This week we are joined by Joe Khoo of iStore iSend, which is a holistic end-to-end e-fulfilment company providing Warehousing-as-a-Service (WaaS) solutions, serving more than 1,000 businesses across 6 different countries, as of this recording.
This was a great conversation as we touched on some great milestones in the Founder journey, including a pivot which meant turning away 90% of revenue. The Company has evolved and grown across the region with a constant focus on optimizing processes and driving efficiencies for themselves and their clients. A truly impressive story of a Malaysian company going global.
I’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Joe Khoo. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone that you’d like to hear me speak to, drop me a message.
Listen now on Apple, Spotify, Google, Overcast, Pocket Casts, and YouTube.
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Where to find Joe Khoo:
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-khoo-49a41293/
• iStore iSend: https://www.istoreisend.com/
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Where to hear more from The Indelible VC:
• Newsletter: https://insights.indelible.vc
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/IndelibleVc
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kbrockland/
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In this episode, we cover:
[01:38] Origins of the entrepreneurial journey among childhood friends. Recognizing the boom in e-commerce was coming to Southeast Asia which led to targeting logistics.
[3:40] Breaking the taboo of logistics among family who had an outdated view of the industry.
[5:03] Shifting the business from what it became towards what they originally intended. They dropped 90% of their revenue to make this shift.
[10:42] Technology focus in building the business and to optimize the human labor component and the space component.
[13:35] Expanding their business model to Warehousing as a Service, leading them towards an expansion to 29 warehouses across 6 countries.
[18:11] Two founders, without background in logistics, focused on optimizing the process by dissecting each part into components and modules. This enabled them to design a process that optimized efficiency of labor and space.
[22:47] Overcoming the hurdles of commercializing internally developed software.
[30:54] Growth of an organization’s headcount, the “Founder’s Playground”, and from multiple hats to specialized
[38:14] Defining success for the organization
[41:52] What are the metrics that guide if they are on track
[44:47] Closing questions
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