One Sneak Peek Into Beyond the Business Card

I have attended countless networking events since entering university.

Some of these were hosted by school clubs, and I often get to meet inspiring and cool people that I otherwise wouldn’t have.

At one of these held at the Singapore Management University, I met the wonderful venture capitalist Jozua Pung.

He currently works at Genting Ventures as an Investment Manager

Previously, he was in Monk’s Hill Ventures as a Portfolio Operations Manager, where he took care of the firm’s portfolio companies.

Before that, he managed a team of more than 70 as the Executive and Board Director of a Singaporean SME named Eubiq at the age of 27.

Apart from his work achievements, he is strong academically, having achieved a First Class Honours in Economic and Finance for his Bachelors’ degree from the University of London

He also recently completed his MBA at Singapore Management University, while working full time.

Not only that, he recently founded his own men’s personal care brand, Bareborn, and their first product will be on skincare.

These are my few takeaways from our conversation together:

1. Be authentic

“When I was co-running Eubiq, we had a huge building in Joo Koon. Everyone there was older than me.

As my nature is to always remain curious and strive to learn new things, I always rotated myself amongst the different functions, and my employees told me that it was the first time that they saw a C-suite person going down to the sites to check on what was happening.

I believe that it is important to know what is happening on the ground, so you can improve how your employees are working. But do it only because you genuinely care, as those that you lead will be able to feel your authenticity.

In venture capital, it is imperative for you to network. I never approached people with an agenda in mind, and treated networking as making new friends. People will get turned off if you treat relationships as purely transactionary. All in all, I am just a very candid person.

Just be yourself.”

2. Turning self-doubt into motivation

“I didn’t experience self-doubt in Eubiq but I did experience it in the venture capital and private equity industry, which is filled with high achievers. Many of my colleagues at Monks’s Hill, especially the Limited Partners of the fund, graduated with Bachelors or Masters from top overseas universities, and some of them were founders with two or three exits under their belt. They were amongst the smartest and most humble individuals I have met.

I think the self-doubt is still there, but I just choose to channel it towards other things. I direct it towards self-improvement instead by reading hundreds of books and subsequently pursuing a Masters in Business Administration (MBA).”

3. On communication with colleagues

“Before I approach any boss or senior, I would have already run the numbers and done my homework beforehand. I would never just go in abruptly.

If I was going to recommend something, I would always try to understand and acknowledge what the other party values first.

There was this incident where my employees back at Eubiq went on strike. That was pure miscommunications on the part of HR. But how I resolved it was through remaining calm and talking things through with the employees. I tried to find out what actually happened and what they wanted.

We were retrenching people then. The other employees would have 2 months pay compensation and leave the next day, but for certain employees, we wanted them to continue to work for an extra 2 months. HR failed to communicate that they would be compensated extra for the 2 months more that they worked.”

4. Build products that solve your own problems

“I started a men’s personal care brand because I wanted to solve my own skin issues and create a brand that focuses on empowering driven individuals. In the past, I used to go to a dermatologist, who gave me a 10 step skincare routine to follow. At the start, I would apply everything diligently, but as time went by, I started using less products because they were very expensive. Of course, my skin deteriorated again.

So, I wanted to find a way to squeeze these 10 steps into 1 single step. I didn’t want to create something that I myself would not use. I believe that if you don’t have a personal stake in what you are building, especially for a consumer product, you will give up easily. The lack of authenticity will show through your product and brand, and that is the difference between simply selling a product and building a brand. I surveyed 200 guys, and apparently the majority of us seem to face similar issues. So there is a market out there.

Thus far, I have tested my formula on 30 people, mainly my friends and family. We have gone through 3 iterations that were given by the lab we work with, all of which failed and made my skin worse. I am going to create my own formula, which is going to be the fourth iteration. I hope it can be out in the next 2 or 3 months. Now that most people I know are aware of what I am working on, it will be hard for me to back out.”

Connect with Jozua: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jozua-pung/

Join our telegram channel: https://t.me/onesneakpeekinto

And that is all for today’s One Sneak Peek Into.

Stay tuned for more insights from our interview series as we continue to explore the stories of trailblazers breaking barriers and redefining success.