From Tech Careers to AI Educators: Heicoders Academy Founders on CNA 938 | Full Interview Transcript

TL;DR

Kong Yu Ning and Bei Min Yan, the husband-and-wife co-founders of Heicoders Academy, share their journey from stable, lucrative tech careers to building an AI education academy that’s changing lives.

Key Highlights:

• Why they started: Most tech training providers are disconnected from the industry. Yu Ning and Min Yan wanted to bring real, current tech expertise to adult learners.
• Walking the talk: Heicoders uses AI to save over $10,000/month in operating costs, proving the value of what they teach.
• Impact over profit: They left high-paying careers not to make money, but to genuinely impact students’ lives.
• Real results: One student automated 60% of his work using AI agents, gaining half a day to spend with his daughter.
• Strong community: Heicoders graduates continue helping each other years after completing courses—offering referrals, advice, and support.
• Partnership secrets: Respect, small acts of kindness, protecting personal time, and giving each other space.
• Mission-driven: “We started Heicoders with this simple mission, to really just impact the lives of our students. It’s not just to be there to make money as a business.”

Full Interview Transcript

Introduction

Joel Chua (Host):
Now, a letter to myself with Joel Chua on CNA 938. Thanks so much as always for joining us.

Our guests today are a husband and wife team who are passionate about education and tech. Specifically, they want to make AI education more accessible for adults and mid-career professionals.

They left stable and lucrative careers in tech to start their own academy, and they’re walking the talk. They say that by using their own AI tools, they’re saving up to $10,000 a month, maybe a bit more in fact, in operating costs for their own business.

Sharing with us what they’ve learned on their journey as tech educators and entrepreneurs, the co-founders of Heicoders Academy, Kong Yu Ning and Bei Min Yan. A very warm welcome to the programme. Thank you so much for joining us.

Yu Ning & Min Yan:
Thank you for having us.

Joel:
It’s our pleasure to have you in the studio indeed.

What Sets Heicoders Academy Apart

Joel:
There are many tech academies around teaching AI-related skills as well these days. What exactly sets Heicoders Academy apart?

Yu Ning:

I think there are three things that sets us apart.

The first thing is really the course content and curriculum that we have. We actually collaborate with some of the best AI companies in the world to actually craft this content. For example, we currently have a partnership with Manus AI. I’m not sure if you guys heard of them, but they recently got acquired by Meta, right? We have a partnership with them to directly contribute to our course content that makes it highly relevant. I think that’s the first thing that sets us apart.

The second thing is really our instructors. We are very proud of all of our instructors because they come from high-flying careers in top tech companies. In fact, they are still currently working in some of these companies, but they are also so passionate about spreading the gospel of AI that they actually take extra time to come and teach for us. All of their salary is really high, but they don’t really need to do this for the money. They are really passionate about contributing back to the society. I think that’s the reason why they are teaching us. I think our instructors are really, really solid.

The third thing is really our company. We try to walk the talk so we don’t just teach about AI, but we try to weave in AI into the things that we do ourselves to cut costs, for example, as you mentioned during the introduction.

Joel:
Yes, and we’ll find out a little bit more about how exactly you guys do that in just a little while. I mentioned that you’re saving about $10,000, but just now you said, before the mics came on, you said that it’s probably quite a bit more than that already today.

Yu Ning:
Yes, it’s way more than that now.

Joel:
Okay, great. We’ll hear from you in just a little while.

Why They Started Heicoders Academy

Joel:
So you started the Academy, both of yourselves, in 2020. What were the events that led you to start the Academy? Because I understand that, I mean, I was speaking to Yu Ning earlier, before we came on air, you shared with me that the both of you left pretty lucrative, very stable careers as well to do this. Why did you want to do this?

Min Yan:
Yeah, you’re right. I mean, at that time, I was actually a software engineer and data scientist, while Yu Ning was holding a pretty senior role as a product manager when he left his role for Heicoders.

