15 Minutes with a Tycoon

Ming and I are in KL doing our marketing rounds to tons and tons of advertisers and just yesterday we got a little lucky.

We managed to secure a meeting with the CEO and Founder of a very large multinational company which commands a brand that every Malaysian has heard of.

That afternoon, we walked straight into the grand office with a secretary smiling at us and asking
"May I help you?"

Right that instant a well-dressed older man walked out of a room and straight past the secretary's table.
He saw Ming and I standing there with our briefcases and asked "What are you both doing here?"

I calmly replied
"We are looking for PPP (Not his real name obviously :P). We have an appointment with him for right now".
He let out a short laugh and said
"I am PPP."

I mentally gave myself a pat in the back for looking like an idiot but before I could say anything else, he said
"Come come into my office".

We walked into his posh office, it was beautiful.

Not extravagantly huge but beautifully furnished with expensive furniture.

We all took our seats on the soft sofa couches around a striking wooden coffee table.

He sat down comfortably on his end of the sofa and said
"Okay... now tell me, how can we do business together?"

Ming and I started first by introducing ourselves and how we came about to start Nuffnang.

Then we went on to describe Nuffnang and the ins and outs of how we work and then bring the story round to whether his huge company would be willing to take a small percentage of his advertising budget to advertise with us.

That small percentage would already be HUGE for us.
At the end of our introduction, PPP said
"Your kind of internet business has very low barriers to entry. You have to be careful. You will experience fierce competition, and in my experience, competition can turn nasty."

He paused for a while then asked
"How much money did you put in this business?"

I gave him the 6 digit figure and was quick to tell him that both my partner and I are lucky to have little financial constraint on this end.

He then asked
"Do you need another investor?", smiling at the both of us as the words left his lips.

Thoughts ran through my mind in that split second.

On one hand, there we were in the office of this tycoon hoping to convince him to advertise on Nuffnang blogs but instead we were now having him ask us if we would like him to invest in Nuffnang.

I looked at PPP and realised that rather than trying to pitch to him, I should instead be pitching to his Marketing Department.

I shouldn't be using this meeting to pitch, I should be using this meeting to learn from PPP.

Ming and I are both young and we have a lot to learn but we learn fast. If there is any chance to ever get business advice that money can't ever buy, it was now.

So I asked him for more advice, trying to draw from his business experience and that's how we spent the rest of our meeting.

Before we knew it, 15 minutes was up and the Tycoon had to be some place else.

He showed Ming and I out of the office and said
"If there is any way that you can think of that I could help, please let me know. You have my contact details on the card. Let me know when you're free to meet again and we can talk more".

I thanked him graciously and walked away from his private office.

As Ming and I were walking away I said
"Do you know that we just had a meeting with one of the Richest Men in Malaysia?"

Belly Dancing Boss Stewie

In one of my previous blog entries, one of my readers (Suicidal), asked me how much would be my price before I do a belly dance for everyone to see.

I said RM5,000.
And just recently, another reader (William) recently made an entry on his blog to start a fund collecting RM5,000 from everyone to see if they could get me to Belly Dance.

The bastardo William even photoshopped a preview of how the dance might look like if I were to really go through with it.

Now this is how I look like in person (Just taken yesterday. Not my best picture, I know)
And this is what William photoshopped me to look like if I were to really do a belly dance.

(Notice my mole was too small in the picture he took so the bastardo photoshopped a bigger one for me... aww how sweet)

Will someone please go over to William's blog and tell him what a SILLY SILLY idea this is and how NOBODY is going to pay money to see Boss Stewie Belly Dance with his BIG TUMMY.

PS: But okay, in the miracle that William really manages to gather the RM5,000. I will keep to my word and do the belly dance. But I won't keep the money. I can't bear spending such HARD EARNED money on myself. I'll give it all to charity :p

We Promised... We Delivered

Last Saturday night, 11.58PM.

While most people were either sleeping or out partying, all of us at Nuffnang were behind our computers waiting for the first ads to launch.

Call me a pessimist, but I always believe that something will always goes wrong. So to make sure we were prepared for it, I got everyone at Nuffnang to stay up and sit in front of our computers, waiting to pounce at the problem when it surfaced.

The clock hit 12AM and our servers starting serving out the first paid ads.


Everything ran smoothly at first but we noticed a small bug that affected a small number of blogs.

All of us got to work immediately and before long, we had ironed out all the problems.

There was nothing left to do but sleep.


I stared at my computer screen for a while admiring our first paid ads.

As I sat there, I thought about the challenging week I had ahead of me, meeting advertisers every day, big to small and all from various industries.

Then I thought about what a very big advertiser I was dealing with asked me just last week,
"Timothy, how in the world did you guys get so many blogs to sign up with you in just these few weeks?".

I paused for a while, wiped the sweat off my forehead and said
"It wasn't because of anything we did... it was what the bloggers that supported us did. They are the only reason why we are where we are today."

When I meet this week's batch of advertisers, my answer to that question will be no different.

Everyone Has His/Her Price

One of my friends yesterday just said to me
"Eh!!! You're coming up with all these one line posts nowadays ar! Getting lazy to blog ar?"

Ahhh my dear readers.

The truth is that it's not that I'm getting lazy to blog, or that I'm neglecting you guys, but Nuffnang has been keeping me very very busy this week, especially since our first paid ads are rolling out tomorrow.

Yes we're a relatively quiet bunch at Nuffnang. We don't talk too much about what we're "planning" to do and end up not delivering in the end.

We'd rather spend all that time focusing on getting the job done.

So it doesn't mean that we're not doing anything at Nuffnang if we're not announcing to the world about what we're doing.

Anyway on another note, I was having dinner with some friends yesterday and one of them asked me.
"Eh... if Google came over today and offered you USD 1 million for Nuffnang, would you sell?"

I said
"Probably not at this early stage... but everybody has a price right?"

That was the theme of the night...

EVERYONE HAS HIS PRICE in anything!

My brother and I were watching Fear Factor the other day only to see a healthy American woman drink down some drink with fungus and maggots in it for $5,000. It was disgusting.

I asked my brother if he would do it for RM10,000 and he said "NO".
"How about RM100,000?"

And he thought for a while and said "Yeah okay... I'll probably do it for RM100,000".

Back at the dinner table last night, I asked one of my girl friends there.

"So if a married but wealthy man in his 50s who goes around in a Rolls Royce offered you RM100,000 would you sleep with him?"
She shut her ears and said
"NO NO NO NO NO!!! I WON'T DO IT NO NO NO!!!!!"

Then I raised it "How about RM500,000?"

And she went on
"NO NO NO NO!!!! I WON'T NO!! EWWW!!!!!"

Then I said
"How about RM2 million?!?"

She suddenly paused for a few minutes only to say later
"Okay for RM2 million I'll think about it.".

GUESS WHO?!!?

I like playing this game.

GUESS WHO?!

And no that's NOT Marilyn Manson.

Earl Ku is Missing!!!

Earl Ku from Kukujiao.com is missing.


If you see this person please contact his sister Kim at 016-6902359.

A police report has already been lodged.

UPDATE: It turns out that Earl is safe and actually in Johor. So no worries...

Meeting Mae

I happened to meet another reader just last weekend.

You guys remember Mae right?

Mae's the girl who found her boyfriend through this blog.


I asked her what she thought about me before and after meeting me and this is what she said.

• I don't think you're a pervert anymore!! (Just kidding, I know all guys have wandering thoughts.. ALL THE TIME.)
• You're smaller than I imagined you to be.
• You're not as fat as you have exaggerated.
• Your mole is smaller than I imagined to be too.
• You're really nice!!! More so than I anticipated you to be!
  
• A lil' more serious than I imagined. But who can be funny all the time right?

DID YOU GUYS HEAR THAT?

