At the age of 31, Zinc Lam Chi-sing is chief operating officer for Laputa Eco-Construction Material, a business that uses waste glass in the production of paving blocks for the construction industry. His company's products are used by developers in major property constructions in both Hong Kong and on the mainland.
Your company's main product is eco-glass blocks, which uses recycled glass as one of the raw materials for making new bricks. Did you invent this?
No. It is the third generation of a concept developed at the Polytechnic University (PolyU). I focused on eco-glass blocks in my research for my master's degree at PolyU. I devoted a lot of time and effort into developing it and felt it would be a waste if I didn't take it further. So together with three friends, we took what little money we had saved up, sought out investors and started the company in 2006.
What were the challenges you faced in running the business?
When we started my partners were concerned about the high cost of labour and the low environmental awareness in Hong Kong. But I think the biggest challenge was money. In the beginning we didn't have a lot of funding. I saved up HK$60,000, and an investor put in about HK$100,000. We had big orders, but after investing in machinery and raw materials we didn't have much money left.
What I didn't anticipate was it might take as long as nine months before companies pay their suppliers. For about six months we didn't have any money at all. It got so bad we - the four senior executives - weren't paid a salary. I had to take a second job and teach tutorial classes to make ends meet.
What enabled you to succeed?