What being a long distance runner taught me about entrepreneurship

I’ve been a long distance runner for about 12 years now. It started with the 5km and 10km distances. Then 21km. Then the full marathon (42.195km).

Saturday mornings are usually for the long slow distance runs. I would typically be doing 32-36km this time of the year for marathon training. But today I can only manage 4-5km at a time. An unexpected thigh muscle strain causes a sharp pain in my knee and reduces me to a sad limping person if I go any further than that.

But that doesn’t deter me.

I aim to increase my distance by 1-2km at a time, and hopefully the gradual improvement will put me back in the game of marathon running again next year.

Reflecting on this I see many similarities with entrepreneurship. As entrepreneurs we put in the hard work and we keep grinding, hustling, selling and whatnot. And just when everything seems to be going in order, some unexpected ‘thigh muscle strain’ will hit you and all you can do is go back to the drawing board and start from scratch again.

But entrepreneurs don’t get deterred. They keep going and going and going.

And that is how they succeed.

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#smallwins (and the unexpected success of Bosslee Coffee)

This process has happened to me many times over the last 5 years:
1) A group of my friends say something like “hey we should turn this into a business”
2) Everyone gets excited and starts making plans on how to execute
3) We all talk about how awesome it’s going to be and how we’re going to be so rich
4) Nothing happens

And I’m sure many of you reading this have experienced it before. But I’m glad Bosslee Coffee didn’t turn out to be another one of those “we should really have just done it” stories.

So what was different?

For one, I think it was something that all 3 of us were passionate about and that was drinking coffee (and more). We drink it for enjoyment and we also drink it for the caffeine kick it gives us to allow us to build kickass startups. And more importantly I think we never really put any pressure on ourselves to “meet milestones”, “acquire market share”, “hit double digit growth rates” or “raise our seed round”. It was something we did for fun and somehow that worked for us.

So what did we do?

We cranked out a bare minimum list of things we needed:
1) Good coffee beans (not hard to find in Singapore)
2) Mini coffee beans grinder (this was the largest expense and only because our hands that are only used to mouse clicks and keyboard typing could not handle such brutal cranking)
3) Bottles to store our cold brew coffee (One word: ikea)
3) A name and logo (Took us 2 seconds to come up with a name and 30 minutes for the logo)
4) A website to take orders (Combined we might have made more than 10 websites before so this was a piece of cake)
5) A way to collect money (Decided on DBS Paylah since we are only operating in Singapore)
6) At least one social media account (in this case it was an Instagram account)

It’s been just slightly more than a month and considering this is just a side business, I have to say I am pretty pleased to report on how it’s turned out so far:
1) Hit break even point after one month
2) Didn’t spend a single cent on marketing
3) Somehow Timeout Magazine found us and asked for a sample and an interview. We obliged of course.
4) Got an offer to buy out (not sure how serious he was though)
5) Gained the interest of investors
6) In discussions with The Coca Cola Company on how we can possibly work together

So okay so here’s where I try to make some sense out of everything and reflect on what I’ve learnt:
1) I wrote about Google Trends before and since then I’ve also read/heard this from someone/somewhere: “In a typhoon, even pigs can fly”. If you check out cold brew coffee on Google Trends you’d see a really nice exponential growth rate over the last six months. So perhaps there’s really nothing special about what we are doing. If you started a cold brew coffee now you’d probably achieve the same traction we have received.
2) Sometimes the only tech you need is when tech is used as an enabler for business innovation. You do not need to base your entire startup off a technology that may never be commercialized.

And that’s about it for now! To follow us:
www.bossleecoffee.com
@bossleecoffee

5 Tips for Startup Founders (inspired by The Lord of The Rings)

(Note: I don’t always write, so when I don’t, I post interesting articles in my newsletter. You can subscribe here!)

I’ve been a fan of LOTR since the first movie came out more than a decade ago and while it was always just a form of entertainment for me, I’ve recently started seeing many parallels between Frodo’s journey to Mount Doom and an entrepreneur’s journey from starting up to exiting.

And then this morning I saw this post on Medium about how Gandalf would be that perfect advisor/mentor/VC to anyone going to embark on the journey of a lifetime (starting up), which served as validation that I wasn’t the only overly enthusiastic LOTR fan in the startup world; and made me get off my ass to publish this.

So without further ado, here’s how I think LOTR can serve as inspiration to any startup founder:

1) You need a powerful team and a great name

Just look at that team. Look at it. If you were Frodo, what do you have to be afraid of?? It’s no wonder he valiantly decided to travel out of the Shire to Mount Doom.

