I spent some time building an LLM-based product to help with automating menial financial tasks, but at the time the economics just weren't right for the Malaysian market.

Later my friend from the old Make School days proposed the idea of bringing Korea's Kakao Gift experience to the US. Let's just say that I was intrigued and with a couple of other co-founders, we started Givy.

We've recently launched so if you're interested, download Givy on the App Store.

After many years since Make School, I finally got to re-unite with one of the co-founders of Make School to work on a new startup based in LA. Initially we were looking to help IP holders and communities distribute their 3D assets, but after a while we (somehow) pivoted into VTubing.

We asked ourselves, "What does a fun, interactive & immersive VTubing fandom & viewing experience look like?". We brought in the latest tech, from high-end game engines to generative AI, and integrated them into our streams.

As a (former) avid enjoyer of VTubers & anime, I certainly never imagined myself putting my knowledge to good use!

The thing about dev houses and startup studios is that you don't get to have full ownership over the product you're building. Wanting for more, I left Oroboro to co-found Mecapan, a marketplace for beauty services.

Women in Indonesia were struggling to easily find and book beauty services for various occasions. We built an app as well as a community around this problem.

There are tons of stories to tell from my time at Mecapan, like how we survived the pandemic and temporarily moved away from technology. Perhaps one day I'll write more about them–we shall see!

After a couple of stints teaching iOS and giving talks at conferences, it was time to make money because I had none. Now you'd think that looking for an entry level software engineering role would be wise, but the young and naive me (and friends) decided to start a dev house instead without any prior experience. Fantastic decision-making I'd say!

We could barely scrape by for the longest time, but being a digital nomad at the time was very cheap so somehow we survived. We flew to a different city in Southeast Asia every month and eventually I got to travel solo too, which was an unforgetable life-changing experience.

After multiple struggles, we eventually stabilized (somewhat) into Oroboro. We built a small awesome remote team and spent time exploring what the ideal company looks like, how to build great culture and what a great product development process entails. While it wasn't the biggest success, the lessons we learned from working on Oroboro were invaluable.

If you decide to go for high school in the UK, we won't have money for college. – Adrian's dad

Well turns out he wasn't bluffing! Desperate to figure something out, I started learning Python on TreeHouse and eventually discovered Make School's Summer Academy. I applied and got in! (barely.)

Long story short, I built a game, made the art and created the music myself. They really liked it, so I got to enroll at Make School Academy, their college alternative program. It was there that I got to meet my future co-founders, colleagues and friends (and later boss as well).

San Francisco was where everything began. I could talk about my amazing time in SF all day and perhaps one day I'll share more about it.

Desperate to leave the bubble of reality I was in, I left Indonesia alone for a small seaside city in the UK called Torquay to complete my final years of high school. I had a fantastic time there with friends from around the world and even got to meet my future partner!

I enjoyed focusing on the arts, literature and physics for my IB diploma. I also had the amazing opportunity to join youth entrepreneurship programs, spending a summer at Wharton and flying back and fourth to Boston for an incubator at Harvard.