From College App Developer to a Dual‑Engine Entrepreneur

James Chou, Founder of JTCG, an AppWorks Accelerator Batch #13 alumni, stands out as one of the rare entrepreneurs who can seamlessly switch between product design, growth hacking, and enterprise sales.

In college, James built Colorgy, an app to help students manage class schedules and connect with peers. It started with him manually inputting his own timetable, coding at night, and testing during the day with classmates. Feedback led him to realize students cared more about the social side than schedules. So he pivoted, adding features to help them find classmates and form study groups. As usage patterns varied across departments, he developed a flexible backend to support different needs. At its peak, Colorgy reached over 2 million registered users and became a campus favorite among college students. The entire journey gave James deep, hands-on experience in product development and user research.

When French start‑up Zenly began to rise with real‑time friend‑location sharing, James noticed the perfect fit for Taiwan’s campus culture. Drawing on his Colorgy experience, he cold‑emailed Zenly’s founders, outlining growth playbooks and offline campus seeding tactics. He even assembled a student squad to A/B‑test onboarding flows. In just one year he led Zenly’s Taiwan & Korea localization and growth, pushing monthly actives from 50 K to 1.2 M and later duplicating the playbook in Korea—his first taste of cross‑border go‑to‑market.

When LINE TV moved to acquire Choco TV, James saw a chance to observe a global‑scale integration from the inside. Choco’s founder Davidd Liu—an early Colorgy angel—invited him onto the post‑merger task force. James managed data & tech hand‑offs, redesigned workflows, and brokered cultural alignment between the two teams. The experience gave him first‑hand insight into how large enterprises negotiate, integrate, and manage product roadmaps—knowledge he later applied to enterprise sales and B2B partnerships.

James knows how to take an idea from zero to one, and he’s just as comfortable pitching enterprise clients as he is building products from scratch. His journey covers everything from building student-focused apps and scaling international consumer platforms to navigating corporate M&A and launching a B2B SaaS company. That blend of experience is exactly what enables JTCG to run both product-led growth (PLG) and sales-led growth (SLG) side by side—helping their AI tools hit the market fast and scale even faster.

Solving Real Pain & Building a Data Flywheel—The Raccoon AI Edge

During his time as a Zendesk reseller, James reviewed thousands of support tickets and spotted two systemic gaps:

1. Rule-based chatbots had a resolution rate (the percentage of customer issues that are ultimately resolved) of less than 10%, yet 70 % of agent time was spent on repetitive look‑up → confirm → reply loops.
2. Global CX‑AI suites were pricey, inflexible, and poorly localized for Mandarin and Taiwanese integrations.

He realized that local system integrators (SIs) could build their own AI agents, under‑cutting global SaaS while serving local needs better. Hence Raccoon AI was born.

Raccoon AI not only chats but also acts: calling backend APIs such as Look Up Order, Cancel, Refund in real time. Example: When a shopper asks “Has my order shipped?”, the bot fetches status, delivers the tracking code, or even cancels/reschedules if needed—compressing what used to take 3–5 human interactions into a single exchange.

Since its launch, Raccoon AI has demonstrated a clear competitive edge in real-world projects. In Taiwan’s e-commerce and travel sectors, the system can autonomously resolve over 70% of customer service tickets, whereas the average resolution rate for comparable products typically falls below 30%. This advantage stems from Raccoon’s long-term accumulation of localized industry data, including common dialogue patterns such as “shipment inquiries,” “address changes,” and “order cancellations”—as well as nuanced Taiwanese customer service phrasing, product categorization logic, and brand tone preferences. These elements are compiled into a vector knowledge base of over one million entries, enabling the AI to deliver near-human response quality from day one. Additionally, with the upcoming release of the low-code customer service flow editor (V2 version, currently in Beta), new clients can complete proof-of-concept within two days and are expected to fully go live within four weeks.

