Andrew Klerck: Blindness Later in Life Could Not Stop This Thriving Entrepreneur

3 min readJan 29, 2023

Andrew Klerck is the founder of Taiwan Impact Entrepreneurs, a group that serves foreigners who want to start a business in Taiwan. He spoke with me about how much you need to start a business in Taiwan, and why Taiwan is a great place to do so.

Andrew also talked about how he got started on his own journey as an entrepreneur and lost his eyesight over 15 years ago while running an export company. Today he is a thriving entrepreneur, thanks to the assistive technology of smartphones, screen readers, and smart glasses.

He shared from a foreigner’s perspective, good reasons to do business in Taiwan and some of the challenges of doing business in Taiwan.

[LISTEN to the Complete Episode HERE on APPLE PODCASTS or SPOTIFY]

This episode of Talking Taiwan has been sponsored by NATWA, the North America Taiwanese Women’s Association.

NATWA was founded in 1988, and its mission is:

1. to evoke a sense of self-esteem and enhance women’s dignity,

2. to oppose gender discrimination and promote gender equality,

3. to fully develop women’s potential and encourage their participation in public affairs,

4. to contribute to the advancement of human rights and democratic development in Taiwan,

5. to reach out and work with women’s organizations worldwide to promote peace for all.

To learn more about NATWA visit their website: www.natwa.com

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

What brought Andrew to Taiwan
Why Andrew started the Taiwan Impact Entrepreneurs(TIE) group
What the Taiwan Impact Entrepreneurs group does and who they serve
The Taiwan Impact Entrepreneurs mastermind group
The difference between the Taiwan Impact Entrepreneurs Facebook group and the Taiwan Impact Entrepreneurs mastermind group
How the TIE mastermind group is run
Why Taiwan is a good place for foreigners to live
Why Taiwan is a good place for foreigners to start a business
The advantage of doing business in Taiwan
The difficulties and tradeoffs of doing business in Taiwan for foreigners
How to build good credit and get offered credit from banks in Taiwan
How it’s difficult for foreigners to get funding in Taiwan
The Taipei Entrepreneur Hub
Abled Minds Taiwan
What prevents disabled people in Taiwan from pursuing entrepreneurship
How Andrew lost his eyesight
How Andrew managed to run a business as he was loosing his eyesight
The technology that helps Andrew as a blind person with his daily life and to do business
Andrew’s upbringing in South Africa under apartheid
The entrepreneurial and business mindset of Andrew’s parents
How Andrew has run a company that had operations in nearly 60 different countries
Andrew’s TIE partner Jamie Rufe was an executive assistant to Foxconn CEO, Terry Gou
Andrew’s advice for people who want to start a business in Taiwan but don’t have a lot of cash
The importance of street hustling and selling

Andrew Klerck: Blindness Later in Life Could Not Stop This Thriving Entrepreneur

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

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Written by Felicia Lin

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