Organizations & Teams

Reading guide

Robin argues that startups can attract excellent engineers away from big companies by presenting their ideas, dreams, and goals. They need employees willing and able to take risks; those seeking comfort choose major technology companies. Explain that the journey and growth can matter more than the outcome. A new hire at a startup can receive major responsibilities and challenges sooner, quickly becoming a key person for a product or market. Even if the company fails, they gain experience unavailable to junior employees at large firms, where reaching a key product role may take more than ten years.

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Robin opens by saying founding teams can take many forms, but mutual respect is essential. Partners must agree on the rules beforehand and follow them. Bao Fan’s talk then explains that spouses, classmates, and equal partners can all succeed, provided responsibilities and decision-making are agreed in advance. The greatest risk is partners rejecting the original rules later. Core arrangements for sharing rewards and making decisions should not change lightly; procedures and regulations can evolve with company scale.

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Bao Fan first describes Series A, B, and C: A validates technology or a product people use and explores the business model; B funds replication at scale; C approaches an IPO and supports formal systems or industry consolidation. Robin then outlines the stages: seed and angel rounds build the product and explore demand; pre-A and A find product–market fit and a profitable model; B rapidly replicates it, with exponential revenue growth but not necessarily profits; C and later deepen the moat, expand broadly, and prepare for an IPO. Lean startup means rapid, low-cost trial and error, then scaling once PMF is found.

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Lei Jun’s principles emphasize cash on hand for early startups: how long could you survive without revenue? At scale, focus on cash actually received, not receivables. Find the best people and prioritize getting them on board. Robin adds that broken financing is among the commonest causes of failure; do not prepare only for smooth fundraising. Business setbacks, difficult fundraising, departures of key team members, and giants entering are more common. Prepare multiple scenarios. Stable cash flow only keeps you from losing; winning requires talent. Netflix’s approach and a family-like culture each have advantages and disadvantages.

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After the FITI 2023 practice camp, Robin quotes Wang Xing: most teams present will probably fail in this venture—not a curse, but a lesson from experience. Prepare for failure. Being willing to work hard despite a high chance of failure is real passion, and failure still offers opportunities to learn. Robin adds that entrepreneurship is a process of self-refinement, learning, and growth. Experience accumulated through failure can become the foundation for the next venture.

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Robin discusses two challenges for Taiwan’s software industry. The first is technical barriers: in 2001, Openfind believed Chinese-language search offered a substantial barrier to competition, yet Google ultimately swept the global market. With zero marginal cost, software readily favors the biggest players. The second is complete solutions: large companies use acquisitions to assemble comprehensive offerings, making it hard for a small company’s superior standalone product to compete with an integrated suite. Robin argues that market scale matters most. Taiwan’s software industry once benefited from its position as a computer manufacturing powerhouse, with PC-cillin and CyberLink as examples. Its future requires reaching beyond Taiwan into large international markets.

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Robin believes that, beyond talent, capital, technology, management, and entrepreneurial spirit, Taiwan needs large alumni networks whose members branch out and support one another. He points to Silicon Valley’s PayPal Mafia and to Stan Shih’s founding of Acer in 1976, followed by the emergence of groups including Acer, ASUS, Wistron, Pegatron, Qisda, and AUO. He has yet to see a similar process in Taiwan’s software industry and hopes someone can turn a single tree into an entire forest. He also discusses the roles of Taipei Institute of Technology, ITRI, and universities such as Tsing Hua and Chiao Tung in industrial development, particularly semiconductors.

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Quoting school principal Li Xigui’s observation that ‘specifics bring depth,’ Robin argues that how concretely founders describe problems and details affects investors’ interest. His supervisor often remarks that startup presentations explain the industry and overall direction fluently but become vague about operational details, leaving him uneasy about investing. The best VC investment has everything in place except the final catalyst: the team has worked through the pitfalls from MVP to product-market fit and needs capital to scale rather than continue finding its way. Robin emphasizes two capabilities for entrepreneurial success: acting quickly and observing problems concretely.

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Robin revisits the branching process behind Taiwan’s electronics industry. San Ai Electronics led to groups such as Kinpo, Compal, Inventec, and Quanta; Acer led to Wistron, ASUS, Pegatron, Qisda, and AUO. Another process involves large companies helping smaller ones grow: TSMC has elevated equipment, materials, and other semiconductor suppliers, with doing business with TSMC demanding world-leading capabilities. Robin argues that Taiwan’s software industry lacks both processes. Institutions such as ITRI and Taipei Tech have also been important forces behind industrial development.

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Robin shares a lesson from interviewing startup teams. When he asks why something happened, answer A often describes an outcome rather than a cause. Do not settle for a surface-level answer. Ask why five times to uncover deeper causes, forcing yourself to think more deeply as well. Questioning can upgrade your thinking, moving you from not knowing what you do not know to recognizing those gaps. Many founders discover, through an investor’s follow-up questions, that they have never really considered a particular issue.

