Living in Singapore

Background

Leaving the US

• I had a great opportunity in mid 2024 to mix things up.
• While it was sad to leave San Francisco, I decided to continue my adventure somewhere new!

For more information about leaving SF and the US, See Goodbye-Bay

9 Months in China

• After exploring the world for a few months in 2024, I decided I was going to move to China.

Why China? See: China

While I was there, I had a fantastic time exploring the impressive Chinese culture, history, infrastructure, modern life, and people. Shanghai was an amazing home, and afforded me plentiful opportunites to explore the surrounding areas (including Suzhou, Hangzhou, Changzhou), and all over the country (Harbin, Beijing, Tianjin, Nanjing, Yiwu, JingDeZhen, Shenzhen, plus Hong Kong). I found a job doing consulting for Chinese companies that wanted to do more business abroad, or Chinese energy companies that wanted to modernize their operations (e.g. China liberalized their energy markets while I was there, allowing for more market partcipation, VPPs and similar)

However, I did not find my work as fulfilling as I hoped:

• Language proved a substantial barrier - Even when having business meetings with people that studied English for 10+ years while living abroad, the conversation would always transition back to Chinese. Learning Chinese for a few months was fun, but I quickly realized that in order to be a proficient engineer in Chinese, it would be a humongous workload.
• Work culture was less collaborative and more siloed (especially while doing consulting)
• All of the real engineering job opportunities with Chinese companies that I was able to structure were international (back in the US, Europe, Australia, etc)
• While, on-paper my work projects were very well aligned with my experience, I didn’t get much of a chance to use my skills. I acknowledge that my DIY ambition and business accumen aren’t as strong in a new country, so I was less effective than I envisioned.
• China is presently has a challenging working environment (e.g. the phrase 内卷 nèijuǎn is common and suggests a race to the bottom, where people sacrifice more and more to maintain their life). As a simple example, in much of the world, people choose to work overtime to get some extra money to save up for an exciting purchase. In some aspects, some Chinese employess work overtime to avoid losing their job, avoid a demotion, or avoid a pay-cut.

Singapore!

Switching to Singapore

While living in China, in Mid 2025 I had my first business/social trip to Singapore in over 10 years.

I visited to maintain my immigration status in China (as I needed to leave every 60 days because I kept getting rejected for a work permit - another story haha), to go to an event with a solar company I was consulting for, to meet some friends, and to travel.

Long story short, I had an amazing time, and got connected with a few Singaporean companies. I decided to more deeply pursue opportunities in Singapore, and eventually came back to Singapore for the Singapore International Energy Week in October, where I found the collaborative working environment and excitment in the energy industry intoxicating. I left all my stuff in storage in Singapore, hopped back to China for some last minute travels, picked up the rest of my stuff to move to Singapore!

Life in Singapore

In Singapore, I picked up a job with a number of amazing ex-Tesla employees at a deep tech startup initially founded at NTU in Singapore. Amperesand makes high power Solid State Transformers to provide DC power (e.g. 800V) for a wide variety of applications (Datacenter focus), where the key differentiator is that our SST connects to the Medium Voltage distribution grid instead of at ~230V. Operating such a system and integrating it with a variety of applications is a challenge, but one I am excited to pursue.

Work started at NTU, then with a recent fundraising round we “moved out of our parents house” to our own office in Pasir Panjang near the port of Singapore.

I now work and live in Pasir Panjang, but explore all over Singapore (including hiking the great urban parks nearby, or going to meetups, or exploring the rich diversity of cultures). Travel to nearby countries (Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, etc) is amazing as well!

Logistics

Details

I am fairly settled in Singapore now, and most accessible on WhatsApp: either with my US number (+1-3012338525) or Singaporean number (+65-88795538), but there is no firewall or any restrictions in Singapore, so I can stay active on other digital platforms.

Want to Help?

I would greatly appreciate support! For example:

Connections!

• Clean Tech/Renewable Energy: Energy storage, solar, EV charging, etc.
• Tech in General: Collaborators and connections.
• Friends: Building a social life and community.
• Romance: Not a focus, but it can be especially rewarding to go on adventures with someone you’re excited about.

Work

• Meetups/tech talks/conferences.

Community

• Cultural spaces.
• Third spaces that don’t focus on work, food, or drink (e.g. SF Commons).
• Community tea houses (e.g. The Center SF).
• Social dance (e.g. fusion).
• Collaborative art (e.g. Box Shop SF).
• Athletic activities: hiking clubs, sports, gyms, or classes.

Chinese Language

• Group or private lessons.
• Chinese music with fun lyrics and clear pronunciation/tones.

Housing

• Neighborhood suggestions (Singapore unfortunately has very few short term housing opportunities, as the government and country promotes longer term connections (e.g. 2 year minimum leases at many places)).
• People looking for roommates (e.g. group houses).

Life

• General suggestions: taxes, doctors, etc.