How One Championship founder, Thailand’s Chatri Sityodtong, went from homeless to Harvard, then hedge fund manager to MMA millionaire
Left destitute by the Asian financial crisis of 1997, Thailand’s Chatri Sityodtong lived on US$4 a day while studying at Harvard Business School, then made millions in Silicon Valley and Wall Street before turning to his first love: mixed martial arts
Thai-Japanese entrepreneur Chatri Sityodtong attributes much of his current success to sheer luck. If that’s true, then Sityodtong must have had lady luck right by his side while a roller coaster of events led him to found what is now Asia’s largest mixed martial arts (MMA) media property, One Championship.
The self-made multimillionaire might enjoy an enviable net worth now – he chairs a company once valued at more than US$1 billion, in October 2018, according to Nikkei Asia – but his journey to this point was far from smooth. Now 49, Sityodtong spent the first part of his life in Thailand, where his family led a well-to-do lifestyle in Bangkok. But, amid the turmoil of the Asian financial crisis, his parents went bankrupt, and were forced to give up their house and car.
“Homeless, jobless and penniless,” according to Sityodtong’s own account on LinkedIn, his father abandoned the family, leaving them to fend for themselves.
As a young man, Sityodtong made the bold step of moving to the United States, after his mother encouraged him to apply to Harvard Business School. Funding his studies with loans, he enrolled at the age of 25 with a single suitcase in tow.
“I was so ashamed about my parents’ poverty that I had to keep it a secret. Eating one meal a day is not something you rush to tell people, especially at Harvard,” he captioned an Instagram post. While at Harvard, Sityodtong would send a US$10 allowance to his mother in Thailand, while himself living on US$4 a day. Throughout his stay, he figured out a way to make his own money by dabbling in odd jobs, like teaching Muay Thai classes and GMAT courses.
After earning his MBA in 1999, Sityodtong and a couple of his classmates collaborated on a Silicon Valley start-up called NextDoor Networks. At the start, he and co-founder Soon Loo lived and worked from a two-bedroom apartment with Sityodtong’s mother and Loo’s sister. By March 2000, NextDoor Networks boasted US$38 million of venture capital investments. He then moved to New York and worked as a hedge fund manager, where he managed – and made – millions.
While he was able to afford to buy his mother her own place in New York and enjoy a fortune, Sityodtong has often recalled how he felt like he was missing something. A decade into his Wall Street career, he retired.
That’s when he started to follow his passion. Muay Thai had always been integral to his life story. He trained as a child, and has fought in 30 professional matches throughout his life. By 2009, Sityodtong was back in Asia, specifically Singapore, where he founded Evolve MMA, what is now a chain of martial arts academies across the region.