AT THE height of the dot.com fever in 2000, professionals were quitting their jobs in droves to be the boss of their own start-ups.

They could do that because there were plenty of investors who were eager to throw money at the numerous dot.com ventures, hoping that one or two would become the next eBay or Amazon.com.

Among those who joined in the frenzy were boyhood friends and long-time colleagues Eugene Lee and Choun Chee Kong, who left comfortable jobs at multinational corporations (MNCs) to become entrepreneurs.

Both 35 then, the men had known each other since Secondary One. They left their jobs at Hewlett-Packard (HP) Singapore in 1999 to launch SurfGold, a portal that helps companies keep track of their customer lists, cross-sells databases and runs loyalty programmes.

They could not believe their luck, it was all too easy at first. It did not take much persuasion for investors and clients to come forward.

Corporations would pay top dollar for customer referrals through the portal.

The start-up got US$2 million (S$3 million) from venture capitalists in their first round of fund raising.

"It was easy money, in a way," recalls Mr Choun, now 42, and SurfGold's group managing director. "But there was a lot of hype on the dot.com scene. Some investors wanted us to produce numbers that were simply not realistic.

"And it was difficult for the market to separate the hype from the real fundamentals."

But in early 2000, the dot.com bubble burst. Many start-ups folded without making a cent, and their erstwhile chief executives trudged back to office jobs.

Investors turned cautious. Companies spent less on newfangled services such as customer relationship management, SurfGold's forte.

"It became very tough for any young company," recounted Mr Lee, the firm's chief executive.

"A lot of start-ups back then are no longer around. Gone. Disappeared."

SurfGold survived by expanding from the B2C (business-to-consumer) model to B2B (business-to -business) - managing relationships between large corporations and their Asian distributors and resellers.

With Singapore reeling from the tech bust, the firm had to rely more on its South Korean, Indian and Chinese business.

Staying together

It also helped that 10 former colleagues who left their jobs to join the two men to help manage SurfGold's six Asian offices stayed on.

"I'm sure some of them had their doubts. But they stuck around, through the good times and bad, right up to today. That was a lot of trust, during those trying times," said Mr Lee, the son of coffeeshop owners.

Trust was also the reason that the two have never had disagreements over the business in the last seven years, the pair revealed during an interview punctuated with good-natured ribbing and raucous laughter.

"It comes from knowing each other's strengths and weaknesses," says Mr Choun.

It is a trust built from their days as classmates at Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary School, where they spent endless afternoons playing soccer.

"We are in the same class. He was the top student and I was at the bottom," Mr Lee offers, before bursting into a laughter.

"Eugene has always been the one with high emotional quotient," says Mr Choun.

"Chee Kong is the brains," pips Mr Lee. "He's methodical in the way he thinks. He always thinks of potential consequences."

The two remained buddies through the years, even when they parted for university education - Mr Lee left for the United States to study marketing while Mr Choun went to Japan on a government scholarship to study information
technology.

In the 1990s, both found their way to different departments in the same company - HP. Both were married and had started their own families by then. Mr Lee has two children while Mr Choun has three children.

Together again, they would bring their families to meet regularly on weekends.

It was during one such session, with their children milling around, that the two men spotted a trend and began to hatch a business idea.

Building a vision

Why not build a portal to manage relationships in the online era?

"We wanted to manage relationships, not in a lovey-dovey sense," explains Mr Lee. But a commercial relationship between say, a fishmonger and his customer.

"The fishmonger knows his customers' names and preferences. But today, you go to the supermarket for fish. The guy at the counter doesn't know you from any other shopper."

Because relationships have evolved from the face-to-face kind to one that is based on technology, they figured there would be demand if one could find a high-tech way to replicate the good old familiarity between buyer and seller.

Using Mr Lee's marketing expertise and Mr Choun's technology know-how, they devised a system to manage customer information, track their consumption habits and reward them for their custom with tailor-made gift catalogues.

They also offered loyalty programmes to MNCs' distributors as well as their employees.

With their team of 10 core managers stationed in China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, South Korea and Taiwan, SurfGold soon made a name for itself as a provider of pan-Asian loyalty programmes.

Their clients include their former employer HP, software giant Microsoft, brewery Guinness and credit card company Samsung Cards.

Turning around

"A major milestone came in 2002, when we became a profitable company," reports Mr Lee.

Since then, sales have continued to grow steadily. They reached $39 million last year and are expected to cross $43 million this year.

Their team has grown to around 250 staff across Asia, with plans to establish more offices in the region such as in Japan and southern China.

When they started on their venture, each had no idea if their friendship would survive the ups and downs of being business partners.

"It was by trial and error," says Mr Choun.

As it turned out, they had found the right time, right place - and in each other - the right business partner.

Today, they have no regrets about giving up their jobs and taking the entrepreneurial route.

"A lot of time, people worry too much. There's no need to. Just do it with some gusto, some passion. Do the best you can," says Mr Lee.

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