Henry Kim On Raising $200 Million To Move Grocery Shopping To eCommerce Platforms

In this exclusive podcast episode of the Dealmakers’ Podcast, we sit down with Henry Kim, an accomplished entrepreneur with a diverse background in finance, investments, and startups.

His startup, Swiftly, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like BRV Capital Management, JMI Equity, Total Energies, and Silicon Ventures.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Finding a co-founder with complementary skills and experience can be a game-changer in building a successful venture.
• Understanding the unit economics of a business is paramount to achieving profitability and sustainability.
• While emotional attachment to a business is natural, it’s essential to approach exits with a pragmatic mindset for long-term growth.
• Need for entrepreneurs to embark on ventures driven by a genuine passion to solve a problem or improve an existing solution.
• Pivoting a business model, when done purposefully, can lead to discovering new opportunities and revenue streams.
• Building and leveraging a robust professional network can provide invaluable support, mentorship, and access to resources.
• Choosing investors who align with the company’s vision and offer strategic insights is crucial for long-term success.

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About Henry Kim:

Henry is the Co-Founder and CEO of Swiftly, a technology platform for supermarkets that brings the advantages of e-commerce to brick-and-mortar stores.

Henry is a serial entrepreneur and a veteran of e-commerce, grocery, and brick-and-mortar retail. Previously, he was the Co-Founder and President of Symphony Commerce, an end-to-end e-commerce technology platform, where he oversaw sales, marketing, and finance, and managed the company’s relationships with Fortune 500 consumer packaged goods and apparel brands.

Before Symphony Commerce, Henry spent three years as a Principal at The Yucaipa Global Opportunities Fund (YGOF), an investment firm focused on investing in Asia, primarily China, Japan, and Korea, where he led major acquisition opportunities in retail.

Earlier in his career, Henry served as an investment professional for five years with The Yucaipa Companies, a mega-fund focused on retail investments.

Prior to The Yucaipa Companies, Henry served as a financial analyst in the M&A and financial sponsors group at Morgan Stanley.

He also has extensive experience as a retail operator, having owned Orange Julius and Dairy Queen franchises in addition to founding Manga Manga Japanese Bistro, a comic book and sushi concept, which he sold in 1997.

Henry graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Bowdoin College with a BA in Economics and earned an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

Connect with Henry Kim:

• Linkedin
• Crunchbase
• SignalHire
• Qwoted

Read the Full Transcription of the Interview:

Alejandro Cremades: Alrighty hello everyone and welcome to the deal maker show. So today. We have another repeated founder. We’re going to be learning about the good stuff that we like to hear the building the scaling the financing the exiting and you know everything in between and then also what to look for in cofounders what to look for in investors. You know all this different stuff that is going to be very very very good and and very handy for you all as you’re all building your companies so without further ado. Let’s welcome our guest today Henry Kim welcome to the show.

Henry Kim: Nice to meet you.

Alejandro Cremades: So originally born in San Francisco but you did jump quite a bit between San Francisco and Korea so give us a walk through memory lane. How was life growing up.

Henry Kim: Yeah, so ah, right after I was born in San Francisco we moved to Korea and you know I don’t you know, remember all those early years because I moved back to San Francisco ah when I was three years old ah but you know ended up. Going through my entire you know early education in the bay area and then ended up going to college on the East Coast to get a different experience and then after that ended up joining a investment bank as an analyst in the m and a group. Ah, to get that real. You know, kind of financial training and the ah ah the background of you know I I had a liberal arts education. So I wanted to make sure that ah you know I had that kind of real life business experience and ended up going there and after that.

Alejandro Cremades: And quick question on that because I mean the investment banking experience. You know is is really remarkable. You know it really helps you understand in taking a look at the at the pattern or of what makes some companies be successful. Other companies be not so successful and then also on the.

Henry Kim: Ah, and and.

Henry Kim: Um, you know.

Alejandro Cremades: Dealmaking side. No what? what really takes to to get deals done. So I guess how was that experience for you on what what kind of like lessons did you learn along the way on all those different fronts.

