Our Trailblazers

Building the only tech-driven car marketplace in Southeast Asia

Aaron Tan founded his first start-up at the age of 13, and had sold two companies before turning 21. After graduating from NP's Information Technology course, Aaron went on to represent Singapore in international programming competitions and was awarded IT Youth of the Year in 2005. After completing his bachelor’s degree at the Singapore Management University's School of Information Systems, he studied in the U.S. for his master’s as an Information Development Authority (IDA) scholar. In 2015, he co-founded Carro, one of the most successful used car marketplaces in Singapore and the region.

Carro has a regional footprint that covers Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, employing more than 1,000 people across the four countries. In 2021, Carro raised US$360 million in funding. Carro is currently valued at more than US$1 billion.

Growing women’s confidence with localised waist trainers

Despite failing out of junior college twice, Alif Bin Adam was determined to succeed in polytechnic. In Year 2 of his Advertising & Public Relations course at NP, he came up with an idea to start a local waist trainer brand. He applied for The SandBox’s Kickstart Fund and was given S$3,000 to fund his Carousell business called Waistlab, which resells waist trainers. He created his own branding and marketing, leveraged on social media influencers to promote his product, and sourced for suppliers and packaging designs. His venture brought in $20,000 revenue in five months. In 2021, this figure rose to over $3 million.

Waistlab recently entered the Malaysian market and has plans to expand beyond Indonesia and the Philippines.

Taking contemporary Singaporean cinema to the world stage

Anthony Chen started his Film, Sound & Video journey in NP with a second-hand camcorder he saved up to buy when he was 16, and ended it with his graduating film, G-23. Released in 2005, G-23 was played at about 50 to 60 international film festivals, and won awards in Europe, Korea and Malaysia. His debut feature film, Ilo Ilo, partially sponsored by NP, premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, where it became the first Singaporean film to win the prestigious Caméra d'Or. The same year, Ilo Ilo swept up 40 awards internationally.

Following this success, he launched Giraffe Pictures film production company with producer Huang Wenhong. He also produced his second feature film Wet Season (2018) which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was later on nominated for 6 Golden Horse Awards.

Proving his directing chops in both award-winning feature films and Singapore’s NDP

After graduating from Film, Sound & Video in NP, Boo Junfeng pursued film studies at Lasalle College of the Arts where he was accorded the McNally Award for Excellence in the Arts as the valedictorian in 2008. His debut feature film Sandcastle was the first Singaporean film to be invited to the Cannes Film Festival’s International Critics’ Week in 2010. It subsequently won the Best Film, Best Director and the NETPAC Jury Award at the Vietnam International Film Festival, and was listed by The Wall Street Journal as one of Asia’s most notable films of 2010.

His second feature film Apprentice premiered in 2016 at the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section, was featured in more than 80 film festivals, and has bagged numerous awards. At age 34, Junfeng is also the youngest-ever creative director of Singapore's National Day Parade in 2018. He returned to direct it again in 2021.

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Serial technopreneur and angel investor of Southeast Asian startups

Douglas Gan is an entrepreneur at heart, having resold toys, marbles, gums, stickers, stamps and trading cards as a child and amassing profits of more than $20,000 by the age of 16. Upon graduating from NP, Douglas started several businesses, such as location-based mobile application 'ShowNearby' and beauty sampling business 'VanityTrove'. In 2014, he founded iFashion Group with Fatfish Group Limited (FFG)'s co-founder, Lau Kin Wai. In 2016, iFashion Group raised US$736,000 to support the operations of three to five-year-old fashion start-ups. In 2019, he co-founded GBCI Ventures, a smart city focused venture capital firm with a US$100 million fund. In 2021, he co-founded and became the executive director of ASEAN Fintech Group, a venture corporation and the financial technology arm of FFG. In 2023, he founded YouApp.ai which developed YOU-AI to match people based on psychology, personality and metaphysics.

He is the Alumni Chairman of NP’s School of ICT.

