Siblings Quit Their Six-Figure Corporate Jobs To Revive Their Parents’ Cai Png Biz

From corporate life to curry life

Before Curry Kong, Jia Ling spent 12 years in tech working in product management, eventually rising to become Head of Product. Jia Han, meanwhile, started out in banking before pivoting to F&B. He later spent nine years in the UK developing and managing restaurant branches. The siblings declined to name their past workplaces. 

“I left [my corporate job] first about two years ago,” Jia Ling shares. “Then, coincidentally, a couple of months later, my brother decided to leave [his job] as well. But we didn't plan to leave together — we both just felt we were at a stage of our careers where we wanted to take a break.”

For Jia Han, returning to Singapore had always been on the cards. “My plan was always to come back to Singapore because of certain reasons like the safety of the country and the tax rate. So once I got my PR in the UK, I decided to come back for good,” he says.

Why revive their parents’ cai png biz?

The siblings’ parents were running a cai png stall in Tampines for close to 20 years and only closed it in 2014, around the same time Jia Ling and and Jia Han entered the workforce. Their dad is now in his 70s, while their mum is in her 60s.

“The funny thing is, they were really the no-signboard kind of stall,” Jia Ling tells 8days.sg. “They didn't have a signboard for the entire 20 years, so people knew them as the cai png at Tampines Street 22, Block 280.”

Back then, the siblings had joked about modernising their folks’ business, but neither had the experience, confidence or guts to try. They occasionally helped out at the stall when they were younger, but had no plans to take up an F&B job permanently. 

“It was more like, if we happened to be there, we’d help a bit,” Jia Ling says. “But it wasn’t like we had proper shifts.”

After both leaving their jobs, Jia Han eventually suggested taking the leap. 

“We had been working long hours in the corporate world for a long time, and I felt that in a lifetime, you should try something before it’s too late,” Jia Han reveals. “Since it was also the same period that I was coming back [to Singapore] for good, I was thinking why not do something food-related ourselves? With our parents' experience, that was how things came together.” 

Both drew a six-figure salary in their previous jobs 

The decision to start Curry Kong as a home-based business was a strategic one.

“Coming from tech, I'm quite familiar with the online space,” Jia Ling explains. “Starting off in the online space [allowed us to] have the data on hand so we don't blindly go about opening up a brick-and-mortar shop.”

There were practical reasons too. “From a business standpoint, it makes more sense because the risk is a lot lower,” she adds. “Of course, at the very start, we want to bring down the overhead costs as much as possible so our plan is to understand where our customers are before we decide where is best to open our physical store.”

Did they take a pay cut? “Of course!” Jia Ling laughs. 

“Definitely,” Jia Han agrees. “To be very honest, we were paid pretty well where we worked before. Financially, it was a very big sacrifice. But we’ve exchanged [that] to find meaning in [our] work.”

“To be very frank, we went into this knowing that we will not be drawing income in the first year,” Jia Ling adds. “Right now we are actually not drawing any income from the company.” 

Both Jia Ling and Jia Han used to fall under a decent six-figure per annum salary in their previous jobs. “But we didn't leave corporate thinking we are going into this. We left knowing that we were willing to let go of that income,” Jia Ling shares. 

Was their initial plan to stay in corporate after taking a break? “For my case, yes. My initial idea was to take a one-year break to travel and then back to tech again,” Jia Ling shares. 

“For my case, I was thinking since I’m coming back to Singapore for good, I'll take a short break and then decide whether I should continue in the F&B line in Singapore or if I should do something myself,” Jia Han says. 

Learning from their parents

While their parents have since come on board to help out, the siblings sense that they were initially hesitant about their children entering the F&B line.

“I think deep down they felt that it’ll be too tiring for us, but they know they cannot stop us,” Jia Ling says. “They feel working in a corporate job is an easier way.”  

Curry Kong officially started operating in May this year, but preparations began much earlier.

