About ET

Live by the maxim: Never try, never know.
Mostly dreaming up ideas and learning along the way while at it.
ET = Elvin Tan. Welcome to my website. This is not a CV of what I've done in the past but more about looking forward, what interests and inspires me next.

Speaking of moving forward, I've been massively influenced by Miles Davis' thoughts on always creating the next thing. I found the life & times of this music legend to provide impactful inspirations in my life.

Don't play what's there, play what's not there.

Miles Davis

Accenture <> Jixie

Chief Business Officer leading Jixie to an acquisition by Accenture. See news here!

Google

with the Play team, and later working on YouTube's partnerships in APAC. Almost certainly a CV-enhancer move, it turned out truly to be an incredibly steep learning curve with an amazing learning experience.

Rdio

as the General Manager of Asia, and subsequently acquired by Pandora. This is the culmination of years of work and experience in the industry, to build a team and launch a great product while having really fun moments!

Scoreloop

head of Asia to launch the social gaming platform; acquired by Blackberry - just so they shut it down. Good thing I chose to move on then, or back into digital music.

Sony Music Asia

as business development director; pioneering mobile music content services for Asia. Great experience across 10 Asian markets, dealing with getting buy-in.

Reciprocal

as the lead for Asia, expanding digital rights management (DRM) solutions; unannounced and absorbed by Microsoft.

Audioload

Co-Founder; launched one of Asia’s first digital music services - even before MP3.com with VC investments from China.com. Ultimately a failed venture, this ended up as an expensive lesson in MBA, to understand P&L, and all about timing. Remains as seen on Wayback machine!

Previously On...

Spent 2 decades working on a bunch of tech stuff across APAC, previously worked in China, Hong Kong & Japan.

ET's verve (and daydreams)

Innovation,
in general.

Kept awake thinking through how to make things
come alive to create that "child-like wonder" moment.

Web3/Blockchain/NFTs

Our worlds today are increasingly mashed between the real and unreal, connecting mixed realities with "meta-universes" into an omniverse. Driven to better understand and contribute to this growing phenomenon that has implications on future generations, while moving away from centralized networks.

Future OS

Operating system for the world that is rapidly moving beyond handheld devices

Health/Med-tech

Growing rapidly into the sandwich generation means recognizing the need to innovate on tools, solutions, and services that will take care of the aged, the young, as well as parenting needs.

Education-tech

Rote learning is of the past, a factory system churning out workers in an industrialized society. Learning to learn, acquiring knowledge is the future, leveraging tech and innovation to personalize learning, adapted to every unique learner. My stint at leading Knewton provided insights to achieve democratized education for all.