rent-my-bike: one year anniversary

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would like to share with you a story.. ..no, not my story.. It’s YOUR story.. -My-Bike: one year anniver

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"17th July 2012" marks the one year anniversary of Rent-My-Bike. I would like to dedicate this presentation to all friends and colleagues who have been part of this journey.

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Page 1: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

I would like to share with you a story....no, not my story.. It’s YOUR story..

Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

Page 2: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

The idea of becoming an entrepreneur has never entered my mind… not until a visiting student from Thailand showed up in April 2012..and asked if I could take him to meet Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

Well..I know some of them for years..

Beam

David EmmieBrent

P’Krating

..but not until April 2012 did I get to listen to their full stories. For me, the most intriguingthing is not their great successes , brilliant minds or solid work ethics (which I know of long time ago) but the simplicity of their common principles:

Page 3: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

….first, someone has a problem..

….then you come up with a simple solution..…….then, he is happy and gives you some money….then you apply the same solution to many people..then after “some tweaking”..…you have a system that can deliver what many people want and are willing to pay

..then you have a business

Beam, David, Emmie, Brent, P’Krating.… thank you so much for your inspirational entrepreneurial spirit

Page 4: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

Out of curiosity, a month later I picked up this book at the airport on my two day trip to LA.

…I finished the whole book inless two days.

..I have never met Chris, the author of the book, in person but I really like to thank him for writing this book… It was one of very few books I can confidently say that it changes my life.

What I like the most about this book is that it explain how to smoothly transition into an entrepreneur life from whatever lifestyle we are currently in..

… no need to quit a job, risk your retirement fund or making any irreversible life changing decision

…NO.. Not necessary. Just start simple..just try selling something and play by ears

Page 5: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

I was sooo.. inspired by that time..On 27th May 2012, I wrote on my diary

"...I should draft a plan w/ a deadline for launching sth [a business] by the end of June.."

I had no idea at that time what that "sth" would be. I thought about biotech.. (oh yeah that's my field of expertise, right?)..I thought about education (umm.. I was a TA and a Tutor before...)..I thought about Thai food (of course, I can cook better than average Americans!).

…I had no idea that a month later I would end up building a bike rental business (the only related skill I had back then was "riding a bike").

Page 6: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

Peter

Bike rental idea was inspired by Peter, a visiting summer undergrad in my lab. Peter asked me to find a cheap bike rental for his last couple of weeks at Stanford..

….I couldn’t find one....ahhh someone has a problem!…let’s try finding a simple solution!

…Maybe..I could try providing such service myself?

Peter,…thank you for inspiring bike rental idea!

Page 7: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

Peter

So, I ran an experiment..printing a few of this flyer and put them around campus.

I didn't actually have any bike..except for the one I was using.….but I just wanted to know how people respond…

This is a mentally difficult step..you know, when anyone attempt to translate an idea into an action..even a small one.

I still remember that evening, the 17th July 2012, I sneaked around campus to put on my flyers

….a voice in my ear said " “this is stupid.. this is stupid..you’re wasting your time…you’re wasting your time.”

Page 8: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

Luckily, the first order did arrive two days later. A Stanford grad student name Sankeeth happened to need a bike that day

I gave him my own bike and took $10. Not a lot… but I felt like winning a lottery. It was like my self-esteem level bounced back. The idea worked! (yeah , at least once!). I remember waving that $10 around and showing it to almost everyone I met that day...I actually pin that $10 trophy over my office desk ..Sankeeth, thank you for being my first customer!

Page 9: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

Then, I got the second call from Mona.

Oh hey, but I didn’t have any more bike!

..so I ran back home. I drove to Walmart..bought a bike with a U-lock and a basket..and drove back to Mona.

Mona, If you are reading this, I wanna thank you for being so patient on that day. I was late and had no clue how to install a basket . I had you wait for over an hour. I tried giving you a discount for my delay but you still insisted to pay the full price and also gave me great Yelp review. Thank you! Thank you!

Page 10: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

Then..more customer arrived....and I decided to buy a few more bikes..

..some of customer asked if I have a website.Fine! I decided to make a simple one quickly..

….hey, but how will people find my website?…….ok…ok. Let’s make a Yelp page too.

Page 11: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

..I was blessed to have extremely generous early adopters..…especially

Chandra, Yifan, Ann, Steve, Mona and Pleuni, Without your awesome Yelp review on our early days, Rent-My-Bike probably wouldn’t have come this far. Since we don’t have a store front, Yelp has always been our main portal for reaching prospective customers. With your reviews and stars, Rent-My-Bike quickly went up near the top of Yelp search even though we were very new.

Chandra

Anne

Steve

Mona

Pleuni

Yifan

Page 12: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

A few more bikes I bought were not enough to fill the demand so I tried figuring out otherways to expand my inventories without investing too much money upfront..

…well…there are more bikes than people on Stanford campus (that’s what I heard from some guide tours).

…Can we put these unused bikes to good use?

