2324T2 Silicon Valley/Participant Information/ Joen

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Joen Tan Zhuo En

SMU email: joen.tan.2022@scis.smu.edu.sg
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joen-tan-6b57611b9/
Academic Year: Year 2 (2023)
Degree: BSc Information Systems (Major in Digitalisation and Cloud Solutions & Smart City Management and Technology)

Why Virtual TSM?

What motivates you to join TSM?
I've always been interested in startups. It is a David & Goliath story where a small group of people can launch something to disrupt big industries. TSM will allow me to have an in-person look at ground zero of this innovative culture - Silicon Valley.
TSM will also allow me to rub shoulders with SMU students with a similar desire to build startups

* Where would you like to visit?
Silicon Valley: OpenAI, Anthropic, Notion, Y Combinator, Scale AI, Stripe, Instacart

Starting a business

What types of business interest you?
Companies at the forefront of AI development, namely in the field of LLMs. I want to visit companies like OpenAI and Anthropic as they're building products that change the way we interact with computers.
Separately, I would also love to visit Y Combinator, the most successful start up incubator in the world - home to companies like Stripe, Instacart and Scale AI. Hailed as the "startup of startups", Y Combinator's unique approach and culture of running businesses is definitely a site to behold and learn from.

What plans do you have in starting a business?
ChatGPT has shown us the power and intuition of AI for general use cases. In order for AI to be relevant and an industry disruptor, AI has to be customised. I plan to start a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company where companies can plug self-custom AI into their workflow.

Startup

Below are projects that I aim to explore the possibility of building into a start up

Croft

Croft.so
Croft is a no-code data aggregation application where users can scrape popular sites like Reddit in two clicks. Users can automate web scraping operations through a task scheduler obtaining updated data. I plan to continue working on Croft and evolve it to be a full data pipeline management platform
Founders: Joen Tan
Years: Mar '23 -

Squire

Squire
Squire is a no-code Recommendation-as-a-Service platform where small business can create recommendation APIs just by dragging, dropping and labelling excel spreadsheets.
Founders: HEAP 2023 (Joen, Germaine, Chester, Hong Rong)
Years: Jun '23 -

Internships:
Bifrost AI - Role: Software Engineer Intern

• Built Bifrost's first design systems library
  
• Build RESTful APIs and Frontend of online app

Years May '22 - Aug '22 CCA:

• Startup club - Role: Years May '22 - Aug '22