article | Chen Wenqian
This article was first published on the WeChat public account "Sister Wenqian" (ID: sisy-world)
Guest introduction | Lin Zhichen
Taiwan App Works Zhichu Venture Capital Partner
Lin Zhichen was born in 1978 in a family of doctors in Taiwan. He graduated from the Department of Chemical Engineering of Taiwan University and later went to New York University to pursue an MBA.
Lin Zhichen's first business started in 1999, when he was a junior student. He and his classmates founded the B2C computer retail website "Haku.com". Later, he served several venture capital companies in .
In 2010, Lin Zhichen, who had already immigrated to New York, saw the rise of new platforms such as iPhone, which led to a new wave of entrepreneurial opportunities. So he decided to return to Taiwan to start App Works Zhichu Venture Capital to help some young entrepreneurs seize this huge wave.
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◇ Wen Qian: Let’s talk about yourself first. Why did you study in the two departments of chemical engineering and economics when you were in college?
◆ Lin Zhichen: Actually, it is a helpless thing for me to study in the chemistry department. I have been learning to assemble computers since I was 10 years old and wanted to become a motor major at the beginning. But I didn't do well in the exam, and one or two of them were the time difference compared to the simulation exam.
After arriving at National Taiwan University, I plan to study in the Department of Chemical Engineering first and then switch to major again. As a result, when I was in my junior year, I started a business. Because I need to understand the market economy in entrepreneurship, I later studied economics again.
◇ Wen Qian: You were also a young entrepreneur back then, but later went to the United States to study for an MBA. Then why did he choose to return to China later?
◆ Lin Zhichen: Actually it has something to do with my children. I live in New York and many friends around me work on Wall Street . Later, a financial tsunami occurred, and I witnessed with my own eyes how the so-called financial elite in the United States bullied the general public. If we are new immigrants from , if we are lucky enough to become a middle class, and if we are not lucky, we will only be bullied. So, I hope my son can return to Taiwan in the future.
Just in 2010, the emergence of iPhone and iPad brought a good opportunity to the further growth of the Internet, and also gave me a reason to return to China. I was thinking that if Taiwanese investors are still resistant to the Internet, our development opportunities will only become smaller and smaller; but if we pursue this new opportunity, we will have the opportunity to drive Taiwan's development. The emergence of
▲ The emergence of iphone has brought new opportunities to the development of the Internet
◇ Wen Qian: I have visited , Harvard Business School, an experimental center called HI (Harvard innovation). It is very magical and has many scientific research results.
My Harvard friend said that it would be great if they had HI, the experimental center, when they were in school. Because it allows you to form a team with , people at Harvard Business School, people who do chemical engineering, and people who understand the law. If everyone gets along, then take it apart and go find someone else.
Every night at eight or nine o'clock, many volunteers will come to report to the HI Experimental Center. They are all lawyers and accountants who graduated from Harvard. Nominally, they were specially invited by Harvard to tutor students. In fact, they have their own plans. If they meet good scientific research projects, they also want to participate in the investment.
I always think that the biggest problem of venture capital (venture investment) in Taiwan is that it is not familiar with the Internet industry, the Internet of Things industry, and industries that young people are good at, and they are unwilling to invest.
▲ Harvard Hi Laboratory: A Paradise of Scientific Research
◆ Lin Zhichen: This is the case today, but it was not in that era before. Initially, venture capital companies believed in these young people, but some changes later made them lose confidence.
90s, Americans were all engaged in the Internet industry. Taiwan's venture capital companies discovered this business opportunity and believed that the Internet was the next step in the technology industry, so they invested in some young entrepreneurial teams to learn the Internet in the footsteps of the United States.
By 2000, their hopes were broken, and lost all their money because of these young people. has been around for nearly 10 years later, and these venture capital companies complained every day, "You young people are all scams, and the Internet has no money to make money." "You burned all our money!" Even if you ask the older generation of investors now, they may still complain to you about topics like "how much money you cheated on the Internet back then."
◇ Wen Qian: So, if young people in Taiwan want to start a business, they must first have a rich father. Otherwise, they will face a big problem - they will not get money from banks and venture capitalists.
▲ Many young people start their own businesses rely on their wealthy family background｜《The New Legend of Awang》
◆ Lin Zhichen: That being said, it is not exactly the case. After the first wave of Internet companies began IPOs in 2004 (referring to a company or company that sold its shares to the public for the first time), they developed a group of people who made money from the Internet. , and this group of people later gradually changed their careers and invested. is due to a deep understanding of the Internet, so these people are still willing to invest in young people.
◇ Wen Qian: Last year I went to attend the Wuzhen Internet Conference , and many Internet giants gathered there to discuss Internet-related issues together. One of them is Ding Lei , the founder of NetEase . was very unhappy a few years ago. He lost to Baidu as a search engine and Sina as a Weibo, so he wanted to try a new style, and later he made two transformations.
The first one was game software. Later, most of NetEase's revenue was earned back by game software. The second is . NetEase News . When he started doing NetEase News, his goal was to create a high-end model like The Paper, and there would be no messy sour people and swearing netizens.
