In this episode of Good Business, we speak to brand new entrepreneur Tony K Tan about his experience creating Smthgood, a conscious fashion platform.
Are you passionate about sustainable fashion? Meet Tony K Tan, the founder of Smthgood, a conscious fashion lookbook and shopping platform that’s breaking preconceived notions in the industry. With an app and website that’s redefining the sustainable fashion landscape in Asia, Smthgood is all about creating a platform for conscious brands and customers. In this episode, Tony shares his insights into the research process he adopted to understand his audience, how he’s building trust amongst his users and suppliers, and the logistical challenges of being an early-stage, bootstrapped startup.
In this conversation we learnt…
– What is SmthGood (04:21 – 07:52)
– Tony’s research journey to understand the audience of Smthgood (08:17 – 14:18)
– Their process of prioritising markets and steps including go-to market strategy and web vs app development(14:49 – 16:26/ 19:06 – 21:06)
– The decision to start bootstrapped and Tony’s expectations from future investors (16:41 – 18:22)
– What success looks like in their first year – it’s not what you would think! (21:45 – 23:28)
– The logistics and business challenges of onboarding new brands (24:33 – 29:29)
Notable soundbites
“According to IBM Business Value 2022 the percentage of people buying based on the values or the purpose driven by is about 43%. This is the first year where it has actually overtaken people who are more price conscious, which stands at about 33 to 37%” (9:20)
Tony took a numbers first approach when starting SmthGood and research was a key part of it. He looked at a number of different research channels and one learning was that there is a big shift towards conscious consumption. The other trend is the shift towards a more involved customer journey that is driven by discovery. Thus, SmthGood combines these aspects to create a sustainable fashion platform with lookbook features.
“We’re not just making profit together, but really trying to do something good.” (17:45)
Tony decided to start SmthGood bootstrapped because he believes what he’s doing is unique. Combining profits and purpose and is therefore not ready to take on just any investors. His aim, for anyone working with them, is combining the social good and for profit aspects of a business. This philosophy also helped him name his brand – SmthGood.
“Success will be getting the trust of my users for the first year.” (23:10)
For Tony, he can have the best marketing and the best influencers but if that doesn’t translate to trust, it’s not working. Given their early stage, the idea is to build that trust, first through brand awareness, then through communication which should ultimately lead to active users. This is another reason he is currently bootstrapped – because instead of looking at sales activity, profits etc, trust is the main metric he’s looking at.
“You can always learn and glean perspectives from anyone.” (31:25)
From the chairman of the board to the Gen Z intern, Tony believes he can learn from anyone. He believes everyone has value to add and therefore is open to all perspectives and opinions.
Resource links
Smthgood
Getting More: How You Can Negotiate to Succeed in Work and Life by Stuart Diamond
Capella Hotels
Full Transcript
Chris Edwards (03:48)
Welcome, Tony. Great to have you on the podcast.
Tony Tan (03:51)
Thanks Chris. Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Chris Edwards (03:55)
You’re very welcome. So firstly, congratulations on the launch of Smth good. You launched just this month. Is that right?
Tony Tan (04:03)
Thank you. Yes. Yes. The stakes are very exciting. We launched in January. So it’s been less than a month. Lots of things to do, lots of data to teach you and lots of things to improve on.
Chris Edwards (04:14)
Yeah, I bet. And tell me, why don’t we start with can you just share with our listeners? What is Smth Good?
