Internet start-up gets leg up with contest win
Life could be about to change dramatically for three entrepreneurial friends. In just over two months, the Hongkongers will travel to Singapore and San Francisco to meet potential investors and try to persuade them to invest in their start-up venture.
Andrew Chan, Dante Tsang and Teddy Chan have already had some success with AwesomeShip, a website that aims to help online merchants keep track of their packages once they are shipped to customers.
Representing Hong Kong in the Global Startup Battle on Wednesday, the team placed first. They beat 50 other teams in the online contest - all winners of Startup Weekend, a three-day competition held two weeks ago in which 40 young entrepreneurs had to pitch an idea and build a business in 54 hours.
In the global finale, the Hongkongers' idea earned more than 5,000 votes on the competition's website. A team from Macedonia came a distant second with 2,815 votes.
The Hong Kong trio said they were surprised by their success. But Andrew Chan said it showed there was demand for the idea, which actively tracks shipping orders and notifies customers by SMS, Facebook or e-mail. 'After winning the competition on Wednesday, US-based online merchants started approaching us,' he said.
Their win gives them a table at the prestigious Launch Conference in San Francisco in March and at Demo Asia, another start-up conference, in Singapore in February. They will also get free web design and engineering advice to help them launch AwesomeShip.
Despite this roaring start, Andrew Chan wants to take things slow. 'Right now we are busy fixing the system and adapting our product to local Hong Kong merchants,' he said.
In January, the US market beckons. But they will need to have 1,000 online retailers on board to demonstrate their business model in California's Silicon Valley - also part of the global competition prize.
AwesomeShip will be free in the first few months, Andrew Chan said, but eventually online merchants would have to pay a small fee.
It's a busy time for the 27-year-old. He works on the start-up during the day - and for a different one at night. 'As long as I deliver, my boss is OK,' he said.
Teddy Chan is also dividing his time between jobs. He is the original founder of AwesomeShip and also runs his own website selling toys. Tsang, 21, is a student at Polytechnic University.
They have already hired three web developers to work on the venture. But for now, it is being created from a desk in the corner of a friend's office.
Andrew Chan said they were trying to keep costs down while the project got off the ground.
'We do not want to push it and are not doing it for the money. AwesomeShip is also about showing the world that in Hong Kong we can have good ideas,' he said.
