Sarah Khan

Category: Article

  • Common Ground’s Juhn Teo shares his secrets to start-up success | Going Places magazine

    Common Ground’s Juhn Teo shares his secrets to start-up success | Going Places magazine

    “Timing is everything in business,” shares Juhn Teo, co-founder of Common Ground, one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing co-working spaces

    The number of players has made co-working a competitive space to be in, something Common Ground’s Juhn Teo knows all too well. Juhn and business partner Erman Akinci started their business in 2017, just as co-working was gaining traction in Southeast Asia.

    Since launching their flagship in Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur, the pair have grown Common Ground to 28 venues across eight cities in three countries (Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines), with plans to open in Vietnam and Indonesia in the next year. These are the key things Juhn says he got right and wrong on the road to success.

    What I got right

    “If I could narrow it down to one thing, timing would be it. We entered just as the industry’s high-growth trajectory in Southeast Asia was taking off. If we’d been any earlier, we’d have faced that first-mover, early-adopter risk. And if we’d started any later, we would have been way too late. Deliberate design or not, we timed it well and got a good lead on the markets. And timing really is everything in business.

    “Another thing we got right was creating a product that appealed to a diverse range of members. I think a lot of co-working brands started out planning to serve those in the startup and tech space, which is great, but we wanted to be highly scalable, so we needed to be broad. Our member profiles are scattered quite evenly across the pie – tech only makes up 15%. Not only does being diverse ensure we’re sustainable and scalable, it also enriches the community.”

    What I got wrong

    “The challenge we always faced, and still do, is finding the balance between bootstrapping and attracting talent, particularly in senior positions. We probably bootstrapped for a little too long on a very lean budget and should’ve filled in some key positions sooner. A lot of things that have gone wrong have stemmed from that.”

    Full story on Going Places: https://goingplaces.malaysiaairlines.com/common-ground-juhn-teo-startup-secrets/

  • Author Pico Iyer on how we can keep a sense of wonder in our day-to-day | Going Places magazine

    Author Pico Iyer on how we can keep a sense of wonder in our day-to-day | Going Places magazine

    The author of The Art of Stillness and, most recently, Autumn Light, shares his favourite way to discover a city (hint: no apps are involved) and how we can all still keep our sense of wonder and wander in these unprecedented times

    “Sitting still is a way of falling in love with the world and everything in it,” reads a line in Pico Iyer’s book The Art of Stillness: Adventures of Going Nowhere. It’s a quote that feels especially timely today, as we come to terms with this change of pace, but it’s also one that might seem at odds for a globetrotting journalist and author whose writing has led him everywhere from the terrains of Tibet to North Korea. Much of Pico’s earlier work, after all, consisted of travel memoirs and portals to some incredible places, although his more recent books, like Autumn Light, touch on the value and virtue of slowness and the journey of discovery from within. 

    I spoke with Pico, who’s currently self-isolating in Japan with his wife, on all things travel, his take on the pandemic and how we can still keep our spirits and sense of wonder well and alive even if wandering as we knew it isn’t an option right now. 

    Full story on Going Places: https://goingplaces.malaysiaairlines.com/pico-iyer-interview/