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Robin relays a sports analogy. Taiwan’s national-team players are excellent and hardworking, but results in international competition depend on their capabilities, not spectators’ enthusiasm. Applied to startups, he identifies three questions. Is the field one of Taiwan’s core strengths, given its population of only 23 million? Can a startup assemble a first-team lineup when large companies offer pay of 3–5 million and its own budget is only 1–2 million? And is the best Taiwanese team still among the best when compared internationally? Startup markets can be winner-take-all. Investors resemble spectators: their enthusiasm cannot determine the result.

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Listening to VK Technology Reading Time discuss Musk’s Idiot Index—the finished-product price divided by raw-material cost, with a higher ratio supposedly meaning greater stupidity—Robin gets the impression that Musk may not place much value on other people’s expertise. He compares this with Taiwanese business owners who complain that lawyers and accountants charge too much. He juxtaposes another story: an engineer charges 10,000 to fix a machine by drawing a chalk circle, itemizing the bill as 1 for drawing the circle and 9,999 for knowing where to draw it. Professional value comes from years of training, troubleshooting experience, and precise judgment.

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The excerpts trace private equity’s ‘vulture’ reputation to deals such as KKR’s acquisition of RJR Nabisco, then present counterarguments: acquisitions by competitors often cause more job losses; private-equity-backed companies perform better after returning to public markets than other newly listed firms; and their bankruptcy rates are comparable with those of other companies. Robin adds Taiwanese examples—Fusheng, Nien Made, and Primax—and recalls participating in Fusheng’s return to the public market. He closes by hoping for more responsible capital markets that pay greater attention to labor, the environment, social issues, and diverse values, and contribute to sustainability.

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Robin looks back to 2004–2005: offered a choice between Dangdang and JD.com, most investors would have chosen Dangdang. It was founded earlier, received US$11 million from Tiger, and became profitable early, but then slowed new investment. JD.com started later and expanded aggressively under Richard Liu, repeatedly encountering working-capital problems. By the time Dangdang went private in 2016, its market capitalization was only US$530 million; the gap with JD.com later exceeded a hundredfold. Robin’s conclusion is that a company’s greatest risk is refusing to take any risk, and its scale depends on its CEO’s vision and courage.

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Robin argues that if a product has been on the market for six months or a year without a positive response, it may solve a nice-to-have problem rather than a must-have one. A technical breakthrough that improves performance or reduces cost by only 10–20% can also meet a weak need: customers may prefer established partners with stronger relationships, distribution, and commercial terms. He argues that a benefit exceeding tenfold, demonstrable with real commercial data, can turn it into a must-have. He also cautions founders against prioritizing social contributions before understanding their business model. First establish the customer’s decision-making priorities.

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The opening excerpts relay Buffett’s and Munger’s advice to ordinary people: keep cash available, earn more than you spend, and invest in your earning power. Robin adds three reminders for founders. First, maintain cash reserves, which can help you outlast competitors in difficult periods. Second, earn more than you spend; seeking more investors otherwise brings mounting pressure. Third, invest in your own and your team’s ability to learn, grow, and earn, building a moat around the business. He also emphasizes that health matters most.

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As the fourth quarter of 2023 begins, Robin suggests reviewing the decisions and actions of the first three quarters. Were they coherent, consistent, and directed toward an established destination, or was each day a series of improvised responses? If events, problems, and new customers arrive entirely at random, he argues, strategy and goal-setting are probably at fault. The closing excerpts from Ning Xiangdong explain that strategy must express a goal and a direction, so that actions remain coherent and team members work in coordination.

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The opening excerpts from 36 Rules for Entrepreneurs (a descriptive translation of 創業36條軍規) discuss developing managers: founders should personally set hiring standards and oversee selection, promote from the front line, avoid blind faith in outside experts, and maintain clear rewards and consequences. Robin adds that founders should invest time in selecting people because they best understand the team’s needs at its current stage. Managers who have worked their way up from the front line tend to have stronger bonds and commitment. Do not assume outsiders are always better: the most suitable people may already be nearby. Beyond the founder, VCs look for a solid team with strong execution capabilities.

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The opening excerpts urge startups to be extremely cautious about bringing in strategic investors, especially when their related businesses overlap with the startup’s core business. Robin adds that a large corporate investor offers reputation, money, and apparent resources, but those resources may not actually be available. Each business unit has its own profit targets. A startup may also be labeled as having chosen sides, end up serving the group’s strategy, or face intervention in its management. He recommends a mix of strategic and financial investors to create balance and preserve room for the startup.

