THE MOMENT AFTER THE CALL
The phone call ended.
I just sat there.
Two giants—Deloitte and Singtel—wanted a demo of ChequePRO.
And I had… what?
Two forms made in Visual Basic and a website blurb we wrote just to fill space.
Was I excited? Absolutely.
Was I terrified? 100%.
I started reading everything we had put on the website about ChequePRO like it was someone else’s product. That moment when the world says “Yes” before you’re ready—man, that’s wild. I didn’t know whether to celebrate or hide.
So I scheduled the appointment with Deloitte and asked Anita, my wife, to accompany me to the meeting. Even with the two of us, we still felt like a whisper in a boardroom that was ten times larger than our entire office. The Finance Manager, the IT Manager, and the Accounts Payable team were all seated. In my head, I’m thinking: What have they read about ChequePRO that I haven’t? Did they land on the wrong website? Are they confusing us with someone else?
Before I could completely self-combust, I took every ounce of strength and courage from every cell in my body and asked the Finance Manager:
“What is expected from us in the demo? I see quite a big team here.”
He calmly picked up a cheque book and said:
“All I want is a solution that can print on this cheque.”
Thank you, cells. I was back in action. “That’s alright,” I replied. “We can show you that.”
DEMO OF THE CENTURY (TWO FORMS DEEP)
So we began the demo—a two-form solution being showcased to eight people like it was the next AI breakthrough. We showed the saved vendors dropdown. We showed the number-to-word conversion. That was it. Then came that question—the one every salesperson hopes never comes up in a meeting:
“Let’s test it, then.”
And with fake confidence and trembling cells, I said:
“WHY NOT!” (While internally my cells were screaming: WHY?!)
The Finance Manager asked me to enter the number 8. (If you don’t know—8 is a lucky number in Chinese culture.)
So I typed 8. Then he asked for 88. Then 888. Then 8,888. 88,888. 888,888. 8,888,888.
Every time I hit 8, my heart skipped a beat. By the time we reached 888 million, he said:
“Try another 8.”
I had to stop this heart attack somehow. With as much humility as I could gather, I asked:
“Do you issue 8 billion dollar cheques?”
He casually said:
“No.”
Suddenly, all my cells looked at me with a big “?” But somehow—we survived.
That 10-minute heart transplant moment ended with one final question from the Finance Manager:
“How much is the solution for?”
I had no clue.
So I played it cool and asked back:
“How many units would you like to buy?”
He replied: “Four.”
I said: “Sure, let us get back to you with the pricing via email.”
We walked out of that meeting like survivors.
Shook every hand. Walked out of the operation theater alive.
Back at the office, we debated pricing. Too cheap and we’d be undervalued. Too expensive and we’d lose the deal. We finally settled on $3,500 for the four licenses. Sent the quote. It was approved.
Just like that—a product was born.
A STAR IS BORN
From that first corporate deal, ChequePRO went on to land clients across Singapore. We sold it to: Big brands, Embassies, Banks, Hotels, Casinos. All from our humble 5×5 office.
And here’s the kicker:
We didn’t even have a full-time developer.
This wasn’t built in a fancy tech studio. ChequePRO was developed by multiple friend developers—people who worked regular jobs and met us after 6PM. We’d sit at McDonald’s and coffee shops till late, refining the solution. Then we’d drop them home on our motorbikes.
That’s the truth. That’s the hustle.
And to honour the number 8 that almost gave me a stroke in Deloitte’s boardroom, we even made it part of our pricing tiers:
- $388 – Lite
- $588 – Professional
- $888 – Enterprise
Because if 8 was lucky—so were we.
THE IMPACT & GRATITUDE
We built and sold this to Singapore’s biggest names. And yes—it got copied. Companies across Southeast Asia duplicated the idea. Some even stole the entire website in Dubai. But you know what? We had already won.
We had earned enough. So years later, we made the Lite version free—forever. Today, ChequePRO still gets around 25,000 downloads a year. This story? It’s real. And it’s close to my heart.
We didn’t just sell software. We sold belief. We sold hustle.
And today, through this Memo—I want to thank every person who helped build ChequePRO. From Waqar… to our friends coding in cafés… to the first customer who took a chance on us.
There is so much more to the story and so much to learn, i cant say enough but with my brimmed eyes, i am thankful and would say only one thing Never stop believing. Even if all you have is two forms and a dream. Keep the Hustle ON.
THE UNGLAMOROUS TRUTH
There were no launch parties.
No press features.
No TEDx talks.
Just two forms. Solving one real problem. Very well.
That’s how a $250 project changed the course of my business.
Not because it was genius tech.
But because we cared about one problem deeply.
