Douglas Gan

Douglas Gan (颜義东)
Born	(1983-08-03) August 3, 1983 Singapore
Residence	Singapore, Indonesia, Japan
Nationality	Singaporean
Alma mater	Ngee Ann Polytechnic
Occupation	Co-Founder, CEO and Chairman of Vanitee
Years active	1997–present
Spouse(s)	Kanna Kawaguchi
Parent(s)	Richard Gan, Mary Jane Tan
Website	Douglas Gan Twitter account

Douglas Gan 颜義东 (born 3 August 1983) is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Vanitee,^[1] and additionally serves as a co-founder and director of iFashion Group.^[2] He is also an angel investor investing in startups in Southeast Asia.^[3]

Between 1997 and 2016, he founded 5 companies which are all sold to MNCs.

His accolades include being named as SCS Young Professional of The Year,^[4] Top 25 Outstanding Alumni Award in Technopreneurship^[5]

Career

Gan is a school dropout^[6] who started his first business attempt at the age of four when he was still in kindergarten. He sold toy cars for $2 apiece and later, he was selling marbles, bubble gums, chewing gums, stickers, stamps and Dragon Ball Cards. Gan amassed a small fortune of $15,000 by 11. At 12, he started selling Magic: The Gathering Card Games and he made more than $20,000 throughout his secondary school education of 4 years.^[7]

Gan's first actual business was incorporated by his mother. In an article in The New Paper, he is quoted as saying: "She became my admin assistant and my accountant. She was with me every step of the way."^[8]

In 2008, Gan founded ShowNearby, a location based mobile application that won multiple awards in Asia.^[9] ShowNearby's private investors^[10] pulled out investing during the Financial crisis of 2007–2008. Within 2 weeks, Gan partner with Microsoft BizSpark to save hosting costs using Microsoft Azure.^[11]

With no further investments, a Global Financial Crisis, bankruptcy seemed imminent, but Gan managed to turn the company around and got further funding from Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) in August 2009.^[12] Later, ShowNearby became a high-profile mobile app in Singapore with over 20,000 mobile users per day.^[13] and the Top 3 Apps in Singapore on the Google Play.^[14]

In 2010, ShowNearby was acquired by Global Yellow Pages.^[15]

In 2012, Gan founded VanityTrove, a beauty sampling business.^[16] Gan led VanityTrove on an acquisition spree, acquiring 4 beauty sampling businesses in Southeast Asia^[17] and by August 2013, VanityTrove acquired Glamybox, a beauty sampling business in Vietnam^[18]

In July 2013, Gan evolved the beauty sampling business to customizing data sales to beauty brands.^[19] By 2014, the beauty sampling business has failed. In an article in TechInAsia, Gan was quoted as saying "The key trigger occurred on the fourth month of our business, where we realized we could not build out a $100 million subscription commerce business due to the limited sampling supply."^[20]

In 2015, Gan pivoted VanityTrove's beauty sampling business to Vanitee, a beauty and wellness marketplace.^[21][22] Within 4 months of launch, Vanitee raised $1.4 million from Luxasia Group and Robert Yap.^[23] In Dec 2015, Vanitee raised a further $2.1 million from Garena, Thai Express Founder Ivan Lee and iStyle Inc (TSE:3660).^{[24][25][26][27][28]}

Vanitee is the Top 3 startups to look out for in 2016.^[29] In November 2015, Vanitee acquired Padang, a Korean Beauty Information App in Seoul^[30] and in May 2016 Vanitee acquired MeFitted, a Singapore based Beauty Directory.^[31][32][33]

Business strategy

Focusing on acquisitions to grow his startups, "When we started Vanitee, we presented acquisition offers to about seven beauty startups but were rejected for various reasons, largely due to unrealistic valuation demands. If the competitors do not unite, we will start seeing more startups closing down. I say, don't worry about the valuation, if we can dominate the market together, we can all share the pie."^[34]

Specifically Gan has through VanityTrove and Vanitee, made 7 acquisitions to fast track the growth of his businesses.

Gan has gained a reputation for his perseverance and determination to succeed, particularly in the face of adversity, and has spoken at various start-up and entrepreneur events such as Startup Grind, BEAM Connect, General Assembly and eTail Asia.^[35][36] He is quoted as saying "I think what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur is to be realistic, focused and yet also be a dreamer and be fanatical about perfection. My own four words are: Perseverance. Determination. Passion. Ambition."^[37][38][39]

Recognition

Among the awards and recognition Gan has received for his entrepreneurial achievements are:

• 2011: Named a "Young Professional of The Year" by Singapore Computer Society from Singapore Minister for the Minister of Communications and Information & the Arts, awarded by the MICA Minister Lui Tuck Yew^[40]
• 2012: Named a "Outstanding Alumni Award" at the Ngee Ann Polytechnic Alumni 50th Anniversary" awarded by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong ^[41]

Education

Gan studied at the Ngee Ann Polytechnic in 2003 graduating with a Cambridge IT Skills Diploma.^[41] Before that he was at both Ngee Ann Primary School and Ngee Ann Secondary School.

Gan tried a year at UOL in Singapore from Stansfield University for a double degree in Econs and management. He dropped out after 2 semesters to focus on OhGenki, an online forum.

References