Marcus: Today, we have a very special guess Violet from LUNCHActually, Thanks for doing this show Violet.

Violet Lim: Thanks for having me Marcus.

Marcus: Share with us how LUNCHactually started in 2004 and how you expanded ever since?

Violet Lim: A lot of people ask me how I ended up in this industry in the first place. I didn’t dream of being a match maker when I was growing up but I think was happened was a serious of events.

I did Masters in HR and then I ended up in banking industry, It was then when I realize that a lot of my colleague was single and not dating and to me that is quite curious because you know bankers being bankers they are all eligible and attractive and nice people.

And that is when I realize if you miss the opportunity in meeting someone earlier let say at school, It gets a bit more difficult because when you come out to work in a long hours and when your free you want to catch up with your family and about that time I came about a concept if lunch dating that was something very popular in the US, UK and Australia but nobody was doing anything like that in Singapore or Asia.

And that thought clicks with me because what I realize about my colleagues is it might work really long hours because usually they meet during lunch time and if you are going to eat again why not meet someone who you’ve never meet before and who knows something may actually come out of it.

So that’s how we got started twelve years ago like a brick and mortar business everything is like manual and things like that right. But along the way how we branch out to different services right now we usually have online and offline.

We have 1 on 1, groups or we even have Lunch Academy where we work on date coaching things like that, and so how we went into all this different setup I guess is really the needs we have seen during our singles.

When we first started LUNCHactually our objectives was like let’s arrange lunch dates for singles, our objective really was to become the most effective platform to help singles find love and I think along the way we realize that maybe Lunch may not work for a group of people but it would work for all and that is why we went to all this different output.

Marcus: So Lunchactually the traditional dating agencies for about how many years?

Violet Lim: About 3 years

Marcus: Could you tell us the moment where you decide that you need to expand through Tech?

Violet Lim: I think the thinking of Jaymie and me were having at that point was that is the time when online dating was heating up like Match.com and E-Harmony things like that.

I think the thought we have that point is that we need to stay relevant because now our entire life is on our smart phone right so we started to see the trend where people using email and computers for everything in their life.

We were thinking that maybe is that there yet, but we need to catch up with the trend so that is the time we thought that we needed an online platform as well.

And we thought that we didn’t want to have another Match.com because what was the point in doing the same thing so that’s the time we create eTeract something that is different and we actually brought speed dating online.

We also did what we called 3D dating were there would be chat rooms and other task, so those old enough that needs to remember what are IRC is well you know is like chat rooms but here you are represented by the other task and they can change their clothes to represent themselves.

But subsequently what we realize eTeract is that it wasn’t a model that agents were comp table with for example Match.com , people in US and UK they are happy to pay to just message each other but we realize that Asians or specifically South East Asian they are not happy to just pay to message each other and they are looking for something more.

Marcus: Is it a new business model that hasn’t done before previously by anybody? Was it like a distractor kind of model?

Violet Lim: I think in Asia maybe there were some companies that were doing something similar but definitely in the market we were in like nobody was doing that so it was a hybrid model were leverage online but at the same time we still a personal touch.

And that worked out very well because I think we found the sweet spot of what are singles actually looking for in this region.

Marcus: How did that take off in eSynchrony?

Violet Lim: It did very well, I mean it took a while for us to tweak the model to get it right but once we got it right we actually grew rapidly.

Marcus: Now let’s go on to the topic Acquisition. Describe the conversation you had when you did your first acquisition?

Violet Lim: So the interesting thing about it is like we never thought of going down and I think the more conscious way of expanding in that point was expanding our service line which we did, eTeract and eSynchrony and the other way was to expand our locations.

So after 2004 in Singapore, 2005 we went to Malaysia and 2008 we went to Hong Kong. 2012 was the first acquisition we did and what happened was that one of the company we have known for a long time also an offline dating company and the name of the company is Dating Loft.

It has been in the market for awhile and it’s one of the top brand in the market as well so the two ladies who started the business by that time they have other passion that they would pursue so they were looking to move on from the business.

