Taiwanese startups will never succeed globally?
thank you silicon valley
Yesterday, I met Steven, one of the founders of YouTube, to talk about how we might bridge Silicon Valley resources with Taiwan’s startup scene.
Without hesitation, he said, “I made a lot of mistakes investing in Taiwanese startups during COVID, and I wouldn’t do it again. If a startup tells me they’ll build v0 in Taiwan and then launch v1 globally—no thank you.”
When people asked why, he didn’t explain in detail, only that there haven’t been any successful cases in the past.
The questions in the room were sharp. One person brought up the example of when Google acquired a Taiwanese company. Despite how hardworking Taiwanese people are, the team struggled with risk-taking and lacked a self-starter mindset. “They just couldn’t work through the cultural differences,” the person said. “They grew up being told what to do their whole lives.”
Steven went even further: “If there are two identical startups, one in Taiwan and one in Palo Alto, I’d invest in the one in Palo Alto, no question.”
And honestly, he’s not wrong. We’re raised to choose the safe route. Risk isn’t encouraged. Most families in Taiwan don’t see startups as a real career, it’s more like becoming an artist: something for the passionate, but impractical. If you try, you’ll probably be told to stop dreaming and start conforming.
Throughout the entire session, I felt both frightened and deeply grateful.
Frightened, because I was reminded of strong the need to simply blend in Taiwan. People there often saw my ideas as strange or overly ambitious. At Minerva, though, when I shared the same ideas, people would laugh and say, “Haha, that’s so Esther!” I realized that in Taiwan, I often had to suppress parts of my intellectual curiosity just to fit in. I didn’t have enough “weird” friends, playmates who would not only accept my quirks, but actually enjoy and join in on them.
I thought of my current startup, where we can even openly joke about whether a VC’s son is gay, and it’s not a big deal. It's been a while since I paused to appreciate how lucky I am to be in a space where I can be fully myself, surrounded by resources that bring me closer to my dreams. My mind has been occupied with stress of my work, my visa, my healthcare, and capitalism. Just being in Silicon Valley, where the future is built, where people believe in your potential, and you start believing in it too, is indescribably beautiful.
Here, the money and the networks exist for bold adventures. People are open-minded, even excited by the quirkiest individuals. I can always find someone who wants to build, play, or create with me, whether it’s launching a product or selling matcha at an AI startup school. In Taiwan, I might spend an entire year and still struggle to find someone willing to try something that out-of-the-box with me.
In Taiwan, there’s no street lined with VCs ready to invest, no block filled with law firms waiting to help you incorporate. There aren’t people all around you who share the same wild, ambitious mindset. And honestly, it’s not just Taiwan, outside of Silicon Valley, there’s simply no place quite like this. A place where you’re allowed to dream, to realize, and to risk it all, with people who cheer you on, not because you're playing it safe, but because you're daring enough to try.
I’ve failed more times than you’ve even tried.
I remember landing here in May 2023, I hadn’t written a single line of production code. Now, I can build whatever product I imagine.
Back then, I didn’t believe I could make a real impact in the world. That changed after meeting people like Sam Altman and Elon Musk, and realizing they’re just human too.
I never believed I could be that person, until one of my closest Minerva friends raised a million dollars, after I brought him to a hackathon at our incubator.
Silicon Valley transformed me. It gave me ambition. It made me believe in what’s possible—for the future, and for myself—and it gave me the tools and people to make it real. Thank you, Silicon Valley. I may not agree with all your values, but I’ve never felt more grateful, for the possibilities you unlocked in me.