Taidah Entrepreneurship Center Celebrates 3rd Anniversary

Taidah Entrepreneurship Center (TEC) celebrated its 3rd anniversary on June 7, demonstrating students’ creativity and technological research capacity as well as announcing the continuation of the existing accelerator program. At the convention, 11 NTU startup teams showcased their products, and several outstanding alumni were invited to talk about their entrepreneurship experiences.

The aim of TEC is to transform students’ creativity and technological research capacity into influential startup companies, and thus create an opportunity to change Taiwan’s industrial environment. At the anniversary convention, outstanding startup alumni, including Legislator Karen Yu (余宛如), Co-founder and CEO of Greenvines Harris Cheng (鄭涵睿), and Co-founder and CEO of Pinkoi Peter Yen (顔君庭), were invited to give talks at NTU. NTU Garage alumni Anny Chang (張希慈) and Simon Ko (柯軒恩), who were listed in “30 Under 30 Asia” by Forbes in the past two years, also shared their experiences of starting up new businesses at the convention, demonstrated the capacity and perspectives of the young generation.

TEC Director and Professor of the Department of International Business Ji-Ren Lee (李吉仁) stated, “We aim to achieve the following three goals. First, advocate and promote entrepreneurship in NTU. Second, integrate entrepreneurship resources in and out of NTU. Finally, try our best to help startup teams acquire support and resources, and thus establish a sound startup community.”

Build a Unique Resource Platform to Connect Startup Communities and NTU Alumni

NTU has spared no effort in promoting innovation and entrepreneurship. Established in 2014, TEC launched the campus incubator NTU Garage, and has developed more than 100 startup teams since then. NTU Garage not only provides the teams with working spaces but also connects them to industries and alumni entrepreneurs. According to Director of NTU Garage Yute Liu (柳育德), TEC has secured the input of more than 150 industrial teachers and alumni, who are willing to provide one-on-one consultation, networking assistance, and even investment opportunities. Citing Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg’s commencement address at Harvard University, “Ideas don’t come out fully formed. They only become clear as you work on them. You just have to get started,” Director Lee encouraged young entrepreneurs to pursue breakthroughs continuously, continue the initial passion for what they are doing, and launch their startup projects.

This year, three outstanding alumni entrepreneurs were invited to discuss the overall business environment, talents, and the influence of startups. Founder of Okogreen Karen Yu (now a legislator) introduced the startup environment’s development and her experience of promoting startup programs in public sectors. Using the growth of Greenvines as an example, the company’s co-founder Harris Cheng noted that startups should select co-founders on the basis of expertise, connections, and values. Cheng also shared how to develop high employee engagement through competition- and vision-based recruitment when a startup is growing. After obtaining an investment of US$9 million from Sequoia Capital, Pinkoi has committed itself to expanding its international market. Pinkoi co-founder Peter Yen described the uncertainty they experience when facing the international market, and shared how he conceived of starting up a new business. “The core of entrepreneurship is to spot problems, solve problems, and then undertake responsibilities. Our goal is to help designers and become their most reliable partner,” said Yen. Currently, Pinkoi is the largest e-commerce platform selling design products in Asia. It sustains more than 10 thousand designers’ livelihoods and families, assisting them to solve all kinds of problems related to business management.

Product Demonstration by 11 NTU Startup Teams at the Convention

INSTO: https://ins.to

Established in 2013, INSTO is a person-to-person payment platform that enables users to pay or sell services or products through scheduled payments.

tico: http://www.tico.tips

With the ultimate goal of “ontimize all messages in the world,” tico helps users to send their messages at the right time and save them in the right space.

OysterX: https://www.oysterx.bar/

OysterX is an app created for travelers to discover unchartered territories and record their journeys on earth in the most personal and unique way.

GoodJob: https://www.goodjob.life/

A platform for promoting job information transparency, GoodJob is developed by a team composed of engineers, designers, advertisers and marketers, and legal specialists.

OWEKNOW CO., LTD.

OWEKNOW aims to develop an active fever-warning decision support system through IoT and big data analysis that assists hospitals with infection control and ensures patient safety.

Rubasse: https://www.facebook.com/rubassetaiwan/

Rubasse presents an infrared automated coffee roaster that optimizes the roasting process through innovative technologies and enables precise coffee roasting.

Commuter Co. Ltd.: http://www.collegebike.tw/

Adopting the DIY model of IKEA, Commuter modulizes bikes and simplifies components for everyone to customize his or her own ideal urban bike online and have the bike home delivered.

PicSee: https://picsee.co/

Having drawn famous users worldwide, PicSee is an optimization tool for social network marketing that helps you customize, optimize, and boost your posts and links.

PXTag: http://www.pxtag.org

PXTag uses an image recognition and recommendation system to generate precise, relevant, and trendy hashtags for your photos to catch more eyes.

Gushi: https://gushi.tw/

Writing history creatively, Gushi aims to provide readable and reliable knowledge that is relevant to daily life and everyone.

KitchBot: https://blog.kitchbot.com/

KitchBot develops an intelligent temperature control socket and designs an app to operate the socket, enabling users to adjust cooking time and temperature on various electric cookers.