MBA Connect
February 2015
MBA Connect Story:
Re-joining MBA Course as an Entrepreneur
Wayne Chan, Part-time Class of 2013
Led by Prof. Wilton Chau, four current MBA students and an alumnus participated in The mai Bangkok Business Challenge @Sasin 2015 held on Feb 12-14. After rounds of battles, they were awarded the Finalist prize among 48 universities and the Best Presentation of the Group. Mr. Wayne Chan, graduated from our Weekend MBA Program in 2013, rejoined our MBA class again as an entrepreneur and worked hand in hand with the students on investment pitching and business case competition. We have invited Wayne to share his interesting story with us in this issue.


My First Fundraising Experience

It is my dream to start up my own business, so I selected the entrepreneurship concentration in my MBA study. The experience in the fundraising course taught by Prof. Wilton Chau was unforgettable and remarkable. I participated in this course in September 2012 and our team has burnt midnight oils in a couple of weeks to complete the business plan and the proposal. All our technical and commercial knowledge were engaged for preparing the Q&A section and presentation. However, it was not enough – during the Business Model Clinic, Prof. Chau has sharply pointed out our problems and suggested new directions that we needed to work on. Despite draining tremendous amount of my time and energy, this was a marvelous course and it equipped me with essential skills to set up my own business.
Re-joining the Course in 2014 as an Entrepreneur

After graduation, I started my owned business in June 2014. Capital is limited, so I had to grasp as many resources as possible to speed up the project. In a casual occasion, I discussed with Prof. Chau my project status and he has kindly offered to put my business project in the Pan-Asia Venture Development Platform (PAVD), then students of the fundraising course could choose my project and provide consultancy on its business model and fundraising strategies.

After several meetings with different teams, my project was selected to be one of the “re-modelling” subjects in the course. This brilliant and hard-working team has come up with many innovative and revolutionary ideas to refine the existing product features with the provision of concrete research proofs to support the underlying technologies. On the other hand, a viable business model supplemented with inspiring marketing campaigns was also derived to bring the product into the market for future revenues. Their presentation to the PAVD judge panel in November 2014 was clear and convincing, along with a promising financing plan and detailed development roadmap. As a result, we have drawn a couple of investors’ interests after the presentation.

In my opinion, the main difference between being a student and a project owner in the course is the attitude. When I was a student, I could not fully understand the real situation of the project company because I treated it as a part-time assignment. My mindset was not aligned with the business owner’s. When I became a project owner, I recognized the core needs of my company and more specifically knowing how the team could assist me in achieving the ultimate success.
Participating in the “mai Bangkok Business Challenge @Sasin 2015”

My original intentions to join the mai Bangkok Business Challenge in February 2015 were to get the recognition from leading entrepreneurs, professionals and investors, to explore my distribution network in Southeast Asia and to connect with some VCs in Thailand. When we were setting up the booth in the competition venue, we got a chance to chat with other participating teams and realized we had underestimated the situation: the rival teams were from various prestigious universities across the globe (e.g. Cornell, Northwestern - Kellogg, NCTU Taiwan). Also, the competition was of highest national standard in Thailand -- the awards would be presented by the King of Thailand!

All in a sudden, we were facing tons of stress from the presentation and Q&A session. Under Prof. Chau’s advices, we worked until midnight to prepare a lot of information and to fine-tune our presentation slides. Although we won the Best Presentation Award in our group, we could not enter the final round at our first attempt. Fortunately, we won again in the play-off round and got the ticket for the final round. In the final presentations, other international teams did outstanding jobs -- their technological knowledge, communication skills, and thorough preparation let us reflect on our own performance.

From this event I have broadened my views in case competitions and gained valuable experience in preparing elevator speech, business plans and fundraising presentations. In addition, the Q&A skills I learnt allowed me to mitigate the misunderstandings by the judges and investors. Without all these “practices” in the MBA fundraising courses and the business case competition, I would have sacrificed a lot of time and money to gain the above knowledge and experience on my own.

Some Thoughts on Entrepreneurship

It is always easy to be motivated by different reasons – dream, future, family or money – to go onto the entrepreneurial path. Nevertheless, it is not as straight-forward as it looks like. It requires a significant adjustment of a person’s attitude and mindset. Unexpected challenges emerge everyday and the start-up owner is solely responsible for all financial and operational decisions that lay impacts on the company business, or even other aspects of his life such as family, full-time job, friendship, etc,.

But one should not give up easily. Give yourself a chance to germinate your idea when it appears. Intriguingly, disclosing your start-up business to everyone around you may help you in a surprising way. Some people may be shy to announce their own start-up, afraid of telling others that they are “losing money”. I believe opportunities are for those who are well-prepared. When you announce your start-up business, your listeners may be your future customers or may bring you helpful connections. You never know.

For those who would like to start your own business: dare to face the challenges and dare to envision how far your company can take you to from the current position. Take control of your own resources and let’s embark on the entrepreneurial journey!
MBA Programs, CUHK Business School
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
14/F, Cheng Yu Tung Building, 12 Chak Cheung St., Shatin, Hong Kong
Tel: (852) 3943 7782 | Fax: (852) 2603 6289
Email:cumba@cuhk.edu.hk | www.cuhk.edu.hk/mba