Shanghai House of Entrepreneurs, NUS

A handful of SHEN students met with the founder of Aimifan Lucas Englehardt as part of our soon-to-be monthly inconvos. Lucas Englehardt, whom Jorene secretly thinks of as Matt Damon in the business world, is a serial entrepreneur having founded blogger insights and 88 spaces on top of Aimifan. Whilst the word serial is often used with negative connotations like serial killers; but Englehardt is hardly fazed by the term, in fact serial entrepreneur barely encapsulates his love for entrepreneurship. For him the thrill of being an entrepreneur stems from the challenge of learning how to manage every part of the business and even if one should fail the battle scars more than speak for themselves.

Whilst you are still young, give entrepreneurship a go.

If you screw it up, screw it up real big.

Englehardt’s latest venture Aimifan is an online food ordering system. It has a restaurant point-of-sale system integration as its competitive advantage. The team at Aimifan also partners with major food delivery networks to give users wider selections when they order out. Hence even food outlets which currently have no food delivery service is able to leverage on the Aimifan scheme to reach out to more than their typical walk in patrons.

What I felt was the most unique selling point of Aimifan is that users in the same social circle are not anonymous, it is almost akin to facebook where each user can see his/her friends’ restaurant reviews and recommendations, thus helping the user make a more informed dinner choice. This I felt was ingenious, no more dubious posts from dianping users but rather choices from people I know, I hang out with and whose taste I can rely on.

Englehardt was curious to know about the food delivery market inSingapore, and whether a service like Aimifan or Sherpa’s would work there. Honestly I do not think either are viable business ideas in Singapore; since aimifan relies on delivery networks – either the food outlet’s existing delivery service or specialized food delivery men. No doubt fast food chains like McDonalds and KFC have their delivery boys, but if I can sing Pizza Hut’s 62-35-35-35 jingle off the top of my head I do not need to go through the hassle of ordering online. Whilst Sherpa’s delivery model is more feasible, but the cost of labour inSingaporewould demand such a premium for the delivery fee that only pregnant women carving their favourite bak kut teh at 3am will be willing to give it a go. Either way the food delivery market does not appear very lucrative especially since the neighbourhood hawker centre already spoils us for choice.

But then again I could be wrong, after all I love rice, don’t you?

Find out more about AMF at http://aimifan.com/. 

The National Day celebration event held by the Shanghai Singapore Business Association (SSBA) was a very special checkpoint for me on my NOC journey in Shanghai. It marked the beginning of my one year ahead in Shanghai, and it was also my first ever time spending National Day out of Singapore. The earliest National Day celebrations that I remembered were spent chorusing to familiar national day theme songs at the school hall, and watching the spectacular firework displays. And back then, that was all there was to National Day for me. But being away from home for the first time during National Day really turned this whole perspective around. Even though Shanghai’s city life is very similar to Singapore’s in many aspects, the culture here has a stark contrast against what we have back home. Less than two weeks in Shanghai, and I was already amazed at how sheltered my life had been back at home. I had taken for granted the organized way of life and comforts in Singapore, which were not so easily found in the hustle and bustle of the streets of Shanghai. All these went on to make the SSBA National Day event one which was close to my heart. The event was also the first time that the 15^th and 16^th SHEN members were working together. Everybody was dressed up and manning their respective stations be it packing goodie bags, ushering or reception, and it was an interesting sight which reflected the good synergy we had.  All in all, it wasn’t the performances or even the good spread of food that mattered; it was the opportune time to appreciate our home country that would mark this day in my memory. A few days later, 9^th August arrived. It was also the day that the juniors had our initiation party.  Initiation took place in the form of games in which teams fought to answer questions about China. The incorrect answers treated us to our first taste of local wine, which I must say, very much echoed the strong local culture with its equally strong taste. It was a night of laughter and fun; a much welcomed respite from our busy work schedules. To me, the small party we had at our condo apartment far surpassed any other celebration we could have had in Singapore. To be able to freely communicate in our language, and feel at home in a foreign land; that really is a priceless experience. In the days ahead as we negotiate this foreign land of Shanghai, I believe that we will still always carry this homegrown culture within us.

The barren and the quiet landscape was not what I was expecting when we stepped out of the train station. Eleven of us were headed towards Dr Cheah’s house for a BBQ party! We walked for a distance before we reached his housing estate and the first word that came out of my mouth was “whoa”.

Truthfully, I think the house  that we are staying in is quite nice but ours is nothing compared to Dr Cheah’s house. The estate looked like an American neighbourhood. I almost forgot that we were in Shanghai at that point of time.

There were quite a number of houses inside the estate and we soon found Dr Cheah’s house. We were welcomed by his warm smile and he led us to the living room where we met more people.

We went off to the BBQ pit after our greetings and luckily, there was an ahyi to help us with the preparation of food. The food was great but we couldn’t finish it because there was simply too much food! We met two NUS alumni during the BBQ and they shared with us their experiences of working in Shanghai. It was only a short 30 minutes as they left shortly after but we found alot of inspiration from their stories. We also had a chat with Dr Cheah whereby he shared that the Shanghai leaders stayed near him in a very secretive estate! Exciting.

As the sky got darker, our poor female friends with sweeter blood were starting to get bitten by legions of mosquitoes. We had no choice but to move inside the house in order to avoid more casualties. Inside, we met Kok Hua and his wife, Dr Cheah, his wife and daughter, and a psychology professor from NTU. The chatting session was a very invaluable and pleasant one; Dr Cheah’s and Kok Hua’s wives were both in senior management and we managed to gain important tips on “How to Clinch That Job Interview” and “Climb Your Way Up the Corporate Ladder” and so on. At the same time, we were served very good tea (I think its pu’er) and mooncake!

As we became familiar with each other, the conversation got more loud and intense and we had to split into two groups; one with Dr Cheah and Kok Hua, and the other with the ladies. I was with the ladies group. Our NOC team continued sharing our point of views and thoughts and at the same time, absorbing important information that was shared with us. Also, Dr Cheah’s daughter who’s studying in the UK also chatted with us and we shared many stories.

During the conversation, from the corner of my eyes, I noticed that there were photos of flowers everywhere in the house. There is no doubt that Dr Cheah is indeed very passionate about flowers!

He introduced to us a National Geographic China magazine which was full of amazing information and rare pictures but sadly, it went out of business just after two issues.

All good things must come to an end. At around 8pm before leaving Dr Cheah’s house,  we took a group photo with the Dr Cheah and Kok Hua lying on the ground like sleeping buddhas and left his place with memories of a very amazing housing estate and even more amazing people.