Taiwan AI Startup Appier has announced that it will move to acquire India marketing automation startup QGraph as a wholly-owned subsidiary to be renamed AIQUA, in a bid to deepen its AI application deployments and help enterprise clients accelerate digital transformation and commercial automation process.Appier co-founder and CEO CH Yu said that the AIQUA marketing automation platform will be a cloud-based self-service marketing automation mechanism, able to integrate user's footprints of connections with other web sites and mobile apps to facilitate collection and transmission of customized personal information.Yu said that the AIQUA platform can support multiple marketing channels, allowing enterprises to conduct comprehensive marketing via various outlets such as websites, communication apps, short text messages, and emails to avoid data fragmentations.He stressed that after incorporating the technology and market strengths of QGraph, Appier's AI-based marketing automation platform will boast an even more comprehensive service scope and broaden the firm's customer bases. QGraph, founded in 2015, mainly distributes highly personalized content and information to Southeast and South Asian clients including India developers of apps such as Zee5 and Paktor, and India's largest fashion jewelry retailer Voylla.Since its inception in 2012, Yu said, Appier has extended services to more than 1,000 brands and agents such as Nike, Disney, Ford, and Starbucks, utilizing AI to help them accelerate digital transmission and commercial automation.The company now has more than 300 employees serving at 14 footholds mainly in Asian cities, including Taipei, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Osaka, Sydney, Ho Chi Minh City, Manila, Hong Kong, Mumbai, New Delhi, Jakarta, Seoul, and Bangkok.

The just-concluded annual Taipei International Industrial Automation Exhibition saw a major gathering of industrial robot brands from around the world, showcasing a variety of robots able to make coffee, tie shoelaces, pack gifts and serve as casino dealers in addition to working at production lines.The world's top-four robot makers ABB, KUKA, Yaskawa Denki and Fanuc were all present at the show. Many of the top-20 brands in the sector were among first-timers at the fair, including Seiko Epson, Omron, KHI and Denso from Japan, as well as Universal Robots, Staubli and Comau from Europe. Taiwan robot supply chain partners such as Hiwin Technologies, Toyo Automation, and Delta Electronics were also among exhibitors.Market watchers said the robots are mainly designed to address the labor shortage issue and their development trend will therfore focus more on small loading capacity, collaborative operation and high precision.In line with the trend, Taiwan's Solomon Technology debuted Meca500 ultracompact six-axis robot arm introduced from Canada startup Mecademic at the show. Built with precision machined aluminum and zero-backlash gearboxes, the Meca500 is now claimed to be the most precise six-axis robot arm, boasting a repeatability precision of 5-micron, a weight of 4.5kg and a payload of 0.5kg.The miniature robot arm can be used to handle precision assembly, testing and inspection, and microprecision positioning at many industrial sectors including electronics, semiconductor, watchmaking, pharmaceuticals and healthcare.Japan's KHI showcased its latest lightweight robot arms RS007L and RS007N, both with six-axis vertically articulated designs, suitable for assembly, material handling, and machine tending applications at an operating speed of nearly 40FPM, the highest for lightweight robots.Seiko Epson displayed the industry's first robot integrating AI, 3D vision and force sensors, codenamed WorkSense W-01. The autonomous robot's two seven-axis arms can move like human arms, able to perform delicate assembly, transport, and other tasks that require human-like force control to avoid damaging objects.

