00:38:19 · Snow Lee
[00:38:19] S5: Great, great. So let me start with short answers. The first time startup co founders, they are all the co founders until my third startups. So we started the first journey, we started second journey also, and this time I started one of them, this new startup. But then in that case, I may have the questions that why don't you start with all of that this time, right? So, so it is, it, it's the question I sometimes got. So, as time goes by, I, I got married. I also have a kid. And then my co founder, other co founder, have their grow their thoughts and this their own society and their own careers. So lately, probably two or three years ago, one or two years ago, we discussed about our future, all of our futures. They are very close to my friends. And I just asked, what do you want to do in the future? So, I was thinking about starting a new startup, but I was wondering what they want to do, and it was quite different at that moment. And then also even think even someone who is thinking about starting new startup. The direction of what he or she want is different from mine. I wanted to go global, I wanted to start with the B2B SaaS, and I, I, yeah, that, that's the, that's the basic differences. So, I realized that, oh, at the young, when we are young, the direction or the philosophies or our lifestyle and life goals or not that matters. We work together and we were, we have fun, we can do the things together, but the individual team and the customers, they're all the goals should be aligned to make the long running companies, I learned. So in that matter, I deeply discussed with with each of each of them, and then Liam this time co founder. We have quite very quite similar life goals and the business goals. So we decided to start together.
00:40:51 · Hannah Lee
[00:40:51] S6: Alright, and then, on top of the co founders, also, know that you're slowly incrementing the size of your team, and I feel that a lot of early startup founders are also wondering a lot about how you're formulating the team. And I think that also is very dependent on what kind of business you're running right so. Depending so regarding the industry that you're in and the kind of business that you're running what did you think was the most important factor in terms of hiring talents and how are you... What kind of standards are you going with as you're looking for the new talents to recruit?
00:41:34 · Snow Lee
[00:41:34] S5: That's great. That's great. I can talk about the principles. One core of principles we decided when we started this company were two. One is customer centric, another one is lean approach. So we are trying to stick to the lean approach. We are going to hire the people when we actually need it. We are going to get funded. Actually we need it and we are going to decide the funding amount based on the goals and plans, not just the opportunities. Yeah. So that's our approach. On the other hand, I also like this approach. It's a blitzscaling approach. Blitzscaling, it's pursuing the really fast growth and it bears that inefficiency in there. Of course, a lot of people, a lot of money gathered, of course, there will be some inefficiency, but Blitzs can ignore them and pursue the growth. That's a great approach, but not always success, not always easy, of course it's very difficult, but if I need to choose one, I choose the lead, because I believe that it makes our team much stronger and it helps us to keep the higher the bars when we acquire talents. So, to be honest, it makes us a little bit difficult to hire more people because, you know, our standards are high, we are not going to hire many people at once, but still, I believe we are having success in that approach, and then we are going to keep this approach.
00:43:31 · Hannah Lee, Snow Lee
[00:43:31] S6: May I ask what kind of questions you usually ask in order to really tell that this person is to the point that you're looking for, and also what you think about sort of hiring juniors versus seniors, because you mentioned a little bit about that in your presentation as well. How do you think also that changes as you're running this very early stage start [00:44:00] S5: Good point. The standard has been changed so much between the as a leader and as a founder. So yeah, let me talk about the founders now. To be honest, I I... We have five people, right? We have five five people including the co founders. The all other three people, we have worked together before. Yeah. Some somehow we have worked together before. So at first, are not hired someone strange, we are not going to have the the screening interviews to hire someone because we need the trust. We don't have enough time to validate something about the feat or the ability or the things. So the question is quite difficult for me because I don't ask the questions because I understand, but of course I had the conversation and I tried to figure out something. The something is about the resilience. I know that the members can self motivate it, I know that they are very good at the engineering and the other things and I know that the motivation that their will is quite strong but I don't know, I didn't know that if they can stand up again after failure. So I try to find it out if they are capable.
00:45:32 · Hannah Lee
[00:45:32] S6: I guess that's one of the, should I say, perks of being three times founder is that you have been through that journey of building a team before that you have that industry experience in the network so that you kind of have a more clear idea and understanding of what kind of people that you want to work with. And you have the people in mind as you're starting your startup. Oh, I should work with him. I should work with her. You kind of have that in mind. And I guess that's something that comes along with having been in the entrepreneurial journey for quite some time, which is great. But for those who are just about to build their products, there's actually questions that are coming up in the chat, I'm going to read them out loud to you. And I think it's coming from a lot of early stage founders, so it's great. So first I have Yuda I'm asking a question, I'll read it for you. In the early startup with one founder and a team of fresh graduates, should the founder be taking more bold actions is the question. So I think he's asking, he or she is asking, because you're the founder and you're sort of like this young team that's trying to learn through the experience, should they be taking more risks in terms of making more bold actions? What do you think?
00:46:58 · Snow Lee
[00:46:58] S5: That's a good question. I'm thinking about my old days. Please don't listen to the old man like me. Yeah, that too much but let me share my thoughts. Okay, so it depends. So what one of the advantage of the novice founders and younger day startup founding members is that they can do the things without fear and they can stand out from the failure much better than the second or third time founders. If you fail third time, you can start of course fourth time but it's quite difficult but first time, second time would be easier and very encouraged, right? So the bold part or the listening to others part, it depends on your leadership and depends on your philosophy and the culture that you want to build. So I said that my first startup, there was no leaders, but I don't regret that culture itself. You are open to each other, we discussed a lot, and liked each other a lot and so that's why I they are my lifelong friends but still we can't if I go back, I can do it a little bit better, not just choosing the bold or deciding by myself, but there can be some way to make it better. That's all I can tell her or she.