Tony Tan (04:21)
Sure. So we are a profit for purpose, social commerce, fashion startup. So we’re two expressions, we actually have a conscious fashion marketplace that’s made up of brands from about seven countries in Asia Pacific, small to medium sized brands. And then we have another expression which is a virtual styling local tool. And this is that bit that makes us different from other platforms and it’s actually quite interesting. So think of it as a collage making tool virtually. So Chris, you know, if you like to be creative, you can actually use this tool to put together mood boards, fashion mood boards, and use items from our marketplace to create these mood boards and we give you the two movies such as background removal, and you can change the color and the style of a background, you can put different tags, you can put different stickers. So put together this beautiful and stylish mood board, you know, to inspire others and most importantly to kind of, you know, inspire yourself in terms of that look. Now, another interest that the more the more interesting feature about this lookbook trace is that when you create this lookbook, if I actually want to buy something from you, I can so this lookbook is actually shoppable. And say, you know, Chris, you use some necklaces, skirts to put together a look and say, You know what, this is actually something very pretty, I’m gonna get it in a metaphor friend. And I clicked it by a skirt that you put on your lookbook, you actually get points, cashback points that can actually use in the platform, to shop, right. And that’s it, you don’t need to buy anything, you can just create with things from our marketplace and someone buys from you, you get points, if someone likes your book, you get points. So it is in a way it can be a side hustle for anyone, if we just go in and create using items from our marketplace. And they can also use items outside of the marketplace. The key difference is that the person using items outside of the marketplace, you cannot actually I cannot buy from you. Now, obviously, you know, this sounds very interesting. But why are we doing this? So for me, when I embarked, this journey is very simple. I really don’t want to preach people to buy sustainable fashion or I don’t want to preach for people to choose consciously, I want people to discover it organically. So by engaging our users in that journey of discovery that you know what they kind of play around with it, it’s a gamified kind of journey. They use items for marketplace and say, You know what, this is actually looking quite good. So then, you know, we wish the user to go through this journey to come to the realization that the you know, what actually one can look at with conscious fashion. So in looking good, actually in the process of doing good and therefore feeling good. So instead of saying that, you know what we need to do this, we say, You know what, discover, play around with it, use things from our conscious fashion marketplace, share with others, and you know what, you get bonuses doing that, and it’s like a little side hustle for you. And so for me that is something that I wish for people to discover. Now, from the sales perspective, if you think about it, I’m actually evolving the sales journey away from pure transactional journey to one that is a little bit more discovery. And give me five, because I just think in the research that we’ve done, buying behaviour has changed significantly, and people and just not, you know, it’s not about just going to an app or a website to buy something. It’s about that inspirational journey and that discovery process. So in a way, that’s why we are doing what we’re doing a little bit different to encompass some of the things that I said earlier.
Chris Edwards (07:52)
I’m so interesting. And it leads to my second question, which is I read that you said a quote, recently, in an interview, successful companies give their users what they want, not what they think they want. Is this something that you think you’ve done? And they have? Have you done a lot of research? And is that how you came up with this gamification, like point of difference?
Tony Tan (08:17)
Christopher? Well, we started this journey. I mean, it obviously starts with a hypothesis first, right? You have this, you know, sense and so it’s like, hey, you know, what, the world is kind of changing, you kind of send these trends, but you don’t want to, let’s test it out. So let’s, let’s research it. So it was you have no idea how many folders of research I have, from the top consulting firms to, to, you know, periodicals or articles or podcasts or, you know, just things that you find on the internet. So I think it’s a lot of research and then from the research is about then kind of thinking through what are the trends that the world is moving to, and, you know, it’s quite clear that conscious buying people who are actually driven by purpose in terms of the way they buy in br iy values has actually outweighed that of people who actually buy according to price and this is according to IBM Business Value like 2022 the percentage of people buying based on the values or the purpose driven by is about 43%, the first year that he has actually overtaken people who are more price conscious, who are in which stands about 33 37% If you look at this survey, actually, I looked at same survey about four years ago, the weightage was actually 41% more price conscious and 40% more value conscious of, you know, the trends there. So but you know, having research and having trends, gives you that sense of direction. Then for us, what we did was actually, you