Archive for Asia

Robert Felder

Modern Fashion: Robert Felder of Bearbottom On The 5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful Fashion Brand Today | by Authority Magazine Editorial Staff | Authority Magazine | MediumWhere most of us think of entrepreneurship as this world where we constantly come up with first-world ideas, one person went to a third-world place for innovation. Robert Felder’s story embodies not just innovation but also empathy. His journey began in high school with a transformative trip to South Asia, where he saw that while Bangladesh being a major apparel manufacturer, its people lacked basic clothing, and this deeply affected him. When he came home to the humid Florida winter, he couldn’t find any shorts he liked. These experiences became the driving force behind the company he founded right out of high school, Bearbottom.

Felder’s vision for Bearbottom extended far beyond profits. He aimed to bridge the gap between abundance and need. “The fact that they were producing millions of garments right there and the kids just outside didn’t have any clothing on just stuck in my mind,” he said. With this resolve, he ensured ethical working conditions for his partners and initiated a unique approach: communities that helped produce Bearbottom’s garments also benefited from them.Robert Felder unloading boxes of clothes inside container truck

When asked what he thought the five most important things you needed to lead a successful brand were, Felder responded with curiosity, a strong team, long-term thinking, a detail-oriented mindest, and hard work. Curiosity is essential for a brand to grow and improve, a strong team is needed to support your business goals, and that team needs to be thinking five, ten, even twenty years into the future in order to build a strong brand. Felder also believes in the saying “the sum is only as good as its parts” and says that focusing on details is critical when it comes to growing success. He finally understands that working hard is the key to being successful and believes that is what separates the great from the good.

Bearbottom has become a symbol of socially responsible entrepreneurship. Felder’s dedication to uplifting communities, combined with genuine partnerships, sets a powerful example. His story illustrates that business success isn’t just about financial gains—it’s about creating positive change. Robert Felder and Bearbottom remind us that entrepreneurship, when driven by empathy and vision, can transform lives and inspire a better, more compassionate world.

Sundara

Erin Zakis is the founder of Sundara, a company that recycles used bars of soap from hotels and redistributes them to people in India, Uganda, and Myanmar. This year she began expanding the company to Haiti and Jordan. It all began when she took a trip to Thailand and was shocked to find that teenagers had never seen soap before- they were so confused by this new thing they even tried to eat it! This was a huge wake-up call to Erin which inspired her a few years down the road to enter a LinkedIn for Good pitch competition where she ended up winning $10,000. With this money, she moved to India and immediately began making her vision a reality. Erin works with large hotel chains on a fee for service model. The hotels pay her company to pick up their trash with the soaps separated out, then it is taken to a recycling facility. Sundara hires widows, domestic violence victims, single mothers, and other women as community hygiene ambassadors to raise awareness in these countries where soap is an abstract concept. In this way, Erin Zakis has united her passion to help others with her entrepreneurial skills. Not only does she bring life-saving hygiene to over 100,000 people each month, but she empowers disadvantaged women by providing employment.

Jack Ma and Alibaba

Jack Ma: Founder of Alibaba

Jack Ma’s story of rags-to-riches as a young man from China is one of the most inspiring entrepreneurial stories there is. Ma was born in Hangzhou, China to a poor household. As a young boy Ma always wanted to learn English, because he sensed that the language would one day be important on a national level. After failing two entrance exams, Ma ultimately made it to college and graduated from Hangzhou Teacher’s Institute and Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. Ma then worked as an english teacher at a university prior to launching his entrepreneurial career.

Upon visiting America in 1995, Ma discovered the Internet and was in awe at the potential of the World Wide Web. Ma also noticed the rise in popularity of online selling by American companies, and realized that China did not have anything similar. After returning to China, Ma became inspired by what he saw in America and drew up a plan to create a Chinese e-commerce company, which he called, “Chinapage.”

After a failed attempt at growing Chinapage to the scale and power that Ma wanted, he left the company and took a job in the Chinese government. Ma made many connections in the government, but still had a grand vision for creating an e-commerce company in China, and left his government job in 1999 to start Alibaba. Ma’s goal was to create a company that would empower small and medium businesses in China to facilitate international trade without the intervention of the government. Ma was initially denied by silicon valley investors before receiving funding from both Softbank and Goldman Sachs to help fund Alibaba. After many years of Alibaba remaining non profitable, the company’s business model prevailed and the company overtook eBay as the largest e-commerce site in China.

While Alibaba faced many challenges throughout its history, the company was able to overcome those challenges to become china’s largest e-commerce site and one of the largest in the world. Alibaba faced lack of funding, slow growth, lack of an international appeal, and much more. In an interview, Ma stated: “Instead of learning from other people’s success, learn from their mistakes. Most of the people who fail share common reasons(to fail) whereas success can be attributed to various different kinds of reasons.” This is incredibly profound, as one of the most important lessons entrepreneurs are taught is that failure is ok. Ma exemplifies what it means to show perseverance, entrepreneurship, innovation, and creativity. I learned from reading about Ma that failure is ok, and that you might have to fail many times before you succeed. I also learned how important it is to show perseverance, and trust in your business plan.

