Julian Tan is the CEO and Founder of FastCo, which aims to uplift the livelihoods of underserved jobseekers by providing equal access to job opportunities in SEA through technology. They run FastJobs, the region's largest non-executive job portal and FastGig, a flexi-work platform.

FastCo raised a $7.5M USD ($10.5M SGD) Series A in 2022 and intends to accelerate their growth in the regional markets as the economies recover from the COVID pandemic.

👋🏼 How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?

We help underserved jobseekers by enabling greater accessibility to jobs through our innovative solutions and services.

🧐 What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

I started my career as a Broadcast Journalist and traveled across the region to cover stories on the economic impact of the Asian Financial Crisis on Southeast Asians.

🏆 What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

In my previous role as the CEO of 701Search, I built SEA's largest online classifieds company, growing the business from a startup in a single location to a leading marketplace in Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. The company was acquired by Telenor and subsequently merged with Carousell.

🔍 What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?‍

Hiring is ramping up across sectors that are reopening due to restrictions lifting. However, there is definitely a paradigm shift in terms of what employees are looking for, and employers are evaluating how they can adapt to this new norm.

We see the potential for businesses looking at developing a blended workforce, combining permanent staff and gig workers to help them scale up or down to meet seasonal peaks and troughs.

💼 What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry?

If you have the opportunity, step out of your comfort zone and take on a regional role. To be successful, startups need to go regional, and they would require talent with regional experience.

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🗣 What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours?

Soccer. I'm still going on and on about the World Cup 2022 Final, which is certainly the most exciting final I've watched!

🎥 What's your favorite movie/TV show?

Star Wars. I grew up watching the three original movies and, over the years, enjoyed the new movies, and spin-offs added to the franchise.

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🍨 What's your go-to ice cream flavor?‍

I'm an ice cream and durian lover, so it'll be mao shan wang ice cream for me!