Kent Teo
Founder & CEO of Invade — the experiential events company behind Artbox Singapore, Fleawhere and MOX. Over more than a decade Kent turned flea markets and pop-ups into a creative ecosystem that gives emerging brands a place to begin.
Starting from zero?
Identify the needs of the community you want to serve and create an event that addresses those needs.
Kent’s journey
The full story. The pivots. The lessons. One path among many.
What Kent started with
It started as a habit rather than a business plan: he was the one organising orientation camps and student parties at school, and the idea for Invade came out of that plus his wife's love of art and night markets. He began in 2010 with markets and pop-ups — a format that needs a venue, stallholders and a weekend rather than capital — and grew it into a company of more than forty people over the following decade.
Every founder starts from a different place. Use this to calibrate — not to compare.
Camps and parties
Before
At school he ran the orientation camps and the student parties. The satisfaction of getting a crowd into a room is the thread that runs through everything since.
Battle stories
The hard moments that shaped Kent.
A business that needs crowds
There was no remote version of a night market, and no quarter in which to wait it out.
Indoors
Artbox came back in February 2023 as an indoor festival at Singapore Expo, co-organised with SGAG — a weatherproof, capacity-managed version of the same idea.
Advice from Kent
Prioritizing Community Needs
Focus on creating meaningful experiences that address the needs of your target community, rather than just focusing on logistics or profits.
Networking and Learning
Be open to new conversations and opportunities, and prioritize networking and learning from others in your industry.
Building a Creative Ecosystem
Create a platform that gives emerging brands a place to begin, and focus on building a community that values creativity and innovation.
Ask Kent a question
We review questions and bring the best ones to Kent in an upcoming interview.
Most asked
- How did you get your first 100 customers?
- What was your biggest financial mistake?
- How much did you really start with?