What’s your background? How did you both come to be doing what you’re doing?
We’ve always leaned towards a more logical path through school with me having graduated with a degree in Accounting from NTU, and Jasmine in Aerospace engineering. My professional career started as a tax consultant in Deloitte, followed by a stint in banking in both Singapore and London. Jasmine started her career as an engineer, and we met in London and founded an e-commerce business together before Empire Code.
Throughout this journey, I have always been interested in education – in college, I was a member of the ‘Leo Club’ where I tutored children and teens from underprivileged backgrounds.
My mother was also a Singapore Ministry of Education teacher for more than 40 years, so when Jasmine approached me to partner with her in setting up a coding school, I jumped at the opportunity. I believe strongly that technology will soon have an impact on every aspect of our lives, and it is our responsibility to educate the younger generation.
Could you introduce Empire Code? What are the key problems your company looked to tackle when you first started out? How has it evolved since?
We started in 2016 as a startup in Singapore’s incubator hub BLOCK71 and rebranded ourselves as Empire Code in 2018. The group now comprises of Empire Code Education for computer science training, Empire Code Launchpad for software development, and Empire Code Loves Back our social enterprise. Our education centre now has teams in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. To date, we’ve taught over 8,000 students across ASEAN through physical classes and have made an impact on over 35,000 students through online classes in the Asia Pacific.
When we first started out, the main obstacle we faced was the lack of awareness on the importance of computer science. Many local parents do not consider the knowledge of computer science as an essential subject, partly due to the lack of technopreneurs per capita that Singapore has as compared to countries such as the United States, China, India, and Indonesia.
Through the pandemic, we have seen an increase in our students, as parents are now more aware of the importance of technology through the need to work from home and their children attending school online.
What is the most rewarding part about doing what you do and the inspiration behind it?
It always makes my day when parents share how much their children have improved in other areas of their learning and development since the beginning of their education journey with us. Recently, a mother shared how her child has shown visible improvement in mathematics after just a month of learning to code with us. The skillset of logical thinking when writing a computer program is also applied in tackling math problems.
Another mom in Indonesia also shared about how learning to code with us has helped boost the confidence levels of her two boys. Her sons used to be under-confident and disinterested in new challenges. Our project-based curriculum, however which teaches children that success is not based on right or wrong, pass or fail, has changed their mindset dramatically. The boys now always look forward to their coding classes with us.
Are there any major mindset changes that you’ve experienced in relation to your business?
As Obi-Wan Kenobi said, there’s no such thing as luck. Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. Since Empire Code is very much inspired by Star Wars, this is a mantra I believe in. The need for hard work and the ability to listen to your clients are both key to making a business successful.
How did you begin partnering with Knovo? Were there any specific issues you were hoping to address, or areas you were hoping to develop?
Jasmine stumbled upon a social media post of Knovo and immediately liked the idea of what Knovo is doing in the EdTech space. We had pleasant interactions with the Knovo team which motivated us to collaborate with them to address the ability for us to scale online through the vast network that Knovo has in the ASEAN region.
Do you have any advice for aspiring female technopreneurs?
It’s not easy, but keep learning, keep growing, keep your head up! Find a mentor to bounce your ideas off and guide you on your journey. My father, an engineer turned successful business owner through sheer determination, has been my mentor till today.
Lastly, how can people connect with you?
We can be contacted through email at partners@empirecode.co or via Linkedin:
Jasmine Tang: www.linkedin.com/in/jasmine-a-tang/
Felicia Chua: www.linkedin.com/in/feliciachua-ec