By Sophie Chiu, AppWorks Principal

AppWorks has known Hsieh Jui-Ting, the founder of DotDot, for a long time, and he is more commonly referred to as Ting. Ting joined AppWorks #10 in 2014, bringing his third entrepreneurial venture, iIoT, to the program. We have walked alongside Ting for 10 years, and this year, we are fortunate to participate and lead the investment in DotDot, his current venture. This article will discuss the overall considerations behind this investment decision, including our long-standing relationship with Ting, the evolution of restaurant technology, and the tough battles DotDot aims to fight.

The Chapter Three for A Serial Entrepreneur

As a serial entrepreneur, Ting’s journey began during his university years. In 1998, he joined the renowned company at the time, pAsia, and contributed to the development of the world’s first Mandarin-based instant messaging software, CICQ, as well as the auction website CoolBid. Through pAsia, they secured investment from Intel, which was one of the legendary stories in Taiwan’s software startup history. However, it came to an end during the dot-com bubble in 2000-2001. (Editor’s note: The image of the founding team of pAsia, who appeared on the cover of a magazine in 1999 with great enthusiasm, was one of the inspirations for AppWorks founder Jamie and his university friends to establish Intumit, now a listed company in Taiwan.)

Ting’s experience at pAsia ignited his entrepreneurial journey. Shortly before graduating with a master’s degree, he came across a business opportunity through friends at the National Chiao Tung University’s CCCA (Campus Computer Communication Association). This opportunity was to build an employee benefits shopping platform for UMC called “UMC Store.” It became Ting’s second entrepreneurial venture, Dottech, in 2000. The platform achieved a GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) of US$7 million and was sold within two years. This marked the first chapter of Ting’s entrepreneurial journey.

After graduating, Ting paused his entrepreneurial plans due to losses in the stock market and joined Quanta as an IC design engineer, where he spent 11 years. This experience in IC and hardware design provided Ting with rich insights—from product design and customer development to leading teams. Ultimately, due to differences in commercial strategy with Quanta’s management, Ting decided to leave the well-compensated position and embark on the second chapter of his entrepreneurial journey.

With his technical expertise in hardware-software integration, Ting founded iIoT in 2014 with his own capital and joined AppWorks Accelerator #10. iIoT primarily provided routers and network services to retail and restaurant businesses, and thanks to its superior technology, it won the Taiwan Lottery contract in partnership with Taiwan Mobile. In 2016, Ting founded GoWiFi to do rental business for pocket WiFi routers. Both businesses achieved a significant market share within 2-3 years. Much like with UMC Store in 2000, Ting has always excelled at 0-to-1 entrepreneurship, building profitable small businesses.

However, Ting was not satisfied with this. From many iIoT clients, he discovered that the needs and pain points of small and medium-sized restaurant businesses were still unmet, and the restaurant market itself had vast potential for greater challenges. In 2019, Ting founded DotDot, specialising in services for small and medium-sized restaurant businesses, leading the QR code ordering trend in Taiwan. In 2024, DotDot Pay was launched, making DotDot the first non-banking institution in Taiwan to introduce SoftPOS (software point-of-sales) technology, officially entering the payments market.

This marks the third chapter of Ting’s entrepreneurial journey. After successfully founding several companies with sub US$10 million in revenue and profitability, he is now taking on the highly competitive payments market, aiming to build a company with hundreds of millions or even billions in revenue. This is no easy feat, especially as Ting will need to continually improve himself. He has excelled in guerrilla tactics and achieving significant success in niche markets, but the payments market is fiercely competitive, dominated by large players, and requires not only upgraded tactics but also greater determination. However, AppWorks colleagues who have known Ting for over a decade are confident in him, as he has never been one to give up easily. No matter how difficult or complex a project may be, Ting has always led his team to overcome challenges one by one. This perseverance stems from his deep understanding of his restaurant clients—so much so that Ting even opened a breakfast shop himself, personally standing at the grill to understand every operational pain point his clients face. He even filmed instructional videos teaching restaurants how to effectively deal with cockroach infestations.

DotDot’s Early Success 

A deep understanding of restaurant clients is a critical factor in setting the right product and pricing strategies. The restaurant tech market is naturally constrained by the local economic conditions. In Taiwan and Southeast Asia, customers’ willingness to pay is much lower compared to developed countries. No matter how many features or how advanced the hardware and software, it’s often difficult to raise subscription prices. For example, the monthly subscription price for POS systems in the U.S. ranges from US$60-250, whereas in Taiwan, the range is US$35-65, and in Southeast Asia (excluding Singapore), it’s US$10-40. Although the cost of engineering talent varies by region, it still takes a significant amount of manpower to build these products, meaning that entrepreneurs in Greater Southeast Asia must be much more cost-conscious.

This was also the first strategy that DotDot adopted when it entered the restaurant tech space in 2019: instead of offering a full suite of high-end technology products, customers may need a simple module that directly solves their most pressing issue. As a result, DotDot first launched a simple receipt printer paired with LINE for QR ordering. Their hardware background meant that the printer was made with Taiwan’s lowest-cost DNA, offering a very affordable price. This hardware integration background also made the printer completely seamless to use—plug it in, and it starts receiving orders. DotDot’s initial strategy swept across small and medium-sized restaurants, and today, they have the support of more than 15,000 customers, with a very low churn.

DotDot’s success in the small and medium-sized restaurant sector highlights an eternal truth: for restaurant businesses, technology products are always considered a cost, and they just want something cheaper. With Taiwan facing the impacts of a labor shortage and high inflation, restaurants are striving to increase efficiency and reduce labor needs. This raises the question: should the entire design, operation, and usage of POS systems be reconsidered, or perhaps even eliminated altogether? I thoroughly enjoy brainstorming and discussing these kinds of ideas with Ting. His strategy is to offer different tiers of products for five main types of restaurant clients, allowing everything to be modular: online ordering, receipt printers, POS checkout systems, central system management for multi-location businesses, CRM management, self-service kiosks, and more. Each type of restaurant can get the product and pricing that best suits them, without being forced into a one-size-fits-all option. This is where Ting’s product design philosophy and strategy differ greatly from most other players in the market.

The Tough Battle for DotDot Pay

As mentioned earlier, the restaurant tech industry is limited by the local market’s economic conditions and scale, which means the potential for growth in Taiwan’s restaurant tech sector may be constrained. With this in mind, integrating fintech seems inevitable. This is the same success model demonstrated by companies like Square and Toast in the U.S. since 2009-11, both of which now have a market cap of tens of billions of dollars.

Before DotDot, Taiwan’s restaurant tech providers didn’t fully replicate the U.S. business model, likely because Taiwan’s banking system, through card machines or existing software payment systems, already covered non-cash payments for the top 30% of large restaurants. Additionally, with the launch of LINE Pay in Taiwan in 2015 and Apple Pay in 2017, restaurant payments had multiple options, making payments not an obvious pain point in need of solving.

While not the biggest pain point for customers, it was still an important business development choice for a restaurant tech startup. From the beginning, DotDot invested in the R&D of SoftPOS technology, which allows various mobile phones and tablet devices to become payment terminals through software. It took several years and nearly a million dollars to obtain certification from international card organizations, and in 2023, DotDot acquired a third-party payment license in Taiwan. Through DotDot Pay, DotDot aims to replicate the success of Toast and Square, becoming a restaurant fintech company.

However, this is undoubtedly a tough battle. LINE Pay made headlines in January this year with its record-breaking debut on the stock market in Taiwan, rising 195% in a single day. This is backed by LINE’s over 90% market share among instant messaging users in Taiwan, driving an annual transaction volume of NT$600 billion. In the restaurant industry, LINE Pay has a penetration rate of around 50-60%, mainly among small and medium-sized restaurants. LINE Pay’s success proves that there is a huge demand for non-cash payments in the SMB restaurant sector. For DotDot Pay, the challenge lies in the fact that the high-end restaurant segment is dominated by bank card machines, the SMB segment is dominated by LINE Pay’s large member base, and other online payment providers like TapPay and Green World are also eager to join the competition. This seemingly red-ocean competitive environment may explain why most restaurant tech providers have opted not to enter the fray.

DotDot Pay’s current advantage is its existing base of 15,000 merchants as its first batch of users, but Ting believes that ultimately, the competition will come back to the core of restaurant technology itself. Even if fintech companies offer products or incentives to restaurant merchants, DotDot can best serve them with its complete, modular product line.

This is a highly uncertain situation, but the one certainty is that we’ve known Ting for a long time, and we know he always finds leverage points, overcomes obstacles, and climbs even bigger mountains. Meanwhile, we are taking stock of the startup community AppWorks has built in Greater Southeast Asia over the past 15 years, which includes nearly 20 restaurant tech companies that can collaborate and move forward together. We often organize entrepreneur roundtables in this region for professionals in specialized fields. The most recent one was a restaurant tech gathering in Kuala Lumpur in August, where DotDot and several Southeast Asian restaurant tech startups met to discuss the possibilities. Collaboration in expanding abroad may be another path, and the AppWorks community is the best support for entrepreneurs.

