In today’s episode we talked with Howard Kim, Solo-founder at Mementum, about how his retail product is combining tech to provide their customers with lifelong heirlooms and memories that outlast any model of a computer chip.
In today’s episode we talked with Howard Kim, Solo-founder at Mementum, about how his retail product is combining tech to provide their customers with lifelong heirlooms and memories that outlast any model of a computer chip.
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Hatchet Ventures website: https://www.hatchetventures.com
Hatchet Ventures LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hatchet-ventures/
Chet Lovegren’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chetlovegren/
Connect with Howard Kim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mementum-io/
Check out Mementum’s Website: https://www.mementum.io/
Listen on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/36ub3fpy
Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/ystuxubt
Listen on Google Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/bdee8y9h
[00:00:00]: 1, 2, 3, 4. Are you a founder, co-founder, aspiring entrepreneur, or just someone who loves to hear about how companies are built? Then join us as we talk with founders and CEOs who have been there and done that.
Welcome to the Founders Formula Podcast. Sponsored by Hatchet Adventures. And now your host, Chet Lovegren
[00:00:32] Chet: Hello and welcome one. Welcome all to the Founders Formula Podcast the show that's designed to give you the latest and greatest insights from founders and CEOs worldwide. Who have been there and done that. As always, we want to thank our sponsors and friends of the podcast Hatchet Ventures for their continued support of the podcast.
Please go and check them out in the show notes below. I'm thrilled for today's episode because we get to switch it up from the consistent B2B SaaS products and founders that we have on the. And we get to hear from someone who is a former business professional as he puts it, who accidentally turned engineer.
He's a really busy guy. It took us quite a bit of time to book this episode and find a time to chat. That worked for both of us. But that shows you the success that his company is having. He's got some great insights that he is gonna share with us today. Please welcome, founder and CEO of Mementum, Howard Kim, Howard, welcome to the show.
[00:01:23] Howard: Thanks so much for having me on Chet excited to be here.
[00:01:26] Chet: We're thrilled to have you and I'm really excited, uh, to jump into your story and Mementum and the mission behind Mementum, and then talking about some of the success and challenges that you've seen as a first time founder, because I think it's gonna be really relevant for the audience.
Especially as someone who, you know, it's, it's a real pleasure to have a technical founder mm-hmm. someone who comes from the engineering background, but you also have that experience in the like, business professional world of strategic partnerships and finance and all those things. Right. So, I don't, I don't wanna spoil your story, so I'm gonna let you dig in, right?
Yeah. Tell us, tell us the story of Howard.
[00:01:59] Howard: Wow. Where do you even start? I'm, I'm, I'm from Seattle. I went to the University of Washington, studied finance, uh, worked in marketing in South Korea for a consumer goods company. Kind of had these odd jobs and found myself at, uh, UCLA Anderson. Ticket in MBA and while I was there, uh, I wasn't really sure where I was headed.
You have everyone being investment bankers, consultants, wide range of things. And, uh, I kind of knew I wanted to work in tech. I wanted to be a product manager, but I didn't have a technical background. And so I thought, you know what, maybe I need another degree. To make this happen. And I managed to get accepted into this online master's of Computer Science at Georgia Tech.
Uh, they just started the program and I felt, you know what, uh, maybe they're looking for some fresh faces. And I really geared my application to emphasize that. And, uh, they let me in. And what I told myself was, I, I don't have this technical background. Uh, it's really. And if I suck at it, I'll just quit. Uh, it won't be that bad.
And did my first semester and I fell in love. I couldn't believe what I was learning. It just really changed my perspective on, on a lot of things. And I, uh, within the first semester decided I'm gonna be a software engineer. Uh, this is, this was like a calling for me. I have, I'm the type of person that likes to make things.
I like to tinker, and I just never thought to make money. And so, uh, what was originally this idea of becoming a product manager turned into, I'm gonna be a software engineer, and let's see what happened at, yeah, uh, uh, what happened after that, uh, is, uh, uh, I worked at a startup. I worked at ibm, uh, and finally finished that program after about two years and got a job as a software engineer.
And that takes us to the moment, right before I started this.