SHE SAID THAT "all guys have wandering thoughts... ALL THE TIME".

What's that supposed to mean?

That's not true right? Right?

All we guys think about is how to treat our women with respect, dignity and LOVE!!!

Check out Mae's full blog entry here.

The Google Wannabe Board

At Nuffnang, we all have this little board called the "Google Wannabe Board".

This was inspired by an issue of Fortune (or Forbes) that both Ming and I read which told the story of how life at Google's HQ in Mountain View was like.

The employees there had free car washes, free meals, free massages, swimming pools and everything else you could ask for.

Ming and I always wanted our leetle dotcom to be like that and Ming insisted that we didn't need to have money to incorporate a culture like that. We could start it now in our small ways.

So what we agreed on was to have this little board that stated something new we would do for our team mates every couple of months.
It started in January and February with medical benefits for our colleagues (something that burns through the pocket of a tiny dotcom but we felt it would be worth it anyway).

And for March and April, we decided to stock up our pantry with so much junk food it would make our office look like a slumber party.

For that... Ming and I went to Tescos!

Just like all other Tescos, the one in Penang was HUGE!!!

There was everything on sale!!! EVERYTHING.... you could probably even buy a spaceship if you wanted to.
But we were only interested in one thing....

THE JUNK FOOD SECTION

So Ming and I got a trolley and dumped as much junk food as we could in it.
The trolley started off pretty empty at first.

But we were quick to fill it up with everything from Double Decker, to Mamee, to Jelly, to Sweets, to biscuits and most importantly... CHEEZELS!!!

But as I was rolling our trolley around, something caught my attention.

BEER!!!

Now I thought about it... that a beer-filled office would be a happy office. You know, people who laughed about everything or people who talk loud enough to sound extremely motivated about anything... even work.

So I stood there for a second and pondered...

And I pondered....

Imagine someone calling up our office:

"Hello Nuffnang Sdn Bhd? Could you please put me to the Sales Department?"

And a very drunk person on the other end saying

"AHAHAHAHAHA HELLO NOOFNANG HERE.... DID YOU SAY SALES DEPARTMENT??? HAHAHAHA YOU MEAN... YOU MEAN A DEPARTMENT THAT SELLS?!?!? AHAHAHAHAAAHAH Wait wait.... what do we sell again?"

Not exactly the best example to show to a potential client.

So I reluctantly said goodbye to the crates of beer.

And went off to pay the bill!


Yes... the bill.. it was long....Soo soooo longgg...

Anyone wanna suggest a new perk we can add on the board for May/June?

Please... something we can afford... don't say "Company trip to Space" or "Beyonce Concert"...

Nuffnang is Hiring!!!

Alright... alright it has only been a few weeks since launch and things have been going great so far thanks to all of you guys who supported us from Day 1.

Now we're looking to expand and we need more programmers!!!

So if you're

1) Based in Penang (or willing to work in Penang).

2) Excellent in PHP/MySQL

3) And love to eat Cheezels.

E-mail me your CV at timothy [@] nuffnang [dot] com.

We're also looking for web designers so write in.

One thing I have to clear up though (since a few people have asked me this before), everyone at the Nuffnang has excellent academic results, with even one of our programmers scoring a CGPA of 4.0/4.0.

But that does NOT mean it's a criteria to join us at Nuffnang.

What we're looking for is passion... not how many words of your textbook you memorized before each exam at uni.

If you share the same passion as we do (and you love Cheezels)... you'd fit in just fine.

Let The Ads Begin

This is another e-mail I sent out to our Nuffnang bloggers last night.


Dear Nuffnang Bloggers,

When Nuffnang carried out its BETA launch a little more than 2 weeks ago, the team at Nuffnang tried very hard to remind bloggers that it would take up to 1-2 months from launch before the paid ads start rolling out.

We said 1-2 months because we did not want to disappoint. We were afraid to promise too much too soon and end up delivering too little too late.

