Meet Daniel He: Restaurateur, doctor, and the brains behind the futuristic electric surfboard

Imagine riding on a zero-emission electric surfboard, designed to be used atop any water body. While this vehicle might sound like something straight out of a science fiction novel, it is very much a reality – thanks to Singaporean polymath Daniel He.

Throughout his life, Daniel has worn many hats and lived many different lives. Co-founding hospitality outfit Lo & Behold Group, practising as a Doctor of Medicine at SingHealth for nearly a decade, and starting a marine propulsion company named The Kinetic Option with his friends (which gave us the electric surfboard) – the last few years or so have seen him be an exceptionally busy man.

“I have a very bad habit of turning hobbies into jobs,” he laughs. “Medicine, marine technology, hospitality – these are things I’ve always maintained an interest in for a good part of my life, and kept tabs on.”

As a result, switching to and fro between these industries has been relatively easy. “Luckily, it’s not been a case where I change gears, and I start from zero. I’ve been actively following new developments, and dabbling around with things, as a hobby,” he says.

At the heart of his many career transitions and numerous entrepreneurial endeavours has been the invariable power of community.

“There is no single person who can do it all. Your product is as good as your weakest link, which is why you have to build a balanced team, and a community of people who are not only experts in their field, but are also open to the opinions of others,” Daniel says.

“Community is absolutely key, because you cannot find a single person who can do all these things.”

Interestingly, he did not particularly go out of his way to specifically network with his now co-founders. Rather, he met them serendipitously at different stages of his life – primary school, secondary school, and even some from his time flying drones.

After getting his start in management consulting, which he touted as the place to be when one does not know what to do with their lives, he decided to devote his energies to his true interests, of which he never really lost track.

On the surface, all of which appear unrelated, but have a common thread running through them – Daniel’s inherent love for humanity.
 

A hunger for the F&B industry

Daniel’s story begins with the Lo & Behold Group, which he co-founded in 2005.

“Given how much of a foodie I am, I’ve always loved the industry,” he shares. “So when I got the chance to set up a rooftop bar with my business partner (Wee Teng Wen), I jumped at it.”

One thing led to another, and the Lo & Behold Group was born, under whose label a slew of innovative F&B concepts – New Bahru, Overeasy, and Bar Bon Funk, to name a few - sprang up.

Commenting on the dizzying variety of these outlets, Daniel said, “In my mind, we had sort of done every F&B concept in the book, with many culinary firsts among our works – first rooftop bar (Loof, opened in 2005), first restaurant in a colonial chapel (Claudine, opened in 2021), a French restaurant (Odette), beach club (Tanjong Beach Club) and pizzeria (Extra Virgin Pizza).”
 

“We were always trying to push the boundaries of what a gastronomical experience could be like. Each restaurant was a challenge on its own in terms of space, experience, and the financials. I had a personal connection to each outlet.”

Once things at Lo & Behold stabilised, Daniel then realised that it was time for a change of scene and finally left the company in 2015, still carrying with him the same love and curiosity for humanity and human behaviour.
 

Devoting years to medicine
 

He had harboured a longstanding interest in the human body and biology, so made a beeline for Duke-NUS when it first opened a campus in Singapore in 2009).

“I’d always been very interested in science and tech and biology,” he shares, saying he felt like his calling lay in emergency medicine. “In my mind, this branch of medicine offered the most variety”, he says.

Commenting on the nature of his work at SingHealth, where he has been a doctor of medicine for a decade and counting, he says, “So far, my experience has been very fulfilling. At the end of the day, I have no doubt that I am spending my time doing something meaningful.”

Besides the rewarding aspects of his job at SingHealth, he found himself drawn to the technology deployed to treat patients. “There are a lot of fancy tech toys we get to use, like MRI machines and surgical robots. So this job fits in very nicely into my love of technology,” he quips.

Daniel’s balanced preferences for both the man and machine aspects of his job at SingHealth were informed by his time at the University of Michigan, where he studied politics, economics, and neuroscience.

When asked why he took on such a stacked educational experience, he says, jokingly, “It was a lot easier to do a triple major, than getting a 4.0 GPA. But grades aside, all of these subjects reflect human behaviour at varying scales.

“Neuroscience is human behaviour on an individual or small-scale level. Economics is the same, but on an intermediate scale. Politics, of course, is human behaviour reflected in its most grandiose form. I found this combination of small, medium, and large-scale behaviour endlessly fascinating.

“This perspective is something a lot of Singaporeans lack, especially if they have never been overseas. They need to open their eyes to what’s possible beyond our tiny red dot.”

While Daniel is currently on a leave of absence from SingHealth to focus on his startup, The Kinetic Option, he intends to return at some point.

“I stayed so long because I loved working in a government hospital,” he shares. “Private practice is essentially a business. Your considerations are the same as every business – costs, profits, marketing – which I find can sometimes be contrary to the practise of good medicine.

“In a government hospital, you never have to think about how much you're going to charge the patient, or whether you can earn more by doing this procedure versus that one. Focus on the person you are treating without worrying about the business side of things,” he says, yet again driving home his humanistic approach to his career and his life.
 

An electrifying startup

Having devoted such a large chunk of his life and time to medicine, Daniel decided it was time for yet another change of scene.

His startup, The Kinetic Option (TKO), which claims to be Singapore’s first-ever retail marine product maker, is making waves (literally and figuratively) for its electric marine propulsion technology.

Known best for its zero-emission surfboard, TKO offers electric outboard motors and electric water jets for watercraft, catering to commercial and leisure applications.

“We are the first of our kind to come out to Singapore, and setting things up was a challenge because there is no tangible ecosystem for what we are trying to do,” he mentions.