[00:03:53] Chet: That's crazy. And it's as someone who's dabbled in the tech side of the world, like I've tried some, even some no-code tools, a little over my head, right? I'm a, I'm a go to market first number sales guy at heart. So it's really interesting that you were.
Pursuing a completely different path and thought maybe I'll do product management and stuff like that, where it's still not like I'm not in there coding and creating the backbone. But then you were like, Hey, I actually like this. I like tinkering around with these things. I like building, I like breaking things, figuring out how they work, figuring out how to make them better.
Was there anything specific when you decided you wanted to jump into engineering that really spoke out to you? Any specific function in engineering or something where you went, Hey, I like this. I like the process of it, or I like the strategy behind it, or, I just see a lot more opportunity because you, you learn how to create more than if I'm just kind of at a high level with product management.
Was there anything specific that led you into liking the engineering side as much as you did that kind of spoke.
[00:04:50] Howard: I think it was some of the classes that I was taking. So I specialized in machine learning and it was just a whole new way of thinking about the world, uh, in terms of data and how you manipulate information and present it to people.
And it just really, you know, resonated with me. Uh, uh, I was really into math. Uh, I think if someone, if you met me in high school, you would assume that I would be an engineer and they're going to business route. And it just, again, there's. Part of me that it just, uh, uh, the intellectual side, I loved it. It was so fascinating.
And at the same time, I, I just liked making things. I used to brew beer at the time. I was hand making jewelry. I like to bake. There's just a piece of me that wants to always create things, and it just made sense. Why don't I just do something that is, uh, not only interesting, but it's, it, it's hitting on this desire to create.
Uh, and so it just was very early on a clear match for me.
[00:05:47] Chet: I want to dig into Mementum a little bit more, uh, for the people that aren't familiar, who haven't got a chance to click on the website and the show notes yet for Mementum and check y'all out.
Talk a little bit about what is Mementum, what do you do, what's the mission behind what you're doing, and then we'll dig into the founding story of how you decided to start this company.
[00:06:05] Howard: Right. So what we do at Mementum is we connect your digital story to our real jewelry, and this allows you to make an instantly meaningful gift that will last a lifetime.
And, uh, it's something that is really hard to describe. You have to see it in person. Um, and what I'll say is, uh, uh, these stories that we carry with us have a huge impact on our lives and being able to carry our story with us. Something that really reminds us. You know, we belong somewhere that we're loved, I think has a lot of power and can do a lot of good in this world.
And so, uh, you know, if I had to say, you know, there was one mission, it's that, you know, through having, uh, our story that we carry with us, every story that we tell is an opportunity to reflect and feel better about our lives and, and what's happening in our lives.
[00:06:56] Chet: And let's, let's talk a little bit about the founding story.
I told you I had this great interview question prepared for you. Yeah, yeah. Um, based on some light reading I said I wanted to ask you, tell me about the digital locket that started at all. Let's talk about the founding story Mementum and how you decided to create this awesome company.
[00:07:13] Howard: Right. Uh, so, you know, like I said, I'm really into making things and I hand made this mouse doll, uh, it had a top hat, had a flower, uh, and.
Objectively it was adorable. And so when I made it, I just knew it was gonna be amazing, uh, that, uh, my girlfriend at the time was gonna love it. And so, you know, as I watched her opened a gift, I saw that familiar look, you know, appear on her face, disappointment. It's, you know, no matter how hard you try, you can't control how other people are gonna feel about things.
It doesn't matter how much time and effort you put in, there's often this disconnect with, uh, uh, uh, the gift and the story you want them to hear and the story that they end up telling themselves. And, uh, uh, so to me it was a huge. You know, even though I thought it was an amazing gift, she didn't. And that was, I wanna say for Christmas.
And so at the time, I had just started my job as an engineer, this hobby with jewelry making. And I kind of turned inward to ask myself like, how am I gonna solve this problem for the next gift? Of course I'm gonna make the next one. It's just in my blood to do it. And, uh, I found the answer in a gift that I always wanted.
