Thai society views entrepreneurship in high regard. Innovation and experimentation have always been encouraged throughout the years. In a survey conducted by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor for 2016-17, Thailand ranked third out of 65 countries for being undeterred by fear of business failures. It is little wonder that many young entrepreneurs from Thailand have been successful. Here, Top 10 of Asia looks at its list (presented in random order) of Thailand’s top 10 successful young male entrepreneurs whose entrepreneurial prowess manifest in no small way in the wide-ranging business interests that they have.
- Itthipat Peeradechapan
Itthipat Peeradechapan is one of Thailand’s
most well known young entrepreneurs due to his product, Tao Kae Noi which is a product of packaged deep fried flavored seaweed that is sold worldwide. Itthipat’s path to business success was unconventional as before that, he had success at playing online games and winning tournament prizes. With his own money, he ventured into selling fried chestnuts which became popular in Thailand. This allowed him to have the financial backing to start Tao Kae Noi which quickly became successful in Thailand and soon in other countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan.
- Pita Limjaroenrat
When his father passed away, Pita took over as CEO of Agrifood at the ripe age of 25. His father’s passing came three months after starting the business in 2006. Describing that period of time Pita said, “It was the toughest period of my life, and it shaped my character.” However, Pita managed to turn the company into a leading producer of rice bran products. He was educated in New Zealand with degrees from Harvard and MIT. He is now the executive director of Grab Thailand and a member of parliament candidate.
- Paul Srirovakul
A serial internet entrepreneur and investor based in Thailand, Paul Srivorakul is one of the founders and the Group CEO of aCommerce, a full-service end-to-end eCommerce solutions provider that raised the largest Series A in Southeast Asia of USD$17M since its founding in May 2013. He is also the Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of Ardent Capital, an early stage private capital fund focused on Southeast Asia. Prior to Ardent Capital, Paul was the Group CEO and Co-Founder of Ensogo Group (e-commerce site acquired by LivingSocial), Admax Network (ad network acquired by Komli Media) and NewMedia (digital ad agency acquired by STW Group). As an industry leader and extremely accomplished digital entrepreneur, Paul is actively invited to share valuable insights at top events and conferences in the digital media, e-commerce, online retail, supply chain, and venture capital industry circuit. He holds a B.A. in Anthropology from U.C. Berkeley.
- Amarit Charoenphan
Amarit states that his passion and life’s work is to create a better world where people work with passion, meaning and purpose while actively supported by an inspiring community and ecosystem. He is CEO & Cofounder of HUBBA, an Innovative Ecosystem Builder that is part of the Google for Entrepreneur Partner Network. They are Thailand’s 1st and largest coworking space and community which has served over 20,000 members since 2012. He is also the Cofounder of Techsauce Media, Thailand’s leading tech media, which is best known for Techsauce Global Summit, Southeast Asia’s 1st Global Scale conference that was attended by 10,000 attendees in 2018.
- Korawad Chearavanont
Korawad was born (August 1994) in Bangkok, Thailand to a family of entrepreneurs. He attended high school at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey where he built and sold websites for small businesses. Shortly after, at the age of 16, Korawad began working on group messaging applications for student organizations. The app, which was developed together with three other friends, failed to gain any traction but garnered the attention of Princeton based accelerator, Tigerlabs Ventures. The project was officially incorporated as Eko Communications, Inc in March 2012. The business quickly shifted gears and adapted its group messaging application into a secure one designed for corporates. Traction continued to pick up which allowed the company to scale, especially in Europe and has moved its global commercial HQ to London and set up a European HQ in Amsterdam, Korawad now splits his time between Bangkok and Europe. He is one of the world’s youngest founders to have raised a Series A Round.
- Moo Natavudh
Moo Natavudh is a tech entrepreneur with over 18 years experience in founding, funding and managing tech companies. Moo is a Founder and CEO of OOKBEE, one of Southeast Asia’s biggest user-generated content communities which include books, novel, comics, and music. Besides Ookbee, he’s also a venture partner at 500 Startups managing 500 TukTuks, a $15M USD micro-fund focused on promising Thai and SEA startups.
- Nithipont Bond Thaiyanurak
Bond is a CEO and founder of Box24—a network of 24/7 smart lockers that provides delivery convenience, eliminate missed deliveries, closing times and the need to queue. Currently with over 200 lockers in Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia, Box24 offers a full range of services from WashBox24 (24/7 laundry and dry cleaning locker), MoveBox24 (24/7 parcel delivery locker), ShopBox24 (24/7 e-commerce locker), DropBox24 (24/7 personal storage locker) and PayBox24 (24/7 bill payment locker). In 2015, Box24 was voted one of the top 10 best tech startups in the emerging market by SeedstarsWorld.
- Chef ThiTid (Ton) Tassanakajohn
Growing up surrounded by delicious home-cooked meals, Thitid’s mother and grandmother’s flavors have contributed largely to his passion for cooking. Upon the completion of his Economics degree from Chulalongkorn University, he took off to the USA to pursue his dream at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America (CIA). The top-score graduate continued his studies to receive an MBA in Hospitality from Johnson & Wales University. During his time in New York, Thitid has worked at several Michelin-starred restaurants, including Eleven Madison Park, The Modern, and Jean Georges. Not only does he have a passion for food, but his enthusiasm in wine also led him to become a Certified Sommelier (CS) from the respected Court of Master Sommelier. He has brought home experiences and vision to elevate Thai cuisine and give it a stand among the world’s leading cuisines. Now the rising young chef is running one of the most exciting kitchens in Bangkok, Le Du (#14 in Asia’50 Best Restaurants 2018 and #7 in Top Table2018), as well as an always reliable comfort Thai food home, Baan.
- Taro Amornched & Noppon Anukunwithaya
Taro is an engineer by training, an entrepreneur by heart. He is currently a CEO & Co-founder of TakeMeTour, which is the largest peer-to-peer marketplace for local tours in Thailand. He takes a leading role in strategic planning, partnership, business developments, and marketing as well as managing the daily company’s operations. He holds a Master’s Degree in Robotics from the Heriot-Watt University, the United Kingdom. Noppon is a co-founder of TakeMeTour where he leads critical strategic actions. He is keen to find and adopt new technologies in his work and life. Prior to this, he used to work as an industrial engineer in a Japanese company, right after he graduated the bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Chulalongkorn University. Noppon is very active in supporting the Thai startup community being the Vice President of Thailand Tech Startup Association. TakeMeTour won the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance 2017 award in Tourism and Hospitality.
- Somsak “Pai” Boonkam
Somsak “Pai” Boonkam is the founder and CEO of Local Alike, a social enterprise using community-based tourism as a tool to achieve sustainable development goals. As a social enterprise, Local Alike puts the idea of sustainable development into the core of community-based tourism practice in order to make villages in Thailand more self-sustained and to empower communities to gain positive impact from tourism while offering authentic travel experiences to travelers around the world. Prior to founding Local Alike, Pai worked at the Mae Fah Luang Foundation Under Royal Patronage. He was tasked with business development at Northern Thai communities under the Doi Tung Development Project. He graduated with an MBA in Sustainability Management from Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco, California.