Top image: Xue Qi Ow Yeong for RICE Media.
Felix Lee had a dream: To attend Hwa Chong Institution. There wasn’t really a particular reason why he’d set his sights on Hwa Chong. It was prestigious, and he wanted to prove his worth.
To get there, he needed at least 250 points in the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE). Determined, he made a solemn promise to his grandfather—he would hit that score and make him proud.
“This is my big moment,” Felix vividly recalls thinking. “It’s no secret that how your life pans out in Singapore largely depends on what school you attend.”
Optimistic and ambitious, Felix poured his heart into preparing for the exam. But when results day arrived, his world came crashing down—186 points. He wept bitterly, believing his dreams had slipped through his fingers. That day marked a defining moment in young Felix’s life. It was his first big ‘failure’ and it hurt. But a low PSLE score is no life sentence, Felix would come to realise.
He would go on to launch ADPList, a platform that connects ambitious talent with world-class mentors—a feat that would land him on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Asia List. Years after that initial setback, he’s finally achieved success in its most conventional form. But that’s not what has brought him the most fulfilment.
Disrupting the Mentoring Industry
Felix says his classmates likely saw him as “a goofy guy”, the easy-going peer who never took life too seriously. But behind his humour was a young man grappling with feelings of inadequacy.
Even today, as the CEO of global disruptor ADPList, the 27-year-old lacks the airs of a stereotypical big tech boss—the brash, visionary sort who act like they run the world. Instead, he exudes a quiet humility.
What sets Felix apart, he admits, isn’t charisma or connections but his relentless pursuit of purpose. When he finds meaning in something, he commits to it with unshakable dedication.
During the pandemic, as job losses mounted and career uncertainty loomed, Felix spotted an opportunity.
He saw people scrambling to connect with industry leaders and potential mentors. Many were willing to pay thousands for exclusive events. Others struggled (and failed) to gain attention on LinkedIn.
Felix recognised an urgent gap: People weren’t just seeking advice, they were seeking human connection. At the same time, there were others out there willing to share their knowledge as a way to give back to their peers.
It was this observation that sparked the creation of ADPList—originally Amazing Design People List—a global platform designed to bridge the gap between mentors and mentees. But for Felix, ADPList was never just a business venture—it was a mission. Having once felt lost and overlooked himself, he wanted to empower others to take charge of their careers.
“If you don’t know how to get to the next stage of your career, you can find a suitable mentor on ADPList to help you,” he explains.
Unlike traditional mentorship models, which often rely on selective membership and high fees, ADPList is entirely free. Instead of charging a membership fee, the platform draws its revenue from sponsors and advertisers. In a way, Felix is dismantling the old barriers, opening doors that were once closed to all but the privileged few.
Since our schooling days, the importance of networking has been drilled into our brains. Some parents still believe sending their child to an elite school and surrounding them with well-heeled schoolmates will mean a higher chance of success.
But with ADPList, Felix is subverting the exclusivity that often defines professional growth. He’s challenging the notion that career success should be determined by one’s access to elite circles, when mentorship can be as accessible as a conversation.
To be honest, with how competitive and cutthroat the corporate world can be, it’s hard to imagine that many would volunteer their time to mentor others for free. But the community Felix has built proves otherwise. ADPList now operates in over 140 countries, with a network of more than 30,000 mentors from companies like Apple, Disney, Figma, IBM, LinkedIn and Netflix.
Industry leaders such as Julie Zhuo, former VP of Design at Facebook, and bestselling author Nir Eyal have spoken at ADPList events. Ethan Eismann, Slack’s VP of Design, even dubbed ADPList “the Robin Hood of career access.”
While in-person meetups are part of the experience, the true impact happens online, where mentorship conversations happen around the clock. In less than five years, ADPList users have logged over 100 million mentorship minutes.
And with every minute clocked, every connection made, Felix is rewriting the rules of mentorship—proving that knowledge should be shared, not gated.
Reckless Years
Without Felix’s early setbacks, though, ADPList might not have existed.
Felix candidly admits that dramatic as it might sound, the sting of his PSLE ‘failure’ at 12 didn’t just bruise his ego—it shifted his entire outlook on life. He embraced a ‘live for the moment’ mentality, masking his hurt with humour and the distraction of basketball and video games. It was a sort of quiet, self-destructive rebellion.
“To tell you the truth, I had been traumatised by the education system and was hiding it,” he says matter-of-factly.
Then came the wake-up call.
“Felix, you keep laughing in class, even though your grades are like shit,” a teacher scolded. “I know you can do a lot better.”
Those words cut deep, but also acknowledged Felix’s hidden potential. For the first time in years, he felt a fire reignite. His love for learning, long buried under his disillusionment, was rekindled. Maybe, just maybe, he could still make it to polytechnic.
Failure, especially at a young age, can be paralysing. But Felix’s transformation shows that setbacks don’t define one’s future—mindset does. His inadequacies, which he had been concealing and internalising all this time, would soon become the fuel for his ambition.
Felix didn’t just improve—he excelled. Topping his school in the ‘N’ Levels, he earned a scholarship to Singapore Polytechnic.
“I was willing to outwork everyone. I gave up sports, skipped outings—I was fine with being disliked,” admits the speed skater and basketballer.
That same relentless drive propelled him into the world of startups. While still in polytechnic, he and his brother launched Packdat, an online itinerary planner. Within two years, they sold it for $200,000.
With newfound resilience, Felix forged a new path to success, proving that industry influence and entrepreneurial impact aren’t bound by traditional academic pedigree.
