From finance to coffee entrepreneur, Leon Foo built Chye Seng Huat, PPP Coffee, and now Morning — a startup reinventing how the world brews coffee at home with the Morning Coffee Machine. In this episode of the Pine Founders Series, Leon shares his founder mindset, why hardware is hard, the challenges of manufacturing during COVID, and how Morning expanded from Singapore to global markets. If you’re passionate about coffee, hardware startups, or entrepreneurship, this conversation is packed with insights you won’t want to miss. Chapters 00:46 – Q1: Founder Story – From Coffee Chains to Morning 05:51 – Q2: Founder Mindset & Execution – From Ideas to Execution 11:53 – Q3: Hardware is Hard – The Challenge of Hardware 13:25 – Q3b: Manufacturing During COVID – First-Time Manufacturing at Scale 17:39 – Q4: Sales & Market Validation – Proving the Market 21:42 – Q5: Global Expansion – Going Global from Singapore 26:30 – Q6: The Spicy Question – The Path to Profitability 28:41 – Q7: South Korea Market – Lessons from South Korea Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more founder stories from Asia and beyond. Subscribe for more founder stories: @PineCapitalM Learn more about Morning: