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William Bao Bean of SOSV and Chinaccelerator on competing with local companies and why he’s not ‘unicorn hunting’

This is one of the articles belonging to e27’s Meet the VC series, where we chat with venture capitalists in the startup space to find out more about how they do what they do. This is Part 2 of a two-part interview.

How do foreign startups have an unfair advantage in China? As a foreigner who has spent the majority of his career researching Chinese companies in Asia, this is where William Bao Bean’s expertise lies.

He didn’t have the Midas Touch from the start. He launched two startups on the side in 2007 and 2008 and the first “ran into the ground.”

The startup that failed to launch was something of a mashup between World of Warcraft and MySpace, a gamified social media network Bao Bean still talks about enthusiastically in the gushing manner of a gamer. It was a startup that was ahead of its time, albeit too complicated.

Bao Bean’s takeaway from this experience was that he learned the importance of simplifying and focussing. Another lesson learned? He admitted to being a bad CEO.

What worked, however, in the first startup was the video concept.  After a year, he went back with a second company — but his peer from the first startup was now the CEO — and they brought media company Vice to China, from 2010 to 2012 (by cutting out the more salacious and political parts of Vice).

e27 chats with the VC about the unfair advantage and more. Here are the edited excerpts:

In China, what sectors can foreigners thrive in?

In China, locals usually win. We are cross-border. We don’t play [in the] local land, because we couldn’t compete. But there’ s a couple areas that locals usually win. You have to have an unfair advantage. What’s going to make you better. These areas are where foreigners have an unfair advantage in China:

Education

Ask all Chinese people and they’ll think that Chinese education sucks. Why do they think that? Because it does suck.

The most successful people in China fail out of the Chinese education system. It took Jack Ma three times to get into college, he kept failing the gao kao, and then he went to some shit college somewhere! Oh, by the way, I did not come up with that example. That’s from one of our mentors!

Fintech

China probably has one of the best systems in Asia. You don’t get hardcore algorithm-driven trading in China. China has thousands of fintech professionals, but they live in Hong Kong or London. They get no respect back in China, so no one ever goes back.

We work with companies like BitMex and bring them to China, because they have this unfair advantage. BitMex are hardcore financial traders. They’re not Internet nerds, they know financial systems.

P2P (peer to peer) loans in China have taken off because of the financial sector. There’s four times the amount of P2P [lending platforms] in China than the rest of the world combined, according to some report that I read somewhere.

Small [to] medium people and businesses can’t get loans so they go to P2P loans. So P2P loans, you can’t get actual insurance, but you can get protection for your families. We’re focussing on divorce, kidnapping — if your parents get sick, this covers your loss.

Also Read: Welcome to the fintech zoo!

Which sectors would you shy away from?

Video companies don’t make that much money. Apart from the licensing, bandwidth is three times more expensive in China than outside.

What should the investor and startup relationship be like? What kind of people do you invest in?

I generally don’t invest in people I don’t like. For early-stage startups, it’s easier to get divorced from your husband or wife than get rid of your investors. For the good ones, its a decade-long investment.

I’ve invested in companies in order to learn, but I don’t invest in people who are not coachable. My value-add is not my money, it’s my help. It’s difficult to help someone who doesn’t want to be helped. I shy away. I mean, in the [Silicon] Valley, there’s a lot of articles about how you have to invest in assholes because they get shit done.

Well. Great. But I’m not unicorn hunting. We take common stock for our program, we don’t take preferred. Most founders who go for unicorns, they end up not making it, and the VCs own their company. For us, we’re common — we’re in the same league as they are.

On that semi-related note, what do you think of the fascination with tech bros? There’s all these articles about the tech bro boom in San Francisco, does this exist in Asia?

It’s difficult. In China, there will never be a Mark Zuckerberg. It’s a little easier now with WeChat. What I mean is a young entrepreneur that has a good product and then gets a lot of users.

Because, in China, until WeChat came, it didn’t matter if your product was good or bad. It mattered who your friend was and how much money you had.

