In Singapore, mobile data is a commodity that is getting more expensive by the day regardless of our technological advances.

With LTE becoming our lifeblood more than ever, data is a resource that we are constantly using every single day and at 4G speeds, is something that we find ourselves using so much in so little time.

Most of us will then find ourselves paying excessive data charges every time we exceed the data caps in our mobile plans.

Circles.Life has something to say to that.

Circles.Life Introduces 20GB Add-On For $20

Earlier today, digital telco Circles.Life decided that smartphone users deserved more for their hard-earned cash.

On top of the base plan that anyone can sign up for which costs $28 per month and includes up to 6GB of mobile data, Circles.Life is introducing the addition of a 20GB add-on for an extra $20.

Getting this new add-on is simple. What current Circles.Life subscribers need to do is simply boot up the CirclesCare mobile app and find it there.

As with any of their add-ons, one can opt in or out of the service anytime. Alternatively, you can visit their website to do the same. You will need to log into your account and subscribe from there.

However, do note that to unsubscribe from the 20GB add-on, you will have to do it via the CirclesCare app.

All in all, Circles.Life says that new and current users can potentially have 26GB of data for $48 a month.

Their Plans To Take Over The World

That's not all that Circles.Life revealed either.

Due to their success in the past 6 months, the Singapore company has since received love calls overseas to bring the concept of a digital telco into other traditional markets.

By 2020, they hope to break into several Asian markets with Hong Kong and Indonesia specifically mentioned as their next destinations.

Post-2020, Circles.Life is targeting beyond Asian borders should the opportunity present itself.

The man who will be spearheading the move overseas is Donald Chan, the newly-appointed Director of International at Circles.Life.

A former Chief Operating Officer at Clifford Capital and Director at Temasek Holdings, Donald will be given the responsibility of building overseas partnerships as well as negotiating the expansion of the company in the Asia Pacific and beyond.

With all the talk about an impending foreign expansion, the question that some have on their minds is whether all of these will bring about a more affordable means of utilising all the data that one accumulated through roaming, especially for those who travel often.

We were assured that the team is definitely working on something on the roaming side of things, but at the moment, co-founder Rameez Ansar is confident that even with their current roaming offerings, one will not exceed $10 when using data overseas.

For now though, that additional 20GB for just $20 is unmatched even if you were to look at all the traditional telcos where $20 will only get you 4GB of data if you are lucky.

Shots have been fired by Circles.Life, and it's now up to Singtel, StarHub and M1 to react… if they can.

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During the Committee of Supply debate on Monday, Manpower minister Lim Swee Say told Parliament that his ministry is working on strategies to ensure that there would be enough jobs for Singaporeans, and better ones as well.

In a time of slower economic growth and digital disruptions, Lim identified four key thrusts: ensuring quality job creation, raising workforce adaptability, enhancing inclusiveness and complementarity, and building fair and progressive workplaces.

Read also: Budget 2017: What startups and SMEs need to know

1. Create quality jobs for Singaporeans

"The real threat we face in the competition for jobs is not technology, but global competition. We should focus more on how to partner with technology to take away customers and jobs from our competitors before they do it to us," said Minister Lim.

This is the scope of the Lean Enterprise Development Scheme (LEDS), which MOM launched over a year ago.

LEDS brings together various agencies to make it easier for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to boost their business capability and gain access to labour and markets. Where necessary, LEDS is even prepared to relax the foreign-work quota temporarily to expedite matters for these SMEs.

Minister Lim said LEDS's scope will be strengthened this year with the introduction of new programmes. It will help more SMEs go digital and expand overseas, and speed up the development and deployment of "cluster" solutions for firms. It will also work closely with sectors to tackle the manpower shortage.

2. Help Singaporeans take on new jobs

Minister Lim said creating quality jobs can prevent rising unemployment and under-employment. However, the problem of structural unemployment - such as job and wage mismatches - still persists.

To raise workforce adaptability, Mr Lim said MOM will make better use of technology to help job-seekers and employers find each other.

The national jobs bank has been made more user-friendly to provide better search functions, and the portal is also moving to become a "one-stop, non-stop online marketplace" for all job-seekers.

Channels of job-matching services will also be expanded through closer collaboration with private-sector employment agencies. In fact, MOM has partnered with two agencies to help PMETs (professionals, managers, executives and technicians) who have been made redundant, and those unemployed for three months or more.

The new partnership will debut in the second quarter of the year.

Additionally, MOM will enhance the Adapt & Grow initiative - introduced last year - to help PMETs, who make up the bulk of workers in the workforce.

The Professional Conversion Programme, which was also launched last year to help PMETs switch careers and move into growth sectors, will receive enhanced salary support.

An "Attach and Train" scheme, which offers training allowance and attachment in companies in growth sectors, will be introduced to help PMETs prepare for new jobs in another sector. MOM is looking to start in the logistics sector.

Read also: Budget 2017: 5 things that may affect you directly

3. Strengthen local-foreign workforce complementarity

The slowdown in job and workforce growth makes each worker even more valuable, said the minister.

As such, he emphasised the need to strengthen the inclusiveness of our local workforce and to strengthen our social cohesion. In other words, the local and foreign workforce must complement each other better to sharpen Singapore's competitive edge.

Because Singapore can never be self-sufficient, foreign workers will be a "permanent feature" here. But they must complement us rather than compete against us, he said.

This way, foreign workers will help narrow the talent gap and create more good jobs for Singaporeans.

However, Minister Lim warned that MOM will take action against employers who discriminate against local workers in hiring.

The number of bosses put on the Fair Consideration Framework watchlist stood at 250 as at the end of last month, but many have improved and adopted "fair and progressive practices", he said.

Currently, there are still 50 employers on the list who "have not been receptive or cooperative". As a result, MOM rejected more than 500 Employment Pass applications from them.

"We will continue to curtail their work pass privileges until they improve," he added.

Employers will also receive differentiated treatment for MOM's services. For instance, Human Capital Partnership employers will enjoy "fast lane" access to MOM's development schemes and services, and also have hotline access to MOM.

Employers who have fair workplace practices - which is the majority - will be in the "normal lane". Employers who engage in unfair HR practices, such as those on the Fair Consideration Framework watchlist, will be in the "slow lane".

"This will send a clear message to all employers that foreign manpower is and will always be an integral part of our Singapore workforce," said Minister Lim. "However, we do expect and require all employers to give fair consideration to the recruitment and development of our local manpower."

"This is not only the right thing to do for our people, but also the right thing to do for businesses for both to grow better in the future economy."

4. Enhance the employment protection framework

The minister said the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) and the Employment Claims Tribunals (ECT) which is scheduled to open on April 1, are "major steps forward in strengthening our employment protection framework".

He added that the Tripartite Standards will also be introduced to complement existing employment laws, and Tripartite guidelines will push for progressive practices at the workplace. Additionally, a Tripartite Workgroup will be set up to look into the well-being of freelancers.

Members of Parliament (MPs) on both sides of the House had raised concerns about whether freelancers are adequately covered under existing labour laws and the possibility of them having inadequate savings for medical and retirement needs.

A survey by MOM showed freelancers were most concerned about the lack of income security arising from work injuries, attending training or skill upgrading courses, as well as the ability to seek sufficient clients and collect timely payments.

In response, Minister Lim said the Government "will form a tripartite workgroup to study these issues and address the concerns of freelancers, and come up with workable solutions for the well-being of the freelancing workforce in our future economy."

The group that the Government is most concerned about is the estimated 32,700 people who are doing primary freelancing not by choice.

"Under the Adapt and Grow (scheme), we hope to reach out to as many of them as possible and help them to move into full-time employment," said Minister Lim.

"The first survey is a good starting point for us to gain better insights into the freelancer landscape in Singapore. We will continue to monitor the development and together with our tripartite partners, we will find practical solutions to address the issues faced by freelancers," he added.

Read also: Singapore lines up 4 key strategies to create enough, better jobs

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Budget 2017: Heng Swee Keat receives warm welcome back in Parliament

Source:

The Straits Times

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It started with a tipoff sent to our team's email address on Monday.

Titled "youtiao girls vandalise SGmobile ad at Bugis MRT", the video showed the two girls from Youtiao666 using spray-paint to scribble on a large ad, which, from what we could make out, was for an up-and-coming telco, SGMobile, which was offering 3GB of data for $40.

Pretty odd, because there hasn't been news of any new telcos after the not-so-recent announcement of 4th telco TPG Telecom joining the party.

Read also: New virtual telco to offer users free unlimited mobile data for WhatsApp

A thread on local forum Hardwarezone also posted these "behind-the-scenes" screenshots from the girls' Instagram Stories:

Fast forward to yesterday, and our colleague spotted ads for the same telco (and the graffiti) at Raffles Place MRT:

This time, more of the new telco's plans were revealed (and of course, dissed), and we couldn't help but realise they were eerily similar to what current telcos have currently.

"Additional data usage will be charged at $10 per gb", "Applicable only with a 24 month contract" - familiar, much?

Read also: Good luck Singtel, Starhub and M1 - Circles.Life launches 20GB add-on plan for $20

But it was after we saw this post on Circles.Life's Facebook page about the announcement of their "$20 for 20GB data" add-on, that everything became clear:

To confirm our suspicions, we paid a visit to the SGMobile website, and this is what we found:

Engaging social media personalities/influencers and pulling off such a gutsy publicity stunt isn't common at all in Singapore, and many brands tend to stick to safer (read: overdone) ways of creating hype.

So it's honestly pretty refreshing to see Circles.Life not only disrupting the telco scene, but the advertising one as well.

Great one, Circles.Life.

Check out our coverage of their brand new plan here.

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Even if you're not one to dabble in stocks, the recent IPO by coffeeshop operator Kimly Limited would have definitely caught your attention.

With an offer of 173.8 million new shares at 25 cents each, the group was expected to have a market value of $288.7 million after the IPO.

Touted as the first 'kopi-o IPO' (kopi-o is local speak for black coffee), the group had announced its plans to use the net proceeds of about $40.4 million from the IPO for acquisitions, joint ventures, as well as general business expansion.

The money would also be used for refurbishment and renovation of 64 food outlets and 121 food stalls across Singapore heartlands.

Expansion and update of the corporate headquarters and Central Kitchen would also take place, alongside the boosting of productivity.

Fast forward to the day of the IPO, and the results revealed an oversubscription of the public tranche by over 335 times. In all, the offering was said to be oversubscribed 8.3 times.

The stock also surged to 55 cents, a 120 per cent leap from its offer price.

But in spite of them supplying the nation their daily dose of caffeine, Kimly is barely a Facebook, Google, or Uber when it comes to how much the public knows about it, so we decided to try and uncover a bit more about the very successful group behind Singapore's first 'kopi-o IPO'.

Read also: Kimly to raise $40.4 million in Singapore's first 'kopi-o IPO'

1. Kimly was founded in 1990

Founder Mr Lim Lee Liat is a self-professed "kopi kid" with a love for coffeeshops, and even revealed that dates with his wife, and hangout sessions with friends were frequently located there.

When he was 24, he decided to take his love for the venue a step further, and started his first coffeeshop venture in 1990 with several friends, including Mr Peh Oon Kee. Of the founders, both Mr Lim and Mr Peh are still shareholders of the group.

Also, instead of simply letting customers get used to what they were offering, the group placed an emphasis on understanding the preferences of customers, even "regularly holding networking sessions, visiting other coffee shops and obtaining feedback from customers".

From inception to 2003, the group took the path to expansion, and added 25 self-managed coffee shops to their portfolio.

2. The Group operates four foodcourts in tertiary institutes

Air-conditioned foodcourts are an increasingly common sight, especially in sprawling campuses and new estates.

The group saw a golden opportunity in the operation of these slightly more comfortable eating spots, and their first venture was at Ngee Ann Polytechnic in 2011 under the "foodclique" brand.

The expansion wasn't simply for short-term profits - the group mentions that moving into running food courts in these campuses "[enhances their] brand equity and image as these students, following graduation and upon becoming working adults and starting their own families, will be familiar and well-acquainted with the memories of their former school canteen".

