My Southeast Asia Ventures: I co-founded an electric motorbike firm in Thailand. It’s exciting but tough being away from my family in Singapore

I dare say it was with a little bit of fate and a lot of faith that I ended up doing business in Thailand.

Soon after graduating from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2019, I took up a job in e-commerce and was posted to Bangkok.

Being new to the place, I spent most of my free time exploring the city and finding good food.

There, I was introduced to Ben Tun through a friend and investor. Ben eventually became a close friend and co-founder of our electric motorcycle company — Sleek EV — which operates in Thailand.

Ben and I hit it off when we first met. I tried speaking in my broken Thai, but he replied in Singlish instead!

That was when I found out Ben, who is Thai, had studied at the Singapore International School of Bangkok, which explained his knowledge of our culture.

We shared similar entrepreneurial aspirations which led us to venture into the electric…