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
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.
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
