關於 co founders lab ，我們在網路上蒐集到這些相關的討論、資訊與評價

Interview with a Founder: Beryl Liu (Co-founder of Matters Lab)

By Norman Chi, Analyst

Beryl Liu is the co-founder and COO of Matters Lab and was previously the Operations Director of Initium Media. An experienced startup operator, Beryl once led the global operations of Aivvy, a music-tech startup which won the innovation award at CES. She was involved in running a Hong Kong-based NGO in Greater China.

1. What early experience shaped who you are?

I am always passionate about the media because it can bring social value to the public, it’s THE thing I value most and deeply rooted in my heart. But I will say other than my passion, the sum of my experiences also is a big part of who I am now.

After graduating from college, I chose to become an editor in Hong Kong's first all-electronic media as my first job. Before starting Matters, I’ve joined several different groups and startups, including one NGO, one silicon valley startup and Initium Media which allows me to step out of my comfort zone, broaden my horizons, know more about new disruptive technologies like blockchain and learn how startups work. All these unique experiences and passion for media shaped who I am now.

2. Who is your role model as a founder?

I will say there are two types of role models I look up to. One is successful and inspiring entrepreneurs, the other is someone who you are close to and can resonate with.

For the first type of role model, there are too many entrepreneurs I look up to. Among these successful stories, one key thing I will particularly be inspired by is how these entrepreneurs find a breakthrough and identify the right path to stand out. Like Stewart Butterfield’s founding journey of Flickr, even though the original online game idea wasn't working, he had the crazy vision and quickly learned and found out the true needs of users: real-time interaction around photos, and then based on the findings, he launched Flickr and turned it into a success. This type of founders are the role models I would especially look up to and want to share the same vision as they do.

But these great entrepreneurs are too far from our life and work, you can’t fully resonate with these entrepreneurs. So my mom became one of the role models I look up to since I can relate to her story more easily even though she’s not a founder. For the past 10 years, she had a relatively weak physical condition and underwent several severe surgeries which often left patients in pain and despair. But she kept fighting and fighting with a positive attitude, dealing with the pain and pressure, and always looked on the bright side, which really inspired me at my darkest moments, this is the kind of story you can always keep in mind and gather momentum from.

3. What is the biggest mistake and takeaway in your founder journey so far?

The entire entrepreneurship is the endless journey of trial and error until you find PMF (Product Market Fit), so before that, don’t rush to do premature scaling with limited resources. We tried to do too many things in 2018 because back at that time we thought we were ready to scale up, but actually we weren't, and we didn’t allocate the resources properly, leading to a bunch of conflicts both internally and externally. It was a costly lesson we learned after these series of poor decisions we made.

As a result, if you figure out you’ve made a bad decision, founders must learn how to set a stop-loss. Admitting and giving up on one decision you made is difficult, but when you admit something is wrong, it helps you to redirect to the right direction and potentially lower future costs. What’s more, it’s the failure that allows you to rethink and reflect on your goals.

About Matters Lab

Matters Lab is a decentralized content publishing platform for creators to publish, manage, license, and enable content providers to be paid for their content, rather than to have their content and revenue opportunities taken hostage by advertising algorithms and social media giants.


【We welcome all AI, Blockchain, or Southeast Asia founders to join AppWorks Accelerator: https://bit.ly/33e2JgH 】

哈佛 還是有其魅力!

六月十日下午，我們(張國際長、華玲、和我)終於來到耳聞已久的 Harvard Innovation Lab。 建築物就坐落在哈佛商學院( HBS，Harvard Business School)旁，大大的”Hi”方塊字高掛牆上，代表單位名稱，似也意涵歡迎之意!果然，一進門迎面而來是寬廣的平面大廳，無過度裝潢的天花板，撒下一葉葉繽紛色彩圖騰，馬上讓人活躍起來，著名的 “InnoBreak Coffee”，就在眼前，一旁雪白動感的舒適談話桌椅，攜帶著各面牆上豐富的影音簡介，敞開著雙手迎賓。年輕朋友進進出出的玻璃門上，循序印出 Mission, Investors, Founders, Sponsors，似乎預告著這是個應許之地，走進去，神奇魔術般的事情即可發生!

兩點正，Manager Deborah Tall 準時現身大廳，她很快簡述 i-lab 的歷史沿革。原來此建築物本是WGBH-TV 電視台，後由哈佛買下。 Deborah 熱心帶領我們進入哈佛創新創業的魔法世界，一進入 Co-working space，我們就被寬敞、明亮、靈活性極高的平面規劃給吸引住，正中心擺著儲滿零食、咖啡、水果、各類飲料的廚房，看來也是所有人的生活重心，所有吃的，當然都是免費。三、四百坪的空間，規劃出一片片聚落式的全開放討論場域，大小不一的會議室位於整層樓中間，四位職員們只在會議室旁的開放空間有個小方格。另隔一間大教室，作為教學用，今天正好有一場創意思考(Design Thinking)的課程。有牆面的地方，全部是白板式設計，提供學生充分的思考塗鴉園地。對場地的規劃和使用，我是喜歡的不得了，真希望將全景搬回台大。台大現在已在規劃約六百坪創新設計園地，未來一定要比這裡更好才行。現在雖是暑假，但照片中可看到整個空間幾乎是滿滿的，顯然這裡營造的氛圍，很合新創學生的胃口!

i-lab 除了允許一般學生隨意使用外，春、夏、秋各徵選一次 VIP 團隊，所謂 VIP 團隊就是可有較固定位置、有一個大的儲物箱。成立至今已有450 隊在此催生。入門口高掛畢業成立公司的團隊簽名。共有將近五萬學生參與或使用i-lab。

i-lab 成立於 2011年十一月，在全球推動創新的腳步中，算是比較晚的。因此她們一直在思考，如何塑造哈佛特色，如何真正能對創新創業有貢獻。他們體會創新主要來自跨領域之互動交流，因此設計之初，就邀請所有院長為推動委員，包括: Harvard Business School, Harvard College, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Harvard School of Public Health，正好與台大相同有十一個學院。原本各學院做法、文化都完全不同，校長 Prof. Drew Gilpin Faust 於2007年上任之後，鼓吹”One Harvard”，希望各學院共同推動創新，i-lab 稱得上是具體而微的指標。而他們設計來吸引學生的作法有二: Design Challenge 及 Hackathon (黑客松) 。
Design challenge 分為 Dean’s Challenge and President's Challenge. 分別給獎金 五萬和十萬美金。利用此激勵各院學生參與，回去後，也許想想台大是否也來一招。黑客松台大已在進行，希望能產生效果。

基本上，我覺得哈佛在面對新一波創新的思潮，表現是一流大學該有的應對和格局，整體經營有不少可取之處，值得台大參酌學習!