Students rock.

Facilitating the process of engagement between universities, students and companies, alleviating the youth unemployment problem…… Who’s doing all these work? He’s a full-time university student, and also at the same time, a co-founder of a local start-up in Hong Kong. Ethan Cheng is a second year student in Hong Kong, majoring in Social and Public Policy Studies.

To understand more on Ethan’s motive in starting his own business at such a young age, I have carried out an interview with him, and discussed how did he come up with the idea, what challenges have he encountered and the recent development of the start-up.

What is your startup about?

We aspire to connect university students with local companies, by bridging them with internship opportunities, that could effectively alleviate the youth unemployment problem in Hong Kong.

Why would you set up your own start-up?

That’s a really popular question that people always ask- It was actually coincidental, I never imagined I would become a co-founder at such age before I entered into university either. I was the Vice President of the local committee of AIESEC, which is the world’s largest youth-run organisation, and my duties were mainly reaching out to local companies and seeking collaboration. My experience have paved way for my interest towards business development and sales. Also, as a local student, I understand clearly that students in Hong Kong are facing a lot of challenges in job hunting. That’s why I had the initial idea of starting my own business with a like-minded friend.

It sounds challenging for you to balance your startup work, as well as academic life, is that true?

Well, it’s true in certain extent. Probably because I am not a ‘hardworking’ student, I could still manage quite well in these 2 aspects. For me, I am more into working in reality instead of studying theories in school. Still, sometimes it’s useful to apply knowledge that acquired in classes to my startup as well.

How do you get in touch with the potential partners as a undergraduate student?

As mentioned, me and my partner have relevant experience in reaching out to local companies, including MNCs, SMEs and start-ups. We indeed have built up certain connection in this field, that it becomes much easier for us to approach those companies. Of course, we would also actively participate in networking events, to expand our network.

What major challenges did you encounter throughout the process?

As you know, funding is an important element for every startups worldwide. Therefore, we have to seek different funding to support our development of business. We have participated in various startup competitions and applied some funding offered by the university. The competition of those is undoubtedly fierce that we need to devote a lot of time and efforts in it. In addition, many companies might have prejudice towards us, as we are ‘just’ university students. However, we want to prove to them that being a student is one of the biggest assets of our startup- that we can totally see the whole picture clearer than those who have already been in the workforce for years. We can better cater for the needs of students, as we are one of them.

How’s the recent development of the startup? How do you feel about the future of it?

Yea it actually goes pretty well these days. For instance, we have gained the approval of funding in our university and our startup can soon be reached to another stage. Indeed, I feel happy for the gradual growth of the business, as it means a lot to us. We have contributed a lot in the startup that we hope to see it grows- and now it’s happening. In the future, we are going to apply for more funding and start collaborating with the training agencies, in order to offer a brand-new job hunting training experience to local students.