#17 - Student Entrepreneurship: Balancing PM, Startups & Leadership
ft. Chen Lexin (Jack) & Choi Yi Hao • 12 December 2025
ft. Chen Lexin (Jack) & Choi Yi Hao • 12 December 2025
Can students really break into PM, lead teams, and build startups at the same time? Jack and Yi Hao show how it’s done. From running OpenMentor.AI and GamifiEd respectively to spearheading NUS Product Club, they share how student builders experiment fast, validate ideas without large resources, and gain credibility in the market as young founders.
No time for the full episode? This blog recap breaks down Jack and Yi Hao’s journeys and the product lessons student founders and aspiring PMs can apply right away.
Timestamps
00:25 Background of Jack and Yi Hao
01:59 Why Product Management?
03:19 Experience with NUS Product Club
07:47 Qualities to succeed as a PM
11:02 Experience as Startup Founders
15:24 Approach to validating Startup ideas
19:52 Building credibility as Student Startup Founders
23:19 Thoughts on embarking on NOC Silicon Valley
28:11 Mini-game: Startup Culture Red Flags & Green Flags
36:44 Risk you wish you had taken earlier
Catch the key moments from this episode below!
In addition to being the current President of NUS Product Club, Jack is a startup founder and product builder who previously interned as a PM at Binance, HiveBotics, and Amber Group. He’s the founder of OpenMentor.AI, a fast-growing student mentorship platform with 1,200+ users. Jack’s journey blends hustle, experimentation, and bold moves — from cold-emailing his way into interviews to launching startups and learning through failure.
Having previously served as a Student Ambassador for both NUS Enterprise and Asian Undergraduate Symposium, Yi Hao joins NUS Product Club as its Vice-President — working closely with Jack to lead our club to greater heights. On top of his commitment to our club, Yi Hao also concurrently runs his own edtech start-up GamifiEd - a social enterprise that aims to gamify STEAM education across Southeast Asia. He is also an associate member of Atlas Private Club, a private community of ambitious and driven individuals from diverse cross-industry backgrounds.