For Ting, who welcomed a baby girl this year, it seems that good things are happening both personally and professionally. As old friends, we are happy to share in his joy and support him in this new and bigger chapter of his entrepreneurial journey.

撰文：AppWorks 東南亞團隊負責人 Sophie Chiu

AppWorks 與點點全球的創辦人謝瑞庭結識已久，平日更多稱呼他為 Ting。Ting 於 2014 年加入 AppWorks #10，彼時是帶著他的第三個創業題目愛物聯來參加。我們與 Ting 一起走過了 10 個年頭，今年有幸能參與並領投 Ting 目前經營的點點全球。本文將介紹這個投資決策的整體思量，包含對創辦人 Ting 的多年認識、餐飲科技的發展、與點點全球試圖打的硬仗。

連續創業者 Ting 的第三個篇章

身為一個連續創業者，Ting 的起點始於大學時期，1998 年加入當年非常有名的 pAsia 資迅人，參與開發全球第一個中文介面即時通訊軟體 CICQ 與拍賣網站酷必得，憑此資訊人獲得英特爾投資，在當年是台灣軟體創業史的傳奇之一，但也在網際網路泡沫時於 2000-2001 年劃下句點 (編按：資訊人創辦團隊 1999 年登上雜誌封面的意氣風發形象，就是當年激勵 AppWorks 創辦人 Jamie，與大學同學創辦碩網資訊的其中一個原因)。

資訊人的這段歷程啟蒙了 Ting 的創業之路，於是在碩士畢業前夕，Ting 又透過當時的交大校園網路策進會 CCCA 的友人得到一個商業機會，為聯電打造聯網大街，即員工福利金購物平台，成為了 Ting 在 2000 年的第二個創業題目達科數位，當時聯網大街平台消費金額 (GMV) 高達兩億台幣，並於兩年內出售。這便是 Ting 創業歷程的第一個篇章。

畢業後，Ting 由於股市失利 (經當事人同意揭露)，因此暫緩了創業的計畫，加入了廣達成為 IC 設計工程師，一共是 11 年的時光。這段 IC 與硬體設計的歷程給予 Ting 豐富的養分，從產品設計、客戶開發、到帶領團隊 (以及賺回當年失利的錢)，最後由於 Ting 與廣達在商業策略上的路線分歧，使得 Ting 決意離開優渥待遇並開啟了創業的第二個篇章。

帶著軟硬整合的技術能力，Ting 於 2014 年以自有資金創辦了愛物聯並加入 AppWorks 創業加速器第 10 屆，愛物聯主要為零售餐飲商家提供路由器與網路服務，由於技術的優異因而與台灣大哥大共同贏得台灣彩券合約；於 2016 又創立路遊數位並開發出旅遊移動專用的 WiFi 網路分享器。兩個生意都在 2-3 年內達到一定的市占率，跟 2000 年做聯網大街一樣，Ting 一直以來都很善於在 0-1 的創業方式中取得成績，把公司打造成獲利優異的小企業。

但 Ting 並不滿足於此。從許多愛物聯的客戶，Ting 發現中小餐飲面臨的需求與痛點尚未被滿足，而餐飲科技市場本身具有龐大的市場空間去讓 Ting 做更大的挑戰。2019 年 Ting 成立快一點 (後整體公司更名為點點全球)，專門服務中小型餐飲店家，引領台灣 QR 點餐的風潮。。而 2024 年更進一步推出 DotDot Pay 點點支付，點點全球成為台灣第一家非銀行機構推出軟體收款技術的支付公司，正式跨入了支付市場。

現在就是 Ting 創業的第三個篇章，從過往創立數個業績千萬台幣且有獲利的公司，現在要挑戰十分競爭的支付市場，來打造一個數億甚至數十億收入規模的公司。這不是一件容易的事，尤其 Ting 必須要不斷自我提升，他善於打游擊戰術並且在小領域獲得大成功，但支付市場無比競爭又有許多大型巨頭，需要的不只是升級的戰術，還有更大的決心。不過，與他相識十年的 AppWorks 同仁們都對他充滿信心，因為 Ting 一直以來都不輕言放棄，再難或複雜的案子他都能帶領團隊一一攻克，這背後也源自於 Ting 對餐飲客戶的深切暸解，為此 Ting 甚至開了一家早餐店，親自 (有時是太座，但後期就聘用專業人員) 站在煎台理解客戶所面臨到的所有營運痛點 (編按：目前早餐店持續經營中)，甚至曾拍攝影片教學餐廳如何有效殺蟑。

