Shopee Sponsored Alex Foo shares GES 2016 Notes
Shopee, Garena’s ecommerce platform, sponsored local entrepreneur Alex Foo, co-founder of Starteur, to the recent Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) 2016. He shared the strategic knowledge gleamed from the Summit with local sellers through Shopee University.
Who is Alex Foo?
Alex is a 21 year old entrepreneur, and spends most of his time working on three main projects – Starteur, an online profiling tool for people interested in start ups; Movement Union, a dance apparel company; and Photography Assembly, a blog for photography enthusiasts. Alex launched a crowd funding campaign on Generosity, Indiegogo to seek funds to allow him to attend the GES 2016. Shopee helped fulfil the dream. It is the company’s philosophy to develop Singapore’s next generation of budding entrepreneurs.
At GES, Alex was mentored by 15 seasoned investors and had the opportunity to pitch and receive feedback on his business. This young entrepreneur has his sights locked on realising his dreams, which for now, is focused on launched his dance apparel company.
“I am very grateful to be one of the seven Singaporeans invited to attend the GES 2016, alongside other esteemed global entrepreneurs. The experiences were instrumental to my growth as a business owner and I had the opportunity to interact with successful entrepreneurs across various touchpoints. Shopee University gives me the platform to connect with other like-minded entrepreneurs in Singapore and serves as a launch pad for more robust business ideas. Through this initiative, I am confident that we can empower the next generation of entrepreneurs and send a bigger contingent to GES 2017,’ said Alex.
Alex shared his top 3 tips to becoming a successful entrepreneur:
- Community. Networking is key. Alex lives by the ethos, “Who you know is more important than what you know.”
- Embrace failure. A key difference between Silicon Valley and Singapore is that our American counterparts are more inclined to taking calculated risks, giving them that competitive edge.
- Passion. Love what you do. A common misconception about entrepreneurs is that they’re only in it for the money, but the GES 2016 showed Alex how having a passion for what you do trumps profit-making.
As a platform, Shopee differentiates by offering Shopee University, to groom their sellers. It has three tiers, Shopee staff will train sellers in the beginner and advanced tiers, while experienced sellers and professionals will coach the expert tier. All classes are free to Shopee sellers. It sounds like a great program.
All classes are free to Shopee sellers, with the aim of helping them grow the business. The aim is to help grow Shopee’s user base, both sellers and buyers. But it is in a competitive space, alongside Qoo10, Lazada, and to some extent, Carousell.