From Mechanical Engineer to Technopreneur by RJ David

From Mechanical Engineer to Technopreneur RJ David

Who is RJ David?   31 years old   Co-‐founder and Managing Director of Sulit.com.ph   Married to Arianne David who is the other co-‐founder of Sulit   Netrepreneur (Internet Entrepreneur)

Who was RJ David?   Chairperson of the Philippine Society of Mechanical Engineers – UP Student Unit   Instructor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of UP Diliman   Licensed Mechanical Engineer   Software Test Engineer   Freelance web developer   Custom T-‐shirt seller (almost)

Achievements   Go Negosyo Inspiring Young Filipino Entrepreneur Award – September 2010   Business Excellence Award from BPI Family Savings Bank – September 2010   Featured in Go Negosyo’s 7th Book – 50 Inspiring Stories of Young Entrepreneurs – October 2011   PLDT MVP Bossing Award for 2012 – November 2011

College   Started reading programming books (Turbo Pascal) when I was in 4th year high school but I did not take Computer Science in College   Took up Mechanical Engineering (ME) because my uncle who was a successful engineer working abroad promised me a good and high-‐paying job if I graduated as a Mechanical Engineer   In college, I took up Mechanical Engineering but studied programming during my spare time in the library   Since ME was really not my interest, I ended up joining a student organization to which I focused much of my time during my last semester   But ME, or engineering in general, taught me to become a problem solver

Lessons Learned from College   Money as a motivation is ﬁne but passion on what you are doing can result to even greater things   Things I learned from a student organization in college are worth more than the sum of everything I learned inside the classroom

My Dream Job   As a kid, I always dream of creating or inventing something that many people will use.   Became one of only few biomechanical engineers here in Philippines   Research and development which involves designing and creating prosthesis and instruments used during orthopedic surgeries   It was my dream job and it was a privilege to be part of a rare-‐breed of engineers in the country   But my passion was in programming which my boss caught me doing at work   I resigned from my dream job and accepted that programming was what I was meant to do

Lessons Learned from My Dream Job   It won’t be your dream job if your passion is not aligned with it   Accepting that you are in the wrong ﬁeld is a tough pill to swallow because you are going to admit that you made the wrong decision all these years

Changing Career / Industry   In 2003, I decided to shift from Engineering to the IT industry   It was tough because of 2 things:   I have to start at an entry position again   I cannot even get an interview for a programming job because I was a Mechanical Engineer   I know how to program and relatively good at it but I have nothing to prove it other than my skills

Lessons Learned in Changing Career / Industry   In any career or industry, you always have to start at the bottom and move your way up   It is always easy to say that you are good at something but it is diﬃcult to prove it especially if you do not have the background and experience to show   The diﬃculty of changing industry should not be a big hurdle that you cannot surpass

SoBware Test Engineer   In 2003, I became a software test engineer at Azeus Philippines, a CMMi Level 5 company   Testing involves a diﬀerent type of mind set from development. Developers think how to create and accomplish a task while testers think how it can fail.   As a test engineer who has knowledge in programming, I have the uncanny ability to predict where and how a software can fail.   After 1 year, I was already conducting the one-‐month training for new hires about software testing   After 1 1/2 years, I was already a lead tester of a major project   I also became involved in setting up development processes within the company

Lessons Learned as a SoBware Test Engineer   Software testing improved my development skills as I become more aware on how my application can fail. Software testing made me a better developer producing high quality application   I learned a lot about development processes and how a process should adjust to the needs of your team and not the other way around

Open Source Developer   In 2003, I started playing with phpBB, a popular open source forum application.   Created modifications and templates and submitted it to be used for free by the community   Created a portal modification called IM Portal for phpBB which is a content management system (CMS) using the forum engine   Created IntegraMod which is phpBB with all the best modifications already installed with IM Portal as the main feature   Downloaded and used thousands of times until I gave up development to the community in 2006   Competed with top phpBB mod developers for the best portal modification available

Lessons Learned as an Open Source Developer   One way to showcase your skills or work is to do something for free. In case of development, open source development is a good option   Joining an open source community of developers is a way to hone and improve your skills   Competition is healthy. It kept me outdoing myself a lot of times even for something that was free   There is a lot of high quality open source applications out there that you can literally run an internet operations using open source software

Freelance Web Developer   In late 2003, I started receiving simple development projects for phpBB due to my simple mods   When I released IM Portal and IntegraMod, I started to receive bigger projects   I was a software test engineer during the day and a developer during the night   Referrals from previous projects came and projects became full-‐blown websites that I started earning up to more than three times of the salary of my day job

Lessons Learned as a Freelance Web Developer   Previous work is very important for freelance gigs to create your portfolio   One of the best way to enhance your portfolio is by releasing or joining an open source project   Referral from previous projects is a way to increase your client base   Freelancing requires marketing, time management, discipline and negotiation skills