快一點的初期成功奠基於對餐飲商家痛點的深切了解

深切理解餐飲客戶其實是一個無比重要的關鍵，如此才能夠訂出最合適的產品與定價策略，尤其餐飲科技市場注定受限於當地的經濟水平，台灣甚或是東南亞市場，其客戶的願付能力遠低於先進國家，因此再多再好的軟硬體功能，可能都難以拉高產品售價。從 POS 產品單價來比較，在美國市場大約一個月的訂閱價格落在 US$60-250，在台灣這個區間是 US$35-65，東南亞 (不含新加坡) 則是 US$10-40。雖然工程師人力價格會在各地不同，但畢竟還是都需要相當人力來打造產品，這個單位經濟意味著大東南亞的創業者勢必要更加地錙銖必較。

這也是快一點最初在 2019 剛切進餐飲科技的第一個策略：比起高規格打造的科技產品全餐，客戶可能更需要的是一個簡單的模組直接解決它眼下最大的痛點。因此他們率先推出的是一台簡易的出單機，搭配使用 LINE 進行掃碼點餐。硬體背景導致他們的出單機自帶台廠最低成本 DNA，價格最親民；硬體整合的背景也使得這台出單機使用上完全無痛，插電即接單。快一點最初藉此橫掃中小型餐飲，如今擁有 1 萬 5 千多家客戶的支持與極低的退訂率。

快一點在中小餐飲界的成功，也顯示一個永恆的命題：對餐飲公司來說，科技產品永遠是一個成本開支項，只想要更便宜。隨著台灣面臨人口短缺、高通膨的影響，餐廳追求增加坪效、降低人力，是否整個連 POS 機台的設計、操作、與使用流程都應該重新被設計考慮，甚至不需要存在？我非常享受跟 Ting 經常做這樣的腦力激盪與討論。他的策略是為五大類型的餐飲客戶提供不同層級的產品選擇，讓所有的東西都可以模組化搭配：線上點餐、出單機、POS 結帳系統、中央系統管理分店體系、客戶 CRM 管理、無人點餐機…等等。每種店家都可以得到最適合自己的產品與訂價，而不用面臨單一的選擇，這也是 Ting 在產品設計初衷與戰略上與多數業者最大的不同。

從快一點到點點全球：點點支付這場硬仗

前述提到餐飲科技受限於當地市場的經濟水平與量體，以至於台灣的餐飲科技可能規模有限，基於這樣的考量，加入金融科技應當是在所難免。這也是美國的 Square 與 Toast 從 2009-11 年以來展現出來的成功模式，如今兩者市值都高達百億美金。

在快一點出現以前，台灣的餐飲科技業者並沒有完全仿照美國的商業模式，主因可能來自於台灣銀行體系透過刷卡機或現行的軟體支付系統已取得前 30% 大餐飲的非現金支付，且 LINE Pay 於 2015 年登台、Apple Pay 於 2017 落地台灣後，餐飲支付已有多元選擇，本身並不是一個明顯待被解決的痛點。

對客戶來說不是最大的痛點，但卻是對餐飲科技新創來說重要的商業發展選擇。快一點自成立初期就投入研發在 SoftPOS 技術，即透過軟體讓各種手機與平板設備都可以成為收款終端機。耗時數年與近百萬美元方取得國際卡組織認證，並於 2023 年在台灣取得第三方支付牌照。透過點點支付，快一點不再只餐飲 SaaS 公司，進化成為點點全球，試圖挑戰複製 Toast 與 Square 的成功模式，成為餐飲金融科技。

但這肯定是硬仗一場。LINE Pay 於今年一月掛牌締造興櫃紀錄，單日上漲 195%，背後是由 LINE Pay 在台灣的高滲透率與高達 6 千億台幣的年度交易金額所支持。在餐飲界，LINE Pay 約有 50-60% 的支付滲透率，多數是中小型餐飲，而 LINE Pay 的成功基本上證明了中小餐飲消費也有巨大的非現金支付需求。對點點支付來說，上 (高端餐飲) 有銀行刷卡機的高滲透率，下 (中小餐飲) 有 LINE Pay 挾帶巨大會員優勢，旁有線上支付業者如 TapPay、綠界也摩拳擦掌準備加入戰局。貌似紅海的競爭環境，也許解釋了為何多數餐飲科技業者並不打算加入。

