#awinewith Lindy Chen
MEET Lindy, Founder of China Direct Sourcing.
You can find them here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:07):
Lindy, welcome to Spark TV. I'm so excited to have you here.
Lindy Chen (00:11):
Thank you. Thank you, Danielle. I'm so also very excited,
Danielle Lewis (00:15):
So good. I love chatting to you because you are so excited and passionate about what you do and you've been so successful. So I'm so excited to share your story with everybody. Why don't we just start by telling everyone who you are and what you do?
Lindy Chen (00:32):
Sure. So my name is Lindy Chen. I'm the founder and the managing director of the China Direct Sourcing. I have 20 years in Chinese supply chain management. I'm also the founder and also the CEO of freight and technology.
Danielle Lewis (00:49):
So cool. Now let's start with China direct sourcing. I will talk about both. So is it as simple as it sounds, if I was a brand, would I come to you if I wanted to move my manufacturer to China, or if I had this crazy idea for a new product, would I come to you first?
Lindy Chen (01:08):
Absolutely. If you have an idea, if you have some sorts, and basically yes, you come to us and then we will work out the manufacturing process and also as well as we give you a recommendation for different solution. Let's say for instance, researching tender, get your product specification and really find out how much it actually cost in China.
Danielle Lewis (01:33):
Yeah, I guess that's the big thing, isn't it? When you're starting a new product, you kind of have no idea how much it's going to cost
Lindy Chen (01:41):
And especially sometimes it's good idea for you to go to Australian. Say for instance, some of the products if you get made in Australia, just open the mode or it could cost us 30 or $40,000. Not only that, the design itself can cost you easily from five to 10 K. So therefore it's good that you get a quote from the local market and then you get the idea and then therefore when you go to China, you find out the dramatic saving. It sometimes can blow your mind.
Danielle Lewis (02:17):
Yeah, absolutely. And is that the benefit of coming to you? You've kind of seen it all, the process, you know how to actually guide someone who's never done it before through a process. What would the steps be?
Lindy Chen (02:30):
Well, generally to say when you have an idea, and then the first step is through a research and tender, you would prepare the product specification. You would have some picture of the products, and you also would done some market research such as how much it cost if you're buying in Australia, and then also how much you want to sell as the end market, how that look like. So therefore at least who is your target market and also what's the end market price is going to be. And with that in mind, more likely we can come and give you a recommendation quite easily.
Danielle Lewis (03:14):
Yeah, I love that so much. So you've been doing this for 20 years?
Lindy Chen (03:17):
Yes, since the year 2005.
Danielle Lewis (03:21):
Oh my gosh.
Lindy Chen (03:22):
Have 30,000 suppliers database and also probably 2000 customer all around Australia and also America, UK, USA and New Zealand and some other islands.
Danielle Lewis (03:35):
Wow. What kind of products have you worked with?
Lindy Chen (03:38):
Well, we help our customers source the from button to bulldozer, whatever.
Danielle Lewis (03:45):
Oh, really?
Lindy Chen (03:46):
Yeah, whatever they cool want. Yes.
Danielle Lewis (03:49):
Oh my gosh, that's so cool. How did you get into it all of those years ago? Years?
Lindy Chen (03:54):
Yeah. Well, it was actually quite interesting. It was at a time when I was in year 2005. I'm still new to Australia and I just broke up with my ex-boyfriends.
Danielle Lewis (04:12):
Always starts with a story like that.
Lindy Chen (04:16):
And then one of my friend asked me to source a particular product from China, and I find I'm very good at it, and I saved him over 60 or 70% of the cost. And then these friends told more friends and I start to do the sourcing negotiation and I just find I'm very good at it.
Danielle Lewis (04:39):
Wow, that's so cool. What was your career before you started a business?
Lindy Chen (04:44):
Well,
Danielle Lewis (04:44):
Before I
Lindy Chen (04:45):
Started China direct sourcing, actually I was in China. I worked for a construction company. I also have been very high. I worked in a pharmaceutical company and I was managing four different department, like human resource department and also an admin it as well as the planning. And I was helping the business to go public listed.