So we found out about it and then we talked then eventually we made a deal to acquired the business

Marcus: Was it thru Minority Shares?

Violet Lim: It was full acquisition

Marcus: So how was it since you acquired Dating Loft?

Violet Lim: It has work out very well since that was our first acquisition and one of our main concerns was definitely integration so even though it wasn’t a big team back then but there would still be some tiding issue because the previous owners run the company and how we run it definitely like that instances.

Marcus: Some example and I’ve be curious to hear them.

Violet Lim: I think how people use to write emails, I mean even small things like that it would matter. I don’t want to say that it’s better or worst but it’s just how marriage and people ask why still ask why there are some problems with the Mother in Law or a Daughter in Law.

So my analogy is very simple just imagine that the Mother in Law has been running the house that way and the Daughter in Law comes in which she is living in the house that is run in a totally different way right so it’s the same thing that’s how integration is.

But since we are very aware of it we did a lot of things to try to keep it work and yeah ultimately it worked out well and it did well for a couple of years but subsequently we have retired the brand the Dating Loft because we felt that it has come to a point where the services are very similar but for about 2-3 years we are still pushing the Dating Loft brand.

Marcus: So there’s one thing I’m sure a lot of entrepreneurs’ admire you for like today you run a company that is run by other entrepreneur. This is very interesting because a lot of business owners they would be curious to know , how do you get entrepreneurs to run your company?

Violet Lim: Not that so interesting because I never really thought so much about it until I met Clement your partner and he was like “Oh that’s so interesting” but again it wasn’t that interesting it was like something “Hey let’s find some other entrepreneurs” it wasn’t like that but It was very natural transition.

So after Dating Loft at about that same year we Team up a company called Courage Gym which is run by Kydon. Kydon actually run this dating called Jing Company and even before we met Kydon we have met quite a lot of date cultures so I think a lot of them came to us because it seems a very mix sense of synergy of dating company.

And I guess we have never really chose any of them to work with because we felt that maybe the philosophy is quite different and the values are quite different until we met Kydon. When we met Kydon we felt that his value is inline as well.

So we actually took a minority share to his business to see whether we can work together and we allow him to work with our clients and see how it worked out. So we did that for a year and it worked out really well.

He integrated very well to the company we felt that he is fit with the company culture and we got to see like how his services and products help our clients as well. So one year later we brought him into the group basically we brought the percent shares of the company and he joined us.

Together we develop Lunch Academy so initially he was only focus in date coaching but with Lunch Academy we went even into image coaching as well. So a products that helps our singles to become a better version of themselves .

So now Kydon runs that part of the business called Lunch Academy.

Marcus: So those are some of the better known story and most successful and some of the mistakes that you made along the way through acquisitions.

Violet Lim: There have been some instances and that’s actually two were it did not work out. One of it is when we are how we are going to do the date couching and of course there are different ways which we subsequently did.

But we thought why not if we can find someone Kydon who is maybe doing image coaching could be subsequently doing that right. But I think that didn’t work out because you know with partners sometimes eventually you realize that “Oh no we are quite different and we are not so compatible” so that did not work out.

So how we fill the gap for the image coaching was eventually we get in-house image consultant. For a month our associates we had someone that we felt great image consultant so we send her for certification

Marcus: I see that’s very cool, now let’s go back to the big ball game. So you mentioned you met like the second story acquisition were you met Kydon of course you met few other dating couches, you felt the values were right.

One thing I’ve heard you mentioned was to work together. When it comes to acquisitions a lot of SMU owners would be curious. They thought acquisitions maybe is something very capital intensive and so on… How do you go about doing all those things?

Violet Lim: I think for us we are willing to give up equity for it so sometimes people just feel like “I need to buy pure cash” so probably that’s going to be expensive but in terms of most of our acquisition so far were we end up having the father of company joining us on board as well so it’s usually thru equity.

I think that’s what we want as well because we want them to fell that they are part of the business and that’s the whole point. We also want leverage on their entrepreneur experience and also the spirit because that makes a difference because there’s no point if they just come in they just visit the employee then.

