1718T2 Silicon Valley/Participant Information/Jaylen Li
Contents
About Jaylen Li
SMU email: jaylenli.2015@economics.smu.edu.sg
Academic Year: Year 3
Degree: Economics
Major: Economics (Maritime Economics Track)
2nd Major: Entrepreneurship
One random fact: I hustle so hard people call me crazy
Applying for Subsidy: Yes!
Why TSM Silicon Valley?
- What motivates you to join TSM?
I'm a firm believer that the best form of learning takes place outside the classroom.
I want to experience the mecca of entrepreneurship and also to meet like minded individuals
- Why pick Silicon Valley?
Silicon valley is a state of mind, every entrepreneur goes there for a sole reason - to hustle
This state of mind is not something that can be found in Singapore
- Ideal role in the trip:
1) Organising company visits
2) Planning where to visit in between company visits. I am an avid traveller
3) First aid - I was a medic in the army so I have all the relevant certs
4) Filming videos with my Gopro hero 5 and stabilizer :P
Starting a business
- What types of business interest you?
Deep Tech Businesses - eg. VR, AR, AI/Deep/Reinforcement Learning as well as Fintech
- What plan do you have in starting a business?
I want to empower individuals by bringing the world to them via virtual reality, that way one doesn't have to travel
I am also active in the Fintech space and am keen to build fraud detection technologies as well as trading systems
I plan to go to silicon valley for my exchange as well to potentially start these businesses
For now I am improving myself exceptionally quickly by taking additional courses outside of class, participating in all forms of business plan/ case competitions and improving myself as a overall generalist
Having strong foundations to lead a company in all fields is of utmost importance to me as I will be able to understand my partners, employees as well as investors better
Currently honing my skillsets in finance , technology, strategy , economics , marketing as well as the relevant soft skills and validating these skills through competitions
I also have a network of good mentors and VCs in place
Past Experiences (optional)
Co founder - Vending King LLP
Vending king is a food and beverage startup company established in 2014. The company deals with candy and vending machine contracts in Singapore.
We generated about 20-30k revenues in our first 6 months, sold the business off as the vending space is too saturated by the big players.
Co founder - Mindgymn LLP
A cognitive brain training centre for young students
Pitched at IIE several times, has a similar idea to UBER eats in 2014 and developed a comprehensive business plan/wireframe mockup as well as got in place the relevant partners. However the business
didn't take off as it cost 50k which was kinda expensive as I was still in the Army.
Champion (Student Category) Global Fintech Hackcelerator 2017
(Captain - Team Ardiente)
Lead a two man team to develop a hybrid machine learning algorithm for detecting anomalies in banking processes as well as an agile platform for the KYC process in compliance. Picked as one of 5 winners in the student category from over 580 submissions in 40 countries.
Pitching at the Singapore Fintech Festival come November
Champion (Best Idea) Nordic Business and Design Case Competition 2017
(Captain - Team Smu)
Our team had to come up with 2 business proposals and a video, one for a startup and another for a mature company within 72 hours. Attained best idea out of 42 teams.
Finalist -ongoing (High chance of winning, waiting for results)
NTU-Singapore Business Federation Africa Business Plan Competition 2017
(Captain - Alliance Consulting)
Devised a plan for the implementation of a contract farming ecosystem via terracing contracts to solve the many problems faced by the agriculture industry in Rwanda
Extra Co-Curricular Activities
Devera | Eye Investment Club| SMU-BIA |
SMUX | SMU Asia Private Equity Club|
Community Involvement
Project Rice | Kidleidoscope
What keeps you ticking?
When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favour - Elon Musk
To give anything less than your best is a sacrifice of the gift - Steve Prefontaine