Making finance content palatable for Singaporeans

Back in 2007, Mass Communication graduate He Ruiming was one of the six students selected from his cohort of 100 for an overseas internship. It was there that he flourished as a junior writer at Panacea Publishing Asia in Hong Kong. After further professional stints in video editing, marketing, copywriting and being the creative and content lead at places like Mothership.sg and 99.co, Ruiming set up The Woke Salaryman, a personal finance blog that makes educational webcomics to help Singaporeans make better financial and life choices. The Woke Salaryman is now one of the top finance blogs in Singapore, and has over 400,000 likes on Facebook and 350,000 followers on Instagram.

Ruiming is also a member of the 17th National Youth Council.

Turning his gaming hobby into a global brand

After graduating from NP's Business Studies, Ian Alexander Ang continued to embody the entrepreneurial spirit by spotting a niche in the ergonomic gaming chair market, and partnering with fellow competitive esports player Alaric Choo to found Secretlab, a gaming chair company, in 2014. Secretlab considers the United States, Canada and Europe as some of its major markets and is backed by Temasek Holdings’ Heliconia Capital Management.

In 2018, Ian was listed in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list. In 2021, he was named Entrepreneur Of The Year Singapore for Consumer Products by Ernst & Young, making him the youngest ever winner in the history of the awards programme that spotlights innovators and local brands that have made a mark on the global market. The same year, Ian was nominated by The Straits Times for the Singaporean of the Year award. In 2022, Ian was named Young Business Leader of the Year at the 37th Singapore Business Awards, which recognises vital contributions to Singapore’s development, the encouragement of entrepreneurial spirit in the republic, and excellence in corporate management.

Source: Ernst & Young Solutions LLP

A progressive digital and media leader

Ian Loon spent the first five years of his career in agency roles at Starcom IP, the digital arm of Starcom then, and Qais Consulting, now known as VMLY&R Singapore. Once a 17-year-old intern at Starcom, Ian shot up the ranks over the last decade to eventually lead StarCom Singapore as Managing Director. He received 2 awards in 2013: Media Person of the Year at the Singapore Media Awards, and Southeast Asia (SEA) Account Person of the Year at Campaign Asia’s Agency of the Year show.

He was promoted to CEO of Publicis Media Singapore in 2020, and he continues to lead key global client relationships across Southeast Asia and increase impact for Publicis Groupe's digital and media operations in Singapore.

Building an ‘Amazon for Businesses’

Jasper Yap went from teenage gangster to top student, graduating as the valedictorian for his Aerospace Technology course in 2017. With NP’s support, he pursued his entrepreneurial dreams and runs a successful B2B start-up business today, heading the Technology Division in Eezee, where he develops new business technologies, data management strategies and platform integrations. In 2022, Eezee secured US$7.5 million in funds.

Jasper, an NP Scholar, has been recognised as one of Forbes 30 Under 30 game changers in retail and e-commerce, as well as in EDGE 35 Under 35, which celebrates inspiring young founders under the age of 35 who have made significant contributions to the start-up ecosystem in Singapore.

Serial entrepreneur turned investor

At 17, with only a PSLE certificate to his name, Jeshua Soh dropped out of Hwa Chong Institution’s Integrated Programme to take up a diploma in Film, Sound & Video at NP. During his final semester in 2015, he founded J Rental Centre, a rental platform for equipment and creative spaces, which in 2017 became supported by Pollinate, an incubator managed by NP's The Sandbox. The following year, he launched Startup Media Singapore, which helps start-ups and the start-up ecosystem tell their stories. Since then, he has also founded Crossworks Myanmar, a remote hiring and staffing company in Myanmar, and HEAR Myanmar, a media production company. He is also an investor at Accelerating Asia and part of the team at Decacorn Capital, an international venture funding initiative with a focus on disruptive technology-led innovations.

