千里之行，百次拒绝，以及我们的第一位用户
一切都始于一个故事。故事改变生活，故事改变世界。
我们每个人都有故事和世界可以分享，但大多数人却在纸上表达思想时感到困难。在Creader.io，我们的使命是在人工智能时代更好地促进表达，而不是取而代之。
作为我们创意故事应用的用户和市场调研的一部分，我来到了东南亚，这里是流行的同人小说和文学平台Wattpad最大的市场。
于是，我骑着摩托车穿梭于东南亚的首都城市，飞速往返于泰国、印度尼西亚、新加坡和越南。我们的目标是国际学校。
我们并不是盲目选择学校，而是在一个艺术和手工艺市场进行了几个月的市场调研，接近40%的高度参与的访客，包括家长、教师和学生，都表示Creader应该进入创意写作、英语和文学的课堂。
而东南亚正是最佳之地。
“你们来对地方了，东南亚绝对是最合适的地方，”一位来自意大利的曼谷STEM学校教育主任说道。“这里对每个人都有巨大的潜力。我们需要人才。”
“这很好，干得不错。你们要继续努力，继续前进。你们可以做到。绝对应该去学校。国际学校是你们的正确市场，首先专注于教育，这是一个很好的起点。”
最终，他们并没有成为我们的首个用户，因为他们希望在课堂上使用经过验证的产品，而不是未经测试的原型，但表示有兴趣保持联系以备后用。
现实很快就显现出来。我在雅加达，汗流浃背，身处一个拥有4000万人口的城市的炎热、潮湿和废气中。每天从早上8点到下午4点，我在热带的酷热中骑着嘈杂的摩托车，奔波于各个学校。回到酒店时，我浑身湿透，躺在床上，疲惫得动不了。
雅加达的安全措施非常严格，在大多数学校，我在警卫室外被拦下，无法进入接待处。在整个星期里，我没有见到任何教师，也没有收到我留下的信件或电子邮件的回复。我空手离开雅加达。零到一总是最困难的。
下一站 - 新加坡，一个将自己定位为亚洲人工智能中心的城市。这听起来非常有前景，直到一位校长告诉我们：“这很好，但你知道有多少初创公司来这里试图向我们推销学生软件吗？我们经常遇到这种情况！”争夺注意力的竞争将会非常激烈，这个城市并不好打入。
我只剩下最后一次机会。胡志明市。
在最后一天，我站在一栋欧洲风格的历史建筑外。我向接待处说明了我们正在构建的内容。她有些怀疑，但还是给校长打了电话。“请稍等，他刚从午餐回来。”
几分钟后，我被引入一个办公室。“我爱伦敦，”坐在我对面的美国校长开朗地说道，当我告诉他我们的初创公司位于伦敦时。我注意到他的桌子上散落着一堆又一堆的书。在接下来的一个小时里，我们聊起了越南、历史、文学以及我们生活中的冒险经历，这些经历将我们带到了亚洲。直到最后，我才提到Creader，并进行了简短的演示。“我会在伦敦见你的朋友，”这是他离开的告别语。
于是，我飞回了家。
一周后，在一次简短的介绍电话后，我们达成了协议。他将在夏季学校中使用Creader，教授一小班学生。如果效果不错，那么到九月份就有可能在整个学校推广，适用于常规学年。更重要的是，这个夏季的尝试让我们可以在九月份回到之前感兴趣的学校，那些只想要稍微更多验证的学校。
现在，我们为即将到来的夏季做好准备。
查看原文
Everything begins with a story. Stories change lives. Stories change the world.<p>And we all have stories and worlds to share, yet most of us struggle to express our thoughts on paper. At Creader.io, our mission is to better enable expression, not replace in the age of AI.<p>As part of user and market research for our creative storytelling app, I find myself in Southeast Asia, home to the largest market for Wattpad, the popular fanfiction and literature platform.<p>So here I am, on the back of motorcycles roaring through the capital cities of Southeast Asia, flying between Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam. Our target? International schools.<p>We didn’t choose schools blindly, it was the result of market research for a couple months at an arts and craft market where close to 40% of highly engaged visitors including parents, teachers, students all said Creader belonged in a classroom for creative writing, English and literature.<p>And Southeast Asia is the place to be.<p>“You’ve come to the right place, Southeast Asia is absolutely the right place to be” declares the director of education of a Bangkok STEM school who hails from Italy. “There is so much potential here for everyone. We’re in need of talent.”<p>“This is good. Great job guys. You got to keep it up. Keep going. You got this. Absolutely you should be going to schools. International schools are your right market. Focus on education first, good place to start.”<p>In the end, they did not become our first user as they wanted something battle tested in a classroom beyond an untested prototype, but expressed interest in staying in touch for later.<p>Reality quickly sets in. I'm in Jakarta, sweating in the heat, humidity and fumes of a city of 40 million people. It was long days running from school to school, 8 am to 4 pm days on end on the back of loud noisy motorbikes in the tropical heat. By the time I’m back in the hotel, I’m drenched in sweat lying in bed, too exhausted to move.<p>Security is tight within Jakarta and at most schools I’m stopped outside at the guardhouse, unable to visit reception. For the whole week, I go without meeting any teachers or hear back from any of the letters nor emails I had left behind. I leave Jakarta empty-handed. Zero to one is always the hardest.<p>Next stop - Singapore, a state city positioning itself as the AI hub of Asia. It sounds very promising, until one school principal points out to us, “this is great, but do you know how many startups stop by trying to pitch us software for students? We get this kind of stuff ALL the time!” Competition for attention is going to be intense and this is not going to be an easy city to break into.<p>I have one shot remaining. Ho Chi Minh.<p>On the last day, I find myself standing outside an European styled heritage building. I inform reception of what we’re building. She is skeptical but makes the call to the principal. “Please take a seat, he is on his way back from lunch.”<p>Minutes later, I’m ushered into an office. “I love London” booms the jovial American principal seated across me when I inform him our startup is London based. I noticed scattered across his desk were books, piles and piles of books. For most of the next hour, we chat about Vietnam, history, literature and the adventures in our lives that led us to Asia. I don’t mention Creader until the end when I give a short demo. “I’ll meet your friend in London” were his parting words.<p>So I fly home.<p>A week later after one short intro call, we have a deal. He will use Creader during summer school among a small class of students that he will personally instruct. If it delivers, then come September there is the potential of school wide deployment for the regular school year. More importantly, trying it this summer allows us to go back in September to all the interested schools from earlier that just wanted slightly more validation.<p>Now we prepare for the summer ahead.