Quick Questions with The Ultimate Start-Up Space Finalists – Part 3

To learn more about the finalists for The Ultimate Start-Up Space competition, each of the 10 finalists will answer 3 questions:

1. Why this idea?

2. Why this space? (Why do you feel like your idea best suits the shop space at 29 Boon Tat Street?)

3. Why this team? (Why do you think you’re the best person/team to realize your business idea in this space?)

In this post, we feature the answers from 3 of the finalists in random order.

Public supports plays a big part in determining the winner. If you have a favorite among the finalists, pledge your support here.

Bespoke Leather Shop

Why this idea?

The 3 of us are huge leather fans ourselves. We find the heritage and art behind it extremely amazing. Leather is actually one of the oldest materials in existence and to date, it is still widely used in numerous of applications from luxury bags to car interiors. Having said that, we feel that the selection of affordable quality leather goods in Singapore is very limited. While luxury labels may sell leather goods, they often come with a hefty price tag.

An emerging trend that we noticed over the past couple of years was the rise of customization and personalization for various goods and services. Currently, we can get stuff from customized bubble tea to tailored made suits. Unfortunately, there isn’t a place that provides customized leather solutions in Singapore. For this reason, we pitched in our idea, BESPOKE, which is a premium leather craft workshop that aims to create quality leather goods for the working professionals.

Our business idea was conceived because we realized that there are many individuals out there who are not able to find a suitable leather bag/carry solution that are fitted for their daily use, lifestyle and budget. The fact is that every single individual is unique – they carry different personal items or tools out each day and they vary in terms of taste and design preferences.

More often than not, they end up purchasing products of the shelves even thought they do not completely fulfill their needs, but rather because that’s closest they could find in the market. We believe individuals shouldn’t have to adapt themselves to a product; a product should be adapted for the individual.

Times have changed. Consumers don’t just want a simple product as before, they seek additional features through personalization and customization. They like the fact that they can inject little elements of themselves into the products that they use. To create a product that’s one-of-a-kind to them that expresses their unique individuality. They never want to be in a situation where they are caught with the same product as their peers. Everyone wants to be different in his or her own way.
At the same time, we believe that quality leather goods should be made affordable and accessible to the masses. We hope to bring custom leather solutions to everyone without the pinch of luxury label prices. At BESPOKE, customers will be able to built custom leather products, designed around their specific needs or requirements and personalized to their liking. They will be able to choose from our selection of leather types, color and type of finish, the shape and size of the product and even the colour of the stitching threads. They can make small leather goods such as device covers or laptop cases, to large leather goods such as women’s’ clutches to men’s document workbags and even larger items like furniture.

Our aim is to re-innovate the leather medium. Taking cues from the traditional model of tailoring and applying it to leather, we can offer a whole new range of products and services, built around the specific needs of users.

However, bear in mind that BESPOKE is not just an ordinary leather retail boutique. It’s ultimately a space that individuals can come in for any type of leather advice. Our guys will be able to advice users on ways to maintain or clean leather products, how to differentiate genuine and fake leather and more. We will bring in leather hides and tools for independent leather crafters as well and eventually grow a leather community within Singapore. Leather craft courses will be conducted over the weekends so that participants can learn basic leather handling and stitching. Imagine making your own personalized cardholder or mobile phone pouch. Those make great gifts for your loved ones and even for yourself!

Why this space?

Our primary target audiences are the working professionals and young executives located within the CBD area. We know for a fact that the CBD area has the highest concentration of working executives in Singapore. Being located at Boon Tat Street will mean that we can be close to our core target audiences, this is particularly important because we can better understand their needs and at the same time, we have a ready pool of potential clients we can reach out to.

A lot of times we hear about the saying “Location, location, location”. For any business setup, its primary location may make or break the company. A main consideration we had was that Boon Tat Street itself does not have strong human traffic other than during the peak or lunch hours. There’s already an abundance of F&B establishments, spas and hair salons around the area, so we didn’t really want to fight with everyone for that already sliced-up piece of pie. The BESPOKE business model doesn’t require us to be solely dependent on walk-in customers or the lunch crowd. In fact, the quaint environment around Boon Tat Street goes very well in line with the brand positioning that we wanted – a more exclusive and private experience for the individual consumer, away from the buzz and noise of the more commercial and crowded areas.

We believe that such products and services cater very well to the existing demographic profile of the people working around the Boon Tat Street area. Just within the immediate vicinity, we can find design and creative ad agencies, investment and law firms, financial institutes, banks and other commercial entities.

A lot of the working professionals working in the area are educated and well groomed. These sophisticated individuals have relatively high spending power and are constantly looking for customized solutions for their personal gear. They may already be wearing tailored shirts and suits, matched with custom-engraved cufflinks. They tend to appreciate the finer things in life such as art or quality craftsmanship. They also believe in having things done in their way or made to their liking. Hence, we believe the proposition of one-of-a-kind BESPOKE leather solutions would appeal to these individuals.

Not to forget, a lot of young executives fresh from graduation work nearby as well. For these individual, they tend to be more design focused and function based, not necessary subscribers to luxury leather goods. These younger generations of executives are often ‘fashionistas’ at heart. Trapped in a boring work environment, they are constantly looking for outlets to express themselves better through their dressing and the accessories that they carry yet at the same time not having to break the bank.