The automotive industry optimistically expects Level 3 autonomous vehicles to become mainstream by 2020. Level 3 self-driving cars enable drivers to take their hands off the wheel and feet off the pedals. Level 4 systems can take full control, allowing drivers to take their eyes off the road. However, it may still be hard to believe for most consumers. Self-driving cars will need to have more control on road conditions and enhance their machine learning performance so that they are able to gain more public trust.Nevertheless, new business models for the commercialization of autonomous vehicles are burgeoning and grabbing market attention, such as self-driving service Robo-Taxi. The development of self-driving cars will no doubt bring revolutionary changes to the automotive market. Industry analysts mark two noteworthy checkpoints - Level 3 self-driving cars hitting the road by 2020 and fully autonomous driving by 2025.With two years to go until 2020, the industry has been gearing up its preparation for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and Level 3 autonomous vehicles as it generally takes two years to design, test and manufacture a new car model. The new ADAS is estimated to comprise more than 200 electronic control units (ECU), more than 20 sensors, including millimeter wave radars and image sensing devices, in addition to central control and network devices, to be able to cope with complex interactions between the vehicle, pedestrians and traffic signals. To respond to the technological challenges, leading automakers around the globe are stepping up efforts toward the R&D of their own unique smart technologies to embrace the autonomous driving era.A myriad of electronic control and high-performance semiconductor chips are being used by automotive electronics, powering advances of autonomous driving innovations. This also results in a growing share of costs of automotive electronics components and related mechanical parts in an average vehicle. Many new components with innovative designs are burgeoning and are favored by the supply chain, marking a new growth milestone for the automotive supply chain. The automotive market has seen the incorporation of popular functions originally available on smartphones in in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems and electronic instrument panels after they pass automotive safety certification. They have become standard features included in original equipment (OE) on leading car brands. The digital cockpit platform is another innovative concept that integrates all of the T-shape panel, electronic dashboard, and IVI system in one and uses a single processor to handle the in-vehicle control network comprising massive data. These developments aim to turn the future car into a giant computer.Competition intensifies amid explosive growth in demand for ADAS from China automotive marketThe upcoming autonomous driving era will spur a significant growth in the demand for active safety systems. Eye-catching ADAS features coupled with strong marketing campaigns by American and European automakers for their high-end vehicles have made anti-collision, lane change assistance, blind spot detection, adaptive cruise control and vehicle control the much raved-about ADAS functions. Not letting its American and European counterparts get all the glory, the red-hot China automotive market, already having shipments surpassing those to American and European markets to rank No. 1, will see more than 50% of new cars entering the market equipped with ADAS over the next few years. As such, the market is closely watching the growth potential of ADAS-related components.The competition in the ADAS market represents a pre-battle of autonomous driving technologies. ADAS leveraging a range of radar and sensor technologies combined with use scenario analysis, panorama view around the vehicle, sensor fusion technologies can quickly process and analyze sensor data, thereby instantly making a response to enhance safety on the road. A highly integrated solution combining a robust ADAS processor, digital control board and IVI system needs metal mechanical parts for protection so that they can perform high-precision sensing on the complex surroundings of a vehicle. These in-vehicle box-type metal mechanical parts of various sizes are essential to reliable ADAS operation. They are the small parts that make a big difference.Offering both premium quality and abundant capacity, Getac embraces explosive opportunitiesThe Taiwan automotive supply chain has a number of "hidden champion" firms. Among them, Getac, known for being one of the world's top three rugged computer suppliers, engaged in collaboration with German-based Volkswagen Group in 2017 to use Getac's rugged computers to craft Volkswagen's vehicle diagnostics systems. The deal enabled Getac to establish a direct service relationship with Europe's largest automaker. As a matter of fact, Getac has also made significant advances toward the automotive OE market with another product line – die-cast aluminum alloy automotive parts manufactured by its key subsidiary. The die casting process is characterized by quickly injecting molten alloy under high pressure into a mold cavity. The molten alloy then solidifies under pressure and the final shape is formed. The technology has the advantages of easy-to-shape, high yield and high temperature resistance. Furthermore, aluminum alloy is lightweight, rigid and reliable. It can be easily melted and reused to increase the recycling rate of scrapped automotive parts, making it particularly suitable for manufacturing ADAS and self-driving system components.Mechanical parts, mainly glass fiber and automotive metal stamping parts, contribute 40%-50% of Getac's revenues. Automotive mechanical parts account for 10-15% of Getac's revenues with safety belt spool andspindle shipments especially catching market attention. According to Getac chairman James Hwang, Getac produces 12 million to 14 million safety belt spools and spindle per month, annual capacity topping 140 million units. Suppose one vehicle uses four safety belt spindles. It means that Getac supplies