Um, something. Unfortunately, I'm, I'm never gonna receive a, an heirloom, you know, father to son, this story that's preserved and passed on. Uh, and from that idea, I realize that, uh, the most important part of a gift is the story, but it's often unspoken. It's implied. No one really explicitly says the story.
You're just hoping that it connects with someone and. What I did was I put a chip inside of a piece of jewelry that I designed, connected it to an app, and you basically unlock a photo album, uh, with that jewelry. And that's the only way to do it, is you have to have that jewelry. And, uh, she loved it. And that gift eventually turned into the prototype that became me mentor.
[00:09:19] Chet: That's so cool. And I, and I totally agree with you, because we could make as much stuff as we wanted to and we might think it's really cool, but very rarely do you have a partner who's, uh, uh, two of their love languages are both acts of service and gifts. Usually it's, it's one or the other, so it's like, The act of the service of making it, and the act of the gift giving doesn't usually align.
It's usually like, Hey, I either want a gift, so I want something really nice, or, Hey, just the act of service is nice in and of itself. And so the gift doesn't, doesn't matter, but
[00:09:45] Howard: That is fantastic. I never thought about it that way.
[00:09:47] Chet: Yeah, yeah. Very rarely do those two align. And, and, and I can speak from, uh, personal experience that it is, it's like, then you don't want to feel, you know, You don't wanna sit there and go, yeah, and I, I carved this and I made it, and then I would stain the little box for you and all that stuff.
Like, you don't wanna like go into detail with the person you're giving the gift to about how hard it was for you to work on it. Right. So, totally. Which is a great combination where you can, here, here the pictures from the time that we spent together, the things that are memorable to us and put them, put them in the jewelry, which I think is really cool.
[00:10:16] Howard: Yeah. And you know, there was this moment when I was piecing together the album where I was reflecting back on the relationship and I just had such a great time just doing that. Mm-hmm. . And that's the point that feeling you get making it is something that you can give to someone. Uh uh And it's great if you can do it in jewelry.
[00:10:34] Chet: Yeah. And so how did you decide to take this, take this to market? Like I guess like what were, what were the two and two that were put together in your story where you're like, Hey, I'm doing well as an engineer. I could keep being an engineer and maybe this is something I could think about doing someday, or this was a nice little project.
What was the spur where you were like that aha moment where you're like, Hey, I can take this and make this a full fledged business and this is something I wanna pursue. Like when, when and how did that happen?
[00:11:01] Howard: Uh, I dunno if there was like this exact moment. When I gave the gift, it actually didn't work on her phone.
Uh, so there's some complication with the chip. It worked on my phone, but didn't work on hers. And it was, uh, you know, I, I, in my mind, it's supposed to be an heirloom. It's supposed to be something that lasts forever. And so I knew I had this task in front of me, which is to solve this problem. And in, in, in the process of doing it, I realized this.
Putting a chip inside jewelry means it's automatically not jewelry anymore. You, you put an expiration date on it and you know, I'm working as an engineer trying to fix this issue, and, uh, as I'm trying to fix it, I, I get married and a month later I get let go from this job and I'm trying to figure out what to do next.
Do I find another job as an engineer? You know, what, what am I supposed to do here? And my wife obviously loved a gift and she really pushed me to consider entrepreneurship that this is a gift that, uh, uh, that other people might want. And, uh, you're already still working on it. Uh, why don't we give it a shot and see what happens?
And so I think she really gave me the courage to kind of take that leap, almost like getting permission. Uh, and, and, and that's how we.
[00:12:21] Chet: Yeah. We had a, we had a founder on the show last season who said, um, one of the things he encourages all founders is to y you know, sell your customers on, on what you're selling, but never sell your spouse on your dreams.
They have to be fully aligned with what you're doing and understand that, hey, this could all end and we could end up living in a van down by the river together. , right? Totally. Um, so. All right. There's, there's a piece of this that really interests me because I haven't seen many retail products that are supplemented by technology in this way.
Right. Um, one of the closest things I can think of is because I have, I have three kids, two of them are very young. They make these little, you know, um, Speak and play type dolls where you can go in online, scan a code, type in their name, and they'll actually repeat your kid's name to 'em, which is a little creepy.
