Michael Koh
Michael Koh is an American entrepreneur. Michael started Tree To Tub in 2016 and is based in San Francisco. (source)
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Michael Koh, of Tree To TubCareer
Early Career
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Tree To Tub
Michael started Tree To Tub in 2016. They detail the beginnings of their company in their Starter Story interview: (source)
Q: How did you get started on Tree To Tub?
When I was a baby in Taiwan, I had horrible sensitive skin. Bathtime was pretty much a nightmare and the harsh chemical soaps would give me a rash every time.
Out of desperation, one day my grandma collected some Soapberries in the mountains. These Soapberries would lather up with a rub, and were used as soap by the indigenous people for thousands of years before the cheaper, more convenient, synthetic soaps became popular.
We were all surprised, the suds from these fruits didn’t sting my skin at all! I was finally able to end the bathtime nightmare, and shower like a normal kid.
When I immigrated to the U.S. as a highschooler, I was surprised that no one knew about the Soapberries, and people with sensitive skin had only these chemical-based pharmaceutical products to choose from.
They are not that gentle, smell bad, and the worst part is that their branding makes you feel like a weird, undesirable patient with skin diseases. As I gained more experience in the startup world later on, it became very obvious to me that with the Soapberry and strong branding, we could help many people feel good.
Before starting Tree To Tub, I had already built two other companies. I started a food truck business when I was studying at UC Berkeley, and that experience taught me a very important lesson:
Find a partner
Even though it was just a small food truck business, the amount of stress really pushed me to the edge sometimes. It’s always better to share both the challenges and success!
My experience with an on-demand peer to peer tutoring app startup afterwards gave me another important lesson:
Build a healthy cash flow business
A good business should make good money. However, that’s not the case in Silicon Valley where it’s all about fluffy valuations and being the “unicorn”. That just didn’t make sense to me. Cash is king!
Although I had no experience in E-Commerce, I believe the prior entrepreneurial experiences gave me lots of valuable lessons and most importantly, the confidence and grit we needed for this business.
Source (source)
"An amazing network of founders that truly want to help each other grow their business."