The group currently operates four more of these foodcourts, two in the National University of Singapore (NUS), one in SIM University and one at Hotel Boss, where they operate a 'local favourites'-themed food court.

Unfortunately, their Ngee Ann Poly branch will be ceasing operation from April this year, given that their tender for a renewal was unsuccessful.

3. A traditional business with a penchant for trying new technologies

Albeit being a traditional business at heart, they've not been averse to taking on new technology.

In 2014, they implemented a $23,000 automatic conveyor belt system for the returning of plates and trays at their foodcourt in SIM University, and it's said to be the first of its kind in Singapore then. The system helped to reduce the time needed to clear 360 tables from 90 man-hours to 54.

Today, we see the same system at Timbre+, a hip 'gastropark' opened in April last year.

Using the funds raised from the IPO, the group also revealed in its Offer Document that they would be looking into the implementation of cashless electronic payment systems at their food outlets.

"With the advancement of mobile and digital payment systems, there is a greater degree of cashless and even cardless payments in Singapore. As such, we believe that [this] will enable us to keep up to date with changing consumer trends in the long run."

But getting the regular Singaporean to ditch cash for cards at coffeeshops and foodcourts isn't as simple as it seems, so the group is intending to first test it out at the demographic more attuned to such new tech - millennials.

They would be beginning pilot tests for a cashless electronic payment system by way of NETS FlashPay at SIM University foodcourt, and also piloting an electronic wallet system for the outlet in NUS.

If successful, they plan to roll out this system for the rest of their outlets across the island.

4. They acquired a chain of dim sum stores in 2008

There are 43 Kimly Dim Sum stores located around the island currently, but did you know that the group didn't start the chain from scratch?

In 2008, the group revealed that they had acquired a chain of dim sum stores, and since then, have been feeding Singaporeans hungry for har gao in the heartlands.

34 of their Dim Sum outlets are also open 24-hours, so any midnight cravings could be sufficiently satisfied.

5. They're moving into food delivery

And speaking of satisfying cravings, the group saw the potential in expanding their reach via food delivery, and in November last year, partnered with food delivery provider Deliveroo so that customers could get their siew mai without the need to leave their homes or desks.

"We believe that the introduction of online food ordering and delivery services for our Dim Sum will provide our Group with an additional avenue to sell our products. This would target a new segment of customers, as the target consumers in this case would be those who are normally not frequent patrons of our food outlets."

Wanting to be the "alternative fast food delivery choice", they are currently working Getz Group Pte Ltd, a specialist F&B technology solutions provider, to create an online ordering system for customers who want to do pre-orders online.

For customers already at their food outlets, unique QR codes would also be put on the tables so that they can use their mobile devices to browse food offerings and place orders for food.

"We hope to be prepared for a food revolution led by technology and cater to our tech-savvy patrons," said the group.

It's not surprising that their IPO was oversubscribed

Growing yearly profits, a significant presence in Singapore, an experienced management team, and a willingness to take on new initiatives to maximise manpower and time - these are a few of the main reasons why Kimly received such overwhelming results in their IPO.

Theirs is a success story of a traditional business embracing change, and we can't wait to see how they will be refreshing (and saving) our dwindling coffeeshop culture.

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Kimly: Singapore's first 'kopi-o IPO'

Source:

The Straits Times

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I've personally never been a fan of clean eating - anything remotely healthy, or green and leafy just turns me off.

But just by scrolling through Vannessa Lee's Instagram page, I'm not surprised if I ever turn vegan one day.

She just has the penchant to make healthy food look good. And all of these are homemade nosh, mind you - not some store-bought fare from some hipster cafe.

With her apparent love for healthy food, I guess it was a natural progression for the 25-year-old to delve into F&B.

Together with her younger brother Joey Lee, 23, they co-founded the group Tandem Collective in June 2016.

"We founded Tandem Collective with aspirations to make a mark on the local F&B scene in our way, with our individually unique perspectives on the industry," said Joey.

Starting up A Poke Theory

The first food concept they rolled out under Tandem Collective was A Poke Theory.

It specialises in Hawaiian poke (pronounced 'poh-kay') - which is pretty similar to Japanese chirashi don, where fresh sashimi is served on top of a bed of sushi rice.

Customers can customise their poke bowl by choosing their preferred base, flavour and toppings. Other offerings include superfood smoothie bowls, cold-pressed juices, T2 tea infusions and healthy snacks.

"I first tasted poke during my internship in Los Angeles, at this little shack on Venice Beach. I was immediately taken aback by how tasty yet simple the dish was. It was literally just marinated tuna on rice, which led me to go crazy with thoughts on how much we could jazz up this dish accordingly to our local palate," said Joey.

Moreover, barely anyone in Singapore was well-acquainted with poke back then.

So when he returned to Singapore, he was determined to set up a poke shop. But since he had to enlist in National Service, it inevitably delayed his business plans, but he still made the most out of his time there.

In the army, he worked on research and development - conducting taste tests with his friends, and figuring out what system to adopt to cope with the potential massive traffic.

The store finally opened its doors in July last year, and the response was simply overwhelming.

Long queues formed even before opening hours, as well as during lunchtime, which made it hard for them to keep up with the demand.

"We sold out in two hours on the first day, which led to people queuing outside our store at 10.30am to ensure that they got their poke bowl for lunch on that second day. We still sold out in three hours then, and struggled to feed the demand throughout the week," said Vannessa.

"We were supposed to open on Saturday as well, but decided to stay closed for the day while we took a hard look at our operations to try to maximise processes and space in order to keep up with the demand and tap into our maximum potential revenue."

This positive reception is all thanks to her teaser campaign, which kicked off approximately two weeks before the store launch, to help build the hype.

Vannessa formerly led the social media content team at Havas Media, where she clinched 11 awards during her two-year stint there. She had also been approached to join the Google content team, though that didn't work out eventually.

Harnessing all her previous work experiences, Vannessa is undeniably the "creative force" behind Tandem Collective, and is now in charge of the company's branding.

Alter Ego, the evil twin

Just four months after launching A Poke Theory, the duo set up another F&B joint at Esplanade called Alter Ego.

"Esplanade had wanted us to open a second store, but needed us to serve alcohol - which was against the brand's mantra of healthy eating. Hence we flipped it around into an "evil twin" persona where it was healthy by day, and indulgent by night. That way, we could still serve our specialty poke and also hit the alcohol requirements," she explained.

In other words, Alter Ego serves poke bowls till the evening, while the indulgent grub runs till late.

Their star dish is the sinful pizza fries, which is slathered in three rich melted cheeses and crowned with smoky pepperoni.

"At Alter Ego, you'd be looking at dainty, plated poke bowls versus generous servings of pizza fries, buttery grilled cheeses and sinful Juicy Lucy burgers - the stuff you can only attribute to a #foodporn hashtag."

This 'evil twin' concept also reflects their contrasting eating habits because unlike Vannessa, Joey is not health-conscious and is known for his "indulgent creations".

With his wealth of experience in the food industry (he was previously a food journalist, and also worked as a part-time chef at a commercial kitchen in Seattle), Joey is now the man behind the food ideas and he works hand-in-hand with the head chefs to execute it.

Besides the menu, the 'evil twin' persona is also reflected in the interior decor of the stores.

Vannessa describes the store space of Alter Ego as "more grown up" in comparison to A Poke Theory. The space is a mix of rusty steel, cement and wood, with lots of natural light in the day.

At night, UV lights highlight messages scrawled on a wall mural in glowing red, and the space transforms into a darker, edgier space.

When asked about the rapid expansion, Vannessa said that it was an unplanned move - "it was more of an opportunity".

"Upon opening A Poke Theory, we had different malls approaching us for tenancy within our first week, and investors coming to the shop looking for us (the owners) to pass us their name cards, being keen on funding our next expansion. Esplanade was one of the malls that offered a space to us, and we negotiated a deal where we saw the potential for it to do well," she explained.

Surviving the tough F&B industry

The F&B industry is rather competitive in Singapore. There are many eateries popping up, just as there are as many stores that have closed down. So how exactly are they planning to last in this tough industry?

As a former food journalist, Joey said that he "went through some sort of accelerated learning on F&B".

He used to critique the dining experience and also constantly kept track of the cafes and restaurants that were thriving, asking owners and PR executives on the reasons why some concepts failed.

And since the tables have now turned, Joey is applying these gained knowledge to his business instead.

He added that "branding" is also an important factor that should not be overlooked. Their long queues at launch is a testament to how important advertising is.

But Vannessa recounts an incident where some have shunned their efforts and attributed their good business to sheer luck.

"A particular moment that stuck out to me was when we were invited to be part of a speakers' panel at a SMU Eagle Inc's event. One of the speakers referred to us as a "one in a million exception" who were "very very lucky" to have queues out the door in our first few days, while they struggled with spreading word about their brand in the early days."

"I'm sure it wasn't a conscious jibe at us, but I actually did take offence at that," she said, laughing it off.

Vannessa emphasised that they put in concerted effort into launching a brand before the opening, then followed it up with a series of other social media strategies that led it to go viral on Instagram.

"That isn't pure luck. That's undermining our strategies both in branding, marketing, and even business operations."

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10 pairs of Singapore power siblings who are dominating their own business

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Having a sibling as a business partner

When the Lee siblings first announced their business plan to their parents, they were extremely supportive about their ambitions - probably because their parents are also entrepreneurs themselves.

Interestingly, Tandem Collective is not the duo's first business venture together.

"During my studies, my sister and I tested our own little cookie business from our one oven at home, moving from small orders from our friends to wedding orders in the span of a year and a half, and that was where I practiced our costings and our chemistry working together with my sister in a business," said Joey.

But there's a group of people who thinks that you should never do business with a family member because conflicts are bound to arise and relationships might get strained.

When asked to comment on this, Vannessa said that both of them have always been incredibly close growing up.

"Our parent's divorce alongside other things, drew us closer rather than further apart. We bicker like your regular pair of siblings, but we do have a very deep, unspoken bond between the both of us that we innately know to never wreck - no matter how tough the business gets."

"Of course, we have had heated arguments and shed many tears, but we've also learnt to celebrate every little triumph - whether it's a new sales record, or having our faces plastered on the front page of Lianhe Zaobao (A Chinese-medium newspaper). At the end of the day, if we had to choose between business or family, we both know we would choose family in a heartbeat. And I think that's a major driving force and strength in our relationship in the business."

Future plans

Currently, Vannessa is based in Melbourne where she is busy making plans for her upcoming wedding.

As such, Joey is taking over all operations-related matters such as quality control, logistics, store management and external events.

Meanwhile, Vannessa will take up roles that allow her to work from a distance such as handling HR matters and branding, while still overseeing the shops through CCTV cameras.

However, she will still be shuttling back to attend major meetings.

In terms of business expansion, Joey said that they are currently in talks with possible franchisees for A Poke Theory, both locally and overseas.

"As always, it boils down to whether they have the same vision as us, and if we believe that they are the right hands to entrust our brand with."

"As for new concepts, we're always on the watch for the right time and place, and that will be the defining moment as to when we make our next move. Till then, we'll just have to wait and see!"

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Here are some facts about Cassandra Hsiao, in case you've never heard of her.

- This year, she was accepted into all 8 Ivy League universities in America, a very impressive feat for any student.

- At the age of 5, she moved to America with her family.

- She's a kickass writer, with an impressive set of accomplishments (besides writing the essay that got her all those acceptance letters, she's a very active student journalist who has interviewed quite a few celebrities, has written stage plays and she produces videos on her own YouTube channel).

Before I continue, let me clarify. I am not diminishing her successes.

Her school can be proud of Cassandra. Her family can be and probably is very proud of Cassandra. Whoever's had a hand in shaping, mentoring and supporting Cassandra can be proud of Cassandra.

Heck, Cassandra should be proud of Cassandra. She didn't get where she is now without a lot of hard work and dedication to pursue her interests and hone her skills.

However, I feel Malaysians have no right in making a big deal out of her particularly over the "fact" that she is a Malaysian who has succeeded. We might as well make a big deal out of Ifeoma White-Thorpe or Martin Altenburg, two other American teens who also swept the Ivy 8.

