Singapore · making and breaking things since 2000
I’m Abhishek Cherian George. I build things, start businesses, write a bit, mentor founders, guide startups, invest a little and fail at a really fast pace. This is where I collect all of it — the things I make, the things I bury, and the handful still standing.
New book What the Hell Is AI? — out now on KindleThe bars get the press — Asia’s 50 Best Bars · SCMP · The Peak · Tatler Asia · Time Out →
Just published · my first book
A Plain Guide for People Who Stopped Nodding Along
You hear the word a hundred times a day. Your boss says it in meetings; everyone nods along about “models” and “agents” and “context windows” — and you nod too, pretending. This is the short book for the rest of us. It starts at the beginning — not of AI, but of computers — because none of it makes sense until you know what’s underneath.
I fail at more things in a year than most people start in a lifetime. Here is an honest, incomplete account of what I’ve attempted and buried since 2000. You are welcome to visit and have a good laugh.
I would rather be ashes than dust. I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
…and that’s the polite half of it. The full reckoning — the day-trading, the burnout, the bridges I burned and the ones I helped rebuild — is written down honestly, with names and dates.
Some of what I build survives a while longer than the rest — and far more of it ends up a line in the ledger above than ever lands here. A few names die and come back stronger. Right now, this many are still breathing.
Bar · Sago Group
A bar in a Chinatown shophouse, built almost entirely by hand from upcycled materials during the 2020 lockdown — no investors, no grand plan. It grew into the Sago Group and one of the most loved bars in Asia, now on Duxton Hill. Co-founded with Jay Gray and Desiree Jane Silva.
Bar · since ~2012
My original bar — the one that started it all and refuses to stay dead. Flooded, closed, and reborn again on River Valley Road, now in the hands of Anthony Zayat.
@spiffydapperGin bar
A tiny experimental gin bar built with the Tanglin Gin distillery — now tucked inside the Spiffy Dapper. A hole in the wall the regulars love.
@oriental.elixirThird space
My third-space project above the Spiffy Dapper — haircuts, hot shaves, tattoos, art, bikes, and other bits and bobs. (Formerly STASH.SG.)
@cultcommonsGlassware
Handmade crystal glassware, launched — against all advice — in the middle of a pandemic. It’s become quite a thing.
kes-sho.comExperiences
A website for the good, the odd and the overlooked around Singapore — born of the pandemic, now a long-form content home too.
curated.sgHospitality
Places tastemakers in venues for honest feedback — and the social content that comes with it.
tastemaker.sgCareers
A digital résumé that traces the hospitality trade’s lineage.
guild.cvEducation
A one-parent, one-child experiences platform — learning by doing, together.
tangent.schoolB2B Tasting Room
Market access for beverage brands trying to crack the Singapore market.
tincture.houseAI · services
AI-led corporate services and bookkeeping for small businesses in Singapore.
Also on the go — more of what’s keeping me busy
These days I write on Substack — on building, failing, and making sense of a world that’s changing fast. A lot of it runs through Tangent School, alongside other voices. The earlier essays are on Medium.
Lately — on Substack
Earlier — on Medium
I came to Singapore from India at sixteen and started making things not long after. Twenty-five years on, the list is long and mostly buried — bars, cafés, brands, apps, a hip-hop label, an aquaponic farm, and a hundred other ideas that didn’t make it. A few stuck: Sago House, the bar a few of us built by hand during the 2020 lockdown, somehow ended up among Asia’s best.
I’m a builder more than a perfecter. I’d rather try ten things and bury nine than wait around for a sure thing — which is exactly why the ledger of failures runs longer than the list of survivors, and why I keep it out in the open. The creating is the point. I create, so I am.
Lately I’ve been moving on from the bars toward what’s next: writing and AI. There’s a book — a plain-English guide to AI for everyone who’s been quietly nodding along — and essays on Substack about value, judgment, and preparing the next generation for a world that won’t hold still. The newer things I’m building lean the same way. Same instinct, different materials.
If you’re building something of your own — or you just want to argue about it — I’m easy to find.
Mostly about the bars — which is exactly how I like it. The work should be more famous than the worker. The headlines first, the obituaries in the middle, the rest of the clippings in brief.
The headlines
From the graveyard — they wrote about the fallen too
The clippings
…and then there’s the long tail — the hidden-bar listicles, the speakeasy round-ups, the “best of” features from TripZilla to Travel + Leisure to CNA Luxury. The bars collect those on their own now; they don’t need me holding the clippings.
Liftable bio (use as-is)
Abhishek Cherian George is a Singapore-based entrepreneur and writer. He has spent twenty-five years making things — bars, brands, businesses — and keeping a public catalogue of the many that failed. He co-founded Sago House (Asia’s 50 Best Bars; Michter’s Art of Hospitality Award, 2023), and now writes about AI and how it is reshaping work, value and everyday life. His first book, What the Hell Is AI?: A Plain Guide for People Who Stopped Nodding Along, is out now.
Facts you can rely on
Let’s make it happen. Tell me which kind of trouble you’re bringing:
I mentor founders and guide startups — usually by pointing at the exact spot on the ledger where I made your next mistake.
george@chaosactive.com → Press & speaking Want the story?Interviews, podcasts, panels — on failure, building things, and making sense of AI. The press kit above has the facts.
george@chaosactive.com →Or just follow along — no algorithm required: