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, accelerating the region’s transition into the digital era. 

Every six months, we welcome founders trailblazing on the frontiers of AI, web3 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 the right fit for your startup. 

As of October 2024, AppWorks Accelerator #30 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 the accelerator? What is AppWorks doing to help founders make the most out of the accelerator?

We understand the unique needs and aspirations for founders, and we’re committed to providing an experience that’s both flexible and comprehensive: 

a. Tailored Events for Founders: We recognize that each founder’s journey is different, influenced by their unique locations and timelines. That’s why we’ve designed a program that blends online and offline events to accommodate this diversity. This flexibility ensures that you can engage with our program in a way that fits your specific circumstances, whether you’re based in Taiwan or anywhere around the globe.

b. Regional Presence in Greater Southeast Asia: We take immense pride in our strong regional presence, spanning seven vibrant markets: Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. This expansive network means that you have access to opportunities and support, no matter where you’re located.

c. Unlocking Taiwan’s Potential: Taiwan is home to a dynamic tech ecosystem, and we proudly maintain the most extensive network in the region. We invite you to consider Taiwan as a market ripe with valuable opportunities, a wealth of digital talents, reliable manufacturing partners, and a robust supply chain. The resources available here are vast and can significantly boost your venture.

Through our online and offline regional activities, we’re dedicated to connecting you with our network, helping you forge meaningful relationships in both Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

We firmly believe that there’s no substitute for physical, face-to-face interactions when it comes to building strong relationships and gaining profound insights. That’s why we encourage founders like you to join us in person for the offline portion of the accelerator program, whether here in Taiwan or in other Southeast Asian countries. We’re confident it will enrich your entrepreneurial journey in the most meaningful ways.

Your success is at the heart of what we do. We can’t wait to embark on this journey with you.

2. Why does AppWorks now only admit founders working on AI, web3, or SEA? 

We believe that AI and blockchain are based on a solid foundation built by earlier generations of founders, and extended data applications and decentralized models represent a huge disruption that founders must address over the next decade.

The increasing demand for automation, personalization, and optimization in various industries creates new opportunities for AI to drive innovation. Taiwan plays a pivotal role in the world’s development of AI as the hub for manufacturing semiconductors, the heart of AI computing. Founders can further enhance their innovation efforts by harnessing the power of Taiwan’s AI and AIoT ecosystem, making their endeavors even more dynamic and accessible in this rapidly evolving landscape. 

Web3 continues to be an area of innovation and excitement, with value creation occurring across cycles. As the web3 industry enters mass adoption, it requires infrastructure to seamlessly facilitate increasingly everyday transactions and activities. Meanwhile, applications for the web3 industry will speed up the process of onboarding end users. New primitives such as DAOs and protocols will completely disrupt the way people structure and run organizations from finance to entertainment to commerce—and this will all be done by leveraging the open, decentralized, permissionless, and trustless nature of blockchains. The time to build is now.

Southeast Asia’s digital revolution is well underway, with a young, ever-expanding, and increasingly affluent middle class driving brisk economic growth across the region and mass adoption of digital services. The scale of Southeast Asia’s digital economy is estimated to reach US$1 trillion by 2030. As the digital economies of Southeast Asian countries are still developing, there are many opportunities for growth, building off a strong foundation from the past decade of value creation. Each market in this region has its own unique opportunity. But many examples showed that having multiple markets in this region seems to be a must for great success, ie. SEA Group, GoTo Group, Bukalapak, Traveloka, Grab, 17LIVE and Lalamove. Our founder community is built to cater to this. We have a regional network for founders in Southeast Asia to build a bigger success than working on their own.

These are three areas where we’ve seen significant activity and can offer outsized support to founders, building off the firm’s long track record. In the past 10 years, we’ve witnessed the popularity and penetration of mobile internet, and have participated in this process by supporting founders in their endeavors. If you aspire to capture life-changing opportunities over the next decade, it is important to think about how to leverage these key areas to create the future.

3. I already raised a Series A / I’m profitable, is AppWorks right for me?

The short answer is, yes!

