LIM KAR AIK

Lim Kar Aik

COO, HYDRA

Kar Aik is not your everyday Computer Science Scholar, he is also an Entrepreneur, Investor and a Certified Financial Consultant. He started his own watch brand at the age of 21. His skill set also includes web designing, sales and is fluent in Python and C programming.

4TH SEPtember, business showcase

As this module is coming to an end, it too marks the end of my journey in Minor In Entrepreneurship. However, this is still the beginning of my journey of entrepreneurship. I have never regret taking this minor and this module has really been a fulfilling journey. Seeing how it is possible to start something and sell the products in just a short span of around 5 months, it motivates me to be an entrepreneur in the future.

After spending long hours talking to suppliers, messaging them in wechat, and creating marketing materials using adobe platforms, I am really happy to see my efforts really paid off. Looking back, juggling internship and doing this business is no easy feat. From this, I grew as a person and learnt a lot of things as well. Some of the key points includes staying humble and be accepting of other people's feedback, being able to see from people's point of view as well as going out of my comfort zone to try something new. I also gained some technical skills which includes creating marketing posters and video as well, which is something I thought I will never want to do.

However, this does not mark the end of HYDRA's journey. Even after presenting our journey and business to MiE instructors, new batches of students and other NTU students, we still have plans for HYDRA as we will want to gain more exposure through this company. Stay tune by following our instagram :-)

-Cheers

3rd September, Journey to the East

Travel all the way from NTU to Ubi and back is really a nightmare.... However, the printed Tee Shirts look great and is really cheap considering that we only printed 3 shirts! Furthermore, I'm really satisfied with the material and the logo! Also, i managed to delivered all my bracelets to my clients! Met up with Sarath too to pass him his shirt at night! Now is time to practice for my presentation tomorrow!

-Cheers :-)

28th August, Long Day For HYDRA

So I suggested that we get a HYDRA printed Tee-shirt for our final presentation. Hopefully it gives a better impression of us and showing the synergy among us. Hence i went to source for cheap printed tee and liaise with the supplier and finally order the tee shirts today.

Furthermore, I managed to meet up with the Computer Science D&D committee today to pass him the bracelets for the photo shoot! Hopefully this publicity will be able to churn out more sales for us!

In addition, managed to complete my slides for the presentation too for submission tmr!

And Last but not least, managed to collect a total of 15 sales!

Been a super long day for me and but at least it's very fruitful :-) Have a great night everyone!

Cheers!

25th August, Sponsors

Right before the weekends, I managed to contact the Pageant Committee for School of Computer Science and Engineering. We are going to sponsor bracelets to each female pageantees for 1 story and 1 post from each of them from their main account. In addition, we are getting a shout-out from the Main Instagram of the Pageant. Considering the cost of the bracelets and everything, I think its a great deal. Furthermore, over the weekends, I had most of my bracelets delivered to my clients as well.

Things are going well and as the module is coming to an end, its time to consolidate all the information and experiences we been through for the presentation. To be honest, it hasn't been easy and although there are some disputes here and there, I can safely say that it has been a great run.

Up next, we will discuss where will be the next phase of HYDRA....

Cheers :-)

19th August, Packing and Engraving

The pre orders are coming well and brought the goods to NTU!!!

Spend about an hour packing, sorting and putting the engraving message for the engraver to engrave.

Had to travel all the way to some Ulu place in Joo Koon and is really troublesome to get there for the engraving. However, its all worth it :-) The engravings turns out to be looking great as shown as the second picture below and I'm really satisfied with how everything is turning up well for HYDRA!

Hopefully we can keep this up and we might evening be coming up with a new line of product!

Cheers :-)

17th August

Met up with Jia Hui to pass her some of her bracelets as some of the bracelet she sold does not require any engravings. Furthermore, i managed to sell some of my bracelets to my friends and convinced them to buy for their girlfriends. Thankful for my friends :-)

As we plan to engrave our bracelets in the next few days, I'll try to push as much sales as possible before them!