Every solved ticket writes back intent, answer, and brand tone to that merchant’s private vector store, widening coverage and improving quality. Fast onboarding means data starts compounding early, reinforcing JTCG’s first‑mover advantage. Long-nurtured partnerships with Zendesk, Omnichat, Shopline, 91APP, and others now contribute 20–30% of inbound leads. Their ecosystem connections help the team avoid cold starts and stay focused on improving product and data quality. 

The trio of data flywheel, rapid deployment and channel leverage forms a structural lead in both efficiency and speed.

Seizing the Moment: Riding the Generative AI Customer Support Wave

Taiwan’s total addressable market includes approximately 71,000 support seats in the e-commerce, travel, and logistics sectors. Even automating just one-third of those would redirect an estimated NT$4.5–6 billion (US$140–190 million) annually toward AI customer service SaaS. Global CX giants still lack proper integration with platforms like LINE or local commerce infrastructure, creating friction for Taiwanese firms. Meanwhile, local MarTech players such as Super 8 and Appier primarily focus on marketing funnels rather than post-sale support, leaving this sector under-served and primed for rapid adoption.

In the first quarter of 2025, JTCG recorded over 100% year-over-year growth and a gross margin exceeding 60%. With a proven track record in product development, data moats, and robust distribution channels, we led the Pre-A round to accelerate self-onboarding product features and secure JTCG’s leadership position in Asia’s first wave of AI-driven customer support.

We welcome any brands interested in implementing AI customer service and automating after-sales processes to contact JTCG or AppWorks. Let’s work together to create a new generation of customer service experiences.

Some founders are relentless. Mike Hahn is one of them.

Over the past two decades, Mike has built five startups, completed multiple exits, and held intrapreneurial roles—all while demonstrating a rare tenacity to keep pushing, not for headlines or capital, but because he genuinely loves solving hard problems. With Vaudit, his sixth venture, Mike is applying everything he’s learned to build a more transparent and accountable digital advertising ecosystem.

The Hidden Leak in Ad Spend

Today, advertisers are spending more per click than ever. Yet a surprising portion of that spend never reaches real, verified users. During early customer discovery, Mike and his team uncovered that a large share of digital ad budgets was leaking into non-compliant, invalid traffic before it ever hit the final invoice. The lack of real-time auditing tools made this invisible to most.

Vaudit was born to address this head-on. By introducing a pre-bill audit layer, it helps advertisers reclaim wasted spend and restore integrity to the funnel. In a market where trust is assumed but rarely verified, this solution hits a nerve. In one case, an early customer discovered double-digit discrepancies, something they had never seen before.

Humble Beginnings, Global Impact 

Mike’s story begins in a trailer park in Indiana, the son of very young parents in a low-income household. Alongside his two brothers, he relied on athletic scholarships just to afford college. But when a serious injury ended his American football career, Mike was forced to pivot, redirecting all his energy toward entrepreneurship.

That shift led to a surprise introduction to tech, thanks to a referral from his brother. He landed an entry-level role at Oracle, where he quickly made his mark, designing a new go-to-market model that would scale into a global revenue engine. In just three years, he rose to lead a team of over a thousand people.

He left to solve what he saw as the next big inefficiency, client onboarding, by building a streamlined implementation platform. Oracle later brought that solution back in-house. At a legacy marketing firm, he led the digital transformation, developing new products and scaling a national franchise business. Later, he founded a data platform acquired by a global marketplace. 

After years of building in the U.S., Mike began exploring opportunities abroad. Through a mentorship role with PwC advising startup founders in Shanghai, he was exposed to the fast-growing innovation landscape across Asia. It was during this time that he recognized the immense, untapped potential of Southeast Asia and identified Vietnam and Thailand as rising hubs of technological excellence, an ideal launchpad for his next venture.

He went on to build a GenAI-native intent engine, successfully leading the company through product-market fit and into its growth phase. But Mike wasn’t done. He had identified yet another blind spot—a hidden inefficiency quietly draining ad budgets at scale. That insight pulled him back into the arena, ready to take on his next big challenge.

Through each chapter, a pattern emerges: Mike spots overlooked friction and builds systems to remove it. Not once, but repeatedly.

