We recently connected with Michael Trieu and have shared our conversation below.

Michael, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

True Performance Motorsport is a play of words on my last name. It’s derived from my last name Trieu, which phonetically sounds the same as True, but it also perfectly describes our company and what we do. We are here to bring out the “true performance” of your “motorsport” and competition needs.

This was something I thought of over many nights before starting the company, because I wanted something that was an identity marker of myself, while also making our mission clear to our clients. I didn’t want a simple “last name & company” title, so I was trying to be a bit more clever and the result is what you see on today’s company name.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I first dipped my feet into the automotive industry during my college days. In my younger years I was completely obsessed about cars and wanted to work in the industry, so I partnered up with a local Orange County shop. It was the turn of the economic crisis in 2008 / 2009 and this was the biggest challenge I faced. I had starting something that was completely new and fresh during these tough times and it was an uphill battle, but I prevailed. From there, I built and set up the online performance parts and sales platform that was specifically catered toward the Japanese Domestic Market cars we were targeting at the time.

I ended up starting a new line of work in the tire industry around 2013 part time and worked my way up with events management within the tire world full time from 2015 until 2018. For Hankook Tire and Nexen Tire, we did the tire service and event services for them. This included compound testing, VIP hospitality and marketing activations. This helped me hone my craft in the racing tire specialty and learn everything the market had to offer.

Since 2018, I have been running True Performance Motorsport and I have grown the operation from 1 person with 400 sq ft, into a 3 person team in a 1560 sq ft building. My goal was to be the biggest seller of the Nexen Race Tire at the time the N’Fera SUR4G and we accomplished that goal. We are still the biggest distributor of the Current Nexen Race Tire the N’Fera Sport R.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One of the biggest lessons I had to unlearned is “you can do everything yourself”. This is completely untrue. I held myself back with this mentality and it took a long time to overcome. In both of the businesses I started, I would do all the sales, invoicing, accounting, taxes, shipping and labor all by myself, but asking for help was not an option, as it was ingrained in me that I needed to do everything myself. Today I have learned to get the proper specialists to help where needed.

For example, everyone at TPM has their specialized work space. Although it is a requirement that every one of us needs to know how to mount and install tires, we have people that run the day to day operations, to sales, to the installation and shipping part of the business. We have also gained the channels that we need to reach out to get proper accounting, tax help, book keeping and other professional services. Contractors and consultants can help you achieve your goals much quicker and easier than doing something outside of your wheelhouse.

I was raised on the mindset to pull yourself up by the bootstraps, however in business and in life, I have learned that doing things the solo route is so much harder than asking for help and getting the proper people to in your life to assist you with whatever you need. This is a lesson that I feel like many others can learn from and they might get a spurt of growth in their business like we did.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

When TPM initially started, I had poured about 40k worth of investment into the company, but I used all credit cards and ran them to the very limit. I would never suggest anyone do this, but it was what I had to do in the moment. We survived and I’m super proud to have pulled myself out of that edgy moment, however I would never do that again. It was a very risky move and I could have lost everything and owed a ton of money, had things not worked out.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.TPMparts.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tpmparts/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tpmparts
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/tpmparts
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TPMparts
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/true-performance-motorsport-santa-ana-2

Image Credits
True Performance Motorsport Forrest Leeper Pep Williams Jason Miu Nexen Tire USA Nexen Tire Motorsports