know, from the we should kind of think through you know, what we know that the trend is, is heading this way and consumption. In terms of conscious buying, we know that the trend is towards a different purchasing journey in terms of human behavior, and that’s through our research from meta as well as being conservative, I remember a couple of research there. So from there we kind of think through, you know, what we want how we want to express this journey of conscious buying, that’s that, that then led us to having a features that are more inspirational that more gamified that now, all these like it is still very theoretical. So what we did was actually did a survey with 500 online shopping survey women across demographics 18 to i believe 44. Right, and we, you know, test, you know, basically had a short video, in terms of is a very ugly UX UI, remember when we did this survey, because you know, we have not actually embarked the journey is about you know, what this is what we would like to do, you know, the lookbook, and play around with it. And then we have a special marketplace, but I think we have this whole list of questions. And through that survey, we also wanted to take the opportunity to understand a little bit more into awareness or conscious fashion, where, what are the thoughts? What are the, what are the misconceptions, or rather, the perceptions, which then I realized our misconceptions. And therefore, you know, we’re able to actually kind of tweak in terms of the offering to address these misconceptions address these findings that we have the 500 survey is basically refine the features and kind of test out the features that we want, that got us to where we are today, in terms of some of the things that we know people, like people do not like, and that gives us a sense, you know, the lookbook, people really are very intrigued and actually liked the idea. They are very curious about conscious fashion, but they have all this misconception that, you know, it’s very expensive. It’s actually not very nice. You know, and the audience, there’s only a few colours. And then we’re like, you know what, as far from the truth from the brands that we talk to, obviously, you know, coming back to your question, which is giving the consumers what they want, not what we think they want, I think that was really a negative thought that that really scares me, because, you know, you think about, oh, I want to do XYZ, but then it’s all in your head, but is it going to really translate? To be honest, the research and survey has got us this far. But ultimately, it’s about getting the app out to the public. And then, you know, to see where the product market fit is. So that I mean, I acknowledge that until this stage, until we actually really get it out of market is still a little bit theoretical, you know, a little bit I mean, we have mitigated that risk significantly through the survey. But ultimately, my users are the ones I need to be listening to, to reiterate, to then improve, to really give them what they really want. So it’s about listening to them at the other day.
Chris Edwards (12:34)
And how difficult was it to do that research? Did you engage a research company to help you?
Tony Tan (12:40)
We definitely did. We definitely did, where the third party person and we say, you know, what, these are the parameters that we have? These are the questions that we like to then we can work through them in some sort of what are the right questions to ask. And I have a very good sense of what it is I want to accomplish? But you know, I’m first I admit that I don’t know everything right. And I don’t think we know everything is about kind of getting that depth that color. And that advice from a professional in that field isn’t how to refine it. So we did get some research firm to actually help us with the survey. In terms of the research in the beginning prior to that, to be honest, I love the internet, there’s so there’s the chokes, so much amazing information. Obviously, it’s about distilling it to make sure that we know this is credible information. I’ve been in the banking industry for close to 10 years, I’ve read countless, countless research papers. So I like to think that I have a pretty ok sense in terms of understanding and kind of seeing through even conflicting research is not about like sometimes not about abuses. But when you find a common denominator, like a certain trend, I mean, different data points. And then maybe all these data points actually go in a certain direction. And that’s what I was looking for, that sense of direction rather than the nitty gritty details, the nitty gritty details to be left to the user’s desire. And that’s why I want to do the survey. And now I’m at the stage about even the first month to be honest, Chris, like I really am talking to the users. And I kind of know, oh, you know why these are the things that should have won the survey. But why is not translating? Well, in certain the data that we’re tracking, we’ve got some feedback. Let’s test it out. Let’s take a look at more and more things for the next few months. So I think that’s how we’re seeking to improve.
Chris Edwards (14:18)
Yeah, cool, very interesting strategy. I like it. I like the thorough approach there. So you’re at you are at the very beginning. And when I did some research, I could see you had 136 followers on Tik Tok and 481 followers on Instagram, which I think many of my listeners will be able to relate to because many of our members at Launchpad are in their early days. I’d love to know what’s your go-to-marketing strategy? How are you going to get your users on your app?
