2324T1 Tokyo/Participant Information/Martin Ong
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About Martin
SMU email: martin.ong.2022@scis.smu.edu.sg
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinongyj
Academic Year: Year 2 (2020)
Degree: BSc Computer Science
Why Virtual TSM?
- What motivates you to join TSM?
As a student/founder/developer, I am passionate about both technology and entrepreneurship. Having immersed myself into the Web3 space both locally and internationally, I want to gain more knowledge on how to run a sustainable tech startup. Most NFT projects fail within a year, and I would like to learn more on how startups provide constant value to users, as well as how new projects onboard first time users to try and eventually use their product. This knowledge will be highly relevant to me and improving my current startup.
Additionally, I want to meet more like-minded individuals to bounce ideas off them and gain new perspectives by widening my horizons.
- Where would you like to visit?
I would like to visit some of the famous tech companies from Japan such as Nintendo, LINE and Nexon to potentially learn from their workplace culture and their design / development process for new products. I think this would be an eye opening experience for me.
Other than Web2 tech companies, I am also very keen on visiting Blockchain companies such as Soramitsu and SushiSwap. I am always looking for an opportunity to connect with founders and developers in the same space as I am to learn from their processes and how they run a high-volume, successful Web3 company. I want to apply some of these lessons into my own work and management of my startup.
Starting a business
- What types of business interest you?
I am most interested in businesses that leverage new technology to improve our daily experiences. For example, I work closely with the Solana Blockchain, and within this ecosystem, am most interested in businesses that leverage its unique features of high throughput and very low transaction costs to create products that improve daily experiences such as banking, payments, etc. Some examples of this are the development of SolanaPay to improve payments, and Cupcake, who have simplified the NFT minting process to onboard new users through the simple scanning of NFC tags.
I am particularly interested in onboarding new users into the Web3 ecosystem through the development of such products that add value to our daily processes and take them to a new level using technology.
- What plans do you have in starting a business?
I have recently founded a startup in December 2022 to develop an NFT Ticketing solution, and we are in talks with a major events company in Singapore. The team comprises me, a Product Manager, 3 Developers, and a UI/UX Designer. We are currently refining our prototype and target to launch at the end of this year.
Past Experiences (optional)
Internships:
- Netrunner - Full Stack Engineer | Blockchain Engineer (Mar 2023 - Aug 2023)
- GIC (Investment Insights Group) - Full Stack Engineering Internship (Dec 2022 - Mar 2023)
- GIC (Fixed Income) - Full Stack Engineering Internship (Apr 2022 - Jul 2022)
