CNA938 Rewind - Mind Your Money - Get ready for F&B Bootcamp

Here's the transcript from our CNA938 interview.

We thank your friend JC Soh for helping us with this and Ee Chien Chua for inspiring this series of media coverage!

Audio: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/listen/cna938-rewind/mind-your-money-get-ready-fb-bootcamp-5257896

Transcript:

SPEAKERS

Hui Wong, Elise Tan, Andrew Tan

Hui Wong  00:02

It's time for Mind your money with me. Hui Wong covering host of the midday show. So we've all seen it. More and more people are diving into the world of food, and whether it's friends selling Kui online weekend pop ups or home based cafes gaining cult followings, FnB has become something of a dream career for the next generation, but behind the glossy Instagram posts and sold out menus, what does it really take to turn a food idea into a business and more importantly, a sustainable one? That's where Asia startup network comes in. They've launched a new FnB boot camp designed specifically for working professionals and aspiring founders who want to understand the business of food before making the leap to tell us more about this, are Elise tan and Andrew tan, co founders of Asia startup network. Elise and Andrew Welcome to CNA 938 Thank you for having us now, we've been seeing more Gen ZS and millennials seriously exploring FnB as a career. What's driving this shift from your perspective?

Andrew Tan  01:11

Thank you, Hui, I think you mentioned dream career, and what we have observed is that notion that perception of a career or a dream career, has greatly shifted right and now entrepreneurship is very much a viable option, including running your own FMB business. On the other hand, we observe that the younger generation, they love to create, they love to build. They love to do things with their hands. They love to speak directly to the customers. And once again, FMB is a very viable option that can yield tangible outcomes from that end. One more point, I think knowledge today and also dining experience are extremely accessible, so demand people think have have gone up, so they are giving it a shot.

Hui Wong  01:57

And do you think the rise of home based food businesses is just a post pandemic trend or a sign of something deeper about how people want to work and

Elise Tan  02:07

create. I think it's more than a trend. It reflects a deeper shift in how people want to live and work. The pandemic, pandemic definitely give people a taste of autonomy and creative freedom, and people discover that they can monetize their passion from home. Yeah. So for for us, we are very excited about this trend, because I saw in previously in venture capital, and how entrepreneurs actually, who, who eventually become successful, they raise venture capital money, is because they didn't start off, you know, with the one business, they went through different businesses. And I think that FMB is one great step right to becoming the successful entrepreneur.

Hui Wong  02:45

And how does you know? So FnB is often described as high risk, high burnout. What are some of the common blind spots then, that aspiring founders tend to overlook?

Andrew Tan  02:57

Yeah, many do underestimate the operational grind, from your manpower, staffing to your compliance, legal issues, also logistics, right? And the other blind spot that we observe is people do get a sense of costing. It's very high cost for certain FMB sectors to enter, but they cannot cope with the stress that comes with it, subsequently. And what we just want to share is that, you know, passion is great. It's a great motivator, but it's not enough to keep you going on. I've always wanted to run my own cafe or restaurant, you know, just like those folks in the friends sitcom or How I Met Your Mother, but a very sustainable, solid business foundation is key. And you know, through the dialogs we have had at Asia startup network, we observed that not just FMB business owners, but entrepreneurs as a whole, they carry a lot of weight on their shoulders. It's a very high stress environment, and we want to tell all entrepreneurs out there, especially in light of certain recent events, you are not alone

Hui Wong  04:07

now, just some you know, from what you've said about venture capitalists earlier on, right, I was thinking, you know, for people to pump in money for these new startups. What are some things that venture capitalists look for if they want to pump money into like a business like that.

Elise Tan  04:22

Yeah. So the previous DC that I worked for, they did invest into FMB startup, but in Indonesia. So I think the key part is really, how much market value can you capture, right? Can you scale? So I think in FMB, you know, especially when it comes to a very, maybe chef centered business is sometimes very difficult to scale. But having said that, obviously we have seen the Michelin star Hawker food scaling. Yeah. So I think it has to be a model that allows the business to scale and yet, at the same time, still retain the kind of experience it's giving to the customers the brand as well, stay strong so. So this is something that VC would look into, but I would say that not all VCs, because usually VCs that I know normally look into tech and enable tech focus ventures. So the key part is really reaching the right investors for your business,

Hui Wong  05:18

because sometimes a lot of them sell online, right? So let's say there's traction there. So probably the venture capitalists would be more upfront, more willing to pump in money for those so

Elise Tan  05:29

I think it really depends. So I am not a VC, per se, as an investor side, but I mentioned market value, market size is really important. And I think sometimes food, as you know, like maybe Singaporeans, we tend to be FICO, you know, it can be just a short term trend. So even, you know, as you look at the various vegetable protein and all that, is very challenging to understand which type of vegetable based protein would it? Would it last? Yeah, so I think really depends on how how the founder present the narrative, and whether there are facts supporting the story that the market size indeed be enough. True.

