I was downhearted after graduating with a chemical engineering degree from the US. It seemed that there was no career path for me in Thailand. I couldn’t find any jobs for four months. Some companies even said that students who graduated from abroad are disobedient. I was stunned by that attitude!
I was also interested in marketing, so I happened to apply for account manager positions at P&G and Unilever. Both accepted me. I suddenly realized that I had been targeting the wrong jobs before.
People love a challenge. Managing accounts worth dozens of millions of baht was so much fun, for me. It inspired me to create my own business.
Finding a good partner is important for any startup. When I thought about creating my own business, there was no doubt it should be with my close friend Keerati Inochanond, who is a computer genius.
A good idea isn’t enough to succeed. We tried to work with the Thai Red Cross on better logistics for managing blood donations after learning that every hospital has to send vehicles on a daily basis to pick up blood directly from the Red Cross’s stocks. It’s such a waste of time and resources. But they rejected our idea.
We created Haamor.com after my mom got cancer. There was no website [in Thai] that could give us clear answers about her condition despite 4.4 million daily searches about cancer and 2.9 million about diabetes. Haamor.com now has three million users and over 100 doctors ready to answer health-related questions.
Know your clients. Taamkru happened because parents want to send their kids to the best schools. To get in those school, the kids need to pass tests. Our app helps with both those needs: it contains information and rankings on schools; it also trains kids for the entry exams with games that are fun to play.
A startup should be resilient. You are working on a business with no revenue. Look at Whatsapp. They sold for US$16 billion despite having zero revenue—but they have 100 million users.
Look for one feature that will make users like your product. Don’t try to please them with lots of features because you don’t have the power to do that when you’re just starting.
Snapchat is a good example of this. It’s a simple chat service where all the messages auto-destruct after a certain amount of time. It became a huge hit because people, especially teenagers, don’t want to share everything permanently.
Thais are spoiled. Startups fail because people don’t put enough effort in and then quit too easily. And maybe those who graduate from famous universities have too many job offers.
It’s crucial for business developers to communicate with users. Many developers prefer to send out surveys and wait for responses, but no survey can truly reflect a user’s perspective. Talk to your users and you might get an idea you had never even considered.
Being recognized at Echelon is a big advantage. There are thousands of startups from all over Asia taking part. There may not be a direct reward, but we met investors who promised us B20 million in capital.
Failure can lead to self-doubt. Before Haamor, we failed at nearly 10 startups. At one point, I dreaded meeting people, in case they would ask, “What are you doing?” Luckily, I was still surrounded by good energy, both from my business partners and my family.
Family is more important than business. No matter how bad your business gets, there are always other ways to make money; but you only have one family for life.
There is nothing that you can’t do. You just have to find the right path to succeed.
