The Origin Story
We have TONS to yap.
So we wrote it all down. No corporate fluff, just us dumping our origin stories. This page is very very long, so consider yourself warned. (also that’s why this page is called yap)
Trigger Warning: Some contents here sound controversial and even make us lose you as a potential user/partner. But too bad, we’re not obliged to be PC in any way. Though, these are simply opinions on the scene and how we are pushing through to bridge gaps with our own time and money (and a lot of professional skills). At the same time, we are super open to feedback — simply hit us up at telegram or hello@til.sg and we’d love to speak.
First and foremost: What even is TIL?
PS. we're branding TIL as T-I-L (not “t-eel” nor Today I Learn) — but we're open to ideas too. Hit us up if you have thoughts.
Our Mission
Empowering every dancer and studio in Singapore.
To make dance accessible, discoverable, and open for everyone in Singapore—from the person who's never stepped foot in a studio to the instructor hustling to fill their classes. We're here to remove the invisible barriers and build something that actually serves the community.
What are we doing?
In case our copywriting skills are lacking on the other pages (yeah we are engineers, PR, media and sales specialists), here’s the low-down of what TIL actually strives to serve.
Are we here to replace platforms like mindbody or classpass? The quick answer is no. Let’s be honest, they might not be designed specifically for dance, and they are solving huge pains of finance, booking management and some sort of customer management that studios might need to handle manually otherwise. Re-building this? just another case of david vs goliath (except that these Goliaths would squash us with little effort).
TIL (Today I Learn) strives to be a platform to serve a few main segments of the scene, and in phases.
Studios & Studio Instructors
Let's be real. We see tons of studios trying to get outreach desperately. We have also seen tons of studios come and go. (sadly). There simply isn't enough support. Dance classes are often an after-office-hours affair.
Studios deserve better visibility without needing to hire a full marketing team or spend thousands on ads. We want to make it stupidly easy for studios to reach the right people. TIL can help boost you, you should just need to handle the dance part. At the same time, we want to encourage dancers to explore boldy without having to burn holes in their wallets— especially when many of you are students, with little cash to spare.
Freelance Instructors
Y'all are the backbone of the scene but get the least support. No studio backing, no marketing budget, just pure hustle. You're juggling bookings, payments, promotion, and actually teaching. We want to give you a platform where students can actually find you without you needing to spam Instagram 24/7, or manage your telegram channel of 20 subscribers. You deserve infrastructure that works for you, not against you.
Gigs
Whether you're looking for dancers to film an ad or trying to get hired for a gig, it's tough to survive on gigs alone—unless you're in a renowned crew, exclusive community, or under an agency. Think of us as a platform to level the playing field. Some events need the best of the best, others just need fillers. Some need stunt artists, others need choreographers. How do we know if someone's open for gigs? How does a non-dancer event organizer figure out who's the better hire?
Dancers
If you're already in the scene, you know the struggle of finding workshops that match your vibe, tracking your fave instructors across different studios (and 10 million apps).
Even if you're a regular at a studio, discovery is still broken. Sure, you've found your comfort zone—same instructors, same crew, same Tuesday 8pm slot. You find that you’ve stop keeping tabs on other studios’ classes. What happens when you want to branch out? When your regular instructor takes a break? When you're craving a different style or energy?
You're back to square one: scrolling through Instagram stories, asking around in group chats, joining random Telegram channels. You know other great classes exist, but where? Which studios vibe with your style? Is that "intermediate" class actually intermediate, or will you walk into a room full of semi-pros? You've heard whispers about certain places, but is the tea real or just drama?
Let the scene tell you, no need for you.
Aspiring Dancers (Hi Newbies— especially the shy ones)
This one's personal for us. Starting dance at any age is terrifying. You don't know the lingo, you're scared you're too young/old/unfit/uncoordinated, and you have no idea which class won't make you feel like a total noob. We want to be your friendly insider guide. No gatekeeping, no elitism, just honest info to help you take that scary first step.
At the same time, we do acknowledge that a bulk of the scene are seasoned / pseudo professional dancers. There are platforms like groove-guide (https://www.groovy.grooveguide.net/). While we pay homage to these folks who have invested much time and money for such platforms, amateur and novice dancers have little utilisation of them.
There is a largely unsupported segment of the community. Think smaller scale recitals (studios, schools, even crews), community workshops, and hobbyist dancers who just want to improve without the pressure of performing at professional levels. These folks don't need a platform that helps them book international workshops or connect with industry bigshots. They need something that helps them find a chill beginner hip-hop class on a Tuesday night, or figure out which studio has the least intimidating vibe, or understand what "foundation" actually means in different dance contexts. That's the gap we're filling.
A little background about us.
