AppWorks founder reveals why they’re moving into AI and blockchain

Beyond the Hype is a series by Jacob Chee, Tech in Asia’s head of blockchain initiatives. He interviews influential personalities who are changing the landscape of their respective fields, with a focus on companies that have the qualities to last through the hype.

Jamie Lin founded the Taipei-based accelerator AppWorks in 2009. Having began coding and building his own computers at the age of 10, he co-founded his first ecommerce startup, Hotcool, in 1999 and went on to co-found Intumit, Social Sauce, and Muse Games.

Lin received his bachelor’s degree in engineering from National Taiwan University and MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. He blogs on Mr Jamie.

What did you do before setting up AppWorks?

The dotcom boom hit Taiwan when I was in college. I started one of the country’s first ecommerce websites with a friend in my varsity basketball team, but then the dotcom bubble burst in 2000 and everything went south. We pivoted into a SaaS company—our knowledge management software was a hit and we started selling really well.

But in 2004, SARS hit, so everything came to a halt. I decided to pursue an MBA in New York University (NYU). During that time, I was actually one of Facebook’s first 8,000 users; my class basically grew up with Facebook.

Two of my MBA friends became interested in creating a travel social network and they recruited me. We raised US$2 million but soon realized that it didn’t work because people only travelled two times a year; they didn’t need a social network for it.

In 2008, my CEO decided to pivot into a game production house. But I wasn’t a huge fan of games back then, and US companies were still struggling with the financial crisis. I also just had my son and wanted him to grow up Taiwanese.

I thought that iPhone and Android’s launch will make hardware a commodity and software more valuable, and that’s why I decided to come back and start AppWorks.

How did you get started in the blockchain space?

I started paying attention to bitcoin back in 2013/2014. As I started looking into the decentralized nature of its design and limited supply, I realized that it’s probably going to be the “digital gold.” I also felt that its design has the ability to make money supply more decentralized. I am especially bullish on the micropayment use cases.

I started writing blog posts and promoted that Taiwan should try to position itself as a cryptocurrency hub even back in 2014. And yes, I also bought a bunch of bitcoins!

Recently, AppWorks started an accelerator program for blockchain and AI startups. What do you hope to achieve?

We started with the popularity of iPhone and Android—hence the name AppWorks. But with the decline of smartphones, we can continue to be a general accelerator or we can tell founders to look at blockchain and AI: the two new paradigms that would create new opportunities. If we do this, then we might be able to spark the region to move forward and jump to the next curve.

Internally, we had a lot of debate. Some of us fear that we might not have as many applicants. Some debate that if AI blockchain startups want to join us, they would have joined us anyway.

But we feel that that’s something we can do to better serve this region, so we decided to take the risk. Even though we may lose applications, at least we can tell this region that it is time to go forward.

What are some entrepreneurial lessons that help you succeed in your current role?

How do you equip your people to support blockchain and AI startups?

What needs to be done to ensure mainstream adoption of blockchain projects?

In terms of growing the talent pool, what are your thoughts on helping existing internet founders to pivot and start a blockchain company?

What’s your daily success routine?

Who is your mentor(s)?

What are some values you live by?