What I Learned in the Past Three Months from being a CEO/Startup Founder

“Pursuing entrepreneurship could be the best way for you to understand your biggest weakness.”

In this article:
1. How it all started.
2. Mentors.
3. My teammembers and their urge to grow.
4. My weakness.
5. My strength.
6. My goal and my dream.

How it all started.

Last July, I resigned from a prominent foreign company in the Xinyi District and embarked on a journey with no clear destination. This was quite a departure for someone like me, who had followed a linear path from graduating from the top university in Taiwan to jumping from one small company to another before landing at a big corporate.

“If you don’t have to consider anything, what is the thing that you truly want to do?”

Entrepreneurship has always been something I’ve been curious about and eager to try. My experiences interning and working full-time at several startups in the past provided me with many opportunities to view business issues from the perspective of a founder or CEO. For example, while working in sales at startups, I often found myself not just pondering, “How can I achieve sales targets?” but rather, “How much value does this client bring to the company in terms of months of cash?” If my career had started at a well-established company, this wouldn’t have been my mindset. (I am particularly grateful to LongGood, a small medical equipment startup, where for six months, I was the only salesperson, meaning all my sales directly translated into company revenue.)

Leading a team and establishing company culture are also things I often contemplate. When I was the operations manager at Acepodia, a biopharma startup (which was preparing to go public at the time), I realized that “change management” and establishing company culture were paramount. How do you transition from the chaotic startup environment to having organized company rules, without stifling the development of star employees (who typically dislike rules, but rules should ideally reward the achievements of star employees)? How do you ensure that new employees quickly understand the company’s mission and integrate into its culture during periods of rapid growth (on the flip side, feeling lost upon joining is a common problem)?

These questions greatly intrigue me, and apart from starting my own company, there’s no better way to find answers.

However, starting a company is arguably one of the riskiest ventures among all career options. What’s my topic? How do I find capable and trustworthy co-founders? How do I securefunding? These practical questions have deterred me, and understandably so. I don’t want to recklessly attempt something when I could have prepared more thoroughly before starting.

In February of last year, I met a startup company in New York whose product addressed an issue I deeply care about. This made me realize that there are many opportunities in Taiwan for global startups to solve some of our business problems. Conversely, Taiwan isn’t the top choice for most global startups looking to enter the Asia-Pacific market. When I proposed to YourStake to become their partner in expanding into APAC markets, I received strong support from the founder. The company paid me a generous consulting fee to research the feasibility of entering the East Asian and Southeast Asian markets with their product. This outcome was unexpected for me and served as excellent validation for my current entrepreneurial focus.

I went through a period of indecision about whether to continue advancing as an employee or just start my own company. It wasn’t until I saw this book at a bookstore in Singapore’s airport that I made a firm decision to pursue the latter.

“The Power of Regret” is the title of this book. It struck me because isn’t everyone afraid of regret? Aren’t we all striving to avoid seemingly risky choices to prevent regret? Why then does regret give us power?

After reading the first few pages, my values underwent an upgrade. I shifted from always choosing the “safest, most reasonable option to avoid future regret” to “I might regret doing this, but I’d rather regret choosing to do something I wanted than regret not taking action when the opportunity presented itself.”

When I genuinely ask myself at this stage of my life, without considering any external factors, what I really want is to “work for myself”; I really don’t want to work for someone else anymore! I would likely regret doing or not doing something during the process of starting my own company, but I’m hardly likely to regret choosing entrepreneurship (especially now that I’ve finally found a topic) over continuing to seek overseas job opportunities. When I solidified this thought, I was extremely excited. Throughout the flight from Singapore back to Taipei, I was completely immersed in outlining my business model and thinking about whom I wanted to meet once I returned to Taiwan.

“When you genuinely want something, the entire universe conspires to help you achieve it.” I strongly believe in this somewhat clichéd yet profound statement. I met someone whom I thought was a perfect fit for my business model and nervously asked her if she’d be willing to be my co-founder, to which she readily agreed!

And two months later, I decided to fire her. I’ll talk about this later, but let me explain why it’s so important to have good mentors first.

Mentors.

