Yale-NUS Entrepreneurs

From left to right: Miku Seko (Class of 2024), Nathanael Lim (Class of 2024 and Eric Hu (Class of 2025).

With a keen interest in making an impact in their communities, three Yale-NUS students have formed their own start-ups to transform their passion for education, fitness, and marketing into business.

“The Daily Movement is actually the third business that I started. I enjoy the process of building something from the ground up. It allows me to be creative and to think outside of the box when brainstorming while also letting me think practically when it comes down to operationalising.”

Miku Seko (Class of 2024) started The Daily Movement with the aim of making fitness more accessible to all. She leads a team of dedicated practitioners to offer services such as outdoor boot camps, group and personal training, and classes for kids.

The idea for The Daily Movement originated during the COVID-19 circuit breaker period in Singapore.

“Many of my friends reached out to me for fitness advice and workouts that they could do to keep moving during the COVID-19 circuit breaker period. I started sending out video call links to encourage my friends and family to join me in my daily workouts. My sister and I saw an opportunity to bring in more trainers who taught different classes such as Yoga, HIIT, CrossFit and more. This way, we managed to reach out to a lot more people to keep active during the lockdown. Classes were on a donation basis as we wanted to make it accessible to everyone. Our classes also catered to individuals with all levels of fitness and abilities,” Miku shared.  Today, Miku shares her love for fitness with the Yale-NUS College community by running weekly beginner-friendly workouts on the Yale-NUS campus.

Similar to Miku, Nathanael Lim (Class of 2024) also began his enterprise KOVA during the COVID-19 circuit breaker period. KOVA is a branding agency. “Initially, we provided branding to interior designers and hospitality brands as both industries are heavily reliant on visuals to build trust with their potential customers,” explained Nathanael. He also mentioned that his enterprise has been transitioning to working closely with clients from the technology industry. “We noticed a similar trend in technology as the hospitality industry – the sector has been increasingly saturated with companies offering similar solutions, making it difficult for start-ups to compete with established companies. We establish a brand’s differentiation and identity, which allows our clients to enjoy greater clarity in business strategising amidst fluctuating consumer trends.”

Nathanael attributes his start-up’s success to his signature holistic 4-step branding process. In this branding approach, he takes inspiration from his studies at Yale-NUS College and methods of the social sciences: “We did not want to be another creative agency producing visuals purely based on aesthetics. Instead, we take an evidence-based approach to design. Through market research and focus group discussions, we provide a brand that resonates with our client’s target audience in a more meaningful way.”

While Miku and Nathanael launched their businesses during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Eric Hu (Class of 2025) has been running his since 2016. While still in middle school, Eric turned his passion for education into a business by founding ESC Education (Empower. Share. Change) in Shanghai.

Starting off as a summer camp in 2016, his company now operates three different branches. He conducts summer and winter camps in two locations in China, individual consulting with a focus on family education, international high-school advising service, and non-profit English classes.

Eric reflects that running a company as a high-school student versus a university student poses its own unique challenges to both the growth of his business and his contribution as a full-fledged member of the college campus community. For example, Eric has turned down a VC offer due to his inability to work full-time on his business. At the same time, he does not have the time to fully enjoy campus life by joining on-campus student organisations. His passion for education and learning allows him to persevere through the challenges. “From Monday to Friday I am Eric the student. On Saturday and Sunday I am Eric the start-up guy,” he candidly shared.

As a Yale-NUS student, Eric has encountered more opportunities to expand his business network. Being part of the Yale Alumni Association allowed him to attend a send-off event at the Yale Centre Beijing, where he met with the former chairwoman of the Yale Science and Engineering Association through the Cross Campus Yale Alumni Association. She joined his board and is helping his team with expanding abroad. He is also hoping to bring Yale-NUS students to his summer camps once international travel to China is possible. He concluded, “the excitement you get from business is unparalleled.”