Like many young business school students, Siu Rui Quek had ambitious corporate aspirations, but when a scholarship gave Siu Rui a chance opportunity to live, work, and play in Silicon Valley for one year, everything changed. Finding himself at the epicentre of the tech startup world, there as no way Siu Rui was going to return to investment banking in Singapore.
After learning as much as he could working first-hand with Stanford University startups, Siu Rui and his Silicon Valley housemates-turned-co-founders returned to Singapore and entered a local hackathon. Hungry to launch their own tech startup, they would eventually go on to win Startup Weekend Singapore in 2012 and their business idea would go on to become Carousell, Asia’s hottest mobile startup that’s now set to disrupt the way we buy and sell online.
Today, Siu Rui is Carousell’s CEO, but his path to success wasn’t without its challenges. Siu Rui shares some of the ups and downs behind the building and eventual launch of Carousell, including the difficult conversation he had with his parents when he informed them that he wouldn’t be accepting a corporate position anytime soon.
In this week’s episode, Jay gets deep into the success behind Siu Rui’s Carousell, so tune-in to learn:
- How to tell your parents that the corporate world isn’t for you
- The importance of surrounding yourself with people who share your dreams when starting out as an entrepreneur
- Why falling in love with your product is the surest way to success
Listen to this episode on iTunes.
Share your biggest insight from this week’s episode with Jay: @jaykimmer.
Links from Today’s Episode
- Read the full transcript from Siu Rui’s interview
- Connect with Siu Rui on Twitter and LinkedIn
- Discover the future of buying and selling online with Carousell
Detailed Show Notes
- (2:25) Who is Siu Rui Quek?
- (3:42) What is Carousell?
- (4:51) Siu Rui experiences entrepreneurship first-hand in Silicon Valley
- (7:42) Carousell’s hackathon origins
- (8:24) On choosing between a safe corporate career or an unproven startup
- (9:31) How Siu Rui found his co-founders and how each of them found their roles within Carousell
- (12:32) Siu Rui’s advice for startup founders who have yet to tell their parents about their entrepreneurial ambitions
- (16:05) How Carousell differs from eBay and why it’s set to change the way we buy and sell online
- (19:53) On making the Carousell experience even easier
- (22:14) How Carousell got its name
- (23:58) What the future holds for Carousell (hint: think BIG)
- (29:01) “What does success mean to you?”
- (29:53) Siu Rui’s parting advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: “Find what you love”
Leave a Reply