Why did I become an entrepreneur?

I did another presentation in an university class last night and talked about my story of founding Stepcase. It reminded me that this post has been sitting in the draft area for quite a while. I guess I will just publish it to express myself…

Why did I become an entrepreneur?

Since I left Red Hat and relocated to Hong Kong last year, I thought of doing something totally new and exciting. Yeah, how about become an entrepreneur?

What are the reasons? It links back to early days in my life, when I first caught the entrepreneurial bug. In 1998, I started a web company in the Internet bubble era when I was studying in university. I planned to grow it when I graduated, however because of the bubble busted the small venture didn’t work out. During my 6 years work at Red Hat, I served for the company with my best effort, gaining my experience in software engineering and management, and deep inside me I wanted to start up another company one day. I waited because it is hard to find something I can work on everyday which fits in all of my passions. Stepcase is a rare opportunity for me, as it fits all my passions - productivity, web, software development, and startup. Because of the popularity of Lifehack, which is one of the top 100 blogs of the world (http://www.technorati.com/pop/blog), it generates enough revenue which could support myself and hire employees to grow, plus I am still young without too many obligations in my life - that’s when I decided it was a good timing to start a company.

So, I have started my company, Stepcase Limited, in Hong Kong last year. Stepcase is a Web 2.0 company which provides solutions of productivity through content, community, tools and software, to level up the life of individuals and groups.

What’s the most difficult part on creating this opportunity? First, spend time on passion - even when I don’t have the time. I started Lifehack (http://www.lifehack.org) as my hobby 3 years ago. I started the blog because I wanted to share what I have learned on productivity and lifehacks. It consumed most of my time off-work at the beginning - but I firmly believed this could be a great resources for everyone. Now, it’s still alive and has been transformed to a business.

Second, personally it was tough to make a decision to work on the venture full-time. Friends and family asked me why I would want to leave a good job and work on something that has a high risk. I told them: “This is where I truly love to spend more time on. I know it has risks, that’s why I am doing it in the early stage of my life when I still OK to lose everything.”

I feel motivated by different challenges on the business everyday. I enjoy the process of working on what I am really passionate about. I am inspired by the fact that there aren’t any existing companies which started up this way, by creating a successful content and community product first (i.e. a blog) before creating a software product to complete a range of solutions. I hope this may shape the way how people executing their Internet company.

Company Information:
Stepcase Limited is one of a new breed of online company bringing content and development together to help our users become the most productive, organized, and effective people they can be. Stepcase Lifehack provides a daily dose of tips, advice, howtos, and inspiration for readers looking to change their email habits or change their lives. Stepcase Apps is developing a suite of online tools to help the individual web worker, the small business, or the corporate team to work more efficiently and achieve greater satisfaction in their results.