Entrepreneur Daniel Shin is best known as the mind behind the pioneering PortOne Global, Fast Track Asia, and Ticket Monster (TMON). The award-winning innovator’s companies have helped transform Asia’s e-commerce landscape over the past 10 years.
Daniel Shin is an experienced business developer and angel investor. His ventures in financial technology (fintech) and e-commerce have taught him valuable business lessons. From mastering productivity to finding a healthy work-life balance, these are Shin’s five entrepreneurial insights for budding innovators and leaders:
- Prioritize one or two daily tasks.
- Hire the best-fit people.
- Build unique business ideas.
- Take leaps.
- Find a balance.
1. Prioritize One or Two Daily Tasks
It can be easy to get tangled up in daily tasks and lose sight of your business goals. This is why mastering productivity is key for entrepreneurs.
Shin believes that productivity comes down to having control over how you allocate your time. Every morning, he decides on one or two tasks that he must achieve that day. This one habit helps Shin stay productive.
He describes this strategy as: “Prioritizing your day to focus on what is important and canceling out the rest of the noise.”
Before he began implementing this habit, Shin’s typical day was “bogged down with calls and meetings.” This led to a work schedule that prioritized quantity over quality. As a result, Shin found himself making decisions without due time and consideration.
These days, Shin selects his daily tasks carefully. He shares that focusing on a few key decisions and doing them well is far more effective than attempting to do “everything in an average way.”
Many entrepreneurs use software to enhance their productivity. Daniel Shin relies on his digital tools to help him stay productive. Recently, he has been using the AI language model ChatGPT to quickly answer his questions.
2. Hire The Best-Fit People
Entrepreneurs are trailblazing individuals who often forge their own paths to bring their business ideas to life. But unless they’re operating as a solopreneur, many entrepreneurs rely on others to make their business dreams a reality.
One strategy that has helped Shin grow his business and advance in his career has been to hire “the best people.” He recommends “surrounding yourself with talented, like-minded people who can add passion to your life and help execute your ideas.”
Shin explains that bringing business ideas to life relies on effective execution. And assembling strong teams can enable faster execution of business strategies. This is best achieved through collaborative teamwork with trusted individuals.
Shin says he is “laser-focused” when it comes to sourcing great talent. He positions people around him who are as passionate and excited as he is about achieving the business outcome.
He adds: “When the right people are in the room with you, ideas naturally come to life without much friction.”
3. Build Unique Business Ideas
Entrepreneurs can thrive by differentiating themselves from competitors and generating innovative ideas. Shin recommends that forward-thinking individuals focus on building unique businesses. This can help companies avoid vying for a share of the same market or customer base as their competitors.
Shin learned this lesson when he was running TMON. Now one of the largest e-commerce platforms in Korea, Daniel Shin founded TMON in 2010. He grew his company from a team of 5 to more than 1,300. This expansion saw TMON generate approximately $3.5 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV). Around 20% of the Korean population used the platform at least once annually.
In 2018, Shin evolved the platform, making it easier for consumers to buy fresh groceries alongside other items.
While TMON was a pioneer of mobile commerce in Korea, the platform also spent millions contending with competitors. Shin shares that the TMON team wasn’t decisive enough to “build a unique angle that would make us different and sustainable.” Instead, TMON competed along several verticals against various companies and industries.
“If I could go back, I would choose where to fight and where to retreat and strategically pick my battles with the long term in mind,” Shin says.
4. Take Leaps
Shin attributes much of his success as a serial entrepreneur to embracing new ideas with enthusiasm. Rather than dwelling on whether to pursue an idea, Shin believes that taking immediate action and testing the concept in a lean manner often yields positive results. He calls this “taking the leap.”
Not every idea can generate a successful outcome. However, Shin recognizes that failures offer valuable lessons for growth and learning.
Fast Track Asia: Daniel Shin’s Company Builder
A company that embodies Shin’s approach to embracing new ideas is Fast Track Asia. The entrepreneur co-founded Fast Track Asia in 2012. The company builder started by importing workable venture ideas and launching them across markets in Asia.
