Our Team

To learn about Dear b&b, one must start by knowing the two co-founders, Minchelle and Rae. Minchelle and Rae, one is a sensitive and perfectionist Capricorn, while the other is an Aquarius who yearns for freedom, a gourmet, and a fun-seeker. One is a girl from Tainan who originally was admitted to the Drama Department of Taipei National University of the Arts, but ended up studying philosophy at National Chengchi University. The other is a girl from Taichung, who almost went astray in junior high school but thankfully turned over a new leaf and entered the Department of Business Administration of National Chengchi University. The two girls met in a class and developed a comradeship through teaming up in a competition. Years after graduation, they reunited and worked as colleagues. When they came to the intersection of 30 years old, they decided to jump into the marathon of starting up a business together, in the name of Dear b&b.

Do what you are really passionate about to infect others.

An Aquarius like Rae is often dubbed as “a human food, travel, and living channel” or “a live version of a gourmet app, calling her would be much efficient than open up the app on one’s phone!” She has always been the food expert that friends would go to. As a foodie, browsing food blogs and the food forum on BBS to collect information of newly opened restaurants is her hobby outside of work. When she travels, food searching is naturally the most important itinerary! For example, when in Chiayi, she would insist on tasting turkey rice from four different stores in one meal, while in Penghu, she would buy pork chop rice from three stores at once. If asking her, “Why do you have to eat the same food from different stores in one meal?” She would answer confidently, “This is the best way to evaluate which store’s best!” A food enthusiast like her believes that “eating is the simplest way to gain happiness.”

And a Capricorn like Minchelle immersed herself in various artistic creations since high school. She always said that she was a true young woman of literature and art. She wrote poems, proses, and novels, acted as the chief editor of the school magazine, and submitted works to literary competitions. After class, she was either at a 16 mm film festival or the experimental dance and drama theater. In her senior year of high school, she even attended the Youth Theater of Tainaner Ensemble regardless of the pressure of college admission. Originally she wanted to study drama in college, but after she was admitted, she decided to choose the Philosophy Department of Chengchi University instead. The decision also planted a seed of wanderlust in her. Not from a wealthy family, she took a two-month trip to Europe for the first time with the money she earned from the part-time job in her junior year of college. And she just discovered that one could travel abroad and explore the world without costing a lot of money. Minchelle said, “When I’m travelling, my senses would be more sensitive. Not only will I find more novelties in the world, but I will also know my inner self better and be clearer about the direction I want to head next.”

Life is an accumulation of experiences. Those experiences gained from wandering in the youth would once again accompany you in the future.

When Minchelle took the course of Information Management at the Department of Business Administration, she and Rae met in the class. As Rae took her in as a team member for group presentation, their firm friendship thus began and lasted over ten years. Later, on a whim, they teamed up again for the 3rd Aton Case Competition and developed a profound comradeship. Originally they just intended to take part and learn from the process, but eventually, they took the championship home. “Have fun in the game, and play hard with creativity,” – from their original intention of attending the competition, one could also see the founding spirit of Dear b&b.

After graduation, Minchelle and Rae each worked in different marketing areas. Minchelle entered Sony Taiwan as she wished. As a fresh graduate, she was fortunate to work from account sales, to marketing PM, then to Marcom in the period of just over three years. She was responsible for several products from different categories and created excellent sales records with successful strategies, while she also won the Sony Global Marketing Award.

Rae worked at Taiwan Bifido as PM for the products like “Zhi Wu No You” yogurt and “Just Drink” coffee. At that time, with a successful commercial starring supermodel Chiling Lin, “Zhi Wu No You” took over 80% share of the yogurt market. Rae was thus appointed by the president of the company to take charge of the architecture competition for the affiliated arts and culture foundation. Three years later, as a challenge seeker, she switched to the online gaming industry. Starting from the marketing PM, she then was appointed as the supervisor to assist the company in diversified development and cultivated the global market.

Later, Minchelle left Sony and travelled around ten countries across Europe and the Middle East for five months. Upon her returning, she realized that “I wanted to stay in Taiwan and do something for Taiwan.” So she rejected the job offer in China, and then accidentally joined an Internet startup team. This not only indirectly contributed to the founding of Dear b&b, but also forced Minchelle to abandon the previous marketing operation with the annual budget over NTD ten million she was used to, and to employ cross-industry cooperation creatively to meet the challenge of zero-budget promotion. And Rae, who was originally well trusted and served in an important position, was also tired of the political environment at the workplace, left the job decisively and became a colleague with Minchelle. Switching from the marketing to the sales department, Rae was in charge of expanding cooperation with coffee shops.

After five years of graduation, they once again worked together. They never thought about starting a business themselves, but as they learned more about the environment of Internet-based entrepreneurship, they found that as long as getting hold of know-how and connections, one didn’t have to be rich to do something valuable for the society and the land. As Rae said, “Thirty-year-old is a critical turning point.” When they approached thirty, they couldn’t help but start thinking about “What exactly are the things we really want?” Instead of being wage slaves, they thought it would be better to spend the time on something more meaningful!

From the original aspiration to the determination, realizing a dream is all about taking actions and persistence.

“Taiwan has many great b&bs, why are there no websites or platforms good enough for everyone to see?” Both as enthusiastic travellers, Minchelle and Rae were troubled by this issue and decided to shoulder the mission to solve the long-standing problem on the spur of the moment.

They came up with this idea in September 2012, and as people of action, they immediately organized a team and started to design the structure and interface of the website. In the meanwhile, they went to interview and evaluated lodgings around Taiwan. Rae applied her serious foodie attitude to screening and selecting lodgings, and took charge of contacting and interviewing the hosts, while Minchelle handled photography, articles, and everything aesthetics-related. In this way, on December 28th of the same year, the seventh day of the alleged end of the world, Dear b&b was officially launched!

“Many new startups have made products based on their own imagination of the market; but before entering the market, how do you know what the market would be like?” After the website was launched, the real challenge has just begun. None of them came from wealthy families, so they just threw in all the savings they earned from the previous jobs at the big corporates. Even things were difficult, they still kept the faith and worked hard. Their persistence was not only for their aspirations but also for the mission they now carried. Initially, they set the stop loss point in the next June, but after investing more and more time and effort, they found that they could do much more than they imagined. With each interview, the fascinating spaces of the lodgings, the moving stories of the hosts, and the beauty of local culture and environment, all made them wonder, “If you haven’t tried every possibility, haven’t done your best, how can you give up?” With a firm look, the eyes of Minchelle were filled with passion and dedication to the vision.

Minchelle and Rae hope that Dear b&b can serve as a platform to select truly unique lodgings for travellers. Unlike the other lodging booking websites, Dear b&b sees itself as a guide of lodgings. Refusing sponsored coverages, the team visits each lodging and assesses them on site personally, then delivers the wonderfulness of the lodgings through earnest writing and photos. Dear b&b at present is just a prototype but with unlimited possibilities in the future. Even if they have few staff and no money, they are still convinced that every effort they make will have a positive impact on Taiwan’s travel and lodging industry.

“We hope that everyone can see the beauty of Taiwan, and more and more travellers from here and abroad will come and stay in these wonderful lodgings.” This is Minchelle and Rae’s original aspiration of founding Dear b&b, and they are also determined to achieve the vision. If you love Taiwan as much as we do and like to create a life worth enjoying, we would like to welcome you to embark on a wonderful journey with us.