EntrepreneurialProfiling- JeeShen Lee

UNIVERSITI TEKNIKAL MALAYSIA MELAKA GROUP ASSIGNMENT 1

BPTW 4012

SESSION II 2013/2014

PREPARED BY:

NG SHI XIAN (B031110236)

LIM SHIOW EE (B031110177)

CHEE HAW YEE (B031110066)

ELAINE CHEONG HUI MING (B031110126)

PREPARED FOR:

EN. ISMA ADDI JUMBRI

LECTURER FPTT, UTeM

SUBMISSION DATE:

27TH MARCH 2014

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................... i

LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................ii

1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1

1.1 COMPANY BACKGROUND ........................................................................... 1

1.2 FOUNDERS BACKGROUND ........................................................................ 2

2 INTERVIEW SESSION ......................................................................................... 3

3 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 10

4 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................... 11

5 APPENDICES ...................................................................................................... 12

ii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Softinn Solutions Logo .................................................................................. 1

Figure 2: A snapshot of Softinn Solutions website ..................................................... 12

Figure 3: Picture of our group with Mr. Lee .............................................................. 12

Figure 4: Top 13 Finalist of SME Innovation Challenge 2013................................... 13

Figure 5: Award for Business Plan Competition ........................................................ 13

Figure 6: Picture taken during Mr. Lee explaining about his award ........................ 14

Figure 7: Mr. Lees office environment ...................................................................... 14

BPTW 4012- Entrepreneurship Technology

Page 1 of 14

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 COMPANY BACKGROUND

Softinn Solutions is a tech travel start up that is based in Malacca, where they mainly

focus on Vacation House Host solutions. The companys first product is Softinn Cloud

Reservation System, which is a tool to ease the booking process. Currently, Softinn

provides cloud room booking systems to small lodge businesses like vacation houses and

family-run hotels. Softinn help vacation rental hosts in receiving direct bookings from

their website, blog and Facebook. Its mobile solutions also allow business owners to

manage their property while travelling. Since September 2013, Softinn is powering. They

have successfully transacted $220,000 within the first six months of their business,

receiving more than 1,200 page views per day on their marketplaces. Furthermore,

Softinn Solutions was chosen by Alliance Bank as one of the Top SME in their inaugural

SME BizSmart Challenge (2013) and they were awarded as Trip Advisor Certified

Partner (2014). They are now raising fund to scale its operation across Asia.

Figure 1: Softinn Solutions Logo


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1.2 FOUNDERS BACKGROUND

Personal Particulars

Name : Lee Jee Shen

Age : 31

Nationality: Malaysian

Race : Chinese

Gender : Male

Education

Institute : Multimedia University

Field of Study: Electronics (Hons) major in Computer, Electronics, and First Class

(2001 2006)

Electronic Majoring in Computer Engineering

Experience

Founder of SoftInn Solutions Sdn.Bhd

Founder of BizVise

Founder of Blogmakeover.net

Founder of Big Thinker Consulting

Reliability Test Engineer for Infineon Technologies

Additional Honors & Awards

Infineon Technical Paper (1st Place)

MSC Business Plan Competition (2nd Place)

APICTA Best of R&D Award (Nominated)


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2 INTERVIEW SESSION

1. Would you tell us about yourself before you started your first venture?

Lee: At first, I started up my career as an engineer. I have completed my degree and

master in Computer Engineering field at Multimedia University (MMU) in Malacca.

After I have graduated from MMU, I worked for Infineon for two years, and then I spend

another half year working in Germany. After I came back from Germany, I worked for

another one and a half year in Malaysia. During that time, I was approached by some

vendors to Infineon to bootstrap our own company, and that is how my first venture

started. It took me about one and a half year to decide whether to quit my full time job.

My first venture is more on providing system integration for factories. Generally,

there are a lot of machines in the factory. We provide service that helps to integrate those

machines, so that the machines can operate in an automotive way. The business works

out well as we managed to secure the business with projects. However, during the

economy crisis in 2008 and 2009, my business was being affected. At that time, most of

my existing client are Malaccan, and they are about to freeze their investment due to the

economy crisis. My business was affected as I could not get continuous project coming

in.

The business that I started required a lot of funds in running each project. We

need to buy equipment like industry multimeter, which cost about RM20, 000 to RM30,

000. There is also other upfront set up cost for us to invest in, which I did not foresee. I

think that is the reason why the business did not turn up well. From there, I quickly

switch to my second venture.