But as I sit at my work station now after a long day of meetings, I can confidently say to all of you now that we have gotten advertisers on board and the first paid ads will roll out the week after next on the 25th of March 2007.

How did we manage to shorten the time we needed since launch to get our advertisers on board?

It was not because of the hard work all of us at Nuffnang had put in the past couple of weeks, nor was it because Ming and I are good at talking during marketing meetings, but it was because of the support all of you had given us since our BETA launch.

Without your support, our community would not have the reach and coverage that we have today and without that, we would not have been able to impress the advertisers with numbers at meetings like we just did. Without your support, there will be NO Nuffnang.

On behalf of all of us at Nuffnang, I just have to sincerely say a big THANK YOU to each and every one of you. Thank you for your support. Thank you for believing in us. Thank you for putting enough pressure on us to make sure that none of us slack.

Now that I have effectively polished all your shoes and made you smile, it is time for me to ask two favours of you.

Firstly, the advertisers who will be advertising on our network for the first two weeks are especially interested in advertising in your Skyscraper Ad Units. However, they were quick to note that a number of bloggers had put their Skyscraper Ad Units too far down the Sidebar to garner any attention. The rule of thumb is that each Skyscraper Unit must be placed high enough in the sidebar such that it is visible when your blog first loads up (without the need to scroll down).

The advertisers have said that they will NOT advertise on any blog that has its Skyscraper Ad Units placed too far down. So if your Skyscraper Ad is placed wrongly, please correct it asap and we will do our best to make sure that you won't miss the first round of ads.

For those of you who have placed the Large Rectangle and Leaderboard ad units. Well done on that, the advertisers were very happy with the placements.

The second favour I have to ask of all of you is when our ads launch, please do support our advertisers! Let us show them that this new medium of advertising is not overrated.

Let us show them the power of the blogging community!

It appears that Boss Stewie is not a blogger...

The Star came out with an article lately.

Blog enthusiasts collect clues in a race to win Malaysian Grand Prix party invitations.

By NASA MARIA ENTABAN

IT’S amazing what some people would do to get special invites to a Malaysian Grand Prix party.

Avid bloggers and blog-readers hunted high and low in a race that began in the physical world, which then moved on to cyberspace, before they ended up racing to a physical finish line.

The event, dubbed “Spot The Raving Blogger” began on March 1 and will culminate at one of Kuala Lumpur’s most prominent landmarks, the KL Tower.

On the first day of the race, participants were given a clue in The Star that identified a local blogger. On that individual’s blog, more clues were posted which directed the participants to other blogs, over the course of 10 days.

The last clue, which read, “A coffee house in the new wing of 1-Utama” led the participants to a final location – Starbucks Coffee at 1-Utama Shopping Complex where the five bloggers were waiting to be identified at 1.45pm.

Race participants reached the location panting, after they had run all around the shopping complex in search of the right outlet. The first 50 participants to arrive each won passes to the Speedzone Tour 2007, the official Malaysian Grand Prix party.

“I think this event is a fun way to give out passes, instead of the usual slogan-writing contests,” one of the featured bloggers, Suanie (www.suanie.net), said. “The clues are a new and interesting way to get people to join in.”

The five bloggers were selected based on the popularity of their blogs as well as their blog themes.

Suanie, who has been blogging for several years, usually writes on music, lifestyle and clubbing – which made her an ideal candidate for the contest.

The others who were involved were food blogger KY, 29 (www.kyspeaks.com); lawyer Xes, 26 (www.xes.cx); accountant Fireangel, 27 (www.fireangelism.com); and karate practitioner Gareth, better known as Shaolin Tiger, 28 (www.shaolintiger.com).

One of the race participants, Nigel Low, followed the clues all the way and was thrilled to win the free passes.

“I’m also glad I’m finally getting to know the bloggers in person,” the 31-year-old human resource manager said. “This contest is a very interesting and new way of doing things.”

Low is one of the many people who will be partying at the KL Tower terrace event, on April 7, which will feature local DJ extraordinaire Joey G alongside international DJs such as D-formation, Marco V and Yoji Biomehanika.