Mm-hmm. But it's also kind of cool and interactive cause they light up when they hear their name coming outta this stuffed animal. So I've seen some form of technology supplementing a retail product. But from what I've seen on your website, nothing as technical as what you've created, what were some of the challenges you had when creating this in terms of getting it to market and launching it effectively in a way where it was ease of use and easy to adopt the functionality of creating this digital photo album with this jewelry?
What were some of the challenges you had? I mean, like was the QR code like an instant thing you recognized? Was gonna have to be used in the functionality or were you doing things a different way before, like, I'd love to hear from a technical perspective how you kind of a and b tested recalibrated and built this thing that you have because it's, it's really freaking cool, man. Like it's, uh, really blown away by what you've created,
[00:14:01] Howard: Right, well, so I had that experience where the original one had a, a, what was it? Uh, an NFC chip inside of it. And there's that moment if it doesn't work on someone else's phone. Time. This period where it's just not gonna work. There's a lot of reasons for a chip to stop working.
Do you need battery power? All of these issues I realized can't be a part of the jewelry design, and so I had to find a solution that had absolutely no chips, right? No chips, no batteries. It had to be something that would. Last as long as the jewelry itself. Otherwise, uh, uh, you know, people are going to, whether they know it or not, feel that, hey, this isn't something that actually is gonna last.
And so that, that, that was the challenge. How do you get, how do you connect something digitally but have nothing actually digital or, or electronic inside of the jewelry itself? And, uh, uh, I stumbled upon this solution, which is to get a QR code in. But make the QR code, uh, basically invisible.
Something that you would never notice. Like I could give this to someone and not explain it and they might not ever see the QR code. You can really believe, ah, this is just a piece of jewelry. And what that meant is if you wear jewelry, then this is a gift for you. Uh, but by the way, there is this unique thing that it's connected to.
And, uh, you know, I just, you know, did a lot of experimenting and figuring. How, you know, the physics of how all of this works. And once I understood the, like, basic principle that it's possible, then I hired a, a consultant to kind of, uh, uh, design all of this out. Uh, it's not something that I felt comfortable learning, uh, but once I knew it was possible, then, then it was time to spend some money to make it happen.
And, um, uh, let's see what other part is there. And then once I knew that you can scan. Then on the software side, we can do whatever we want. That connection is there, uh, no matter, no matter how tenuous it might seem, the experience of taking, uh, your jewelry and scanning it, uh, that physical act is the connection to whatever is digital.
[00:16:12] Chet: Yeah. And I, I want to, I want to hear, um, so as a founder that has an engineering background, did you take a lot of the onus, aside from the con consulting that you had done to build this out yourself? Or do you think it really helped you having that engineering background where you could go and then hire a team of UI UIUX designers, hire some coders to go and build this for you?
Which route did you kind of take? Trial by fire, you know, blood, sweat, and tears of your own work, or did you kind of, were you kind of like, Hey, I feel good putting a team together because I know what to scope for. I know what to look for. I know how to solve some of the, some of the problems that come, come up with creating product and coding and engineering.
[00:16:51] Howard: I did everything by myself. Wow. I made, I made the app by myself. Uh, I don't professionally, I wasn't doing mobile app stuff. I just taught myself, uh, um, it helped me, you know, when you do something like that, you're full stack. You gotta learn everything. You gotta learn how to release on the app store, which is an incredibly painful process.
And, uh, uh, you know, decisions. How do I release on both platforms? Android and Apple? Unfortunately, you know, Google came out with a flutter, which was amazing and it made it a lot easier. And uh, I just love to tinker. Uh, I can do it non-stop day in, day out. And so not only was there a business need to do it, but I just love doing it.
And then that's really helpful. To just naturally have that desire to want to explore. Mm-hmm. , uh, it's not necessarily the most, I would say, time efficient way to do it. Uh, but it certainly was the most cost effective and uh, you know, it was being very intentional about what's the minimum thing that has to come together for this to be something that's eligible.
Uh, and um, in terms of ui ux, I'll be honest, I didn't do any testing. I just said, I know people need to be able to do some of these basics no matter what, and I feel confident that I can release that and iterate on it later. Um, so there needs to be photos. You want to be able to add context about the photo.
