“Why App?”

This is a common question I always give when interviewing App Teams. “It is a trend right now,” “The cost of developing App is relatively low,” “It is easier for the public to use…” I always received different answers but Capso gave me one special response about their idea of developing App. “We do not see ourselves as an App Team. We have this inventive product that is appropriately performed through App and thus we chose App as a medium,” Roy, the co-founder of Capso, said.

App Plays a Role as a Medium Instead of the Final Product

Capso is composed of five engineers and designers, from the United States and Taiwan, with startup experiences including B2B (Business-to-Business) in cloud services and big data analysis industry, and B2C (Business-to-Customer) in Mobile App and Internet service. Capso App debuted in July, 2015, in which it allows users to record videos in a specific location and “star” special memories in the video. It provides other users a way to explore your “starred” memories when they visit that location or provides you an opportunity to dig out the memories the next time you come back this place again.

Capso is like a digital version of “time capsules”, which enable us to make a new connection between people and the stories of a specific place. What is attractive about Capso is that it let people look back what they recorded in that place and also share their memories with others.

“The core value of our product is whether this product is valuable to users, either in a way of App or Web. The purpose of developing Capso is to satisfy people’s needs on a specific location by providing videos or records shared by anyone who has been this place before. Due to the purpose that requires mobility, we chose App as our tool to perform our ‘product.’” Ray, another co-founder of Capso, said.

Some of startups devoted themselves to the App industry because of the relative low cost in App development. In Capso’s view, however, the cost of development is eventually determined by the market scale of the product, and targeted markets you want to promote the product. To execute their idea by using App is only to provide users a better experience. “We focus on what we want to do with our product, rather than what we can do by using App.”

Where is the “Leader” for the Next Generation in Taiwan?

Capso only spent three months developing the first App. For them, the challenges they faced as a startup are doubts and questions from the public instead of the product development. “Why startup?” “Why chose to quit working in global enterprise?” Those are concerns especially raised by families. On the other hand, the entrepreneurial environment in Taiwan still prefers products that are able to receive immediate profits. “The fact is that many successful “model” global enterprises originally started business in the software industry, in which they did not receive the immediate profits at the beginning, such as Facebook, Instagram and etc.” Roy said.

In addition to hoping more entrepreneurial resources will be given to the software industry, another important factor that makes the United States the best startup incubator is that many successful entrepreneurs will offer different resources for the next generation of entrepreneurs who just started their business; not only share their experiences to the next generation, but also support more talented startup to develop or create new products.

“We had a pretty successful startup example in Taiwan, such as Gogolook, but unfortunately, it was merged by Naver, a Korean company. A lack of ability to discover potential startups or products is one of our problems in Taiwan’s industry.” Capso pointed out two issues in Taiwan’s startup market – A lack of a leading team in the industry and a lack of investors who are willing to take risks. Nevertheless, it is still worth a try to start your own business, Ray said, as long as you evaluate your ability and whether your personality fits to be an entrepreneur before devoting yourself into startups. More talented people in the startup industry will bring more positive impact to Taiwan’s startup business.

“Many people would say ‘I had this idea few years ago,’ but it would be meaningless by only ‘having an idea in your mind.’ You have to make your mind to ‘take actions’ developing the product from a mere idea, which is the main purpose of working as an entrepreneur,” said by Vic, the designer of Capso.

“Making a real product from an imaginative idea is the most attractive part about being an entrepreneur”

Capso is currently not in rush to promote their product into the global market. “We are more familiar with Taiwan’s market after all, and we do not think the market is small here. Thus, we want to focus on Taiwan’s market first, get different feedback from users, edit and refine the product to a better version and then to promote to the global market.” Roy said. “Not every product needs to go globally; especially, our product focuses on the connection between the” local” places and “local” stories.”