 Read also: Malaysia-born teen got into 8 Ivy-league colleges with essay about learning English as an immigrant

Yes, Cassandra's essay application spoke of her experience of learning English "properly" and of her mother's struggles with the language. However, how is that experience vastly different from that of most migrants to the US whose first languages aren't English?

I'm not denying Cassandra's "Malaysianness" if she still chooses to accept that part of her heritage (And based on interviews, she still does embrace it and loves some of the local food. Good on her).

But Malaysia has had very little, if anything, to do with Cassandra's success now.

Where did she get to develop her writing skills? America.

Where did she get the exposure and opportunities even though she's only a teenager? America.

What education system shaped her and brought her to where she is? America's.

Does Malaysia really have much of a part in any of her achievements? I really don't think so.

Our local media (and people) do have a tendency to hype even the most tenuous of links to distant "Malaysians" as if it's something to celebrate.

Guy Sebastian, an Australian Idol winner moved away when he was six but there's much "national pride" in hyping up that he's from Klang. Joseph Schooling's mother was Malaysian, and that too was made much of. Even the fact that Barack Obama has a Malaysian brother-in-law made local headlines back in 2008.

The trend is someone somewhere out in the world does something that grabs attention, and we see the headlines of "A Malaysian Did This" or "This Malaysian's Success Story".

If you dig a bit, you might find that most of these Malaysians either left the country ages ago, or might not have even spent their formative years here. Even if they did, most of them never plan on coming back to settle in Malaysia.

At the end of the day, what is the message that we're sending to the Malaysians when we celebrate a success like Cassandra's simply because she was born in Malaysia?

Is the key takeaway that we have to leave the country to ever achieve anything great?

It is a fearfully toxic message to spread.

No wonder we're subject to talent drain, if that's what we raise our citizens to believe.

I'm not saying everyone's banned from ever leaving. I myself studied overseas for almost 6 years. But, here's my message for all Malaysians.

To those who have left seeking "better opportunities"-come back and create those opportunities here.

To those who are thinking of leaving-go. But don't leave forever. Come home.

And to those who wish to celebrate Malaysians, don't forget to do so with the ones who have achieved greatness-right here at home.

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When we were younger, there were only a few outlets that allow us to unleash our creative side such as playing with Lego bricks, or maybe doodling on textbooks during classes.

For Elijah Yang, his curiosity to figure out how things work, hack together things and compose music, has made him quite a polymath.

At age 15, he built a Tesla coil to perform experiments in creating high-voltage electrical discharges. He put together a power supply, a capacitor and coil transformer set so that voltage peaks alternate between the two.

When he's not getting his hands dirty building things, he composes music and does piano transcription such as Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto in his free time.

It's no surprise then that he combined his interest for building things and creating music to delve in the manufacturing industry.

Right after graduating from university - back in 2013 - he founded Aural-Aid when he was 25, an acoustic panel and soundproofing startup.

It didn't matter if he had no business knowledge or experience at hand - what matters is that he is doing what he's best at, and that in itself is an ingredient for success.

The early days of struggle

But of course, the early days of the startup journey is never a breeze.

He started by picking up skills that were useful and relevant to his business such as front and back-end web development skills to create the company's website. He also learnt carpentry from scratch to build the acoustic panels.

"The first thing you have to overcome when starting a startup is the discomfort of not knowing whether there will be a demand for your products or services. And sometimes this discomfort can last for quite long - for me it was six months," he shared.

With limited funds, he rented a 100 square-feet storage space in a warehouse to be used as a workspace for only $500 a month.

He started out the business by allowing customers to place pre-orders. This let customers get the products they want through advance reservations; and as a retailer, pre-orders guarantee a certain amount of sales as the goods are sold before they were even built or made available.

"During the pre-order period, I had to build about 50 acoustic panels and deliver them within a month. I worked seven days a week, with about only four hours of sleep each night," lamented Yang.

Even travelling to and fro the warehouse to his home was a waste of precious time to him, so he resorted to sleeping in the storage room. No comfy beds greeted him - he had to make do with sleeping on a "piece of bubble wrap placed on the floor" instead.

Besides the rental fee for the storage space, he invested another $1,500 to purchase raw materials.

He pumped in a total of $3,000 and he broke even in just the first month during the pre-order, which quickly validated his startup and gave him a peace of mind.

Climbing the ladder of success

Aural-Aid provides acoustical treatment and soundproofing supply and build services to schools, hospitals and government institutions.

Its manufacturing arm designs and makes acoustic panels for commercial and education sector, while their contract arm installs acoustic panels for auditoriums, cinemas, offices and residences.

Serving different verticals also meant catering to different clients, as each one has different requests, said Yang.

"Some are looking to reduce reverberation time, and some are looking to achieve sound isolation," he added.

What sets Aural-Aid's products apart from its competitors is that it develops its acoustical components with in-house technology such as 3D printing, CNC milling, and parametric modelling.

"This is rare in the acoustics industry because the majority of the incumbents have been around for 20 years and there is inertia for them to pick up new technology as they are comfortable with their traditional ways. We have also just patented something (he didn't disclose), so the future is quite exciting!"

So it's of no surprise that big-name companies such as Google, Airbnb, Apple, PayPal and Dyson are all using their products.

Yang was very humble about this impressive portfolio though, and simply attributed this achievement to "very good SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)" instead.

"That's how our customers can easily find us on Google," he laughed.

A cockroach startup

Aural-Aid may be a bootstrapped startup yet it is able to rake in about $1 million in revenue annually - which is no mean feat.

"Our revenue is growing at about 50 per cent each year, but we're kind of like a cockroach startup," said Yang.

A cockroach startup is one that is constantly struggling, yet it still goes forward in spite of changing environments, market conditions and investment scenarios - just like a cockroach.

They are the ones who are capable enough of knowing where they should spend money and where they shouldn't. As such, Yang figured that running a lean startup is the right way to go.

Aural-Aid have a very small team of about four to 10 people (depending on hiring season) - but the key idea here is quality over quantity.

Yang makes it a point to "hire very carefully".

"We put our new hires through a two-week induction programme where they just have fun and be themselves. This two weeks will show more than any interviews can ever reveal," he added.

It's clear that over the past three years, Aural-Aid has grown bigger and better.

And if we take this in the literal sense, their office space has actually gotten bigger with every move; they have shifted offices four times to date.

From a humble warehouse storage place, they shifted to a small office in 2013, then moved to a larger office the following year.

Finally in 2015, they garnered enough funds to buy their own two-storey office space, which they promptly named the "Aural-Aid headquarters".

The concept of their new office space is very modern and exudes a hip vibe. The decor aside, the office features very cool facilities such as capsule beds, a $10,000 glass bathtub and rainforest shower (!!!), in-house carpentry workshop, and a FabLab which is equipped with a 3D printer and CNC machine.

"Having our own capsule beds in the office allows us to take power naps during work, which actually increases productivity. I remember a particular intern who slept four hours during her first day at work! They can also take a hot bath at our showering facility to freshen themselves up if they're sleepy."

These facilities make it clear that Aural-Aid is serious about both work and play. And if these have enticed you to work in this cool startup, then good news: they are looking to grow their team and have a couple of positions available.

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Singapore is a foodie nation, a veritable salad bowl of edible cultures that leave us wanting for nothing.

When it comes to eating out, the physical convenience allows us to get food at our fingertips and supplementing this ease are the delivery startups that allow us to order takeaway from restaurants halfway across the island.

And yet certain food startups just aren't surviving in Singapore.

Eating In? Not So Much.

The startups I'm referring to are those that deliver recipe and ingredients boxes to your house, such as ChefBox and The Hungry Chef.

If these names seem unfamiliar, there's a good reason.

None of them are active today.

In 2015, The Hungry Chef's founder Ruchi Ballal shared how they wanted to "unite families through home cooking" and were confident that their service would work.

Today they are just a food blog, and a simple enquiry told me that they have since stopped operating as a delivery startup for over a year.

Meanwhile, gourmet food box You Cook It! has exited the Singapore market, and is instead en route to France.

As for ChefBox, founder Max Tiong also shared that they is no longer in service, and he is instead focusing on catering startup DishDash.

It's not as simple as these startups lacking financial power, seeing how RedMart's own Homemade service seems to have died.

So why is it that they have not found lasting love?

We compiled a few possible reasons.

1. Limited traction for home cooking

It's a well-known fact that Singaporeans lack the time to cook or even eat together.

And as the work hours get longer, it's more convenient to dine out or get takeaway.

Millennials today are likely to have grown up with domestic helpers and might not be familiar with cooking.

Meanwhile, people who do cook extensively tend to be restricted to housewives and domestic helpers.

As a result, they're also more experienced in shopping and ingredient prep, and are unlikely to use these startups.

2. Social cooking

This does not preclude millennials from cooking entirely however, as there are plenty with a penchant for it.

The difference is that these home chefs are motivated more by recreation as opposed to necessity.

I reached out to friends who cook frequently for their opinion, and a common element of their replies was that they would only use these services for special occasions.

"I know a couple of friends who used the service for date night, but only once. After a while the novelty wore off completely. As for myself, I only need the recipe once [so there would be no need to use the service again]," one guy shared.

In addition, he found no value in these services as "he enjoyed the process of grocery shopping".

On a personal note, while I would not mind trying it out, a concern I would have would be the exact quantity of ingredients.

It'd be troublesome to increase the quantity, especially once orders have been made) and neither is there much flexibility in the recipes.

3. Personal skill (or lack thereof)

These startups boxes come with recipes and a fixed amount of ingredients, and in terms of "do-overs" and cooking techniques, they might be a stretch for amateur cooks looking to get started.

Two ladies on our team shared that they would not mind using these services to learn how to cook for their families, but one did admit that once she had picked up the fundamentals, she saw no point in continuing.

4. This is Singapore

Ironically Singapore's love for food is also a reason why these startups do not fare well.

The convenience of both affordable as well as more premium food options make dining out or takeaway attractive solutions to hunger.

For those who still prefer to cook, the convenience of grocery shopping and online recipes also render these startups irrelevant.

A flawed model?

Does this mean that recipe-ingredient startups don't work at all?

Not true.

Recipe-ingredient startups Batterful and Bakestarters appear to be coming along well.

But the difference lies in that these two work with baking recipes.

For those with baking experience, you'd know that having exact ingredient quantity is extremely important.

In addition, there would not be the mess of having to deal with leftover flour or flavourings that are "neither here nor there".

One aspect that perhaps could have been improved for DIY food boxes was their ability to motivate Singaporeans to cook.

A winning startup that I call to point here is The MeatMen, whose success on Facebook has exploded into book deals.

They don't handle subscription services, but they are a prime example of how best to motivate people to start cooking, and their success is perhaps something to learn from.

This article was written based on the author's opinion and may not be reflective of the public sentiment.

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How often is it that we wait weeks for our online purchases, only to receive a call about its arrival…but with no one at home to receive it?

For the luckier ones among us, a water riser cupboard next to our doors acts as a temporary storage spot, or a friendly neighbour offers our parcel homage in their houses; but for many, this just means a delivery slip at our doors, informing us that we need to proceed to the nearest post office or POPStation to collect our item.

With our busy schedules, rushing down to the post office (which is only open for a limited amount of hours) is more often than not a chore, and there have been many times that personally, I put off buying items because of the unpredictability of their arrival.

"There must be an easier way to do this," we would've thought countless times to ourselves.

Well, this startup is taking that thought and making it a reality.

A Hassle-Free Way To Collect Your Online Shopping Packages

Founded by 3 Singaporeans, Erik Cheong, 28 (Co-Founder & COO), Bryan See Toh, 32 (Co-Founder & CEO), Tan Gan Hong, 29 (Co-Founder & CFO), Park N Parcel wants to provide online shoppers an "innovative way to collect parcels in a hassle-free manner by parking their parcels with the neighbours".

What this means is that instead of worrying about when you'll get your parcel, the delivery person will simply head to your neighbour's house and drop it off there, and you'll be able to pick it up at your convenience.

