Final-year students Kevin Ng Tze Yao from Lee Kong Chian School of Business and Timothy Ong Tze Yhi from School of Economics have done SMU and Singapore proud by coming in sixth at the Global Finals of the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) which was held in Washington, DC, USA on 15-17 April 2015.

Organised by Entrepreneurs’ Organisation, GSEA is the premier global competition for high school, undergraduate and graduate students who own and operate businesses. This year’s competition saw more than 1700 student entrepreneurs from 38 countries competed in rigorous local, regional and national competitions. The top 41 student entrepreneurs were then selected to compete in GSEA Global Finals.

Kevin Ng, Timothy Ong and their 5-man team were one of three teams in the Singapore round shortlisted for the GSEA ASEAN Regional Finals 2015 held in Manila in January this year. There, they emerged national champion for Singapore and represented Singapore at the Grand Finals in USA in April.

Hyron Infotech Pte Ltd was started in February 2014 to improve business productivity and workflow processes by offering manpower scheduling software and customised web and application solutions to businesses. Its flagship product, Certainty Systems, is a cloud-based enterprise system that automates communications and scheduling with employees, helping companies to increase productivity and reduce operational costs.

Timothy Ong enthused, “It was quite amazing for our team to be given the opportunity to compete at such a high level against some of the top student entrepreneurs from other countries. Our success in the competition came as an unexpected surprise and showed us that we could indeed make a difference with our product. All of us at Hyron Infotech are excited about what the future holds for our company.” 

[Caption: Kevin Ng shared the entrepreneurship journey, business and product of Hyron Infotech at GSEA Global Finals 2015.]

[Caption: Kevin Ng (second from right) with fellow winners at the GSEA Global Finals 2015.]

Kevin Ng represented Hyron Infotech at the Global Finals in USA, where he shared the entrepreneurship journey, business and product of Hyron Infotech with 35 judges. He said, “It was a wonderful experience to be able to interact with so many young entrepreneurs with a diverse set of businesses and backgrounds. You get to see people who started their petroleum business from a plastic 50-gallon tank on the back of a truck, and built it into gas stations and a fleet of tankers, all before they turned twenty-four. The pitches were top-notch, and you could really feel the intensity and drive in each competitor. The overwhelmingly positive response to our flagship product Certainty Systems was a pleasant surprise, with many of the final round judges emailing us to request personal demonstrations of the system.”

Since inception, the company has already secured 9 clients from various sectors, including education, events planning and infocomm technology. The company’s near term plan is to open a new development office in Vietnam over the next few months with three to four staff, as well as to enhance the capabilities and efficacy of its current product.

For the medium term, the team plans to expand Hyron Infotech to other countries through partners and resellers, starting with Australia and the United Kingdom, before venturing into the United States. They also plan to customise their product for use in the Food & Beverage and Hospitality industries.

[Featured photo: Timothy Ong (left) with the National Champion for Singapore plaque which the team won at the GSEA ASEAN Regional Finals 2015 in January this year. With him is Kevin Ng with the GSEA Global Finalist plaque.]