Meet Gen.t

The CEO of Food Market Hub describes how he stepped out of his comfort zone and learned to be resilient when facing tough situations in both business and life

Anthony See learns to build resilience in the face of tough situations

“Failure makes you stronger.” For entrepreneur Anthony See, this saying and mantra is all too familiar to him. The exintel Solutions architect left his corporate job to operate several cafés, but he was forced to shut them down after two years due to spiralling food costs.

That did not stop him, but instead drove See to start Food Market Hub, a cloud-based solution that automates purchasing and the inventory-tracking process, as well as connect F&B outlets with their central kitchen and suppliers. He tells how he plans to help his customers scale up their business while maintaining a good profit margin.

As a former restaurant owner,

I know how challenging it is to run an F&B business. My team and I are passionate about using technology to help restaurants understand what’s going on behind every kitchen and ultimately gain control of their gross profit. I know this business is operation intensive so it was hard to scale up. But after trying six different ideas in two years, the business bloomed after I learned from all my past failures.

My greatest failure

happened at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. We were supposed to have our Series A funding injected but due to the pandemic, it didn’t come in, and we were left with only a one-month runway. I remembered how we had to make some tough decisions, including cutting our staff’s salaries. Fortunately, we survived as we changed our product strategy and increased our user base by four times in one year.

If I had a role model,

it would have to be three-time Ironman Triathlon World Champion Craig Alexander. I love the way that he still can smile even as he is suffering and still manages to finish the race. I believe this is the spirit entrepreneurs need to have, to smile and stay positive while facing challenges in life.

I was inspired by him

to take part in endurance competitions such as Ironman and ultramarathons. Through this torturous experience, I’ve learned to be more resilient and it has changed my work mindset.

An important lesson

every entrepreneur needs to learn is that they cannot achieve their dreams alone. It’s really important to stay positive and keep trying new methods to overcome tough situations. Additionally, it’s always important to maintain transparency and open communication with your team.

With strong support from our investors,

we have a vision to digitise 300,000 F&B businesses around Southeast Asia within the next five years.

Generation T is Tatler Asia’s platform for the leaders of tomorrow. generationt.com