So I think one thing that we realised very early on is that there are actually a lot of training providers in the space, right, all touting that they teach about tech. But the problem is most of the people conducting these courses, they might be actually out of the market for 10, 20, maybe even 30 years. They’re just teaching full-time. So they’re a little bit disconnected with the tech industry, right?

While people who can actually get these people jobs, tech professionals themselves, are in very lucrative jobs. So they don’t really have much of an incentive to teach.

Joel:
And that was the both of you?

Min Yan:
Yeah, yeah. So we’re basically very connected in the tech space. And we felt that, really, if you want to help people, you know, transition and pivot into a tech career, you need to be taught by someone who actually knows the ins and outs of it. So that’s what we decided. Like, oh, let’s start Heicoders and just bring something different to the table.

The Business Before Marriage

Joel:
And you guys started Heicoders 2020. This was even before the both of you got married.

Yu Ning & Min Yan:
Yes, that’s right.

Joel:
So most people usually apply for BTO first and then get married. So both of you decided to start the company first, then get married.

Yu Ning:
Yeah, yeah, that was our project.

Joel:
That was your BTO.

Min Yan:
Yes, that’s right. The litmus test to whether we can have a marriage.

Joel:
It’s very much like raising a child, right?

Min Yan:
I was going to say, yes.

Joel:
Yeah, you have to work in partnerships, you know, manage conflicts, things like that. How has the relationship grown both as business partners and life partners? How has that evolved and grown since you guys started working together and being married?

Min Yan:
I think it’s really quite a symbiotic relationship, really. So whatever we learned in our personal relationship does translate to how we know how to manage each other professionally. Likewise, if we’re both having a very hectic week, we know to give each other some space, you know, in our personal lives. Yeah. So it’s been good, actually, that it cuts down the introductory costs, like you don’t have to, you know, start afresh and get to know each other.

Joel:
Introductory cost.

Min Yan:
Yes. You know, that transition period where you’re just getting to know each other better as colleagues and things like that. You can skip that.

Yu Ning:

I think it’s really nice because, you know, every day when I work with Min Yan, I just find myself thinking that, wow, I’m actually really grateful and appreciative because, you know, not only do I have her as a wonderful wife, but, you know, I have such a competent, you know, partner working alongside me in this business.

Joel:
You’re not just saying that because Min Yan is right here looking at you.

Yu Ning:
I think people that know the both of us know that we actually are very deeply appreciative of each other. But I think more importantly, because she understands me so well as a partner, you know, it kind of like, um, allows us to have this really strong relationship going to the business as well. And I think that’s what allowed us to kind of like, you know, um, bring Heicoders from ground up, even though we started with just the two of us, you know, we were one of the late entrants in the market, but yet we managed to kind of like raise Heicoders to this level. I think partly because of the fact that we have a very strong relationship and we were able to, you know, get very strong leverages as a result.

Heicoders’ Achievements

Joel:
Right. And just in, uh, I think later in the conversation, I’ll ask you to, to share with us a little bit more about what contributes to the strength of your, of your relationship as business partners and as, um, life partners as well. Right.

Um, you said that, you know, you, you credit what Heicoders has achieved to the strength of the partnership that you have. What has Heicoders achieved? What are you most proud of having achieved over the past five years since Heicoders was founded?

Yu Ning:
Hmm. I think, um, there are two points that I would just want to raise.

I think the first thing is that, um, you know, we have a very strong and wonderful student community like most, um, other providers when almost other schools, when, you know, students graduate from their school, that’s it. They kind of, um, no longer had this connection, but for us, actually all our students are channeled into a community where they continue to help each other.

So it’s not just us helping the students, but you know, sometimes students, when, you know, even after they graduate from our course, they run into some problems, they ask in a community telegram chat. Other students that have graduated years ago will actually help this student, for example, you know, by providing a referral for a certain job that they’re interested in, et cetera.

And I think that’s something that we are really proud of because we have built a community that’s self-sustaining and they continue to help build each other up. And I think that’s something that we are truly, truly very proud of.

Joel:
I think your students are all adult learners, they’re all mid-career professionals, right?

