|
Chasing his dreams:
three-time entrepreneur Lau Jiarong
|
|
|
Jiarong, who took the path less travelled by setting up his own company in the time allocated for his internship.
|
TP graduate Lau Jiarong is a young man in a hurry to realise big dreams. Inspired by the rags to riches stories of his enterprising immigrant grandfathers, it has been his goal to become a successful entrepreneur. The 22-year old currently owns two companies, but he still has bigger dreams to chase.
One of his companies, Lobangz Pte Ltd, was set up while he was studying in TP. Under a scheme to encourage entrepreneurship, called Startup@BIT and open to students of the Diploma in Business Information Technology (BIT) course, Jiarong and three of his classmates set up the company to provide web hosting, networking and other IT-related services. Starting the business was not easy. They even had to build their own equipment before earning enough money to purchase their own server. The team persevered and today, the company continues to be profitable. In the near future, Lobangz Pte Ltd hopes to expand into Malaysia where the market is bigger.
Jiarong’s entrepreneurship drive began even before he joined TP when he started an online radio station called DreamstationZ in 2002. At its peak, the station registered over 200 simultaneous listeners and had a crew of 15 which included DJs, web designers and scriptwriters. Although it had to cease operations in December 2004, in accordance with new digital music infringement laws, Jiarong intends to revive it in the near future.
In his final semester at TP, Jiarong started yet another business – Asia Business Communications Pte Ltd (ABC), providing competitively charged IDD and Call Back/Forward services to substitute costly roaming services. ABC is a joint venture with Asiatel Pte Ltd, a telecommunications company that provides technical expertise to facilitate IDD calls. Currently, ABC enjoys a vast clientele base from all round Asia and is looking into launching its latest service, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) which allows users from two or more countries to communicate at little or no expense.
Next year, Jiarong plans to pursue another dream – a degree in Asian Studies from the Australian National University. Jiarong is truly a man with big dreams!
Find out more about services offered by Lobangz at
www.lobangz.net |