Tony Tan (14:49)
Yeah, so for us, it’s really about getting the awareness out there. I think about where we are at today because we’re such an initial phase. It’s about really getting the word out dance is what we’re trying to do. You, Perez we will be and we have been focusing on social a lot more right in going to the right social platforms and ensuring that you know, we really talk to a target audience, we do have in my mind, certainly different messages, you know, we have the lookbook, we have the marketplace. So it’s about kind of sharing that Kinesia of this message is actually pretty distinct here complimentary. Now, we are actually focusing on women for now women’s fashion accessories. So when we actually started, quite honestly, you should have seen my vision board, it was like, Oh, my gosh, I want to do women’s fashion and women’s fashion. I want to do kids, I wanted to do that. definite way. So so we decided, I decided on focus, right. And hence, you know, when I think about going to these various verticals, women’s fashion is a women’s fashion is really the vertical they have most prevalent, right? So from a market sizing perspective isn’t the biggest. So by no means am I saying that is the easiest to succeed, because it’s a lot of competition. But in terms of hard numbers, it is a big market, right. So and that’s obviously the business side of me thinking, I guess the doing good side of me, when I look at fashion, there’s a lot of white space to do better, a lot of white space. So that’s why we decided to choose women’s fashion and accessories as the first vertical and that is I guess, if we wanted to go to market strategy. Good. And then think about how we actually potentially then go to other different verticals.
Chris Edwards (16:26)
And are you funded? I imagine that all of this has been quite expensive. Were bootstrapping self funded? Yeah. Oh, wow. Congratulations. Is there a plan to get investment at some stage?
Tony Tan (16:41)
Definitely. I mean, it’s a necessity, for sure, Chris. I mean, there’s no chance, I think, without business can scale without external investments. But I think for the face that we are in bootstrapping, interestingly, again, that I mean, people may have different views, right? But from what we experienced in bootstrapping has given us I guess, the ability to really focus rather than need to actually go out there to try to talk to investors or try to get investments in. So I think the focus now is really on, we’re going to, I mean, firstly, obviously the research, the survey, getting, you know, the platform, talking to the brands to get them on board. So it’s about that, you know, focusing on getting a right and good product. And then that process is iterative. Of course, once I know when I’m at the stage, where I feel that actually this is something that is, I feel that another investor looking at it will actually go like you know what I believe in what you’re doing, let’s do it together. I think that’s when I would like to really think about investors, right? Because it’s not about chairs. Because what we are doing, I do believe Chris is a little bit unique. And I really believe that the world needs to and can combine for profit and doing good. And I think any investors that I would like to have, or you know, obviously, I’m not saying they have a choice sometimes in the given the tech winter we’re in. But I think ideally, I really wish anyone that were working with us, we also had that elite in combining, you know, social good and for profit to then I don’t see, I would not like to see them as investors. In so far they were really partners, to not just, you know, making profit together, but really trying to do something good. Well, the theme was my platform suddenly good.
Chris Edwards (18:22)
I love that. And I love the name of the platform. It is exactly what businesses can be doing. Right? They can be combining profit and purpose. I wanted to ask you, I mean, I’ve been in the digital space now for, oh, it’s always been 15 years. We’re in our 15th year. And you know, lots of people have come to me and said, you’ve really got to have an app and then I’ve had other people come to me and say, Oh, it’s so hard to get people to use apps, because people only actually use 45 apps or something like that. I’m interested that your strategy is app LED. And when you go on to your website, it’s kind of directs you to use it on your phone. What was the thinking? And was there a lot of research around being app before website
Tony Tan (19:06)
was, as I mentioned, you know, we have two key expressions. The Marketplace, as I said, right handed locally is really why we feel is a little bit in the debt really makes us quite different from other apps, through I guess, you know, research in terms of what is the right platform, and what is the technology or the tech solution. So we want to be thinking about, I think having an app actually works very well for the book tool. That said, Actually, we’re built on the flutter platform, which actually means that we actually have a web app and app. Right. So what people are seeing right now is an actual app, but actually powering behind that we do have a web app is just that right now, as we embark on this journey. We have to be focused, I was forgetting rightly or wrongly in my strategy was, let’s focus on getting it out in an app form. A web app is actually functioning but it’s not refined. So in fact, the discussion that was hammered up yesterday, as you know, we have one month of data, we have the information about the, let’s really try to refine our web app. So that’s actually something you’re quite right, Chris, you know, that it will definitely be some, some form of friction in terms of, you know, getting people to first download, and then come to your app to do something, and either create our shop. And that’s also the reason why when I started this journey, I really wanted to be to have the best facility is just that, from a logistic timing, perspective, and even cost I need to really focus on first, but now that I know you have, and really think through that information. So now that one month has passed, we actually refining the web part of this. So hopefully, you’re going to be something between these things and changes positively in terms of user experience. Now, hopefully, you will see changes. So that’s really the thinking, but you’re spot on there. And in some stuff, your observation.
