Gerald Yummy Bros [OES S01E07]

Reggie: Do you still remember the days of blogshops?  Have you ever wonder that you could start a successful one for all of you who don’t know what’s blogshop, think Carousell store or insta page today. What about selling solution to blogshop owners kind of like selling the spade to the gold Digger? Is it that easy?

Sometimes when we are trying to go into a space that we have no clue prior, we actually think that we have superior foresight. Gerald founder of Yummy Bros was one of that guy. That guy that believed that he could make a killing women’s fashion, right. He failed miserably, lost his identity, lost his muscles and maybe some friends along the way.

But ultimately found a bunch of people that he actually understood. His gym buddies. So he turned in himself around and served them quality, frozen meals. And currently have $7 million in revenue selling frozen food to gym guys, find out his journey today. Welcome to entrepreneurship show. 

Gerald: So in 2014, 2015, uh, uh, the entrepreneurship scene in Singapore, right, was that it was relatively easy to raise money.

You have an idea, you have a pitch deck. Um, maybe you are a partner. Um, you don’t even need to have the product eh. Um, you can literally raise money. Okay. So in 2014, 2015, I started a, uh, a new business. It was supposed to be a media platform, focusing on fashion and lifestyle for women. 

Reggie: Okay. Okay. Why, why are you guys there? Is it a bunch of guys trying to do that thing? 

Gerald: Yeah.

Reggie: Okay, okay. Come, come. Tell tell tell me that

Gerald: There was only one girl in the team. 

Reggie: Then why are you guys in the business? 

Gerald: So you see ah. I mean, yeah, it was a period of time where blogshop was a thing, right?  

Reggie: Yes. Yeah. 

Gerald: For the younger guys..

Reggie: Now it’s Instagram shop, but back then was blogshop . 

Gerald: Yeah. Ok. We rewind a-bit ah.

Reggie: Ya. 

Gerald: So the, I think we were damn stupid ah because last time we thought that for a startup to be successful right you need to raise money. 

Reggie: Um, um, um.

Gerald: Yeah, it’s a shittiest piece of advice I ever got ah. Yeah. So, so

Reggie: Where did you get this advice from?

Gerald: Wah, I can’t remember leh. Like everyone.

Reggie: Um, everybody was talking about raising money, right. I see a little incubators putting, you know, like how much we raise on the board, how much we raised on the board, it’s a thing. It’s, it’s not about how much the business has grown, how much GMV we have, but it’s really about how much we raised. So there was a central theme for a period of time. Hmm. Yeah. So I don’t blame you.

Gerald: Yeah. And then, um, thinking back right. You know, when you congratulate a startup for raising money ah. It’s like going to the chef and say, eh, congrats man, you got the ingredients. I haven’t done shit eh. 

Reggie: That’s true. That’s true.

Gerald: I haven’t done jack shit eh. Okay. So right, our mindset will set, we need to raise money man. Okay. Um, so how are we going to do that is we gonna have, uh, we’re gonna need an idea, just to have a damn good idea first. Good is relative la. Okay. So we convince people that this idea will work. And then we, pivot, pivot, pivot, pivot, wah this word ah very popular leh pivot leh walao even a basketball player don’t pivot that much in a basketball game. You know like, so so so they, so what we did was, um, we, we, we got to know this amazing guys. Okay. So they were our angel investors ah. They are amazing. Okay. So, so I would, I would just say who they are.

Okay. They are Alex from Space Ventures. We have Benedict Soh who is the founder of Kingsmen International, is this huge company, public listed. Okay. So, so these two guys, they were the first ones who supported us. And you cannot say that like, you know, they were just trying to throw money around, but they invested in people.

So, like they believed in us and up to this day, I still feel a bit shitty that like we lost their money. It sucks. Okay. But we approach Alex and his team and this Benedict Soh was there also. So we, we pitched them idea, version A. Okay. And they felt it wasn’t going to work because of, okay. There’s not enough market for that.

Uh, it’s not enough evidence to show that people would buy this or whatever. So the thing pivot, pivot, pivot, until become that media platform focusing on fashion and lifestyle for women thing. Yeah. So, uh, I think the mistake that we made was everything else fit. Right. Because, well, last time, last time blogshop wah power mah.

