Victor Tam of Flexibility: How I Developed a Viral Product in Six Weeks and Pivoted During the Pandemic

The COVID19 pandemic has disrupted all of our lives. But sometimes disruptions can be times of opportunity. Many people’s livelihoods have been hurt by the pandemic. But some saw this as an opportune time to take their lives in a new direction.

As a part of this series called “How I Was Able To Pivot To A New Exciting Opportunity Because Of The Pandemic”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Victor Tam, CEO & Co-Founder at Monos.

Change and disruption — these are two things that Victor has grown to be very familiar with throughout his career. Starting his first business in high school, Victor has been involved in a number of successful ventures in the digital eCommerce space for the past 20 years.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?

I was born in Hong Kong, my family immigrated to Vancouver, Canada at the age of 4. I grew up working weekends at my dad’s gas station from the age of 10, helping out to pump gas, or squeegee windows. Many lessons were learned there, the value of hard work, delighting the customer, and consistency.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one” — Bruce Lee

The only way is to embrace life and all of its twists and turns when you have the strength to endure. All your perspective changes and you start enjoying the process and start to become more grateful.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

How I built this — By Guy Raz
Acquired Podcast — Ben and David
Raw authentic stories of how great companies were built, the struggles, the decisions, and the scaling. All very relatable for me, entrepreneurship is a very lonely journey most times.

Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. Can you tell our readers about your career experience before the Pandemic began?

I’ve been involved in the digital space since the mid-90s starting in high school. Learning to build websites, learning how to drive traffic, whether it was from link exchanges, email marketing, SEO or social. I have seen the evolution of what used to work to what is currently working.

What did you do to pivot as a result of the Pandemic?

We looked internally at the strength of our team, we knew we had the skillset and experience to design and bring any product to market and be able to market it successfully. We developed the Monos CleanPod in under 6 weeks and it was highly successful for us generating 7 figures of revenue within 2 months.

Can you tell us about the specific “Aha moment” that gave you the idea to start this new path?

Touching my phone immediately after I washed my hands, realizing how many wipes I was using to clean our daily objects. I thought there were better devices that could be used and would be friendlier to the world as well.

How are things going with this new initiative?

Great, we leveraged the success of the CleanPod and doubled down our efforts with our luggage and travel accessories.

Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My wife, I think she’s truly the only person that has witnessed the entire journey thus far. She is my biggest critic and always pushes and challenges me. Absolutely a strong pillar of support through my highs and lows.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started in this new direction?

Our product being featured on live television and receiving 1000s of orders within a span of 5 minutes.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started leading my organization” and why? Please share a story or example for each.

I believe I am just at the very start of the Monos journey, everything leading up to this point and the decisions made I’ve had no regrets so far so don’t really have a list of 5 things. I think if you asked me this in 3–5 years as I truly charter some unchartered territories of scaling this company I’ll have some thoughtful answers

So many of us have become anxious from the dramatic jolts of the news cycle. Can you share the strategies that you have used to optimize your mental wellness during this stressful period?

I run, a lot. Waking up at 5 and having the city to myself is truly a magical time. Being in the flow state, allows for mental clarity and lets me reflect on my personal and professional life. The sweat and endorphins are one of the best ways to start the day.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

Travel, the more we see and engage the more we understand each other.

Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!

GaryVee, no filter, no b.s. truly providing value both on a macro and tactical level.

How can our readers follow you online?

IG : VictorKTam
Twitter: odeenft

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!