Many entrepreneurs will say that building a successful startup is costly — both financially and emotionally.
After months of patent research, Tiong realized that the process was highly time-consuming and"messy," which made the research more difficult than it had to be, he said. He wanted a better tool, so he thought: Why not try to make it myself? It wasn't until 2010 that Tiong raised his first $1 million for Patsnap. That year, he grew his team from 15 people to about 50 people. But because of his inexperience with hiring and leading a team, Tiong had to layoff two-thirds of the company within half a year."Back then, I didn't know how to properly interview and hire a person... so a lot of issues happened, and the product broke down," he said.
"We couldn't get any interest, so I remember, we were in a meeting room and he just banged on the table and criticized me and said: 'Hey, not fit to be CEO,'" Tiong said."So that was one big setback, because I respected him a lot, and it's true, I didn't have enough conviction or confidence back then."It was only after years of overcoming challenges and developing his own leadership style that Tiong found more confidence as a business owner.