Chris Edwards (21:03)
Yeah, it’s interesting. And I totally agree with that. You do need to prioritise, you can’t do everything at once. So you do have to put things in an order, especially when you’re bootstrapping.
So tell me, what does success look like in the first year? Do you have a magic number you want to hit?
Tony Tan (21:45)
Yeah, I mean, of course, numbers, but I’m not sure if it will be wise for me to share publicly, quite honestly. And I’m a very candid person, Chris. But for me, to be honest, I don’t want this to sound airy fairy, but it’s really about owning the trust of the users for the first year. It’s getting that trust, because we are new, you don’t know who we are. We can do all the marketing that we want. We can have the best influencers talk about us, but you don’t trust us yet. No one trusts us yet. So how do I build that trust visa vie that brand awareness that we are doing, right visa vie, that communication that we’re doing, because we that trust can then translate to active users. And then when there’s active users, then there will be people creating then there will be buying. So for me, those are very important end goals. I mean, that makes them break apart from that’s what our investors will look at. Right? You know, what’s your sales was activity bla bla bla, but to get there, if I don’t earn the trust and have the trust of my target audience, I will never get that. I know it sounds a little bit. I don’t know, what’s that word. But it may not sound very concrete. But I do think that trust sniper overnight, it’s about a process it’s about you have to own it is not given to you. So my focus really my first is really just I want to be that trusted platform for brands for users to know that look, you know, when I go to something good, you can find conscious brands, you can find interesting looks that are you know, done with conscious fashion, you can really do good, even through shopping. So, yeah, I mean, that’s that’s really my focus. And for me success will be getting the trust of my users for the first year.
Chris Edwards (23:28)
Oh, I love that. I think that makes a lot of sense. So you’ve got about 60 brands so far. I’m wondering, how’s it worked for the brands? Is that like a traditional retail markup model? How’s that partnership part of your business work?
Tony Tan (23:43)
We have signed 60ish, obviously, you know, we are still I feel I’m fairly the sheep herding the sheep, you know, get them to do the continue to onboard run of that farm. So I think we will be close to 40. Soon in terms of the model where the marketplace. So we actually take permission of the sales that the brands actually make on our platform. Now, because we’re new, like I said, coming back to the whole point of trust, right. So what brands who are joining us right now, we actually called them the Pioneer brands. So the commission rate obviously is significantly lower than what we will like the commission rate to be. So I think it’s just our way of you know, people are taking a risk on us. So we want to acknowledge that. And that’s why these pioneer brands actually enjoy a significantly reduced commission rate when they actually get on the platform.
Chris Edwards (24:28)
Is it a drop shipping model?
Tony Tan (24:33)
We are.
So I know that the word drop shipping seems to have a negative connotation. So to be clear, I just want to clarify that what we mean by that is that our brands are responsible for their own shipping and logistics. So whether there’s an order on our platform, the brands will see on that dashboard, our Smth good sellers dashboard, and then they will fulfill it according to their own logistic providers. So again, coming back to focus right Of course, and I love to work with some of the amazing support and logistic providers out there to come up with some amazing logistics solutions to all my brands. But when they asked me one question, what’s your sales? How To answer that, but we’re the entertainment. So this summer, I mean, I think a third party logistics solution is very important. And it’s something that we definitely need to revisit in time to come. How can we actually better the logistic journey for brands, but right now, I think one of the criteria we have, when we talk to the brands, are you able to to fulfill yourself, actually, in a way, it may not be a bad thing, because some of the brands they love their flexibility that lives the fact that we don’t really take pay? shipping policies is really up to them. So it’s, in a way buyers and buyers beware, I mean, we make sure that buyers are able to know, transit in a very transparent fashion, what the shipping policy or what style policies or how it’s going to be shipping the days? And is the call whether the enterprise course is their call, whether they want to pursue the purchase or not, to I know, but I certainly think that as we mature, this logistic aspect will have to be sawed up in time to come.
