Earnestness - Foundation of our choice
The Story of a Second-Time Founder - the challenge of starting anew is not just about success or failure. It's about something much deeper - a desire to pursue a dream that will take a lifetime.
Many of my friends and partners have asked me about True's future plans: "Where will True go? What does your go-to-market strategy look like? Where/what/how?" My response has been, "I don't know." Even though I have sought advice from many senior professionals with experience in the global market and SaaS, I cannot say for sure. This isn't to say that their pieces of advice were bad or unhelpful.
My response has left everyone surprised and doubtful about my readiness. It's understandable to be afraid of what we don't know, especially when we haven't won before. The world, including the global market, is one such unknown. When my team started True Platform a couple of months ago, I spent a lot of time researching SaaS players around the world - from Tier 01 countries like the US and UK to Tier 02 countries like India and SEA. Everything has changed significantly compared to seven years ago when we started Base in Vietnam/SEA. The market is expanding rapidly and becoming more competitive. It is evident that almost all SaaS playbooks can quickly become outdated, from product development to go-to-market strategy. We now face a lot of giants and disruptors who have proven themselves in the industry. There is no playbook or shortcut to win this game, especially overnight.
However, starting True Platform has been fortunate for two reasons:
1 - This is a 20-year battle, not an overnight battle. You have to have the right & strong motives to live with it.
It may sound easy, but it's not. Our chosen 20-year destiny is a rational and difficult bet. Every start-up founder wants to win the game as soon as possible, but rarely does someone spend their entire life chasing their dreams.
There are no footprints for Vietnamese people to win a globe game within a few years. It was true in the past when we were in the Vietnam War, and it's still the case today. We are taking 20 years because we have put our egos aside and accepted that we are underdogs in this massive and uncertain world.
In the early days of True, I told our first members, "Remember! This is a life choice, not just a career choice. So think carefully before joining the battle, we don’t live two lives”. We spend our entire lives, not just three or five years because we're afraid of losing our dreams, faith, and legacy. All we want is to pursue a dream that will take a lifetime. We build True because True is what truly completes us. Without it, we would never see the complete version of ourselves and never stop questioning.
And we call it a 20-year battle or 20-year destiny.
2 - We got lucky because of valuable lessons from our journey at Base (Our first start-up). That shaped our business philosophy to start True’s journey.
“The strongest steel is forged by the fires of hell. It is pounded and struck repeatedly before it's plunged back into the molten fire”.
Business philosophy matters! You can’t acquire it just by reading books. It is compounded of pay-off lessons gained through hard work and consistency. We, The founders, started Base in our 20s when everyone was young, penniless, and inexperienced. We learned from scratch how to create Facebook/Google Ads accounts, build useful applications, and train our salespeople to become in-love warriors. Now, we’re having ~ 10k customers and 400 employees. Without that experience, we would not have had the confidence to do things subjectively based on what we believe, even if others do not agree.
Example:
One of the business philosophies that I follow at True as a foundation of marketing is value-led growth.
We believe that no matter what distribution channels you use, whether it's Google, Facebook, SEO, or any other, you need to tell a story that is actionable and practical. It's even better if you have personal experience. This means that I don't hire content marketers who only write faceless blogs that are only good for Google's algorithm, but rather storytellers who create content with meaning for readers and truly help them in their work. This is not an easy task, as most blogs I read while searching on Google are only focused on hitting traffic targets or converting me into a qualified lead through some tactics. This only benefits the marketing team in hitting their KPIs, but neither the business nor the readers gain anything. Moreover, it seems like writers are hesitant to include anything entertaining, friendly, or human in their content for fear of being perceived as unprofessional. However, I believe that this is the wrong approach.
Our business philosophy is that we can’t establish without experience at Base to know what is right or wrong. We want to write valuable content, but we are afraid that Google or Facebook will not accept it. Therefore, we have compromised and adjusted our content which looks strict, rigid, and boring.
…
We learned lessons from the Base journey, from -1 to 10M ARR. If you've had your own business, you'll know that it’s hard to remake your foundation when your business starts scaling. To correct them, you'll have to pay a high price for sure. Now at True, we reflect on every decision we've made in the past, from product and marketing to sales and service. It's similar to reviewing your poker hand in the last pot. You may have won the pot, but it wasn't the maximum value one. You need to do better in the next hand in similar situations, regardless of your previous win.
It's not about right or wrong, it's about better.
Last words
Yes. We got lucky. But we create it through the groundwork we lay and the attitude we adopt when entering the battle. This is pure EARNESTNESS. This is the foundation of our thinking and choices, whether in product development, marketing, sales, or service. It means both that they're doing something for the right reasons (20-year destiny), and that they're trying as hard as they can (to sharpen our philosophy as well).
During the initial conversation, when my friend asked me a question, I replied "I don't know" because the world today is different from what we saw yesterday, and tomorrow will not be the same as today. We must be ready for the battle, and we will find our way through tears, blood, and lessons we learn along the way.
Again, this is our Earnestness.