Jeffrey Tiong, founder and CEO of PatSnap.Courtesy of Jeffrey Tiong.

Many entrepreneurs will say that building a successful startup is costly -- both financially and emotionally.

Just ask Jeffrey Tiong. The 40-year-old is the founder and CEO of intellectual property and research and development startup Patsnap, a Singapore-based unicorn company that has surpassed an annual recurring revenue of $100 million, Tiong said in a statement in June.

Tiong's journey in building Patsnap has been far from easy. He started the company straight out of college at age 24, and has been working on it ever since, for the past 17 years.

"Up until now, Patsnap is my first and only job," he told CNBC Make It. "Let me put it this way: For the last 17 years, building the business, there have been many dark times [and] low times. I will not want to go through it again, but I'm grateful for this experience."

"I have really [learned that] what cannot kill you will make you stronger," said Tiong.