What would we do for our launch of Colony?
We toyed with all the conventional ideas for a launch. Lion dance, a press conference, cut ribbon… all those kind of things. At the end of it the Colony team sat down and we thought about what the purpose was for the launch.
The purpose was just to show case Colony as it was. As how it would look on a normal day. Plus we thought about what made launch events fun. What made them fun wasn’t the launch gambits and all these things. Nobody liked speeches or launch gambits. What made it fun was just the company.
So for our launch we just prepared the food and invited all the people we knew.
We initially prepared ourselves for 100 people but over 150 came including almost 20 journalists from different publications.
It was an amazing event. I gave a short speech and the rest of the time was just for everyone to sit, chill, drink and chat. We had everyone from our friends to our investors.
One particular investor of mine came for the first time and jokingly (or maybe not jokingly) said “Tim… you know when I invested in you right I mentally wrote off the investment liao. Now I see how it looks I think can write half back”.
I’ve learned that sometimes the most simple things are the best. I’ve got lots of people to thank. From the team, to Heineken and Strongbow who sponsored the beer, to Carol Yong who took these great photos to the guests, our investors, our landlord and Bold Grains and Espresso Lab, our food operators of Colony who also catered that night.
The launch is just the beginning of course. Now the pressure is on for us to make this a sustainable business. I know we have a tough road ahead of us, but we’ve got lots to do.
I know I’ve been sparse on my updates on social media lately, even on Dayre. That’s because I’ve been so busy that I’ve even stopped playing War Robots.
At an interview with Focus Malaysia magazine today the journalist asked me what I do with my time now. If I really think about it, all I do is spend time with family, work, run and read my books. That’s about it but the most important thing is… I’m happy.
Thank you for all the people who’ve been such a wonderful part of my life.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space