The startup journey is a risky, grueling but extremely rewarding one. While everyone’s experience varies, one thing’s for certain – you shouldn’t go it alone. Besides your team, friends and family, having a strong network of mentors to mentally and financially back you up is essential.
TiEHK, a global entrepreneurship network, held the ‘Startup Story: From Idea to Exit’ conference on Friday. With a mix of government officials, founders and investors in attendance, the event was made up of a series of panels set to educate and inspire anyone thinking about starting their own company.
Following an inspiring keynote from Stephen Wang, the founder of Rotten Tomatoes and AliveNotDead.com (who recently exited), our own Casey Lau moderated the “Finding The Right Idea” panel featuring: Red Chapel Advisors’ Felix Lam, YouGov’s Patrick Corr and Life Projects’ Nishant Kapoor.
While the panel was about finding ideas, the discussion quickly turned into the importance of validation. Nishant said that while the idea is important – it’s just the tip of the iceberg in the startup journey and needs to be validated and executed properly. Patrick agreed, saying that startups should be as active as possible on the validation front even before the product is ready – giving a nod to the lean philosophy.
As an active angel investor and startup mentor, Felix said that while idea creation and validation is tough, it’s those post-funding days that prove to be the most challenging. He advised startups to do their due diligence on their investors as only a good investor-startup match will help their business.
Kelly Draisey, COO of eCommerce platform iDecorateweddings.com thought events like ‘Startup Story’ would be resourceful for someone who’s just joined the ecosystem: “I’m relatively new to the startup community, but it’s great to gain insight on what these entrepreneurs have been through in their ups and their downs,” she said. “You can try to relate to them to see what’s ahead.”
For Emanuel Breiter, CEO of AAIC Group and one of the panelists for the event, the event is a great way for founders to get motivated while learning to dodge the common mistakes that other entrepreneurs have made. “These are events are useful because [Hong Kong’s startup scene] is such a young community,” he said. “It’s great for people who do have their own companies to connect with potential investors and to possibly validate their ideas.”
Photos from the event:
