I am honored to be featured by e27 (Optimatic), one of the top startup media and communities in the...

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

This famous quote by the late Steve Jobs resonates deeply with me. Reflecting on my 15+ years of entrepreneurial journey, I’ve made many leap-of-faith decisions that, looking back, have connected in unexpected ways. Here are just a few highlights that feel relevant:

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗜𝘀 𝗮 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗽 𝗼𝗳 𝗙𝗮𝗶𝘁𝗵

This very feature post is the result of a leap of faith decision I made.

In August, I received an invitation from Sherwin Elaine Hilario to participate in a roundtable discussion. As someone who isn’t very active in networking, I would have normally turned it down. However, having known e27 for a long time, I decided to accept. It was at this roundtable that I met Nison, and I casually mentioned how my second startup raised funds through Echelon. That conversation eventually led to this feature.

𝗘𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟰

When Nison asked whether participating in Echelon had impacted my entrepreneurial journey, my answer was a definite yes. e27 is definitely a big dot that connects. I believe it has connected many entrepreneurs across the region as well.

Our successful fundraising at Echelon 2014 also involved a leap of faith. Back then, I was working on ShopperBoard, a Pinterest-like platform for shoppers. Despite being an early-stage startup without much traction, we applied to Echelon 2014, trusting that we had a chance. We were selected as one of the Top 50 startups (https://lnkd.in/g-PrmNiY). This opportunity connected us with investors, eventually leading to our fundraising.

𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗛𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗮 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽

My journey with Hashmeta Group also involved a leap of faith. The first time I met Terrence Ngu Teck Kong, Hashmeta’s CEO, was at a startup event organised by NTUitive around 2014. Terrence suggested that as small startups, we should collaborate, pool resources, and work together to compete against larger players with large resources. His advice made sense, and we kept in touch, having faith that we would work out a collaboration.

Five years later, Hashmeta acquired ShopperBoard, and I joined the group as CTO after a consulting stint at Deloitte.

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝘁 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲

My “detour” from technopreneur journey to joining Deloitte Consulting was another leap of faith—one that significantly shaped how I plan to grow Hashmeta Group and Business Plus AI in the future.

I’ll continue the story in another post as I’ve run out of character quota in this LinkedIn post.