Deep Dive with Hive — George Cheng, CEO of Viewabo
George Cheng, Founder and CEO of Viewabo
1.Short Introduction of yourself and your startup
I’m George, the founder of Viewabo. Our mission is to make remote support better than in-person support by enabling businesses to see things the way their customers see them. We do this by helping customer support agents to request access to smartphone cameras so that their customers can send real-time video of issues without using an app, making it easier and faster to understand and resolve issues.
2.What inspired you to develop your idea into a startup?
The idea for Viewabo came about through a conversation with our first customer, who later became an investor. He was the CEO of a fast-growing company and had a new offering that sold very well, but his team was getting technical support requests that they couldn’t efficiently resolve through email, chat, or phone. Their customers didn’t know how to explain the issues they were seeing, and they couldn’t understand the agents’ instructions.
I proposed that I build a prototype application that could enable his support agents to request access to customer smartphone cameras — without using an app — and have it integrated with their help desk system. Since then, I realized that there was still much room for improving the customer support experience and started on a mission to make remote support better than in-person support.
3.What’s the biggest challenge you faced when starting a company, and how did you overcome it?
The biggest challenge was dealing with my fears of leaving the perceived security of a high-paying job to work on my ideas with no salary, no product, no team, no customers, and no funding. I’ve been tempted numerous times to go back to a high-paying corporate job, but I wanted “to make a dent in the universe with something I created.”
4.What is your dream and aspirations for the company in the future?
I hope to have products that will impact the world positively. For that to happen, we need to reach as many people as possible with products that people love to use.
5.Who is your role model, or which public personalities have you been inspired by in your startup journey?
My role model is Steve Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple. I’ve watched all of his interviews and videos online from when he started Apple, moved on to NEXT, acquired Pixar, and then went back to Apple. He remained consistent with his philosophies and outlook throughout his career, no matter which company he was in. I find this inspiring, and it has made me reflect on my motivations and what I work on.
6.What keeps you awake at night?
What keeps me awake at night is wondering how Viewabo can better benefit consumers and positively impact the world. No founder wants to spend a large part of their life working on something that does not create a significant impact.
7.What is the motivation that keeps you going every day?
Time stops for no one — I don’t want to look back and think that I didn’t make a dent in the universe in a way that was meaningful to me.
8.When things don’t turn out the way you expect, what is your strategy?
I try to understand why I had such expectations, why I failed, and then learn from them and move on. There’s no point in dwelling on things that didn’t work. Focus on the things that work and keep moving forward!
9.What is the most significant difference you see from the start of your journey to where you are today?
I am now less impacted by the emotional highs and lows of working on a startup. In the early days, there would be times when I felt that everything was going great, and other times when I felt that everything was collapsing. I have learned to remain calm, think more clearly, and adjust my plans and actions as required.
