Tan Teik Guan is a hardcore computer scientist. After earning a degree in computer science at the National University of Singapore, he worked in IT Security at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, before being bitten by the startup bug. He then became the CEO and CTO of the security software startup DS3 for about a decade. Teik Guan led the sale of DS3 to the security multinational Gemalto and continued there for three years in VP roles. But this success came only after two earlier failed startups – a mobile payments company and a B2B fintech startup. In recent years, he has been mentoring a number of tech startups while pursuing a PhD in quantum cryptography.

Teik Guan may be in academia now but one could never mistake him for an ivory-tower theoretician – he is a “doer” by temperament. Listen to this episode to learn why everyone can benefit from being an entrepreneur at some point in their lives.

Teik Guan’s profile: LinkedIn

Episode transcript: Download

Teik Guan’s chosen charity: Teik Guan is a volunteer, committee member and donor of the Association for Persons with Special Needs. He encourages others to get involved with the APSN. Alternatively, listeners may like to join Murli in donating to the UN’s World Food Programme (winner of the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize), which does important work distributing food to approximately 100 million hungry poor around the world.

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