Rebuilding Trust in Digital Advertising

Digital advertising is a $600B+ industry running on assumed trust and partial verification. Small and mid-sized businesses, especially, lack tools to confirm what they’re paying for. As regulatory pressure grows and platform opacity deepens, the need for audit-grade visibility has never been clearer.

Mike has proven he can find product–market fit, scale meaningful solutions, and navigate uncertainty with clarity. With Vaudit, he’s channeling that experience into one of the most overlooked pain points in modern marketing. His vision is matched by a magnetic leadership style—so compelling that it drew AppWorks’ most charismatic principal, Jun, to join him full-time in building the company. It’s not often you see a VC trade the investor’s seat for a founder’s desk, and even less common to find a founder who can inspire that move. Since AppWorks’ pre-product investment in 2023, Jun has been side by side with Mike, helping bring Vaudit to life. We feel fortunate to back a founder whose blend of execution, insight, and leadership is exactly what it takes to build this missing layer of accountability.

We’re proud to support Mike in this next chapter.

Growing up in Indonesia, I understand the pressing importance of waste management as it preserves the environment and greatly affects everyone’s quality of life. Indonesia’s waste management situation has never been great, but as people’s consumption and hence our waste output grows with the economy in recent years, the situation has deteriorated to an alarming state. There’s more trash on the streets, rising cases of illegal dumping, illegal trash burning, and fields of plastic waste floating in our ocean. 

It’s often said that the health of our planet determines our collective future. In Indonesia, an emerging economy with the world’s 4th most populated, environmental preservation is far from guaranteed. Rapid population growth and societal behavior have exacerbated plastic pollution and illegal dumping in the country, problems that not only threaten Indonesia’s ecological integrity but also undermine its long-term economic prospects. Today, the archipelago stands among the world’s largest contributors of oceanic plastic waste, underscoring the urgency of scalable solutions that can help reverse the mounting climate crisis.

That’s why we are incredibly excited to back Ernest Layman, Co-Founder and CEO of Rekosistem, a pioneering waste management startup determined to close the loop on Indonesia’s environmental challenges. Ernest started Rekosistem to address the nation’s climate challenges head-on, creating a circular economy and empowering communities to turn waste into opportunity.

Why We Invested: Ernest Layman, Co-Founder & CEO of Rekosistem

Each year, Indonesia generates more than 65.8 million tonnes of waste and more than 7.8 million tonnes of plastic waste. Based on the World Bank data, 61% of waste in the country is left unattended. Only 24% is managed through formal collection where most of the waste collected ends up in open burning, land dumping, or leakage, resulting in poor air quality, flooding, and health problems. With only 10-15% of Indonesia’s waste being recycled, there is a lot of room for improvement, and therein lies the opportunity to make a difference.

With the industry plagued by fragmentation and mostly consisting of micro, small, and informal players, the government experiences significant challenges in combatting environmental waste. The government needs partners who can integrate the entire waste management process, and make the industry more efficient.

This is where Rekosistem steps in and we are very excited to support Ernest Layman and Joshua Valentino in their efforts to address this issue. Launched in 2021, Rekosistem is transforming the Indonesian waste management landscape by streamlining the supply chain and aggregating waste collection from multiple sources. By optimizing these processes, the company ensures proper waste management and efficiently sorts recoverable materials for further processing. This approach not only boosts the recovery rate but also significantly reduces the volume of waste sent to landfills to be burned, contributing to a more sustainable future.

Ernest has long desired to create a business that is impactful, sustainable, and economically viable. Back in 2016, he realized that waste management was a pressing issue and formed a deep resolve to address it at scale to make a difference in the lives of Indonesians. Driven by this conviction, he then started a small waste management business in 2018 with his partner, Joshua. Both of them spent around five years (since 2016) respectively trying to tackle the waste management market in Indonesia before launched Rekosistem in 2021. Together, they dedicated themselves to achieve this shared mission—to create a cleaner and more sustainable future for the next generation.

