Erik Cheong

Co-Founder of Park N Parcel

(Forbes 30 Under 30)

13 November 2019 8 Min Read

Erik Cheong on Transforming the Consumer Tech Industry

I had the opportunity to talk to Erik Cheong, the Co-Founder of Park N Parcel. This company strives to improve the experience for online shoppers, providing a convenient and cost-saving way to receive and send parcels. With the mission to enhance the current mailing ecosystem, Erik and his co-founders managed to start the business from scratch.

Erik started his career with a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance at University College Dublin. In 2018, Erik was awarded the Quest Ventures – EDGE National Youth Entrepreneurship Award. Creating a solution to the missed parcels problem for online shoppers has led Erik and his team to a spot on Forbes’s 30 Under 30 Asia 2019: Consumer Technology list.

Erik shared with me the importance of stepping outside your comfort zone and venturing into the unknown, along with all the opportunities this brings. In addition, he shared valuable advice on breaking the barrier into the tech field and his views on what happiness means to him. Let’s hear what he has to say!

The Logician

Hi Erik, and welcome to this interview! Before we start, I would like to say huge thanks for taking the time to participate in this mission! Now, do you mind introducing yourself? Can you please tell us who you are and what you do?

Erik Cheong

Erik Cheong is the Co-Founder of Park N Parcel and nominated as Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2019 (Consumer Technology).

He is also a member of the eFounders Fellowship (Southeast Asia) by Alibaba Business School and UNCTAD.

Park N Parcel have successfully built the largest network of collection points with over 1600 Parkers in Singapore and expanding into South East Asia markets.

Currently working with more than 30 international logistics partners to prevent their couriers from facing re-delivery and making their delivery much more efficient and cost-saving. At the same time, serving more than 50 eCommerce platforms with a huge pool of online shoppers.

Beyond his bachelor’s degree in Finance and investment banking background, he is an entrepreneurial soul and an innovator with a passion to leverage on technology to enrich modern lives.

Prior to Park N Parcel, Erik has started several businesses in the Hospitality, F&B and E-commerce sectors with a strong believe in lean startup methodology.

Being part of TRIVE Next50 mentor and angel investor, also allows Erik to share his expertise and experience with the community of entrepreneurs, helping great people build greater companies.

The Logician

Also, congratulations on being among Forbes 30 under 30! It must have been a great honor! Was this a dream of yours? What do you think most contributed to this success of yours?

Erik Cheong

Being nominated as Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2019 is definitely a great honor and milestone unlocked.

This nomination also belongs to my other co-founders (Bryan and Gan Hong), together with the Park N Parcel team.

Everyone contributed to Park N Parcel’s current success and we are fortunate to get their support.

Including our investors (National University of Singapore Enterprise, TRIVE Ventures and group of angels investors ), our customers (Taobao, Lazada, ASOS and Carousell), our partners (Singpost, Aramex, FedEx and Roadbull), and early adopters (our Parker — collection points and users — online shopper who believe collection point service).

The Logician

Let's talk more about Park N Parcel. Since you are the company's co-founder, I want to know how you developed the business idea. What exactly is Park N Parcel? What is the mission of your company?

Erik Cheong

Park N Parcel provides a last-mile logistics solution to enhance the current mailing ecosystem.

Our main focus is to provide online shoppers with an innovative way to collect parcels by directing their parcels to nearby neighbors or neighborhood stores — known as Parkers.

The common pain point is missed parcels or having to arrange for a re-delivery for online purchases. We are all avid online shoppers and have our own fair share of bad experiences.

I shop very often on both local and international web stores such as Lazada /ASOS but have always faced the issue of missed parcels. I am usually not home to receive the parcels and thus, that caused a lot of inconvenience for me.

Moreover, on some occasions, I needed the items urgently and scheduling for redelivery will take more time for the parcels to be delivered to me. Sometimes, the parcels are left behind my gate which I felt was risky.

Our mission is to create a hassle-free parcel collection experience for every online shopper through a sharing community of neighbors.

The Logician

What are the core values of your business? What examples are you setting for your team?

Erik Cheong

Our five key values are:

Integrity
Teamwork
Trust
Be Collaborative (Open Mind)
Just do it (Mindset)

As the founders of Park N Parcel, we lead by example. I am an outspoken person with the skills of strategic communication where I am able to build relationships with other businesses and always open for potential collaborations.

On the other hand, Bryan is an organized leader who is responsible for the company strategy and direction of Park N Parcel. He always believes in teamwork effort.

Lastly, Gan Hong is meticulous and good with details, who handles the financial and supports Park N Parcel operations, where trust and integrity plays an important role.

