At the age of 19, Mandy Chan started her company. And in just three days on Kickstarter, she managed to fully fund the company’s first product, the Quiver Bag. Now, having overcome waves of obstacles, her company is worth millions.
At The Breakfast Huddle, Elliott Danker and Bharati Jagdish spoke to Mandy Chan, founder of The Bold Company, about their experiences building the company and the challenges they faced.
Bharati Jagdish: Tell us more about your trip. As far as I know, The Bold Company – a local athleisure brand – was first launched on a crowdfunding platform with the Quiver Bag. What exactly gave you the instinct to do this?
Mandy Chan: A lot of it started when I was in Junior College (JC). I organized an entrepreneurial symposium and met my mentor there, who offered me an internship where I could create marketing materials and even pitch in front of people who are twice their age. Then I noticed something else; between working in a start-up and what I saw at home – my father dragged himself to work every day.
I had another internship at another start-up and again I noticed something interesting. The start-up’s founders were always the first to get to the office and the last to leave, but they were always happy and excited when it came to their work. It was an obsession. They were so excited about what they were doing that they couldn’t stop talking about it. It wasn’t the work situation I was used to at home and I really wanted to go in.
At this point, I also received a letter of offer from the SMU, but instead decided to pursue entrepreneurship full-time. So I did a year in between. It was a gut decision and I figured I didn’t have much to lose other than a year and my savings, which at the time were probably $ 1,000.
Elliott Danker: How did you differentiate The Bold Company from potential competitors? I am sure you have received a lot of pressure from people stressing the importance of standing out.
Mandy: It was essentially a solution to a problem I faced at the time. Whenever I was at the gym, I always left my toiletries behind after I finished showering. And if I were to put all of my toiletries in a duffel bag, I risk spilling shampoo on the contents of my bag. So it was a niche problem that I solved, and that made me stand out.
Bharati: I’m sure you have a lot of global competitors too. What are you doing to differentiate yourself in the industry that is booming in this Covid-19 era?
Mandy: For us it was mainly about getting in contact with our audience. For example, at the beginning of Circuit Breaker (CB) last year, when everyone was in a lockdown, we managed to hire many fitness influencers to do live workouts on our channel. And that was just one way to communicate with the community.
It’s also about listening to our consumers and customers. We treated them as friends, talked to them and found out what they like about our product. Essentially, it was all of these real reactions that made us different in our product creation process.
ALSO READ: She is 24 and has a $ 2.5 million mark
Elliott: What were the challenges of starting a business at a young age?
Mandy: The most memorable incident for me was when I was traveling to China and age became an obvious problem. When I stood in front of the factory door, they greeted me until they found out I was the founder.
They soon started asking me about my business plan, assuming I was just fooling around and turning me off production by offering me really exorbitant prices. They mentioned that they were dealing with high end customers and not usually entertaining “little fish / fish rolls” like me.
Bharati: How did you overcome this challenge in the end?
Mandy: I knew that manufacturers would rather see big numbers and I presented them with what they wanted. I told them that I plan to produce 10,000 units and I need a sample first. I also dressed like I meant business. You can’t just appear in a t-shirt and jeans, which I did at first thinking they wouldn’t care.
But at some point you will find someone who believes in you. After searching over ten factories, we found one that took our risk and produced our first batch of bags. Of course we had to make the full payment, but at least they were willing to give us a smaller amount than we needed.
Listen to the full podcast to find out how Mandy’s entrepreneurial journey has benefited from the Made With Passion mentoring program and how it has overcome the effects of Covid-19 on the industry.
Download the podcast.
This article was first published in MONEY FM 89.3.
