ASN Pre-Founder Catalyst Bootcamp: F&B business Edition
🍽️ Pre-Founder Catalyst Bootcamp: F&B business Edition
Dreaming of opening a café or restaurant? Let's make sure you're truly ready.
Opening an F&B business isn’t just about passion — it’s about preparation, precision, and resilience. With razor-thin margins, rising costs, and high failure rates, the food and beverage industry is one of the most challenging sectors to break into.
Before you pour your life savings into your dream café or concept restaurant, this bootcamp helps you pressure-test your idea and build a strong foundation — the smart way.
Why Join?
✅ Reality Check:
We’ll give you a clear, honest look at what it takes to start and sustain an F&B venture — from hidden costs to operational pitfalls.
✅ Startup Toolkit:
Learn proven frameworks to validate your concept, test demand, and plan your launch with minimal risk.
✅ Live Workshop + Online Prep:
Get hands-on in a 7-hour in-person session, plus a week of self-paced online learning to master the essentials.
✅ F&B-Focused Insights:
Hear from successful food entrepreneurs and industry insiders who’ve been in your shoes — and survived.
✅ Peer & Mentor Network:
Join a powerful community of 1,000+ founders, mentors, and investors across Southeast Asia to support your growth.
Who It’s For:
Aspiring café or restaurant founders who want to be smart about how they start — whether you're still exploring ideas or ready to take the leap.
📍Location: Singapore (exact venue provided after registration)
💰Fee: S$600 (+ S$30 Stripe processing fee)
🧧SkillsFuture eligible ($798, via ZilLearn Platinum plan, please check out the respective ticket and we will reach out with the payment instructions)
The F&B dream is beautiful — but it's not for the faint-hearted.
Come prepared, build strong, and give your idea the best chance of success.
🎟️ Register now!
If you are in a career transition, this launchpad for getting started on your dream F&B business idea.
Prior to the live bootcamp, we kickstart with a week of self-paced course, where we will expose you to 7 essential concepts as well as easy to use generative AI tools and prompts you need to quickly build a prototype and get feedback. The list of concepts represents the culmination of our team's collective learnings over the past decade, by working closely with more than 100 startup companies.
By the end of 7 days, you'll know which tool or framework to fall back on while figuring out your business idea as well as other questions that pop up along the way, and learn how to use the lean canvas method to analyze which idea makes the most sense to start.
Prepare to challenge your assumptions and reevaluate what you've learned, whether from academic settings or corporate environments.
On the day of our Pre-founder Catalyst bootcamp, we will begin the day with grounding on the 7 elements, making sure that you have mastered them. Next, this is when the rubber meets the road - we organise a hackathon where you will process from ideation to a business idea that is aligned with your passion, experience and values. Our experienced mentors will be there at the workshop to give instant feedback during the hackathon as well as critique at the end.
We will also help you develop an actionable roadmap so that you will be able to grow your business to raise angel funding before quitting your full time job. Beyond the workshops, you will get to directly plug into a supportive network of more than 1,000 experienced entrepreneurs, investors and mentors throughout Southeast Asia, ready to provide mentorship and guidance to help you navigate the intricacies of startup life as well as invest in your business. Join us at one of the external events monthly (we have events exclusive women too!) to help you network, make like-minded friends and quickly grow as a founder on your startup journey.
Our speaker
Ee Chien Chua
Former Owner, Jekyll & Hyde | Revenue & GTM Leader at TOKEN2049 & SuperAI
Ee Chien Chua is a seasoned entrepreneur and business leader with a diverse background spanning finance, technology, and the food & beverage (F&B) industry. He is best known for owning and operating Jekyll & Hyde, one of Singapore's pioneering cocktail bars, which he managed alongside a full-time career in tech and finance.
Ee Chien's professional journey includes roles at prominent organizations such as Goldman Sachs, Uber, Grab, and Endowus. At Uber Singapore, he led the Vehicle Solutions team, focusing on driver acquisition and retention strategies. His tenure at Grab involved launching financial products within the Grab Financial Group, showcasing his ability to bridge traditional finance with innovative tech solutions.
In 2018, driven by a passion for F&B, Ee Chien acquired Jekyll & Hyde, transforming it into a renowned establishment in Singapore's bar scene. Under his leadership, the bar not only offered bespoke cocktails but also expanded its offerings to include brunch and Mod-Sin cuisine. Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, including temporary closures and operational hurdles, he demonstrated resilience by adapting the business model, such as introducing bottled cocktails for delivery and hosting online cocktail classes.
Ee Chien's experience underscores the complexities of the F&B industry, from managing rising operational costs to navigating shifting consumer behaviors. His insights into the importance of financial acumen, adaptability, and strategic planning make him a valuable resource for aspiring cafe and restaurant owners.