Uh, you want a series of 'em. All the way to, you know, how does the scanning work and how do I make sure it works every time? And if there are issues, you know, how do we know? And, you know, we did do a beta test, uh, on different jewelry sizes and orientations to make sure we knew what people were gonna get used to doing, what was difficult, what wasn't gonna work.
And we incorporated some of that feedback into the app and into the designs that we released. Um, but again, I, I wasn't at a point where I was rated to hire. Like, I felt like when we launched, it was an MVP to continue iterating on the app. We, I didn't think we were gonna sell a lot. And based on the success of some of these iterations, then raise money is what I thought the path was gonna be.
[00:19:02] Chet: Yeah. That's why they say, uh, we plan and God does. Right. That's kinda, that's kinda how it works. . Yeah. No, that's, so that's, that's, that's wild to me because I, I'm very envious of your ability to build that because I'm in a situation right now myself, where my services side of my business, I'm trying to build an app to accompany it, uh, for businesses.
And it's like, I have UI UX people, and then I'm gonna have to take it to some coders. And the crazy thing is if I talk to another sales leader, or which my ICP sales leaders, right? They get it. They get what it is, they understand how it works hand in hand. But then I'm working with people that have sometimes never used Salesforce on the U I U X side.
Uhhuh Uhhuh, but also never worked in sales, never understood a sales funnel. So it's like I have to remind myself that some of these things that seem elementary, As a founder, I have to learn how to speak them to people and give that direction, which has been a really big, a really big growing pain for myself personally.
So I'm kind of envious of you, the ability to go do it. Cause sometimes I'm like, I wish I could just get in there and set it up myself. You know, I'm not, I'm a to market guy. I'm. Through and through. I'm not technically proficient enough to do that. Trust me, I've tried, cuz at some point I was like, it'll be more cost effective and I can have more control, but I just, I couldn't figure it out.
Unfortunately. I could figure a lot of things out. But that's that engineering side of the world, the U I U X stuff, it's, I, I feel like I don't have the time in the day to try to figure that out, so that's really impressive that you built it on your own. Like I said, I'm, I'm a little envious of you about that.
As a first time founder, I, I'd love to dig in and just hear, uh, transparently about one of the, maybe one of the challenges that you've experienced taking this to market and making it as successful a as it's been. And then I also want to dig in a little bit if you're okay talking about it. I know you were talking a little bit about.
Social media presence and TikTok and, and how that's supplemented the business as well. I'd love to dig into that on the success side of things. So if you wouldn't mind sharing mm-hmm. As a first time founder, what's, what's one of the biggest challenges that you've incurred taking this product to market and turning it into what it is?
And then on the flip side, what is one of the biggest successes that you've seen, or one of the things that is proven most valuable to your business in taking it to market?
[00:21:07] Howard: All right. So what are the, one of the biggest challenges to taking it to market? Yeah. Um, my goodness, where do we even start? Um, you know, there's, there's this thing with not knowing what you don't know mm-hmm.
and you get caught by surprise, by things that can happen. And it's, there's like a, there's two sides of this. Like we, when I think when we had our first production order, we had maybe 40 units on. And there's a limited amount of success you're gonna get with 40 units, right? You're not expecting to sell a lot.
And, uh, well, what happens if you do? And we had this fortunate situation where we went viral and that was fantastic, and suddenly we're, we're outta stock in a day and we're back ordered for months. And, uh, You know, how do you prepare for success? How do you even know you're gonna succeed? And it was just something that totally blindsided us Operationally, we didn't invest any time into understanding e-commerce operations.
And so we're, you know, labeling things, packing things ourselves, and it'll take us half a day to fulfill 20 orders, uh, cuz we just didn't know that it was this much work. Um, and so, you know, scaling. A serious problem. Like I didn't really under, I logically understood it, but until I experienced it myself, I didn't really get it.
And, uh, I didn't prepare for any of that. I thought I, I launched an MVP and I thought I was gonna iterate. That's honestly what we thought was gonna happen. Um, so that was a big challenge for, for, you know, taking it to market.