For the 'Parkers', those acting as collection points, they'll be paid $1 per successfully delivered parcel.

But what's interesting is the background of its founders - none of them were from the logistics industry prior to this.

They were actually equity dealers from Maybank Kim Eng Securities, and have been working together for the past 4 years - possibly explaining the undeniable chemistry among each other.

Says Erik, "While being equity dealers, we decided to embark on our own business and were once in the hospitality industry, where we managed a hostel and the operations. After the experience and knowledge we have attained from the hostel business, we felt that we all have individual skills that complement one another very well."

After starting Park N Parcel in April 2016, they have since quit their day jobs and are now running it full-time.

"We have always wanted to start something of our own, and so we decided to step out of our comfort zone. Moreover, the rise in startups has been emerging recently in Singapore over the past few years and being part of such an industry makes us feel honoured."

From A Personal Pain Point To A Startup Idea

The rationale for starting up is like many other startups we've featured - they experienced a problem, and instead of complaining, decided to do something about it.

Amongst the trio, the common reasons cited were the multiple calls from delivery people at inconvenient timings, consistently missed parcels, and the risk that came with leaving the items at their gates.

"I am usually not home to receive the parcels and thus, that caused a lot of inconvenience for me. Moreover, on some occasions, I needed the items urgently and scheduling for a redelivery will take more time for the parcels to be delivered to me. Sometimes, the parcels are left behind my gate which I felt was risky," shared Bryan.

Added Gan Hong, "As for me, receiving multiple calls from the delivery during my working hours especially during meetings, was definitely distracting."

Thus came the birth of Park N Parcel.

And if you're thinking that it's wordplay on the phrase "part and parcel" - you're absolutely right!

Quipped Erik, "We hope to position Park N Parcel to be part and parcel of the E-commence boom in Southeast Asia. When you conduct online shopping, you will definitely remember 'Park N Parcel' as an essential lifestyle service that one might not be able to live without!"

"'Park N Parcel' also sounds catchy at the same time which might bear resemblance to 'Park Your Parcel' and 'Park Parcel'. With such a name, we hope that people will think about using our service when they are planning to receive a delivery or when purchasing something online."

Making Park N Parcel, Part And Parcel Of Our Lives

While established in April 2016, they only launched Park N Parcel this year in January, and started with 100 Parkers as collection points.

"We spent the first 8 months on prototype, test bed, conducting market research through surveys, tightening up our concept, conceptualisation the design, and lastly on fund raising."

But given that this was a new concept - where did they find individuals willing to have their houses as collection points?

Revealed Erik, "The first 100 Parkers were mainly from roadshows and events, flyer distribution in neighbourhood areas, door-to-door surveys and word of mouth. We relied heavily on the surveys to attain feedback about our idea which we felt was important because ultimately, they would be the ones utilising our platform."

"We also have a presence on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and also leveraged on influencers and bloggers which have helped us tremendously."

Parkers also have the responsibility of being at home so that the process can be successfully carried out, and Erik shared that when they first started out, 50 per cent were residential, consisting of housewives, retirees, students and home-based business owners; while the other 50 per cent were made up of commercial businesses like cafes, minimarts and retail stores in shopping malls.

Yes - commercial businesses can also be used for parking parcels!

"For residential Parkers, there are interested to earn additional passive income. For commercial Parkers, they are more interested in the footfall of their premise. This works more as a collaboration for them as people who collect their parcels at their premises can potentially be a sale for these commercial Parkers. Thus, this is a win-win situation for both parties."

As of this month, the number of Parkers have increased to 500.

But the journey hasn't been completely smooth-sailing, and problems came mostly from limited resources, and general skepticism about this new concept.

Revealed Erik, "The fact that Park N Parcel is using neighbours as parcel collection points is constantly faced with skepticism because some might feel that it is risky to receive unknown parcels. In the beginning, due to such skepticism, we were searching for constant validation through a few testbed neighbourhood estates such as Punggol, Sengkang and Serangoon."

Reviving The 'Kampung Spirit' Among Singaporeans

Writing the article, I couldn't help but think about how the startup's service is somewhat rekindling the 'kampung spirit*' in our usually introverted lives in Singapore.

(*Kampung Spirit refers to a sense of community and cohesion among neighbours)

Erik heartily agreed with the sentiment, declaring that it is one of their aims to do so.

"With the rise in technology and smartphones now, we are so glued onto our tech gadgets that sometimes we forget how to interact with one another face to face. We hope that through our platform, we can help the community to connect, such as having millennials which in this case are the users of our service and the Parkers, majority of them being the older generation, to connect and simply to share a word or two."

"In fact, many of our Parkers have [given us] feedback about how they have made a couple of friends through this service. They have also seen more familiar faces around the neighbourhood. I believe that some of these Parkers feel that the networking experiences far more fulfilling and it's beyond just making extra income."

Park N Parcel In The Present, And Future

Erik shares that so far, reception of the service has been positive, and the number of parcels going through the process has been gradually increasing.

"Park N Parcel is similar to Grab, Uber and Airbnb - we adopt a sharing economy model where it is a shared community for people from all walks of life to connect. Due to the success of sharing economy services like these established companies, many people are more open to the idea of a sharing economy."

"We believe there will be more Parkers joining us in time, [and] with more Parkers, this will cause a ripple effect on the users as well. With more Parkers covering more parts of Singapore, the distance between a Parker and a user will most likely be shorter. Thus, users will be more inclined to use our service knowing that there is a Parker situated near his or her premises."

As for expansion plans, or adding related services to its current lineup, Erik reveals that they're currently aiming to hit 1,000 Parkers solely in Singapore, and they are currently discussing partnership plans with companies like Playe, an online retailer, and logistics companies such as Qourier, Gogovan, Roadbull and Aramex.

"We hope these potential collaborations can boost the traction of company and make our operation more efficient."

Further down the road, they are looking to expand overseas, firstly to markets like Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand.

Words Of Advice For Fellow Entrepreneurs

A resident of startup hotbed Blk 71 under NUS Enterprise Incubation, Park N Parcel was selected to become one of their portfolio startups in March this year, and Erik "strongly recommends" new startups to join them there.

"The environment of the working space here is full of energetic and young entrepreneurs, sharing the same mindset of a startup. This is a great opportunity to share experiences and ideas to other startup businesses and even special guests such as William Tanuwijaya from Tokopedia!"

As for advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, Erik shares, "Firstly, it is important to build a great team. It is never good to work alone and we are thankful that we have the support of one another. Secondly, to take action. Do not be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and take risks! Everyone have great ideas but success only comes through action."

"Thirdly, know your customers. Your customers are the most important part in building your business and are the greatest source of learning. They are the ones that you can look upon for solutions so as to serve them better. Let unhappy customers share with you their bad experiences on your products or services and do not be discouraged."

"Lastly, learn from mistakes. Be humble and acknowledge your mistakes. If you make a mistake, fret not. The more you learn from your mistakes, the closer you are to success."

We thank Erik and the Park N Parcel team for their time - check them out here!

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Mirrors.

One of those everyday objects we have in our homes, but pay very little attention to.

Most of us would balk at the idea of paying more than necessary for one, but these 5 Singaporeans have just released a $2,700 mirror.

This is Fred.

FRED

Future Ready, Everything Digital's FRED is the world's first smart luxury mirror.

Jam-packed with perks from air-purification to stereo speakers, FRED is also Internet-ready.

Imagine having your smartphone in a mirror, and you're able to read the news, check your schedule and social media, all while getting ready each morning.

"We intend the Mirror to become the hub for all connectable and compatible devices to link up with. It'll become the convergence of IoT-ready appliances," shared founder Jonathan Yuan.

But of course, perks like these come at a price.

FRED retails for S$2700, but there are only 500 available worldwide.

 

FRED is proud to unveil the world's first luxury smart mirror - only 500 pieces are made. Limited Edition collection at Frednology.com

A post shared by FRED | Luxury Smart Mirror (@frednology) on Apr 16, 2017 at 11:42pm PDT

Screening The Team

Each of them brings a handy set of skills - Codigo's Adrian develops the software for the Android system, while Offset's Clement and David brings their extensive web development and video production experience.

Meanwhile, Jaramie takes on a business development role with commercial partners and Jonathan serves as CEO to manage the team.

As individuals, each one is skilled.

But together, these 5 entrepreneurs make up a mean team.

In a previous interview, Jonathan also shared "the whole process of building this mirror was really fun, but I think I'm really lucky to have very good partners and strong support. We're all friends but from different industries. I shared my vision they decided to come on board to build this thing together."

"As a small player with big dreams, we designed FRED to be high quality and exuding luxury and this means that manufacturers must live up to our standards and demands. This was a challenge but by evaluating and discussing with so many suppliers, we are confident that we have an established manufacturing base."

A Smart Nation

The mirror has always been one of those items everyone has, but never pays much attention to.

But with FRED, the team seeks to transform this everyday object into the core of a smart ecosystem.

Founder Jonathan Yuan with FRED / Image Credit: Jonathan Yuan

"When Zuckerberg launched Facebook, it faced tremendous competition [but it's] now the de-facto social media platform worldwide. Likewise, when Jobs relaunched Apple through the iMac and iBook […] and it is now an unstoppable force with a US$741 billion market."

"We know the future is in IoT and A.I., and we are at that inflection point where our entry into this unique budding market gives us an enthusiasm we can only describe as heart-stopping," Jonathan shares.

"We intend to ride this wave of smart luxury appliances, with the FRED Mirror being our signature cornerstone product."

Reflecting on the potential that Singapore embodies, Jonathan shares his optimism for the smart nation initiative.

"Already, the island is broadband-ready, including a very fast mobile communications network, allowing our signature Mirror product, as well as any future plans, to leverage on these infrastructures easily."

And on this optimism, Jonathan gushes that FRED is merely the start - "We are all dreamers, inventors, innovators, and technology and smart home believers. We intend to develop other products, and I can only say, stay tuned!"

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Last week, Forbes Asia unveiled this year's 30 Under 30 list, giving recognition to some of the brightest minds in 10 different industries.

Among the list of 300, we were proud to find both fellow Singaporeans and those who have come from other countries to set up base here, so let's meet the 23 outstanding individuals that we should definitely be looking out for from now on.

The Arts

• Lawrence Holmefjord-Sarabi (25), Julius Holmefjord-Sarabi (24) - Aureus Academy

The founders of the Singapore music school Aureus Academy, the pair of brothers from California started their venture in 2013, and have grown from a single centre in Delfi Orchard to over 6 locations with four concert halls, 75 teachers, and over 2,300 students on board.

With the belief that one-on-one teaching is the most conducive learning environment for music, the Academy specialises in providing individually tailored lessons for students of all ages and abilities.

According to Forbes, the brothers have plans to expand to Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea as well as mainland China this year.

Entertainment & Sports

• Joseph Schooling (21)

Literally the "Golden Boy" of the Singapore sports scene, Joseph Schooling became our first Olympic champion by not only clinching the gold medal, but also setting an Olympic record at the 100m butterfly event at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

The 21-year-old returned home to a victory parade with thousands of fans littering the roads to greet him, companies jumping on the bandwagon to capitalise on his win, and a sweet S$1 million reward.

Schooling is currently back at the University of Texas in Austin, where he is studying and training. We're certain that he misses his beloved black carrot cake, though.

Finance & Venture Capital

• Val Yap (29) - PolicyPal

Founder of PolicyPal, a mobile app which helps to collate whatever insurance policies a user has, Val Yap ditched her cushy job as Assistant Vice President at OCBC Bank for the startup life, after realising that making an insurance claim for her mother was not only tedious, but stressful as well.

"This painful experience made me realised the importance of having a well-organised folder of my insurance policies and documents," Yap revealed to LadyBoss Asia.

The app, launched in April 2016, recently raised seed funding from 500 Startups and joined the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)'s fintech regulatory sandbox, where the startup is testing its app through tie-ups with insurance providers NTUC Income and Etiqa Insurance.