點點支付現有的優勢是自身 1 萬 5 千個商戶作為第一批導入基礎，但 Ting 認爲最後這個競爭還是回到餐飲科技的本身，就算金融科技業者可以對餐飲商家提出產品或回饋誘因，點點全球還是能夠以完整多模組的產品線最好地服務餐飲商家。

這是一場不確定性很高的局勢，但唯一可以確定的是，我們認識 Ting 很久了，我們知道他總是能找到槓桿點、突破困境，攻下更大的山頭。於此同時，我們盤點 AppWorks 過去 15 年來在台灣與東南亞建立的新創社群，其中屬於餐飲科技有近 20 間，可以互通有無、一起前行。我們經常舉辦專業領域的創業者圓桌會議，最近一場便是 8 月份在吉隆坡的餐飲科技聚會，其中邀請點點全球與東南亞數個餐飲科技新創聚會討論，透過合作出海也許是另一條蹊徑，而 AppWorks 的社群是創業者最好的助力。 

對今年喜得龍女的 Ting 來說，取某前生仔後好事不只一樁，作為老朋友的我們，很開心可以分享他的喜悅，同時支持他在創業路上全新且更大的篇章。

Co-founders of TransTRACK: Anggia Meisesari, CEO (right); Aris Pujud Kumiawan, CTO (left)

From tech lover to tech builder

At the age of 13, Anggia dived into the realm of programming, inspired by her father’s deep love for electronics. Her fascination with computers sparked a keen curiosity, leading her to explore math and programming with enthusiasm. What began as a hobby soon evolved into a passionate pursuit, driving her to study at Bandung Institute of Technology.” Her distinguished academic record earned her lecturer positions at several universities.

Encouraged by an alumnus to apply her research and academic knowledge to real-world problems, Anggia transitioned into the business world. She first served as IT Manager for Champ Resto Group and later co-founded Business Software Solutions (BSS), aiming to digitize Indonesia’s food and beverage sector. Despite BSS’ initial success, the business faced internal challenges and ceased to operate after bootstrapping for nearly a decade.

Devastated but resolute in her quest to make a significant impact through technology, Anggia joined a global fleet management and telematics company as Indonesia Country Manager. Within less than a year, she achieved a remarkable 200% increase in the company’s monthly revenue in Indonesia. Her exceptional leadership garnered the attention of senior management, leading to her relocation to the headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa to drive even greater impact.

Though determined to foster substantial innovation, Anggia encountered one of the most significant challenges in fleet management and telematics: technology rigidity. Her company, like many conventional providers, offered hardware and software in a bundled package, limiting user choice and cost optimization. Different fleet operators have varying software needs and budget constraints for hardware, which creates obstacles for tailored solutions. Despite her efforts to overcome these technological barriers, Anggia was impeded by the company’s outdated software development models and conservative corporate practices.

Disrupting technology rigidity

To address the pain point, Anggia founded TransTRACK with a view to revolutionizing fleet management and telematics in Indonesia. She led her team to develop a hardware-agnostic software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution through a modularized approach. At the user’s choice, the platform offers real-time location tracking, driver condition monitoring, maintenance alerts, fuel theft detection, and numerous other features that can be paired with the users’ preferred hardware. Additionally, it integrates supply chain management functions including logistics, warehouse management, and insurance. 

Anggia’s vision swiftly came to fruition, securing contracts with leading organizations across sectors of logistics, public transportation, plantation and forestry, port and marine, as well as leasing. The TransTRACK team’s agile technology development and rapid execution have enabled effective customization and brought about broader market acceptance. To date, TransTRACK has established a presence in over 130 cities in Indonesia, over 30 cities in Malaysia, and Singapore. Additionally, the minimal churn rate of the SaaS platform highlights its strong product-market fit. Thanks to the flexibility of TransTRACK’s technology, Anggia has finally given birth to a solution that meets the wide array of demand of various fleet operators.

Hunger for greater success and impact

With increased import and export cargo volume, tightened safety regulations, and heightened awareness of carbon emissions, the need for modernized fleets is more urgent than ever before. With a vision that extends far beyond Indonesia’s borders, Anggia is driven to prove that Indonesia can produce a globally competitive technology leader. AppWorks firmly believes that Anggia will continue to lead TransTRACK to capitalize on the booming demand and drive further growth. 

