886 Studios

Founders first 👾 brought to you by the creators of Twitch, Guitar Hero, Playdom, Kabam, & more 👾 We run ikigai Launchpad, an accelerator in Taipei ~ APPLY NOW

[886 Studios @886Studios]

ANNOUNCEMENT:

We're now accepting applications for the Fall 2026 batch of ikigai Launchpad, open to ambitious founders anywhere!

ikigai gives early-stage founders $100K USD in funding and mentorship from people who've done this before, so you can move faster than you could on your own.

If you're building and want the founders of Twitch & Guitar Hero in your corner, apply TODAY!

‼️Spots are limited, and our first round of acceptances closes July 31st.

Link to apply below.

[886 Studios @886Studios]

come hear our Managing Partner, Kevin Lin @kevinlin, share the stage with ikigai alumni, Jimmy (ikigai F24) @saladboiforever, tomorrow at the Boba Tech Summit!

Marx (ikigai S26) will also be pitching Peeps on stage 🫡

[886 Studios @886Studios]

apply here: https://t.co/3nuoYNYONt

[886 Studios @886Studios]

Applications for ikigai Launchpad Fall ’26 close this Friday on September 11.

Get $100K in funding, mentorship from Silicon Valley founders, and a program designed for speed.

You’ll join a batch of founders working on their own big ideas, we’d love to hear yours.

[886 Studios @886Studios]

come hear our Managing Partner @kevinlin on stage today this afternoon for FUTUREMODE @TaipeiWeek!

[886 Studios @886Studios]

we're hosting a happy hour mixer for founders after day 1 of Boba Tech with @sipandscale.

come through and hang!

📅: September 9 @ 7pm

https://t.co/eGK5otO3cw

[886 Studios @886Studios]

@TaipeiWeek @kevinmlin he’s also a Partner at 886 Studios and leads our ikigai Launchpad accelerator 🐐

https://t.co/SGHNCxAb7w

[886 Studios @886Studios]

We’re going live in 30 minutes!

Join our ikigai Launchpad AMA on YouTube to learn more about how our mentors review applications, what we look for in founders, and ask us any questions you have about the program.

Watch live: https://t.co/WQoA6DfvTZ

[886 Studios @886Studios]

we will be streaming our AMA tomorrow at 11:30am (TW time) on YouTube (for the first time).

join us to learn more about how our mentors are reviewing applications, what we expect from founders, and ask whatever questions you may have about ikigai Launchpad.
https://t.co/cL1PWHkyaX

[886 Studios @886Studios]

how to raise money from vc's?
what does it mean to build for a global market?
how do we evaluate founders for ikigai Launchpad?
is the ai hype justified or are we in a bubble?

these are the kind of questions we'll be getting into at our next AMA.

join us with a couple of the ikigai Launchpad mentors, Silicon Valley founders who've built and exited companies before and ask us anything related to startups.

📅 9/1 at 11:30 AM (CST)
📍 Online

sign up here: https://t.co/gFbleShme2

🚨next round of acceptances ends September 4th🚨

[886 Studios @886Studios]

On Our Radar is our way of sharing ideas we’d like to see founders tackle. If one of these excites you, take it as validation to dive in. We’ll be posting more of these soon.

The next round of acceptances for ikigai Launchpad closes on September 4th.

To apply or learn more, visit our website: https://t.co/Q996IrdVn8

[886 Studios @886Studios]

Consumer tech has optimized for engagement, attention capture, and extraction for two decades. The playbook has been: free product -> monetize attention -> mine the data -> dark-pattern the retention. It's been wildly profitable, but corrosive to society.

AI is a fork in the road. The same technology that could hyper-personalize manipulation could also make user-aligned business models economically competitive for the first time. We want to fund the second branch: founders whose incentives point the same direction as the user's.

We're especially interested in the following categories:
- Attention-return products: media, social, or information tools where the metric is time saved, not captured. Monetized by subscription or outcome, not ads.

- Non-predatory consumer finance: lending and wealth tools for Asia's mass-affluent and underbanked that win when the user's financial position improves, not when they revolve debt.

- User-side agents: software that represents the user against the extractive stack, negotiating bills, canceling subscriptions, filtering manipulation.

