Hoping to grow his business, newly-minted entrepreneur and Renaissance Engineering Programme student Gabriel Sze taps the brains of Dr Shi Xu, founder of NTU spin-off Nanofilm Technologies, which last year became the first local tech unicorn to successfully list on the Singapore Exchange

Gabriel 

Gabriel: Hi Dr Shi, congrats on being named the Chairman of NTUitive! I am looking forward to all the ways we can learn from you. 😀

Dr Shi: Thank you, Gabriel. Happy to be part of the NTU community again with a mission to get people excited about entrepreneurship and actually start companies! I’ve heard that you are an entrepreneur yourself. Tell me more about what you’re working on.

Gabriel: Yes definitely! I started this website called Divedeals, which consolidates promotions, sales and great Singapore-based deals so people won’t have to scour the Internet for them. It is purely web-based as most people are tired of downloading apps these days.

Dr Shi: That’s a good idea. App fatigue is real. Did you do everything yourself?

Gabriel: Most of it! I learnt the early fundamentals of coding during my first year in NTU under Prof Ong Yew Soon and after taking part in many hackathons and software competitions, I had enough confidence to build a website from scratch. I also applied my knowledge of algorithms and Artificial Intelligence to search for deals instead of doing it manually.

Here’s a hackathon I joined in 2019 where I went to Chennai, India! That was the last hackathon before the pandemic hit haha.

Dr Shi: Well done. All the best for your start-up! 👍

Gabriel: Thanks Dr Shi! What are your thoughts about students working in a start-up? Do you have any advice for us?

Dr Shi: You already have the first, which is passion. Determination too. Don’t just dream, go out and do something. It’s okay to fail, especially since you are young. You must be able to execute your plan. Start by thinking about what you are going to do tomorrow and the day after. Don’t think about things that are very far away. Plan it step-by-step in a practical manner.

Gabriel: Got it! If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself?

Dr Shi: Be sure to know the business side of things! Learn finance, accounting or about the corporate world. It is especially important for businesses in science or technology like yours, or else you will be at other people’s mercy if you want to grow your start-up.

Gabriel: I agree. 👍 It’s good that I’m in the Renaissance Engineering Programme, which bridges engineering and business. 😃 I get to take courses in accounting, management and marketing, and also graduate with a Master’s in Technology Management.

Dr Shi: I wish we had that course when I was a uni student!

Gabriel: You can actually teach it now as Nanyang Professor of the Practice 😁 We would love to have you as guest lecturer! Here are my course mates. We work and play hard. It’s a 4.5 year programme and as a small cohort we form strong bonds and feed off each other’s creative energy.

Dr Shi: You’ll be well-equipped to grow your business then! How has your time in NTU been like?

Gabriel: Oh it has been great! I’ve enjoyed working on crazy ideas with my classmates. We have taken part in many competitions together and would stay up late to bring our ideas to fruition. Not all of our ideas may work fully but the fun and the adrenaline rush can’t be beat 😍🤩 What were some of your most memorable experiences at NTU?

Dr Shi: The day I was allowed to have my own research lab as a young professor. It is such a wonderful thing to have a dedicated space where you can do experiments and have student researchers who share the same vision to come in to help. It was very exciting for me. I hear that students now get a lab space to work on their projects?

Gabriel: Yes! There are a few lab spaces for different types of projects. I’ve used the Makers’ Lab to work on developing software with my classmates. Here’s a photo of one of our projects done in the Renaissance Design module.

What was the greatest challenge in running your start-up?

Dr Shi: There were many. One of the chief issues we faced was whether our technology was mature enough. I kept asking myself: Can I really deliver? This is fundamental for a start-up, being able to deliver what you promise.

Gabriel: That’s true. A big challenge for me as the core developer is coming up with all the tech I need. It is a huge responsibility to make sure the platform functions well, that features are implemented properly, and that the system is optimised.

Dr Shi: Yes, exactly. Many young people have brilliant ideas for start-ups but not all of them think about whether they are able to deliver on their unique value proposition. This goes back to what I said earlier, about knowing what to do tomorrow. You must plan it out well to succeed.

Gabriel: Your company, Nanofilm Technologies, is such a success. To think it started as lab work in NTU’s electrical and electronic engineering school! It was publicly listed last year and is now a multi-billion dollar multinational company. Did you envision all this?

Dr Shi: I had a dream, but it wasn’t in such detail. I just knew that I wanted the company to grow and be publicly listed some day. If you trace the journey of Nanofilm from its inception until now, you’ll see that it took us 20 years. I used to say that I will retire in 10 years. That means it is almost two retirements that I didn’t get!

Gabriel: 😂 No regrets though, right?

Dr Shi: Yes, no regrets. I’m someone who likes innovating and Nanofilm is now positioned to do more deep tech, which is my passion. We have the freedom to explore and to create new products or expand into other areas. So it seems that I’ll need to postpone my retirement for another 10 years. 😂

Gabriel: Thank you, Dr Shi, for speaking to me so candidly and sharing your experience. 🙌

I look forward to meeting you on campus now that you’re spearheading NTU’s enterprise plans.

Dr Shi: Chairing NTU’s innovation and enterprise company is my way of giving back to the university that helped me build my dreams in the first place. 😊

This story was published in the Oct-Dec 2021 issue of HEY!. To read it and other stories from this issue in print, click here.