Media, Marketing & Advertising

• Adrian Ang Jin Yong (29), Karl Mak (29) - Hepmil Media Group

Co-founders of the Hepmil Media Group, best known for their publications SGAG and MGAG, Singapore and Malaysia's answer to 9GAG, Ang and Mak have successfully built a brand that is connecting Singaporeans and Malaysians with localised humour.

And it all started simply enough - back in 2012, the founders, feeling bored in class, created one of the first Singaporean memes about the discontinuation of McDonald's curry sauce. It went viral, they were inspired to do even more of these memes - and the rest was history.

Having ventured into creating sponsored content for brands as well, their recent efforts have well-received by fans of their page, and it seems like they have found the sweet spot there.

• Jacqui Hocking (27) - Vision Strategy Storytelling

Founding partner of Vision Strategy Storytelling (VSS), a media company which is helping brands to differentiate themselves from the noise via innovative video, VR, photography and social media campaigns, Hocking is an Australian national who has been active in the startup scene in Singapore since 2010, with social enterprise Gone Adventurin'.

Spending the first half of her career as a documentary filmmaker and social entrepreneur, she is now using all the knowledge and skills she acquired over the years to scale inspiring business solutions under VSS.

Retail & E-Commerce

• Martell Graf von Hardenberg (29) - Lazada

At the tender age of 27 in 2014, Hardenberg became the CEO of Lazada Singapore, after 6-months at its Vietnam headquarters as its country head, and another stint as managing director of Lazada Indonesia.

An entrepreneur himself, he started his own company after graduating from university selling fashion accessories, eventually selling the business off after 4 years.

Before getting on board the Lazada train, he was a global venture development manager at Berlin-based Rocket Internet, and, in 2011, co-founded Lazada.

• Christopher Hwang (26), Jonathan Shen (27) - The Golden Duck

As compared to simply riding on the salted egg craze, the founders of The Golden Duck have taken the seasoning and gone beyond the 'flavour of the month' strategy.

Finding success with just 2 products - their gourmet salted egg potato chips and fish skin, they're believers of "tip-top quality" and deliver to serial snackers in not just Singapore and Asia, but those in the US and Europe as well.

Their advantage over other salted-egg offerings in Singapore's competitive F&B industry? "Our products can be enjoyed anywhere, and are not confined to meal-timings and retail environments," revealed Shen.

Fun fact: Hwang was featured in CLEO's Eligible Bachelor list last year, and Shen, in August Man's A-Listers list too!

• Nicolas Travis (29) - Allies of Skin

Previously featured by us, Travis is the founder of skincare brand Allies of Skin, another business which found success with a small range of products.

Travis' inspiration came from his personal experience, having struggled with acne in his teens and not being able to find the 'right' products to help him then.

He thus decided to create his own solution to empower those like himself with fuss-free products that are concentrated, multi-tasking nutrient reservoirs.

While starting the business took a mid six-figure sum, he managed to break even in just 7 months, and is said to be closing the 1st year at around S$700,000.

After closing 2 rounds of funding, with S$450,000 raised, AoS is also the first Singapore skincare line to be listed on international sites like Mr Porter, Net-A-Porter, Nordstrom and Bloomingdales.com.

Healthcare & Science

• Justin Fulcher (24) - RingMD

An American based in Singapore, Fulcher is the founder and CEO of RingMD, a platform which wishes to connect anyone from anywhere with a global community of doctors, and mental health and wellness experts.

Having started coding at the age of 7 back in South Carolina, Fulcher is also the founder of "a string of startups", with the latest being RingMD, which, inspired by his travels around Asia, was launched in 2013.

"I was travelling around Asia. That was when I saw a huge disconnect between the levels of access to quality and affordable healthcare. Being the tech geek that I am, I decided to build a platform that allows people to easily access medical information and doctors online, any time and anywhere."

• John Ho (28) - National University of Singapore

An assistant professor and National Research Foundation Fellow at the National University of Singapore's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ho joined the university in 2015 after receiving his PhD at Stanford University.

Currently, his research is centred on the development of wireless technologies for bioelectronics, and has hopes that these could enable doctors to prescribe tiny, wireless devices instead of pills.

Ho's work has been demonstrated in applications such as cardiac pacing and optogenetics in mice.

• Jon Lin Shiyang (28) - mClinica

Alongside co-founder and COO Vasil Rusinov (26) of mClinica, a healthcare technology company headquartered in Singapore, Lin is an alumnus of Nanyang Technological University's business school, and used to work in the financial sector.

With mClinica, the duo aims to build digital networks of pharmacies, physicians, and patients, and also provide actionable insights for public and private healthcare organisations. They have connected thousands of pharmacies across Southeast Asia since 2014.

Having raised US$6.3 million in Series A funding in February, the startup now has plans to expand globally.

• Prusothman Sina Raja (29) - Privi Medical

Co-founder of Privi Medical, a medtech startup which brings together expertise in medicine and engineering to develop new healthcare innovations for unmet clinical needs, their flagship solution is a drug-free and disposable solution for internal haemorrhoids which sufferers can use at home.

The solution was actually developed during a startup competition organised by NTUC Income, where him and his members (made up of doctors) beat over 200 other teams, and got S$100,000 in funding to further develop the product.

In November 2016, they raised another US$1 million in seed funding.

Social Entrepreneurs

• Joanne Paranjothy (25), Rebecca Paranjothy (20), Vanessa Paranjothy (28) - Freedom Cups

The Paranjothy sisters are the founders of Freedom Cups, a menstrual cup made with medical-grade silicone.

With the hope to help women in underprivileged communities, Vanessa reveals that the inspiration to start came after realising how lucky she was in Singapore, after comparing herself to them.

"I learned that about 70 per cent of women across the globe have no access to any form of sanitation during their periods. They use things like leaves, sand, bark, and old cloth to quell the bleeding. To say it is terrible is a massive understatement."

As a means of spreading awareness, they also use a 'buy 1, give 1' model, meaning that with every cup bought, one would be given to a woman who needs it.

Enterprise Technology

• Victor Liew Jia Hao (30) - Xfers

In 2015, Liew co-founded startup Xfers, which aims to make banking transactions easier for e-commerce businesses which rely on payments using bank transfers, as compared to credit cards.

An NUS alumnus, Liew worked for Quora prior to founding Xfers, where he helped design the user interface.

Alongside Singaporean co-founder Tianwei Liu, they were inspired to start Xfers while working at Silicon Valley, where a personal experience made them realise how tedious bank transfers can be, especially when done on a larger scale.

Last year, they raised US$2.5 million in seed funding, and plan to first expand to Indonesia, and afterwards to other Southeast Asian markets.

• Viren Shetty (24) - PlusMargin

Another NTU alumnus, Shetty actually dropped out of university to pursue a career in entrepreneurship.

He is currently the co-founder and CEO of PlusMargin, a predictive marketing platform which combines behavioural psychology and AI to profile visitors on e-commerce sites and eventually help the companies increase their conversion rates.

Funded by Singapore Press Holdings, Plug and Play, 500 Startups, Infocomm Investments and more, the startup is said to have successfully secured several global multi-billion dollar brands as their customers.

Consumer Technology

• Oswald Yeo (24), Qin En Looi (23), Ying Cong Seah (24) - Glints

University-dropout-making-it-big stories might be rare, but the trio from Glints, a talent recruitment and career discovery platform, have proven that it's not just another myth.

Looi, Seah and Yeo crossed paths back when they were studying at Hwa Chong Institution, but only decided to embark on their entrepreneurship journey full-time after dropping out of their universities - the prestigious Stanford, Wharton, and Berkeley.

So far, other than helping over 200,000 youths with their career woes, they have secured close to US$2.5 million worth of funding, once in 2015, and the other in 2016.

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After the back-to-back tragedy struck the nation some years back with the disappearance of the mysterious MH370 and the loss of MH17, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) have had to struggle to stay afloat for a while.

They brought in Peter Bellew who managed to turn things around for them, but the overarching concern remained: something had to be done about safety.

And that something has come. In collaboration with Aireon, SITAONAIR and FlightAware, MAS is now able to monitor flight paths of its planes anywhere in the world.

Under the agreement, MAS aircrafts can now access minute-by-minute flight tracking data all over the globe, be it the polar regions or remote oceans.

According to Bloomberg, MAS will be the first company to use satellites to track its planes.

"Real-time global aircraft tracking has long been a goal of the aviation community," said Captain Izham Ismail, COO of MAS in a press release, "We are proud to be the first airline to adopt this solution using space-based ADS-B data" as part of SitaOnAir's Aircom Flight Tracker.

In his statement, ADS-B refers to Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast.

Those big fancy words basically mean that it's a type of tech that links aircrafts with satellite navigation, much like Waze.

It lets the aircraft determine its location by satellite, and also enables it to be tracked.

The combined solution will enhance the flight tracker by adding Aireon's space-based ADS-B data to the existing planespotting data on FlightAware.

With their powers combined, similar accidents can be prevented from occurring again.

According to FlightAware's CEO Daniel Baker, the new tech doesn't require any new avionics or modification on the aircraft, and will grant tracking access even where Air Navigation Service Providers don't.

Real life tracking will only actually run in 2018, after the related satellites that will be tracking these flights go up into space.

The first ten of those satellites, the Iridium NEXT satellites launched on January 14 2017, and they plan to eventually have 66 of them floating in a constellation of low-earth-orbit satellites providing global coverage.

Overall, on top of security, the surveillance ability should also help reduce fuel costs and enable them to figure out more efficient flight paths.

Talk about turning it all around.

We hope that this will translate to better flight security in the future.

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With the end of the university exam period, internship season is here again, and while some have already embarked on their internship journey, many are now in the midst of preparing for, or applying to various companies for opportunities.

As compared to taking up part-time jobs during the term breaks, internships are fast becoming a common option for undergrads, mostly because of how they're great opportunities for getting an insight into working life.

A while back, we asked startup founders about what they felt about internships and interns, so now, we find out the other side of the story.

Deborah, 22

• Are you looking for an internship during this term break? If yes, do you have an idea of what scope you're looking at? If not, why?

I'm still considering if I should be doing an internship - because I feel like I need a break haha!

And I want to spend time with family.

• Have you interned before? If so, how was your experience?

Yes! It was a good experience. I learnt a lot about the industry and gained new skills.

I also had very good colleagues who were pleasant to work with.

It definitely exposed me to how a company functioned, and what to expect.

• What's on your wish list for an internship?

To learn more about the industry I work in.

To gain experience so I can better understand if this is the job for me.

It would be good to gain some technical skills too, like learn new software or hardware, and possibly gain skills in knowing how to carry yourself, how to deal with clients, and so on.

• What's one thing you wish to tell employers who are looking to take on interns?

I would tell them to check in with interns occasionally to make sure that they learn something or get something out of the internship.

Also, let them try out all sorts of things, even if it's something menial (for all you know, they might enjoy it).

After all, the internship is a chance for students to gain work experience and learn all that they can within a few months.

Yeo Khee, 24

• Are you looking for an internship during this term break? If yes, do you have an idea of what scope you're looking at? If not, why?

Yes I am!

My passion is in digital marketing, advertising, and branding.

I always thought it was interesting how similar products can be priced so differently and consumers still buy them!

• Have you interned before? If so, how was your experience?

I had two internship experiences and the recent one with DiscoverSG was pretty good.

The environment and culture are awesome, and the people are even better!

They had great team-spirit as they are always helping one another.

The team was also really open to new ideas and don't mind sharing their knowledge and experience.

It was fulfilling as when I left, I knew I made friendships that can last a really long time.

• What's on your wish list for an internship?

Growth is the key aspect for me when it comes to an internship.

I aim to improve not just in soft skills but also develop an expertise in areas such as digital marketing, social media outreach, and creating marketing plans.

Hope my employer will be someone that is approachable and also willing to share and provide feedback throughout the journey!

What's one thing you wish to tell employers who are looking to take on interns?

There are many talented and passionate undergraduates out there, especially in the marketing industry.

I hope that GPA is not the top priority in the decision criteria of hiring an intern!

Most of the things we learn in school are not going to be relevant and the ability to study does not equate to passion or creativity.

Dennis, 24

• Are you looking for an internship during this term break? If yes, do you have an idea of what scope you're looking at? If not, why?

