On the Ecosystem Stage during the 2025 Meet Taipei Startup Festival, the 10th edition of Dragons’ Chamber, Taiwan’s only pitch competition dedicated to foreign entrepreneurs, concluded with high energy. Beyond the fierce final pitch battle between five outstanding startups, the event featured a new B2B panel titled “How I Got My First Customer,” pulling back the curtain on the most critical “0 to 1” stage for every founder.
The “Sales” Philosophy of Experienced Founders
Despite the impressive pitches, Dragons’ Chamber co-organizer and CEO of Enspyre, Elias Ek, spoke bluntly during the session: “I have watched hundreds of pitches, and one of the things that struck me was that many founders had not given enough thought to how they would do their sales and marketing.”
To address this pain point, the session invited several veteran entrepreneurs to share their early-day struggles and wisdom:
- Elias Ek, CEO of Enspyre: He spoke about how Enspyre started in 2002 offering Phone Answering but quickly pivoted to B2B Lead Generation when it was clear that it was hard to define the Ideal Customer Profile and attract enough customers for their Phone Answering services. This pivot led Enspyre to become a B2B Lead Generation leader servicing Fortune 500 giants and local startups alike.
- Richard DeVries, Founder of Geber Brand Consulting: He encouraged startups to “simplify the solution.” The market doesn’t need profound theories; founders should practice explaining their solutions in the simplest way possible to ensure customers understand the value immediately.
- Frank Chang, Founder of Couchspace: He admitted that even though he was initially unfamiliar with cold calling/outreach, the key was “action.” Only by constantly stepping out of one’s comfort zone and picking up the phone can a startup find a breakthrough in the market.
- Alexander Frankish, Founder of APro: Comparing entrepreneurship to a marathon, he motivated founders to maintain resilience in the face of setbacks, stating that never giving up is the only ticket to landing that first customer.
The conclusion among the experts was: “Do not be shy to do cold outreach to potential customers.” The phone is a 150 year-old invention, but it is still the most powerful tool the founder has at their disposal to connect with their potential customers. While early meetings may be stumbled through, every interaction helps a team better understand their customer profile and selling points. Elias then pointed out that all companies can outsource this task to Enspyre’s very experienced and skilled B2B Lead Generation team.
Highlights of the 2025 Dragons’ Chamber Finals
Following the insightful session, the five finalists pitched before a powerhouse panel of “Dragons,” including international angel investor Torbjörn Nordling, serial entrepreneur Yann Boquillod, Igor Žilák of Smart Capital, cross-border growth expert Revital Shpangental and Dragons’ Chamber co-founder Elias Ek.
The First Prize was awarded to IIST, a team that exemplified the synergy between Taiwanese academic research and commercial viability. Born from research at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, IIST specializes in Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) security technologies, providing chip-level hardware security to safeguard data and validate authenticity in an era of AI and deepfakes.
The 2025 Winners and Finalists:
- 1st Prize: IIST,a pioneer in hardware security and chip anti-counterfeiting technology.
- 2nd Prize: Prompt Master Pro, a dedicated IDE for professional prompt engineering that improves consistency and can increase output accuracy by up to 40% while reducing token usage by 25%.
- 3rd Prize: DineHire, Taiwan’s first dedicated job platform exclusively for the food and hospitality industry, connecting businesses with verified talent to solve staffing crises and language barriers.
- Finalist: Next Integral, an AI-powered inspection system that offers an affordable, plug-and-play solution for small and medium packaging factories.
- Finalist: FanID, the inventor of “Apple ID for concerts,” using AI facial authentication with zero-knowledge cryptography to streamline entry and protect privacy while reducing resellers.
Taiwan: The Ideal Launchpad for Foreign Entrepreneurs
Dragons’ Chamber is organized by MUSA Trademark, Enspyre, and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan (CCCT). The organizers emphasized that considering over half of US unicorns are co-founded by immigrants, Taiwan has a lot to win by engaging with the talent already living on the island.
Nicolas, the winner from IIST, expressed his gratitude for the Pitch Camp provided by sponsor True Development: “I have never felt so comfortable on stage. Thank you sincerely.”
More than just a competition, Dragons’ Chamber is a professional ecosystem providing mentorship, brand strategy diagnosis, and B2B marketing resources, helping immigrant entrepreneurs take root in Taiwan and eventually scale to the global stage.