The End of the Beginning: Looking Back on 2021 and Ahead to 2022

The end of the beginning Looking back on 2020 and 2021, the world lived under a once-in-a-century pandemic that changed life and work and accelerated many developments. Rather than constantly chase change, consider what remains enduring. Put time, energy, and resources into lasting fundamentals. At work in 2021, several portfolio companies completed listings, writing a new chapter in Taiwan’s capital markets. 91APP listed and became a Taiwan-born startup unicorn valued above 30 billion, encouraging more digital startups to shine in coming years. Great Tree, an investment held for eight years, exceeded ten billion in 2021 revenue. Zhen Yu Hardware completed its OTC listing. These were merely milestones; the real challenges and development begin now. In the fourth quarter, I also joined the company in a new project. I hope to finish this challenge smoothly in 2022 and lay a foundation for transformation over the next decade. VC invests in the future and helps change happen, yet over time the industry itself has changed little. It remains traditional and largely untouched by its era. As the external environment changes rapidly, VC must reassess its own work and take more varied forms. Silicon Valley firms such as Sequoia offered examples in 2021. Taiwan’s VC, corporate venture capital (CVC), and private equity (PE) sectors must find their own direction. The pandemic years 2020–2021 are only the end of the beginning. We experienced Web1 and Web2 and formally moved toward Web3 in 2021. The metaverse is a visible expression; underneath may lie the creation, storage, and transfer of digital-asset value. Just as Steve Jobs launched the first iPhone in 2007 and we took more than a decade to reach iPhone 13, hardware—wearables and the Internet of Things—and software—AI, cloud, transmission, edge computing, and blockchain—may make the next ten, twenty, and thirty years turbulent. We are digital immigrants; from that perspective, it is difficult to imagine digital natives’ outlook. Still, more apparent impossibilities can be created. All that ambition is written for others to read. The future offers more possibilities. Stay open, keep learning and growing, preserve your original purpose, ride the waves, and become a better version of yourself. At work in 2022, I still hope to help more people succeed, bringing more change and value. I also need to finish the project begun in the fourth quarter of 2021 and keep moving. I expect the pandemic eventually to pass. After two years learning about the virus, we should find a way to live with it in 2022. The global biotech industry should also develop its own models through the pandemic. My personal goals mostly involve time with Shen Xiaobao. He seems ready for greater understanding and may need new kinds of guidance. But parent and child are both still exploring, without a clear direction yet. Finally, Happy New Year. May 2022 bring peace, health, and the fulfillment of your wishes.