The food: Lucky King Bun

Where to find it: Hong Kong Boy Hawker Centre, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

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Welcome to another edition of #FoodEntrepreneur Friday, where I serve up an order of international food with a side of guidance for entrepreneurs.

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“Equity is like shit: if you pile it up in one heap, it stinks. But if you spread it around, then things grow.” That’s what one of our lecturers at Draper University instructed students when teaching us “How to Grow Your Company”.¹ Owners of a company often get territorial with company equity—or ownership of a company. And they should, to an extent. A company is an entrepreneur’s baby. However, if an entrepreneur hoards equity, then they’ll never learn how to grow a company. Like a pile of manure or a sample of yeast, when equity is alone with its owner it’s just shit and fungus. But when an owner spreads his equity, things can fertilize, rise and grow wonderfully.

If an owner makes the right hiring choices and empowers the right people to lead and own the company, then the company will surely grow. It will probably grow in ways that’ll even surprise and delight the business owner himself. In fact, most venture capitalists and investors will support a stellar startup team rather than a kick-butt business idea. They know that the right people will often lead to the right strategy for a high-growth company.²

Talking about high growth, in Malaysia they serve this über bread bun that’s the size of Sandra Bullock’s adam’s apple: the lucky king bun. I saw it glowing in its heat lamp display window like a rotisserie chicken at Costco. Delicious, lustful attraction had set in. My Malaysian hosts told me that its size isn’t the only delight found within its crisp bread shell; bakers incorporate other ingredients in this dome of deliciousness. The bun had me at its perfect golden brown hue, but if I could discover other secrets in it, then I sure as hell was game.

The next morning we sliced open the bun and found a tinfoil-wrapped oasis of curry and chicken—the perfect partners to well-baked dipping bread. Like a dynamic startup team, curry, chicken and bread just go well together. And they can create something that can grow into a massive success and a delightful surprise.

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¹ I attended Draper University in late 2013. It’s a school for young entrepreneurs based in the Silicon Valley.
² For more tips on how to raise money from investors, check out my posts on The Top 4 Reasons People Choose to Invest in Companies and 8 Tips for Venture Fundraising from my mentor and fourth-generation venture capitalist Adam Draper.