Yu Ning:
Yes. A lot of our students are, um, mid-career transition, people that are trying to transition to a different career or people that are just trying to pick up new skills to kind of like, you know, build themselves up to stay relevant.

But increasingly we have seen a trend where now there are more and more corporate interests, which ties me to the second, you know, achievement that I think we have.

We have been working with a lot of corporates, for example, we’ve worked with DBS, we’ve worked with Phillip Capital, we’ve worked with a lot of other companies. And I think the fact that these corporates are willing to trust us to train their employees, I think that’s a huge vote of confidence for us.

The Power of AI Agents

Joel:
When we were talking a little bit off-air, Yu Ning, I was struck by how passionate and excited you were about some of the use cases for AI agents, right? Tell us why you’re so excited.

Yu Ning:
Let me tell you why. It’s very simple.

Now, usually when there is like big technological breakthroughs, right, the party that benefits most from this kind of technological breakthrough are the companies, right? Because they make more money, you know, they get to hire less people. But I think with AI agents, right, it’s also quite fair to individuals as well.

Let me give you an example of a student of ours. So he was halfway through our course when we introduced him to an AI agent where he can… It’s pretty much like ChatGPT where you can just type commands to it and it can do stuff for you. And once he got exposed to that, the next day he came to us and told us, Hey, you know, I’ve managed to automate 60% of my work. You know, yesterday, instead of working a full day, I had half the day to spend the time with my daughter.

Joel:
What was the nature of his work again?

Yu Ning:
So he’s actually in blue collar work. But one of the things that he actually does is because every day he gets all sorts of requests for quotations, right? And usually for quotations, you have to write, you know, make customization work document. You need to download his PDF and send to people.

But with AI agent, what he actually did was just say, Hey, read all those emails for me, create a PDF quotation for each of them and send the email back to them. He doesn’t need to even go to Gmail to do that at all. Right.

Joel:
But don’t you have to like double check?

Yu Ning:
He did double check. Of course he did double check, but you know, so most of his time was just spent, you know, checking. So he did everything in half a day. He was very happy and told us, you know, wow, I managed to get half a day.

Of course he told us not to tell his bosses, but my point is this, like, you know, with AI agents, it’s not just big companies that are benefiting, but individuals like us, we might actually be able to get some semblance of work-life balance, you know, to spend more time on things that are meaningful to us, the people that matters to us. And that’s why I’m so excited about potential.

The Future of Heicoders Academy

Joel:
Very nice. So making a very good case. What’s the future like for Heicoders Academy? It started in 2020 and both of you recently went full time into the Academy, right?

Min Yan:
So I think recently we have been getting a lot of traction in corporate engagement and I think we want to, you know, continue to double down on that.

To be honest, we do not have any grand strategy. We always believe that the magic is in the execution. So we’ll just continue to delight our clients and just, you know, give them as much value as possible so that, you know, they can reap the maximum benefit out of AI.

Yu Ning:

I feel like we won’t do anything, you know, drastically different, just focusing on every single student and giving them the most value. Not just in the classroom, but from the moment we engage with them, all the way to after we engage with them after they graduate.

I think they can feel our sincerity when we put our heart into the work. And I think that’s very important. We actually always jokingly call it the Michelin experience. Because when you go to a Michelin restaurant, it’s not just about the food, but from the moment you step into the restaurant to the moment you leave the restaurant, the whole experience really matters. And that’s something that we try to standardise and deliver to all our clients.

It’s ingrained in our values and I think that’s not going to change and we’re going to continue that in the future.

Joel:
It’s the human experience.

Min Yan:
Correct.

Joel:
Again, I love the contrast. You guys do AI and tech, but fundamentally, it’s really about humanising the experience, being more human about the experience, right?

Yu Ning:
Wow, you said it well. I couldn’t have said it better.

What Makes Their Partnership Work

Joel:
Alright, at this point, you both work together as business partners and as married partners as well, right? What are the key ingredients that make your relationship successful?

