Sean & Jesmine Tan

The brand name encoded their daughter’s entire infancy. “Apple” was her first word at six months. “Crumby” described the food crumbs she left everywhere while crawling. “Fish”—specifically steamed fish—was her first favorite meal. Sean and Jesmine Tan didn’t just build a company around their child’s needs; they named it after her milestones.

The struggle is real, but you're not alone. There will be long nights, moments of doubt, and decisions that keep you up at night.

The Parents Who Became the Solution #

Nothing in Sean and Jesmine’s background predicted baby products entrepreneurship. Both worked comfortably as property investors and freelance interior designers—stable careers with predictable income and minimal risk. Property investment and interior design demanded expertise they had developed over years. E-commerce entrepreneurship in Malaysia’s nascent digital economy offered neither guarantee nor precedent. Then their daughter arrived in 2011, and everything familiar became insufficient.

The gap revealed itself during travel. While abroad with their infant, the couple discovered beautifully-packaged organic baby products in local stores that simply didn’t exist in Malaysia. The contrast was stark: developed markets offered abundant choices for safety-conscious parents while Malaysian stores stocked only mass-market options with ingredient lists no parent wanted to examine closely. They started importing preferred brands for themselves, but heavy postage fees made this unsustainable. Friends and family demanded access to these products for their own children.

“We did our research and found out that not only demand was met with scarcity but what little was available, was either overpriced or if affordable, not up to the quality we were looking for,” Jesmine recalled. The market hadn’t failed to serve Malaysian parents—it had never tried. The gap wasn’t a temporary shortage waiting to be filled by established players. It was a structural absence that only new entrants could address.

Jesmine articulated the philosophy that would define their approach: “As a go-getter and self-starter, one of my personal beliefs in life is that when there is a need, the best thing you can do is to find the solution—or even better, be the solution.” This wasn’t entrepreneurial rhetoric. It was parental frustration transformed into mission.

The Career Leap #

In October 2012, Sean and Jesmine abandoned their comfortable careers to launch Applecrumby & Fish. The decision carried real stakes. Property investment and interior design provided steady income with minimal risk. E-commerce entrepreneurship in Malaysia’s nascent digital economy offered neither guarantee nor roadmap. The couple wasn’t following successful predecessors—they were among Malaysia’s earliest e-commerce entrepreneurs.

The name itself revealed their intentions. Sean admitted it was “a nice play on Abercrombie & Fitch” while preserving an upmarket feel—but the real meaning lay in their daughter’s milestones. They weren’t building a business and happening to be parents. They were parents building a business because parenthood demanded it. Every product selection reflected what they would choose for their own child. Every quality standard derived from their personal experience as frustrated parents.

The platform launched with 900 curated products from international baby brands. Within two years, the catalog expanded to 9,000+ items—everything from Bellamy’s organic formula to MamyPoko diapers to Nordic Naturals supplements. The growth validated their hypothesis: Malaysian parents wanted what Sean and Jesmine wanted, and would pay for access.

Early validation came slowly. Traditional suppliers dismissed them as “onliners” who couldn’t understand brick-and-mortar growth trajectories. “There was a lot of rejections as traditional suppliers saw e-commerce companies like mine as ‘onliners’ and couldn’t understand the growth trajectory it was on,” Sean recalled. The established industry couldn’t imagine that parents might prefer buying baby products online rather than dragging infants through physical stores.

The rejection stung because it felt like dismissal of their judgment as parents. They knew what their daughter needed. They knew other parents shared the same frustrations. The suppliers who rejected them had never searched Malaysian stores for toxin-free baby products at 2am with a crying infant. The couple’s authenticity as parents-first, entrepreneurs-second became their competitive advantage.

Marriage Under Pressure #

Running a startup is difficult. Running a startup with your spouse while raising young children tests everything. The couple couldn’t separate work stress from family life—they shared both completely. Arguments about business decisions occurred in the same space as arguments about parenting decisions. Financial pressures affected not just the company but the household. Every strategic choice carried dual stakes: business survival and family wellbeing.

“As a founder it is always tempting to work 24-7 but I always make a conscious effort to put work aside when I am spending quality time with my family,” Jesmine acknowledged. “It is not easy to juggle as a working mother.” The admission revealed the ongoing tension that co-founding couples rarely discuss publicly.

The couple developed a philosophy of interdependence rather than separation between work and family: “Being able to spend time with the family recharges me and also motivates me to stay committed at work, and vice versa.” They treated the business itself as family—“Sean and I also very much consider Applecrumby & Fish to be our baby.”

This wasn’t corporate messaging. The brand carried their daughter’s name. Every product they shipped represented what they would give their own child. The authenticity created accountability that purely financial motivation couldn’t match. When Applecrumby made claims about safety or quality, Sean and Jesmine were vouching for products they used on their own children. The accountability mechanism was personal, not just professional.

Their advice to other entrepreneurs reveals the emotional reality behind public success: “The struggle is real, but you’re not alone. There will be long nights, moments of doubt, and decisions that keep you up at night. But the good thing is, others have walked this path too. There’s a whole community out there cheering you on, ready to offer support and guidance.” The acknowledgment of “moments of doubt” and “decisions that keep you up at night” hints at challenges the couple hasn’t detailed publicly.

