My journey as an entrepreneur (so far)

26 May 2011

We were at Tokyo, Japan on Monday where I shared my humble story with fellow entrepreneurs. I don’t claim to be a successful entrepreneur because I’m still very much in the middle of this learning journey, slowly crawling toward success, inch by inch. Nonetheless, I’m glad to share my experience thus far.

Here’s a recap:

My first entrepreneurship experience started at age 10. The first business turned out to be a wacky one: Grasshopper trading. My elder brother and I had to catch grasshoppers to make sure we had enough money for recess. We even came out with a price list for different types of grasshoppers. A red-legged grasshopper would cost around $1.00 and a blue-legged grasshopper costs about $0.50. We even expanded our business to praying mantis, lizards and spiders. That was a load of fun.

At age 15, I was buying and selling trading cards. It was easy money because most kids didn’t have a good grasp on the cards’ market price. Buying low and selling high was the simple strategy I followed religiously. The experience taught me the basics about how to make a profit as a middleman.

At age 19, my partner and I started an educational business that matches students with home tutors. We made enough money to open an office where we could conduct group lessons for students. Each student would make us about $80 per month and each class has an average of six to eight students. The business gave us substantial and consistent monthly revenue. We broke even after eight months but growth was unfortunately limited. The business was also recently sold after fighting for nearly five years. Thinking back, the five years taught me the most about building a business - people management, strategizing and sweating for sales. After that, I decided to head towards the Internet industry.

Penn Olson was founded when I was 23. With all the buzz about social media, I got interested and thought blogging about what was happening in Silicon Valley would be the best idea to get my learning gear going.

I only learn when I ‘pen’ down my thoughts, and it is ‘awesome’ to learn. That was how the name ‘Penn Olson’ was derived. Penn became a person that taught me about social media and technology and “he” continues to do that, even up to today.

Besides blogging, we used to manage marketing campaigns for brands. One of the campaigns we did was for Singapore Airshow 2010. The plane wasn’t actually flying but it was still considered to be the world’s first tweetup on a plane. Our marketing gimmick received coverage from various media. Money was okay but unfortunately, we didn’t like to deal with marketing and public relation stuff. There are just too many bullshit to deal with.

Again, we were put at the crossroad. The blog lost its direction and it forced us to decide and define our position. As I read and write about Silicon Valley, Mashable and TechCrunch play huge roles in my journey to understand the tech business. I was inspired. Both blogs were founded in 2005 and are integral parts of the Silicon Valley ecosystem. I looked at Asia and realized there isn’t a blog which dedication could match Mashable or TechCrunch’s. No blogs in Asia is serious about covering tech and start-ups in the region. I saw an opportunity and hopped on.

I didn’t just dive straight in, though. I threw a question on Twitter to gather feedback on what people want to read. A number of our readers was urging us to write on technology in Asia which confirmed that there is indeed demand. Soon, Penn Olson’s very first Asian-focused article was published and the feedback was great. We continue to write about Asia and knew we are heading the right direction as readership grows and we receive our first investment from East Ventures.

While the entire Asia is under our radar, we nailed down our primary focus on China, Indonesia, India and Japan.

Despite focusing on four countries in Asia, we still face problems. Unlike the U.S, Asia is diverse in language and culture. Mashable and TechCrunch have the luxury to focus on one market and one culture with resources far greater than ours. U.S itself is a big enough market for blogs to thrive. This is a problem that we’re pondering on.

I ended my sharing session with three things learned thus far:

1. Asia: It is the next big thing. Instead of moving to Silicon Valley, is there a higher chance of success if Asian entrepreneurs stay put in Asia?
2. Pivot: Change is the only constant. Keep changing and don’t be afraid of changes.
3. Focus: While we pivot, the goal an entrepreneur wants to achieve remains the same.