
Victor Zhu (right, with co-founders), founded Hatch with the goal of making education equitable and helping students and fresh graduates carry out digital upskilling in a job landscape that increasingly demands such skills.
Making digital education accessible to all
An entrepreneur who is making a social impact is Victor Zhu from the graduating Class of 2020, NUS Faculty of Science. He is the co-founder and CEO of Hatch, an impact-driven social enterprise he founded and incubated with two like-minded friends during his undergraduate years at NUS Ridge View Residential College (RVRC).
Hatch was conceptualised as an academy for individuals from all walks of life to discover their strengths, enter meaningful careers and become valued and contributing employees. It taps on the resources and expertise of like-minded partners to co-create and deliver programmes that cater to the needs of specific impact groups, providing comprehensive end-to-end training and facilitating job and internship placements to help jobseekers enter emerging digital sectors.
Customised programmes are organised for dropouts and at-risk youths as well as for graduating students from low-income backgrounds in an institute of higher learning. There are also tracks in User Interface and User Experience Design as well as Digital Marketing which hone Hatch graduates’ digital competencies.
“The job market has an immediate and increasing demand for digitally skilled talent, one that is rapidly accelerated by the effects of COVID-19,” Victor explained.
“Most newly created positions are in fact digital by nature, and even the more traditional positions now require the knowledge of digital tools,” he added.

Hatch’s dual-track programme trains students’ digital competencies in User interface and Digital Marketing, preparing them for the volatile, dynamic workplace of the 21st century.
Overcoming start-up blues
Victor first conceptualised Hatch in his second year at NUS. His RVRC lecturers encouraged him to get started despite not having all the answers. The journey was not all smooth sailing. Wracked with self-doubt and juggling responsibilities of being both an undergraduate and a start-up founder, Victor found support and encouragement in the RVRC community.
One of his lecturers, Ms Sadaf, connected him with an expert in social innovation who provided valuable insights that helped Hatch’s growth in the early stages. He also recalled other experiences in RVRC that have shaped his personal philosophy as an entrepreneur, remembering a conversation he had with Prof Adekunle, a college master who stressed on the importance of living with boldness.
“In my work now, I’m frequently confronted with the decision of whether to be bold or play it safe. The conversation had really helped me to appreciate how boldness is a rare but necessary commodity in bringing about the change that I want to see,” he said.
“Looking back, I think that’s the power of a supportive community that I will always remember and appreciate.”
Victor also appreciated what he had learnt from Quantitative Finance at NUS, an approach that is highly versatile and applicable in navigating complex situations. It has, helped him to understand the mathematics underpinning business and financial markets.
As for the entrepreneurial spirit that Hatch embodies, Victor attributed it to the NOC programme. In fact, one of his co-founders, Yeoh Wan Qing, now Hatch’s Chief Product Officer, is an NOC alumna who spent a year in Stockholm where she managed projects for a scale-up and corporate innovation lab. The experience of witnessing the prodigious impact of innovation fired her entrepreneurial spirit, inspiring her to translate that experience into tangible social impact in Singapore.

Hatch won an award for its pitch in the Young Social Entrepreneurs Pitching for Change 2019, held by the Singapore International Foundation. Also present at the awards ceremony: Assoc Prof Peter Pang (left), NUS Dean of Students at that time, and currently Master of NUS Residential College 4.
He and Wan Qing had participated in entrepreneurial competitions such as the Enactus National Competition 2018 (1st Runner Up), National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre Groundup Sandbox 2018, and the Singapore International Foundation Young Social Entrepreneurs Pitching for Change 2019 (Prize Recipient), forging relationships with and learning from other entrepreneurs.
Asked what words of advice he has for aspiring young entrepreneurs, he said, “I think it’s important to always circle back to the value that you are trying to create and to be really honest about it. What is valuable takes time to build, capture and monetise – and that process can often fail too. But I believe that this journey is meaningful in itself and is what makes entrepreneurship worth venturing into.”