What do we say to 2020? Not today

To my colleagues, investors, and all the brave souls fighting in the trenches...

2020 was... our best year ever.

Yes, the lockdown is detrimental to our industry and in fact, it shed so much revenue that we are still recovering. But 2020 gave us the opportunity to transform. And just like any real transformation, what happens on the surface can rarely tell the real story.

For us, 2020 exposed us to our weaknesses and it forced us to forget about the fluffs and only focus on the things we can control, and therefore, the only things that actually matter. Covid-19 was a wake-up call. It was the "unlucky" event that made us ask the overdue question: "Were we just lucky or are we truly skilled?"

On a personal level, it forced me to face the most fundamental questions: Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? It forced me to make the hardest choice I have yet faced. And it represented itself in the form of an "easy way out".

By mid-April, the tourism industry has been decimated. The real estate industry is the next logical domino to fall. Knocked out by Covid-19 with a 6-months pregnant wife, what represented in front of me was an opportunity to tap out without any "shame". After all, Lyrics, StayAlfred, and hundreds of unknown proptech startups all tapped out despite having raised hundreds of millions.

On the other hand, it was the path of continuous uncertainty. A path where endless struggle awaits, and most scary of all, the light at the end of the tunnel was nowhere to be found...

As a company, it was probably the most convenient time for all of us to just chill-out. We were working from home and the industry came to a halt. The day-to-day work had almost 0 impacts on the results. And that persisted for months... It was easy to become hopeless. After all, how long can you hit against the wall before accepting that it is futile...

As investors, it was THE best time to cut losses. It was one of the rarest moments that you can actually tell your LPs that it wasn't your fault and that you would be 100% right. "Great team, wrong industry." Preservation of capital was the name of the game...

But collectively, we chose a different path, the hard path, the right path. The path that tested, again and again, our conviction, and our character. At the end, our ability to navigate through treacherous times by trusting in the process, and that, despite the lack of immediate results, paid off.

In December 2019, we did not have any salespeople. Our inventory acquisition strategy was Nan Hao. Not only is it not scalable, but it also isn't even sustainable. My sense of entitlement towards our customers is notorious and if not for the great value we provided them, they'd tell me fuck off within a second. Meanwhile, our leasing strategy was "open the door", "take-it or leave-it". From hindsight, we have fooled ourselves by thinking that we were skilled while in reality, it was being in the right market and the right time, aka Luck.

Today, after months of transformation, we have been consistently scaling our inventory with a very respectful accurate predictability. On the leasing front, we have nailed down a process that is not only recession-proof but is also literally lockdown proof. And most importantly, our customers are actually getting out of their ways to thank us, praise us, and sticking through with us.

Back in January 2020, I was hopeful. We onboarded some "high-value" people from reputable companies. On paper, we had a "great team". When the lockdown first started in mid-March, we quickly discovered that our culture was built on shaky grounds. In fact, no one knew what "culture" really meant and its importance until it is put against the ultimate test. Working from home exposed the frictions and the lack of synergy. And it amplified the differences in our values that resulted in fundamental disagreements that prevented us from moving forward.

Today, after countless hours of discussion on what is truly important to us as a team and rounds of optimization in our team composition, we realized that none of the fluff really mattered. Because when shit hit the fan, the Ex in front of the flashy Unicorn name-drop didn't matter. Age didn't matter; gender didn't matter; racial background did not matter. The only thing that mattered was one's ability to think critically, adapt to the rapidly changing environment, and have the audacity to believe and persist.

And because of our refusal to settle for anything less, our team is more productive, more capable, and has more synergy than ever before.

On the grander scheme of things, Covid-19 confirmed my deepest belief in the theory of evolution, the survival of the fittest.

While I am certainly not the superstar CEO with an Ivy League degree and years of experience at the FANGs. When I was put against the test of real hardship and life-changing choices, I did not hesitate.

While we are not the most well funded, the most celebrated startup in town, and in fact, not even in our own building, we are one of the most adaptable and resilient teams I know.

While we can only thank "God" for how well things turned out, I have no doubt that it is our judgment that kept us alive to see another day.

In an industry that takes time to build trust and solidify our presence, it takes conviction to keep moving forward. I'm confident that we will out strategize, outmaneuver, and outlast our competitions, one by one.

And this time around, my confidence is no longer founded on disillusions and blind beliefs. It is based on the results that we have delivered in 2020 despite one of the worst social-economic disasters in many lifetimes.

What we have produced over the last few months to years at Guiker is not a "family". And the relationship that was created through these treacherous times is certainly not "friendship". What we have built is something way more valuable and rare, especially in an era full of phony frauds.

We have forged a camaraderie built on top of trust and respect for one another. The trust that we got each others' back no matter how tough things get, and the belief that there are always more solutions than challenges. And the respect that we got for one another is certainly not given but hard-earned and well-deserved.

When people ask me: Will the market recover in 2021? Will the bubbles burst? Are there long-term impacts on our industry?

While the answer is “more probable than not”, I cannot tell you with any certainty. Because if I'm honest with you, I don't fucking know.

But if there is one thing that I am certain about, is that no matter what happens in 2021,

• the ones who think critically and to continue to question conventional wisdom;

• the ones who are adaptable enough to adjust to any circumstances;

• and the ones who are resilient enough to keep moving forward while taking punches in the face;

will not only survive 2021 but will inevitably thrive no matter what life throws at them. And the fact that I am surrounded by these individuals is the reason why I am so excited about our future.