Transcriptly

Built 2nd Startup at 23, Execution was Everything | Intellect Theodoric Chew

EO11:05Added Aug 31, 2026

Today’s story is about Theodoric Chew, the founder of Intellect. Intellect is a mental health platform supporting over 4 million users across more than 100 c...

Watch on YouTube →
Contributed by 刘嘉琪

Transcript

Transcript format

  1. Intro

  2. 00:00Uh I think the trade-off if anything for
  3. 00:01sure would be you know what one goes
  4. 00:03through in college. I I felt I learned
  5. 00:05equally if not more uh in terms of what
  6. 00:08I wanted to acquire. Exposure to a fast
  7. 00:10growing startup looking at how a venture
  8. 00:12builder a VC thinks. I think having a
  9. 00:15huge amount of ambition and a good
  10. 00:17amount of naivity is what helps
  11. 00:19entrepreneurs get started and having
  12. 00:21that dreamer within you helps you do
  13. 00:24things that are bolder one would not
  14. 00:26conventionally take as well. Hi, I'm
  15. 00:29Gdoric Chu, the co-founder and CEO of
  16. 00:31Intellect. We are a mental health care
  17. 00:32company serving and building for
  18. 00:34Asia-Pacific and eventually the world.
  19. 00:36We provide end-to-end mental health
  20. 00:38support from proactive care all the way
  21. 00:40towards coaching, clinical, and distress
  22. 00:43support. We've raised funding from the
  23. 00:44likes of Tiger Global, White Combinator,
  24. 00:47Insignia. To date, we've raised over $30
  25. 00:49million in funding. Well poised to grow
  26. 00:51and scale in the next uh many years to
  27. 00:53come as well.

  28. Chapter 1. Skipping college to start a business

  29. 01:01I would say growing up I always had an
  30. 01:03inkling that I wanted to be an
  31. 01:04entrepreneur. My parents aren't
  32. 01:06entrepreneurs themselves but I always
  33. 01:07been quite inspired by people who have
  34. 01:09built things that they believe in
  35. 01:10themselves. I studied in Raffles
  36. 01:12institution. It's uh I would say the
  37. 01:14leading secondary high school in
  38. 01:16Singapore where many of our greatest
  39. 01:18Singaporeans have been to. I got in from
  40. 01:20the benefit of a great educating system
  41. 01:22and having worked hard to get there as
  42. 01:24well. But as I went through my my years
  43. 01:26studying, what I found out uh for myself
  44. 01:29was that I had a clear want to to build
  45. 01:31to do things and not necessarily go
  46. 01:33through the career path that most of us
  47. 01:36set out to do. But I was quite clear
  48. 01:37that I wanted to build. I want to do
  49. 01:39something that actually I care about
  50. 01:40that I believed in and hence why I
  51. 01:43decided against pursuing you know going
  52. 01:45to to university or college and rather
  53. 01:47chose to uh learn by doing learn by
  54. 01:50joining companies that are have been
  55. 01:52that and learn by doing myself as well.
  56. 01:55First company I started back then was uh
  57. 01:57a digital media platform right where we
  58. 01:59actually gathered thought leaders
  59. 02:01experts CEOs doctors to contribute
  60. 02:03thought leadership pieces expert
  61. 02:05articles to help people learn and grow.
  62. 02:07At the point itself, I I was huge on
  63. 02:09personal growth. You know, think of your
  64. 02:10Tony Robbins, the like that actually
  65. 02:12helps you grow and and develop who you
  66. 02:14are. I was huge on this back then in my
  67. 02:15in my later teenage years and believe
  68. 02:17that many others would benefit from
  69. 02:19consuming such pieces of information as
  70. 02:22well versus just you know etiquette or
  71. 02:24your fun quiz type stuff as well. That
  72. 02:26company back then I would say was very
  73. 02:28very lean. It was entirely bootstrapped.
  74. 02:31We we had a whole network of anything
  75. 02:33from volunteers to part- timerrs to to
  76. 02:36guest writers that all contributed to
  77. 02:38build that network of what we had. In
  78. 02:39the end, I ran the first company for
  79. 02:41about two plus years. At the point in
  80. 02:42time, the biggest challenge was I really
  81. 02:43didn't know what I was doing at a point
  82. 02:45very candidly. I didn't even call it a
  83. 02:47startup. It was a a website platform
  84. 02:49that I was kind of doing. One of the
  85. 02:51core things I would say I I believe in
  86. 02:53it simply doing right. I do believe that
  87. 02:56one does not have and would not have all
  88. 02:58of the knowledge and all the skill sets
  89. 02:59at any point of time. you can be more
  90. 03:00experienced but sitting by doing and
  91. 03:03trying uh one gets there. The challenges
  92. 03:05was the fact that I didn't really know
  93. 03:06what I was going about doing. What I
  94. 03:08took was very logical steps on you know
  95. 03:10finding the right people to work with
  96. 03:12the right content to create the right
  97. 03:13audience that we wanted to reach and
  98. 03:15then things followed through from there
  99. 03:16as

