Interview-Series: Elisabella Hu

• First let's focus on your startup Blu Murray. Tell us what it is about?
  
• • Blu Murray is a Dutch menswear brand founded on the core values of superb quality for affordable prices. Blu Murray offers shirts that fit better, feel better and last longer. We want to dispel the illusion that good quality comes at a high price.
• How did the idea for your business come about?
  
• • I started my student entrepreneur journey when I was in my second year of Business Administration. Together with my friend Beini we noticed that a lot of the male students at Erasmus University Rotterdam needed a business shirt for their internship or board year. However, most of them were complaining about the price of shirts from suitsupply (and a few other Dutch brands) while others were complaining about the quality of their ZARA and H&M shirts. All these students wanted quality shirts that would survive more than a few washes but for prices that aren’t sky high. That’s the moment when we realized that we could meet this demand by producing high quality shirts at a specialized shirts manufacturer in Shanghai, and shipping these shirts to the Netherlands. This is how our brand Blu Murray was born.
• Where did your organization's funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it? How do you win investors for your venture?
  
• • The capital came from our savings; in The Netherlands students can get a student loan for all students that are studying. The rate of the student loan is lower than the rate of our savings account so that’s why a lot of students get the loan and put it on their savings account. This allowed my partner and I to save up quite a bit of money.
• How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?
  
• • At the moment we haven’t started using AdWords or any other form of paid advertising. We began with using our connections to spread the word about our shirts. Afterwards we used social media (giveaways, facebook posts etc.) to further promote the brand. At the moment the most successful form of marketing has been word of mouth advertising. Our next step will be affiliations, SEA/SEO and a lifestyle blog to gain more online traction.
• Recently you were also introduced as new president of ECE Students in Rotterdam. How would you describe the entrepreneurship scene in Rotterdam and at your university RSM in particular? Are there enough entrepreneurs?
  
• • The Netherlands has a strong startup culture and one of the highest entrepreneurship rates in Europe. Rotterdam is “the Boston” of the Netherlands because it is near many of the nation’s best universities (Erasmus, TU Delft). It also has the cultural heritage of having Europe’s largest port, the port of Rotterdam. It has just been announced that the American Cambridge Innovation Center for startups will expand to Rotterdam for its first overseas office. However the exposure of entrepreneurship at RSM is quite low, the focus of RSM is more on the corporate companies. Students that already are an entrepreneur or wanting to become one have no clue yet where to go to. This is where ECE Students will come into play.
• What are your plans and goals for your upcoming year as president?
  
• • This upcoming year ECE Students wants to promote entrepreneurship a lot more at RSM. We want to create more awareness of the possibilities for young entrepreneurs and will organize events for students to get familiar with entrepreneurship. We want to become the central place to go for students interested in entrepreneurship in any way.
• What three pieces of advice would you give to college students who want to become entrepreneurs?
  
• 1. Don't start a company unless it's an obsession and something you love. 
     
  2. Don’t be afraid to pivot.
     
  3. Avoid borrowing money from friends & family.
     
• What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
  
• • Common sense: a lot of things can’t be prepared for. You need street smarts to handle some of the obstacles that come your way. The only way to be prepared is to have a decent amount of common sense.
  • Persistence: If there are roadblocks on your path to success, don’t give up. Instead, figure out how to get around them. There are no ‘nos,’ just ‘how can I?’, giving up is easy don’t be weak.
  • Sales: Know how to sell yourself and your product. Be likeable: when people are considering investing in your idea, they’re also considering investing in working with you. If you are open to constructive criticism, able to communicate and are honest and ethical, it makes a difference. It’s the same for selling your product/service to potential customers.
• What have been some of your failures, and what have you learned from them?
  
• • I haven’t had a major failure yet but my biggest learning experience was to understand how important pivoting is. Pivoting is the ability to be flexible. To move in the right direction when the time strikes and to turn, or pivot in another, when required. Sometimes better ideas come along the way, don’t be afraid to change.
• What motivates you?
  
• • What motivates me most is the lifestyle of an entrepreneur. You are responsible for your own work, there’s no bureaucracy and you will never be comfortable. Doing things that you’re not ready to do is how I think you’ll grow as a person and how you’ll get more out of your life. I would never want to work for a corporate, not because it’s bad but because I don’t like becoming too comfortable. Working for a big company brings a lot of perks like: steady income, secondary employment benefits, fixed vacation days. But I’d never be happy living my life like a robot.
• Where you see yourself and your business in 10 years? 20 years?
  
• • I hope to see myself having more than just one business in 10 years. I would love to eventually invest in multiple industries and be involved in innovative ideas. I hope that in 20 years I will be able to have enough money to help, invest and mentor young entrepreneurs in third world countries or entrepreneurs from a poor background.
• If you were conducting this interview, what question would you ask?
  
• • What books would you recommend?
• And what would be your answer to it?
  
• • Read more to learn more, reading is like borrowing someone else’s brain and knowledge. And it will make you more interesting at a dinner party.
  1. Start with why – Simon Sinek
     
  2. Traction - Gabriel Weinberg
  3. Getting things done – David Allen

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