DERRICK KWA
--http://www.derrickkwa.com
Marketer, Storyteller, and Creator
SUMMARY
HIGHLIGHTS
I help brands tell their story, showcase their authentic
personality - and in doing so, get their customers to fall in
love with them.
Co-Founded Thousand True
As someone who believes in learning by doing, I've
developed my storytelling skills by crafting content for
clients (in both the B2B and B2C sectors), as well as
through an internship with Seth Godin and through his
altMBA course. My passion for creation and belief in
challenging the status quo means I thrive on coming up
with new ideas and pushing the boundaries. My love of
numbers, and experience with data and programming,
allows me to continually optimize the campaigns and
content I create.
I believe in forging your own path; not blindly going
through the motions, but truly understanding why you're
doing what you're doing. That belief is why I left school at
16. And it's what drives me and guides my approach to
marketing - helping brands share the "why" behind what
they do and create the change they want to see in the
world.
Fans, a marketing agency
with clients such as
QuickBooks Asia and Wacoal
Singapore
Was one of the first 100
graduates, in the inaugral
cohort of Seth Godin's
altMBA
Completed a virtual
internship with Seth Godin
Co-Organized the first Social
Media Breakfast | Singapore
Contributed to the Age of
Conversation 2
EXPERIENCE
PROJECTS
Co-Founder
Bucket List Bootcamp
Thousand True Fans
05/2014 – 07/2017
Singapore
www.thousandtruefans.com
I co-founded Thousand True Fans to help businesses
connect with their customers and build a deeper
relationship with them.
Led business development; created and executed
cold email outreach strategy, with 18% converting to
sales meetings
Launched and managed the online resource center
across 3 locales for QuickBooks Asia, and created
internal EDMs to increase social media engagement
Managed Wacoal Singapore's FB page for 2
months, increasing their average daily engagement
by 13.5x
Ran FB ads for Wacoal Singapore: campaign ads
which performed at US$0.11 per click; post
engagement ads which performed at US$0.07 per
engagement, and video ads which performed at
US$0.007 per 3sec view
Managed LAC Taut Singapore's Facebook page for
a 4 month period, increasing their total likes by 57%,
average organic post reach by 1.5x, and average
post likes per day by 4.6x
01/2017
www.derrickkwa.com/blbc2017
The Bucket List Bootcamp was a 2day, interactive and action-focused
online event which I organized and
hosted, to help people get a jumpstart
on their dreams.
Sold 49 paid tickets for the event,
within a month
Brought on-board 10 guest
experts to host workshops,
including Grammy- and Emmynominated musician Peter
Himmelman, award-winning social
media strategist Rachel Pedersen
and artist and lifestyle blogger
Aileen Xu
Ran a promotional contest that
received entries from 291 people
Ran a Thunderclap campaign
that had 92 supporters, with a
combined total reach of over
263k
Wrote press release for the event,
that 206 media outlets picked up
EXPERIENCE
PROJECTS
Digital Marketing Manager
Age of Conversation 2
Beautonomy
04/2018 – 10/2018
I was part of the marketing team as the company grew
from launch to >15,000GBP monthly revenue. I managed
most of the paid marketing channels, as well as set up the
email automation funnels, and also assisted in sourcing
and managing various partnerships with influencers and
other organisations.
Built email automation funnels via Drip
Created and managed Facebook ads and Google
Search ads
Assisted in sourcing and managing influencer and
organisation partnerships
Created automated marketing reports using
Supermetrics and Google Sheets
Created personalisations of the home page using
VWO, that had a conversion rate more than double
the standard home page
Created custom Google Chrome Extension to link our
email automation system with the shipping
management system
Performed a simple machine learning analysis to
determine which elements of ads had the most
impact
Host and Founder
PassionBlueprint
01/2016 – 01/2017
At PassionBlueprint, I help and inspire people to conquer
their fears and do what they love, by showcasing stories of
people who have taken that step to pursue their passions.
Built email list of 300 subscribers, with approx. 22%
open rate
Set up and conducted interviews with guests,
including entrepreneur and former Fortune-50
executive Lisa Howe, independent musician Matthew
Ebel, and President of Mirum Mitch Joel
Got featured on 8 other podcasts in 6 months,
including Join Up Dots with David Ralph, and the
Dreamers Podcast with Joe Pardo
Ran Facebook ads to get traffic; got clicks at
US$0.09 per click
Tested 3 landing pages and 4 Facebook ad
audiences for each page; lowered cost per email
subscriber by 43%
Tested 2 positioning headlines for a Welcome Mat;
increased home page subscription rate by 34%
Tested 2 different lead magnets; increased
conversion rate by 131%
www.tiny.cc/aoc2book
The Age of Conversation 2 was a
collaborative book, with over 250
bloggers and marketers contributing a
page each about today's world of
digital connected-ness, and how it's
different from any other time in the
past.
My contribution was titled "The Web:
The New Field of Dreams", and is
about how the web “makes it very
possible to build a community around
a shared idea, and when you gather
people, when you have a strong tight
community, you can do amazing
things”.
EventBacker | StartupBus
2011
03/2011
Chicago to Austin
On the StartupBus, we formed teams
and created a startup within the 48
hour drive.
Did front end web development
for the EventBacker team
Helped out with marketing
efforts, to get prelaunch signups;
got about 100 pre-launch signups
within 48 hours
Got EventBacker featured on
Pop17.com
Social Media Breakfast
03/2008 – 06/2009
Singapore
The Social Media Breakfast was
originally founded by Bryan Person, in
Boston. Daryl Tay and I brought it to
Singapore to help build and unite the
social media community here.
