 So I met Alicia when she was, well actually she's still the founder of LearnAbby, but that was for the last three years, until very recently. Yeah, and she'll share more of that story, but now she's working for Attack on Asia as you know, which is a huge thing here. And it shares stories of everything entrepreneurship related, technology related here in Asia, not just in Singapore. If there's someone who you need to get your stories shared too, Alicia might be one of those people to talk to. Alicia, ecosystem builder, Attack on Asia, let us know the soft spot in your heart. Thank you. I don't look like a joke. Okay, so my name is Alicia, and when I graduated from university in 2010, I knew I wanted to start a startup. So I went and wrote into the Singapore chapter of Founder Institute, which is an accelerated program in Singapore, and incorporated the LearnAbby as part of the graduation criteria. So I have zero programming background, so when I started, I did what everybody did, look for a technical founder, and like what, everybody went through, you can't find a technical founder. So I have like, because I'm really so technically challenged, the only thing I can do was this picture. Really proud of myself, and so just like that. So when I couldn't find a technical founder, what I decided to do is I would pick up programming, and in 2012, I launched a platform. So this is why I brag. So on the other side, I was like killing it. The launch was covered by all of these logos you see there. The instructors on my platform, they were national athletes represented Singapore and Malaysia. Community leaders who run local user groups. My coach was one of them. Well-known VCs and entrepreneurs in Singapore. In fact, like my journey was covered by business times, and even today, today actually covered me as part of their national day special. Yeah, and I was actually invited to mentor and start a business stuff, so you know, awesome, awesome, so on and so forth. But I think on the inside, I was struggling the whole time. The whole time. This is the traffic for two years, as you can see, there's no up and to the right. It's always been this up and stable line. Yeah, I had a distribution, I had a retention problem. So when students meet each other after the first lesson they do, they don't need my platform anymore. And I have a distribution problem in terms of getting more students to take classes and stuff. So for the longest time, I tried a lot of stuff and I had no idea what to do with it. So I moved to Silicon Valley for three months to get my shit together. Oh, by the way, I'm really bounder, so, alright. So basically at Silicon Valley, what I needed to do was to decide whether I should pivot or persevere. So I talked to a lot of people and at Silicon Valley, people who are experienced are really accessible to anyone, so that was awesome. And what I noticed is that, sorry, I talked to a lot of people and Erica and I asked, oh, so here's the situation, should I pivot or persevere? And what I noticed is that the more experienced a person is, the more likely the answer is, it's a personal decision. So I did not take it well the first time. Of course, on the outside, I would be like poker face and nice, but inside, intense and tonal screaming. Because I was like, what the fuck? Are you telling me that I spend so much money and so much time to meet you? And you give me some kumbaya spiritual shit? That kind of story is all within you. What the fuck? That was really terrible. But after talking to a lot of people and really thinking about it, what I realized is that when it comes to making my decision, I have two criteria. So the first thing is, do I have the resources to continue running it? And do I have the ideas to continue running it? So at the point of time, although I'm hosting and pay cuts free for me, I decided that I'm really out of ideas and I'm just like burnt out mentally and emotionally exhausted. So I decided to, okay, call it quits. And, oh, this is the fun part. So, kidding my start-up, it's like the hardest thing that I had to do in my life. And this is the exact text that I said in my back straight. And the point where I decided that I should just end it on me. I'm a bigger creator because I cannot remember. So, yeah, everybody tells you that killing a start-up is painful. But I think the word pain cannot really fully encapsulate what it means to kill a start-up. It's really, really fucked up that, you know, the thing that you created, the thing that you're passionate about, the thing that you love, and it's also the thing that you are the one killing it, like everything is far. So, at that point of time, I realized that, you know, when your creation is so tightly intertwined with your self-identity, I can really understand why farmers choose to kill themselves when the start-up don't go well. That's not really the end of the story. So, I decided to pick myself up and look for a job. And when I was doing that, I worry a lot because at the start-up, I am a generator with this. I know a bit of everything. So, I was worried about, am I employable for a specific skill? Am I good enough? And all this finally came when I got job offers from all of these guys. I like. No, these are all the companies that actually rejected me. So, if you work there, fuck you. All of this, after you kill your own start-up, so not fun. And what I realized is that there's a lot of beta stories that you read online. They tend to forget that, you know, even when you just kill your start-up, your esteem is at all-time low, you feel fucking depressed, you will still face rejection. So, what's the moral of my story? The timing is so perfect, right? Because can you just talk about it just now? The start-ups are like so fucking high. And there's just like too many ways that you can mess it up. So, you know, I guess like a few years back