At the Echelon Asia Summit 2018, despite his success, T. Fuad stresses that founders should not start a company for the sake of exits

WeWork Southeast Asia Managing Director T. Fuad has an impressive portfolio as a startup founder. Throughout his career, he had founded three startups and all of them had met its exits.

Prior to founding coworking space chain Spacemob, which was acquired by WeWork in August 2017, he had sold his two startups WUF Networks and Travelmob.

He managed to sell Spacemob to a leading global player despite the tough competition in a crowded space such as coworking space.

Speaking at a fireside chat at the Echelon Asia Summit 2018, the serial entrepreneur spilled his secrets.

“When Starbucks first came in, there are already tons of good coffee shops out there. Tesla was also not the first electric car company out there. At the end of the day, it is not about the similarities; it all boils down to the differences, the uniqueness that people are attracted to,” he said.

He then went on to explain the story on how Spacemob got acquired.

After receiving a call for a meeting with WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann, Fuad took a three-hour journey to visit Neumann’s farm in upstate New York. He spent an hour at the location talking with Neumann about why he built the company.

During the discussion, Neumann asked him a question that will eventually led him to sell the company to WeWork.

“’Have you changed the world? Have you built something to disrupt the world?’” Fuad repeated the questions.

“And I have done that [through all my companies],” he added.

Also Read: A new normal: How WeWork is designing the future of work

Life after exits

Despite having had sold three companies, Fuad warned startup founders against building a company for the sake of exits.

“Honestly, I don’t think there are any founder out there who haven’t thought about exit strategy … But you shouldn’t be building a business for the sake of exit. You want to build sustainable business,” he said.

The serial entrepreneur also revealed the two things that founders should always keep in mind: The fundamentals of business, and building a great team.

In fact, when asked if there is anything that he would like to change from his previous works, Fuad put emphasis on hiring and selecting the right people.

“Spend time developing a great team and culture because ultimately that is your greatest asset,” he said.

“Rocket Internet has this philosophy of hiring fast … I personally don’t really believe that. I think it’s okay to take a bit of time to find really good people,” he stressed, adding that he had actually made time to personally interview the first hundred people hired by WeWork in Southeast Asia, even employees of the lowest strata.

When asked if there is any change to how he run the company post-acquisition, Fuad said that the “grind and grip” are basically still there.

The company is still working on expanding its business to new markets; the major difference is that they now have a stronger financial backing to realise their goals.

Fuad also has no plan to retire and shift into venture capital investment instead.

“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity,” he said of the acquisition.

The post How T. Fuad founded 3 startups –and got all of them acquired appeared first on e27.