Thoughts on Turning Thirty

30 is an age that I have dread before turning 30. Yet when I turn 30,  I kinda welcome the next decade. It has been 2 weeks since I turned 30, it does not feel as daunting.While some of my friends threw a big party, I choose to keep it low key and spend it with just close friends and family. The journey through the past decade has its ups and downs, but as I begin the next chapter of my life, I believe it is the experiences and what we do each day that makes it meaningful than the outcome.

There are a few decisions I made in the last 10 years that mold the way I am today. Some of which I wouldn't say were the best decisions, but certainly the process or experience after making the decision provided me with some learnings.

Decision 1: At age of 20 - I went to Silicon Valley for the NUS Overseas College Program (NOC) 

It was certainly one of the best decisions I have made. The one year stint in California, USA was an eye opener. Besides making many new NUS and Stanford friends, learning to live independently, studying hard, working hard, playing hard, driving from California to New York, Sky-diving, coping with stress and acne, etc. While I enjoyed a lot, I have a deep regret: Not taking good care of my skin. I used to have very good skin but acne started to sprout and it has never since stopped. I have a separate post on how my skin condition spiraled downwards on another blog Secondchance delegated to skin-related postings. 

Decision 2: At age of 22 - I went for student exchange to Munich, Germany

It wasn't easy convincing NUS SEP coordinator to allow me to go for another student overseas program as he wanted to give other students a chance. I had to explain and justify my way. Thank goodness that Prof Chin Wee Shong was willing to collaborate with TUM and allow me to take half a year of my thesis in Germany and another half a year with her. I am also grateful that the Vice Dean of the Faculty was very supportive after I spoke to him. Although it was a short 6 months, I had the chance to travel around Europe. The challenge was to take classes in a different language. I recalled using Google Translate a lot when I studied for my Chemistry modules. Thank goodness the lecturers were kind enough to allow me to write my answers in English during the exams. 

Decision 3: At age of 23 – I applied to join Exploit Technologies Pte Ltd

It is hard to say if it was a good decision but it must have some pulling factor that made me stay here for almost 7 years. Some of my NOC friends started their own companies right after school and some of them whom have sold their companies and became multi-millionaire. There are other friends who joined multi-national companies and have gone overseas as expats. Each one of us took different paths and became who we are today. There were many lessons learnt. R&D in Singapore has just started to begun two decades ago. Not just the tech-transfer office, but also the research organization is constantly evolving. Management changes, company reorganizes, strategy direction pivots, takes on new bets, etc. One thing for sure, commercialization of technology is not easy.

Decision 4: At age of - Taking part-time MBA at National University of Singapore

The only reason which I find useful from taking MBA is meeting new friends. Lectures were generally very academic style. If I were to compare with my marketing classes I took in Stanford University during my NOC programme, the style is very much different. I like the way US schools teach. There were never right or wrong answer. The professors in Stanford would provide leading questions for the students to debate on but no one would be able to determine what was the best business decision at the point of time. What I liked about classes in Stanford was also how “real” it is, because representatives of companies will company and talk to us. I recalled when I was doing a case on Harvey Davidson, some representative from the company actually drove the motorcycle into the classroom. And when we were doing a case on Yellow Tail, we were asked to appreciate the wine during class. Debating in class with a wine glass was 1^st ever in my academic experience. If I were to choose again, I will not spend ~$57,000 ($52,000 + GST) on an MBA in Singapore. I will save the money and consider doing it in the USA.

Decision 5: At age of - Taking part-time Specialist Diploma for Cosmetic Science at Singapore Polytechnic

As part of my work in developing commercialisation strategy in Personal Care, I decided to take a short specialist course on Cosmetic Science, which is funded by my company. I met new friends from various companies, such as Unilever, Croda, Givaudan, Takasago, etc. Most of them were around my age. I enjoy the laboratory module where I get to make my own soap, shampoo, lotion and fragrances, and classes which were taught by industry speakers. However, I dislike classes that were taught by some SP lecturers. Some of them do not have sufficient industry knowledge and I could tell they were “smoking” us. Bluntly put, I am not there to learn what I can learn from Wikipedia which they sometimes “cut and paste” in their notes.

Decision 6: At age of – Saying “I Do” to Mr Sungsoo Ro

The most spontaneous decision I have made was to say “I Do” to Mr Sungsoo Ro on my 29^th birthday in 2013. Then, I was in Korea. Initially, we were still planning for our wedding to be on 17^th Jan 2015 (the earliest preferred and available date Fullerton Hotel could accommodate us). But somehow things between us started to move really fast and we had our ROM on 9^th Mar 2014. Then our Korean wedding happened shortly after on 22^nd Jun 2014. The date of our Korean wedding was firmed up very last minute as my father-in-law trying to get a slot at the beautiful Wedding Hall in Hotel ICC, Daejeon. 

