When Welson Ang left the Navy in 2004, the plan was simple: find a way to make ends meet. With S$5,000 borrowed from family and a basic printer, he started selling name cards. It wasn’t a glamorous launch story, but it was the start of something he could build on — one small print job at a time.
Over time, that modest operation grew into ExpressPrint, a printing business serving Singapore’s fast-turnaround corporate and events market. And that’s where Welson found the real friction point: quoting. The bottleneck wasn’t the machines. It was maths. Pricing was often handled by one or two experienced staff, and when they weren’t available, everything stalled. In a city where corporate clients expect turnaround in hours, not days, slow quoting was a silent revenue killer.
Instead of hiring more people to do more manual work, Welson taught himself to code after hours. He built an internal tool to automate quotes — a side project meant to fix a single operational snag. But it did more than that: it sped up response times, reduced errors, and freed staff to focus on actual production.
By 2021, he saw the bigger picture. “If I was facing this problem, others were too,” he recalls. PriceCal was launched as quoting software designed by a printer for printers. Its “stack-and-swap” logic mirrors how jobs are assembled on the shop floor, requiring zero technical skills. Every account comes with a branded online store that’s ready to quote instantly, 24/7.
For many small shops, that’s not just a nice-to-have — its survival. PriceCal plugs directly into major wholesalers, unlocking access to over 60 services without the cost of owning the machines. In an industry where customers expect range, speed, and accuracy in one go, this levels the playing field.
Then came a milestone that shifted perception in the industry: a partnership with Konica Minolta, the Japanese tech giant known for professional printing, digital office solutions, and medical and industrial imaging. “Konica doesn’t work with just anyone,” says Welson. “For them to partner with us means they see the potential in a homegrown Singapore brand.” From Konica’s side, it’s part of a push to work with forward-thinking partners who bring fresh ideas into an industry still catching up with digital transformation.
Today, Welson runs PriceCal, and his role is shifting toward enabling others. Awards like the Asia eCommerce Award for fulfillment help, but his measure of success is more practical: the neighbourhood shop that beat a big-name competitor because they could quote in minutes; the veteran printer who now spends half an hour on a task that used to take half a day.
As for what’s next? Welson hints at regional expansion and integrations beyond printing. “We’re not just building a quoting tool,” he says. “We’re building an ecosystem.” In other words, watch this space.
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This article was shared to us by Alpha Story
Featured Image Credit: PriceCal, Canva Images
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