Henry Kim: Yeah, you know so banking we you know because I was working with retailers. You know what we primarily looked at was you know Ebita Cash flows and so it’s slightly different from technology right? because technology. You know you. I You know get the the venture dollars and you burn cash for a period of time and before you become profitable So in banking What we? ah you know, kind of focused on was Ebodon then also ah unit economics. Ah if you know what?? what? you know? really the the biggest lesson I got there was you know at some point. Ah, very quickly. You have to figure out if the unit economics work and this actually translates well into technology because you do burn cash in the beginning if you can’t figure out positive unit economics and you know like using real facts you know and and and your own data.

Henry Kim: You probably don’t have a viable business and so that was the biggest lesson in banking is ah you know, achieving profitability and and and you know getting the getting the unit economics on the right side.

Alejandro Cremades: Now in this case for you after you had this experience. You know you went into taking a look at the buying franchises I mean what? what was that? What was that experience first.

Henry Kim: Did yeah so you know this was like right after banking. Ah the thing that I wanted to do was get hands-on experience and ah you know this was in you know, early. Ah there’s a late 90 s early 2000 and you know. The only opportunities where you had where you can actually get your hands dirty were those types of businesses most technology companies you know I didn’t have a background in in getting venture capital and all that. So what I wanted to do was get hands-on experience of owning my own p and l. And so ah looked at a couple businesses. Ah that that you know I can probably purchase myself and I can get you know a note where it wasn’t too expensive. You know a few $100000 and so I ended up going into franchchises learning a lot there. You know, ended up ah the the franchise ended up buying was ah called dairy Queen. Ah, which is an orange julius which is owned by the entire chains owned by Warren Buffett yeah

Alejandro Cremades: Very cool. So obviously you you push that and for a better and and and also you you thought that it would make sense for you to um, kind of like shift gears and and get your Mba. So so why the Nba so.

Henry Kim: Ah, yeah, so I didn’t have a formal business education because you know like I mentioned I went to a small liberal arts college in in Maine Bowden College and so you know I was an economics major but a lot of the the. Business side of things. Ah you know I didn’t have a formal background in even though I had training in banking. You know there were things that I wanted to learn and then also you know obviously you go to a school like ah Stanford for the network. And so it was ah it was a good experience and also it’s it was a good you know, kind of time to reflect on what you had done up until that point and you know where you want to take your career.

Alejandro Cremades: Now 1 thing that really stands out for me is the fact that when you go to Stanford and you see the Lano innovation. You know you see all the ah incredible founders that have come out of there and.

Henry Kim: Yeah.

Alejandro Cremades: And the incredible stories and then also the um, the the people do know that that you go to class with I mean the network that you built many of them. You know are essentially graduating and then they start their own companies. You know your case. It took you a little bit because you know rather than starting your own company. You went into back into corporate. So what. What? what was the thought process there first.

Henry Kim: Yeah, so I actually ended up going back to ah yukeypa, which is a private equity firm that I worked for before business school I you know I don’t think I was ready to start a company right out of business school. You know there were things that. You know I had to understand like you know how to you know on the financing side I know a lot of people say if you have a good business idea just go and do it I had some ideas I just you know I didn’t you know I needed to work with entrepreneurs and so at the time Yukaipo was starting this global opportunities fund. Ah, primarily investing in ah in Asia so Korea Japan China and India and ah, what I thought would be a good next step is helping to open up an office. So you can see you know a lot of the operational stuff and’s you know a lot of it is paperwork right? like opening an office getting a lease. You know all all those sorts of things and so I you know I think it was after that where I came back and said okay look you know I have some ideas. Was ideating and was ready to to to start a business.

Alejandro Cremades: So then so then when you got you know, started with Symphony You know what? what really made it. You know, ah clear at that point for you that that you were ready. You know what? what? what? what felt different at this point with Symphony. So.

Henry Kim: Oh.

