Startup Taiwan: Foreigners Business Guide

Bonny Kross, an artist from South Africa, but with roots from other African countries including Uganda, is the first from Africa to cast his vote in Taiwan, this election 2022. We spoke with him about his journey and his purpose for exercising his right as a newly minted Taiwan citizen.Meanwhile, our friends from Space21 co working space is offering one month free rent for desk space, office address, if you sign up for full year contract. Email me – paolojoseph@gmail.com Follow Bonny Kross’ IG, to know more about his life in Taiwan as a music teacher.Support this show -  Support the show

Our guest for today is Garrick Cheung from Hong Kong, founder of WorkSpace. He came to Taiwan more than 4 years ago to help people from Hong Kong set up their companies here in Taiwan. His startup WorkSpace is a co-working space and also connected to his wife's accounting firm for foreigners who wish to set up a company here. Since his co-working space is located in New Taipei City, he discusses why a foreigner should consider this location for their startups.Accounting firmhttps://www.shop1688.com.tw/aom20210331016/Co-working spacehttps://www.workspace.com.tw/Support the show

This show is to answer your questions about starting up in Taiwan either for business, school, or just hanging around! So, leave your questions in the comments section below.Our topic for today is about a foreigner who started his own Board Game company, we want to learn how he has done it and get to know more about his journey in Taiwan, so far. Let’s welcome Kurt Penny from Canada! Support the show

What’s up, what’s down, what is going on around. I am Paolo Lising, founder of StartupInTaiwan.com. This show is to answer your questions about starting up in Taiwan either for business, school, or just hanging around! So, leave your questions in the comments section below.Our topic for today is the challenges of banking in Taiwan1.    Citibank, one of the biggest banks in the US, is no longer operating in Taiwan. They left not just in Taiwan, but other countries too including Russia, Thailand, and the Philippines. So, for all of you Americans to consider, maybe open a Bank of America account first, before moving here. You’re probably wondering – why can’t I just keep my Citibank account and transfer my money from abroad – good luck with that!2.    Wiring money from your account abroad to your bank in Taiwan has to be done physically, not online. And if you want it, to go smoothly, do it at a branch of your bank back home. For example, Bank of America in America to Bank of America here in Taiwan.3.    Taiwan banks are not well integrated in international banking system, which mostly stems from Taiwan, preventing a heavy inflow of capital from China, thus affecting even flow of capital from other countries. 4.    When you open a bank account here, you can be denied of it, even when you have all the papers to prove that it is not laundered cash. 5.    There are too many banks in Taiwan. 18 bank branches and 161 ATMs for every 100,000 adults. Too many banks lead to excessive competition and low profits of banks. This could be the reason why many banks do not want to lend money to foreigners.6.    Foreigners who wish to borrow money from banks must have a Taiwanese guarantor, and this guarantor will be responsible for paying in case of default.7.    Those who are holding a Gold Card are exempt from this “guarantor rule.” It has been a cause of rage by many ARC and APRC holders, calling it unfair ruling especially when we, and by we I mean me and my buddies who have this card, have been paying taxes for years as a proof of our stable income and commitment to stay in Taiwan.8.    There could be a ruling coming out soon, exempting foreign startup founders from having a guarantor for borrowing for the purpose of running their business. I don’t know the exact detail, but the source is pretty high up there.9.    Only E SUN can be connected to PayPal. So, if you’re receiving money through PayPal, make sure you have an E SUN bank account, make sure your name in PayPal is exactly the same as your name in your E SUN bank account or you’ll have a problem.Support the show

Elias Ek, Founder and CEO of Enspyre, and author of How to Start a Business in Taiwan, talks about the opportunities for foreigners to invest in local startups in Taiwan as he invites them to attend at upcoming event on June 20th, 6:30pm at FutureWard.The event will have him and other foreigners who have invested in startups in Taiwan that are owned by foreigners and even locals. To register for this event, go to - https://www.facebook.com/events/1349182355579419/?ti=lsSupport the show

