IntheBlack: Paddy Tan, Singapore entrepreneur

IntheBlack, April 2012: Upstart column

It’s sometimes said that Singapore, with its emphasis on rules and obedience, has created a nation of exceptionally capable followers but no free-thinking entrepreneurs. Paddy Tan Lek Han’s story suggests otherwise.

In 2005 Tan started a software company called BAK2u.com, basically a lost and found service. “BAK2u was partly started from the carelessness of misplacing items on the plane or when travelling,” Tan, now 38, explains. “The idea was to find a simpler way to return to the owner through a sticker pasted on the items.” From that premise, Tan developed it further; instead of passively waiting for the items to be returned, he developed anti-theft software for the various platforms of the time – Symbian, SE, Pocket PC, BlackBerry and iOS. An example was a system that would produce a video of anyone who had stolen a laptop, using an internet IP address to work out where they were.

In 2011, he sold it, and started another venture called B-Secure Technologies. This has two businesses: mobile app development and mobile security. “Riding on the personal branding that I already have, I created this company to look deeper into mobile security, where it is not just about the mobile phones anymore, but the owners themselves,” he says. For example, there is a mobile security locator targeted at the elderly and children, sending the location to parents or carers. The company today employs 15 people.

While both ideas are straightforward and meet a clear need, starting a new business is never easy. “Singapore is a very small market, so if you target only this country it will be very difficult to survive for a startup,” he says. Singapore has a limited pool of developer talent, he says, as well as a high cost of hiring, increasing the need to go regional. Today, Singapore is willing to support local start-ups, but that was not so much of a government focus in 2005. “Many Singapore companies themselves do not believe too much in products that are made in Singapore, and we had our challenges when trying to sell our anti-theft software to protect their devices,” he says. “Many buyers had low opinions of made-in-Singapore software then.”

Set against that, Singapore is one of the world’s easiest places to start a company from a paperwork perspective – one simply registers on a website and makes a payment. “Also, the government provides a lot of avenues for anyone who is keen to start a business to get advice and even some financial support.”

Like all entrepreneurs, Tan had an exit strategy from the outset, and had actually intended to sell BAK2u earlier, but the financial crisis got in the way. “We missed the boat when the market wasn’t doing that well.” With an improved market, he sold, but is some way from doing the same with b-Secure. “We have no intention to sell it off as we are still in the very baby steps developing our own products.”

So, does Singapore foster entrepreneurs after all? “My personal view: a few years ago, no,” he says. “But over the years, the involvement of the government has created a better ecosystem for people who are keen to step out of their comfort zone and run their own business.”

And that’s not the only motivation. Tan’s parents worked in hawker centres, and the sight of their hard work galvanised him. “When you see your parents waking up in the wee hours and spending almost the entire day selling and preparing food, with such little margins and the majority going to the landlord, it doesn’t make sense to toil your entire life,” he says. “Instead of being your own boss but at the mercy of others, there should be a better way to make some money to feed the family.”From his youth, he sought to escape this cycle, and looked to business cultures in the USA, Europe and Asia for examples. Doing so didn’t just create start-ups, it helped make money – “money that can provide a little better environment for my parents, and now my wife and son.”