“Packdat changed me,” Felix says. It was more than just a business—it was an awakening. The experience gave him firsthand insight into the realities of entrepreneurship and sparked bigger questions:
“Why hasn’t Singapore produced global startups beyond Grab? Why not a company as big as OpenAI?”
Felix set his crosshairs on bolder, riskier ventures—determined to challenge the status quo.
“That moment in secondary school, when I stopped seeing myself as just another student and started seeing myself as a talent, changed everything.”
Now, Felix is on a mission—to ignite that same self-belief in others who, like him, were once overlooked.
Valley Adventure
At just 20, Felix did what few would dare—he booked a one-way ticket to San Jose, California, leaving behind everything familiar.
He had been devouring the biographies of his idols—Jobs, Gates, and Zuckerberg—each of whom credited Silicon Valley as the place that shaped them. Felix was convinced he needed that same experience, that same baptism by fire, to take his ambitions to the next level.
For 30 days, he lived frugally, settling into a spartan hostel and sharing a room with two backpackers.
Each day, he lined up meetings with at least three different tech professionals, cold-messaging them on LinkedIn. Most ignored him. Some dismissed him outright. One venture capitalist even scoffed, “Singaporeans don’t build global companies.”
These words stung, but they also carried an unspoken truth: In a world where success is often defined by networks and reputations, Felix was an outsider.
But rather than discouraging him, the scepticism only added to his determination.
His biggest takeaway? The most successful entrepreneurs weren’t necessarily the smartest or the richest—they were simply the ones unafraid to fail big.
“Singaporeans don’t lack intelligence, talent, or money,” he reflects. “But we prefer to win small. We’re afraid of failing big.”
That revelation became his turning point. If he wanted to build something truly game-changing, he had to be willing to risk everything. He would have to shed his fear of failure entirely. It was the only way forward.
Democratising Knowledge
Felix has poured sleepless nights, weekends, and his own savings into ADPList—he declines to reveal the exact amount, but estimates it is about 90 per cent of his reserves. But as any self-respecting CEO would affirm, the man has no regrets.
“I’ve made it clear to my investors—I don’t just want to serve a few markets or a small region,” he says with unflinching conviction.
He tells me about recent CNA documentary, Inside Crest Secondary, that resonated deeply with him. The series, which features the stories of students at the specialised secondary school, brought Felix back to his own teenage battles. Watching those teenagers grapple with their futures, he found himself tearing up—not merely for their struggles, but for the countless others worldwide whose potential remains largely untapped.
Growing up in a working-class family—his parents ran a small bakery—he watched classmates with talent and ambition languish in the Normal Stream, written off before they’d ever been given a fair shot. He knows what it’s like to be underestimated. He knows how a single opportunity—or the lack of one—can alter an entire future.
“I want ADPList to be everyone’s career partner,” he says, voice steady. “I built this platform to open doors for people when others close.”
Whenever possible, he slips into ADPList events unnoticed, blending into the crowd. He listens as knowledge flows and connections spark. His unassuming attire allows him to observe unobtrusively most of the time, though his infectious grin naturally draws the eye.
If I had emerged from a rut as arduous as Felix’s, only to help thousands—maybe millions in future—overcome their own, I’d be smiling just as broadly.
“To date, we’ve raised $1.3 million in seed funding, led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge program, with angel investors like Carousell’s Quek Siu Rui backing us,” Felix tells me proudly.
But Felix won’t rest until mentorship is truly universal—accessible to anyone, anywhere, free of charge. His fire burns brightest when he sees the ripple effect: Mentees who become mentors, paying it forward in ways he once only dreamed of.
“Fear is natural. I’ve failed more times than I can count. But we celebrate ‘safe’ careers while sidelining dreamers. We need more Joseph Schoolings, JJ Lins, and Siu Ruis.”
Igniting a Paradigm Shift
As Felix looks back on his unconventional journey, he offers a simple but radical insight.
“We don’t need more exams,” he asserts. “We need more spaces for creative failure.”
He sees Singapore’s education system as a factory for conformity—designed to reward those who follow the script, not those who dare rewrite it.
To him, the “narrow path to success” is a myth. The proof? His ADPList mentors—like the Nepalese boy who rose from poverty to become a UX designer, or the self-taught coder from Ghana who landed a job in big tech. Talent is universal; opportunity is not.
“Don’t ever think the world is against you. Keep your head high—it’s yours for the taking, if you’re hungry enough.”
Felix still doesn’t have a university degree—and he doesn’t need one. His story dismantles the belief that top schools and perfect grades define a person’s future. Millions are brimming with talent but shut out of opportunities. His mission is to bridge that gap—to give people the access they need to become whoever they dare to be. As he’s shown, success belongs to those who dream boldly, persist relentlessly, and refuse to be paralysed by failure.
“Consistency is everything. Pick a path you can commit to daily and aim to be 1 percent better tomorrow. Expand your horizons, challenge perspectives—university isn’t the only way to prove your worth.”
In a society where failure is feared, and stability is prized, Felix is an outlier. He leaps where others hesitate. He stumbles, only to rise stronger. He didn’t wait for doors to open, nor did he ask for permission to walk through. But he’s not just forging his own path—he’s paving the way for others to follow.
And if more people do indeed follow his lead, Singapore’s rigid success playbook may soon be rewritten. It’s no longer about how many ‘A’s you’ve scored or which schools you’ve attended, but about what you’re willing to risk for a chance to create something meaningful.
