Meet SparkLabs Taipei’s Toughest Duo From Batch One
How they transformed their passion into a successful enterprise
The world of startup business and entrepreneurship is harsh and brutally competitive. Companies often encounter hurdles from right out of the gate such as financing, technical knowledge, marketing, and government regulation. Because of this, it’s no surprise why 90% of startup businesses fail. Luckily, accelerator programs such as SparkLabs Taipei exist to offer solutions to these issues. We sat down with Sonic Wang (CEO) and Yadia Colindres (COO), co-founders of FOX-TECH to speak about their experience during the four-month accelerator program at Taiwan Tech Arena.
FOX-TECH
What’s your company? What does your company do?
Yadia: We are FOX-TECH, a Taiwan-based IoT Startup. We provide IoT solutions for cold chain, smart-farm, and manufacturing business owners so that they can monitor temperature wirelessly and be able to optimize their business based on this.
What’s your product? What’s the core technology of the product?
Yadia: Our Flagship product is called Temphawk. It provides wireless temperature humidity monitoring. We provide a total solution, which means it’s hardware and software. The software branch includes web and mobile applications, which helps users be able to monitor the temperature. A few cases include dairy farms in Taiwan, Gardens by the Bay in Singapore, and sake breweries in Japan.
The product is very easy to use and requires less than five minutes to deploy. We are able to monitor high and low temperatures as well as humidity, which is often something that is lacking. It’s built for outdoor use and businesses.
Most importantly, this device can be used globally. We currently have five Languages: English, Spanish, French, Japanese, and Chinese (Traditional and Simplified). We have a solid data compression algorithm, which allows us to expend different types of sensors into our network. Power consumption of this product is very low, so it only needs to be charged once a year.
How’s this product is going to help people/ the market?
Sonic: Take the dairy industry for example: In areas with high humidity, the cows will feel very uncomfortable. This lack of comfort results in a loss of milk production. Our solution will send a notification to the farmer, which lets them know that unless the cow is made comfortable, it will produce less milk.
This is a common issue in Taiwan, not only with milk, but with eggs and other foods as well. To be able to monitor these things requires a very good solution. This is not just a good solution, but also an easy to use and simple solution. It’s not rocket science.
Yadia: The product provides predictive services and alerts. It’s a solution that works throughout the supply chain.
What opportunities were you looking to achieve before you enrolled in the program?
Yadia: Globalization, we wanted the knowledge of how to bring our product to different countries. We’re already number one in Taiwan, we want to be number one in the world. When you think about temperature or humidity, you should automatically think FOX-TECH. It’s your go-to solution for these problems.
We’re currently deploying in Japan and Singapore, mostly Asia-pacific regions. Taiwan is a great example for island countries, especially counties where it is expensive to hire people to do this job.
“We’re already number one in Taiwan, we want to be number one in the world.”
What was your process for enrolling in the SparkLabs Taipei program?
Yadia: When we first spoke with Edgar (Chiu), he introduced us to the SparkLabs Taipei program. We of course still did our due diligence, just to see what we might be getting ourselves into. I really liked it, so I filled out the application form, called Sonic and said: “This is a really good opportunity, let’s join it.” We had three rounds of interviews, very stressful interviews. You HAVE to know what you will be saying. We got our phone call on a Friday night at 9:00 pm saying we got in.
If you’re looking to go global, SparkLabs Taipei is the place for you.
How did you find this program helpful?
Yadia: I think everyone has different experiences. For me, I was fortunate to meet so many talented people. Networking with like minds who want to be the very best. A solution was often only a phone call away. Edgar taught us that “you don’t wait for the opportunity. You make the opportunity.” It changes you as an entrepreneur and as a person. I’ve developed a do-or-die attitude.
“You don’t wait for the opportunity. You make the opportunity. It changes you as an entrepreneur and as a person.”
Sonic: I’ve realized that managing people is important. It’s difficult to recruit talent. SparkLabs Taipei has helped us face many of these issues.
After this four-month period, what did you learn?
Yadia: You gain friends, which is important while you are in an intensive program. They know you for who you are when you had nothing.
Sonic: There are so many different companies working here. We’re not all in the same industry, but we support each other and have great chemistry.
Yadia: On the outside, you’re alone. Friends and family don’t understand your situation.
Since you joined the Sparklabs Taipei program here at Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA), what do you think about TTA?
Yadia: Taiwan Tech Arena is a great co-working space. We really utilized the use of the nap room and the 24/hr coffee and tea. The location is great and the space is beautiful. From things as simple tea and coffee, TTA is supporting startups. It’s a very nice area to hangout. It feels personal.
What’s next for FOX-TECH?
Yadia: Dominating APAC Regions and agriculture, cold chain regions, and manufacturing industries. We’re gonna be the standard.
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The author, Dustin Craft, is a freelance writer with a background in communication and international business. His main topics are on business and travel.
