About Me.

Explore

Hi. I'm Daryl.

COO @MetaPals, Masters of Science in Technopreneurship & Innovation @NTU. Just a guy from Singapore who indulges in tech, economics and history.

Root Verb: Empowering companies to be innovative.

Filecoin techstars Accelerator Seattle ‘22

⁠

Protocol Labs Launchpad Paris ‘22

⁠

SMU BIG Incubator Singapore ‘22

⁠

Current Updates

Creating life on the metaverse with MetaPals. Backed by techstars, Protocol Labs Ventures, Acequia Capital, BlueYard Capital

Current Ask

VC Network who are interested in investing gaming related startups in Web3.

Angel’s and Web3 founders interested in joining a syndicate specialising in investing in Web3 companies based in Southeast-Asia.

Web3 projects who are facing challenges in creating a sustainable business model, struggle with a product strategy or wants to tap into the Southeast-Asian market.

Southeast-Asia founders who are interested in mentoring youth leaders through Young SEAkers.

Southeast-Asian Web3 founders who are looking for advisorship or funding in your business.

⁠

I consider myself a serial entrepreneur and currently, the Co-founder of

MetaPals⁠

, a blockchain startup on a journey to create your companion in the metaverse. I’m an innovation leader who believes in constantly reinventing the way we experience the world and beyond – through introducing new methods, ideas and products.

A brief on my past roles back when I was the Innovation & Partnerships Lead of

Padang & Co⁠

- A management consultancy that specialises in digital transformation covering new business development, technology exploitation and change management. As an Open Innovation Advocate, I’ve helped organisations such as Unilever, Grab and OCBC across Asia-Pacific transform and reach new markets through digital and innovation by connecting corporates and government with startups and the community to consider business challenges and co-create solutions.

Prior to joining

Padang & Co⁠

, I was the Head of Sales, APAC at

Botbot.ai⁠

(Product of

2359 Media⁠

). A leading artificial intelligence company that specialises in business process automation and worked with a range of MNCs, such as Singtel, Dun & Bradstreet, P&G and DBS.

2359 Media⁠

was acquired by NCS Group in 2021, a subsidiary of Singtel ($45B Market Cap).

I’ve also spent several years in the startup scene, having joined several startups such as

Gnowbe⁠

(US$1.7m Seed incl. 500 Startups) and founded several startups ranging from InsureTech to Artificial Intelligence tools including Surge, an AI sales assistant for field sales professionals. My previous startup was accelerated by Plug and Play, Daimler, NTU ideasinc, Microsoft and IBM.

Others have also sought after me as startup mentor, judge and speaker having previously been part of programmes such as

Slingshot⁠

Enactus⁠

Founder Institute⁠

NTUitive⁠

Expara⁠

YSI SEA⁠

Circles Life Hack⁠

Asia Institute of Mentoring⁠

NUS Entrepreneurship Society⁠

Ground Zero⁠

and

Ideasinc⁠

Gallup Top 5 Strengths: Strategic, Ideation, Connectedness, Learner, Futuristic

⁠

A glimpse of my life.

⁠

I enjoy meeting new people about startups, technology, investments and even food. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any cool ideas/problems to solve or if you simply want to have a coffee chat.

Twitter :

@daryllril⁠

⁠

Telegram:

@darylirl⁠

⁠

Linkedin:

@darylirl⁠

⁠

Values I hold.

No Bullshit.

Result Driven. Desire to simplify things, not complicate it.

Curiosity.

Obsessed with finding out why? Never a slave to the norm.

Empathy.

It’s all about perspective. Experience what others did and feel.

Adventurous.

Step off the path. Defy convention. See what others don't.

Authenticity.

Stand for what I believe. Respect opinions. Advocate open communication.

Work I’ve done.

Just a quick rundown of the companies and industry I was in. More details can be found on my

Linkedin⁠

Innovation & Partnership Lead @Padang & Co - Corporate Innovation Consultancy (educating multinational companies and government agencies on digital transformation)

Head of Sales @Botbot.ai - Conversational Enterprise Solution (chatbot which automates task that no employee wants to do)

CEO @Surge - Sales Automation Solution (chatbot plug-in which automates task that no sales employee wants to do)

Enterprise Sales Manager @Gnowbe - Microlearning Platform (adult learning app for individuals with short attention span)

Business Development Manager @Caligner - Medical Adherence Device (pill dispenser that blast it's speakers to remind elderly patients on medication intake)

Merchant Acquisition Specialist @Prolley - Salon Management Platform (Improve boomers operations by optimising underutilised assets to increase monthly yield)

Notable Hackathon/Challenge Projects - Participated in over 40+ (includes sleepless nights, heated debates and copy pasting)