Right. And then online shopping wah on the rise mah and then content marketing wah damn  power mah, because like, you know, we have got people like the Smart Local run by Bryan and Bryan, Bryan is an amazing guy also. Yeah. He, he actually supported us during that three years. He did help us. Okay. Um, and then you’ve got all the other media sites that are coming out.

So we thought that, okay, so this one will work. But the one thing that we missed out was that who are the guys running the show, you go to this three, that time was, uh, me, my tech guy. Um, very good. Very good friend. His name is Lucius. Yeah. So the two of us and, um, he hired one app developer in Indonesia. That’s it. 

Reggie: Okay. 

Gerald: Yeah. You also need like a four or five months later that we found like a lady to join a team. Okay. Yeah. So that’s the problem. You see, we were male dominant team and being male dominant is not really the direct problem. The direct problem was like, we had no idea what the fuck we were doing. I mean, look at me. Do I look like somebody who understand ladies fashion?

Reggie: Yeah. Yeah. So I think what you guys were talking about the whole like pivot, pivot, pivot, right? 

Gerald: Yeah. 

Reggie: It’s very common. Right? What you were talking about very common out there and. At some point, you realize that you are not in the right business or you’re not in something that you actually believe in.

Right. So it was just like riding the high of, you know, money going around and the whole vibe of entrepreneurship and yeah, the whole thing about like blogshop and everything. I say you are riding the wave, so it’s not a bad wave per say. It’s a wave. Right. But you realize that maybe you are not the person who ride.

Gerald: Yeah. 

Reggie: But at that point, when you start to realize, you didn’t stop right? 

Gerald: Yeah.

Reggie: Why, why was it so? 

Gerald: Okay, so why didn’t we stop? Um, the, the first thing that, uh, the, the first major major reason was because of Alex and Benedict my, my angel investors, because you see ah, when you take people’s money, or like, like, like to me, I was brought up, uh, in an environment right, that eh money very hard to earn, you know, so yeah. These guys were rich. Uh, like Benedict is, is, is wealthy. Alex has got money because he’s got limited partners putting cash into his fund. Right. 

But, but to me, it’s like all these is people’s hard-earned money. We already take already. And we’ve already spent some it, we’ve invested some of that already. We should at least try and give them back the ROI. Right. So we kept going. We didn’t want to give up. And also there was this like, hope that eh, you know, what, maybe we can morph ourselves into this ideal founder. You can go and learn. You can go and understand, understand the mind of a fashionista, understand the mind of a blogshop owner. And we try extremely hard and you can ask our ex clients, like we try really, really hard, you know? Yeah. 

So, so we did that three years and, uh, we just wanted to succeed and we took very little money. Yeah. So, so it was just three years of, um, taking very little money, losing people’s money and not being ourselves. Like for, for me. Uh, I, I also have this, maybe I should let go of this, this belief that you should sacrifice who you are yesterday on today right to become who you want to be tomorrow. So I, I, I held onto that belief very tightly. So I tried to reinvent myself la. Yeah. And, and I think the mistake was that this is not reinventing your skills, you know, this reinventing your, who you are inside as a core.

So everybody has a, has an internal structure or who you are already. And, and once you start to change that, right, then you, that’s where people get very lost la, yeah. Reinventing excuses. Okay. That one you must do. You must learn relearn unlearn. Yeah. So they become better. Yeah, but we were doing the wrong kind of relearning la. 

Reggie: Mm mm. Yeah. So, so why do you, the thing that you should drop this mindset, because it’s very prevalent, right? It’s a, it’s a, you know, a lot of people have just kind of believe that, you know, you can’t be better, blah, blah, blah. I know a lot of like an LP kind of thing.

Gerald: So in my, in my super limited knowledge of personality or what, I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a psychologist, right? Okay. But then I would break it down into two things. Right? So who you are is your identity, which is fundamentally who you are, what is your name? Uh, how old are you, where you’re from? Blah, blah, blah, blah. So okay, marketing speaks your demographics, right? And then you have your skills. Okay. You have your capabilities, you have your goals, and all these kind of things. You want to change all these things, right? Sure. I think that’s fine, but I don’t think we should change who we are unless you fucked up ah. Yeah. Unless it’s a fucked up, mother fucker, then you go and change this la, unless you some selfish guy or like, you know, some cheating person, then you change that.

