#15. Michelle Qiu and her Values, Passion and Purpose

What problem does your passion project aim to solve?

With our mission to create a world where work drives passion, whether you are a founder or creator, a leader or a gig worker, a consultant or a teacher, discovering and aligning your values, passion, and purpose will give you the best chance at having a fulfilling career, and more importantly, life. And when this alignment is in place it leads to something greater - organisations can achieve their mission, and society and beyond will benefit in the long run.

Values are your non-negotiable foundation, passion is about what excites and motivates you, and purpose is your deeper reason for existence. - Harvard Business Review

Wantedly's SG60 stories series is about people who have been shaped by Singapore, and had made a difference in Singapore. This series aims to be a platform for individual reflection on what our own values are, and how we discover our passion and strive towards our purpose.

As a nation, when we reflect on our shared values of multiculturalism, boldness, resilience and openness, we can build upon what drove our prosperity. SG60’s theme is a refreshed spirit, and by celebrating Singapore’s journey to date, Wantedly is proud to spotlight some of those who have contributed in their own unique ways.

Introducing Michelle

Michelle is an endlessly curious person who hopes to combine both numbers and words to save the world. With wide ranging experience in both a tech start up and large corporations, she strives to improve her technical knowledge and adapt new technologies. 

She created Xinn.ai, a mental health AI companion on Whatsapp, as a side project stemming from her personal interest and challenges with mental health. It is trained with the help of professional therapist friends using psychotherapy principles, to respond in a constructive, empathetic and gentle way.

In her own words

Fun Fact: I have been a pole dance teacher for the last 4 years. It has been great because I have become a lot more mobile than an average person, and I get to teach dance and movement to adults who, like me, may have had dreams of dance and gymnastics in their youth but were never able to realise it. It’s great to be able to do the splits in my 30s!

Michelle with her pole dance crew, 2025

1. What are your top 3 values? Please explain. 

I would say they’re courage, kindness and self awareness. 

Courage is the desire to do the right thing even in the face of fear. It’s very easy to retreat from adversity, but growth comes from difficulty and discomfort. I think it’s very normal and common to have lots of fears and uncertainties, but only if we are willing to face them and overcome them do we achieve growth and change.

Kindness is a given - I want to make the world a ever so slightly better place by my presence, whether it’s for one person or a lot of people. Being kind doesn’t take much but makes the world a brighter, more meaningful place.

Self awareness is key to growth as well. It encourages humility as we assess our own behaviours and shortcomings, to see where we have room to improve. It means to acknowledge our weaknesses while trying to improve on them. 

I believe these values drive us to grow and change with intention and empathy.

2. What keeps you up at night?

Mental resilience for our children and youths. I feel the world is changing rapidly and increasingly challenging, and the best gift we can provide to our children are tools to face and grow from adversity. It’s something that must be imparted day to day and through constant reinforcement to change our own mindset and improve on our weaknesses. 

Right now, I see a clear gap between public and private mental health services - private therapists can be very costly, and public therapists have an extremely long waiting time into the months. I hope that Xinn.ai can be an in between solution and additional support in between therapist sessions - to empathise and reinforce existing support systems.

3. What gets you out of bed in the morning?

The inspiration to work on my projects and improve myself, to do even just 1% better than yesterday. I think the desire to push yourself every day and not stay stagnant, is a habit that will lead to great outcomes in the long run. Also, a great latte from my coffee machine.

Michelle on hanging rings at Ritual Gym, 2021

4. What fills your cup?

I think what fulfils me the most is when someone thanks me for something I have done to better their lives. Whether it’s a user saying thank you to Xinn.ai, or something I’ve done for my family to make their lives easier, I hope to make an impact on others, small or large.

5. What’s your vision for Xinn.ai? What will it take for that to be realised? 

My vision would make a difference, no matter how small, to those who do not have easy access to or education about mental health services. Some key segments may be blue collar workers and youths, especially lower income youths. I also see Xinn.ai as a tool for those who may not feel ready to go for one to one therapy, but who may be curious or in some distress.

I think right now, publicity of Xinn.ai for more outreach helps. It allows me to focus on improving the product and training of the AI, and providing this AI companion free of charge.

6. Please leave us with your hope for mental health. 

My hope is that people can be more self aware and reflective. Mental health is like physical health - regularly addressing it is better than only dealing with it when a crisis arrives. A lot of people, including very smart and capable adults, may neglect to examine their emotions - why they feel a certain way, the thought patterns they have, and so on. Hopefully over time we can be more educated about taking care of our mental health in little ways over time and do better in this regard.

If you are curious, or need support, you can WhatsApp Xinn.ai at 8088-4357 (8088-HELP) or drop any feedback at [email protected]! 

Once again, in celebration of SG60, let us strive to be bolder and kinder to one another, wherever our travels take us.

This series was brought to you by Wantedly Hire - an application tracking system optimised for modern hiring practices. Experience seamless hiring with tailored workflows designed to align with your recruitment structure, automated interview scheduling, and actionable insights to optimise hiring performance!