China’s ‘Mark Zuckerbergs’

Personal branding

29-year-old Leo Chen, also known as Chen Ou, has kept a high profile through his charismatic personal branding.Leo Chen, co-founder and CEO of Jumei.com, the first China-based cosmetics group-buying site made himself his company’s public face. The handsome young man has not only starred in a popular online commercial for his company but has also appeared on billboards and various TV shows. He has also kept a high profile by remaining active in social media.

“I endorse my own brand because I think a company’s reputation and value is indelibly linked to that of its leader. The CEO naturally becomes the company’s public face,” he said.

The young entrepreneur also believes that he has an insight into the company’s target female consumers.

“Why do I sell cosmetics to women? Because I believe women like to make themselves look good for people who appreciate them. So men’s opinions are important in women’s choice of cosmetics,” Chen said.His site has ascended to become one of China’s top cosmetics e-tailers through this blanket promotional strategy. The budgeted personal branding, as Chen said, has saved his company about 100 million yuan in advertising expenses.

Leo Chen studied in Singapore from the age of 16. In 2005 during his last year at Nanyang Technological University, he founded Garena, now one of the world’s largest online game platforms. Later he received an MBA from Stanford, sold Garena, and moved his business focus to China.

Initially a cosmetics group-buying site, Jumei.com has grown into a major B2C (business to customer) platform for cosmetics.But before Chen established the site in 2010, he and two other co-founders, both male, had no experience in e-commerce, or in the selling women’s cosmetics.

http://bj.jumei.com/

 

Essmart

Jackie Stenson is opening stores all over southern India to help people gain access to important household items. Jackie is a co-founder of Essmart and currently runs the American side of operations. Essmart was founded because Jackie and Diana (co-founder and over operations in India) noticed that the people of India lacked access to basic items. Among the items that Essmart provides are: clean water, lighting–including solar lighting options, and cooking equipment. Essmart is a great example of a modern social enterprise. I could not find a mantra so here is their mission statement. Essmart’s mission statement is to bring essential, life-improving products to all people, no matter who they are or where they’re from. They are really doing some amazing things for the people that they are reaching! Nothing that I can write can do them justice, please check out all the things that they provide to people in need Essmart.

The Offline Search Engine

Deepak Ravindran, the co-founder of “Innov”, has created the offline Google for the billions of “dumb-phone” users around the world.  Innov is an automated artificial intelligence that receives SMS (text messages) from subscribed users and then replies via text message with the information asked for.

innov

Innov plugs the gap for people who have phones, but have no internet access.  Deepak created Innov with the dream of giving people access to information in a simple and affordable way.  In developing Innov Deepak said, ” We don’t want to be another Internet company competing with Android, or any other OS.  We just want to provide a solution for all of us to bring the Internet to the people that don’t have it.”

Innov offers an affordable monthly subscription plan of 30 rupees per month, which is less than one US dollar.  This plan offers dumb-phone users full access to the offline web.  Deepak launched Innov in India, however today they are operating in seven different countries.  “More than 120 million users have tried the service around the world so far,” says Deepak. “We’re focusing on developing nations – we want to be the Google for the developing world.”

Deepak’s innovation and goals as an entrepreneur are inspiring.  He saw a problem, people having cell phones with no internet access, and found a simple yet innovative way to solve the problem.  Not only has his business been successful, but it has brought about social change for good, bringing information to groups of people who before have no access to the internet.

Vivy Yusof, the Malaysian Fashion Entrepreneur

Young Vivy Yusof built a Southeast Asia fashion e-commerce site from nothing but a frustrating shopping experience and a personal blog. After returning from studying in London, Vivy and her husband had the idea to bring online shopping to Malaysia after driving in heavy traffic from shop to shop in the rain. They started Fashion Valet in 2010 with a capital of MYR100,000 (about $24,000), 10 designers and 20 staff. In just six years, the business grew to include over 500 brands and hundreds of staff with offices in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Jakarta.

Vivy attributes the business’ success to her thousands of followers on her personal blog and social media accounts. “They were my only customers when we first started,” she said. This gave them an edge against their competition once big competitors moved into Malaysia. However, no startup is perfect – Fashion Valet tried to beat their competition at their own game and made the crucial mistake of lowering their standards of what they sold. This affected their brand identity, but Vivy and her husband went back to their roots and rebounded from the mistake. Their focus is on a direct and affordable connection to local designers and personal connections with their customers. Recently, they’ve opened up a retail location, specializing in offering fashionable hijabs. Fashion Valet has had some major investments from Malaysian internet company MY EG and Silicon Valley’s Elixir Capital, enabling Vivy to search for more collaborations with designers and celebrities to continue to grow their business.

Want to learn more about Vivy’s journey as an entrepreneur? Check out her personal blog where it all began.