You have the heir of Gondor, and eventual king and ruler of all Middle Earth right there (COO). You have Gandalf the Grey who will eventually be the greatest white wizard of all time that can defeat death and its minions (CTO). There’s an elf prince that has also defeated death in the sense that he will sort of never ever die (CFO). There’s Gimli, the fearless and stubborn dwarf (Sales/Marketing Director). Every powerful team needs one of those guys. There’s also Boromir, the other human, which tells a startup founder to choose his core team carefully. You don’t want two people with similar skills and talents overlapping each other; and you don’t want someone who does not truly believe in your cause.

Get rid of these people as quickly as possible.

And then you have your loyal companions; the hobbits of the shire who, at times are rather dull, but somehow are able to showcase sudden moments of ingenuity and wit. You need those guys on your team as well.

What I’m saying is that if you are a startup founder and are somehow able to somehow draw such great talent to be part of your team, your chance of success as a startup founder, while still slim, is definitely much higher than another founder who does not have such a fantastic team.

And with such a fantastic team name like The Fellowship of the Ring, it’s no wonder Orcs and Goblins (competitors and clones) quivered in fear whenever they were near.

And speaking of hobbits and loyal companions, that leads me to my second point.

2) You need a right hand man

If you notice in the startup world, most great entrepreneurs of our time have a co-founder that is sort of media shy and isn’t as famous or well known as the main co-founder. For Steve Jobs it was Steve Wozniak, and for Bill Gates it was Paul Allen.

A right hand man is that solid pillar of faith that will always believe in you no matter what to the point where others will suspect if there is some questionable gay relationship going on. This guy will fight for you, stand up for you, and do whatever it takes to see your vision to its end.

Where would Frodo have been if not for dear old Sam Wise Gamgee? Probably smothered to death by Gollum, eaten alive by Shelob, or succumbed to the power of the ring just like the failed king, Isildur.

3) You ‘re going to face so much hardship

Heartache, pain, death, betrayal, disappointment. Need I say more? LOTR shows you there is no limit to the number of setbacks you will face.

Gandalf falls to his supposedly death while fighting with a Balrog, but comes back as a white wizard. Boromir dies but as a result, paves the way for Aragorn to become the future king of Gondor. The team splits up with Merry and Pippin being taken away by Orcs but without doing so, the Ents would never have been brought into a critical fight at the end of The Two Towers.

Somehow everything always works out though as long as you don’t give up and keep persevering and trying to find a way out.

4) You need your mentors and advisors

It’s important to understand that any and every startup founder needs a set mentors and advisors. Would Frodo have got very far without dear old Gandalf? Yes no doubt Frodo does all the heavy lifting but Gandalf set the direction of course providing vision and clarity; he linked Frodo up with the rest of his team mates providing him with a great team; and he convinces other people to do things they won’t normally do to help Frodo in his journey.

And let’s not forget dear old Bilbo Baggins who provided Frodo with Stinger and Mithril, Lady Galadriel’s light of Earendil and Lord Elrond’s magical healing powers to save Frodo from his stab wound.

5) You WILL want to give up, many many times

The journey to Mount Doom (acquisition, IPO, sell) is never easy and is most definitely lined with much self-doubt and difficulty. But if you follow my previous 4 points, it will definitely make the journey more bearable and achievable.

I hope this adds some perspective to you whenever you are down and out and can always look upon the awesomeness of the greatest journey of all time, and I wish you all the best in destroying the ring (and providing value to mankind)!

Get Out of The Building!

By now, most of you who are in the start-up scene must have realized that Steve Blank, the godfather of the lean start-up movement from Silicon Valley, was here a couple of days ago. To be extremely honest, I did not know who this guy was before I started my internship with NUS Enterprise and I was kind of puzzled what the big hoo-hah was about him. But after going through Lean Launchpad for 12 weeks as a coordinator AND a participant; AND also meeting Steve in person, I can safely say that this guy is one of the most down-to-earth, intelligent, wise, and easy person to get along with.

As a conclusion to the Lean Launchpad Program (I see it more as a reward), we at NUS Enterprise organized “An evening with Steve Blank: Insights to building a successful start-up”. It’s been video recorded and should start circulating soon so do keep a lookout for it!

