by James Hill
Leading figures from the entrepreneurial communities in Silicon Valley, Europe, and Taiwan descended on Microsoft’s Taipei offices last Friday to find out which five teams had made it through to the inaugural batch of Startup Labs, the new global initiative spearheaded by Clint Nelsen, co-founder of Startup Weekend and Arkady Moreynis, a prominent Internet entrepreneur and investor from Russia.
The 22-day acceleration program awards teams 1,000,000 NTD (~US$30,000) in exchange for 8% of company equity. Here’s what you need to know about the teams who stood out during the rigorous selection process:
Flirq
Flirq puts the women in charge of the dating process, offering users a safe and fun place for people to meet. The team is a graduate of Philadelphia’s DreamIt Ventures incubator, and has honed their product on the university campuses in the same city. The draw for the guys is that once a woman is interested she will contact you, raising the chances of a successful match, avoiding awkward exchanges and painful rejection.
