2324T2 Silicon Valley/Participant Information/Jared Marc Song Kye-Jet
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About Jared
SMU email: jaredsong.2022@scis.smu.edu.sg
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredmarcsong/
Academic Year: Year 2 (2023)
Degree: BSc Information Systems (Major in Digitalisation and Cloud Solutions)
Why TSM?
- What motivates you to join TSM?
I'm highly motivated by the idea of business being a force for good, especially in the field of technology. To me, technology is a way to make a better quality of life more accessible, convenient, and cheaper for everyone, and it's also the means by which great solutions to someone's problem make our lives easier in ways we couldn't even anticipate. It's AirBNB starting out as three mattresses in its founder's apartment, or Google making searching information easier. I fully believe there are many ideas just on the horizon, and with the breakneck pace of technology, these ideas will be within our grasp before we know it. To that end, I've been attempting to stay abreast with the latest and greatest tech, as exemplified by my current obsession with large language models. To me, Silicon Valley a unique convergence of capital, intelligence, and optimism. I hope to be inspired by the hum and buzz of the Valley, and take away an idea or two I could work on upon my return to Singapore.
(Photo: me at the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology, Nagoya. Kiichiro Toyoda persuaded his father's loom business to invest in the fledging automobile industry, widely seen as a business risk at that point in time)
- Where would you like to visit?
Silicon Valley: OpenAI, a16z, Anthropic
Starting a business
- What types of business interest you?
Businesses that leverage widely available, well-known technology (providing the support and ecosystem required) but in a new and unconventional way. See Uber turning your car into a source of income on the side, or Spotify moving your music library to the cloud.
- What plans do you have in starting a business?
Upon the completion of my university degree and accumulation of a few years of working experience, I hope to start a company leveraging artificial intelligence to democratize access to technical skills. Programming languages like Fortran and COBOL were created in the very early days of computing as a means to allow anyone to engineer their own software. I believe technical ability is becoming all the more key in our digital world, and is a fundamental skill in my opinion to navigate the internet and online life safely. Putting access to these skills in the hands of everyone is a strong motivation of mine.
Past Experiences
Startup:
- Marketsurf: Social media sentiment analysis using natural language processing techniques to determine overbought or oversold stocks. Marketsurf, to me, was a way to democratize access to stock trading, and to make healthy, sustainable investments with minimal effort possible for people without access to investment analysts or private bankers. I founded this company shortly after finishing my National Service, and was fortunate enough to raise a pre-seed round backed by angels, including a family office's Chief Investment Officer and successful exited or current entrepreneurs from industries as diverse as F&B or oil & gas. Years: Jan '21 - Aug '22
Internships:
- Bioinformatics Institute, A*STAR - Computer Vision Research Engineer Intern: Years Dec '19 - Apr '20
- Centre for Strategic Infocomm Technologies (CSIT) - Malware Reverse Engineer: Years Dec '19 - Apr '20
- Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) - Product Manager Intern: Years Apr '22 - Aug '22
- Bioinformatics Institute, A*STAR - Computer Vision Research Engineer Intern: Years Jan '23 - Apr '23
- Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) - Natural Language Processing Engineer Intern: Years May '23 - present
CCA:
- The Mentoring Circle - Mentee: Years May '22 - Dec '22
- SMU Whitehats - Training Executive: Years May '22 - Dec '22