  100. Chapter 2. Learning on the ground and starting up

  101. 03:19well. After exiting my first company
  102. 03:22then I actually spent a few years
  103. 03:23working for other very exciting firms. I
  104. 03:26spent time at startups. I spent time at
  105. 03:28venture builders. the the high level
  106. 03:30intent then was I was quite aware that I
  107. 03:32was a very young individual right I was
  108. 03:34about 19 20 or so and I had very little
  109. 03:37skill sets I had gotten lucky to have
  110. 03:39done something interesting I didn't have
  111. 03:41the experience nor the skills to
  112. 03:43actually build something at a large
  113. 03:44scale if I really wanted to so I decided
  114. 03:46to spend time to go and endeavor and
  115. 03:49find startups that were growing faster I
  116. 03:51could learn from that excited me and and
  117. 03:53that's what I did so following the years
  118. 03:55that I had uh you know doing my first
  119. 03:56company uh I joined a a a Japanese
  120. 03:59travel tech startup called Voyagen that
  121. 04:01actually I led a component of their
  122. 04:03marketing team as well. The company got
  123. 04:05acquired by Rocket which is a huge
  124. 04:07Japanese conglomerate. So that was a
  125. 04:09very eye opening as well right what
  126. 04:10actually happened next after you know
  127. 04:12that have I actually moved towards a
  128. 04:14venture builder sort of a VC venture
  129. 04:16builder firm called that was the next
  130. 04:18chapter of my own journey as well I
  131. 04:20wouldn't say there was uh particularly
  132. 04:22regret or remorse you know going through
  133. 04:24trade journey I was very intentional
  134. 04:26about the choices I made and what I
  135. 04:28wanted to pursue and the way I looked at
  136. 04:29it was there were trade-offs in both
  137. 04:31paths right I do strongly believe in a
  138. 04:32good education country with a strong
  139. 04:34education system so I think it's
  140. 04:35fantastic that folks who go to path have
  141. 04:38their own journey there as well. Uh I
  142. 04:40think the trade-off if anything for sure
  143. 04:41would be you know what one goes through
  144. 04:43in college the experience and exposures
  145. 04:45that go with the college experience. At
  146. 04:48the same time I would say for myself I I
  147. 04:50felt I learned equally if not more uh in
  148. 04:52terms of what I wanted to acquire
  149. 04:54exposure to a fast growing startup
  150. 04:56looking at how a venture builder a VC
  151. 04:59thinks and actually doing right learning
  152. 05:01from actually practicing and doing on
  153. 05:03the job as I built my own experiences as
  154. 05:05well. You know after existing my first
  155. 05:07company it was quite clear to me that I
  156. 05:09was going to build something that could
  157. 05:10reach and help and impact more people as
  158. 05:12well. Uh on a personal level mental
  159. 05:14health has always been a very personal
  160. 05:15journey. So something that I went
  161. 05:17through in high school in secondary
  162. 05:18school was actually quite chronic
  163. 05:20ongoing anxiety. I struggled with
  164. 05:21anxiety in my teenage years and I
  165. 05:24actually started having panic attacks
  166. 05:25when I was 16. That's when I started to
  167. 05:27see a therapist. So and what I remember
  168. 05:29quite clearly was my very first therapy
  169. 05:32session was one of the most cathartic
  170. 05:34experiences I had. If people knew how
  171. 05:36helpful therapy was, everybody would be
  172. 05:38actually doing it. There was a national
  173. 05:40survey actually done pre- pandemic in
  174. 05:42Singapore. One of the key stats that
  175. 05:44stand out quite scarily to me is that
  176. 05:46there is a 4 to 7year treatment gap of
  177. 05:48mental health support and care. That
  178. 05:50means to say if someone's actually
  179. 05:51mentally unwell and needing care, they
  180. 05:53waited 4 to 7 years before they got that
  181. 05:56care. And that's for those that actually
  182. 05:57eventually got the care, which is a
  183. 05:58scary long and and and delayed period of
  184. 06:01time if you think about it from a
  185. 06:02physical health point of view. So it's a
  186. 06:04huge huge issue and and if you look at
  187. 06:06it from a outcomes perspective as well.
  188. 06:08Asia many of the fastmoving cities have
  189. 06:10some of the highest suicide rates as