Yes, I have been on the lookout for an internship since early-March and thankfully, I have managed to secure one which falls under the scope of the real estate industry.

I am particularly keen on this industry because of my fascination with real estate investment trusts (REITs) as a form of income-investing vehicle.

• Have you interned before? If so, how was your experience?

Yes, I have had a few previous internships.

The experience varies, and I guess it is really dependent on the culture of the company itself.

On one hand, internships with bigger, or government-related corporations might be a little more structured, and on the other hand, internships with start-ups might be more flexible in terms of the job scope as well as the working environment.

• What's on your wish list for an internship?

On the top of my wish list for an internship will be the relevance of acquired knowledge.

I feel that it is much more rewarding to see how theoretical knowledge is being played out in the real industry itself.

As for the type of employer, the internship will definitely be more enjoyable if the employer is more nurturing and willing to involve the intern in not just superficial aspects.

What's one thing you wish to tell employers who are looking to take on interns?

Even though summer internships might have a relatively short duration of about only 3 months, it is still good to 'assign' interns a key project which they can deliver during the internship.

In that way, interns have something that they can work on, and towards to during their stay.

Marie, 22

• Are you looking for an internship during this term break? If yes, do you have an idea of what scope you're looking at? If not, why?

I'm doing an internship now!

I do not have any idea of what job scope I want but when I search for an internship, I do know what industry I want to be in.

• Have you interned before? If so, how was your experience?

Yes, I have interned before.

Previously I interned at an events company, it was fun!

I was able to gain exposure and understand how that industry truly works.

It allowed me to test out if that's the industry I want to be in in the near future.

• What's on your wish list for an internship?

Hmm, when I take up this internship, I would want to gain exposure, experience, and understand how the industry works.

Apart from that, I hope to gain some soft skills that would be transferable, regardless of what other jobs I do.

I would want the 'modern' kind of employer, where they would take your suggestions and let you be part of the team, rather than those traditional employers where they are pretty bossy, and you will have to follow their instructions with no room for suggestions.

• What's one thing you wish to tell employers who are looking to take on interns?

I would say, millennials are not as weak as what the news often label us.

Give them a chance, and let them have a voice.

Be open to suggestions (you may direct them to do stuff, but just find a good balance).

Don't judge them so quickly and allow them to perform.

If employers are willing to groom them, they will blossom eventually.

Claren, 21

• Are you looking for an internship during this term break? If yes, do you have an idea of what scope you're looking at? If not, why?

Yes. I will definitely look more into the industry associated to my field of study to be able to comprehend and experience a lifestyle I'll most likely be adapting to after graduation.

• Have you interned before? If so, how was your experience?

Yes I have.

It was a amazing experience as it was able to equip me with real life experiences and techniques to survive in the working world.

• What's on your wish list for an internship?

As far as skills go, I'd incline more towards interpersonal relationships and adaptability to surroundings.

Employer-wise, I'd prefer an employer who has good understanding of the culture and mission of the organisation so that they will able to assign work fairly and efficiently.

• What's one thing you wish to tell employers who are looking to take on interns?

Interns are here to learn as well as help out as much as they can.

Give them a chance to experience and learn real life problems, and give them a conducive working environment.

Sue Mae, 22

• Are you looking for an internship during this term break? If yes, do you have an idea of what scope you're looking at? If not, why?

What I look for in an internship is firstly the company itself - what they do, and how the (few) people I manage to meet and interact with during the application and interview are.

But what's more important is the role that they offer - what I'll be involved in, whether there is an opportunity for learning, and whether it is relevant to what I want to be doing in the future.

• Have you interned before? If so, how was your experience?

Yes I have.

My experience was fantastic and really fulfilling because I didn't really feel like I was "just an intern" because I was involved in so many aspects!

I guess this was because my employers really made an effort to involve me and get my input on things.

I really liked the company culture and my colleagues as well.

I think I was lucky though, because I have friends that really didn't enjoy their internships.

• What's on your wish list for an internship?

I'd like an internship where I have opportunities to learn, explore, and be tasked with more responsibilities.

I would also like to see how my skills and knowledge acquired in university can be put to use in the real world.

An employer that's open-minded and always willing to help or give advice would be great.

Of course, a cool office complete with a well-stocked pantry would be an added bonus!

• What's one thing you wish to tell employers who are looking to take on interns?

I guess it would be to give interns more responsibility and to listen to their opinions as well because who knows, they might just have a brilliant idea you never thought of.

YunJie, 21

• Are you looking for an internship during this term break? If yes, do you have an idea of what scope you're looking at? If not, why?

Yes I am.

Since I'm currently undertaking a degree in Business with Communications, I'm looking for one that's related to social media and digital marketing.

This opens up room for creativity instead of just the typical mundane office work.

On top of that, as I'm searching for an internship, I'm looking for one which I would want to continue working at after I graduate.

• Have you interned before? If so, how was your experience?

I have interned back in my poly days and it was a pretty good experience with the friendly colleagues around.

But the work that I had to do was pretty mundane as there was a flow of work which I had to adhere to.

As a customer service executive, I had to deal with different situations throughout the day.

All in all, I would say that it's a good experience, but I realised it isn't something I wanted to do in the future.

• What's on your wish list for an internship?

I wish for a boss I can work well with, and would guide me along to familiarise myself with the systems instead of throwing them at me, expecting top-notch work without helping.

It would be great to have an insight of how the industry is like through the internship.

• What's one thing you wish to tell employers who are looking to take on interns?

Do provide the necessary guidance and trust your interns with work as that would definitely give them a boost in confidence.

By doing that, they would want to do their best, knowing that their employers trust them with the work.

Glen, 23

• Are you looking for an internship during this term break? If yes, do you have an idea of what scope you're looking at? If not, why?

Yes. Scope-wise, you must be clear on what you set out to achieve during an internship, but also be open to different job scopes as part of a learning experience.

• Have you interned before? If so, how was your experience?

Yes, some companies good, some companies bad. Interns actually have a lot of potential and capabilities, but some companies just hire interns for the sake of low wages and administrative work.

• What's on your wish list for an internship?

I want to work towards building a Strategic Management Consulting experience, such as creating case models and strategic analysis on client organisations.

This is something I would like to venture into when I graduate.

I also wish for employers to be encouraging, and coach me.

But they should also value results, and push me to go the extra mile and take on more responsibilities.

• What's one thing you wish to tell employers who are looking to take on interns?

Firstly, you should look at how you want to structure your internship programs.

State clearly the job scope that the intern is hired to perform to prevent any confusion and disappointment between the intern and the organisation.

Secondly, conduct a comprehensive interview with the intern, ensuring the requirements you seek meets what he can offer to the organisation.

Lastly, ensure he is adding value to the organisation and himself - interns should feel that they are doing what they like to do without compromising on the value add towards the organisation.

Interns are in the organisation to learn after all, so do teach something relevant that they want to do in the future!

Maybe they will want to convert to full time after the internship ends!

Kee Siang, 25

• Are you looking for an internship during this term break? If yes, do you have an idea of what scope you're looking at? If not, why?

Yes! I am looking for something in management consulting.

• Have you interned before? If so, how was your experience?

Nope, never interned before.

• What's on your wish list for an internship?

Skills-wise, the ability to apply theory to actual situations and issues faced by firms in their management issues.

Also, the ability to distill complex problems to be rectified.

Employer-wise, any reputable management consulting firm would do.

• What's one thing you wish to tell employers who are looking to take on interns?

Focus on developing skilled interns to broaden pool of labour in the future.

Cassandra, 23

• Are you looking for an internship during this term break? If yes, do you have an idea of what scope you're looking at? If not, why?

Yes, I am looking for an internship this term break as my course is required to do a 100 hour placement.

I'm looking at marketing field for this internship to get a better understanding of how companies promote themselves, and how they reach out to their target audience.

• Have you interned before? If so, how was your experience?

Yes, I have interned in a big corporation when I was in Poly.

It was my very first time stepping into the working world and it was an eye opening experience for me.

I have learnt a lot - not only technical skills but also interpersonal skills.

• What's on your wish list for an internship?

I want to learn as much as I can.

I'm very willing to try out new fields to upgrade myself.

I'm definitely looking for employers who are willing to give me opportunities to expose myself to different situations so as to learn more skills.

• What's one thing you wish to tell employers who are looking to take on interns?

I wish to tell my employers to be more patient and positive when taking up interns because we are students and we are here to learn, even if we lack experience.

Not Just Saikang Warriors

From the responses, it's clear that these undergrads have greater intentions other than just filling up their time, or getting some pocket money.

Having worked with, and managed interns, I have to admit that more often than not, they bring with them much-needed energy and fresh perspectives - ones that as full-timers, we might be too jaded to come up with.

We wish all interns-to-be the best of luck for internship season!

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NTUC Secretary-General Chan Chun Sing begged this question in his recent blogpost dated on April 25: "Will we be missed if the Labour Movement disappears tomorrow?"

That in itself would serve as a "benchmark" for how well they've performed as a pillar of social cohesion and industrial peace.

To achieve excellence, it is imperative for them to be nimble and responsive to adapt to the rapid, disruptive changes in the job economy.

The idea here is to stay relevant, he emphasised.

The New Normal In The Job Landscape

"Gone are the days when one person would be in one job, or two, for an entire lifetime. Increasingly, working people will experience frequent transitions in their employment lifecycles," wrote Chan.

This all boils down to a mismatch of skills. Beyond that, holding a regular 9-to-5 office job is no longer a norm. With greater employment mobility, skills and training, an individual may be working in a MNC today, a startup tomorrow, and maybe freelance in the near future.

So how can the Labour Movement serve the workers across the continuum of employment options?

"Grow together with our workforce. Fail to evolve, and we would have failed in our mission to take care of the needs of our working people," wrote Chan.

In other words, they have to ensure that their products and services are relevant to the people they represent.

As part of their efforts to adapt, change and grow, the Labour Movement has grown from a "single union limb to five complementary limbs today," akin to a starfish.

Besides representing workers through the unions, NTUC has also launched initiatives to support PMEs (U Associates), SME workers (U SMEs), freelancers and self-employed individuals (U FSEs), as well as migrant workers and domestic employees.

This represents NTUC's growth for the past 10 years, and it is set to continually evolve, "the same way a company can no longer rely on a single product line for the entirety of its existence".

This diversification has enabled the Labour Movement to reach more working people and increase their representation of the workforce, serving about 1.25 million Singaporeans across various worker segments and industries.

Partnering Singaporeans Throughout Their Working Journey

As Singaporeans go through different phases in the their career and life cycles, NTUC wants to be there for them every step of the way.

"What we want is for our working people to develop a relationship with the Labour Movement - from before they begin work, whilst they're working, when they are transitioning between careers, and all the way until they retire," Chan claimed.

Students in Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) will have access to career guidance, and this is just one of the touchpoints where the U Career Network can tangibly start helping young people get a better job fit before they transit into the workforce.

Training programmes through NTUC's e2i and Learning Hub will also enable workers to bridge skill gaps quicker through new methods that mesh together working, learning and training.

Efforts have been intensified to enable these workers to pick up new knowledge and skills within the shortest speed-to-market turnaround time through working with U Associate partners.

This initiative "adds value" to the workers, especially PMEs, by linking them up with professional and industrial networks that can help them in their career transitions and career development. Essentially, the U Career Network gives workers an opportunity to deepen their skills and widen their professional networks within and across industries.

"It is no longer about just having the capability to operate in a specific industry, it is about having the skills and network to operate in roles across different industries, especially in adjacent ones," wrote Chan.

The focus here is to not just serve the workers' needs today, but "throughout their lifecycles" and across different stages of their careers.

Workers Are A Priority

Essentially, as economic cycles become more volatile and more models of employment become viable options, people tend to go through more changes in their careers. This is why the Labour movement is constantly adapting its services to meet such needs and remain relevant.

One thing to note: while methods may change, the mission of taking care of workers remain constant and will continue to be a top priority.

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Ever since the advent of Uber and Grab, the ride-hailing industry has never been more exciting.

