Bill Tai
17 Splash Points
9 followers
2 thumbs up
5 companies followed
1 competition judged
Following Followers

Bill Tai

www.mirror.me/bill
www.about.me/BillTai
www.kitevc.blogspot.com
Menlo Park, California, United States United states
Investor
Member since January 26, 2010
VEQ: TL-FR-MM
Quote
- A kiter that VC's - Sponsored Athlete & Early Stage Investor. Quote_down
About Bill
Work/education
Activities
Following
Investor interests
Investments made Tweetdeck, Tango.me, Mirror.me, SoundTracking, Maxthon, Glyde, Scribd
Categories of interest
Credentials Accredited Investor, Qualified Purchaser
I am a(n):

Investor

Companies I've founded or co-founded:

Avvenu (founded as Eyefrog - sold to Nokia to be "files by Ovi"), iAsiaWorks (founded as AUNET; IPO 2000 ticker IAWK), Funder/Chairman of IPInfusion (sold to Access - Tokyo Stock Exchange ticker 4817), Tradebeam (founded as Asian Trading - sold to CDC Software), recently co-creator of www.mirror.me

Startups I worked for:

LSI Logic, iAsiaWorks (Founder, Executive Chairman, CEO), IPinfusion (Active Chairman), Tradebeam (President)

If you are an entrepreneur, why?

Because it's FUN and has the same highs & lows as kiting.

My favorite startups:

Tango.me, Schematic Labs (Soundtracking), Mirror.Me

What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation?

Rewarding: It's FUN. Frustrating: the masses never understand at first.

What's the No. 1 mistake entrepreneurs make?

Usually the main mistakes are around 1) Timing and use of resources vs. timing of need and 2) hiring mistakes and when to correct them.

What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?

Team matters more than the initial idea.

Full bio

Board Member of startups Glyde, Maxthon, Nantero, Scribd, & WangYou Media as well as Seed Investor in  AppMakr, ContextLogic,  Schematc Labs, Sensr.net & StackMob,as a Partner at Charles River Ventures. 

Individual Angel Investor in LoveMachine LLC, Slimdevices, Tango.me, TVU Networks, Tweetdeck, VideoEgg and other similarly cool companies.

Previously: Startup Investor ---to--> IPO & Public Board Director of: 8x8 Inc. (NASD:EGHT), Award Software (NASD:PTEC), iAsiaWorks (NASD:IAWK), imGo (HKSE:0067), Microtune (NASD:TUNE), Network Peripherals (NASD:NPIX), Transmeta (NASD:TMTA); investor (no board seat) in an additional 8 startups that evolved to IPO on NASDAQ.

As an entrepreneur: Founder, Chairman & CEO of iAsiaWorks (NASD:IAWK), Chairman of IPinfusion (acq by Access, Tokyo Exchange:4817), Founder & President of Tradebeam (acq by CDC Software NASD:CDCS).

USA Team Rider, Cabrinha Kiteboarding
Olympic Ambassador, Int'l Kiteboarding Association (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2016 ! )

Adjunct Professor of Innovatioon at James Curtin University, Perth Western Australia