It is a very popular place and usually couples have to book a few months before. But my father-in-law pulled strings and we got a slot on a very good date (22^nd Jun). Well, my family was very flexible and cooperative. We took leave and bought our tickets to Korea just a few weeks before flying off. I didn’t even have time to lose weight for the wedding. J I will allocate a separate blog post to talk about my Korea Wedding. Condensing the events that happened then into this blog post doesn't serve justice to the whole experience. J

Besides sharing the 6 big decisions I made, below are 6 mistakes I made which I will highly recommend others not to make in their 20s:

1. Not taking good care of the skin and body
2. Studying in school non-stop when you don’t have a clue what you are doing
3. Failing to try and build dreams.
4. Sticking with jobs that doesn’t teach you anything
5. Not mixing frequently with friends that build dreams.
6. Not using free time to test out various side hustles, hobbies, passions, etc

My LINE account hacked

I am one of the victims whose LINE account was hijacked. The "hacker" randomly messages my friends to buy itunes gift cards. What surprises me was that the "hacker" is not a computerized system but an active person talking and pretending to be me, leading my friends to believe that it is me who is in need of some stupid itunes credits which I don't use. My phone is an android. Some close friends text me via other means to find out if it is actually me and thank goodness for doing that.

I tried to report and delete my account, but an error message will always popped out. The "hacker" apparently hijacked my user ID and I have no longer access to it. I tried to disable the app and install again and recreate an ID with the same email and handphone. I could create an account and subsequently delete the account. However, I believe it is a different ID, as my husband and some friends were still receiving messages. My husband tried to play along and replied "why shd I buy", "for what"... etc, yet the hacker who was responding was quite persistent and even used cute pouty emoticons to try to convince him to get. Isn't it crazy?

I had no choice but to use my facebook to reach out to as many of my contacts that my account was hacked. However, still I didn't managed to inform all. I have an office intern who was still cheated a total of $3000 (first a $1000, then $2000), thinking it was me. I'm so mad that these evil hackers are preying on innocent kind people. I hope they have their retribution for being so evil.

For those who have no idea still I am taking about, please refer to the news published a few months back:

Several LINE accounts compromised, contacts tricked into buying gift cards, by Channels Newsasia

33 Cases of scams involving iTunes gift cards through mobile messaging platform LINE have been reported to police since Sep 2014. by News Asiaone

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Follow-up on the above posting (dated 17 Oct):

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I lodged a complaint to LINE. To my astonishment, instead of admitting wrong, LINE still claimed that their system is full proof. Here's their exact words..."There is no way that any LINE account information(phone number, account name, LINE ID, registration email address, password, etc.) was leaked." They claimed that it is lost due to other websites... geeesh...

This is the end of LINE if they continue with this way of handling customer service.. This is a typically example of "not knowing what one doesn't know"... still has the cheek to push blame...

Next Big Wave: Digital Health

Recently, I read up on the growing Digital Health space. Rock Health has shown that venture investment in digital health space has outpaced most sectors such as software, biotech and medtech. Start-ups that help the medical community better manage payments from patients and insurance companies and companies that develop programs to help people purchase health care insurance or find medical professionals and services received hundreds of millions of investments last year.

Credits to RockHealth

As what Wikipedia has described, “Digital health is the convergence of the digital and genetics revolutions with health and healthcare with the goal of reducing inefficiencies in healthcare delivery, improving access, reducing costs, increasing quality, and making medicine more personalized and precise.”  However, the lexicon of Digital Health covers a wide area, not limited to Mobile Health, Wireless Health, Health 2.0, eHealth, Health IT, Big Data, Health Data, Cloud Computing, e-Patients, Quantified Self and Self-tracking, Wearable Computing, Gamification, Telehealth & Telemedicine, Precision and Personalized Medicine, and Connected Health. Interestingly, it is also includes Digital Health Insurance.

Credits to Nuviun

Incumbents in the health insurance market are facing increased competition from new entrants using digital innovations. There are a few start-up companies which are worthy of mentioning:

1)  Oscar Insurance (www.hioscar.com)

Based in NY, the company is focusing on a more “humanized healthcare” B2C system by utilizing technology, design and data. Founded by three HBS alums, they have already raised approximately $70 million from venture capitalists (including Thrive Capital, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, Red Swan and several HBS Professors. Oscar Insurance has very strong negotiation team for investment: Billionaires Jim Breyer (Breyer Capital) and Stanley Druckenmiller, Founders Fund, General Catalyst Partners, Khosla Ventures and Kushner’s own Thrive Capital. Oscar, just a year old, has already more than 16,000 customers who pay an average of $4,500 in annual fees (Revenue at around $72 million) and amassed relationships with more than 83 hospitals. With a valuation of $800 million, investors are putting a frothy 11x sales multiple on the company. Quoted from Scholsser (one of the founders), “Like Google, you can come use Oscar. You can type in your issue and we will help you find the best solution.

2)  Zenefits (www.zenefits.com)

Based in California, the company is brokering health insurance deals for its customers. It has since raised $83.6 million with the most recent Series B round of $66.5 million led by Andreessen Horowitz (June 2014) at a valuation of $500 million. and has grown from 15 employees to 220 since late last year. The company has signed up 2,000 small businesses that employ a combined 50,000 workers in just its first year of operation. Compared with Oscar Insurance, Zenefit is seemingly less aggressive B2B2C business model.

3)  ConnexionsAsia (CXA) (www.cxagroup.com)

Based in Singapore, the company builds a platform and network to transform employer’s healthcare expenditure into a benefits and wellness program for its employees. It is growing aggressively in growing its customer base through acquisition of Pan Group. At a pre-Seed stage, it has already more than 800 clients and generating more than $6 million revenue. Unlike Oscar and Zenefits, CXA is building its presence across Asia with plans to expand to 11 countries in Asia.