One thing to know about entrepreneurship: It’s not for everyone.
Entrepreneurship has never been an easy path to take, yet there has been much hype about starting a business even before completing tertiary education. One cannot help but wonder, is entrepreneurship a worthwhile endeavour?
To find the answer to this question, I interviewed 5 brilliant young entrepreneurs who have been making waves in the local and international space to share their thoughts.
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Looi Qin En, 23 years old, COO of Glints
Founded in 2013, Glints is a professional platform that bridges the gap between education and employment. Not only are they committed to helping young people who are focused on career discovery and development build relevant skill sets through internships, Glints also empowers employers to attract the right talent more effectively.
The founders have also recently been featured as one of the 300 entrepreneurs featured on Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2017.
Would you encourage all youth to pursue entrepreneurship as a career? Why or why not?
Entrepreneurship is certainly not for all youth. Youth frequently turn to entrepreneurship for the fun, learning, growth, excitement, etc., but one of the hardest challenges each individual will face in the entrepreneurship journey is the comfort with uncertainty.
Undoubtedly, there will be plenty of challenges and moments in the entrepreneurship journey that are full of uncertainties and what-ifs. There is absolutely no structure, no SOPs, no one to turn to – and it is during these moments that you really crave the certainty of being an employee at an MNC instead of an entrepreneur.
We have seen millennial entrepreneur friends who were unable to deal with that uncertainty leave the entrepreneurship path to return to a stable job. Nothing wrong with the latter – but to embark on entrepreneurship is to choose a path of high uncertainty.
Are there tools or places you would recommend to aspiring youth entrepreneurs seeking advice or resources?
Yes – get out of the building and talk to your customers. Whether you’re freelancing or building a product, it’s the hardest thing to do when first starting out, because you’re afraid others will call your baby ugly. But that’s the most direct way to learn about whether or not you’re solving a problem worth solving, and if you have a potential solution.
Spencer Yang Zi Jian, 28 years old, CEO of KeyReply
Spencer started his first business in the events space when he was 19. Thereafter, he dabbled in art e-commerce, tailoring and education-related start-up ventures. In 2014 – after his co-founder Max won the Facebook Hackathon in Asia with a product called Graph Paper – the trio, joined by Carylyne, started the company that is now called KeyReply – an A.I. chatbot platform for enterprises and governmental sectors.
Backed by top accelerators in the US, the company’s product helps drive A.I. solution adoption with clients such as the Government of Singapore, Ninjavan, Tech in Asia, SGAG and other companies.
Would you encourage all youth to pursue entrepreneurship as a career? Why or why not?
Entrepreneurship is tough and unglamorous on the inside. More than half the time during the early stages, what we do includes cleaning the toilet, settling payroll, figuring out an investor deck and thinking about how to get our first customer.
I do not encourage people to start their own businesses unless there is a strong desire on their end. The best companies are founded because of a personal pain point, a strong point to prove and maybe even some upbringing issues.
However, if you do decide to pursue it as a career, then you need to forget what your friends are telling you about their careers as yours will be different. What I found useful was to gather a close group of friends to often share about struggles during the journey. Joining accelerators in the US helped us meet like-minded folks globally.
Are there tools or places you would recommend to aspiring youth entrepreneurs seeking advice or resources?
There are almost too many resources out there. The key is to cut out noise and find out what would really help you gain perspective. I would rank the following in order of importance:
1) Mentors who are 1-2 steps ahead of you
2) Network of like-minded entrepreneurs
3) Books that are written by thoughtful business leaders
4) The Economist
5) Journals and events in your industry
Terence Toh, 25 years old, Co-Founder of Payboy
Payboy is a Human Resource SaaS platform that assists SMEs and Startups in Singapore in remaining lean, efficient and compliant. With the aim of designing the most intuitive and simple payroll software, Payboy’s MVP (minimum viable product) was released in April 2016, with 150 companies currently on board.
Would you encourage all youth to pursue entrepreneurship as a career? Why or why not?
