Yahoo Finance 
How founder of X10 Media in Singapore turned S$20,000 starting capital into 7-figure revenue
Sky Lim, the founder of influencer marketing agency X10 Media, shares how he achieved success in eight years.
SINGAPORE — When Sky Lim, 30, started his influencer marketing agency, X10 Media, in 2016, he had only 15 social media influencers to work with. Today, X10 Media, with its roster of 3,000 influencers in Singapore and Malaysia, has been acquired by TSL Media Group.
Lim, who said that X10 Media used to generate a seven-figure revenue, now serves as the Regional Business Director for the group.
Motivated to provide
Speaking to Yahoo Finance Singapore, Lim, who said that he started his company with some S$20,000, shared that finances were tight for his family while he was growing up.
His father earned about S$1,800 per month from working labour-intensive jobs to support the family, including selling vegetables to hawker stalls and delivering goods for logistics companies. His mother worked odd jobs, such as handing out flyers and being a cashier, earning an average of about S$6 per hour.
"I saw them really struggle. My mum, at times, even had to pawn away some of her gold just to have extra money for tuition and our things," Lim, the eldest of three siblings, recalled.
The family's financial circumstances led him to take up part-time sales work while he was still a teenager in school. From then on, Lim said he stopped taking allowances and instead, gave a portion of his earnings to his parents.
During his tertiary education days, Lim continued to work part-time in sales roles and joined an events management team. Although the pay wasn't outstanding, Lim said that working part-time jobs gave him invaluable experiences and skills that developed into a passion for selling, which he carried with him throughout his entrepreneurial journey.
Laying a foundation
According to Lim, the founding of X10 Media was a culmination of events and chance encounters that happened when he came out to look for work after completing national service. Guided by his goal of acquiring certain skill sets, Lim sought out employment opportunities that would allow him to learn.
In his early 20s, Lim joined a marketing agency owned by an entrepreneur named Gregg Lewis, an individual who would later reappear in his life and be brought in as an advisor and investor at X10 Media. Here, he was exposed to social media management and the use of editorial calendars for scheduling content.
Soon after, Lim joined an events management firm as he wanted to dive into business development and sales. He picked up the art of pitching to clients and learned how to generate their interest. While he held his day job during the day, Lim said he would continue hustling in the evenings, selling tickets for local events such as beach parties.
This was the period when Lim said he built his network of "micro-influencers" – social media content creators who have between 1,000 and 100,000 followers – and the capital for starting X10 Media. At the peak, Lim said that he had about 80 event promoters under him and sold about 1,000 tickets per event. He earned an average of about S$3,000 per month doing event sales.
Lim's night-time hustle eventually became a full-time enterprise as Lim set up his own events company, which subsequently pivoted into an influencer marketing agency some years later.
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Heavy rejections
When it first launched in 2018, Lim said the company found it difficult to gain traction with prospective clients, given the novelty of the concept of micro-influencers at the time. The fledgling company was without income as no brands were willing to pay, and Lim said that it was hard to even convince some companies to take up a free trial.
"Every pitch to brands was really challenging. They didn't understand the significance of micro-influencers. No matter how many proposals we made, they never got accepted," said Lim.
Furthermore, Lim was young and leading a company with no track record. He said that it was hard for him to build credibility and trust with potential clients, and felt through their body language that they weren't convinced of his capabilities.
A lot of times, people don't really see how long it took us to get to where we are.Sky Lim, founder, X10 Media
To make matters worse, Lim's parents and family members were growing concerned over his career choice. In the early years, Lim said that he would only draw a monthly income of about S$500 to S$1,000, barely enough to survive.
"My family would be concerned, suggesting that I get a proper job. I used to see that as discouragement from pursuing my dreams, but as I matured, I saw that they did it out of concern. But it was challenging.
"My younger siblings were ahead of me as they had full-time jobs. They were drawing more pay than me, and they could give my parents more. As the oldest, it was not an easy path," he recalled.
Glowing up
Things started to turn around for the company as more competitors entered the market, which Lim believes helped raise clients' awareness and education of the concept. Companies became more willing to pay for micro-influencer campaigns.
The agency then started to scale up in a big way around 2021, ironically when the rest of the world went into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While he initially panicked at the prospect of not being able to meet clients, Lim credits his former boss-turned-advisor, Lewis, for pointing the team in the right direction.
"Gregg had that vision to tell us that we needed to start serving industries that are still a need for consumers during the lockdown period, like FMCGs (fast-moving consumer goods) and furniture brands," said Lim.
Additionally, Lim said that it helped that most of the client pitches were done through video meetings during this period, removing the body language factor. Another strategy was to introduce more "friendly" payment terms, which allowed for instalments and discounted rates for smaller margins.
As a result of these implementations, Lim said that the company grew from earning a "low five-figure" monthly revenue to getting six-figures in revenue.
"A lot of times, people don't really see how long it took us to get to where we are. The thing about entrepreneurship is that there's no guarantee of success.
"It's walking the tunnel without seeing the light. You just have to keep walking," said Lim.
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