Hey friends,

Last week I shared my story of going from physics to data science. Well... That's just Part 1 of the story.

In today's issue, I want to share Part 2 of the story on how I ended up quitting my job (after working for 3 years in data science) to build a startup - Staq.

P.S. You'll be surprised how I ended up building a startup. 😂

My 1st Job - Research Engineer at Titansoft

In June 2018, I started my first full-time job at Titansoft as a research engineer. It was a mid-size company in Singapore. The project was, by far, one of the most interesting ones I've worked on so far to understand human behaviour using machine learning.

Because of the Agile culture, I learned the Agile framework as we worked together with a scrum master on our projects, including daily standup, weekly sprint, Kanban board, and weekly Agile retrospective meetings for collective improvements.

4 months after, I left to join Micron because I wanted the experience of working for a big company. Most importantly, I wanted to explore as much as possible when I was young to truly find what I loved to do.

My 2nd Job - Data Scientist at Micron

Turned out that joining Micron is one of my best decisions so far. Throughout my 2-years period at Micron, I was grateful to have worked with some of the most talented people in data science, learned how to manage projects and work with various stakeholders.

I also learned firsthand how to build end-to-end data science solutions in an organisation, from understanding business needs, defining problems and KPIs, getting data, cleaning and analysing data, to developing and deploying machine learning models at scale.

🤠 My Freelance Data Science Projects with Startups

You see. I had always wanted to venture outside my full-time job to do what I love, build my data science skills, help other organisations, and make some money along the way.

So I chanced upon some opportunities to work with startups on freelance data science projects in the space of crypto, lending, HR, comic, and corporate workshops.

I still remember the first time I got paid when working with a lending startup.

Although the amount was not big, the impact on me was significant. I realised that I can actually monetise my skills and potentially build a business around it. That realisation itself is life-changing.

I then started exploring how to build a business. So I joined a startup called Hackwagon to learn how to build a startup.

My 3rd Job - Data Science Instructor at Hackwagon

There were 2 main reasons why I joined Hackwagon:

• I loved teaching and wanted to improve my communication skills.

• I wanted to experience working at a startup and learn how to build a startup.

The startup environment was fast-paced and way messier than I imagined.

But guess what? I enjoyed the chaos. 😂

I loved working with a team of talented people to achieve our common goals. I loved teaching and got tons of satisfaction when I was able to have a positive impact on students.

Most importantly, I learned how to deal with uncertainties and figure things out - something that I'd never have learned in a typical corporate job.

😳 I quit my job to build a startup

After working with companies of different sizes and doing freelance projects with other startups, I found my passion in working at startups to build something people want and impact millions of people using technology and data.

That's the main reason why I left Hackwagon and joined an incubator program by Entrepreneur First to find a co-founder and build a startup together.

It has been almost 1 year ever since I embarked on this startup journey.

Did I regret my decision to build a startup? Nope.

Is the journey tough and challenging? Yes.

Do I love what I'm doing? Hell yeah.

At the end of the day, building a startup is extremely risky, and physically as well as emotionally draining.

Would Staq be able to make it? Probably.

Would Staq have a high chance of failing? Probably.

Regardless of the outcome, here's the quote I always, always keep close to my heart and soul.

🚀 Whenever you’re ready, there are 4 ways I can help you:

1. Book a coaching call with me if you need help in the following:

2. Promote your brand to ~1000 subscribers in the data/tech space by sponsoring this newsletter.

3. Watch my YouTube videos where I talk about data science tips, programming, and my tech life (P.S. Don’t forget to like and subscribe 💜).

4. Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter for more data science career insights, my mistakes and lessons learned from building a startup.

That's all for today

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed today's issue. More than that, I hope it has helped you in some ways and brought you some peace of mind.

You can always write to me by simply replying to this newsletter and we can chat.

See you again next week.

- Admond