Reflecting on the Mamba Year '24
As I sit in New York City sipping on my hot mocha on New Years Eve '24, there's something poetic about reflecting on this year – the “Mamba Year”, if you will. Kobe Bryant's #24 and his Mamba Mentality of focusing on the process, trusting in the hard work, and genuinely loving the journey of getting better every day – it's been a guiding light through this rollercoaster of a year.
"The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do." — Kobe Bryant
This quote has been my North Star throughout my life, reminding me that beyond our current ventures – whether we're building startups, leading teams, or chasing dreams – we should aim to ignite something in those around us.
2024 kicked off with us seeing real use cases of LFG’s first product (trust me, until you’ve done something of your own, you’ll know it’s quite the feeling). But you know that feeling you get when something's working but not quite working? Yeah, that was us. We knew we needed to sharpen our edges, break through that ceiling we kept hitting (as Jenko says in 22 Jump Street).
So what did we do? Jumped into the Antler (Vietnam) incubator from April through mid-year. Think of it as our version of going to founder boot camp. We were there to craft things to the next level.
Then came the weird limbo of July and August, post-Antler (woops, we didn’t get the funding — not a bad thing too, to be honest). Ever feel like you're in some valley of death? That was us. Meandering around, questioning if what we were building was worth all this... mid-life crisis vibes, you know.
But here's where things took an interesting twist. Around end of August, we decided to do something different – we stopped listening to the 'tech startup' echo chamber. You know the one: VCs telling you what's hot (or not), incubators pushing their playbooks, hackathons that feel more like startup theater. Instead, we dove deep into the actual travel industry. And what do you know? Turns out there's a whole world out there beyond pitch decks and demo days (Crazy right! Don’t fall into this trap fellow first time founders).
The conversations we had with travel players? Eye-opening. We found that they saw something useful in what we were building. Especially when it came to reaching younger travelers (turns out the gap between established travel brands and the TikTok generation is... rather substantial).
So we entered build mode again. Like a rolling stone gathering momentum (without the moves like Jagger).
The programs we joined later in the year – AppWorks with fellow founders hunting for that elusive PMF (product market fit), and the Digital Tourism Lab with 1337 and MDEC – they weren't just about adding logos to our deck. They opened our eyes to new perspectives, showed us Malaysia's evolving tourism and tech landscape, and reminded us we weren't alone in this wild ride.
Looking back now, this 2024 been a spectrum of sky-high optimism and bottom-feeder pond scum moments. But you know what? We've been planting seeds all along. Some are starting to sprout, others are still underground doing their thing. At least we believe so.
After all, as Alfred wisely said in Batman Begins…
"Why do we fall, sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up."
And that's what this year has really been about – embracing the falls, trusting the process, instilling that Mamba Mentality, and keeping that "Let’s F*ing Go" spirit alive. Whether we're soaring or swimming with the pond scum, we just keep building…
Because at the end of the day, that's what we're here for.
Thanks for reading,
D. Han