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Robin imagines opening a restaurant to outdo the one next door by offering an enormous menu. More than 90% of the dishes go unordered, while even the few specialties may not be done well. Startup teams can fall into the same trap, trying to make an all-encompassing product that becomes a jumble with no competitive strength in any one area. Slow performance and a poor user experience then drive users away. He argues that good product development depends much more on subtraction: clearly identifying and retaining the functions users need most urgently.

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Robin responds to the debate over ‘founder mode.’ A founder’s management capacity is finite. As an organization grows to hundreds or thousands, layers of managers each communicating only with the few dozen people below them can soon disconnect the founder from markets, customers, and the organization itself. He cites Steve Jobs’s annual skip-level meetings with one hundred key people from across the company—not the one hundred most senior. Direct contact across levels helps founders understand frontline conditions, communicate their thinking, and selectively engage in detailed management.

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Robin sees different investment expectations as a matter of stage. A team still building an MVP and seeking product-market fit will naturally be losing money and needs investors willing to take early-stage risks. After PMF, investors want more numbers and evidence. The critical question is whether the team has found a business model capable of profitability. Expanding staff and replicating at scale before doing so often hastens failure. A Taiwanese team pushed overseas by fundraising narratives or investors before validating its model at home may burn money in both markets without clear results.

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Robin offers eleven startup-mentoring observations. A need ranked thirteenth by customers is a nice-to-have, even if they acknowledge it exists; investors prefer must-haves. Before committing resources, conduct open-ended interviews with thirty target users, one-on-one for two hours each. Test willingness to pay: actual customer payments are the strongest signal. Treat free pilots cautiously, since passing a trial does not guarantee payment. Recycling ventures need full cost-benefit analysis because customers may not pay higher costs. Avoid projects requiring expensive market education where possible. Interview before building even an MVP, and heavily discount stated willingness to pay.

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The opening news account describes TWSE and the venture capital association encouraging venture firms and their portfolio companies to enter capital markets, including the Taiwan Innovation Board. Robin relays the association chairman’s hope that ten listed venture firms of 3–5 billion each could provide 30–50 billion for sustained early- and mid-stage investment in Taiwan. The latter amount would be less than roughly 0.02% of national wealth, yet could support transformation and upgrading. Although VC is a small alternative-investment category, he notes its backing behind many of the largest US companies.

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The opening passage relays Rework’s view that a single employee mistake should not trigger an elaborate new policy: tell the employee it was wrong and move on. Drawing on underwriting experience, Robin notes how incidents generate rules and supplementary guidance that accumulate over time. Systems are rarely reviewed or reduced. Measures that appear to prevent misconduct can instead create bureaucracy, lost flexibility, and slow action. He cites public-sector processes designed to spread responsibility, producing paperwork and overtime but relatively little value.

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Robin refers to past fundraising scandals such as Hongyuan and explains his view that only designated institutions under specified legal frameworks may raise funds from the general public. He believes most countries have comparable rules. Banks, insurers, and public companies have laws and supervisors intended to protect depositors, policyholders, and retail investors. Not everyone may simply collect public funds; small fraudulent or pyramid schemes should face stricter oversight. Taiwan’s startups have many other financing channels, including angels, VC, CVC, incubators, and accelerators that can refine business models and connect founders with appropriate investors.

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The opening audio-summary excerpts argue that performance is often weakest in the year after fundraising, as attention shifts from doing the work to proving the company deserves the money. Robin adds that pursuing an excessive valuation, raising capital, then failing to deliver expected results pushes a team toward a cliff. Startups do not always starve; many overfeed themselves. Immediate hiring and advertising expansion can raise expenses before the organization, product, user experience, and sales are ready. Faster cash burn then makes the next funding round a harsh test.

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Robin argues that entrepreneurship is not an exam. A tutor can summarize material and teach test-taking techniques, but a few startup classes or advisers cannot substitute for learning through practice. The middle reprint describes success stories as rough frameworks and urges founders to find their own path rather than copy appearances, using restaurant brands as examples. Robin concludes that even Jack Ma or Pony Ma could not reproduce Alibaba or Tencent in a different time and setting. Details change, and some teachers and advisers have no actual entrepreneurial experience.

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The opening reprint from Sam Altman argues that successful people have usually made at least one correct prediction others thought wrong. Self-belief needs self-awareness: hear criticism on the initial assumption that it is true. Robin adds that founders are often confident and optimistic. As a VC, he frequently tells them that his views are personal, and that if theirs differ, they should not let him override their judgment. Many VCs remain open to learning. Founders likewise need humility, respect for uncertainty, and openness, because entrepreneurship contains so many pitfalls they do not know they do not know.

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Robin observes business owners bombarded with claims that AI and digital transformation are essential for survival. Hearing AI discussed everywhere, they return anxious and announce adoption with only the vague aim of reducing costs and improving efficiency. Without understanding why, they soon confront data preparation, process changes, changing behavior, and disappointing benefits, then retreat. Leaders must understand their company’s problems and define the scope and boundaries clearly. If they cannot explain what they need, internal teams, advisers, and startups struggle to deliver.

