Sunny Han
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Summary
Hey everyone. Stay tuned to the end of the interview where I’ll give you some actionable insights that I learned from my guest. These insights are also in the show notes. As always, thanks for listening.
Now on to my guest for today, Sunny Han, CEO of Fulcrum, a cloud-based software platform for manufacturers.
Sunny describes his journey into entrepreneurship as more like listening to a "gnawing" rather than experiencing a sudden bolt of lightning. He made the decision to leave his job and strike out as an entrepreneur because he knew he'd regret missing the opportunity. He first thought of it as trying to "do" something; ultimately, he found himself creating something, which he now sees as an important distinction. He did not see where he would end up, but had a strong belief that with hard work he'd get somewhere. Fulcrum was the outcome of an interest and knowledge in the areas of small businesses, manufacturing, technology, and software. Much of his success, Sunny says, is from learning a lot from mistakes and failures.
Like health care, manufacturing tech is ripe for innovation. The challenge, however, is that you can't just jump in and offer Band-Aid solutions. You need to look at the root, says Sunny. Most people give up, disheartened, when they get halfway there. But what matters in the end is that you ultimately solve a problem. He also cautions against trying too quickly to change something when some aspect isn't working. Sometimes it takes awhile for a change to come fully into effect. It's easy to get caught up in the latest thing, a new strategy or tool, when sometimes you need to just be patient and endure the hardship until things get better, trusting that the decision you made is the right one. In this episode we also talk about the role of luck in the entrepreneurship journey.
Now, let’s get better together.
Actionable Insights
- When you're a CEO, it's important to not give in to FOMO and react to every new opportunity or problem. You need to make decisions strategically, and have faith that things will work out.
- We all have limited resources and limited time. It's vital that you figure out the most important thing to focus on first. One thought experiment you might do is to ask, if everyone wanted to hire me/buy my product, who would I work with first? How would I manage it? This can help you prioritize and target your market.
- Use the theory of constraints. Sunny recommends identifying what the constraints are, ranking them, and then directing investment toward decreasing the risks that come with those constraints.