College kids [in China] don’t have friends and they don’t money. That’s why in China now there are no Zuckerbergs in terms of college kids breaking out.

You see a lot of guys who worked out Tencent, Sina, Weibo, they know how everything works. They’ve got buddies who have buddies who are VCs and they get funded.

Your success depends a lot on your ability to get along with other people, not having the best product in the world. Whereas look at guys like Uber, who have what I think what they call “a healthy disrespect for the law.”

Also Read: Who cares about Uber’s rivals? My ride in Hong Kong just got cheaper 

Tell us about a startup you’re excited about.

The Squirrelz — they’re kind of like the Alibaba of waste — for every factory in the world, between 1 to 5 per cent of what they pop out is a defect.

By contract, they have to destroy it. They hire someone to destroy it, and they lose money. These factories have low profit margins. Twenty-three per cent of factory productions is in China. The Squirrelz is a marketplace where factories can put their factory defects — say shirts — and then hipster designers or creators can find the product and make them into new products.

The CEO is connecting not only indie designers but big brands, say TOMS [a shoe company]. The factory’s net profit grows by 10 to 20 percent because they get that cost back. TOMS and his designers cost goes down. It’s upcycling!

Also Read: This Taiwanese startup aims to make trash sexy

So, no regrets being a VC and not managing hedge funds?

I took a 75 per cent pay cut [for this job]!

But the way I think about is: How much time in a day do people spend doing something they don’t like doing?

I’m now at the point where there is no time spent in my day doing something I don’t like. I’m extremely lucky in that way. And my track record is getting better: 70 per cent of Batch Seven got funded. That’s high for accelerators; very high for Asia. Two pivoted, one died but then it kind of came back to life!

We have a 38 per cent net realized IRR. In terms of performance, we’re in the top. But I just joined, so that’s not my track record. [laughs]

What’s the best way for startups to get in touch with you?

Well, I stopped reading my emails. WeChat or WhatsApp! Oh, but I actually can’t add anymore people on WeChat because I hit the limit. That’s why I haven’t added you!

Note: The WeChat limit is 5,000. Get in line to get in touch with this VC.  The application deadline for Batch Nine of Chinaaccelerator is February 15, 2016.  

Also Read: William Bao Bean steams up the startup scene

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From cold calling and cutting costs to making the right employment choices, entrepreneur Saurabh Kathuria tells it like it is

When I started out as an entrepreneur I was mentally prepared that life was going to be tough and change in a lot of ways. As we developed the company, these were some aspects of my work which I found to be very challenging:

Cold calling 

It is tough to cold call, especially if you are not from a sales background. I always avoided cold calling. Why? Because of the fear of rejection, embarrassment, confrontation, intimidation. But gradually, I learnt that:

A sale is made on every call you make: You either sell the customer your product or service, or the customer sells you a reason why he can’t buy. Either way, it’s a sale. At least, you made the prospect aware of your company and he may come to you in the future.

Make a cold call with the intent to open a dialogue, make a connection with the prospective client, and get permission to fix an appointment or share your company profile.

Also Read: The joys and sorrows of starting up in India

It is better to cold call only for a fixed period in a day instead of the whole day.

Try your best to complete this chain from start to end:

Find a relevant contact -> Cold call them and fix an appointment -> Make a presentation of your product and/or service -> Work on the effort estimates-> Sign an agreement -> Deliver the product or service -> Seek client sign off and get payment.

For a person like me who had managed offshore delivery teams in my previous job, this complete process gave a tremendous amount of confidence that, ‘Yes I can do it end-to-end!’

Always remind yourself that cold calling is only part of the initial phase. Once a delivery with good quality is made, future engagements with the same client will follow without any cold calling.

Cutting down your daily expenses and lifestyle needs

When I started as an entrepreneur, I met a friend who had also ventured into entrepreneurship about six–eight months ago. While our meeting was to discuss on how we can synergise, during the conversation he told me candidly that,

“It gets very tough when you have to cut down the daily expenses of your family. They are accustomed to a lifestyle and when you start cutting down their expenses, that is the time you start to think of giving up!”

