Introducing Wild Ting Enterprises

I'm happy to unveil today about a weeks worth of work coming up with the equity for my umbrella company, Wild Ting Enterprises. It was actually a lot of fun because I got to put down exactly what I was thinking. The process of designing the logo was actually extremely helpful in coming up with the equity, so I'll just talk about how the logo came about!

I wanted to start with the Chinese character for my last name. I always thought it was neat that the character itself looked a lot like the letter "T", which would be perfect for a logo with "Ting" in it. For those of you who don't read Chinese, that's the symbol that's in gold. I think it's neat that if you didn't read Chinese, it would be a neat looking logo. I had one person ask me why every logo design submitted had the "T" written that way. There's your answer Karen! This word is the third easiest Chinese character to write in the Chinese language (the easiest being the character for "one" which is just one line across, and second easiest "two" being two lines across).

The next part I wanted in the logo was the idea of many random things coming together into one. I wanted a "chaos theory" type concept, where out of randomness comes beautiful order. I'm a very random thinker. I tend to connect things that may appear to be very different on the surface but if you look more abstractly it's very clear. I'm not a detailed planner, I think in this "order out of randomness" style that many institutions tried to straighten out of me. I thought about doing something with fractals, which I still think is a pretty neat idea that I might incorporate into a logo in the future.

I ended up with a photomosiac concept... I'm sure you've seen them before, they're these computer generated pictures made up of a lot of smaller pictures. That's what the squares of different shades of red represent. The idea is taking many individual ventures, represented by individual pictures, which really have no pattern to them, and putting them together to form a bigger picture. There are also little squares in the process of coming into place in the upper right to indicate that I plan on constantly adding new ventures to the mosaic.

The color scheme comes out of the idea of a Chinese red envelope. These red envelopes are most known for being given out during Chinese New Year from your elders. They symbolize good fortune and contain money... both things a good business enterprise needs! I also like the idea of respecting those who have come before you and helping others who come after you (being a mentor and having a mentor). And finally, it's very fitting because my last day at P&G was on Chinese New Year Day.

So there you go! Feel free to check out the website, www.wildting.com. There I've listed a few placeholder ventures that I have been working on, or are planning to work on. This list isn't quite complete yet as I'm still converging on what ventures I'll be working on.

Introducing Wild Ting Enterprises

Anti dot.bomb model

As I'm getting my umbrella entity set up, I'm trying to figure out what my company will stand for, what principles will guide it, and what we're trying to do. One thing I knew I didn't want was to do the dot.bomb business model, but I couldn't put my finger on what the anti-dot.bomb business model was. I think bootstrapping is as close as it gets. I ran across Chris Garrett's posting on Escape Velocity called Bootstrapping Rules that hit it right on the head. I like how Chris mentioned how this mentality changes your operating strategy. I definitely plan on incorporating these principles in my fledgling company!

Anti dot.bomb model

Ta da!

Well, after many years of adopting a "don't ask don't tell" type policy for my Corporatepreneurial ventures, I think I'm ready to talk about myself. It's only fitting that Adam let the secret out on his blog, as I've used him and others as role models to get myself to the point I am now.

My name is Dale Ting. I live in Cincinnati, OH and recently left a Fortune 50 company.... Of course, that company would be Procter and Gamble, makers of Tide, Downy, Bounce, Crest, Swiffer, Pringles, etc. etc. etc. (As an aside, P&G owns Gillette, which was Adam's former company's archnemisis. My idea for the product to end this "more blades" war would be to invent an infinity bladed razor. Basically, you have a just a field of billions of tiny razors. Then what would they do, infinity plus one?)

You'd be hard pressed to find a consumer products company bigger than P&G. I spent 10 years at P&G after graduating from the University of Wisconsin with a Chemical Engineering degree. So I'm another engineer turned entrepreneur. I've just now stopped referring to P&G as "we" - it's a hard habit to break after 10 years there. I've also just recently gotten more comfortable with calling myself an entrepreneur.

I'm also an ABC - American Born Chinese. This dynamic played out in the fears that I had to get over to make this move. I've mentioned my dad many times before in this blog, and one of the cultural things I had to get over was the strong desire to please your parents. My dad wasn't quite Tiger Mom (thank goodness) but the cultural values were there. I'm happy to report, my dad recently sent me an article that said people who were doing what fulfills them were happier and lived longer. He also has been helping me with one of the new ventures I've started up. So things have turned out great on that front as well.

I was originally going to go into entrepreneurship cold turkey... No income, only a bunch of ideas that needed vetting out. But I was lucky that an opportunity came along with a company called oneCARE, a much smaller company (actually 1000X smaller) who among other things licenses P&G brands and comes up with the smaller products off that brand (i.e. anything Bounce that's not dryer sheets, anything Tide that's not detergent). It was a perfect fit as they were located in Cincinnati and could use my experience with P&G. They also were great in providing me the flexibility to work part time so I could work on my entrepreneurial ventures. I hope to reward them for this opportunity by launching a bunch of products!

I'm hoping this post shows you the real human being behind this blog, and removes some barriers for me in networking with everyone out there.

Ta da!