But, but I think fundamentally if who you are is maybe neutral. And even if you are who you are is like good, full of passion and all right, you shouldn’t change that. Yeah. Like everybody should to be themselves. Right. I mean, this brings up a very sensitive topic, LGBTQ, right? Yeah. I mean, you, you should be able to be who you are without any judgment.

Okay. Um, without any prejudice, you should be able to be who you are because regardless of this right. As long as you’ve got those skills, you can create value. Right? You, you are, you are valuable human being. Yeah. So, so back to your question, I think it’s very hard to change this, this part of who you are, your identity, and that’s what we were doing. Yeah. So we got lost. We didn’t even know who we are already. Um. 

Reggie: So it was so difficult to break away from the business. Yes. Because you kind of invest at so much of your identity and yourself into the business. Other people were putting money. You were putting yourself in it. 

Gerald: Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. That’s the thing, you know, you, you, people sacrifice money, uh, money. Now that I’m here, money, everyday can earn back one. Like, Oh, today I, I, suddenly spend $500 on this piece of thing that I don’t need right? Then never-mind, next month easily earn back $500 and all this, but then when you invest yourself in it right, it’s not just money. It’s time. Is reputation. Yeah. So I, I can tell that my friends, while I wondering what the fuck I was doing? Because back in school, uh, back at work, my my my my first job, uh, in the army, I was not this guy. I was, I was, I was somebody else. And then all of the sudden, I, I what the fuck Gerald is running this, like women’s online magazine ah sure or not sia.

Yeah. Yeah. So, so. I didn’t want to hang out with my friends because of that, man. Yeah. Because I did feel embarrassed for number one. I know that I’m not doing what I’m doing. Yeah. Women’s magazines. One thing, you know, but for me to do that, right. I am basically, I am, uh, what’s that word ah? I betray myself la, yeah. So I’d betray my, my own identity.

And also the next thing is that, I know I wasn’t making much money. So I couldn’t really keep up with that kind of expenditure like my friends. Yeah. And the third thing was desperately trying to make the business grow. Right. So I worked many hours a day. Yeah. So, uh, the thing about me is that I’m an extrovert. I, uh, extract energy from people from being around people.

I need that shit. I need it once in a while. I need once in a while to go hang out with my friends. Hang out with different people, strangers also can ah, I don’t care. I just need that so that I can replenish my, my energy la. Yeah. So far that three years, the only people that I hung out with was my then girlfriend, uh, my colleagues and my clients.

Yeah. So social life next to nothing like out of work, social life, I had nothing. Yeah. And that was quite draining as well la.

Reggie: In what way was it draining? Because I think a lot of people when they talk about entrepreneurship right. It’s like, uh, entrepreneurs make a lot of money, you know, life is very amazing for them. Uh, you know, so, you know, so when you say like, you know, you know, entrepreneurs, yes, you’re struggling. You have no money and you’re working very hard. And then in that sense, you sacrifice your social interaction because you’ve got no money. Re, re, realistically, no money to go to the bar what, how to hang out right. So yeah.

One mug, one jug of beer $16 eh, basket. Back then can, can eat five meals, literally right. If you really want a cup, you can really go there. Right. And then how did that feel? You know, when, when you, uh, when you have no resources and you’re so isolated,

Gerald: How did that feel? That Hmm. Lonely. Like, like lonely is the word because, um, your friends won’t understand, they want to, but, but they, they, they cannot fully put themselves in your shoes to them. Uh, the solution is very simple. Just quit. Yeah. But I cannot quit. I cannot quit. Okay. I cannot quit because of those reasons I cannot quit because of my investors.

And then some-more, my, my CTO that time, Lucius. I convinced him to quit his high paying job. He was earning like good money, you know, at a development firm. So I convinced him to quit his job to come and join me in this stupid journey. And then I come and tell him, then I go tell him I quit. Nonsense eh, is stupid. Then have the people that we hire.

We cannot tell them I quit right? Yeah. And then, back then, um my wife was my girlfriend back then and I wanted to marry her. Okay. So. Why why so stupid? Right? Like you young clueless guy, no money. You going to propose for what I propose to my wife, you know, when I was in my one and a half years into the thing proposal, because her dad just died.