Ernest Layman: Where steadfast persistence meets relentless commitment for growth

We look for founders who demonstrate both technical skills and an unwavering capacity to persevere—precisely the qualities that define Ernest’s journey.

A childhood shaped by adversity
Growing up in an ordinary Indonesian household, Ernest was only six years old when he already experienced the hardships of life, seeing people around him struggle. He naturally developed a strong determination to be successful and provide for the people he holds dear. He grew up as a child who was self-dependent, even consciously taking care of his own health to avoid medical costs that could burden his parents. This early self-reliance and sense of responsibility became hallmarks of his character, guiding him through the challenges that laid ahead.

Early passion for competition and growth
Ernest’s drive to excel wasn’t limited to academics, where he consistently earned top marks. He was also a formidable DOTA gamer, ranking 2nd in a national tournament and even placing 8th in a world championship qualifier. This ambition to perform at a global standard reflected a hunger for success that extended well beyond the classroom and the gaming arena.

Relentless pursuit of self-improvement
Recognizing a personal weakness in public speaking, Ernest immersed himself in over 10 student organizations during college and successfully campaigned to become chairman of his faculty’s student board and vice president of his university student board the year after. Since then, Ernest has grown into a confident speaker, capable of inspiring and engaging crowds. Beyond public speaking, his active involvement in various student organizations also honed his decision-making abilities. This blend of determination and can-do spirit would later guide his entrepreneurial decisions and leadership style.

A solid professional who bet his life savings on Rekosistem
Upon graduating, Ernest joined Procter & Gamble, quickly ascending to Marketing Senior Manager in just two years. Yet, he yearned to solve real-world problems with lasting social and environmental impact. When he discovered the devastating realities of plastic pollution and the untapped potential in Indonesia’s waste sector, he felt a call to take real action. In 2019, he left the corporate ladder at P&G to build Rekosistem—investing all of his savings to a point where he had to carefully manage his monthly expenses just to dive in and work hands-on in the waste business. This level of personal risk taken exemplifies Ernest’s determination and unwavering conviction in achieving his mission.

Immersing himself in the day-to-day operations
For three months, Ernest personally drove trucks, sorted waste, and worked closely with street-level waste aggregators to better understand their daily challenges in parallel with creating the system. For one year, Ernest lives at the office to always be hands-on with day-to-day progress. This approach enabled him to pinpoint the key supply chain bottlenecks—such as inconsistent volumes, inadequate equipment, and a lack of trust—that were limiting aggregators’ ability to scale. This underscores his dedication in sacrificing personal comfort in pursuit of meaningful change and advancing the business to the next level.

We understand that Indonesia’s waste management market remains very traditional and fragmented,  and it will be a huge endeavor for anyone who wants to tackle the space, let alone to use technology to disrupt  this stiff industry. Yet that also means a huge opportunity if a founder can apply the right set of solutions with a solid business model. 

In a space that is this fragmented and underpenetrated, a founder’s determination and ability to lead and execute is the key to success. We recognized these traits in Ernest. We are thrilled to invest in Rekosistem to support Ernest and his team on their journey to transform the Indonesian waste management industry to create a better and more sustainable future for my home country and this earth that all of us call home.

Nearly a decade ago, The DAO on Ethereum introduced Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) to the broader public—though infamously through a hack that led to an Ethereum hard fork in 2016. MakerDAO, launched afterward, further showcased DAOs’ potential, sparking a realization that DAOs could empower communities while enabling them to make informed decisions that support the long-term growth of protocols efficiently. While many have long believed DAOs could become a new organizational blueprint, Dennison and Rafael saw an opportunity to accelerate that vision. They joined forces to create Tally—a platform that has evolved into the leading DAO tooling solution, powering over 500 decentralized organizations worldwide. AppWorks is thrilled to share our Series A investment in Tally, and we can’t wait to see how Dennison and Rafael continue to shape the next chapter of governance by many.

