Year-End Review: A Practical 2022 & A Deepened 2023 (Part 1) — Force Without Direction Is Just Noise

English Version (中文版本在下方)

It’s a peaceful Sunday morning, just after the presidential election. Compared to the noise of the past few months, the weather — and my mind — feel unusually calm. In democratic countries like Taiwan, large-scale elections happen every two years. You can think of elections as performance reviews for those in power. Just like we get report cards in school or performance evaluations at work, people need feedback beyond themselves to know whether their efforts have paid off.

Anyone with a basic physics background might recall the formula for work: W = F × s. In plain terms, doing work equals applying force over a distance in the direction of that force. A simple and elegant equation I first learned in high school — but it is much harder to apply in real life.

To avoid wasted effort, it is not enough to work hard. First, you have to do the right thing. Direction matters. The impact of your force depends on whether it is applied in the right direction. Once you are moving in the right direction, then you focus on doing the thing right — the craft of continuous optimization. This part tends to come naturally as you gain experience. If you care about your efficiency or are obsessed with improving how you spend your time, you’ll always find ways to do things better.

That is why regularly reviewing your direction is so important. Honestly, even checking once a year feels too infrequent. Personally, I do a monthly check-in by asking myself: Where do I spend my time? That simple question helps me stay focused. I’m lazy by nature, so I want to put my energy into what matters most — so I can be more carefree with the rest.

It has been over half a year since my last long-form post (I’ve been writing, just not publishing — most drafts didn’t feel good enough to share). That last piece was written right after I finished military service. This one is more of a retrospective on 2022 and 2023, a personal check-in, and a look ahead.

To better understand where I stand now, I’ll break this reflection down chronologically, highlighting what I learned at each stage and what triggered the shifts in my thinking — leading up to 2024.

From VC to the Real World

I usually mark the beginning of my career as the time I worked in venture capital. That stage helped me build a solid foundation in business thinking, especially when analyzing startup growth.

As an analyst, I learned how to dissect a company or industry from multiple angles and identify opportunities. What made our firm different from many other VCs was how deeply we got involved. We didn’t just assess; we helped portfolio companies craft their growth strategies and financial models — and worked alongside them to bring those plans to life.

Back then, one question kept nagging me. From the investor’s perspective, I could give high-level recommendations, even offer detailed tactical suggestions by referencing how similar companies approached their GTM strategy, customer focus, partnership roadmap, or geographic expansion.

(For more, see: Venture Capital Internship: A Wild Ride at Hive Ventures)

But when it came to execution, I was clueless. I didn’t understand the real-world obstacles, and I couldn’t judge how feasible my strategies actually were. That disconnect left me feeling uneasy — like I was trying to see through fog.

To quote Frank Slootman (CEO of Snowflake and other successful companies): “Without strong execution, there’s literally no way to know whether a strategy is failing.”

Luckily, a CEO I had previously worked with invited me to join his growth-stage startup as Chief of Staff. This role gave me direct exposure to the CEO’s day-to-day decisions. I was involved in key company priorities and helped turn ideas into action.

Because I wasn’t tied to any specific department, I got involved in a wide range of cross-functional projects. Most of my exposure was in sales, marketing, and finance, which gave me a broader perspective across the business.

Here are a few lessons I noted at the time:

“Beyond positioning and management across different markets, every department has its own challenges.

Marketing needs to generate leads with limited resources. The key is to choose the right channels, test quickly, and find repeatable playbooks. Data-driven thinking and creative execution matter most under pressure.

Sales has to constantly monitor conversion rates and cohort data across the funnel to identify the right ICP and tailor campaigns accordingly. Listening to sales calls is crucial to understand customer concerns and objections.

Customer success offers frontline feedback and insights. CS teams not only solve problems but also act as second-line sales, helping identify customer context and feeding it back into the org.

Product is the hardest. Product roadmaps and value propositions need to be distilled from sales requests, market data, and customer feedback. But without a deep understanding of the market, good decisions are nearly impossible. The product team must deeply understand the customer while also leading them into the digital future.”

As the CEO’s EA, Trenton (our CEO) gave me many chances to get hands-on. Those experiences helped me appreciate how hard — and how exciting — it is to run a team, especially at a startup.

Observations from a Cross-Border Team

The company had teams in both Taiwan and the US, with sales based mostly in the western US. Cross-border collaboration was no small feat. Time zone differences were just one challenge. Communication style was another.

I noticed how team members educated in the US often came prepared with justifications for every decision. Even if their reasoning wasn’t airtight, they were used to defending their actions. For them, explaining “why” was almost instinctive.

That left a strong impression on me and exposed some of my own blind spots — not just in language but in thinking.

Sales & Marketing: My Favorite Battlefield

Among everything I was involved in, sales and marketing fascinated me the most. There’s something primal about it — like a military campaign. Different teams coordinate like branches of the military. If marketing is the air force, sales is the ground force. To win, timing is everything. Bomb first, then move in.

Marketing focused on lead generation through SEO, website, content, ads, review platforms, and referral programs. Each channel had its own characteristics and conversion rates. It was fun building tailored growth plans for each.

