Raised US$89M, TNG’s Alex Kong Shares Tips of Building Success Team
Tags: Technology, Recruiting, Hiring, Startup, Tech

Alex Kong is the founder and CEO of TNG FinTech Group, Inc – a Hong-Kong based company that provides next-generation financial services to 1.2 billion unbanked individuals throughout Asia.

Bill is the Founder and CEO of StackTrek, a company specializing in using algorithms and data to build and scale programming teams for tech companies. Each week, Bill talks with top executives about startups, culture, and tech hiring.

Bill: When did you found TNG?

Alex: We incorporated the company in 2012, but we launched our services in November 2015.

Bill: How many employees when you first launched your service, and how many you have now?

Alex: When we first launched our service in 2015, we had less than 30 people, and today we have close to 400 employees across 14 countries.

Bill: So your role in the company has changed from day one to now. How has it changed?

Alex: I look at managing my company, it’s like we’re going through different phases of corporate life cycle, just like human beings. When we first started to launch our service, we are like a baby, so we are at the stage of baby. So, the way we manage a baby, a 20-people company, to 50 people, to 100, 200, 300, 400, are very different. Just like human beings, we go through different corporate life cycle.

My role changes so fast because we grow so fast. We don’t even bother to print our position or title on the business card, because the role keep changing. It’s an on-going challenge. It’s also an on-going change management, because the way we manage the business and the people are very different compare to day one. From the freedom of working anytime, come to the office anytime, come to work at 11 a.m., go to lunch anytime to now in which we become very systematic. You better come on time, and go to lunch on time. A lot more professional and a lot more systematic. There are different phases of growth but to me, I’m excited about the unique DNA that we have created because of the rapid growth of the company, so we built a culture of obsoleting ourselves. Every week, our people, our different departments will discuss, sit down and discuss what happened, what we did last week, and what are the small changes we can do this week. And we work on their improvement week after week, and then the business keeps growing.

Bill: You’ve mentioned company culture. Can you share with us what your company culture is like?

Alex: It’s about survival. We have very little cash, and with that little cash, how do we survive? And we have to do anything to pay the rent, pay the salary. We didn’t talk about culture at all, we just work, work, work, day and night, and through that, we kind of built a culture of survival.

Now, the company is profitable. We have a lot more resources that we can dedicate for benefits and rewards that help us cultivate certain culture. For example, recently we turned an entire office floor into a dedicated co-working-like space that promotes collaboration. It has an in-house cafe that serves coffees, sandwiches, soups, healthy drinks, etc. We now provide a lot more fringe benefits, and stop asking people to come on time. We don’t enforce the on-time policy. We don’t believe in that. But if they come on time, we reward them for something more. There’s a lot more freedom.

Bill: So it’s a very rewarding culture.

Alex: Yes. We want to make the culture rewarding because we believe people by nature want to work hard. We want to build a happy house — a happy environment that people look forward to come to, and collaborate with each other, and together create a solution and platform that serves as many as billions of the unbanked population around the world. Our mission is to bank the unbanked. Helping the unfortunate people who couldn’t open a bank account to gain access to banking or financial services. We need people to believe in our mission. We need people to understand that we are doing something great together. And while doing it, we are enjoying every moment of it.

Bill: So as the company grows, you don’t see everybody as often as possible, especially everybody. So yesterday, I was talking to Tony Fernandes. He’s managing 21,000 people, but everybody has a direct line to him. They can text him directly. In your case, how can you ensure that as the company grows, they still feel like Alex is still part of the team? Since they don’t see your face every day.

Alex: We are in a very virtual environment. I have 123,000 unread emails, and thousands of unread messages. People still send or copy me in messages, but I don’t really read every single one of them. Anything emergency, they will call me. And every time they come to me, it’s for a decision. So my job is, every moment in the office, one after another is making important decisions. And I delegate down to my second-liner and third-liner, to entrust them to make the relevant decisions and create a policy, and create a system with check and balance. So you have to entrust the people to carry out the job. They cannot depend everything on me anymore, only come to me for important decisions.

Bill: Can you share any tips with leaders who want to build a successful team?

Alex: There are a lot of things that you need to build a successful team, but one thing that has always stuck in my mind is: people that are part of the solution.

I tell myself everyday: if I’m not part of the solution, then I’m part of the problem. When you first hear it, it sounds very harsh. I ask myself that question everyday, “Am I part of the solution?” If not, then I’ve became part of the problem. I share that to my people as well. When they come to me with a problem, I want them to think about solutions. You don’t come to me with just a problem. You have to come to me with proposed solutions. If you only come to me with your problem, then you yourself become part of the problem. Then what am I hiring you for? It’s harsh, but it’s a necessary evil. When we build teams, we need to make sure that we are building with people that can be part of the solution.