Annie Huang: Taiwan’s Succession Crisis, Search Funds & Returning to Win Locally – E654
episode
BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)
38 min
5 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Yes, I learned also another term called bamboo ceiling. So I Asian had certain ceilings in the white collar wall even till today. And I was like, is my American dream big enough for me to accept that? I was like, I think I can hit a home run in my home market. Do I just want to do a small league player in a y in in New York versus still being like a star player in where I'm familiar with?
Welcome to Brave. Learn from Southeast Asia's best tech leaders. Build the future, learn from our past, and stay human in between. No BS on Success. I'm Jeremy O, venture capitalist, Sarah founder, Harvard MBA, science fiction nerd, and dad of two daughters. Every week, we debate startup news, interview change makers, answer listener questions, and share personal insights. Join our movement of over 40,000 members and get transcripts, resources and community at www.bravesea.com. Stay well and stay brave. Hey Annie, excited to have you.
Yeah, it's my pleasure to be here as well. Yeah,
Annie, I'm excited to have you because you're a Harvard MBA. You're building the first search fund in Taiwan, which is a a hard thing to do. And so I'm excited to have you on the show and chat more about what made you decide to do this uh crazy new chapter. So Annie, could you introduce yourself?
Yeah, sure. So hi everyone, I'm Annie and born and raised in Taiwan. And across my past career I have worked in Bangkok, also in Jakarta, but most likely in Taipei. And I got my MBA from Harvard Business School last year. After that I decided to come back to my hometown, come back to Taiwan to start the first traditional search fund in Taiwan. backed by more than a dozen of investors, both locally and internationally.
Amazing. W what a story. So so many questions I have they have but now let's go back to the beginning, right? So what was it like for you growing up in Taiwan and being an early b professional?
Yeah. So I was I grew up in the middle part of Taiwan. So I it's not from the cap from the big cities. And then I went to the college in Taipei, which is the capital city there. And then my I was studying business administration in college. It was so vague for a like 18 years old student. And then I was like, I need to learn something. something real. So I even studied Thai as my minor for two years in college. At least to my first full time job was in Bangkok, helping an e-commerce company doing like B D and sales and PN and marketing. I even went to the natural station to send out bro brochures, like flyers to strangers. Everyone's there.
Wow, what a story. And you know, for you growing up in Taiwan, what was it like? You know, what can you describe it? Was it like fun? Were you very like conservative? How was it like?
My childhood, uh before so early part, I lived with my grandparents and then I moved with to my parents' house when I was like six, seven years old. And my family is pretty like they give me a lot of freedom to the way that they allow me to even go to Myanmar to explore, to do volunteering things and Bangkok and Jakarta. So my parents are more like you can do whatever. you want. Just make sure that you enjoy the process. They have pretty much a lot of confidence in me that I will make things work. But yeah, I think overall since if you don't know that Taiwan suffer from low child birth rate, so usually parents cherish their child like a lot. And that is the background that we all grew up here.
So any, I was just curious because um, you know, you then worked as, you know, kind of like an investor in Taiwan. And what can you explain what the investing environment is like in Taiwan?
Yeah, so I first step into the buy side world as um primary market investors when I work in a family office in Taiwan. And usually there are two parts of the investment world in Taiwan. One is doing the secondary market, invest in like equity, public equity, like Taiwan semiconduconductor and all everything about semiconductor and electronicals like assembling. But that is something that I I really don't really touch. I do the primary part.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–9:27
2
How did growing up outside Taiwan’s major cities shape Annie’s independence and career outlook?
9:27–18:08
3
Why did Taiwanese investors shift their focus from China to Southeast Asia in the past five‑six years?
18:08–27:55
4
What made younger Taiwanese professionals avoid China’s intense job market?
27:55–30:53
5
How did a Harvard MBA clarify where Annie could achieve the biggest upside?
30:53–38:24
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