Two Hong Kong honourees met at a Gen.T event. Two years later, they started a company together. We talk to Arthur Lam and Nicholas Ho about their new company Negawatt and get them to reveal the dynamics of their special relationship
Some would describe Gen.T honourees Nicholas Ho and Arthur Lam's dynamic as a special relationship. We say: it's a bromance, pure and simple.
The two met at the Gen.T List 2017 Unveiling Event in Hong Kong, when they were both honoured on the list. They reconnected the following year through a chance encounter, both taking shelter from record-breaking Typhoon Mangkhut.
One thing led to another and the two launched engineering tech startup Negawatt in 2019. Combining tech with building services knowledge, Negawatt transforms buildings into smart structures, significantly reducing energy consumption to create "negative watts".
Ho is the chairman of architectural firm HPA, a family business that has a footprint in more than 60 cities worldwide; Lam is the founder of publicly listed energy management firm Synergy Group. Their professional profiles were well matched, they soon discovered. The fact that they got on so well was the icing on the cake.
All of which meant Nicholas and Arthur were the perfect first pair for our new series, Dynamic Duos, where we take a professional pairing and put their relationship under the microscope. We want to see how the dynamics work in successful partnerships, and give co-founders an excuse to ask each other the burning questions they've always wanted to know the answer to.
To host the encounter, we brought the duo back to where they first met, the venue for the 2017 Gen.T event, Duddell's.