Singaporeans are willing to give you a chance if you have "The Focus" | Jeremy Tan - E704
episodePreviously titled “Singaporeans are willing to give you chance if you have "The Focus" | Jeremy Tan - E704” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026
BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)
53 min
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 15 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Why did Jeremy Tan decide to run as an independent in Mountbatten SMC?
I said I'm not sure if I can give the next generation dignity, basically for a child to have this self-developer dignity. And I speak from the perspective of I'm not sure, I'm not certain. If you do not start having these conversations, people will come for the people that protect your capital.
Welcome to Brave. Learn from Southeast Asia's best tech leaders. Build the future, learn from our past, and stay human in between. No BS on Success. I'm Jeremy O, Venture Capitalist, Sierra founder, Harvard MBA, science fiction nerd, and dad of two daughters. Every week, we debate startup news, interview change makers, answer listener questions, and share personal insights. Join our movement of over 40,000. Members and get transcripts, resources, and community at www.bravesea.com. Stay well and stay brave. Hey, really excited to have you, Jeremy on the show. So why don't you introduce yourself?
Yeah. Well, on the anniversary of uh losing an election, um uh field politician. I used to do some business, used to do some charity stuff on the side. But overall, just a Singaporean. Personally I try not to take myself too seriously. I think uh when you do that you tend to let good people uh not open up as much as they should. Like I feel like uh if you want people to really tell you what they feel. It's way too hard to be like setting boundaries so quickly, conversationally, all that. So I think that's what I try to do with my election campaign. And that's who I am in real life.
What motivated you to run?
I I personally don't like to see politics become a point of like you have this title, oh you came from this family. That's the whole point of having your vote, right? You are trying to have a society that includes and improves. Yeah. Well yeah, if no money, uh the best teacher. My feet you just don't know how to have airs. I think the system itself requires a high level of uh competition. Like if uh team two and team three is ready, your team one will always be good. Right and I think in recent years, when things are getting tougher, we're talking about wars, we're talking about inflation, talking about identity politics. I feel like it's a duty and also uh fortunate calling if I'm able to serve. But at the same time, team one will never be ready unless team two and team three is pushing them to be ready.
Right. And it's easy for people when you have some level of material success or comfort or safety. It's easy for people in those positions to be like, let's not rock the boat too much. But maybe I think for some people out there they just don't feel that way that we are on the skimboat. Right. Yeah. And we generally love the government. We love the tenniness, the safety and all the stuff like that. But it only got there because of very harsh criticism, very uh good policy making and just the opposition always being at the door being ready, right? 'Cause uh that's the history of a country, right? It shouldn't be a default that you decide not to run. It should be like if this is where that it calls for you, it just calls for you.
Well, it it's actually really interesting because I lived in the US for many years and if you talk to American children and you say, What do you want to be when you grow up? And not insignificant percentage will say, President of the United States
Yeah.
But when you talk to Singaporean children, I've never met a Singaporean child yet who's like, you know what? I want to be prime minister. They'll say, uh, YouTube influencer, doctor, lawyer, whatever. All those other things. And I think maybe we don't really think about politics as a natural sort of thing one can aspire to. You're just like, hey man, I should do it. Like give us a little peek into that process.
Yeah, I it's actually quite funny. During the election people were saying like Man, I really love to complain. I don't even like you, but you actually went to go and run. But they were saying stuff like that. It's quite funny as well. I consider you kind of tell me if it's like I I really feel very interested in politics. I really wanna do it.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why did Jeremy Tan decide to run as an independent in Mountbatten SMC?
0:22–8:11
2
What cultural and systemic factors prevent Singaporeans from entering politics?
8:11–14:37
3
How did AI‑driven layoffs and the pandemic shape his decision to run?
14:37–19:45
4
What does Jeremy see as the new political meta in Singapore?
19:45–25:52
5
Why did negative campaigning backfire and what were the main criticisms he faced?
25:52–32:21
6
How does he explain Singapore’s fertility crisis and the role of housing affordability?
32:21–39:50
7
What are his three concrete policy proposals: housing, school affiliation, and baby‑equity accounts?
39:50–45:24
8
What are his thoughts on capital concentration, the sandwich generation, and the next steps after the loss?
45:24–53:03
Speakers
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