Alumni Association

“During my undergraduate days in the National University of Singapore (NUS), I already tried starting a company and pitched to various investors an idea for a dumbbell design, which I patented. Unfortunately, I did not get any funding. Having realized that investors place significant emphasis on the experience and track record of the startup management team, I went into the management consulting industry to obtain them.  The learning and experience I obtained from my full-time work was priceless. Having been able to advise senior management of Fortune 500 companies and CEOs of startups and growth-stage companies, provided me with the different perspectives on building a business with respect to the current stage it is in. Entrepreneurship has always been in my blood. Even while having a full-time job, I would dedicate time during the week for my entrepreneurial pursuits. However, the itch of running my own startup grew. With the experience I obtained from my past attempts and corporate career, I understood what I needed to do next. Without hesitation, I left my corporate job and joined the HKUST MBA program in search of a team and a world-changing idea.” And the world changing idea is uHoo. The premise of uHoo is all about improving people’s health, which is something I have always been passionate about.  Although the MBA program provided me with the network and knowledge valuable to building uHoo, the program is designed for people upgrading their careers in the corporate sector. This is where the value of courses such as SEVP comes in for entrepreneurs like me. The course mainly provided me with an investor’s perspective, the other side of the equation in startups, which allowed me a better understanding on how they think. The SEVP course also taught me the value of thinking through the potential social impact of my startup, beyond the initial social impact we set out to pursue. When it comes to social impact, I now keep in mind that there will always be something more. You just need to look beyond what’s in front of you.”

“The course not only furnished me with the technical knowledge of social enterprise (e.g. how to properly measure social impact), but also (and more importantly) the mentality required of a social entrepreneur. I still remember one of the guest speakers saying, “It doesn’t matter if you start it part-time or full time, but with determination, preparation and perseverance, you will succeed.” This motivated me to connect my passion with social enterprise. Since June of last year, I have been testing the idea of dress rental in Hong Kong with my project called chica – allowing ladies to borrow and share their branded idle dresses for special occasions to address the issue of dress wastage. I have collected 40+ idle dresses and also been sharing this idea with my female colleagues and other working professionals to test their receptiveness. I am also connected to HSBC’s sustainability department and hope to explore any collaborative opportunities with the firm.

As Dr KK Tse, the Founding Chair of Education for Good and Co-Founder of DiD (HK) Ltd, shared, “the most common reason why startup fails in the first year is because the founder gives up”. I strongly believe that with determination, resource issues arising from working on chica part-time will not hinder its progress. Instead, my business network will bring in more opportunities and connections for chica‘s business.”

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

This is one of my favourite quotes when it comes to social entrepreneurship and making an impact on society.

This is definitely one of the most valuable and inspirational learning experiences in my university life. I’ve always had a dream of building my own for-purpose business. The course took me much closer to my aspirations.

I really enjoyed working with Time to Grow, which gave me hands-on experience in urban farming and the opportunity to talk to the founders about their stories, visions and operations. I was really excited to see the possibilities of the social venture – reducing the carbon footprint of food consumption, building up relationships between city dwellers, revitalising farming in Hong Kong, innovating on city planning, solving hunger problems among the poor, etc. There’s just so much to talk about.

We built a financial model and a funding plan in hopes of helping the enterprise grow and sustain. The projects certainly left me a strong foundation of knowledge on social entrepreneurship, sharpening my creative thinking and problem-solving skills.

By the end of the course, we were required to write about our future plans on how we can realize our ideas. The course was not the end of the journey but the start of it. So I decided to establish Seeducation, a HKUST-based student organisation which aims to promote social entrepreneurship and innovation.

The reason behind doing this was simple – I believe that social entrepreneurship is a growing trend of doing business. But university students lack a platform to gather information, to consolidate and exchange their social venture ideas with other like-minded peers. And as a business major student, I believe business and doing good are not always mutually exclusive. With the right knowledge, we can use business approaches and methods to solve some of the most pressing problems in society.

Last year, Seeducation successfully held the HKUST Social Venture Summit, with more than 60 participants including faculty members, students and social entrepreneurs. Besides this, we initiated experiential learning projects with various social enterprises like Green Monday and Likefunding.

In 2015, some of our core team members started an initiative during exchange in Europe. The project is to interview social entrepreneurs and practitioners in foreign countries such as Denmark, Germany, France, Czech Republic and the United Kingdom. Currently more than 12 social enterprises have been interviewed, for which articles will be published at the end of the year. We are also experimenting with blind tourism during our trip, a social venture idea derived from Dialogue in the Dark.