http://www.socialtalkr.com/?p=6
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Howard Huang
SocialTalkr:
Howard, in your own words, can you please describe Wacanai?
Howard Huang:
Wacanai.com is a website that gives auto-generated suggestions about “How can you use the things you have?”.
The core concept is simple: “Everything needs other things to be done”. Wacanai helps users discover what they can do (cook, DIY, travel, fun…almost every aspects of life) with their present belongings.
For example, say you have a toast and an egg in your fridge; the only option in your mind is probably make a sandwich. However, different kinds of people tend to use things in a diverse way. Wacanai aggregates everyone ideas about using everything. Say someone posts a way to make an African style pie out of an egg and a toast, Wacanai will push the idea to you if you have an egg and a toast.
The beauty of it is that with our technology, you won’t need to purchase anything else to discover possibilities.
It’s kind of a reverse way of creation.
We start from what you have instead of what you want.
We don’t mind someone post something about different ways to smoke pot.
SocialTalkr:
Ha ha ha okay. Is that off the record?
Howard Huang:
No, you can say it ha.
SocialTalkr:
Alright so tell me about the name Wacanai?
Howard Huang:
It’s short for “What can I” and if you say in Japanese, it sounds like “I don’t know”
(Socialtalkr: “Wakaranai” in Japanese)
SocialTalkr:
How long has it been since Wacanai has been launched?
Howard Huang:
Less than a month. We launched it in 6/24/08 during IDEAS Show. IDEAS Show is a web-expo held in Taiwan similar to DEMO expo held in San Diego, CA.
SocialTalkr:
So tell us about the development process for Wacanai?
Howard Huang:
It took about 8 months
The biggest challenge was to launch it on time!
I started this about 3 years after my graduation
The 8 month means me and my team worked full time on Wacanai.
SocialTalkr:
How did you start financing Wacanai?
Howard Huang:
First of all, I gave up my budget & opportunity to study abroad and we built the core technology using that money. Now, we have a pretty smooth funding process. In fact, I just sealed a deal. The first funding round of about 10000000 NTD (this morning)
(SocialTalkr: 330K USD series A from an undisclosed private investor)
SocialTalkr:
Congratulations! How far will this money take you?
Howard Huang:
Projected more than 2 years.
We have free bandwidth and server sponsored by a Seednet (an ISP in Taiwan).
All our expenses are operational (salaries).
SocialTalkr:
So are you still looking for investors?
Howard Huang:
Sure. We are creating an innovation, in global market, 300K is still less than what I estimated.
We are planning to open an office in Silicon Valley to contact more NVs in North America
We are hoping the make it happen late this year.
Let’s put it this way, more money, faster expansion
SocialTalkr:
How are you planning to monetize Wacanai? What are your revenue streams?
Howard Huang:
In simple terms, we charge from Enterprise users; we also generate revenue from ADs. The Enterprise solution has not yet been released. For the enterprise solution, Wacanai provides an exchange API to malls/hypermarkets. After users buy goods from the mall, users can manage their resource in Wacanai by simply keying the receipt number. By this, mall gains more returning customers, so we charge a fee to the malls.
For example, when I go to a mall, I buy my groceries, eggs, orange juice, etc. When i input my receipt, Wacanai automatically knows what i bought. By doing this, you get advice about what you can do with the items purchased
Wacanai Value and Process Flow
(SocialTalkr: Detailed business plan available from the Wacanai Blog)
SocialTalkr:
Did u have any previous entrepreneurial experience?
Howard Huang:
Wacanai is our second project, the first failed. However in terms of forming a real company itself this is my first experience.
The first was called SherryCosmos. It’s about total backup/storage/share files for individuals or small companies similar to mozy.com
The reason to fail is that I was over dependent on outsourcing. The interesting thing is that Wacanai was some kind of a plan B, and it turned out that Wacanai was far more interesting to investors and others. So SherryCosmos now became our company name.
So we shifted our plan B to major project. SherryCosmos is put to paper stage
SocialTalkr:
Thanks for the interview Howard. Do u have anything else you would like to add?
Howard Huang:
I want to say that being a website located in Taiwan, the government really provides good support. Normally, web start-ups are relatively nerdy, all engineers & programmers. Taiwan Govt has a project to support us startups in “starting-up”, funding, capitals, usability. They help us to find resources.
Like Seednet, the sponsor I mentioned is introduced by the Govt. Govt holds a contest, thus filtered out some of the websites. In plain English, we won the contest, and we get lots of free stuff and support. They even supported us to attend DEMO FALL 08
(SocialTalkr: Govt Website http://www.iii.org.tw/english/index.asp)
Links Summary
Visit Wacanai
www.wacanai.com
Read more about Howard (personal blog)
www.ccool.idv.tw/blog
What exactly is Wacanai up to? Read Wacanai’s Blog
http://wacanaien.blogspot.com/
Read more about Govt Support in Taiwan
http://www.iii.org.tw/english/index.asp
Howards elevator pitch during Ideas Show
http://wacanaien.blogspot.com/2008/07/keynote-presentation-from-ceo-howard.html
Wacanais Business Plan
http://wacanaien.blogspot.com/2008/07/about-company.html
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/2008_III_IDEAS_Show_to_showcase_achievements_of_Internet_industry_in_Taiwan
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