the product to 36 million vehicles every year. As the global automotive market sees approximately 80 million new cars a year, it can be assumed that Getac holds more than 40% of the safety belt spindle OE market, outperforming the competition.In the past year, Getac has been stepping up efforts toward ECU housing and bracket for ADAS systems, for example, windshield wiper and air bag controller housing, camera housing, ECU housing and bracket, PCB substrate, new-energy car electricity generator casing, heat sink, and rechargeable battery casing. Hwang is cautiously optimistic that Getac's automotive mechanical parts business will make major advances over the next two to four years. The company has set a target to double its automotive business revenue in three to five years.To ride the growth momentum arising from ADAS developments, Getac undertook a capacity expansion plan last year, simultaneously increasing production capacity of its plants in eastern China and Hanoi, Vietnam. With a large number of automated production machines in place, capacity will expand 20% in the first phase. Additional capacity may be added based on order volumes. The steady expansion pace will enable Getac's automotive business revenue to maintain robust growth. Hwang spoke in great enthusiasm about Getac's ability to independently develop automated production machinery and design manufacturing process. Take its Vietnam plant with a high level of automation for example. Getac's automation and process design capability enables record-breaking production capacity with minimum labor while guaranteeing premium product quality. This is why Getac is favored by leading car brands and tier-1 automotive parts suppliers and selected as their partner in technology.Getac's manufacturing and operation teams have crafted advanced automated production equipment and designed high-efficiency production processes, which enable Getac to meet customer's urgent demand for mass production. Getac also demands premium product quality and continues to make improvements and incorporate innovative processes to stay ahead of evolving and challenging customer needs. This way, Getac is able to deliver high-value services to world-class car brands and tier-1 suppliers.In response to explosive growth of new types of opportunities arising from ADAS and Level 3 autonomous vehicles, wide-ranging mechanical housing and parts are being used in never-before-seen applications. Custom designs are being made and production capacity is also flexibly planned to accommodate customer needs. At this time when ADAS and Level 3 autonomous vehicles are getting ready to enter design validation and mass production, components designed by suppliers are beginning to get tested and validated against the new standards and requirements. With today's cars transitioning from traditional power to autonomous driving, the automotive market is exactly the type of market that Getac is targeting. Its high value-added characteristics and enormous growth potential is particularly grabbing attention worldwide. Leveraging its extensive service experiences, Getac has built an operation team truly capable of resolving customers' problems, which will help Getac capture tremendous ADAS and autonomous driving opportunities.Getac chairman James Hwang

Power supply maker and industrial automation solution developer Delta Electronics showcased a 3D machine vision-based inspection solution matched with CPS (cyber-physical system) for use in glue dispensing and precise soldering in PCB production, an example of application of CPS to smart manufacturing solutions, at Taipei International Industrial Automation Exhibition 2018 during August 1-4.Conventionally, changes in product specification are followed by costly production line adjustments. CPS enables software programming-based simulation of operating parameters such as routes and space of robotic arms' motion, length of conveyors and rotating speeds of motors in virtual environment. Then, parameters after simulation are transferred to controllers as reference for designing and structuring production lines, reducing time and cost for machine adjustments.Such simulation in virtual environment is not necessary to reach 100% or very high precision, for robots matched with 3D machine vision can automatically make up for errors between simulation and actual positioning, said general manager Andy Liu for the company's Industrial Automation Business Group.Ideal smart manufacturing is that many front-end procedures in manufacturing can be undertaken based on CPS at laboratories instead of being executed at production lines, Liu indicated.Delta Electronics' booth at Taipei International Industrial Automation Exhibition 2018Photo: Chloe Liao, Digitimes, August 2018

Denmark-based Universal Robots (UR) is gearing up to promote sales of its latest flagship e-Series collaborative robots in the Taiwan market to help local small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) accelerate their automation transformation.Showcased at the just-concluded Taipei International Industrial Automation Exhibition, the e-Series collaborative robots feature additional force torque sensors that can automatically figure out actual load and gravity of each robot in accordance with the parameters of four fixed positions while also boosting the agility of the robot, according to PH Yang, president of UR Taiwan.Yang said that UR hopes to help Taiwan SMEs materialize their automation transformation with the firm's cost-efficient e-Series collaborative robots. He disclosed Taiwan's Babo Arms, a bubble tea shop, has adopted UR's collaborative robots to handle repetitive juice mixing work, allowing employees to engage in more value-added jobs.Also present at the exhibition, UR president Jurgen vo Hollen noted that the Industry 5.0 trend with collaborative robots as the core is continuing fermenting, and the designs of collaborative robots must meet such requirements as fast installation, flexible deployment, easy programming, and safety operations if the robots are to become reliable tools for manufacturers to quickly upgrade their production lines.