Hui Wong  06:12

Sometimes it can go viral. But how long can it last? Right? Okay, so how does your boot camp close the gaps for new entrepreneurs choosing this as their career path.

Elise Tan  06:23

Thank you. So I think the first thing is we provide a very structured way of them acquiring knowledge that they should know before they plunge into the business. So this, we work with folks who have been there and done that to be able to share the pains, the areas that they could avoid otherwise. And then the second part is, is really thorough. You know, in not just the stories that we will be covering from the entrepreneurs who've been there and done that, we cover other areas like financial planning, what is the route to market? We get insights from the investors as well. So this is really, like, more all rounded kind of boot camp. The more important thing I would stress is also the community. So we envision entrepreneurs who connect to us to also be able to connect to the rest of the ecosystem, because we have been in the ecosystem for so long, we'll be able to connect them, and they don't have to work alone as well with the community. There are others like minded who can support them, answer the question in our online community,

Hui Wong  07:23

and what's the cost like for this boot camp? We

Andrew Tan  07:26

actually have two variations. We recently ran a half day one. This half day one is not necessarily a condensed version, but we curate the programming such that if you just want to have a quick initiation towards the FMB industry. You get to meet experts, people who have been done there, who have been there and done that. And you also get an inside view of an actual FMB business behind the scenes. We conducted a coffee warehouse tour over at Santino coffee. And with this model, the half day version, we charge two to 300 and we also have a long form, longer form, full day version. And this is one where there's a classroom workshop element. It is taught by our partner. He's a he's an F and B thought leader, Yi Jian, and he gives all the fundamentals in the form of a classroom session, things we talk about, you know, how do we be clear of the blind spots that you might encounter so that you don't get them later on when you start up? Right? And then, on top of the expert panels, the FMB behind the scenes experiences, that course is about eight to nine, $800 yeah? But that course is a SkillsFuture claimable. Yeah,

Hui Wong  08:40

right. So these boot camps are ongoing? Yes, yes.

Andrew Tan  08:44

We actually have the full day coming up next month. And if you search Asia startup network Luma page, you will see that it's already open for

Hui Wong  08:53

ticket sales. How many of these boot camps have already taken place? Or is this the beginning?

Elise Tan  08:58

We have done nine boot camps, but it covers various topics. We started off with general entrepreneur entrepreneurship, and also entrepreneurship through acquisition. And now FMB,

Hui Wong  09:08

oh, the focus now is on FnB. We do have

Elise Tan  09:11

FnB. We intend to have FnB and entrepreneurship through acquisition regularly,

Hui Wong  09:15

right? Because I was going to ask you, you know, for participants who have done this, what were the experience like, you know, or What value did they take from this kind of boot camp?

Andrew Tan  09:25

Yeah, so Elise mentioned something about the community. So interestingly enough, this noon, we actually have a boot camp alumni gathering. So you know, that's why we gather feedback. And we do have several champions for us. You know, they refer participants to join our boot camp. Outstanding youth who just joined the FMB boot camp last week. He even wrote a blog, blog post about his experience and fun fact, he's only 1616,

Hui Wong  09:55

years old. Can you give us a summary of that? Yes, he shared

Andrew Tan  09:59

his ex. Experience about the coffee tour. And,

Elise Tan  10:01

yeah, I think, I think he's starting young, so he has been apprentice at McDonald's, has been went to the better barberista course, so the boot camp actually helped him to kind of conceptualize what he has learned already. Because on the job, knowledge is great, but if you do have a structured way of learning, you may not be able to connect the dots.

Hui Wong  10:21

And from what you've observed, right, what tends to separate the founders who gain traction from those who struggle to stay afloat?

