Three entrepreneurs from Taiwan shared their startup stories and work experiences at the Cross-Strait Young Maker Forum held at the Sino-Finnish Design Park (SFDP) in Futian District yesterday, which gathered young makers together to discuss the cross-Strait innovation and business environment.

Bill Lin, CTO of YC Virtual Reality Technology Co., talked about the three stages he has been through for his startup experience in Shenzhen. Lin has been in Shenzhen for over 20 years and has witnessed the city’s rapid development. During the first stage, he worked for a Taiwan chip design company and came to Shenzhen.

“At that time, for an employee to start up his own business, he needed to receive orders. Over 20 years ago, if you received orders, it means you were half successful already. I was a penniless employee and Kodak gave me an order of US$200,000,” said Lin, adding that from the 1990s to the 2000s, Shenzhen depended on cheap labor and rapid production.

After about 10 years, this development mode gradually disappeared as China developed rapidly and employees’ salaries went up, while Southeast Asia provided more cheap labor. At that time, Lin’s startup experience entered its second stage when their company was purchased by Qihoo 360 Technology Co.

Lin believed that during the second stage, roughly from 2010 to 2018, startups that wanted to be successful had to cooperate with big Chinese enterprises. After 2018, China is still growing rapidly and has been moving toward becoming a world leader. Mainland and Shenzhen makers are becoming increasingly well-known and Lin discovered that Taiwan’s strength is in chips while the mainland is in virtual software. So, he then joined YC Virtual Reality Technology Co. which focuses on VR technology.

Crystal Cheng, head of the urban and landscape design department of Hassell’s Shenzhen office, stressed the importance of human touch in design. Fuchiao Chan, founder of Zaizai Design, highlighted the importance of brand and experience in space design.

According to Hou Ning, general manager of SFDP, today’s “Shenzhen Miracle” is created by every young entrepreneur with passion, drive and dreams.

“Designers should work harder and contribute to the construction of a more beautiful country with design,” Hou said.