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From “obnoxious” teenager to Carro CEO: Aaron Tan on rewiring SEA’s used-car market
Miro Lu kicks off our debut episode with Aaron Tan, Co-Founder & CEO of Carro.
Check Out The Best Parts
* 30:30- Business has no business in politics
* 43:13 - His take on the grind culture
* 56:45 - What’s next after Carro
Brought to you by:
Perspective Media Studios - From broadcast to branded storytelling across Asia.Asia Tech Lens - Independent insights at the intersection of tech, policy & society.
Aaron Tan is reinventing how cars are bought, financed, insured, and serviced. He started his first company at 13, studied computer science at Carnegie Mellon, and in this conversation unpacks why he bet on used cars, why tariffs make spare parts a once-in-a-decade opportunity, and his counterintuitive philosophy of encouraging people to “come and go” while scaling across the region.
What You’ll Hear About:
* How a curious teen tearing down his first PC became the operator behind Southeast Asia’s leading auto-tech platform.
* The U.S. years that shaped Aaron’s interdisciplinary, hands-on, global lens.
* Why used-car buying should be predictable, fair, and trustworthy and how Carro is built for that.
* Going public: what it really takes, and when “never say never” to the U.S. makes sense.
* AI and agentic automation inside Carro: practical use cases that compound execution.
* Grind vs. dedication: his unvarnished take on doing the hard things when it counts.
* Leadership longevity: why he doesn’t imagine running Carro forever, and what might come next.
Key Discussion Points
Early Hustle and Family Influence:At 13, Aaron Tan launched his first business under his grandmother’s name. He was the kid who tore apart computers to see how they worked - then sold what he learned online. His parents were skeptical about “making money on the internet” in the 1990s, but curiosity and stubbornness paid off early.
Global Exposure and Interdisciplinary Growth:A scholarship took Tan to Carnegie Mellon, where diverse experiences, from robotics to baking, startup ventures to core computer science, shaped his understanding of AI, cloud computing, and opportunity recognition. Those years turned raw curiosity into a method: experiment fast, learn broadly, and connect dots across disciplines.
Block 71 and Ecosystem Building:Back in Singapore in 2010, his first assignment as a government scholar was to revive a derelict building nicknamed Ground Zero. Partnering with NUS Enterprise, the IDA, and early tenants like Intel, he turned it into a startup hub and coined the name Block 71 to celebrate density and community over flash.
Carro’s Unique Market Strategy:Aaron saw opportunity where others saw distrust - the used-car trade. He built Carro around transparency, pricing data, and integrated services spanning financing, insurance, and after-sales care. Early missteps in market expansion taught him how local nuance can make or break scaling.
Trust became Carro’s moat and data was how they earned it.
Culture, Team-Building, and Leadership:Aaron champions what he calls “007 energy” not endless hours, but intensity when it counts. He believes in letting great people leave, learn, and return stronger. As Carro passed 5,000 employees, he shifted focus from hierarchy to trust and alignment.
“I always encourage people to come and go.”
AI, Automation, and Technology:Long before today’s AI wave, Carro was using machine learning to inspect cars through vision and acoustics, set prices, and analyze customer sentiment. Automation now powers back-office work and boosts sales productivity. Tan emphasizes building on existing models rather than reinventing them and sees AI reshaping operations across Asia.
Generosity, and Giving Back:Having faced early legal setbacks, Aaron says money should circulate — not accumulate.
“Money is like fertilizer — it only works when you spread it around.”
He invests in founders who’ve failed before, backs employees through rough patches, and sees mentorship as a multiplier for the entire ecosystem.
Personal Habits, Networks, and Ten-Year Vision:Between angel investments and a doctorate in AI, Aaron still finds time to hike and reset. He keeps a diverse network of advisors and investors for perspective. He doesn’t picture retirement - just the next target.
“I don’t imagine myself running Carro for the rest of my life.”
In This Episode:
00:00 - Introducing Aaron Tan
01:17 - Fast Focus - Rapid fire insights from Aaron Tan
01:59 - How it began - “I started his first company when I was thirteen.”
04:41 - “I think for lack of a better word, before I was 21…I think the word obnoxious is probably true.”
