Tech Meets the Dance Floor: Ian Chen’s Nightlife Revolution – Ian Chen of Discotech

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hey there, entrepreneurs. My name is Sushant and welcome to Treptalks This is the show where I interview successful e-commerce entrepreneurs, business executives, and thought leaders, and ask them questions about their business stories, and also dive deep into some of the strategies and tactics that they have used.

To start and grow their businesses. And today I’m really excited to welcome Ian Chen to the show. Ian is the co-founder and CEO of Discotech. Discotech is a mobile app and website designed to streamline nightlife planning by allowing users to discover events, reserve bottle service, purchase tickets, and sign up for VIP guest lists at venues across various cities.

And today I’m going to ask Ian a few questions about his entrepreneur journey. And some of the strategies and tactic that he had used to grow his business. Now, before we dive into this interview, if you enjoy this content, please make sure to hit the like and subscribe button. And for more interviews like this, please visit treptalks.com And with that, Ian, welcome and thank you so much for joining me today, treptalks Really, really appreciate your time. Thank you for having me, Shahant So let’s get into the story of Discotech. Um. What, uh, when did you start this, uh, uh, do you call it an app business? And what kind of motivated you to start this business?

Ian Chen of Discotech: Yeah, so Discotech, we are a free mobile app and also a website. Uh, we make it easier for our customers to discover events and get access to nightlife, venues, concerts, and music festivals in different cities. And our motto is Save Money Party smarter. So as opposed to party harder, uh, the company was started in 2013, so we’re in our 12th year already.

It’s been quite a ride. We started the company, the idea really originated from the customer’s perspective. So myself and my co-founder at the time, we were in our mid twenties going out to nightclubs and music festivals for fun. And we had a really negative experience working with a club promoter. So someone who, you know, we called to reserve a VIP table at a nightclub.

We essentially got the bait and switch. We were promised one price, and then on the night of, they jacked up the price on us. And so we had a really, we had a really bad time that night, um, paying more than we were hoping to spend. And so that was when we were like, Hey, there really should be like a mobile app.

To create transparency and to just be more professional. I’m a spending customer. Why do I need to like, go outta my way to like find a promoter call and text them and then like negotiate with them on like booking a table. Like it shouldn’t be this hard. And so that was the first, um, genesis of Discotech.

It was originally a VIP table booking platform for nightclubs. And then over the long, you know, 12 year journey of us doing this, we’ve. Uh, pivoted and expanded in a number of ways. So our business today is primarily focused on ga, which is the general admission crowd. While we do still sell VIP tables and that makes up about 20% of our business, 80% of our revenue comes from selling tickets and offering free admission called guest lists to like special events.

And we, we still monetize on a commission basis for selling these items. We’ve expanded to music festivals, which is a huge part of our business. And today we’re moving beyond just the parties, the clubs, and the festivals to other live experiences. So like sdu, Soleil, comedy clubs, uh, cruise experiences. Um, yeah.

So we’re definitely trying to put our eggs in different baskets today.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So it seems like you are a combination of. Event Bright and Ticketmaster, uh, in some ways, and you’re focused more towards, um, party kind of events and things like this.

Ian Chen of Discotech: Some, there’s some truth to that. Uh, we’re certainly our, our core and our niche is without question like parties.

So again, clubs and music festivals, hence the name Discotech. But we are not a ticketing platform, so we don’t compete with like the Live Nations and Eventbrite in that regard. In fact, we are like an affiliate or partner of theirs in the sense that we aggregate. Eventbrite, you know, ticker, live Nation, all those different ticketing inventory onto our platform.

And then we make it easy for our customers to see all the events in one place, but then when they decide they wanna buy a ticket, uh, they get pushed out to those ticketing providers. So we’re an aggregator of all the, those events from those different ticketing platforms onto one spot.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Gotcha. Um. You are getting paid on a commission basis.

So when you, when you send the, the customer to the, uh, to the ticket vendor, I guess mm-hmm. They’re paying you a commission.