Yeah. And, uh, her, her dad, uh, the death of a dad was quite in dramatic fashion for her because she’s a SIA stewardess. And when he passed away, she was on a plane. Serving passenger. Yeah. So, um, as you know, my wife is Thai, so she has relocated to Singapore to build a new life la. So you come here for about two years coming, three, uh, with the intention of building a new life and all of a sudden your father pass away.

I mean, you mentioned the kind of, uh, trauma. Somebody will go through, right. You’re in a new place. You have no family here. Yeah. So that was when I realized that, okay, I need to give this girl some form of certainty. So I proposed to her lor. Yeah. I had to pay a 12-month instalment for her engagement ring. Yeah. No money what right. So, okay lor, installment lor. Then when I bought the ring on instalment, the fella was like instalment ah? 12 months ah? Six months not enough? 12 months ah? Yeah. 12 months. Okay lor. So I bought the ring propose to her. Yeah. So I cannot give up, I cannot give up the whole entrepreneurship thing because I need it to work. Yeah. So you feel very lonely because you tell me la, who else in your, in your social circle will be going through something like this, when you tell them your problem right. What they can do is to listen and they, listen, I have great friends. They, they listen. But they cannot do anything. Ya. You expect what? Give you money ah? Siao. Walao, not like some beggar eh. Like, it’s not about pride you know, but it’s about responsibility mah. Yeah. I’m responsible for my own fit. Right. I’m responsible for my own poverty. I’m not going to blame anybody. Yeah. I know that the media world painted this picture about startups. Say, Oh yeah, it’s hard in the beginning. After that you’ll be okay. Yeah. I can blame them, but no, it’s my own responsibility. Yeah. So it just felt really like lonely. Yeah. And that period of time. 

Reggie: And then finally, you, you broke out from it. Yeah, because it sounds so agonizing, right? Like this, this is so many, it’s a dynamic decision. It’s not linear. Not like, just quit. A lot of people will be like just quit. Because they don’t understand. They’re not in it, but given all this dynamism optimally. You know, you cut. 

Gerald: Yeah. There was also another thing that I felt, I think that we went through this over the world er Skype. Um, I also felt irresponsible. I felt like I wasn’t doing my job. Okay. Why? So? Uh, ok just to provide a-bit of contexts ah. Back in the army. I went to OCS and a commission as an officer. So you can say that I am indoctrinated or whatever shit. Right. But my firm belief is that as a citizen, right. I am responsible to my country for number one, defense as an NS man also for economic contribution. So, and I studied econs ah. Yeah. So as a citizen, I’m supposed to create some form of value for the economy.

But instead of like creating more jobs, creating more income, more revenues that a government can tax me. No, I am taking people’s money and wasting it all. Yeah. So I felt like it was very irresponsible of me to be embarking on this journey. Yeah. And then it’s like, you would be thinking if I give up now, then I cannot correct the wrongs.

Yeah. Then if I give up now ah, and if I don’t give up now right, I do not know whether the journey would change. Yeah. So lonely and irresponsible. I just felt very, uh, worthless as a man ah. Yeah. I feel very, I felt very little as a man. Yeah. So it’s like, I mean, you, you guys know how it is as a guy, I supposed to be the one earning the bread, earning the money. Lay the food on the table, taking care of everyone. Yeah. As, as the man of the household, as a man anywhere, it’s a stupid stigma, but it’s like that. All right. In our culture, you are a man, you should be earning good money and you should be doing well. Yeah. So you just feel very small as a man lor. Yeah. 

Reggie: Um, and then when, when you left, how was the journey after that?

Gerald: Um, when I.. 

Reggie: Confirm not smooth one ah, the, when, when it’s so crazy, right then. Hmm. You know, most entrepreneurs when they break up from their first venture, things go cuckoo and it’s a lot of mind, you know, a lot of very like falling to that baseline. You need some sort of, you know, holding, go back to something and keep you going. So what do you do after that?

Gerald: I, I think, I think we didn’t have the, the thing that, that, uh, kept us going right, was that we had nothing. Yeah, because, okay. I officially told my investors . Wah it was damn sucky la. Like, going up to Alex and tell him say, eh man. Uh, you know, I think, I think we’re going to have to stop doing this. Yeah. And I was very lucky because he understood that he could understand like the hardship that we were going through la.

