"Tech has evolved tremendously over the past decade. When we first started E27, there weren't any unicorns or VCs. It was really just the beginning. No one knew what was happening or what the trends could be, but everyone was excited. We saw a lot of builders, people with dreams and passions, building it up. The vertical has evolved to a point where Web 2.0 is quite mature. You have the infrastructure for logistics and payments. Most of the applications are there to solve problems. Finding a big problem to solve is tough now. But then again, new verticals have popped up over the years. AI and crypto are big things, and you'll definitely see more trends coming up." - Roy Ang
"For zero to one, you generally need to do everything and get your hands dirty. It's a lot of syncing up with Mohan to see the direction forward. Every decision takes a lot of resourcing, so we just need to plan better. We make tons of mistakes, but we also learn from them. Generally speaking, it's a smaller setup, so the team itself, the 10 people you work with, has to be extremely important. Everybody has to execute, and the key thing is to find replicable models that you can build a business on. The focus and the people are just a bit different. When I joined Grab, it was already a well-established organization with a few hundred people. You need to know your exact role and how you fit into the entire machine that has been built up. It's crucial to be crystal clear on the objectives given to you and how to execute them. Grab evolves extremely fast, even for older employees. I had different roles every three months just to fit in. Clarity on what you can deliver, being part of the team, and being a team player are important skill sets." - Roy Ang
"In this climate, because of a tech winter, everybody's looking at profitability. The chances of a D2C making money and still growing like 10x are not low—they're actually quite high. When you pull back all your marketing, you break even. You just need to find another one or two funnels that can give you positive returns, and you can still hit that 10, 20, 30x return profitably. I generally feel that it's an interesting vertical to bet on at this point in time. Of course, if market conditions change and interest rates go down, you can return to higher-risk assets. But right now, I feel that D2C is actually not a bad asset to back in this climate." - Roy Ang
In this episode, Jeremy Au speaks on the Grab executive to D2C founder journey, Evo Commerce consumer secrets, and overcoming pivot challenges.
Keywords: Roy Ang, Grab Executive to D2C Founder, Evo Commerce Consumer Secrets, Overcoming Pivot Challenges, Southeast Asia, Leadership, Startup, Founder Story
