My social media updates have slowed to an embarrassing lull lately. Wait wait I have an explanation (well okay an excuse). The new venture that I’ve been working on starting is gearing up to launch and I’ve been getting really busy.
In the past month I’ve set things in motion for the first product to be built and I’ve started hiring a team. I’m blessed to be able to find two leaders that in my opinion are among the best in their industry.
I find myself doing a lot of things that I haven’t done in 10 years which really reminds me of how things were when we started Nuffnang. I’m doing everything from making the big decisions that tie the company down to million dollar commitments to admin and HR. Heck I realize how much I took for granted back at Netccentric, having a PA, a HR or whoever there was in charge of doing whatever I needed to do.
Don’t get me wrong. I raised a very significant amount of money from some of the most prominent investors and families in Asia so I can afford to hire a big team but I decided that’s not the path I wanted to go down.
I’m blessed. When I left Netccentric, I’ve had investors calling me up and asking me what I was doing next. Some went as far as to say “I don’t care what you’re doing, whatever it is… I want in”.
But with raising money comes expectations so that’s why I shared with my lead investors that I’m not playing a corporate finance game. Success to me won’t be measured by how much money I raise or at what valuation but how profitable a business I build in the medium to long term. Raising money to fuel growth sometimes creates bad habits. We become less discipline about the money we spend and whether we are truly maximising the capital we have.
I am determined not to make the same mistake. So this time I’m negotiating everything down from the big items to the small items. Just last week I was negotiating with a name card printer to give me a discount on the name cards from RM32 per box to RM30 per box (they’re pretty nice name cards so they cost a lot more than the usual).
So I’m really excited about what I’m doing and I feel the pressure mounting but I love it. I miss this feeling really. However I know what I will miss is the time I have been able to spent with my family in the past few months.
I’m now on a family trip to Bali, which is almost like a quick getaway before a really busy period. As I was walking with Fighter in my arms earlier I told him “Fighter I really love you. Daddy is going to have to spend more time at work in the next few months so I will see you a bit less., But I love you all the same and more okay?”.
The other exciting part for me is that in this venture, Shorty is going to be working with me. I’ve always wanted to work with her. Not only do I think she’s the most beautiful and funniest woman I’ve ever met, I think she’s really really smart too and I’m excited about working with her.
So the reason why I’ve been sparse on my social media updates is not because I’ve forgotten about you guys. I don’t and I really appreciate you guys always checking my updates. The reason is because if there’s one thing I really am finding short of now, it’s time and social media apps are designed to eat up time (I still do play my War Robot game though which is a great end to a busy day for me).
I will continue to blog. Perhaps less often but updates will be here so if you want to see my updates without having to check back my blog all the time please subscribe below.
I’ll also still be updating Dayre and all… just in the same sparse manner I’ve apologetically been doing so in the past month.
Let me end though with this picture of Shorty and me… at the site of our new venture.
We know it’s not going to be easy and will possibly take a lot of time before we find success but we’re in for the long haul. Together.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space