“It is not about what business you do, but about whether you can fulfill others' needs”
- Tony Wong
Tony Wong, the Co-founder, and CEO of SHOPLINE, is a 2x serial entrepreneur, experienced product manager, and full stack developer. Before the kickstart of his journey on entrepreneurship, SHOPLINE, Tony has multiple experiences in media and e-commerce industries such as TVB and Next Media.
Later on, he founded his first start-up business Viss, a fashion e-commerce and media platform in Asia. Before the journey of SHOPLINE, Tony was aware of the changing climate in businesses and the growing demand for online presence. Hence, Tony decided to focus on exploring online commercial platforms which he and his team members spotted great potential in helping businesses expand their services from physical stores to online stores.
At the beginning of 2013, the founder team only had Tony and 3 other members. Within 5 years of business development and rapid growth of scale, Tony’s team grew from 3 members to 250 members and operate a fully-structured platform that offers web development services for SME brands.
SHOPLINE strives to create a systematic and streamlined business model that is able to gather rich resources for entrepreneurship, provide all entrepreneurs the opportunity to develop their own online shop and expand its franchise to global scale. Now, SHOPLINE is the largest smart commerce enabler in Asia, with offices locations spread across Hong Kong, Taiwan, Ho Chi Minh City, Shenzhen, and Kuala Lumpur. Up to date, SHOPLINE has empowered over 150,000 merchants to build their stores globally.
"What I found particularly interesting about this aspect was his talk about his loneliness through his journey to becoming an entrepreneur. The fact that entrepreneurship is a risky pathway, and there is an expectation to stick with stable traditional jobs to prevent risks. And hence, due to the lack of people who have undergone this same career pathway, led to Tony not having many people to talk to or understand his complications. However, despite not having the full support of many, he still stuck with what he believed in and was determined to make work. I appreciate his determination and his hard work that led him to create Shopline, and I hope to attain the same level of confidence he had to pursue the things I want to do in life as well. A key point that he mentioned that I kept in mind was the importance of staying humble and always embracing new cultures, and I felt like this is a key point that could not just be applied in entrepreneurship but in life in general. Especially being in a University with a wide range of students with many different cultural backgrounds, it is important to stay open-minded and learn about new cultures in order to broaden your perspective of the world." #fearlessness#passion
Avelyn Sin - Student from ENTR1001
"Thank you Tony for his frank and insightful sharing! From the session, I heard his honest struggles as a founder, such as how he admits it is difficult for him to build a personal relationship with each colleague individually as the company expands, and how he had to step up as the CEO even though he did not feel the most comfortable with it. He also showed me his #passion for the business which drives his #curiosity and #resilience to learn so many new things (such as software, management skills etc.) and take on roles that he would not have done so otherwise. His story truly shows me how one should not be afraid to step out of your comfort zone, even if it means not getting full support from your parents or loved ones to pursue a journey that you resonate better with
Ang You Shan - Student from ENTR1001"
