After graduating from Cambridge with an engineering degree, Ian Fong went to work for two different entrepreneurs to open more than 10 cafes (and to close down several, too). After cutting his teeth learning from the bosses, Ian set out to do yet again something atypical; Ian decided to go knocking on old tailors' doors in a run-down building reminiscent of Cyberpunk to start a trendy, custom tailor, and for over 8 years, Ian turned the head on the sleepy, un-user-friendly tailor experience. Ian now builds beautiful custom keyboards and coffee gear through his brand, Brazen Studio. Ian shows us the power of solving for your own problems through your business, no-to-low-cost market validation testing, and tackling niches that require little marketing budget.
Get a 10% discount (valid until Nov 30) with code EPW10 on https://www.brazenstudio.co/
Chapters
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:01:55) What I Learned Working for Entrepreneurs At First
(00:02:39) Solving My Own Problem of Shirts Never Fitting
(00:06:22) Simplifying Tailoring to Make It More Approachable
(00:07:56) Finding & Retaining Talent as the Biggest Problem
(00:10:13) Hustling Door-to-Door to Find OG "Old Guy," The First Tailor
(00:13:20) The Infectiousness of Passion & How It Brings a Team Together
(00:14:52) Facing Doubts & Hearing Doubts From Other People
(00:18:34) Being Well-Rounded: Creative Eye x Technical Skills
(00:20:37) Closing Down CUFFS After 8 Years
(00:23:07) I Almost Opened a Pizza Shop
(00:24:03) Posting Terrazzo Keyboard Design on Reddit & Going Viral
(00:28:00) Learning from Zappos' Tony Hsieh: Would you be doing it in 10 years if you didn't make any Money from it?
(00:31:12) My Successful Traits: Being a Jack of All Trades & Being Scrappy. Areas of Improvement: Scaling a Business
(00:32:37) Keyboard & Coffee Niches Mean Fewer Marketing Dollars
(00:36:03) Influencers Help Us Target the Niche with Fewer Marketing Dollars
(00:38:01) brazenstudio.co, IG: @brazenstudio, @brazenworkshophk
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