月份: 2017 年 11 月

With the title of “Emerging ASEAN & Indian Entrepreneurs in Taiwan”, the 4th destination of STARTBOARD’s first Campus Roadshow was National Taiwan University – No.1 University of Taiwan!

The main purpose of our Campus Roadshow is to come closer to the international talents who studying in Taiwan and motivate their passion of building their own business in this country – which is also the main goal of STARTBOARD. The Campus Roadshow is organized in different universities across Taiwan.

The sharing and interacting between STARTBOARD team and international students at NTU was conducted with an enthusiastic atmosphere. It was great to know that there are so many students who are passionate for doing startup and how great their ideas are. We really hope that through the event, they got the needed information which can be helpful for them on the way of making their dreams come true!

From left to right : Anna Chen – NTUSTBIC’s secretary, Iman Adipurnama – Halal XYZ co-founder, Intan Dzikria – Halal XYZ co-founder, Putu Adiya Halal XYZ co-founder, Charlotte Wang – STARTBOARD Project Manager, Uniform Lin – STARTBOARD COO. 

In our effort to understand Muslim community better, we had a chance to meet up with Iman, Intan, Putu, three co-founders of Halal XYZ, who develops Halal TW – a project that offers Halal experiences via mobile app in Taiwan. They shared with us their thoughts about the importance of raising awareness about Muslim culture in Taiwan, what challenges Muslim people usually have and what they are keen to see when applying Halal TW in the real life.

1. How was Halal TW founded?

The story started 4 years ago from Hadziq Fabroyir – 哈明飛 ,who now is the CEO of Halal XYZ. Hadziq was asked to help Chinese Muslim Association (中國回教協會) to organize their database of Halal restaurants in Taiwan then create a map with pins on Google. It was Hadziq who came up with the idea “Why don’t we just make an APP?” Then after that, we got together as we were studying at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST) and have been working on for Halal TW till today.

2. At first, any challenges seemed hard to overcome?

Since we are foreign students living in Taiwan, we are not really familiar with the environment here. Financial issue, language barrier, new government system, lack of networking and many other obstacles we needed to deal with. We got an idea but did not know where to begin to turn it into reality.

Then our professor from NTUST suggested that we should join a competition organized by our school’ s Business Incubation Center last October, 2016 and we got the 1st prize which greatly reinforced our belief in the future of Halal TW.

After the first achievement, we brought Halal TW to many platforms to present our ideas and continued to re-adjust, and develop in Taiwanese environment.  

3. What motivates you when working in Halal TW? What impact Halal TW has created you are most proud of?

Our motivation is our intention to do good for other people. We want to help our Muslim community and introduce Halal to Taiwan. It also came from our own experiences because all co-founders of Halal TW are Muslims. Halal TW has  directly influenced our lifestyle and many other Muslim people’s. Before we officially launched the APP to the public, we have self-tested many times, re-modified the functions to make it more accurate, convenient and user-friendly. One of our Muslim friends from the Netherlands came to Taiwan for studying, she used Halal TW as her guide in Taiwan. She was able to experience everything without worries about whether it was true Halal or not. She said it was one of the best trips she ever had when away from home. It also experienced by our Indonesian, Malaysian, and Singaporean friends who came to Taiwan to travel. We hope that every single user among Halal TW’s 4000 users will be able to feel that way in Taiwan.

4. Apart from the reason you are all NTUST’s students, is there any other reason for Halal TW to choose Taiwan to develop?

Of course, it was a significant point as we were in Taiwan when we started Halal TW. Finding the right co-founders who can communicate effectively, who share the same passion with others and most importantly, to make a commitment with the work is extremely helpful to start a business.

But for us, Taiwan is more than just the land of opportunities. Yes, there are so many competitions with the theme of startup spirits for students like us. But more than that, to us, Taiwanese people are really open-minded and willing to support. Halal TW would like to become the bridge between non-Muslim and Muslim community. Moreover, Halal TW is a trustworthy source to bring Halal lifestyle in general and specifically the diversity of foods to more people.

Another reason is that Taiwan is in the middle of business hot spot around Asia pacific, Especially when the government launched the New Southbound policy. We felt first-hand on the impact in the tourism, education, finance, and halal industries. But there are still much more need to be done by all stakeholders, so we are here to help them solve their problems in the Halal economy.

5. Last but not least, any advice as the encouragement for young people particularly students to do startup?

You should be prepared that it will not be easy in the long run. Sometimes you have the idea, know the goal, but you do not know how to get to it and where to go. Look for mentorship from your school’s advisors, NTUST Business Incubation Center, from STARTBOARD, listen to the stories, experiences from those who started before. Open your networking and get into startup community, opportunities are always there for those who dare to dream and stick with the dream no matter how challenging it is.

Thank you so much for your participation in STARTBOARD and wish the best for our collaboration. 

Such an honor of STARTBOARD for co-organizing [New strategies for Asia Pacific investment: The forum of sharing business opportunities for biomedical industry event] in National Taipei University of Technology, on Oct 26.

Biomedical industry manufacturers from Asia Pacific region participated in the event and exchanged their professional experiences among international companies. Since New Southbound Policy, Taiwan has emerged as a promising market with high demand for biomedical industry to extend its internal and external sizes.

Also STARTBOARD officially set up our collaboration with Healthcare Industry Development Association across the Strait (Hidas) by holding the MOU ceramory, during “New strategies for Asia Pacific investment”.

Its great to share that we are officially a partner of Taiwan Association of Virtual and Augmented Reality TAVAR 台灣虛擬及擴增實境產業協會– Taiwan’s first VR/AR association and trade group dedicated to promoting virtual and augmented reality technology and accelerating industry growth through government collaboration.

The purpose of TAVAR is to provide experts from different fields a community of software, hardware and talents as well as a communication platform so through TAVAR they can build a network of corporations, contacts and resources achieving a high value industry. TAVAR aims to promote and expand Taiwan’s VR/AR industry, actively form alliances and cross-field cooperation, to bridge the Taiwan IT industry to international markets and establish a leading position in the world.

With this partnership between STARTBOARD and TAVAR, we hope to collaborate and give a hand on building a better startup ecosystem for all startups to develop in Taiwan as well as international.