07:37 - The Carnegie Mellon days
08:50 - Campus entrepreneur: Building a company with a professor
13:35 - Building Singapore’s startup ecosystem and naming Block 71
20:22 - Why he chose cars over real estate
27:37 - Lessons from scaling across Asia
27:54 - Hiring Right: The people you need on the team
30:15 - Geopolitics: His take
30:30 - “I generally believe that businessmen and politicians should stay away from each other.”
31:41 - Tariffs & Opportunity: A good time to be in the spare parts business
32:20 - “Never Say Never” to heading to the U.S.
33:03 - What it takes to go public
34:46 - AI and agentic automation inside Carro
39:00 - People and Culture
40:19 - Talent Mobility: “Always encourage people to come and go”
43:13 - “When push comes to shove, when you have projects that need you to sleep in the office, you jolly well do that...because this is simply put being dedicated and being motivated to do your job.”
44:44 - Giving back and investing in others
49:32 - The people in his corner
52:18 - Lessons from the journey
56:45 - “I don’t imagine myself running Carro for the rest of my life.”
*This episode was recorded on 18 September 2025
More About Aaron Tan & Carro:
Carro
Aaron Tan on LinkedIn
References:
* Cool Japan Fund
* Block 71 Singapore
* NUS Enterprise
* IMDA
* Singtel
* Carnegie Mellon University
* Softbank
* Temasek
* Baidu
* Alibaba
* Tencent
* Magnificent Seven
* Arista Networks
* Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA)
* Mitsubishi
* Jardine C&C
* Zeekr
* Hong Kong PolyU AI Program
* Perspective Media
* Asia Tech Lens Newsletter
Chinese Phrases
* 三岁看到老 (sān sùi kàn dào lǎo)
At three, you can see the old.Meaning: A person’s character or tendencies show very early; early habits foreshadow who they’ll become.
* 鹬蚌相争 (yù bàng xiāng zhēng)
A fight between a snipe and a clam.
Meaning: Two sides locked in conflict hurt each other, letting a third party reap the benefit.
* 996 (jiǔ jiǔ liù)
Meaning: Chinese work-schedule slang: 9 a.m.–9 p.m., 6 days a week, common in some tech/startup firms.
* 卷 (juǎn)
Meaning: “to over-compete / overwork” in a zero-sum, pressure-cooker way; everyone piles on effort for diminishing returns.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.asiatechlens.com
View all episodes
By Asia Tech LensMiro Lu kicks off our debut episode with Aaron Tan, Co-Founder & CEO of Carro.
Check Out The Best Parts
* 30:30- Business has no business in politics
* 43:13 - His take on the grind culture
* 56:45 - What’s next after Carro
Brought to you by:
Perspective Media Studios - From broadcast to branded storytelling across Asia.Asia Tech Lens - Independent insights at the intersection of tech, policy & society.
Aaron Tan is reinventing how cars are bought, financed, insured, and serviced. He started his first company at 13, studied computer science at Carnegie Mellon, and in this conversation unpacks why he bet on used cars, why tariffs make spare parts a once-in-a-decade opportunity, and his counterintuitive philosophy of encouraging people to “come and go” while scaling across the region.
What You’ll Hear About:
* How a curious teen tearing down his first PC became the operator behind Southeast Asia’s leading auto-tech platform.
* The U.S. years that shaped Aaron’s interdisciplinary, hands-on, global lens.
* Why used-car buying should be predictable, fair, and trustworthy and how Carro is built for that.
* Going public: what it really takes, and when “never say never” to the U.S. makes sense.
* AI and agentic automation inside Carro: practical use cases that compound execution.
* Grind vs. dedication: his unvarnished take on doing the hard things when it counts.
* Leadership longevity: why he doesn’t imagine running Carro forever, and what might come next.
Key Discussion Points
Early Hustle and Family Influence:At 13, Aaron Tan launched his first business under his grandmother’s name. He was the kid who tore apart computers to see how they worked - then sold what he learned online. His parents were skeptical about “making money on the internet” in the 1990s, but curiosity and stubbornness paid off early.
Global Exposure and Interdisciplinary Growth:A scholarship took Tan to Carnegie Mellon, where diverse experiences, from robotics to baking, startup ventures to core computer science, shaped his understanding of AI, cloud computing, and opportunity recognition. Those years turned raw curiosity into a method: experiment fast, learn broadly, and connect dots across disciplines.