The team is made up of corporate (and public service) slaves— but worry not, we’re all seasoned players in our own industries and trades. (how else do you think we would build something of this calibre, on our own time? kek!) Beyond formal education, we’ve also each been exposed to international scenes.
But first and foremost, we are/were amateur dancers who simply enjoyed attending classes & courses and also going for events just to watch people gelek2. Dance to us was a striking balance of growth, expression and enjoyment.
The team first got to know each other in University and started dancing there (as with many of you). For a good 2 years our dance ventures were constrained to the gates of our Uni. Was it because we didn’t know better? Or were we just reluctant to put ourselves out there to learn more? Seems like a mixture of both.
The first step the hardest: In 2018, we were fresh to learning dance. Beyond the occasion seniors that could actually give unbiased and constructive advices, we were reluctant to step out. Mind you, we were (not pushing 30 btw) but 20+ — isn’t dance a youngster thing? Everybody our age that dances are already experts in the craft, who are we to start now? How can we navigate this? Granted, we were already in a very good place compared to anybody else, as we had a small (though novice) dance community. We understand what it’s like to not know where to start.
At the same time, open classes took up a substantial amount of money (and we get it, it’s not cheap to run a studio), and courses required long-running commitment over months (not forgetting the costs).
Our stage of dance-discovery was always a cycle of “eh go class?” “whose” “what time” “where” “got video?” “huh can catch or not” “This L1 fake one lah where got L1”. We often found ourselves scrolling endlessly trying to find the "right" class. Only then did we realise: this whole discovery process is broken. We're stalking Instagram stories (omitting the fact that I sometimes accidentally like old posts), asking friends of friends, joining 10000 Telegram groups, and still ending up lost. So we figured if we're struggling with this, everyone else probably is too.
As we’ve ventured into the “real” world as professionals, we see the other side of things. Studio rentals, low class participations, difficulty for outreach as an instructor/event organiser, just to list a few.
Why trust us?
Although we wish not to publicly doxx ourselves right now, ngl it's pretty easy to find out who we are. We are seasoned players in our own industries, but first and foremost: we are recreational dancers.
We're the people you see in open classes on weekday nights. We're the ones asking "wait can you break that down again?" We're you. That's exactly why we get it—we live the same struggles, the same joys, the same "why is my body not doing what my brain wants" moments.
So you might be thinking now— if you saw this issue awhile ago, why only start in 2025? Personal answer? We weren’t ready— Not enough skills, not enough exposure, not enough guts and simply not enough money for us to take risks. Be honest, how good can we build a platform when all we did while studying was to dance, eat, sleep, and pretend to study? Now that each of us has honed our respective skills, we’re in a much better place to contribute. (for the weebs: just think of pre time-skip and post time-skip Straw Hats crew)
Like we mentioned, TIL team is made up of industry experts. We are not just any random university students or fresh grads who still long to change the world, we’re tried and tested specialists to are here to surgically solve each micro problem, one at a time.
Our day jobs? Shareholder value quakes in our presence, we're in tech, comms, media, and sales—industries that taught us how to build systems, communicate clearly, and navigate bureaucracy. But we're using those skills to fix problems we personally experience. This isn't some outsider trying to "disrupt" dance. This is us building the tool we wish existed when we started.
Source: Trust me bro. (For now)
Our North Stars
Let's cut the “Let’s circle back", “low hanging fruit” talk. Here is what we actually care about.
Amateur Support
The scene is serving the advanced dancers and pros well. But what about the rest of us? The ones still learning basic grooves? The ones who just want to vibe and not compete? The ones that just want to loosen up after a long day of work? We're building for you. Resources, classes, and community spaces that don't assume you're already a seasoned dancer.
Level Playing Field
Sick of the "popular kids" mentality. Niche studios with rich investor backings and huge budgets shouldn't be the only ones getting visibility. Small studios, non-profit studios, freelance instructors, and passion-driven teachers deserve equal opportunity to be discovered. Talent and quality should win, not who has the biggest marketing budget.
Real Community
Not the fake "community" that brands love to throw around. We mean actual humans helping each other, sharing honest reviews, supporting local instructors, and showing up for each other. Less clout chasing, more genuine connection. Love a class? give it a good review. Bad class? help others avoid it.
Independent & Community-First
TIL is independent and built for the scene — no corporate nonsense, just people who dance. We're here to serve. The moment we start acting like corporate overlords, call us out. Seriously. We're accountable to you, not some Board or Investor (because we don't have any lol).
Our Hard Nos (The Lines We Won't Cross)
Radical clarity means being explicit about our boundaries. Here's what we will NOT do:
- We won't sell your data. Period. No third-party advertisers getting your info, no sketchy data mining. Your email, telegram data and dance preferences stay with us (but of course we will still use them for fair use— e.g letting studios know who’s bought their stuff, duh!)
