Douglas Gan
| Douglas Gan (颜義东) | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
August 3, 1983 Singapore |
| Residence | Singapore, Indonesia, Japan |
| Nationality | Singaporean |
| Alma mater | Ngee Ann Polytechnic |
| Occupation | Co-Founder, CEO and Chairman of Vanitee |
| Years active | 1997–present |
| Spouse(s) | Kanna Kawaguchi |
| Parent(s) | Richard Gan, Mary Jane Tan |
| Website | Douglas Gan Twitter account |
Douglas Gan 颜義东 (born 3 August 1983) is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Vanitee, and additionally serves as a co-founder and director of iFashion Group. He is also an angel investor investing in startups in Southeast Asia.
Between 1997 and 2016, he founded 5 companies which are all sold to MNCs.
His accolades include being named as SCS Young Professional of The Year, Top 25 Outstanding Alumni Award in Technopreneurship
Gan is a school dropout who started his first business attempt at the age of four when he was still in kindergarten. He sold toy cars for $2 apiece and later, he was selling marbles, bubble gums, chewing gums, stickers, stamps and Dragon Ball Cards. Gan amassed a small fortune of $15,000 by 11. At 12, he started selling Magic: The Gathering Card Games and he made more than $20,000 throughout his secondary school education of 4 years.
Gan's first actual business was incorporated by his mother. In an article in The New Paper, he is quoted as saying: "She became my admin assistant and my accountant. She was with me every step of the way."
In 2008, Gan founded ShowNearby, a location based mobile application that won multiple awards in Asia. ShowNearby's private investors pulled out investing during the Financial crisis of 2007–2008. Within 2 weeks, Gan partner with Microsoft BizSpark to save hosting costs using Microsoft Azure.
With no further investments, a Global Financial Crisis, bankruptcy seemed imminent, but Gan managed to turn the company around and got further funding from Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) in August 2009. Later, ShowNearby became a high-profile mobile app in Singapore with over 20,000 mobile users per day. and the Top 3 Apps in Singapore on the Google Play.
In 2010, ShowNearby was acquired by Global Yellow Pages.
In 2012, Gan founded VanityTrove, a beauty sampling business. Gan led VanityTrove on an acquisition spree, acquiring 4 beauty sampling businesses in Southeast Asia and by August 2013, VanityTrove acquired Glamybox, a beauty sampling business in Vietnam
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