Here at Beijing and thinking about valuations

I’m finally able to cast my school work aside, albeit temporarily. The past few days had been madness. Imagine a machine churning reports, fixing presentations, taking 6 hour exams. And that’s me. The final term in school isn’t quite the breeze I wishfully thought it would be.

Mom and Pop store selling police sirens? How is law enforcement possible at beijing??

I’m on my way to Beijing for a regional business plan competition and networking event. For the next 5 days, I will be strolling down Summer Palace and the Great Wall of China. There’ll also be hotpots, Peking ducks and street food. Plus I’ll get to meet people from Japan, Korea and Philippines. This is a nice respite too, since I can get work out of my sight! (ok, I try to at least)

 

Notice the four languages? They are Mongalian, Chinese, Tibetien and Manchu. Enthic harmony was highly emphasised during Qing Dynasty

It was almost 2 years since I last been there. Back then, the bird nest wasn’t in operation and I had to purchase paper tickets while boarding their trains. Back then, I had no intention of starting a business after graduation. Places change, people change too.

This blog has been dormant for the past few months but the business hasn’t! Shannon and I have been attending networking parties, finalising fund-raising process and monitoring the website development. There you have the classic case of too much to do, yet so little time.

Of these few months, the most memorable part was REJECTION. We had high hopes of clinching fresh funds from an angle, only to get a polite rejection. Funny, but I tend to think that it serves us right. We didn’t have a rock-solid financial plan. While we were clear on how much money we needed to raise, we didn’t have a slightest idea on our capital structure. Yeah, its valuation…

When you have only a business plan and a prototype, valuating your company is a nightmare and an extremely inaccurate exercise. You can have sheets of figures that you claim to be pegged to industry benchmarks. Yet aren’t they all just forecasts? Until your first investor comes in asking for a certain share for a given amount, valuating is quite much baseless.

3rd December ain’t just any day!

3rd December may just be another day for you.
It’s a week after term exams, 3 weeks to christmas.
Yet for Shannon and I, it marked one of our major, super major milestones

Spring has granted us $50,000!

The crumpled letter of offer came after nearly 3 months of gruelling wait
Nevertheless, it is, to-date, the most important letter we’ve received

And the best part is, it felt better then getting an A+ for another module at SMU!
Come’on, this is a life changing opportunity and it’s not like every module you take is gonna make a difference in your life!

For those who are lost in my cheerful chatter, allow me to gladly reiterate what has happened
Shannon and I, friends from an entrepreneur class, have join forces to begin our first business. Which is formally, Artyii Private Limited. Wow, to become a private limited adds a whole new spin to our venture; it’s formal and real!
6 months before, Artyii was merely a sketch. Filling no more than 10 pages in the business plan.

Back to the real stuff. So there were few criteria to be met in order to receive the grant.
1. Incorporate the company as a private limited
2. Set up a bank account reflecting $12,500 balance

Excitedly, we logon to ACRA’s page and incorporated our company within 3 hours.
To be exact, the process was seamless and quick, at most only 15 min. *applause for ACRA*
The rest of 2h 45min was spent deciding on our share/capital structure…Well, we aren’t exactly gifted CFOs!

Upon confirmation, we were presented with an option to purchase a business profile (short for consolidation of the forms we’ve filled online earlier) at S$3. Wow, ACRA stays true to the Singapore spirit of capitalising on the slightest opportunity!

Shannon hesitated while i pounced on the offer.
‘Buy lah! $3 only, who knows if we need it later?’ that’s me.
‘But I have saved all the previous pages, can print it ourselves!’ that’s Shannon

In the end, we paid that $3. Afterall I argued that $3 isn’t alot. A bowl of char kway tiao?  Just pay and save us the trouble. He relented. We received a nicely put-together business profile. Hmmm..at least it looks professional, i further justified myself.

The entire process cost S$318 ($300 to register a private limited+$15 for name registration+$3 for a business profile). It’s quick and easy! & That’s why I love Singapore!

Spring-ing for Success – Our spring encounter

Phew, it’s over. Ok, it wasn’t that scary or nerve-wrecking. However the experience left quite an impression on me.

 Shannon and I presented Artyii to Spring Singapore over a casual session. We almost couldn’t make it on time. There were last minute paperwork, changes to presentation slides and taxis that never wanted to stop for us.

So we met two kind Spring representatives, Beatrice and Hassan.  It went relatively well besides a bit of hiccups that I will talk about later.

 In our 45 min meeting, these were the points which I felt were more important besides, we were grilled quite a bit on them.

1. Competitors, you have to show them that you understand the market. How are you different from your competition and can you sustain it?
2. Market size, you have to show that it’s a burgeoning marketing worth capitalising on. Quote figures, evidence.
3. Milestones. Beware, do not overpromise. The grant comes in tranches. If you fail to reach your given milestone, it is unlikely that you claim the full amount. Prepare your 3 and 6 month milestones

 Ok, listen up every aspiring entrepreneur who is going for the Spring grant! The word here is COMMITMENT. Spring cannot possibly fund commitment-phobic founders with an awesome idea. Draw, sing or dance, do what you can to show that you are sincerely ‘into’ your start-up and will stay that way. ‘Till death do us part’ sort. Perhaps you can try writing a vow? Haha!

“Cai Lin is still in school, but can take an absence of leave” Shannon replied when the ‘committed’ word was flung at us. True, I’m absolutely ready to take a break from SMU!

“I’m working, will quit if we get the grant and raise more money from our angels.” He said of himself. Well well, Spring may have interpreted that we are not committed enough since we need more angel funds before taking the great leap. But the issue here is how we are trying to be as honest as possible, not sugar-coat our words to deliver empty promises.

So the question to you then is, “What level of assurance do you need before deciding to leave your comfy and well-paying job?” A very subjective question. Be sincere, and truthful to yourself. After all, we have to be accountable for our words if we don’t want them to haunt us later on!

Ok, back to us and Artyii. What’s our chances of cutting the deal with Spring? Uncertain. W’re crossing our fingers on it. Meanwhile, the work on developing our site continues and the hunt for angels starts!