Ching Tseng, Principal (曾意晴 / 協理)
Ching is a Principal leading the Web3 Arm at AppWorks. Ching interned at AppWorks when she was in college and returned as an Analyst after earning her B.B.A from National Chengchi University in 2015. Her keystone achievement as an Analyst was helping CHOCO TV’s journey from Series A to an eventual acquisition by LINE. Ching became our Associate in 2019, spearheading our foray into the blockchain industry by recruiting founders active in the space and effectively jumpstarting our web3 ecosystem, which has since grown into a thriving community. She’s also helped AppWorks participate in several prominent investments, including Dapper Labs / Flow, Animoca Brands, and Blocto. Ching was promoted to Principal in 2022. Off the clock, she likes to experience new things, travel, and drive in the mountains.
(漢文在下) It’s somewhat awkward to write a self-intro after joining AppWorks for almost seven years. To be frank, I probably wouldn’t have much to share if I had written this introduction in 2015. Back then, I had just graduated from college and was too fresh to tell you a good story. Over the past seven years, I connected a lot of “dots” and I can finally form it into a shape and share more about myself with you now.
My career path seems quite simple, but in fact is remarkable in its simplicity. I am someone who started as an intern at AppWorks and then became a full-time Analyst right after college. Gradually, I was promoted to Associate and now Principal. You might think my career path was “planned” and that I had a very clear goal since the beginning. Here’s the real story:
When I was 20, I happened to see AppWorks while scrolling through Facebook and the intern recruitment post “looks rare”. Back then, I had a limited understanding about entrepreneurship and startups. My intuition led me to apply for the role. On the first day stepping into the AppWorks office, I found that I really connected with these offbeat and alien-like founders and wanted to help support them on their founder journeys.
A lot of people like to ask me: “How can you stay at AppWorks this long?” The only answer is: “It’s fun.” Jamie, the founding partner of AppWorks, once told me that I’m probably in the 99th percentile in terms of curiosity. Yes, I believe I am! If you have ever used my YouTube account then you can understand. My YouTube feed includes F1, dramas, aircraft, gaming, tech, musical instruments, and many other topics. Perhaps half of my life was spent on googling things that I didn’t need to know but wanted to know. AppWorks is a place full of unknown things and a company that’s always trying to embark on seemingly impossible missions. That’s why this place has retained someone like me who gets bored easily for so long.
Over the past seven years serving AppWorks, I’ve seen many successful startups as well as some that didn’t quite make it. I count myself lucky as the company I joined became bigger as I aged a little bit. Most importantly, this journey has brought me a lot of friends that have battled side-by-side with me.
I enjoy the time spent with founders; from brainstorming new business strategies and sorting out suitable fundraising structures, to sharing thoughts about the latest information and internet trends.
As time flew by, our company grew a lot, and our mission became bigger. On the other hand, our North Star remains the same – making Taiwan a better place by helping founders to become better founders. To get there, we have accelerated institutionalization efforts at our firm, and within that plan, I became a Principal leading the web3 arm.
I believe in the beauty of blockchain and the impact protocols/DAOs/companies can bring to human society. Luckily, I can not only be an observer but also a participant together with web3 founders. This excitement was something I couldn’t feel when doing things in the web2/app era. If you are building on the blockchain, I’m ready to know more about your vision.
加入公司 7 年後才開始跟大家做自我介紹，是一件頗為弔詭的事情。但回頭想如果要我在 2015 年剛加入 AppWorks 時寫篇自我介紹文，可能也沒太多故事可以跟你分享，當時的我，也就是一個單純剛從大學畢業的菜鳥。在這過去 7 年來，我經歷了一些事情，也許終於可以跟大家分享關於我的一些事了。
往回看我的職涯，看起來很簡單但好像也蠻激勵人的。從一個負責打雜的 Intern、畢業後加入 AppWorks 成為正職的 Analyst，在 2019 年成為 Associate，接著在今年初成為了 Ｗeb3 Arm Principal。許多人以為這是我規劃好的職涯，又或者以為我心中有一個明確的職涯目標，讓我來分享一下這背後真正的故事。
當我 20 歲時，對於創業、新創還沒什麼概念，颱風夜沒事的我滑著手機，看到 AppWorks 正在招募 Intern，本來沒有打算要找 Internship 的我，突然覺得這篇貼文「挺特別」的。直覺告訴我：「你該去申請看看。」而後在我第一天踏入 AppWorks 的辦公室時，這群奇特的「創業者」深深的吸引我了。
很多人問過我，為何會在 AppWorks 待這麼多年。唯一不變的答案大概是：挺好玩的！Jamie 曾經說過我可能是 PR 99 的好奇寶寶。沒錯，如果你曾經用過我的 YouTube 帳號，你可能就會理解到為什麼。打開我的 YouTube，追蹤的頻道從 F1、飛機、遊戲、科技、戲劇、音樂等各種頻道都有。我的人生應該花了絕大多數的時間搜尋我不需要知道，但是我想要知道的資訊。
AppWorks 就是能得到許多未知的事情的地方，同時也是一間一直想要嘗試做一些不可能的任務的公司。這也是為何容易對事情感到無聊的我，能夠在這裡待上這麼久。
在這幾年陪伴與投資創業者的過程中，我看了許多成功的案例，同時也有許多結果不如人意。我想我是相對幸運的那一個，在我年齡增加過程中，AppWorks 這間公司也一起長大了。同時，這段旅程也讓我結交了許多一起經歷挑戰的戰友們，有些來掛「急診」的創業者，他們拿到了隔天、甚至當晚就要馬上回覆的併購機會，想跟我討論一下該不該接受，要注意哪些事情。在多數與創業者相處的這些夜晚裡，我是非常享受的，無論是一起煩惱公司的策略、討論募資的結構，又或者單純分享彼此對於業界最新消息的想法。
雖然公司想要挑戰的任務也越來越艱難，但與此同時 AppWorks 的北極星從來沒改變過，依舊透過幫助創業者讓台灣變成一個更好的地方。為了把這件事情做得更好，我們無法再像游擊隊一樣到處作戰，也得變成一支更有組織與戰法的正規軍。而我在這個計畫中，也變成了要帶領 Web3 領域的 Principal。
我真心喜歡並且相信 Blockchain 以及在這個圈子裡的組織們，能為人類社會帶來的改變。這次，也許我又是幸運的那一個人，能夠不只見證這一切改變的發生，同時也能與 Ｗeb3 的創業者一起參與其中。這種興奮感是比過去看著 Founder 們把產品與團隊逐漸建立起來，最終得到一個好結果還要更強烈的。如果你正在 Blockchain 上打造新產品，我非常期待聽聽你的計畫與目標！
