Seven Reflections After FITI Reviews: Pool Resources, Clarify the Endgame, Stay Asset-Light, and Find Real Demand

I have finally finished writing this round of FITI reviews. Here are a few thoughts. 1. If startup teams in Taiwan are trying to solve similar problems or achieve similar goals, could they join forces? Rather than wasting resources on duplication on this small island, organize complementary strengths and compete internationally. 2. Make greater use of national resources for early-stage development, including Ministry of Science and Technology programs—FITI, Meng-Ya, Ba-Jian, and TTA—Ministry of Economic Affairs industrial technology development programs, and the National Development Fund’s angel investment program. 2-1. If you have not yet established a company, consider staying at university while your professor applies for the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Meng-Ya or Ba-Jian programs. Build substantial results and data before leaving university to start the company. 3. The team should clarify why it is starting a business and what endgame it wants: acquisition or an IPO. If acquisition is the goal, seek opportunities early to talk with major companies and understand what conditions would make them likely to acquire you. Aiming directly for an IPO may require different planning and management. 4. Building the product, or even obtaining certification (for example, from the FDA), is not necessarily the ultimate test. What ultimately matters is whether you can actually sell the product around the world. 5. Conduct more interviews with target customers to understand demand. But if someone says the idea sounds good, suggests you try building it, and says they will evaluate adopting it once it is ready, that response is usually not positive—it is very negative. Customers with real demand cannot wait to pay, even before your product exists or while it is still imperfect. 6. Even with unique technology—perhaps world-leading?—you still need people who can run the company. What currently concerns me is professors asking students aged 22–26 to start businesses: there will certainly be many pitfalls ahead, large and small. Ideally, the team should include someone who has actually run a business. 7. R&D startups should operate as asset-light as possible at first. Do not try to do everything yourselves, from R&D through production. Production, quality control, and yield in particular have many pitfalls. Outsource wherever possible and concentrate resources on the most essential work, rather than trying to expand in every direction at once.