Danielle Lewis (05:14):
Oh wow. That's huge.
Lindy Chen (05:17):
At that time and within two years, I helped the company grow from, I think it was over 3 million to $30 million 10 times.
Danielle Lewis (05:30):
Whoa, that's insane. And a lot of responsibility.
Lindy Chen (05:35):
Oh yeah. A lot. A lot.
Danielle Lewis (05:37):
Did you find that having that background helped you when you started your own business?
Lindy Chen (05:44):
Well, absolutely. Work for somewhere else is a different mentality. When you work for yourself, and especially when I was working for somewhere else, I never worry about the paycheck because
Danielle Lewis (06:00):
Paycheck. Oh, I remember those days.
Lindy Chen (06:02):
Yeah, the paycheck come to my pocket, come to my hand. Doesn't matter whether it's ringing sounder or whether there is difficulty. I always have my paycheck in my bank account. However, when I started working for myself, every single thing I have to do it and including as the owner to clean the toilet.
Danielle Lewis (06:22):
Yes. It's so glamorous, isn't it?
Lindy Chen (06:27):
And also when I first started the China direct sourcing, it was one of probably the darkest time in my life. I broke up with my ex-boyfriend. He had a affair. So yes, I was crying at the time. I have no friends here, no family here. I just no money. I can't even afford a laptop. I ended up have to go to the Queen Street more the public library to register myself in a computer, four computer in a row to get 15 minutes free using time and oh my
Danielle Lewis (07:08):
God. Really?
Lindy Chen (07:10):
Yeah, I was very resourceful.
Danielle Lewis (07:12):
Yes, I love it.
Lindy Chen (07:13):
Yeah, I got one hour of free use of the computer to send the email at that time. Oh my gosh. And then I pay 20 cents per page to go to the internet bar next door internet to print out my proposal to the client. And I spent $3 to buy my client a coffee nearby and then to have a meeting.
Danielle Lewis (07:40):
Oh my God, this is crazy. I never knew this about you.
Lindy Chen (07:45):
So I was really resourceful and regardless, whatever the situation in front of me and how challenging it was, and I say to myself, how long do I want to be crying? How long do I really want to allow myself to be sad? And with the separation? So I say to myself, look, enough is enough. I'm going to make it, and then I decide to crack in the business and I'm going to make more money than he does.
Danielle Lewis (08:14):
Yes. There's nothing like a little bit of rivalry to spur you on.
Lindy Chen (08:20):
Yeah. Yeah. So less than $10 a day, I can manage myself to have client meeting, check the email, send in the email, print out the proposal and secure one or two customer a day.
Danielle Lewis (08:33):
Oh my God, this is incredible. How did you find customers in the early days?
Lindy Chen (08:39):
Well, it's through basically partnership and it is to find who actually have the same target market and not necessarily just doing everything by yourself. I was actually walking along the Queen Street more and I was thinking to tell more people about my services, but I knew nobody. I have no money for the marketing. I have no one to talk to. Who should I really talk about? But one thing I do know is I'm very good at speaking Mandarin. I can teach people Mandarin and I can gain from that perspective. So I walk into a school and language school and I ask them, I said, how much did it cost me to rent a room from them and I want to teach people about the Chinese? And so then they sent the headmaster to me while I was asking for the rent for a room for one night. Then we started the discussion. So then I said, how about if we run a culture course for your organization? They're very excited, they want to do it. So we formed the partnership and we run the Chinese culture event for their organization, and then it start from there. And then I secured probably six or seven customer from the presentation.
Danielle Lewis (10:05):
Oh my God, this is awesome. I love it because it's like nowadays, you look at Instagram and it's all like you've got to do fancy campaigns. It's like no, start just reaching out to people and talking to people and creating partnerships. You don't have to have massive marketing budgets and for it to be all shiny, shiny for it to work.