Chris Edwards (26:09)
Yeah. Right. And tell me has it been hard to onboard these brands that fit your criteria, and also have the size and scale and the ability to really take on another platform as a different sales channel? Has that been a challenge?
Tony Tan (26:24)
That’s a very good question. I think the short answer is yes, definitely, definitely. Again, coming back to research, when we started this journey, we really come to the region in trying to find a conscious brands and and or not just conscious, brand conscious brands that kind of fit what we’re doing in our criteria. So so when I when I first embarked this journey, again, I mean, I’m very confused by the whole concept of conscious hash. And so as you know, this certification that certification serves anyone, I’m just going to take a step back and think about how I can do something good for my users. And I really just broke it down into three. I guess, if you think about it, you can think about it from a product journey or a carbon footprint journey. The first perspective is, what is your product made off? Right? And then under that you can think about is your product made of sustainable stuff? sustainable material? Is your product upcycled or recycled? So the genesis of it, you know, what is it made of? And then we kind of think through these two criterias? Then and then we proceed on to then how is your item made? So is it made ethically? Is it made in the right, ethical environment? How is it made from our perspective, being handmade, small batch itself is also a very low carbon footprint. So in default in the second category in how is it made, then we proceed on to what’s the impact of finished product. So that’s where we look at empowerment by empowering the communities around you a brand, maybe industry using plastics, but then, because what they do need plastics, however, they may say, You know what, I’m actually engaging the community around me, and paying them and giving them profit share. So then can we say that they’re not doing good, because they actually do and they’re doing it, they’re empowering the community around them. And the second part of that vertical for me is about inclusivity. And diversity, right, we have talked to fashion brands out there, there are a lot more size, inclusive, more gender inclusive, which often we find that it’s, it’s something that maybe it’s not communicated well enough to a lot of people by using that. And embracing diversity is something that that can be done more. So. So we want to really encourage that. So with these three pillars, six criteria, there we go on this research in terms of where they’re at. As I said, we are new, we have a lot of people who who say no to us, but equally, we have also, you know, sellers, who are very keen to find another avenue to get their products on. And I think because our value proposition is one where you know, we are different from us in terms of throughput. So that has actually gotten, thankfully, you know, traction, as evidenced by the number of brands that we have sign up. But basically, it wasn’t easier. There’s all the research that went into a lot of this development that went into it, we are still continuously on the lookout. So if any of your viewers your listeners are conscious fashion brands, come talk to us, we’d love to talk to you. And you know, if your price point is between USD 20 to 200 plus minus or thereabouts, you know, we really will love to talk to you because we don’t want people to misconception their conscious fashion is pricey.
Chris Edwards (29:29)
I love that Tony and I definitely have a lot of conscious fashion brands in our Launchpad community. So I think you will have people reaching out to you, but very exciting. So what do you think is going to be the biggest challenge for something good in the next two to three years? What do you see is that the single biggest challenge Besides building trust?
Tony Tan (29:51)
I do think that the trends are right in terms of people buying better, right and I think it’s a matter it’s not a matter of we have it’s really happening so I It was a matter of when that, you know, we really see that, that that increase in people being more conscious. However, the human person is fickle, right? Eons back, would you think that there’s gonna be a tick tock Instagram that really excites you know what we’ll get that consumer excited in time to come? I think that’s something that may potentially presents a challenge, in the sense that if a business actually does not keep up, does not understand what’s out there does not understand what the user one and continue in their old way, and miss out on what the trends are, that the consumers are evolving to it. I think that’s the challenge that but and is it? Why is it a challenge Chase, in that there will be costs involved right into how you evolve your business, there will be research that needs to be manpower, so then self, you know, if you’re not financially ready, or you’re not financially able, as much as you want to, you may not be able to. So I think there’s a mix of various you need to obviously continuously know what your consumers want. Then have the ability to really evolve together with what they want, and have the financial ability to do all that.
Chris Edwards (31:14)
All right, well, before we ran out this interview, I’d love to ask you some rapid fire questions. I’d love to know, what is the best business advice you’ve ever received.
