By SGN | Updated 2 Aug 2024
During his teenage years in Bangkok – where his family had moved due to his father’s work – Isaac was a big fan of Apple products and religiously tuned in to Steve Jobs’s keynote presentations.
When the first iPhone was launched in 2007, Isaac Lim was inspired to teach himself iOS development. This first foray into software engineering, as well as his Computer Science education at Carnegie Mellon University, propelled him on a path to Silicon Valley, where after a decade of working with tech companies like Airbnb, Isaac and his wife decided to move back to Singapore to be closer to family and to provide their child with a high-quality bilingual education. Singapore is a country where students rank the highest globally in reading, mathematics, and science.
Living the Silicon Valley dream
Isaac’s wishes soon came true. Post-graduation, he moved to the Bay Area with his now-wife, who is originally from Beijing and is currently a Staff Software Engineer.
Beyond the material perks of endless free food and vending machines dispensing headphones and Apple keyboards, Isaac says it was thrilling to work with the smartest people and build apps that impact millions of people around the world.
The biggest milestone came in December 2020, when Isaac witnessed Airbnb making its public debut. “Just watching the Nasdaq bell ring with the Airbnb ticker on it was very emotional for me,” he recalls. “It felt like a recognition of all our years of hard work.”
Looking for a change of environment
But Airbnb’s IPO wasn’t the only momentous event to occur that year for Isaac. Just a few months earlier, he and his wife welcomed their first child.
“When our son was born, our worldview – and the amount of sleep we got – changed drastically. We started thinking a lot more about the environment we wanted to raise him in,” he recalls.
By mid-2021, the couple decided to relocate to Singapore so their son could grow up close to family and in an Asian environment while experiencing a rigorous bilingual education. “We feel that the Singapore education system achieves a good balance between strong academics and character-building,” he explains.
Although the move was beset by several delays – a six-month wait for a quarantine spot for their Labrador Retriever; a four-month hold-up in shipping their belongings; a global surge in Omicron infections – Isaac and his wife were relieved to eventually make it on to a 17-hour flight in March 2022, together with their one-year-old and their dog, bound for Singapore.
To accommodate such unforeseen hurdles, Isaac’s advice to others who are relocating is to start planning early and to join an overseas community like Singapore Global Network, which he finds helpful for exchanging tips and ideas.
As they settled into a new life in Singapore, the family had to acclimatise to the heat, humidity and rain and get used to the big indoor crowds, but they love the vibrancy of the city and the abundance of family-friendly activities, from cycling at East Coast Park to children’s exhibits at the National Gallery.
“Being back in Singapore was quite surreal at first, since it had been quite a few years,” Isaac says, “but after hearing Singlish again and ordering food at the hawker centre, it felt like I had never left.”
Most of all, he says it’s been wonderful to see their son spending time with his grandparents and to be able to reconnect with old friends, including his buddies from National Service.
Making secondhand the first choice
Upon his return, Isaac joined Carousell Group, the leading recommerce (resale of pre-owned products) business in Greater Southeast Asia and one of Singapore’s newest unicorns. Similar to eBay, Carousell is an online marketplace that facilitates secondhand purchases, with increasing participation among young consumers in the region hoping to reduce waste and support sustainability.
“I led the engineering team that worked on recommerce initiatives to make buying pre-loved items as trusted and frictionless as buying brand-new items, so that secondhand can become the first choice. In turn, this can help us overcome the issue of overconsumption and create a more sustainable world.”
Interestingly, Isaac has always been familiar with the Carousell brand. He became a registered user in year one, back in 2012, after meeting the three co-founders at an NUS booth where they were promoting their new product.
Over the next 10 years, the Group entered seven other markets (Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong) under various brand names and attracted tens of millions of users. The team of engineers Isaac managed was located across Singapore, Taiwan and India.
The cultural diversity of the region has had a huge impact on his work. “Overseeing a geographically distributed team takes a greater understanding of the values and intricacies of different cultures,” Isaac notes. “This is especially critical in a management role, where I hope to build genuine trust with my team members so I can help them grow in their careers.”
Another interesting challenge, Isaac says, has been building not a universal product, but one with localised features that cater to the customer needs and behaviours of each market, be it tweaking payment and shipping methods or customising the way meeting locations are set.
Writing a new chapter with Ascenda
In 2024, Isaac embarked on a new chapter in his career, joining Ascenda as a Director of Engineering. Ascenda is a Singapore-born global company that powers rewards infrastructure for leading financial services, travel brands, and merchants.
With Engineering team members primarily based in Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City, Isaac and his team are focused on the development of customer-facing portals for Ascenda’s clients and merchants, as well as the management of loyalty campaigns.
“As a Director of Engineering, I support my Engineering Managers and Software Engineers as they build world-class products for our customers, and work with other leaders in the company on initiatives that improve our developer experience, and help grow our existing teammates.”
He outlines three key reasons motivating his move to Ascenda.
Firstly, in line with his initial move to Carousell, it has always been Isaac’s goal to work with local companies.
“When I moved back to Singapore from the US, I wanted to be a part of local companies, as I felt I could learn how things are done differently here while bringing my global experience to the table.”
He was also impressed by the calibre of Engineering talent at Ascenda. “I admired this from an external perspective — and validated it now on the inside — that Ascenda has one of the strongest Engineering teams in Singapore. I’m grateful to get to work with and help grow individual contributors and managers who are incredibly smart, motivated, and creative.”
“Last but not least, Ascenda has a great company culture. This was clear since the initial interview conversations, and a very important factor to me.”
“Our four company values of ‘Growth Mindset’, ‘Hands-on Ownership’, ‘Supportive Collaboration’, and ‘Radical Simplicity’ come through in our day-to-day work, allowing us to move quickly together, with everyone laser-focused on business goals.”
While Ascenda faces the typical challenges of a scale-up business – having more impactful initiatives on the roadmap than people to execute them – Isaac is energized by the numerous opportunities and engineering challenges that lie ahead as the team grows.
The emerging Silicon Valley of Asia
On the wider industry landscape, Isaac says Singapore’s tech scene has come a long way. “There’s a fascinating mix of local, homegrown companies like Ascenda and Carousell, and global firms that have established their APAC engineering hubs here. This gives tech talent here a really healthy buffet of choices.
“Singapore is already the Silicon Valley of Asia. It is bustling with innovation, and the large investor pool is very hungry for the next big thing. I believe that all this only stands to multiply in effect over the next few years.”
Isaac offers one piece of advice to tech professionals navigating a relocation for global opportunities.
“It sounds a little bit cheesy, but follow your heart. Don’t feel pressured in either direction. Uprooting yourself is a huge life change that comes with pros and cons, so there’s no such thing as a perfect decision.”
Finally, Isaac would like to appeal to motivated Software Engineers and Engineering Managers to join his growing team at Ascenda.
“As a Singaporean, I’m really proud of what Ascenda has already accomplished so far, and am incredibly excited by the opportunities and interesting engineering challenges that lie ahead of us, as we continue to grow and further our reach on the global stage.”
About Isaac
After ten years of pursuing a tech career at Airbnb in Silicon Valley, Isaac moved back to Singapore with his family in 2022, joining Carousell as a Senior Engineering Manager. Isaac is currently Director of Engineering at Ascenda.
Connect with him here.
