Business on Nick Wang

CUUSOO Hong Kong 1st meeting 空想香港

Tue, 26 May 2009 11:32:48 +0000

Created the first HK meetup for CUUSOO fans on facebook. I didn’t do much advertising this time around coz I came down with the flu and it killed me! Seriously! I was sick for a whole week! Anyway, I’m all good now… didn’t gain no super powers, but I have been turned into a zombie. :)

0524 03 cuusoo hk 1st meet (by cloneofsnake)

It was raining cats and dogs on Sunday, I sent out a message to the CUUSOO HK group in the morning to tell everyone that I’ll still be there. It was nice to see Ca-Phun, his friend William, Charlotte, her friend Alan braved the rain to come learn about what we’re doing to bring CUUSOO to Hong Kong. Charlotte in particular gave it some thoughts and invited her friend Alan, who’s a local Product Designer! Alan was very interested in CUUSOO’s idea. I showed them my presentation (I’ll post it up later), basically, after the Design and Innovation Forum event, Kohei and I had a few long discussions about lots of things, in the end, Kohei suggested that we start from small - get ONE design - the Kayla Tote Bag - up on CUUSOO.com and go through the complete life-cycle, once proven that CUUSOO system works in Hong Kong, we can start to duplicate - work with users on CUUSOO, creating multiple designs. If we look ahead into the future, our entire line of designs can be sold as a complete business! (sold to MUJI for example) The whole thing will go down in history and become a case study. In this case, CUUSOO will become a platform for designers to launch their “micro business”. Right now, what we can do from Hong Kong is to participate in the Kayla Tote Bag’s design process (by commenting), and to help promote it on blogs and facebook and other social media venues. We had a good, long discussions about lots of things. A few of the major questions were:

What does CUUSOO provide if we already do everything from design to market to produce the products? (My answer: That’s just the beginning stage in HK, where we’ll have to take on the roles of designer + marketer + manufacturer! Eventually, each role only does its own thing and manufacturers will come to CUUSOO to pick up businesses.)
If most investors are only willing to pay $50 for the product, but a few are willing to pay as much as $1000… does that pull up the curve? In other words, does the product still get made - and some people pay more than others? (My answer: Probably not… :P but that’s a good question, I’ll ask Kohei. :P )
How is CUUSOO gonna secure its designers’ Intellectual Properties? It works in Japan because they all respect IP… but here in HK and in China… you post a design online… they can just take your design and make it themselves! (My answer: True ~ I can think of 2 things - 1 - CUUSOO as the platform has to take on the legal responsibility… so it may have to sue the people who infringe our IP. 2 - but personally, I like to be more ideal, think when the eco-system is more mature on CUUSOO, I hope the businesses will want to come on CUUSOO and establish a reputation. Basically, customers will want to give their money to reputable, ethical and moral businesses - and that in turn will make the manufactures want to be good.)
The language problem - the website is all Japanese, are they going to make a English site? (My answer: Yes, it’s a big problem, and Yes, we’re working on it.)

Another interesting thing we talked about was “Trust”… Charlotte actually works for a local web development company, and she had to be careful to not let the company owner knows about CUUSOO, because “the biz owner is a typical Hong Kong businessman who only looks at the $dollar sign. If we tell him about this system, he’ll simply take it and build it as his own business! I said this is definitely very typical “Hong Kong”! But also, it is where Hong Kong fails!! I’ve said it before, people who only look at money and profits are too short-sighted… they don’t see the big picture. This is a perfect example! Since typical Hong Kong people and business think only about short-term profits, they rarely produce IPs and brands that are long-term, or become world renowned. This becomes a downward death spiral! Say if Charlotte’s boss really decided to steal CUUSOO’s system and build the exact same platform for Hong Kong. Do you think designers will trust that website with their designs? The site itself disrespects IP and stole the business model from CUUSOO, why would anyone give it their trust? When a worldwide company like LEGO or MUJI choose to partner with a company, do you think they will choose such a company?

Comments

Peggy Chu — 2009-05-27 06:46:17

That’s very cool. Too bad I couldn’t make it to the meeting as I’m in the US~but do let me know about what can I do for the comic/story to present how CUUSOO works to HK. :)

HK Design Innovation Forum Photo Report

Wed, 06 May 2009 09:22:07 +0000

After getting the confirmation from Kohei Nishiyama, founder of Japanese user innovation company cuusoo.com, I had little more than a month’s time to prepare and organize this “HK International Design & Innovation Forum” event. You can read about the reason why I wanted to create this event in my previous post. I wanted to do something meaningful for the local design and technology communities, yet during the preparation stages, I encountered quite a few disappointments. For example, Youth.gov.hk, I sent them an info email like the one I wrote in my previous blog post, and all I got in response was this:

