Deep Dive with Hive- Ray Wei, CEO of PicSee
Blurb for Ray, PicSee
We believe in supporting entrepreneurs with tenacity and determination. Meet @Ray Wei, the Co-Founder of @PicSee. Ray started PicSee as a link-shortening service that allows marketers to track clickthrough data about their consumers, so they can analyse and improve their marketing efficiency. Throughout his journey, Ray has pushed through several obstacles and used them as ways to improve PicSee’s services and offerings.
Ray Wei， CEO of PicSee
1. Short Introduction of yourself and your startup：
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I’m Ray, the Co-Founder of PicSee. I am responsible for our business strategy, as well as product and marketing. PicSee is a URL-shortening service for users including businesses to make links more attractive in social networking. PicSee’s URL-shortening service offers complete security and stability and serves many of Taiwan’s industry leaders including Taishin Bank, First Bank, Shopee, Taobao Taiwan, ELLE Magazine, GoShare and Eslite Bookstore.
We believe that every link should convey the message “I need to be clicked” and draw in consumers. Hence, PicSee allows marketers to track clickthrough data about their consumers so they can analyse and improve their marketing efficiency.
2. What inspired you to develop your idea into a startup?
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In my senior year, I was a pre-sales intern at Microsoft and did proof-of-concept (PoC) development. Being an engineer was hard work, and my experience there made me realize that I would rather put the same amount of time and effort into a job I enjoyed. Hence, I had the idea of starting a business and started to think of problems I could potentially solve.
Initially, PicSee was a food app. In our journey of looking for opportunities and investors, we entered our tool that shortened Facebook URLs into an entrepreneurship competition and won the NTD500,000 seed fund. I have fond memories of renowned serial entrepreneur and top ranked venture capital investor on the judging panel and liking our product. So, we changed our direction and focused on providing a URL-shortening service!
3. What’s the biggest challenge you faced when starting a company and how did you overcome it?
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At the start, we were too focused on growing quickly and gathering consumer data to gain a competitive edge. We did not notice users who used our product for phishing and fraud. We received negative international coverage and had our website blacklisted by Google Chrome, causing us to lose a huge number of users as the link was blocked.
Fortunately, our collaborations with Shopee in shortening their URLs helped us remain some of our customer base. Learning from this, we picked ourselves up and developed an automated system that reviewed URLs being created. After six months of perfecting our system, PicSee could detect malicious phishing links better than our direct competitors. Going the extra mile to ensure users did not misuse our service helped us stand out from our competitors.
4. What is your dream and aspirations for the company going forward?
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One of my biggest dreams is to have PicSee listed on Nasdaq. I want to put PicSee on the global stage and show the world what Taiwanese companies are capable of. I also hope to see PicSee’s services going beyond everyday use and assisting marketers in creating real data-led campaigns. I feel an immense sense of joy when I see my friends and celebrities like YouTuber Aga Tsai using PicSee to shorten their URLs. I’m proud that PicSee is able to be part of everyone’s day-to-day activities online.
5. Who is your role model, or which public personalities have you been inspired by in your startup journey?
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I hope to have Steve Job’s creativity, Elon Musk’s intelligence and wealth, Lei Jun’s leadership and managerial skills and Mother Teresa’s selflessness.
6. What keeps you awake at night?
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My business keeps me awake at night. I remember staying up to add new features to PicSee, being excited over Singer Jay Chou using a PicSee link to share his new MV, and finding ways to regain my user base after PicSee was blocked by Google Chrome.
I hope my next sleepless night will be the night before PicSee goes to IPO in US.
7. What is your motivation that keeps you going every day?
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I strongly believe that every man lives to experience. So, I am motivated to experience what life has to offer by allowing myself to try new things every day.
8. What is your strategy when things don’t turn out the way you expect?
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There are many reasons why things do not go the way as planned. For me, I try my best to prepare for the best outcome, the worst outcome and an acceptable outcome. This way, I can account for the worst possible outcome and be better prepared.
9. What is the biggest difference you see from the start of your journey to where you are today?
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At the start of my entrepreneurship journey, I was blessed to receive advice and support from industry leaders and my loved ones. As a firm believer of helping one another in the entrepreneurial space, I believe in helping others succeed in hopes that they will continue to help others too.
