Chow Shing-yuk, a top scorer in his public exams with 10 A’s, founded EasyVan in 2013. The mobile app allows people to call a van for goods deliveries. In order to gain a foothold in market share, he finished writing the app and released it to the market within only 8 weeks. Half a year after the launch, EasyVan set up their first overseas branch in Singapore...
When you want to do something, you will come up with ways to make it happen.
It takes months if not years for a company to plan, conceptualise and realise a product. Not for EasyVan, which took only 8 weeks to successfully launch their product in the market.
The key is the courage to ‘do’ it. Very often, people want to do something but don’t really do it. They don’t have the will. I think it’s a must for you to be really hungry, and want to work out something and find people who share the same mindset to make it happen.
A concept ignited an innovation.
That’s how Easy Van came into being.
There was another idea before I founded the business. I heard about Uber in the US when it was four years old. I was impressed by their concept. It was so cool to link up a driver and a passenger by an app. So I decided to explore a similar programme in Asia. Later, I found fierce competition in the market, so I approached development vertically into the van and truck market.
The present world has moved from the age of desktop internet to that of mobile internet; at the forefront of which are apps, where much remains unexplored. Chow attempts to discover society’s needs, so he set up EasyVan to bring convenience to users and drivers. Amid fierce competition, he needs to dig out innovative inspirations from daily life.
Sometimes, you hope the whole team innovates together with you. Most of the time, we frequently communicate with users. I also use the app to find a van myself every day and chat with the drivers. I also go to different places to understand other markets, to see what their needs are. In practice, I use human interaction and getting in touch with customers to look for new inspirations.
Spark, and ignite possibilities. Success starts from the courage to dream. In 2004, Steve Jobs delivered the commencement speech for Stanford University, which is Chow’s alma mater. The speech is titled: Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish. This, Chow says, is the most important for entrepreneurs.
All changes in the world stem from hungry people who seek to make a difference. That’s stay hungry. When you dare to dream, that’s foolish. These two attributes matter most.
