Yesterday, I had an opportunity to meet Albert Lie in person. He is the co-founder of Forward Labs and was a founding engineer at Xendit (YCS15), which went from no-product to unicorn in 5 years. Albert comes from an unusual background. He worked in Silicon Valley without a US college degree!
Here's what I learned from our conversation:
- Low Ego: Despite having a founding engineer from a unicorn company and a Stanford grad, Forward Labs still uses no-code tools for faster product iteration. The team truly focused on customersโ problems. They didnโt fall in love with solutions (like I did)
- Strategic Fundraising: Start with angel investors and move up to top-tier accelerators. Use competing offers to create urgency among potential investors.
- Scrappy: Even after receiving funding, Albert chose to work at a cheap $20/month co-working space in Seoul. And I was working at WeWork, the most expensive co-working spot in Seoul ๐คฆโโ๏ธ
- Do things that donโt scale: Albert is a 10x engineer. Yet Albert traveled globally to talk to freight companies like Hyundai, which was why he was in Seoul. In just six months, Forward Labs acquired enterprise customers and raised a seed round, all with a product built with no-code tools.
- Flexible Hiring: I thought everyone on the team had to be an all-star. But Albert was fine with hiring juniors or even contractors as long as you can evaluate their work.
- Building a remote team: Xbase and Forward Labs are fully remote. I asked him how we could build a stronger team. Albert advised meeting in person at least every two months at cheap places in Indonesia.
Meeting him made me see the real difference between just reading the YC library and living it. It set me a higher standard to strive for. If you want to know more about Albert and his journey, check out his amazing bio.