Ian Chen of Discotech: Um, so the, the venue for from producer or the venue owner is still the one paying us. So the way it works is, you know, you have a, a, let’s call it a music festival, right? Their owner hires.

Eventbrite to be their ticketing platform, and then they hire us as like an affiliate marketing lever.

Track 1: Hmm.

Ian Chen of Discotech: We sell the tickets through Eventbrite, but we get credit for that sale via like a promo code or a tracking link, and then the venue pays us a commission because they know that the customer purchased originally through us.

Okay.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: As

Ian Chen of Discotech: the discovery platform.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So, would it be fair to say that now you are kind of the promoter, you’re the mm-hmm. Uh, yes. Digital promoter rather than the

Ian Chen of Discotech: a hundred percent? Um, you know, we think we’re like the, the, the new age promoter, like a, a super promoter. We work with like a thousand plus clubs, hundreds of music festivals, and, you know, we’re available 24 hours a day.

I, one other way of thinking about us is we’re kind of like a booking.com, but for like nightlife and festivals. Wow. Very nice. Yeah. Yeah. Like we aggregate everything in one place.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So when you started out, did you start it out on your own? Did you have a co-founder? What did it take to kind of start an app business?

I know in 2013 there was a lot of, um, lot of founders creating. I mean, I, I live in Toronto and I, I think I definitely had seen some, uh, similar ideas, uh, for apps at that time. Um, but it seems like you, you are one of the successful ones.

Ian Chen of Discotech: Uh, the, we were one of the early ones for sure, and, but they were many competitors.

I want to say just in the app space alone, because I, I downloaded most of them on my phone. We probably had over 20 competitors throughout the last decade. Um, apps were definitely like the trend back in 2013. There was like, people were building apps for anything and we were no different. We’re like, apps are hot, there should be an app for this.

And so we were one of the first first movers in this space and uh, we just gutted it out and survived when kind of everyone else went outta business. COVID killed a lot of them, that’s for sure.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. Yeah. So when you started out, like, what were your, I mean, it’s been what? 12 years now. What were your, kind of, your early challenge?

Can you talk us, talk me through, um, how, what were the early challenges and how kind of you have grown this app over time? I’m sure there were, uh, highs and lows. Uh, so many lows

Ian Chen of Discotech: for sure. Uh, so, uh, to answer your previous question, I, I started the company with three other co-founders. Uh, we were all in like year four or five of our varying professional careers.

Um. We were originally all friends from uc, Berkeley. So that’s how we knew each other from college. Uh, two of the founders, co-founders were software developers. So one was frontend and one was backend. Uh, my other co-founder had a digital marketing background and then myself. Um, my background, I was, uh, I started my career at Bain Company, and then I was like a private equity associate at the time that I quit to do discotech.

Um, we, you know. I would say some of the challenges first, of course, is like building the company, like quitting your job and building the company off like faith because, you know, we had no revenue for like a over a year, like building the product and getting our first customers. So we were just, you know, we were all living together.

We got a house, we all moved in and it became like a, just like a, a crazy incubator or working all the time. We didn’t make like just living off our savings.

Track 1: Hmm.

Ian Chen of Discotech: Right. Um. Then once we had like a, a demo product and we were able to get the first clubs signed onto our platform, we were able to go out and raise some, like Angel, angel money at that time.

So we were able to like live off that. But, you know, two, three years in while we did, you know, start generating some revenue, it wasn’t like scaling very quickly. So. We were gonna run outta money unless, like we, we made some changes. So we pivoted from being purely a bottle service, booking platform to offering, uh, tickets and guest lists, which allowed us to service not just the wealthy, you know, VIP table customers.

It allowed us to service, you know, the, the masses. And that was important for us because that really grew our addressable market. And, um, because we were offering things like free admission and discounted tickets, we really started to see our adoption like grow. So like way more users, way more five star reviews on the app store.

