Deep Dive with Hive — Howard Chi, CEO of Canner
We believe in entrepreneurs who are continuously improving themselves and eager to make the world a better place. As the co-founder and CEO of @Canner, @Howard Chi noticed the problem of data silos among different businesses in Taiwan and turned it into a business idea. Learn more about Howard’s journey in building a data company and his beliefs when running a company.
Questions for the Deep Dive with Hive Series
by Howard Chi, CEO of Canner
1. Short Introduction of yourself and your startup：
Ans: My name is Howard, I’m the co-founder & CEO of Canner. Canner is a data company that empowers enterprises by reducing their data processing time. We help enterprises connect data silos, with value-added data transformation capabilities, and deliver business insights to business units and users.
2. What inspired you to develop your idea into a startup?
Ans: Before we launched CannerFlow, we had an open-source project called CannerCMS, which creates custom CMS (Content Management System) for businesses. Through this project, we met and interacted with many different enterprises and noticed a common problem that they struggled with due to data silos. This gave us the idea to launch a company that tackles the problem of data silos for businesses and helps them improve their business performance.
3. What’s the biggest challenge you faced when starting a company and how did you overcome it?
Ans: We started as a team of hackers building tools we love. We didn’t know how to interact, communicate, or serve big enterprises. Starting a company from nothing requires a different set of skills, but luckily for us, we love learning new things and that helped us overcome challenges along the way. We listened carefully to our customers, asked for advice from our investors and mentors and kept an open mind. With great support from our customers and investors, we started to gain traction from big players across industries including finance, manufacturing, and retail.
4. What is your dream and aspirations for the company going forward?
Ans: Many enterprises in Taiwan are struggling to keep up with the global competition, which boils down to how data is used to generate business value. Looking at the differences in data landscape between Asia and the West, Asia has always been lagging for over a decade — it’s time for us to make a difference. We want to help these companies build essential data infrastructures that support their business vision.
5. Who is your role model, or Which public personalities have you been inspired by in your startup journey?
Ans: My role models are our investors and advisors; we are very fortunate to have some very successful Taiwanese entrepreneurs who changed their respective industries. After listening to their success stories, their strong passion, wisdom, and strategic planning inspired me to turn my vision into reality.
6. What keeps you awake at night?
Ans: Strategic questions like ‘am I in the right direction?’ and ‘can I do it more efficiently?’ keep me up at night. These are critical questions that founders need to continuously ask ourselves, so we continue to grow our companies and thrive.
7. What is your motivation that keeps you going every day?
Ans: I love working with people. There are so many great talents here in Taiwan and I believe that as a team, we can achieve big things. I want to build a culture and environment that empowers talents to dream big and achieve their goals.
8. What is your strategy when things don’t turn out the way you expect?
Ans: As the saying goes, the only way out is through. I think it is important to never give up, and to constantly improve. If things aren’t as we expected, think about how we can get through it.
9. What is the biggest difference you see from the start of your journey to where you are today?
Ans: Looking back, I was naïve to think that a “good product is everything”, but it’s not. Now, I strongly believe that a company’s vision, culture, people, and strategy form the core of its success.
