Desmond Lim, co -founder and CEO of Workstream.
As a matter of courtesy Desmond Lim
Desmond Lim is not strange to hard work.
At the age of seven, he fell in love with basketball, but when his family was unable to buy his own ball, he reached the money himself.
“The money was always narrow,” said Lim CNBC made it. “My parents are both workers every hour. My father is a driver. My mother is clean.”
“I chose a free sport, so I can play on any day you wanted,” Lim said. “I saved for 60 days, I don’t have lunch, to get enough money to buy the ball. Then, I stick to the orange rubber ball and play it for five years, every day, until she became bald.”
This position was well served in life. Today, the 39 -year -old is the co -founder and CEO of WorkstreamHuman Resources Plastic, salary and employment statements for the workforce. The company raised about $ 120 million so far.
Modest beginnings
Lim was born and grew up in Singapore and his family was the first to attend the university. From selling eggs on the local market to trucks, Lim says that most of his extended family, including his parents, were – and still – an hour workers.
He said, “(My father) only finished the fourth grade.” “My father was awake at 5 am every morning, and he returns home by seven, and works for six and a half days a week. He barely stopped for lunch.”
Desmond Lim, co -founder and CEO of Workstream, with his parents.
As a matter of courtesy Desmond Lim
Lim saw work ethics and work ethics that his parents have done and apply these characteristics to his life. In high schoolS.OL, not only a better student, but also led the basketball team in his school, as a leader, to win a national competition.
“When we won the high school championship, I was the captain who carried the flag of our school and ran throughout the school where the school chanted with our victory … I think that moment changed my life.” “Sports taught me that you need time, patience and a team of people to build something great.”
Lim was also chosen to play basketball professionally for the National Youth Team in Singapore while he was in high school. He soon became clear that he had pieces to enter a higher university, but his family had no means to support his education.
Desmond Lim with the basketball team in Singapore.
As a matter of courtesy Desmond Lim
Lim said: “My mother told me:” I cannot pay for your college. You should not go to college. You should go and work. ”This prompted me to know how to go to college on my own.
Ultimately, Lim Entrepreneurial Entrepreneurial Entrepreneurship was born. He said that he started companies since he was small so that he could withstand school fees.
In addition to focusing on his studies and basketball, Lim began his teaching work in high school. Within two years, he says, these business brought about $ 100,000 of revenues, which is enough to pay for his university education.
This lesson has become lessons only the first companies to start LIM.
Likewise, while studying at the University of Singapore, Lim put his attention on a new goal – he wanted to move to the United States to obtain a master’s degree. To save money, he paved and started another work – Thai food restaurant – While he is still working to complete his testimony.
After graduating from the university in 2010, Lim worked in investment banking services for several years before moving to the United States to obtain a master’s degree at Harvard University in July 2013.
“I was very hungry”
While he was at Harvard University, Lim focused on creating his technology starting.
“I was very hungry when I was at Harvard University, I felt that I was drinking from a firefighting form. Model people took four chapters – I was doing seven chapters every period,” he said.
During his first year at Harvard University, Lim Cold sent email about 50 emerging companies in the San Francisco Bay area, hoping to have some experience in starting. On that winter vacation, he flew to California, where he was sleeping on a friend’s sofa and worked for a free educational technology company for free.
Desmond Lim with his colleagues at Harvard University during the guidance week.
With the permission of Demond LIM
“In the next summer, I worked again for free for WeChat … before they turned into a full -time role. So, I was very hungry to get to know everything, about startups and building the company,” Lim said.
In 2016, Lim sat in the separation of a friend at the Graduate College of Stanford called “Tasaar”Startup“
“It is the same category from which companies such as Doordash and Sofi came out,” he said. “Our mission was to go out to talk to business owners, so we talked to dozens, if not hundreds of business owners about Palu Alto, and we heard about pain points.”
One of the companies they spoke to was Coupa Cafe, a family -owned chain of cafes with ports around Stanford and Palo Alto. During this conversation, Lim discovered the idea of Workstream.
He found that the company did not have the appropriate tools for manpower management efficiently. Lim said they were using seven different tools, including Google Drive and writing things manually with pen and paper.
“I thought this is a lot of work. There should be something we can do better for them,” he said. “So I think this was the moment, along with my experience in managing my own restaurant, along with my father, both people every hour.”
Desmond Lim with his founders, Lee Show and Max Wang.
As a matter of courtesy Desmond Lim
After completing Harvard’s graduate program, Lim moved to the Gulf region in 2016 and participated in its founding in September 2017 with Lei Xu and Max Wang.
After three short months on January 4, 2018, Workstream had the first paid-paced agent and $ 100.
Build work work
The first days of Workstream included a lot of doors.
“It was fun … (I was) selling from door to door, with some help from Max and Lei. So we were only three immigrants in the streets of Palo Alto trying to hit the doors and talk to people. Lim said,” Funny (and) we learned a lot. ” .
Desmond Lim with the first investor in Workstream, Eric Yuan.
As a matter of courtesy Desmond Lim
The company’s first investment was a $ 25,000 check written by Eric Yuan, founder and CEO of Zoom.
“I contacted Eric for the first time in about 9 to 10 years in the first year in which I went out to the valley … I think it was a cold email (and) I said,” I said, “Can I just meet you for lunch for learning. Yuan said yes, and they started a one -hour conversation at lunch.
From there, the two remained friends for a decade, and when Lim continued to obtain funding for his company, the Zoom founder soon became the first supporter in Worksream.
Lim said: “He didn’t even ask me what I was going to build. He has now invested more than seven numbers in the company over the past seven years. “
Desmond Lim with members of the work team in 2024.
As a matter of courtesy Desmond Lim
Today, Workstream is a program for everyone in human resources and salaries designed for companies in the hour.
“The purpose of our company is:” Deskles is worth the best. “We believe that the economy with an hour has a lack of services.
“There are many tools in salary statements, but they are all designed for people working in Tech, who work in the office, who (they) desktop first,” Lim said. “So what we built is a first mobile program, AI-AI-AF to help (companies in the hour) to pay their salaries, and human resources on the plane, all in the same place, to help them save money and time.”
Workstream customers include brands like Burger King and Dunkin ‘Donuts. Among the supporters of the company Gold House, Peter Thiel, Ken Hover’s Founders Fund, Jay-Z and DooDash’s Tony Xu.
What is “more important” than hard work?
Lim had strong work ethics early. He was an inspiration to see his parents and family members as workers every hour to earn a living, but there is one feature that it can be more important.
“Really try to explore and know what you really want. Sometimes I feel the correct choice is more important than trying to work hard,” he said.
“I think there is one thing I did when I was younger is that I spoke to a lot of people,” Lim said. “I was really curious, and I would like to write to school professors, and write to the founders. I was having media conversations with people I looked at for 20 minutes, for 10 minutes, for lunch.”
“I was very hungry to learn from people, and I think this really helped me to form what I am thinking about and who I became today,” he said.
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