Taiwan VC’s Opportunity: Deep Local Roots Rather Than Superficial Internationalization

This episode discusses how the global flood of capital is bringing another new wave to VC. Not only America but Asia and traditionally established Europe are changing rapidly. How should Taiwan find its opportunity? Worldwide early-stage startup investment and growth-stage VC are tiny relative to real estate, fixed-income, secondary equity, and commodities markets—perhaps only 1–2%. Yet that less-than-2% share helped bring about technology giants such as Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Tesla. VC invests in the future, enables change, and thereby lays foundations for the present. Taiwan’s long-term development planning should try directing a small amount of capital toward the future. Let me speak up for Taiwanese VC. People say it is insufficiently international, but that is partly because VC is a very local industry. Apart from America’s unusual position of being effectively a world unto itself, VC firms need sustained local roots, trust, and reputation to secure the best deal flow. Taiwan’s China Development (中華開發) established U.S. offices early and stationed teams in China for the long term; in America, it even hired white foreign professionals to run investments and source deals. Yet the best and second-best U.S. and Chinese opportunities did not come to China Development first. The question instead is how Taiwanese VC can effectively help Taiwanese teams internationalize. It need not mean superficial internationalization through offices worldwide sourcing local investments. Again, VC is fundamentally a highly local industry requiring long-term roots and an accumulation of reputation and trust.