Last but not least, as I will be the one traveling to do the engraving and waiting for all the bracelets to be engraved, I suggest that i get some reimbursement for transport etc... Hence, we agreed on a $10 reimbursement in total for the trip :-)

15 August, It's HERE!!!!

Finally arrived at my place with all the bracelets and pouch inside! Everything looks great just as expected! I am especially satisfied with the pouch as it is really cheap and good! The printing and everything makes it look professional!

Now we need to get those bracelets engraved and deliver them to our clients that we have! But before that, time to push for more sales for the bulk engraving :-)

9th August, Happy Singapore Day!

Happy Birthday Singapore!

Haven't been blogging as I've just ended my internship and immediately after had to participate as Group Leader in my hall camp! It's been a really exciting and fruitful summer for me even though its not easy to handle HYDRA's operations and marketing while doing my own internship in an A.I startup. Not only have i learn a lot from my internship, i learn a lot from starting up HYDRA as well, especially in marketing and design.

As I've always been the tech guy in my watch company, I've never really handled procurement and marketing before as those were done by my partners! Am really thankful to be doing something else :-)

Anyways, I've been continuing on working on my design skills and have created poster for national day as well! Will continue to work on the sales and marketing!!

Cheers :-)

With My Freshies

With My Colleagues

24th July

Finally bulk order the bracelet and the pouch from different suppliers. Had to liaise with both supplier to sent the pouch over to the bracelet supplier to minimize shipping fee (from $40 USD to $10 USD) and labor work for us to pack into the pouch. Called both suppliers Via WeChat and converse with them in Chinese to make conformation and to ensure everything is fine before I order. Also, thankfully I've been in contacts with my suppliers constantly for the orders to be smooth sailing.

Lastly, my internship is coming to an end and i should have more time for HYDRA :)

Now its time to continue to hustle the sales and online Ads!

22th July

Created the Google Form to collect Pre Orders! Thankful for my girlfriend for helping me creating info-graphics on the engravings as well as creating vector image for our logo and Ads for our instagram! Also, I've been consistently posting on Instagram and have managed to attain 2 sales just buy purely sharing on my main account :) Here we learn the power of mere exposure effect and posting consistently.

Also I've been trying to push sales from my friends and i really hit a bump when they asked me what's so different about our bracelet as compared to Daniel Wellington. Cheaper + free engravings doesn't seem to click to her... Hopefully more campaigns and story will be able for us to sell our bracelets better instead of just selling the features .

Lastly, I have also noticed that themindfulcompany has noticed us and blocked us on Instagram. In my opinion, it's a form of flattery and thankfully I have other accounts to stalk them :-)

16th July

Done with the promo video and created some GIFs for more content for our Instagram! Now that the website is up, and equipped with all the contents me and Sarath created, we are now ready for collection of the Pre-Orders! Enjoy the Video below!

Also, Sarath and I are going to make our Insta post more consistent in terms of having a common theme! Hopefully this allows us to create more exposure and drive up the value of our brand! Furthermore, We really need to sell the features and benefits of our bracelet more often through the social media as well!

Last but not least, I've been actively talking to the supplier via WeChat. Sadly we are unable to customize our sizing and the width of the bracelet due to our MOQ. We shall play by ear and see how our pre-orders goes first.

Till next time :)

14th July

Spend the entire afternoon walking around orchard road, finding nice spot and filming some videos with my girlfriend to create some marketing advertising video for the upcoming pre orders. Learned quite a lot from her, like not making the video flat and having more 3D feels etc... Not only I had fun, i also came to a realization that know filming and taking photo is not my forte.

Now its time to make use of my premier Pro and hopefully i am able to get something nice up!

10th July

Using the skills i just picked up, accompanied by the images from the photoshoot, I managed to churn out a few content for us to post on instagram :) Still not very comfortable using InDesign but the speed of doing posters is picking up! Hopefully these contents will enable us to gain more traction.

8th July

Epiphany came out when I was showering. Voices Above Noises. The tagline for our brand which suits our brand purpose which is to empower our customers and allow them to better express themselves. Furthermore, I am currently picking up InDesign skills to generate more content and posters for our social media. After watching multiple tutorials and experimenting with the application, i am finally able to come up with something as shown below..... Yes, still lots of room for improvement.

