Chief Change Officer
#132 From Family Empire to Personal Legacy: Chris Quek’s Bold Quest for Independence - Part Two
Fri, 3 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. Last episode looked into his quest for self-identity—the reasons behind his bold moves and how he made them a reality. This 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: Kicking off with a big question: Is Singapore still relevant after 50 years? Here's an entrepreneurial view "In 2015, when Singapore celebrated its 50th birthday as a nation. Singapore evolved itself out of necessity where it built a whole nation, a workforce of engineers, scientists, bankers, lawyers, doctors, specialists. We started losing a whole generation of entrepreneurs." Bridging the Generation Gap: How to Turn ‘Parents’ Old Ways’ into a Future-Proof Family Business "I actually have a network of over 300 family business owners across Southeast Asia. And there's always this common themes that starts first. Number one, how do I talk to my parents? How do I have a good working relationship with my parents and a family relationship back at home? Number two, I don't like the way that my parents are doing things and I need to transform this business. How do I convince my parents that I can transform this business as well?" Turning Spare Millions into Family Business Magic: The Synergy Cycle of Tech, Money and Southeast Asian Economy "Everyone gets to have food on the table. What we didn't realize that what this family business did was that it took that technology, have more food, more quantity, and decided to sell it cheaper to a poorer province, where those villagers were now able to obtain more quantity of food for their families." Breaking the Patriarchal Mold: How Self-Development Earned Me My Father’s Respect "My father has been an Asian patriarch with an iron fist. He now talks to me about the side businesses that he's doing. He asks me as his advisor and no longer sees the son on whom he used to look down." Still Figuring It Out: The Never-Ending Saga of Self-Discovery "I still believe that I'm evolving. I'm still learning more in terms of understanding my identity." Fatherhood and Fortune: What’s the Game Plan for Your Next Generation, Chris? "Anybody who wants to help the next generation is to be a mentor of values rather than a mentor of processes." 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 is Chris Quek's journey from family business to venture capitalism?
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 last, I'm talking to Christopher Kwak, 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've explored his journey of transformation in two parts.
The last episode focused on his pursuit of his own identity, his desires, his actions, the why and the how. In this episode, We'll dive into his 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. And we'll talk about his expectations for his children as a father at age 46.
I recall you wrote an article titled, Is Singapore still relevant after 50 years? Here's an entrepreneurial view. So you returned to Singapore after Malaysia. built up this startup ecosystem and founded your venture capital house. Could you share with us your experience during this time?
Chapter 2: Is Singapore still relevant after 50 years?
Yeah, so it was quite an interesting season in 2015 where Singapore celebrated its 50th birthday as a nation. And it somehow triggered me a lot about how Singapore was evolving itself. Singapore evolved itself out of necessity, where it built a whole nation, a workforce of engineers, scientists, bankers, lawyers, doctors, specialists, if you want to call it. You name it, they are there.
But what actually happened was we started losing a whole generation of entrepreneurs. When I did just back of envelope, just checking around with people, next gen families, I found that they're very successful entrepreneurs, had children who are doctors or lawyers or bankers. And I was like, then who's going to take over your business? And they themselves had no clue.
And one of the biggest challenge that Singapore is going to face is the lack of entrepreneurial, lack of entrepreneurship, if I might say. Entrepreneurship drives economic activity. Entrepreneurs are the ones that pool resources together and generate that economic activity.
When you look at Singapore many years ago when it was founded in 1819, it was the merchants that plied the trade and entrepreneurial trading was the biggest thing. A lot of merchants were there, a lot of entrepreneurs were there, were generating economic activity.
And my personal fear was that if you don't actually infuse Singapore with a continual breed of entrepreneurs, that would spell trouble for the country down the road, where you will have to start to give your economic privilege, authority over to the giant MNCs, which were hiring all the people.
and i felt that was a personal motivation on my side that could we actually build a whole group of entrepreneurs and that was the original intent and very interestingly now that i've looked at it 11 years it's evolved to a whole generation of entrepreneurs across southeast asia and why did i decide to expand that whole vision was because when i looked at how india and china were developed
they developed really fast. They had really skilled entrepreneurs to really build their economies up. But here in Southeast Asia, it's a little bit more complicated. It's not homogeneous, the first thing that we know. Ten nations, very diverse groups of ethnicities, and it was very fragmented. And one of the biggest, very interesting points that I like to note is
resonates a lot to me as a next-gen family business owner was 92% of all businesses in Southeast Asia are family-run businesses. From your micro SMEs, people who are one-man, two-man show, to your big conglomerates like your CP Group, your Alliers, your Sampornas and all that.
and i realized that it is really essential is to understand the dna of the entrepreneurs which are mainly the next generation of entrepreneurs and to really expand on that vision to really incorporate them as part of this whole regional vision as i call it where we are starting to
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Chapter 3: What challenges do next-gen family business owners face?
