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Techstars regional manager committed to robust ecosystem in Taiwan
In his first trip to Taiwan after taking the new position, Techstars Greater China Regional
Manager for Startup Programs Matthieu Bodin meets with local facilitators, organizers and
participants. Besides collecting feedbacks and experiences, he also maps out his visions for
regional development.
A France native, Bodin is a veteran for Startup Weekend in Hong Kong. Over four years of firsthand experiences help him understand how to build up communities, maintain the
momentum and find sustainable resources. Last year, for example, Startup Weekend in Hong Kong held 2 regular events and at least 8 “vertical” events with specific topics and
smaller in scale. While he is aware of potential financial and logistic challenges, he
encourages organizers to try and modify various models that may work better with local
startup ecosystems, under the same Startup Weekend principles.
With solid heritage in North America and Europe, Bodin admits that “Asia was not in
Techstars vision” before merging with Startup Weekend last year. With 800 cities in the
Startup Weekend coverage, Techstars aims to leverage this global network and “identify
great startups and partners”. He hopes stronger presences in Taipei, Hong Kong, Beijing,
Shanghai and other cities will highlight “local dynamics and consistent outputs”.
Starting from 2007, Startup Weekend has defined itself as a pre-accelerator event to help
from the beginning of startup journey. By gathering designers, developers and
entrepreneurs for 54 hours over a weekend, it emphasizes on “customer validation”
and how the market will respond to each and every startup idea, says Bodin. Many past
participants either collaborate with like-minded individuals they met, or join other startups
they discovered during the event. This connections sometimes cross national borders,
best embodied by Startup Weekend Fukuoka X Taipei in 2014 that brainstormed around
senior life.
Techstars has deployed 11 regional managers around the world to develop the brand, reach out and support local organizers as well as communities. Bodin plans to replicate what he
observes in Hong Kong that “starts small with a long-term vision”, while “understand
local specificity”.
Other resources in the Techstars universe, such as accelerator and venture capital, come after local ecosystems mature. For this objective, Bodin prefers to work long and stay strong in
several cities, rather than stretching thin in hundreds. These models will later attract
neighboring cities to join the movement. After 11 Startup Weekend events in Taiwan, he
looks forward to supporting its growth, “because everything has to start with strong
ecosystems in specific places,” says Bodin. “We are not here to do volumes or push for
numbers.”
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