We are also very open to an environment where they run there on business and unit. Of course that’s ultimately because they want to be the leader of the company right so I think that’s very clear. It’s not like I’m backing down it’s just I respect your capability, competency and that’s very much how we work .

They have the autonomy of being an entrepreneur but at the same time we have the backing of the bigger company so that’s how we structure it. So they don’t need to apply for a leave or whatever, it’s very much that they are just running their own thing. If they need to come in later or whatever it’s fine because it’s a work from home so we don’t question it at all.

Other than that they are very much as they are own boss and I think the other good thing about is for example Kydon who will need to run his own outfit, he would need to think very hard on where to get leads but now he doesn’t because it’s a very natural flow of leads from other business.

I think that’s why people are happy to come on board and work together and why it is more important for us to find people with the same value as well because we have an objective of what we are looking to achieve and these are the people who want to make a difference.

The way they see it as working together and as a minor people and as a bigger group it easier for us to achieve our ultimate objective.

Marcus: Now along the way of acquisitions and I don’t know if you ever encountered it but how do you sell the dream of getting this people to join you?

Violet Lim: I think very much when we first meet and they already know of what we are doing and I’ll just share with them our vision of where we are going and also share with them where they would fit in interms of our plan. We have positive example where when we bought in the team from LOLA.

What I’ve told you just now is you just running your own things like that and I think people find it a bit difficult to be believe so I think the good thing is that we have Kydon who are very successful and I remember during our meetings and we were sharing the rest of the team “Kydon” and other executives.

Kydon is like “You know what? I will just go and talk to them” and of course from Kydon perspective that we are growing this and it’s benefits him as well and we can get LOLA Team on board. He understand what worries they might have so he felt that he would be a great present to share with them and he journey with us so far.

Marcus: You mentioned also you shared with those other people where the vision that you bring is, what was it they got them in? I mean was it you want to grow to a bigger company together? Was there any materialistic gain for them? Or beyond that what are some other things?

Violet Lim: I think definitely people are looking for different things and they joined us. I think ultimately what we shared them is what our vision and BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) is. We have a very clear exit plan that we are looking at as well.

If they love the industry so much and they love this company so much and they want to stay for us for the rest of their lives we are more than happy and that’s also something we look as well when we first look to someone we also want to see whether we can work with them long term.

First day we are accountable to be able to married for the long term but we also share them if they should want to pursue other fashion because things change and this is the plan and I think they see its peas able.

We show them what we are doing and our growth so far, how they would fit in to help us move this as well so from that they see it is something that they can contribute to as a part of team and it’s something that we can work together to make it happened.

Marcus: You mentioned BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) what was the BHAG?

Violet Lim: The BHAG is actually 1,000,000 happy marriages and our call business is to bring couples together and we could have save 1,000,000 marriages but I think more importantly is the happy marriage. That’s very inline in what we are doing in launch with the academy as well.

We are not just bringing people together just because they are good looking or whatever, we want to make sure that they are compatible and that’s our matching philosophy.

As well and we match basically on the compatibility of values so it really transmits to the way we match and even in our coaching because we are trying to guide our clients to a certain direction and we do our best because there’s no point in getting married if that marriage is not going to be happy.

Marcus: When acquiring businesses, what are some of the key things you look up and you mentioned the same value, what else?

Violet Lim: It’s very important that we can work together and that’s mutual respect and they need to be able to respect like me as a leader, Jaymie as a leader as well and they are willing to asset like advice or feedback.

We share with them ultimately and we are not always right because there would probably a time that we are wrong, there are also times that they have much better idea but we need to be able to work together and not have ego’s and that’s a big thing.

I think a lot of entrepreneurs have sense of ego to drive us to where we are. Same thing with Jaymie and myself in the DISC its all of personality test, we are both high D’s so between our selves sometimes during meetings people would be “ok”.

And that’s totally fine because we believe that we need to be able fight passionately for what we believed in that’s what we do and that’s what we want with our partners that they have brought on board to do that as well.

Because ultimately we are just here to do what we think is the best for the company and for Jaymie and Myself we are quite good in a sense like we might fight during the meeting but after we cool off we always take a step back and we’ll just look who’s idea is better.