I highly recommend entrepreneurship to be a youth’s first career choice. Why? Being an entrepreneur exposes oneself to the full package, and you learn all aspects of the business – marketing, sales, PR, accounts, HR, management, etc.
You do not just learn the administrative work. You learn how to put yourself out there and present your ideas in the best way possible. All these help you find yourself, where your real interest and strength lies. You can then hone your craft till you are indispensable.
Are there tools or places you would recommend to aspiring youth entrepreneurs seeking advice or resources?
There are a lot of resources out there for aspiring youth entrepreneurs to leverage on. If you are planning to start a tech start-up, SiTF is one organization you can approach.
They help start-ups connect to mentors and potential investors, incubate them and also help source for start-up grants. Also, try Smaths corporate services, an accounting firm that offers free accounting services for a start-up’s first year. If you intend to raise funding – I highly recommend checking out HighSpark and their free presentation resources.
Kevin Ng, 24 years old, Managing Director of ThunderQuote
ThunderQuote is a fast growing B2B service marketplace that connects businesses and trusted local service providers with an automated guidance for pre-sales project scoping and market rate data. They also focus on generating genuine, high-intent and quality leads for vendors.
Would you encourage all youth to pursue a career in entrepreneurship? Why or why not?
Contrary to popular belief, I would not encourage all youth to pursue a career in entrepreneurship. However, they should attempt it as a side hustle. A side hustle is something they can pursue in addition to their career. This is because entrepreneurship has a lot of great learning curves, and they are real risks. So in order to minimise risks, it is better to pursue it as a side hustle to get the learning effects without the maximised risk of pursuing it full time.
I would encourage youths to try it and see if it is for them. It is best if they only pursue it full-time after they have settled their necessities in life, like lodging, loans, etc. The best types of side hustles could be something like blog shops, tuition centres and maybe freelance development.
Are there tools or places you would recommend to aspiring youth entrepreneurs seeking advice or resources?
There are plenty of resources around. Go for accelerators and incubators that are usually held by mentors. You could also go to Block 71 where there are workshops that offer help for many topics relating to entrepreneurship.
In terms of active community engagement, they should visit alumni entrepreneurship networks such as Entrepreneur Network or other school-related entrepreneur groups for support. There are also government-supported organisations for entrepreneurship, like ACE.
Viren Shetty, 24 years old, CEO / Co-Founder at PlusMargin
PlusMargin combines Behavioural Psychology & A.I. to psychologically profile each individual person and it subsequently predicts the most optimal on-site content that will persuade people to buy on e-commerce sites. As one of the youngest Southeast Asian founders to have ever raised venture funding, he was recently featured on the prestigious Forbes’ 30 under 30 2017 list.
Would you encourage all youth to pursue a career in entrepreneurship? Why or why not?
I would generally not encourage all youths to pursue entrepreneurship as a career. The general perception is that the start-up life is “glamorous”. Truth be told, it is quite the opposite, and it is a brutal journey most will not be prepared for.
I remember back when I was pitching for funds for a start-up idea back in NTU’s incubator. One of the panellists said something along the lines of, “There are a lot of companies doing this, you are not special and this won’t go anywhere” and “You are just a student and I don’t think you are built to do start ups”.
While I was honestly ready to completely give up then, I went on to pursue a few more business ideas, which led to me going without a salary for 3 years while trying to get customers on board. Many youth assume that you kind of just ‘fall into’ success and start making money almost immediately. However, this could not be further from the truth.
I say that it is brutal, because you will have people telling you no, that you should give up, but not everyone will have the mettle or as Singaporeans call it: ‘thick skin’ to really keep going.
Are there tools or places you would recommend to aspiring youth entrepreneurs seeking advice or resources?
I highly recommend ‘Learn Startup by Steve Blank’ as a must read, especially for entrepreneurs who are just starting out. ‘How to Start a Start-up’ by Y Combinator is a series of video lectures that also offers pretty good advice.