The Logician

What helped you find exactly what you are ‘supposed’ to do in life? How did you know technology is your respective field? What would you say are the best and the worst parts of being in the technology field?

Erik Cheong

Being ambitious and aspirant individuals, we always wanted to start something of our own, and so we decided to step out of our comfort zone and venture into the field of technology.

It’s also important to expose yourself to overseas market/development such as the U.S. (Silicon Valley)/China ( Hangzhou / Shenzhen ), to witness how technology can rapidly involve and promote mass adoption in those smart cities.

The best parts of being in the field of technology:

Automation & Increase Efficiency (Require less manpower)
Assets Light ( Marginal Cost Approaching Zero)
Access to useful data / Increase Defensibility with deep technology — AI/Blockchain

The worst parts of being in the field of technology:

Shortage of experienced technology talents in the local market and expensive to hire.
Corporation/Institution take longer sale cycle to adopt and understand application programming interface (API).
Need to set technology foundation stable at the initial phase, or else it will create inflexibility for future developments.

The Logician

How would you describe a healthy working environment and why? What are the five most important things that everyone should consider when working in a team?

Erik Cheong

The five utmost important things, when working in a team/establish a healthy working environment:

Peer to Peer Performance Review* (Quarterly)
Company Culture (Respect each other and sense of ownership)
Communication (Two-way traffic)
Can-do- mentality (Make small celebration when milestone unlocked)
Team bonding activities (Dinner Gathering/Outdoor activity)

(Point out merits and demerits to seek improvement:

Superstar — Follow Instructions and execute well
White Rabbit — Follow instructions but don’t perform
Wild Dogs — Don’t follow instructions but perform well)

The Logician

How well do you manage your time as a young and successful person? What is the best trick for effective time management?

Erik Cheong

The best trick for effective time-management will be planning your schedule ahead.

Every night before I head to bed, I will note down the to-do list based on priority level & sort the scheduled meetings for tomorrow.

At the same time, I established a shared google calendar with the founders and Park N Parcel team to keep everyone posted on the upcoming events, meeting or project deadline.

Every morning at 10 am, the whole team will gather in a circle and do quick 1-minute sharing for each member to highlight key issues he/she is facing or require any further support to make things happen, the long discussion can follow up later.

The Logician

According to you, what matters in life? What do you do for fun? Who is the person you would not have made it without? Can you describe what happiness means to you?

Erik Cheong

Happiness to me is to retire at a young age (Long way to go!), travel around the world with my love ones. Getting exposure to different cultures, food, history. Learning new things, exploring new places and meet new friends every day.

For now, I am contented with my “Book & Coffee” time. Besides the book, café hopping with great coffee is the true motivation for my reading.

Usually, after lunch, I will look for a nice café with my book nearby in town to start my reading while waiting for my wife to complete her shopping. The longer she shops, the longer I get to read!

For me, reading is the best form of relaxation, hence Sunday is perfect timing to reduce stress and open up to new ideas and inspirations from the books.

The Logician

Where do you see yourself and Park N Parcel 10 years from now? Are there any milestones you want to reach by then?

Erik Cheong

Park N Parcel’s vision is to become the largest smart logistics network in South East Asia and position us to be part and parcel of the growing eCommerce industry.

When you conduct online shopping, you will definitely remember “Park N Parcel” as an essential lifestyle service that one might not be able to live without!

Hopefully, by Park N Parcel’s 10th year anniversary, it can be fully acquired by one of the multinational courier delivery services companies and bring this service beyond South East Asia markets, to reach out the global online shoppers in the U.S./Europe as well.

With the successful exit, I hope to establish my own venture capital firm to help South East Asia startups to impact the world with their solutions and solve daily pain points (hopefully create unicorns and decacorn).

The Logician

Last, what would you advise anyone pursuing a career in the same industry as you?

Erik Cheong

Firstly, it is important to build a great team. It is never good to work alone and we are thankful that we have the support of one another. We have the foundation of trust for a good working relationship and individually have our own strengths and weaknesses that complement one another.

Secondly, to take action. Do not be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and take risks! Everyone has great ideas, but success only comes through action.

Thirdly, know your customers. Your customers are the most important part of building your business and are the greatest source of learning.

They are the ones that you can look upon for solutions, in serving them better. Let unhappy customers share with you their bad experiences on your products or services and do not be discouraged.

The Logician

Erik’s advice has been incredibly beneficial in allowing me to understand his success. However, what struck me as necessary was his advice on exposing yourself to the overseas market to witness new technology and, in turn, to benefit your mission. Thank you, Erik, for sharing your story, company values, and how you foster a healthy company environment. I cannot wait to hear about your future work!

The Logician

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