Singapore Entrepreneurs

A couple of weeks ago, while bringing an Irish friend of mine around Singapore, we bumped into a young passionate internet entrepreneur in Geek Terminal, who ended up chatting with us about football, enjoying a glass of red wine and talk about the other interesting quips in life. After that conversation, I found out that he is Cheo Ming Shen, one of the co-founders of Nuffnang.com, an online advertising company for blogs in both Singapore and Malaysia. So, during a recent gathering, I managed to catch him for an interview, where he shares his experiences about online advertising and why he gave up a lucrative job of an investment banker to be an entrepreneur.

BL: Hi Ming Shen, Thank you for agreeing to our interview. So, what’s the story behind NuffNang.com?
Ming Shen: Thank You Bernard! It is an honour to be featured on SG Entrepeneurs.

Nuffnang.com was conceived by me and my Malaysian partner, Timothy. Faced by the daunting prospects of graduation from the University of London, the both of us had a choice to make. Join an investment bank/management consultancy like most of our peers were doing, or embark on an entrepreneurial path.

It was a straightforward choice for me.

We had both thrown ideas into the hat, but whilst mine was a hugely ambitious venture that would have required mobilizing a significant amount of capital, his was by comparison, less ambitious. We thus chose his idea. It was as practical as that.

Essentially, being a blogger of some clout in Malaysia, he found that he was earning a pittance under existing programs. This he felt was largely due to a lack of relevancy. Local blogs should have local advertisers and products on them. This is a value add to both the advertiser and the blogger and his/her audience. That is why we have offices based locally to market our blog sites to potential advertisers.

Both of us were then running internet businesses, and had used blogs to propagate our businesses. Wendy’s blog for example, had single handedly propelled my business from an unknown element, into the realms of space! It was amazing. And I was convinced.

BL: Have you started any companies before NuffNang? What interesting lessons have you learned from the first time as compared to now?
Ming Shen: My first business was a flash based e-commerce store known as Gadgeit.com.

It was started in my second year of university amidst exams, and internships, and I had 4 other partners who were either working or studying too.

We achieved an admirable level of success considering the capital we put in. At our peak, we were getting a revenue stream of $20,000 a month. We were also featured on countless magazines, and even had a 10 minute slot of Channel News Asia.

I learnt a great deal from that experience. One of the greatest lessons, was that a business is an on-going concern and requires 110% of effort. It’s a full time thing and you need to dedicate everything you have got to it. Money is one, time, effort, dedication and deep active thought are others.

BL: What prompted you to start NuffNang.com, given that you graduated from one of the top universities in UK and can easily get a high paying investment bank or management consultant job in London? What inspires you to be an entrepreneur, given the risks, trials and tribulations?
Ming Shen: As cliché as it sounds, it is ownership and passion that led me into the path of entrepeneurship.

I’m almost obsessive in my dealings for Nuffnang. Hardly a minute goes by when I am not thinking about how I can do better, how I can excel. The reason why I’m like that I believe is because I own the results! Good or bad. I own it. Of course I would rather hope the results were spectacular. And it has been encouraging so far.

Every day, I fight fires and new problems emerge. But to tell you the truth, I relish all these battles. Business and enterprise in my opinion is exciting exactly because you are faced with so many ever changing variables. What kind of person are you? The type that wanes under pressure, or the type that thrives under it. I believe you’ve got to be the latter to be an entrepreneur. Every single failure should spur you on and give you desire to do better. To achieve more. Every problem that arises should give you a sensation of being alive.

BL: NuffNang.com focuses on online advertising for both companies and the bloggers. What is your value proposition for both bloggers and advertisers?
Ming Shen: For bloggers, we offer

• 1. A chance to monetize their blog space.
• 2. Relevant and meaningful ads from local advertisers.
• 3. A chance to join a community, with a multitude of initiatives like:
  • - Hosting of exclusive Nuffnang events, like in Malaysia where 250 nuffnangers were treated to an exclusive screening of Pirates of the Carribean 3.
  • - Sponsorships for blog related events, like TDM’s Blog Out.
  • - Affiliate programs, where Nuffnangers get special discounts and deals from our advertisers.
  • - A chance to win an attractive prize every month.
  • - All the community initiatives can be found on “Our Community” page, and Singapore will be announcing its first major event soon.

For advertisers, we offer them

• 1. An opportunity to embrace a revolutionary new medium: Blogs.
• 2. Tools to target your specific audience.
• 3. A sophisticated online campaign perfomance tracking system.
• 4. A readership of varied demographics.
• 5. And an opportunity to engage a community.

BL: As online advertising is currently experiencing slow growth in southeast asia as compared to US, Europe and China, what do you think are the factors that this industry has not really taken off?
Ming Shen: For me, this is due to a number of reasons:

• 1. The lack of online content or the ability to access this online content: Even though our internet penetration rates are so high. When you think of advertising online in Singapore, what choices do advertisers have? Not many. Nuffnang opens up a huge chunk of online content.
• 2. Education: In Singapore, advertisers are more saavy, but in certain SEA countries, many advertisers still do not understand the power of online marketing. The ability to control costs, track your performance, engage interactive media, is all lost on them. This is changing.
• 3. Lack of internet penetration: For Singapore, this is not a problem. Malaysia is pretty good too. But if you look at the map of SEA, how many of these countries have high speed broadband readily available?

