Taiwan’s Startups in Global Competition: Core Strengths, First-Team Pay, and International Capabilities

Let me share an observation I heard. Taiwan’s national-team players are excellent, committed, and hardworking. But in international competition, their own capabilities still determine whether they win or lose. The outcome does not depend on spectators’ passionate cheering. It comes back to whether the players and the team are globally competitive. ----- The analogy I heard was applied to Taiwan’s startup teams. Taiwanese entrepreneurs are excellent, committed, and hardworking. But whether a group of excellent Taiwanese entrepreneurs can win a championship in global competition still depends on several factors: 1. Is the event one of Taiwan’s core strengths? Taiwan cannot win every event. After all, it has only 23 million people. 2. Can you genuinely assemble Taiwan’s first team to compete internationally? Major domestic and overseas companies readily offer pay of 3 million or 5 million to attract graduates of leading universities such as National Taiwan University, National Tsing Hua University, National Chiao Tung University, and National Cheng Kung University. If a startup’s pay budget is only 1 million or 2 million, can it really assemble Taiwan’s best team for international competition? 3. Even if you assemble one of Taiwan’s best teams, is it still the best when compared with the best teams from other countries? A competition has only one champion. A startup market is even more likely to be winner-take-all. The key is still the players’ own quality and capabilities. Whether a startup team ultimately stands out internationally depends on its own abilities. You cannot stay behind closed doors congratulating yourselves. You have to go out and face world-class tests and competition. Spectators can wave flags, cheer, and make an away game feel like a home game, but that still may not determine the result. Why emphasize the spectators? Because investors are like spectators. We are moved by the passion of players and entrepreneurs and choose to support them, but we are not the ones on the field. However committed or passionate we are, however loudly we cheer or wave our flags, we cannot change the result. Nor do we want to keep blaming the players or entrepreneurs. We can only accept the outcome. The decisive factor in winning or losing still comes back to the capabilities of the team or startup itself.