Unexpectedly, his model suddenly succeeded in the past two years. obviously had great financial difficulties in the past few years, but last year, he actually ranked in the top five in the ranking of the richest people in China.
The current situation in the mainland is that companies such as NetEase, Tencent , and Alibaba are all very popular. Therefore, no matter who is in this industry, it is easy to make money. Moreover, the mainland market is so big that there are 100 million people on one platform. Then why don’t you choose to invest in the mainland, but in Taiwan?
▲ Mainland investment market, the future is bright
◆ Lin Zhichen: Because for me, there is only one place in the world that can make me work without regrets, that is Taiwan.
◇ Wen Qian: I heard that after you returned to Taiwan, you supported 305 startup companies composed of young people, but now many people outside say that young people are not capable.
◆ Lin Zhichen: I don’t think so. There are many young entrepreneurs in Taiwan. are very demeanor, execution ability, and have strong learning ability. If can help these people, it is very likely that it will help Taiwan create tomorrow's "TSMC" (Taiwan Integrated Circuit Manufacturing Company) and tomorrow's " MediaTek " (Taiwan MediaTek Technology Co., Ltd. ), thereby creating more job opportunities.
◇ Wen Qian: Are there any of the 305 companies you support who are particularly optimistic about?
◆ Lin Zhichen: Actually, I think they all have hope because they themselves were selected from tens of millions of companies, and the annual turnover of these 305 companies combined has reached NT$25.5 billion (about RMB 5.702 billion). Compared with last year's turnover, it has more than doubled.
▲ Give young people more opportunities to try, and if they choose, they must trust each other | "Dream Partner"
◇ Wen Qian: Then what are the main business models of your 305 companies?
◆ Lin Zhichen: There are all kinds of things, but the most important is e-commerce. Some people who work on this platform do "soft and hard integration", which is to integrate software and hardware.
For example, many companies now install cameras for security monitoring, and the signal of the camera is generally connected to the guard room. The guard room will display 50-100 videos on the screen, specifically monitoring everything that happens in the business. We have a company that studies "artificial intelligence", and can help you filter and tell you "what scenarios are normal and which scenarios are problematic" in the monitoring.
◇ Wen Qian: Didn’t there be any mistakes?
◆ Lin Zhichen: We are just starting out now, and there are about 150 companies using it. Because has an early warning function, it is not easy to get into trouble. However, to do this, there must be some special designs on the camera - the chip inside must be able to send these images to the cloud after some processing, and then send them to the cloud to do "artificial intelligence".
▲ "Artificial intelligence" has developed rapidly, bringing many conveniences to human life
◇ Wen Qian: I saw that many sensors in the United States are doing very well, so robots, drones, etc. are very powerful. So, which companies in Taiwan are doing these cameras now?
◆ Lin Zhichen: Of course, it is the five largest electronic OEM companies in Taiwan. These five companies work together to create cameras first, and then develop cloud-based artificial intelligence systems. Although these companies are international companies and their main markets are in Europe and the United States, most of the employees are still Taiwanese. Among them, some senior employees of only returned to Taiwan to engage in the development of "artificial intelligence" after they finished studying in the United States.
◇ Wen Qian: What is the approximate age range of these people?
◆ Lin Zhichen: Average age is 30 years old.
◇ Wen Qian: 30 years old? With their educational background, it is easy to find a better job in the United States!
◆ Lin Zhichen: Of course, the reason why they returned to Taiwan is because their hearts are full of ideals.
▲ people don’t have ideals, what is the difference between them and salted fish? ｜《King of Comedy》
◇ Wen Qian: So from the perspective of "artificial intelligence" development, these people should be considered at the forefront of the world, very competitive, right?
◆ Lin Zhichen: Yes, they have created "artificial intelligence" AR (augmented reality, a new technology that seamlessly integrates real-world information and virtual world information), and was sent to a world-type competition and won the championship.
◇ Wen Qian: It’s so amazing! So are these five major electronic OEM companies listed companies?
◆ Lin Zhichen: Not yet. From last year to now, more than 100 companies have used their products. If we can exceed thousands of companies this year and challenge tens of thousands next year, we can slowly move closer to the IPO road.
◇ Wen Qian: This is true. Although "artificial intelligence" is a very important economic development model now, it does not allow it to have a special IPO model in the law. , so it can only be down-to-earth and step by step to the market.
But the biotech industry is different. Even if has no turnover, it can still be listed. What do you think about this? Do you think the government should give you the same conditions as the biotech industry, or do you think that the government will harm them if it does this?
▲ In terms of listing, the government has given the biotechnology industry a lower threshold
◆ Lin Zhichen: I think the biotechnology industry was successfully listed because the government gave it a special IPO condition. is because of a group of so-called main investors in Taiwan. includes Runtai Group and Yongfeng Yu Group. They are very optimistic about this industry and are willing to support this industry. So after the IPO, the biotech industry still maintained good trading volume and stock price.
The problem in Taiwan is that Intel , Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence industries have not received support from Taiwan's main investors, so even if you open a door to make it IPO, its stock price may not be able to hold on, and the trading volume may not be available.So I don’t think it’s a question of IPO rules, but , but whether Taiwanese capitalists are aware of how the future will develop. What we need to do now is to guide capitalists into these industries.