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Robin argues that a startup building at the application layer—on a technology giant’s platform—may lack strong barriers and differentiation. A better way to win is exceptional product quality and user experience. A competent team can produce a 60-point product, but a giant can casually do the same; matching it means losing. Differences emerge between 60 and 80, while winning truly requires 90 to 100, with each additional half-point to point extremely difficult. Use your product and competitors’ products as a user would, examining differences throughout the workflow and whether they actually solve users’ problems.

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After Apple announced Vision Pro, Robin considered the options for small startups around the world that had spent years developing a single technology, such as eye tracking or gesture recognition. Startups with outstanding, clearly leading technology could become acquisition targets. Strong technology, a comprehensive patent portfolio, and a capable team could also attract a buyer seeking next-generation development talent. Others with ordinary technology but valuable patents could sell those while they still had value. Most laggards would gradually disappear. Headset makers lacking a developer ecosystem or price advantage against Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro would, he expected, mostly exit.

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The opening story about sociologist Corey Keyes illustrates how environment shapes people. Robin argues that Taiwan’s best may rank only in the middle in Asia and need enormous effort to keep up globally. He compares moving from Taiwan’s professional baseball league to Japan and Major League Baseball, and describes a software team of over 200 facing global competition despite leading Taiwan. Some ventures, such as semiconductors, can start in Taiwan because it has world-leading talent, customers, and technology. In fields where Taiwan has little global presence, founders should carefully consider targeting the world or their main market from the outset.

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Robin notes that most people were skeptical when Lei Jun announced Xiaomi would make cars, yet the SU7 sold over 120,000 in its first year. What impresses him most is Lei’s ability to catch up after entering late. Dozens of phone makers preceded Xiaomi, and electric vehicles also appeared to be a crowded market, but the team’s exceptional execution let it catch up. Other lessons—changing one’s thinking, setting aside pride, and learning from competitors—are offered for reference.

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This reprinted article on forward-deployed engineering discusses how B2B startups choose reference customers. Such customers provide revenue and peer endorsement, while field experience shapes product direction. Well-funded requests that build no reusable capabilities can consume the entire team. Robin adds that knowing which projects and customers to decline matters as much as knowing what to pursue. The Harvey and Palantir examples are relayed from the article and were not individually verified in this review. Their figures should not be read as achievements independently confirmed by this site.

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This summary of Dedao’s discussion of 精進 starts with concise writing and the thinking it demands, then offers tables, lists, and deliberately introduced differences to break fixed problem structures. Robin uses the catfish effect as a metaphor: some conflict and new stimulation may disrupt organizational complacency. This does not mean more conflict is always better. No reliable historical evidence for the story of catfish keeping sardines alive was found in the review; it remains an unverified fable. The book edition and Jobs’s office example also await verification.

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This summary of Dedao’s discussion of 精進 argues that effort needs focus, resource allocation, and strategy as well as willpower. Barrel and learning-stage metaphors distinguish individual from team development and warn against staying perpetually at the starting stage in different fields. Robin distinguishes the two: organizations and production processes should identify and clear bottlenecks, while individuals entering working life need one or two outstanding strengths rather than being average at everything. This is a framework, not a law that every team’s performance is determined by its weakest member.

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A reprinted article on AI-powered one-person companies, followed by Robin’s brief commentary; the original author is not identified. Before starting, recognize the gap between observing and doing, and the reality of not yet knowing how to run a company. Three layers matter: distinguish resources supplied by an organization from personal capabilities; build a working business system from positioning through customer relationships; and use AI as a long-term collaborator that amplifies judgment and capacity. AI helps only when you enter the market and improve your judgment through experience. Robin favors leaner teams and more careful hiring.

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These Dedao management notes discuss four of Fredmund Malik’s tools. Reduce meeting frequency; prepare, follow up, and stay focused on the agenda. Reports should make writers think, rather than substitute breadth of information for depth of thought. Job descriptions and delegation should keep the best people focused on the most important work, including in self-management. Systematic organizational cleanup asks which activities you would not start today if they had not already begun. Set aside a day each year to remove obsolete work and list what to stop next year. The central idea is that focus is the essence of execution.

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This second recommendation foreword to 未來回推法, whose author is not identified, contrasts projecting forward from today with working backward from the future. The former supports daily stability, the latter strategic breakthroughs; both are necessary. It presents future-back thinking as a trainable organizational practice: co-create a future picture across departments, break it into staged tasks, and establish regular foresight mechanisms to counter short-termism. With AI and supply chains changing, founders and corporate investors need to balance survival pressure with long-term positioning.