Min Yan:
I think it’s mostly about being intentional about everything. For example, because as entrepreneurs, sometimes the line between your work and your life blurs. So, it’s very important to protect your personal time and put in calendar blocks to block it out so that we spend personal time together in our personal lives.

I think on top of that, it’s also about giving each other space because we spend a lot of time together. So, I would say in our personal life, sometimes we need alone time and even in professional life, because we manage different teams, we actually spend quite some time apart and develop our personalities separately rather than being codependent on each other.

Yu Ning:
I think there are two things that are important to me. So, I think the first thing is you must really respect your partner. From my perspective, Min Yan is someone who I think is very capable. I think she’s one of the smartest people I know and also as a wife, she’s very caring as well.

So, I think that core respect shapes how my actions actually come out and I think that’s very important.

I think the second thing is the little acts of kindness really help to go a long way. For example, tucking her in under the blanket or filling up her cup with water, those little things are actually more important than grand gestures and beautiful words.

Joel:
Agree, agree. I think that love language matters.

Letters to Their Future Selves

Joel:
At this point, you shared with us your letters to your younger selves earlier. If you could write another letter this time to your future self, what would be the most important message in that letter?

Min Yan:
I think this is a very unconventional question because the convention is usually that your future self is wiser and then you write to your past self, right? But I think what I would say to my future self is more of, you know, don’t forget some of the things that you used to have in the past.

For example, zest for life. You know, seeing everything through the lens of joy and excitement. Like, wow, there’s so much to explore. Sometimes when you become a little bit older, you feel a little bit more worried about everything around you.

So, yeah, just having even though physical aches and challenges, really just go out there and experience what life has to offer. I think that’s what I would write in that letter.

Joel:
Very nice. Thank you for sharing that. Yu Ning?

Yu Ning:

Hmm, I would say that I hope you get to where you are by not taking shortcuts and you don’t forget why you did everything in the first place.

Why you did everything in the first place? For example, you know, we started Heicoders with this simple mission that’s really just to impact the lives of our students. It’s not just to be there to, you know, make money as a business, but really that’s why we left very lucrative careers, right?

Because if we wanted money, we would just go into trading, but the truth is that we really wanted to make an impact, so we never want to forget that. And I hope 30 years later, I can say proudly, Hey, I’ve fulfilled my mission, I’ve stayed the course, I didn’t take shortcuts. Yeah.

Joel:
Beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing your journey and your messages to yourselves. We really appreciate it. It’s been a wonderful conversation.

We’ve been speaking with the co-founders of Heicoders Academy, Kong Yu Ning and Bei Min Yan. If you’d like to find out more, their website is heicodersacademy.com.

Kong Yu Ning, Bei Min Yan, thank you so much for sharing with us your letters to yourselves. We really appreciate it.

You’ve been listening to A Letter to Myself on CNA 938.

Key Takeaways

1. Mission Over Money

Yu Ning and Min Yan left lucrative careers not to make money, but to genuinely impact students’ lives. Their mission remains unchanged: to help people thrive in the AI era.

2. Walking the Talk

Heicoders doesn’t just teach AI—they use it extensively in their own operations, saving significant costs and proving the real-world value of what they teach.

3. Community-Driven Education

Unlike traditional training providers, Heicoders has built a self-sustaining community where graduates continue helping each other years after completing courses.

4. Industry-Connected Instructors

Their instructors are current tech professionals from top companies who teach out of passion, not necessity—bringing real, relevant expertise to the classroom.

5. The Human Touch

Despite being an AI academy, Heicoders prioritises the “Michelin experience”—humanising every touchpoint from first contact to post-graduation support.

About This Interview

This interview was featured on CNA 938’s “A Letter to Myself” hosted by Joel Chua. The show invites guests to reflect on their journeys and share advice with their younger and future selves.

Accessibility Note: This full transcript is provided to make the interview accessible to readers who prefer reading over listening, as well as to those with hearing disabilities.

Learn More About Heicoders Academy

Ready to explore how AI can transform your career or business? Check out our courses and corporate training programmes.