Syafiee’s the man behind Vamos Tennis, Moni Gallery, Vamos Fitness. His latest venture, Atap, is the first bar of its kind to serve non-alcoholic drinks and bespoke mocktails.
At a young age of 18, he started his first business – Vamos Tennis. Since then, he has managed to expand to fulfil other business ideas.
Motivation And A Little Luck
Syafiee shares with me how he decided on the name Vamos Tennis. Vamos means ‘go’ in the Spanish language, and the term was inspired by Rafael Nadal, a Spanish professional tennis player. ‘Go’, to Syafiee, means moving forward because he always wants to achieve more.
Syafiee always had an interest in sports – Vamos Tennis and Vamos Fitness are evidence of that. Initially, he wanted to have the best of both worlds – to focus on tennis and also do sports in general.
Acknowledging that he could not do it by himself, he reached out to his brother who wanted to start a business but did not dare to take the risk. Providing part of the capital to start the business, it later became Singapore Callisthenics Academy.
Curious, I ask how he managed to jump from a sports business to a hostel. He laughs, explaining that there’s a funny story behind Moni Gallery. He tells me:
“I was at Lavender Street to purchase my Macbook and after exiting the shop – I was supposed to turn right to go to the MRT. That day, I felt like turning left instead. And so I did.”
That was when he bumped into a cleaner from a hostel there who was sweeping the front yard. After chatting with her, an idea sparked – to begin his first hostel business. Coincidently, there was a unit down the street that was up for sale. He scrolled through his contacts and picked out five people whom he knew were interested in travelling, inviting them for dinner the following day.
As they say, the rest was history.
The Good And The Bad
Syafiee tells me that the hostel is one of the best business experience he’s had. Every experience was unique, and every day was like a holiday at his doorstep with travellers coming to him rather than having to travel out of Singapore for the same experience.
On the other hand, Syafiee and his cousin, Max, had always wanted to start an F&B business. The initial plan was to have it at the back of the hostel with a kampung feel to it so that customers would feel as though they were in Bali or Thailand.
Unfortunately, that dream had to be pushed back due to unforeseen circumstances.
They wanted Atap to be the first ever full mocktail rooftop bar in Singapore. Atap went beyond their expectations, he confesses.
He didn’t believe that people would actually climb five levels up to a place with no signboard.
“Having to start something from scratch was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Before Atap, the other businesses only required simple set up or it would have already been done up.”
It was a different story for Atap – having no experience in the F&B industry and to start with an empty space became a challenge for them. He mentions that it felt like “you are almost complete but you know that it’s never complete.”
“There is always something to do and redo until you hit perfection,” he admits. He shares that many businesses face the same dilemma – it is complete but never perfect.
However, once you lay the final touches and watch it pay off, the satisfaction is like no other.
The Next Big Thing
Syafiee sees his businesses as an extension of his life.
Something that defines who he is as a person, as a boss, and as a friend. One of his life goals is to open a water theme park and resort in Malaysia.
When I probe more about this unusual dream of his, he explains that when he was younger, he used to play in a drain in his grandfather’s kampung. In 2017 when he took a trip back, he saw that children were still swimming in that same drain which he used to play in.
He was touched when he visited a water theme park in Indonesia and saw how happy people were to jump into a proper swimming pool. In that moment, he knew that he wanted to recreate that experience.
A Word of Advice
Syafiee takes joy in connecting people, leveraging on the talents of the people he knows. He knows the importance of papers, knowledge and experience but he feels that it is how you put yourself in a better position. For himself, he knew that business was something that he wanted to do.
“To pursue your dreams, there are definitely going to be sleepless nights that people won’t know about. The satisfaction from seeing your hard work pay off will recharge you from all of that tiredness.”
In the future, he plans to do consulting, especially for his community as he realises that people are afraid of doing business. They either do not have the funds but have great ideas, or vice versa. As such, he wishes to give people a chance and to be a mentor in his community given the experience he has.
Atap Bar
48 Arab Street
Make reservations before heading down to avoid disappointment – we heard that it can get pretty crowded.