His words echoed in my mind… and with immediate effect, I started to save and cut expenses. Here are some tips:

Build a cash cushion: This is very important in the Indian scenario. Ideally, you can breathe easy only if you have built the cash cushion to cover up all expenses for at least a quarter. For employees, job security is a big concern in India.

I remember attending the new hire induction of a big technology company in my previous job. During the Q&A round, one question was asked about the uncertain environment/layoffs happening in the industry. The CEO made this statement: “If you all stop working today, the company has the cash reserve to keep all of us for the next two years.” It was a big statement and gave us a big sense of security.

Buy used hardware: Available at dirt cheap prices as compared to the cost of new ones, this is a great option to explore to save investment cost.

Use free software: For example, everyone in the office would not require MS Office, you can use Google Docs.

Also Read: An open letter to entrepreneurs: Congrats, you made it

Hire employees cautiously and in a staggered manner: Before hiring, conduct a thorough check of the work pipeline. If the potential demand or projects in the pipeline require 10 additional employees, take a conservative approach and hire the first three-four in one go and the remaining in a staggered approach.

Hire resources on contract initially: In India, you only need to pay two per cent TDS (tax deducted at source) in this case, plus you are responsible for retention till the end of contract only, unlike in the case of an employee.

On a closing note, I must say that being an entrepreneur is in no way easy, but it is completely worth it because you get to live your dream. And you have an opportunity to make it big!

This article appeared first on LinkedIn.

The views expressed here are of the author’s, and e27 may not necessarily subscribe to them. e27 invites members from Asia’s tech industry and startup community to share their honest opinions and expert knowledge with our readers. If you are interested in sharing your point of view, please send us an email at writers[at]e27[dot]co

Image Credit: Ollyy/Shutterstock

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Through FbStart, the social media’s programme to help mobile startups grow and build their apps, Carousell found its solution in Transifex

With over 26 million listings to date and eight million items sold, the number of interactions that take place between buyers and sellers on Carousell’s peer-to-peer marketplace app and web platforms are in all likelihood bountiful as well.

In October this year, one of the more extraordinary interactions took place between a seller of an electric bicycle and his prospective buyer.

Originally selling for S$699 (US$496), the bike was offered by the seller — a man named Wayne Lim — to a user (with the username of ‘keesoon9’) for S$500 (US$355) after the latter requested a discount.

At this point, Lim did not know yet that the prospective buyer was a man in his 60s whose income came from his job as a postman cycling around Housing Development Board (HDB) estates delivering mail.

The old man had grown tired of cycling and wanted to purchase an ebike that could accommodate a box at the rear — just the type that Lim was selling — to store his mail as he commuted.

Lim only found out about the old man’s age and background when they met for the latter to view the ebike. Upon learning the old man’s situation and purpose for the ebike, Lim wanted to give it to him for free. But the old man insisted on paying and the pair settled on S$50 as payment for the ebike eventually.

“My best seller and don’t [sic] forget for life,” the old man wrote as a review for Lim on Carousell.

Also Read: Facebook launches lite mobile app targetting emerging markets

FbStart

Carousell Head of Digital Marketing, Arun Kumar, recounted this story, which was first told by Singaporean community news website Mothership, at the Singapore stop — the last in APAC after Taipei, Hong Kong, South Korea, Bangalore, and Gurgaon — of the FbStart World Tour held at the NTUC Trade Union House last week.

With three different tracks (pre-launch, bootstrap and accelerate) catering to mobile startups at different stages of growth, FbStart is designed to help these startups build, grow and monetise their apps with free tools and services provided by Facebook and its more than 30 partners.

Carousell was one of those invited to join the accelerate track. As at October this year, it is one of more than 7,200 startups accepted into the FbStart programme. Of this number, over thirty per cent are based in APAC.