Michelle Lin, Analyst (林亭㚬 / 分析師)

Michelle is an Analyst covering investments and community building under the Southeast Asia Arm. Before joining the team, she worked as an assistant manager at Deloitte Financial Advisory, where she helped close various cross-border and local M&A deals successfully. Michelle graduated with a Bachelor’s in Accounting from National Taiwan University and received a Master of Management Studies Degree from Duke University. During college, she was the minister of student activities at College of Management Student Association and was active at the Pop Dance Club. Outside the office, she enjoys hiking amongst many outdoor activities, as well as exploring new things in life.

These days, if you take a look at your clothing tags, you’ll often find the phrase “Made in Vietnam” printed all over them. Over the past decade, Vietnam has quietly become a powerhouse in garment manufacturing. With a vast network of over 6,000 ready-to-wear factories, Vietnam exported a whopping US$44 billion in garments in 2022, ranking the third worldwide after China and Bangladesh.

Vietnam’s rise as an apparel production powerhouse took place while the global fashion industry reached an inflection point. Fast fashion giants such as Shein, Zara, H&M and the likes are locked in both global and local competition to get the latest styles to market faster and more cost-effectively—pushing both brands and manufacturers to completely revamp their operations, especially adapting digital solutions, for this new era.

Khanh Lê, founder and CEO of Inflow, saw these massive paradigm shifts unfolding and set out to create a company that would take advantage of Vietnam’s garment production prowess and address the biggest pain points that brands and manufacturers face, especially with the rise of fast fashion. She eventually launched Inflow in 2022, a B2B fashion manufacturing platform that bridges the gap between international brands and local manufacturers. Inflow not only offers brands flexible order quantities but also helps them reduce average turnaround time from the traditional 120 days to as short as 45 days. 

A hustling founder with a relentless drive to create

Born and raised in central Vietnam, Khanh’s upbringing set a strong foundation for her entrepreneurship journey, driven by the high expectations her parents set for her as the firstborn child to be always “ahead of the curve” and independent. Witnessing her mother’s success operating her small tailor shop, Khanh fostered a deep passion for fashion at an early age. During her college years in the late 2000s, Khanh established a profitable online clothing brand at a time when launching online brands was a relatively novel concept in Vietnam.

However, this modest success couldn’t quench Khanh’s burning desire to create and prove to her parents. Drawn to the transformative potential of digital marketing in fostering the growth of brands in Vietnam, Khanh joined Sofresh Digital, a digital marketing agency, in 2010. As a founding member, she played a pivotal role in building the company from 0-to-1. She was always the one who took on the initiative to launch new product offerings and develop new divisions. For example, Khanh built the content team from the ground up and rapidly expanded it to manage the entire social channel for 12+ Pepsi brands and 4+ Unilever brands, creating an engine that accounted for 30% of all company revenue. Khanh then moved on to building another new division to expand the company’s presence across 360 integrated marketing channels, keeping the company ahead of the competition. 

This journey eventually led to Sofresh’s acquisition by British advertising giant WPP in 2014. Throughout this experience of building things from the ground up, Khanh recognized the strength of her entrepreneurial spirit and passion for creating startups. Driven by an insatiable desire to build and grow, Khanh decided to leave her cushy job at WPP and returned to square one. In 2017, she re-entered the arena and founded NextFit, a personal training booking app.

However, she made many common mistakes that founders often make, from failures in managing co-founder conflicts to premature scaling. Despite Khanh trying everything in the book, the company essentially went nowhere for 3.5 years. Moreover, Khanh had to contend with lockdowns during COVID, which ultimately became the final nail in the coffin. The toll on Khanh was significant, serving as a costly learning experience for her first startup endeavor. Through this experience, she learned two crucial lessons: (1) for a startup to scale, the product must address real pain points in a substantial market; and (2) for a startup to succeed, it’s all about moving fast. Thus, she realized she needed to find co-founders and core team members with a shared the same mindset and northstar in order to move fast and iterate. While the experience may have pushed her down a peg or two, it ultimately served to strengthen her resolve to get back up and try again, leading Khanh to build Inflow.

A great founder-mission-fit for Khanh to take on the garment supply chain

Following a long-winded detour, she eventually returned to her roots and reignited her passion for the fashion industry. After interviewing multiple stakeholders in the space, she realized that SME brands were often struggling with an incessant issue: finding the right manufacturing partners and managing the supply chain efficiently. This problem impedes brand growth as inventory turnaround time is the deciding factor to brand profitability. Khanh then embarked on her next chapter and launched Inflow in 2022, with a vision to establish a platform that empowers brands to scale effectively. 

