Nathaniel Yim: From Broke Founder to B2B Builder, Logistics Lessons & Why Human Creativity Still Wins – E639

"For the first four to five months, I was working three part-time jobs just to earn enough money to take the bus and then work on Janio full-time. I looked at him and said, all I have in my wallet is all I have, no money left. The next week, the funding came in, and we could finally pay ourselves, and I could eat my chai fan. It was a real moment for me when I couldn’t even withdraw cash from the ATM because I only had five dollars left. The best thing to do was to delete Instagram. Having some social life is important, but just don’t look at what other people are doing because it’s a different path. The only proper comparison is to look at who you were yesterday." - Nathaniel Yim, Founder of Nila Studios

"What is more interesting is the business understanding. When we work with clients like SaaS companies, we don’t just look at your sales deck, put a GPT summary, and use it to write copy. We look at your product. I ask, can you give me login access to your software? I want to use it. Then I know how it works. I look at your competitors, sign up for a trial account, and see the difference. Then I can present you better. The second part is understanding how it fits into sales. It has to flow from digital platforms to your interactions with the sales team or when you put in a credit card. The whole process needs to connect, because if it’s in a vacuum, that’s where things fall apart." - Nathaniel Yim, Founder of Nila Studios

"You will not work with people you don't trust, and in the early days when there’s no corporate brand, your trust is your relational equity. Brand equity means if I look at a company, do I feel good about working with you? Borrowing that equity came through partnerships, and because we stood on their shoulders together, it was much easier to gain credibility behind the brand. When a merchant walks in to drop off goods and sees purple FedEx, red NinjaVan, blue Janio, and yellow DHL, it feels like one category. Small things like that and partnerships were critical in the early days to form credibility." - Nathaniel Yim, Founder of Nila Studios

Nathaniel Yim, Founder of Nila Studios and former Co-Founder of Janio, joins Jeremy Au to share how he went from a fresh graduate to leading one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing logistics startups and later building a B2B marketing agency. They discuss how to earn trust in a mature industry, why human creativity remains vital in the AI era, and what resilience looks like when founders face real hardship. The conversation highlights lessons on credibility, adaptability, and building lasting value through learning by doing.