“It (FbStart) introduced us to two partners, one of which was Mobile Action, which helps us with app store optimisation. Most importantly, we were introduced to Transifex,” said Kumar.

Transifex would help solve the problem of translating copy from English to Bahasa Melayu and Bahasa Indonesia for their apps for the Malaysian and Indonesian markets, which they were launching in 2013. The process that they were relying on, involving the community leads or translators in both locations, and the engineers or developers back in Singapore, had been tedious and subject to errors and inconsistencies.

“Every time there was copy to be translated, it would be sent to our community leads or translators in every market. They [the community leads or translators] would get the copy, make the translations and then send the link to the same Evernote (a cross-platform freemium app designed for note-taking, organising and archiving) file [where the translations were made] back to our engineers or developers. And then they [the engineers or developers] would update the code base with the translated copy,” said Kumar.

After they discovered Transifex, a localisation platform for translating web apps, through FbStart, the process of translation and updating the code base happened all in one place.

“It’s something that we would not have discovered otherwise [without FbStart] because we didn’t know to look for a solution for the problem that we were facing. We thought we could just deal with going with our usual process forever. It streamlined the translations,” concluded Kumar.

Also Read: In photos: Facebook Singapore’s new digs

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Peer-to-peer (P2P) payments startup Kashmi has secured S$700,000 (US$497,000) in seed funding, it announced today.

The startup allows users to send and receive money regardless of which bank they’re using, and to split payments between groups. They can top up their mobile e-wallet using credit and debit cards or even wire transfer, and can sign up to the app with just a name and a phone number or email address. Having soft-launched earlier this year, the app will include social features like chat and a sharing feed, payment tracking, and merchant payments once it’s available next month.

The startup enters a busy space, particularly in Singapore where both startups and larger companies are looking into P2P payments. Fastacash enables payments within apps like WhatsApp and Facebook, and has worked on premier Singapore bank DBS’ mobile payments app Paylah. Singaporean telco SingTel, in collaboration with Standard Chartered, has its own similar offering called Dash. The list goes on.

Kashmi’s team is spread across Sri Lanka and Singapore.

The funding was led by Akbar Group Sri Lanka and VAMM Ventures, a Dubai-based venture capital firm that invests in early and seed stage companies. It was joined by a number of angel investors and corporates from Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Kashmi will use the funds to continue working on its product, expand its reach in Southeast Asia, and beef up its sales and marketing resources in order to grow faster.

See: Fintech can be the unbanked’s best hope for financial inclusionKashmi was one of the startups that graduated from Startupbootcamp Fintech Singapore’s 2015 class. It also completed the Turn8 accelerator program in Dubai. It was funded by a team with diverse skills and expertise. CEO Rakhil Fernando has been a VP at Credit Suisse and Coutts & Co., as well as a serial entrepreneur. CTO Mufaddel Lukmanjee has experience running his own software development company in Sri Lanka and has worked for the London Stock Exchange. And COO Rajinda Jayasinghe is a former VP for online education startup Ubiquity University and has eight year of experience in project management.

We have reached out to Kashmi for more information and we will update this story when we hear back.

The startup claims it aimed at a S$600,000 (US$426,000) round, but found it generated enough interest among investors to justify raising more. The seed round will apparently close off at S$750,000 (US$533,000).

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The idea takes Tchaikovsky, mixes it with a French comedy sketch and brings the both of them to the future

That noise you are hearing? Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky turning over in his grave.

Although, considering Swan Lake’s tragic themes, maybe a small smile would dance on the mouth of the world famous Russian composer, for, of course, drones would find a way into his music in this modern age. It is truly the most cynical of outcomes.

But all jokes aside, this week, the social fashion site BUYMA put out one of the more creative marketing campaigns we have seen in a long time.

Also Read: [Video] Inside the Stratasys 3D printing centre in Singapore

The video is inspired by a popular French comedy routine in which naked performers, covering themselves with small towels, depict semi-serious ballet acts while simultaneously trying to sabotage the partner and avoid the wrath of the censor.