Jeshua has also made news for travelling to over 55 countries in 5 continents over the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

From home business to successful bakery amid pandemic

Genevieve Lee successfully pitched her F&B business idea “Food At The Source (FATS)” as part of NP’s’ “Be Your Own Boss (BYOB)” initiative. FATS was run as a small stall for two years at OurSpace@72. She brought her culinary talents forth to the first season of MasterChef Singapore where she was its youngest competitor, and emerged as first runner-up. After graduating into the pandemic, Genevieve began Sourbombe Artisanal as a social media-based home bakery business during the pandemic in 2020 with friend Tan Chun Rong. Within just two weeks, they sold 1,600 doughnuts.

In 2021, Sourbombe Artisanal opened a brick-and-mortar store at 9 Penang Road to keep up with the soaring demand. It continues to specialise in sourdough, Italian-inspired doughnuts filled with deliciously flavoured custard.

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Inspiring the world to start selling

Marcus Tan and Quek Siu Rui, who were both very keen on advertising and marketing, got to know each other through a marketing interest group in NP that they had joined to hone their entrepreneurial skills. As a student, Siu Rui embarked on several overseas internships to gain work experience, including a six-month stint at an adventure resort in Guilin, China. Marcus and Siu Rui would go on to NUS to complete a year-long internship program in Silicon Valley, where they became acquainted with third Carousell co-founder, Lucas Ngoo.

In 2012, they launched the Carousell app, an online mobile platform for consumers to buy or sell items. In 2021, Carousell joined the list of local unicorns after raising US$100 million in funding, taking its valuation to US$1.1 billion. Carousell has a presence in eight markets across Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, with over 50 million monthly active users across their platforms. Siu Rui made Forbes' very first 30 Under 30 Asia list in 2016.

  

Advertising for the new generation

Matthew Zeng graduated from NP in 2012 and co-founded marketing agency, DSTNCT, in 2014 at just 22 years old. The company, which prides itself as a creative agency for the next gen, specialises in integrated marketing services, including digital content creation, influencer marketing and UI/UX design. As of 2021, DSTNCT has almost 50 employees and S$5 million in revenue. At DSTNCT, their marketing ideology is: “The youths are always at the forefront of change. We start with youths. The rest will follow.”

Matthew, who heads DSTNCT’s business in both Singapore and the Philippines, works with both brands and governmental agencies to create effective marketing and branding campaigns on both a local and regional scale. Having won numerous industry awards such as the MARKies Awards and PR Awards, DSTNCT also counts the Singapore government as one of its biggest clients.

Continuing his father’s woodworking legacy

Morgan Yeo took over his father's carpentry business after he passed away from cancer in 2014, determined to continue his father's legacy and rejuvenate the dying woodworking trade in Singapore. In memory of his father, Morgan and his brothers rebranded the company to Roger&Sons and focused on creating custom bespoke furniture. In 2019, the team spearheaded the Local Tree Project, an initiative that salvages abandoned tree logs by turning them into durable, future-proof furniture and objects. In 2022, they partnered with Discover Tanjong Pagar to build a public playground utilising felled trees to serve residents, businesses and visitors of Tanjong Pagar.

Roger&Sons has worked with brands such as premium brands like The Balvenie and Ethan K, and local organisations and businesses such as Mandai Park Development and Atlas Bar. Next, they plan to expand the business beyond carpentry work – into research and development, education and sustainability.

Paving the way for poly grads to enter NUS medical school

Back in 2007, before there was any precedent yet for local polytechnic graduates to enter the National University of Singapore (NUS)'s Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Dr Ron Ng and Dr Soong Junwei applied to study medicine at NUS under a new discretionary admissions scheme – and were the only two selected out of 250 aspiring doctors. The pair had studied biotechnology in NP. Dr Soong realised he wanted to be a doctor in his last year of NP when he saw how basic research translated into clinical work for patients, inspiring him to want to be closer to patients. NUS admission officials said the duo's outstanding academic track records, coupled with their strong interest in research and co-curricular achievements, set them apart.

Both are currently practising doctors at the Singapore General Hospital. Dr Ng is an internal medicine resident, while Dr Soong is an orthopaedic surgery resident.

