Stories

🎧 What’s one song that never fails to lift you up? This World Mental Health Day, Oct 10, we’re launching the SGN Global Feel-Good Playlist, a growing playlist created by our community around the world. 🌏🎶 And we want your song on it! 🎵 Comment ONE song below + artist that lifts you up  🌏 Tell us which city you’re listening from (e.g London, Sydney) ❤️ Like other song recommendations you love 

For Rukzana Begum, sharing Singapore’s culture is a way to stay connected to home while living in the United States. Through her business, Journey2Asia, she brings Asian heritage and craftsmanship into people’s homes and is introducing Singaporean art to a wider audience through Threads of Home. In this SGNSpotlight, she shares the story behind the collection, the challenge of bringing a Singapore

From bootstrapping a profitable sneaker business, to building Stripe's APAC partnerships and scaling Southeast Asia at Canva, Lily Wu breaks down the power of unconventional career paths.By SGN | 24 Sep 2026For many, a career is a straight line, a steady climb up a single corporate ladder. But for Lily Wu, life has been a series of deliberate, curiosity-driven side quests.She’s orchestrated an int

When a sudden health crisis revealed how easily delayed medical decisions can alter the outcome of a patient’s life, former M&A lawyer Clara Leow stepped closer to the action to build a regional digital healthcare platform that now protects millions.For most of her career, Clara had been in perpetual motion. She has worked in law, healthcare, and technology, across both start-ups and established i

Vidit Agrawal shares how he grew the wage access platform GajiGesa for five years before it was acquired by Kredivo Group. Growing up in Dehradun, India – a military town in the foothills of the Himalayas – studying abroad was unimaginable for Vidit. “My family didn’t have the means,” he shares. When a friend told him about scholarships at the National University of Singapore (NUS), they both appl

When Silvino Schlickmann was asked to rejoin the intergovernmental body, his only request was that the posting be back in Singapore. While a student at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) in Brazil, 21-year-old Silvino co-founded a company that provided cyber solutions for universities. The business grew to become the country’s largest website for email-based communities, yet he still

Driven by a belief that technology should make a meaningful difference in people's lives, Hoang Van Anh is building solutions at the intersection of healthcare, IoT and smart living. In this SGNSpotlight, she shares her journey as a cross-border entrepreneur, the challenges of building technology that works in the real world, and her ambitions to grow her R&D presence in Singapore.Tell us a bit ab

Tai Boon Ding, a data science manager at Meta in New York, shares how he went from studying astrophysics at Harvard to navigating the highly competitive world of Big Tech in America. Tai Boon has always been equally drawn to the arts and sciences.  After pursuing the humanities in junior college, he went in the opposite direction and studied physics at Harvard. His curiosity led him to major in as

Build Your Dream NeighbourhoodCreate your own personalised “Singaporean Neighbourhood” using nostalgic, present-day as well as futuristic buildings and elements. Save and share your unique neighbourhood as a digital snapshot of home away from home.🎁 3 Lucky Winners. Each will each receive SGD $300 gift card each. (open to overseas Singaporeans too!)The Allocated Prize is not exchangeable for cash

In the mid-Nineties, Pierre Martensson arrived in Singapore with little to his name. Decades later, the Antler partner and The Scale Factory founder reflects on how selling door-to-door across HDB estates shaped his approach to business, startups and venture capital in Singapore.  Many expatriates begin their journey to Singapore on the back of a high-flying role, corporate transfer, or a speciali

When Dr. Izzuddin Aris left Singapore for Boston in 2017, he expected to be gone for only two years. Nearly a decade later, he is now an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School's (HMS) Department of Population Medicine, where his research on how early life shapes long-term health is changing the way scientists and clinicians think about strategies to prevent adverse health outcomes, such as

Inmoo Hwang shares how he co-founded ADDX in Singapore, a pioneer in tokenising private market investments in Asia. When Inmoo was 13, his view of the world expanded drastically. His father was posted to New Delhi as the country manager of a bank, and the family relocated from Seoul to India for the next three years. Living in a foreign land, Inmoo was fascinated by the differences in lifestyle, r

A cybersecurity professional and Tokyo-based DJ, Koh You Liang has been building a life in Japan since 2014 while pursuing his passion for music on a global stage. What began as a spontaneous decision to join an a cappella group at university eventually led to a decade-long journey in electronic music production and DJing.In this SGNSpotlight, he shares how creativity, resilience, and continuous l

After leaving corporate law, Singaporean founder Megan Tan launched her home-run supper club Homi Kitchen to recreate the flavours she missed. Now, she is introducing authentic Singaporean sauces to a growing global audience with her retail brand, Yumm Singa. Megan’s relationship with food began long before she ever stepped into the kitchen. Raised close to both her paternal and maternal grandpare

After spending her formative years in the heart of Capitol Hill and Columbia Climate School, Fulbright Scholar Anuka Upadhye now finds herself working at the US-ASEAN Business Council in Singapore on the Work Holiday Pass. When Anuka was in the ninth grade, she did something few her age would do – join a political movement. She had joined the Arizona Democratic Party as a youth volunteer. After sc

When Mia Kwa first moved to London alone in 2012, the journey was steep, lonely and full of challenges. Today, the seasoned banking executive is using those hard-won lessons to guide fellow Singaporeans to settle into the UK.  After building a solid career in Singapore, Mia decided it was time for a change in scene.  “I felt a strong pull to challenge myself in a new way. I wanted to see if I coul

A storyteller with a passion for visual narratives, Ling Chua has spent years building a creative career in the United States while staying rooted in the dream that first inspired her as an 11-year-old in Singapore. In this SGNSpotlight, Ling shares her journey navigating a new creative landscape abroad. From commercial campaigns to award-winning short films, her story is one of perseverance, crea

By week one of school, I became a co-founder. By year three, we raised $2.6 million. By Armaan Dhanda My surname Dhanda sounds like the Hindi word for “business”, so you could say I was born to be a founder. My earliest years were spent in Ludhiana, Punjab, before we moved to Gurgaon outside Delhi when I was three. Because my family is in the manufacturing business, dinner table conversations revo

Adrian Fuhrmann, a doctoral candidate at the Singapore-ETH Centre, explains how his research may benefit society and the environment. At his research lab, Adrian is used to visitors and newcomers squirming and flinching at the sight of tiny black soldier flies or 10,000 of their writhing larvae feasting insatiably on food waste.  The reaction is only natural. Adrian, too, felt it once. “Of course 

One family experience changed everything. Now, Joanna Sun’s research, teaching, and design tools are influencing dementia care across aged care facilities, universities, and communities in Singapore and Australia. Witnessing dementia firsthand  An infant Joanna and her lau ma pictured together.   Joanna recalls the story of her great-grandmother, affectionately known as lau ma. In the final years