Todd Gordon: “Ideas in Taiwan come to life faster than anywhere else.”

There are tech companies, and there are hospitality management firms, and then there’s Docceo. This innovative startup is very new to the scene, but in a short time it has garnered a tremendous amount of attention. Founded in 2012, the company is diving head first into the crossroads of hospitality with technology.t and cloud-based applications.

“Taiwanese people are internationally minded and well traveled, and it is a convenient place to work and live.”

Gordon co-founded Docceo in 2012 with an experienced team of entrepreneurs and designers from all over the world. Gordon was born in Taiwan, raised in the United States, and enjoys a strong business acumen of his own, including consulting with silicon valley company Portrait Displays and as a co-founder of VuTech.

The founding partners of Docceo had worked together before – in 2001 they were with Tablet PC startup PaceBlade, but have come back together to “disrupt hospitality”. The Docceo team has devised a smart solution for hospitality called DigiJames comprised of IoT hardware, Software APP and hotel backend management, delivering smart operations, smart building, and smart service.  DigiJames’  smart-room app gives  hotel guests the ability to control all aspects of their experience from an easy to use tablet placed in their room.

The applications of Docceo’s technology go beyond streamlining customer service however. The Docceo app is linked to the cloud  that automatically provides the hotel with customer preference data. The hotel can then automatically make assumptions about guest needs or preferences and anticipate what the customer needs. Furthermore, with aggregate data of many customers over months and years, hotels are able to better manage all aspects of their operations. This is the clever application of machine learning from the cloud.

Although Docceo is a very young project, it has already garnered much attention both in Taiwan and abroad. Gordon was a delegate at the APEC summit in the Philippines for 2015. Furthermore, Docceo was named the AAN Forum winner for 2015 and has participated in various international business accelerators like OrangeFab. Docceo’s most obvious achievement has been landing its first paying customer, the five-star Shangri-La Hotel in Taipei and their partnership with Microsoft

Docceo has also benefited from doing business here in Taiwan. First, hardware development is top notch – Gordon notes that having so many established hardware companies so close by makes it easy for Docceo to bring their ideas to life, faster than if they were anywhere else. Furthermore, Docceo has developed relationships with the Taiwan Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), the Small Medium Enterprise Administration (SMEA), and National Chiao Tung University in Hsinchu, who helped them to establish further relationships with the APEC Accelerator Network (AAN). This expansive network of public, academic, and private contacts has given Docceo exposure to a wealth of advisers and customers. And while the tangible benefits to headquartering in Taiwan are apparent, the less concrete aspects make it attractive as well. “Taiwanese people are internationally minded and well traveled, and it is a convenient place to work and live,” said Gordon.

Having embarked on such an encouraging start, the firm has optimistic aspirations. “Our first step is to grow in Taiwan, and then expand throughout Asia,” Gordon said about future plans. With the rapid development of the Asian economy, business and tourism are bound to accelerate, generating a greater demand for hotels. “We are ambitious about the next five years,” says Gordon. “We see a worldwide serviceable accessible market of USD 15 Billion and we want a big piece of it”.