Lindy Chen (10:29):
Well, the key thing is always remember what you have and what you can give to people, what you can add value to other people. So whenever I have this kind of conversation, I always look at it from my partner's point of view, what would be good for them and what they can get out of this partnership. So in a way, when I think for other people, other people just really, they take care of me at the same time. So I felt that that's how partnership really works and that's how I started.
Danielle Lewis (11:00):
I love that so much because I feel like you are so right. When you enter into a partnership, you've really got to make sure that it works for both people. If one side feels like they're doing all the work or they're not getting the outcomes, then it really isn't a partnership.
Lindy Chen (11:15):
Correct. Not only that, you look at each other's strengths and then let your partner run their part part of the best. And so then that's how I basically took it off. And in the last couple of years, I still use the same methodology to create a partner to call grow together.
Danielle Lewis (11:41):
I love that. So in the last 20 years, you have gone from public library getting 15 minute slots with Ree to check your email to over 2000 customers for China direct sourcing?
Lindy Chen (11:58):
Yes. Yes.
Danielle Lewis (11:59):
Oh my god, that's amazing.
Lindy Chen (12:01):
Not only that, you see for China direct sourcing, we won numerous awards. If you look at the war in my office, we won Telstra Business Awards and then 2009, 2012 best at Telstra Business. And then we won the Queensland Small Business Champion Awards. You name it, we have it. We partnered with Commonwealth Bank, we partnered with many different organizations. We did a national tool. We basically use the same philosophy to co-create the win-win situation for partner and us.
Danielle Lewis (12:37):
What do you attribute all of that success to?
Lindy Chen (12:41):
I think it would be just have an open mindset and also be resilient and be humble and be grateful. Resilience is always the key. No matter how good when you run business, you are always going to have challenge. That's the nature part of it. And I remember the last year, and I had probably one of the darkest moment when I was running two businesses, and also be humble is to, doesn't matter how high you are, there are always other people contributed to your success. And then be really humble is to down to earth and then willing to accept other people's contribution, but also willing to share with others. And also I would say be generous, be kind. And those are the things really you can attract the people into your life.
Danielle Lewis (13:44):
I love that so much because all of those things that you just said are kind of within our own control. We can all, no matter what our situation is, we can all be kind, we can all be generous, we can all be grateful. We can all look at other people's points of view. That's all things that we can control.
Lindy Chen (14:03):
Yeah, absolutely. And that's how we can recreate ourself. We cannot decide how outside of the window look like, but we can determine to choose which window we want to face.
Danielle Lewis (14:19):
Oh, I love that. Oh my god, so good. So talk to me about free technologies. So that's a little bit newer than China direct sourcing. What is that all about?
Lindy Chen (14:30):
Yes, free technology is my new baby. So prison technology is actually formed out of China, direct sourcing. So while I was growing China direct sourcing, I love it. I'm passionate and we have 2000 customer, Australian white, and yet I want to grow it 10 times hundred of times. And then I find the limitation because China direct sourcing is labor intensive and also it need a lot of resources on the human power. And if I want to go worldwide, I couldn't. And so therefore, I thought about using technology to enhance our process and to do the scale up. So that's how I come up. The free technology is a DIY sourcing platform. We use the blockchain to empower the whole sourcing process. We verify the supplier, we do the sampling, purchase, the negotiation, production and delivery management. And with the proven concept enable us to move from A to B, from factory to the site, from factory to the warehouse. And then always the technology with Friesen is as if you have another mini Lindy chain sit on each other to guide you every single step, say, do this, do that, do this, do that. And so then if you want someone to guide you to do everything, you use channel direct sourcing. If you want to do it yourself with some guidance, then you are using free technology. So for free technology as a tech startup, and it's only two years old, we started, we registered in year 2021 March, but now the valuation is $20 million already.
Danielle Lewis (16:22):
Oh my God. How did that happen?
Lindy Chen (16:26):
So we actually, with free technology, we have a big vision. It's not only just a service from China to Australia, but also from China to uk, China to USA and China to the world. And so within technology, it can scale up very quickly. So that's the power of digitization and also visionary thinking. So with recent, we did the first round of fundraising at 75 cents per share, and then we closed, we raised 800,000. Not only that, we secured the Australian accelerating commercialization grant of 730,000 from federal government. So that is very rare. And not only that, we just as of today complete the AC grant. And then we also started the second round of fundraising as $2 a share. So for the annual investor, their money have already doubled, almost tripled. And then for the $2 million round, we want to raise $2 million. We raised the 1.7 already by this Friday, I think we probably end up more likely we'll close the rest of it.
Danielle Lewis (17:41):
Oh my God, that is incredible. What's the capital raising process been like for you? Do you like that side of the business?
Lindy Chen (17:48):
Well, this is a part of the journey as the tech startup. It's quite a different mentality. When I first started the fundraising, I have never done it. It's very challenging. I don't even know what I'm talking about. And when I first started fundraising, I didn't want to do it, but the government, the federal government forced me and they said, Lindy, if you want this AC grant, you have to go to raise money. We want to. I said, no, no, no. I can mortgage my house and use that money to match for the funding. They said, no, no, no. We don't want just you benefit. We want more people get benefit from you running this AC grant. Not only that, we want you to prove to us you are investible.
Danielle Lewis (18:39):
Yeah, okay.
Lindy Chen (18:41):
Yeah. That's how I literally started the fundraising and to get a match. So basically that process is every dollar I raise, I get a dollar. So if I review back right now, I talked to nearly 490 investors,
Danielle Lewis (18:59):
What? Oh my God, that's huge.
Lindy Chen (19:03):
And then we now probably have around 60 or 70 investors on our cap table. I reckon it is. Every investor, every 10 investor. And then I get one say yes. So everyone, whoever says no to me, I don't care. I just say, okay, it's one step closer to my next. Yes,
Danielle Lewis (19:24):
Yes. Oh my God, that is such a good mentality. I feel like that's kind of like a sales mentality. It's okay that people say, no, that gets me closer to the Yes.
Lindy Chen (19:34):
Correct. And sometimes one of the same in my CTO, she said, Lindy, when you do fundraising, you look doing multi-level marketing.
Danielle Lewis (19:45):
Yeah. Oh my God, that's so true. I said, so sales driven, isn't it?
Lindy Chen (19:53):
That's right. Well, I said, well, this is how I see it. Because fundraising for tech, very critical, especially as the founder. I talk to many investors, I talk to many stakeholders, and if someone who is aligned with my vision, great, let's create a partnership. Let's get you on board. And if they can't see that, no problem. I don't take no as, no, you just know just right now. And then they will say yes later when
Danielle Lewis (20:22):
They see what they missed out on in the last round.
Lindy Chen (20:25):
Exactly. I do have investor, I invited them at 75 cents round and they say, and then I invited them again at a $2 round. They said, yes,
Danielle Lewis (20:36):
Yes. Oh my God, that's so good. And
Lindy Chen (20:39):
I also have many investor, probably 11 out of 22 investors from the first annual round reinvested in the seed round in the second round.
Danielle Lewis (20:49):
Oh, that's cool too. They can see the progress.
Lindy Chen (20:52):
Oh yeah. Yeah. And then yeah, I also, this year around the 13th of March, I did a launch seminar, launching a party as well as a celebration of secured 79 million procurement contract. And then I have 10 investors on the night invested over 200 K.
Danielle Lewis (21:15):
Oh my God, that is incredible. Isn't it funny, I think investors are like everyone else. You need to show the hype. You need to get them excited. You need to show them what they're either missing out on or what the possibility could be.
Lindy Chen (21:27):
Oh, and also keep them updated. Keep having the integrity and also be really spot on with your own due diligence room, your forecast, your financial, your feasibility, your marketing, your sales, your planning. So literally before I started the fundraising journey, I felt, my God, this is very challenging. But right now, I felt I very confident I can show people, whoever interested, I can send them, I can send them the due diligence room, I can send 'em the data room, and the many people who saw it impressed it and invest.
Danielle Lewis (22:12):
Yeah, that's such great advice. Making sure that you make it easy for them, having all of the right information up to date, whenever they want it, not scrambling and looking unorganized.
Lindy Chen (22:24):
So basically my classmate, my cohort in the accelerator program saying whatever Lindy wants, Lindy gets,
Danielle Lewis (22:36):
I like that. I like that a lot. Next time I need something, I'll send you in.
Lindy Chen (22:43):
So along the journey, if I look at it and my lawyer invested, my accountant invested my value, invested my mentor, every accelerator program I went through, my mentor invested.
Danielle Lewis (22:55):
Wow, that's so cool. Why do you think that is?
Lindy Chen (22:59):
Well, I think I'm quite passionate. And also they said infectious. Whenever people talk to me, they felt the excitement. They often drawn that into the startup, joined by the founder. And when people say no to me, I don't take it as offense. I was still very polite and still saying, when you're ready and you are more than welcome to come back. And sometimes they do come back. So I think for that, I always look at the bright side of the investors, so therefore that probably impressed them. And also the strong the data room. And we won seven awards in the last six months, literally even including 2023 Telstra Best of Business Awards. It's so cool. I love that.
Danielle Lewis (23:58):
It's so cool because you're so right, being a business owner, a startup founder, it's actually really hard and it takes a long time. It takes a lot of guts, it takes a lot of resilience. So if you can show people that you are in it and you're excited about it, then I think you're right. That does become a little infectious, doesn't it?
Lindy Chen (24:19):
Yeah. Well people sometimes they say that they invest 10% on your company, 90% on the founder.
Danielle Lewis (24:27):
Yeah, I agree with that.
Lindy Chen (24:29):
And if they click with the founder and they felt they have the trust on the founder, they usually more likely to invest. So to degree, if I look at the annual investor, I have my primary school classmates invested. Even a junior school classmates invested and high school classmates invested, university classmates invested. Oh my gosh. And then people who worked with me invested and the people who as my trainee invested, and then people who actually as my assistant invested and then the people as my student, I mentored them more than 800 different businesses in the past, like say 20 years for Queensland government and federal government, many of my mentee invested because they being as my student, they know what I teach, they know what I'm talking about. They know how I really show up. And when I say A happen, when I say B happen. So they felt they can really trust me. And some of the people I haven't even see or met nearly past 20 years, we reconnected and then they invested.
Danielle Lewis (25:47):
Oh my God, that's incredible. I love that though. If you say you're going to do something, do it. Yeah, there's real power in that.
Lindy Chen (25:56):
Yeah, I felt that's the words of integrity. So therefore, even the promises I made to myself, I fulfill it such as if I say I want to do exercise and I do exercise, and then I go to the gym, I do weight lifting, even I have muscle.
Danielle Lewis (26:21):
Oh, that's so good. It's true though. If you're not going to keep your own word to yourself, why would you keep it to anybody else?
Lindy Chen (26:28):
Exactly. I slice it in. One thing I get a really benefit is when I was very young, I get access of a book called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
Danielle Lewis (26:40):
Yes, I have that here, but actually I don't think I've read it. I
Lindy Chen (26:45):
Love that book so much. I read it three times and I translated handwritten the book into Chinese page by page with 250 pages of that book.
Danielle Lewis (26:58):
Oh my gosh.
Lindy Chen (26:59):
And then I typed it into the full Chinese transcript, and then I made a point point presentation. I trained my team member in China.
Danielle Lewis (27:10):
Oh my God, that's cool. I was just about to say, so we were talking about integrity. I assume that's one of the seven habits
Lindy Chen (27:19):
Correct, is to understand the importance of the role in your life and then understand the priority in the life, and then embedded in the weekly action, and it's called private victory. So I'm really grateful for when I was young and I be given that book, and then I really learned the whole principle and embedded in my life.
Danielle Lewis (27:49):
So what's the translation when you say, is it daily action or weekly action? So is it that idea of promising yourself something or this is the goal that I'm working towards and saying, okay, well every day I'm going to show up and commit to doing something?