Henry Kim: Yeah, so I think and people always say this I think it’s you know the fact that I had a good cofounder and you know as my Stanford business school roommate first year and so i. You know I think he he had actually started a company coming out of business school and so and he’s you know, very entrepreneurial ah being able to ah found a company with him and learn from him. Ah was you know I think ah pretty vital. Ah, to ah to to and you know it. It gives you know I don’t know if comfort’s the right word but it it gives you I guess like you know sense of security like if I don’t know it. You have somebody who’s actually done it before ah probably knows it.

Alejandro Cremades: So then so then tell us about going at it. You know going at it with symphony you know like how was you know the um, the process of really getting started. You know like putting things together putting the team together. You know what were the early days like yeah.

Henry Kim: Yeah, So ah, you know it was you know like you know, most businesses you have an idea you know we so we started the business. It was a slight pivot. Ah you know didn’t We didn’t end up where we thought so we when we initially started the company. It was a ah. A pricing mechanism for independent Brands. So brands that you know didn’t get mainstream attraction into ah ah you know, big box stores. Ah that were primarily selling online and it was a system where. Ah, you start with a certain price and the price would actually go down and you would let the consumers figure out what the market prices. The clearing price was and ah you know that was a business that we ran ah for for a little bit but what we realized was. You had to dump a ton of marketing dollars in there to get customers on to you know your website and so while building that Business. We ended up developing a number of relationships with independent that were ah selling on. Ah you know on on Symphony Commerce. And so we did some investigation and ah, gradually Ah, you know, learned that you know the reasons for for working with us. It had a lot to do with the infrastructure. Ah not as much on the marketing side but like the infrastructure like you know we took care of the cart we took care of Inventory order management.

Henry Kim: As Well as the fulfillment side and so that’s where we pivoted our business and said hey look here’s why these independent brands operators are working with us. Ah you know, working on the marketing side. You know we’re just going to bleed a ton of cash with customer acquisition. Ah, so let’s go more into an infrastructure company and then ultimately while doing that you know we ended up working with larger brands like the pepsis of the world.

Alejandro Cremades: So then let’s talk about the um, the business model here of Symphony How what was the business model for the people that are listening to get it and how are you guys making money there.

Henry Kim: Ah, symphony so what we did was we provided the entire infrastructure and we took a percentage of the sales. So ah, you know we made it very easy to get started. There was an integration fee and you know I think at the time it was like 15% of sales. And ah, you know that was that was our business. You know, essentially the the analogy that we use back in the day is you know during the gold rush a lot of people were coming to California to to find their gold and ah there were a lot of people that left with no gold. But the people that actually did well were the people on the sides of the road that were selling the the shovels and the picks and so essentially, that’s what we were doing. You know we laid the infrastructure and enabled brands to sell direct to consumer and we took care of everything. It was a turnkey solution.

Alejandro Cremades: That’s amazing. So ah, so then in this case, you know how did you guys go about capitalizing the business.

Henry Kim: Ah, so you know at the time because my cofounder this was his second Company. He took the lead on that side I helped but he took the lead on that side and so you know obviously you know the traditional met with. Ah. Ah, you know had the unit economics ah pitch deck ended up. You know, getting introductions to a number of vcs you know pitched and then ended up getting the financing.

Alejandro Cremades: Yeah, because the company prior to its acquisition by quantum retail. It was close to 60000000 so um good stuff. So I guess a what? What is it like to ah have a company that you’ve cofounded go through an acquisition you know, like in this case, it happened.

Henry Kim: I mean I think it’s bittersweet because like I think when you start a company and especially if you know it’s probably different for you know, kind of different entrepreneurs. But if it’s your first one you know you have you know people are probably more romantic about when they start a company and and where they want to end up and I think you know. Putting myself a number of years back thinking through that you know you probably want to um you know run it forever. Ah, you know it’s it’s your it’s your baby It’s your you know your your oldest child and ah and you know after after that. You know, kind of experience. You realize that okay look you know you know when there’s a beginning. There’s an ending ah you know regardless of what it is right? Even if you start a company and you know you’re the cofounder at some point you probably leave. There is an ending at some point and ah you know I think it becomes you know, easier. The second time but but I remember at the first time it was I think it was bittersweet.

