Chief Change Officer
#221 Inheritance? No Thanks. Chris Quek’s Boldest Bet Yet – Part 1
Sat, 8 Mar 2025
Christopher Quek wasn’t built to follow the family script. In this two-part series, we explore how he walked away from the comforts of a well-established family business in Singapore to chase entrepreneurship in Malaysia—much to his father’s dismay. After returning home, he doubled down on his independence by selling his inheritance to launch TRIVE, a venture capital firm built on his own vision. In this episode, we dive into his boldest moves, his pursuit of self-identity, and what it really takes to break free from expectations.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 Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.10 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.130,000+ 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.12 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>140,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Chapter 1: Who is Christopher Quek and what is his background?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chen, 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 of 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 Vint, 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.
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 Mergent. I'd 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 that it was in China.
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Chapter 2: Why did Chris leave the family business?
And I was struggling. I couldn't 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 said, Off with you, go back to China. And I told him, I said, I'd rather not do that. And I fled over to neighboring Malaysia.
Chapter 3: How did Chris transition into entrepreneurship in 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 not 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.
And today I'm living that vision that I went through, where I felt that I wanted to really, in the startup ecosystem, not only just advising startups, but investing into startups. And a lot of more things have actually evolved ever since, but I will leave Vince to ask me more about those aspects later on.
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.
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Chapter 4: What role did mentorship play in Chris's journey?
He would start telling me, 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.
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.
Chapter 5: How did family exposure shape Chris's business mindset?
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.
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 worked 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. Lee 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.
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Chapter 6: What are the key takeaways from Vince and Chris's shared experiences?
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 is 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 sea. 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, does not mean that's the end. You may actually end up going back there once again. So it's just a little bit very interesting about life experiences, how it comes back to you.
It's like planting a seed. Along the way, you nurture it. And eventually, it bears fruit. Life has a way of bringing things back to you at the right time if you go with the flow.
I'm not being religious here, but after years of cross-cultural experiences, getting to know different cultures, people, and backgrounds, I've noticed that certain common themes link up the decisions I've made in my career and life. So I'm curious about your journey. You are 46 with family and children.
Looking back up to this point in your life, have you discovered or identified any common themes that have guided the moves you've made along the way?
Wish I could tell you, Vince, that I'm a very organised person. I am a very good forecaster of my life, knowing where my life was going. To be honest, it was more of circumstances and situations and opportunities that just appeared. If you ask me, like, some certain...
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