Up Close & Personal with Violet Lim - CEO & Co-founder, Lunch Actually
“Stay hungry and focus on things you yourself can control - your drive, your perseverance, your tenacity.”
Violet Lim, CEO & Co-Founder of Lunch Actually
About Lunch Actually
Lunch Actually is the pioneer and largest dating company with verified, screened members. Brainchild of co-founder Violet Lim, lawyer turned banker turned matchmaker, she's inspired to help single professionals find love over a simple lunch date. Violet has also founded esync - the first online matchmaking platform that focuses on giving singles compatible matches based on their values and goals. Safety is important, so esync has a team of dating consultants to verify each profile and help singles coordinate dates with the matches they're interested to meet.
Today, Lunch Actually is Asia’s biggest premier lunch dating company with offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Bangkok with the largest lunch dating membership base.
Together with husband, Jamie Lim, Violet founded Viola.AI - the world's first blockchain-powered AI love advisor. After seeing first hand the increasing online love scams that have exceeded US$2 billion with 61% of singles negative impacted, the team behind Lunch Actually Group set to launch their latest product to help singles and couples achieve happy and lasting relationship. REL-REGISTRY curates and verifies users’ relationship status and AI RECOMMENDATION predicts possible issues and proposes action plans for married and attached couples.
I have read a lot about your experience about building teams and your entrepreneurship journey. What’s the one defining moment for you in your journey? How has that changed your perspectives?
There has been plenty, but one thing that stood out was when we successfully grew more than 500% in a short period of time and hit a new revenue milestone!
During our early part of the business, our growth has been consistent but slow to moderate.
The turning point was when I was given this book by one of our board of directors called “Double Double” written by Cameron Herold, and I was challenged to do this; to double up our business every 2-3 years.
At that point, when we made this decision to hit a particular milestone, it seemed impossible and our associates thought it would not happen, but we worked hard towards it.
We came up with the roadmap, the plans, and kept tracking our progress, and finally, when we hit it, it’s an achievement and a great milestone! I think it really showed me that if you have a clear vision, visualize your success and track your goals consistently, you could achieve a breakthrough!
How do you keep yourself abreast of innovation to ensure that LA is constantly innovating?
Staying relevant to the needs of singles is definitely one of the most important things we continuously have to do. When we first started 15 years ago, we only had 1 product – lunch dating. But over the years, we have come up with online dating, dating app and date coaching services to cater to the differing needs of singles and also the current trends.
We do regular surveys to find out singles’ dating behavior and preferences and take feedback and suggestions from them to find out what they need. We also organise and take part in dating industry conferences and network with other dating players across the world to exchange knowledge and best practices.
What’s keeping you awake at night these days?
Nothing as I am one of those people who sleep within 5 minutes once my head hits my pillow. :) I suppose the question is about what I am most concerned about or what I am working on. On that note - the dating industry is fast-changing. I am constantly thinking about how we can provide better and more effective solutions to help singles achieve their objective of using our product/service.
How do you de-stress/recharge?
I practice my daily 10-10-10 which is 10 minutes of gratitude and quiet time with God, 10 minutes of reading something positive and 10 minutes of journaling. This helps me set a positive tone for the rest of the day. I also exercise 3 times a week.
One of the best ways to de-stress and recharge is definitely to spend time with my children, Corum and Cara whom I call my sunshine! No matter how bad a day might get, seeing them always bring a smile to my face. I also go on regular dates with my husband Jamie.
Who is your role model and why?
Ms Claire Chiang – She exemplifies that the modern woman can have it all – a successful and illustrious career, a happy marriage, and a fulfilling family life with 3 children. It is not easy, but if you plan ahead and expect setbacks and challenges along the way, it can be done. As modern women, we do not need to give up on any of the areas in order to have something else e.g. give up on having a career to start a family.
The late Mdm Kwa Geok Choo (wife of Mr Lee Kuan Yew) - The love story of Mdm Kwa and Mr Lee is beautiful and inspiring. He went overseas to study, and she won one of the two Queen’s scholarship to study alongside him. She was the breadwinner of the family while he pursued his career as a politician which in the early days was uncertain. She was his intellectual equal, and she was the breadwinner, yet she believed strongly in the traditional roles of men and women – always supportive and respectful of her husband.
My maternal grandmother – My grandma came from China. She had 11 children. She had to work very long hours alongside my grandfather in their small business to bring up their children. Through her hard work, intelligence and business acumen, they managed to accumulate enough money to send many of their children to study abroad, and subsequently have a more comfortable life than she had. I am inspired by her grit and perseverance and never say die attitude.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years time? Professionally & personally?
Our company’s BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal), which I have taken in to be my personal mission as well, is to create 1 million happy marriages through our work at Lunch Actually! Having met the love of my life at 20, getting married at 25 and having 2 kids by 29, I’ve been blessed in my personal life. I want to pay it forward and help others achieve the happiness that I have found.
What advise would you give to budding entrepreneurs? 3 Takeaways?
Stay hungry and focus on things you yourself can control - your drive, your perseverance, your tenacity. Because there will always be challenges for different types of entrepreneurs out there. E.g. young entrepreneurs, F&B entrepreneurs or in some communities, even entrepreneurs from a certain race or maybe background. As entrepreneurs, I believe that it is more productive and effective to create the right condition for ourselves rather than waiting for others to improve upon the existing conditions.
Open up and share with one another. Don't be too shy to ask. A lot of people, when they go into business, would feel like they need to do everything on their own. But the truth is that, there are a lot of people who have walked the same paths and gone through the same trials and errors, and if you would just ask for advice, help, or guidance, you'd be surprised that a lot of them are actually more than willing to share their experiences. So you don't have to go through what they have gone through and make the mistakes they have made. Joining EO (Entrepreneurs’ Organization) is one of the best decisions I made - learning from other entrepreneurs who are open to sharing their own journeys and best practices with you.
Lastly, harsh as it might sound, not everybody is suited to be an entrepreneur. Some people become entrepreneurs to work shorter hours or to boss other people around. That might happen eventually one day, but in the early days, one needs to roll up one’s sleeves and be ready to put in very long hours, willing to do anything and everything to make the business succeed and be paid for purely for results and not for by hours put in. So, go into entrepreneurship with both eyes open, be ready to work harder than you have ever worked, be humble, and always be learning and improving. And if you are ready to do that, entrepreneurship would definitely be one if not the most rewarding journeys that you will take.