Alejandro Cremades: So what kind of visibility does it give you to make it easier for the second time.

Henry Kim: I Think it’s the experience right? I mean you you know it’s ah ah, ah, ah, ultimately it’s a business. Ah and when you take on Investors. You know you know they’re they’re coming in not because um, they want you to run in front I mean they need an exit. You know? and so ah, you know I think it’s um, you know that’s the mindset right? I mean it’s ah at some point you have to get a return for your investors and you know I think it just be like very pragmatic about it I think that’s ah. Ah, you know it’s it’s it’s your baby until it’s not your baby.

Alejandro Cremades: So obviously you know you definitely got some really nice lessons learned especially around people now especially around picking co-founders picking investors. So I guess as they say once an entrepreneur always an entrepreneur. So swiftly, you know the idea of swiftly.

Henry Kim: Um, yeah, so yeah, yeah.

Alejandro Cremades: Comes knocking so walk us through how that team you know how how the idea of shrively came to mind and then how did you go about you know, getting the band together. Yeah.

Henry Kim: Yeah, so ah so when I was exiting symphony commerce I was getting a lot of calls from supermarket execs that I had worked with in the past when I was at yukaipa and what they wanted help with was their digital strategy. And when you dig into it. It is more around the e-commerce side and ah you know the thing that ah you know what they said is like look you’re working with ah these brands that sell through our our supermarkets. They’re obviously able to make the unit economics work. You know is there a way where you know is is there something that we can do. And when you dig into it. You know so the supermarket industry you know, kind of 2 to 3% net income margins 6 to 8% ebi dot margins. It’s very hard to run ecommerce I mean you know some people call it the ultimate penny business because it’s all on volume right? So if you think about it if you sell if if you buy. You know a hundred dollars worth of of goods at a supermarket and ah you know somewhere between 6 to 8% is the cash flows. You know, not not not the best. And so after getting into it what we realized is okay look you know e-commerce probably the traditional e-commerce probably doesn’t work. Ah but is there something here where we can actually help accelerate in-store and so you know at the time there were I was you know in my last company.

Henry Kim: Ah, you know I was working with my cofounders today Sean Turner and Karen Ho and they had a ah desire to start their first business so they they were where I was at at symphony commerce. And so what we so and and the other thing the the critical thing there is like we knew we worked well together and I think that’s the the thing I think sometimes people make mistakes because they just look at a skillset and they say okay look you know a technical cofounder they’re going to do something that I can’t do, but there’s. You know so kind of if you when you peel back the the layers here. There’s so much more than that right? because you can’t just treat them like an engineer and just like hey go build what I tell you to build they have to be bought in and and this is like the the most important thing when you when you you know, take your your cofounders I think. You know, kind of healthy debate on the direction you go is is important but you have to be. You know you have to pick people that you know number 1 you trust and you might have disagreements but like when you commit the when the team commits you all commit and you go towards that north star. Whatever whatever you guys committed to. And the thing with ah Sean and Karen is we knew we had that because we worked together at symphony commerce for over 3 years and so that you know like a lot of times when you start a company you know startups are riddled with with risk.

Henry Kim: Right? I mean like you know as a product market fit like you know you going to come up with computers going to do this but like you want to get some of those early things you want to get those early wins right? and I think that’s a lot of on the people side ah because you don’t want to be bickering with your co-founders while you’re trying to. Achieve something that’s like already impossible to to achieve ah to begin with and so that’s how I picked ah to to you know I We I can’t even say I pick we all pick together to work with each other.

Alejandro Cremades: So swiftly, how are you guys making money with swiftly. Yeah.