The Long Game #

What separated Sean and Jesmine from entrepreneurs who flame out wasn’t dramatic heroics—it was unglamorous persistence. After raising $300,000 from 500 Startups in 2016, they didn’t chase the next funding round. Instead, they built a business that could survive indefinitely without outside capital. The decision was partly strategic and partly practical—between 2016 and 2024, the venture capital landscape shifted dramatically, and baby products companies with healthy margins but modest growth didn’t fit the narrative investors were selling to their limited partners.

The 2016 pivot from e-commerce platform to manufacturer represented more than strategic repositioning. It meant learning entirely new operational competencies while raising children and managing marriage. Supply chains. Quality control. Regulatory compliance across multiple countries. Manufacturing partnerships. Each skill acquired through necessity rather than MBA programs. Sean and Jesmine had never worked in factories or managed production lines. They learned by doing, making mistakes, and iterating.

The strategic insight that drove the pivot came from recognizing existential threat. “The elephants in the room like Alibaba and Amazon can easily flood the market with cheap China goods or overwhelm any local platform with superior supply chain management,” Sean warned. Rather than wait for giants to crush them, they transformed into something giants couldn’t easily replicate: a brand with proprietary products and technical differentiation.

Nine years later, when 500 Global invested $4.2 million in March 2024, they weren’t funding a struggling company desperate for capital. They were investing in founders who had proven they could build sustainable business without outside help. The discipline that seemed like limitation had become competitive advantage. Every product launch, every market expansion, every R&D investment had been funded from operations rather than investor subsidy.

Recognition That Matters #

Forbes Asia named Applecrumby to its 100 to Watch list in 2024. Sean now serves as a judge for the Top E-Commerce Merchant Awards—the same category where industry once dismissed him as an “onliner.” The irony isn’t lost on anyone who remembers the early rejections. The Motherhood Choice Awards 2025 recognized Applecrumby in both diapers and baby care categories. The world’s first Utility Patent for 100% TCF absorbent core technology arrived in July 2025—validation that the technical obsession with truly chlorine-free products was worth pursuing.

But the recognition that matters most to parents isn’t industry awards. It’s other parents trusting your judgment with their children. Over one million customers have chosen Applecrumby products. Eleven countries stock their diapers. Two thousand Malaysian retail locations carry their brand. The October 2024 partnership with DKSH—a Swiss distribution giant—enabled the retail expansion without requiring Sean and Jesmine to build their own logistics infrastructure.

The couple who left stable careers because they couldn’t find safe products for their daughter now provides those products across Asia. The brand named after a six-month-old’s first word operates in markets from Mongolia to the Philippines. The parents who became entrepreneurs because other parents needed them have built something larger than any individual career.

The January 2024 appointment of Havas Malaysia as integrated communications agency marked another milestone: the brand that once operated on word-of-mouth among frustrated parents now requires professional media strategy. The “Applecrumby For All” messaging—communicating that premium safety doesn’t require premium pricing—reached audiences the founders could never have addressed alone.

What Parent-Founders Understand #

Most entrepreneurs build businesses around market opportunities. Parent-founders build businesses around their children’s needs. The difference creates authenticity that customers recognize immediately.

Sean and Jesmine didn’t conduct focus groups to discover Malaysian parents wanted toxin-free baby products. They lived the frustration of searching store shelves at 2am. They felt the anxiety of applying unpronounceable chemicals to their infant’s skin. They experienced the disappointment of products that claimed safety without delivering it. “Who says moms have to burn a hole in their pockets to afford quality wipes and diapers for their babies?” Jesmine asked in 2016. “Applecrumby & Fish plans to ensure all moms can afford the best options for their babies, at non-premium price tags.”

This lived experience informed every subsequent decision. When they pivoted to manufacturing their own products, the question wasn’t “what will the market bear?” but “what would we want for our own child?” When they developed 100% chlorine-free technology, the specification came from parental instinct, not competitive analysis. The technical distinction between TCF (totally chlorine-free) and ECF (elemental chlorine-free) processing mattered because they understood what trace chlorinated compounds meant for infant skin—knowledge acquired through research driven by parental concern.

Their daughter’s name embedded in the company ensures this perspective persists. Every executive meeting happens under a brand that memorializes a six-month-old’s first word. Every product launch must pass the test: “Would we give this to Apple?” The accountability mechanism is structural, not dependent on founders’ continued involvement.

The declining birth rates across their key markets—Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea—might threaten volume-dependent competitors. But Sean and Jesmine recognized that parents with fewer children invest more in each one. Premium positioning and safety differentiation matter more when families have one child instead of three. The demographic shift that concerns mass-market players actually favors brands built around genuine quality.

Twelve years after naming a company after their daughter’s milestones, Sean and Jesmine Tan have built something larger than personal achievement. They’ve proven that businesses built around authentic parental need—not market opportunity—can scale across borders and decades. The gap they discovered while traveling with their infant still exists in other markets. Applecrumby exists to fill it.

Last updated: January 15, 2026