Tony Tan (31:25)
You can always learn and glean perspectives from anyone, it can be the chairman of the board I talked to just last week, or it can be my Gen Z intern telling me you know what, listen to me, this is not going to work. My community would not like this. So yeah, really anyone can get advice from and learn from?
Chris Edwards (31:40)
Oh, I love that. That’s very, very true. And tell me if there was another industry that you could disrupt next, what would it be and why?
Tony Tan (31:51)
Yeah, I mean, I don’t know if I am a disrupter that way. But I certainly think that in the realm of community service, and social work, that could be ways to think about it differently. You know, people associate, you know, charities, for example, it’s about donation, but what about you contributing expertise, you contributing, in the sense that you have good market share, help them market, you tell them how to market themselves, so that they know how to then get funding, you know, through marketing, maybe their finances, the way they do budgeting, and so on. So if you’re someone who is in the financial industry, maybe can help them and help them improve in terms of the way to do the budgeting. So I must view that the whole area of social contribution, grassroots are great, but many of us have had the opportunity for a good education. Why don’t we contribute that? So So yeah, I don’t know. If you’re shopping for me, it’s about just defend. And that’s something that I feel very passionately about. So when I was looking at, when I was hitting a brand new alumni group, we actually actually amassed consulting teams, you know, and the the top social enterprises and actually offer consulting services, social enterprises, for pro bono to really help them improve themselves from business because they have to be thinking about running like a business, right? marketing operations. So then if, you know, I know, the alumni from my school, or from the top consulting firms that contribute that way, so yeah.
Chris Edwards (33:17)
I like that idea. There should be some kind of platform where you can match your skills with a charity that needs it, that would be cool. Do you have a favorite business book or podcast that’s really shaped you?
Tony Tan (33:29)
Yes, I do. Like this book is called Getting more by Stuart time. And it really gave me a very different perspective in terms of the art of negotiation. You know, obviously, we all know in when you talk, when you negotiate, it’s about win win. But I think this book really, really captures the essence of a win win, and really focuses on that. So I think it’s professor from one of the Ivy League schools, I can’t remember which one, in fact, not just once, but a few times, because I think there’s just such amazing details in that book, to really help you in his art of communication, and in the day, everything about it. So they really focus more about you know what, in negotiation, I need to be news about just making sure that you you eliminate the communication barrier between two people so that you really come to a mutually agreeable and beneficial outcome.
Chris Edwards (34:17)
I love it. Okay, we will put the link to that book in our show notes. The art of negotiation is a very good art to master. That’s for sure. And finally, Tony, we believe a rising tide floats all boats, I’m sure you know, a ton of entrepreneurs that are creating good businesses. But if you had to recommend someone to invite onto this podcast, who would it be?
Tony Tan (34:42)
Yeah, so interesting question. They remind the idea friend Evan crea so he’s the vice chairman of Capella with house. If you go to any Capella hotel, you will emiti synonymous with every single hotel that’s part of the group. His passion, his passion. I read his creativity and most importantly is believe in sustainability. It permeates in each of these assets. So So when I think about someone who is really passionate about what he does inspiring in terms of you know, the resolve and drive, but yet, you know that consciousness for the environment in wanting to do good, yeah, he will be here.
Chris Edwards (35:20)
Oh, wow, I did not realize I mean, I have enjoyed many a time and a stay at a cappella so I’m gonna have to hunt him down and get him on the podcast. Tony, thank you, dearly delight to chat to you today. I think it’s super interesting what you’ve created. And I hope all our listeners download this something good app, and we’ll have a link to it in our show notes as well. And if we have entrepreneurs who have conscious fashion businesses, how are they best to reach you, Tony,
Tony Tan (35:51)
shoot me an email Tony que tan at something good CO as an S, nth, g o d co.com. So we have a different play of the word something, we want to make it kind of fun, but yet really encompass what we’re trying to do for everyone. We really just want to do something good. But we want to be a little bit hip right now. And closer as mth God,
Chris Edwards (36:13)
love it. Love it. It is hip, and it is now and it is playful. So I wish you every success. And I really appreciate your time sharing your journey with us and keep us updated with how it goes.
Tony Tan (36:26)
Thank you, Chris, it’s been such a pleasure. Thank you.