Tribute #3 - HOW I MET JOCHEM

I was barely a few months in the startup world, far from understanding what's what. Someone reached out to me to share his business because he was leaving Singapore proposing perhaps I could help out in that business. It took me a while to accept the meetup because I noticed he was behind Get in the Ring and thought that perhaps it was something irrelevant to me.

As he was very persistent, I finally met him. I am glad I did because he then introduced me to Jochem Cuppen . I attended the first qualifying round of Get in the Ring at BASH Singapore. After the event, Jochem and I had an engaging conversation about the vision of Get in the Ring and we went for drinks with his co-founder and team who flew in from Europe. Jochem has an extraordinary charm of focused presence when he converses with you, making you feel you are the only focus despite many things happening around him requiring his attention too.

A little more than a month later, the team flew back for the Global Finals. Singapore was picked to be the venue May 2017 (venue changes every year). It was this event that propelled me to appreciate the scale of the startup paradigm.

It was Jochem who put me on the table with renown VCs to jury startups. It was an opportunity I was not going to turn down even though I had no clue how I would fare. I thought I would just sit in and let the VCs take charge. Despite my corporate background, I was wary if my questions would be irrelevant to startups. On the contrary, shortly after a few minutes, the VCs were in resonance with my questioning. More importantly, we were reviewing a startup from Africa who were into processing faeces to create green charcoal for families to cook there. I was deeply moved by this startup and this sealed my commitment to staying in the startup arena. I realised then that startups could create such a deep impact at scale no matter where they come from. More so if they are from countries where they are coping with massive basic problems. They have more impetus to make something happen to make lives better or save lives. I knew I have found my purpose.

Watching Jochem and Get in the Ring develop their strategy and grown over the last few years and how they involve all stakeholders of the eco-system is a great role model for me in what I do now. Get in the Ring flew me to Portugal in the subsequent year to jury again. In a short time, they have taken themselves to yet another level and helped previous winners scale. At Portugal, I met Hack Osaka and they invited me to be the only female and one of 3 judges for their finals in 2019.

And that's not all.

One day I received a call from Jochem that a maritime accelerator in Holland is looking for someone to establish their presence in Singapore. They wanted to have drinks with me so that I can help them find someone. Maritime is definitely alien to me. During our drinks, Caroline from PortXL realised she did not need to look anymore. I was the unexpected candidate. That meeting catapulted me to enter the "startup accelerator" phase. How many people can chances like that?

Jochem has been instrumental to accelerating my navigation around the startup "maze" and opening the door to a 1.5 years experience of starting and adapting an accelerator program from overseas. It solidified my track record beyond community with a deeper understanding of how the startup eco-system works with first-hand experience.

See Tribute #2

See Tribute #1