We’re starting a new segment, delivering some news and or insights about the hottest topics for foreigners here in Taiwan.This month of May, is tax filing season so here are some important things that you need to remember. 1.   The government of Taiwan has extended the filing of taxes for individual, business, and property taxes until June 30th, to avoid crowding at tax offices, now that we’re experiencing a surge in the number of COVID cases.2.   For business owners, you need to file taxes every two months, that is every other month starting January, March, May, July, and so on. But for individuals, you only do it in May, and this year, you have until June 30th according to the Ministry of Finance.3.   For foreigners who own a business, you actually don’t need an accountant to file taxes for you. You can do it on your own.4.   You don’t need to separately file for full year tax statement, unless you need to submit receipts that you have just collected, for example some big items that you purchased months ago but failed to submit in your last filing. Usually, tax office does not mind these expense receipts because it helps them collect higher taxes.5.   If this is your first time to get an accountant to help you with your tax filinga.   Most of them will charge you for filing taxes on a monthly basis but they only file your taxes every two monthsb.   Most of them will charge you for filing taxes every month and one more month for “full year tax filing”, when it is already included in the scheduled filing every other month.6.   The going rate for monthly tax filing that Taiwanese accountants charge is NTD3,000 per month, anyone asking for lower amount is OK, anyone charging higher is taking advantage of your lack of research. Support the show

Jake Morrison from the US has been living in Taiwan for almost 30 years, and been running his tech company here for 19 years.His focus is converting business opportunities into new products, designing user experiences and then bringing them to life. Morrison has delivered hundreds of projects in health care, FinTech, AdTech, telecom, and supply chain, including challenging high-integrity and high-performance apps handling billions of transactions a day.Morrison finished his Bachelor of Science (BS), Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical/Space Engineering from the University of Southern California. He also went to the National Taiwan Normal University for Chinese language studies, he is fluent in business and technical Chinese with HSK 5+ level. He also studied Japanese Language from the National Taiwan University, he is intermediate Japanese JPT3+ level.Despite being in Taiwan for almost 30 years, he hasn't applied for permanent residency. His father served as a professor at the National Taiwan University for 14 years and was not even qualified for retirement benefits after his stint. Support the show

This event is organized by the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), a technology research and development institution in Taiwan. ITRI has been organizing these events to foster startup growth. Paolo Lising, founder of StartupInTaiwan.com, and MillionDC Ltd. was chosen to host the event. The guest speakers were Bruce Bateman, Chairman of Innovation and Startup Ecosystem at LITEON, and Melody Ho, Marketing Director of Glia Cloud.Support the show

This event is organized by the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), a technology research and development institution in Taiwan. ITRI has been organizing these events to foster startup growth. Paolo Lising, founder of StartupInTaiwan.com, and MillionDC Ltd. was chosen to host the event. The guest speakers were Bruce Bateman, Chairman of Innovation and Startup Ecosystem at LITEON, and Melody Ho, Marketing Director of Glia Cloud.Since Google joined Safari and Firefox in blocking third-party cookies, people have been speculating on the consequences and seeking out alternatives, as a significant amount of digital activities are dependent on third-party cookies. What does going cookieless mean? Support the show

Our topic for today is a little bit edgy, why is Taiwan not so a competitive place for startups. Jachim Gobien, from Belgium is a freelance management consultant with a corporate banking background. He has almost a decade of work at BNP Paribas in Belgium and in the Middle East.Through his startup, Galablynx, Jachim provides financial analysis, financial modeling, and risk management services to SMEs, VCs, and PE firms.Support the show

Our topic for today is about foreigners who are teaching in Taiwan. Now, the common knowledge of many from abroad is that foreigners are limited to teaching English in Taiwan. While most of the teaching jobs are for teaching English language, many universities and even schools for kids are looking to hire teachers in other fields of study. Our guest, Carlos Argueta, from Honduras, is an experienced programmer and researcher who has published papers and has launched projects ranging from mobile apps to Machine Learning. Carlos is skilled in Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, and app development. He is a strong information technology professional with a (PhD) focused in Computer Science from the National Tsing Hua University.Carlos’ Book recommendationsSapiens: https://www.amazon.com/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah-Harari/dp/0062316117/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1650012953&sr=8-1Thinking Fast and Slow: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374275637/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1650012983&sr=8-1Carlos’ Twitter: https://twitter.com/kidarguetaCarlos’ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.om/in/carlos-argueta/             V             V             VSupport the show

Fershad Irani, from Australia, is a website performance consultant, helping companies achieve their business goals through website optimizations. His core focus is reducing the environmental impact of the web, reducing their carbon footprint.He has a bachelor’s degree in Business, Computing, Finance and Internet Business Technologies from the university of Technology Sydney. Fish left his job at one of the biggest tech companies in Taiwan to pursue his own passion. He is currently in Taiwan on an APRC.Follow Fish - https://www.linkedin.com/in/fershad/Check out his website - https://www.fershad.com/The Green Web Foundation: https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/Fish book recommendation - Susan Cain's book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...SHOW LESSSupport the show

