From Builder
to Operator
Building companies from scratch. Scaling them to acquisition. Leading teams across continents. Here's the full story.
IDEM Hospitality: Building a B2B SaaS Platform from Scratch
The Problem
In 2016, I was deeply embedded in the hospitality events industry through my work at Lanyon Solutions. I kept seeing the same pain point: group accommodation for meetings and events represented up to 40% of a hotel's annual bookings, yet the entire process was stuck in the dark ages.
Hotels were managing rooming lists via spreadsheets and email. Meeting planners were chasing down availability via phone calls. Attendees had no visibility into their booking status. The result? Wasted productivity, costly errors, security risks (credit card info via email), and massive revenue leakage from missed upsell opportunities.
I knew there had to be a better way.
The Solution: GroupSync Housing
Together with my co-founder Steven Hopkinson, we built IDEM Hospitality, a B2B SaaS platform that completely digitized the group accommodation workflow:
- Personalized booking websites for each event, replacing rooming lists with self-service guest booking
- Real-time dashboards for both hotels and planners with complete visibility
- Automated revenue optimization through upsells, extended stays (bleisure), and package offerings
- Enterprise-grade security with PCI, SOC 2, and GDPR compliance
- Multi-hotel support for city-wide conferences and large events
Building the Team
We assembled an 11-person team across Singapore and Vietnam:
- 7 engineers in Vietnam building the platform
- CTO Daniel Low leading product and engineering from Singapore
- Designer Swee Han Mok crafting the user experience
- Two co-CEOs (Steven and myself) handling everything from fundraising to customer success
Key Milestones
Founded IDEM Hospitality, began building MVP
Accepted into Telstra's muru-D accelerator
Joined Oracle Startup Accelerator, launched commercially
Scaled to 80+ customers, signed strategic LOI with Accor
Won WiT (Web in Travel) Startup of the Year (Press)
Acquired by Groups360 (Press)
The Acquisition (Press)
By 2020, we'd proven product-market fit with 50+ customers and a strategic partnership with Accor (one of the world's largest hotel groups). Groups360, backed by major hotel chains including Marriott, Hilton, IHG, and Accor, saw the perfect strategic fit.
Our "Housing" module filled a critical gap in their meetings marketplace platform. The acquisition brought together our technology, team, and domain expertise with Groups360's global reach and hotel relationships.
Today, GroupSync Housing processes millions in bookings annually and is a core offering for Groups360's enterprise customers worldwide.
Groups360: Scaling the Platform Globally
Post-Acquisition Leadership
After the acquisition, I transitioned from founder to enterprise product leader as Senior Vice President & GM Attendee Experience. My role evolved to oversee not just Housing, but also the Gifting product division, plus Design and Business Analyst teams across Singapore and Nashville.
Key Responsibilities
- Product strategy and roadmap for two major product lines
- Cross-functional leadership across design, engineering, PM, and business analysis
- Enterprise customer relationships with major hotel groups (Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Accor)
- Go-to-market strategy and commercial execution
- Team building and organizational design across two continents
The GroupSync Housing platform I built now serves hotels and meeting planners globally, processing millions in group accommodation bookings and continuing to eliminate the manual processes that plagued the industry when I started IDEM.
Building the Foundation
Lanyon Solutions
Director of Sales, APAC
Vista Equity Partners portfolio company
Before founding IDEM, I led the APAC division for Lanyon Solutions, a cloud-based software platform for travel, meetings, and events. This role gave me deep exposure to the enterprise SaaS sales cycle, working with Fortune 1000 companies and government clients.
It was here that I identified the group accommodation pain point that would become IDEM's focus. Customers kept asking for a better solution, and I realized no one was building it.
Key Achievements
- Built and managed regional sales team
- Sold to enterprise customers across Asia-Pacific
- Developed deep domain expertise in hospitality and events technology
- Identified market gap that led to IDEM's founding
Getty Images
Director of Sales (2011-2012), Director Sales & Marketing Asia (2004-2011), Business Development Manager (2002-2004)
10+ years of progressive leadership
My first real taste of building and scaling teams came at Getty Images, where I spent over a decade in progressive leadership roles across Melbourne and Singapore.
Key Achievements
- Built and led team of 40+ sales and administrative professionals
- Drove regional expansion across 7 Southeast Asian markets with consistent year-over-year growth
- Scaled digital media business during industry transformation from physical to digital
- Developed expertise in regional market expansion and team building
This experience taught me how to hire, develop, and retain high-performing teams. How to navigate complex regional markets with different cultures and business practices. How to drive revenue growth while maintaining operational excellence. And how to lead through industry disruption and change.
Ready to Build the Next One
This journey has given me the toolkit to build, scale, and lead companies through critical growth phases. Now I'm looking for my next venture.