The BUYMA version took the routine into the 21st century by covering the dancers using clever video editing and drones.

The video is more dramatic and less comedic than its inspiration and there are some…erhm… mistakes, shall we say.

So what is BUYMA? It is a Japanese fashion platform that connects fashionistas (and fashionistos) to personalised shoppers across the world.

The idea is that specific brands can be impossible to find in certain countries, while rather easy in others. So the goal of BUYMA is to connect supply with demand on its platform.

The video was made by Japanese production company GEEK PICTURES INC.

 

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Buying a house is only the first step, making it a home requires great deal of time and effort, here are 5 apps that can help you out

Buying a house is costly business. First, you need to get a mortgage that takes years to pay off. Then, you have to plonk down a huge wad of cash on the renovation and decor to make sure it fits your style.

So how do you ensure that you are communicating the right ideas to your interior designer or renovator? What if, instead of getting it to look your desired English cottage, it turns out looking as if Salvador Dali and Picasso had a field day with your house?

Here are 5 interior design apps that can help you avoid such disasters and give you some neat ideas on beautifying your home.

1. Neybers

For the budding or closet interior designers, this is the app to have. It lets you decorate a house from scratch.

You can choose from thousands of actual home decor options ranging from furniture and floor tiles, to accessories such as candles and vases (it even has a pug mini cushion). Each item comes with a detailed description of the item including its designer, brand, and the stylistic origin of the brand.

Also Read: Singapore co-working space may have city’s best feature: It is free

After throwing in the desired furnishing, you can customise the where the furniture is positioned, flip it around and rotate it.

It also has a a social aspect that is reminiscent of Instagram. You can upload your lovely design onto its social platform, allowing other users to critique or “like” it. Neyber also displays the most popular designs in its “Trending” section and allows you follow your favourite designers’ feeds.

2. Qanvast Interior Design Ideas

This Singapore-based app doesn’t just provide a catalogue of home furnishing options, it also gives a rough estimate of the cost to homeowners, and a list of interior designers with their portfolio and costs per project clearly displayed.

Also Read: Indian furniture e-tailer MebelKart buys sports platform 53central

Simply select the type of property you seek to renovate, its floor area, when you expect to collect the keys and whether you are using a loan to finance it.

Then choose whether you are going for cost-effectiveness or if you want to be design-centric, select your style preference and key in your budget and phone number. Qanvast then provides a quote free of charge.

 

Currently, it is only available in Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, China and Hong Kong.

3. MagicPlan

On first glance, it is evident that this app’s target audience isn’t just homeowners.

It allows you to create intricate floor plans, including elevators, checkout counters, surveillance cameras and fire escape routes based on photos or by drawing it on the app. There are also template layouts available.

You can then export it into various formats including jpeg and pdf or upload it into the cloud.

These features enable property owners as well as emergency personnel to devise emergency plans or fire escape routes. Commercial usage, however, requires a subscription fee.

According to an article on Techcrunch, the app has attracted attention from law enforcement agencies and real estate companies.

4. Home Design 3D

This app is clearly designed with professional interior designers in mind. Like MagicPlan, it also features a conventional floor plan, in which you can place various furniture, wall and window types, and any other accessory you can think of (that includes pool tables and even a globe and a rocking horse!).

Also Read: HomeLane acquires home decor visualisation platform Doowup

You can then convert it into a 3D plan and  take a 360-degree view of the interior using your fingers and even change the lighting. It also offers an orbital and ground level view of the place, allowing you to carefully inspect your masterpiece from every possible angle and perspective.

The free version does not allow you to save the project and the paid versions comes in several tiers.

The basic US$8.98 version allows you to save a project and also removes advertisements while the Gold version, which costs US$13.98, gives you access to all of HomeDesign 3D’s functions and contents — including a whole additional range of furniture and accessory options.

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Northeast India. What image does that word bring to your mind? What does the landscape look like? The people? The cities?

Chances are, you’re picturing it completely wrong.

