Welcome, Alexandre Besson! First things first, please introduce yourself and your business!
Alexandre Besson: Mint Evolutive designs, develops, and sells modular mechanical watches people can customize endlessly, by themselves. The watches are modular in the sense that they can be worked on and modified thanks to a series of accessories that make them endless and timeless.
Beyond selling watches, we really believe in objects that make sense to people and follow them over time.
Please tell us more about Mint Evolutive. Where are you based? How do you operate? How about your team?
Alexandre Besson: Mint Evolutive is a light and very reactive three-people structure, founded in Hong Kong where I am based, with arms and hands on the U.S and Canadian side of things.
I am in charge of design, sourcing, and operations. My partner Mike handles the marketing, the community management, and the social media matters for our market in North America. And we collaborate closely with Luis who owns a digital agency and helps us with implementing strategies on the digital side of things.
Let’s talk big picture. What problem does Mint Evolutive solve out there?
Alexandre Besson: We talk to a public of watch enthusiasts, not to say collectors, and we see two trends.
The first relates to functionality and collecting in general. Frankly, if you look at reality, it is really costly to own several watches for different needs and occasions. A watch to go to the beach, another one for business meetings, a piece for the weekend… before you know it, you own dozens and you end up wondering why you actually own that many. But do we really need that many watches, or could we collect more sensibly?
The second trend relates to the fact that watches can be a great hobby for people. The city life we’re living in can be quite stressful, especially with the pandemic and the lack of physical interaction. Plus, for the many people who live in small apartments, it becomes vital to develop hobbies in order to keep good mental health.
In essence, customizing watches with the right accessories and tools turns out to be a very (very) therapeutic hobby and people love it. Outside of one leading brand though, there isn’t much to have fun with, out there, so we decided to turn watches into an actual experience, beyond what the usual watchmaking marketing campaigns say. Own your watch, own every moment. It’s that simple.
What solution do you bring, then?
Alexandre Besson: With Mint Evolutive, we offer watch lovers and collectors the possibility to have one watch that’s inspired by traditional watchmaking codes and traditions, and that can fulfill different needs, in terms of aesthetic and functionality but also in terms of customization and fun.
Simply put, we have built a system of interchangeable but fully operating rotating bezels (Rotating Diver Bezel for Sport, Rotating Dual Time Bezel for travel, Smooth Bezel for a more dressed up look), and that gives the user endless possibilities in terms of style, colors, etc. Other than that, the watches are mechanic and built around a Japanese movement to ensure quality and durability.
It is mainly a fun DIY experience in the end, and our customers find it an awesome way to release the stressful life we’re facing in our urban environment. A way to link a watch hobby to an activity that will improve their work/life balance, a moment for yourself as well as a way to interact with the product and bring up your personal twist thru your accessories and matching outfit.
Market-wise, what makes Mint Evolutive different from the competition?
Alexandre Besson: So far it always has been possible to source online watch cases, movements and parts but watch assembly isn’t easy at it seems when you are not a pro. You need a lot of practice, tools, trial and errors, let alone screwing a couple of watch parts and movement, buying parts that don’t fit, which in the end costs you a consequent amount of money.
In contrast, Mint Evolutive is revolutionary because we made the process of watchmaking easy and accessible to people who want experience watch modding without the hassle and fear of doing it wrong. That’s the only way to make the experience fully enjoyable, and that’s what makes Mint watches a hobby and an experience.
Can you illustrate this with an example of how Mint Evolutive made an Impact on a client?
Alexandre Besson: Yes! During the pandemic, I received messages from customers who lived their lockdown pretty badly but found a most-wanted distraction (and hobby, again) using and customizing their Mint. We also received feedback from collectors of very expensive watches who realized that they had actually lived a stronger experience “playing” with their Mint than merely wearing their unaffordable pieces.
Overall, we keep receiving many thank-yous from passionate people who felt a feeling of fulfillment and achievement as well as a lot of fun. This is always very gratifying to hear something like this.
What stage of development have you reached? What can you tell us about the next steps? Anything exciting?
Alexandre Besson: We launched the business a couple of years ago and sold about two third of our stock, mainly relying on word of mouth and posting on social media. We’ve also reached more than 11.000 real followers on Instagram and met our break-even point a while ago.
It is still a side business for us, but things are moving in the right direction and with our next line we are hoping to address a wider audience and open the distribution to retail online and offline.