Page 13: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

Again, I was blessed to have extremely generous friends whobought the idea of monetizing their unused bikes…

Fon, Elah, Rosana, Benny, P’Fern, Saint, Jiquan, Man and Mac, Thank you for your bikes!

Fon

Elah

RosanaBenny

MacManJiquan

SaintP’Fern

Page 14: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

Six months after the first rental deal, I operated at about 15-20 bikes. A few customers came each week on average and rented bikes for a few days to a few weeks. I spent 1-2 hr and made about $100-$150 per week.

…I was thinking about staying like that: one man business+ twenty bikes. Rent-My-Bike was just a “hobby” that happened to generate some cash, right?

Page 15: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

…then I happened to pick up these two books on my trip to a conference in Philadelphia

If “$100 startup” is my highly recommended book for starting a lean business, these two books are my “must read books” about scaling-up. My favorite concepts were about breaking down the whole complex business system to simple well defined operations… and delegate those tasks to other people.….the final goal is to have the business be capable of sustaining itself even in the absence of its creator.

…umm that sounded like fun!..I decided to give it a shot

Page 16: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

Then, I started to think that “bike rental hobby” is a waste of time…

“If I gonna spend any time on these bikes, I would better make a real business….and push it to the limit!”

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Illia, Tony and Mike, thank you for joining Rent-My-Bike, I had a great time working with you guys. For you in particular, Mike, I can say that without your presence I would not have had a gut to triple bike collections from 20 to 60 bikes in less than three months.

… it was quite an experience hiring other people and growing a team….

Mike

Page 18: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

… it was quite an experience building a partnership with other existingbusiness….

Mr. Patel, Thank you for offering courtyard space front-desk service in your hotel for our bike rental station! Thank you for being our distributor!

Page 19: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

… it was also quite an experience ..just to bounce ideas off brilliant friends ..in exchange for a few trays of pizza

Mac, Arm, Saint, Sunny, Jump, Ham, Tee, May and Tong, Thank you for an ideation session!

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Ok, we had delivered service to people as we promised.. we had generated reasonable profit.. we were on our way to scale up our capacity..

….anything else for the business?

….well, I also learned over time that business, at its very core, is just people interacting with people.

…. Beyond the exchange of goods, service and cash, …..there is human relation. …..There is a growing network of people… customers.. workers…lenders…partners that can be put for any future uses.

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…For example, when a new group of Thai visiting students arrived in 2013 and asked if I can help connect them to “local experts”, I know my customers can help..

Page 22: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

Some of these customers is quite special...

Dominik, Thank you for being a guest for our first CSR event. More importantly, I would like to let you know that your presence triggered another turning point of Rent-My-Bike story……….that evening after you rented out the bikes ..my thought went like this:

Page 23: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

..well, we got a Southeast Asia expert in our network, ..maybe we should host an event with Thais… ….maybe we should invite other Asean students too! …..maybe.then we can ask them to spread words about us

….hey, maybe, even better, ..we can work with them to expand Rent-My-Bike!

Page 24: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

…that’s how the 100 bike campaign started..

Izzah, thank you for bringing me to SEALNet.. ..thank you for being an awesome advocator for the campaign..

Page 25: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

..handling hundreds of bikes seemed unimaginably challenging for me at that time.

……but I was lucky enough to receive help from so many experts!

….such as..

Page 26: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

Fon, Thank you for marketing crash course and for all your specific advices. What we have discussed have been incorporated into my new website, flyers, sign-up form, database, ..

…a marketing adviser

Page 27: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

Pongkarn, Tyler, Izzah, Maheetha , Mike, Sarah and Hanh, …Thank you for the photos!

…a photographer and models..

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…flyer designers

Pete & Fon, Thank you for all these professional works…

Page 29: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

…cartoonist

Ivy, I just realized that I have never chatted with you for a long time. Then, one day out of the blue I messaged you asking for help…(during probably one of your busiest time transitioning your career). Yet, you said yes right away to my request and pulled off these cute cartoons. Thank you so much!

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…Bike machinists..

Ryan and Ethan, Thank you for coming all the way from Woodside Highschool. Thank you for your advices about bike and for professional on site services.

Page 31: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

…I’m blessed to have all these SEALNet troop sending out email, handing out flyers, receiving bikes and renting them out

Special thanks to: Ary, Izzah, Mike, Great, Noelle, Pak-Hin, James and Sarah

Page 32: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

…within a week..…..we did receive over a hundred bikes from over a hundred Stanford students

Page 33: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

..we did fill up several bikes racks

..then pulled out a open house and gotnearly all of them out in less than a week

Special thank to Mike

Page 34: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

….and we have all these happy customers

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It is said that “life is about the people you meet and the things you create with them…”

The best part of my Rent-My-Bike experience is.. …not really the bikes I owned… …not really the money I earned… …not really the “business tricks” I learned..

but all these human interactions that we have created….. together

Page 36: Rent-My-Bike: one year anniversary

Thank you for an amazing journey!