In a bid to help Taiwan makers explore smart city business opportunities at home and abroad, Taipei City Government has plans to set up the Global Organization of Smart (GO Smart) in 2019, with the body's secretariat to be established in Taipei in October, according to Taipei deputy mayor CR Lin.Lin made the remarks at a recent press conference hosted by the Taiwan Smart City Solutions Alliance (TSSA) after Chunghwa Telecom chairman Yu Cheng became TSSA's new chairman.Lin said that the new organization will serve as a platform for Taiwan smart city industry to develop export sales, with enterprises and top officials of major cities in Taiwan and China to be invited to join the new body.On the same occasion, Cheng also noted that Taiwan is a major exporter of many smart city equipment and components, with 70% of components for driverless vehicles supplied by Taiwan makers, for instance. He said Taiwan has the capabilities to develop smart cities through IoT applications.TSSA and Taipei will continue to jointly organize the annual Smart City Summit & Expo in 2019, to be staged at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Hall March 26-29.

Advantech has disclosed it is working to strengthen its partnership with Tokyo Electron Device (TED) in striving to promote edge computing. With the aim of transforming the conventional business approach of dealing in single-unit embedded hardware to focus on AIoT solutions, Advantech and TED are cooperatively developing and promoting IoT edge computing solutions linked with Microsoft Azure.Advantech said the two companies have previously collaborated as partners in the embedded hardware business. Currently, Advantech is seeking to further expand its market share in Japan, while TED is seeking to bolster its sales in embedded hardware, design services, and AIoT solutions featuring Microsoft Azure Cloud Services.For the first round of efforts to promote edge computing, collaborative research is being conducted on the Plant Visualization Kit, which will streamline operations by visualizing the status of plant devices through linking Advantech's Tower Light Sensor, Edge Intelligence Server Series, and WISE-PaaS/EdgeSense together with Microsoft Azure, according to the Taiwan-based firm. Considerations are being made to launch this kit in the future, and verification tests are planned to commence at the headquarters of Aval Nagasaki Corporation, a consolidated TED subsidiary.According to Mike Koike, Advantech Japan's general manager, working with TED is a step in the right direction because the company has a wide sales network all over Japan and a high level of trust from its customers."We are entering the AIoT era, which means that significant transformations are needed in the very way that business is conducted. To expand the sales of our IoT Edge Intelligence WISE-PaaS as well as our hardware, Advantech needs a cooperative partner such as TED that can offer high marketing capabilities in order to sell AIoT solutions and that have strong technical support. This means providing solution services in a timely manner to meet customer requirements in bridging the gap between IT and OT. In a vital strategic partnership for the AIoT era, we will strive together to promote substantial developments in edge computing."Yasuo Hatsumi, vice president of TED, expressed excitement about cooperating with Advantech to offer transformational AIoT solutions to customers. "In addition to our existing hardware business, we will make efforts to further bolster our product and service functionality for AIoT markets."