I say 'exciting' as a consumer and observer, however, for many taxi drivers, the presence of these competitors is anything but.

On an Uber trip back home recently, the driver revealed to me that he used to get horned at, and also death glares from taxi drivers who realised he was an Uber driver.

"How did they know you're from Uber? There isn't a decal for that, isn't it?"

"I used to have my phone (used to pick up riders and navigation) placed up on my dashboard - that's how they saw it."

Of course, the taxi drivers who express their frustration in such aggressive ways are just a few of the many, but it's also fully understandable why they feel such animosity to the new kids on the road.

We reached out to 6 local taxi drivers, and found out what they really feel about Uber and Grab.

Responses have been edited for clarity and coherence

Mr Ong

Actually, it was a good idea at first, because they could fill in the demand gaps that the taxis couldn't fulfil. It was an overall increase in the service quality of professional drivers.

But that was until they starting going crazy with the hiring and quantity of their drivers on the road. This resulted in lower business volume…and Comfort Delgro was late to the promo code party.

And the thing is, these part time drivers just seem to have very mediocre driving skills. There's a lot of illegal stopping and dangerous road driving practices…like lane changing and sudden stopping.

Unlike taxi drivers, who have been driving around Singapore for many years, these part time drivers are also very unfamiliar with road, and tend to go against traffic.

Because they follow GPS most of the time, they also drive blindly a lot.

Mdm Fauziah

I don't hate them. When Grab and Uber started, I didn't like the idea of it because it somehow slowed down my business.

Last time in Singapore, there were 3-4 taxi companies, but now there's Uber and Grab too…and it made me worried.

But when Grab and Uber started, the stress and pressure on cab companies did lessen. More cars and vehicles on the road meant more consumer satisfaction…which is good, right?

I'm quite lucky, but now I'm still earning the same amount as compared to last time. The only downside now is that the waiting time for passengers is longer.

But I don't need to work extra hours to cover up, because it's just according to my own time, own target.

Have I considered hopping over to the other side? Of course.

But right now, I feel that Grab and Uber is losing out, and I saw it coming already. Due to low prices and all those incentives given to drivers, they are bound to lose a lot in the long run - that's what I feel.

Mr Loh, 55

I feel that Uber and Grab made me change the following.

First, I changed to cheaper rental taxi, and saved 40 per cent from it.

Next, I changed my work strategy by taking only street flag down, and NOT the booking by call or apps passenger. This method saved 2 hours of work. The increase in productivity also led to better income.

Thirdly, I have more time to rest with family. Almost 40 per cent time saved.

Lastly, I have better mental health due to having more rest.

Overall, I feel better.

Mr Teo, 50s

It's like that lor. Business is affected because a lot of people are taking Grab as compared to cab.

But I think we need to see how we can use Grab to help us as well.

Overall, I am just upset that the [taxi] company isn't helping us more, like by reducing cost of rental or being more flexible with the arrangements.

Mr Tan, Late 40s

If given a choice of a lower fee or cheaper price, a consumer's choice is naturally the lower one.

So to claim that Uber and Grab has no impact on taxi drivers is to lie out loud. To back the claim up with a survey…that is to deny the reality and is ultimately fake.

An allegory - there was a cake and it was shared by taxi companies. Now, there are two rats in the house. Certain shares are gone, taxi drivers got a pay cut and the authorities said it's just normal market forces.

These are the same people who said private taxis are illegal.

Every time a Uber or Grab has a passenger, it's a lost opportunity for the taxi driver.

To prove this, go to One Raffles Quay in the morning to count how many arrive by taxi versus how many by Uber and Grab. With every one Uber and Grab car arriving, the taxi driver has lost an earning opportunity.

Given the numbers of returned taxis to the taxi company, it has been so demoralising to some who have given up taxi driving entirely.

It's no longer worth the effort nor risk to drive anymore.

For others, no choice, as they need to pay bills and they have mouths to feed.

Mr Albert, Late 60s

I didn't have to go through so many checks previously. Now, I'm over 60, and I still need to go get a license every few years to prove that I can drive.

Of course, business is also not as good as before.

And even with an app now, how many know how to use it? If we don't know how to use it, how to get customers and earn money?

Some Very Angry, Some Not As Much

Given that we've only asked 6 out of the thousands of taxi drivers in Singapore, our sample size isn't big enough to capture all the emotions, and the nuances that come with it.

But it's still clear as day that to them, the playing field isn't as levelled as the new policies are trying to convince us.

Are you a taxi driver yourself, or do you know any with opinions about the emergence of Uber and Grab? Let us know!

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Rishabh Singhvi and Varun Saraf moved to Singapore from India in 2008.

The 27-year-olds were fellow coursemates and roommates in Singapore Management University (SMU) back then, both pursuing a degree in Information Systems in Finance.

Upon graduation in 2012, they landed corporate banking jobs in the busy Central Business District (CBD).

Lunchtime at the CBD was often a rather exasperating experience - they faced snaking long queues, and they found it hard to find feasible delivery options on a daily basis.

That's when they decided to make it their goal to help those who face the same problem to find affordable yet tasty options for their daily meals.

"We love hawker food in the [CBD] area and this is when we realised the potential for a low-cost model of food delivery from hawker centres," said Rishabh.

And that's exactly how WhyQ came about: why queue when they can bring Singapore's favourite hawker food to you?

Spreading The Love For Hawker Food

Rishabh and Varun are both self-professed hawker foodies.

Because of their strong passion for Singapore's hawker culture, they wanted WhyQ to be a food delivery service that focuses on bringing local hawker fare to their customers - at a significantly low delivery fee of $1.50 per meal, and with no minimum order.

Their goal is to provide busy individuals an opportunity to enjoy the unique cuisine Singapore has to offer - conveniently, affordably, and quickly.

In February 2014, while juggling their banking jobs, they worked part-time on developing WhyQ; and as part of their R&D efforts, they even conducted a closed beta in the Changi Business Park area.

Two years later, they took the plunge to quit their cushy banking jobs in August 2016 to work on WhyQ full-time, officially launching the service in February this year.

Rishabh admitted that their lack of business knowledge and experience made for a "difficult" transition of running their own startup.

"We had limited experience in starting a business from scratch, and it was, and will, continue to be a steep learning curve. We are still learning the financial, tech, operational, legal and strategic aspects of the business," he added.

The duo "invested a chunk of our [their] personal savings" into the business venture, which helped them bootstrap till end of 2016.

Thereafter, they began to seek for funding and have since received angel investment.

Right now, the startup is on the path to break even.

Starting From Scratch

According to Rishabh, the response at launch was overwhelming.

The low delivery fee of $1.50 per meal, the offering of promo codes to new users, as well as referral codes has helped them grow their user base.

In fact, they actually had to implement "maximum order limits" to contain the orders so that they would be able to fulfil them and not disappoint any customers.

When asked to justify their low delivery charges - compared to the usual $3 fee - Rishabh said that they wanted to ensure that each person can order food for themselves, without worrying about meeting a minimum order amount by finding friends to order with.

Additionally, since hawker food is already inexpensive, he intends to keep the pricing low even if it is being delivered.

"We are now covering majority of the CBD area, delivering from over seven hawker centres. We have a customer base of over 4,000 today and deliver over 300 to 350 orders per day," said Rishabh.

It wasn't easy getting there though.

Starting out, Rishabh confessed that it was hard for them to "break the ice" with the hawkers, as neither of them spoke vernacular languages.

As such, they had to tap their delivery men as "ambassadors" to engage hawkers who are not conversant in English.

Additionally, hawkers were initially not too keen on employing technology on their side to fulfil orders.

"However, we see that changing now as we are piloting wireless printers with some hawkers," said Rishabh.

On A Different Playing Field

When asked about their business strategy to compete with other food delivery companies such as Deliveroo and Foodpanda, Rishabh claims that they are adopting different business models to begin with.

"WhyQ focuses on the niche of hawker food and delivers affordable hawker food from nearby hawker centres. Our model is an aggregated batch-based model, different from an on-demand model that other food delivery companies use," said Rishabh.

"We deliver in batches at fixed time slots to a collection point - which is usually the reception area. Hawker food is inexpensive, and our mission is to keep it that way even while delivering it. Our economies of scale model ensures that we can optimise our delivery process, hire fewer resources and deliver to multiple customers together, which in turn helps us remove minimum orders and keep delivery costs low."

In other words, unlike on-demand delivery services, WhyQ pools their orders from each hawker centre.

These include Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice at Maxwell Food Centre and Michelin-starred Liao Fan Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodle at Chinatown Complex.

WhyQ's 20-men delivery team collects the food just before lunch, and they will then label each order according to the destination.

All deliverers then meet up to sort the food packs based on delivery locations, before heading out again to various locations in the CBD to deliver the food.

"As we operate using a hyperlocal model, distances are short and our delivery partners either deliver on foot with the help of trolleys, or on bicycles," said Rishabh.

Popular office buildings, such as Capital Tower and Marina Bay Financial Centre, get three runs in around an hour.

Otherwise, most locations have two delivery timings.

Besides bringing convenience to the customers, WhyQ also aims to bring an additional stream of revenue to the hawker stalls.

Partnerships with hawkers vary - some are charged a commission ranging from 5 to 15 per cent, while others promise "heartier than normal" meals.

"Before we tie-up with our hawker partners, we discuss what each one of them is comfortable with. This helps us keep our commissions low so we can reach out to a wide range of hawker stalls," said Rishabh.

Future Plans

Presently, WhyQ is a web-only application but it's working with local company Skylark to develop a mobile app; and it is slated to launch by mid-year.

WhyQ also currently operates strictly during lunchtime hour at the CBD, but the startup has plans to expand to other business districts such as Changi Business Park and one-north.

It is also eyeing residential areas as well as educational institutions in Singapore.

Besides opening up to other areas, Rishabh also said that they are exploring the options of offering their services for dinner and weekend deliveries too.

Additionally, the startup has also recently started a weekly #HawkersOfSG series on their Facebook page, which helps users get an insight into the unsung lives of hawkers.

When asked to impart some advice to fellow entrepreneurs, Rishabh said that his business mantra is inspired by Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon - "If you build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful."

"Entrepreneurs should focus on the value-add to customers and on the overall customer experience; because if you get this right, the product will sell itself."

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The 'hangry' phenomenon is real.

An amalgam of hungry and angry, this term is used to describe that feeling when you are so hungry that your lack of food causes you to become bad-tempered or irritable.

And it just gets worse when you have to wait an hour for your meal to be served. You flag your hands to catch the attention of the waitress to ask on the status of your food, but she's too busy to even notice.

Tim Wekezer and Andras Bokros have encountered a similar bad experience a few years back - they had to wait almost an hour for the restaurant staff to even take their order.

Bearing this pain point in mind, the 31-year-old duo realised that there is an untapped opportunity for them to create something meaningful.

"We looked around at the existing solutions that were addressing the issue, and found only tablet e-menus. However, we felt that these tablets were very limited in function because it only allowed customers to place orders," lamented Tim.

"There was no integrated payment method, which meant that customers still had to flag down a staff member to get the bill, then split the bill among themselves, and finally flag the staff again to make the payment."

On top of that, Tim shared that this solution is "very expensive" - outfitting an entire restaurant with these tablets could easily set the restaurant back $40,000.

From there, the two decided to conceptualise a solution that is 100 per cent app-based, so "users can take their dining experience into their own hands".

Starting From Scratch

In 2015, Tim and Andras, who knew each other through the school's MBA programme, took part in the INSEAD Venture Competition.

They had to pitch their business plan to a panel of judges and mentors, and their app idea of solving the unnecessary waiting time in restaurants was very well-received.

They eventually emerged as the first place winner of the competition and bagged the prize money of €35,000 (~S$53,000), which they channeled towards funding the development of the first prototype of the Waitrr app.

"We deployed this prototype for beta testing, and received positive responses from both users and partner restaurants. We also received investments from our friends, families, and classmates, which allowed us to advance the app," said Tim.

"[This new version of the app] allowed us to get more restaurants and users to jump onboard. Consequently, we raised a pre-seed round from a venture capital a few months ago."