Where Humanity and Technology Converge – Dennison Bertram 

Dennison’s life journey has been shaped by a profound intersection of technology and social consciousness, stemming from his upbringing in Buffalo, New York. Born to a civil rights activist mother and a Dutch scientist father, Dennison was immersed in an environment where advocacy and exploration flourished side by side. Computers entered his world at a young age, fueling a curiosity that led him to master microprocessors and build his own machine by age thirteen. This passion for innovation propelled him into the esteemed robotics program at Carnegie Mellon University when he was just sixteen, reflecting his remarkable talent for technical problem-solving. Yet, as he delved deeper into robotics, Dennison felt a pull that extended beyond code and circuitry. Influenced by his mother’s steadfast commitment to social justice, he became increasingly drawn to the complexities of governance, power structures, and communal well-being. His academic path shifted toward political science at the University of Pittsburgh, and later, he ventured abroad to witness firsthand how societies rebuild themselves in post-conflict settings. These formative experiences solidified Dennison’s belief in the transformative power of collective decision-making. After returning to the United States and re-immersing himself in the burgeoning crypto sphere, he met Rafael, and later on together they discovered the idea of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Dennison immediately grasped their potential to blend transparent governance with cutting-edge technology—an endeavor that resonated with everything his life had been leading toward. In founding Tally, he sought to unify his passions for engineering and social betterment, creating a platform designed to standardize and streamline DAO governance. 

From Silicon Valley Startups to DAO Innovation: Rafael Solari 

Rafael’s path to co-founding Tally can be traced back to his formative years in San Francisco, where technology was practically in his DNA. With a mother involved in Apple and early network startups, and a father at Intel, he grew up surrounded by the energy of the first wave of the internet. Even in middle school, Rafael fantasized about launching his own company—a dream fueled by the infectious excitement of web 1. This passion for creation guided his educational choices: he majored in computer science, immersing himself in subjects like discrete mathematics and game theory, and diving into collaborative programming projects. Outside the classroom, Rafael tested the waters of entrepreneurship through various side ventures, including a campus-winning restaurant recommendation service. Though it never went commercial, it confirmed his love for building products from the ground up.

Post-graduation, Rafael sought out smaller startups in Silicon Valley, believing they would offer a more raw, hands-on approach to learning how businesses are truly built and scaled. From e-commerce to ad-tech, each role gave him an inside view of how dominant platforms like Google, Amazon, and Facebook invariably shaped the competitive landscape. Realizing that these centralized power structures could stifle innovation, Rafael became intrigued by protocols—public, decentralized alternatives that could foster genuinely new business models. His exploration of Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2016 led him to the Crypto NYC coworking space, where he met Dennison. Over countless discussions about governance, stablecoins, and the future of decentralized organizations, their shared vision for a standardized DAO framework took shape. When Compound launched its DAO in 2020, Rafael saw the validation he had been waiting for, and the duo launched Tally to fill the gap in DAO governance tooling.

Tally – The Bedrock and Software Layer for DAOs 

Tally provides essential infrastructure for DAOs, enabling seamless on-chain voting, proposal management, and delegate coordination. As the most comprehensive DAO governance platform in the space, Tally has established itself as the industry leader over the past four years, powering over 7,000 proposals and supporting more than 500 DAOs, including top-tier protocols like Uniswap, Arbitrum, and zkSync. Its deep-rooted expertise in DAO governance and strong relationships with key delegates give Tally a significant advantage in securing partnerships and being recognized as the only credibly neutral service provider in the space. This strategic positioning has fortified Tally’s defensibility, and we firmly believe that Dennison and Rafael can continue scaling its platform to become the default governance solution for DAOs.

But Tally’s ambitions go beyond governance tooling. The ultimate vision is to serve as the software layer for DAOs at every stage of their lifecycle. To achieve this, the team has been rapidly expanding its product suite—most notably with the introduction of The Tally Protocol, a groundbreaking solution that allows DAOs to issue liquid staking versions of their governance tokens while preserving voting power. As DAOs collectively manage billions in treasury assets, governance has become a critical challenge, with low voter participation, governance attacks, and misaligned incentives threatening their sustainability.