Opinion: An entrepreneur is someone who jumps from a plane without a parachute, and

figures out how to build one on the way down. Since there is no shortcut to success,

people might find hard to reach it and tend to give up in the middle way. But what we can

say is, ultimate success is all about giving a shot, over and over again. Sometimes you

may win, sometimes you may lose. The more you try, the higher the chances you will

success. There is no guarantee of success, but if you do not take a shot, there is a definite

guarantee of failure. No matter how you look at it, starting a business or entrepreneurship


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is something hard and challenging. The only thing we can do is, learn from the failure

and try again. Facts have proved that, there is no undefeated entrepreneur. There is only

the entrepreneur that keeps moving forward, no matter how many uncertain challenges

are waiting for them in the road ahead. Just always bear in mind that, success is not final

and failure is not fatal; the more you suffer today, the stronger you are tomorrow. This is

because people are always finding for their own achievements. Once they found that, they

are already one step closer to the success.

2. Do you have a role model? Who and why you choose that person?

Lee: Yes, I have. My very first role model is my grandfather. He came from China and

travel here as a businessman and set up his family in Malaysia. He died young but then he

was a very successful man as what I heard from my parents. I choose my grandfather as

my role model because I knew he did something that really affect the society. Many years

ago, he helps the Chinese school and he was recognized by the police as one of the

prominent guy. He is my role model not only because he is a businessman but the most

impressing thing is he contributes back to the society.

Opinion: Role models can have a great impact on ones life. For Mr. Lee, his

grandfather has motivated him to become an entrepreneur. Seeing his grandfather

successfully confronting hardships has motivated him to endure difficulties and crises.

Mr. Lee works towards his goals and today he has become a successful entrepreneur

though he met some failures earlier in his first venture. The life experiences of ones role

model will teach and educate us in the lessons of life which cannot be found anywhere

else.

3. Did you have a business or self-employment during your youth?

Lee: Not really. At the first place, I did not dream to be an entrepreneur. I just wanted to

be a normal engineer when I was young.

Opinion: Everyone will encounter some life experiences, which might change their path

of pursuing their dreams.


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4. When, under what circumstances, and from whom did you become interested in

entrepreneurship and learn some of the critical lessons?

Lee: I was fascinated by seeing people using what I have developed since young. When I

was a kid, I modified and fix remote car. Seeing my younger brother playing with my

modified remote car, I feel happy and satisfied. I will say that is the engineering instinct. I

applied the same concept to the entrepreneurship in a way that I start a company; build a

product that can be used by my customers, so I think that is the linkage between engineer

and entrepreneurship.

I had met many critical lessons. The biggest challenge for me when I started my

first venture is my expenses growing faster than my revenue. I learned a lesson from

there. As a leader in a company, we need to ensure the revenue is growing faster than the

expenses. Otherwise, the business will be facing very tough situation.

Opinion: Doing something you love will make you feel enjoy and work harder on it.

Mr. Lees interest has made him to become who he is today. He applied what he

learned in his studies and used his knowledge to start up a company. As you can see,

experience is a good educator. It teaches one to learn from mistakes and do better in

future.

5. Do you have any sales or marketing experiences? How important was it, or lack

of it, to start your company?

Lee: No. I am an engineer. However, I found out marketing skills is very important. I am

a person who is not able to present myself and speak in public. It is always very hard for

me to articulate my idea. But in business, it is super important to articulate your idea to

your customer. You need to know what they want. Of course we can build a good

product, but at the end of the day, the contact point is during you do the sales. That is

what I had learned in business. My girlfriend and family actually noticed the changes in

me when I present myself. Nowadays, I attend conferences and sometimes I was invited

as a speaker. These events have trained me to speak in public.

Opinion: Marketing skills plays an important role in business especially when you

need to articulate idea and thoughts. People need a reason before they decide to


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purchase any products. They need to know what you have to offer and how you can

meet their needs. If you cannot communicate with them, you would not be able to get

their business no matter how good you actually are. As you can see, marketing skills

are important to be successful. It can make a lot of differences when it comes to make

money.

6. Describe how you decide to create a job by starting your venture instead of

taking a job with someone else.

Lee: I did not decide to create a job by starting up the venture. I start with something

which I can do and love to do. Throughout the experience, I realized that I can actually

afford to hire people.

Opinion: Passion is important in order to make you continue to realize the dream.

