A peek at life in NUS -- through the
eyes of a start-up boss

By Wesley A Oxenham

Student, Master’s Programme in Architecture COO & Founder of Peekspy, a startup company he established with his brother, Oliver Oxenham, who graduated from NUS in Computer Science.

The author making a presentation on an architectural project in NUS.

I COME from Mauritius, from a modest family. I did my secondary studies in a school called College du Saint-Esprit which is located in the town of Quatre-Bornes where I lived. NUS was my choice and I am grateful to Singapore for the opportunity given to international students and also largely thankful to my parents who sacrificed much to give me the opportunity to go and study abroad.

The first year in NUS was very tough for me and I almost took the decision to go back to my country. Coming from a quite laid back country with a totally different culture, it was very difficult for me in the beginning to adapt to the fast pace of Singapore, mainly in studies. Fortunately after a year I got used to the culture and manage to compete with the other students. In fact, slowly this blend of Singapore and Mauritius culture helped me largely. Because of this unique blend, I believe I had a totally different approach in my architecture design projects. This unique aesthetic element was often what my professors were looking for. After my 4th year I successfully qualified for the master’s programme which I expect to continue in August 2009.

From leftt: My dad Clive, my brother, Steven and my mum Ariane

Singapore to me has always been and will always remain a country of opportunities. I believe that from Singapore it is easier to make a difference in the world, whether through business or any other area. I have chosen the business sector. One of the reasons why I started my company Peekspy was that I wanted to pay back my entire studies and loans before I complete my studies. I wanted to help my parents and my little brother who will be going for university next year – hopefully also to NUS.

When I started my business, I only had the idea. The struggle, like for all other start-ups, was to find the resources to make it happen, especially while still doing my study. The concept of a start-up looks exciting from the outside. But inside, it's a lot of hard work. I had to make sure that the people who join my company are ready for that. Eventually I managed to find the necessary resources and the right people. Today, I can say that I can see the fruits of the sacrifices made during the previous years. Different from the majority of start-ups where the first year is mainly for product development, my start-up company developed quite fast. We sold our first product only two months after registering the company and today we are establishing partnerships with overseas companies.

Overcoming Crisis

Like all other companies, I believe that Peekspy will be affected by the financial and economic crisis in the world today. We are highly aware of this reality and we are planning to expand around the crisis. For example, one of the sectors we will be exploring is advertising. However in the advertising industry, many companies, mainly the big ones, will be cutting cost as a consequence of the crisis. But cutting cost also means that those companies will try to find other ways for cheaper (yet good) types of advertising mediums. This is essentially how we look at it and try to come up with new creative ideas to target the advertising industry.

Similarly for shop owners who will not be able to sustain their business as a consequence of the crisis may have to close down their shop. However, they will still be able to sell online and Peekspy will provide them with various 3-D online shopping applications to allow them to sell in a simple, convenient and fun way.

A review of the NUS Library 3D tour was also featured on Google Earth Blog. Click below to view the NUS library 3D Tour.

 Click here.