What Meet Taipei Is For: Leave Room for Startups Just Beginning

I just saw a Taiwanese startup group discussing the value of exhibiting at Meet Taipei. (Look up the original post if you are interested.) Now in its eleventh edition, Meet Taipei feels to me more like a Taiwanese startup carnival. Liveliness and visible energy matter too. It gives Taiwan some visibility in the Asia-Pacific startup scene and offers companies just starting out a stage on which to present themselves. Larger, established ‘old startups’ need not necessarily attend. Leave more opportunities for companies only one or two years old, which are still exploring possibilities and need advice to adjust and improve. More importantly, these events can encourage Taiwan’s government and public to support innovation, entrepreneurship, and startup activities, with central and local governments willing to allocate more budgets and resources to the industry. Startups at the venue can talk with newly met investors, update investors who have followed them for a while, explore integration opportunities with other exhibitors, and visit foreign startups’ booths to see what they are doing, exchange ideas, and find opportunities. Many opportunities must be pursued and created. Let us keep working at it! For Meet Taipei itself, after eleven editions, it is worth considering how to transform and break new ground rather than repeat a standard annual format. More importantly, it should continue influencing policy and the direction of resource allocation.