Founders Friday – Sei Wee Kek
This Friday, we are excited to feature Sei Wee, CEO & co-founder of IoTalents.
About Sei Wee
Before IoTalents, Sei Wee founded IOT Global, a boutique consulting firm that specializes in technology services, and partnered with leading software companies to serve the commercial and government sectors, While building his first business, hiring and talent management remains the number one business concern.
Like any other entrepreneur who sees opportunities in problems, Sei Wee co-founded IoTalents in 2015 to make a difference in the recruitment industry through HR tech.
Sei Wee holds a Master of Science in Manufacturing Systems and Technology from the Singapore-MIT Alliance, as well as a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering with a Minor in Technopreneurship from the National University of Singapore (NUS).
About IoTalents
IoTalents is a HR Tech start up providing an integrated platform for online hirers and IT workforce (Employees, Contract workers and Virtual Talents) to get intelligently connected and transacted.
Combining human judgment together with data science and technology (profiling technologies, algorithmic matching and talent mapping), IoTalents delivers niche candidates in a prompt and professional fashion.
IoTalents is immensely passionate about the contingent workforce trend and believes that the exploding shared economy of global IT talents will reshape the workforce of the future.
In one sentence, how would you summarise your journey so far
What has been the most satisfying aspect of entrepreneurship for you?
What do you feel is the essential quality a startup founder must have?
What advice would you have for someone contemplating leaving the corporate world to be an entrepreneur?
S: Have a realistic expectation on why you are in it. Entrepreneurship is a marathon and not a sprint, being able to sustain the business and grow it is key. One will need to have a working business model. There are many ways to mitigate the risks involved, of course, such as finding a good co-founder.
One needs to look beyond the surface of success in entrepreneurship and understand that a lot of hard work goes into the journey. Things will not always go smoothly. It is very important to find good help and support along the way. Having good mentors you can rely on for sound advice is very important and I am thankful for the people that have helped me along this journey.
How did you acquire your first customers?
What was the biggest challenge you faced in scaling your sales?
What aspects were the most important when building your team?
If you had to build your team again, what would you do differently?
“Our recruitment service, called the HR Concierge, provides personalized value-added Staffing & Executive search services to our clients, helping them find the best IT talent possible. As recruitment specialists, our clients gain access to superior candidates. Our recruitment team is our own test bed for the technology we built. Like a good chef, we don’t serve food we wouldn’t eat ourselves!”
What are some tips you have for investor pitching?
S:
Prepare, Prepare, Prepare. Being fully prepared alone may not land you that investor funding, but I’m almost certain that not being prepared will cause you to fail.
Being clear on one’s vision, problem statement, solution, market size, go to market plan, use of funding in the execution plan, performance metrics, burn rates, payback period, etc. will go far in making an investor comfortable and bring the discussion forward.
Staying open, honest and authentic will bring you far. Investors invest in people and the team, and by being honest, this builds trust with the investor.
According to your investors, what sets you apart from other startups?
S: We are in a very unique position, in the sense that we are both an HR Technology company and a Staffing & Recruitment Services company. Usually, you will find one or the other, but we are in both spaces. This gives us the advantage of having more industry verticals to grow into – we can have growth from the recruitment agency side, and also the HR technology side. I think that is something that attracted our investors. Most importantly, they believe in our vision and mission to make recruitment as easy and painless as possible for hirers and candidates alike.
Any other words of wisdom that you would like to share?
S: “Genius is 1 percent inspiration, and 99 percent perspiration” and this is coming from someone as accomplished as Thomas Edison. Timing, perseverance and years of trying is what makes one look like an overnight success.
Stay tuned for next week's episode of Founders Friday
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