The long answer is, reaching a funding goal can be a cause for celebration, but it’s also a relatively minor part of the founder journey. So many more things can go right or wrong, even with a funding round. There are many other facets to overcome and 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 across Taiwan and Southeast Asia 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$20 billion GMV e-commerce market and all the region-wide technical and tactical innovations that it would eventually yield, they would have made the move to Taiwan much sooner. Taiwan has since become one of ShopBack’s biggest markets and R&D centers. It demonstrates that funding rounds and business model maturity do not limit founders in learning something new. 

As long as you think that AppWorks can help you in the entrepreneurial learning process, you should apply. 

4. How can AppWorks Accelerator help a web3 founder?

As our web3 ecosystem has grown, so have opportunities for partnerships, knowledge exchange, and founder-to-founder support—all critical for entrepreneurs building in this network and community-driven space:

a. Grow with one of the largest web3 founder communities.

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 and who understand when you encounter setbacks, you will be more motivated to continue. In addition to founders in the same batch accelerating together, we will hold frequent alumni gatherings where you’ll meet many alumni who have gone through the zero-to-one process. 

The web3 ecosystem within the AppWorks community now consists of 179 active teams with a total of 325 founders. These extraordinary web3 startups include Pendle (AW#20), a DeFi yield-trading protocol that enables the tokenization and trading of future yield; Blocto (AW#19), a mobile portal to the blockchain world featuring seamless integrations with different wallets and web browsers; and Event Horizon (AW#28), a meta-governance platform that mobilizes community assets to influence external governance proposals. 

As one of the most flourishing web3 founder communities in the region, we support founders working on most, if not all, web3 verticals tackle the ins and outs of entrepreneurship through founder or mentor introductions and connect you with relevant resources in the web3 startup ecosystem. Moreover, founders can learn together with fellow founders about tokenomics, DAO structures, and community-building.

b. Stay ahead of the game to capture the pulse of the ecosystem and access 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, almost 80 teams have developed their products on various public chains, including Ethereum、Cosmos、Solana、Polygon、Arbitrum、Polygon、TON and so on. If you are a founder building on these chains, you can always find a connection within our ecosystem.

AppWorks is actively fostering a dynamic and thriving ecosystem for web3 startups to collaborate and innovate together. As the web3 landscape evolves rapidly, with new chains emerging frequently, we continually work to stay connected with the most prominent L1 and L2 ecosystems, ensuring that founders have access to top-tier resources. 

At the same time, AppWorks builds partnerships with essential development tools, platforms, and cloud services such as GSR, Alchemy, Quantstamp, and Chainlink to make sure that blockchain startups gain the support they need to grow and thrive.

5. How does AppWorks Accelerator help founders enter new markets?

Since 2010, AppWorks has made close connections within founder communities and throughout the venture capital ecosystem. When startup teams decide to enter a new market, we can quickly help them learn from local partners to tap into key resources and business models that are specifically tailored to different regions.

The AppWorks community includes our accelerator alumni, international startup teams that have received investment from AppWorks Venture Funds, and mentors with insight and experience. Our community of founders are based all around the world, and many are from our key markets in Southeast Asia, such as Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia. For example, Qoala is an InsurTech startup headquartered in Indonesia that has expanded to Thailand and Malaysia, and the CEO/Co-founder, Harshet, is a seasoned founder and has been an active mentor to many startups in the region. Carousell is a startup from Singapore, which focuses on C2C e-commerce and has expanded into eight markets across Asia. The CEO/Co-founder, Siu Rui, has always been the go-to person for fellow founders who are exploring regional expansion.  

In addition to our community, AppWorks has also established strategic relations with more than 25 venture capital funds across Southeast Asia and the web3 industry. Our partners include ACV, Golden Gate Ventures, Openspace Ventures, Ascend Vietnam Ventures, Foxmont Capital, Figment Capital, Reforge VC, and others. When entering a new market, we can easily cooperate with investors from different regions to help you quickly gain access to local connections and business opportunities.

6. 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 did you launch your 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) for us to know you better.

7. 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. 

8. We need funding now, can we get an 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 give your startup a significant edge and/or take it to the next level, or if there are other more burning issues, e.g., achieving stronger product-market fit, figuring out a working go-to-market strategy, recruiting a solid co-founder, 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$350 million in total fund size behind us. 

9. 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, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta and Acer in hardware and Google and Microsoft in software, to name a few. 

