My cofounder and I were rivals at hackathons. At 21, I've put college on hold to build a startup with him.

This as-told-to composition is according to a conversation alongside Raymond Loong Ng, 21, the cofounder of Makeable, a San Francisco-based startup. It's been edited for dimension and clarity.

I was delivered in Vietnam and moved to Singapore whenever I was 9. As a kid, I continually had several benevolent of side hustle. In school, I sold toys, snacks, in-game currency, and sneakers to my classmates — item that power acquire me a small additional pocket money.

When I was 16, I did an internship at an auditing firm, anywhere I had the chance to conversation alongside a lot of endeavor owners. I began to see innovation as a tool that could assistance me advancement in the endeavor world.

I ended up getting a certificate in applied AI and analytics at a polytechnic following finishing secondary school. I was never the finest at math or coding, but it offered me a way to rotate my ideas into genuine projects.

I continually saw myself as the connector: I could place a problem, form a vision, diagram resources, afterward bring in my smartest classmates to create things happen.

That was how I began construction projects of my own. I built an AI tool that helps ex-offenders build résumés and discover jobs. I additionally started a community of young AI builders that runs workshops for students throughout Singapore.

From rivals to cofounders

In school, the projects we built frequently felt theoretical. Participating in hackathons gave me the chance to build solutions under real-world market constraints.

Although we had traversed paths before through a distinct grant program, hackathons were additionally how I got to cognize the individual who would afterward rotate into my cofounder better.

We contested as rivals on distinct teams, but would frequently discover ourselves among the lone group motionless operating at 2 or 3 a.m. Eventually, we decided we wanted to be on the identical team.

We started entering competitions together in delayed 2023 and went on a winning streak. We shortly realized that complete application solutions were becoming harder to differentiate in hackathons as AI tools and models advanced.

We ventured into hardware since it gave AI a way to be deployed in the genuine world.

At a medicinal innovation hackathon in 2025, we built a equipment to assistance paralyzed patients communicate through brainwaves and eye blinks. That became our startup, Neural Drive. The merchandise caught the notice of a local hospital and is set to undergo a medicinal test there.

At the identical time, I was trying to discover my way to the US.

I grew up fascinated by the group and stories of Silicon Valley. My favorite films were "Jobs" and "The Social Network," and they made me awareness that if I wanted to build item that could alter the world, I had to be there.

While serving my two years of mandatory armed forces service, I applied to multiple US colleges but was rejected by all. I ended up being accepted into the device discipline program at the National University of Singapore, but I motionless wanted to go to the States.

I kept reaching out to project chief firms in the US, and Neural Drive eventually caught the notice of Afore Capital in June.

In June, Afore Capital made a $250,000 pre-seed funding in Neural Drive. My cofounder and I afterward joined its two-month Founders-in-Residence program in San Francisco.

The timing was tricky. College was because of commencement in August, so I had to defer my enrollment before classes started. My cofounder had to petition a depart of deficiency from school, too.

It wasn't an uncomplicated decision, but we took a bet on ourselves.

I established a city that moved as accelerated as I did

I had visited Shenzhen in China before and expected Silicon Valley to appearance equal additional futuristic. Instead, I was amazed by how average it looked. Because we were scrimping on rent, we moved into a hacker home in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood.

Those two months in San Francisco were intense, but incredibly rewarding. We were frequently operating until 4 a.m., but we made as much advancement as we would have in two years in Singapore.

The sheer density of endowment inspired us: "What are you operating on?" felt akin the way group stated hello. It was a city complete of workaholics. I thought: This is my benevolent of place.

We went through multiple pivots before landing on Makeable, our startup that lets group build a bodily merchandise from an idea. All they have to do is depict their idea in a prompt.

Makeable can create everything from the 3D example to the electronics and code, afterward sends users a kit they can put together themselves, akin Lego.

In our final week of the program, Afore Capital made a follow-on investment, bringing our total backing to date to $1 million.

We flew rear to Singapore to use for our O-1 visas. While we're home, we're motionless working. The scheme is to come back to San Francisco for the next few years and keep construction our company.

I likely have to broaden my depart of absence. If it doesn't activity out, I'll go rear to school. I desire to keep that choice open. But honestly, I anticipation I don't have to.