Gabriel Tan could have pursued a “proper job” as a financial analyst, marketing consultant, or operations director with his business management degree. Instead of making money, however, he was more excited about making an impact. So, after graduating from Singapore Management University in 2019, Tan became a full-time programme manager with a vocational training centre for persons with disabilities. For more than a year, he juggled the job with Bamboo Builders, then left it altogether two years later to focus on his start-up.
Founded during Tan’s second year of studies, Bamboo Builders equips youths with entrepreneurial skills and mindsets and empowers them to become changemakers in their communities.
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It took shape when Tan, at the age of 13, embarked on a community service trip to Chiang Rai, Thailand. Seeing how children and youths there struggled with extreme poverty changed his life.
“I participated in more than 10 community service trips throughout South-east Asia to identify the root cause of the poverty so I could better help the people,” says Tan. “In these regions, parents would rather their children work than study because this puts food on the table.”
While there was no one-size-fits-all solution to breaking the poverty cycle, he began to understand that education was key. This became the cornerstone of Bamboo Builders, which designs programmes to cultivate entrepreneurial skills through topics such as design thinking, critical thinking, and problem-solving strategies.
The programmes are free for students whom schools identify as promising. More than 4,650 youths across 10 Asean countries have benefited from the courses. Several have even launched social enterprises to help their own communities.
These include TDG Origins, an organic honey retailer based in Yangon, which employs students to produce honey sticks and educates them about business operations in the process. Income from the students goes back to financing their schools, while a portion of the honey sticks are donated to malnourished orphans.
In 2021, Bamboo Builders started working with YMCA Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City. Besides sharing business and mentorship advice, it connects the organisation to education institutions in Singapore such as ITE for training and upskilling programmes. Last year, YMCA Vietnam partnered Bamboo Builders to organise a virtual job matching fair for Asean Foundation. More than 550 youths attended, with 70 per cent indicating that they would apply for a job with the seven social enterprises that participated.
For his work, Tan was recognised in 2020 in Edge 35 Under 35 by the Action Community for Entrepreneurship. A year later, he snagged the Impact Entrepreneur of the Year title by the National Youth Entrepreneurship Awards, which celebrates contributions of young entrepreneurs to the Singapore start-up ecosystem. Did these accolades help to assure Tan that his was a “proper job”?
“For a while, I didn’t want to join any competitions, even though this was a conventional way to raise awareness and capital. I wanted to focus on the impact that we were creating,” he says. “I always remember the story, The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs. I believed that if I kept my focus on the goose, the eggs would come. But yes, it feels good to be recognised.”
With international borders loosened as Covid-19 transitions into an endemic, Tan is scaling up Bamboo Builders’ corporate VTO (voluntary time off ) programmes. Building on Bamboo Builders’ series of local learning journeys that deep-dive into social issues, such as food waste, urban farming, and inequality, these experiences encourage full-time employees to participate in corporate social responsibility.
“Some MNCs use VTO programmes as team-bonding opportunities,” says Tan, “especially if they are attended by staff from offices across different countries.”
Tan and his team are developing an app-based library of social entrepreneurship courses, making education more accessible for young enterprisers. To make it even more practical and relevant, modules such as financial literacy and marketing feature content are drawn from other social entrepreneurs in South-east Asia. The library is being beta-tested and will be available on a subscription basis when it launches in two years’ time.
Even over Zoom, the 29-year-old is visibly excited about the future, continually smiling while talking about his work. He frequently reads up on leadership, technology, and “things that challenge current mindsets”. As he points out, “If I cannot [do this], how can I expect the same of others? To be an effective educator, I must be a role model, too.”