(The Lean Launchpad participants for their final presentation. Standing is Jerome Engel)

Steve is famous, amongst many other things, for his catch phrase ‘Get out of the building!’. Now I’m not a great reporter (or a writer) so I’m going to skip writing about all the standard entrepreneurial stuff every other start-up/tech blogger in the auditorium that night would be writing about. Instead I’ll go along the line of catch phrases and let you know some of the more interesting ones I heard.

(Steve Blank from Standford University and Prof. Wong Poh Kam from NUS Enterprise)

“You have too much advice today”

In today’s world of the internet and social media and ‘expert blogs’ and whatnot, it is easy to get a whole ton of opinions on one single matter. What you need to do is develop your own internal compass because if you don’t, you are going to be pulled around in circles by multiple authorities. You need your own filter or if not at the end of the day, it’s the last person with the loudest voice that’s going to make the greatest impact on you.

“You know you’ve got your first customer when they’ve paid for it”

This might sound like common sense but it’s actually something that many people neglect. How many times have you heard someone say “oh yes I did a survey of 500 people and 400 of them said they like it and will buy it”. But have these 400 people actually come up with the cash and given it to you? If the answer is no, you don’t know for sure if you have a first customer and if your idea is validated.

“You’ve got to be able to watch their pupils dilate”

This phrase was said with regards to the customer discovery process. Steve’s idea is that you HAVE to do face-to-face interviews because there is so much a person can say non-verbally through body actions (like dilating pupils). You can see if the interviewee is bored or excited, and you can adjust your interview accordingly to get the most out of them. This is unlike an internet survey or an email/phone call where you just get back an answer without knowing that much more about your product and customer.

“You’ve got somewhat of a competitive advantage if you come from a dysfunctional family”

This is the first time I’ve ever heard anyone say this but I thought it made sense. It’s found that in the United States, there is a disproportionately large percentage of successful entrepreneurs that come from dysfunctional families. Steve’s hypothesis is that if you grew up in a dysfunctional family as a sane, normal person, you are a survivor and have been able to create order out of chaos as a way to survive into the world. People like this see things differently and would be able to create order out of chaos as an entrepreneur as well.

The Promised Land

“Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.” – Richard Branson

With this quote, I announce that I am officially going to transit from being an entrepreneur to being an employee.

In simpler words, I am trading in my shorts and flip flop days for shirt, pants and leather shoes.

The decision to make such a move started approximately 4 months ago. In all honesty, I was very happy being an entrepreneur, I felt that I had reached the promise land where I found a good trade off between freedom, profit, and value-add to myself and the community.

But it hit me one morning that perhaps I was destined for bigger things. I did yearn to do more than just sell nail polish for the rest of my life, not that there was anything wrong with that, but I just have so many more dreams and goals and aspirations that I wanted to achieve.

I wanted to work on Project A, B, C and D all at once. I wanted to form more business partnerships, write more business plans, pitch more business ideas; and I could have done it! Except that I decided that I was not ready for it and that I would like to learn more from others and develop myself further.

To all entrepreneurs, there is no shame in deciding to stop running your business to work for someone else. I have to admit I did have this sense of failure when I decided to find a job. There was this nagging feeling that everyone’s going to be thinking ‘oh his business failed and that’s why he has to find a job’.

Well, if we live our lives according to what we want people to think, then we wouldn’t be really living will we?

So I’m moving on to new pastures and like what one of my favourite entrepreneurs says – ‘there’s always another business opportunity coming’; and until then, I will be preparing myself for the promised land.

P.S. I will be embarking on an internship with NUS Enterprise – a company that provides mentorship, funding, and infrastructure to all aspiring and current entrepreneurs. I will be involved in a program called Lean Launchpad, which was adapated from Stanford University. I believe there will be plenty of knowledge, skills and experience to be gained and I will, to the best of my abilities, share my journey with you through this platform!

Systems & Processes

This post is a build on to another post I did a couple of weeks back called A Day In The Life Of A Startup where I recounted my experience working in a startup for a day and also shared my learning points of startups – one of which was ‘Systems and Processes’.

A couple of months back I attended a seminar by Mr Boyd Au, the ex-CEO and executive chairman, and co-founder of ENZER. He is worth listening to because he tells the typical (or rather, not so typical) rags-to-riches story and listed his company in 2001, boasting sales turnover close to S$80million.

During the seminar, he shared with us about his business and one thing that really struck me was this line he said.

“You must know the processes of running a business. If you know the process, profits will automatically come in.”

This struck me because it made me reflect upon my business and whether I had the right processes in place. It also made me recall something else one of my ex-bosses said to me once when I was interning in his company back in 2011 when I was still fresh to the world of entrepreneurship.