Read more about his interview on Vulcan post: https://vulcanpost.com/744210/jekyll-and-hyde-bar-business-singapore/
Our mentors and Judges
Joe Low
Certainly! Here's an updated speaker bio for Joe Low, tailored for the Pre-Founder Catalyst Bootcamp's cafe/restaurant-focused edition:
Joe Low
Investor | Entrepreneur | Startup Mentor | Founding Partner at REAL Capital
Joe Low is a seasoned investment strategist and entrepreneurial mentor with a growing focus on Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA). With a strong track record in supporting early-stage and growth businesses, Joe brings deep expertise in evaluating ventures, structuring deals, and guiding founders through the complexities of business ownership — whether through building or acquiring.
As the Founding Partner at REAL Capital and Director at Affinity Financial Services (AFS), Joe has advised, invested in, and operated multiple startups across Southeast Asia. His experience spans various industries, including real estate, financial services, and technology. Joe's work in ETA reflects his belief that acquiring existing businesses can be a powerful and under-explored pathway for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Joe is also a sought-after mentor and speaker, known for his practical insights, collaborative approach, and unwavering support for innovation. He has served as a judge for SLINGSHOT 2023, Asia’s premier deep tech startup competition, and regularly shares his expertise at entrepreneurship bootcamps and startup events. His commitment to fostering a collaborative environment encourages creativity and growth, empowering startups to thrive in competitive markets.
At the PreFounder Catalyst Bootcamp, Joe shares actionable strategies to help participants confidently explore acquisition opportunities and make the leap into entrepreneurship.
Adrian Thoo
Business Strategy Director at Blazing Conversions | Senior Advisor at Beltap Capital | Author of Amazon #1 Bestseller "The Smart Business Startup Founder's Guidebook"
Adrian Thoo is a seasoned strategist and visionary leader with a proven track record in guiding startups to success. As the Business Strategy Director at Blazing Conversions and Senior Advisor at Beltap Capital, Adrian brings a wealth of experience across diverse industries, including luxury fashion, education, media, finance, consulting, and technology .
Author of the Amazon #1 "Smart Business Startup Founder's Guidebook," Adrian's expertise lies in crafting effective business strategies, mentoring startups, and fostering entrepreneurial growth . With a deep understanding of the startup ecosystem, he works closely with Venture Capital firms to create accelerator and mentorship programs that empower entrepreneurs to achieve their full potential.
In his role at Blazing Conversions, Adrian has been instrumental in helping businesses refine their operations, enhance financials, and elevate key metrics to stand out as prime investment opportunities . His approach ensures that businesses are not only ready for immediate funding but are also positioned for long-term success.https://blazingconversions.com
Adrian's insights into the importance of financial acumen, adaptability, and strategic planning make him a valuable resource for aspiring café and restaurant owners. His experience underscores the complexities of the F&B industry, from managing rising operational costs to navigating shifting consumer behaviors.
Currently, Adrian continues to leverage his multifaceted expertise to drive business growth and mentor the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Interested to take it to the next step? Simply sign up on Lu.ma!
What happens after this Prefounder Program
Continue to join us for our second program. We understand that entrepreneurship demands more than just business savvy—it requires strong leadership and communication skills. That's why our second course includes advanced topics and workshops focused on enhancing your leadership abilities and communication prowess.
If you're ready to embark on this transformative journey or have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to marketing@asiastartupnetwork.com. Let's unlock your full potential together.
About Asia Startup Network
ASN didn’t start as an educational institute or training centre. ASN is a living, thriving startup ecosystem. Their founders have spent more than one decade coaching and supporting entrepreneurs and created one of the largest communities of > 3,000 startup founders, operators, investors and partners in Southeast Asia to collaborate and support each other’s growth. Since 2020, ASN has been organising 100s of startup workshops, events and programs to help entrepreneurs leapfrog their growth and raise funding. Join ASN for the knowledge, but stay because of the network. These are the reasons why taking a course at ASN and quickly plugging into the community would move the needle more than you expect.
ASN is founded by Elise Tan and Andrew Tan. Elise has experience designing programs and personally coaching hundreds of founders at incubators and accelerators for over 10 years. She assisted more than 40 companies in raising more than US$1 million each. Andrew has more than 10 years of leadership experience founding his own social enterprise, building start ups and managing scale ups, as well as running ground up initiatives and communities, Andrew has a proven track record of driving growth and success and this will be transferred directly to this accelerator and its startups.
ASN began firstly with Mentor For Hope in 2020, an impactful mentoring initiative initially supported by the Temasek Foundation under the OSCAR grant. The initiative facilitated 525 mentoring hours for 300 founders adversely affected by the COVID crisis, connecting them with invaluable insights from 250 investors, partners, and experts. They raised S$42,000 in donations through the initiative.
In 2021, Elise and Andrew organised Makan For Hope Festival (with zero budget), a series of 30 virtual roundtables featuring VC managing partners and founders from notable startups like PropertyGuru, Shopback, and Carousell. The festival drew participation from 500 attendees, raising S$123,000 in charity donations.
Remarkable Women in Tech and Business
Founded by Elise Tan, the active and supportive community provides a safe place for women working or running tech or traditional businesses to ask questions, network and find friends. Sign up here on bit.ly/remarkableW.