One area I remember vividly was our paid ads strategy. I quickly ramped up on Google Ads concepts like impressions, clicks, and conversions. We ran countless A/B tests on copy, images, and layouts. Eventually, we realized the biggest unlock was data integration — feeding CRM pipeline progress back into Google Ads made targeting much more accurate.

Outside of ads, website optimization became a huge lever. We treated our website as our most important SDR. Every piece of copy had to reflect how our best reps spoke to customers. Each headline, CTA, and message was based on real buyer motivations.

And we were not trying to attract everyone. We kept refining our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) using internal sales data — analyzing trends by country, industry, and company size. All optimizations were based on this core group.

On the sales side, we experimented with different outreach tactics. Surprisingly, cold calling and walk-ins worked unusually well in this industry. As always: make a hypothesis, test it, and follow the data.

After a deal closed, customer support took over for onboarding and upsells. Designing a seamless onboarding experience was crucial.

Limited Product Involvement, but Valuable Insights

I didn’t get too involved in the product side, aside from helping with a pricing strategy study for one new feature. But I did observe how sales and CS collected and relayed customer feature requests to the product team.

In vertical SaaS, growth often relies on building new features or product lines to upsell existing customers. This means understanding your customer’s daily operations and helping them generate more revenue with your product is key.

Transitioning to a New Chapter

After four months of military service, I joined a new company in March 2023. It was a very different environment — from a 200-person Series A company to a 30-person seed-stage startup. Naturally, the focus shifted a lot…

(To be continued in Part 2)

中文版本

甫結束總統大選的周日早上，與近幾個月關於選舉的紛擾相比，今天的天氣和心情格外平和。民主國家如臺灣，每兩年都會有一次大型選舉，我們可以將選舉當作對於執政者的成績考核，正如我們在學校需要成績單，在企業需要年度考核，人總是需要一些自我以外的評價來知曉自己的做功是否唐捐。

有點物理基礎的人此時會想起力做功的公式是 W＝F×s，簡單地說，做功等於施力乘上沿施力移動的位移。此簡單美麗的等式，高中就學過，但實踐卻困難許多。

白話而言，要達到功不唐捐的結果，不是單純埋頭苦幹即可，首先是要 do the right thing，方向要先正確，施力所產生的影響才會最大，畢竟施力與方向的關係是乘積。再來才是不斷優化，意即 do the thing right，這件事次之的原因在於，我們通常能夠在日漸上手的業務上找到一些改進的方式，只要有把持續進步的心態牢記，或是很在意自己的單位時間效率，我們通常能找到更好的做事方式。

因此定期回顧自己前進的方向便格外重要，甚至以年作為檢視單位都嫌奢侈了。我自己是每個月都有紀錄 Where do I spend my time?，回答這個問題往往能幫助我聚焦自己的精力，畢竟我是個很懶的人，最好能夠把時間都畫在最重要的事情上，剩下的時間我才能比較任性的花。

距離上次發表比較長的文章已經超過半年了（還是持續有在寫，但很多都覺得不到能夠發布的程度…），上次是退伍後的有感而發，這次可能更多是針對自己 2022 和 2023 的回顧，以及給自己一些對未來的提醒和展望。

為了要更好的理解我當下的狀態，我決定以時序和每個階段的學習與轉變契機為重點，一路寫到 2024 年的當下。

從在創投開始（我通常會將我在創投工作的時候當作我職業生涯的起點），累積較多的是商業上的能力，尤其是針對一項新創事業發展的分析，在擔任分析師時學到了如何從不同角度切入，找出一個產業乃至公司的機會點，與一般創投機構不同的是，我們看得更深，甚至會協助被投公司擬出接下來的成長策略 + 財務預測並期待與之一同實踐。

當時常有的疑問是，以投資者的角度我可以給出大方向的建議，甚至根據一些競業的發展藍圖給到更具體的細節，例如要 focus 哪種類型的客戶、哪個時間段需要採取甚麼 GTM 策略、要達到哪些關鍵 partnership，要切入哪些新的地區…等等。

（延伸閱讀：創投實習：在 Hive Ventures 的奇幻旅程）

但對於執行面我一竅不通，我不理解實務上的困難點，我也不了解我提出的策略建議的可行性多高，這種霧裡看花的模糊讓我總有心底不踏實的感覺。

此處引述 Frank Slootman（多家成功企業 CEO，現為 Snowflake CEO）的名言: ”…without strong execution, there’s literally no way to know whether a strategy is failing…”

幸運地，在以前合作過的 CEO 邀請下，我獲得了一個加入成長期新創的機會，當時的身分是執行長特助。在這個職位我能夠近距離觀察 CEO 的 day to day work，關注公司最重要的幾件事，輔佐並 make it happened。也因為實際上我並不屬於哪個特定部門，支援的事務時常有所不同，比較是以專案形式參與公司的各種營運活動，帶給我更廣的 exposure，最多接觸的屬 sales, marketing, finance 為主。

以下節錄一些我那時的 lesson learnt：

＂除了跨國management 和positioning的調整，各個不同部門也都有自己的難題。

Marketing需要在有限資源下generate leads，要選擇適合的渠道快速試錯來找到playbook，在時間和資源的雙重壓力下，如何based on data and think creatively成為最重要的課題。