• The おじさん (Ogisan).
  “Pursuing entrepreneurship could be the best way for you to understand your biggest weakness.” He said. During my career break, I was very lost and didn’t know if I can ever work for a purpose again or just work to pay the bills. And then I met this mid-aged man who always looks so tired, he was hiring a medical sales for a company he invested. He didn’t choose me for the position, yet he hired me as his assistant. That’s the first time I worked for a VC. Our relationship developed to a mentor-mentee relationship as I started my company while working for him part-time. He’s Taiwanese but grew up in Japan, worked as a hedge fund manager in the US, and now runs his own VC firm. I think he has the humility of a Taiwanese, the caution of a Japanese, and the ambition of an American. It’s always very peaceful to discuss my problems with him, but I still learned many things that go against my instincts and challenge me to modify my mindset.
• The superstitious Fortune 500 marketing director.
  “緣分” (yuánfèn) is a Mandarin term that is quite rich in meaning and context. It refers to a sense of fate, destiny, or predestined affinity between people or events. I met Alison when I was working for LongGood meditech, she quitted her job as one of the biggest pharma company’s marketing director in China. We paid her a consulting fee for her to train me to develop marketing strategy. When I was figuring out what was wrong with my plan, she would just sit there and practice “八字” (bāzì) (a Chinese astrology that refers to the “eight characters” derived from a person’s date and time of birth. These characters are used in Chinese astrology and fortune-telling practices to assess a person’s destiny, personality traits, strengths, weaknesses, and potential life path.) Our relationship continues as I left that company, she would spend three hours just figuring everything out with my business. She’s definitely not as chill as my Ojisan mentor, as she always looks so disappointed and scratches her scalp when I ask a stupid question. Yet she’s the mentor who always sits down with me and actually sees problems from my perspective and points out my blind spots.Clients and the trust.
• Can?
  When a Singaporean asks “Can?” in conversation, it typically serves as a confirmation-seeking question or a request for permission. It’s a shortened form of “Can I?” or “Is it possible?” Allison started her career as a sales for a SaaS company, she later found her talent building strong and meaningful relationships with all kinds of business leaders. She joined one of the biggest VC firms in Singapore and coached many startup founders. I just finished a thirty-minute call with her, and I decided to write this article because her advice is so important.
  1. What is a CEO?
  The most successful CEOs she had seen are those who can control their minds and thoughts. They meditate and exercise every day to train to control their inner world and self-discipline. The reason why I asked for her help is that I had a problem with my co-founders. She told me, “fuck them. You are the CEO, and what does a CEO do?”
  “To run the company and make the business sustainable.”
  “Right, so are you responsible to your co-founders, or your teammembers and your clients?”
  “My co-founders are responsible to themselves.”
  “Right, so it’s a big mistake that you found co-founders from your friends’ group. 10/10 of these kinds of founding teams fail because there is too much emotion in the partnership. If you are pleasing your co-founders and worrying about their feelings, who’s going to lead the team and take responsible to the clients?”
  “I see, so I can even fire my co-founders if they are not helping me to be responsible to my team and my clients?”
  “Of course, it’s your company. Does it make sense?”
  “Yes, thank you so much!”
  2. Are you running a company or a project?
  It’s human nature to only be responsible to things they put their name on. I didn’t know what a co-founder agreement is, so none of my co-founders put as much effort as they said. And I also didn’t know the importance of document everything.
  “If you don’t have an agreement with your co-founders, you are not running a company, it’s just a project.”
  3. What is your goal?
  “Write down your goal, as detailed as possible, can?” How much money do I want to have in my bank account in the next 24 months? What’s the location of my future office? Where will I live in the future? How many employees will I have? Those details make my mind know where I want to go, and my body feel the feelings of success. Without a clear vision, I cannot have the motivation to run a company and be self-disciplined.

My teammembers and their urge to grow.

In the bustling world of startups and entrepreneurial ventures, the urge to grow and evolve stands as a pivotal driving force behind the success stories of many. Among these narratives, the tale of my team members, Udit and Zach, encapsulates the essence of persistence, learning, and the relentless pursuit of excellence.

