"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.

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

2. 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 Emmie
Brent
P’Krating
..but not until April 2012 did I get to listen to their full stories. For me, the most intriguing
thing 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:

3. ….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

4. 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 in
less 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

5. 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").

6. 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!

7. 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.”

8. 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!

9. 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!

10. 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.

11. ..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

12. A few more bikes I bought were not enough to fill the demand so I tried figuring out other
ways 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?

13. Again, I was blessed to have extremely generous friends who
bought 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
Rosana
Benny
MacManJiquan
SaintP’Fern

14. 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?

15. …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

16. 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!”

17. 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

18. … it was quite an experience building a partnership with other existing
business….
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!

19. … 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!

20. 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.

21. …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..

22. 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:

23. ..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!

24. …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..

25. ..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..

26. 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

27. Pongkarn, Tyler, Izzah, Maheetha , Mike, Sarah and Hanh,
…Thank you for the photos!
…a photographer and models..

28. …flyer designers
Pete & Fon,
Thank you for all these professional works…

29. …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!

30. …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.

31. …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

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

33. ..we did fill up several bikes racks
..then pulled out a open house and got
nearly all of them out in less than a week
Special thank to Mike

34. ….and we have all these happy customers

35. 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 

36. Thank you for an amazing journey!