We are working on our new concept: we increased the modularity options with another great design thematic moving more toward the dandy than the typical watch enthusiast – which to my opinion make more sense for a modular accessories brand. I always worked in design and fashion and it appears more natural to me than geeking on product features of a movement and other components.
Let’s talk about entrepreneurship. Looking back, what was the most obvious challenge you had to overcome when you started that business?
Alexandre Besson: All of the above, really. Finding the concept, coming up with the watch design, the brand name and logo, opening a company, finding a supplier, spending my savings on prototyping, registering for copyright, building a business plan to raise funds, managing cashflow, learning photography and photo editing, understanding social media and ecommerce, sourcing the right freelancers according to the need of the situation.
And the least obvious?
Alexandre Besson: The massively important thing people underestimate is to find the right market segment and the message to address it. Marketing and communication are a huge aspect of the business and they require a lot of money to be done properly. With digital marketing and social media, you can reach a lot of potential customers but the downfall is that there is a lot of competition and with the cost of ads increasing only the big players get that visibility.
In the end, it takes a lot of time for a smaller brand to make their mark and gain credibility in the eye of their potential clients. You can come out with the best business idea or product, but if no one knows about it you won’t go very far.
What does it take to be a business owner or an entrepreneur these days?
Alexandre Besson: Entrepreneurship is a constant hassle, you are facing blind spots all day long, and therefore it is important to be surrounded by other entrepreneurs, and by mentors or business coaches who can really help you make a difference by making you think outside of your usual box. Otherwise, you stagnate and you get stuck with ideas you don’t manage to decide on…
Would you share tips as to how you manage to deal with the hurdles of being an entrepreneur? Any routines or hacks worth sharing?
Alexandre Besson: As mentioned earlier I have been lucky enough to beneficiate from an Impactified coaching program and being surrounded by successful entrepreneurs you can reach for mentoring of simple advice.
I think this is one of the good things to live in Hong Kong. The environment is beneficial to entrepreneurs. I also read a couple of good books on personal development as well as sales or marketing that helped me a lot with the business. Podcasts are also a great way to learn tricks from other people’s successes and failures.
Speaking of tips & hacks, have you read any good books on business recently? What were the main takeaways?
Alexandre Besson: Definitely! The first of the list would be the Blue Ocean Strategy. It really opened my mind on how to position yourself on the market to create value and being able to improve your overall margin and cashflow. If you are currently and business and didn’t read that book, you need to go buy it right now! I mean it!
The second book on my list would be the E Myth – Why Most Small Businesses Fail. It emphasizes the importance of demand and offer, business structure, and process. This book is a must-have as well.
The third recommendation would be Digital Marketing by Dave Chaffey. It gives you a complete overview of how digital marketing works as well as all the strategies you can apply to your business. It is a bible but there is a lot to chew in there and I mean a lot of content of very technical aspect, so not for everyone.
I’ll also give you a bonus (lol). Regarding personal development, I highly recommend all the books for De Bono on creating thinking. They are amazing books to help you develop your problem-solving skills as well as thinking outside the box and understanding other people’s perspectives.
Do you happen to listen to any podcasts you’d like to share?
Alexandre Besson: Yes, I do, less than books thou but I would say listen to Tim Ferriss Show, This Week in Startups, and How I Built This won’t hurt.
I recently joined Clubhouse but the fact that the audience is mainly in the US doesn’t really work with Asia Time line which is a pity. I think there is a business opportunity here for anyone reading this interview knowing the number of English-speaking entrepreneurs living in HK, Singapore and Manila… we should definitely do something!!
Wrapping up – how can people reach you? Anything else you’d like to share?
Alexandre Besson: People can reach us on our social media account and website as below.
You can also check our podcast: The Time Maker Podcast on our YouTube Channel MINT EVOLUTIVE. We will also be available on Spotify and other platforms soon. We are interviewing entrepreneurs in the horology world and I think we are bringing value for anyone thinking about starting a business in the watch industry.
Last but not least, life is short, so know yourself. What you like, your purpose, and do something (a job, a business) you are aligned with. Surround yourself with people aligned with your purpose, dare to get out of your comfort zone, and I think you’ll leave a fulfilling life. There’s no point worrying, what people might say or think about you, they ain’t paying for your bills…