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Sabrina Mustopo worked as a consultant for international agriculture and sustainable development at multinational management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, before gaining interest in the chocolate industry. In 2013, Sabrina founded Krakakoa Chocolate, a "farmer-to-bar" social enterprise working directly with smallholder cocoa farmers to produce organically grown award-winning Indonesian chocolate. In partnership with SwissContact, Krakakoa has provided training to about 1,000 farmers living in the sensitive border areas around national parks in Lampung, Sumatra and in West Sulawesi, to help improve their livelihoods and the sustainability of cocoa farming.

Krakakoa Chocolate has won a total of six medals at the 2017 Academy of Chocolate (AOC) Awards in the United Kingdom, making them the first Indonesian chocolate maker to win any AOC award.

A visionary leader in the skintech and wellness industry

Motivated by her own skincare needs and her children’s eczema, Sabrina Tan founded Skin Inc at the age of 34, a company specialising in customised skincare products from Japan. Despite being deaf in her left ear, Sabrina was able to scale the brand to great heights. Skin Inc currently has a presence in over 78 cities in Asia, Europe and the United States, and has won over 140 beauty awards to date. The company also recently raised $10 million in venture capital funds.

Sabrina was a co-founder of the Galboss Asia Symposium 2016, and has headlined the 2016 Great Women Of Our Time as the keynote speaker. She continues to be an advisor to various women entrepreneurship and leadership initiatives, such as the Committee on the Future Economy (CFE).

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Star entrepreneur of Singapore

In 1981, Sim Wong Hoo founded Creative Technology, a designer and manufacturer of personal computers and digital entertainment devices, with NP schoolmate Ng Kai Wa. Today, Creative Technology is a multinational technology company headquartered in Singapore with offices in Shanghai, Tokyo, Dublin and Silicon Valley, with 800 employees and 9-figure annual revenues.

Sim Wong Hoo has a stellar record of accolades for his innovations, such as winning the Singapore’s Public Star Medal Bintang Bakti Masyarakat in 2001 for outstanding achievements in the business field, coming in second as Asia’s Businessman of the Year in January 2001 by Fortune Magazine, and being the first person to be named Singapore's Businessman of the Year twice, in 1992 and 1997.

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Revolutionising the fast food-first concept for poke bowls

In 2016, sibling duo and Mass Communication alumni Vannessa and Joey Lee founded the group Tandem Collective in hopes of making a mark on the local F&B scene in their own unique way. Their first F&B venture together was Poke Theory, specialising in modern Hawaiian poké bowls. Poke Theory went viral on mainstream and social media, and sold out within two hours on opening day. Since then, it has expanded in operations across 17 locations in Singapore and 2 in Indonesia. The duo also have another F&B joint called Alter Ego, which serves Hawaiian poké bowls by day and bar food by night.

As of September 2019, Poke Theory became part of the brand portfolio of Commonwealth Capital.

Making personal finance transparent and simple to understand

After Vinod Nair's first start-up venture in 2007 went bust, the Information Technology alumnus persevered on and founded MoneySmart.sg, a financial products portal, with the last $5,000 of his savings. Presently, it is Southeast Asia's largest personal finance portal that helps consumers compare loans, insurance and credit cards, and rakes in more than $1 million of annual revenue. It raised $14 million in funding in 2017.

In 2022, Vinod launched a new digital insurance brand called Bubblegum, under the financial advisory arm of MoneySmart Group. He was part of the annual Gen.T list in 2019, a list that recognises 300 leaders who are shaping Asia’s future.

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Designing meaningful and people-centric solutions

Wayne was a pioneer employee and industrial designer of We Are Perspective, and had been involved in most of its major projects since 2011. He has a decade of experience working on the design and development of multiple forward-looking and futuristic projects in Singapore, such as the smart lamp posts for GovTech, forensics kiosks for Singapore Police Force and military projects for Singapore Armed Forces. In 2021, he began working with one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional electronic products, Sony Electronics.

Wayne has won multiple design awards, including the Singapore Caltex Lion Design Competition, Singapore Design Award, IKEA Young Designer Award, German Design Award, Merlion Award 2019 and CES INNOVATION AWARDS.