Fan Bi: Founder of Blank Label

It’s not what you know or who you know, but who knows you. Susan RoAne

Having a strong network is important in the business world. But, it's even more important if you aim to be an entrepreneur. Having a strong network is only the start, though. Entrepreneurs should perpetually be working on growing their network. You never know what new contact can help you take your business to the next level or introduce you to someone in media who can get your business more exposure. The reasons go on, as you can imagine.

An undergraduate at Simmons College recently asked me how I started and gradually began to know a lot of people in the community. I explained to her that its quite simple and networking events are a great way to start. As a college student myself, I've come to realize that this is the perfect time to start, even if you aren't starting a company. 

Here are 7 networking tips to help you get started in Boston: Continue Reading...

We may well discover that the business failure we avoid and the business success we strive for do not lead us to personal success at all. Most of us have inherited notions of ‘success’ from someone else or have arrived at these notions by facing a seemingly endless line of hurdles extending from grade school through college and into our careers. We constantly judge ourselves against criteria that others have set and rank ourselves against others in their game. Randy Komisar

As we profiled before, Babson's Summer Venture Program produced 17 undergrad startups and 6 MBA startups. With the growing trend of college startups and entrepreneurs, it begs the question; why are these students starting companies?Continue Reading...

Over the past few months, I’ve explored a bunch of different ways to develop a website without a web developer on the Blank Label team. To summarize My coding capabilities are almost non-existent, we don’t have an in-house expertise, we don’t have the money to pay for a developer, and have struggled to bring developers on board. However, we've learned several lessons, gathered some advice, and now have a couple of suggestions and better plan in place.

Let me give you the run down of what we tried, what lessons we learned, and what we recommend to others in a similar position.Continue Reading...

It should be hardly surprising that you find me criticizing about the lack of support for the growing trend of college entrepreneurship if you've read my previous post, The Grey Entrepreneur. There are going to be seismic social changes which will be great opportunity with the increasing supply of student entrepreneurs in the market.

Education is far too archaic and bureaucratic to make the paradigm changes necessary. And this is coming from a student attending Babson College, the number one ‘ranked’ school for entrepreneurship. As good as they are, the Y-Combinator’s ,TechStars  and DreamIt Ventures  aren’t big enough to cover or assist the growing number of young, first-time entrepreneurs. [Here's a directory of other start-up incubators.]Continue Reading...

We just rented an office for $400 or $500 a month -- some really tiny little office in Palo Alto. [It] was cheaper than an apartment. And then [we] bought futons that converted into a couch, which was sort of like a meeting area during the day. We would sleep there at night and shower at the YMCA, which was just a few blocks away. That was [an] extremely low burn rate. [It was] way cheaper than a garage. Garages are ... expensive. So we were able to ... putter along for several months until we got venture funding. - Elon Musk

Ever since reading the Knowledge at Wharton article , (which was actually covered by a previous College Mogul post on burn rates,) I've spent quite some time analyzing the correlation between affluent student entrepreneurs and their rates of success. Specifically in comparison with student entrepreneurs from more economically unstable backgrounds and their track record. It is of particular interest because what you can extract from the results is the effecitvenss of a just economic distributive system. That is to say, if the students of inherited wealth are using their financial opportunity to increase their chances of entrepreneurial success. A case can be made for a strong capitalist economic system since their success will lead to greater, broader social progress, somewhat borrowing Adam Smith's 'invisible hand'. However if the results instead suggested the wealthier student entrepreneurs were either too entitled or found their motivation too abstract given for the most part they had all the material goods they needed or wanted, then there could be a stronger argument for social redistribution, especially welfare and education funding. Continue Reading...

 "Selling to people who actually want to hear from you is more effective than interrupting strangers who don't." -- Seth Godin

It's terribly frustrating to repeat mistakes, and I definitely agree with the old adage that a failure is a greater lesson learned than a success. One of the things we did really well at MOTM was we caught onto what our consumers wanted really early on. We were lucky in a sense in that the service we offered was adopted without any real push. It is fair to say that our interaction with our consumer was effective. Continue Reading...

Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion. Jack Welch

As an entrepreneur it's important to be aware of certain things that you are good at, and certain areas you have deficiencies. And for young entrepreneurs, especially first-timers, you learn a lot of this in the early stages of your entrepreneurial development. When you write your business plan, you might recognize that the needs of the business are not in line with your skills or the skill set you have in your team.

You have a problem.

Do you try and learn how to program? Do you partner up with a coder? Do you offshore? Do you locally outsource? Or, even search for an intern? I've done all of these, and boy have I learnt some lessons. No matter how simple, be smart about how you use your resources; i.e. your time, money and effort. Continue Reading...

Even previous to this current economic crisis, there has been a strong movement in developed economies for students to more seriously consider the riskier alternative of being entrepreneurial. Before we begin, let me define entrepreneurship as executing innovative solutions to solve real problems. At a glance, this may sound as vague as anything you've read about entrepreneurship. But go back. Read it again. Innovative solutions to real problems. Let's begin.

The economic crisis has proven to be a real catalyst for change. Churchill reminds us; "The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty." My opening suggested there was an issue with risk profile. The resistance towards an entrepreneurial lifestyle was limited by the risk of failure, and the assurance of employment. That given no longer the case, the crisis itself has provided the greatest stimulus.

Why am I focusing on students?Continue Reading...

As I’m traveling on the road with my dad, and I’m explaining to him what I’ve been up to in Boston, at Babson, and with Blank Label. Naturally, I want to explain to him entrepreneurship is a root cause of me choosing Babson, the VC industry in Boston, and why I’m enjoying running Blank Label over and above any work experience I’ve ever had. The difficulty of defining entrepreneurship is something I haven’t really tried to even touch in my previous posts. This difficulty is compounded with the language barrier that exists between dad and I – his limited English and my limited Shanghainese.

The conversation over the last week would range from overpriced tourist sites we had visited, how Chinese food was different (not necessarily better) compared to Western cuisine, but the conversation would naturally turn to how you could better monetize the tourist attractions, or how successfully Asian fusion restaurants had branded themselves. The dialogue would always circle back to business. Dad and I would talk about the things we were trying to do at Blank Label, the innovations our web programmers were developing for our website 2.0 launch, the creative efforts we had made on product differentiation, and the fun things we had done with marketing. He’d also tell me about how things were going on with the business back in Sydney. My parents are green grocers and run a successful shop in a larger fresh produce market. They have been growing the shop, acquiring larger space, hiring more employees and increasing revenue over the last ten years, however they have probably reached some growth constraints without replicating the store at another location.

He then asked a highly profound question, enquiring whether I thought he was an entrepreneur. Continue Reading...

He who knows other is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened. Lao Tzu

Not too long ago, I did a DISC Assessment, and although I did not realize it at the time, it actually has been incredibly beneficial. If you have read any of my other posts, you'll know that they are mostly personal and there is definitely a motif of self-improvement through self-analysis. In the archetype of the journey canon, I have always looked to develop a better understanding of myself.

For those unfamiliar, DISC stands for Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness. I came out as heavily biased in the Influence quadrant. This meant that I gain a lot of meaning from others through talking and activity and tend to be emotional. Definitely mum. A strong 'I' score also lends itself to someone being convincing, magnetic, political, enthusiastic, persuasive, warm, demonstrative, trusting and optimistic. On a macro level, it also represents someone who is extroverted and social as opposed to introverted and task focused. Dad would be disappointed.

Definitely do not take this as a message to run out and go and get DISC Assessment done. It is just merely one suggestion. And something that I have tried and that I have since got a lot of value out of. There are things you know you know, and things you know that you don't know. And most of us exist in these two spheres. But there is a much larger space of knowledge and information that we don't even know we don't know.

Next on my list is genetic testing and genetic counseling.