Far from the starkly urban New Delhi or Bangalore, the region is largely untouched by industrialization. Many people live in villages and make a living by farming. Tucked between Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, Bangladesh, and Burma and connected to India by a tiny strip of land, it’s easy to mistake the region for a different country altogether.

It’s nothing to feel bad about. Meghanath Singh says that most Indians from outside the area don’t know the place or its culture, but he’s hoping to change that with a little bit of ecommerce.

Meghanath, who is from the northeast of India, founded Giskaa, an online store that sells handicrafts, food, and other handmade items from the region. He says the store has a triple purpose – to sell items, to help artisans in the region break into the ecommerce market, and to educate people across India, particularly those in large cities, about northeast Indian culture.

“We always feel like, when we walk around India, they’ll mistake us for people from Thailand or China because of the [way we] look,” he says.

Meghanath, who is also Giskaa’s CEO, is from a state called Manipur, near Bangladesh and bordering Burma. He lived in the state until he was 17, then spent 22 years living in other parts of India. He came to Bangalore in 2009 after working in IT and founded Giskaa in 2014 with Surchand Wahengbam and Ratheesh Elayat. The startup is based in Bangalore, a long way from the founder’s hometown.

“People like me who have left their homes in the northeast, looking for better career opportunities […] we have always felt this lack of awareness from the rest of mainstream India about the northeast,” Meghanath explains.

Lost and found in translation

Getting a leg up in India’s ecommerce market today can be a struggle. Giants like Flipkart and Amazon got an early start in the online shopping market. Anyone else who wants to break in is going to have to play catch up. That doesn’t phase Meghanath. His secret weapon? Giskaa doesn’t just sell products – it tries to create romance around each item by giving it a backstory.

“We had to create awareness from the ground up, so we focused a lot on stories, telling stories about products, and reading that interest in terms of passion.” said Meghanath. This lends itself well to organic and artisanal products – but is of course something that would not go over as well with electronics, in his opinion. The store’s website also features a blog that explains the use of and history behind select products.

One of the biggest challenges for Meghanath also makes for some workplace humor when he gets questions from people inquiring about the items on the website. The top three highest-selling items on Giskaa, for example, are totally unfamiliar to most people across India.

“Customers ask: ‘Can I microwave it? Can I put it in the dryer?’” Meghanath explains.

There’s another challenge. Many of the craftsmen and craftswomen with whom Giskaa works have never used the internet or traveled outside of their hometowns – yet online shoppers have expectations that Giskaa has to meet, such as delivering items on time. Communicating this to an artisan who hand makes items with little concept of ecommerce, delivery times, or a big city can be difficult.

“We hire people who are there, speak the language, who can talk to and understand the artists,” he says. He tries to hire people from the northeast who belong to the specific regions with which they work. It’s a lot easier to work when the company can also speak with the artists in their native languages.

The startup aims for customers in India’s largest cities and has found the most success so far in Mumbai, which is a surprise to Meghanath.

Eco-conscious crafts

One of the advantages of working with artisans is that eco-friendly materials are all but guaranteed because the artisans don’t use any other materials.

“You’ll find, for example, handbags […] made of water reed,” Meghanath explains. “Reed grows in most parts of northern India, and over centuries and centuries, there have been traditional techniques and methods to creating home décor items, kitchen items, from these materials.

Besides, eco-friendly certainly has a place in the region. Sikkim, a northeast Indian state, has been declared a completely organic state, a goal it has been trying to reach for over a decade. Only organic fertilizers are used in agriculture, meaning that preservatives and pesticides shouldn’t be present in any of the food grown there.

Environmental awareness is a nice marketing point, but the main one is still personalization. Each of Giskaa’s items tells a story, and that story is the key to making each sale meaningful. “To tell a story about these products, that’s our mission from the start,” says Meghanath.

