Hi
Ben here to close off this section.
I’m the design side of the team, and believe me, it hasn't been easy. Like Ted said, we went through multiple discussions.
For design, I'll let the portfolio speak for itself. But I also want to set a few things straight. The whole positioning of Freakyyy is that we're an operator led collective.
If you got through the whole letter without ease, then it's probably not for you. But the one thing we did agree on is that we want to move with ease. The focus is on ideation to launch. A part most people wouldn't give a second thought to.
Ted talked about Freakyyy as a safety net. That idea didn't sit with me at first. A safety net? It makes us sound unsure or even like we're preparing to fail. I see it more like insurance. You hope you never need it.
But if something goes wrong, it saves you. The problem is that the people who need it most often don't realize it until they've already fallen. They buy in, cancel when nothing bad happens and walk away thinking they wasted money — because they never reached the stage where it was "triggered."
Now, the other thing. Freakyyy is leaning into technology. Intentionally — It speeds things up & It's productive.
But it can also cause a mess.
Let me give you a real example. In Cambodia and other less developed countries, we've had people argue a point and then say, "AI says it," like that ends the conversation. They're so amazed by the tools that they rely on them completely — to build websites, to run marketing. AI can be efficient, but misused, it's a disaster.
Here's a small one: SEO isn't just inputting HTML codes. You can actually register your site with Google directly. Simple. Missed constantly.
And it's not just AI. We see agencies putting out websites where the reviews are identical across completely different products. That's not strategy. That's hallucination, and nobody's taking the blame.
This newsletter will share our progress with tech and work as we go. Disagreeing views are welcome. We're committed to holding the line — balancing the gaps we see, not just in market entry, but in development itself, in any gap. Because gaps come from differences in opinion, and we stand proud to be the first ones naming that.
The five of us aren't perfect but collectively we're stronger than alone — franchising, celebrity IP, cross market, market entry, negotiation and the USP understanding culture.
But the key question here is — can anyone fully understand culture? Who is to guarantee the end target we are basing our understanding on is the correct representation of the country culture?
No one can. Not even an analysis across 1000 people. Nobody can stand out and convince me they are the right representation.
I take that two ways. Our understanding of culture is flawed at all times there's a conflicting opinion. Only by accepting it can we learn. Localization isn't translation. We start a project able to answer clients confidently, not disappearing after handover, leaving them pinning it on bad luck, their staff, or their landlord.
And here's the thing: your business starts before you know it. We've had clients who weren't sure about grants because they'd already burned time on too many feeble attempts. They fit the criteria, but they missed one mandatory requirement: the company had to be incorporated within the last six months. They didn't know. It cost them.
We help clients plan the whole set up through experience. Do you know a delay in renovation can cost you a month rent (an additional month in Hong Kong will drain your budget significantly — we used Cambodia to mitigate that.)
The clients who have been through it? They are thankful. Those who don't? They don't even know they have us to thank.
We are not there to interfere with your renovation per se or convince you to shift your whole operations to Cambodia. We are here to tell you the structural damages you could have avoided and the steps you can improve.
That's why we start every client with a simple question: What is your goal? Where do you want to be? Because the starting point has to be foundational. Otherwise, you crumble when the mishaps hit. And while we can't promise you the stars and the moon, we can assure you that shit will happen.
Is that worth the money? We are too cheap to be honest. And it won't stay long that way.