7. How did you spot the opportunity? How did it surface?

Lee: Some factory approached me and asked me to do the system integration. I was alone

during that time and there is no one to help me to develop the system. I was lucky that my

girlfriend helped me to handle the companys financial account. I talked to the clients and

understand what they want, and if I can do it, I will take it as my project and finish it.

Along the way, I have learned that if we run a business based on the project basis, it is

very hard to survive because you do not know when you will get the next project.

However, it is good to start an entrepreneurship career with projects because you will

know the market demand.

About three years ago, I had built a web-based system called Softinn for one of

my friends who is running the hotel business in Melaka Raya. During that time, there are

a lot of budget hotels that do not offer any room booking system. Some hotels have

website and some of them do not even have a website. I was given an opportunity to

design and build a room booking system for the hotels. Basically, the room booking

system is something that can check the rooms availability and make booking. I decided

to take it as a challenge although knowing by developing the system, the project cost may

be high and make me to loss my revenue. Luckily, the response from the client is

positive, saying that they make a lot of sales by using this system. During that time, I


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realized that if we build something that is in demand, it can help the client to increase

their sales. This is how I spot my opportunity.

Opinion: An entrepreneur must understand the demand of market so that they will able

to fullfill and satisfy customer need besides making a good profit.

8. What were your goals in this business?

Lee: My personal goal is always seeing people enjoy using my system. I also hope that

my system is able to help them to solve their problems. While from the business prospect,

my goal is to make money.

Opinion: I believe everyone wish to be rich. An entrepreneur has a higher possibility to

gain the maximum income compared to an employee. In addition, seeing people enjoy

using our own product also can show how success you are besides building system for

own satisfaction.

9. What were the characteristics needed as an entrepreneur?

Lee: I see entrepreneur as someone who are self-motivate and can actually initiate

something on their own. They are definitely an executor. They are not a manager.

Manager has a way to manage people and set direction. But for an entrepreneur, you

work alone at the beginning and basically you are managing yourself. Entrepreneur must

be an executor. Whatever their dream, they must execute and make it work.

Opinion: All start-up businesses usually face many problems at the beginning. It

requires ones effort and patience to overcome these problems. In order for them to

overcome the problems, they need to have certain characteristics such as perseverance,

especially when they faced failures in their venture. Perseverance is needed for them to

become more determined to success in the future. Besides that, we also agreed with Mr.

Lee that an entrepreneur is an executor, where a person who can execute and make their

dream come true. If you only dare to dream but do not dare to execute it, your dream will

only remain as a dream. Furthermore, entrepreneurs also need to have the ability to

influence, convince and inspire people. Successful entrepreneurs can tell a story and

easily make people believe.


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10. How much capital did it take to start-up your business? How long did it take to

reach positive cash flow and break-even sales volume? If you did not have

enough money at the time, what were some ways in which you bootstrapped the

venture? Tell us about the pressure and crises during that early survival period.

Lee: Normal software startup will cost around RM150,000. It depends on the

entrepreneur itself and the teams capability, so we cannot say that there is any industrial

average on how long it takes. The first venture I took never make any positive cash flow.

From the past experience, I reduce the product completion time to less than half of the

year. Every time I ventured, I will make sure that the product is completed within six

months. I will also try to get my first client eventhough my product is not completed. So,

I guess that is the key difference between a businessman and an entrepreneur.

Businessman is the person who sell a completed product.

For breakeven sales, it changes from industry to industry. For mine, I keep my

cost low and therefore it is not that hard to breakeven. We are now focusing more on

cloud software e-commerce. The startup cost is slightly cheaper compared to engineering

firm. In engineering firm, the cost spent most is on the hardware. However, if you look in

long-run, human talent actually cost more than hardware. If you hire an engineer or a

programmer, the salary paid for this talent will be higher.

As what I have said earlier, an entrepreneur has to be executed and be initiated. If

you do not have money, you have to find a way to find money. So far, I am not taking

any loan, any government fund, or any family support investment. I bootstrapped my

business with my own pocket money. With my two years working as an engineer, I have

a little saving around RM20,000. However, I actually finished it in my first venture. I

usually survive by bringing a new project from vendor, complete them, make money, and

eat a little just to make sure I can have investment for the next few months. I use that

money to buy server, software license, and stuffs that I can actually easily manipulate and

make it into something that is sellable.

There are lots of pressure that came from the peers because people might think

that why did I quit a well-paying job. It is not because that I am not a good engineer, but

in fact I did quite well actually. People might also questioned on why did I quit such a

promising career to something that is unstable, where you are not sure when the next pay


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cheque will come in. For family pressure, my family is much better compared to what I

heard from other entrepreneurs. My parents is always supportive. When I told them I

want to start my own business, they just said yes to me and asked me to go ahead.

