Today we’re interviewing Evelyn Sun, Investment Manager at Foodland Ventures, a VC firm in Taiwan.
Ok so now we’re going to see Taiwan’s view on food tech. For those that don’t know, Taiwan is a powerhouse when it comes to innovation.
I went to about like, 3 museums per country and one of the most memorable museums I went to was the National Science and Technology Museum in Kaohsiung, the coastal southern city of Taiwan. Oh man, Taiwan smokes everyone when it comes to the thoughtfulness and more importantly, the investments they put into business-to-business play is impressive. 92% of the world’s tennis rackets, their semiconductor industry is a behemoth,
What I found interesting is Taiwan’s view on loyalty. The people in Taiwan love being Taiwanese. I’m not going into the politics here but what was interesting is that the General partners in Foodland Ventures were successful American entrepreneurs who came back to Taiwan to cultivate and grow better businesses.
Anyway, Evelyn shares with me some of the focuses and innovations happening in not just food tech, but also things like ag tech and restaurant tech. It really is a great overview of Taiwan’s entrepreneurial tech industry.
Links
Taipei Tech Arena
Kaioshung
Taichung
AppWorks
Horeca
Botrista
HoYa
Hoshay
HumeX
Stinky Tofu
LinkedIn’s Evelyn Sun
What’s Up With Adam
We’re almost done with this podcast. I think we have one more episode in Taiwan, then I’m taking a break to release one more final episode. Or two, or three. I dunno.
I won’t stop podcasting. I’m just switching a couple of formats. You can take the host out of podcasting but you can’t take podcasting out of the host
I’m so excited about what’s going to happen this Month. Please keep an eye on wherever you follow me on social media.
So back to Taiwan, I left a little bit about Beitou. Take the red line up North, and you’ll end up in the mountainous town of Beitou where they siphon off the sulfurous hot springs into a sort of peaceful resort. I decided to get a private room at a super nice hotel and it came with its own direct source for a nice soak in the hot springs. They say you shouldn’t be in the water for more than 30 minutes, but I stayed there for maybe 3 hours? And I think I actually got Sulfur poisoning.
Anyways, it was super refreshing. I’ve splurged a bit on this trip. After 4 days in a crappy hostel in Taipei, that luxury spot was amazing.
So I took the slow train to Kaohsiung. Big mistake but I got so confused by the trains that I accidentally booked the bullet train. After 5 hours, I arrived in Kaoshiung but forgot that I booked my hotel a day after I arrived. So tired, lost, and hungry, I just got a quick room, that wasn’t my best moment.
The reason I was in Kaohsiung was because I had a friend which we’ve been in touch for years! Noniko is a musician but also an IT specialist ina. Cruise ship. Currently, she does cruise ships in Antarctica. Amazing person, and always is interested in entrepreneurship. We actually met online due to a mutual online course, and met once in a while, and kept in touch. She’s a world traveler, so it was nice meeting her on her turf.
Anyways, Kaohsiung is definitively this chill ocean town that reminds me a little bit of Seattle. There’s a nice port, giant floating animals litter the Bay, and
Finally, I stayed in a small Airbnb in an old apartment for about a week. It was cheap and did the job and for the first time since maybe Busan, I just vegged out and enjoyed just wandering around the city. There’s always something magical about wandering around with no agenda, seeing the same sights, working intensely at a Starbucks, or stumbling upon a night market, museum or even pop concert. Something beautiful about just walking with what little time you have left. Even though there might be a sense of urgency to do everything, you have the conscious choice to just wander.
I hope you enjoy this episode with Evelyn.
An Innovation Ecosystem
What makes an innovative ecosystem?
Whenever I think of people giving back to a community, it makes me think about a lot of things. They say that Silicon Valley is only successful because there were people who wanted to give back to the community. In fact, a simple story I read was a tale of two cities. Boston and Silicon Valley used to be the top cities for talent. Boston had this old-guard feel and Silicon Valley was this up-and-coming innovation hub. They say one of the biggest reasons that Silicon Valley came out ahead was because the people were open to passing down the knowledge that they know.
Oh, and also the awesome weather.
Anyways, apparently, Stanford started this. A certain professor push forward openness’ and innovation and that in turn gave an exponential effect on the ecosystem in Silicon Valley.
I try to give back as much as I can. I think this podcast is one of the ways I do it. Recently, a lot of students have approached me about entrepreneurship and I try to just spill my heart out. I tell them it’s hard, but it helped me find myself.
I haven’t made it yet, but I still think you can be at any point in your life and give back to nurture and grow the next wave of genius talent.