An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Don’t be harsh on yourself — In order for your business to grow and sustain, you as a founder need to have the right mind. It is natural to be harsh on yourself with all the pressure and criticisms. I was always blaming myself for my mistakes and never being satisfied even if I was achieving something. Your emotion is so attached to the company that sometimes you forget your own emotion, and your emotion is dependent on the company’s success. Once you are on that emotional rollercoaster, it will affect the other teammates, stakeholders, and your company’s performance as a whole.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Naoe Miyata.

As an innovation business consultant who serves as a bridge between Japan and Southeast Asia, he helps businesses with venture building and business design for all sectors, including both conglomerates and SMEs in various industries such as agricultural, F&B, manufacturing, medical, and energy. His first startup, Coin⇄Back — a social enterprise that provides travelers with a chance to get rid of their loose change by simultaneously making donations, won several awards, including Startup Weekend Travel Edition and WIT Indonesia. With his own experience in building a startup from zero(0), he has expertise in “zero to one” venture building, where he uses creative design to execute ideas into real products and services through a customer-centric approach; from vision setting, team and culture building, operational excellence, problem-solving, product development, customer acquisition and building strategic partnerships. To leverage on his first-hand experience, he started to enhance real businesses: as one of the digital transformation initiatives, he successfully transformed a publicly listed Thai manufacturing company by building a new B2B e-commerce platform which became one of the value-generating pillars during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

Thank you for having me. Sure, I’m a Taiwanese-Japanese, born in Bangkok and raised in Tokyo until I was 18. Growing up, I would spend my summer in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and the USA., where I was exposed to different people, cultures, and environments at a younger age. I loved being in the new environment, where I got to make new friends, learn new perspectives and expose myself to new experiences that I had never encountered. The more places I’m exposed to, the more open-minded, inspired, and curious I become about the people and the world around me. As a shy person who’s not confident enough to be in the center of the crowd, I tend to observe people — what their perspective is? What are they thinking? And why does someone act the way they do? etc. People often ask me what nationality do I consider myself. I don’t know if I can answer that question (I was confused growing up myself!) However, what I know is that I can easily adjust, cooperate with everyone, and live and survive anywhere in the world.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

That’s an interesting question, and I don’t often think about it. But if I had to choose one, it would be the quote that my parents would often tell me growing up. “Be persistent (a.k.a GRIT), and once you decide on something, make sure you follow through and finish it till the end despite the outcome.” To be honest, I hated every time my parents would tell me this whenever I started a new hobby or new lessons that I originally initiated. As a kid, it’s usual that you want to just give up when things do not go the way you want, and I felt overwhelmed when I had to keep going. However, thinking back, this quote has been in the back of my mind and the base of my work ethic and my life lesson. Now, I take full responsibility for every decision I make and build resilience to thrive for whatever challenges come my way.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

“Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell” is one of the books that had a significant impact on me. His focus on the great team and “collaborative world” and his belief toward the well-being and success of his people is very admiring and something that I put into practice when dealing with people. Once, as the Head of Operations for a SaaS startup, I was always thinking about what would be the best yet challenging environment to grow as a company. Though our platform relies on the technical product, it is people that drive the business, and it is very important for the leaders to create a safe and supportive environment to maximize their potential and increase productivity. As a result, I was always thinking about how to make each individual better. I believe where he mentioned, “the higher you climb, the more your success depends on making other people successful.”

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?

I totally understand this. I was the same. As an engineer, I’m a problem solver. In my free time, I like to think of a problem and come up with ideas to solve those issues. I loved coming up with ideas but never could execute one into an actual business. I wanted to start a new app that can help people with mental health, I wanted to make a device where you can get rid of leftover coins, I wanted to own a ramen store with subway-style… the ideas are exponential. So many ideas, but where do you start? I was clueless until I participated in this event called “Startup Weekend” — a three-day program where aspiring entrepreneurs can experience startup life: from building a team, ideation, validating an MVP product, creating a business model and plan, and finally pitching your idea in front of credible investors on the last day, all within one weekend. My idea, which later became a real product, at this event was called “Coin⇄Back” — a social enterprise that provides travelers with a chance to get rid of their loose change by simultaneously making donations. This intensive and rich experience made me realize that you can actually achieve a lot within the given and harsh time frame. If you can achieve this much within three days, you can actually achieve much more. All I needed was to initiate it and start executing the idea into some tangible format for your potential customers to see and visualize how your product or service will change their life completely. Of course, what we did in a week is far from what we can market out in the world, but to start something with the people who believe in your idea is something extraordinary, and it built a lot of confidence in what we are capable of. Start with whatever resource you have today to picture your idea into reality. That would be the first step toward translating good ideas into an actual business. If you can execute your ideas in three days, imagine what you can achieve if you start today.

Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?

First of all, I would recommend doing simple website research through the internet. It’s very easy to find public information these days. Search for similar topics and articles that might be related to your new ideas and topics. In addition, start with the resources and reach out to your existing network. You will be surprised how your existing network, such as family, friends, advisors, and colleagues, might know some of the information you are seeking for. Often, I would discuss the ideas with my friends to seek their feedback. It’s has been helpful as they would give you honest opinions, and the more you pitch your ideas, one of them would give you advice on whether there are similar ideas out there or not.

For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.

I do not believe that there’s a set of rules that you have to follow as an entrepreneur. People in the startup community joke around, calling themselves Chief Everything Officer (CEO). You pretty much have to do everything in parallel when you become a CEO, especially when you are about to start your own product and services. Sometimes your focuses are on marketing and business development. Other times, you will have to focus on the operations and continuous product development. At some point, you might focus on hiring new employees etc. However, here are the steps that I took when starting a company.

• Research: It is very important that you talk directly to all the stakeholders and potential customers who might be using your product. Feel their pain points and get their Insights to see how you would solve their issues. Real customer feedback not only gives you real, honest opinions, but it also can build up your confidence level if you are solving their pain points.
• Business Plan: set a vision of the company and what impact do you foresee achieving by starting this business. What are the main value propositions that you would like your customers to know? What is your business plan, and what is your strategy for achieving each milestone to reach the ultimate goal? Creating a business plan will
• Hire specialists: In order to set up a company and operate accordingly, you will need to seek specialists such as accountants and lawyers. In addition, if your product is something proprietary, then you can search directly on a patent and trademark office or seek a patent attorney.
• Get a fan base who love your product — your fans are the ultimate supporter and a cheerleader. You can iterate products, get honest feedback and can brainstorm ideas together. In addition, it’s always nice to have a strong fanbase who might be able to promote your products and services in the future to share with the rest of the market.
• Build a team: You can’t do everything on your own. Understand your capability and responsibility, think about who else you need to achieve your vision. It must be someone who believes in your company vision and who would be able to drive and execute things like it’s their own issue. The core team is very important as it will set the culture and fate for your company.
• Building a product or service: It’s quite important to start with a manual process, so you get to understand the whole process to see how using your idea, technology, and services can solve customer pain points.
• Business Development — At this point, you should have enough information about the landscape of the industry you are entering. Start reaching out to all the potential partners and vendors that you would like to work closely with, such as manufacturers and distributors, by going directly to the company website, LinkedIn search, or through your existing network for the introduction.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

I would have liked to write this message to myself when I started my business for the first time:

1. It’s ok not to be perfect — Your product is never perfect, especially in the early stages. As a founder, you often have the ultimate product and services features that you would like to achieve, but it requires time and resources that you might not have at this moment. Often, a product fails because of fixing a non-existent problem or a failure to understand customer needs and wants. So, it’s very crucial for you to put out the product as early as possible to get real customer feedback so you can check your product direction based on the customer feedback. For the Coin⇄Back machine, which we built, we went through four MVP iterations in order to come up with the final product. The first MVP machine took the longest, and the results were a disaster. However, we were able to build the rest of the three iterated machines rapidly, where we got tons of good customer feedback to improve and make it into a product that people are looking for. Now that I look back, I feel it’s more important to deploy a product to get market feedback rather than spending a long time building something that people might and might not want. Execution speed is the key, and it does not necessarily mean it’s a perfect product. You can always improve as you progress.
2. People have opinions, and it’s ok — Quite often, when you get a chance to talk to more external people such as your customers, partners, or mentors about your product, they will have many different opinions. I often struggled with this because, as a founder, I want to take everyone’s advice seriously and achieve it to acquire their support. However, you need to know that you cannot satisfy everyone in the world. People do have different ideas and opinions, and it is our responsibility as company owners to make decisions and prioritize their wise advice while progressing forward as a company. This also applies to internal members within your team. As the company progresses, your team members will have different opinions. Team communication is very important for all team members to be engaged and reduce unnecessary silos and stress on the way.
3. Enjoy the process, not the results — Operating a business and continuously growing the business is a long-term journey. Sometimes you are hitting your goals and milestones, while most of the time, you might not be achieving them. To stay motivated and thrive even in this uncontrollable emotional roller coaster, we as a founder will need to create a safe environment where all team members feel comfortable and are not only being pressured and stressed about the immediate goal, forgetting about the long term vision of the company and why and how each individual are contributing to it. With the team that I work with, I often set small goals and celebrate small milestones with the team over lunch or mini prizes to show appreciation and gratitude and increase team spirit to keep moving forward no matter the situation. Results are cumulative progress, and in an environment where results are not often achieved, we should focus on small daily wins to achieve big wins and success in the future.
4. Don’t worry, your team got your back — As a Chief Everything Officer, a founder often thinks that they will have to do everything on their own. We want to get involved as much as we want and make decisions in every aspect. However, there’s so much that one person can do. I was also like that. Early on, I tried to control everything because I thought making these important decisions would ease off my teammate’s responsibility and help them release from the intense pressure they were facing. However, a highly motivated and passionate teammate of mine thought that I did not fully trust his capability and that I did not treat him as a professional, who later quit the company. From then on, I realized that I needed to devote more work and give ownership and responsibilities to the teammates. So, the hiring process becomes the key here. It is important to hire someone who believes in your company and the vision and for you to have full trust in them and be transparent with them. You believe that they are better than you in the sense that they can grow the business faster from a different angle. As a result, it creates engagements and ownership within the company while efficiently making progress towards your goal. Work with someone you can fully trust and believe in. All you can do as a CEO is to support and challenge them when necessary.
5. Don’t be harsh on yourself — In order for your business to grow and sustain, you as a founder need to have the right mind. It is natural to be harsh on yourself with all the pressure and criticisms. I was always blaming myself for my mistakes and never being satisfied even if I was achieving something. Your emotion is so attached to the company that sometimes you forget your own emotion, and your emotion is dependent on the company’s success. Once you are on that emotional rollercoaster, it will affect the other teammates, stakeholders, and your company’s performance as a whole. This is the reason why it is so important for you to have the right mindset so that you can share that with the rest of the team and generate feelings that drive productive action. There’s no right answer to whatever decisions you make, as long as you believe in it and follow through till the end. You will make many mistakes on the way, but it’s okay to make wrong decisions as long as you learn and improve for the next action plans.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

I would recommend starting with whatever resources you have now and finding the simplest way to showcase your product and services. Target the people who would benefit from your idea, and find out how they will react to your idea. And the easiest way to do that is to directly talk to potential customers and get their honest opinions and feedback about your idea. What do they like, and what can be improved? The first thing I did when setting up an e-commerce platform for a client was to make a fake website to learn about our customers and listen to their feedback. You can always start small with minimum investment in the beginning. You want to share your idea with the people who need your product. While getting their honest feedback, you would be able to define your idea and build up the confidence so that it makes sense to execute the idea.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

I would always recommend striking out on your own first. The idea itself is one thing, but the execution process to me is the most important. It’s the process of your assumptions failing, learning from experiences, and exposure to customers’ direct feedback that continuously improves to get the final idea across and exposed as a business. The process has so many meaningful learnings and insights that I recommend starting it by yourself first. However, consultants are helpful if you would like to expedite the whole process and if you know your idea is exactly what is needed in the market.

Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I believe that I’m far from achieving success, and I am still in the process to be successful. However, with my experiences starting businesses from just an idea, I am now mentoring and helping other founders and startups in their growth stage and global expansion. By understanding the importance of community and boosting startup ecosystem, I am now contributing as a business mentor at JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization) in helping early-to-mature stage startups with go-to-market strategy and execution support for global expansion while also leveraging the network and acting as a connector for open innovation initiatives. Startups that I support include AI, SaaS, FinTech, CleanTech, Foodtech, and Healthcare. I hope that my contribution will be able to support founders to grow their business overseas, especially in the Asian region.

You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

I am currently trying to test a networking platform called “EN Network”, where people can connect with one another globally to share their ideas and get inspired. The themes are Global, Diversity, and Open, where I want people from different backgrounds, cultures, and careers to meet online for a one-on-one coffee break. I believe that innovation and best ideas come from outside your industry, and I would like to connect people to empower and enhance innovation and ideas in the world through “cross-border”, “cross-generation”, and “cross-industry”. I believe in the collective energy and collaboration among this community to create and empower people to encourage innovation. I hope this network can create serendipitous moments that can enhance new ideas into real businesses for everyone. I’m still in the early testing phase, and please reach out to me if you are interested to find out more about it.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

I would like to meet Guy Kawasaki as I respect all his work, inspirations, and how he’s been giving back to the community.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

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Making Something From Nothing: Naoe Miyata Of EN Innovation On How To Go From Idea To Launch was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.