Chief Change Officer
#131 From Family Empire to Personal Legacy: Chris Quek’s Bold Quest for Independence - Part One
Thu, 2 Jan 2025
Christopher Quek has always sought to chart his own course. In this two-part series, we unpack his remarkable journey. Chris, a third-generation member of a well-established family business in Singapore, chose to walk away from family expectations to pursue entrepreneurship in Malaysia. After returning to Singapore, he sold his inheritance to launch TRIVE, a venture capital firm that reflects his vision and independence. This episode delves into his quest for self-identity—the reasons behind his bold moves and how he made them a reality. Next time, we’ll discuss his current work as a VC investor, his ambitions for the entrepreneurial landscape in Southeast Asia, and his thoughts on legacy and family at this stage in his life. Key Highlights of Our Interview: Father’s Furious Expectations: When a Third-Gen Heir Sneaks Out of the Family Business "I couldn't stand all the pollution that the manufacturing plant was producing. And finally, after three days, I sneaked back to Singapore and my father saw me. He got angry. He shouted at me." Family Education 101: Learning P&L Over Dinner with Dad, Where Burgers Come with a Side of Calculating Profits "He would take me out to restaurants. And he forced me to start calculating out the revenues. He will start telling me like, what do you think is the expenses behind this? And I had to start learning a profit and loss statement just by that very visible conversation itself." Beyond the Textbook: How Mentorship Shaped Chris' Evolution "I'm a product of my mentors in my life. So I'm the number two and number three mentors were also very successful businessmen." Owning My Identity: Mr. Quek or Just Mr. Quek’s Son? "There was already a trigger point in my value system that was I going to continue as a the next generation of business owners to continue polluting, just to make money for the sake of money." Finding My Way: From Circumstances to Self-Fulfilment "It was more of circumstances and situations and opportunities that just appeared. If you ask me like some certain crossroads in my life, for example, heading off to Malaysia instead of China I felt that was the right thing to do." The Adventure of Self-Discovery: Uncovering Hidden Layers of Yourself at Every Stage "Give you a little bit of the element of what at every stage is about really discovering yourself, which is really an exciting journey. You don't realize that you have actually a lot of things about yourself that you haven't discovered. " Connect with us: Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Christopher Quek ______________________ --Chief Change Officer-- Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself. Open a World of Deep Human Intelligence for Growth Progressives, Visionary Underdogs, Transformation Gurus & Bold Hearts. 6 Million+ All-Time Downloads. Reaching 80+ Countries Daily. Global Top 3% Podcast. Top 10 US Business. Top 1 US Careers. >>>100,000+ subscribers are outgrowing. Act Today.<<< --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.EdTech Leadership Awards 2025 Finalist.18 Million+ All-Time Downloads.80+ Countries Reached Daily.Global Top 1.5% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>170,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Chapter 1: What drives Chris Quek's entrepreneurial journey?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chan, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist community for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. In this episode and the next, I'll be talking to Christopher Quek, a third-generation member of a well-established family business in Singapore.
Against his father's expectations, he left the family business and his home country to pursue entrepreneurship in Malaysia. where he became an e-commerce entrepreneur. Upon returning to Singapore, he sold his inheritance to raise the set up capital for his venture capital firm. Chris wants to be his own man. We will explore his journey of transformation in two parts.
This episode focuses on his pursuit of his own identity, his desires, his actions, the why and the how. In the next episode, we'll dive into his current work as a VC investor. building up the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Singapore and Southeast Asia. We'll discuss the legacy he hopes to create for his country and the region.
We'll also explore his expectations for his own children as a father at age 46. Chris, welcome to Chief Change Officer.
Hi, Vince. Thank you for having me here today. And hi, everybody on the show.
Chris and I met a few years back through a common friend in Singapore. Since then, we've exchanged a lot of ideas about entrepreneurship, investment, and more. Today, I invite Chris to come over to our show and share with us about his own journey into entrepreneurship and investment, as well as his vision for driving change in the Southeast Asian entrepreneurial ecosystem.
At the start, Chris, could you share with us about your background and personal career? Then we'll explore different parts of your journey.
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Chapter 2: How did family expectations influence Chris's career choices?
Sure. Okay, so hi everyone again. I'm Christopher Kwak here, born and bred out of Singapore. I'm a third-generation serial entrepreneur from Mergen. I say a family that has been running family businesses. 46 years old this year, quite a few people ask, am I really that old? So I just normally tell people, I buy a lot of cheap Korean face masks to make sure that I still retain my youth.
But in reality, about 20 years ago, I graduated from the University of Melbourne, where I was totally English speaking. And my father told me that once you graduate, off you go to our plant in China, manufacturing automotive parts. And when I went there, I had a massive culture shock, if I might say. Everybody spoke Mandarin, which is naturally expected given the fact it was in China.
And I was struggling. I couldn't also stand the smoke. I couldn't stand all the pollution that the manufacturing plant was producing. And finally, after three days, I snuck back to Singapore. And my father saw me. He got angry. He shouted at me and he says, off you go back to China. And I told him, I said, I'd rather not do that. And I fled over to neighboring Malaysia.