We strongly recommend founders who come to Taiwan to 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 hire engineers than here. 

10. 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, with over 14 years of experience, was built to provide these lessons and more. 

11. I’m planning to expand my business into Taiwan, however, 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 traveling abroad to sort out troublesome visa issues. We can offer guidance on this process.  

12. Do I have to set up a company to join AppWorks Accelerator?

Not necessarily, but we recommend founders to set up an office when entering a new market, especially those of you that are B2B facing. This may enable you to build relationships with business partners and make negotiating commercial agreements smoother in the future.

For the founders who are planning to land in Taiwan, AppWorks has professional accounting and legal specialists who can assist in managing the necessary procedures, making the process of setting up much easier and more efficient.

13. 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.

14. I have previously applied to AppWorks and have been rejected, can I apply again? Will it affect the chances of admission?

Reapplying represents the determination of the founder and is a positive signal for us. Therefore, we will re-evaluate all aspects, not only for the growth of the founder but also for the progress of the company. In the past, some entrepreneurs applied 2-3 times before being selected. In some cases, after unsuccessful applications, they continued to explore and eventually achieved more user growth and deeper insights. In other cases, they honestly faced the fact that there was no Product-Market Fit (PMF), changed their topic, found a scalable business model, and reapplied. These entrepreneurs have performed well after graduating from the accelerator.

We hope the above FAQ can help clarify your questions about AppWorks Accelerator. If you seek more clarity, please write to: [email protected], and we will try to answer your questions.

If you’re a founder working on AI, web3, or Southeast Asia, you’ve come to the right place! Applications for AppWorks Accelerator #30 will be open until December 31 , 2024.

 

AppWorks Accelerator 在 2010 年由 Jamie 林之晨等創業者，為創業者所成立。每半年招募一屆，對象是來自台灣、東南亞與世界各地的新創團隊。成立 14 年以來，AppWorks Accelerator 總共已招募 29 屆，自 2024 年 10 月起，開放申請的 AW#30，限定招募拓展 AI 、web3 領域，以及目標東南亞市場的創業者。

每次招募團隊，AppWorks 都會收到許多申請書，過程中我們發現，新創團隊在看完網站的介紹後，對我們的加速器計畫仍有些許疑問，因此，我們整理了以下常見問題，希望能為有類似疑惑的你，提供一些解答。

【AppWorks Accelerator #30 自 2024 年 10 月開放申請】

1. 在加入加速器之前，我需要了解什麼？AppWorks 在幫助創業者充分利用加速器方面做了哪些工作？

AppWorks 致力於提供創業者彈性且全面的體驗，服務台灣本地創業者、以及國際創業者。以下是一些我們獨有的特點：

專為創業者打造的活動：加入 AppWorks 的創業者來自不同的地區與時區，無論你是在台灣、香港、東南亞、美國、還是世界各地，我們的活動都為創業者的需求精心設計，提供實體或是線上參與的型式，你可以依最適合自己的方式，參與我們的計畫，最大化過程中的學習與成長。

大東南亞網絡：經過 14 年的持續耕耘，我們可以很自豪地分享，AppWorks 現在於大東南亞包括台灣、新加坡、香港、印尼、越南、菲律賓、和馬來西亞等七個市場，皆有活躍的在地創業者社群與創投網絡，確保你無論身在何處，都能獲得你需要的支持。

台灣的市場能量：台灣擁有獨特而繁榮的科技生態系，包含活躍的創業者社群、創投、許多國際級企業、以及懂得科技的媒體與人才庫。我們非常樂意幫助創業者充分利用台灣的工程與數位人才、世界一流的供應鏈與生產商，加速成長，更快成為頂尖的企業。

於台灣起家的 AppWorks，在此擁有最廣泛且活躍的人脈，透過 AppWorks 線上和實體的區域活動，我們可以為您引薦適合的合作對象，幫助您在台灣和東南亞建立有價值的聯繫。

我們堅信，面對面的互動可以建立更牢固的人際關係，並幫助你獲得更深入的洞察。因此，我們強烈建議創業者親自參加 AppWorks 加速器的實體活動，無論是在台灣還是其他東南亞國家，以確保你能獲得最優化且豐富的體驗。

