Cover Rusydi Khairul, CEO of Reactor School
Rusydi Khairul, CEO of Reactor School
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Led by co‑founder and CEO Rusydi Khairul, Reactor School cultivates entrepreneurial mindsets, equipping youth with the skills and opportunities to tackle global challenges
The entrepreneurial climate in Singapore is flourishing like never before. According to the 2024 Global Startup Ecosystem Report by Startup Genome and the Global Entrepreneurship Network, the city has displaced Beijing as the top ecosystem for start‑ups in Asia. The numbers are staggering: Singapore is currently home to more than 4,500 tech start‑ups, 400 venture capital firms, and 240 accelerators, venture builders and incubators. But this has not always been the case. This vibrant start‑up ecosystem is, in large part, thanks to accelerators and incubators such as Reactor School. Co‑founded by chief executive officer Rusydi Khairul in 2012, as a side project while he was still a chemistry and biological chemistry major at Nanyang Technological University, it is dedicated to nurturing next‑gen global founders under 30.
“I think the education system is broken,” says Rusydi, who eventually decided to run the school full‑time after a stint at Spring Singapore post‑graduation, where he worked on business excellence initiatives helping small and mid‑sized enterprises develop management systems to scale and grow. “A lot of students are good with pen‑and‑paper testing, but find it difficult to build something from scratch. Entrepreneurship education is a way to get students comfortable with uncertainty.”
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Reactor School operates as an entrepreneurship ecosystem builder. “We help students turn their ideas into projects, and then their projects into companies. We work with high schools and universities to design entrepreneurship programmes, and collaborate with early‑stage venture capital funds to invest in start‑ups,” Rusydi explains.
It now runs programmes in 17 cities across the Asia‑Pacific region. Its current challenge, he shares, is scaling sustainably. “This means finding the right people to lead our teams overseas, and developing partnerships with government agencies, universities and venture capital funds so that we can scale up,” he posits.
Earlier this year, Reactor School and Khmer Enterprise, a unit under Cambodia’s Ministry of Economy and Finance that supports its entrepreneurial landscape, officially launched Startup LaunchPad. This is a comprehensive platform tailored to the needs of budding Cambodian entrepreneurs, and offers the resources needed for success by leveraging the expertise of entrepreneurs‑ and investors‑in‑residence as part of the programme design. “We’re now in the midst of rolling out the entrepreneurship programmes to 25 universities all across the country,” Rusydi shares.
Reactor School’s overseas outreach includes designing multi‑year programmes with universities and government agencies to develop founders and entrepreneurs. These include hackathons, where students build a start‑up over a weekend, and incubator programmes lasting three to six months. With Southeast Asia presenting a vast market for its student founders, the school also aims to help them leverage these opportunities. “We have market access programmes to help start‑ups expand, like bringing our Vietnam founders to Singapore to raise funds, or our Singapore founders to Thailand to find business partners,” Rusydi elaborates.
On youth entrepreneurship in the region, Rusydi says that it is “growing from multiple different angles”. According to him, more students are considering start‑ups and entrepreneurship as viable career options. The number of family offices investing in start‑ups has also grown tremendously over the past five years. Large companies are building corporate venture capital funds as well, and alumni are starting their own ventures.
“Much like in Silicon Valley, we’re seeing a similar trend in Southeast Asia,” he expounds. “Companies like Grab, Gojek and Zalora are fostering this movement, with former employees leaving to build their own start‑ups, which is great for the ecosystem.” Reactor School was recently announced as one of nine national chapters in the Unesco Entrepreneurship Education Network, which was expanded to strengthen regional collaboration and innovation in entrepreneurship education. “It’s a three‑year term under Unesco and we’re the chapter lead for Singapore. We’ll be working with various organisations and agencies to serve as a national coordinating body for entrepreneurship education here, sharing best practices with our peers around the region,” says Rusydi, adding that the school “will present a Master Plan at a summit in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, later this year”.
Reactor School believes in starting student founders early. As Rusydi explains: “We try to get them started in high school, [so] when they go to university, they can fully utilise the resources available. Many founders start working on their ideas just as they’re graduating, missing out on incubator resources and research opportunities at the university.” To date, the school has amassed an alumni network of 10,000 to 12,000 students—an expected number, considering a weekend hackathon can involve 100 to 200 university students. “In terms of start‑ups we’re still actively in contact with [or] still growing, we have 81 across the entire region,” Rusydi notes.
Among the success stories is Stick ’Em, which creates Steam (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) education kits using 3D‑printed straws and chopsticks. “This reduces the cost of Steam kits, making them accessible to rural schools that don’t have access to Lego,” Rusydi says. “Another success is Augmentus, which works on robotic process automation to reduce the cost of implementing automated robotics in manufacturing. It’s cool, deep tech, and relevant for Asian firms in manufacturing.
What sets Reactor School apart from similar set‑ups is its belief in an open innovation ecosystem. “We have dedicated [post‑programme initiatives] abroad for graduates [because] what they do after the programme is just as important, if not more so,” shares Rusydi. “We can also mobilise funds because we work with early‑stage venture capitalists. We’re fortunate, too, that we have a pool of alumni who are now giving back and mentoring the next generation. Our millennial founders are now angel investing in our Gen Z founders, which is fun.”
Reactor School is currently working on two major initiatives. One is EntreConference, its premier international programme, which allows young founders to discover global markets, understand different business cultures and connect with international start‑up ecosystems. “We’re planning between 10 and 15 trips this year, from Shanghai and Shenzhen to Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok and Jakarta. The second initiative is the Global Startup Builder Summit. Last year, we brought government agencies and university incubators to three cities in South Korea: Jeju, Seoul and Incheon. This year, we’re scaling up the numbers, and inviting partners from Europe and the Asia‑Pacific region,” Rusydi enthuses
Reflecting on Singapore’s entrepreneurship education today, Rusydi believes its quality has significantly improved. “There are now many schools, not just at the university but also the secondary level, focusing on different facets of entrepreneurship. Some secondary schools focus on green entrepreneurship, including sustainability, the circular economy and ecotourism. Additionally, some universities have launched venture building programmes where students can collaborate with career professionals to build start‑ups,” he says. “None of this existed 10 years ago.”
Rusydi also highlights the increasing number of savvy angel investors. “They mobilise funds much faster than traditional venture capital firms. It’s a sign that our ecosystem is also maturing,” he notes. “As competition increases, start‑ups need to be more nimble.”
As Reactor School continues to expand and innovate, it remains steadfast in its commitment to nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurs. “Our mission statement is cultivating the galaxy’s best young founders. We want to be the first and lasting touch point for any student with entrepreneurial ambition,” he concludes.
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Credits
Photography: Frenchescar Lim
Grooming: Benedict Choo
Nafeesa Saini is the Features Editor at Tatler Singapore, where she shapes long-form stories on culture, business, philanthropy, wellness, and the people driving change in Asia. With a deep interest in storytelling that intersects meaningfully with identity and impact, she has profiled a diverse range of visionaries, from scientific pioneers in AI and health to creative trailblazers and literary minds.
Nafeesa’s writing includes cover stories and profiles that spotlight influential voices, alongside commentary on the trends reshaping our world.
Off the clock, Nafeesa unwinds with fiction, a good thrift hunt, and ‘brainrot’ TikTok scroll—while always keeping one eye on her next cultural getaway, usually to Indonesia.
