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Startup Grind hosts Burpple’s Dixon Chan: how a CEO’s food cravings led to startup success

Have you ever encountered those craving moments for your favourite meal and had no idea where and how to find them?.
Moments like these are pretty crucial as your mood is defined by the food that you eat! Or so most foodies would say.

Well, unsatisfied cravings came as a blessing in disguise for one particular individual who goes by the name of Dixon Chan.

As an alumnus of the NUS Overseas College, Dixon spent a year working in Silicon Valley and read entrepreneurship at Stanford University. It was there that Dixon and his friends had a lightbulb moment of helping foodies find good places to eat after they had cravings for “kopi siew dai” and “roti prata”, but didn’t know where to find them.

Today Dixon, co-founder and CEO of Burpple, drives the company’s vision, strategy and growth as it builds an online world revolving around hospitality, with a mission to bring enjoyment to both people and businesses.

We were excited to host this Startup Grind session at our JustCo co working space at 120 Robinson Road on 15th May.

Watch a clip from the session here to hear some insight from Burpple’s Dixon Chan:

Designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs, Startup Grind is a global startup community which strongly believes in connecting and helping founders, entrepreneurs and startups both online and offline. By helping fuel innovation, economic growth and prosperity at the local level, they make startup journeys a tad less lonely and definitely more memorable.

But of course, this session would not be complete without the help of our amazing moderator, Ginny from GorillaSpace, where they believe in accompanying businesses, companies, freelancers and digital nomads at every stage of their growth by providing office spaces.

Like how the saying goes, “dinner is better when we eat together”, a scrumptious dinner spread welcomed the attendees as they enjoyed their food while networking prior to the session.

How appropriate for attendees to recover from their epicurean galore listening to Dixon sharing his journey with Burpple, how he prioritizes his team before product and business, and of course his passion for food!

We learnt that Burpple is all about community and helping others. What makes Burpple different from its competitors is that they believe in inspiring people to start sharing and not only focusing on reviews. Hence the reason why they don’t have a rating system.

For those who are curious on how Burpple got its first users – 2500 to be exact – it was the famous local coffee infographic, which went viral. No doubt about it, their guerilla marketing was definitely a success and since then Burpple have not looked back.

Dixon takes pride and emphasized on Burpple’s culture, which has 3 important values – care, setting the right expectations and showing appreciation.

The takeaway of the whole session which startups can keep in mind, is to know the purpose behind each business and company.

Smiles and contentment were written all over the attendees’ faces as their tummies were well filled and inspiration filled their mind and soul.

Thank you, Startup Grind, GorillaSpace and Dixon of Burpple for a truly inspiring and enjoyable evening.