2. 為什麼 AppWorks 現在限定招募來自 AI、web3 或是 Southeast Asia 的創業者？

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巨大板塊位移機會。

而台灣作為 AI 發展核心的半導體之製造中心，在全球 AI 的演進及普及化當中，扮演愈趨重要的角色。隨著算法、算力的進步，加上開源框架與生成式 AI 的普及，使 Founder 可以在醫療保健、金融、零售和遊戲等不同產業間嘗試 AI 以及 AIoT 的各種潛在應用，善加利用台灣的生態系，為新創團隊打開新的大門。

隨著 web3 產業日漸普及，需要完善的基礎設施以確保交易活動順暢。同時，更多 web3 創新應用也加速用戶快速成長。除了常見的公司組織，DAO 協議也利用 Blockchain 技術去中心化、無需許可 (Permissionless)、無需既有信任基礎 (Trustless) 以及透明化的特質，打造出由社群驅動的新組織型態。因此，我們相信這樣的典範轉移將為傳統的金融、商業、娛樂產業帶來巨大的改變。

同時，東南亞數位經濟革命正在崛起，包括持續擴大的中產階級、亮眼的經濟成長率，根據Google、Temasek Holdings 和 Bain & Company 的 e-Conomy SEA 2023 報告預估，東南亞整體數位經濟產值，將在 2030 年達到 1 兆至 1.2 兆美元。其中，擁有近 3 億人口的印尼，人均年齡中位數僅為 31 歲左右，Internet 使用率高達 77%，創新發展潛力極大。越南和菲律賓均擁有約 1 億人口，其加密貨幣持有者佔總人口比例分別達到 20% 和 6%，分別位居世界第 1 和第 12 位。這些國家仍處於數位發展初期，未來發展值得期待。在這個市場的成功案例顯示，有能力跨足數個東南亞國家，才有機會創造夠大的商業成功，因此想要在這個地區取得成績，創業者需要區域級別的社群支持，來擴充自己在各個市場的知識與人際網路，而我們的加速器即是為此設計。

因此，這就是我們現在關注的重點。過去十年，我們已經看到 Mobile Internet 的普及與滲透，如果要抓住下個十年的發展機會，創業者應該思考如何利用這幾個關鍵領域，在產品、服務、商業模式上，創造未來的成長曲線。

3. AppWorks Accelerator 可以提供 web3 新創什麼幫助？

隨著我們 web3 創業者社群的成長，為參與其中的創業者，創造出越來越多建立策略夥伴關係、知識交流的機會，並可促成創業者彼此之間互相幫助。我們也了解對 web3 的新創來說，經營開發者社群、網路效應至關重要，而 AppWorks 社群可為 web3 創業者提供獨特的加值服務：

a. 與最活躍的 web3 創業者社群共同成長

創業是一個孤獨的旅程，開始創業後，身邊大部分的朋友、家人都不知道你在經歷酸甜苦辣。如果能跟一群一樣厲害、有決心的創辦人一起同甘共苦，遇到挫折的時候有人懂，將更有動力撐下去。除了和同一屆的創業者一起加速外，我們會頻繁地舉辦各式校友聚會，許多校友已經走過 0 到 1 的階段，透過他們的分享和交流，可以讓你少走許多冤枉路，也能夠激勵你進步得更快更好，這是 AppWorks 帶來最有價值的事。

由 AppWorks 建立起的 web3 生態系，已累積 179 支活躍新創團隊、共計超過 325 位創業者，這些傑出的 web3 新創，包括實現資產未來收益代幣化的 Pendle (AW#20)，提供整合各式錢包與網路瀏覽器、無縫接軌進入 Blockchain 世界入口的 Blocto (AW#19)；聚合鏈上投票權並幫助協議用戶完成去中心化治理投票的 Event Horizon (AW#28)。

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，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，並從不同創業者身上，交流學習各種創業相關經驗與秘訣。

b. 在快速發展的 web3 生態系下保持領先地位，並獲得優質的開發合作夥伴

在 web3 領域，選擇適合的公鏈開發產品，以及與優秀的夥伴合作，有助於新創創造綜效並加速擴展市場。在 AppWorks web3 生態系中，有近 80 支區塊鏈團隊已經在各種公鏈上開發產品，包括 Ethereum、Cosmos、Solana、Polygon、Arbitrum、TON 等。想將產品建立在這些公鏈上的創業者，可以在我們的社群中找到具有相關經驗的其他創業者，彼此交流或成為更密切的合作夥伴。

