Doing Things the Startup Way: Balancing a Startup Job and Side Projects
Chatting with Euwyn to explore how the startup way is done through his role at Startmate and personal project, Sailist.
Euwyn Goh is an accelerator associate at Startmate. After studying a Bachelor of Business and Commerce, majoring in accounting and finance, at Monash University, he has gained a vast array of experience in the startup world.
Tell me a bit about your background and what you’re working on right now!
I was born and raised in Malaysia and moved to Melbourne five years ago to study. I studied business, majoring in accounting and finance (happens to be a very Malaysian-orthodox choice) but I have long been obsessively interested in the startup space. So, right after completing my degree and two internships (at EY Malaysia and BlueRock, a Melbourne-based accounting firm), I found my first role doing operations at Stone & Chalk in Melbourne, a Fintech co-working space. After spending 8 months at Stone & Chalk, I returned to my accounting roots and joined Interactive Accounting to do startup accounting for a full year before serendipitously finding my dream role at Startmate, running their accelerator program since the start of this year.
How did you initially get interested in the startup space?
It’s really quite simple for me. Growing up, I always enjoyed creating things in general and I always wanted more responsibility; being able to say that something is truly a product of my own effort. Startups always seemed to be the pinnacle of creating things for me.
For one, founding a company means that you literally create a whole new legally recognised entity (perhaps second only to creating a human being), and the upper bounds of its potential are limitless.
I nurtured that interest by being involved in a number of initiatives at uni but I also had a go at founding an EdTech startup during those days, though it eventually didn’t work out. However, I never stopped building things and Sailist, my most recent side project, was instrumental in getting my foot in the door for a startup role.
Did the unsuccessful experience of trying to conjure a startup teach you anything valuable?
Definitely. Although it may pale compared to my other experiences throughout my career since we didn’t even get to launch it (and conventionally, most of the learning comes after the launch). It was more of a matter that we were working on something; we had gotten through two university incubators and faced a number of roadblocks over time. Eventually, I along with the team wasn’t convicted enough with the idea to keep hustling on.
How did you reach Startmate and why were you interested in taking the accelerator associate position?
I saw the job ad and thought wow, what a dream would it be to work here? I always wanted to work more closely with founders. Before Startmate, I had only worked indirectly with founders when I was working at a co-working space and at a startup accounting firm, hustling to either give them a conducive working environment or to keep them out of jail. At Startmate, I get to add value more directly to the founders — facilitating opportunities that drive key outcomes for founders en route to building the future they want to see — which is simply way more rewarding to me.
This same desire to help founders more directly is why I created Sailist, a startup ecosystem directory and newsletter, that helps founders navigate the burgeoning Australian startup support ecosystem.
What is the main motive of creating Sailist and the process of starting it?
On top of getting to help founders, I created it because I wanted to create something I could call my own; and that in itself is deeply exciting. One thing I made use of, that I feel a lot more people (especially grads looking to get into the startup space) should be making use of, is the wealth of no-code tools. They literally enable you to build almost anything without writing a line of code. For example, using Bubble, you could technically create Twitter or Reddit without code if you desire. As for Sailist, I built it without code using a combination of Airtable and table2site (although I would recommend Pory instead now which also happen to be Melbourne-based!). Once built, it was a matter of getting the word out in all the right places. With the help of some advertisers, I could cover the hosting costs and make some snack money to fuel my nights hustling to keep everything up to date.
What does a day look like for you as an accelerator associate?
As per usual in the startup space, it changes every day. I run the Startmate accelerator program in general alongside the Head of Accelerator, Sascha. But if I were to do a snapshot in time, in a week, I’d typically facilitate two or three sessions and workshops with the founders and guest speakers about fundraising, growth and all things to do with building and scaling a startup. Lots of planning goes into that because at Startmate, we plan our program as we go and we don’t have a pre-determined ‘syllabus’ for the founders so that we tailor it to the cohort’s unique challenges.
Also, since we are a mentor-driven seed fund, we fundraise from investors who double up as mentors every cohort, and we invest in startups through the fund. Quite a significant amount of processing and accounting work goes into the fund-side of things, but at other times when the cohort is not running, my weeks look quite different!
How do you envision the future of the startup space in general?
In terms of the startup space in Australia, my hope is that the successes of Canva et al will inspire the next generation here to get involved in building the new frontiers in tech.
Organisations like Startmate are crucial infrastructure for driving adoption in the ecosystem, which is one reason I’m so excited to be a part of it. My hope is to see Australia become an international tech powerhouse within the years to come.
In terms of verticals in general, I think the metaverse is quite inevitable in terms of how we interact, but that doesn’t need much more of a sounding board than it already has. What I’ve been quite interested in lately is the future of cities.
I think we will start to take a different approach to organise our places of living post-pandemic, with more emphasis on community and group identity, for better or for worse.
With that, I hypothesise the popularisation of specialised private cities. I wrote an essay on my thesis here on my personal website. A new type of city might seem quite antithetical to an all-encapsulating metaverse, but I think they are very much related and will overcorrect into each other over time.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
To be honest, I have no idea. I am definitely on a different planet now compared to where I thought I would be five years ago. My current philosophy is that as long as I get my values right, put my reps in and be intentional with increasing my surface area for luck to strike (which Michael Batko, the CEO of Startmate, has a very good blog on), I reckon I will be in a good place, whatever that looks like.
The only practical thing I’m quite certain of is that I would like to found something (seriously) at some point in the future. Although in 5 years’ time, I may very well end up saying something quite different.
More students are interested in the startup space. What advice would you give to students who are interested?
Going back to what I mentioned earlier, why I think grads looking to get into the startup space should get on no-code tools is this: the startup space rewards those who get things done. While everyone else is trying to talk up why they are the right person for the job, look for something to build to show that you are the right person for the job.
Show, don’t tell is the greatest startup job hack. You get a startup job by doing things the startup way, including applying for a job.
What is your favourite part of the job?
First of all, I couldn’t ask for a lovelier team to work with. I get to work with people who inspire me to become a better version of myself and who I just enjoy hanging out with. Secondly, one of the best things at Startmate is the community at large. It’s not an everyday opportunity that you get to observe and interact directly with some individuals of the highest calibre — in Australia and internationally — and it’s one that I cherish.
Thirdly, I just really enjoy what I do. With the level of autonomy I get here at Startmate, I very much feel like I’m constantly inventing things, and for a cause I care about (helping world-changers drive real outcomes). I feel like I can drive many outcomes here at Startmate, and that they would truly be a product of my own efforts. Fourthly, we have a long-term goal I’m excited about. We are building a city! And lastly, in my Startmate job application, I had written that I was a Startmate ‘fan’, and, I’m still a big fan.
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