School of life: Gen Z boss with PSLE cert opens neon art-jamming studios after quitting JC and Nafa

SINGAPORE – Ms Merida Lim’s highest educational qualification is a PSLE certificate, but that does not faze the 20-year-old.

She proudly shows The Straits Times around the second branch of her neon art-jamming studio, Scuro, which opened in late November 2025 in Serangoon Road.

With the lights off, the bigger of two rooms glows in neon colours. Cute cartoon characters pop off the walls and a cheery “Happy Birthday” sign with bunting beckons for a photo.

Ms Lim takes out neon paints – customers paint on canvases after tracing designs from the printed templates – as well as gooey housemade slime, and slaps a glow-in-the-dark tattoo on her face, turning the photo shoot into a playground of sensory delights.

“It’s like a club for kids,” says the bubbly Gen Z entrepreneur.

She is clearly in her element now, but her secondary school days were marked by visits to the doctor’s office for panic attacks because of the “competitive” academic environment at River Valley High School, she recounts.

“Your worth was based on your grades,” says Ms Lim, who scored 254 for her Primary School Leaving Examination at Lianhua Primary School.

At 16, she dropped out after completing four years of the six-year Integrated Programme and enrolled in a diploma course in graphic communications at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). She quit NAFA in her second year at age 19 in 2024.

“I never felt like school was the right fit for me. I felt stifled,” she says. “I know I’m creative. I know I deserve a space where I can thrive.”

Ms Lim had grown up helping her early childhood educator-mum prepare art projects for her young charges. Her father is a programmer. Her brother, 26, is also a programmer, while her sister, 23, is an undergraduate.

She started earning extra pocket money from a young age, waitressing part-time from age 14 and later added babysitting, freelance photography, face painting as well as live wedding painting – a skill she taught herself through YouTube videos – to her resume.

She found that she had a natural affinity for children. “Even if I’m tired, I light up when I talk to kids,” she says.

Armed with $10,000 of her savings, which her father matched, and some $6,000 in renovations sponsored by her mother, she opened Scuro, a 520 sq ft horror art jam studio in Outram Park on Oct 1, 2024. Her parents, who are in their 50s, were disappointed in her decision to drop out, but supported her nonetheless.

Friends also chipped in to help set up the premises.

Art was her safe space during trying times and Ms Lim tried to recreate that vibe with her start-up, but she soon realised that horror art was not a sustainable concept. Bookings were scarce.

After several iterations over three months, she found that some parents were willing to pay $48 for a neon art-jamming workshop (ranging from one to two hours depending on age), $48 for a 45-minute neon slime workshop, and $60 to $80 a person for a three-hour birthday party. Scuro also runs team-bonding events.

Ms Lim, who used to run a fan account dedicated to local YouTuber Jianhao Tan, posted a social media video in December 2024 about her journey, inviting him and his daughter to her studio.

To her surprise, the video went viral, he came down and other customers followed. She finally broke even on the rent that month.

During the time when she was contemplating closing down, Ms Lim found two individuals willing to invest a five-figure sum each into her business after she posted her company on a businesses-for-sale website. She has bought one out, but the other, Dr Andy Teoh, 40, who works in the pharmaceutical industry, is now co-founder. Ms Lim remains the majority shareholder.

Dr Teoh, who started a successful tuition centre as an undergraduate and later sold it, lent his entrepreneurial expertise and Scuro’s revenue doubled to about $40,000 a month before it opened its second outlet at Serangoon.

“She is a real talent,” says the father of two primary schoolers. Dr Teoh, whose doctorate is in quantum physics, believes in supporting home-grown start-ups who champion fun for families.

With Scuro’s team growing to one full-time staff member and more than 10 freelancers, Ms Lim no longer needs to work from 10 to 3am seven days a week, as she used to. She now spends her free time exploring new ideas for her business to keep ahead of copycats.

“The key is variation and innovation. If your kid comes here on one birthday, the parents know we are good at parties, but it doesn’t mean they want a neon party for the next few birthdays. So, the next time, you can do things like projection games or a neon bouncy castle. The idea is to build immersiveness,” she says.

If she sells Scuro for a profit one day, she is more likely to pursue her other passion of becoming a full-time singer than go back to school.

“I feel a lot of people are stuck in the mindset that you have to get good grades and follow the path your parents want,” she says.

“I want to show them that there are other ways of life where you can be genuinely happy and build a business that aligns with your core values.”