Advocating for everyday mental health with an app

THEODORIC Chew’s entrepreneurial journey began when he was in secondary school with an array of online businesses, ranging from dropshipping to arbitrage advertising. While most of his early ideas did not take off, the experiences gave Chew, now 26, the foundation and motivation to pursue his dream of being in the tech space.

In 2012, the 16-year-old Raffles Institution student decided to leave junior college to focus on this goal full time. He built his portfolio through stints in various companies and honed his entrepreneurial skills by reading self-help books. 

“I had a family that was massively supportive and understood what I hoped to do. They gave me the space and confidence to try, even if I may fail,” Chew says. Two years later, he had founded Existgreat, an online publishing startup that was later acquired by a small US internet media company.