Network communication technologies have been developing at a fast pace ever since they became an integral part of people's lives, advancing from 3G, 4G to 5G in the immediate future. They have fundamentally changed the way people live and work.5G communication is expected to bring not only enhancements to network communication quality but more importantly evolutional changes to the entire information industry. As what Li-Fung Chang, chief architect, 5G Technology Program Office, Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), pointed out, at the current stage, we should focus efforts on the development of key 5G technologies and core elements while also endeavoring to find crucial solutions that enable cross-industry integrations. Only by doing this can Taiwan secure a place in the global competition."Taiwan has a strong and solid foundation of information technologies, which provides an ideal base for 5G development," said Chang. "However, 5G advancements will actually hinge on the development of critical solutions that enable cross-industry integrations. For example, 5G technologies integrated with IoT, medical electronics or automotive electronics are some forward-looking objectives."Chang thinks Taiwan businesses have to change from working independently to working as a team whereby they can boost their competitive edge by combining forces and providing integrated solutions. This can include not only collaborations between corporations but more importantly cross-industry and cross-sector alliances.Particularly for 5G developments, businesses will not be able to access the latest technologies and patents without continuing academic researches. Academic institutions will not be able to carry on with their research without business sponsorships. As such, industry-academic collaborations are essential to high-tech advances."Therefore, MOEA, as a government agency, is working to facilitate industry alliances and partnerships as well as actively drive industry-academic collaborations," commented Chang. "MOEA looks to start a positive cycle by promoting commercialization of research results while driving corporate support of academic researches."It is also important to engage international experts. Professor Niels Kuster of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology is also the chairman of SPEAG, ZMT Zurich MedTech AG, NFT Technology Holding and Zeugi43 AG. He talked about IoT system standards, software and instruments. In addition to simulating, measuring and verifying whether 5G devices comply with related regulations and standards, different test environments can be designed and built for various IoT devices such as glasses, smart bands and other mobile devices, allowing products or solutions to more closely match user needs.As a matter of fact, many Taiwan businesses have been actively engaging in 5G research and development. For example, Auden Techno Corp., with continuing efforts on antenna technology R&D, is also targeting various 5G applications and has prepared complete solutions and services including component development, testing and validation, system build-up, solution planning and customization. Auden ensures its market leadership by keeping a close watch on worldwide trends and industry dynamics."5G communication is actually a very fundamental communication technology but it enables boundless applications," said Ruey-Hong Chou, chief technology officer, Technology Research Center, Auden. "Here at Technology Research Center, apart from critical 5G technologies and components, we also need to stay on top of market trends."In addition to IoT and automotive electronics solutions, Technology Research Center is also working with a Swiss corporation to develop new-generation smart healthcare solutions."With antennas being used in a growingly wide variety of applications, regulations and requirements on antenna designs and overall wireless communication quality become quite different as well," noted Jia-Lun Tang, vice president, antenna business unit, Auden. "The market is showing a growing demand for customized antennas so we are providing a more refined and diverse selection of antennas in terms of designs and testing services."Tang added that besides conventional antennas, more emphasis is being placed on the safety of medical implants. Passive sensors used in IoT devices are also among wireless communication products that receive great attention. Accordingly, Auden continues to strengthen R&D and production of wireless communication products while also gearing efforts toward a range of testing, simulation and validation instruments to ensure components and products comply with all safety regulations and user requirements."The need for simulation, testing and validation is growing with increasing product diversity. It's imperative that we deliver products satisfying customer needs," said Ching-I Hsu, director, Instrument and Equipment Sales, Auden. "Using these instruments, we can more accurately verify whether our antenna design and performance meet expectation. The digital simulation can also help us reduce loss and costs arising from production tests and thereby raise overall work efficiency."For wireless communication components and their testing and validation, the most critical consideration is whether they meet user needs or design spec. It is also essential that they can go to market within the shortest possible time frame. Under such circumstances, how to communicate with customers and come up with an ideal solution becomes crucial."Cross-industry integration is the trend, particularly for the wireless communication sector," noted Michael Chen, vice president, A Test Lab (ATL). "Take the healthcare sector for example. Sensor development is gearing toward wireless transmission and targeting long-term care needs so when we design total solutions, we not only need to take medical regulations and requirements into consideration but we also have to enhance interoperability and expandability. This can only be achieved through cross-department and cross-industry collaborations."Chen is of the opinion that just having good products is not enough. It is more important to form a complete industry ecosystem. By engaging collaborations across corporations and industries, we make joint efforts to bring brilliant end-to-end solutions to reality. Advanced technologies get to synergize and create optimal industry values."The industry ecosystem includes both information technology firms and industry-academic collaborations," noted Chen. "Academic institutions can support corporations with advanced research. The results can be implemented and commercialized by corporations, which can then fund academic institutions for further research. This is a positive cycle."Such a positive cycle enables joint industry-wide efforts to develop better solutions while also bringing research and manufacturing together in a mutually beneficial alliance through industry-academic collaborations.Yue-Pin Chang, chairman, Auden, emphasized that in addition to division of work in the company, Auden is also gearing up efforts toward cross-industry collaborations in hopes of building a new and competitive Taiwan team. "Aside from continuing to strengthen product R&D, the industry should combine forces to form a complete ecosystem and engage joint efforts to create total solutions of greater scale."Li-Fung Chang pointed out, "The Taiwan high-tech industry must work as a team and jointly contribute to a promising future for the industry. MOEA will act to bring outstanding Taiwan businesses together and help them become high-tech champions of the world."Yue-Pin Chang, chairman, Auden, and Li-Fung Chang, chief architect, 5G Technology Program Office, commented on 5G communication in the interview.Auden and IEEE EMC Taipei Chapter co-hosted the 5G technology forum, gathering experts from the industry, government, research and academia.Habib Bousleiman, Head of MRI Applications, ZMT (left), and Professor Niels Kuster (second from right) delivered talks at the forum hosted by Auden, gathering masterminds from home and abroad.

