Last May we brought you the story of Sam Chow and his business, Hobblit: Calgary’s “Airbnb” for Activities. We know that in business, things are always changing, so we caught up with Sam to see what he’s working on now.
Hard Decisions
For the latter half of 2016, the number of Hobblit users was growing, but the company was not hitting the milestones that had been set out. Sam and his team decided that if they didn’t meet their targets by December, it would be time to pull the plug. Through networking Sam happened to meet an entrepreneur in Ontario who was interested in the platform Hobblit built. After much discussion, Sam made the decision to sell the platform to the company in Ontario.
While Sam is no longer running Hobblit, he learned a lot from the experience to use on his next ventures. Sam sees value in starting and failing, as each time you get faster at validating your ideas and you don’t have to spend as much money discovering if your next idea will be taken-up by consumers. If you’re thinking of starting your own business or already have one, Sam has some valuable tips for you to keep in mind:
- Have clear goals of what you want to achieve with your company. If you don’t meet those goals, then it can be easier to make a decision about closing the business or pivoting it. You can more easily face the reality of your company’s future when you have goals in place to measure success.
- There is always value in what you’ve built. Even if things don’t go as planned, the learning experience from building something is incredible.
What the Future Holds
Sam is currently finishing his PhD in organizational psychology – the psychology of people at work, what makes teams effective, and how to increase workplace motivation. After creating and growing Hobblit, Sam used that as an inspiration for his dissertation: to look at what makes people innovative in the workplace. He is also hoping to put an entrepreneurial twist on the selection tools that organizational psychologists often create by building a tool to help venture capitalists decrease their risks when investing in entrepreneurs. We’re excited to see what Sam will do next!