One of our failures from 2021 was that we never explained what www.startupintaiwan.com is all about and this video was from a crowdfunding pitch that never gotten light simply because we're a foreign company and all of Taiwan's crowdfunding platforms ado not cater to us and Taiwan doesn't have access to Indiegogo nor Kickstarter, which is rooted to failed banking systems here. Please visit our site and support by subscribing - it is our only way to continue this mission for now.Support the show

Our guests for today are the founders of MangaX, the grand champion at the recently concluded Dragon’s Chamber Taiwan!We have Genevieve Murphy, from the US, Joe Huang from Taiwan. In this episode, they shared their experience at the recently concluded Dragons' Chamber Taiwan pitch competition. They also explain further what Manga X Technologies is trying to solve and how they work efficiently as a team with having Taiwanese and American founding team.For our YouTube viewers we have the MangaX’s pitch at the end of this video, courtesy of our friends from EddyLive who livestreamed the event, and from Catapult, the fastest, easiest way to edit massive amounts of video. To clarify, we are not sponsored by them.Support the show

Our guest for today is Raymond Ko, a returning Taiwanese from the USRaymond has 20 years of experience in cash, sales trading, Asian markets covering a strong mix of Asian-based and North American-based clients. He has built and managed a team of 11 traders and assistants in Taiwan.From that hectic career, Raymond pivoted to a career as a freediving instructor and digital marketer.He is currently based on the small island of Xiaoliuqiu off the Southwest Coast of Taiwan. Famous for its abundant sea turtles, the community there has been built on the wealth of the tuna industry, with the fishermen commanding 14% of global tuna market share at one time.Our topic for today is about the business of freediving and Raymond’s quest to claim his Taiwan citizenship. Support the show

t.Hub with Taiwan Department of Economic Development sponsored an event for Taipei International Startup Week 2021, and one of the panel discussions talked about metaverse. What is it and what is Taiwan's role in this industry?The discussion was moderated by Mr. Volker Heistermann, Co-Founder, MosaicVenture Lab. The panelists are Bruce Bateman, Chief Innovation Advisor, LITEON, Luca Di Fiore, Head of Products at ADATA Technology, and  Sascha Pallenberg, CAO, aware The Platform and former Head of Digital Transformation, Daimler. Support the show

Mark Pimentel is a high frequency quantitative trader & entrepreneur who moved to Taipei in 2018 after more than a decade of experience in New York and Chicago.Pimentel co-founded Kronos Research, a multi-strategy cryptocurrency trading firm with about 140 employees across three offices in Asia, and trades $5-10B in daily volume. He is also building WOO Network, a cryptocurrency dark pool with deep liquidity and token-based incentive schemes. Their goal is to build digital asset trading infrastructure and improve market execution. How can Taiwan well position itself in the cryptocurrency market? What are its strengths and areas to improve for this industry?Support the show

Claudia Wild, from Germany, is a cultural chameleon & seasoned copywriter, content creator & translator. She has 9 years of experience writing multilingual content, running digital marketing campaigns & developing e-learning material. Multiple years of self-organized, remote work have made Claudia a digital workplace aficionado that easily adapts to any circumstances, honed her skills of working independently with little to no direction, and have led her to become well-versed and thrive in a digital workspace.Claudia is a digital nomad – she was in Taiwan for more than a year on an Entrepreneur Visa and moved to Canada mid-2021. What made her move out? Is she coming back? Support the show

Our guest for today is Mark Hsu, a Taiwanese-American entrepreneur & investor who has been based in Asia since 1996. Stanford graduate, Mark is currently running a portfolio of companies in education, e-commerce & internet-enabled services.Our topic for today is funding options for startups in Taiwan. Mark explains that while Taiwan no longer requires a minimum paid-in capital, the reality is that government grants are heavily tied to paid-in capital.  he said, in most situations, the grant will be a discount to your paid-in capital.As an investor, he also enumerated the pointers that he is looking for when investing in startups in Taiwan. He noted that he has funded a number of foreign startups.For job postings, investment for your startup, visit Mark's company - https://www.11fleet.com/For questions about starting a business in Taiwan, we have a created this new website - https://startupintaiwan.com/Support the show

We invited back Joseph Prosnitz from the US to talk about his experience as Taiwan Entrepreneur Visa holder who successfully applied for Gold Card.Why did he apply for a Gold Card, are there some significant benefits vs Entrepreneur Visa?Joseph is the founder and CEO of Stride 360 a company that helps people get the complete gym experience in their homes. Joseph built out the first version of Stride that switches between exercise bike and elliptical trainer to make his workouts easier, especially in the winter later expanding to include rowing and ski. The machine comes with an open social fitness platform to motivate users to maintain their stride towards a healthier life, pun intended.Support the show