Building a homeware superstore from scratch

Even before Covid-19 turned e-commerce into a vital sector for daily transactions and deliveries, this home living brand was betting big on digital.

Published Tue, May 18, 2021 · 05:50 AM

Startups

WITH S$2.43 left in his bank account, a baby on the way and debt of over S$200,000 from various reasons such as closed businesses, home loans and travel expenses, Brien Chua still chose to take the entrepreneurial path less travelled over returning to his stable finance career.

"I was very hungry, and my high-risk appetite meant that I was willing to give up everything to become a founder," he said.

Today, he is the chief executive officer (CEO) and founder of Houze, one of Singapore's largest homeware superstores. However, the journey to get here was not smooth sailing nor easy.

Before he started Houze, Mr Chua had, by the age of 29, launched and subsequently closed four businesses.

One of the businesses was Kirin, a Chinese doughnut franchise which required him to work 4,000 km away from home, and eventually landed him in debt and saddled him with mounting pressure to provide for his family and new…