The leader of a research team has said he will not rush to establish a starup to commericalize its technology, - which has won various innovation awards, including iF - as a business will be just a tool to better life, not a purpose in itself.The team, led by RH Liao, at the Taiwan government-funded Industrial Technology Research Institute, has seen its innovative technology - fluid-driven emergency rescuer (FDER) - win various awards in the past 10 years, including Germany's iF and Reddot awards, IDEA of the US, Japan's Good Design Award (G-Mark), and the latest US Edison Award granted in April 2018.Winning the latest award may provide a good timing for Liao to start a new venture to commercialize the innovation, but Liao is still taking his time. He told Digitimes that he hopes to make better preparations before establishing a startup.Liao revealed that the micro-hydropower technology can be applied in two different devices: the fluid-driven tactical nozzle and fluid-driven sprinkler ligh. The two devices can provide thermal images, LED lighting, and laser indication of evacuation routes in the dark to enhance visibility, improve the efficiency of the rescue work, and protect lives of firefighters and victims.RH Liao, research team leader at ITRIPhoto: ITRI

Technology only accounts for 25% of what makes a startup successful while the CEO's leadership can contribute to 50% of its success, said Chun P Chiu, national policy advisor to the president of Taiwan, InnoBridge Capital's Senior Advisor and an angel investor, who has funded more than 100 startups over a 20-year period.Born in Taiwan, Chiu received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Waseda University in Japan and a master's degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University in the US. He designed the industry's first computer system-on-chip (SoC) and later engaged in R&D of DRAM, SRAM and flash memory chips. Chiu was in charge of mini computer research at Hewlett-Packard (HP). After he left HP in 1980, he founded Integrated Device Technology (IDT) with four partners, working on the development of SRAM fabricated using CMOS technology, an area where there was little research at that time. Four of the founders including Chiu were of engineering backgrounds and didn't know the first thing about fundraising. Later they recruited someone from AMD to be their CEO and the company successfully went public in 1984.Angel investors have valuable business connectionsDuring his time at IDT, Chiu transcended from his role as an engineer and took on challenging marketing and sales work. He established a Japan subsidiary for expansion into the Japan market, which has always been known for its stringent requirements on product quality. Chiu was lucky to have old classmates working for distributors and his customer Fujitsu so they were willing to try out IDT products and help with the testing. Following Fujitsu, Toshiba also became IDT's customer, making IDT the only American company successfully penetrating into the Japan memory market, which contributed 10% of IDT's revenues. Having completed his mission, Chiu decided to retire from his position at IDT. Afterwards, in 1989, based on his technological expertise and experience, Chiu founded another company, QSI, and made himself the CEO. QSI went public in 1994 and was acquired by IDT in 1998, when Chiu formally retired and began angel investing to this day.Drawing on his 20-year experience as an angel investor and venture capitalist, Chiu spoke frankly that more than 70 startups that he invested in went belly up, 10 are barely alive, five successfully went public and seven were acquired. The most successful one is network security equipment provider Netscreen, which was the first to make use of ASIC chips. Going public in 2001, Netscreen was later acquired by Juniper Networks for US$4.3 billion in 2004. The deal gave Chiu 200 times return on investment. Chiu helped recruit Frank Marshall from Cisco to join Netscreen as an advisor. Chiu thinks the move contributed to Netscreen's huge success. Marshall not only recognized Netscreen's technological strength but also helped the team set a product R&D direction. He also invested in the company himself and assisted in the search for a suitable CEO. As he thinks a company's success hinges on whether the management can work as a team, Marshall insisted all three founders must reach consensus on who should be hired as the CEO. Then, everything worked out.The deal that took Chiu by surprise the most was Azalea Networks in 2008. The wireless mesh network communication technology the company developed was very competitive at the time. Chiu thought Azalea Networks had very promising outlook and provided pointers for company operations at monthly board meetings. However, the founder from China was