Time Auction gives young entrepreneurs access to some of Hong Kong's leading tycoons while also arranging thousands of volunteer hours for charities
It’s no surprise to hear that entrepreneur Aaron Lee grew up in California. From the Generation T lister’s relaxed approach to office wear to his infectious enthusiasm for technology, he could be a poster boy for millennials from the Golden State.
But Lee hasn’t always felt part of that privileged tribe. “I was born in Hong Kong but my family moved to the US when I was a child,” he explains. “I was a minority there. As an Asian kid living in the suburbs, I was probably one out of 200 kids who were different. I was smaller—I was bullied. But I always learned to fight back and I learned from being different. In life today, what that means is that with everything I do, I’m disrupting the bigger guy. With my businesses, I’m picking fights with the bigger guy.”
And in the corporate world, Lee has always punched above his weight. He started his first business, an events company called Extravaganza, at the age of 17. While bartending at one of Extravaganza’s parties, Lee met Danny Yeung, the founder of Groupon Hong Kong. The pair hit it off and Lee was soon director of the e-commerce site. He was just 22. Lee didn’t stop there. He left Groupon in 2013 to found a string of other companies, including Snapask, an app that pairs students with tutors, and Dash Serviced Suites, a chain of affordable serviced apartments.
These businesses are still growing, but Lee has also turned his attention to giving back. He’s now strategic adviser to Time Auction, a charity that asks leading business people to donate an hour of their time—usually over a meal—to meet aspiring entrepreneurs looking for mentors. But instead of paying for the privilege, mentees earn their seat at the meeting by clocking up hours volunteering for local charities. Most meals require the mentees to have volunteered for at least 10 hours.
