| Blog | douglasgan.com |
| @douglasgan | |
| Birthplace | Singapore |
| Birthdate | 8/3/83 |
| Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Diploma | 2003 |
| IT(CCS) |
Young Professional of The Year 2011
Douglas Gan is an Experiential Entreprenuer who has started and sold 10 companies, with an un-publicized 3 failed startups.
He’s current position is an Angel Investor (Seed Rounds) and is the Co-Founder of VanityTrove, a paid-beauty sampling platform.
Douglas is also the Founder and CEO of ShowNearby from 2007-2011, India and Singapore’s #1 Mobile location-based service provider.
Douglas founded PureHostings.net, one of the pioneer webhosting companies in Singapore when he was just 16. The Ngee Ann Polytechnic IT graduate also founded GlobalWiz.com.sg, Sunnypost.com, WithinBudget.net and LiveDNRS.com. All these businesses were sold to Skydio in 2005.
Douglas founded OhGenki.com, a top youth-based web forum, in 2002. The forum was among the top 2,000 websites globally in 2003 according to ALEXA. OhGenki diversified into aggregating movie information with the launch of OhGenki Movies late 2005. StreetDirectory.com later bought OhGenki in 2006.
With experience and contacts gained from 7 years of doing business in the information technology sector, Douglas became the web consultant for StreetDirectory.com, GARENA.com, PropertyGuru.com.sg, COMPANEDIA and various Southeast Asian forums and entertainment portals. StreetDirectory.com was acquired by JobsDB in August 2008.COMPANEDIA was bought by Global Yellow Pages in July 2010.
In March 2008, Douglas founded ShowNearby with good friend Lee Chang Jin. The company is now 20-staff strong. Global Yellow Pages acquired a majority stake in ShowNearby for SGD$3.5 million in the start-up. ShowNearby exists as both a web and mobile location-based service that furnishes users with information on points of interest.
The ShowNearby application is free for download on the Android, BlackBerry and iPhone platforms, and has garnered many awards and accolades. Not only is it popular among users, the application has become an avenue for business owners to run deals, discounts, and connect with their customers.
His leadership, business insight and boundless energy have helped develop ShowNearby into the top location-based service provider in the country. Always having a keen eye for opportunity, he has successfully expanded ShowNearby to India with India’s #1 Location Based Service Provider, MapMyIndia.
Douglas is also active in charitable events and grassroots. He’s a grassroots leader, having been part of the Siglap South Community Center Management Committee and Joo Chiat constituency publicity committee since 2008. He’s the Chairman of Ngee Ann Poly ICT and is also an active mentor to startups from Singapore Poly and NUS.
| Company | Date | Round | Size | Participants |
| ShowNearby | 11/07 | Seed | $15k | 2 |
Douglas Gan, ShowNearby CEO, March 2011 Interview
Added: 5/16/11