  190. 06:12well. So the problem is extremely clear
  191. 06:14and extremely real. I mean from a from a
  192. 06:15top down perspective the mental health
  193. 06:17market across the world and even Asia is
  194. 06:19in the tens of billions of dollars. We
  195. 06:20believe this market not from our belief
  196. 06:23but it is growing annually in double
  197. 06:25digit percentage rates as well. So fast
  198. 06:27forward years later into 2019, mental
  199. 06:29health was something that I I was quite
  200. 06:31clear was one of the key things I wanted
  201. 06:32to to tackle and solve for. And having
  202. 06:34gone through many more lived
  203. 06:35experiences, uh having seen peers,
  204. 06:37friends and friends of friends gone
  205. 06:39through much much more troubling and
  206. 06:40darker things themselves, a very clear
  207. 06:42thing popped up was how do we actually
  208. 06:44change this? How do you make mental
  209. 06:45health care accessible as well as
  210. 06:48everyday no matter how big or how small
  211. 06:49your issues may be? In the earliest days
  212. 06:52of intellect I in a very very lean setup
  213. 06:55we we actually went about to understand
  214. 06:57mental health what is the problem around
  215. 06:59mental what was the thing that needed to
  216. 07:00be solved for as well and we came to a
  217. 07:03very very simple problem statement
  218. 07:05people in Asia need help they want help
  219. 07:08but they don't know where to start so
  220. 07:09our initial hypothesis is how do we
  221. 07:11bring care to them in a way that it's
  222. 07:13almost extremely uh too simple like
  223. 07:15there there's no reason why one couldn't
  224. 07:16access care that was a simple initial
  225. 07:19hypothesis bringing access to everyone
  226. 07:21first scaling access and then secondly
  227. 07:23getting deeper and deeper in the care
  228. 07:25that we bring as well and hence why and
  229. 07:27like what we do spans across different
  230. 07:29mediums there is self-guided content
  231. 07:31that is anytime anywhere different
  232. 07:32languages we have deeper live virtual
  233. 07:35care we even have crisis support as well
  234. 07:37and we've gone in that journey from
  235. 07:39scaled up care towards deep immersive
  236. 07:42facetoface support as well firstly
  237. 07:44anyone starting at a company is hard no
  238. 07:46matter how I believe how experienced or
  239. 07:47how inexperienced one is there are so
  240. 07:50many uncertainties, so many variables
  241. 07:51that never guarantees anyone's puff. For
  242. 07:53us in particular, mental health, you
  243. 07:55know, when we started the company back
  244. 07:57in 2019, it was a very very nent topic
  245. 08:00particularly so in Asia. Most clients,
  246. 08:02bias, investors were not seeing this as
  247. 08:04a priority for them at a point in time
  248. 08:06as so for us it was really stemming from
  249. 08:08a strong conviction, a belief that
  250. 08:10mental health was not an if but a when.
  251. 08:12Mental health is as important as
  252. 08:13physical health. In many ways, even more
  253. 08:15important sometimes because of how it
  254. 08:17affects all that we do as well. So for
  255. 08:19us the challenge then was how do we
  256. 08:21build the cali? How do we build the
  257. 08:22market? It was a nent space. How could
  258. 08:24we actually convince our first
  259. 08:26investors, users, customers? It was hard
  260. 08:29to convince people to actually meet you
  261. 08:31firstly or even you know want to do a
  262. 08:33pilot and trial review rather as well.
  263. 08:35So much less finding customers for us.
  264. 08:37The early days were really speaking with
  265. 08:38a lot of individuals anyone from HR
  266. 08:41professionals, clinicians, folks on the
  267. 08:43streets even as well to try and very
  268. 08:45clearly understand what was the problem
  269. 08:46we're trying to solve for. the first 10
  270. 08:48customers a small small pool of people
  271. 08:50to validate and these were early stage
  272. 08:52startup that were happy to actually test
  273. 08:54out and let us know if it worked or not.
  274. 08:56So I would say what worked out well for
  275. 08:57us was actually starting small knowing
  276. 08:59quite clearly the broader vision and
  277. 09:01mission was but starting in smaller
  278. 09:03steps that we could chip away towards
  279. 09:05that larger goal eventually as