MIT Building for Digital Health Hackathon 2021 - V-PRO (Mental Health) [

Video⁠

]

Youth Action Challenge 2020 - The Young SEAkers (Youth Empowerment) [

Video⁠

]

Razer Fintech Hackathon 2020 - PowerUp (Alternative Credit Score) [

Slides⁠

]

Startup Weekend Hackathon 2020 - Vitapop (Personalized Nutrition) [

Slides⁠

]

ASES Summit Melbourne 2018 - AWAKEN (Personalized Mental Health Assistant) [

Slides⁠

]

iNTUition 2017 - Nestash (Impact Investing) [

Devpost⁠

]

Hitachi CODESG 2017 - SYMD (Personalized Car Insurance) [

Slides⁠

]

Companies/Projects I’m currently involved with.

⁠

MetaPals - NFT Browser extension with digital companions⁠

⁠

Ideas I’m interested in launching. (Hit me up!)

If you feel that you want to start any of these ideas on your own, go ahead and launch it. I couldn’t care less if anyone steals them because I have plenty and it would be a pity to see them as mere ideas as it would be impossible for me to launch all of the them in my lifetime while providing 100% commitment to it.

Current Interest:

#Edutech #B2C #NFT #Crypto #Blockchain #Healthtech #Wellnesstech #Mentalhealth #HRTech #Recruitment #Socialcommerce #Shopatainment #HRtech #Metaverse #SupplyChain #Sustainability #Logisti #DeFi #FinTech

⁠

Skolif (School of Life for Developing Children- Practical life skills):

I started developing this idea through a conversation with a friend (shoutout to Ryan) where we agreed that education needs reform. We look to education as a gateway to getting a job with the start of the industrial revolution but left out key skills such as paying taxes, critical thinking, etiquette, mannerism and more. I mean just think back at when was the last time you actually used the differential equation? I guess unless you’re an engineer or mathematician, you’ve probably forgotten most of what you’ve learnt but things that I mentioned earlier are probably applied by you on a daily basis. So what if we can actually teach children all that so that they may become a contributing member of society? Inspired by

https://www.synthesis.is/⁠

⁠

#Edutech #B2C #Learn

Lifilo (Wisdom Library - Stories of F*ck Ups):

Have you ever looked up to someone, been inspired or even aspire to become him/her? However, you are interested in what they’ve been through, the challenges they faced and how they overcome. No, this is not a motivational platform where interviewees gets to boast their success nor is it a public relations platform. This is an opportunity for our viewers to listen to the side where founders/ leaders/ CEOs were once at their lowest, what were the cause that led to their demise and how others can avoid them. Inspired by

https://www.unfiltered.tv/⁠

and

https://www.fuckupnights.com/⁠

⁠

Vitora (Personalized Health - Supplement Subscription):

The idea is to collect multiple sources of data points from potential users to recommend them appropriate supplements and improve their general wellbeing. Unlike traditional supplement subscription companies, the idea is not to simply rely on a logic tree health declaration survey provided by customers but rely on historical health data such as wearable devices and/or DNA test (23andMe) to generate insights and provide dynamic (E.g ageing, life events) supplement recommendation for customers. This would allow us to collect immense amount of customers data while allowing us to engage our customers on a daily/weekly basis as they sync their health data to us. In future, we can sell health insight reports to supplement manufacturers or pharmaceutical companies which would want access to health data. In addition, we can also create a community of like minded individuals where we introduce certified fitness instructions, dieticians and nutritionists to our customers. Inspired by

https://www.personanutrition.com/⁠

and

https://takecareof.com/⁠

⁠

Hack Hire (Redesigning Tech Recruitment):

Recruitment is fundamentally broken. As much as we as humans are convinced about our own unbiasedness, there are certain pre-conceived notion which we cannot escape from because of our environment and how we were brought up. Thus, majority of people talents still go unnoticed not because they do not possess the capability but because we pass them over other candidates whom we deems as “safe” hires. Everyone is this world believe that there is a supply and demand issue for technology hires but my belief is that the talent supply is there, we just have to find a way to unlock it. The idea is to use hackathon to assess candidates technology capability through working on technology challenges which a corporate client is working on. Inspired by

https://www.kaggle.com/⁠

and

https://www.dbs.com/hack2hire/sg/index.html⁠

⁠

VIKOL (Virtual Influencer Platform Manager + Data-driven Influencers):

⁠

Virtual influencers⁠

are nothing new as they’ve been around for quite some time almost 10 years ago. However, the entire phenomenon started with the launch of

lilmiquela⁠

where people were astonished to find that this perfectly tailored influencer happens to be well... not human. Ever since, a slew of virtual influencer has sprung up with some even gaining more than 5 million followers (Check

magazineluiz⁠

). Don’t be fooled as virtual influencers is a lucrative business with some even fetching as high as US$8,500 per post (

