Passion drives start-ups forward with WHub

Karen Contet Farzam, co-founder & Chief Hustler WHub and co-founder & CEO of AngelHub and Karena Belin, co-founder & CEO of WHub and co-founder & COO of AngelHub, tell us about their journey and offer advice to start-ups.

1. How did you get your start?
KB: It started with what we stand for: #StartupPassion, as cheesy as it may sounds, we did this out of our passion for tech ecosystems and entrepreneurs and tried to help them solve problems and innovate. In 2013 Hong Kong was a small ecosystem and didn’t have much access to resources, so we said “this is where we step in and help entrepreneurs to scale their businesses.”. The other meaning of #StartupPassion is that passion is an entrepreneurs’ most important asset to attract resources, whether this is talent, investors or visibility.

KCF: We have known each other for 15 years, and we were saying that entrepreneurs are so passionate, but they have such a large scope of work and need flexibility. It hasn’t changed from the start of WHub and it continues in our mission with AngelHub (Hong Kong’s first regulated startup investment platform). We are opening up an asset class to investors here, and at the same time helping to change Hong Kong, and it feels like a natural continuation of our work.

2. Do you think successful entrepreneurs go solo or have co-founders?
KCF: People say that you shouldn’t start a business with a friend, but I think it is most important to find somebody who complements your skillset which is the crucial factor. And that is why it works between us in terms of our history but also that we trust each other. It’s a long and hard journey with lots of ups and downs – you can’t bother your family and friends all the time with entrepreneur problems – so you increase chances of success with a co-founder. In one day, you only have 24 hours – so more manpower helps! Some founders take all the spotlight, but behind our success is the team and that’s what makes a difference. You can do it alone but if you can have someone you can trust, to brainstorm, to go in the right direction, it changes everything.

KB: We are also united by the same passion to make a difference to the ecosystem and we always start with ‘why?’. That drives us, we are friends and similar in backgrounds but also complement each other. We have a strong relationship built on trust despite occasional healthy disagreements. In the end, if we have a different opinion, we can debate and try out solutions – you never know who is going to be right or wrong. In start-ups, the right answer can come from many sources, from the founders to the intern – in the end, it is often the consumer who will tell you what the correct way is. We have a diverse team and that helps to bring even more options to the table.

3. What stage of the journey are you in?
KB: I’d say in terms of our objectives we are very far. The beauty of it is that we continue to grow with the ecosystem. Our key objective is to be a key connector of the Hong Kong start-up scene. In the beginning, we never thought we could scale to this size, and you can’t really plan for this. We are thrilled to export Hong Kong outside of the city, and also have companies soft-land here as well, and this includes a partnership with Crunchbase in the US, Sina in China and e27 in Singapore to share content and information to empower start-ups, as well as agreements with government entities and accelerators in India, China, South Korea, Nordic countries and Germany.

KCF: That vision of making Hong Kong a main player on the global tech map is still a while away. It’s a fulfilling place to be, to help the city become a premier FinTech hub, because now we can see the progress in everything from banking to insurance. We say this is just the beginning – when we started people used to wonder what we do, but now they know who we are.