[How We Launched the AppWorks #20 Accelerator Programme in the Midst of a Pandemic]
AppWorks Accelerator will celebrate its 10th year anniversary and our 20th accelerator batch in 2020. At the end of 2019, we completed our recruitment of AppWorks #20, a total of 28 teams hailing across Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States. Originally we were expected to gather in Taipei in March to launch our five-month accelerator program -- that was before the Coronavirus outbreak.
At the beginning of February this year, with the rapid spread of the Coronavirus, countries around the world begin to enforce strict immigration controls, which directly impacted our arrangement: among the 28 teams of AppWorks #20, up to half of the overseas teams couldn’t enter Taiwan, and if they were able to enter, they were required to self-quarantine for two weeks!
How can our accelerator help entrepreneurs in this bleak environment? With our founders in mind, these are the top objectives we wanted to achieve in our contingency plan:
1. Keep all our participants safe and healthy
2. The programme should not bring any inconvenience to our founders
3. Provide assistance to our founders as per our original programme
We decided that AppWorks #20 would still kick off in March as planned, but we would move the entire programme online.
Bringing the programme online sounded easy at first, since everyone is used to video conferencing nowadays. But offline activities still have some advantages that are hard to replace: better interaction and a greater ability to build trust. So for our online programme, we designed our activities to be either 1-on-1s or small group discussions as much as possible, so as to facilitate intimacy and deeper conversations that one would find in offline interactions.
Our communication with the international teams also needed to be more transparent and frequent; in a highly unpredictable environment and without the ability to communicate face-to-face, we are prone to miscommunication. This leads to misunderstandings and uncertainty. Overcommunication is essential to counteract this. To eliminate ambiguity and confusion we send out weekly emails and WhatsApp messages to let our founders know what’s happening in our programme, how to join our online sessions, and what's to come. We also compile the latest immigration regulations for all our teams on a weekly basis, and liaise closely with the local government authorities to provide our founders the latest update on subsidy plans and visa applications processes in Taiwan.
In these chaotic times, the core strength and resilience of the team is vital to the survivability of any venture. The toughest moments are also the best opportunities for founders to be honest to themselves and examine the health of his or her team and make the necessary adjustments: is your product a “must have” or is it a “nice to have”? Is your cash flow sustainable? What expenditure needs to be cut? Which projects should be rolled out on schedule; which should be adjusted; or even, which of these should be postponed or canceled?
For AppWorks, this is another chance to push the boundaries of our comfort zone. We are working endlessly alongside our founders to provide assistance, strengthen our foundations, while also preserving energy, so we can pounce with thrice the velocity onto the right opportunity.
By Jack An, Analyst AppWorks
Photo credit: Ryan from PitchSpot (AppWorks #20) on Orientation Day
We will launch the AppWorks #21 registration programme in May. Please refer to our website and leave your best contact information. We will inform you immediately when the application is officially open: https://bit.ly/2wXfBuU
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