HIGHLIGHT:
Two most important aspects for start-up entrepreneurs, from the mentoring experience of Michelle Yip, are customers' engagement through social media presence as well as having a strong core team to support a well-functioned operation and to take the business to the next level. Michelle's final thought reiterate the importance of be adaptive to the current environment and having the courage to persevere through the end.
Please tell us about yourself.
My name is Michelle Yip. I am a Singapore permanent resident from Malaysia. I have been in restructuring and corporate finance for 8 years. On the side, I also used to own and manage F&B and tech business. I recently mentored 2 start-ups: Sesamilk and Anrich3D from Space-F, the first and comprehensive global FoodTech start-up incubator and accelerator in Thailand by Thai Union Group Public Company Limited, National Innovation Agency, and Mahidol University, organized by Expara (Thailand).
What is your key reflection on the mentor-mentee relationship durig the program?
For me, mentoring is not a one-way street but more of a sharing and transfer of knowledge between the mentor and mentee. At every discussion, both my mentees and I would walk away with new knowledge and gain more experience. When I had my first session with my mentees, I was very interested in their business product and saw that they have tremendous potential in this product to reach the global market.
What are your important advices that lead to significant changes for your mentees?
At that point, the most important aspect of the business, requiring immediate attention, was their social media presence. My first task to them was to set up more social media platform (i.e Instagram) to educate their consumers and the world about the benefits of their product. With their social media page set up, we also started to see more engagements between the company and its consumers.
Apart from their social media presence, a good start-up should also have a strong core team. While this is still a work in progress with my mentee, it is a very essential step to also have the core team members take care of different aspect of the business. Without a core team, VCs or investors usually are sceptical in investing in the company due to its lack of core team running the operations and attending to the business functionality on a daily basis.
What is the final thought you would like to leave with the entrepreneurs during this uncertain time?
Do not ever give up and always think out of the box. PIVOT PIVOT AND PIVOT your business to adapt to the current market situation.
Published on 9th Dec. 2020
Reach out to info@expara.com about our support program
