Even before graduating from NUS Electrical Engineering in July, Kenny Chen Weixiang had already co-founded two companies.
The first, Market Boy, an online delivery service for wet market produce; and the second, Phoray, a distributor of ultraviolet sterilisation devices. In both cases the business were prompted by a desire to help solve problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Market Boy grew out of a concern for the future of his parents' chicken stall in West Coast Market after the COVID-19 circuit breaker began in April 2020 and sales began to fall. To attract more customers, Kenny started a Facebook page where customers could order chicken from the stall for delivery.
The rapid success of the page led to him quickly expanding Market Boy into a full website, bringing more stall owners in the market on board and offering a growing range of produce for sale. Today Market Boy delivers produce from most of the stalls in West Coast Market and serves over 2,000 customers.
As Market Boy took off, Kenny noticed another issue in the wet market: the widespread use of liquid hand sanitisers as well as other cleaning products and the resulting increase in plastic waste. This spurred him to co-found Phoray in June 2020 with a friend from NUS Business School - a start-up providing UVC ultraviolet light sanitisation products and services to safely, quickly and efficiently sterilise a range of items and surfaces with no waste.
As a lean, two-man start-up, the co-founders have had to share all the work between themselves, and so Kenny found himself conducting sales calls and safety training for clients. Leveraging the technical expertise built up during his studies, he has secured sales with NUS and NTU laboratories, as well as a number of local hotels who were looking to sterilise equipment as well as high-touch items like room keycards.
Beyond specific technical knowledge, Kenny has also found his engineering training helpful in other ways.
"What studying engineering really teaches you is to develop the mindset of an engineer," he says. That means learning how to approach problems, how to overcome challenges and spot opportunities to do or make things better."
"As an engineer, I believe that everything can be solved. Because once you get rid of the doubt that it cannot be solved, then you're more focused on finding the solution."
During his time at NUS, Kenny sought out multiple overseas programmes, which he says played a major role in shaping his entrepreneurial outlook.
He says a 2018 exchange to the University of Illinois was particularly influential. Passionate about the environment, he took the opportunity during breaks to visit a number of US national parks where he was struck by the vastness of the landscape and how it changed his perspective.
"You take in the view, and when you realise how small you are, you see your problems are also very small," he says.
It was on another NUS overseas trip to the Middle East in late 2019, organised under the STEER programme, that he met his Phoray co-founder.
For his juniors just beginning their university career Kenny's advice is to make the most of all opportunities and try things out.
"If you have even a slight interest in something, then just give it a go," he says. "University is the place where you can take risks and try new things."
Now, fresh out of his studies and with the experience of founding two businesses under his belt, Kenny is already looking to future ventures and opportunities. In addition to an upcoming traineeship with Siemens, he is discussing new projects with his business partners and planning an extended trip to China next year.
"I like things to be fast-paced," he says.
