In July 2026, I became a teaching assistant for NTU's Silicon Valley Entrepreneurship Exploration Program—I'm in Silicon Valley for two months!
The first week consisted of group activities, running from about 10 AM to 10 PM each day. We visited three companies and exchanged with Dr. Hung-Wei Yen (Director of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco), honorable director Lih-Min Hu of the Jade Mountain Technology Association, 30+ NTU alumni from North America, 20+ industry mentors, and startup founders from Taiwan's Silicon Valley ecosystem. You could really feel the seniors' enthusiasm to share their experiences! For entrepreneurs still in the exploration phase, it's truly a fortunate Opportunity & Connection!
This program is a newly established course at National Taiwan University (NTU), marking the first time Taiwan and NTU have sent students to Silicon Valley for seven weeks of hands-on entrepreneurship exploration!!
Global Innovation & Entrepreneurship: Silicon Valley Exploration Practicum, guided by Professor Yuh-Tze Chuang!
Fifteen students were selected from nearly 100 applicants across all colleges at NTU. The program first arranges a week of corporate visits and innovation ecosystem exchange activities, followed by several weeks where each student (or team) conducts an Exploration Project based on their interests.
Throughout the program, students will independently engage with startup founders, engineers, investors, researchers, and professionals across all sectors of Silicon Valley's innovation ecosystem, while being mentored and guided by industry mentors to deeply understand the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial environment and develop their own exploration projects.
Startup Island Taiwan - Silicon Valley Hub is incredibly supportive. Big thanks to Kaile Chen & You-Li Su for their full assistance, making it possible to have such a great venue for everyone to exchange freely!
Day One: Google Visit & Welcome Reception
Google visit with sharing from four senior Googlers, thanks to host Yen-Ju Cat Chen:
- Chao Huang Chen — NTU Information Management alumnus, YouTube Shorts ML Infra, Engineering Manager
- Janet Kuo — NTU Information Management alumnus, Senior Staff Engineer in Cloud, one of the core foundational leaders of Kubernetes, SIG Apps chair & TL, Kubernetes AI Conformance lead
- Sam Lin — Senior Staff Technical Solutions Engineer in Android Auto, Founder of CS Equality AI effort
We also had meals and rode bicycles together at Google—truly amazing!
In the evening came the welcome reception. Special thanks to Dr. Hung-Wei Yen, Director of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco, and honorable director Lih-Min Hu of the Jade Mountain Technology Association for coming to encourage the students. Northern California NTU Alumni Association seniors warmly welcomed us, and the program's industry mentors came to meet the students:
- Yale Lee, founder of nurol.ai
- Jenny Lin, President of North America Taiwan Engineers Association, Silicon Valley Chapter
- Outliers Fund Poseidon
- Jeff, Investment Manager at Morningside Photonics
- Paul Hung, CEO of Taudia
- Eric Tao, F50 Nexus Partner
- William Lin, Degree Capital / Harvard Visiting Professor
- Wen Hsiao, Product at Dropbox, Meta
- Norman Liang, Sustainable Impact Capital (SIC)
- Anita Huang, Sinovation Ventures
Professor Chuang and I took this opportunity to introduce NTU's Eimba (Entrepreneurship Innovation MBA), debuting in Silicon Valley!
Day Two: Synopsys Visit, SIT Hub Exchange & Formosa Founders House
Synopsys visit with sharing from Brandon Wang, VP of Corporate Strategy Group:
- Technology roadmapping in rapidly changing industries
- Identifying emerging technology opportunities
- Contrasting corporate innovation with startup innovation
- Building sustainable growth through ecosystems and partnerships
At lunch, I dined with Jimmy, also a venture investor, discussing our thoughts on startups and the future. Jimmy generously shared many insights and I look forward to future exchanges!!
In the afternoon, we had an exchange with SIT SV Hub members, gaining lots of entrepreneurship knowledge and insights!
- Influenxio (Allan Ko, Founder & CEO)
- MirWork (Kevin Hsieh, Founder)
- Cortex Advisory (Alan Chen, CEO & Co-Founder)
- Arklex.ai (Arbit Chen, Founder & CTO)
- Echomode.io (Sean Hong, Founder & CEO / Kenny Hong, Co-Founder)
From fundraising to products to business, they shared openly and humorously. There was also discussion about PMF—if a company's revenue growth is only sustained by increasing headcount, they may not have found PMF. This really resonated with my own PR industry experience!
In the evening came the long-awaited Formosa Founders House members! I've known CK for 5-6 years. He happens to be one of the founders. Through Uly's introduction to YC and founder Wei Dai, they brought a team of six entrepreneurs to the hub—this was their first visit!! I'd heard about David before through a chance encounter, and meeting online friends in person was wonderful! We'll have more fun exchanges together later XD.
Speaker lineup:
- Wei Dai — Formosa Founders House founder
- Peter Wang — Co-founder of Hermai AI and resident at Formosa Founders House
- Tomy — Robinhood, resident in Formosa Founders House
- Grace Chao — Founder of Hearing Action Inc. / Audiologist
- Lilian Lee — Pic pet Founding Engineer
- CK Sun — Drone Founder (resident at Founder.inc incubator)
This Speed QA roundtable left everyone wanting more! The day's schedule was packed, but truly fulfilling!
Day Three: Ambarella & Stanford
On day three, we visited Ambarella, Inc., whose founder Fermi is an NTU alumnus who wholeheartedly supported us and shared genuine insights!!!
Ambarella, Inc. is a semiconductor design company founded in Silicon Valley, starting with ultra-high-definition image compression technology. In recent years, it has successfully transformed into a leading edge computing AI chip company, focusing on developing low-power computer vision system-on-chip (SoC). The company is currently listed on NASDAQ (ticker: AMBA).
Ambarella's chip strength lies in enabling deep learning and analysis on image data without relying on the cloud. Products are widely applied in:
- Automotive Electronics: Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), smart electronic rearview mirrors, dashcams, and autonomous vehicles.
- Smart Surveillance: High-definition intelligent monitoring systems for enterprise and home use, face recognition, and object tracking.
- Consumer Electronics: Wearable devices with electronic image stabilization (EIS) and high-performance image processing.
Being able to visit a NASDAQ-listed company and hear the founder's story was truly incredible!!
In the afternoon, we were taken care of by the Stanford NTU Alumni Association. We exchanged with seven Stanford postdocs and students in the campus center, toured the campus, and took our first cohort group photo. I believe each photo will become a historical trace for the future!
Teaching Assistant's Reflection: On "Entrepreneurship"
Participating in the program as a teaching assistant and engaging with over 100 people has given me new reflections on "entrepreneurship":
- How do you secure funding based on "concept hype" when still in the concept stage?
- Once you have funding, how do you navigate entrepreneurship's various challenges through "management"?
- What is entrepreneurial success? What does growth-stage success look like in investors' eyes, and what do they expect?
There's a real chasm between already being an entrepreneur and currently building a business. Thinking about my own situation and the need to rebuild from scratch is honestly daunting.
As for why Silicon Valley—people from around the world flock here daily, exchanging new ideas. You can meet founders raising hundreds of millions on the train. Failure and challenges are everyday occurrences. About others' judgments, your worries are irrelevant. You can do anything; anything is possible. What matters is the value you create and how you get people to buy into it.
The new insight is probably: #A product that solves pain points is the best marketing.
Looking forward to the next six weeks!
