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ENTREPRENEUR
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Inspirations
from
Home
BensonChang, co-founder of TABLEAPP, finds inspiration
fromhis past experienceworking in his family business.
A
graduate f rom the
National Cheng Kung
University in Taiwan,
where he met hi s
co-founder, Benson
Chang has come a
long way before his
success with TABLEAPP. Benson used
to spend his earlier days at his family’s
restaurant, answering phone calls from
their customers, before leaving for
Taiwan to pursue his degree and master’s.
Looking back in time, Benson recalls his
inspiration for starting TABLEAPP and
shares with us his pursuits for success.
What isTABLEAPP?
TABLEAPP is a free application that
provides online restaurant reservation
services for diners and guest- management
solutions for restaurants. The app helps
diners secure that restaurant experience
they love, making eating out better than
ever by enabling them to make free real-
time restaurant reservations quickly and
easily, 24-7, with instant confirmation
online. TABLEAPP also assists diners with
restaurant browsing based on location,
date and party size. Reservations are free
and can be made within a minute.
What inspiredyoutostartTABLEAPP?
My family has been running a food and
beverage business in Penang for over 35
years. We have five outlets there and I
used to help my parents as a cashier and
“customer service” – I answer the phone
calls from customers. At that time, I felt
that answering numerous phone calls was
a big hassle, especially during peak hours
when I needed to juggle between waiting
tables, being the cashier and answering
calls. I wished then I had a solution that
could take answering calls off my hands
and that was what inspired me to work
on TABLEAPP.
How much has the company grown since
itsstartup?
Since its launch in June 2013, TABLEAPP
has signed with more than 60 restaurants
and sent more than 10,000 diners to our
partner restaurants. That’s definitely an
achievement that we are proud of and we
look forward to have more restaurants in
our listing this year.
Inyourexperience, isithardtobuildastartup
inMalaysia?
Yes. It is not easy to build a startup in
Malaysia, but then again, it’s not easy
to build a startup anywhere, especially
if you have no experience in doing so.
With TABLEAPP however, we were
lucky enough to receive a lot of help and
support from friends, private incubators,
mentors as well as the government.
What was your biggest challenge when
startingupTABLEAPP?
One of our biggest challenges was to
convince restaurant owners to be our
merchants. We had no track record
to back us up. So it was very hard to
convince merchants to join us, evenwhen
we offered them a free trial.