Startup Advice from Norma, Founder of DayDayCook

“I’m stressed when I’m not working — that’s what passion is.”

From Fresh Abalone to Chinese Marinated Chicken, there is a wide variety of cooking videos produced by DayDayCook. Started as a blog 4 years ago, DayDayCook has evolved into a fast-growing culinary platform with millions of subscribers online.

In this sunny afternoon, we met with Norma, Founder of DayDayCook, who shared with us her exciting vision and how she got to where she is now.

How it all started

Born in Hong Kong and grew up in the US, Norma loved cooking in her spare time. While looking for Chinese home-made dishes recipes, she realized that there is a lack of appealing or informative recipes online — this led to the start of her bilingual culinary blog.

“Home cooking is about spending time together with loved ones and putting in effort to cook for them.”

Back then, Norma was a star performer as an equity research analyst who quickly rose up to be the Head of Equity Research at HSBC Private Bank. However, the busy work schedule did not stop the foodie from pursuing her passion and eventually growing that into her own business.

From thousands to millions

“I want to do something scalable. I want to do something that can reach millions of people.”

Norma stressed that timing is key in growing one’s business. In order to grow the reach of her business, Norma would try out new social platforms aggressively. Apart from taking advantage of organic reach on Facebook, she created content in different forms to tailor to various video platforms — such as micro-videos and live streaming.

“If you are following what other people are doing, it’s already too late.”

Pain Point = Opportunity

Norma could not stress enough on the importance of knowing your audience. She has a clear demographics in mind — people who are soon getting married, as they have the desire to learn cooking. In Hong Kong, it is the people in their 30s; while in China where people get married at a younger age, the target audience is in their 20s.

“If you want to start a brand, you have to know your viewers and understand them better.”

What drives Norma to expand her business was her desire to solve consumers’ pain points. Apart from posting beautiful photos and putting up well-edited videos, Norma is now using WeChat to provide direct purchase services to the viewers. She is also developing her own branded products with packaging and sizes that are tailored to her young audience.

Surround yourself with smart(er) people

“You have to realise that at one point, you can’t carry your business further just by yourself.”

There are two ways for you to start your business — either as a single-founder or with a co-founding team. Norma chose to do it with a team that consists of people who are more talented in certain aspects that she is.

“If there are too many co-founders, everybody is too shy to talk about ownership.”

However on the other hand, Norma advised that a company should not have too many co-founders. When expanding the team, Norma likes to hire young chefs who are very passionate about their work.

Dream big but don’t forget the bills

In being an entrepreneur, Norma thinks it is crucial for one to be determined and realistic. From raising a friends and family round to start, to the recent Series A funding of US$5 million, Norma admits that fund-raising is stressful and nerve-wrecking but crucial to make your vision happen.

The toughest decision made in the development of DayDayCook was expanding to China. Norma explained the difficulty in reaching out to Chinese investors without a Chief Technology Officer. So how did she find her ideal CTO? She resorted to ask for referrals, and she encourages new entrepreneurs to do the same, “don’t be shy, just ask”.

“You cannot have an ego if you want to be an entrepreneur, because you will always be asking for help.”

Passion is when you are loving the 19-hour work days

“I’m stressed when I’m not working — that’s what passion is. When I’m stressed out, I’ll cook.”

What is a day like as an entrepreneur? Norma works 19 hours a day. When asked what helps her get through long work hours, Norma says “Passion. It helps go through the hours and attract people to be on your side”.

Do your best, forget the rest

To all the aspiring entrepreneurs out there, Norma advises them to do as much as they can while they are young and start early. Very often than not, Norma explains, people think way too much and “want to see success cases before they start”. But the reality is “You can’t figure everything out before going into the market”. Just like Norma’s motto to live by:

“Do your best and forget the rest!”

Thank you Norma for generously donating your time, which has raised 161 volunteer hours to Hands On Hong Kong, Principal Chan Free Tutorial World, Food Angel, Oriental Connect International Volunteer Association, Junior Achievements and more.

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By Crystal Leung, Time Auction Ambassador and Fion Leung, Co-founder of Time Auction

Volunteer Testimonials:

Berton Lee, Investment Advisor

Sincere thanks to Time Auction Hong Kong team for organizing the event, and Norma taking the time for sharing. For another blog post about the event, visit MissQT.

Rita Li, Education and Marketing Professional

It was a truly inspiring conversation with you over a variety of topics last Sunday. Thanks for sharing with us your passion for cooking, the journey of growing DayDayCook in HK and Mainland of China, the fun and challenges of being a female entrepreneur and your everyday work/life routine. I was impressed by your open-mindedness, your “why-not” attitude, your perseverance and your determination to stay focused. Also thanks for sharing with us the powerful tagline ”Do your best, forget the rest ”. It is such a wisdom!

Tabia Lui, City University Student

Dear Norma,

Thank you for sharing your time and back stories with us, and taking your patience to answer our questions.

I truly appreciate your courage, your persistence and your diligent disposition. Thank you for choosing China for the sake of giving more choice to those who were (kept) ignorant of a different (and perhaps better) lifestyle.

You have demonstrated to us the ultimate quality of a leader — to lead by example. I am sure that DayDayCook will grow exponentially under your leadership.

I wish you joy everyday and as you say, “Do your best and forget the rest!”

To your next success,
Tabia Lui

A million thanks to Time Auction (and the crew!) for organising this inspiring lunch with Norma, Founder of DayDayCook!

Bidding a meal with my volunteering hours is what I call meaningful. Not just was I more driven to serve the community I live in, but also more motivated to equip myself to become a contributing person.

The two-hour lunch is certainly a Chocolate Egg satisfying our multiple wishes. It gave us ample opportunities to savour tasteful gourmet and meet friends sharing a common interest while resolving the puzzles in our minds — from the back stories of DayDayCook, ups and downs of start-ups to the essentials of being a leader.

This is a cause worth investing our time for, through which we grow and are a step closer to a better self.

Karen Tsui, Consultant

Would like to thank Norma for a very open-hearted sharing with us. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting her and look forward to following the big strides her company is making

The lunch with Norma really tickled my thinking in many ways: about presenting the vision/idea for funding, considerations with regards to strategic partners, investors, and also key employees, as well as why sticking to your guns (or not) could make (or break) a start-up.

Again, I could not applaud Time Auction’s work more for making these opportunities for knowledge and experience sharing possible. This is my second time participating and the both times, I felt it was time and effort well-spent — with both the volunteer work pledged, as well as the meeting of the speakers. Thank you again.

Edward Ng, Independent Financial Consultant

It’s my first time to meet with a successful start up entrepreneur just next to me! What an exciting and wonderful experience! Norma’s sharing inspired me a lot on how her business mixed up her hobby and dream, that’s what she loves and what she wants to share to all of us. And it’s lovely to hear she is considering in doing more and more volunteer activities. And really appreciate Time Auction in organizing all this amazing activities:)

Thanks for encouraging people to be volunteering.

Alice Tam, HKU Student

My meeting with Norma was one of the most special moment in my life — she realised my dream of being a successful female entrepreneur who revolutionaries others’ lives while still being a hongkongese deep in her heart. During our meeting, she shared with us her experience of starting up a business from scratch, which was full of ups and downs, but there was also lessons she could learn from and improve on the business module she had been having. I really wish and long for seeing her business receiving another round of welcome as she share her cooking secret with the mainland audience. The meeting was more than what i had expected and i would recommend anyone to get in touch with Norma through signing up on Time Auction- the website that values and encourage ls the showing of love and care in your community through doing services.