Paying one year’s worth of tuition in what would probably take the average founder three years, Khanh learned a handful of lessons the hard way, undergoing several painful pivots and iterations while also having only three months of runway left at one point. In late 2022, founders in Vietnam faced a particularly challenging market both in business operations and fundraising efforts. The high interest rate climate made fundraising difficult, and the economic downturn exacerbated the situation, leading to widespread layoffs and making it increasingly difficult for businesses to attract and onboard new clients. Khanh was not exempt from these circumstances. Despite these adversities, Khanh refused to surrender and demonstrated her strong determination to crack the market. 

With a three-month runway, Khanh quickly reached out to various industry stakeholders to collect feedback, including in-person visits with 100+ manufacturers and reaching out to hundreds of brands. These interviews allowed Khanh to gain a deeper understanding of the needs of both factories and brands. She identified that the most significant challenges for customers were the lack of real-time visibility into the production process, hindering decision-making and responsiveness to market demands. As a result, Khanh pivoted the company to become a supply chain management platform, while also introducing initiatives like ready-design catalogs to expedite decision-making for brands and live chats on the platform to facilitate better communication between brands and factories. 

Within only a year, Inflow has built strong traction, securing a network of over 150 suppliers and converting various international brands, spanning Singapore, Thailand, Russia, and beyond. But this is just the beginning. Khanh’s ambitions extend far beyond just garment production execution. She wants to create more value for brands and suppliers, ultimately becoming a truly full-stack digital solution for all stakeholders across the fashion industry. 

For Khanh, who has delved deep into the J-curve over her two-time founder journey, she is now all the wiser, equipped with battle-tested skills and earned insights while servicing an industry that she knows and loves deeply. Although it remains a bumpy road ahead, we believe Khanh’s vision and resilience will drive Inflow to great success. And that is why we have backed her.

At AppWorks, we are built by founders for founders, and our core mission is to support great entrepreneurs. We are excited to be backing Khanh and the Inflow team, including helping them tap into Taiwan’s robust textile R&D ecosystem as well as the broader Greater Southeast Asian markets through our regional footprint. Together with our ecosystem of 532 active startups, we look forward to supporting Khanh’s vision and accompanying her on the journey in becoming an even more seasoned founder.

Johnny Chuang, Analyst (莊子揚 / 分析師)

Johnny is an Analyst covering web3 founders both in AppWorks Accelerator and AppWorks Funds portfolio. Before joining the team in 2023, he worked as a DeFi Strategist at Diamond Protocol, where he was responsible for portfolio management, protocol architecture design, and liquidity provision strategies backtesting. In this experience, Johnny successfully helped the protocol grow from zero to one.

Johnny graduated with a Bachelor’s in Finance from National Taiwan University. During this time, he interned at AppWorks and a hedge fund, and was the captain of the basketball team of the finance department. Outside the realm of work, he enjoys shooting hoops, working out, and losing himself in sci-fi novels and movies.

Since their inception, crypto derivatives exchanges have experienced robust growth and adoption. Bitmex, a standout among early platforms, revolutionized the industry by introducing the concept of the “perpetual contract.” This breakthrough dramatically simplified the use of leverage in crypto trading in eliminating expiries and rollovers, unleashing a surge in trading activities that has sustained its momentum to this day.

However, most trading activity has historically been confined to centralized exchanges. While platforms like dYdX aimed to be trailblazers in the decentralized derivatives exchange arena, their challenges in performance and complex user experiences, caused by the limitations of underlying blockchains and the need to sign every single transaction, has stymied the mainstream transition to decentralized platforms.

The limitations of centralized systems didn’t fully register as a pressing concern until the watershed FTX event of November 2022. This incident served as an industry-wide wake-up call, highlighting the perils of over-centralization and reviving the old adage once ubiquitous in the crypto community: “Not your keys, not your coins.” It became abundantly clear that the industry requires a more advanced form of derivatives exchange—one that mitigates the high counterparty risks associated with centralized finance (CeFi) while delivering a seamless user experience.

It is against this backdrop that we are elated to extend our support to Hong Gyu Yea, Matthew Quek, and Aaron Ong, the visionary trio behind GRVT. The GRVT team is pioneering a next-generation hybrid derivatives exchange built on zkSync technology, promising to offer the best of both worlds: the high-performance capabilities of a centralized trading engine, paired with the security of self-custody for users’ funds. This innovative approach positions GRVT as a game-changer, poised to redefine the future landscape of crypto derivatives trading. 