So he gave us his blessing yeah. To, to stop this whole thing. And I say, yeah, that’s, there was a relief la. So the thing is that after that we had nothing left. Yeah. So I think it was the fact that  we have nothing that got us going ah. Yeah, and I was doing odd jobs. I was, uh, teaching social media, uh, advertising, teaching people how to set up their Facebook ads.

I had a school at er Paya Lebar. Yeah. So I was doing all these odd jobs. And then I did. A bit of a short marketing stint for this other company, this other fitness company. Yeah. And, and that, that was what gave me a bit of more money back so that I could invest into Yummy Bros ah. Ya, because Yummy Bros is boost track one mah. Last time don’t have enough pot right? Then I buy first la. Last time need money for ingredients, money come first ah. Yeah. So boost track, uh, and yeah, we just, kept going because we had nothing to lose really, really lost everything. What the fuck. Yeah. Okay. 

Reggie: So from, from that transition into Yummy Bros and then Yummy Bros went from, you know, pretty much, uh, ghetto set up at someones

Gerald: Ya, ya it is.

Reggie: Two guys want to do this thing, and then, you know, we just, you go to someone’s place and then we set up, then you just kinda had to play around with it. Right. So, yeah. From a ghetto setup. How do you guys start, you know, getting your customers? How did that work? 

Gerald: Oh. Okay. So the first thing that we did was, uh, we jio all of our gym buddies, right to come and try the meals. Uh, the pitch to them was very simple and say, high protein, low calories, ok what I need to do right is to just try it and tell me what you think. So that started a very long. I think it was like three, four months, a long duration of, okay. We get a feedback, we improve again, we get a feedback, improve then we go again.

Yeah. And, but during that time, right, I was, uh, working on Instagram. So to the short answer is that. Instagram helped us to get our first few, um, stranger customers are like people that we didn’t know. So every time we made the meals, I would just put them on a, like a nicer backdrop and then I would take a photo and I post it, and then I will post things like, um, nutrition knowledge, because I studied this shit before.

Yeah. So we post fitness tips, dieting tips, and all. Yeah. And then slowly, right. Uh, we suddenly got orders like who’s this guy man. Yeah. Who’s this? And then we got like more DM, like, Hey, saw the photos. Food looks great. How do I order, so direct them to the website and everything? So this started to happen slowly. And I think one of the key thing was that we focus a lot on the product. Yeah. We wanted the product to be so freaking good at. Uh, and, and we wanted not just the product, but the customer experience, right. To be freaking freaking good, like freaking memorable because personally I would want to be treated like that by a brand. And, and, uh, we wanted like the brand right to be like that, bro. Yeah. 

Reggie: A lot of testosterone in this brand ah. Yeah. 

Gerald: We wanted the brand to be like the bro to the community. When a customer orders from us from the first time they get a lovely card, you know, and last time we handwrite everything because we didn’t know better mah. We handwrite everything.

Reggie: How is, how is the card very bro? 

Gerald: Oh. Oh, You know what we we… 

Reggie: Like very sister.

Gerald: Okay la, like maybe like a-bit more feminine. Family, family friendly. Yeah. So we, we, we, we, handwrite the message I can see you freaking remember. Cause I handwrite I don’t know how many million times I can. Maybe not million la, a few hundreds ah. Dear Bryan, thank you so much. Comma, you awesome person, comma for ordering from us. Your support means a lot to us because it helps us to make dieting enjoyable, affordable and convenient for fitness enthusiasts in Singapore. We hope to serve you again soon. Sign. We will have a Yummy Bros signature. 

Reggie: Wow that it’s cool. That’s cool. Yeah. If I receive that, I will feel like, Hey yeah, maybe this, these guys are really care about me.

Gerald: Hmm. So we then put it in an envelope. Then we see with saliva in a case because last time no COVID mah. Then we put this together with their meals and then their meal box. Right? Okay. So we didn’t want the meal box to say Yummy Bros. Yeah, everybody knows you Yummy Bros, so can we create some value out of that? Okay. Now our meal boxes right. They all come with the sticker and it has got a different motivational quote on it. Yeah. So, so we, we say things like, you know, don’t diet to be skinny diet to look yummy, you know, things like that. Yeah. And, uh, prior to that, 

Reggie: Who’s the one creating all this quotes?

