Freaklabs' Christopher Wang, a new model of underground indie engineer, part 1

Three years ago at 33, Christopher Wang left a jetsetting corporate life to become a rogue engineer with an entirely new vision of a wireless world. Now his vision is coming true. In this first of two parts, Chris discusses his unconventional approach to business that, by mainstream standards, should be too ethical to work. (Oh yeah, this badass is also my brother.) 

Who were you in your former corporate life?
I was on my seventh company working as an engineer designing integrated circuits and electronics. When I moved to Japan with my then-girlfriend seven years ago, I worked for the same American company, but did sales and client relations instead. I had to wear suits, travel all over Asia and schmooze with businessmen. It was horrible. It didn’t fit my character, goals, beliefs or nature to force people to buy average stuff. You have to believe you’re selling the best. Because of the stress of that role, I completely shut down and burned out.

Who are you now?
Three years ago, I started my own company Freaklabs (twitter: @freaklabs) out of Tokyo. I got back to my geek roots, doing pure design in the brand new of field of wireless sensor networking, where you network a bunch of sensors together and take the data. It’s a cool field, both academic and industrial. But I design from an indie point of view, making open source software that goes against copyrights, patents and the privatization that corporations love. I’m exploring using the technology for things like disaster prediction and relief, precision agriculture for small farms, energy efficiency and home safety.

Wait, isn’t open source software free to the world? How do you make money off free software?
I believe in open source. If the software you create is useful, it should be set free and shared with everyone. I’ve used my own time and money to develop it, and created my own products and services around it. I chose not to pursue any type of sponsorship because I wanted absolute freedom of choice in my decisions.

I lived off savings – $100,000 saved over ten years – these last three years, and used part time contract work to sustain me while I struggled to write my software, which was like writing a 1000-page novel. I also designed my own hardware to run my open source software, and created a very simplified, open source, wireless software stack called Chibi, or “midget,” that now looks like it will be more popular than my original project. I’m just beginning to earn revenue.

But even though Tokyo is expensive, my lifestyle is cheap. Except for capital investments on industrial equipment for my lab, I don’t spend much. My wife and I rent, cook at home, ride bikes, keep a little French bulldog. I like being a hermit, tweeting about wireless and playing the mad scientist at home. I still do part-time contract work. I didn’t leave corporate life to get rich. The main thing for me is having passion and curiosity, with money on the side. If you become really good at doing what you love, you won’t be able to stop the money. But if you do it for money, people will feel that and distrust you.

What gave you the courage to leave a (less and less) safe, corporate life to become an entrepreneur?
I’d planned to leave almost as soon as I started working in my early twenties. As I grew unhappier working for others, I realized that I never felt comfortable with authority and didn’t trust others – corporations included – to take care of me. A corporate mentality is overly neutral to avoid risk, so their sites and products are not revolutionary. In a groupthink culture, people are reluctant to express judgment, truth and original opinions. I wanted a business with an indie spirit that’s progressive and honest.

But even the term “entrepreneur” is too glorified for me. I’m an engineering geek with a hip-hop dance background and interest in all things countercultural and multicultural. I’m someone who needs the freedom to do what he believes in. I’m not great at business, I’m not constantly marketing myself or networking. I don’t like meeting a lot of people and I don’t give out my phone number. My “marketing” consists of researching and blogging about corporate doubletalk in snarky critical comments to expose what their specs really mean – especially if they claim to be “world leading,” or “best performing.”

So I was surprised to see Freaklabs evolve into an industry news aggregator and watchdog site with so many visitors. It seems people like it for the info and straight talk. I guess this indie perspective is my “niche” in business-speak. I didn’t plan it, but just followed my interests and did what came naturally to me.

It sounds so easy! You didn’t change yourself to start your business, as many think they must. You made it reflect who you are.
Actually this was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. It’s the hardest thing in the world to be true and do what’s natural. The first step is figuring out what “true” and “natural” mean for you. In Japan, unable to speak the language and with few friends, I had a lot of time to think. I was peeling away false layers like an onion to find my core values, and that’s how I found this career path. People in the workforce a long time are like big, thick onions. They know what they care about deep down, but have to rediscover it because it gets suppressed over time. This pre-work on yourself is critical because the road is long and the transition, I believe, takes roughly three years to bear fruit. It’s an emotional headgame to keep going.

How do you win an emotional headgame against yourself?
Everyone worries about money, but it’s the mental aspect that kills people making the transition. Being on your own is like feeling your way through a black cave toward what you hope is the exit. It takes a huge amount of faith and trust in yourself -- something that corporate life doesn’t train you for. Motivation comes from managers, coworkers or stockholders, from salaries and reviews. Being independent means your motivation comes from yourself. All of a sudden, you’re forcing yourself to do something without knowing if it’ll pay off. So before infrastructure and platform comes mental strength. And I wasn’t prepared...

In tomorrow's Part 2, Chris discusses how he won this headgame and broke through the traps of the doubt-riddled first years to finally taste the fruits of success. He also gives advice learned the hard way on his three-year business plan. For more health and happiness, contact Sho Sho Smith.