Just Another New Kid in Town

Today was a pretty good day here in the Tongren Lu Idea Factory.

• Started designing our database of transactions for the website
• Finished drafts of all of the fields in the other databases in the website
• Reviewed resumes for potential data entry interns
• Got the second inquiry in two days from interested investors

Maybe this is a sign that we have a good idea, or maybe it’s just my winning smile and how cool I look in my suits, but people seem to love our little company right about now. Most people we talk to say “Wow! What a great idea!” Or, “You guys are gonna make buckets of money!” I’m not even sure why I’m working so hard at this, if things are going to be that easy.

But there are still lot of opportunities for us to screw up, and still a lot of risk left in the venture right now.

That’s why only an idiot (or someone who’s broke) would take on an investor right now. As an entrepreneur, the earlier you are in a business, the greater the gap should be between your faith in your company, and anyone else’s belief in what you’re doing. Lots of people will tell you what a cool business you have, but would they really gamble on it? Only if you give them much better odds (or at least terms) than you are giving yourself.

So for right now, this company will be run on my cash, and the ideas and hard work of Winni the Wonder Assistant and me. (After all, what’s the point of running a small company if you can’t play God)?

What will help us to create value for this company will be

• Building a great product
• Letting the world know about it effectively through creative marketing
• And pushing out a well-trained, motivated sales team across China

Not generating reports and proposals for investors.

If we take care of all of these points above, (and Alibaba doesn’t wake up and crush us) then we should make enough money that folks will still be coming to us to talk about investment. But on terms that will be much more beneficial to the company and that will allow to generate more value that justifies the additional administrative efforts required.

So for now, it will be eating fangbian mian and working out of the living room.  (When I started 8 Days we had 12 people working in my apartment for the first three months).  And then, after our ayi has quit and the neighbors are complaining too much, we will move into a cheap lousy office and have some real team building experiences when the heating conks out or the air conditioning doesn’t work.

Until we start to make some money.   And that should be the thing that investors should want to talk to me about the most.

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1. Back in Town and Back to Building Companies