From: “enquiry@youth.gov.hk” To: Nick Wang@ Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2009 9:44:14 AM Subject: Re: Design and Innovation Event Dear Mr Wang, We are sorry that the forwarded message has been send to us by mistake. Youth.gov.hk

orz

And then there was the events & marketing department of the Polytechnic University School of Design. I blasted multiple emails to sdmktg@polyu.edu.hk, but never got any replies. Then, through the help of CCHK Creative Common’s Haggen So, I got in contact with one of the professors inside the School of Design, I dropped off a stack of posters for him to post at the school but when I returned a few days before the event, I found that none of my posters were posted! I really wanted the speakers to be able to share their experience and inspire young design students… so I barged into one of the classroom and spoke directly to the students inside, invited them to check out the event web page and spread the news to their friends! (I was one step short of kidnapping the students and dragging them to the event :P )

0427_06A LEGO hirng (by cloneofsnake)

Besides blogging about the event, creating a web page, a directions page and an event sign up form, making sure my event page pops up as #1 in both Yahoo and Google search, I also tried my hands on some guerrilla marketing, like the job hiring posters above and a Youtube video! That was a first for me, kinda fun.

▶ YouTube video

Finally, come the day of the event, picked up Kohei and had a quick dim sum lunch in TST, rushed to the JCCAC at 2, met up with Thomas and Douglas as they arrive, none of us prepared anything to talk about, the guests were relying on Thomas to lead them into different topics. I briefly explained to them one more time about the reason why I created this event, (to inspire the youths) and off I went on stage to start the talks. (Deep breath~~)

0502 02 HK Design Innovation Forum (by cloneofsnake)

While I was all nervous talking on stage, looks like the guest speakers were quite tensed as well.

0502 06 HK Design Innovation Forum (by cloneofsnake)

The talk was great, Douglas gave us a glimpse into their design process as a team within G.O.D. How he realized Hong Kong’s unique cultural importance, and later on, he spoke with Kohei about how G.O.D. could use cuusoo.com’s system to harness user innovations in Hong Kong.

hkdesigninnovationforum (by mancjew)

As expected, there were lots of interests in cuusoo.com’s user innovations and designers collaborations model. The audience asked questions about “how cuusoo.com retain its users”, “how much cuusoo.com reward its users”, “how do you protect the artists’ IP? (Intellectual Properties)”… etc etc. The “protecting artists’ assets” is a typical concern for all artists and designers all over the world. I’ve heard the same concern when I was in New York. “Trust” is a big problem on the internet, I had a few long conversations with Kohei in regards to that in the days after. This is a personal interests of mine, solving this “trust” problem, and I’m continuing to work on a solution(s).

Douglas Young, Kohei Nishiyama, Thomas Crampton, Nicholas Wang (by 黛Daisy)

Questions were predominantly business and money related, I was hoping Douglas and Kohei would talk about how they started out and how they struggled, ‘coz I think stories of unrelenting spirits are great motivations for people. One audience did ask Kohei about his decision to leave McKinsey & Co. to start his own biz. That was a good question. Kohei recounted that it was like social suicide! His colleagues all told him to think twice, as he wouldn’t be allowed back! The business was only in its most infancy stage, Kohei saw the potential (far into the future!), and took the leap of faith. The reward is that he has been doing what he loves for the past 10 years, and he’s happy to continue doing it till the end! I guess this is the kind of message I want the youngsters to have. Don’t just look at jobs that pay the most amount of money. Find your passion, follow it, don’t be afraid of failures and tough it out!!

After the event, we spread into small group discussions. That was cool, got to meet quite a few new people.

0502 33 HK Design Innovation Forum (by cloneofsnake)

After both Thomas and Douglas had left, Kohei stayed behind and discussed with a group of really enthusiastic folks.

0502 42 HK Design Innovation Forum (by cloneofsnake)

Kohei said he’s really impressed with the amount of interests and talents in Hong Kong. We are currently working on the details of a “first international project” on cuusoo.com. I’ll be posting the details up here later.

0502 45 HK Design Innovation Forum (by cloneofsnake)

Once again, I would like to thank G.O.D. and Douglas Young for helping to make this event come true, Thomas Crampton for moderating, Kohei Nishiyama for taking time out of his busy schedule to come spend an entire afternoon with us, and everyone who came and participated in the event! Thank you!

Comments

遺失了的記事：2009年5月 | Daisy’s Digital Anthology — 2009-09-06 12:53:04

[…] I Die – 香港國際設計創意研討會 Hong Kong International Design and Innovation Forum Before I Die – HK Design Innovation Forum Photo Report HODUCKYEE DesignIdeas – Hong Kong International Design and Innovation Forum […]

Nice Yahoo Search Marketing photos | SHT ADVERTISING — 2011-04-10 12:09:19

[…] 香港國際設計創意研討會 – Yahoo! Search Results_1241105182567 Image by cloneofsnake Photo report – cloneofsnake.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/hk-design-innovatio… […]

So much to do... so little time...

