2223T2 Silicon Valley/Participant Information/Bryan Tan
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About Bryan
SMU email: jjtan.2021@scis.smu.edu.sg
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-tan-jj/
Academic Year: Year 2 (2022)
Degree: BSc Information Systems (SMT)
Why Virtual TSM?
- What motivates you to join TSM?
Interning at a climate-tech start up during my summer break was a defining moment that made me want to venture further towards the forefront of innovation, particularly in the space of sustainability and renewable technologies. During my internship, I was inspired by the co-founders’ product vision in building a SaaS (decarbonization platform) that has a direct positive social impact on the masses, and being mentored under them really motivated me to want to be a part of an innovative team focused on building products that value adds society. This exposure has led me habitually search for recently funded tech startups and unicorns on google and linkedin to read up on the products they are building, of which many are founded in the heart of Silicon Valley. Some of my friends from the other universities who did their internship at SV during their undergrad have also mentioned to me how lifechanging an experience it was to them. As such, it will be a dream realised for me to be able to visit Silicon Valley and interact/network with these start up and big tech founders, which I believe will benefit my own personal exposure and accentuate my motivation to be a part of building something innovative and impactful.
- Places I would like to visit:
- 1. Startup incubator offices such as Y-Combinator, Plug and Play, etc.
- 2. Big Tech MNCs including Google, Linkedin, etc.
- 3. Smaller start-up firms including climatetech firms such as Liminal(battery manufacturing intelligence provider) - would be nice to have a chat with the co-founders!
What types of business interest you?
- What types of business interest you?
Currently, the climate tech space is a domain which I am particularly passionate to explore, of which includes technologies that help with mitigation and carbon removal, technologies that help with climate adaptation, and technologies that facilitate . Climate tech at the moment is also seeing great acceleration in funding despite the global economic downturn, where more than one quarter of all venture capital funding is going to climate technology, with increased focus on technologies that have the most potential to cut emissions. Being a technologist myself who has a keen interest in sustainability, I believe this is the space that I will want to venture into.
Starting a business
- What plans do you have in starting a business?
At the moment, I do not have a concrete business idea in mind yet, and am still in the stage of ideating for potentially novel ideas and products (albeit with a focus on sustainability). As such, I do intend to participate in more business case competitions which will certainly help with the ideation process.
Past Experiences (optional)
Internships:
- Unravel Carbon (YC W22) – Data Engineer/Analyst (May 22 – Aug 22)
- Cultiv8 Pte Ltd (Consulting) – Project Management (Oct 21-Jan 22)
- ASTAR – Data Analytics Intern (Dec 19 - Jul 20)
CCA:
- SMU Smart City Society - Tech Director
- SG Digital Leadership Accelerator Mentorship (Product Development) – Mentee
- SMU .Hack – Member
- Coders Assembly – Instructor
- Junior Achievement – Volunteer
- Taught 2 main programmes to primary school students:
1. Fundamentals of entrepreneurship under the JA It's My Business! program
2. Programming fundamentals using Scratch under the JA Hour Of Code programme
- GreenSG Collab – Volunteer
- Assisted in writing of position paper titled "An Innovative Testbed to Cohabit with Existing Tropical Rainforest"
Competitions:
- AWS Build On Hackathon 2021 (Carousell Challenge Statement) - Champions
- HackSG Singapore 2022 (Web3 Gaming Challenge Statement) - Finalists