And I had a number of Melbourne University friends who were so kind to settle me in. And I spent another six years there in Malaysia doing my very first startup. And I decided that since I'm going to be working in Malaysia, might as well I do a business out of it. After six years, I decided to come back to Singapore. I got married and I did a few other businesses.
I ran restaurants and I also ran education student care outlets. But one of the very interesting things that went through in my career was that at that moment in time, there were quite a number of fellow entrepreneurs, whether they were running traditional businesses, they were running what we call e-commerce, digital businesses at that time.
I noticed that they started coming to me and asking me for nuggets of information, advice on how they would look at things. And I just gave it. And soon be told, I guess that developed and evolved into something very interesting. I decided to start an incubator and it was supported by the Singapore government, where we gave out free government grants.
And it became a really fun journey, if I might call it, where I started to get involved very deeply in the startup ecosystem. In fact, over the last 10 years when I was doing this incubator business, I think I advised easily over 1,500 startups. not just in Singapore, but all across Southeast Asia.
And soon after that, with going through that whole journey itself, it was really immense valuable experience learning from fellow founders and also giving them the advice that I learned from other founders. I realized that, hey, why don't I just not just stop there? And in fact, running an incubator, you don't really make much money. And I was a little bit of a midlife crisis, if you call it.
At about 35 at that time, I was asking myself, what should I do next? And... I guess the next natural progression was to become a fund manager, a venture capitalist. And so what I did was that I sold my inheritance and I got a family friend to help me start some initial seed capital.
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Chapter 3: What role did mentorship play in Chris's development?
But I just wanted to give a little bit of background and up to today, now I'm a full-fledged venture capitalist. I don't do my incubator business anymore, but I'm very deeply involved with entrepreneurs, you know, trying to grow their companies. Whether is it a venture capital kind of business or whether it's a traditional business, I'm getting involved in quite a number of that.
You mentioned you were raised in a fairly established family business. You could have taken the easy route, taken over the family business, scale it up and continued making money. But instead, you chose to be more entrepreneurial and take risks.
I'm curious, was there anything in your childhood, in your family education, or the environment you grew up in that helped shape your entrepreneurial spirit and mindset?
Yeah, Vince, I think just now when you were just mentioning and asking me about that, suddenly there was this whole flash of memories that just came back to me. So yes, you're right. So one of the privileges of being part of a family business is that you tend to get involved in two ways. Number one, you get to experience and see the business for yourself.
In the past, my father was not involved only just in Southeast Asia, not only just in China, but also in Europe and specifically Russia. And I was very young at that time. I think I was about 11 years old. That is about 35 years ago, when I went into communist Russia.
And it was just, Russia was just going through a very interesting economic boom at that point where we took for granted McDonald's, KFC, and all these restaurants were just a dime a dozen across in countries where we lived in. But when you talk about Russia, KFC, the first KFC outlet, it was mad. And during those years, you could easily earn 5 to 8 US million net profit per outlet.
It's because Russians were just so excited. And I guess that also sparked the whole interest about not just looking at food for food. My father was a very interesting man. He would take me out to restaurants. He would sit me down and he would tell me, How much money do you think they make in a month? And he forced me to start calculating out the revenues.
He will start telling me like, what do you think is the expenses behind this? And I had to start learning a profit and loss statement just by that very visible conversation itself. And I think that is only just one element. I was very fortunate to tell the audience that I'm a product of my mentors in my life. So the number two and number three mentors were also very successful businessmen.
One was my father's best friend. who was a strategist, and I had opportunities to take car rides with him. And he would actually explain, how does he do his strategy? And how do you actually look at expanding a particular business? He started his very own family business doing agri-chemical fertilizers, and he grew it into a public listed company.
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Chapter 4: How did Chris transition from a family business to entrepreneurship?
There was a lot of very interesting nuggets of information I got out of it. And I also had another very great mentor. He has passed on now, but someone that I respected a lot was when I was in Malaysia, he was my best friend's father.
And my best friend's father was just the encouraging man who taught me so much about how do you look at rejection, particularly because when you are an entrepreneur, you have to do a lot of sales. He was really encouraging and he told me how do I overcome that rejection, feelings, and to just keep moving on.
I think it's one of the very interesting takeaways that I was very blessed from young to my early 20s that I had this privilege of having very strong mentors in my life who came in and they taught me the entrepreneurial stuff that got my mind thinking and that actually ignited my spirit because they were so passionate about what they did that I caught on to that fire as well.
Chapter 5: What lessons did Chris learn from his early business experiences?
Yes, I would say that the privilege wasn't really on the resources that I've got, but it's more towards the exposure and the opportunity of finding the right kind-hearted people who were willing. These mentors all had children of their own, but they were so willing to have a conversation with me. They were willing to care for me and they were willing to give me advice.
It sometimes could be specific, it could be general. But I think that what really evolved me to the way I am today and how I actually do a pay it forward by passing that knowledge and the kind of mindsets down to other entrepreneurs.