Source: http://thestar.com.my/youth2/story.asp?file=/2007/3/14/youth2/17119533&sec=youth2


Yep everyone!

I just happened to be there at 1-Utama that day to show a little support to Kim, Gareth, Suanie, KY, XES and the group... and look.. I had my picture taken.

Not because I'm a fehmes blogger... cuz I'm not.. but because... I'M A PARTICIPANT.

Boss Stewie is not a blogger... nono he's not.. if he is... he's too tiny to get anyone's attention.... I'm lucky to have the remaining 8 of you readers out there that read my blog.

To my 8 readers, thank you very very much for reading my blog.

Mille Crepe

Jason brought this cake down from Malacca to KL last weekend.


It is fattening... but it makes me sooooooooooooo HIIGGGHHH!!!!!!!

If you haven't had the chance to eat this cake yet... then you'd better make friends with Jason quick...

Together Gather Blog Meet

I found myself at Federal Hotel for the Together Gather Blogger Meet that Wingz and his committee organized last Friday.

I arrived far before anyone else had arrived, when the tables were empty and the chairs were all nicely arranged.
But I had an ulterior motive for arriving early that night.

I was there with my crew to set up our Nuffnang Booth.

At least half the bloggers we met there were already with Nuffnang, so the booth gave us an opportunity to meet in person a lot of the bloggers that have so far supported us.

And also to give out freebies like Nuffnang Bookmark and Pin BadgesNuffnang Car Stickers

And for the bloggers that have joined us, Nuffnang Digital Clocks.

We have 3 staff manning the booth the whole time while Ming and I ran back and forth meeting people and getting feedback on what they thought about Nuffnang.

But on the rare occasion that we all got to sit at the booth together, we took a picture of Ming, myself and most importantly Kelly who was essential supervisor we had that night.

I also managed to take a picture with Wingz at our booth.


A picture of Cely and Earl grabbing some freebies from our booth.And a picture of Ming teaching new bloggers how to sign up.

Oh and I managed to grab a picture with Yvonne Foong, April and Minishorts who were seated at the booth next door.
All that action while Lilian was busy Live Blogging at our meet.


Unfortunately that was just about all the pictures I took that night at the meet. I spent the rest of the time chatting with the other bloggers and forgetting to camwhore :P

I'm sorry my dear readers... but this is all Boss Stewie can tell you about the meet for now.

In the mean time, check the other blogs. There is even a big picture of everyone at the meet (which I missed out on).

Ahhh Busy Busy

Ahh my dear readers.

You are all probably going to start sending me e-mails on why I haven't updated in a few days.

I'M VERYY SORRRYY!!!!

My schedule has been very very tight lately and I'm sitting at Coffee Bean right now using the internet to make a quick update before a meeting I'm about to have.

That doesn't mean I don't have time for you guys... it just means.. I'll have to owe you a bit first okie?

Hehe thank you for understanding ar!

Update from Ming

Last night, Ming sent out an e-mail to all the bloggers that have so far joined Nuffnang.

He has since received many e-mail responses.

Let me share his e-mail with all of you who haven't had the chance to read it yet.




Dear Bloggers,

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ming Shen or Ming, and I am the "co-founder" of Nuffnang.com.

I used the inverted commas because even though Timothy and myself initiated this network, every single one of you who is reading this email is a founding member of what we hope will be Malaysia's biggest and most influential Blog-advertising community.

Herein lies our philosophy. Being young and green internet Entrepeneurs, we want to run things differently.

1st principle

We want to be a network By Bloggers for Bloggers. How do we propose to achieve this aim?

Well, for a start, Timothy and myself are avid Bloggers. But to tell you the truth, before I started this project, I had very little idea why people Blogged. Now, I find myself having difficulty going anywhere without a camera, and hear myself saying alot more, "Hold on! I want to take a photo for my blog!" We hope, that through our own experiences, and our interaction with fellow bloggers, we will always be aware of what your needs are.

