Vasanth Sreeram (born 4 June 2000), also known as Vas Sreeram, is a Singapore-based entrepreneur, engineer, AI builder, and founder known for his work in circular-economy technology and applied artificial intelligence. From a childhood marked by poverty, displacement, bullying, undiagnosed ADHD, and academic struggles, he has become a multi-venture founder while still in university — a living example of grit, late bloomer power, and the belief that pressure creates diamonds.

Early Life: A Story of Survival and Hope

Vasanth was born in Nagercoil (Nagarkoil), Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu, India. At a very young age, his family was kicked out of their extended family home and had to live temporarily in a friend’s factory office. With almost nothing left, his father made the painful decision in 2003–2004 to move to Singapore alone as a construction labourer earning just S$300 a month.

While his dad sent every dollar back, the family sold all their gold, mortgaged whatever they had, and survived on extreme frugality. His grandfather would walk 5 km just to bring young Vasanth snacks — small acts of love that still bring a smile today. Despite the hardship, the family stayed fiercely optimistic: they took massive loans, bought land, and built their first proper house around 2004. In 2005, Vasanth’s younger brother was born, and for a brief moment life felt a little brighter.

The Big Move to Singapore (2010)

At age 9–10, the family finally joined his father in Singapore. What was supposed to be “better” turned out to be brutally difficult. Vasanth waited six months to even get into school. His English and academics were so weak that authorities wanted to place him in Primary 3 instead of Primary 5. His parents begged the vice-principal and managed to secure Primary 4.

The daily commute from Jurong West to Jiuying Primary School was two hours each way — he woke at 5 a.m. and travelled alone by bus and MRT. Later he transferred to the much closer Pioneer Primary School. He was severely bullied (mostly by other Indian students), while surprisingly the Chinese classmates were kinder. Undiagnosed ADHD kept him at the bottom of the class. He remembers almost nothing from his Indian schooling except being hit for not studying — something common at CMC Matriculation School back then.

The Academic Grind & Turning Points

PSLE was heartbreaking. He topped his class in prelims (2nd position) but flopped the actual exam with a score of 183, landing in the Normal Academic stream. His dad refused to let him choose an “easy” school and pushed him into Fuhua Secondary School.

As a Normal Academic student he felt completely ostracised — no access to good CCAs, no Model UN, almost no interaction with Express stream students. Yet Secondary 3 became the first real turning point. Thanks to PE teacher and NPCC officer Mr Hilmy, he joined National Police Cadet Corps late (starting as the lowest rank: Private). The structure, daily training, and pressure suddenly unlocked something in him. His maths and science grades shot up — he started getting A’s in subjects he used to fail. He discovered a powerful pattern:

“I perform much better when I have no break and life is stressful.”

He stayed an extra year (Sec 5) after missing the Polytechnic Foundation Programme by just one point. For O-levels he downgraded his phone to a dumb phone, studied English every single day, stopped tuition — and scored mostly A’s (except Design & Technology). Out of his entire Sec 5 cohort, only two students made it to Junior College. Vasanth was one of them.

Junior College: Barely In, Then President

At Jurong Pioneer Junior College, the vice-principal (a huge NPCC supporter) saw Vasanth’s background and coding experience and gave him a chance to take Computing, Physics, and H2 Mathematics — even though he had never taken Additional Mathematics. Vasanth had to self-teach three years of Add Math on top of the JC syllabus.

He joined the Current Affairs Society even though he “hated politics,” and ended up becoming its President. JC1 was manageable under pressure. JC2, ironically, was dangerous — too much free time led to procrastination and prelim results of only 28–30 rank points. With A-levels looming, he locked in for one month straight, studying 18 hours a day. He passed every subject and scored a respectable 68.75 rank points.

National Service, First Failure, and the Entrepreneurial Fire

After A-levels came National Service — which he openly says he hated.

Right after NS he started his first company, TeachX (tuition platform). It failed because they didn’t know how to sell or scale — but the painful lessons became gold.

He then poured everything into:

  • BugBoom — a circular-economy startup using Black Soldier Fly larvae to turn food waste into high-protein animal feed and organic fertiliser. It now operates multiple processing stations in Singapore.
  • Noverse Inc. — EdTech startup building AI grading and learning tools for universities and SEAB (Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board), where he serves as CTO/Lead Engineer.
  • LintLabs (Lint Technologies) — his applied AI research lab and service company helping SMEs with AI integration, voice agents, process automation, and optimisation. It has already crossed S$20,000 monthly recurring revenue.

All of this while studying at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Bioengineering (CCEB). In university he was finally diagnosed with ADHD — a moment that brought huge relief and understanding to his entire life story.

Family Inspiration

The biggest role model in Vasanth’s life is his father. From a secondary-school dropout and low-wage construction worker, he climbed to manager, then left to start his own company. Today he owns and runs Renu Eng Consultant, a prominent Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) services group that has grown into five companies through acquisitions — all built from nothing.

Philosophy & Superpower

“I tend to perform much better when the stakes are extremely high and I have zero rest time.”

He has built games, apps, bots, websites, web apps, trained ML models, and contributed to open source — all while juggling multiple companies and studies. His journey is proof that late bloomers, underdogs, and neurodivergent minds can rewrite the script when they finally find their rhythm.