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The inspiration to build a start-up often comes from the most unexpected places. For G-Jay Yong, it was when his two-year-old daughter insisted it was her turn to take pictures on his Canon DSLR.
G-Jay admitted he was partly worried about the 2kg camera causing injury to his daughter. There had to be a digital camera with similar functions that his daughter would be equally excited and able to take pictures with.
The “Aha!” moment came when he found nothing available on the market. G-Jay started up myFirst in late 2017 with a seed capital of $100,000. He quickly launched the myFirst Camera within months.
With a grander vision of becoming children’s first touchpoint for tech products, myFirst has expanded with close to 10 device categories, including watchphones, cameras, earbuds, 3D pens, sketch boards and headphones, for sale in over 36 countries today.
myFirst Fone S3, a 4G smartwatch designed for children from 3 to 12 years old. Photo credit: myFirst Tech
myFirst’s latest innovation provides children with a social network to let them stay connected in a safe and protected environment. myFirst Circle is a parent-moderated closed-loop social app where children can be social and share their photos and posts with parents, grandparents, and other invited family and friends. It also incorporates features such as voice calls, group messages, music streaming and even a GPS location tracker.
We had the opportunity to speak to G-Jay about his entrepreneurship journey and to understand the ups and downs of making child-friendly tech products.
Dinesh: The children’s toy market is a huge one – valued at over US$60 billion. When you explain the idea of making tech products for kids, it makes a lot of sense.
Why wasn’t anyone else doing it before you started in 2017?
G-Jay: There aren’t any full-fledged tech players focused on the kids market. There was hardware, which was produced by the toy makers. Many of the bigger players had incorporated electronic components into their toys, but at the end of the day, they were still making toys, just with some sounds, lights, and maybe some functionality. These were ancient compared to the grown-up tech products that children see their parents using at home.
On the other end of the spectrum are the software makers. They create games or apps for computers and smartphones and tablets. However, no one else is creating an ecosystem so that both kids and parents get what they need.
We saw it as a point of differentiation for myFirst. We wanted to bring safe and durable real-world technology to children.
It would not cost more either, as we could use appropriate components and be unburdened by features that children have no need for.
Dinesh: You’ve launched close to 10 categories of devices today, including earbuds, headphones, cameras, pens, drawing boards, and watchphones.
How long does it take to introduce a new product – from ideation to R&D to being market-ready?
G-Jay: You’ll be surprised. We recently launched myFirst CareBuds – inspired by my daughter, once more – within 2 to 3 months.
With a maximum volume of 85db, myFirst Carebuds were designed to ensure that kids won’t be able to turn up the volume to potentially harmful levels. Photo credit: myFirst Tech
She saw me using my pair of AirPods, while she was forced to use our open ear headphones. I initially planned to get her a pair of earbuds, but my wife did not think it was a good idea as she would be shut off to the outside world.
This sparked the process for us to create our own line of myFirst CareBuds in October 2022 with auto transparency mode so that its safe for the kids. We interviewed fans of our products and learned that they too agreed with the value of such a kid-friendly product, which led us into the R&D phase.
We had the initial product design by the end of October, continued to gather feedback, and launched in time for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES2023) in Las Vegas in January 2023. By this time, we had also completed all the required electronics test, coding the software, moulding the hardware tools, everything.
This know-how to launch a new product at speed was honed in my earlier start-up days. At one point, I was an OEM manufacturer for nearly 40 new products for my clients each year.
Dinesh: Being a serial entrepreneur, starting a new business might be easier for you than for someone who is starting up for the first time.
But, even for experienced founders, there are always new business challenges. What were some that you had to navigate?
G-Jay: There were many!
myFirst is solving a global so we had to set up our international business structure from Day 1.
Simple things like opening different bank accounts overseas were new and challenging for us as a start-up. We were operating in nine countries from the start and had launched our e-commerce functions in 20 countries very quickly after that. We needed local bank accounts for collecting payments.
Financing was another heavy commitment. With my previous start-ups, we were in B2B and B2G (Business-to-Government) projects. It was quite common to receive full or at least partial upfront payments as well as project support, especially for Government projects. myFirst was selling to customers directly – and we would only get paid after selling our products.