Had over 40 people attend our
first event, and one sponsor,
purely through word of mouth
and spending no money on
advertising
Hosted a total of 7 events, over 18
months, with up to around 100
attendees
EXPERIENCES
Head of Digital Marketing
TopoTogo
04/2017 – 10/2017
Singapore
I led the marketing efforts for TopoTogo.
Managed and ran Facebook ads, testing different
audiences and achieving clicks at SG$0.24 per click
Performed keyword research and wrote blog posts
Created and wrote lead magnet for hotel partners
Created marketing collaterals for hotel partners
Managed digital activities for partnership with the
Civic District Outdoor Festival 2017, achieving
$0.08c per engagement on Facebook
EDUCATION
Seth Godin's altMBA
2015
www.derrickkwa.com/altmba
The altMBA is a selective, "intensive 4week online workshop designed by
Seth Godin for high-performing
individuals who want to level up and
lead."
During the 4 weeks, we learned how to
lead and drive change, by creating 13
projects. We worked closely with
coaches from Seth hand-picked team,
and received feedback directly from
Seth himself on some of our projects.
Hampshire College
2010 - 2011
Owner/Founder
Sui Generis Labs
07/2011 – 02/2014
At Sui Generis Labs, I built websites for artists and small
businesses. I also worked with a local university to create a
360 survey system that included data analysis and report
generation, using Excel Macros.
I attended Hampshire College for 3
semesters, before leaving to pursue
other opportunities.
Courses taken included: Linear
Algebra, Mathematical Modeling,
Game Theory, and Genetic
Programming
CERTIFICATIONS
Freelance Front End Web Developer
MRM Worldwide
07/2013 – 10/2013
Singapore
I handled the creation of promotional pages and min-sites
for Intel APAC, including PSD slicing, a Facebook contest
page with voting mechanisms, and an interactive
animated quiz using HTML5 and jQuery.
Machine Learning (4-course
specialization)
03/2017
University of Washington, on Coursera
Inbound, Content Marketing, Email
Marketing, Social Media Marketing
01/2017 – 02/2018
Hubspot
Marketing / Community Building Intern
Seth Godin / Squidoo
05/2008 – 08/2008
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/09/learningfrom-a.html
I worked with students from around the world, reporting
directly to Seth Godin. We learned how to drive
engagement and build community by doing so for
Squidoo, with tasks and guidance from Seth himself.
Google Adwords (Search, Mobile,
Video, Display, Shopping)
03/2017 – 03/2018
Google
Google Analytics
03/2017 – 03/2018
Google
Computational Investing, Part I
05/2013
Multimedia Content Developer
Design Rendezvous
Singapore
www.designrendezvous.com
I assisted in filming and editing of corporate videos, as
well as data analysis and report creation for a research
project in partnership with NTU.
Coursera Verified Certificates
Algorithms: Design and Analysis,
Part 1
03/2013
Coursera
RECOMMENDATIONS
[Derrick]’s always the first freelance I go to, because he's speedy, reliable and he can
handle a variety of tasks. He also proved to be more than just a coder - he's a problem
solver and creator, who's able to see the whole picture of what we're trying to achieve. He
never said any task was impossible, and always found a way to make it happen. He's
definitely a great asset to any organization!
Christy Goh, Project Manager, Wild Advertising
Working with Derrick has been an incredible experience. As a dedicated member of the
internshipIN team, he's led us to expanding our product in ways we never would have
imagined. Derrick is a smart and creative individual, and I see great potential in whatever
he chooses to do.
Jessica Mah, CEO, inDinero
Derrick is enthusiastic and considerate in his approach to topics and to people. In my
dealings with him he has demonstrated depth of insights and a positive attitude - both are
prized character traits and the hallmarks of someone who knows how to make his luck.
Valeria Maltoni, Strategic Consultant & Author at ConversationAgent.com
I worked with Derrick while I was a marketer at QuickBooks Asia. More than just a
marketer, he's a great storyteller too. He helped us launch and manage an online resource
centre with valuable content for our customers in Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. He
also created EDMs for our internal team, to generate more social media engagement from
the regional team. We were really happy with his ability to think strategically, and not just
execute.
Sian Ng, PM/UX at Endowus
[Derrick]’s drive and passion for ownership and enterprise will be of great value to any
organization that have the privilege of working with him.
Elvin Zhang, Head of Ventures & Investments at Sinar Mas
Derrick is more than a thought-provoker; we disagreed on certain issues; but I see him more
of a pioneer and an initiator to influence opinion on social media issues.
Mohd Hisham, IT Support Engineer at Keans Technology Pte Ltd
[Derrick] 's a super creative guy who constantly tries to find and fix problems around him.
We were both working on building a community and it was great to be able to work with
someone this smart in my group.
Bjoern Weidlich, Staff Software Engineer, Ripple
[Derrick]’s knowledge of the social media landscape of Singapore is broad and he will be a
valuable addition to any team looking to expand in this sphere.
Jerrick Lim, Legal Counsel at FedEx Express
I'm continually impressed by [Derrick]’s insights into all of the topics he writes about - and
especially about education. He has a unique and thought-provoking view of the world, and
he's definitely someone worth getting to know.
Sarah Deutsch, Theatre Educator