Lindy Chen (28:03):
Yes. It's more of say you set up the goal, you want the role you want for each of the role, and then you set up a goal you wanted, and then with the goal you wanted. Then every quarter there is a top five priority, and with top five priority and plus your personal victory, you start to plan your week, and then each time you allocate a session to move that objective forwards.
Danielle Lewis (28:35):
Oh,
Lindy Chen (28:36):
That's cool. Yeah. So for instance, you can see I have written my top five objective in my, this quarter, one would be complete a $2 million raise. And so far I already done 1.7. So as you can see last night, and that's why I went to a network function and I met because I'm also the president of Sunnybank Chamber Commerce for four years, and I met many friends in sunnybank chamber commerce, and I want to invite them to invest. They'll say Yes. Oh
Danielle Lewis (29:05):
My God, that's so good.
Lindy Chen (29:07):
Through one dinner, through one function, I probably raised another a hundred K. So if they do and put the money in, I only have 200 K left. Oh my God, so good. What I say, if this is in my objective, then I will take action and I will know where to go, how to go. And then another one is to plan fifth or February event, which is our celebration event. So for that, then I start to run the run sheet and I delegate design the PPT design, who invites and the marketing team, then I delegate marketing team doing this and assistant doing that. And so I check the schedule and another one is say, trip to China and objective. So then those are my top five objective. Therefore, I break into, I do a little bit each day, and then finally I arrive there.
Danielle Lewis (30:02):
I love that so much, and I think it makes it a little bit easier to show up when we break it down into actually the small tasks.
Lindy Chen (30:10):
Oh, yeah. When it is a very big task. You felt this elephant, you have nowhere to bite.
Danielle Lewis (30:17):
Yes, yes. I love that expression. That's so good. Oh my God, I love it. We could talk all day, but I always love to ask this last question when I'm chatting to the amazing women who come on this podcast, and it is when you reflect on your time across China, direct sourcing and freedom technology, so your time in business, is there one piece of advice that you would give to another woman in business to help her on her journey?
Lindy Chen (30:51):
Well, I would say I, starting a business is a leap or face, but don't let hesitation hold you back. Do thorough market research, have a clear vision, and be prepared to adapt. Remember, every successful business, start with a first step. So just do it.
Danielle Lewis (31:17):
Oh my God, I love that so much. It's actually really funny. I think that that holds true along the way as well. Even when you're launching a new product or you're trying something new, it's like just do it and just take the first step.
Lindy Chen (31:31):
Sometimes if you don't do it, you never know what may come across. And when I first started the prison, I didn't register business. I wanted to have an idea, and then I went to a mentoring session. My God, when after that mentoring session, I shattered because I faced so much criticism. It's not joking. Yeah, it's not joking. And then my tears come. I regard myself as a very strong-willed person, but when that criticism come to me and I just felt, my gosh, it's so confronting. However, after I come down, I say to myself, look, those mentors, they criticize me. It is not because of they want to criticize me because they have a view on certain things. I must sit down, become and learn from their perspective, from their perspective to see what they say. And then taking that advice on board. And it really forced me to relook my own presentation. And then after three, four uncomfortable uncomfortableness, and then I finally can start to see from their perspective. So I changed my pitch.
Danielle Lewis (32:48):
Yeah. Wow. That's so good. I love that. Criticism is really interesting. You can let it totally derail you, but also you can use it to make your stuff better. So why not?
Lindy Chen (33:02):
And it's through those challenges, I became stronger, I became more resilient and allowed me to see from another people's perspective. So quite often when I come across those challenges and then I allow myself to be a little bit sober, cry a little bit.
Danielle Lewis (33:30):
Yes, definitely.
Lindy Chen (33:33):
Sometimes we got to allow ourself to be a little bit vulnerable,
Danielle Lewis (33:38):
And we're just going to let it out. Just let it out.
Lindy Chen (33:41):
Yeah. Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (33:42):
Oh, incredible. Lindy, you are so impressive, so inspirational. Thank you so much for sharing your story on the Spark podcast. So grateful to have you here.
Lindy Chen (33:55):
Thank you very much for the opportunity. I love the community. I love you. I just felt this is a great safe space to share.
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