Henry Kim: Yeah, so ah, so essentially you know our pitch to brick and mortar retailers is we will turn a store into basically a mini Google. That’s probably the best way to look at it. Ah, this whole notion of like retail media has ended up. Ah you know, becoming a huge buzzword before it became a buzzword. We were actually you know and and it’s not something that we decided to you know we we weren’t looking at that at when we initially started the the company. Ah, but ultimately what we did was we provided a a retail platform where brick and mortar retailers can use our tools to turn their stores into a mini googlele. So when people are at home browsing searching making a list. Ah the the brick and mortar retailers are able to make money and what we do is. We charge a one-time integration fee and we’re actually moving away from that we’re actually using third -party s size to to do that work and then at a high level. We just take a a rev share on the advertising and that’s what. You know, ah this whole notion of retail medias and so um, you know essentially ah they they they work on our tech stack and and from the retailer standpoint they save a tremendous amount of ah of I would say overhead and headache. So ah.

Henry Kim: Grocers that we’re working with you know we hear this time and time again I’ll give you 1 example they had about 20 engineers before working with with swiftly and today they have one and a half engineers because we provide them the entire platform and when I say the entire platform. It’s the retail platform the analytics platform and the analytics platform think about it as Google analytics for in-store and then the third is the advertising platform and we’re gradually getting to a place where it’s self-service.

Alejandro Cremades: And how much capital have you guys raised to date for swiftly Henry.

Henry Kim: Ah, you know close to 200000000 and and that you know I would say like you know we’re very fortunate because we raised the last round in September November of last year kind of when the market was a little was a little shaky. Ah yeah.

Alejandro Cremades: good timing good good timing now now you were talking about things to look for when that you are looking for certainly and that your cofounders were also looking in you. You know when partnering up what kind of things were were you also looking for when you know looking at onboarding those investors because now this was your second rodeo you had learned.

Henry Kim: Yeah, but.

Henry Kim: Um, enough.

Alejandro Cremades: You know interactions and dynamics you know with board with members with investors. So what were you looking for when when you were you know raising money from from these investors. So.

Henry Kim: Yeah, so I’ll answer that question starting from the seed round and I think it’s it’s important so you know we in in the seed Round. We wanted to work with people that we had ah that that you know there was some you know experience there before. Ah, where we knew we can work well with each other and we can be honest with each other I think ah you know in in the last company and I think this is human nature like you know as an entrepreneur you know you’re always optimistic and so when you uncover a problem you’re still optimistic right? ah.

Henry Kim: You know you need to have that trust to know like hey look you know we’re we’re all in this together even though you know typically when you have an investor you do sit on different sizes of the table right? You’re you’re a common shareholder. The investor is a preferred shareholder ah from from an economic standpoint. But we wanted people to that you know we would they would give us like completely unfiltered ah feedback in how we were doing but also help our business and when I say help our business. It was people that had experience in the industry. Experience with supermarkets experience with Brick and Mortar retailers. So when we came across a problem. It was like second nature. It wasn’t like they were looking at a different industry and trying to say hey look here’s what’s happening in this industry you should apply it here so that that was number one and so that was like you know. Very very helpful then going forward What we did what we ended up doing was just meeting with ah masters along the way and what I mean by that is we weren’t raising money. You know we had a lot of ah capital you know in the bank. But what we said is like. You know, just like ah you know investors really vet The you know the management teams and the founders we should do because we want to make sure that we can work well with the investor and so it was when when it came time to raise you know, kind of the series B Series c.

Henry Kim: It wasn’t hey look. We’re going to It’s time to raise let’s go in the market we had already had you know, kind of 6 to eight months of conversations with these with you know with the investors so we knew the the investors that you know we wanted to Target. It doesn’t mean that they were going to come in. But. You know all along the way you know they’re not on our board. But what we were showing them was hey look here’s what we’re looking to achieve and then when we would get there. You know I would have a meeting and I would say hey this is what we achieved. We fell short here. We we actually did well here and so by the time. You know it’s time to raise money they feel comfortable with us. But we also feel comfortable with some of the investors like their approach their approach to solving problems all that stuff and so then it’s it’s much more organic I think it becomes like much tougher when you say hey I need to go raise capital. And because I’m you know I have like twelve months of runway then you’re sitting there thinking like okay, well let’s you know let’s go with ah the the people that’s going to give us the the best term sheet and all that we actually didn’t take the best term sheet we you know at the the cofounders we got into a room and we said hey look. Here’s the pros and cons of these investors. These are the ones that are interested. how should we you know how you know how how should we move forward and you know we discussed it and then we would move forward but by that time it wasn’t like hey look let’s just maximize on the value of the company and the best part is we are our seed.