“We took about six months to prepare,” Jia Ling says. “We designed our own logo, did blind taste tests with around 40 participants, planned what we wanted in our menu, and did a photoshoot.”

They weren’t rushing. “We just took our time while we were also taking a break,” she chuckles.

While the menu is inspired by their parents’ cooking, it isn’t a carbon copy. “We’re learning from our parents while familiarising ourselves with the operations,” Jia Han explains. “There has been a lot of fine-tuning based on customers’ feedback.”

“We also tried to establish a feedback loop with regular customers,” Jia Ling adds. “They’ll let us know if there's any feedback and from there, we will try to fine-tune our recipes.”

Curry png from their parents’ seven signature dishes

Curry Kong currently offers seven dishes. 

“From the start, the two of us were aligned that we needed to dial down the menu as we knew that to scale the business, we couldn’t have a very huge menu,” Jia Ling explains. “Our parents had about 30 dishes previously when they were running their cai png stall. and through their experience, they told us which were the signature dishes.”

“When we looked at the seven signature dishes, we realised eh? These are all the must-haves for curry png,” she adds.

Curry Kong’s menu centres around curry sets, each served with your choice of bee hoon or rice, braised cabbage, a fried egg, and a choice of meat — all drenched in curry. Meat options include chicken, mutton, chicken cutlet, crispy fish, pork meatballs, pork belly, and sambal sotong. Prices range from $8.90 to $15.90. 

Each item has its own fanbase, so for now, the menu stays. That said, seasonal items, like their brinjal with hae bee hiam, are introduced occasionally. 

Kids of their parents’ old customers buy from them

Being home-based, the siblings started out on Grabfood and Foodpanda, alongside social media content and word of mouth.

Then came an unexpected surprise.

“Through social media, some of our parents’ old customers actually DMed us,” Jia Ling smiles. “They told us they didn’t buy [the food themselves] back then because they were still kids — their parents did. When they recognised the familiar flavour, they realised it was the stall that they were eating from when they were kids.”

Working with family isn’t always easy 

Both siblings are single and live with their parents, who currently help out with Curry Kong, in an executive HDB flat. Jia Ling shares that they do have a transition plan to eventually ease their parents out of the business.  

“Working with your immediate family is a little more difficult than working with a colleague as you need to take into more consideration the emotions and the kind of words that you're about to say,” Jia Han shares. 

Jia Ling agrees. “I feel like the aspect of achieving numbers and pushing sales of the business is actually not the main challenge because I did face such challenges when I was in corporate as well,” she says. “[Disagreements are] not so much between me and my brother, but more of how our parents’ generation runs a business versus how we see things.”

For now, roles are clearly split: Jia Han and their parents handle operations, while Jia Ling oversees marketing and digital strategy, and helps out in the kitchen when needed.

“You wake up and sleep with the entire business right in front of your room”

On critics of home-based F&B businesses, Jia Ling takes a neutral stance.

“I understand why some people feel unhappy because home-based businesses have more leeway for certain regulations,” Jia Ling says. “On top of that, there is also very little overhead which is the good thing that comes from running a home-based business. But there are also cons which maybe people don't see.”

Like the lack of work-life boundaries. “You wake up and go to sleep with the entire business right in front your room,” she says. “Because we are a home-based business that operates every day, the environment [at home] is messy and most of our home is used to store inventory or basically things like goods or packaging.” Scaling is also limited, which is why Curry Kong won’t stay home-based forever.

Still, there’s a reason behind their long hours — Curry Kong is open from 11.30am to 11.30pm daily. ⁠”We are fortunate that our parents agreed to help us start this business revival,” Jia Ling explains. “So as a family, we decided to run longer working hours for the first year because we feel that exposure to customers is the most crucial thing at the start of a business.”

To prevent burnout, they make an effort to share the load. “We try to ensure everyone has balance by allocating shift hours. It’s a collective effort among the four of us, she adds. “But the plan is to eventually shorten the operating hours and introduce off days to make it more sustainable in the long run, especially as our parents transit out of the business.”