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 22:06:05 +0000

It has been 2 months since I last interviewed for that Yahoo JP Business Intelligence Engineer position, and they still haven’t found the right person. Proves me right… it’s hard to find someone with that kind of technical skills while being fluent in Japanese. Meanwhile, my other option was to migrate to our own Data Warehouse team…

I called up the manager over in Sunnyvale after my former manager Phil told me that they’re are short on staff and the manager was thinking about bringing in some temps. That’s the problem with our big corporations these days, it happened in my Microsoft days and it’s happening again now. They just can’t hire any full timers. The manager acknowledged that he needed people, and he realized that it would be beneficial for his team to have someone “old school” like me. Yet, in the end, he had to bring in contractors. So… I’m still stuck here in the New York office. I’ve been keeping myself extremely busy though. I haven’t given up on Japanese yet… studying Japanese vocabularies and grammar at night. At work, when I have time outside of the data migration project, I study my new Oracle Architecture book. I’m also going to work with Phil on testing the data integrity of the Data Warehouse, just pending my current manager’s approval. I wish I have more time though, as I still haven’t gotten around to ripping Wordpress apart and learning to turn it into my web businesses. I’ve gotten through its “theme” and learned to manipulate it using CSS, but I’m not interested in it, I wish someone else can handle that shit for me. I will just focus on the backend. I want to finish all 3 tasks ASAP… how do I juggle all 3 tasks at once? I think my top priority is Oracle, as it is needed immediately for the Data Warehouse, and it’s the easiest out of the 3. Japanese will take the longest, in fact, I have the same feeling as one of my language partner… that I’ll never be able to become fluent in it. (Doesn’t mean I won’t try though.) Finally, the website. I’m really slacking off here… this is the one thing that can potentially bring in the most cash for me, but I’m putting it on the back burner… I guess I just need someone to work together … may be I should search for a wordpress user group in New York…

2007 New Year Resolution

Mon, 15 Jan 2007 17:13:31 +0000

How creative! I can’t think of a better title. A lot of things are happening, there are a lot of things I want to do, a lot I need to write down. My brain is a complete mess, so I’m jumping right in and start writing! Start small, and keep the ball rolling. Things I need to touch upon are:

Wedding
Work at Yahoo
Personal Development - blog, web dev, Japanese
Personal Business - My ideas, How to Start

Wedding Yup, I proposed to Queenie on 12/21/2006, right before our 2 weeks visit to Hong Kong. While in HK, I met with Queenie’s parents, bought a ring, we arranged our parents to meet, found a few “lucky dates”, we already had our sights settled on The Peninsula Hotel for the Wedding Ceremony and Banquet… The date should be 11/29/2007. There are so much to do for a wedding, I can’t talk about everything here. The one thing I need to say is… it’s expensive! I am trying to set a goal for myself to earn an extra $30K US dollars this year to cover the expenses! :P Work at Yahoo! Coming Feburary, I will have completed 5 years of service at Yahoo! Hotjobs. I’ve been involved in many projects, giving me exposure to almost all layers of the business, from billing to user experience. It has been good times, especially the early years, when everything was in turmoil and I could see what needed to be done, and just jump in and do it. Nowadays, there are a lot more red tapes and things go a lot slower. Regarding my career path, I’ve stated that I wanted to become a Business Intelligence Engineer. Currently, we’re migrating our CRM and front end to a new platform and work are being done in Sunnyvale’s main campus on developing a Data Warehouse. I’m trying to move there to become part of that team. I’ve spoken with my managers here in New York, and I’ve met the manager from Sunnyvale and spoke to him about my interest in joining his team. There weren’t any open racks as it was the end of 2006, but I’m confident that once they’ve gotten the racks in 2007, I will be able to transfer over there. I’ll save the details on this for another post. Personal Development I haven’t really touched web development since I left Microsoft’s MSN in 2001. Professionally, I’ve had my sights set on database technologies and Business Intelligence. However, social networking and Web 2.0 sites like flickr, del.icio.us, digg, WordPress and many personal blogs, have reignited my interest in creating web sites. I’ve installed WordPress on my FreeBSD box at home, trying to learn CSS and PHP through it. One problem I realized is that I tend to mind too much about the technical details. Cal Henderson of the Flickr fame had given his advice based on his experience, and that is to start small, get your first readers, and then grow along while your site is live. I’m trying to start a couple of blogs this way - one is about Japanese living in New York City, and another is about Traditional Chinese culture in modern Chinese societies. Finally, I’ve been learning Japanese through a podcast called JapanesePod101. I’ll try to take the JPLT Lv. 2 this year, and I’ll try to use JPod101 alone to accomplish this. It’s going to be a good experiment. Personal Business Finally, my business. I’ve registered and closed a S-Corp in 2005, wasted thousands of dollars and contributing to the IRA and the statistic of 99% failure rate of businesses in the US. I’m not going to repeat that! I hope that with the experience I gained through the blogs, I will create a couple of communities sites - one related to gaming and one related to food and travel. My goal is not to make a lot of money, I’m interested in these topics and I hope that I can create something that can support me enough to move around and live in different countries. If there’s one thing that I need help on here, that would be VC. How and where do I get venture capitals? Where are my angels?!! :P Alright, that’s enough for one post. Until next time.