Though he had always wanted to enter the F&B industry, he tells us he pursued engineering because of his mum.
“My mum knew about my interest in food since I was young. When I was about to graduate from NUS engineering in 1996, she warned me that if I dared go into the food business after graduating, she would kill me! She wanted me to work as an engineer after she painstakingly raised me through my university years, and felt that I would lead an easier life as an engineer,” he explains.
Ang tells 8days.sg that his job as a researcher at A*Star earned him up to S$20,000 in royalties for inventing each patented product (he co-invented four), and he drew a five-figure monthly salary.
Between 2004 and 2009, Ang left A*Star temporarily to open his own affiliated research firm, SmartID, which he co-owned with three others. He says the company was eventually “acquired at a valuation of S$3.5 million” in 2009, where the buyer bought 75 per cent of its shares for S$2.5 million.
For the past couple of years, Ang has already dipped his toes in the F&B scene. He invested in businesses like the Sin Kee Chicken Rice chain and Eureka Taste cafe, which he now co-owns.
“To be honest, running hawker stalls will never bring in as much money as I made in engineering. But the motivation to work in F&B is really not about money to me, it’s my interest. I don’t see it as a salary drop, ’cause even if I didn’t work as a hawker, I would also not be working a full-time job now. I’ve come to a stage where I feel like I’d [rather] make [less] money while doing something I like,” he explains.
He adds: “Financially, I am okay. This hawker business is something that I’ve always wanted to do since I was young, I’m just happy seeing people enjoying the food I cook”.
Ang invested S$50,000 to open his stall, and says he plans to open more outlets in the future. Currently, he has one full-time staff and one part-timer running the business, while he usually drops by in the morning to oversee things.
So far, he tells us that his staff have had no problems learning how to use the cooking machine.
“It’s too simple to use already! They just have to press one button, and everything will operate [on its own] from there,” he exclaims.