Last but not least, just had a photoshoot with the team yesterday at MBS! Was really fun and productive :) Now we will just churn out as many content as possible and get pre-orders ASAP.

1st July

Recorded Down all the details of our meeting and write it in the docs. Did a analysis of the price break down and find out the volume of sales needed to break even. Lastly, created a description of the bracelet for us to pitch and get pre-orders! Now that we have the sample, we no longer need a pitch deck, just the sales talk with the sample will do.

30th June

The samples are finally here in my place! The engravings turns out well and the bracelet's quality are more than decent! Furthermore, I had the supplier for the velvet pouch ready too. Spend a significant amount of time look and talking to many suppliers and narrowed down to a few cheap and good looking ones! I choose a white velvet pouch too as it looks more modern whereas Sarath actually preferred a red one. In the end we had a vote and it was 2-1, so we proceed with the white pouch :-)

It is now marketing and sales part of the project and once we have sufficient pre-orders, I will be able to make the orders ASAP.

12th June

Finally ordered the samples!!! :-) After several rounds of filtering the suppliers based on their response rate, company profile and the price, we've settled for the final supplier. After which, I went down to Takashimaya this morning to check out sizes of cuff for Daniel Wellington and Calvin Klein to know their sizes and which ones are more commonly purchased by Singaporeans Females. It's good to know that most females wear cuff of 54mm for inner diameter especially for open cuff.

I then had a call with the supplier to discuss about the size that we want, the engravings on the cuff and their positions, and the coating they use for the bracelet. After everything was settled, i then made the payment through Alibaba Trade Secure. Lastly, I've look at several velvet pouch for packaging. Can't wait for the samples to arrive so we can start doing photo-shoots and pre-orders! Hopefully the engravings and the bracelet turn out well.

7th June

Finally an update on this blog! After a long discussion with Sarath around late May, we've decided to move away from the idea of creating something new and fresh to crowdfund on KickStarter. This is mainly due to our level of commitment we have and the limitation of what the manufacturer can create for us. Throughout this summer, all of us have our internship and work, and hence we decided to do something simple and feasible to fit into our current work load.

Still, we stick to the idea of bracelet and lookout for bracelets on Alibaba which are Aesthetically appealing to people around our age. After browsing for at least a good 1 hour, I've came to realization that there are more decent female bracelets than male bracelets, and hence propose that we focus on female bracelets. Also, it will be of my interest to do a female line as I've only done male watches in my own business.

Fast forward to today, we narrowed down the designs that are appealing, send them out for survey, only to come upon a response with 2 designs that are almost equally popular. Hence, in order to filter which is THE ONE to produce, I've speak to tons of suppliers and judge them according to their price and response rate. Now that We've got the relevant information such as price, lead and shipping time, we are ready to make a choice and move on to the next phase of this project.

Hail HYDRA :)

21st May

Last Thursday, I had a Video Call with the supplier and they said it was not possible for them to insert a cable inside the twisted stainless steel. Therefore, now we are discussing for alternatives designs or to fall back to our backup plan.

13th May (2am)

Right before the start of a new working day, I have crafted a message to contact multiple suppliers if they are able to produce bracelets of our requirements. Also, I've contacted some of my friends for tips on dealing with manufacturers. Some of which includes a video call and having conversation with them in Chinese through the call, which I intend to do so if they are able to produce according to our standards. Hopefully I will be able to get some positive replies from the suppliers.

20th April

Done with our first presentation, after a 3 days of rushing through and solidifying our business project and idea even though all of us have projects, assignments and finals from our major this week and the upcoming week. However, it was not very well done especially for the operations and products. From this presentation, we obtained many feedback such as fast charging to differentiate ourselves. Moving ahead, we will focus on our finals first, then we will start doing the operations and market survey. This will not be easy, but i will work doubly hard to make this a success. Cheers :-)

Just one of the idea i drew previously, but it wasn't presentable and we felt that the H looks like a spin off from Hermes.

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