Way more word of mouth and organic downloads. Um, that really helped us be sustainable when I think a lot of our competitors, you know, didn’t make that shift. Um, and then we, we, over time we expanded beyond just nightclubs and pool parties. We started to do music festivals. That’s a very close adjacency to the nightclub scene.

Very similar artists, very similar customers going to the, the clubs and the festivals. And then that further allowed us to grow our, you know, our total addressable market and allowed us to keep growing. And as mentioned today, uh, we’re expanding beyond that into other types of live experiences as a way to continue to fuel our growth.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Now looking at, uh, looking back at your own journey, 12 years, um. As you were describing, you know, three or four friends living together trying to build a startup. I mean, I was thinking as a young person, that requires a lot of discipline, right? Especially if there’s like, uh, a few friends, like I would, I would think as a young person, like my, I would be thinking about, you know, I think that requires a lot of discipline, you know, for somebody to just, if you’re not getting any revenues, like you would want to do something else.

To be able to stick with one, with one project. I mean, that, that, that is a certain amount of discipline. If looking back, like, would you consider doing it again, like it now that you know what you know,

Ian Chen of Discotech: you know, it’s a really tough, that’s like a super tough question. Um. And by the way, two of my co-founders, one of them left within the first year and one left like probably in year two.

Okay. I’m not surprised who are still around. Yeah. Not surprising at all. Of course. And I don’t blame them, by the way.

Track 1: Yeah. Um,

Ian Chen of Discotech: it’s hard to say like at this like juncture, like today in life, you know, things are fine and so I would say like, yeah, I would do it all over again because, you know, it really made me who I am today.

I learned a lot, you know, made a lot of friends along the way as they say, and. Um, you know, I don’t know what the butterfly effect would be if I had like, not done discotech and just stayed in like the finance world. To be fair, I, I definitely would have more money if, even though discotech is like profitable and like things are like pretty chill today, 12 years later, it took many, many, many years of like significant opportunity cost to get here.

Track 1: Hmm.

Ian Chen of Discotech: Like. Working in private equity was, is, was very lucrative. And there, I have no doubt that I would have much more money today if I had stayed in that industry. But I, I was not happy. I was very stressed all the time. And, you know, the intrinsic motivation just wasn’t there. Um, with all that being said, I would say that, yes, I’m glad I did it.

I’m happy with where I am today. And, um, I, I, I wouldn’t, yeah, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t have changed it, but we also made it right, so like, yeah. There, there’s, there’s a, there’s some bias, there’s some, uh, what’s it called? Like a, like survivor bias or something in my answer.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. I mean, there’s a balance between, you know, sticking with a project because you have hope that at some, some day it’ll be something big versus the opportunity cost that you’re talking about.

Right. Maybe it’s worth it to say at a certain point that. Okay, I’ve done enough with this, this, you know, I grew it to a certain level. Maybe at this time I, I should be done with it. Maybe pursue something different. Like for new entrepreneurs, new founders, do you have any metric or certain, certain way to assess how quickly some, you know, a project is getting attraction to say, should I stick with this?

Or maybe I should take the lessons here and maybe pursue a different project.

Ian Chen of Discotech: Oh yeah, I, that’s, that’s a, that’s a really tough one. I think it depends on a lot of variables such as, you know, what your runway is like, did you receive funding for this project? Right. Are, are you, like, are you really sacrificing, like, are you like risking, like your entire wellbeing and your financial, like savings on this one project?

I would say that it’s, you wanna minimize the risk possible. And every startup is, it’s, it’s gonna take years before, unless you’re lucky or like you’ve got, you’ve really struck it great. Most founders, you know, speaking to like other, you know, entrepreneurs in my network, like it takes years. There’s no, there’s very few overnight successes, right?

So you have to, it’s hard. I think it’s really hard to do this. You have to be objective, right? Because if we just held on to hope but didn’t make the many pivots we’ve made along the way, we would’ve died at each. Each juncture, right? Mm-hmm. If we didn’t pivot to servicing the general admission community with the tickets and the guest list, we wouldn’t have made it.