[00:22:52] Chet: The e-commerce side of it? Yeah, it's, I have, I have, one of my biggest passions is vintage, vintage gear and like shoes and stuff like that.
Sneakers. So I've always got stuff on hand. I like to, I like to trade and go through the eBay market sometimes. It's almost as much of a hobby as it is a, a little bit of a business sometimes, but I focus more on the hobby side of it, just cause I love vintage clothing, you know, like old Seattle Supersonics jackets and stuff.
Like, you know, like stuff like that. And, uh, it's when you, like you, you, you sling a couple pairs of sneakers on eBay and it takes you like five hours to put together six orders, of shoes. You're like, I forget. You think to yourself and you're like, how do companies like ship out? Like just the, the idea of the global scale of e-commerce and even just shipping and fulfilling, like fulfilling and shipping orders is, is mind blowing as, you know, like you said, like it'll take us half a day to get 20 orders out.
Like, yeah. So I have so much respect for that side of the business, especially when it's a key component because, I mean, yeah, when I, I send stuff out to people. Do orders back and forth. It's like just the process of getting stuff out of the house Yeah. Is like something else. I'm like, I can't even imagine like a larger scale, how people manage all these things.
But like you kind of, like you said, you had that trial by fire, you know, and mm-hmm. , and now here you are, you know, four years later and you're seeing, seeing all the success from it. Um. That success component you said? Um, what were some of, what was, what was one of the key things that you felt other than the product itself?
Like what was something special that you feel that you and the team did that made this, made this product successful and helped you see that success quickly? That, um, That you were seeing? Was it just the innovation of the idea that there wasn't really anything like this on the market or I'm, you know, and I'm not too familiar with your market, is there something like this on the market, but you do it in a better way?
Like what do you think led to that quick success and also sustained success over the last four years that you've been seeing?
[00:24:37] Howard: You know, the way we won was through influencer marketing, particularly on TikTok. And what I realized is that, uh, uh, our product is in a way content. There's something about a meaningful.
Content is a piece of it that itself makes for great content and makes for moments of, of surprise and, and, and joy. And so one of our, uh, you know, very early on we didn't really know who our target audience was. We knew it was gifts, but was it gonna be Mother's Day? Was it gonna be for boyfriend and girlfriend?
Were kind of all over the place and we were targeting, uh, millennials and one of our early customers just made a quick video on. And went viral. Uh, I remember the date September 11th, and I thought we were getting hacked and I was like frantically seeing what was happening. And then, you know, we see the money rolling and I'm like, oh my God, this is happening.
And so, uh, uh, you know, we didn't intentionally make that happen, but what we created as a product was unique and it just had a piece of it that allowed for something like this to happen. And so, you know, it's this idea that you create. We made design choices, choice about what the product would be about that allowed for that to happen.
[00:25:50] Chet: It's really amazing how that happens, isn't it? Like, you know, there's no substitute for hard work. Mm-hmm. Um, but, but luck. I always tell people, luck will always play a little bit of a factor in everything you do. That's just, that's just how it happens. Yeah. But you gotta show up in order for, you know, if you don't show up, luck doesn't show up.
But like, even great example of this podcast, it would've never happened had I not met, you know? Well, it would've happened, but it wouldn't happen to the level that we've made. Without meeting the people at Hatchet Ventures, I wouldn't have met them if I hadn't landed this role at this company called Pavilion that I was at.
And, and wouldn't, that wouldn't have happened if this wouldn't have happened. And that's really cool. And I love that. That influencer marketing has worked out for you because it is such a, it is such an innovative tactic, evangelism and influencer marketing and ambassadorship mm-hmm.
um, that a product like yours closely aligns with that because you have a very innovative product. It's really cool that you figured out how to basically provide this, this digital experience, these digital stories and these heirlooms, as you call it. Yeah. Um, these keepsakes, um, I know we're coming up on time.
I, I wanted to dig a little bit into, um, You know your story that you tell to investors, investor pitch decks. While you're going through, I know you just started doing some fundraising. We won't dig too deep into it, but I know you're kind of in the process of putting your pitch deck together and approaching investors.