For him, puzzling out cultural differences, social media marketing, and working out kinks in the system are more than just a day’s work – it’s his favorite part of the job. He finds the frustrations part of the joyful struggle involved in developing a business. “It’s your idea,” he says. “It’s a plan you grew from a seed. The most amazing and heartening thing about this is when things go wrong and you can face it.”

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Plating is a Korean startup with in-house chefs. We talk to its CEO Paul Jang to find out more

It is lunchtime when I walk into Plating’s office, housed in a short nondescript building tucked behind a crowded, busy Apgujeong shopping street in Seoul, South Korea.

Plating is a Korean startup working on delivering chef-cooked meals to people ordering through its official mobile app. There isn’t a web-based solution yet.

Everyone except Plating CEO Paul Jang and I is chopsticks deep into shared, communal dishes, stopping only to say hello to us. Jang points at one of the chefs who is seated in between other employees and is aptly wearing an apron.

There are two parts to the office space: an open area lined with chairs and tables for employees to check on orders and other admin matters, and a medium-sized kitchen for the chef to prepare meals for delivery later on in the day.

The routine

Every day, a chef goes into the kitchen and cooks up 50 to 60 meals, which Plating users will then purchase for dinner. At the moment, the company only serves dinner, and delivers within a  five-kilometre radius from its office location.

“Our meals are made for microwave,” says Jang, who adds that this has made it difficult for the company to find chefs willing to come up with suitable recipes.

Out of these 50 to 60 meals, one third of the purchases are from customers who reserve and schedule a time for delivery, while the remaining two thirds are from ones who want it on-demand.

“We try to under-produce,” he says, noting that it is difficult to predict just how many meals they need to prepare per day, since most of the orders would only come in later in the evening.

The meals would then be outsourced and delivered via another food delivery company called Foodfly. While this is working well, Jang thinks that Plating should start delivering using its own vehicles in the next six months.

“Delivery guys are the ones who actually have physical contact with our customers at the end. We want to start building that infrastructure,” he says.

Dinner is an everyday thing 

“I’ve always been interested in something that people do every day,” says Jang, when asked why he decided to start Plating.

Prior to founding the startup in July 2015, he had spent over two years working on a lockscreen advertising startup which was sold to mobile shopping app company Wish. Then, he joined an architecture startup, which he later left to build Plating.

“Three months into it (architecture startup), I was building an MVP, but Primer CEO convinced me to come back to Korea,” he tells this author. Primer is a well-known angel investment firm in Korea, and its CEO is Douglas Guen.

“I met him (Guen) for the first time in the US, [and we] talked for three [to] four hours,” continues Jang.

Also Read: Going against the Grain: Behind the scenes with this food startup

Jang does not reveal everything the duo talked about, but says that his return had everything to do with Guen’s suggestion.

Guen also suggested that Jang should work on an idea to deliver raw meat on demand, but this did not work out after the latter researched and found out that there is a bigger opportunity in delivering ready-made meals within Korea.

“We tend to move very quickly,” he says. Having only returned to Korea in July 2015, Jang and his team launched Plating two or three months back, and have raised US$10,000 in seed funding from Primer.

Altogether, there are eight employees: four in the kitchen, and four managing other areas.

Also Read: FoodZaps helps restaurant owners tackle diners’ ordering woes

“We need a lot of hands,” he says, adding that the company is looking to hire more chefs, engineers and marketers.

“We’re a full-stack food delivery [company],” adds Jang. “A lot of other online food delivery companies like Baedal Minjok and Foodfly, they [connect] restaurants and customers, … but we’re trying to control the entire customer experience from food production to delivery. Basically, the entire thing,” he explains.

Fun project for chefs

While Plating sells main dishes at anywhere between KRW10,000 (US$8.46) to KRW12,000 (US$10.16), with a delivery fee of KRW3,500 (US$2.96), an undisclosed percentage goes to the chefs who spent time and effort preparing recipes and the actual meals.

“They’re already working in a restaurant,” says Jang. “In their spare time they come to our kitchen… We sell their food, we share the revenue. They see this as a fun project. You can get quite a bit but that’s not the main purpose.”

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