I totally see it. While I don't have your kind of family background, I can relate in other ways. I'm just about five years older than you. I might have a baby face, but actually 51. My journey in the business world, aside from formal education and business school, was shaped largely by the people around me.
I work in corporate jobs at global organizations, and the best learning I've ever received wasn't just from corporate training. It was from people. Like you, I learned a lot from those with on-the-job experience, whether it was my bosses, colleagues, or mentors. These are things that aren't digitalized or written in books, but are passed down directly, much like how your father trained you.
I picked up concepts like business models, revenue structures, and cost management early on. Often before I even knew the formal terms. What really resonated with me was the encouragement and confidence these people gave me before I even believed in myself. They gave me opportunities to try something new and different.
And that's something I can surely relate to in your experience, even though we come from different family backgrounds.
Yes, I totally say the words resonate with you. And I wanted to actually point out that Mr. Lee Ka Shing, if I remember, did say clearly to advise to people who were looking to upgrade their career. He always says, every month, try to get a meal out with somebody who is more senior, who has a little bit more experience than you or more experience than you are. and go and learn, go and network.
And I feel that is really important. I think you and I are personifying that, what the wisdom of Mr. B. Ka Shing. And so I'm just actually putting it out there to any of the audience. One of the best things that you can learn today, don't feel embarrassed reaching out to people on LinkedIn and just asking for advice.
You'll be very surprised by the amount of kind-hearted people that's out there who's willing to give you opinion or two to help you on your journey.
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Chapter 6: How has Chris contributed to the startup ecosystem in Southeast Asia?
It's interesting that you brought up Li Ka-shing because as you were sharing how your father trained you during your childhood, it reminded me of a well-known story about Li Ka-shing himself. For the listeners who may not know who Li Ka-shing is, Originally from Hong Kong, he is the founder of a multi-billion dollar business conglomerate with a global footprint.
He famously brought his eldest son, Victor Lee, into the boardroom at the age of eight to immerse him in the boardroom dynamics. Clearly, he was preparing him as the heir to the business. Back to you, Chris. Your father obviously had high expectations for you to take over the family business. Yet, you only stayed in China for three days and then headed off to Malaysia.
Where did you find the courage or the guts to make that decision? And can you share more about your e-commerce business in Malaysia? What did you learn during those six years there?
Sure. So I guess it's just about the lesser of the two evils. Was I going to go into Malaysia that was unknown or will I go back to China where I can't even speak very good Mandarin to start off with? And was I going to continue to manufacture automotive parts? Now, the family business was actually a supplier of plastic tooling and injection molds for automotives.
So usually when you are manufacturing plastics, it gives us a very accurate kind of smell and I didn't feel good. And in fact, there was already a trigger point in my value system that was I going to continue as the next generation of business owners to continue polluting, to continue doing the same mold just to make money for the sake of money.
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Chapter 7: What is Chris's vision for his legacy and family?
And I was not very happy of what the family was actually building towards or if I didn't want to have my name stuck on it that Christopher Quek, manufacturer of automotive parts. But rather, when I went over to Malaysia, my Malaysian friends were really nice to me and I got really influenced by them.
In fact, one of them was just telling me about the immense economic prosperity that Malaysia will go through and this kind of potential opportunities that you can work on. At that time, I created an e-commerce business that was very similar to Amazon. But what I did was an arbitrage advantage where Amazon couldn't actually enter Malaysia at that point in time.
That was in the early 2000s because Malaysians couldn't use their credit cards overseas. And so what I did was that I established a very localized payment system. Malaysians were happy to purchase books, beauty products, and I shipped them via Singapore. So I think this was just a little bit of creativity that I discovered.
I discovered the demand and then I discovered the supply line that I could go for. And it was fantastic for those six years. I guess the reason what actually changed significantly was that regulations went down. That means credit cards in Malaysia were becoming much easier to purchase overseas. So I was starting to lose my advantage.
And the second one was like you having the likes of Lazada, Q10, all arriving and they were gladly throwing money to lose money. And I realised that my game is up and I decided that maybe this is a part of my phase of journey that I decided that it's time to actually move on.
And at that moment in time, coming back to Singapore and meeting my fiancé, I realised that life is becoming more deeply back-rooted into Singapore. So just to give you a little bit of context, what really transpired during that point in time in Malaysia.
And I also wanted to highlight to the audience, it's really interesting that sometimes when you've been to a place, it doesn't mean that it's the end in your life journey. In fact, this year, my venture capitalist company, we have actually gone full circle and I'm back in Malaysia very often. It's because half my team is in Malaysia.
My startup portfolio companies have built a huge regional ops HQs, not just one, but I think three or four of them have done that as well. So it's coming back to full circle and I do understand the Malaysian psyche and I feel that I'm not coming back as someone who is unknown to the Malaysian scene. I know it for the last 20 years.
So I think it's just to give a little bit of context when, you know, some people, when they go overseas to another country,
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