Innovations can happen all over the globe, with talented minds coming from every country. In Singapore Sui Rui Quek started Carousell. Basically the Singapore equivalent of eBay, Carousell allows its users to sell whatever they want. It has now facilitated over 50 million transactions. The story all started in Silicon Valley, as many tech start up stories tend to do, when Sui Rui Quek met his two roomates. They all went to Stanford and realized they have a lot in common. This trio of roommates sought to make online selling easier with just three quick steps: snap, list, and sell. They also incorporated a messaging system into the process, making it easier for seller to communicate with buyer. They made their focus on selling used items that people no longer wanted. This innovation re-imagined the way people sell their unwanted goods. 
At one point the group was offered $100 million dollars to sell their idea. They refused knowing that they could take the app further than their wildest dreams with hard work and dedication. It proved to be a smart decision not to sell because the company is worth $500 million today. Although it was a compelling offer they knew that the company had not reached its full potential. With new innovations happening like this, coming out of every country across the world there is no saying what the future will hold. It is important to be looking at all places for innovations and ideas.
I loved their perserverance and they belief in themselves to not give up to early. Their idea wasn’t relatively new but they found a way to reach their customers needs better than the other competitors and it obviously paid off and grew to something that they never thought possible.
I love that they realized the worth of their company and their idea and ended up growing their worth by $400 million! I think a lot of entrepreneurs are too quick to sell their business to the first big offer they see, when they could put in even more to grow it.
Pretty interesting. I thought you were going to say that they sold out to Let Go because it sounds exactly like that. I have never heard of them but this is a cool story. Entrepreneurs need that intuition and gut feeling when negotiating. Sometimes they’ll make more money if they give up equity to an investor than if they didn’t take the deal. Or sometimes investors might be too greedy and you might be able to double sales in a year. Sometimes you should cash in and take the money now. Other times you hold out and continue building the business because you feel like it could make you more money. This is a good example of that.
It’s so cool to see how these guys took a previously developed idea, and tweaked it to fit inside a new marketplace. The fact that they put their heart and soul into this business and it paid off is something that’s really awesome to see. Really great story of innovation and perseverance!