Secondly, for a while now, we have been identifying bloggers of certain repute and specialties to take a stake in our company, in most cases for free. One thing we realised almost instantly from our many meetings with bloggers are that they are a very talented mix of people! Why not make them partners, and make use of their skills to make a stronger network? We are talking about photographers, consultants, programmers, graphic designers, and the like.

They are also our ambassadors. They will help bridge the gap should ever we miss the small picture (which we will try our best not to do). Over time, their identities will be revealed to you (We have not approached all of them yet, so hold your breath!)

If you feel you are a possible candidate, then do drop me or Timothy an email. We would be more than happy to consider it. A word of warning though, being a business partner in this network means high levels of commitment and contribution in the company's workings.

2nd Principle

Bloggers of all sizes, shapes and colours

You are not merely a statistic. No matter how small your Blog, you are important to us. And we mean it.

We have tried as far as economically possible to include Blogs of small sizes (20 daily unique visitors). We are looking to build a community here. And as long as you are part of it, you are important to us.

3rd principle

Technology is important.

We hope you agree that Nuffnang.com is a solid and powerful platform. However, we promise to never stop improving and innovating.

What this means is that you will see interesting and engaging facets of our product come to light in the following months. Some will be brand new and never seen before, others will not be.

We are interested in getting the basics right. With a solid foundation, we can move on to greater things that the marketplace demands. And we will.

As we are in the Beta testing phase, some things may not run as smoothly as we might hope. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for your understanding.

4th Principle

We aim to raise the profile of blog advertising

We set up Nuffnang.com because we felt Bloggers and their readers deserved better! And they do!

We hope you will see RELEVANT advertisments on your blog. From CREDIBLE bluechip advertisers.

These advertisers are demanding, as they pay top dollar. Therefore it is imperative we have a strong set of credentials before we approach them. We need to fully understand what we are marketing before we can do the marketing.

How many blogs? How many readers? What kind of readers? Which kinds of ads? These are some of the statistics that we will have to gather in the next two weeks, before we can approach the RIGHT advertisers for you.

Therefore, I reiterate that the whole process might take at least one month before advertisements are served on your blog and you are payed!

Not to worry, over the past months, we have already created inroads and networks which we will be looking to exploit once we have the necessary information.

It could be sooner rather than later. But we want to be realistic and manage expectations.

5th Principle

Community and relationships first

Nuffnang.com is a community. In the future, functions will be added to emphasize that fact.

We will be organising exclusive parties, outings, to forster relationships between our members. These events will either be fully paid for by us, or heavily subsidized.

The generosity and friendships me and Timothy have encountered over the past few months have been simply amazing. We hope to grow these friendships and create new ones.

These principles will and more will in the near future be released on our website as a reminder to ourselves and to you of what Nuffnang stands for!

Thank you so much for your support! My email is always open for suggestions, or anything related to the Nuffnang community.

Humbly yours,

Ming Shen

Ooops I did it again...

I have been buried with work on my leetle dotcom lately.

So I went to Haagen Dazs with some friends for a breather.

The Hemsem waiter came over to take our order and I decided that it was only appropriate I have the maximum... the triple scoop.

Our ice-cream came and I gulped it away in no time!
But even after that I felt unsatisfied.

3 scoops of yummy delicious Haagen Dazs ice-cream wasn't going to make my day any better so I pondered...

and pondered....

and pondered....

and then I finally decided
"AH FUK IT!!! I'll just buy it".

I left Haagen Dazs suspiciously carrying a bucket with me (nobody was looking).
Fortunately for me as well, they were having a Scratch & Win Promotion where for each RM50 you spent or something you get 1 voucher.

I got... quite a few


But the best part came when I went home and opened up by bucket to see my loveeely coffee flavoured ice-cream hiding inside.
It looked sooooo peaceful...



I so WANNA BITE IT...
But no... enough for the day!

I put it to bed.


Sleep my dear precious...