This founder makes a daily 4-hour trip between Singapore and Malaysia – just to save money

Keyis Ng (right).

Startups seem cool. Not a day goes by without some 20-something-year-old receiving a ton of money – more than he’d ever make in his entire life in a conventional job – to test out a business idea.

But let’s be real. Startups are incredibly and massively tough to build. The tale of the small guy sneaking up and stealing the trophy from the giants is charming, but the odds of that actually happening are very low, for various reasons.

Keyis Ng knows this well. Following in the footsteps of his parents – both of whom were business owners – he started his own marketing agency at the youthful age of 21, before starting a specialty coffee ecommerce platform called Cafebond.

His journey, however, isn’t run-of-the-mill. This particular story starts in secondary school.

First business experience

Back then, Keyis had decided not to further his studies after the ‘O’ level examinations. Instead, he went straight to the army and landed an internship at a Japanese advertising agency helmed by local entertainment icon Dick Lee. Over two years, he transitioned to a full-time role and worked with clients such as Gucci, YSL, Puma, and SMRT.

But being a business owner constantly lingered on his mind:

Since young, I always aspired to start my own business. It might be due to the fact that my dad owns a ship spare parts manufacturing plant, while my mom was a mobile phone wholesaler.

One day, a fairy tale opportunity came knocking on his door. “Local actress Wong Li Lin was launching her own line of fitness products, and was looking for a marketing agency to help her with the launch,” Keyis recalled.

“The next day after our first meeting, I registered the company and she became my first client.”

However, Keyis faced an uphill battle. As a young entrepreneur who was up against veteran industry players with more connections, resources, and experience, he constantly needed to prove himself to the world.

The breaking point arrived five long years later. By 2014, Keyis and his business partner had achieved some notable successes: serving clients such as Lazada, Google, and British Council, and co-founding the Digital Fashion Week.

These were attained at a cost. Due to financial reasons, they took on more clients than they could handle, and as such did not perform well.

Fighting the good fight

Keeping on track