Gerald: Me lor. Okay. Prior to that, right. We wanted to do this, um, Fortune cookie. So… 

Reggie: Xiao cheesy. 

Gerald: So we want people to finish a food. Yeah. So our meal boxes were white in color, like translucent, we would take a, we will print a lot of different quotes and then we would stick it to the bottom. Okay. Stick it to the bottom.

So basically we, we print it reverse because if you print it the normal way up, you have to paste it on the meal box. And that won’t be very hygienic. Right. So we printed it in, reverse , we paste it at the bottom so that when people finish eating a meal prep right, they will see, Oh, just do it or something like that, you know, then they will see like, um, if fitness is 20% exercise, 80% diet, then you’re already more than halfway there. You know like things like that yeah. So, so they will see these kinds of things. So people. Um, want to want to finish their food. And that makes them want to order again. 

Reggie: Did your customers feedback that? 

Gerald: Yes, they will. They will. They even, they even take a photo of that right. And they’ll post on stories. Yeah. 

Reggie: So cute. 

Gerald: So the stories were the ones that told us what customers were like, raving about la.

Reggie: Awesome. Awesome. 

Gerald: So, so 

Reggie: So that is learning about your customer, right? Yeah. Figuring out, just kind of tinkering along the way. 

Gerald: Yeah, correct. Yeah. Yeah. So it’s not just about the taste, but it’s about the experience, you know? Yeah. So, so we also, uh, regularly we email them, we talked to them on Instagram. We try and, Hey, are you so-and-so? And so. Cause they like our photo mah, then I would see like, Oh, this looks very familiar. So I go and go and DM lor.. Say like eh are you so and so and so, just wanted to confirm, then they say, yeah, thanks for ordering our stuff, man. Eh, I know that you know people don’t normally say the bad things, but we want to hear it. So, so what, what, what can we improve on?

Yeah so we kept getting all this stuff. Yeah. And along the way, we did try a bit on B2B models. Like we went down to the gyms, uh, and then we tried to sell them the meal so that they can sell to their members, but the volume there is like too low. Like our one single cost, average customer orders much more than the average gym.

Reggie: Don’t waste time. 

Gerald: Yeah. So we focus on B2C. So we knew that we wanted to be a B2C brand right from the start. 

Reggie: Awesome. Awesome. Can you just kind of help us understand, because not every day you have someone that, you know, stuff from the ghetto kitchen. To scale to where you guys are. So I want to know your supply chain changes.

Gerald: Okay. So for one year, right, we were operating from Anson’s home. Yeah. Okay. And everyday we live in fear.

Reggie: When you’re going to get rated. 

Gerald: Yeah. Fuck. Walao. Okay, I tell you ah, Anson sometimes a bit. He a bit, uh, he lets his fear take over sometimes ah. He say eh bro, I very scared leh. Later my neighbour complain how ah? You know yesterday the neighbour come and ask me eh, when we take the lift together. Eh, 你昨晚又煮东西啊？(Did you cook again last night?). Wah, I feel very scared leh bro. Ok bro don’t worry, don’t worry. We will figure something out. Sucks eh, I tell you.Then when you talk to people also. People will still that it is an illegal way of doing business. But there’s this thing called the HDB home-based business. 

Reggie: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Gerald: So you can do what. But the thing is that you cannot.. 

Reggie: Must get HDB to sponsor this then we can like tag them with their link below. Find out more on HDB. 

Gerald: Okay. But then, um, we know that at the back of the mind that things were getting out of hand. Yeah. 

So it’s a problem on a problem. 

Ya, every time delivering 2-300 boxes. I mean, now, I mean, you know, you talk about 2-300 boxes is like, like that ah. Back then when we were doing 2-300 boxes right, we were getting very worried because you know, you shouldn’t be doing this man. Yeah. But we had nothing like that. Like that was our source of income. Yeah. And Anson was asked to leave his job, you know why? Because he was cooking night in night out. The guy has to reach his office at 6:00 AM. He does hard labor stuff ah.

Okay. And it’s a bit sensitive because it’s is, um, security related. 

Reggie: It’s okay. 

Gerald: Yeah. So he was asked to leave his job, man. So we started April 1st, April fool’s, 2018, then a good six, six to seven months down the road. He was asked to leave his job. And then, uh, we continue to operate at his home all the way until, uh, April, May and then a miracle happened ah.

