Li Hui Cham / notes

Update Jul 2026 : We are now in conversation with Empower Ageing to take over LetterKey. Stay tuned.

Following my last post on whether I should continue the LetterKey project, and after two months of internal back-and-forth and weighing our options, we've decided to end it.

When the idea first crossed my mind, it was the scariest thing I'd faced after working day and night on the product for six months. It was also the option truest to my heart.

Some might ask, why give up when you've already achieved so much ? From being featured in The Straits Times (Singapore's #1 media outlet) to securing (nearly) long-term commitments with the People's Association (one of the largest government agencies working on community development in Singapore), isn't it dumb to walk away now? Some might even judge us: "Yeah, these kids don't have the resilience to start a business. They just did it for the fame." And did it sting my ego to see on LinkedIn that another accelerator group was still pushing ahead with their project? Yes.

So then, you might wonder - what's keeping me from regretting this decision?

The 5 Options

We weighed the pros and cons of each before making the call.

Option 1 : Register Letterkey as a company (Pte Ltd) on ACRA under Li Hui

Here's the catch : I'm a foreigner on an Employment Pass in Singapore, which means I can only work for the company that sponsors my EP. I can't hold any position, employee or director, that actively manages LetterKey. One of our mentors did tell me there's a chance I could apply for a "Secondary Directorship for EP Holders" through the Ministry of Manpower, but the requirements aren't clearly laid out on the website and would need further enquiries with their officers.

Either way, I would need my current employer's approval to run LetterKey as my own company.

Pro: With that approval, LetterKey could exist as a company indefinitely, even to the point where we secure enough contracts to match our full-time salaries, quit, and run LetterKey full-time. Being an entrepreneur. That possibility sounded VERY exciting when I first realised I could actually start my own company.

Con: But I’m not willing to risk telling my current employer I’m starting a business while I’m still on three-month probation. Worse, it could raise doubts about my commitment and cost me the job.

The only clean solution would be to apply for permanent residency in Singapore, which would essentially remove the EP restrictions with MOM. But since I’ve only just started my first full-time role, I can’t apply for PR until I’ve worked at least six months.

Option 2 : Register LetterKey with ACRA as Pte Ltd without Li Hui

The rest of my team are Singaporeans, so they wouldn't face any MOM restrictions and would only need approval from their own employers. They're also all recent or soon-to-be graduates, free souls chasing their dreams.

Pro: We could go ahead and register LetterKey as a company, and focus on the original goal of landing our first paying client within six months.

Con: We’d lose a critical team member, the one who’s handled every partner relationship since the start of the project. A replacement would need to happen asap to keep the momentum going. On that front, I made it clear to the team - if they pursue this route, I’ll do my best to find them a strong person to take over my role.

Option 3 - Don't register LetterKey as a company, but keep finding companies to test our product

…until the point where a partner tells us: "The only reason we can't pay you is that you're not a registered business entity."

Pro: LetterKey would have proven market demand and contracts lining up, which would make finding VCs or angel investors far easier. It would also give the team the confidence to gradually quit their jobs and go full-time.

Con: As I mentioned in the last post, the current LetterKey is just an MVP. There’s a lot more development work before it’s a stable, reliable product. Given that we all have full-time commitments and the accelerator fund runs out by March 2026, making this work would mean the team staying fully committed for the next six months, essentially an extra 40 hours a week: every weeknight, plus Saturdays and Sundays.

Honestly, I don’t think anyone on the team could deliver that right now. Every one of us is stretched thin, whether by an overloaded day job, school exams, job hunting, or preparing for an exchange. And most importantly, LetterKey isn’t the product that makes us jump up thinking, “damn, I get to build LetterKey today.”

I’m not saying entrepreneurs live and breathe their product 24/7, but they do have to be obsessed with it. And I’m just not obsessed with helping seniors read their letters more easily.

I'd rather spend my time on other priorities.

That's the honest truth of how we feel.

Option 4 : Make LetterKey a ground-up initiative and build purely for good

Ground-up = volunteer work.

Pro: There’d be no pressure; we could take the project slowly. Plus, we already have strong government partners to support us and help make our impact count.

Con: Since LetterKey wouldn’t be a company, we’d have no way to test whether our private or public partners are actually willing to pay. That’s a major blocker to building a for-profit business. Potential clients might also take us less seriously in business engagements, simply because we’re volunteers.

Worst of all, this route doesn’t align with what the team actually wants - to build a for-profit business.

Option 5 : Stop all operations and end LetterKey

We’d go with this option if:

1. The team couldn’t align on any of the options above (we’d pursue this temporarily, until we found replacements), or

2. On re-evaluating our commitments, LetterKey simply wasn’t the priority.

Pro: Like Chinese medicine, bitter but effective. It’s going to hurt, but only for a short while, to reach an outcome we all agree on. And we need to remember that LetterKey is just one of a million ideas we could have come up with during the hackathon. It not taking off as a startup doesn’t make us losers.

Con: We might be giving up too early.

But I still believe LetterKey isn’t the right product. We already gave ourselves more than three months to research, build, and pilot it, and this belief doesn’t come from a hunch. It comes from cold, hard feedback from our users and partners.

So what was the hardest part?

The hardest part was being honest with myself and admitting that I’m the one choosing to end this.

Because here’s what I learned - starting a business has already taught me more than any internship ever did, and I never actually lost anything. Even the failures along the way made me a better entrepreneur. I stretched myself to work with business partners, negotiate deals, and pitch LetterKey like Steve Jobs on a grand-finale stage, in front of 100+ people from government agencies, private companies, and VCs.

Our message to our mentor

Hi <mentor’s name>, we’ve collectively chosen Option 5 and mutually agree on this decision. If a better idea comes along in the future, defined as B2B and for-profit, we’d happily form the team again, because this is a strong team.

Despite six months of BFG, LetterKey just isn’t the right fit for us, at least given where each of us is in our personal and professional lives right now. Put simply: we don’t wake up wanting to build LetterKey. To avoid further opportunity cost, we’ve decided to stop.

That said, the past six months have been a blast, and a genuine education for all of us, in business, product, and vibe coding. No regrets at all. If anything, LetterKey planted the seed of an entrepreneurial spirit in us.

My promise to the team

At the start of the hackathon, I gave my word that I wouldn’t let LetterKey be hung out to dry once the accelerator ended. No matter what, I’d make sure it had a good outcome.

So LetterKey is now going open-source. With the right licensing, we’re looking for research labs or open-source projects to take over the codebase and design assets and carry on the public-good mission.

If that’s you, I’d love to talk. Reach me on LinkedIn.