In Conversation with…

“Success is personal and it looks different for everyone.” This perspective led Joyce TAY (Statistics 2010) to take the leap of faith from a corporate career to the unknowns of entrepreneurship. She co-founded StartupX, an innovation and venture enabler in 2018, and has not looked back since.

Many corporate professionals struggle with the transition to the unknown as they perceive the two worlds to be very different. Through her consulting work in finance, Joyce worked with various financial technology companies. This sparked her interest in helping to bridge the gap between startups and large organisations, through technology and innovation.

So far, StartupX has racked up a client base, including partners like Temasek, the Housing Development Board of Singapore, Oracle and InvestHK.

Joyce describes herself as a hands-on person with a passion to help businesses build and scale up. We catch up with her to find out more.

How did the knowledge and skillsets from your NUS education add value to your journey as an entrepreneur?

An education rooted in statistics and science grounded me in developing a rational and logical approach to things, and to question and dig deep into data before coming to conclusions. In a world of fake news, this continues to guide how I approach my work and make decisions.

I was also an active member of our faculty club contributing to student-led activities. It was a humbling experience to be able to lead and guide freshmen, and I gained insights that shaped my course as a business leader.

How is StartupX different vis a vis your competitors in the venture building space?

We support innovation in its fledgling state. Here, there is a grave lack of ecosystem support in terms of funding and resources for early founders.

It is a common refrain that locally we lack the talent and expertise to build innovative companies. However, I believe in the importance of investing in local talent, to build capabilities from the onset. This creates more opportunities for startups to grow and thrive, and in turn, leads to a healthy pipeline of investable and innovative companies in the future.

We are one of the few startup enablers who continue to work with early-stage entrepreneurs to bring their innovations to market. We do so by fostering close collaborations with government and business partners to provide mentorship, resources and funding to progress from launch to scale. So far, we have brought in over 200 founders, corporate chiefs and global investors to give back to the startup community, including the likes of Patrick COLLISON, Founder & CEO of Stripe, Justin KAN, Founder of Twitch, and David COHEN, Co-Founder of Techstars.

What obstacles did you face during the pandemic? How did you address them?

With the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses faced new challenges. It also showed the importance of perseverance and resilience. Staying ahead of the curve, especially through innovation, is important as our partners and startups look to us for advice and guidance to navigate the challenges from the pandemic. Adapting the way we work and collaborate with others has been our topmost priority. We launched a virtual office in a video game-like environment to enhance engagement.

Please share your company’s plans for the future.

We are ramping up our work to create sustainable impact. In 2019, we launched HyperX, our global sustainability hackcelerator in partnership with Temasek, to support sustainability-driven companies at all stages of growth who are tackling the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We work with these founders to bring their solutions to market, and eventually we hope to fund and accelerate their impact across the region.

We will press on in this effort. We plan to launch our full-scale accelerator for late-stage startups in 2022, where we will invest in global sustainability-driven companies that solve some of the most pressing challenges that our world is facing, such as waste management, food security and climate change.

In what ways do you think science stays relevant in today’s world?

We work with startups from diverse sectors, ranging from health technology to agricultural technology, business-to-business software-as-a-service (B2B SaaS), property technology and even augmented reality and virtual reality. What is clear is that many of these startups’ solutions are grounded on the fundamental principles of science, and fuelled by innovative technology.

What are some of your life goals?

My goal is to keep building. Build sustainable companies, solutions, and leaders and innovators who can go on to do more for our future. The process of building is rewarding, because it means we are constantly growing and moving forward, and that journey in itself is worth it.