Bloomberg⁠

). So why would anyone want to work with a virtual influencer since wouldn’t people feel uncomfortable due to the

Uncanny Valley⁠

- a term coined by Masahiro Hito? Well, not surprisingly there are clear benefits for marketers working with virtual influencers such as having complete control over influencer image, no physical or technical limitations, less reputation risk (which happens often in the world of celebrities and influencers) and even less relationship risk (afterall you will be engaging a business and not a single individual who comes with all the drama). What if we take one step further? Creating a whole universe of virtual influencers with unique background, character, personality, race and even style. Imagine the possibilities of managing all this through a platform that not only gives you a risk-free tailor made options but also backed by data. That to me is the future of influencer marketing... of course there may be limitations with the rise of

Shopatainment⁠

but who knows what our future might bring with the rise of new technologies, computing power and growing acceptance of virtual people. Even the thoughts of merging this with NFT has crossed my mind but that would be taking it too far and would require mass market adoption for it to work. Inspired by

http://sidus-x.com/⁠

https://superplastic.co/⁠

and

https://www.instagram.com/here.is.rae/⁠

TL:DR (AI Article Summarizer):

As students, we spent hundreds and hours of our precious time over research which we have googled. Reason is because majority of the news articles, research papers or even a book has quite a lot of what I call “filler” words or simply contextual information that’s good to have but does not actually highlight any point. What we want as students or even researchers and consultants is to find key insights or sentences which can be highlighted to us in an instant, saving us countless hours and possibly improve our research skills as well. This can be done through a chrome extension where any page which you land on would be automatically summarize and saved within 5 sentences or less. Inspired by

https://www.scholarcy.com/⁠

https://tldrthis.com/⁠

and

https://quillbot.com/⁠

Artistique (Salon Management System):

Let’s face it. Most of us are still calling our barbers to schedule a session with them while mentioning our favorite stylist as well, or worst, we are using rudimentary booking system that lies within contact pages. I am personally baffled that even till now my favourite salon which has six outlets around the country still requires me to provide the same information even when I’ve been their loyal customer for over 3 years and yet still ask to fill in the form whenever I visit the schedule timing (yes, this is after I made a booking). On the flip side, majority of salons are still using excel or pen and paper for booking and scheduling. The way it operates is quite unique too where focus is on seat turnover as some salons rent out seats to stylist as not all stylist are employed by the salon. In addition, most of the loyalty still lies with the stylist themselves without giving any insights to the salon management on their customers. What if we are able to create a complete vertical integrated tool that helps salon with booking, pricing, payments, analytics, reviews, loyalty engagement, booth rental, inventory management and more. Inspired by

https://getsquire.com/⁠

and

https://classpass.com/⁠

⁠

Hustle Hoard (Human Capital Venture Investment Fund):

Venture capital has always been focused around startups but it’s funny to think that most of the time, it’s simply never about the idea or the market for that matter especially when it comes to early stage investing but more towards the people and their ability to execute which is determined by their credibility and trust. Hustle Hoard is a crowdfunding platform that assists entrepreneurs with raising capital as an individual, through a personal holdings company rather than with an entity. This would also derisk early stage investors and help entrepreneurs not limit themselves to just one idea as investors will be investing to the individual rather than the idea. Inspired by

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/investing-directly-in-people-is-the-future-of-vc-heres-how-to-do-it⁠

⁠

Pawpy (Telehealth for Pets):

This is something that I hold dear to my heart as it’s from my personal experience where there are certain behaviour and traits which can be solve if only I have access to certified veterinarians who could provide me with quick feedback on lifestyle changes which I would have to adapt for my pet. This could then be further improve through patient management system, pharmaceutical supply chain integration and pet insurance to create a pet wellness super app for pet owners. Inspired by

https://www.airvet.com/⁠

and

https://wagmo.io/⁠

The Everything Index (Alternative Asset Class Index Tracker):

Collectable items are rapidly growing with the popularisation with NFTs as investment products. However, trying to find out an accurate estimated value has been quite difficult. Firstly, there aren’t any market standards to price a specific market item. In addition, there are multiple marketplaces and auction platforms that sells similar products at different value without a single consolidated source of data to refer too. What if we are able to create a Index say for pokemon card collectables? Now you would be able to track the top 100-500 collectables price compared to yours or even better a consolidated database of all collectable last transaction. Inspired by

https://www.masterworks.io/⁠

and

https://stockx.com/⁠

Demebo (Decentralised Media Board):

The goal is to onboard web3 designers into the platform to create their portfolio stored using decentralised storage. It not only help promote artist work but also create a database of web3 art that might not be seen in marketplaces. Validation with web3 designers would be an issue together with convincing them them on how to use the platform. Technical challenges will come in the form of user onboarding since existing competition is quite simple to adopt though usually charged. Some key insights are how top projects artist are not credited for their work compared to project owners (Seneca from Yuga Labs). There’s also no dedicated platform to commission specifically web3 work since platforms like Fiverr have designers that reject web3 commission. A quick prototype would be connecting a simple user dashboard that allows uploading of portfolio and connect to NFT.Storage while automatically creating a gallery for users to share a unique link to their profile page.

