Forrest Gump-inspired startup Garena running toward an IPO

SINGAPORE (Aug 30): Li Xiaodong was attending a college English class when the American lecturer asked each student to come up with a Western name. Many chose Michael, after the basketball superstar Michael Jordan. When his turn came around, the shy youth picked Forrest -- as in Gump.

That alias would come to define the self-professed outlier who now oversees Garena, a gaming and e-commerce empire that is now Southeast Asia’s largest startup. Forrest Li, as he’s now known, saw himself in Tom Hanks’ Oscar-winning portrayal of the fictional big-hearted Alabamian who, unbeknownst to most, shaped some of the most momentous events of the 20th century. Li himself is striving to chart a Gump-like course.

Born and raised in the port city of Tianjin by state-company lifers, he enrolled at a Shanghai University in his teens, arriving in a big city teeming with flashy people who spoke an unfamiliar dialect. Shell-shocked, he spent most nights playing games at an internet cafe till dawn. Fast-forward to today, and Li runs the Singapore-based startup that’s valued at more than US$3.75 billion ($5.1 billion). While the self-effacing chief executive officer endures, he now harbours an outsized ambition.

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