In this article, I’ll be sharing a self-assessment of my progress as an entrepreneur. A quick introduction so we all have some context. I’m Wen, Founder and CEO of SushiVid.com, an influencer marketing marketplace turned tech-enabled influencer marketing agency.
Incorporated in 2015 in Malaysia, we have over 7,000 influencers whom we have paid via our platform and have generated an average of US$1 million in billing annually for the past three years. I am not a high-growth startup Founder. I did not raise a whole lot of VC money, but I’m sure many could identify with my journey and struggles just the same.
The show must go on
One common theme I’ve been getting, a question that’s been going around amongst my peers (who are also decade-long Founders), is succession planning.
I never gave it much thought until this year. It’s a monumental task and a decision that many entrepreneurs/ leaders miss when they first take on the CEO role. How to wash one’s hands off or pass the baton on?
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The show must go on, as one says. A successful business must continue to thrive without us founders, and the quest to find a successor is probably one of the biggest challenges we all have to face. I have been contemplating this a lot this year.
As I am nearing my 40s, the thought of starting a family pops up. I may want to at some point, who knows? The idea of managing both a family and a company is petrifying. Thanks to the quick exits that we all once aspired for (Joel Neoh exited Groupsmore in less than 12 months) or foolishly thought we could achieve.
To all aspiring entrepreneurs out there, realistically, the grind is at least a decade long. I guess I should’ve thought about this more seven years ago. But again, overthinking it may have deterred me from starting SushiVid.
Seven years is a long time, at least for me. If I could attribute my persistence to something, it must be my masochistic love for a good challenge. It dawned on me that the longer we linger in our entrepreneurship path, the more complicated the challenges become, and that gets me going.
As entrepreneurs, we have got to love changes but, at the same time, also be wise to stop ourselves from working on every new shiny idea that comes our way. I learned that the hard way. In our journey in SushiVid, I also started GoShareLah, ConfirmPlusChop, SushiVid LIVE and IGLinks.io.
All with circa 15 manpower at any point in time. While I still believe all our MVPs were great, I do not have the manpower or personal capacity to explore them all. If only I could tap the undo button, erase those experiments and focus on one instead.
The right kind of detox
In 2020 and 2021, we slowed down our experiments due to the pandemic, but the work was equally fun because the challenges we faced were all distinct, new and difficult. I am so thankful for the Alibaba eFounders programme.
Thankfully right before the pandemic, they shared with us their experience navigating SARS, and that laid a path or two for me to follow. I had to plan pay cuts, manage remote working and handle resignations while our business was soaring all at the same time.
The pandemic has also enabled me to run a detox around the office. We were forced to do things very economically. Although it was an uphill climb at first, this austerity drive brought out our creativity and resourcefulness. It was one of the best exercises we have ever done in SushiVid.
A founder’s problems can come in all shapes and sizes
2022, now that the pandemic stress is almost over, one would think I could finally catch a break, but no. Just when I thought I could finally enjoy some peacetime managerial work, I was slapped with the biggest betrayal I’ve ever had to endure in my working lifetime. We caught our employee(s) committing a Criminal Breach of Trust (CBT). So you see, a founder’s problems can come in all shapes and sizes.
This CBT issue we are facing is not only a problem that we face as a company or industry, I believe it is a model-wide problem for all gig economy model startups. In the gig economy model, there are many suppliers and many buyers. Gig-economy platforms like ours are the platform in between that connects the suppliers to the buyers.
Ideally, everything should be handled via our platform, suppliers should be randomised or, at best, listed based on a review or prioritised listing the algorithm controls that. Wouldn’t that be awesome? Things could be fair and efficient, but it isn’t happening this way at the moment. I’d say for most gig economy models.
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Suppliers and customers are simply not ready for an entirely self-serve platform, and very often, they would appreciate recommendations because it’s just much easier. Consequently, relationships are built, and illicit secret side deals are made quickly. Such deals are essentially what make up the criminal breaches of trust.
Navigating this has been difficult for me. We, as the leaders of the company, can’t oversee every conversation. It is impossible to control greed or to expect everyone to behave with the same level of integrity as we do.
We want to believe in the best and trust our employees. It would be impossible for us to lead a company out of fear or with a sense of distrust, but also, at the same time, we have to be slightly cautious. This is yet another balancing game that we need to play as a business. Do we become too rigid and risk losing clients? Or do we remain convenient and easy to work with but risk getting taken advantage of?
Sadly, I believe that this is the start of where layers of approvals get implemented in a startup, and we become the old dogs of the game waiting to be disrupted. Seven years is about right. So we got to pick up and self-disrupt before we get disrupted!
Final thoughts
On the brighter side, as an ever-evolving founder, I have also become more mature in business relationships. To be fair, the first few years, every time a player came, we’d treat each other with hostility.
But recently, influencer marketing has become a vibrant industry, and with it, a lot more players and contributors in the ecosystem. I, too, have softened my approach to other industry players. I guess I’ve grown up? Better to join forces than to try to beat each other up.
We’ve collaborated with players across borders, we’re in talks with players locally to form some kind of an association, and it’s become much more constructive and friendly as compared to the hostility I faced and contributed to in the earlier years.
Overall, I love the 37-year-old me and every bit of this entrepreneurship journey. I am positive about the industry and the outlook of the market. I am excited and look forward to the new year. 2023 will be another year with many opportunities for tremendous growth and progress. I believe we Malaysians (post-GE-15) are off to a good start!
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