If we didn’t expand beyond just nightlife into music festivals, we wouldn’t have made it right When COVID hit, you know, if we didn’t, if we didn’t have certain things in place, like we wouldn’t have survived the pandemic, just like everyone else didn’t survive, you know? So. You have to be flexible. You have to, you know, I, I would say this, listen to your customers, right?

If you’re not getting traction or you’re not growing despite like hard work and effort and marketing dollars, like that means you’re not doing something right. And that’s when it’s time to like, not necessarily give up, but like change, adapt, right? Hmm. We certainly had to make those adaptations. I wish we had done them earlier.

Right. I wish I, we didn’t wait three years before adapting. Right. But hindsight is 2020,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: so I think your business is, um, two main things. Right? So your business is the product, the app or the website that I guess you market to the end customer or the mm-hmm. Person who wants to go to these events.

Track 1: Yep.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And then the other part of your business is more of the sales side, uh, that you have to, uh, go out and build partnerships with those event venues and, and things like this.

Right. Um,

Ian Chen of Discotech: exactly.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Which one is more difficult? Which part is more difficult? Uh, and has it shifted like since you started?

Ian Chen of Discotech: I would say it’s always been more difficult to get the end users, but that’s because for our business. Um, the sale, uh, at least the way that our business works with the supply side, and when I say the supply side, I mean the club owners, the, the music festival producers, the event organizers.

We are an affiliate for them. So that’s how our economics work. We help them sell their inventory, they pay us a commission. It’s risk free for them. Mm-hmm. So they’re not paying me anything upfront and if I don’t help them sell inventory, they don’t owe me any money. So there’s really no great reason why they wouldn’t wanna work with Discotech unless they were already selling all their inventory and they didn’t need an any additional marketing.

So it’s always been easy for us to get, you know, the, the inventory. Right. And then our, our big thing is how do we get more users? How do we scale this? How do we market to them and get them at a, you know, a positive, uh, like, so that’s NPV positive. How do we, how do we encourage them to share this app with their friends?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So ultimately, you are basically an app marketing business.

Ian Chen of Discotech: We’re a marketplace.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah.

Ian Chen of Discotech: Okay. Yeah, like we get the inventory, we get the customers, the customers, you know, find the inventory, the tickets and the, the events. They buy things. And then ideally we try to save them money with like deals and incentives and promo codes.

Um, and then we make, uh, a commission on, on that, again, very similar to booking.com. They try to find you like really good deals at hotels and, you know, flights. And then they get a, you know, they get a finder’s fee.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So how do the users find you? Um, and is it, is it purely that somebody who’s looking for events would go on an app, uh, marketplace like Apple or Google Play?

They would search and your app would show up. Like you have to SEO optimize it. And are you also doing like more of the traditional marketing, like, uh, where somebody searches on Google for a certain event and your, uh, app would show up?

Ian Chen of Discotech: I would say in terms like, ’cause you know, we, we talk to our customers, we survey their them from time to time.

Number one, like how do people find out about discotech? By far that answer is, I heard about it from a friend and that’s actually great. You know, like that’s actually what we were trying to do. Right? Because organic, you know, organic growth is sustainable. It’s, you know, it’s the best way to grow. Hmm. Um, secondly would be like paid digital marketing.

So that’s like. Advertising on Instagram, like just running, uh, ads on Instagram, on TikTok, and then working with like micro influencers to get people, you know, while they’re on their phone, you know, on social media, you know, they see something, they like, they download our app. So that’s number two. Um, we also, um, have done like on online marketing, like, so like ads and SEO optimization on Google.

So when people are searching, like, how do I get on a guest list? Or how do I book a table in Vegas? You know, Discotech, our website shows up. So that’s one way we do it. Um, that would be number three. And then people can definitely search, like find us in the app store as well. But I feel like that’s a distant, that’s a distant number four.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Do you find that your user base, I would assume is mostly younger people? I would say probably, um, 18 plus to 35, 40.