除了協助創業者與各個區塊鏈生態系建立合作機會外，AppWorks 也與其他 Blockchain 重要開發工具、造市商、審計公司以及雲端服務商建立合作夥伴關係。加入的新創，可以獲得 GSR、Quantstamp、Chainlink 等相關協助資源。

4. 如果我的新創已經完成 Series A/B 募資、或是已經開始獲利，AppWorks Accelerator 還適合我嗎？

我們並沒有限定申請團隊的成熟階段，無論是正處於早期、或是已規模化擴張的團隊，只要你認為在創業過程中，AppWorks 能提供到你所需要幫助，都歡迎申請加入。

依過去的案例，也有許多較成熟的團隊加入，例如，有些團隊已經在台灣做出不錯的成績，想往東南亞發展，AppWorks 可以成為新創佈局東南亞的橋樑或跳板。

或者是規模已不小的國際團隊，如果想在台灣建立技術團隊或開發市場商機，加入 AppWorks， 可以成為在台落地的第一步。像是例如來自新加坡、在 2016 年進駐 AW#13 的 ShopBack，早在 2014 年就創立，並在 2015 年完成種子輪募資並在新加坡推出服務，而透過在 AppWorks Accelerator 的時間，ShopBack 在台灣建立起技術團隊，並同時驗證了測試台灣市場的發展性可能性。如今，台灣已是 Shopback 所有經營的市場中，重要的營收來源和核心研發基地。

5. AppWorks Accelerator 可以提供想進入國際市場的新創什麼幫助？

AppWorks Accelerator 自 2010 年啟動迄今，累積了廣大的創業者社群與 VC 夥伴網絡，協助新創團隊在進入新市場時能快速獲取關鍵資源，並向當地的創業者學習因地制宜的商業模式。

AppWorks 的社群中，包含加速器校友新創、已接受 AppWorks 創投基金投資的國際團隊、以及擁有規模化與出場經驗的 Mentors。這些創業者遍佈全世界，許多來自我們於東南亞所耕耘的重點市場，包括新加坡、印尼、越南、菲律賓、馬來西亞等。例如創辦於印尼的保險科技新創 Qoala，目前已擴展到泰國和馬來西亞，其執行長暨共同創辦人 Harshet 是一位經驗豐富的創業者； Carousell 是於新加坡起家的新創公司，專注於 C2C 電商。執行長暨共同創辦人 SiuRui 從一畢業就創業，到目前已擴展到亞洲的八個市場。這兩位 Mentors 總是很熱忱的分享他們的經驗，給許多正在拓展東南亞市場的初創業者。

除了創業者社群以外，AppWorks GP 另外在東南亞及 web3 領域投資超過 25 個創投，包含 AC Ventures、 Golden Gate Ventures、 Openspace Ventures、Ascend Vietnam Ventures、Foxmont Capital、Figment Capital、Reforge VC 等，讓新創團隊進入新市場時，能與不同區域的投資人合作、更有效率的拓展人脈與商機。

6. AppWorks Accelerator 要收費嗎？

AppWorks Accelerator 是針對創業者完全免費的服務。我們不會向新創團隊收取租金、服務費，也不會要求技術股、選擇權、營收、獲利分成，或是 Token 等任何形式的回饋。

7. 我們現在需要一筆資金，加入 AppWorks 就可以被投資嗎？

相較於其他新創團隊，參與 AppWorks Accelerator 的創業者，有更多與我們深度交流的機會，自然也就有更高的合作機率。無論參與的新創處於什麼階段，我們都會與創業者討論，什麼是現階段最需要且適合你的幫助。在對的時間點，當資金可以大幅提升該新創的實力與競爭優勢，我們會全力協助你完成該輪募資。但有些時候，創業者當下更重要的任務，是解決其他更急迫的問題，包括重新定義市場問題、 探索正確的目標客群、或是尋找更強的 Product Market Fit 等等。

