On 17th July 2025, at the lively Drinks&Co. Grill and Cocktails in CHIJMES, StaffAny hosted its latest edition of its quarterly Leaders Lounge series, where business leaders from around Singapore gather to learn insights on business management while networking with fellow business leaders.
The theme for this quarter’s fireside chat was ‘leveraging data to scale’ with guest speaker Calvyn Ng, the co-founder and director of Munchi Pancakes. Munchi Pancakes is a fast-growing Singaporean pancake chain known for scaling from hawker beginnings to having more than 30 outlets across the island.
As always, the session began with community introductions and warm welcomes. Industry peers from coffee chains, pizza groups, izakayas, and quick-service restaurants gathered to exchange insights and build new connections. Sponsored by Moka HR, the evening included drinks, snacks, and candid sharing between operators navigating similar operational challenges.
With that, the fireside chat with Calvyn Ng, moderated by StaffAny’s Janson Seah, gave us the following highlights:
From Gut Feel to Data-Driven Decisions
Munchi Pancakes started with intuition and grit. Like many in the industry, early decisions were made based on what felt right. But as the brand scaled, the founders realised that instinct alone was not enough. That was when they began building a data-driven foundation.
Data helped them move from reactive to proactive decision making. Whether evaluating store performance or adjusting staffing levels, the ability to refer to real-time dashboards became key. Today, while intuition still plays a role, decisions are backed by numbers.
“We started off by making our decisions with gut feel,” shared the speaker. “But now we make sure to back it up with data. The more accurate the data is, the higher the chances of success.”
He also shared these great nuggets of wisdom:
- Start small and scale wisely: Munchi began with Excel and now builds custom dashboards to unify sales, inventory, and labor data.
- Data drives better decisions: sales, yield, and rostering metrics guide daily ops, while store expansion still relies on grounded peer insight based on their own existing data.
- Business intelligence is an investment: start lean with trusted partners before committing to larger tools or full-time hires.
A Room Full of Leaders
The evening ended with drinks, photos, and new connections forged between operators who understand the highs and lows of growing an F&B brand in Singapore. As always, the Leaders Lounge proved that community learning is just as valuable as expert sharing.
Big thanks to Moka HR for powering the evening, and to Munchi Pancakes for showing us what is possible when you pair tradition with technology.
Until the next one. We’ll see you at the next Leaders Lounge.
