Growing up under the influence of his parents who hustled hard as hawkers, Luke Lim, Founder of Louken Group, inherited their entrepreneurial attitude at a young age. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Throughout his years of working with market leaders and CEOs, he is most intrigued by brands that embody a compelling brand story \u2013 including SuperMom. Being a father of four who crowd source for solutions online, he sees great potential for community influence for SuperMom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We chatted to Luke (over video), to dive deeper into his journey of building market-leading brands, joining SuperMom as a co-founder and strategic partner and transforming the social commerce platform into Asia\u2019s largest aggregator marketplace for parents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Raised by parents who hustled as hawkers, Luke was instilled with age-old virtues in life and in running a business \u2013 hard work, honesty and humility. Unlike his schoolmates who would head home after school, he would travel to his parents\u2019 coffee shop to help them out. From observing how they ran the business, to interacting with customers and learning to be street smart, each day was a stepping stone to his journey as an entrepreneur. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read Also: The Story of Alvin Poh \u2013 From Selling Flag Erasers In School To A Multi-Millionaire Singaporean Entrepreneur<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In his subsequent years, Luke went on to establish Louken Group as one of Singapore\u2019s leading branding and communication groups, and led his team to brand some very successful companies in the world including DHL and Nestle, as well as local household names such as BreadTalk Group and Charles and Keith. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout his journey of transforming market-leading brands, he found himself intrinsically drawn to those that embody a deep-seated calling. Beyond the financial figures, he sees a much greater value in understanding the founders and their businesses at a deeper level \u2013 their background, experiences, personal stories and motivations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBranding is about having a good brand story<\/strong>, and less about financial success. The majority of businesses, or individuals who tend to do very well are those with a deep-seated mission.<\/strong> Focus on fulfilling your brand mission, then make money in the process. If you are motivated purely by monetary gains, customers will eventually sieve your business out.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n As he partners with various market leaders in implementing growth strategies over the years, he has made friends exceptional individuals who share a similar ideology. One of them is Joan Ong, a mumpreneur who founded SuperMom in 2013 \u2013 then an events-based business targeted at young families \u2013 with a clear mission: to raise healthier and happier kids. She believed that healthier, happier kids are more likely to grow up into more successful and accomplished adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a father of four, parenting is a topic close to his heart, and he deeply resonated with Joan\u2019s mission. Like most modern parents, he found himself constantly searching and crowdsourcing for solutions on social media. Within his network of parents, in particular mothers, many of them would look through brand reviews and recommend products to one another. The power of their voices, and their interdependent influence, are testament to SuperMom\u2019s immense potential as a brand and community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Prior to Luke\u2019s involvement, SuperMom focused on organising seminars and expo events for parents. After coming on board to join Joan as a co-founder in 2015, both of them strategised the company\u2019s new direction and growth at great length. A collective decision to pivot the business into an social commerce marketplace was later conceived in 2019, and accelerated the year after as a result of Covid-19. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the uncertainty of Covid-19, Luke spearheaded the business transformation of SuperMom \u2013 starting with regional talent recruitment. Citing recruitment as one of his greatest yet most interesting challenges, he leveraged on his network of friends and social media platforms to identify suitable candidates. While it was a relatively unfamiliar process to him that drained his time and energy, he eventually managed to hire and onboard more than half of his employees virtually. The team at SuperMom has grown from 15 to over 50 employees within the last one and a half years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, he believes that recruitment \u2013 and team building \u2013 is not something that can be done solely remotely in the long term. \u201cI don\u2019t think we can truly build a team virtually. Without meeting a prospective recruit or client face to face, we are unable to read the body language and build rapport. The element of in-person engagement remains crucial, so a sustainable model is to go hybrid.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, SuperMom<\/a> has successfully evolved into an AI-powered aggregator platform that allows parents to compare prices across different marketplaces and purchase relevant products at the lowest possible prices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Read Also: How JobKred\u2019s Gary Gan Went From Selling Magic Cards to Transforming Fortune 500 Companies \u2013 Driving Change In The Workforce<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, the Covid-19 pandemic has also presented him with new possibilities for the business. He was able to look at market competition with a new perspective, and identify collaboration opportunities to achieve a win-win situation. As SuperMom evolved into an aggregator of marketplaces to empower parents in making smarter purchase decisions, local and regional marketplaces inevitably became their collaborators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI started relooking our competition regionally \u2013 who are the market players, our competitors and potential collaborators. Eventually, I gained a new perspective and turned some of our supposed competitors into collaborators.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n By gaining access to diverse customer profiles from different marketplaces, they could acquire more data points and improve their capabilities in personalising products and services for specific personas on their platform. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the contributing factors to the exponential growth of SuperMom lies in the launch of SuperMom Voices<\/a> in August 2020, a crowd-influencing app for parents to review brands and contribute their opinions on relevant topics. Luke coins them Key Opinion Mothers (KOM), SuperMom\u2019s own community of mummy influencers who are passionate about using their voices to influence others positively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The community team at SuperMom places great emphasis on engaging mothers on their platform. Starting from the point when a mother joins the SuperMom app, they will track her customer journey to understand her behaviour and implement appropriate engagement strategies to boost interaction and return rate. With the data gathered, they discovered two types of KOM personas \u2013 first being the content creator with a keen interest in photography, reviewing brands, and sharing selfies on social media; second being the low-profile contributor who prefers contributing their opinions in private. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The end result is a fast-growing and sustainable community of KOMs. Running a random survey in the app can easily garner a few hundred responses in a day for their Singapore community, and over a thousand for their Indonesian community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Apart from building a brand and community, Luke upholds the same philosophy in fundraising. It is less about raising money, but more about bringing in the right people of value to the business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFunds are everywhere, but it is more important to build long-lasting relationships with your investors. It is not just about raising funds, look for individuals who can add value to your business. They can be from a similar industry, a complementary field, or simply someone who believes in your cause.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of his investors-turned-friend is Koh Boon Hwee. To Luke, he is not only a trusted company advisor who provides him with refreshing perspectives on the tech landscape, he is also a wise friend who has inspired him in countless ways \u2013 especially his virtues of generosity, magnanimity, humility and learning spirit. <\/p>\n\n\n\nTelling A Good Brand Story <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Journeying With SuperMom As A Strategic Partner <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Transforming SuperMom Into A Tech-Driven Platform<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Turning Competitors Into Collaborators<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Powering A Community of SuperMom Voices Through Data<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Focus On Relationships, Not Money In Fund Raising <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n