Block 71 and Ecosystem Building:Back in Singapore in 2010, his first assignment as a government scholar was to revive a derelict building nicknamed Ground Zero. Partnering with NUS Enterprise, the IDA, and early tenants like Intel, he turned it into a startup hub and coined the name Block 71 to celebrate density and community over flash.
Carro’s Unique Market Strategy:Aaron saw opportunity where others saw distrust - the used-car trade. He built Carro around transparency, pricing data, and integrated services spanning financing, insurance, and after-sales care. Early missteps in market expansion taught him how local nuance can make or break scaling.
Trust became Carro’s moat and data was how they earned it.
Culture, Team-Building, and Leadership:Aaron champions what he calls “007 energy” not endless hours, but intensity when it counts. He believes in letting great people leave, learn, and return stronger. As Carro passed 5,000 employees, he shifted focus from hierarchy to trust and alignment.
“I always encourage people to come and go.”
AI, Automation, and Technology:Long before today’s AI wave, Carro was using machine learning to inspect cars through vision and acoustics, set prices, and analyze customer sentiment. Automation now powers back-office work and boosts sales productivity. Tan emphasizes building on existing models rather than reinventing them and sees AI reshaping operations across Asia.
Generosity, and Giving Back:Having faced early legal setbacks, Aaron says money should circulate — not accumulate.
“Money is like fertilizer — it only works when you spread it around.”
He invests in founders who’ve failed before, backs employees through rough patches, and sees mentorship as a multiplier for the entire ecosystem.
Personal Habits, Networks, and Ten-Year Vision:Between angel investments and a doctorate in AI, Aaron still finds time to hike and reset. He keeps a diverse network of advisors and investors for perspective. He doesn’t picture retirement - just the next target.
“I don’t imagine myself running Carro for the rest of my life.”
In This Episode:
00:00 - Introducing Aaron Tan
01:17 - Fast Focus - Rapid fire insights from Aaron Tan
01:59 - How it began - “I started his first company when I was thirteen.”
04:41 - “I think for lack of a better word, before I was 21…I think the word obnoxious is probably true.”
07:37 - The Carnegie Mellon days
08:50 - Campus entrepreneur: Building a company with a professor
13:35 - Building Singapore’s startup ecosystem and naming Block 71
20:22 - Why he chose cars over real estate
27:37 - Lessons from scaling across Asia
27:54 - Hiring Right: The people you need on the team
30:15 - Geopolitics: His take
30:30 - “I generally believe that businessmen and politicians should stay away from each other.”
31:41 - Tariffs & Opportunity: A good time to be in the spare parts business
32:20 - “Never Say Never” to heading to the U.S.
33:03 - What it takes to go public
34:46 - AI and agentic automation inside Carro
39:00 - People and Culture
40:19 - Talent Mobility: “Always encourage people to come and go”
43:13 - “When push comes to shove, when you have projects that need you to sleep in the office, you jolly well do that...because this is simply put being dedicated and being motivated to do your job.”
44:44 - Giving back and investing in others
49:32 - The people in his corner
52:18 - Lessons from the journey
56:45 - “I don’t imagine myself running Carro for the rest of my life.”
*This episode was recorded on 18 September 2025
More About Aaron Tan & Carro:
Carro
Aaron Tan on LinkedIn
References:
* Cool Japan Fund
* Block 71 Singapore
* NUS Enterprise
* IMDA
* Singtel
* Carnegie Mellon University
* Softbank
* Temasek
* Baidu
* Alibaba
* Tencent
* Magnificent Seven
* Arista Networks
* Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA)
* Mitsubishi
* Jardine C&C
* Zeekr
* Hong Kong PolyU AI Program
* Perspective Media
* Asia Tech Lens Newsletter
Chinese Phrases
* 三岁看到老 (sān sùi kàn dào lǎo)
At three, you can see the old.Meaning: A person’s character or tendencies show very early; early habits foreshadow who they’ll become.
* 鹬蚌相争 (yù bàng xiāng zhēng)
A fight between a snipe and a clam.
Meaning: Two sides locked in conflict hurt each other, letting a third party reap the benefit.
* 996 (jiǔ jiǔ liù)
Meaning: Chinese work-schedule slang: 9 a.m.–9 p.m., 6 days a week, common in some tech/startup firms.
* 卷 (juǎn)
Meaning: “to over-compete / overwork” in a zero-sum, pressure-cooker way; everyone piles on effort for diminishing returns.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.asiatechlens.com