  280. Chapter 3. Advice for first-time entrepreneurs

  281. 09:08well. It's been quite a journey. It's
  282. 09:10been it's been not been uh relative
  283. 09:12towards the bigger scheme of things not
  284. 09:14been a huge amount of time but a time
  285. 09:16that a lot has happened at least in in
  286. 09:18my life. So I'll say one of the biggest
  287. 09:20learnings I've had that that I find
  288. 09:22useful and I I keep reminding myself
  289. 09:24time and again is that it helps to have
  290. 09:26a bit of naive in terms of what one one
  291. 09:29has right in terms of what I think is my
  292. 09:31my superpower if I could say it's huge
  293. 09:34ambitiousness in terms of what I believe
  294. 09:36one can actually achieve and that has
  295. 09:38actually for better or for worse guided
  296. 09:39me into taking the steps I have taken
  297. 09:41from you know not going to pursue higher
  298. 09:43education starting a startup and and
  299. 09:45doing what we have today as well. I
  300. 09:47think having a huge amount of ambition
  301. 09:49and a good amount of naivity is what
  302. 09:51helps entrepreneurs get started and
  303. 09:53having that dreamer within you helps you
  304. 09:56do things that are bolder that one would
  305. 10:00not conventionally take as well. So I
  306. 10:02would say in terms of what my advice is
  307. 10:04for people aspiring to be entrepreneurs
  308. 10:06young or old as well definitely possible
  309. 10:08right I'll encourage those who are
  310. 10:10interested to try to definitely give it
  311. 10:11a shot. I I I do fundamentally believe
  312. 10:13that there is no better time in our
  313. 10:15history for one to actually start a
  314. 10:17company to have the amount of access to
  315. 10:19information and reach of audiences than
  316. 10:22than ever before with the internet and
  317. 10:23with with all that's happening.
  318. 10:25Definitely try but definitely expect
  319. 10:26that outcomes may differ from people to
  320. 10:28people. I don't I don't think that
  321. 10:30everyone is born or meant to be an
  322. 10:32entrepreneur but I think everyone
  323. 10:33definitely can try cuz if anything one
  324. 10:35learns massively from this experience in
  325. 10:38many cases one can actually impact a lot
  326. 10:40more people as well. So I do believe
  327. 10:43fundamentally there's many paths towards
  328. 10:44one defines as fulfillment or or even
  329. 10:46success as well. And this is the path
  330. 10:48that I've taken but there will be many
  331. 10:49more that people can actually take on to
  332. 10:51to achieve what they want to do as well.
  333. 10:54[Music]