As a young entrepreneur like me, without fund, is basically like a firefighting

everyday. Let say you have only RM1000, 00 , but you are trying to run a RM10000, 00

business, what you need is to manipulate the cost, firefight in the way that you need to

put the effort and channel the company resources to the place that is needed in one

particular time. What we can do is just to play with the resources.

I did not take any guidance or refer to anyone. There is no people around me that

I can consult. When I face difficulties, I basically work it up on my own. However, I will

read and refer to the online articles. There are a lot of entrepreneurs who came from

Kuala Lumpur and United States who share their way to mitigate the risk and how they

bring the start up cost to the lowest.

Opinion: People always say that entrepreneurship will not guarantee for success but yet

it is more on failure. Yes, it might be like that and we cannot deny it, but there is no

absolute thing in the world. As long as they seize the opportunity, grabbed the chances,

success is not far away from them. As an entrepreneur, they must have the capability to

determine the feasibility of a business. Entrepreneur not only aim for being a good

manager, but also a good leader. They are the individual who lead the business and

nurture them to growth and prosperity. Besides that, an entrepreneur should be

resourceful. When the business encounters a problem or bottleneck, they shall blaze out

new opportunity, turns the adversity into opportunity. The most important thing that an

entrepreneur must apply in the business is to take every possible advantage to meet new

people as you will never know who are able to contribute to your business in future.


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3 CONCLUSION

Entrepreneurship has played an important role as a primary engine of job creations in

our economy. However, it is not only about creating jobs and wealth. Sometimes, it is

also about bringing solutions that can solve societys problems, providing inspiration and

innovation that can brighten our future. Some people do not just live but they lead a life.

They create opportunities and go after their dreams no matter how tough are the

difficulties. They are the individual who lead the business and nurture them to growth and

prosperity. These people are known as entrepreneurs.

From this interview, we have learned a lot from Mr. Lee s experiences. Starting a

business without referring to anyone is not an easy job. One may encounters failure as

they do not have enough experience to handle the business challenge. Mr. Lees effort

and determination has made him to become who he is today. Although he faced failures

in his first venture, he never gives up and continued to pursue his dream. This positive

attitude has lead him to become an successful entrepreneur.

Besides that, we also learned that there are few characteristics must be fulfilled by

an entrepreneur in order to start a business and successfully sustained in the market.

These characteristics are determination, self-motivate, self-confidence and persistent in

problem solving. Without these characteristics, the road path for an entrepreneur will be

tough.

Last but not least, we would like to thank Mr. Isma for his guidance and also thank

Mr. Lee for helping us to complete our assignment by providing information.


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4 REFERENCES

Angel.co. 2014. Softinn Solutions. [online] Available at: https://angel.co/softinn-

solutions [Accessed: 23 Mar 2014].

Crunchbase.com. 2014. Softinn Solutions | CrunchBase Profile. [online] Available

at: http://www.crunchbase.com/company/softinn-solutions [Accessed: 23 Mar

2014].

Facebook. 2014. Softinn Solutions. [online] Available at:

https://www.facebook.com/mySoftinn [Accessed: 23 Mar 2014].

Homestay At Langkawi. 2014. Homestay At Langkawi. [online] Available at:

http://homestayatlangkawi.com.my/ [Accessed: 23 Mar 2014].

Homestay at Melaka. 2014. Homestay at Melaka. [online] Available at:

http://homestayatmelaka.com/ [Accessed: 23 Mar 2014].

Homestay At Penang. 2014. About Us. [online] Available at:

http://homestayatpenang.com/about-us-2/#t=13:32.837 [Accessed: 23 Mar

2014].

Softinn Cloud Hotel Reservation System. 2014. Softinn Cloud Hotel Reservation

System. [online] Available at: http://mysoftinn.com/ [Accessed: 23 Mar 2014].


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5 APPENDICES

Figure 2: A snapshot of Softinn Solutions website

Below are some pictures taken after the interview.

Figure 3: Picture of our group with Mr. Lee


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Figure 4: Top 13 Finalist of SME Innovation Challenge 2013

Figure 5: Award for Business Plan Competition


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Figure 6: Picture taken during Mr. Lee explaining about his award

Figure 7: Mr. Lees office environment

Documents

EntrepreneurialProfiling- JeeShen Lee