Andrew Tan is a personality that needs no introduction in the startup and VC (Venture Capitalist) world. He has a course called Capital Wisdom that teaches about equity fund raising, share capital structure, managing a business and some other business tips.
His story is next to impossible and amazing. He had his ups and downs in business (bankruptcy) but manage to turn all his failures as his launchpad for the next big business. He seems to be a serial entrepreneur and now a partner at a venture capital firm. I got to know also he is one of the brains behind the viral Oxwhite shirt company (selling executive shirt online)
I signed up to his preview course at Cititel Midvalley to learn some stuff. Andrew's course was conducted in mandarin. I did not manage to take pictures as picture taking and audio recordings were not allowed but note taking was ok.
Some nuggets of wisdom I got from Andrew Tan's preview talk
- Bosses needs to know their role, they should not be involved in operational matter and focus on company direction to align with government policies.
- Bosses another job is also to look for talent, he doesn't have to be good in everything. (eg 3 kingdoms general Liu Bei relied on his advisor the great Zhu Ge Liang to run the country)
- A business doing a popular product might be better than a not tested product, popular products are popular for a reason.
- The way to do a popular product business in a competitive market is to Copy, Change and Renew
- Product pricing is very very important, once the price is set, it is hard to change
- A company's shareholding structure is best to have a dominant shareholder and a captain, rather than having 2 shareholders with equal managing and equity power
- 3 ways to make money in business, sell products, sell cash flow or sell shares
- One tax saving tips is to send gift hampers but put your company logo on it so it can be claimed as marketing expenses
- In a business everyone's roles needs to be clear, understand and be clear who is bringing in what (money, skill, connections etc)
- Choose your business partner carefully and structure a proper shareholding structure, you can fire an employee but you can't fire a shareholder
Andrew Tan's best quote
Companies are not sold but are bought
This quote means that as a business owner, you cannot sell your company if nobody wants to buy it. The business needs to have to be attractive to the buyer (eg cash flow, market share).
The full course is a 3 day intensive course. It's more geared towards business owners to investors.