For those that are listening, What is one of your key takeaways from all the education that you've been doing on putting together your pitch deck and crafting that stories to investors and something really that you would give as advice to anybody who's just starting out where you were maybe six months to a year ago?
Mm-hmm. in this process of fundraising, what's something, what's a key takeaway that you would give someone?
[00:27:25] Howard: Ooh as it relates to, as it relates to fundraising? Uh, I think there's this bigger idea around, Maybe it's cultural for me, but this, this thing, this need to do things on my own and by myself. And so earlier we talked, you know, you're envious that I could make this app by myself and, and do the technical work, but it's a double-edged sword.
It also meant that I wasn't thinking about delegation. I wasn't thinking about how do I build out a team to do this so that I can focus on more strategically important things? And so, uh, uh, I think what really changed for me in this past year was my ambition. My vision for this company was way bigger than anything I could ever do by myself.
And even though I knew that, I would say, uh, logically, it's that I had to feel that emotionally and feel comfortable asking. Getting outside of this echo chamber of my own idea. So, you know, I'm a solo founder right now, and the worst thing that I can do is just recycle my ideas over and over and over again.
And I had been doing that for a while and once I realized that I was getting Nora with that and I was like, you know what? I need to reach out, start asking people for help and start getting their ideas and incorporating them into my way of thinking. And the more and more I did that, the more expansive my thoughts were.
Got a better understanding of what it is that I did right that from the perspective of an outsider or an investor, they will see this differently and to hear how they see it differently really changed how I thought about the work that I was doing and just really gave me a lot more energy. And if I had to say something to, if there was one piece of advice, it's, uh, you know, your, your perspective oftentimes will betray you.
Uh, uh, and it's so important to add in fresh ideas, to modify your own perspective. And, and that means asking for help and not being afraid to.
[00:29:21] Chet: Yeah, you can't silo yourself off cuz we can't do it alone. That's the reality of this situation. Yeah. We can get pretty far on our own. Yeah. We can't, we can't do it alone.
So it's it's great that you're, you're recognizing that and you're putting those people around you, especially the people at Hatchet Ventures and, and others. Absolutely. Um, it's, it's, it's what we constantly talk about is, um, you know, getting un, getting comfortable with being uncomfortable and learning that your network is your net worth.
And, uh, one of the things that Dalton said in our first episode ever was when we were talking about Hatchet is. when, when you surround yourself with builders, you get a diversity of perspectives that helps. Mm-hmm. helps and enables you to grow. And sometimes you're gonna hear or see things that you maybe don't want to because they're right and you're kind of mad that you didn't see it first.
And other times you're gonna hear and see things that are affirmations that you were right. Which helps build that confidence. Absolutely. Especially for first time founders. So it's awesome that you're a testament to that as well. And, uh, Howard, we loved having you on the show. Um, tell everybody, uh, one of two things.
I, I know that Mementum. is, uh, running some, some specials on the holiday season here with Valentine's Day coming up. So I'd love you to plug where people can get access to all this stuff and, and start placing orders. And then number two, I want you to plug where people can find you and how they can connect with you if they wanna, uh, engage with you or Mementum or, and continue following your founder journey.
[00:30:43] Howard: Right? Well, uh, let's see here. Our e-commerce website is, uh, Mementum io. That's M E M E N T U M.IO. Uh, and, uh, all of our products are listed there. Uh, a Valentine's Day is coming up. Uh, uh, one way to get connected for the sales that we're gonna run is to just, uh, sign up for our email list and we'll, you know, we don't fledge your emails, but we will, uh, let you know when we're doing a sale for Valentine's Day.
And in terms of connecting with me directly yeah, just, just look for Howard Wayne Kim, on, on LinkedIn and, and you're sure to find me there.
[00:31:21] Chet: Awesome. And if you're interested in engaging with myself or Hatchet Ventures in the podcast further, we'll have information and links to all that, as well as Howard, LinkedIn and Mementum's website in the show notes below. Uh, we appreciate all of our first time listeners and repeat listeners for tuning into today's episode.
Thank you so much for your time today, Howard, and we'll see everybody on the next one. Talk to you soon.
[00:31:45] Howard: Thank you.