“What’s the worst thing that could happen?” Yusup Ngadimin returns to this question whenever he hesitates. It forces him to weigh the downside clearly. If the worst outcome is something he can live with and recover from, the hesitation fades and becomes an action he can take with courage. That is the principle he wanted to pass on to others when he founded Uthoppia House Pte. Ltd.
The company was born from a problem Yusup knew personally. He often puts it to young people as a series of questions. Do you remember what you wanted to be when your teacher asked? A pilot, a doctor, perhaps an astronaut? How did that change as reality set in, until the plan became taking the first job offer that came along?
Yusup wanted to reassure young people that they were not alone in that uncertainty. He also wanted to give them practical tools to decide their next step before the sunk cost fallacy set in, the bias that keeps people on a path simply because of what they have already invested in it. Global statistics suggest that up to half of all people come to regret their course of study or career choice after years of preparation.
Same Person, Different Environment
Yusup took his own leap of faith long before Uthoppia House existed. In 2004, while looking for software developer roles, he received an offer from a company in Indonesia, his home country, paying the equivalent of S$250 a month in today’s money. Instead of accepting, he asked himself what the worst outcome of job hunting in Singapore could be. He went on to secure a role in Singapore paying S$2,000 a month.
“Same person, different environment, different outcome,” he told himself. The experience taught him that a problem is shaped either by the person or by the environment around them. Whenever he met a challenge after that, he searched for a solution on both fronts, convinced that one would always exist.
Ironically, entrepreneurship was the last place his younger self expected to end up. Almost everyone in his family ran a business, and he had seen how draining it could be. “There is no way I am becoming a businessman,” he used to say. Yet he went on to try his hand at entrepreneurship three times.
Lessons From Earlier Attempts
Yusup’s first two ventures came during the blockchain boom, when he watched companies raise millions before building a product. Confident in his technical skills, he decided to build something of his own. Neither venture grew into the business he had envisioned, but both taught him a lasting lesson. Building something meaningful required his full attention, and weekends alone produced little progress.
He carried that lesson into Uthoppia House. This time, he resolved to leave the security of his corporate career and give the new venture his complete focus. He also sensed that this attempt would be different, because Uthoppia House set out to solve a genuine gap in the market rather than follow a trend.
From a Physical Space to Mimicue.ai
Yusup’s first idea for Uthoppia House was a physical co-working space for education, where students and mentors could meet and learn from each other. As the concept took shape, he saw that a digital, always-online platform could reach far more people and scale its impact.
After several iterations, that vision became Mimicue.ai, an AI-powered career guidance platform. It analyses a person’s traits and experiences, then draws on the career journeys of successful individuals to help users explore their own paths with greater clarity.
Having built startups twice before, Yusup knew a strong idea would not be enough. Building something as ambitious as his own AI model needed a proper financial runway, so he promised himself to secure funding before committing full-time. He spent almost a year pitching to angel investors, refining his vision with every conversation. Eventually, an investor who believed the platform could help many people agreed to back the venture, and Yusup left his corporate career to commit to Uthoppia House.
Finding a New Direction
With funding in place, Yusup faced a different creative challenge. “When you create something that doesn’t really exist yet, there’s no playbook to follow,” he says. “You have to learn from the market and figure things out along the way.”
In a world where people were used to free AI tools, Uthoppia House had to show why deeper, personalised career guidance deserved investment. Yusup committed to listening to users, refining the product, and educating the market rather than expecting instant results.
The next breakthrough came unexpectedly. A business owner asked whether the career discovery AI could work in reverse, helping companies identify the right talent. Yusup tested the concept and saw its potential almost immediately. “After helping youths identify their career goals and plan for their learning, we could also help connect them to the right job opportunities,” he explains. That experiment became Uthoppia House’s Recruitment AI, which now generates more revenue than Mimicue.ai.
Still Standing, Still Building
For Yusup, Uthoppia House has always been about its people as much as its technology. In a young company, every hire shapes the culture, so he looks for people who believe in the mission and complement the team’s working style. In return, he takes their professional growth seriously.
After two and a half years, Uthoppia House has grown to a team of eleven with zero resignations. The result reflects one of Yusup’s core beliefs: put the right people in the right environment, help them grow, and performance follows.
His ambition now reaches beyond the company itself. Yusup hopes to help raise a generation that is self-aware, adaptable, and confident enough to pursue its own dreams. He wants people to find their own ikigai, a Japanese concept meaning “a reason for being”, where strengths, interests, and the ability to create value come together. Making Mimicue.ai free was the first step towards opening that vision to more people.
The Whole Journey, Not Just the Destination
To Yusup, the spirit of enterprise is the whole journey rather than any single part of it. It calls for perseverance and long-term thinking, along with genuine empathy for people’s needs and the way they live.
He is also candid that entrepreneurship suits some people more than others. “Entrepreneurs are required to have a certain responsibility and mindset. If someone does not have that inclination, entrepreneurship can become extremely challenging,” he says. For those willing to brave the path, the rewards can be deeply fulfilling.
Whatever direction a person’s career takes, Yusup believes that “we just need data, awareness, and the ability to reflect and better plan how to move forward in our lives.” What counts most, he says, is finding satisfaction and fulfilment along the way.
Website: https://www.uthoppia.com/
AUTHOR BIO
ALAN KOH
Alan Koh is the Founder and CEO of Impossible Marketing, a group of companies renowned for hyperlocal marketing strategies tailored to businesses in Singapore. His professional journey began in the banking sector, where he quickly rose through the ranks, garnering eight industry awards in just four years.
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