Alumni

How a frugal upbringing became a business asset

Published on 29 September 2025

*SMU BSc (Information Systems) alumnus and founder of Originally US mobile consultancy, Calixto Tay.*

Co-founder of a top mobile consultancy, Calixto Tay’s approach to building digital solutions for clients like CPF and CIMB Bank was seeded long before he entered the tech world — it began at his family's dinner table, before being honed by SMU’s School of Computing and Information Science.

Operating within the high-stakes worlds of finance and government technology, Calixto Tay applies a principle learned in childhood: stretch every dollar for maximum value.

Long before 2014 when he became co-founder and CEO of Originally US, a mobile and AI consultancy in Southeast Asia, he was a kid from a modest household where money was tight, and every purchase was a calculated decision.

“I learned how to stretch every dollar for maximum value, from how my parents would evaluate every single purchase,” says the SMU Bachelor of Science (Information Systems) graduate.

“We would pick the cheapest meal that provided a balanced diet, or the most ‘value-for-money’ entertainment experience for the whole family”.

An education in ROI

Calixto, who graduated in 2013 Summa Cum Laude with a second major in Retail Banking and Financial Markets Technology, internalised this logic of scarcity, forming a habit of long-term thinking and an almost-forensic attention to return on investment.

He reflects that the financial constraints of his youth were formative, imparting a core lesson in valuing every resource — a lesson that later became his blueprint for building lean, resilient, and sustainable businesses.

Such resourcefulness became the bedrock of his entrepreneurial journey, enabling him and his Originally US co-founder, Torin Nguyen, to weather storms like their lowest-ever revenue year in 2018 and the global uncertainty of the pandemic.

"I learned to save like there was no next payday, a mindset that became one of my greatest assets" Calixto says,

"Today, those early lessons still guide how I run my companies. I’m extremely resourceful, cautious with spending, and relentlessly focused on return on investment. I scrutinise every service or tool we adopt and manage cash flow with discipline.”

Before it became a business strategy, however, his instinct for creating value was channelled into a series of personal coding projects. He approached programming with the wonder of a child before an infinite LEGO set, viewing it as a medium of boundless possibility where the only real limit was his imagination.

This insatiable curiosity led to "The Wicked" in 2006, an online puzzle game that unexpectedly garnered a "cult-like" following.

"Players wrote in to say how much they loved the game," Calixto shares. "That was the moment I realised technology doesn’t just solve problems. It can move people, connect them, and create joy.”

Subsequent projects, like a used textbook marketplace — BookINBookOUT, which he built in a single night and launched in 2009 — were less about profit and more about the "thrill of experimentation and learning", and the satisfaction of seeing users derive genuine benefit from his work.

He elaborates: “Having honed our IT skills since our secondary school days, we’ve always believed that well-designed and properly implemented digital solutions can drive significant positive outcomes.”

From theory to technopreneurship

But to translate that belief into a viable career, Calixto knew he needed a more structured environment to channel his creative energy. And later in 2009 he found it at SMU School of Computing and Information Systems, where he picked up life skills that have seen him through his career.

“Our projects often involve solving complex problems for large organisations, and there's rarely a textbook answer,” Calixto explains.

“Instead, we rely on rapid experimentation, user feedback, and cross-functional collaboration — all things I first experienced in the SMU classroom.”

For a student acutely aware of financial limitations, cinching the prestigious SMU Merit Award was transformative. To support students with financial needs, SMU offers a variety of financial aid options including scholarships and bursaries — almost 18 per cent of students receive a financial award or scholarship.

"When I first entered SMU, I was using a basic $800 netbook that struggled with even the most basic computing and programming tasks," he shares.

The Merit Award allowed him to afford a proper laptop, a seemingly small detail that, for a developer, "made a world of difference". More significantly, the financial support enabled him to join the Technopreneurship Study Mission to Beijing. The trip was a formative experience, offering his first direct immersion into China’s dynamic tech ecosystem and recalibrating his understanding of what was possible in the startup world.

This focus on application is a value he now gives his juniors. As a mentor at SMU’s Business Innovations Generator (BIG), the same incubator that supported his own early ventures, he guides a new generation of entrepreneurs. Today, Calixto advises young entrepreneurs on everything from go-to-market strategies to the nuances of engaging developers.

"Mentorship has played a huge role in my own journey," says the technopreneur, who was named on Prestige magazine’s 40 Under 40 list in 2025.

"I see it not as a duty, but as a way to pay it forward.”

This commitment to supporting students extends beyond mentorship. Drawing inspiration from the support he once received from the SMU Merit Award, Calixto has helped to established the Originally US Future Information Technology Leader Award and the Originally US Award for Top Third Year Computing and Information Systems Student.

Since 2019, these awards have supported and celebrated students at pivotal moments, with over five figures in total contributions, and are also Calixto’s way of both encouraging current students, while also spurring them on to give back when they have the means in the future.

“If someone once believed in you, pass it on,” he urges.

“Let’s build a culture where giving is the norm, not the exception.”

Building for impact

That same focus on practical results and strategic thinking, which he imparts to his mentees, is the driving force behind his own company, Originally US. Tay and his team tackle challenges of immense scale, designing "end-to-end digital solutions that address real organisational challenges".

For example, the company developed CPF Volunteering, a gamified initiative by the Central Provident Fund Board. By balancing government-grade security with an intuitive user experience, the app empowers volunteers to guide fellow citizens towards making retirement sound decisions.

Yet, even as they master the complexities of current application development, the team at Originally US is already gearing up for the next technological frontier. Rather than simply integrating off-the-shelf AI tools, Originally US made a decisive move in 2024: The company built Origin.AI, its own proprietary LLM-based system designed specifically for the demands of enterprise-level deployment.

This in-house capability unlocks a new tier of features for their clients, enabling the creation of apps powered by smart recommendation engines, predictive navigation, and seamless natural language searches.

In May 2025, Originally US launched Singa, Singapore’s first locally trained, LLM-powered chatbot, built on their proprietary Origin.AI platform. It is named after the lion mascot fronting various public education campaigns in the city-state.

"Singa is not just another chatbot," Calixto explains.

"It combines multiple advanced LLM techniques... to faithfully recreate the warmth, personality, and helpfulness that Singaporeans associate with Singa the Kindness Lion."

Despite a landscape rife with "app fatigue", Tay remains confident in the enduring power of mobile applications, arguing that investment is shifting towards deepening the scope of existing platforms. "Mobile remains a critical touchpoint," he asserts.

Looking back, his advice to his younger self — an SMU student just starting out — is simple: "Don’t be shy, put yourself out there. Connect with more people, ask more questions, and make full use of every opportunity SMU offers." It is advice rooted in a life spent turning constraints into opportunities, and potential into demonstrable value.

The SMU Edge

Calixto Tay’s time at SMU provided a foundational “toolkit” for his entrepreneurial journey. Here's how SMU's unique ecosystem shaped his path:

A curriculum built for the real world
SMU's interactive, seminar-style classes fostered critical thinking and collaborative problem-solving. This hands-on approach, focused on applying theory to practical business cases, directly mirrors the agile, solution-oriented work he now leads at Originally US.
Nurturing an entrepreneurial mindset
As a student, Calixto benefited from the support of SMU’s Business Innovations Generator (BIG), an incubator that provided mentorship and resources for his early ventures. This experience instilled a deep appreciation for the value of guidance and community in the startup ecosystem.
A cycle of mentorship: Having been a beneficiary of SMU's supportive environment, Tay now gives back as a mentor at BIG. He helps aspiring entrepreneurs navigate challenges and refine their products, embodying the University's spirit of fostering the next generation of change agents.