Rag to Riches: How I Built a Successful Business from Scratch

One-way ticket with just one suitcase...🧳

Author

Yong-Soo Chung
January 11, 2023

I remember the day like it was just yesterday.

I landed in San Francisco (SFO) ✈️, took the BART train 🚈 all the way to Berkeley.

I was crashing at my friend's tiny apartment in downtown Berkeley, sleeping on an air mattress, and eating a burrito for lunch everyday to save money.

I had bought a one-way ticket from New York City🗽 to fulfill my dream of starting a company one day in the heart of Silicon Valley.

But on that faithful day, I had just one suitcase to my name. 🧳

That was September 13th 2011.

I can't believe it's been over 11 years already.

This rollercoaster ride didn't turn out the way I planned.

Grab your popcorn. 🍿

✈️ Episode Itinerary

🎛 Metrics Dashboard

Podcast:

  • 90-Day Downloads: 8,506

  • 30-Day Downloads: 7,744

  • 7-Day Downloads: 3,328

Newsletter:

  • Subscribers: 88

  • Open Rate: TBD (Check in next week!)

  • Click Rate: TBD (Check in next week!)

Why am I sharing these numbers?

Because I'm building First Class Founders in public. It builds accountability for me and it's fun for you. Come along for the ride!

💻 Behind the Scenes:

Yes, that's me in my wife's walk-in closet. 😅

I interviewed Kevon Cheung of Public Lab last week and I'm excited to share this episode with you in a few weeks.

I record all my audio-only podcast episodes in my wife's closet because the audio gets absorbed by her clothes which means better recording quality!

There is a logical reason, I swear...

📝 Weekly Reflections:

  • LinkedIn is so hot right now - The engagement on LinkedIn is off the charts. I had my best week ever in terms of metrics (number of new followers, impressions, profiles viewed, etc). You can connect with me here.

  • Podcast sponsorship experiment - I ran a 2-week campaign with Player.FM which completed on Monday. It spiked our downloads during those weeks. I'll be monitoring to see how sticky our listeners are over the coming weeks! Stay tuned...

  • Newsletter launch - Writing my first newsletter was hard. But speaking to several successful creators including Josh Spector and Jay Clouse, a newsletter is a must-have, not a nice-to-have. So here we are!

  • Consistency - Staying consistent is not as easy as it seems especially when life gets in the way, which tends to happen often. Creators, how do you stay consistent? (Hit reply and let me know!)

  • Play the long game - I keep reminding myself that this is a long-term game. Be consistent but don't overdo it. It's going to be A-OK.

🤝 Let's Work Together:

When you're ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:

  1. Want to join our community? Join our First Class Founders Membership.

  2. Want to work with me? Book a 1:1 session.

  3. Want to promote your work? Sponsor this newsletter + podcast.

💬 Final Word:

This is the first edition of the new First Class Founders Brief newsletter. I'm looking for candid feedback to improve it!

Just hit reply and let me know which sections you enjoyed, and which ones I should remove. I'm all ears.

Thank you for being part of this journey.

Until next week,

Yong-Soo Chung — Serial Entrepreneur, Podcaster, Business Coach

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