Travel, food, health, fashion, beauty, and more Lifestyle stories you love.
Travel, food, health, fashion, beauty, and more Lifestyle stories you love.
By Faye Almazan
Images courtesy of SariSuki
People all have something they are passionate about. Some people are born to do art; others excel in sports, while some find peace in cooking. For entrepreneur Brian Cu, it’s being in business.
In a way, being part of the business world is something that is ingrained in Brian’s DNA. His passion for business can be traced back to his family, who has a history in entrepreneurship.
“It was something that I've always wanted to do,” he said in a virtual interview with GMA Lifestyle.
Brian said it was something that always played at the back of his mind even when he first worked at a consultant firm. Brian started his career with Boston Consulting Group as a management consultant.
Brian then founded and served as the managing director of Zalora Philippines, a fashion e-commerce platform. Later on, Brian was tapped to be the co-founder of Grab Philippines and served as the country head until he left the company in 2020.
Brian shared that the idea of Grab was something he had in mind early on because he lived in Singapore, “I could see how a system like what I experienced in Singapore and being able to book a taxi conveniently over the phone could work here. So I wanted to do that here in the Philippines.”
And so, when Grab presented itself, he didn’t hesitate to jump on and help the platform grow.
According to Brian, establishing his own business is something that has also been on his mind, “I think to a certain extent I've always wanted to do my own.”
It was in May 2021 when Brian decided to venture into another business and introduced the e-commerce platform, SariSuki, where he currently serves as co-founder and chief executive officer.
SariSuki is a community-selling platform focused on agriculture and daily essentials. It allows any individual to become a reseller of agricultural and essential products in their communities.
“We focused on agri as a sector that... we believe we can make an impact on... because that's where we believe we can make the biggest impact and change with,” Brian mused.
SariSuki offers around 5,000 different products and Brian noted that their agricultural products are sourced as close to the community as possible.
Brian’s journey may seem like a walk in the park but no business has been established without difficulties. According to Brian, everything about starting your own company is difficult.
“Everything's challenging, both internal and external. Even setting up a business is challenging. It's not very obvious what you need to do to set up a business,” he said.
Another challenge is being able to hire the right team, especially since the concept of start-up companies is not as prevalent in the Philippines as compared to other countries.
“It's very challenging to hire and convince talented people that they need to join you at the start. You need to be a lot more creative... it's a persistent challenge,” he explained.
Penetrating the Philippine market, itself, is also a thing to conquer, according to Brian.
Brian highlighted that a key principle is trusting your team, “It's very important because if you cannot trust in your people, then why did you hire them in the first place?”
And for those who want to start their own businesses, Brian has a reminder, “Make sure whatever you start is an idea that you're in love with. Starting a company should be like falling in love. If it's not, then you shouldn't start that company.”
He added, “The feeling of excitement should be the same as falling in love and the feeling of hurt should be the same also. So that's my advice, be in love with it. If you're not in love with it, it's not something that you should do.”