not satisfied with the slow growth in the US market and decided to return to China to bid for a 2008 Summer Olympics project. Unfortunately, Azalea Networks was unable to collect payments after completion of the project, which put the company in dire financial difficulty. Chiu came to rescue again and finally helped find a buyer - Aruba Networks - to acquire Azalea.Marketing and sales play a pivotal role in corporate successDrawing on his experience in starting his own businesses and angel investing, Chiu gives suggestions to Taiwan entrepreneurs with respect to the preparations they have to make in order to reach success.Know what the market wantsMarketing and sales is key to a company's success. A business leader has to figure out what the market needs and whether the company's technology matches the need. What Chiu used to do was to call field application engineers (FAE) stationed at customer sites back to join sales specialists and R&D engineers in brainstorming meetings every quarter so that the company could stay on top of customer needs. Chiu warns that entrepreneurs with engineering backgrounds often think they have the best product and the market will scramble for it. That is the biggest mistake when you start a business.CEO leadershipA startup is already halfway to success if it has a good CEO. Many startup teams have technological strength but they are going nowhere. In most cases, it's because they are unwilling to work with outside professional managers to help with their business operation. After a startup receives the first round of funding from an angel investor, it will have to develop the ability to raise additional capital by itself. In general, Chiu does not hire a CEO at the beginning but instead allows the startup team to experiment on its own. If they can't make it, Chiu will try to hire an outside CEO.Entrepreneur characteristics: humble and coachableAccording to Chiu, the most important characteristic of an entrepreneur is the willingness to stay humble, keep learning and engage professional talent. When Chiu was doing DRAM research, a few Japanese engineers were very humble so Chiu taught them everything he knew. Later when a Japanese firm got an outsourcing contract for computer chips, they analyzed the chip and came up with a better design than IDT's. The ability to take advice and communicate is another characteristic that Chiu places great importance on. An entrepreneur does not have to follow everything his mentor says but must be able to listen and communicate.Execution of business model combined with strategy planningA startup must have a clear business model and an understanding of how big the target market is, how strong the competitors are, what its own advantages are, how it is going to sell its products and what its market strategies are.Concise business proposalVenture capital funds get a lot of business proposals every day. They need to quickly determine whether a proposal has any potential so they usually just read the first page. As such, an entrepreneur looking to persuade venture capitalists must be able to present his point concisely on one page.Japan's technologiesFamiliar with the Japan industry, Chiu thinks although the Japanese marketplace has a reputation of being conservative, Japanese enterprises hold special technologies and are now gradually opening themselves up to partnerships with foreign businesses. The Taiwan manufacturing industry known for its agility and efficiency is a good complement to Japan. Furthermore, with Japan's trust in Taiwan, now is an ideal time for Taiwan and Japan to join forces. However, it will definitely take some time to build trust in a business relationship with Japanese firms.The whole world is in search of the next unicorn. Hardware is Taiwan's strength but future growth may be limited if it continues to focus only on hardware development, said Chiu. Instead, by combining hardware and software (application) developments, Taiwan will embrace tremendous opportunities. Furthermore, Asia offers more room for growth than other regions in the world. Taiwan, with geographical advantages, is an ideal testing ground for problem-solving applications. Taiwan can also work with other Asian countries holding different advantages to complement each other.But Chiu warned against putting too much emphasis on China due to market uncertainties there. Nevertheless, Taiwan startups should not hesitate to take the first step. "Just do it and you can always make adjustments later," he said.(Editor's note: This is part of a series of interviews focusing on the problems and opportunities that Taiwan-based startups face. The interviewees are venture capitalists and angel investors from Silicon Valley and Taiwan.)Chun P Chiu, senior advisor of InnoBridge CapitalPhoto: Joseph Tsai, Digitimes, May 2018