The hard truth is that the truth hurts.

This summer 2024, I have been more reflective about the evolution of my relationships and find myself wanting to appreciate present moments, and the essence of being present.

I had to face an ugly hard truth about myself in January 2024 and having to acknowledge to myself that

I am not going to be a successful founder who built a technology startup, or a venture-backed startup, was crushing to my soul.

Whilst I was opportunistic and chanced upon what seemed like the right solution, right problem, right moment; the missing ingredient was I was not passionate about waste management at all ??.

Instead, I was passionate and innately curious about how the hospitality industry was coping and managing their waste management challenges and as I did my research and discussions for 6-9 months leading into Q1 2024, the hard truth I learnt was

the hospitality industry in NOT interested in resolving their waste management challenges currently because they are still "stuck" at navigating their energy and water sustainability issues.

In other words, I am too early in the innovation adoption curve for the hospitality industry. I was disappointed and very frustrated because I also realised that I was speaking to the wrong audience! Another hard truth I learnt was

asset owners were the audience I should be interacting with, not the existing hotel management folks because at the end of the day, they execute on the budgets per agreement with the asset owners and as they manage their hotel businesses, it is to that budget that they execute by.

Which meant that another crushing truth was I had been speaking with the wrong people for 6-9 months ????♀? ! To add insult to injury, I had minimal access to asset owners - and by that, I mean the owners who own the hotel buildings we see in Singapore.

And so I was at a decision fork moment. Do I wind down Aloha as a company or do I see another pathway that could emerge from above hard truths? I reflected on the most successful experience in Y2023 for Aloha's business and asked myself which was the business experience that can be repeated multiple times in 2024 and closing that deal came most "easily" to me?

Turns out, the highlight of 2023 for me was the CCHANGE 2023 multi-stakeholder event that I organised with our interns! Our intention was to re-imagine mobility through the lens of Science, Sustainability and its impact on Society, by bringing together government bodies, corporates, and our impact partners who helped in repurposing plastic and textile apparel to challenge the notion of mobility beyond transportation and logistics, but also societal upward mobility!

We held it in partnership with Inchcape Singapore (Lexus) team and supported by the 拉尔夫·劳伦 Singapore team who styled and dressed our three (03) speakers here, it was a very successful evening as participants attended and went away with a deeper understanding about electric vehicles, mobility through its various lens, and now as I reflect about it, I may have found the platform premise that Aloha could focus on. (More CCHANGE 2023 pictures here)

And so the hard truth I learnt here was,

I did not want to admit to myself that creating events and summit platforms that brought together the correct clusters of stakeholders was the business pivot that I needed to undertake for Aloha.

I did not want to admit that hard truth to myself because I felt embarrassed that I was good at the medium of events planning. Because this did not feel cerebral enough to me.

The irony was my first job when I graduated in 2008 was being a telemarketer canvassing for sponsors for capital market hedge fund conferences // and all throughout university, I was the one planning parties and girls' night out events for my friends, to take us into the hippest clubs in Singapore ????♀?

And because life is circular, and all things come back around in full circles, the next phase ahead for

Aloha is to pivot into the medium of events, summits, podcasts, to educate and increase awareness on actions that are taken to help solve for climate change,

vis-a-vis the 17 UNDSGs (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals). Stay tuned, as we have a big one coming up here in Singapore, in Oct 2024, NSEW2050 Summit (pronounced north south east west twenty fifty); 2025's edition will be in our other global hub, Kazakhstan.

Message me if you would want to be a speaker, or a sponsor, or simply curious to learn more about what our team is doing to spotlight action-oriented companies and countries from ASEAN and Central Asia, whose solutions are helping to resolve climate change impacts, whether successful or failed use-cases to date. (NSEW2050 Summit details here)