Apart from the large and ready pool of potential customers to tap onto, the location itself allows us to form strategic partnerships with other nearby businesses. For instance, we can work with nearby tailoring boutiques and offer them our services as well. We can work with the design agencies in their sourcing of premium gift as well. The beauty of BESPOKE is that its not restricted to just individual end consumers, we can also reach out to other companies and offer them B2B solutions. This will generate various streams of income for the company.

Having considered the variables as stated above, we have reason to believe that BESPOKE can be a very viable business for this space.

Why this team?

You know what they say, “2 heads are better than 1”. Well, we are a team of 3. While some call it a numbers advantage, we prefer to use the term “strategy”.

A good business idea but not well-executed can potentially lead to its downfall. More often than not, how we execute a concept is more vital then the idea itself.

For the 3 of us, we come from different backgrounds with very diverse skill sets that we can bring to the table. Over the years, we have learnt a lot from all the kind people that we have met along the way and grew as individuals in the process. We are fairly confident that our complimentary skill sets and experience can be put to good use in the BESPOKE business venture. Together, the 3 of us will be able to leverage on each individual’s experience, skill sets and networks to execute this bold leather idea.

Colin is an avid Mac user and has been a business owner for several years. His company products have been featured in various publications as well as sold internationally. Furthermore, he has worked with corporate clients such as STB, HP, Zuji and more. His prior experience in running businesses, operating retail establishments as well as in design and manufacturing will largely benefit the team.

Jeryln is a music lover and was previously with an events agency but have since ventured out to operate on her own as a freelance events manager. She has worked on numerous projects with huge brands organizing events both locally and internationally. Her coordination skills and management experience as well as resourcefulness and contacts within the industry will enable us execute the concept more effectively.

Last but not least, Jaye is a photography buff with a background in architecture as well as film, sound and video production. His wide spectrum of expertise will come in handy in various stages of the development of our concept, from store layouts to coming up with marketing or promotional campaigns etc. In addition, Jaye and Jerlyn run a film based online camera business as well and are largely involved in the local film photography scene.

Despite the diverse backgrounds, all 3 of us are bounded by a common passion for leather, which lead us to the idea of BESPOKE.

The interesting fact about us is that we have all left the corporate rat race quite some time ago. To us, true happiness is being able to enjoy what we do every single day. We believe in constantly challenging ourselves and at the same time staying true to our principles. Well you can safely say that we all enjoy what we are doing now because our lives revolve around the things that we love to do. But we are now ready for a new challenge. BESPOKE is an idea that’s close to each of our hearts and now seems like the perfect timing and opportunity to try it out.

We are a driven and committed team with aligned goals. As individuals, we don’t have day jobs to worry about that hinder us from executing the vision we have installed for BESPOKE. We’re not just Talkers, we’re actual Doers. Hopefully, through this platform, we will get a chance to fulfill our dreams and embark on this exciting new challenge.

To support Bespoke Leather Shop, pledge here.

Cereasley

Why this idea?

The concept behind Cereasley is simple – we’ll serve home-roasted cereal with toppings and milk, and offer them customized, pre-packed individually and in take-home family sized portions. There will be a range of drinks on sale as well (some juices, coffee and tea etc.) and will pretty much mirror the functionality of the latest salad bars that have been sprouting across town.

This is a great idea because cereals are increasingly consumed not just as breakfast nosh, but at any time of the day. There are currently no such outfits in Singapore and the initial feedback we’ve been getting is that people are loving it. Not only will Cereasley provide a new face (and Singaporeans being foodies never tire of more choices) to the specialist eatery scene, we believe it’ll be a welcome addition especially to the health-conscious and steal the show as a redefining way of enjoying a hearty bowl of home-made cereal.

Why this space?

This competition entails being able to fit into the 1,400 sq feet shop space at 29 Boon Tat Street. Given that the crowd we’ll be servicing are primarily working professionals in the CBD, Cereasley has to cater to this group in order to be successful.

We think it’s really important to convince our audience that cereal is not just as breakfast food, but also a possible light meal replacement or a snack. Our target would be those who are 1) health conscious, 2) time-poor, and 3) willing to pay a premium for value. The main challenge is how to stand out from the masses of F&B offerings in the CBD and our main competitors would be places like Simply Sandwich, Cedele, throngs of salad bars etc. that target a similar psychographic. Apart from being an alternative, we think cereals can actually be a great complement to say a salad/ soup for lunch; as a 4pm snack if you need an energy boost before heading to the gym at 7; or simply a light perk-me-up.

Why this team?

So many people have come up to us saying they feel it’s such a great idea or that they’ve thought of it before. What makes us different is that we’re actually doing something to realize the potential of a cereal establishment and TUSS has provided the perfect opportunity to execute it. As a team, we’ve worked together on events and projects at school so we understand the dynamics of what we each can bring to the table. We share similar work ethics and are pretty complementary in terms of strengths and weaknesses. The experience from having worked with each other before is an important dimension – not only do we have a great friendship, we are able to balance that with an effective working relationship.

To support Cereasley, pledge here.

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