He knew I was interested in going down this path and one day he asked me if I knew what a business was; to which my answer was that it was an entity that generates profit by creating value. He then asked me another question which I then could not answer (I’m guessing most of you probably would know this but I really didn’t back then!). He asked me what was the difference between a business and a sole-proprietorship. I was stumped because by my definition of a business, a sole-proprietorship was the exact same thing as a business!

I was enlightened when he told me his answer:

A business is something that has a system and runs on its own. If the founder/CEO/boss is not around, the business will continue running on its own, generating revenue and profit for the business.

A sole-proprietorship is something that ceases to operate if the founder/CEO/boss is sick and does not turn up for work. An example is a doctor who runs his own clinic. If he does not turn up for work, the patients cannot be treated and the sole-proprietorship does not generate any profit.

So with this in mind, I urge all aspiring and current entrepreneurs to think about creating systems and processes from Day 1. In fact, if you have not started a business, think about it now before starting. A few things to take note of are:

1) How will you plan for your business to function without you? (How can you make it earn passive income for you?)

2) It can be easy to start a sole-proprietorship and put all your effort into building up your product or business, but do think about how you will plan to get more people to come on board to work for/with you. (Internet startups allow you to scale internationally but if you want to build your company, essentially you are going to need people to believe in you and your business to really scale it.)

3) Find a balance between having a system and being flexible. Forming strong systems and processes are great for the business but sometimes you have to be flexible enough to make changes or seize opportunities when it arises. Facebook’s ‘Move Fast Break Things’ is definitely something to consider greatly about too.

A Day In The Life Of A Startup

Yesterday I got the opportunity to experience first hand what it was like to work in a startup! It wasn’t my first time setting foot into a startup before though. Last week I had the opportunity to visit 2359 media because of an event called Walkabout Singapore that provided a behind-the-scenes look at the workspaces of Singapore’s startups (it’s a shame I didn’t get a picture inside 2359!). I did manage to get a good half hour chat with the founder of 2359 though and that was nothing short of interesting and fascinating!

A few days before Walkabout, I visited a friend and co-founder of Intraix too. This is them doing up the office they moved in to recently!

So when a friend of mine who needed some urgent help at another startup called BiggerBetterSale (BBS), I jumped on that opportunity to actually be part of a startup for a day! Working in one is definitely very different from just visiting one (or founding one, of course). This is us in the BBS office

I won’t go into all the details about what this startup does, about how they are disrupting the e-commerce business model by coinciding their online flash sales with the Great Singapore Sale that targets mainly physical retailers (oops I’ve said too much already. Okay no just kidding.)

But here’s some of my thoughts from the point of view of a (one day) employee of a startup!

Systems and Processes

As a startup, it’s understable that everything is raw, everything is intense, and Facebook’s philosophy of ‘move fast, break things’ definitely applies. However having a good system such that all employees have a clear understanding of the business is definitely a worthy investment to make. Even a simple chart to highlight some processes would have been very useful at my job yesterday to avoid repeating instructions and re-explaining job scopes to multiple groups of people.

Constant Motivation

The guys at BBS are excellent motivators that could keep even part timers like myself and a few others super motivated! Although we weren’t equity holders and won’t even be around next week to follow through with the startup, I actually felt a part of the team and really wanted to do my best to help them meet their work objectives! The verbal motivations included: ‘Whaddup troops! How’s everyone doing! Are we still going strong!’ and ‘Good job guys you are really doing great I never thought we would get so much done today but you guys are fantastic and I love you guys so much man!’. Not to mention free meals and snacks to ‘fuel our troops’ through the day! But I think the best motivator was the fact that the founder, directors and other senior guys in the company came to shake hands and introduce themselves to each and every part-timer. I felt like they really appreciated the work we were helping them with.

Clear Objectives

For co-founders of a startup, the objectives would definitely be very clear for them. But as an employee, I feel that it’s very important to be briefed on objectives and goals (which BBS did too of course). They were very clear about what needed to be done. Something along the lines of this was said to us: “Launch is 30 May and we’ve got to do A and B and C and D etc etc. For today we will complete A and B or no one goes home! If you have to stay late we will have pizzas and beers and free cab rides home for you!”

So that’s my 2 cents worth about what you should pay attention to if you are an entrepreneur looking to start hiring some employees, interns or part timers!

I look forward to your comments if you have any! Do leave them in the comment box and I will definitely reply you! Cheers!