Hi founders,
This year has been far different than anything we’ve been through. Do you remember that at the beginning of the year, we had the Australian fires raging as well as Kobe Bryant’s passing? So much has happened since then, but being able to adapt and survive this pandemic gives me hope that we can get through the worst of it.
At AppWorks Accelerator, we host 2 batches a year, and this year when AW#20 started, it was in March 2020, right at the height of the pandemic becoming truly global. We had to make a lot of adjustments to accommodate the fact that international founders could no longer fly to Taiwan to attend the program. With over 60% of the batch being international, we knew we had to develop a unique solution so that our international founders get the same opportunities as the local teams.
We decided to create a hybrid program to serve both local and international founders. When we kicked off AW#21, we asked the 11 locals teams to come on-site to our accelerator coworking space, where they were able to get a key to come in 24/7 and could listen to our sharings and program introduction in person. We also asked the 13 international teams to dial in to Zoom where we had a few cameras set up around the coworking space to stream directly to the online attendees. A strange setup but it worked! For the first time in history, we were able to create a hybrid experience for our founders no matter where they were.
Since then, we’ve hosted monthly reviews, fireside chats, and more, all online so that founders could learn from other founders. For the ones that are landing or exploring the Taiwan market, we also include meet-and-greets and company visits to other founders’ offices so they get the local experience as well.
One of our alumni, CK Cheng from AsiaYo (AW#12) also had to deal with this outbreak that dramatically affected his industry. AsiaYo is an online travel agency focusing on vacation rental and hotel bookings and the pandemic brought cross-border travel, which accounts for over 70% of their business, to a halt. CK and his team were able to make some tough decisions and adjusted their resources swiftly towards domestic travel in Taiwan starting from March. This led to the company's first nine months booking revenue to grow at over 50% year-over-year compared to the same period last year.
By adjusting with the pandemic, CK was able to overcome the challenges that battered his industry. And the year isn’t over yet! Who knows what might await us for the rest of 2020 and 2021, and by preparing to be flexible and adaptable in uncertainty, there might be a way through.
If you’re interested in learning more about other founders’ experiences in adjusting to the pandemic, apply to AppWorks Accelerator #22 >> https://bit.ly/369VGqd
- Natalie Feng Lin, Analyst
