Founder Spotlight: Nes Jularbal & Wilson Bumanlag of SparePartsAsia
Nes Jularbal & Wilson Bumanlag
Founder Spotlight: Nes
Jularbal & Wilson Bumanlag of SparePartsAsia
Efficiency
Through Integration: Delivery Services Made Easier By Spareparts
By Glacer Barnett
Nes
Jularbal is the CEO of SparePartsAsia, an E-commecde
platform that will serve as the one-stop shop for forklift spare parts in Asia.
In the past 10 years, more than 6 million forklifts were delivered
worldwide and more than 51% are located in Asia. That translates to a
USD3Billion forklift spare parts market in Asia alone. The market is huge. HoweverWhen it comes to tech, there is a
myriad of problems with the delivery business here in the Philippines. First,
there are too many unique parts for distribution; no dealer could possibly
carry it all in one go. There is a problem concerning unavailable parts, and
another concerning the presence of fake, or low-quality tools. Lastly, the
origins of some parts are difficult to locate because dealers don’t catalogue
items.
Spareparts
aspires to solve these problems by integrating with FedEx. So, if a customer
goes on the site and places an order, a member will go to FedEx to process it.
Furthermore, such deliveries here in the Philippines usually take 2-3 weeks to
complete, but with Spareparts, the time is reduced to a mere 3-5 days. On the
website, there is a shipping and payment system that eliminates the need for
parties to go back and forth over information details, rendering a one-stop
shop process. With all its features, Spareparts brands itself as trustworthy,
quick, and efficient.
The idea of
Spareparts first began when Jojy Azurin, Nes’ good friend and Spareparts’
initial founder and business development director, invited Nes to handle the
marketing involved for the product. Being a newly retired man with all the free
time in the world, Nes agreed to take part. His experience as a seasoned
entrepreneur with extensive knowledge in project managing and business
consulting guaranteed he was fit for the position.
After
joining, he met Nicholas Gan, Spareparts’ current marketing director. And
eventually, Wilson Bumanlag, the engineering head, was invited to join the
company as well. With Nes wanting to try something new, Jojy being really into
startups, and Nicholas wanting his inventory to move at a faster pace, a great
team was formed despite the members’ unique reasons for coming along. Their
team made them confident of the output they are to produce.
The contrasting lifestyle of an
entrepreneur for a seasoned corporate man
A few
months after its official launch, Nes describes how Spareparts created a big
change in the lifestyle he was familiar with.
Initially,
he was a man involved in different kinds of production. Nes used to be in
banking, as the head of operations. Suffice to say, the experience provided him
a solid background in finance. After that, Nes went on to the food and drink
business, office equipment production, and insurance industry. He was usually
able to show his expertise in sales and operations. The last position he had
before working in Spareparts was in Accenture, a global professional company
providing strategy, consulting, and operational and digital services.
To Nes, the
experience was enjoyable. But with a mindset of wanting to do everything on his
own, independent from catering to the specific demands of others and his
environment, he sought to break away from his previous profession. He then
chose to make his way into the startup community.
Having been
involved in the corporate world for so long, Nes talked about how he now has
more free time for leisure. He shared how he used to be too busy for his
children, and so now, he feels like he is making up for all the lost time by
becoming a better grandfather through cherishing his grandchildren.
“Focus and
commitment” are, in Nes’ point of view, the best qualities an entrepreneur
could ever have. For him, it was important that we don’t let ourselves get
distracted by small details or side activities. Also, spending too much time
worrying over failure is futile; there is no perfect guarantee and it is only
natural for people to learn from mistakes. Nes pointed out that adjusting to bumps
along the way would give us personal growth. Additionally, when it comes to
focus, it would not be wise for us to bite more than what we could chew.
Somebody
once asked Nes, “Why not look to automotive startups while you’re at it?” Well,
he believed that it would be better to give your all just one thing at a time;
proceed to another activity once you’ve perfected the current one.
When Nes
first got into sales and marketing, he had a mentor who once told him that when
one decides to sell a product, he should come to view it as something similar
to pitching a construction drill. To people, you are not selling the drill. You
are selling the hole it creates. The customer wanting to make a hole in a
specific size, but lacking the means to achieve it, is what entrepreneurs want
to solve.
The decision of support from a foreign country
Nes
observed that entrepreneurs from the Philippines and Malaysia have more or less
the same situation when it comes to startups. Companies from either country may
have a product that they believe is going to work, but the process to build
their startup would rely on the kind of government treatment they receive. And
this is where the stark contrast distinguishes the Philippines’ situation from
Malaysia’s.
The
Philippine government has a lot of catching up to do in terms of startup
development. There is no access to funds, and so as a result, there are far
less risk-takers. Meanwhile, Malaysia has a lot of big companies that are
willing to provide assistance to startups, even at a free price. Due to the
lack of government support the Philippines has for startups, Spareparts plans
to have itself registered in Malaysia, a country with a more developed
awareness for the startup community.
With such a
business move, it looks like Spareparts is set. Let’s look forward to the
company’s bright path ahead.
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