要先把應用場景做好，延伸出的價值才可以被流通、才有流通的價值，Web3 則是先有流通性，再利用這個流通性回去創造應用場景。這樣的例子很多，各種 XX to earn 都可算是這個模式，例如，先發 NFT 頭像，再去發展社交的功能，有這個資產的人，就會衝進去玩後來才做的遊戲，然後 Play to earn，參與度會比 Web2 更高，因為他有更多經濟上的動機，這聽起來很顛覆三觀，就是先創造流通性，再從流通性去激勵。
