(clockwise from top left) Mei Chee, Tjin Lee, Marilyn Lum, Dr. Elaine Kim
So, you’ve been dreaming about starting your own business (haven’t we all?), but taking the leap is extremely unnerving. Can I afford to quit my job? Do I have enough cash? What if it doesn’t work out?
That’s where CRIB comes in. Short for Creating Responsible and Innovative Businesses, the social enterprise is Singapore’s first business and lifestyle incubator, targeted to help women build successful, responsible, and innovative companies through networking, matchmaking and development. Founded by Tjin Lee (lady boss of Mercury Marketing and Communications), Dr. Elaine Kim, Marilyn Lum, and Mei Chee, CRIB aims to also enable entrepreneurs (and aspiring ones) to achieve the work-life balance – yes it’s possible!
How? It offers three key platforms to its members: CRIB Society, CRIB Match and CRIB Incubator. The first is a community of women and entrepreneurs that support, inspire and equip one another. CRIB Match goes further to help find complementary partners to launch a business through its propriety ABC Entrepreneur Profile matching tool, which is to match Angel Investors (A), Business Managers (B), and Creatives (C). Finally, the incubator programme provides the most viable businesses mentorship and access to CRIB’s investor and resource network.
Interested? Get the basic ($80 per year) membership package to join CRIB Society, or the pro ($180 per year) to access CRIB Match and CRIB Incubator. Membership fees are reinvested into CRIB to sustain and grow its operations, with a portion of the returns channeled towards complementary social causes that benefit women entrepreneurs. Now we can’t say we’re surprised to know that it already has over 50 members, mere months after its inception in September 2014. Girl power!
For more information, visit CRIB’s website.