The Mechanism of GRVT

The prevailing challenge confronting derivatives exchanges today is the difficult trade-off between low performance and high counterparty risk. Existing platforms often fall into one of four quadrants based on these criteria. However, GRVT disrupts this paradigm by implementing a hybrid model fortified with a comprehensive array of innovative features designed to elevate user experience. Let’s delve into how GRVT is poised to be a transformative force in the industry.

High-Performance Off-Chain Orderbook and Secure On-Chain Settlement

GRVT employs a cutting-edge off-chain orderbook matching system capable of processing an astounding 600,000 transactions per second, all while maintaining a latency of under two milliseconds. This high-performance engine is complemented by a secure on-chain settlement process facilitated by smart contracts deployed on zkSnyc Era. Users retain self-custody of their funds in their own wallets, significantly mitigating the risks associated with potential exchange failures. This dual-layer approach allows traders to operate with unparalleled speed and security, granting them peace of mind.

Comprehensive Financial Instruments in a One-Stop Shop

GRVT is not merely a derivatives exchange, but rather a comprehensive trading platform offering both options and futures contracts. Additionally, the platform supports Request for Quote (RFQ) trading for complex derivatives combinations and structures. Traders can now bypass the cumbersome experience of managing margins across separate options and futures platforms. Instead, they are able to execute a wide array of intricate trading strategies directly within the GRVT ecosystem.

Capital-Efficient Cross Margin Model

GRVT introduces a finely-tuned cross margin model that calculates the overall delta of a user’s positions across both options and futures. This innovative approach significantly enhances capital efficiency, making the platform particularly well-suited to meet the sophisticated needs of institutional traders.

Robust Transaction Privacy

Leveraging Validium technology on the zkSync appchain, GRVT ensures that each transaction is encapsulated and shielded from visibility to other traders. This feature adds an extra layer of security and privacy, allowing users to trade with confidence.

In summary, GRVT’s groundbreaking hybrid model and suite of advanced features positions it as a game-changer in the derivatives exchange landscape, offering a balanced solution for the industry’s most pressing challenges.

Bringing expertise into crypto space 

The trio at the helm of GRVT brings a wealth of experience and expertise, uniquely positioning them to address the pressing challenges in the industry. Matthew, serving as the COO of GRVT, previously spearheaded the Blockchain & Payment team at DBS in Singapore, where he explored various blockchain initiatives in traditional finance (TradFi). His background equips him with the acumen needed to bridge the gap between conventional and digital asset trading.

Aaron, the CTO of GRVT, formerly held the role of tech lead for two data privacy frameworks at Meta. His transition to GRVT is strategic as he continues to tackle complex issues surrounding transaction privacy and trading efficiency. His deep-rooted expertise in technology and data privacy is invaluable in creating a secure and efficient trading environment.

Hong Yea, the CEO of GRVT, is a seasoned trading veteran with an impressive nine-year tenure at Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong. Known for his relentless ambition and determination, Hong Yea has consistently pushed himself to achieve greater goals throughout his career. With GRVT, he is seizing the opportunity presented by the industry’s current challenges, aiming to revolutionize the way trading is conducted.

Together, these three founders have assembled a team of crypto-native professionals over the past year, each bringing their own specialized skills and backgrounds to the table. We believe this collective expertise makes them exceptionally well-suited to address long-standing issues in the crypto space. Armed with their combined knowledge and experience, the GRVT team is poised to navigate the complexities ahead and bring their visionary concept to fruition.

The ultimate form of derivatives exchange is GRVT

We are thrilled to hereby announce our support for Hong, Matthew, and Aaron as they embark on their journey to break new grounds in establishing a state-of-the-art derivatives exchange. We firmly believe that through their efforts, the future standard of trading platforms will be set. In an industry currently plagued by the opacity and credibility gap of centralized systems, they are in a unique position to reintroduce time-honored yardsticks of transparency and integrity, thanks to the innovative value proposition that GRVT brings to the table. 

At AppWorks, our mission is to identify and collaborate with exceptional founders who are driven to make a transformative impact in their respective domains. We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Hong Yea, Matthew, and Aaron. Their relentless pursuit of greater solutions is not only pushing the boundaries of what a derivatives exchange can be but will also redefine the future landscape of trading in the web3 ecosystem.

If you are a founder working on a startup in SEA, or working with web3 and AI / IoT, apply to AppWorks Accelerator to join the largest founder community in Greater Southeast Asia.