Ian Chen of Discotech: It’s, it’s probably like the, the concentration is probably like 18 to early thirties.

Track 1: Okay.

Ian Chen of Discotech: But in America, most clubs and festivals are 21 and up. Okay. They do have eight, you know, 21, 18 to 21 clubs as well.

But I’d say like 21 to 30 is like the biggest concentration. But we have people all, you know, of all ages because you know, you can be any age and still go to a music festival.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. And, uh. To target that market, uh, like I would assume, uh, a big portion of that is like college students or university students.

Like, do you, do you do anything special to target that demographic?

Ian Chen of Discotech: Yes and no. Like again, I. I think our, our, our best customer is gonna be a little bit older because they need to have money. Oh. Because, like, nightclubs are not cheap. Festivals are very expensive. You need to travel, you buy the ticket. There’s hotels. So like college students, while they can still use Discotech and like get in on the guest list and free admission, I think our best customer is gonna be like someone who’s like a professional and like, can afford to do these things.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: What, what is one. What have been like one or two big success moments in your business where, you know, maybe you did a marketing campaign or maybe something happened where you, you know, you found that product market fit and you were like, yes, now it’s working.

Ian Chen of Discotech: Yeah. I think the a, a really big leap that we took but ended up paying off was we actually moved the, the founding team.

From Los Angeles to Las Vegas for a year. Okay. And that was very pivotal to our success because a Las Vegas is the largest nightlife market in the United States. You know, the biggest mega clubs and pool parties are all there. And it allowed us to get a lot of, just like heavily demanded inventory. And it doesn’t matter where you live, right?

Like people from all over the country, all over the world go to Vegas. It’s a destination. And people go there that a lot of people go there to party.

Track 1: Hmm.

Ian Chen of Discotech: So by being able to be like the first major app player to sign up these like big mega clubs in Vegas onto our platform, gave us like a headstart and really helped us differentiate from other players in the space because like we were the ones that had like the biggest clubs in Vegas on board and we could get people in for free.

So that was like a really big turning point for us that allowed us to market ourselves and, um, you know, kind of be more useful to the customer.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Do you have, uh, a, a very good brand recognition now in the, uh, in the us I’m, I’m assuming us is your primary market and, yeah, definitely. Yeah. And who’s, who’s kind of your, like, biggest competitor in this space?

Ian Chen of Discotech: Um, throughout history, our biggest competitor was a company called Table List, but they, for the most part have shuttered their business that competes directly with us. They still exist as a backend venue management platform that like we don’t compete against anymore. Um, I think we have a good reput, like our brand has a good rep.

Like not everyone’s heard of Discotech. It’s definitely not a household name. Uh, our app’s been downloaded about 1.8 million times. Which I think is great for like our space, but like, you know, you go somewhere and say disco tech, a lot of people wouldn’t know the name, but I think people in the industry who do know the name, it has a good rec.

Like people like it. And like when I meet people who find out that like, you know, I started disco tech, I always get a lot of love and thanks because we save people money, right? Like save money, party smarter. That’s our, that’s our motto. So chances are we’ve saved them money somehow on a ticket, on a free admission.

And so, uh, people have good things to say about us. So I’m really happy about that. Like I’m proud of that and that’s like one of the reasons why I’m glad I started Discotech because like we’ve done good things and people appreciate us and intrinsically that’s really rewarding. Mm-hmm. Um, our as and as far as competition, no one is exactly like us.

We’re like a pretty niche player. I would say like, um, bands in town is a, is a close competitor of ours. You can’t use ’em to book VIP tables or sign up for guest lists. But you can use them to see like all the different like concerts and shows and music acts in your city, which is something that we do.

And then you can use ’em to like, uh, uh, get linked out to buy tickets. So there’s, there is some overlap in that regard.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I’m assuming that app marketplaces is kind of a mature, um. Mature space now. I mean, people have done things. There’s, you know, there’s like well-documented learnings and so forth. Um, if, if somebody is trying to start a, a, a marketplace, uh, an app-based marketplace, let’s say a new dating site, right?

