Fu Yong Hong

Co-founder & CEO, Greendot Group 

BBA, Class of 2014 

While most university students were focused on their studies, Fu Yong Hong, then a second-year student at NUS Business School, was already carving out his path as an entrepreneur. During his school days, he seized the opportunity when a friend invited him to start a business together. Drawing on his friend’s vegetarian lifestyle, they aimed to make vegetarian food more accessible and appealing to a broader audience. 

Together, they launched a vegetarian stall at Singapore’s Temasek Polytechnic. But his road to success was far from smooth.  

As he had to juggle academic responsibilities with the demands of running a business, Yong Hong often had to sacrifice time spent on coursework to help out at the stall. Additionally, with no prior cooking experience, he was often faced with the daunting challenge of learning to cook from scratch, a task that tested his resilience and adaptability. He recounted this period as most gruelling, shuttling between school and his stall, earning a mere $500 a month. He was plagued with moments of doubt and the temptation to give up. 

But he persevered. His determination and relentless efforts eventually paid off as business started to pick up. Subsequently, his business grew – what began as a modest campus venture quickly expanded into shopping malls, evolving into a successful business with over ten outlets islandwide. Through this journey, Yong Hong emerged as a promising young entrepreneur, introducing a vibrant new perspective on vegetarian food to the F&B industry. 

There was a time when he encountered a new challenge: how to effectively manage and expand Greendot. Luckily, he was able to acquire relevant knowledge from his business course back when he was a student at NUS, especially in management and entrepreneurship, and apply these learnings to the issues he faced in his business. 

Today, Yong Hong frequently returns to NUS Business School as a guest speaker, sharing his experiences and insights with current students. He aims to inspire and mentor them on their entrepreneurial journeys, encouraging them to find purpose and meaning in their work while building sustainable businesses.