My Expat Life – Bangkok: the coffeemaker gone c-suite

Lionel Chin moved from government departments in Wellington to an IT start up in Bangkok. (Image: BusinessDesk).

Fri, 29 Mar 2024

For Lionel Chin, returning to university years after dropping out was just a means to an end.“I was in the coffee scene [in Wellington] when it was big. I think I came second in New Zealand in one of those competitions, so I wanted to open my own cafe,” Chin told BusinessDesk.“I knew I needed like $100k to set up a shop and buy the machines. The plan was to get a degree, get a job and in five or six years raise enough capital."Chin graduated with a business degree from Victoria University of Wellington in 2005 and never l...

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