Yeah. Which we have probably been done Oh my god, thousand thousands of times. What, what, what are the, like, what, what? Advice you can give to them. I’m assuming creating the app itself is not the biggest problem in, in that.

Ian Chen of Discotech: I mean, it’s, it’s the same problem that we all have, which, how do you get users?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hmm.

Right. So it’s, it’s basically a marketing problem. It’s like, how can you make a big splash so that and your idea. Um, different enough or, or exciting enough that people are basically, basically you have to create some sort of a vital marketing.

Ian Chen of Discotech: The product has to be good, right? Because even with like a billion dollars in marketing, if you can’t get the customer to stick, then like you can spend as much money acquiring customers, but you can’t keep ’em like you’re just gonna light money on fire, right?

So the product has to be good. I would say the only real way to succeed, and like I think this is kind of a cop out answer, is you just have to be differentiated. Right. There’s just so many apps out there, right? No one wants to download another app. Like you have to find a way to create some real clearly differentiated and easy to communicate value to your customers.

Like they have to get it, and that’s why, again, we changed our motto like a year or two to save money. Party smarter, right? It’s four words. It’s very like, you get it? We started with save money because who doesn’t like to save money?

Track 1: Right.

Ian Chen of Discotech: And then the party smarter tells people like, okay, this is for parties, like, you know, clubs, concerts, festivals.

Right? Like party smarter. That I get it. You know? So our product does that, you know, we communicate what it does, and because we deliver, we have a 4.9 out of five star rating on the app store because people like saving money. So you have to be differentiated. As I mentioned, like we don’t have anyone who’s exactly doing like what we’re doing.

Like again, we’re pretty niche. And so, I mean, I think that fits with what I’m saying.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: What does, um, I want to talk a little bit about your team and what does it take, uh, so you’re the CEO, um, what is it like managing the product team or the development team? Like, uh, I’m assuming, I mean, your product is.

Quite, uh, uh, mature now, I guess, uh, you know, yeah. Um, where, where do you focus the most and like what, what areas, um, is more, most challenging to focus, like, you know, your product or, uh, development or marketing? Uh. Yeah,

Ian Chen of Discotech: so, so Sean, I have to give you a heads up. I, I do have to run in five minutes to another meeting Okay.

If that’s okay. Yeah, sure,

Track 1: sure.

Ian Chen of Discotech: I’m happy to answer this question. Um, and, you know, use up the five minutes. Me personally, like as CEOI feel like my job has always been to like to, to, you know, inspire. Like, just like, you know, be positive, you know, be, be forward looking so that like, you know, my team members believe in the, the mission and the vision, right?

Like, I think that’s part of the job I. Then, um, I think the second, my, my, my other biggest hat, and this is why I do day-to-day, is I’m a salesperson, right? I’m, I’m selling something. I’m selling, when I’m raising money, I’m selling equity in the business for dollars, right? I’m selling the vision and the dream to my employees, right?

And, uh, on a, I’m also getting partnerships. With, with Discotech, I’m getting customers onto the platform. I’m finding, you know, other businesses to partner with, to grow. And that’s all about selling a collaboration, selling a vision, right? So I’m always selling. I would say that from a business perspective, the where we’ve had the most difficulty is definitely the product.

Um, I think like we trying to find. What the customer wants. Build. Like we’ve built so many things that have done absolutely nothing for our product and sometimes even has hurt our product because it confuses the customer. Like we’ve all, we’ve had so many ideas, oh, this is gonna be great. Our customers are gonna love this.

Oh, we asked some people this and they said they would want this. And then we go out and we spend tons of time and effort building it, and then like, it just doesn’t move the needle at all. And it’s like hard to like track this. Um, so for us personally along our journey, like. Building the right product has been hard, and we’ve made a lot of mistakes and wasted a lot of money in that regard.