Your fund has deployed about $40 million so far, investing in technologies with next-gen solutions that could be highly relevant to these family businesses. This creates a cycle of synergy You raise funds, invest in technology, and these technologies can in turn serve as solutions for the businesses of your investors.
It's a cycle that keeps the entire engine moving along smoothly, allowing you to continue raising funds and investing in technology that benefits everyone involved. I must say, the whole setup makes a lot of sense to me.
Thank you very much for affirming and endorsing this model, Vince. It speaks a lot of weight when you share that with me. And it helps to affirm that what we're doing is right. In fact, I would have to admit to you that while that is our major goal, is to build this whole ecosystem of next-gen, we also have a little bit of our fun. Where we get to pick on kind of hat projects that
We want to get very deeply involved. I have been really fortunate to have this opportunity to invest in this company called TADA, which is the third largest ride hailing in Southeast Asia. Think of your Uber, think of your Grab. TADA is number three across Southeast Asia and it's highly profitable. But the reason why we went in wasn't because it was just profitable.
We went in because we wanted a positive impact to humans. And we found that also resonated with a lot of next-gen business owners who were educated in the Western world. And they wanted to make sure that there's a little bit more heart in their businesses. And we had a number of investors that came in to support this particular investment healing.
And the reason why we love this one was that a partner driver that is part of TADA earns 1.4 times more than its competitors when they use the TADA platform. And that's because TADA platform does not charge any commissions to the drivers. I guess this is just something that we felt really good that we're making a difference to humans.
The average person in Southeast Asia who is driving, their main occupation is about private ride hailing. And knowing that they are taking back 1.4 times more back home by supporting their families was something that I felt was really important. It found actually extra meaning to me. Not to say that our current main agenda is not delivering also the outcomes that we're expecting.
But this is just a really interesting story that I wanted to share that I feel very happy to note that despite earning less revenue, we're still so highly profitable. And it just speaks a little bit about the nimbleness of some of the startups that we invested in. We also have another example where we integrated a technology into one of our startup technologies into a family business.
So basically, we have another company called Agrimax. It helps to increase crop yields by 20 to 60%. And that means that if you are a farmer, with the same amount of time and effort, you get 20 to 60% more food supply. Of course, the story of food security, fantastic. Check off that list. That's great.
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Chapter 4: How does TRIVE support family businesses with technology?
Because that is actually very typical of Asian generation kind of businesses, families. You will see that parents will naturally always think that they are naturally more experienced, they're smarter. But I've seen this radical change in my father. And I realised that if I didn't go out on my own, worked on my own, he will have never given me that respect.
And I went back to my friend, my high school friend, and I told him about it. And he told me, I think you truly found what you were looking for, which is endorsement from your own father. And I think that is really a lot of next-gen. Sometimes where people think that they have done a lot, but they always crave for the approval of their parents. And so... I think I went through that.
I was craving for the approval of my father, and he doesn't say it. He's never expressed it. But the point that really comes to me and asks me for my net worth, for my advice, I know that there has been a significant change of acceptance and the way he perceives me.
I can definitely resonate with the Chinese mindset and culture you mentioned earlier. A lot of my friends grew up to become doctors, lawyers, or accountants. Those expected professional paths. I'm actually a trained accountant. That was my first job. But over time, I changed directions. While I don't have your kind of family background, my parents also had expectations for me.
At some point, I made certain moves to fulfill those expectations. But eventually, I broke free from them. I can really relate to that desire to break free, the persistence it takes, and the actions required to make it happen. The tagline for this show is make change ambitiously. which is all about building your own legacy and creating your own path rather than following a standard playbook.
In your story and journey so far, I see those elements very clearly. I'm sure your father, your friends, and everyone who has supported you along the way see it too.
Thank you for really succinctly summarizing that in just a short sentence. Really, it does speak into my life. So really thank you, Vince, for saying that. It's been 26 years in the making. So I still believe that I'm evolving. I'm still learning more in terms of understanding my identity. And if I might put it, Enjoying the journey as I go along.
I think that a lot of... I know it's a bit cliche. It's about enjoying the journey, not the end goal. It's just about enjoying the journey. And I think for me, that is what I am relishing at this moment. I wouldn't say that life is a bit of roses. While I may have described everything, it sounds like it was really sweet.
There were a lot of massive challenges and running your own business, running other startups, helping other startups run businesses, there are very high chances of failure. And I think that is something that I've learned to adapt. And I would have been very different if I just worked for my father. where I don't really see it's a very kind of sheltered way of running a business.
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