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Desmond Lim, co -founder and CEO of Worktream.
Courtesy of Desmond Lim
Desmond Lim is no stranger to hard work.
At the age of seven, he fell in love with basketball, but when his family could not afford to buy his own ball, he came up with the money alone.
“The money was always tight,” Lim a CNBC does it. “My parents are workers per hour. My dad is a driver. My mother is a cleaner.”
“I chose a free sport, so I can play any day I would like,” Lim said. “I saved for 60 days without lunch, to (have) enough money to buy the ball. Then, I clung to that orange rubber ball and played it for five years, every day, until I was bald.”
That attitude has served him well in life. Today, the 39 -year -old is the co -founder and CEO of Work transmissionA human resources, payroll and hiring platform for the workforce per hour. The company has raised around $ 120 million to date.
Humble beginnings
Lim was born and grew in Singapore and was the first in his family to attend university. From selling eggs in the local market to driving trucks, says Lim, most of their extended family, including their parents, were workers per hour.
“(My parents) both just finished fourth grade,” he said. “My dad is awake at 5 in the morning every morning, and arrives home at seven, and works six and a half days per week. He barely stops for lunch.”
Desmond Lim, co -founder and CEO of Worktream, with their parents.
Courtesy of Desmond Lim
Lim saw the grain and work ethics that their parents had and applied those characteristics to their own life. In high SchEITHEROl, not only was a better student, but also directed the basketball team of his school, as Captain, to win a national competition.
“When we won the high school championship, I was the captain who wore our school flag and ran throughout the school while the school cheered our victory … I think that moment changed my life,” he said. “Sport taught me that you need time, patience and a team of people to build something great.”
Lim was also selected to play basketball professionally for the National Youth Team of Singapore while in high school. It was quickly clear that he had the skills to enter a superior university, but his family did not have the means to support his education.
Desmond Lim with your basketball team in Singapore.
Courtesy of Desmond Lim
“My mother told me: ‘I can’t pay for your university. You shouldn’t go to university. You should go to work,” Lim said. “That pushed me to discover how to go to college on my own.”
Ultimately, Lim’s business trip was born largely from a need. He said he started businesses as he was young to pay school rates.
In addition to focusing on his studies and basketball, Lim began his own tutoring business in high school. In two years, he says, that business generated around $ 100,000 in income, which was enough to pay its university education.
That tutoring company became the first of several companies that Lim began.
Similarly, while studying at the Singapore Management University, Lim looked at a new goal: he wanted to move to the United States to obtain a master’s degree. To save money, it started and started another business: a Thai meal restaurant – While continuing to complete your title.
After graduating from the University in 2010, Lim worked in investment banking for several years before moving to the United States for his mastery at Harvard University in July 2013.
‘I was so hungry’
While he was in Harvard, Lim concentrated on establishing his own technological startup.
“I was so hungry when I was in Harvard, I felt that I was drinking from a mania of fire. Typical people take four classes: I was doing seven classes each term,” he said.
During his first year in Harvard, Lim Cold sent an email to about 50 new companies in the San Francisco Bay area, hoping to obtain some home experience. That winter holiday, flew to California, where he slept on a friend’s couch and worked on a startup of educational technology for free.
Desmond Lim with his Harvard classmates during guidance week.
Courtesy of demond lim
“And the following summer, I worked for free for Wechat … before becoming a full -time role. So, I was so hungry to learn above all, about new companies and the construction of the company,” said Lim.
In 2016, Lim sat in a friend’s class at Stanford’s graduate business school called “Starting garage“
“It is the same class from which companies like Dordash and Sofi came out,” he said. “Our job was to go out to talk to business owners, so we talked with tens, if not hundreds of business owners around Palo Alto, and we heard about weak points.”
A business they talked about was Cupa Cafe, a chain of family coffee shops with departures around Stanford and Palo Alto. It was during this conversation that Lim discovered the idea of Worktream.
He discovered that the company did not have the right tools to efficiently manage its workforce per hour. They were using seven different tools, including Google Drive and simply writing things manually with pencil and paper, said Lim.
“I (I thought) this is a lot of work. There must be something that we can do better for them,” he said. “So I think that was the moment, combined with my experience by directing my own restaurant, along with my parents were people per hour.”
Desmond lim with their co -founders, Lei Xu and Max Wang.
Courtesy of Desmond Lim
After completing his postgraduate program in Harvard, Lim moved to the Bay area in 2016 and co -founded Worktream in September 2017 with Lei Xu and Max Wang.
Three short months later, on January 4, 2018, Worktream had its first client to pay: Cupa Cafe paid Lim and his co -founders $ 100.
Work transmission construction
The first days of work transmission involved many door blows.
“It was fun … (I was) selling door to door, with some help from Max and Lei. So we were only three immigrants in the streets of Palo Alto trying to call the doors and talk to people. It was a species From fun (y) we learned a lot, “Lim said.
Desmond Lim with the first Worktream investor, Eric Yuan.
Courtesy of Desmond Lim
The company’s first investment was a $ 25,000 check written by Eric Yuan, the founder and CEO of Zoom.
“First I contacted Eric about 9 to 10 years the first year in which I went out to the valley … I think it was a cold email (Y) I said ‘, can I meet you for lunch just to learn how partner Immigrants founder? ” Yuan said yes, and proceeded to have a great one -hour conversation at lunch.
From there, the two remained friends for approximately a decade, and when Lim contacted to obtain funds for his company, the founder of Zoom quickly became the first sponsor of Worktream.
“He didn’t even ask me what I was going to build. I said I was going to build a platform for space per hour, and he said: ‘Okay, I think in you,” Lim said. “Since then, (Yuan) has actually doubled in each round. He has now invested more than seven figures in the company in the last seven years.”
Desmond Lim with members of the work team in 2024.
Courtesy of Desmond Lim
Today, Worktream is a human resources and payroll software all in one created for companies per hour.
“The purpose of our company is: ‘Without desktop deserves better’. We believe that the economy per hour is very neglected.
“There are many payroll tools, but everything is built for people working in technology, who work in office, who (are) desk first,” Lim said. “Then, what we have built is a mobile software first and promoted by AI to help (companies per hour) to make their payroll, incorporation of human resources, all in the same place, to help them save money and time.”
Worktream customers include brands such as Burger King and Dunkin ‘Donuts. The company’s sponsors include Gold House, Peter Thiel and Ken Howery’s Founders Fund, Jay-Z and Tony Xu de Dordash.
What is “more crucial” than hard work?
Lim had a strong work ethic from the beginning. It was inspired to see their parents and relatives hurry as workers per hour to make a living, but there is a feature that says it can be even more important.
“Try to explore and discover what you really want to do. Sometimes I feel that making the right decision is even more crucial than trying to work very hard,” he said.
“I think one thing I did when I was younger was that I talked to many people,” Lim said. “I was very curious, and I would write to teachers at school, I would write to the founders. I was only having informative chats with people I admired for 20 minutes, for 10 minutes, for lunch.”
“I was very hungry to learn from people, and I think that really helped me to shape how I think and who I have become today,” he said.
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