🇸🇬 Stepping Up with Ya Kun & Kitchen Haus Next-Gen Owners
What happens when the next generation steps up to lead a family business?
You don’t start from zero.
But you inherit something heavier: legacy, expectations, old ways of working, loyal customers, and a business that still needs to grow in today’s market.
This time, we’re going into F&B — one of the toughest businesses to run in Singapore.
High rent. Thin margins. Manpower issues. Changing customer habits. And recently, more F&B brands are struggling or shutting down.
🚀 So we’re bringing together 2 next-gen F&B operators:
Patrick Chan — Managing Director of Kitchen Haus Group ( 2nd generation owner)
Jesher Loi — Director of Branding and Market Development at Ya Kun (3rd generation owner)
They didn’t start from zero.
But taking over a family business comes with a different kind of pressure.
How do you grow without killing the legacy?
How do you modernise without losing the soul?
How do you earn respect as the “next generation”?
And how do you survive when F&B keeps getting harder?
Expect honest stories, painful mistakes, and practical lessons from two operators who are actually in the trenches.
No polished success stories.
No generic advice.
Just real F&B lessons behind closed doors.
🍱 Food and drinks are provided — so come hungry for both food and wisdom.
Agenda
2:30 PM — Registration
3:00 PM — Food & Drinks
3:15 PM — Intro + Panel Sharing 🧠
4:15 PM — Q&A
4:30 PM — Networking + Chill
5:00 PM — End
🔥 Meet Our Speaker
Patrick Chan (Managing Director @ Kitchen Haus Group)
Patrick Chan is the Managing Director of Kitchen Haus Group and a 2nd generation F&B operator.
He took over the family business and grew it beyond catering into a wider F&B group across multiple brands, including Team Catering, Le Rainbow Catering, Levender Gourmet, Le Essen, Frux Earth, CS Kitchen, and Sugared Bakes.
Patrick is also the President of the Association of Catering Professionals Singapore (ACAPS) and has been featured by The Peak Singapore, The Smart Local, CNA, and more.
Jesher Loi (Director of Branding and Market Development @ Ya Kun)
Jesher Loi is the Director of Branding and Market Development at Ya Kun and a 3rd generation owner of one of Singapore’s most iconic F&B brands.
Ya Kun started as a humble coffee stall in the 1940s and has grown into a regional heritage brand known for kaya toast, kopi, and Singapore’s breakfast culture.
🖥️ About EPOS
Backed by Ant International's Antom, EPOS is the all-in-one digitalisation partner for SMEs, empowering businesses of any size to grow digitally with confidence, by transforming everyday operational complexity into real growth opportunities.
Through its flagship product EPOS360, EPOS unifies SaaS, payments, and financing in one seamless ecosystem, giving SMEs everywhere AI-powered digital tools to run smarter and scale faster. For more information, visit their website.
💳 About Aspire
Aspire is the finance platform 50,000+ growing businesses run on — business account, corporate cards, expense management, and cross-border payments, all in one place.
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Take a look at Aspire before your next supplier payment.
🤝🏻 About Grow Connections
Grow Connections helps businesses grow through strategic partnerships, business matching, and curated connections.
Founded by Elizabeth Loh, Grow Connections works with business owners to build relationships that lead to real business outcomes — not just random networking.
🚀 About The Runway Ventures
The Runway Ventures is helping founders become better and smarter operators by learning from startup failures through its weekly newsletter. Every Sunday, you'll get 1 failed startup story, 2 mistakes, and 3 lessons learned with actionable tips to build and grow your business — all for free.
Some of the most popular and exclusive failed startup stories we've covered include Style Theory, Privé Group, eFishery, TaniHub, Kaodim, Fusionex, and Oriente.
Since then, we've built a community of 80,000+ founders, VCs, and operators across Southeast Asia. That's why we're organising this event for you to learn directly from founders & operators — be it their unfiltered startup journey, mistakes made, or lessons learned.
90% of startups failed because founders made mistakes. Don't be one of them. Join us, and we'll see you there!