Henry Kim: Investors were also aligned with that it was who’s going to help you guys build the biggest business because valuations in the short term. It doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t mean anything unless you’re exiting. it’s ah it’s ah I almost call it like a vanity metric right. Ah, you look at companies today that were valued at like thirty nine billion they’re going public today for like ten billion thirteen billion so it doesn’t really matter you have to you know you have to actually create value then you also have to pick investors that’s going to be ah ah, very direct with you. Like hey look you know you’re not doing this wrong and and and by the way you have to you have to respect that investor right? think about it this way. Do you listen to people. You don’t respect you, you probably don’t you know? and so it it creates a ah negative. Um, ah you know, kind of environment. And so all those you know, kind of characteristics go into you know who you’re going to pick as your financial partner because your financial partner is also a co-founder that they’re in the room with you when you have a problem you want to go to them and you know and you you want to pick someone that wants to be in the room and you want to pick someone that you want in the room and and I think that’s the critical thing.

Alejandro Cremades: So now when when you raise this money. You know you also have the um, the scaling you know the scaling you know, ah mentality the scaling requirements and and obviously you know like when you think about scale you got to think about people again. So.

Henry Kim: Um, yeah.

Henry Kim: Um, yeah.

Alejandro Cremades: When you think about people and when you think about when to bring senior executives on how to do So what? what does that look like on how the experience you know has been with swiftly doing so.

Henry Kim: Yeah, so on on that side I think if if someone were to ask me hey you know where where do you think you had you know a little bit of hiccups I think it was on that and the reason is you know what. You know the the entire you know conversation we had was like hey look you know you got to bring in people that is you know going to be a fabric of the company. The culture is important. You have to make sure that you work well with them when we started to look at scale. Ah, there was a you know we overindexed on experience and ah you know some of those earlier folks actually didn’t work out because ah, you know they didn’t mesh well with the team we looked at like most people you know we we are running you know. Hundred ten miles per hour and we said okay look we need to bring in people that’s done this before and so you know you tend to overindex on that and then it doesn’t work out because you have different philosophies or it’s it’s a different culture. And so you know you have to take a step back and this is where I think our you know once again, our board and our investors they were you know very direct but also sympathetic because they’ve seen this before and in.

Henry Kim: On the ah you know hiring executive side to scale. That’s one area where they ah had a lot to say but ultimately they said like hey look it’s your decision and ah you know we looked at we looked a lot at pedigree and so then once we started. You know, having having a couple of those hiccups in our board. They said okay look you know you guys have done very well up until now and we needed you to learn this lesson which was awesome and they said okay look you know now what you need to do is you need to figure out. It’s not just. The the experience. It’s who’s going to be at the table who where you’re going to be able to speak just like you do with us. It’s not just experience because a lot of these people have experience that translates well into that can translate well into your industry and so you know we ended up. Ah, you know. Six months ago bringing in someone from Bcg a partner at Bcg and you know and I and at the point at the time I was like very hesitant you know Svp of operations and strategy and our our board and and investor said like look we’ve we’ve. Talk to a bunch of people. He’s he’s the right one and I still had a little and and I knew he was the right one from ah a culture perspective and I had a little anxiety because I’ve been on the banking side and banking and consulting have this connotation where they they point out problems that but it’s that’s that’s what their job is right? they and but like.

