QuickBytes: How this startup supports side hustles and flexible work

2023 is expected to be a challenging year for entrepreneurs. As part of Tech in Asia School’s efforts to support founders in our community, we’re sharing stories of startups that have participated in our programs, showcasing their innovations and the struggles that they’re experiencing, so that you know that you’re not alone on this road.

Quest is a request-based platform in Singapore that connects businesses with local freelancers and gig workers within minutes. Founded by Evan Chow, Matthew Wu, and Craig Choy in 2020, the startup aims to provide “the next million jobs through flexible opportunities”.

Evan Chow, Craig Choy, and Matthew Wu, the co-founders of Quest / Photo credit: Quest

Quest participated in the Spring 2022 edition of Tech in Asia School’s Growth Program, which helped the startup shift to a more data-driven and structured approach when developing and executing growth sprints, boosting its monthly active users by 34%.

In this interview, Quest’s CEO, Chow, tells us how the company’s journey has been so far.

The following responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.

What problem are you trying to solve?

Being hungry Gen Zs who were uncertain about our futures, my co-founders and I took up different side hustles, running errands for our families and doing occasional videography work. That’s when we realized that many students like us want to monetize the different skill sets they possess, on top of having formal employment through internships and jobs. Most students only have sporadic pockets of time available, so they are looking for hustles that are flexible.

The Quest app / Photo credit: Quest

We started off by building a Telegram channel where students could get different side-hustling opportunities – from helping people set up marriage proposals to delivering Christmas gifts – and we eventually went on to develop our app.

What is the greatest struggle you’ve faced in building your company?

I would say that our biggest struggle in running Quest in 2022 was ensuring we had a strong business model to make revenue and grow it month over month. At the start of 2022, we had the mistaken impression that we should raise funding to sustain the team even before we had a stable, growing revenue model. This led to us focusing on more vanity metrics like the number of downloads rather than user stickiness and how much they were willing to pay to use our services.

How did you overcome this struggle?

By August 2022, we realized that we should not be overly optimistic when it comes to raising funds and instead decided to develop an offering for businesses to bring in monthly recurring revenue. To do so, we introduced a concierge service to help businesses source the talent they need from within the Quest network.

How did TIA School help you on your startup journey?

TIA School helped us in two things: Number one being the community of founders and friends – like the TIA team. It’s always encouraging to know that people are supporting and backing us in our mission. The meetups are precious opportunities that my co-founders and I treasure.

The Quest team / Photo credit: Quest

Number two was the mentorship by the TIA School team and our mentor, covering things from technical lessons like tracking growth metrics properly to understanding team dynamics, such as how to work and listen to my team. Through the program, we learned from our mentor to be more data-driven and understand our own growth funnel better – she also was one of the few people who advised us to explore working with businesses to scale our growth.

What has helped you keep going during these tough times?

Through these tough months of refining our product to reach product-market fit and pivoting to sustain the team as we worked to grow our revenue, the people that kept me going were my founding team, which has worked countless nights to advance the mission we believe in.

What are you looking forward to in 2023 and on the road ahead?

In 2023, we are looking forward to greater self-dependency via different upcoming revenue streams. We’re also super excited to venture into the Philippines market, where we have more than 3,000 users on the waiting list.

This content was produced by Tech in Asia Studios, which connects brands with Asia’s tech community. Learn more about partnering with Tech in Asia Studios.