- We won't play favourites. Our search and recommendations stay honest. We will only boost limited listings if any, and will never fail to show that these listings are boosted.
- We won't gaslight you with fake reviews. No paying for good ratings, no deleting honest criticism (toxic comments will be deleted though, so keep it civil, and objective). If a class sucks, the community should be able to say so.
- We won't abandon the amateurs when we scale. If we get big, we're not pivoting to only serve pro dancers or big studios. The newbies who trusted us early will always have a home here.
- We won't sell out our North Stars. If an investor or partner asks us to compromise on these values, we walk. Simple as that.
If we break any of these, please call us out— tiktok, instagram, anything. We're serious about accountability.
How TIL strives towards "Radical Clarity"
We don't just talk about radical clarity, we bake it into our app’s design philosophy— are we stealing radical kindness’ branding? no please do not @ us for this Radical Clarity is just us trying to be transparent. Read more and you’ll realise this is a common terminology (hehe)
No BS Class Descriptions
Studios can just market themselves as "fun and energetic!", or “the best studio”, but these add no value to us. We're pushing for actual useful info: What level is this really for? What will you learn? What's the vibe? Is the instructor chill or BMT sergeant?
Accessible Design
Clean layouts, readable fonts, intuitive navigation. If your mom can't figure out how to book a class, we've failed. Simple as that.
Real Reviews, Unfiltered
No studio or instructor can pay to hide bad reviews. We'll have moderation for spam and abuse, but honest criticism stays. If someone says a class wasn't beginner friendly, that feedback is valuable.
Where We're Headed
The Real Talk
The Mission
We're not here to "revolutionise" or "disrupt." We're solving specific pain points in SG's dance scene, one problem at a time. We're human. We have limits. We're okay with that.
If Things Go Well
Best case? Maybe our garmen decides the arts actually matter and we get support to scale. But even with funding, we're not compromising our values. Our North Stars aren't for sale.
If We Actually Scale
If we hit sustainable growth, we'll hire a proper team and build the features we can only dream about right now. A full ecosystem for SG dance. But we're not there yet. Help us get there.
What Keeps Us Going
We're early stage, but here's how we will decide if TIL stays or leaves. Just like one of our team member with daddy issues, we need affirmation. Here is a wish list of things that we dream about every night.
"Finally" Reactions
When we pitch TIL, people don't say "interesting idea." They say "FINALLY." That's relief, not curiosity. The problem is real.
Soft Launch Proof
Tested an MVP with a small group. Expected polite ghost behavior. Instead, people used it unprompted. Came back with feedback. Without us begging.
DM Avalanche
Posted once in a dance chat. Got flooded with "when can I join?" from dancers and "when can I list?" from instructors. We're not even officially live yet.
Studio Desperation
Small studios reaching out asking how to get listed. Not because we're big (we're not), but because Instagram Stories and Google Forms are genuinely that broken.
"Same Bro" Energy
Every time we share our struggles, people hit us with "omg same." These aren't niche problems. They're community-wide. That validation keeps us building.
The scene is diverse. We’re bound to get hate.
That’s what the younger us would have succumbed to. Every bold step that involves putting yourself out there will always garner hate. We’ve consumed the finest teas from the mountains of Singapore Dance Scene; we KNOW how toxic some dancers can get. The TIL team has processed this and we acknowledge that these are often the loud minority, and should not deter us from solving a problem that actually exists.
Again, views are bound to differ. Whether or not certain individuals wish to post a black-background-tiny-white-texts insta story, or provide us with actual feedback, the ball was never in our court. hello@til.sg.
The Elephant in the Room:
Will we charge money?
Heck yeah. But hear us out.
We aren't a charity. We're a business committed to serving the community, but let's be real—math is math, and infrastructure isn't free.
Here's the breakdown of what actually costs money:
- Servers, databases, and security: We're talking minimum $30/month just to start.
- Legal stuff and business operations: Compliance, business registration, insurance, legal fees—they all add up fast.
- Our time has value: Coding, customer support, community engagement, feature development.
All of these are investments of our personal time and money. There's no guarantee we'll ever get any of it back. This isn't a zero-sum game—we're not trying to drain the scene. We're trying to build something sustainable that serves everyone.
Our philosophy on pricing:
If we do charge (likely studios or for premium features), we're committed to keeping it fair and transparent. The value we bring—traffic, discoverability, ease of use, community building—will far outweigh the cost. We're not here to gouge anyone. We're here to keep the lights on so we can keep serving you.
Bottom line: We need revenue to survive, but we're not selling out our North Stars to get it. If we ever cross that line, call us out. We mean it.
Join the conversation
(No Really, We Need You)
We're trying to build TIL in public. That means you get to see our mistakes, our wins, and everything in between.