[TBC] The Referral Network (Web3 Recruiting Platform):

What I’m good at.

Enterprise Sales - getting a corporate client to pay for a product/service (if there is one)

Pitching - convincing partners and clients that your product is worth it (whatever that means)

Sales Process - creating a system that acquires a corporate client to pay for a product/service

Product Management - building a product that customers love and raves

Pilot Management - collecting data/insights on users behaviour and validating hypothesis

B2B Product Launch - letting the world know about your product and why the benefits are awesome

UI/UX Mockups - creating a fake app/website that looks and feels like the real thing

Monetization Strategy - making sure that you are making enough money to pay for your expenses (you have no idea the crap I’ve seen in startups when it comes to pricing)

Interesting things about me.

I did a pitch on the GMAX Extreme Swing and won:

https://fb.watch/akQexEulEa/⁠

⁠

Attended and collected over 300+ technology events/conference passes

Did a podcast where I share my experience in sales and how I took the unconventional path:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/42MzhqmuXAyGGZdTw1Q9fm?si=_25sG5SdQ7qL66KGlJXdng⁠

⁠

Bragging rights.

Participated and won quite a few, in over 80+ Startup Pitch Competition, Innovation Challenges, Hackathons, Accelerators and more.

2022 - Hack Singapore (Winner - The Future of Gaming)

2022 - HUAWEI CLOUD Ignite Hackathon 2022 (4th Place)

2022 - J&J Eye-Spiring Hackathon (2nd Runner Up)

2021 - Mercury Hackathon 2021 by Tribe & KryptoSeoul (

Winner of Best Use of Filecoin/IPFS & Flow for Browser Integration & Combined Use⁠

)

2021 - Design4Impact by MOH Office for Healthcare Transformation (

Top 3 Winner⁠

)

2021 - Startup Weekend Global (

Top 12 Finalist⁠

)

2021 - Startup Weekend Singapore (

Top 15 Finalist⁠

)

2021 - SCAPE x Isentia Hacking the New Normal Sustainability (

Top 5 finalist⁠

)

2021 - MIT Building for Digital Health Hackathon (

3rd Place⁠

)

2020 - Razer Fintech Digital Hackathon (Top 20 Finalist)

2018 - Slush Singapore Pitch@GMAX (

Winner⁠

)

2018 - Unilever Foundry Battle (Finalist)

2018 - HSBC Innovfest Unbound (Finalist)

2018 - Krunsri Rise Batch 3 (

Singapore Winner⁠

)

2018 - FedEx Accelerator Programme (Regional Finalist)

2018 - B2B Rocks (

Regional Finalist⁠

)

2018 - SG:D Techblazer (Finalist)

2018 - $1 Million StartCon (Finalist)

2018 - Third Shanghai FTZ Overseas Talents Innovation Conference (

1st⁠

)

2017 - Startup Autobahn Singapore Accelerator Mercedes Benz Batch 1 (

Finalist⁠

)

2017 - Techsauce Singapore (Top 10 Finalist)

2017 - Startup Games Singapore (Top 12 Finalist)

2017 - Hitachi Vantara codeSG (2nd Place)

2017 - Startup Weekend Singapore Woman's Edition (1st Place)

2017 - Echelon Singapore (

Top 100 Startups⁠

)

2017 - Slingshot@Switch (Top 40 Qualified Finalist)

2017 - NTU Ideas Inc Incubator (Top 40 Finalist)

2017 - Oracle Accelerator Singapore (Top 35 Finalist)

2017 - Rockstart AI Accelerator (Top 20 Global Finalist)

2017 - T-Hero Innovation Challenge Singapore (Top 4 Finalist)

2017 - "Your Way 2 Silicon Valley" by Befast.TV (Top 16 Singapore Finalist)

2017 - DFF x Rockstart Pitch Competition (

Finalist⁠

)

2017 - Zero Gravity Accelerator (Finalist)

2016 - Startup Weekend Singapore (

Most Creative Award⁠

)

My startup experience - MetaPals (Backed by Techstars).

⁠