— Kevin Lin @kevinlin, Partner at 886 Studios & ikigai Launchpad, Co-founder of Twitch

[886 Studios @886Studios]

we're running it back.

come join us online next week to meet the ikigai Launchpad mentors and team! ask any questions you have about the program, what it means to build a category defining company, being a founder, or whatever you're wrestling with in your own startup right now.

the next round of acceptances closes September 4th, so if you've been sitting on your application, this is a good moment to get your last questions answered.

Date: 9/1 10:30 AM (CST)

Sign up on Luma: https://t.co/iN8yXubBfQ

[886 Studios @886Studios]

apply here: https://t.co/3nuoYNYONt

[886 Studios @886Studios]

we hosted an AMA with the ikigai Launchpad mentors last week where they answered questions on how we screen founders, when to kill an idea, and how AI is reshaping SaaS pricing.

here were some key takeaways:

1) traction isn't required to apply. what we look for instead is rate of progress: are you learning fast, pivoting fast, talking to customers fast. that matters more than your current user count.

2) if you're a solo founder, our advice is to consider finding someone to build with, even in this era of AI. building a company alone is brutally hard, and the vast majority of people can't pull it off solo.

3) there's a J-curve test for killing an idea. if you're not seeing it, that's usually the signal to move on, not to push harder on the same thing. stubborn is only good until it isn't.

4) full-time means full-time. 50 to 60 hour weeks are pretty normal if you're building something that makes an impact. part-time doesn't get you there. we want to go all-in with you, but only if you're all-in first.

5) AI is rewriting SaaS pricing. seat-based is giving way to outcome-based, because AI is now doing the job a human used to do.

we'll be hosting more AMAs like this before the next batch begins!

applications for the Fall '26 batch are OPEN.
next round of acceptances closes on September 4th.

[886 Studios @886Studios]

On Our Radar is our way of sharing ideas we’d like to see founders tackle. If one of these excites you, take it as validation to dive in. We’ll be posting more of these soon.

The next round of acceptances for ikigai Launchpad closes on September 4th.

To apply or learn more, visit our website, https://t.co/7jrc5BPGRo

[886 Studios @886Studios]

Professional services in Asia are enormous and almost entirely labor-intensive.

The model hasn’t changed in 40 years: humans applying time to information processing, contract drafting, analysis, and advice. Accounting & tax, legal, management consulting, staffing, insurance brokerage, and wealth management add up to well over $500B in annual spend across Asia Pacific ex-China. Every one of these is exactly what AI is now compressing.

We want to fund companies that don’t just sell software into these industries, they sell the work itself. We’re especially interested in the following service categories:

- Insurance brokerage
- Staffing & recruiting
- Accounting & tax

— Max Hsieh, Mentor at 886 Studios

[886 Studios @886Studios]

see y’all in an hour!

learn more about the ikigai Launchpad program, meet the mentors and team, and come prepared with any questions you might have!

[886 Studios @886Studios]

Thinking about applying or already working on your application?

Bring your lunch and join us online for a casual AMA with the ikigai Launchpad partners & team.

​Whether you’ve already applied or are still deciding, come say hi, meet the people behind the program, and ask us anything!

- ​📅 Date: Thursday, August 13, 2026
- ​🕧 Time: 12:30–1:30 PM (Taipei time)
- ​💻 Location: Online

https://t.co/GbwORgyKsU

[886 Studios @886Studios]

Thinking about applying or already working on your application?

Bring your lunch and join us online for a casual AMA with the ikigai Launchpad partners & team.

​Whether you’ve already applied or are still deciding, come say hi, meet the people behind the program, and ask us anything!

- ​📅 Date: Thursday, August 13, 2026
- ​🕧 Time: 12:30–1:30 PM (Taipei time)
- ​💻 Location: Online

https://t.co/GbwORgyKsU

[886 Studios @886Studios]

https://t.co/pkaSILqNVP

[886 Studios @886Studios]

Thank you to everyone who came out to our ‘ikigai vibe build’ event last week!

We want to host more casual events like this where builders can meet, cowork, exchange ideas, and share what they’re building.

Follow our Luma calendar to stay updated on the next one.