there's always like a trend, oh you should start a start-up, you should start a start-up, everyone should start a start-up. And I used to be part of that, until I think that this is my completely bullshit. Because of how much emotionally and mentally stuff takes from you, I wouldn't suggest people to just jump into it. I wouldn't suggest that, you know, they find answers to these questions like, what problem are you solving? Are you passionate about this problem? Can this be a side project instead of like a company from day one? Yeah, and if you do start a start-up and things are like really fucking terrible, just hang in there, right? Because there is like at the end of the tunnel, and for me, like after being rejected, like like right-stander, I got a job, yay! And it's a pretty sweet job. I get to do, my job is kind of like a start-up analyst, so I don't write stuff. Yeah, so I guess when you win, you tie so much of yourself both to your start-up, it's very easy, the thing that will get you to the end, I'm useless, I should just die, just don't. Start-up depression, start-up, founder depression in suicide is a very real problem, and you know, just don't do it. Yeah, so, yeah, so for this part of the presentation, I'm supposed to give advice on what you should do or what should I have done differently. But the thing is that, first of all, I think this is like a debt of 5,000 paper cuts, I can't really tell you this major problem in debt or things in the workout. So it's really hard for me to tell you what would I have done differently, because I might have done something differently and solved this micro-fucked up, but then further down, I'm going to have a major fucked up. So it's just hard, I mean, yeah, so, and here's the truth, you will fucked up too. You will fucked up, it's just a magnitude of whether it's big or small, but you will fucked up. So here's an advice, like, keep calm and carry on. I think it's like enjoying it, it's kind of funny. So, yeah, the last thing, the last advice that I'll give is know your priorities. Start off take a lot of time, and you always hear about people working 16 hours a day, you know, it's almost like a factory shop, like overworking and over-exhaust. And it's very important, and it's very easy for you to lose focus of like what's important, or rather like who's important, and people you love and you care about. Because when I needed help, they were there. Like, when I needed to pick me up, they were there. So, yeah, I know your priorities. Okay, so, yeah, we need to get started on that, over the point. So from my experience, it has never paid off when I work over those I care about, never. So in conclusion, startups are hard, it's normal, it's fucked up, I know you're still your priorities, good luck. So early on, you were getting a lot of positive press, and then you saw it was flat-line. Did you ever consider exiting, basically, when you were getting all this press, were you getting offers for companies to buy up here on the website? I don't have offers for companies buying my startup. I have offers for hiring me, even being like a CEO of their own desktop. But it's just kind of interesting, so why did I see you traffic like that, but because of the press, I still couldn't do more going on. I think maybe it's because when I get press, I see it as a false positive, then okay, because the press thought it was interesting, so maybe someone else thought it was interesting, but I just haven't really gone on like one of my time in agency. You had a measure with telling you something, right? Yeah. That's why I fucked up. What's the difference between advice for people you look up to in Singapore compared to the US and other places? What's the difference in the advice they gave you? Oh, so my friend put it really succinctly about Silicon Valley. In Silicon Valley, nobody forced you for thinking big. You're just a random guy walking down the street and saying, I'm going to start a new unicorn. Is this perfectly fine? In Singapore, you're like, I want to start a new unicorn, but we have not seen a unicorn in Southeast Asia. What makes you think that you're right? So that is the first, the most obvious difference in mentality between Singapore and Silicon Valley. The next thing is that people are so accessible. Like I can just, I have access to, yeah, in fact, I could have like a one-to-one session. I could ask question to Ben Horowitz, an early investor in Skype, who thinks that investing in Airbnb is too small for him when he's like 300 years. Wow, talking to me, thanks. So that's really like an amazing accessibility in England. The one and the like. Three years, right? Aside from time, what else do you think you've lost in the previous? My youth. Like underneath the youth part, because I really, when I'm young and energetic, there's a lot of other opportunities and it's not that I don't have them, but I just keep saying no because I want to focus on this, like making this big thing work. So yeah, youth and other opportunities. Last one. I saw things that you've tried but didn't work out. Too many, next. I'm honest, too many in this stuff now. How do I choose? How do I choose? Gut, gut feel. If you go back to the time when you first graduated and you could give advice to yourself when you go back, what would the sound like? Work and start up first. Get some experience at some time. Work, maybe smarter than just freshman. Okay. Was it really short? You mentioned that things start up after work, but do you consider doing it at all as part of work? Oh yes. I understand now. You're in second age. Yeah, in the future. But I'm trying to find out what is the problem that I'm very, very passionate about. This time now I'll be more focused on problem-ridden solution, being in love with the thing that I feel good about, but then the thing I'm trying to solve. Thank you. Thank you.