Resigning from my day job   In 2005, I came across this book titled “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki which changed my thinking ever since   I did not take the stories and samples in the book literally but it opened my mind to new possibilities   I resigned from my job a few weeks after reading the book   I was completely convinced that I could do it on my own   My side projects were already aﬀecting the quality of my work in my day job

Lessons Learned from resigning from my day job   The fact that I had my freelancing gigs on the sidelines that were earning more than my day job made it easier for me to resign from my day job   Sometimes the best decision that you can have is the most unpopular one   When your side projects started to aﬀect your performance at your day job, be a professional and choose one and drop the other

Planning to Sell T-‐Shirts   Until in 2006, an opportunity presented itself in the form of selling custom-‐made T-‐shirts   Target market: the exponentially growing Friendster member base in the Philippines   After months of planning and putting the pieces together, I made a pitch to the country manager of Friendster to become the oﬃcial custom shirt partner   The pitch did not go well and I was suddenly faced by a harsh reality:   I was a newbie entrepreneur   Custom T-‐shirts were nowhere near my core skills or passion   I did not have the capital to support the requirements of the business for my target market

Lessons Learned from my T-‐shirt Gig   Passion and skills are very important for 1st time entrepreneurs   Your startup capital must be able to support your pre-‐ proﬁt market   You must do your homework before pitching your business   A good idea is nothing without a capable team supporting it

Sulit.com.ph   Success stories of Kevin Rose starting Digg and Mark Zuckerberg starting Facebook gave inspiration to Arianne and I to create our own website.   Since resigning from Azeus, I began porting my IM Portal project to a stand-‐alone CMS and web framework without the requirement of phpBB   In May 2006, Arianne came up with the idea of a classiﬁeds website as an experiment   I started working on the website while doing freelance work and launched Sulit.com.ph on September 11, 2006

IniMal Years of Sulit   As an experiment, Sulit had no marketing budget and no marketing plan in place   By the end of November 2006, traffic started to increase across all categories and the experiment became a full-‐blown online classifieds startup   By August 2007, Sulit was more than “ramen profitable” so Arianne resigned from her work and help maintain the website   In January 2008, we incorporated the company   In 2008, Sulit became the top local website in Alexa

Lessons Learned when starMng up Sulit.com.ph   It is possible to create an internet startup without requiring too much capital   Formula to a successful website: release fast, release often, get feedback and iterate   When requiring human input, crowdsource to scale   Search Engine Optimization was (and still is) the best source of free organic traﬃc to the website   Bootstrapping an internet startup to proﬁtability is possible   Technical expertise is very important in an internet startup   Get a co-‐founder for newbie entrepreneurs

Sulit.com.ph Investors   In 2008, Sulit started to appeal to other companies and VCs and we received a number of investment oﬀers, partnerships and buyout oﬀers, yet we were not actively looking for any investments   Late 2008 and early 2009, competitors backed by big companies started to show serious interest in the local ecommerce market   In 2009, Sulit received a Series A funding from MIH

Lessons Learned in accepMng investments   Know what you really need from investors: funds, knowledge, network, advisors, human resources, etc.   Know the goal of the investors in investing to your company and see to it that it is aligned to your personal goal   Valuation of a startup is an estimation of the future performance of the business

What characterizes an entrepreneur?   Risk taker – willingness to take huge risks in order to get huge returns   Leader – the ability to make others follow your vision   Creates value – the ability to create actual value from your idea   Problem solver – the ability to provide solutions to the problems of many potential customers   Tolerance to failure – entrepreneurs are bound to fail in order to succeed

Advice to young people wanMng to become technopreneurs   Start now while you are young   It requires technical expertise to become a technopreneur so either you are a technical person or you ﬁnd a technical co-‐founder   For those who cannot risk their 9-‐5 salary, start small with a sideline project   Start with something that you are passionate about; something you love doing   Do not be afraid sharing your idea; the team executing the idea makes the diﬀerence

How can I prepare to become a technopreneur?   The internet is a fast-‐paced industry; you must be ready to continuously learn something new   Be ready to learn how to ﬁlter information and read   Expect sleepless nights   Be prepared for failures   Learn to say no   Be ready to come out of your comfort zone   Be ready to wear many hats

What to watch out for in running a start up?   The tendency to make quick money   Partnerships, as much as you can, avoid it; unless it is really necessary to achieve your vision   Tendency to raise more money than what is really needed   Tendency to spend so much in marketing before the product is ready   Tendency to copy an established competitor

Suggested Resources   OnStartups.com   ReadWriteWeb.com   TechCrunch.com   PaulGraham.com/articles.html   AVC.com   GigaOM.com   TechMeme.com   HackerNews.com

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From Mechanical Engineer to Technopreneur by RJ David

by Janette Toral on Dec 22, 2011

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From Mechanical Engineer to Technopreneur by RJ David — Presentation Transcript