In The Hot Seat

Ian Ang and Alaric Choo, the wunderkind co-founders of gaming chair brand Secretlab are doubling down on the vision for their rising business

- Karen Tee

As a new year rolls around, some people resolve to lose weight, learn a new language or achieve a career goal. Not Ian Ang and Alaric Choo. Instead, the co-founders of gaming chair company Secretlab want to spend more time playing computer games.

Not that these millennial wunderkinds are slackers by any measure. Hot off a stellar year for the business despite the raging global pandemic, their goal is to achieve more work life “harmony” by doing what they love the most, in an attempt to balance out a madcap few years of seemingly never-ending hustle.

Since Secretlab was launched in December 2014, its ergonomic chairs—designed for a gamer’s comfort even through 14-hour marathon sessions in front of a computer screen—have been garnering rave reviews on multiple tech websites including CNet, TechRadar and PCMag. In 2018, Temasek subsidiary Heliconia Capital Management took a minority stake in the company which was, at that point, valued between $200 million and $300 million.

Then last year as the pandemic forced desk-bound workers to set up WFH (work from home) offices, sales for Secretlab chairs surged. It sold its millionth chair in 2020, a feat which Ang quips means that they managed to sell “a million more chairs than we expected when we first started”.

The chairs, codenamed Omega, Titan and Titan XL, are designed to support users of different sizes and come in different upholstery options, including synthetic leather (or PU leather), SoftWeave fabric or genuine napa leather.