how i fu*ked up learnemy
TRANSCRIPT
Online marketplace for in-person classes
national day special
TODAY • FRIDAY 9 AUGUST 2013
4
SINGAPORE
YOUTH:
APATHETIC
NO MORE
LOH CHEE KONG
Associate Editor
It was not too long ago when Singa-
pore youths had to constantly fend
off the label of being apathetic. Back
then, we were accused of being fixated
on the paper chase and material com-
forts, being out of touch with politics
and oblivious to the plight of others.
It even got to a point where the
then-Prime Minister had to address
the issue at a national forum — in his
most important political speech of the
year, no less. At the 2002 National Day
Rally, Mr Goh Chok Tong challenged
the youth to show that they have the
same never-say-die, can-do spirit
as the pioneer generation: “Has the
younger generation of Singaporeans
gone soft? Look yourself in the mirror
and ask: Am I a stayer or a quitter?
Am I a fair-weather Singaporean or
an all-weather Singaporean?”
Those words — and labels — stuck.
But today’s youth has risen to the chal-
lenge, aided in no small part by the
medium that they grew up with — the
much-maligned Internet.
In our National Day Special this
year, TODAY profiles 10 youths who
have never known life without the In-
ternet (the true-blue digital natives,
if you will) and are harnessing the
power of the Web and social media to
make a difference — not your typical
“keyboard warriors”.
COMETH THE HOUR
Take haze-hero Jeremy Chua, for ex-
ample. After witnessing how many
people were complaining about the
smog and the authorities’ response
— though few were doing anything
about the situation — the 25-year-
old school-dropout-turned-scholar
sprang into action.
He started a Facebook page call-
ing for people to donate their ex-
cess masks and mobilised hundreds
of volunteers to distribute masks to
the needy. Soon enough, like-minded
people joined his cause and the team
tapped online platforms to channel
manpower and resources to, for ex-
ample, estates with a large proportion
of elderly. A Google document was al-
so set up for volunteers and donors to
list the ways they can contribute, such
as cash or mask donations, or air-con-
ditioned rooms for others to sleep in.
Then, there is Youth for Ecology —
a group of youths who were stirred in-
to action by the debate over the White
Paper on Population. Ms Huang Xin-
yuan and Mr Eric Bea, both 19, saw
how little was said about the environ-
mental impact of the projected popu-
lation growth — save for a speech by
Nominated Member of Parliament
Faizah Jamal in Parliament.
Despite their lack of expertise in
environmental science, they started
a youth group advocating environ-
mental issues. Armed with passion
and tech-savvy, the group has held
dialogues with their peers and is
putting together a paper based on
the views shared, to be published
this month.
Thanks to the Internet, the
young are making a difference
and debunking the myth that
they are only interested in the 5Cs
PHOTO: ERNEST CHUA
national day special
TODAY • FRIDAY 9 AUGUST 2013
15
PHOTOS: ERNEST CHUA
The entrepreneurial mindset is directly clashing with the whole paper chase mindset. There are a lot of such programmes in school, but it
will be just child’s play until the day people truly give up the chase ... I think fear is something you impose on yourself — if you were taught to fear (venturing into the unknown), you will.
Ms Elisha Tan (picture)CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF LEARNEMY
From tech noob to CEO of online marketplace
ALFRED [email protected] — Six years ago, a mo-ment of self-realisation struck Elisha Tan as she made her way home from class. “It’s quite morbid ... Suddenly, I realised that everyone in the train was going to die (some day), and all their memories and beliefs will fade,” she says.
That made her resolve to “break out of the routine of studying, getting a job and having kids and then die; and I am going to help people break out of this cycle”.The 25-year-old is now the proud
Chief Executive Officer of Learnemy, an online marketplace where users can take or give classes to people in their communities. Anyone with skills to share and teach can post an offer on the site — from guitar lessons to HTML coding — and interested stu-dents can sign up. Thanks to that “epiphany mo-
ment”, the psychology major also went from “just (being) a cog in the wheel, to wanting to help people make a liv-ing doing what they like to do”.
After graduating from the Nation-al University of Singapore some two years ago, Ms Tan found herself back to class again — this time at a four-month programme at The Founder In-stitute, an American-based company helping to train tech start-ups. Les-sons at the course included branding and fund-raising. It was intensive and gruelling
— “by the second lesson, I was the youngest and the only female student left. Imagine the pressure I faced!” she exclaims. As part of the course requirements,
students were required to incorpo-rate a business, and thus, Learnemy was born.
Today, Learnemy sees 3,600 monthly visitors, with almost 100 instructors posting lesson offers. Learnemy will help match the users to their respective instructors.
Ms Tan admits that the website is not profitable yet, and while she did not want to disclose how much the website takes in monthly, she said recent earn-ings have been looking hopeful.
An epiphany was all it took for Elisha Tan to break out of the routine and start Learnemy‘I DON’T WANT TO JUST GET A JOB, HAVE KIDS AND THEN DIE’
Change the mindset of “not enough”, into the mindset of wanting to take risks. Take advantage of what we have now; there are already
tools available for you to make it big, and there is a good safety net here, so do not be afraid to use them to your advantage.
Don’t harp on the paper chase. Some people centre their entire lives on the
paper chase, and I think it is taking precious time away from skills development. Stop complaining so much — whether it is the haze or Hello Kitty. There’s more to
life than complaining and blaming the authorities. Be adaptable to whatever situations may come your way. Also, I would like to see more action, less talk when such incidents strike.
THE THREE THINGS SHE WANTS TO SEE IN SINGAPORE
To date, Learnemy has seen some 420 users, or “learners”, matched to their respective courses. Not bad for the girl who had zero knowledge of anything tech. When Ms Tan started Learnemy
after graduating from Founder Insti-tute, she wanted to get a tech part-ner on board, but failed to find “some-one who shared the same wavelength as me”.
It was also around that time that she was awarded the SPRING Singapore Young Entrepreneur Scheme (YES) grant. Eventually she “picked up cod-
ing from my friend”, and started up the first page of Learnemy — a static form for interested users to sign up for sports classes. “I coded that entire page myself,”
she says with pride. The page saw some 60 requests in only three weeks, she adds.
Even though she faced obstacles along the way, Ms Tan says the tech start-up scene is slowly evolving.
“It’s not as male-centric as it used to be, and we see more groups help-ing females who want to start-up,” she says.
Indeed, she ventures that being a female in the tech start-up scene is not the easiest journey. Ms Tan recalls having “to sound more assertive, and be less relaxed in my body language” when having to communicate with a group of male tech entrepreneurs.
When the going got tough, some-times, a Facebook post was all it took for her to get help. “(That’s why) I don’t think I am
alone in (this venture), because there is a community of people out there supporting me,” Ms Tan says.
Indeed, she tells TODAY that the Internet and social media have been pivotal to her business, in helping to drive costs down and expand her reach.
While she is thankful for the op-portunities she had while starting up Learnemy, Ms Tan thinks true entre-preneurship is still in its infancy.
She says: “The entrepreneurial mindset is directly clashing with the whole paper chase mindset. There are a lot of such programmes in school, but it will be just child’s play until the day people truly give up the chase.”
And while some have told her she was “brave” to strike out on her own, Ms Tan only has this to say: “I think fear is something you impose on your-self — if you were taught to fear (ven-turing into the unknown), you will.”
PHOTOS: ERNEST CHUA
Startups are hard, lol
h
You will fuck up
Know your priorities