As a toddler who was slow to speech - it was not until he was five that he uttered his first clear words - Anthony Tan has nevertheless talked his way through life well enough, including impressing professors at Harvard Business School who were judging a competition on students with the best ideas for new business ventures.

He did the presentation for the taxi-hailing app, he recalls with a laugh; classmates Tan Hooi Ling and Adeline Chan did all the backstage work.