AppWorks 管理四支創投基金規模共 3.5 億美元，無論是關於募資，或是其他策略面向的討論，我們隨時準備好提供你最適切的建議與協助。

8. 我的服務 (或產品) 還沒開始賺錢，這樣能申請嗎？

當然可以。從公司創立到找到可規模化商業模式這段期間，稱為「種子期」。種子期新創公司需要的多半不是資金，而是各種與創業有關的知識、啟發，以及嘗試與犯錯的空間。AppWorks Accelerator 有豐富的經驗，協助種子期新創尋找可規模化商業模式，幫助他們順利邁向下一階段。

9. 加入 AppWorks Accelerator 一定要設立公司嗎？

不一定，但我們會建議做 B2B 的團隊設立公司。根據我們的經驗，這將有助於你與潛在事業夥伴洽談後續合作。AppWorks 有專業的會計與法務專家，可以為創業者提供成立公司過程中所需要的協助；以及為計劃擴張到台灣的團隊處理落地的手續。

10. 我不是台灣公民，能否幫忙申請簽證？

入選 AppWorks Accelerator 的國際創業者，可根據個人的需求與條件，由 AppWorks 提供協助，申請 Gold Card 就業金卡、 Entrepreneur Visa 創業家簽證 ，讓來自海外的創業者能在台灣專心工作，不需為了簽證問題出境往返。

11. 新創的申請書中，AppWorks 注重的內容有哪些？

我們特別重視驅動創業者長期持續自我精進、沿途排除阻礙，非得要抵達的北極星。此外，以下幾個問題，也是我們關注的：

• 為什麼要創業？
• 你希望透過創業解決什麼問題？為什麼？
• 你相信世界上，還有哪些尚未被滿足的基本需求？
• 你希望創造什麼樣的未來？計畫如何去實現？
• 你已經做了哪些努力來證明你正在解決這些問題？

12. 申請書的題目都是英文，用中文寫會不會影響分數？

AppWorks Accelerator 的線上申請書共有約 30 個題目，包含團隊、產品、商業模式，與市場分析等眾多面向，非常詳盡，需要花一定的時間與心思填寫。我們希望透過這些題目協助每一個來申請的團隊，釐清自己當下的發展狀態與所需協助。

填寫報名表是一種自我健檢，因為在填寫過程中，創業者必須深入思考自己的產品、市場策略、團隊分工，以及整體產業環境。因此，不管申請與否，我們都建議創業者針對這些問題仔細思考、研究。

我們鼓勵你嘗試以英文作答，但用中文填寫並不會影響評估結果，最重要的是必須清楚表達你想傳達的訊息。另外，我們也需要創辦人/CEO 拍攝一段一分鐘的自我介紹與產品說明影片，讓我們不僅是透過文字，能夠更加認識你。

13. 第一階段 VS. 第二階段申請有何差別？

AppWorks Accelerator 的面談與入選採先收先審方式 (Rolling-basis)，根據過去的經驗，先繳交申請書的團隊，有較高的入選機率，且能提早知道自己已經入選，有更充裕的時間預先規劃相關事宜。因此，我們會鼓勵創業者在第一階段就填寫申請書，以免到了最後申請截止前夕，競爭變得更加激烈。

14. 我以前有申請過 AppWorks 被拒絕了、還能再申請嗎？是否會影響錄取的機率呢？

不會影響錄取率。我們會評估你在這段時間的進展，無論是 Founder 本身的成長，或是公司的拓展。整體而言，再次申請代表了創業者的決心，對我們來說是正面的訊號。過去也有創業者申請了 2~3 次才獲選。有的案例是在申請未果後，仍繼續耐心摸索，最終成功增長更多的用戶、也累積了更深入的洞察；有的案例則是坦誠面對沒有 PMF 的事實，更換了題目後，找到可擴展的商業模式而再次申請，而這些創業者自加速器畢業後的表現也相當優秀。

希望以上整理能幫助你釐清對 AppWorks Accelerator 的諸多疑問。若還有其他需要進一步瞭解的地方，歡迎留言給我們，或是來信至：[email protected]，我們將盡量為你解答。

【歡迎所有 AI 、web3 以及目標 Southeast Asia 的創業者，加入專為你們服務的 AppWorks Accelerator，AW#30 申請截止日為 2024 年 12月31日】