Udit, hailing from India, reached out with a spark of enthusiasm that immediately caught my attention. A student with a background interning for a venture capital firm, he saw potential in my business explanations on LinkedIn and seized the opportunity to learn more. Despite the constraints of funding within my startup, Udit’s offer to contribute as an unpaid intern underscored his dedication to growth and learning. Working together on research projects related to global startups, Udit’s analytical prowess shone through. His journey from making amusing rookie errors to swiftly navigating the challenges of leading meetings with startup founders highlighted his adaptability and keenness to enhance his interpersonal skills under my guidance.

Zach, on the other hand, brought a different yet equally valuable set of qualities to the table. His integrity and humility, paired with a sharp acumen in finance, positioned him as a vital asset to the team. Zach’s knack for tackling problem-solving tasks with clear instructions was commendable, although he initially grappled with more abstract challenges. By focusing on breaking down complex problems to uncover the core issues, I facilitated Zach’s development in approaching and resolving abstract problems effectively.

Together, Udit and Zach exemplify the varied facets of growth and learning within a team environment. Their unique strengths and willingness to embrace challenges, coupled with my efforts to guide and nurture their skills, underscore the dynamic nature of team development. As they continue to evolve, both Udit and Zach represent the transformative power of dedication, mentorship, and the undying urge to grow.

My weakness.

My company was offcially registered in Feb this year, but I have worked as the CEO since the end of last December. During these three months, I found out my biggest weakness is my low-self esteem. I knew my co-founder wasn’t the right fit at the begining, but I innored that because I deemed myslef not capable enough to provide the service I design for my clients. I suffered from feeling depressed because I expected my co-founder to help with the works, the quality was just bad because they are not devoted and I wasn’t anywhere less capable than them. I know it but I didn’t admit it.

Another big weakness is my ability to start an argument, I think that also have a part that I invited my best friends to be my co-founders. So I avoided conflics with them because I didn’t want to sabotage the relationships. “Prepare to lose some friends, Shane!” Allison said.

I’m also very bad at numbers, my brain just couldn’t function when I see the numbers. While finance literacy is so essencial to running the business.

I will practice self apprciation and build my mind muscle to tackle my low self esteem problem, reconstruct my founding team and be brave to have difficult conversations, and I will put more effort to figuring out the financial plans even it’s so challenging to me.

My strengths.

The reason why I can have these amazing mentors is I am good at building relationships with people who have much more experience than me. I demonstrate my passion and dedication to grow, prove to them by actually take action, and show my thanks to them with solid evidence that I actually put into action not just listening to their advices and do nothing.

I am also talented in earning trust from my clients. It takes patient to earn trust and especially in Taiwan. I can observe what my clients’ want emotionally since that’s actually how people make decision to trust someone or not. Do they want reassurance that I am a good strategic partner? Or they just want to feel good about themselves so I have to give complimets to them? I can also provied insights and help them understand their potential and shortcomings and not hurting their feelings. I shift their mindset with sharing stories from myself or others, so that they don’t feel I am judging them but help them to grow.

Most important of all, I have a twisted understaning to the reality. When Alison looks so dissappointed to me, I think that’s because she cares and she want to help me. When my client challanges me and questions me, I think that’s because they want to trust me. When I found myself making a mistake and it’s quite easy to avoid, I know that’s an opportunity to learn. I do feel upset and question myself sometimes, but I alway feel hopeful.

My goal and my dream.

I need more time to visualize my goal in this company. But my dream is to become an entrepreneur because I believe entrepreneurship is one of the best way to solve big sociatal or environmental problems. The logic of business is to create value from solving a problem with a sustainable way. So the better the solution, the more value one company can create. The more sustainable the business model is, the longer the company can exist.

At least that’s the kind of business I want to create. My dream is not clear enough as Alison suggested, but the direction is right there, I just need to clearly outline it, that’s not a rocket science.

If you have the patient to finish reading this wordy article, I guess you are really interested in me or my business. You can reach out to me through booking a time to talk or my LinkedIn. If you want to know more about my business please visit my website:

• For startups: https://home.mesh-strategy.com/
• For SMBs who wants to do digital transformation: https://linktr.ee/mesh.tw

That’s all, I hope you enjoyed reading this article:) I will update my thoughts maybe in another three month, so stay tuned!