The Tally Protocol addresses these fundamental issues by providing DAOs with a mechanism to return value to token holders while maintaining decentralized governance. By aligning incentives, increasing participation, and safeguarding against governance vulnerabilities, Tally is not only solving immediate pain points but also laying the foundation for a more resilient and scalable DAO ecosystem. As the space continues to evolve, Tally remains at the forefront, pioneering the next generation of decentralized governance.

At AppWorks, we invest in founders that combine deep technical expertise with a relentless drive to solve fundamental problems for humanity. Dennison and Rafael’s long-term vision, execution, and commitment to building the most robust DAO infrastructure make them the ideal team to push this transformation forward. As DAOs continue to proliferate and demand better governance, we firmly believe Tally will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of this new form of human organization. That’s why we are excited to back Dennison and Rafael as they take DAO to the next level.

MAGI, operated by Jiraffe, is Japan’s leading marketplace dedicated to trading card games (TCGs). Founded by Teruaki Aso, MAGI is tapping into a vibrant market valued at approximately US$6 billion worldwide, driven by passionate collectors and players.

Jiraffe, notably, represents AppWorks’ first-ever direct investment into a Japanese startup, highlighting a strategic step into one of most dynamic consumer and entertainment markets as we broaden our support for founders into different Asian locations. This investment bridges Japan and Southeast Asia’s digital ecosystems via Taiwan, combining Japan’s big market and cultural influence with Southeast Asia’s vibrant consumer base, enabling founders from both sides to expand and unlocking substantial long-term growth.

Teruaki Aso’s entrepreneurial journey began early, shaped by youthful curiosity and a passion for digital communities. As a middle school student, Aso managed his first online community site, competing enthusiastically for web traffic and learning firsthand the power of engagement and community-driven platforms. His early fascination with digital connectivity and peer interaction set the foundation for a career built around creating compelling online communities.

While studying at Hitotsubashi University, Aso ventured into his first significant startup project, “Hikakaku!,” a price-comparison platform enabling consumers to find the highest buyback offers from second-hand shops for their used gadgets, which eventually evolved into Jiraffe Inc. when he was just 22. Quickly understanding the dynamics of marketplaces and consumer behaviors, he became adept at navigating and pivoting business models, learning invaluable lessons on liquidity management, customer acquisition, and market positioning.

However, Aso was not content with simply running any marketplace, and aspired for greater ambitions—he meticulously searched for a niche that perfectly balanced unit value, trading frequency, and ease of handling. After extensive experimentation across various categories such as smartphone repair, electronics, sneakers, and general secondhand goods, he set his sights on the trading card game (TCG) market with his team. At 26, Aso launched MAGI, a marketplace specifically designed for TCG enthusiasts, effectively capturing a unique, deeply engaged consumer segment and eventually closed or sold all of his other businesses.

MAGI’s success hinges on its dual-channel strategy, seamlessly integrating online accessibility with physical retail experiences. This hybrid model caters precisely to the consumer demands of Japan’s enthusiastic and highly engaged TCG community. Users can effortlessly search, buy, sell, or trade cards through MAGI’s intuitive online platform or visit physical storefronts for immediate interaction and purchases.

MAGI’s recent international expansion, marked by opening its first store in Taipei, further demonstrates the company’s ambition and potential for global growth. The successful Taipei launch serves as a blueprint for future international expansions, showcasing MAGI’s readiness to scale its uniquely effective TCG marketplace model beyond Japan’s borders.

Looking forward into 2025, by continually expanding its physical presence in Japan and enhancing platform features, refining operational practices, and building stronger relationships within the community, MAGI is well-positioned to consolidate its leadership in the rapidly growing global TCG market.

At AppWorks, we proudly support visionary founders like Teruaki Aso, whose entrepreneurial journey and deep industry insight align seamlessly with our investment ethos. Through this partnership, we aim to propel MAGI towards sustained international growth, fostering one of Asia’s premier interest-based marketplaces to better serve TCG lovers.