This founder makes a daily 4-hour trip between Singapore and Malaysia – just to save money

Keyis Ng (right).

Startups seem cool. Not a day goes by without some 20-something-year-old receiving a ton of money – more than he’d ever make in his entire life in a conventional job – to test out a business idea.

But let’s be real. Startups are incredibly and massively tough to build. The tale of the small guy sneaking up and stealing the trophy from the giants is charming, but the odds of that actually happening are very low, for various reasons.

Keyis Ng knows this well. Following in the footsteps of his parents – both of whom were business owners – he started his own marketing agency at the youthful age of 21, before starting a specialty coffee ecommerce platform called Cafebond.

His journey, however, isn’t run-of-the-mill. This particular story starts in secondary school.

First business experience

Back then, Keyis had decided not to further his studies after the ‘O’ level examinations. Instead, he went straight to the army and landed an internship at a Japanese advertising agency helmed by local entertainment icon Dick Lee. Over two years, he transitioned to a full-time role and worked with clients such as Gucci, YSL, Puma, and SMRT.

But being a business owner constantly lingered on his mind:

Since young, I always aspired to start my own business. It might be due to the fact that my dad owns a ship spare parts manufacturing plant, while my mom was a mobile phone wholesaler.

One day, a fairy tale opportunity came knocking on his door. “Local actress Wong Li Lin was launching her own line of fitness products, and was looking for a marketing agency to help her with the launch,” Keyis recalled.

“The next day after our first meeting, I registered the company and she became my first client.”

However, Keyis faced an uphill battle. As a young entrepreneur who was up against veteran industry players with more connections, resources, and experience, he constantly needed to prove himself to the world.

The breaking point arrived five long years later. By 2014, Keyis and his business partner had achieved some notable successes: serving clients such as Lazada, Google, and British Council, and co-founding the Digital Fashion Week.

These were attained at a cost. Due to financial reasons, they took on more clients than they could handle, and as such did not perform well.

All this came to a head when one particular incident tipped him over the edge – a moment that he still remembers vividly today:

I was called in for a meeting by Lazada’s CEO Maximilian Bittner with various department heads, and was scolded for a good 30 minutes. The meeting ended with their legal head serving us a termination contract. After the incident, I asked myself: Do I want to be in this position when I’m 50 years old and still running an agency serving clients? I left the company a few months later.

Fighting the good fight

After this episode, his father wanted him to continue their family business in the manufacturing industry. However, Keyis didn’t give up on his dream of running his own business. Instead, while on holiday in Melbourne with his friend Eugene Chen, they came up with the idea to bring beans from acclaimed cafes across Australia to the rest of the world.

Lessons learned, Keyis and Eugene took an entire year to prepare for the launch of Cafebond, which was spent “talking to potential customers and researching the specialty coffee industry locally and globally.” They also participated in TAG.PASS, a pre-accelerator program organized by Infocomm Investments, to validate their idea.

I was called in for a meeting by Lazada’s CEO Maximilian Bittner and was scolded for a good 30 minutes.

The new journey wasn’t easy. With limited funds, Keyis stayed with his mother in Johor Bahru to save on rental. He previously rented an apartment in Singapore.

“It’s impossible for me to afford to rent an apartment while running my own startup as I feel the money can be used for better things,” he explains. More than a year later, he still travels between Singapore and Malaysia for work everyday.

Johor Bahru might be right across the river from Singapore, but it’s at least a four-hour commute to and fro. Cafebond remains nascent with about 1,000 registered users who’ve made purchases from the startup. It’s seen a 30 percent month-on-month growth in users recently.

It’s planning to launch soon in Malaysia and is exploring selling through offline channels.

As a marketing guy, Keyis had to learn quickly about operations and business.

“For outsiders, it might seem like ecommerce is really easy as it is just about selling things online,” he says. “Only after executing did we realize how tough it is, from building the backend tech system to customer service, and from fulfillment to logistics. And I haven’t started talking about sales and marketing!”

On the day that Cafebond launched, Keyis spent more than six hours sitting in front of his computer and doing customer service. Thankfully, he adds, his team has now taken that load off his back.

Still, the work is overwhelming, causing him to frequently skip meals and sleep late. “Even with all the great coffee I’m having I can get tired easily!” he jokes. To combat this, Keyis recently started running and “hopes to pick up a sport as well.”

Keeping on track

One of the hardest things Keyis has faced so far has been to stay focused on the mission. He receives lots of well-intentioned feedback on how to improve the business on a daily basis, which can become distracting. One VC even asked him to give up the startup to build a tech-enabled coffee machine instead.

To Keyis, though, the mission is clear: to be the world’s largest specialty retailer in five years and own the entire coffee supply chain, from farm to cup.

“In 2014, the specialty coffee consumption in the US overtook non-specialty coffee for the first time in history, 51 percent against 49 percent,” he says. “Even Starbucks is launching Starbucks Reserve globally, a specialty coffee focused spin-off.”

“There are many ways we can improve the coffee supply chain using technology, and we have a roadmap working towards that.”

In fact, he plans to be in China eventually as well.

“At the end of everyday, I remind myself: stay focused. I know one day we will be there.”

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from Tech in Asia https://www.techinasia.com/founder-daily-4hour-trip-singapore-malaysia-save-money
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