Since the app launch, Waitrr has been experiencing "consistent and promising growth month-on-month", in terms of both revenue and adoption rate, shared Tim.

But he was humble enough to admit that their app is still far from perfect. As such, they are continually updating it based on the user feedback.

Currently, the team is working on overhauling the app's user interface, which will be released very soon.

A Win-Win Situation For All

Waitrr aims to provide a seamless dining experience for its users, allowing them to order and pay for their meals quickly and easily through the app.

"Often times, especially during the lunch hour in the CBD, many restaurants are understaffed and not well-equipped to effectively cater to all their customers," said Tim.

"With Waitrr, our users do not have to constantly call and wait for the restaurant staff to take their orders, get their bills, and make payments. Everything can be done in mere seconds through the app!"

Tim emphasised that the app does not only benefit the customers; it also serves to optimise the restaurant's operational efficiency by automating most of their ordering process.

"All the orders that go through Waitrr will be sent directly to the kitchen. The staff only needs to prepare and serve the food, thus saving them a lot of time and allowing them to better focus on customer service," he added.

In the first few months of their operations, Tim also noted that many restaurants were missing out on potential customers who want to order takeaway from the restaurant.

Since the staff are generally too busy to pick up the phone, these customers end up taking their business elsewhere.

To resolve this, Waitrr developed a new Takeaway function that allows the restaurant to capture these potential customers.

This function allows customers to order their food through the app and select a pick-up time. Similar to dine-in orders, takeaway orders are also sent directly to the kitchen, where the cooks will prepare the food for customers to collect at their selected timings.

Partnerships Are Key To Growth

When asked about their key business challenge, Tim said that raising brand awareness was a tough obstacle for the startup to overcome.

"A challenge that we face is something that all companies go through in their infancy - establishing ourselves as a household name. Especially since our app has a rather unique concept, it takes a little bit more effort to convince restaurants to partner up with us."

Currently, Waitrr has partnered with 25 restaurants, including Folks Collective, Five Tapas Bar, I am…, and The Wine Company. Many more partnerships are in the pipeline.

"Right now, we're focusing our efforts on the CBD area. The hectic lifestyles and highly-constrained lunch hours of the people working in this area, as well as its high concentration of F&B outlets, makes it the perfect place for Waitrr," said Tim.

He also reasoned that the expansion of partnerships with CBD restaurants can help to increase the value of the app for users.

"No one wants to download an app for every individual F&B outlet they visit, no matter how time it saves them. By concentrating our efforts on a specific area, with a specific goal in mind, we ensure that we can provide the best service to everyone involved."

Tim also hopes that once they have stabilised their operations here in Singapore, Waitrr will expand overseas and make its mark internationally.

Ultimately, they want to position themselves as a brand that helps to make lives easier by improving the relationship between restaurants and their customers.

Advice For Entrepreneurs - Ignore The "Noise"

Waitrr is a fairly young company (registered only in 2015) but they have seen very promising growth potential over the past year or so.

This is very commendable because it's not easy to sustain a user's interest in a mobile app, especially with the gamut of apps available.

Sharing a piece of advice with fellow entrepreneurs, Tim said that it's best to just "ignore noise". This 'noise' refers to what looks, sounds, and feels like an urgent problem that requires immediate attention, but it actually only serves as a distraction for your business.

"One example is when you see that your competition has created and implemented something that seems really good - the temptation to match them can sometimes be overwhelming. However, unless this 'something good' is really harmful to your business, it is often better to believe in and stick to your vision, and focus on perfecting the things that you are working on," he elaborated.

"Getting distracted by the "noise" will probably only result in you losing time and resources, with nothing to show for it."

Similarly, in this highly-competitive environment, the pressure to rapidly expand can be very high. As a result, you end up focusing solely on increasing your numbers so your business looks really good on paper.

"It is so easy in getting caught up in trying to scale your business, that you neglect your early adopters, the people who have been believing in you since the start."

He cited an article by Paul Graham titled 'Do Things That Don't Scale' and asserted that it is very important to constantly touch base with these people because they are the ones who will be integral in helping you fine-tune your product.

"Giving your early adopters your attention, and making them feel like they're being heard can greatly increase your retention rate, even if your business still has a lot to improve on. Don't jump the gun, always build a concrete foundation first."

Check out Waitrr here!

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It almost seems like a dream come true. Finally, there's a place in Singapore where you can send your beloved sneakers to be cleaned up, restoring it to its former glory.

That's what local startup Holystic Sneaker Laundry offers from their small store that operates from Wheelock Place.

Owners of all-expensive and exclusive shoes from the usual streetwear brands can send in their footwear after a consultation over the counter and collect it thereafter once they're done servicing the shoe. Sounds straightforward enough right?

You would think that it's been all smooth-sailing since their opening, but apparently some have found their shoes in less than desirable conditions after dropping them off at the store.

The Holystic Mishap

The Playbook highlighted some cases in an article earlier today where they spoke to a few customers, as well as highlighted posts that were going viral when the Holystic experience went wrong.

First is the case of Benedict Yeo and his Adidas NMD Nice Kicks.

These are what the shoes (should) look like.

To put into context the gravity of how valuable these shoes are, they are going for way more than $3,700 on eBay alone, and there are very limited number of pairs in the world.

He had sent in his pair for both Holy Detail Clean and Holy Restoration services. Here's what he got back the first time round:

There were obvious discolourations on the pull tab of his shoes when he collected it. Unsatisfied, he paid for another round of restoration fee to correct it.

The second time he got back his shoes, there were shoddy attempts at masking the earlier mistake with what can be seen as marker ink.

Nothing Customers Can Do, And Others Speak Up

A comment on his post shows the contract that customers have to sign before engaging Holystic's services, and one particular line stood out:

"in no event, will Holystic Sneaker Laundry be held liable for any consequential… loss or damages whether or not Holystic knew and should have known of the likelihood of any loss or damage"

It is not uncommon for even dry-cleaners to make you sign contracts that state the terms for use of their services, but this line is a first.

What this basically means is that Holystic takes no responsibility for anything that happens after they have rendered their 'service'.

The Playbook also spoke to several other customers on their experiences, and the responses so far have been less than desirable.

At the time of writing, Holystic has since responded to The Playbook's article and also mentioned that they will be in contact with Benedict to resolve the matter.

[UPDATE: Responding to our article, Holystic said that it has gotten in touch with Benedict and they are "committed" to compensating his sneaker.

It wrote: "We have never indicated to Benedict that it was not our fault or at anytime refuse to compensate. In fact, we have been trying to get him on his mobile the first thing when we are alerted of the matter."]

[LATEST UPDATE: As of 5.15pm, Benedict has agreed to accept Holystic's offer to "get him a new pair of Adidas Nice Kicks". Benedict will reserve the right to choose the "sneaker of his choice, at the site of his choice".]

So what can we learn here? Well for one, those who render their services need to be more accountable for their actions and perform some form of recovery services to resolve the issue and appease the customer. When a dissatisfied customer posts on social media (and it blows up), it will be too late by then.

As a company who has apparently seen their fair share of Yeezys and Christian Louboutins, one would think that the people behind the business would be treating these high-end goods with the same high standards.

If anything, Holystic still has a chance at redemption if they handle the situation right.

Just look at A Better Florist. They are still around after their Valentine's Day fiasco.

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Yesterday, 2 Members of Parliament (MPs), Minister of State for Manpower and Mayor of North East CDC Teo Ser Luck, and MP for the MacPherson SMC Tin Pei Ling announced their entry into the private sector once again.

More significantly, both of them would now be direct contributors to the tech and startup space in Singapore. Tin would be moving to Jing King Tech Group and Teo plans to "build, create, invest or help start-ups and businesses".

Details of their new duties are still not clear, but both have assured that they would still be serving in their public sector roles.

Here's what you need to know about both of them, and what they could bring to their new appointments.

In a Facebook post, Tin, the only full-time MP from the People's Action Party, announced her return to the private sector as group director of corporate strategy of Jing King Tech Group, a Singaporean company with a focus on FinTech.

Founded in 1984, the Group has 20 offices in Singapore, China and Hong Kong, and is said to be worth "nearly US$250 million".

With a focus on providing smart cards, cloud computing, biometrics technology, and data cryptography (just to name a few) to customers, Tin's experience as a consultant at Ernst & Young is slated to come in handy for her new duties.

A mother of a 2-year-old, Tin has also been a strong advocate for the empowerment of working mums like herself. As such, it would certainly be interesting to see how her added appointment can bolster her efforts as well.

Teo is known more for his contributions in the Public Service, but he has rich corporate experience as well.

Having worked at Nike Singapore, Coopers & Lybrand, Menlo Worldwide and DHL in various positions, he was also recognised as a "Young Global Leader" by the World Economic Forum in 2007 for his contributions to the business and community services sectors.

As Minister of State, Ministry of Trade and Industry (2011-15) and Minister of State, Ministry of Manpower (2015-present), Teo is also known to be active in the promotion of SMEs and the setting up of SME centres, which provide assistance to entrepreneurs and owners of small businesses.

Exactly how, and in what position Teo will be executing his new duties is still unknown. However, the perspectives he has gained working in the public service would definitely be helpful to SMEs seeking his advice.

The Links Between Government, Tech, SMEs, And Startups

It's already known that the Singapore government sees a bright future in tech, SMEs and startups, but beyond financial assistance and creating networks, these announcements are a sign that they truly mean serious business.

With the presence of figures in both the public and private sectors, we could potentially see grants and policies better tailored towards what businesses actually need, and not just what the government thinks is best.

After all, you have to put yourself in others' shoes in order to learn how they think.

And that's exactly what these two MPs are doing.

I don't think anyone would have forgotten about the massively covered retail facade over at Knightsbridge where Singapore's first ever Apple store is allegedly being built behind closed doors.

Since last year, the Apple faithful has been counting down the days when they will finally be able to set foot in the legendary Apple store on home soil.

If a report by news site CNBC is anything to go by, their wish might have just been granted.

Looks Like The Apple Will be Dropping In May

According to 'sources' whom CNBC quoted, it was mentioned that whatever problems that the construction of the Apple store has faced has been resolved and that it is on course for its launch in the coming month in the heart of Orchard Road.

What's interesting is that these 'sources' were described as people who were aware of the situation, and from what was described, are also staff of a neighbouring retail store and hotel.

The reliability of these 'sources' can be doubtful as they were not people who are directly involved with the construction of the Apple store.

CNBC also spoke to the vice president of IDC Asia Pacific, Bryan Ma.

He shares how significant this new Apple store will be because it has the potential to converge Apple fans from not only in Singapore, but also the region, since it is the only official retail store for Apple in Southeast Asia.

To round off the report, of course the news site got in touch with Apple to find out if this news is indeed true.

While Apple's head of corporate communications for Southeast Asia and India who responded to them did not deny that an Apple store was being built in Singapore, it was also mentioned that construction was going on as scheduled, and that there isn't a specific date for its opening.

Read also: Opening of Singapore's first Apple Store gets pushed back... indefinitely

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Photo Gallery

Apple fans in Singapore and region brave haze and rain to get new iPhones

Source: Singtel, StarHub, AFP, Reuters, The Straits Times

Singapore May Indeed Be Next

If you remembered earlier this year in February, CEO Tim Cook and notable executives from Apple made a press conference call to share the company's sales figures to round off a strong 2016 with another record breaking year in revenue.

In that announcement as well, Apple's CEO also mentioned that the tech giant was also looking to open their first stores in Dubai and Singapore.

Well guess which one of them recently got their curtains lifted?

Here's the Apple store in Dubai. Located in the grand Dubai Mall, the store is designed by renowned architectural firm Foster+Partners and features one the world's largest kinetic art installation as its facade to put it as the centerpiece of the mall.

It looks set to rival even the Burj Khalifa in attracting visitors into the Gulf region through its first Apple store.

The one in Singapore in all likelihood will have a similar effect.

Apple fans in Southeast Asia are definitely waiting for the big day to arrive where they travel here not just for the Marina Bay Sands and Universal Studios, but also the Apple store.

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