Don Phan was shopping for groceries with his wife in Vietnam when he noticed a young woman. She was struggling to steer a motorbike while holding her baby and several large packs of diapers. This obvious ‘pain point’ inspired him to co-found a diaper delivery service, writes David Ongchoco
Taembe.com was part of the JFDI 2015A Accelerate Program. While it started out as a diaper specific ecommerce site, it now includes other baby-related merchandise under its motto làm mẹ dễ dàng hơn (“Making Mom’s Life Easier”). Five key lessons have emerged for founder Don Phan:
1. Get a technical co-founder
Don came from a business background and spent over two years with Rocket Internet Vietnam prior to starting taembe.com. He was the managing director of both zalora.vn and foodpanda.vn. However, the first thing Don emphasized when starting a startup was the importance of having a technical co-founder.
Don explained, “E-commerce is a technical arms race. There are constantly new features being added so e-commerce companies can better understand exactly what their customers want. It is not possible to move quickly without top-tier tech talent. Luckily we have one of the most talented hackers in the region as our technologist.”
After starting out with outsourcing the development of their platform, Don was advised by a mentor to bring on a full time chief technologist. This led to Don to reach out to his high school friend Jason Smith. Jason and Don attended high school together in Lafayette, Louisiana.
Jason was the backend developer at Grindr, the wildly popular gay hookup app. He also later founded and sold IrisCouch, a leading node.js company.
2. Get good at sales and fundraising
Given his non-technical background, Don knew that it was important for him to develop his skills in sales and fundraising. Don emphasized the importance of having that hustler on the team who is willing to solicit new customers when there is no marketing budget. For example, a big part of Don’s day today is going up to Moms and pregnant women and introducing taembe.com to them.
3. It’s all down to you
One of the reasons why Don decided to take the leap of faith and leave Rocket Internet was because of his desire to have more control over his venture. In the Rocket Internet world, Don didn’t need to worry about fundraising, online marketing, or the tech behind the product. Don wanted to have more ownership and control over his work, but this meant he would not have the support structure or resources Rocket has.
Today, no day is the same for Don at taembe.com. Don has to wear multiple hats for his startup in order to save costs and stay lean. He shared, “Whenever we’re about to close a deal, it feels like I’m the paralegal going through all these documents. It can get quite tedious at times.”
4. The ecosystem matters
Through his experiences with Rocket Internet and running taembe.com, Don has realized how much potential there is in an emerging market like Vietnam. He shared, “I jumped into doing this business because I believed that ecommerce adaptation in these emerging markets is going to happen even faster than what we’ve seen in developed countries.”
He added, “E-commerce and emerging markets are both huge trends. If you put them together, you get billion dollar companies.” However, operating in Vietnam has been a challenge as well for Don because of the lack of investors, mentors, and experienced tech startup founders. This would lead to Don searching for these key factors in other places, eventually finding all these in JFDI Asia and Singapore.
5. The money is in Singapore
A key reason why Don ended up in JFDI Asia was because of an informational interview he had with entrepreneur Hian Goh, a co-founder of the Asian Food Channel. He recalls Hian telling him, “If you join the JFDI program, you’ll get the JFDI network of mentors, investors, and fellow entrepreneurs.”
For Don and his team, everything Hian said has been true. While it has been very difficult for Don to split his time between Vietnam and Singapore with a pregnant wife at home, it has been extremely beneficial for taembe.com. He shared, “JFDI has been a great way for us to access capital, mentorship, and feedback on our product. Being a JFDI startup has been fantastic.”
David Ongchoco is a content marketing intern for JFDI Asia. He currently studies at the University of Pennsylvania and runs an international nonprofit called YouthHack, which has a goal of helping students learn more about startups, technology and entrepreneurship. He also contributes for top publications like the Huffington Post, Technical.ly Philly and the Philippine Daily Inquirer.