So like he’s idea is really better and better for the company then I’ll go with his idea and there’s no ego and I don’t need to go with mine because it’s my idea and I think that’s a soft things that we are looking for in our partners that they are willing to fight passionately for what they believed in but not their ego attached to it after that.

Marcus: What about when looking to acquire so there are few things you covered, but what about and I think a lot of people will ask would be the evaluation model so from a professional slash product of this company acquire various types, what are some variation models you multipose?

Violet Lim: I think for different company’s we have done different things because if you look with our acquisition so far there has been like some few like service company they have been like tech company and some company that similar to what we are doing.

So we have not going down the rule of using professional values but we have found two parties that come up of something that we are able to agree on and It could be revenues. All different acquisition like share swap, cash upfront and some could be mixture of both.

Marcus: That’s very cool, so you acquired a number of Tech startup as well and you also in multiple Tech in Asia kind of events, on the note of Tech acquisitions just it your true observation what are some of the trends that you have notice lately?

Violet Lim: I think there are quite few like acquisition or consolidation. For us I would say we are still a new comer to the Tech scene in that sense and one of the things that I observe as well right now is the online to offline and I think it’s a very big trend right now.

I think it’s interesting and it wasn’t intentional so we also sit right in that trend the online to offline because I think after a while very much our own experience people want something offline and in our business ultimately dating is an offline activities.

Marcus: How do you deal with these different kinds of competition out there?

Violet Lim: Our idea is very much my strength finder profile and what is my strength is actually achiever. Achiever as compared to someone who has competition as well with your strength is quite different.

So someone who’s competition with your strength is like they must always win and they must always be number one. As a achiever profile is very much about being better like I’m always better as myself yesterday so that profile.

It’s not that I’m not competitive. I think all entrepreneur are competitive and the way I looked the competition now or even when we first started I see from a mall abundance mindset so for example even if acquisition if dating love did not start like a few years after we would not make that acquisition.

And another acquisition that we make recently sometime last year it’s a single event company called click wise from Bite Media. She is a long time friend because we have been in the industry for so long and we came in because she is part of the group.

Marcus: All these insider news where is like partners dispute I mean when your partner wants’ out, how do you get such information?

Violet Lim: For the industry wise on how we got to know about it is because we have known each other for a long time and we are friends. One thing that Jaymie and I have been big believer which is really like abundance.

We actually started the first dating association like a couple of years ago. Initially it was hard when you get onboard but we are very happy to find people who are like minded for example dating love and click wise and some of the others.

So we have work together on projects and we actually come up like events for singles and we worked together like for many years so I think that was how we got to know this so I guess when they wanted out things like that we would always keep in touch.

So I think when it comes to competitors at the end of the day, we don’t need to take a break because at the end of the day you never know what happened in the future.

Also I think together you can actually expand the industry because if it’s just us who are going to make noise there would be a limited effect as well.

But if more people in the industry making noise so single would feel like “Oh no this is a legitimate business”. It’s not just people been there for a while so that’s how we looked at it.

Marcus: I see very cool, now just to wrap it up, what do you see the future launch actually across next year?

Violet Lim: We think that 2016 would be very exciting because 2015 have been a year offline consolidation of a lot of our products and then new products, new acquisition and things like that.

So 2016 we are really focusing on massive proof with regards to the new products that we’ve launch as well as the locations we are looking to expand. Right now we are in a five country (Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Thailand) so we are looking to expand our locations.

To grow the team honestly is one of the most exciting for me is to see our leaders growing, I mean when we first started obviously and now we are close to 90 people.

It is great people have been with us like a couple of years and people who joined us they are like all levels and right now they are like running the product and it’s just amazing.

I’m just happy for my years to see them growing of course it means you are growing also but at the same time it’s just very full filling like in one hand to see the couples this launch we call them baileys and also to really see our next generation of leaders.

Marcus: I see, goodluck for that and all the best. Thanks for doing the interview.

Violet Lim: Ok Marcus thanks.