TheFirst Spark is Singapore's first AI symposium built specifically for student founders and builders. On 27 June, 300 students and recent graduates will spend a full day where frontier AI meets real decisions, gaining insights into the actual conversations happening inside the companies and startups shaping AI right now.

Watch student-built AI products go live on stage. Sit in on a structured for/against debate on the one question every student is already asking: “Should you join an AI company before starting one?” Walk the floor and talk directly to the people hiring and building products at OpenAI, Microsoft, Nebius, and Singapore's fastest-growing AI startups.

Three threads run through the day: what's actually happening inside the industry, what it takes to build an AI-first product from scratch, and the career decision in front of you right now.

Co-organised by January Capital and Wavesparks. Anchored by confirmed participation from OpenAI, Minister of State Jasmin Lau, and Singapore's leading AI founders, operators, and ecosystem builders.

Agenda

Four senior operators and GTM leaders on what AI adoption looks like from the inside — what's really shifting in their products, their teams, and how they make hiring decisions. Not a founder story, not a policy talk. The view from the companies your future employers are running. | Imane Jamal Eddine — General Manager and Head of Sales, Digital Natives, VCs and Startups, Asia, Microsoft Ee Ling See — Ex-Head of Product and Transformation, Grab Candice Ong — Investor, Tech Executive, Board Director June Lee — Head of APAC and SVP, Social Impact, Workato | | | 11:20 | Resources for Student Founders, Group A | Funding & building your idea A practical look at the grants, accelerator support, and ecosystem programmes available to student founders right now — from the organisations actively backing early-stage builders in Singapore. | Mark Pereira — Head of Partnerships, Strategy & Growth (AI Products), AI Singapore Patrick Lim — CEO, Ace.SG Tiffany Hendrick — Development Partner, Startup Ecosystem Development, Enterprise Singapore | | | 11:45 | Product Demo 1 Nebius | A look at the infrastructure powering today's AI build wave — how student builders and founders can access GPU compute and model infrastructure to ship faster, with a live look at what's actually running under the hood when you train or deploy a model at scale. | Guan-ru Huang — Cloud Solutions Architect, Nebius | | | Midday | | | | | | 12:00 | Lunch | Lunch | The Floor — booths & networking | — | | | 12:50 | Founder Spotlight — The Robot Company | A session from the founders of The Robot Company, Singapore's forward-deployed robotics team, on what it actually looks like to put robots to work in the real world. | Siddharth — Founder, The Robot Company | | | 13:00 | Product Demo 2 Notion | Your AI workspace — from student to founder A live demo of how Notion's AI workspace works as your second brain — whether you're managing coursework, building a side project, or running an early-stage company. | Marcus Cheu — Founding APAC team, Notion | | | 13:15 | Fireside Chat | Opportunities for Students in the Age of AI An intimate conversation on Singapore's digital ambitions, government support for young builders, and her own journey from MIT to policy. | Jasmin Lau Minister of State, Ministry of Digital Development and Information | | | Afternoon | | | | | | 14:00 | Panel 2: Product | Building AI-first products Four founders actively building AI-native products — the real decisions behind the products students are already using.

Technical choices, finding PMF, going from first user to paying customers, and what the AI-first dev stack actually looks like in 2026. | Joshua Wong — Founder & CEO, Hypotenuse AI Eugene Cheah — Co-founder & CEO, featherless.ai Charles Wong — Co-founder and CEO, Bifrost AI Vincent Teissier — CEO, Better SG

| | | 14:45 | Founder Spotlight — Heymax | Founder Spotlight — HeyMax HeyMax is reimagining how people travel smarter across Asia, combining AI-powered rewards with a consumer product that's already in the hands of tens of thousands of users.

See how a small team is building the future of travel, the AI features shaping that vision, and what their day-to-day as an AI-powered startup actually looks like from the inside. | Jialu Zhong — Co-founder, HeyMax | | | 15:00 | Resources for Student Founders, Group B | Research & institutional pathways A look at the research infrastructure, institutional programmes, and capital networks supporting AI work in Singapore — from national research, university innovation offices, and global capital perspectives. | Dr Rick Goh — Director of Computing & Intelligence, IHPC, A*STAR Shengen Lim — Chief Master Engineer, Lead technologies (NTU Innovation and Entrepreneurship) Belle Lim — APAC Lead, Worldwide Private Capital, Microsoft | | | 15:30 | Panel 3: Career | The Big Question: Starting your career in the AI age A structured for/against conversation on the career decision every student in the room is facing.

Two speakers argue yes: build credentials, take the safe path first. Two argue no: the window is open now, optimise for learning and ownership. Live audience vote before and after; winning side = most opinion moved. | Yang Shun Tay — Co-founder, Cliya AI & GreatFrontEnd Sam Waldo — Head of Startups Asia, Airwallex Ivan Tung — Founder, Pragnition Labs (NCS) Darren Lee — Agent Development, Sierra AI Jay Teo — Co-founder, First Prompt

Moderator: Ee Ling — Co-founder, Wavesparks | | | 16:15 | Build Showcase | Singapore's builders — build sprint finalists

This showcase features the top finalists from our build sprint, a week-long challenge where student and early-career builders across Singapore committed to shipping an AI product publicly. What they built, why it matters, and what they learned along the way. | Top 10 finalists

Judges: • Joshua Lim — Investor, January Capital • Jay Teo — Co-founder, First Prompt • Sun Weiran — Solutions Architect, OpenAI | | | 16:55 | Founder Spotlight — Menlo Research | Founder Spotlight — Menlo Research Menlo Research is building the robot labour force of tomorrow and they are doing it from Singapore. Find out what it takes to build at the intersection of open source AI and physical robotics, why embodied intelligence is the next frontier, and what they are shipping right now. | Daniel Ong — Co-founder, Menlo Research | | | 17:05 | Product Demo 3 OpenAI | Build something in 10 minutes A live, unscripted demo showing what's possible with OpenAI's tools today. One concrete use case built from scratch in front of the room, with commentary on what's changed in the last 12 months and what that means for builders. | Sun Weiran — Solutions Architect, OpenAI | | | Evening | | | | | | 17:20 | Closing Keynote | "Your Move" — The First Fellows and what's next. | Hongfei Xia — Investor, January Capital Ee Ling Lim — Co-founder and CEO, Wavesparks | | | 17:30 | Networking | Free and easy networking. | Open to all attendees. | | | 18:45 | Shippers' Dinner anchor | Invite-only — top teams + speakers + partners Closed dinner for build campaign finalists, speakers, and partner table hosts. ~60–80 pax. | By invitation | |

The Floor

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Meet the companies building with AI — and hiring for it 🚀

TheFirst Spark isn't just a conference. Alongside the main programme, a curated group of AI companies, frontier labs, and high-growth scaleups will be running booths throughout the day.

Whether you're looking for your first engineering role, an internship, a PM opportunity, or just want to understand what it's like to work at the frontier of AI, this is your chance to have a real conversation with people in these companies.

Booths are open ahead of lunch, through to the afternoon. Some will have compute credits, merch, and exclusive opportunities available on the day only!

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Booth Participants