That’s where our existing banking relationship with OCBC came in handy. Our relationship managers at OCBC spoke with us about our collective business plans and shared how they are able to leverage track records of serial entrepreneurs like me, to support with customised solutions. We discussed about tapping trade financing and venture loans for our overseas expansion plans. With OCBC’s regional network, we were able to ease through the KYC process to set up business bank accounts in various countries.
HR (Human Resources) was another headache! In my past start-ups, we only had employees in Singapore and maybe one other country. With operations spanning nine countries, we also needed local employees in most markets. I really wondered how to do this.
There aren’t just different sets of employment terms and local rules and regulations that we need to comply with; we also have to manage different working cultures. But even before starting to manage these problems, we had to hire employees in places we had very limited experience in.
After spending endless hours researching online, we decided to use local HR platforms to source quality hires and handle the local salary, accounting, and taxation matters.
We made it a point to be the ones employing and managing the staff. We did not want outsourced or freelancers handling important overseas operations from the start.
Read Also: Scale Up: Proven Tips For Growing Your Business Internationally
Dinesh: myFirst is not just a technology start-up but also in the business of building and marketing your own products. This sounds like it requires a lot of capital.
How much was initially invested in the business, and how did you go about raising other sources of funding?
G-Jay: No doubt, technology start-ups tend to be capital-intensive. You have to invest in developing your products, which means always expanding products and markets and constantly being in R&D mode.
We put in $100,000 from the start. Since it was hard to get funding, especially in the first few years, we also had to keep a very lean team. We concentrated on building our revenue streams and brand recognition for good-quality and innovative products. We spent a little on R&D in the first few years, reinvesting only our profits back into the business.
Then we had to prove our profitability. Otherwise, we may not get the support we need from the banks or VCs. Also, in the back of our minds was the lack of a safety net should things go wrong. We had to be very careful with our cash.
After we got to a certain size and had some momentum, it was easier to get financing support. OCBC was the first banking partner that gave us the opportunity to take our business to the next level with the OCBC Business Venture Loan and Trade Finance facility.
There was also great value in the conversations I had with my OCBC relationship manager. Rather than a transactional-type relationship, speaking to OCBC was like having another business partner to bounce off ideas.
They were eager to fully comprehend my businesses, making a concerted effort to delve into the intricacies of myFirst and its challenges. From this understanding, they developed suggestions for the most appropriate financing products. This was all accomplished through a single contact point for my various businesses, under the guidance of the Serial Entrepreneur Relationship Manager team.
Earlier Start-Ups Honed G-Jay’s Skills, But He Still Had To Build myFirst’s Track Record
The initial start-up process was not daunting for a serial entrepreneur like G-Jay Yong. He had already experienced many highs and lows with two other start-ups before founding myFirst.
During our conversation, G-Jay shared how he started his first business from his dorm room at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Operating as an OEM for world-renowned brands such as Walmart, Tesco, Carrefour, and Rakuten, G-Jay hired over 200 employees and raked in over US$80 million a year.
Unfortunately, that business went bust after a big customer ran away and they had to cease operations. It was not only a painful lesson but also a costly one, as he had to pay off every single cent of debt he owed.
Brushing aside the setback, G-Jay ventured into a hospital-tech start-up next. It was while building this B2G business that his daughter inspired him to start up myFirst. He sold off his second business to his distributors to focus on myFirst – which he was more passionate about and felt had the biggest potential.
He would be proven right. myFirst has doubled its revenue every year since 2020 and employs over 90 employees globally, including in Singapore, the US, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, China, South Korea, and more. And G-Jay foresees a healthy runway for revenue and profit growth in the coming years.
While his business acumen was honed during his previous start-ups, he continued to learn on the job with myFirst. Hiring and managing employees internationally proved to be especially tricky.
He would also gain a lot of appreciation for financing his international business from the outset. He could rely on his established relationship with his OCBC relationship manager team to open bank accounts within OCBC’s global network.
G-Jay also had to rely on internal funding sources (i.e., his seed capital) at the start. As he reinvested his profits back into expanding myFirst’s product lines and customer base, it also validated the viability of his business.
Having gained creditworthiness and being able to leverage his experience from running businesses, he was then able to tap the Business Venture Loan and Trade Finance facilities to spearhead his international expansion strategy – where myFirst products can be found in 36 countries and its user base spans across more than 90 countries. With this, G-Jay has clearly outlined his expansion strategy for the coming years.
Cover Image: myFirst (myFirst’s product launch in Japan.)
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