60 Days Unwrapped: Singapore to New York

6 April 2022 - my co-founders and I head to the airport for the first time after 2 years of COVID, ready to fly to New York for our company, Pawjourr. Our friends, family, and work colleagues came to send us off (though I suspect it's really for Oolong, our Alaskan Malamute whom we are bringing along with us).

(Image: Oolong, our doggo enjoying the weather)

Expanding into the US has always been on the agenda - I mean, Paul Graham did tell the Airbnb founders to "Go to where your users are at", and more than 70% of US household owns a pet. We raised some money last year and started the year on a high note with 6-digit monthly revenue. We were ready to take on the US; what could possibly go wrong? ??

Initially, we were contemplating between New York & San Francisco but decided on the former because NYC seems like a good mix of media, consumer & finance hub (... maybe a little of Gossip Girl too).

Was New York what I thought it to be? Yes ... and no.

• We'd thought that adapting to New York will be okay since we understand English, excited about the food, and ... how hard can it be? We stayed at Queens during our first month whilst we look for an apartment (shout-out to Seth & Irina), but boy was it challenging.
• Other than the super bad jetlag, being a foreigner in New York means we don't have SSN or credit score, both crucial when renting apartments here. We were rejected by our first apartment because they needed us to provide a guarantor earning $430K a year in the US (that's a lot of money) and we didn't know Bill Gates. Thankfully we found our home at Sven, though we had to pay a company 1-month rent to be our guarantor.
• Safety was a huge concern for me (the Citizen app and the news make it worst). The first week we were here, someone got shot at the Brooklyn subway. That scares me and I got very paranoid when I'm out and about, so much so that I was always in a "fight-or-flight" mode and couldn't really enjoy myself. Things are much better now that I figured out how to navigate around, spot suspicious peeps, and avoid the "dangerous" areas.

(Image: Visited SOHO during our first week here in NYC - too cold for comfort!)

But there's a reason why people still flock to New York despite the high cost of living.

• It's really the "American dream". Plenty of opportunities here, great hustle culture, and people are just hungry. The hustle culture is very strong here and people are always on the move, thinking about the next big thing. I figured it might also gotta do with the high cost of living here as well, so you can't really "stop" because you gotta pay rent. But overall, people in New York hustle hard.

(Image: Meeting one of our clients face-to-face at their office)

• Transient city means you meet people from all walks of life trying to "make it" here in NYC. We have gone to several events and met some really cool peeps and you can tell that they are smart and passionate about what they are building. Just really cool to be able to learn from one another and take a peek into another person's life for free!

(Image: An event organized by Andrew Yeung)

• Prevalent across the entire US (not just NYC), but I love how supportive the startup community is - lots of free resources shared on Twitter, exchange of ideas, and helping each other out. There will definitely be some groups who are a little more "exclusive", but people are generally helpful and want to see you succeed. This is more for the tech/start-up scene; not too sure about the other industries.

(Image: Meeting Justin from VITALIZE Venture Capital)

• Lots of innovation going on here; some of my favorites are Microacquire and Republic. You can find something for everyone here - maybe because entrepreneurship is celebrated & encouraged.

Is being here in NYC helped grow Pawjourr?

Yes, definitely!

Mainly understanding cultural nuances & having the local context to know the type of ads and content we need to push out. There have been key learnings that we are able to apply to our company in the past 2 months - a classic example is treating the US as 50 states instead of 1 large country.

Here's an ad from Titan that I love (and remembered) when I saw it on the subway

Fast forward, super excited for what's to come for Pawjourr. We've been meeting brands and looking into different partnerships to grow and of course, talking & learning from other founders & VCs.

Our creators' dashboard which will be up in the next 2 weeks is going to scale the and automate the platform to the next level. A lot more work to do, but everyone is very excited about the new feature.

(Image: Our CFO doing a representation & touching the legendary wall street bull's balls for some good luck)

Lastly, a special shout out to Enterprise Singapore, Economic Development Board, Singapore Global Network, Antler & our amazing friends Yuen Yee & Anthony for being such great hosts and supportive partners.

We are already excited about what 2022 holds for us ??

P.S. If you are a startup founder, or just looking to work in NYC and have questions, you can always connect with me on LinkedIn and just shoot me a message. Happy to help and give back to the community!