After writing about how to find startup ideas last year, I started putting some of that into practice in MENA. That experience made one thing painfully clear: I was wrong to assume the conditions that shaped my thinking in the US and Taiwan apply everywhere.
Many of the startup playbooks I internalized simply don't translate.
Take regulations. I had taken for granted the baseline efficiency of government support and infrastructure in Taiwan and the US. But those are outliers, not norms. In many places, slow-moving or opaque bureaucracies shape what’s possible far more than founders like to admit.
Or labor costs. A lot of SaaS and AI value props boil down to saving time or replacing expensive labor. But that story only lands if labor is actually expensive. In markets where it’s not, "AI for efficiency" often sounds like a solution in search of a problem. Timing—and local conditions—matter.
I also underestimated the friction in how the private sector actually works. I assumed a level of professionalism that just isn’t there in some places. There’s a real cost to that—how people work, how they buy, how fast they move—it’s all downstream of cultural norms.
And then there’s venture capital. VC is a local game. In Taiwan, for example, funds are still deeply anchored in semiconductors, and their risk models reflect that. Same with the Middle East—totally different playbook. Expecting them to act like US VCs is a category error.
Startup ideas are just a form of knowledge arbitrage—between markets, technology, and users. They only work if we deeply understand something others don’t. And that understanding never comes from assuming. It comes from thinking, watching, doubting, verifying.
On-chain trading requires extra computation, pays gas fees, and often looks more expensive than centralized exchanges (CEXs) like Binance or Coinbase. So who is actually using Uniswap, and what makes them stay?
We often talk about talent, capital, and timing. But “environment” quietly shapes what’s possible. Some places are just better suited for certain kinds of bets. And understanding that might be the most underrated edge there is.
Recently, I was casually browsing a list of global stock exchanges ranked by market cap. Buried in the rankings, something made me stop and double-check: Iran’s Tehran Stock Exchange was sitting at number 15 in the world.
In the early 1980s, Airbus was developing its breakthrough A320 jet. To break the near-monopoly held by GE’s CF6 and CFM56, four aerospace companies—Pratt & Whitney (PW), Rolls-Royce (RR), Germany’s MTU, and Japan’s JAEC—formed a joint venture called International Aero Engines (IAE).
Generative AI has advanced to the point where it can handle tasks that previously required human intervention. My hypothesis is that the DeFi projects that will succeed in this cycle are those that enhance user experience and drive broader adoption.
2024 has been a year of lessons and new beginnings. In the first part, I faced challenges with my startup in Saudi Arabia, learning the hard way that both internal decisions and uncontrollable external factors shape a venture's success. Though it didn’t work out, I gained valuable experience and connections. In the second part, I’ve been fortunate to start a new venture with a friend, developing models to process brainwave data. It’s an exciting and challenging path, and I’m hopeful for what’s to come.
Through my experiences, I've formed a method for starting a business from the ground up. This method combines lessons from the Lean Startup with my personal stories.
"Lan Yu" - a love story, set against the backdrop of a transformative period in Beijing, brings to light the complexity of love, power dynamics, and societal changes.
As a young entrepreneur fresh out of college, one of my biggest challenge was to find the right problem to solve. Here I try to provide my thoughts on this issue.
This article unfolds my journey through a co-founder departure, emphasizing the lessons learned in team building, the importance of aligning skills with startup needs, and fostering a growth-oriented company culture.