Despite the slender odds, life would have it such that Daniel would encounter people with the skillsets needed to bring this unique project to life with relative ease. “I was very fortunate to have a good group of friends who dabbled in everything from naval architecture to electrical engineering and motor control systems,” he shares.

“When it comes to anything marine propulsion-related, you need a few elements. You need the person who knows marine and naval engineering. You then need someone well-versed in the mechanics of the propulsion system itself. Next, someone who understands controllers and batteries. And finally, a jack-of-all-trades who can get the project off the ground, and pull a team and funding together, which happened to be myself,” says Daniel, describing how the team for TKO came together.

This motley crew came together during Daniel’s time at the University of Michigan when he met a classmate who happened to be a scholar with a background in naval engineering, and had extensive experience in building submarine rescue vessels and warships.

“He was the first person I got on board to do this project. The second person on board the TKO founder lineup was a good friend I’d met on a grassy field in Singapore flying drones, and was an expert in systems like this,” he says.

“The fourth member of our team, a designer, has contributed immensely to our success. He understood how to design marine products like no other.”

“A company like ours in a place like Singapore does have the potential to become a global brand and push the envelope on what can be done for marine electrification,” Daniel shares, when asked about what he envisions TKO can grow into. “It would be great to be the first retail marine company from Singapore to make a splash globally.”

And while sustainability is important to Daniel and his team, there is nothing better than seeing people enjoy their product and have a great time in the water. “Any product that can do that is destined for success,” he believes.

At present, the brand sells to sixteen countries, and serves a wide variety of clients, from mega-yacht owners to seaweed farmers.

“Locally, we have sold to Changi Airport Group, which was interested in our surfboards as they offer a quicker response to emergencies, as well as a partnership with Singapore Defence Science and Technology Agency related to autonomous surface vessels.We’re also in discussions with rowing clubs in the UK, as they want emission-free safety boats for their rowers,” Daniel explains.
 

Human behaviour as the blueprint

Keeping in mind the earlier discussion about the varying levels of human behaviour, Daniel’s own professional experiences have been similar.

Speaking about the few instances where he saw how the human context prevailed above all, he says, “During my time at SingHealth, I realised that a very large part of medicine is not really the treatment, but the interactions with people. Reassuring them. Mindfully communicating to them that sometimes there is nothing you can do for them.”

“It’s about how you break the bad news, how you give people hope, how you deliver a diagnosis, how to get people to trust and open up to you.”

He recalls advising junior doctors on how to handle human interactions. “Doctors tend to think that everything important happens in the hospital, but the truth is that for most people, everything important in life happens outside of the hospital.”

“A lot of life takes place over dinner, over meals, in restaurants and bars, where so many important things happen. You meet friends, you get married, you celebrate each other, you take your loved ones out.”

And Daniel, who has spent years developing deep expertise in the F&B industry, is in an ideal position to make this type of commentary. “Restaurants are such an interesting venue, because it is where so much of the good and interesting things in life take place. I constantly see people celebrating milestones, so it’s very heartwarming to be able to facilitate something like that,” he remembers.
 

Lessons learnt along the way
 

Of course, navigating life the way Daniel has done so far, comes with its fair share of trials and tribulations.

“You’d have to be deluded to do a startup,” he reflects. “The reality of running one is always harder than you think; that’s why you have to be really optimistic. You have to almost underestimate the challenge, so you can get started. This is the lesson I’ve carried with me for the last thirty years.”

Another life lesson that Daniel has learnt over the last decade or so is related to team composition and team structure. “Once a startup progresses past a certain size, what matters is human resources. And by that I mean your team,” he mentions.

“The ability to find good people, to motivate them, and give them a stake in whatever you're doing is essential to doing any business that you cannot run as a one or two-person team. Those are the two takeaways that apply to any industry.”

Besides mindset and business practices, Daniel recommends finding a mentor, and considers himself lucky enough to have been in the company of several, and having learnt from the best.

“In medicine, your entire life is an apprenticeship. You get to learn from these professors who have given their entire lives to learning and teaching. Somebody has to hold your hand, literally, and show you how to do something,” he reflects, when speaking of the mentors he has worked with.
 

Advice for the versatile and multi-faceted

Despite being a man of many interests, Daniel admits that it is impossible to do everything, all at once. “Pick a specific interest for a period of time, and give it your 100 per cent,” he shares. “Once you start a business, depth is very, very important. Pick one thing and go for it.”

And while he encourages the proverbial deep-dive into a specific interest or subject, he reminds us that it is possible to pivot at any point. “You’re not really sacrificing everything else, because it’s always possible to try something new, and move on once you have accomplished everything possible in one particular field,” he mentions, and cautions against stacking one’s to-do list with too many things. “If you try to do it all at the same time, you will absolutely fail.”

As far as his own life is concerned, Daniel describes how he moved through different industries sequentially. “When I did something, I put my 100 per cent into it,” he shares. “And, at the start, there were failures galore. One truth you will have to contend with, is that when you try something new, there’s a strong chance you will fail.”

For those who have switched industries, he recommends being a blank slate of sorts. “You have to be receptive, especially if you’re starting from zero, or don’t know much. Look for mentors to guide you along the way,” he advises.

And above all, Daniel talks about how working in the industry one has a genuine interest in, should feel like play, above all. “If you are truly interested in something, and you enjoy spending time doing it, it won’t feel like work, at least at the start,” he says. “It’s quite easy to have some sort of ‘work-life’ balance once you’re truly interested in something, and you’re busy accumulating knowledge and understanding.”
 

Source: This article was first published by the Singapore Global Network (SGN), a 140,000+ strong network connecting professionals and building communities across the globe. For networking events, industry insights and stories like this, join SGN here.