3 important decisions I made with LoveByte
Entrepreneurship is very much about making important decisions that impact both the entrepreneurs and the people around them.
On 30th December, I left the company I founded and worked in for almost 5 years, to start another company. This is after creating 2 successful products (LoveByte and MiniMe), selling the company to migme, and making a healthy return on investment (ROI) for our investors. These are all results of important decisions I made along my entrepreneurial journey, decisions which I will now share.
Why I started LoveByte?
LoveByte is my first company. I have worked in other companies before but I feel their mission is not strong and I want to work in a company with a strong mission. With LoveByte, we are creating a product that helps couples stay loving. I think a couple’s relationship is the most intimate and most important relationship, yet there wasn’t an app for it. When I found there wasn’t such an app in the market for couples, I decided to start LoveByte, to help couples stay loving.
Why I sold LoveByte (to migme)?
While much was written about why migme acquired LoveByte, little was shared about why I sold LoveByte to migme. For migme, it’s really about quickly expanding their product portfolio and mobile user base to excite investors, after listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). For us, it’s about continuity for our users, employees and shareholders, and we had 2 options — raise funding or get acquired. As I was too occupied with product development and my co-founder had difficulty raising new funding, we decided selling LoveByte to migme is the better option, especially with migme’s promise to continue to fund and grow LoveByte.
Why I left LoveByte (and migme)?
Towards the end of my stint in migme, it is more about leaving migme than leaving LoveByte because there were huge layoffs in migme, I lost my whole team, and I was left working on migme’s other projects (games) which I feel is a mismatch for my skill set. migme’s promise to continue to fund and grow LoveByte was already broken, along with the agreement on my cash and stock options. It’s no longer possible to continue. After much consideration, I decided to resign.
Every entrepreneur has their own important decisions to make. While what I shared here might not be helpful to you, I hope they can help you understand that sometimes the best decision is the decision you can make on your own terms, for yourself and the people you care around you.
