Founder’s Ego: Pride vs Impact
How I got my startup, Wellnez. Acquired super early on to be a part of a bigger company, The Fit Company. Letting go of CEO & Founder title from my startup.
Hi! My name is Raymond. I previously blogged about my journey on building a million-dollar company as maven’s CEO & being an entrepreneur since a considerably young age.
Coming into a company, not as a founder may seem like a questionable thing to do, but it’s not the case for me.
But first, why.
To each of my future partners & team members, I always ask “what’s your life goal”. What is your ultimate “why”.
This will dictate what to do, who to do it with, and how I’m going to do it. As a vision to a company, it’s the blood that keeps you alive and living with purpose.
“If you want to live a happy life. Tie it to a goal, not to people or things”
Ikigai — Reason of Being
There is this Japanese concept called Ikigai, which roughly translate into your “reason for being”. It’s a formula by the Japanese, a secret on Living a long, happy, and fulfilling life.
No one is sure 100%, but before I tell you about my Ikigai. First I will tell you about my life goal…
My life goal summed up in 1 word: Legacy
I personally ask myself. what will I leave behind when i’m dead, what will people remember me by. it certainly won’t just be money.
I want to impact lives, in the way I love and feel I’m good at, through businesses, innovations, and entrepreneurship.
Startups are a hype, Purpose-driven businesses will never die
Most businesses start with trying to solve a problem. If the problem is big enough you’ll be able to scale. And if you are able to solve it, you’ll be able to disrupt and create a lasting impact, hence. legacy.
This is the reason why people build startups, and it’s the reason I built Wellnez with my partner David, as CTO.
We wanted to solve the problem of people not being able to live a healthy lifestyle. We do this by connecting them, with coaches.
It is Wellnez’s why, so it became ours.
This is my way of reaching Ikigai. through purpose-driven business, that creates a positive lasting impact.
It’s more important to us that this business reaches and impact more lives than just money reasons.
Why Health is Wealth
Health & Fitness have been an important part of my life, it teaches discipline and consistency and it gained me the confidence I direly need.
Safe to say I wouldn’t be where I am today without health & fitness. So I wanted to extend that to other people. *ps I was fat.
We ran Wellnez for about 4 months in, bootstrapping with personal money. Although we are able to reach and help a considerable amount of people.
*Some actually thanked us for helping them to get started on their healthy lifestyle.
We were impacting lives… but it’s moving too slow.
To move fast, you HAVE to talk to people.
Like any founder, we began to explore opportunities by talking with other people. Then there is this moment, a Head of Growth of a company called The Fit Company approached us. Looking to chat and explore. *shoutout to you gogor if you’re reading this!
We explored an opportunity to collaborate, just to collaborate. Being the stubborn person I am, I said “let’s explore something deeper”.
He introduced me to his CEO, Jeff. *no, not Jeff Bezos. We talked, and clicked on our vision to help people get healthier. I was gleaming.
First to put into context what their company is…
What is The Fit Company
The company was founded by Jeff Budiman, it’s a holding for some health and fitness brands such as 20Fit, Fitstop, Fitmee, Fitlokal, Kredoaum, and Slim Gourmet.
In the writing of this piece, TFC was the #1 wellness-tech startup that aims to combine multiple facets of wellness in 1 app. Move & Exercises, Eats & Nutrition, Mindfulness, and many more. It was doing well.
But it’s the first time of its inception 5 years ago, to embrace and go fully digital, supported by an initial investment by East Ventures.
The fight of 2 wolves, Idealism vs Realistic
Knowing about my digital innovations & entrepreneurship background. Jeff offered me to join his company instead of running my own. He said
we have the same vision, why not do it together in a bigger company, we’ll create a bigger and more lasting impact that way
Then there is this one thing that keeps bothering me. Gnawing in my head.
It sounds like a good idea, but then it’ll be his company, not mine. His impact, not mine. His legacy. not. mine.
We talked for more than 4 months. discussing this back and forth with my partner David, my CTO. at the point, they suspected that we are just playing around, and not seriously considering this. But we are.