But I imagine that that’s true for like any company. Like people are always trying to throw things at the wall and see what sticks. So I don’t think that’s unique to

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Discotech. Awesome. So I will move on to our rapid fire segment, given that we only have a few minutes. Mm-hmm. Uh, in this segment, I’m going to ask you a few quick questions and you have to answer them may, maybe in a word or a sentence or so.

The first one is one book recommendation for entrepreneurs and why?

Ian Chen of Discotech: Oh, there’s a lot. There’s a lot here. Um, off the top of my head, oh my God. Um, there’s a book I read a while ago from like, good to Great. I. I think that, that, that’s a, that’s a helpful one, but yeah. Go on.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. Uh, an innovative product or idea in the current e-commerce retail or tech landscape that you feel excited about?

Track 1: Hmm.

Ian Chen of Discotech: Again, I feel like there’s a ton of opportunity here. I feel like, um, like. Anything that is servicing the mental health category. You know, I’ve had ideas for that before. I’m imagining it is very, uh, saturated now, but I, I, I know that there’s so much with like online medicine, like people getting, uh, drug prescriptions online, people getting their like therapy and, um, prescriptions online and, you know, those services.

I feel like the world is, you know, certainly in a weird place right now and. Mental health and what, like, self-care wellness is big. And so things in that space, I think, um,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: will do well. Awesome. A business or productivity tool or software that you would recommend or a productivity tip?

Ian Chen of Discotech: Oh, um, we’re big fans here of front for email management and like, you know, tagging and following up with like leads.

Um. And then, uh, Asana, uh, as Asana for, you know, project product management. We use those two, you know, nonstop every day. It’s great. So big fans. Awesome.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Another startup or business that you think is currently doing great things? It can be any, any, um, industry e-commerce, retail technology.

Ian Chen of Discotech: Yeah. Um. Shopify. I mean, they’re huge now, but yeah.

Like, good for them. Yeah. Getting people stuff for cheap. Great,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: awesome. Uh, a peer entrepreneur or business person whom you look up to or someone who inspires you?

Track 1: Hmm.

Ian Chen of Discotech: This answer, if you asked me many years ago, would’ve been Elon Musk, but I’m, that’s not my answer anymore. Okay. This is a tough one to answer now ’cause so many of these guys are so jaded and and whatnot. But, uh, I’ll just say I love what Bill Gates is doing now that he’s retired and how he’s like investing his time, energy, and resources into like, solving things from like a nonprofit like basis.

So, okay.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Yeah. Final question, best business advice that you have ever received or you would give to other entrepreneurs?

Ian Chen of Discotech: This one’s an easier I, I don’t know if this is like the number one, but this is an easy one to follow and it’s something I wish we had listened to and done a better job of when you start your business, assuming you have a co-founder, just make sure you do all the legal checklist stuff first.

Mm-hmm. You know? Articles of incorporation do like assigning uh, stocks the right way. ’cause that will save you a lot of money on taxes in the future. Making sure there’s a proper like equity distribution system for your co-founders and there’s a system in place for when they leave and how that gets resolved.

We did none of that ’cause we were just like, oh, this is all gonna work out and you know, co-founders leave. Things get messed up. You can probably even just ask chat GBT like what the checklist is these days. Like back in the day, like, we probably should have hired a lawyer, but like, make sure you just start everything right so that you don’t have to like, fight over things later.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. That, that’s always a challenging one. Right. Um, well Ian, those were all the questions that I had. Thank you so much, uh, for uh, joining me for sharing your time, for sharing your story. Uh, some lessons in in tech. Um, uh, thank you so much again. If, if anybody wants to try out your app or website, what’s the best way to do that?

Ian Chen of Discotech: Yeah, our website is app.discotech.me. And again, our free mobile app is, uh, available to download on iOS and Android. Just called Discotech Discotech. Okay.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Well, Ian, thank you so much again and, uh, wish you all the very best. Thank you. Have a great one

Track 1: too.