Clinton Li, SUSS Marketing Student and founder of Orama and Hatch Dev Asia.
Clinton Li, SUSS Marketing Student, is a passionate entrepreneur with vast experience in founding startups such as Orama and Hatch Dev Asia. He has also achieved significant milestones with his marketing and leadership skills, such as representing Singapore at Alibaba Group’s largest start-up competition and emerging as a global finalist in China, winning multiple entrepreneurship awards and engaging in various public speaking events to inspire youths. Follow his entrepreneurship journey below.
When Clinton was in primary school, he felt a thrill when he first made a sale. While his peers were ecstatic to simply receive items and gifts, he had a burning desire to sell and make profits. He stood out from the crowd, with his interest in marketing and sales psychology.
As Clinton transited to a teenager, he went through a rebellious phase and joined gangs. After his grandmother’s death in 2011, Clinton reflected on his purpose in life and decided that he wanted it to be meaningful. Eventually, he put an end to his rebellious behaviour by picking up his childhood passion for marketing and sales.
In Clinton’s second year of studies in Singapore Polytechnic (SP), he founded Orama, a bunker technology research centre that aims to empower traditional Maritime bunkering companies through Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and data analytics. He was offered a priority place in SUSS to read Marketing and is currently a student, after his impressive pitch at the Alibaba CREATE startup competition.
In 2020, Clinton went on to launch Hatch Dev Asia, a digital branding agency that seeks to empower real estate agents through the power of digital branding, after he noticed that real estate professionals struggle to amplify their branding as more competitors enter the market.
As Clinton sought to understand his client’s unique set of values, he discovered that some clients were resistant to utilise the digital space as they were unfamiliar with the concept and thus preferred traditional marketing. Clinton and his team expended extra effort to educate clients, in addition to developing technologies that help solve their pain points.
Clinton shared his pearls of wisdom with budding entrepreneurs: "My advice for young entrepreneurs would be to take real action. One of the most common issues I’ve observed amongst youth entrepreneurs after years of mentoring and working with them would be inaction. Get out of the school campus, put yourself out there in the real market, face rejections and step out of your comfort zone. It takes a lot of effort to start a business and even more so to run a successful one."
Find out more about Clinton Li's journey as an entrepreneur in Singapore.