Why am I Starting a New Journey after 3 Years at Freehunter?

It always goes back to why you are doing what you’re doing.

It has been 3 years since I founded Freehunter with my partner Jerome. To be frank, I have made a ton of mistakes that I probably can’t even recall most already today. When I think back about it now, I’d say I have definitely learned more in these 3 years than the sum of the first 22 years. It’s pretty crazy, isn’t it?

How is starting a startup like?

It would be a lie if I say everything has been smooth. In fact, it’s more like a roller coaster ride. I certainly have a lot of ups and downs, especially when it’s my first time experiencing everything — product launch, fundraising, hiring (and firing too which I hate), project management, strategic growth, public relations, etc.

What’s more irritating is that they don’t come to you one by one but usually rush together all at a time…

After all, I’m really grateful that our team has built Freehunter from scratch into one of the largest freelance platforms in Hong Kong, and even expanded to Taiwan and Singapore with 40,000+ users with us, including big brands and companies I would never imagine working with.

Without our dedicated team, Freehunter won’t be even close to where we are today.

Wait, so why am I on a new journey then?

It’s a plot twist. I’m actually starting a new business. Whenever I tell a friend about it, the most often asked question is:

‘I thought Freehunter is going pretty well, why are you starting a new business?’

Well, this is not something I planned out. It’s definitely not that Freehunter is a bad business, we get tired of it, we don’t believe in freelancing anymore, or that we’re losing money. It’s just because we understand what our users want a lot better.

Having jobs makes you happy today but not tomorrow

The reason I started Freehunter was that I experienced the problem myself. I was a photographer back then during my undergraduate years in HKU and would spend 3 hours every day taking pictures for competitions and touching them up. I always joked about the fact that I hold my camera more than pens, like literally.

I noticed that photographers around me are looking for freelance jobs while they had not got any. My friends in other fields, who are painters, magicians, and singers, are no exception to it. Then, I built Freehunter to solve the problem that I faced.

However, my belief changed.

Don’t get me wrong, I still firmly believe that freelancing is ‘the future of work’. It solves a real problem. People are also definitely willing to pay for it. Thousands of our paid members have proved our hypothesis right. But the biggest takeaway from the experience is that giving them jobs can just be a short term solution, while what they truly need is a way to sustainably get jobs themselves.

This diagram pretty much sums up what freelancers are facing. We first thought giving jobs is the way out. However, when we dig deep into the rabbit hole, we discovered that the main issue is they don’t have enough connections, which they find difficult to obtain.

The lack of jobs isn’t the problem itself but an outcome of it.

In these 3 years with Freehunter, I have continuously observed that not only freelancers but also how small business owners have huge demands to meet potential clients and business collaborators.

What about Freehunter?

My co-founder Jerome Tse and I both think solving this problem is a great opportunity for us, which is why we are now starting our second voyage Jupitrr. And for Freehunter, we have arranged our core original team plus some new members to grow our business and serve our users. We are actually planning for more industry expansion, which is going to launch early next year!

What’s the new thing about?

Jupitrr is a smart business networking app that works like a dating app, allowing users to anonymously say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to business profiles. Unlike traditional business networking, we will only feed you with people whom you’ll like according to our data-driven algorithm.

Why do I start blogging?

I’m here to share my experience and thoughts.

I’m definitely not here to teach or give any advice to anyone, nor do I think I’m already a ‘successful entrepreneur’. In fact, I’m still learning to be one every day.

Instead, in the coming blog posts, I will share my thoughts and learnings along my entrepreneurial journey. I hope somewhere within my words, you can get new ideas or insights that are helpful from me.

Don’t forget to sign up for Jupitrr :)

Wish to know more about Jupitrr? Click here to learn more or sign up to get notified when we launch!