Henry Kim: When you point out problems. It’s usually the management team that comes in and solves those problems that they’re pointing out and you know ended up saying like look he checked all the boxes except what I prioritized the first time where I had where I overindexed the first time which was the experience part of doing this for other companies. He was phenomenal for six months phenomenal to the point where you know now we’re ah you know, promoting him to be Ceo. His hiring was impeccable also so he he brought in another partner at Bcg who had supermarket experience then he brought in an engagement manager from ah from Bcg.

Alejandro Cremades: Wow.

Henry Kim: And then he brought in a post Mba from ah Bcg and I has our investor and he’s like that’s why because these got your professionals they find problems and if you find the good ones they’ll help you solve the problems and then on the ah chief people officer side. Ah, you know we had a um ah our investors they they suggested somebody and ah same thing she had a small company experience. Big company experience and ah, but the the key thing there was um ah like everyone in the company. Like you know during the interview process. The executives said like hey look she’s she’s the one she’s going to help us solve these problem and I mean she’s been. She’s been incredible like putting in the you know helping to foster the right culture helping to ah you know ah make the employees like valued. Well compensated. You know all that stuff putting in putting in the different processes for promotions all that and so I think it’s it’s it’s very important that you know I think experience is one part but they they have to mesh well with your team don’t overindex.

Alejandro Cremades: I Love it So now obviously you know we’re we’re talking here about you know some of the listeners that that you guys you know have learned with this. So I guess say in line with this. You know if I was to put you into a time machine and I bring you back in time to that moment where you were thinking about doing something of your own.

Henry Kim: Yeah.

Henry Kim: Yeah, yeah.

Alejandro Cremades: You know, let’s say you had the opportunity of right before Symphony of having a chat with your younger self and give your a younger self one piece of advice for launching a business. What would that be and why given what you know now. Okay.

Henry Kim: Um, yeah.

Henry Kim: Ah, you know I would say ah be honest with yourself. Ah, you know and and and what what I mean by that is when you decide to you know I think um, ah when when you decide to start a company. Like I think I mentioned this earlier you know a lot of people. Do it like ah you know they they want to go into business themselves. Ah you know they you know so you know I think um, ah they look at what their friends are doing. And they say hey look you know they you know these people start a business I should start a business and I think what’s important is ah starting a business is not for everyone there. There were times after I started the first business where ah, you know there was there was some doubt ah and. It’s not easy and so what I would tell ah, you know my younger self is start a business for the right reason. Yeah because your friends are starting a business not because you so you read in the papers that you know so and the right reasons are ah you know your as you know. Solving something that you’re very passionate about and that that doesn’t already exist or you you think he can do it thousand times better than the way than than the way that actually is and something that you’re no matter what you’re going to. You know you can’t because you know when you raise all this money. You know you have to have this mentality.

Henry Kim: Where you’re going to make it work. But I think you know I think a lot of people say and and it’s probably a cliche right? I’m going to do whatever it takes to make this work.. There’s levels to that you know, Ah, you know you have to be ready to go out on your shield like if you start a business. You have to make sure that you’re going to.. You’re you’re going to do you know, go to the end to to make this work and that means you know pivot that means ah you know your your leadership you you might have to fire your friends. Ah, you know there’s you know my dad. You know back in the day when when I told him that I was starting a business here’s what he told me he’s like you should rethink that and I said why and he said here’s what’s going to happen. Ah, you’re going to have no money you’re going to lose all your friends and you’re going to lose all your free time. Every single one happened and in in my first company. Every single one and that’s what you have to you. You have to be prepared for that.

Alejandro Cremades: That’s very profound Henry so um, for the people that are listening now that will love to reach out and say hi and perhaps you know, learn more about swiftly. What is the best way for them to do so.

Henry Kim: Yeah, yeah, they can ah you know email. Ah, you know they could email Henry at swiftly.com that’s that’s that’s me and you know my assistant goes through you know all the emails so they all get read and you know she she’ll prove.

Alejandro Cremades: Amazing. Well hey Henry thank you so much for being on the deal maker show today. It has been an honor to have you with us.

Henry Kim: You know, print them out. Yeah.

Henry Kim: Thank you, Thank you very much for having me.

*****

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