Eric Gnock Fah is president & Co-Founder of Klook, the startup’s name stands up for “Keep looking”. The aim of the company is to make less tedious the part of travel planning and organizing an itinerary at the same time offering traveling deals of the place people are planning to visit. Klook was named in 2015 number one as “Best new apps” in Apple Store.
Eric is from Mauritius; he went to school in US and started his career in Hong Kong in investment banking. He speaks 7 languages that he picked up along the way in his life.
In your own words what does your startup do?
Klook helps travelers plan and book activities, tours and local transfers online and on the go.
Why did you create your startup?
I Saw an opportunity to reinvent the inefficient supply chain of the tours & activities market as more consumers interested in experiential travel and the rise of mobile allow activities to be booked on-the-go.
What was your first victory when doing your startup?
Getting featured as “Best new apps” (in first position) by Apple Appstore across Asia first week within launch of first app iteration
What are the pros of doing a startup in Hong Kong?
Ease of set up with free flow of capital. The startup community in Hong Kong is much closer knit – with great support from peers. Hong Kong also its unique advantages for some specific industries like travel – being the world’s largest traffic of international travel – so it allows Klook to captures a big audience.
What are the cons of doing a startup in Hong Kong?
Undoubtedly, Hong Kong does lack talent in the tech space. Hiring from abroad isn’t that easy due to immigration / visa regulations – though it is certainly improving
What are some of your daily digital habits?
First thing to check is Wechat / slack and then email. On a daily basis – will be keeping an eye on Google Analytics.
Where do you see Hong Kong in 2021?
In the tech space, I think Hong Kong does have its advantage / potential to become a key Fintech hub. Traditional finance industry won’t be as burgeoning.
Rapid-Fire Round:
Mentor:
Wilfred Fang, co-founder of Agoda
Website:
Bloomberg
Music:
Empire (tv show)
Book:
Zero to One by Peter Thiel
Movie:
Star Wars
What is one thing that you would like to pass on to aspiring entrepreneurs?
Embrace uncertainty as the path of a startup, especially at early stage, can be quite daunting – often pivoting to find the right fit, hence a lot of uncertainty. But as aspiring entrepreneurs, we shall learn to embrace it and find motivation from that.
(Portraiture by Ruby Law Photography)