Andrew Tan  10:29

Well, it used to be about location, location, location. As we have discussed nowadays, it's easier to go viral, especially with the Tiktok generation. I think that is one way what we talk about home based business one way to validate your idea, but once you confirm that there's novelty, there's some demand, it's time to scale up. And when you do scale up, we believe that there's two things you need to really hold on to. First one is to be tech savvy. Right? We believe that tech is an enabler. It allows you to go far. It allows you to go faster. The other one is the commitment to customer experience. FMB is all about repeat customers. It's all about your reputation. It's all about your brand. So when you focus on the customer experience, we believe that you will have an enduring business,

Hui Wong  11:19

and you have to always be very innovative in this, in this area, right?

Andrew Tan  11:23

Yes. FnB comes. Come and go. The ones that stay are able to reinvent themselves, stay relevant. And, you know, just understand what the market needs. And

Hui Wong  11:35

from someone from the corporate world trying to their hand out in FnB, right, what's the first thing they need to think of, and how should they prepare for it?

Elise Tan  11:45

We know of many of our doctor and lawyer friends know they always thought about opening a cafe. But I think the first thing is, really, are you solving a real need or choosing a romantic idea of a cafe life? Yeah, because the thing is, for example, from one of our speaker, when she started Vietnamese chain, she realized that, no, there was only individual store selling individual kind of Vietnamese food, but not a cafe that sells everything. So she uncovered a gap, right? So there is a new need, a real need in the market. For example, for green dot one of our speaker, he realized that, you know, the vegetarian food that you find are normally, you know, very typical, oily. But how can you transform this into a more healthy food? And that was a gap that they address. So I think really finding the gap is important, and the second part is validating the idea first, right? So nowadays there are quite a few home based businesses. We heard there's around 140 or even more, I think that's a great way to start, because it's low cost. However, home based business also depends on where you know. How are you making your assumptions? Because it tends to be customers who are near you tend to be friends. So beyond that, you will need to also test whether they are further demand beyond beyond the small group that you have been serving your close

Hui Wong  13:02

circle. And yeah, also, you know, recently, we've been listening to Lin Lee with some of my colleagues, like she's a lawyer turned entrepreneur having a successful SG brand of Lee chocolate. So, you know, I think her journey also probably inspires many to go into the FnB. So for someone sitting on the edge of an idea, maybe they've been selling to friends and doing pop ups, what should they be thinking about before taking the next

Elise Tan  13:29

step? Yeah, so I mentioned about, is there demand beyond my personal circle? And I think the second question is, am I ready to skill the operations and manage people? I think scaling operations in FnB is particularly challenging because you are dealing with food that has limited shelf life, right? Is really a supply chain operations in itself. I think the other question, obviously, is financials and the regulatory environment. You know, things may change, although it's not so fast in the FMB area, thankfully. So I think really understanding some of these key steps is really important in before they take the next step. And the last part is, do kind of have more money, more savings save up than what you have put into your financial spreadsheet? Because what we hear of entrepreneurs is, oftentimes, there are things that come up and that require that additional cash, right?

Hui Wong  14:21

You know, I've spoken to many chefs, home bakers who actually have can try out, like, for example, Far East, they have this program called Baker x, where they can actually go and try out and then sell it to the public, right? So I think that's a good initiative. Yeah,

Andrew Tan  14:37

the entire ecosystem, so to speak, different stakeholders are encouraging this entrepreneurial drive. It really bodes well for the industry. Yeah,

Hui Wong  14:48

and looking ahead, what role does ASN hope to play in shaping the future of the FnB scene in Singapore and the region?

Elise Tan  14:55

We want to be the launch pad for aspiring entrepreneurs in general, and we. Not like just limited to tech entrepreneurs. We are open to FnB entrepreneurs and others of brick and mortar business, because at the beginning, there are lots of similarity. You know, they need to be able to start from scratch. They need to be able to build a brand, get mentors, acquire a structured knowledge to support them in a journey. And we have already built others to support so looking forward to really supporting more business owners in that journey,

Hui Wong  15:28

right? Thank you so much. Elise and Andrew thank you for dispensing useful tips and advice for aspiring FnB entrepreneurs, and I'm sure our listeners will have really all the valuable information to take away with. Elise tan and Andrew tan, co founders of the Asia startup network, and I'm Hui Wong for Mind your money on CNA 938.