Chief Change Officer
#222 Inheritance? No Thanks. Chris Quek’s Boldest Bet Yet – Part 2
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. 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 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: Why did Christopher Quek leave the family business?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist humility 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 the startup ecosystem and founded your venture capital house. Could you share with us your experience during this time?
Chapter 2: What is Christopher Quek’s vision for entrepreneurship in Southeast Asia?
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 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 realised 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: How does TRIVE support next-gen family businesses?
I read in your presentation that 92% of businesses in Southeast Asia are family-run. I'd like to dig deeper into the unique challenges these next-gen family business owners face. Could you explain a bit more, especially for listeners who may not be from this part of the world or who don't have experience with family businesses?
I think it would be helpful for us to understand the specific challenges because some people might assume, oh, they all have money. So what's the situation? What are the real challenges they face?
If I may just do a small comparison where against Europe versus Southeast Asia, they got quite a very similar kind of economic situation of fragmented natures, different economic activity. I would say different levels of economic development around, if I put that into context. And Europe is what I call a very established and developed way of family, intergenerational family businesses.
A number of them have reached maybe six to seven generations by now. Some of them, like the Vinyard families, are 14 generations. But when you look back here into Southeast Asia, it is still very young. At most, like the Indonesians, it has moved down to the fourth generation and
The context here that you will see is that the next-gen business owners are having very different challenges from that of their parents. And the unfortunate thing is that the parents are also very new as entrepreneurs. The evolution of how family businesses are in Southeast Asia versus Europe is still very nascent at this point. So what are the very interesting challenges?
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Chapter 4: What unique challenges do next-gen family business owners face?
I actually have a network of over 300 family business owners across Southeast Asia. And there's always these 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 I can transform this business well? And what do I do next to transform this business to make sure that it survives and is in tune with the current trends and interests? And so it leads down to one, What I'm doing right now is a venture capitalist at Thrice.
And basically for us, our goal is to be that bridge between family businesses and technology startups with very good solutions and to actually add on these technology solutions into the family businesses. So I'm actually, you put it this way, we're creating a little interesting ecosystem where Thrive is really invested by the family businesses.
It is for the family businesses because the startups that we bring in, the technologies that bring in are being integrated into the family's operations itself. Just a little bit of that element that we are seeing here is that we understand the challenges that these next-gens are facing.
We do, number one, the solution, which is, of course, the technical solutions, getting the startups to support them. But the next step that we also get involved with them is also counselling them, advising them and showing them best practices of how other next-gens do it.
When I look at your business model for Trice as a VC, it strikes me as quite smart. There are tons of VCs out there, but as I prepare for this interview and read about your approach, I realized how clever it is. So for those who may not be familiar with how venture capital works, VCs don't just invest their own money.
They also raise money from investors, and then as fiduciaries, managing that pool of money by investing in high growth potential businesses. The objective is for these businesses to succeed, generate returns, and provide profits back to the investors. What stands out about your model, Chris, is that you've built a strong network with the next generation of family business owners.
These individuals have capital, and you are able to raise money from them. They don't have to commit a massive amount of money. Perhaps each might allocate a million dollars or so, maybe even low seven-figure sum. But with the right scale, even a half million dollar check for each could add up significantly as limited partners in your fund.
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.
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Chapter 5: How does TRIVE’s investment model work?
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 pet 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.
But I think the other great thing was that there was this particular family business that took on AgriMax technology as a client, and they started seeing more and more produce. And because of the produce that they have, they decided that they don't need to charge too high a fee to the next stage of consumers or to your wholesale distributors.
And that kind of pricing, lowered pricing, helped to really make things a little bit more affordable. Especially for this family business, they operate in a very large nation in Southeast Asia. And they decided that they will sell at a lower price of all their food produced to a certain much poorer province, if I would say.
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Chapter 6: What are some success stories from TRIVE’s investments?
We more or less knew that, okay, AgriMax we invest is because you're going to see more increase in crop yields, better food supplies, everyone gets to have food on the table, that's great. But 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. So I think that was a little bit of the very interesting heartwarming stories that we see on and off here and there. And the best part about it, we're making money as well.
It's not that we are not, we are doing well, we are making money. It's just that we have made things more efficient to the way that society works in Southeast Asia. And yeah, I think that was just some of the very interesting anecdotes that we're going through our venture capital journey.
Not just investing in the company, not just helping them grow, commercialize the business, talking to the family businesses to become client, but really reaching the end consumer. Realising that the impact that we gave to the end consumer is something so significantly different now. We didn't realise that kind of ripple down effect would have been so much bigger than we thought it was.
In fact, we are talking to a second-gen family where this person is just transforming his whole family business towards FMCG, a brand. And I can't say too much yet, but when it comes, I will definitely announce that. And it's really exciting to see Southeast Asia is not only being
supported by Southeast Asia entrepreneurs, but you're getting international entrepreneurs deciding to say that Southeast Asia is a great market. I'm going to try to do something about it. I'm trying to make a change in the way Southeast Asia operates. And it's always for the better. It's exciting to me to know that we are starting to embrace companies even as far as going out of Southeast Asia.
And I would feel that there were going to be very interesting dynamics as we engage more of these second gens that's coming out from other parts of outside of Southeast Asia. And all you can say is that their diversity of views, the diversity of mindsets are just going to improve things better. And they're going to be sharing a lot of best practices over to the
next generation business owners here in Southeast Asia. And I think that really excites me where you get two of them together, they have a conversation and person A teaches person B what he has been doing and person B says, I'm going to bring this back over to my family business to endorse, to apply it, to work on it and see the improvement.
So it's exciting to see that kind of a network effect that we're seeing, not just for our startups, but the next gens who are entrepreneurs themselves. They are also somewhat, in a sense, a pseudo kind of startup founders themselves, trying to transform a business to become something very vastly different. Yeah, I think that's the really exciting thing about it.
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