Is It Time to Expand to New Markets?
We built momentum in Singapore. Now, should we go global—or double down in Singapore?
👋🏼 Hi, I’m Shantanu — I run Xandro Lab, a science-first longevity brand based in Singapore.
We started with a single product and a mission to make longevity research more accessible. Today, we’ve built one of Singapore’s fastest-growing longevity brands, with a strong repeat base, a lean team, and a differentiated product line.
I write this newsletter to document the behind-the-scenes of what it takes to build and scale a consumer brand in Southeast Asia — from the high-conviction decisions that move fast, to the quiet, uncertain ones that keep you up at night.
I believe Singapore is one of the best places in the world to build a global brand — it’s hyper-connected, digitally native, and has the purchasing power and capital to support early scale. And in the case of longevity, it’s even more relevant: Singapore is one of the world's few true longevity hubs.
That’s the long game. To build a brand here that earns trust locally — and makes its mark globally.
🧭 What You’ll Read in Today’s Post
A quick look back: Why we’re now going deep on fewer products
Our current momentum: How our distribution in Singapore is evolving
The market pressure: Why global brands are entering Singapore aggressively
The case against rushing expansion: What most brands get wrong
What’s different now: Why we could be ready to expand
The internal debate: Stay deep or go wide?
What we’re watching: Signals guiding our next move
An ask to readers: If you’ve scaled before, I’d love to hear from you
#1 From One Product to One Market
Last week, I wrote about why we’ve shifted our strategy to go deeper into one product before expanding the line. It’s not something we did from day one — in fact, our early phase involved launching multiple longevity SKUs quickly.
But recently, we’ve made a conscious move to focus on fewer, differentiated products and invest more in building education, community, and repeat use around them.
We’re still in the early days of that shift. We believe that focusing on Protocol X and LPC Neuro can give us stronger brand identity, better retention, and deeper customer trust — but the real results will show only in 6 to 8 months.
This mindset of going deep, not wide, is what sparked a new question:
Should we apply the same thinking to markets, too?
Do we double down on Singapore until we’ve truly won here?
Or do we start exploring new geographies while our local base is still growing?
That’s the question this week.
#2 What’s Working for Us in Singapore
We currently sell over 1,000 units of LPC Neuro each month — a product that didn’t exist six months ago.
We’ve built a multi-channel engine:
DTC website (the dark horse)
Marketplaces Stores - Tiktok, Shopee, Lazada and Amazon
External livestreams - On Facebook
A growing network of affiliates and creator voices
TikTok and Facebook livestreams have become high-trust, high-ROI channels — where we don’t just sell, we engage, educate, and listen.
Shopee has become our credibility channel. People search, compare, then buy. It’s been growing steadily, but in the last three months, it’s started to blow up.
Instagram and TikTok videos continue to drive both education and conversion, especially to our own website and TikTok shop.
Our website is the quiet contender — it’s steadily catching up to marketplaces. The only challenge: customer acquisition costs are higher. But when it works, it gives us control, higher AOV, and better retention.
Most importantly, we’ve built a balanced channel mix — if TikTok underperforms one week, DTC, Shopee or Lazada picks up the slack.
This system doesn’t rely on launch spikes or discount days. It moves — and scales — across the month.
#3 The Pressure to Expand
We’re not building in a vacuum. In the past one year, global longevity & wellness brands have aggressively entered Singapore:
AG1 ran a booth at the Singapore Marathon
IM8 is flooding Meta with daily ads (160 Facebook Ads!!!! 😬 Context: We run 30 ads)
Agemate is targeting the same customer set we serve
They see what we’ve always believed — Singapore is a high-potential market for health and wellness:
High awareness
High purchasing power
High interest in aging well and performing better
If we pause to look elsewhere, we risk giving up home ground to global players.
#4 Why Expansion Isn’t That Simple
I’ve also seen global brands fail here. And not because their product was weak — but because they didn’t localise.
They:
Never hosted local events
Didn’t meet customers or listen to them
Avoided working with local creators
Didn’t offer real support or offline touchpoints
They launched with ads — and nothing else. Built no trust.
When we do expand, it must be intentional. That means:
Localised content that respects the platform and the culture
Inventory on the ground
Customer service with a real phone number, not just chat
Offline presence: pop-ups, events, meetups (means we need real people in every market)
That’s not scaling. That’s rebuilding in every market.
#5 Why Expansion Still Tempts Us
Because we’ve earned the right to ask this question.
A year ago, our products were generic:
NMN
Magnesium Glycinate
Calcium AKG
Resveratrol
Spermidine
Good products — but anyone could sell them.
Today, we have:
LPC Neuro — the only LPC-bound Omega-3 that crosses the blood-brain barrier
Protocol X — a foundational longevity stack, built from scratch
A longevity-focused multivitamin launching next month
A recovery electrolyte the month after
We’re no longer just “another longevity brand.”
We have edge. We have formulation IP.
We have distribution muscle — not enough yet, but it’s getting there.
And our team? Sharper. It’s not dependent on me anymore. People know what’s needed. The culture to build the brand has seeped in. There’s still work to do, but we’ve come a long way.
Operations? Tighter. Singapore runs like a tight ship — but expansion means more pressure here, especially since our manufacturing is based locally.
Playbook? Repeatable.
Finances? We’re no longer broke. We’re generating cash and reinvesting more each month. 2024 was about turning the business around. We did that.
So maybe… we can start testing new markets.
#6 The Crossroads
Here’s the real dilemma:
Should we stay laser-focused on Singapore and win this market fully?
Or start exploring global expansion — carefully, surgically — before someone else takes the lead?
If we expand too fast, we lose intensity here.
If we delay too long, we miss windows elsewhere.
Either way, we feel the opportunity cost.
There’s no clear answer. But this is the decision we sit with week after week.
🔎 What We're Watching (Bonus)
Some of the signals we’re tracking before we commit to expanding:
Community signals: Overseas shipping requests, market demand
Performance: MoM growth of specific product portfolios
Operational readiness: Can our systems scale to a new market without slowing down SG?
Retail interest: Guardian (SG, Australia, Malaysia)
💬 What Would You Do?
If you’ve built in one market and expanded into another — especially across Asia — I’d love to learn from you.
Did you go deep first, then go wide?
Or go wide early, before the competition caught up?
Reply to this email, comment below, or message me on LinkedIn. The next chapter is still being written — and I’m all ears.
👋 Thanks for reading
If you made it this far — thank you. This week wasn’t just about expansion or market strategy. It’s about the questions that don’t have easy answers — the ones you carry around, knowing they shape the next chapter more than any playbook does.
I’m not in a rush. But I’m not staying still either. Because building a brand is a long game. One market, one product, one hard decision at a time.
If you're thinking about expanding your own business, testing new ideas, or figuring out where to go next — I hope this helped spark something. And if it did, feel free to share this post with someone else navigating the same questions.
Thanks for supporting Out of Singapore. Every read, reply, and repost really does mean a lot.
And as for Jisoo…
I saw the trailers for Newtopia — too much blood, too many zombies. I’ll skip this one.
I’m more into the easy-to-watch, slightly cheesy modern romance kind of dramas. Real life has enough seriousness — I’d rather unwind with something fun.
Until next Sunday —
Shan