Yeah. So I then went back to my same stupid mistake of trying to raise money.  yeah. So, so, um, uh, of course it failed la, because if you want to get like a fully equipped central kitchen, right. The outlay is at least a million, a million and a half. Yeah. Yeah. So what happened was that, uh, we met this very nice uncle. His name is Uncle Raymond.

Uncle Raymond owns a central kitchen. So we just decided, okay. How about we go into partnership with this split? My revenue with you. Yeah. So from then on, we had, uh, we were exclusive to him and he was exclusive to us. So like there won’t be any competition. It’s all based on trust. Yeah. And then I think in, uh, in, uh, in our local context, right.

All your little contracts, all your little agreements, right? They don’t mean shit. If there is no very close, um, interpersonal relationships. So like Raymond and I we’ve had arguments, we’ve had shouting matches, but what all those did, right. Was that as unfortunate as they were, they became fortunate events because, uh, they make, they brought us closer together.

Yeah. So that, that shit Uncle Raymond tell me that he will never tell other people. Yeah. And of course there’ll be things that won’t really tell others also. So there’s like this, this, this very close bond is like my second dad and really, you know, he’s like, I he’s my step-dad. Yeah. So with Uncle Raymond’s, uh, central kitchen, we grew freaking fast.

Yeah. And then we implemented this refer thing. Yeah, wah I tell you. We learn this, that. If the product is good, right? If people will refer. 

Reggie: People are willing to to refer.

Gerald: If you product is shit ah, nobody would care. 

Reggie: Don’t try hard referring.

Gerald: So, so you were quite lucky because the whole funnel right. Was really nicely built. Um, yeah, but I think, I think to that point is the difficult part.

So like today, all I need to do is to just keep feeding more, more like, uh, prospects into the funnel and that’s our whole marketing, uh, operation. 

Reggie: It took three years, right. From the ghetto.. 

Gerald: Actually less than three years old. Okay. We are about two and a half, is it? Yeah. Yeah. 2018 is about two and a half. Yeah. So it’s quite shiok la like I’ve never built a 7 million revenue company before and getting day in annual revenue, like getting there in less than three years is quite shiok.

Reggie: That’s very cool. Yeah. So on all this shiok-ness and all these stories, right? What do you think keeps you going? Why do you still do this? 

Gerald: Hmm, I like. I like, okay, so you go back to the women’s fashion online magazine thing. Right? So one of the things that made me like decide, okay, I’m going to quit was that I look in the mirror and, and who’s this guy.

Does this guy. Look, like, some fashion guy to you, does it look like, like somebody who even understand what is fashion. Like, I can’t even hold a proper conversation, right. With another lady about shopping. I can’t, I can’t hold a normal conversation with them about like, Oh, blogshop. Because for me, I’ll be talking about like, yeah, you know how this brand gets their supply is that they do this and do that.

But to them, they don’t give a shit. They just care about all the design. Nice colors, nice affordable. I cannot hold a conversation with them because I’m not, I’m not yet. Yeah. So this was when I was 30 years old, I hit 30 and then I asked, Hey, who is this guy in the mirror? Yeah. And then there was when all the fitness thing came about, like I wanted a life, right.

I can just gym every day can eat proper food every day. And to me, proper good food is food that helps me to meet my fitness goals. And at the same time I can eat day in and day out so I can eat the same shit for a long time. Like our customers are also quite interesting. Zesty chicken, Zesty chicken, Zesty Chicken, Zesty Chicken, Zesty Chicken.

12 of that one order. I said, wow, bro, no sian ah. Yeah. And then another one okay, curry, curry, curry, curry, curry, curry, curry. So they eat the same thing every week, you know? Yeah. So it’s, it’s amazing, man. Yeah. So I wanted that lifestyle. I just want to go gym every day. I want to, I want to do this thing I love.

And then is like that lor, so bro I tell you what my schedule very simple every day I will book gym. Okay. Monday Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, 9:00 PM. You will see me at the gym. We don’t feel Tuesday, Friday 11:00 AM you see me doing cardio day? That’s life, man. I mean, it sounds stupid to most people la, but I like everyday I can go to gym and bust my ass there. Wah. Shiok eh bro.

Reggie: I think Gerald brought a very interesting insight. Into the whole idea of how responsibility as a concept kind of weighs in to the self, you know, because a lot of people struggled with these kinds of concepts you know, because when we were young, we have thought a certain thing. And then when we become entrepreneur, um, a lot of these things, they get amplified.

Because, you know, when you’re an entrepreneur, you just try everything. You, you get to say your rules, right. You get to decide, a lot of stuff, you know, it’s, it’s not there. It’s not, there’s no like frame in terms of work, you know, and you could kind of do all these things. So all these inner dialogue or these inner ideas, they get amplified sometimes not in the best way, like, like for him, you know?

Um, and overtime, it’s a journey we learn, we change. And in business, uh, sometimes certain things look like it’s very easy. Actually, most of the time I have people think certain things are very easy, but actually when you practice, when you go down and you start to realize, Oh, it’s actually not that simple right. There’s a whole process of scaling in a, through the process of scaling. A lot of things change. And also, you know, I think he grew a lot in the process and I’m growing a lot, connecting all these guys and also for myself. So. I want you to know that if you decide to go into business, this is a process it’s not like a half a year, one year kind of thing.

You know, being entrepreneur takes time and you’re spending your life. It’s not just about money, right? So I hope you learned something. And thanks for staying on the way. Gerald has something more for you. I just have one last question for you, right? If, if someone wants to, you know, participate in this whole entrepreneurship thing, right. Entrepreneurship thing. Okay. What is one of the advice you would give them?

Gerald: Er, don’t know.

Reggie: I mean, I have similar thoughts, so you know about, okay. Can you just kind of share? Why not? Why not before? 

Gerald: I need to answer these questions in a very long winded. Okay. So the first thing is that. I will not wish upon anybody, even if it’s my biggest enemy, the things that I have gone through. Okay. Uh, in summary, basically being an adult earning next to no money and also betraying your own identity because being lost on who you are, I think is, is, uh, not a very pleasant experience.

So I wouldn’t wish on any human being right. What I have been through la. Okay. I would wish that everybody, when they start their business, okay. They will succeed. Maybe not, everybody will be huge, but I just wish that everybody would be able to succeed and, you know, be able to earn a decent living and they don’t have to like suffer.

Okay. So, so that’s why I genuinely wish for, okay. So if you want to be stubborn and do this entrepreneurship thing, right. I would say that you use this time right to build up on skills. So the key skills that I think you should build on is how do you get somebody? How do you convince somebody to part with their money in exchange for something we see learn how to sell, learn how to market, okay.

Learn some form of, uh, constructive skills, like maybe web development, um, cooking or whatever. I don’t know, man. Basically when you’re a young person. Learn skills. Okay. Get as much skills as possible. Um, meet as many different people as possible. Ask for the life story, listen to their experiences. Okay. So that’s for the kids.

So let’s say you are working adult already, really sick and tired of your nine to six job. You want to do something of your own? Um, what I would recommend is that you do a side hustle.

Reggie: Uh, I thought you would see a change of job.

Gerald: Yeah, no, you change your job, then it doesn’t work. All right then, uh, then you okay, suck thumb lor . Yeah, but the question is, um, what if you want to do this entrepreneurship thing, ma yeah. Yeah. So I suggest you do a side hustle. Yeah. Because in Singapore, right. You will no money or, you no talk right. Really that’s the harsh reality of it.

You need to have money. To feed yourself. Yeah, don’t be a liability. Right? So, so go get a side hustle, build, build, build the thing until can sustain you already right. Okay. Then your zhao. Okay. If let’s say you are an entrepreneur in a business that is failing, or you feel that like, there’s, this really no way this thing is going to succeed.

Okay. Maybe 1% chance that’s going to succeed by 1% is still very small. I think you need to really go in thinking about. What’s next after you exit la. Yeah. And then can you work for people? Yeah, because like me ah. I find it to be hard to work for people because I got more ideas. It’s not a guai lan okay.

Maybe some people say guai lan. Is is that I, I have, I have my own view on things and I, and I generally do my best to try and look at other peoples through other people’s lens also. But if cannot means cannot any, if I feel uncomfortable with the direction of the company, right. Then I cannot. Yeah.

Because you’ll be back to the problem of the betraying your own identity again mah. And then again, yeah. So that’s my long answer to this question.