Beyond Entrepreneurship Forum: To step beyond convention, to think beyond short term profit, to consider beyond local market...

The laid-back and relaxing ambiance at the Harbour Plaza Metropolis Hotel gave way to the hustle and bustle brought by a unique event "Beyond Entrepreneurship Forum: How to develop an innovation-driven venture" organized by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. As a huge success, the event on 24th October drew around 300 aspiring young entrepreneurs and founders of start-up companies. Among them were supportive alumni and students from the University as well as a group of over 40 investors and entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley on their global tours for cross-border business opportunities who are collectively known as "Geeks on a Plane".

The half-day forum brought together elite entrepreneurs and business owners to share their tips on how to start and sustain a business that is innovation-driven, and connect young entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs-to-be with the resources, mentors, and business connections. The Forum began with keynote speeches by two founders of successful technology start-ups: Silicon Valley techno-preneur Mr Jonathan Siegel and PolyU alumnus Dr Johnny Ng.

Jonathan from the Geeks on a Plane is a venture partner at Accel Partners and the founder of multiple successful companies, including ELC Technologies, one of the most experienced mobile, cloud and web application developers worldwide. He is now advisor to a number of cloud technology companies and also an angel investor. Having gone through the bumpy ride of starting his own businesses, he is passionate about supporting young entrepreneurs and sharing his experience. At the Forum, instead of sharing secrets to entrepreneurial success which everybody was expecting, he surprised the audience with "Jonathan’s Failure". To him, failure was a valuable experience; it was something he has never anticipated with the seeds for successful business at his disposal, including a team of seasoned professionals, technical expertise and funding. According to Jonathan, the key to profitable business is "to know your numbers well", in other words, to base decision on good accounting with accurate projection on both prices and costs. It will be a no-go if the costs of acquiring a customer outweigh the customer lifetime value.

Jonathan's next key factor for success is with a failure plan on hand, that is, to be prepared to close down when the business keeps turning a loss. In order to do that, he suggested the aspiring entrepreneurs to set targets and milestones which allow them to review actual performance against their targets in a sensible and systematic way. "If you’re not making enough money to keep you going, it's time to cut lost and say goodbye," Jonathan emphasized that in the early days, he had once put his blood, sweat and tears in creating a new product but he ended up realizing there were better and cheaper competitions available in the market. Therefore, he made a decisive action by dropping the product immediately. He was glad as he was able to launch a new product six weeks later, which became so successful that it was eventually being acquired.

Jonathan also pointed out a risk factor that has rarely been considered: Family. The risk involved in having one’s own business may be too much for worrying parents. Parents are usually very protective of their children and they just hope that their children to have a steady income. Jonathan suggested, "To strike out on your own, you have to be open-minded and think out of the box." According to Jonathan, the recipe for success is to be passionate, hardworking, and "skin in the game". "You really have to give all of yourself to that and enjoy it along the way," he said.

The next to share his story of "blood, sweat and tears" was Dr. Johnny Ng, founder of Goldford Venture, a Greater China concept venture firm focused on early stage opportunities in TMT (Technology, Media, Telecom), education, and healthcare industries. Graduated in 1996 with First Honour in BEng of Manufacturing Engineering, he was selected as a "Teaching Company Associate" under "Teaching Company Scheme". This allowed him to pursue his doctorate degree while gaining practical experience in a manufacturing company. With good training and excellent learning and research facility offered by PolyU, Johnny developed his full potential which served him well later in his own business. Together with two other talented young men, he started a new company with merely $15,000 and with an idea "to work on something they are interested and put our knowledge into good use", a simple dream that has never been easy.

As many self-made businessmen did, Johnny and his partners built everything from scratch. With tiny capital and zero income, his new venture funding ran out quickly after a couple of months. When they were about to give up, the tide turned. They won a tender from the HKSAR Government's Education Bureau to develop educational software for school children. Their product stood out from the intense competitions and won over trust from the client. Since then, Johnny won many accolades including "Ten Outstanding Young Digi Person" in 2000 and "Innovative Entrepreneur of Year 2003". And most importantly, Johnny has proven his belief right: "with knowledge and expertise, everything is possible".

Johnny also believed that it is the innovation in core technology or in a product that brings true value to customers. To turn a business into a success, he suggested to keep eyes on long-term instead of immediate rewards, which produces a drive for reliable products and services. He emphasized that it takes time to build up credibility and a strong reputation, which makes a business truly grow and sustain. "Don't forget about the power of a strong business network. A successful entrepreneur must learn to make the most of their precious time," Johnny commented.

Following Johnny's speech were two experience sharing panel discussions from local entrepreneurs and GOAP respectively. The Forum concluded with an interactive co-creation session where participants were actively involved in the discussion on how to build a more vibrant ecosystem for nurturing more innovative and high impact entrepreneurs in Hong Kong. One of the participants Mr. Choi pointed out that the local innovative entrepreneurs should be ready to tap into the huge market in the Chinese mainland and be part of the phenomenal growth.

Beyond Entrepreneurship Forum is one of the signature programmes in the "PolyU Entrepreneurship Parade" this year which is an initiative of the University to cultivate a "Do-well Do-good" entrepreneurship culture among PolyU students and graduates, and to nurture socially responsible entrepreneurs and leaders of tomorrow. Special thanks were given to a number of organisations for their support of the event, including AIESEC, BizTechDay, Geeks on a Plane, Make a Difference, Right Ventures, The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, and Youth Business Hong Kong.