Some of the companies Fast Track Asia has built include:
- Fast Five, is one of Korea’s leading shared office brands. Fast Five raised capital from ID Ventures, TS Investment, and Quantum Equity Partners.
- Day1 Company, which offers transformative educational opportunities for career professionals.
- Goodoc, an app that simplifies the process of finding doctors and hospitals. Yello Mobile has acquired Goodoc.
Fast Track Asia offers the necessary capital for businesses to seize growth opportunities. The company’s trusted networks enable smaller enterprises to enter strategic markets. Fast Track Asia has generated more than $800 million in equity value for investors.
PortOne Global: Daniel Shin Helps Streamline the Asian Payment Landscape
PortOne Global also originated from Daniel Shin’s knack for capitalizing on innovative ideas. Founded in 2018 and based in Singapore, PortOne Global is a fully managed payment service for online merchants. The end-to-end payments infrastructure offers many benefits that have revolutionized the global payments industry:
- A comprehensive payment API (application programming interface) that integrates various payment methods.
- Streamlined payment data reconciliation for all-in-one convenience.
- Consultation services for optimizing payment processes.
- Value-added applications such as customizable checkouts, payout services, and cross-border payments.
PortOne Global supports merchants from integration to billing via a single API. The company’s e-commerce partners have access to more than 100 payment methods across Asia. These methods include credit cards, bank transfers, e-wallets, and account-to-account payments.
Shin founded PortOne Global after struggling with Asia’s fragmented payment landscape while running TMON. The situation motivated him to create a single payment solution.
Before developing PortOne Global, Shin found it challenging to guide engineers to integrate all available payment options. Now, businesses that use PortOne Global can leverage over a hundred options with no more engineering labor than connecting to a single API.
Shin explains that offering every available payment method is crucial for catering to customers who use a range of payment services. This way, PortOne Global ensures e-commerce companies don’t lose out on potential sales.
5. Find A Balance
Shin’s rigorous work ethic has led him to conceptualize, launch, and develop several successful companies. But he emphasizes that it’s crucial to find the right work-life balance.
When he finds himself becoming overwhelmed or unfocused, Shin takes time away from work to relax. This helps him focus on important issues and brush off less pressing matters.
Shin also makes it a regular habit to work outside the office. The business leader explains that working elsewhere gives him the space to think and zero in on his beliefs. He can then return to the office with a refreshed mindset, ready to put forward his ideas with greater conviction. The time away also enables him to give his colleagues more of his energy.
Shin also believes that fixating too much on making money can distract entrepreneurs and deter them from their “path to greatness.” He reminds entrepreneurs that there is more to life than results.
“Life’s not all about getting to the finish line,” Shin explains. How you run the race and the impact you have on others along the way matters too. To achieve long-term business success, entrepreneurs must first focus on building something great. The money will follow.
Learn more about how Daniel Shin has reshaped Asia’s e-commerce sector.
About Daniel Shin
Daniel Shin is a highly accomplished entrepreneur and business leader. He has received several accolades for his innovative ventures:
- “Wharton Magazine” named him one of their “40 under 40” Wharton graduates.
- “Weekly People” named him CEO of the Year.
- “Maeil Business Newspaper” nominated him as the next-generation CEO with the highest potential.
- The World Economic Forum (WEF), Switzerland, named him the 2019 Young Global Leader.
Shin also won the Korea Internet Award on behalf of market leader TMON.
In addition to leading his pioneering companies, Shin is an angel investor. He has supported and invested in more than 40 ventures, including Team Blind, Fave, Marketit, and Pomelo Fashion.
Shin is enthusiastic about supporting promising investment opportunities early on. The angel investor leverages his strategic guidance to help talented teams looking to expand across Asia.
Shin is also a founding partner of Bass Investments, which helps clients and their advisors manage wealth in the global economy.
The entrepreneur has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