Sales則需要根據funnel 的不同階段，daily basis的分析轉換率和cohort based的數據，決定最適合當下產品的ICP，嘗試新的sales campaign，並實際聽sales call了解客戶的concern甚至是objection reason。

CS則需要以服務客戶的角度，提供第一線的客戶feedback 與insight，並充當產品的第二線銷售員，不僅幫客戶排解商業上的問題，更提供完整諮詢服務， 從中也能推敲出不同類型的客戶的脈絡，為其他部門提供context 。

產品部門則是難中之難，product roadmap和value prop都需要產品部門的提煉。資訊來源可以是sales帶回來的request ，市場/競品研究的data，抑或是CS給出的客戶抱怨。但最終還是需要產品部門下定論，在不夠了解市場和客戶的情況下，做出正確的決定趨近於零。我們需要不斷理解客戶，同時利用我們在軟體世界的domain ，協助freight forwarding 產業往數位化的方向轉型。

身為CEO的EA，Trenton給了我許多下場實戰的經驗，也因此對於這些困難的問題更有同感，並深深理解到經營一個團隊，尤其是startup 有多麼不簡單（以及有趣）。＂

針對上述引文延伸地說，由於當時公司在臺灣與美國各有安排人員，尤其銷售相關的部門都配置在美西，跨國合作的難度不低，除了時差需要克服，在溝通表達上也見識到自己的不足，不僅是語言上的，還有思維上。在我的觀察，美式教育下的個體，撇開執行上的細節不談，至少開會溝通上都能夠信手拈來每個行動背後的原因，不一定都邏輯上合理，但在每個行動背後尋找支撐的理由似乎對他們是反射行為。

而我有幸參與最深的 sales & marketing 也是讓我學習許多，一直以來都對這種攻城掠地的本質行為深深著迷，和打仗一樣，各路軍隊的協同合作是勝仗的關鍵。若行銷是空軍，銷售便是陸軍，一場漂亮的勝仗需要空軍先起飛轟炸，接著再陸軍壓境，時機很重要。

當時行銷的重點在於 lead generation，我們要透過各種不同的行銷渠道帶來銷售機會，主要有機搜尋、官網、內容、廣告、評價網站、和推薦計畫，每個渠道的量體和轉換率各有相同，了解每個渠道的特性並制定各自的增長計畫非常有趣。

比較有印象的是我們花了一些時間鑽研廣告投放的策略，那陣子快速地學習了 Google Ads 的背景知識 impression, click, conversion…，並針對 landing page 的文案、圖片和排版做了很多 A/B test，在眾多實驗後發現最重要的data integration，將 marketing leads 在後續 CRM 內 sales pipeline 的進程餵回 Google Ads 後所進行的投放是最精準的。

廣告渠道的嘗試之外，官網的優化也非常有趣。官網被我們稱為公司最重要的 SDR / AE，官網上的 value prop 必須以最能吸引人 convert 的目標出發，而最懂怎麼打動客戶的人就是我們的 SDR / AE。因此每個標題，每個文案，每個上面出現的訊息，都應該從 sales 理解客戶的購買動機下切入。

這邊又牽涉到一個概念，我們並沒有要吸引所有客戶，我們根據內部銷售資料會滾動式調整最重要的 Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)，我們所有的優化是根據這個 group 做的，當時是針對國家、產業類型、公司規模的銷售數據進行分析，來得到 ICP。

講到銷售，我們也嘗試了很多不同的銷售活動，意外地發現，在我們客戶的這個產業，直接爬名單打電話，或登門拜訪有著出乎意料的好成效。很多事情都是這樣，提出假設、進行不同實驗、透過得到的數據決定下一步。

而銷售真的 close 客戶後又會交給 customer support 部門 onboard，甚至後續的 upsell 也需要 CS / AM 的努力。如何打造絲滑的 onboarding process 也是重中之重。

當時比較可惜的是，沒有參與太多產品面的事務，只觀察到銷售和客服部門都會統整客戶方提出的功能建議給產品部門參考，產品藉由市場調研和這些第一手 customer feedback 進行產品 roadmap 的調整。

而由於 vertical SaaS 的 playbook 之中，成長有很大一部分仰賴公司持續開發新功能與新產品線 upsell 給顧客，因此持續了解顧客的日常營運，並想辦法幫助顧客在使用你的產品的同時還能賺取更多的營收格外重要。

但產品相關的事情，除了當時有幫一個即將上線的功能進行 pricing strategy study 以外，其他的事務我則沒有了解太多。

而在經歷 4 個月的當兵時光後，在 2023 年 3 月我加入了一間新的公司，人數沒有之前的公司那麼多，公司階段也不一樣，從 200 人左右的 Series A 公司到接近 30 人的種子輪新創，關注的事情理所當然不盡相同…（下集待續）

一寫竟然不小心寫了這麼多…只好把文章拆成上下兩篇，針對加入階段不同的新創的所見所得以及對未來的展望就留到下篇吧！

(下篇連結）