Most founders can’t shake this idealism on running their own company. I never worked for anyone my whole life, would it be good for me? Then it hit me. My why.
Acquired? what about Acquihired
Somehow it hit me about creating lasting impact. The ego on keeping the CEO title will slow down reaching this impact goal. So, we took the leap, talked to Jeff on a final meeting.
We shook on it and sold all Wellnez’s rights to TFC, and took the offer to work on it inside his company. Just like that.
It’s not just a acquisition, it’s acqui-hiring?
Sold it, but we will be working on it, inside The Fit Company. I didn’t ask for any title, not yet. I just wanted to be able to work on the vision properly.
It was like opening a very big faucet completely wide.
We were suddenly working with a very mature team, massively bigger budget, on a considerably big company that had been running 5 years.
Fast forward to 3 months being here. I realized that apart from the digital division, all of the other offline businesses wanted to grow as well.
This is where we started challenging everyone on the business, the organization culture, and more, to grow Innovatively towards the same goal.
Introducing Design Thinking, Challenging Solutions, & Beating the status quo
The first step of creating change & Innovations is to throw everything you think you know about your business, and back to the drawing board.
“What got you here, won’t get you there” — Marshall Goldsmith
It’s a book about change in leadership. But to me, it also encompasses how you should view your business’s journey to growth.
In The Fit Company, 5 years of experience is a strength. But it can also be a weakness. Long-running companies have the tendencies of getting comfortable.
Comfort Kills Growth & Innovations
Coming in familiarising myself with all of the businesses gives perspective on how the organization functions. It’s not doing badly, but it’s not doing amazing as well.
At this writing, I’ve been 3 months in. Touched a lot on the App side of things that we’re working on, but also started to work on the culture change and mindset shift to be more innovative.
What is Innovation in Growth
A Innovations Officer who is really great at their job is going to be able to align business strategy and innovation strategy — embedding innovation in a company’s DNA. This strategy should create a roadmap for the future of the company as it relates to new products, company culture, and more.
New Products, New Ideas. Everyone loves that word, but it don’t mean jack if you can’t execute. It’s first a change of mindset, a way of thinking. It’s what I felt I needed to do in this company. So I asked for the title.
“It’s just a title” but it encompasses what I love to contribute in this company.
Is it a Downgrade?
to some, it may. To me, it’s ripping apart my CEO & Founder title, but...
“We aim to impact 250 millions lives by a few years”
“We aim to make coaches a highly regarded job”
is 2 of the mission statement here at The Fit Company, and I believe, We will. There is this level of satisfaction in the work we’re doing, a lasting impact that will forever be remembered by the people in Indonesia. I’m sold.
The Journey Conundrum
There is no wrong journey for anyone. I personally wanted to create a lasting impact, that will, in turn, be my legacy. Truth be told, it came as a realization that I don’t need to be or have a CEO title to get there. Could I be wrong?
What if I didn’t take the job, and ran Wellnez as is. And it became a billion-dollar startup if I ran it myself. Who knows. frankly, no one.
“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it” ― Buddha
I’m super excited for this next journey. Rooting in the front line on The Fit Company’s Success. Their success is my success.
Their Legacy will also be our legacy.
Signing off
Innovations & Growth is a buzzword because people overuse it so much. Truth be told, a company shouldn’t have dedicated Innovations Officer. Because I believe everyone even the lowest workers needs to have an innovative mindset to get where we’re going.
Nevertheless, we will be doing something big, something new, something that has never been done before, in all aspects of wellness. AND execute correctly.
As to my Ikigai
What I Love: Building Businesses
What I’m Good at: Driving Innovations
What I’m Paid for: Innovations Officer
What the World Needs: Value & Solutions
My Ikigai is about adding value & solutions to people through businesses and innovations.
In conclusion, it comes to my realization that I don’t need to hold on the idealism and pride as a founder to reach my Ikigai, which what should matter in people’s lives.
Impact & Legacy > Pride & Title
To this journey, I found mine. what’s yours.
Cheers, Raymond Chin
VP Product & Growth at The Fit Company
thefit.company