I’m sure there are other reasons, however, these just come off the top of my head. 18% growth per year for online ad spending is decent don’t get me wrong, but I think we’ll see greater growth in the coming years.

BL: In your business, being the middle-man for the bloggers and advertisers, how do you manage the relationship with both groups? Any interesting tips to share?
Ming Shen: This is the best question I’ve been asked ever!

Firstly, working with bloggers. Being in the business of blogs means you have to tread carefully. Bloggers are an opinionated bunch, and there will always be good and bad opinions. All I can say is we try our best. We go out there every single day and do our best. If you do that, and you get negative comments from bloggers, you can answer their opinions with honesty, and say “We’ve done our best, we’re still learning, give us a chance to improve.”

The truth of the matter is that there is much more to this business than meets the eye. We always like to set expectations at a suitable level, and in our blog and emails have always been open about the processes involved in getting an advertisement. For now, we are a brand new company and are selling a brand new medium on a scale never seen before. Pitches, proposals, follow ups, micro management, then finally ads being served! These all take time. And this is excluding managing technical improvements, growing the company in a HR and logistical sense (i.e. setting up offices), company admin and the like! Most people understand and are patient, thankfully.

With regards to the advertisers. Whilst everything can be handled online; from registering an account, requesting package details, confirming which blogs to be included, and serving the ads. We pride ourselves in our offline support. What that means is we pitch to the client first, explaining all the intricacies, do follow up meetings, micro manage the blogs, organize various aspects of the campaign, monitor the campaign, submit performance reports, then do follow ups after that. It is a complete process and the advertiser knows he can reach me 24-7 on my mobile, and I can see him at his office if he needs a face to face explanation of what is going on.

This is why we have just recently set up an office in KL. We have a technical office in Penang, a sales and marketing office in KL and another one in Singapore!

BL: How’s your experience with the blogosphere so far? Do you have any interesting stories to tell?
Ming Shen: There are way too many stories to tell. Perhaps if this is a success, I shall write a book!

Although we have only been operating for 4 months (ONLINE that is, development work started more than 9 months back), already I feel like I have experienced so much.

I have met soooo many bloggers, and they form such a diverse, rich group. I never imagined this to be possible. For people to have so many specific interests and specializations.

I mean, I would not have met you Bernard, if it had not been for Nuffnang. And I would have been poorer at least in my footballing knowledge amongst other things! I could not be happier with my journey so far.

BL: What are the three lessons that you will tell a young entrepreneur that is important for an entrepreneur?
Ming Shen:

• 1. Learn to love problems. They are going to be your new best friends in the coming period, and if you love them, love untangling the knots they cause, you will have a whale of a ride at least. Most importantly is to take an active hands on approach to solve them, and LEARN from them.
• 2. Have a good partner and a strong team to support you. I cannot emphasize how important my partner Timothy is to this entire venture. You need a like minded person who is not afraid of hardwork, not afraid of getting his hands dirty, and who loves your business as much as you do. And besides that, you need a strong team of people, who complement one another with their skill sets to support you. No man is an island, and Nuffnang would not be possible without the efforts of every single team member.
• 3. Stay humble, and always have the desire to learn. No matter what successes you have had, there is always somebody who has done better, or can do better. Watch and learn, and use what you have learnt. Be confident, but not arrogant that you can do better, study it, then apply yourself, and you will.

BL: Ming Shen, cheers for this enjoyable and fun interview. We wish you and the Nuffnang team all the best in your business venture.

Team of NuffNang

Name: Timothy Tiah Ewe Tiam
Designation: Director
Graduating with a BSc Economics degree from the University College of London in 2006, Ewe Tiam’s first foray into the online realm came with the official launch of a tuition matching website, running on a modest budget of 1700RM, known as Tuitionhamster.com. Tuitionhamster.com has achieved an admirable level of success considering its modest budget, being the first of its kind in Malaysia and was also at one point of time considered to be the leading online tuition matching service in Malaysia. This led him and his website to be cited on two mainstream Malaysian newspapers, “The Star”, and “The Sun” and also by leading Malaysian bloggers, Jeff Ooi and Mack Zul (See here for more details). Combining this experience, with his internships at JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank, Ewe Tiam hopes to make nuffnang.com a success of global proportions.

Name: Cheo Ming Shen
Designation: Director
Having just recently completed his degree in Government and Economics at the London School of Economics (LSE), Ming Shen’s first sortie into the online realm came in April 2004 in the form of Singapore’s first flash based e-commerce store known as GadgeIt.com. Amidst exams, and internships, GadgeIt.com got off to a running start being featured on XiaXue and also magazines such as Cleo, Maxim and FHM. In December 2005, GadgeIt.com and two of its founders were featured on a 15 minute slot on Channel News Asia’s “That’s IT” program (See here for more details). Armed with this invaluable experience and internships at various organizations including the Economic Development Board of Singapore, Ming Shen hopes Nuffnang.com will be the next “Google” of South East Asia.

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