Jeremy Ko

Category: Business

  • The Ironies of Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur

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    Jeremy
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    I was at the Läderach counter with my son recently, buying chocolate at S$22 for 100 grams. He watched me pay, and I found myself explaining — half to him, half to myself — that this is what work is for. Not to hoard money endlessly, but to be able to enjoy something indulgent once…

  • The Client Who Threatened to Burn My Warehouse

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    The friend whose first order started my trading business also introduced me to the client who would one day threaten to burn my warehouse down. I’m still grateful to him. I was in my early twenties when a friend — a coach I’d met through mutual circles — placed a small order with me. Equipment…

  • Compounding Does Not Only Belong to Finance

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    Jeremy
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    When people speak about compounding, they almost always mean money. They mean savings, investments, interest, and the quiet arithmetic of letting capital sit still long enough to multiply itself. That is one form of compounding, and an important one. But it is not the only form, and I suspect it is not even the most…

  • The Joy of Entrepreneurship

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    A lot has been said about entrepreneurship, and most of it tends to fall into one of two camps. Either people warn you away from it — because it is uncertain, difficult, and the odds are low — or they romanticise it too much, as though it is some glamorous act of self-invention, full of…

  • The Silent Benefit of Delayed Founder Compensation

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    Jeremy
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    One of the less discussed parts of building a business is that society and business often speak in entirely different languages when it comes to success, and because of that, a founder can spend years doing what is rational in one domain while appearing irrational, unimpressive, or even suspect in the other. Society, understandably, relies…

  • The Asymmetry of Starting Young

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    Jeremy
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    The best time to start a business is while you are still a student, because the opportunity cost is lower than it will ever be again. You have more room to explore, more room to think, and more room to fail before the consequences become truly expensive. Business ideas rarely arrive polished. More often, they…

  • Ark Bloc in the news!

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    Sometimes it takes the market a few years before they recognize a gem.  We built Ark Bloc in 2022, but in the last few weeks we have coverage in the news suddenly. Here are the videos for posterity.  Ark Bloc on Mothership Ark Bloc on Channel News Asia

  • My First Podcast

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    Here’s the transcript for those who prefer to read.  Gerald: Welcome to another episode of Work It Podcast. I’m Gerald. Nat: And I’m Nat. We’re your hosts. We’re bringing you fresh perspectives on the world of hustling. And Gerald, speaking of hustling, it’s been a hustling and bustling week for me. I cannot get a…

  • 2025 | Perspectives from Burn out

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    This year, the people closest to me—and the people closest to our businesses—know we’ve been on an absolute tear. In May, we pivoted our café business. We revamped Stoked.sg into Pastaaah!, hoping a refreshed menu with more affordable options would revitalise things. That meant menu changes, cooking at home, recording recipes, and teaching our team…

  • Four Hours of Sleep and a Van: My Early Founder Years

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    TL;DR for founders:The early years of my business looked like four hours of sleep, a beat-up van, and doing school, internship and startup all at once — with zero guarantee it would work.If you want to be a founder, don’t just romanticise “freedom”; be ready for years of hard, lonely, uncertain work powered only by…