Go for Broke - Tales of Malaysian Technopreneurship

Contents

Introduction i

Foreword iii

A Note From Ashran Ghazi of Asia Stream about MSC Malaysia iv

A Note From Chris Chan of TMS Asia about MSC Malaysia vi

A Note From The Cradle Investment Program viii

Acknowledgement by TeAM Council 2007~2008 x

Chapter 1 New Media Ahoy! 01

Ashran Ghazi

Chapter 2 Collaborating His Way to Success 09

Chris Chan

Chapter 3 Method Man 19

Mathavan Chandran

Chapter 4 Between a Rock and a Hard Place 27

Stephen Chia

Chapter 5 Rolling with the Changes 35

Wei Chuan Beng

Chapter 6 Ingenuity at Work 43

William Du

Chapter 7 From Foot Soldier to Leader 51

Wan Mohamed Fusil Wan Mahmood

Chapter 8 Cashing In 59

Ganesh Kumar Bangah

Chapter 9 Playing for Keeps 67

Irman Nawawi

Chapter 10 With Guts Comes Glory 75

Leo Ariyanayakam

Chapter 11 The Booksmart Businessman 83

Norbik Bashah Idris

Chapter 12 Getting to Grips with the Intangible 91

David Oh

Chapter 13 Look Ma, No Wires! 99

Rais Hussin

Chapter 14 An Alternative Approach 107

Rajen. M

Chapter 15 Head First 115

Ritakamal Sadiman

Chapter 16 Upwardly Mobile 123

HY Sia

Chapter 17 Old Dog, New Tricks 131

Harres Tan

Chapter 18 No Limits 139

Edwin Tay

Chapter 19 Carpe Diem 147

Teoh Eng Kee

Chapter 20 Not a Stranger in a Strange Land 155

Harald Weinbrecht

Chapter 21 The Big Switch 163

David Wong

Appendix Technopreneurs Association 172

of Malaysia (TeAM)

Introduction

Technopreneurs—that’s a hefty word to say, isn’t it? Yet, I couldn’t think

of a more apt word to describe the 21 people featured in this book.

Whenever the phrase “entrepreneurs in technology” (an even more

convoluted phrase), I used to think of the Silicon Valley, of Steve Jobs

working in a garage with Steve Wozniak, of coffee-fueled nights and big

ideas drawn on napkin towels.

That, however, is just the romantic side of technopreneurship—the

stuff that inspires others to dream. What goes on behind the scenes, as

you’ll learn in this book, is something else entirely. If you’re an aspiring

technopreneur, this is not appropriate bedtime reading. In here, you’ll

read about sleepless nights, gambles lost, and the inordinate amount of

self-belief required to make it to the top.

“We had no money,” is a phrase you’ll come across often reading this

book. That says a lot about the perseverance these people have in

realizing their vision. Several of them have sacrificed their own savings

to keep their dream alive, and more importantly, to keep the dream alive

in others. There are so many so-called “entrepreneurs” who’ll cop out

at trouble and abandon those under their employ. Thankfully, there’s

none of that in here, which restores my faith that nice guys can and do

finish first.

Though the dotcom bust isn’t a period many of these technopreneurs

would like to remember, like it or not, it was key in weeding them out

from the quitters. The evolution of the technopreneurial landscape is an

i

accelerated Darwinism—happening in the space of a few decades—where

only the fittest, bravest, and cock-sure survive. This book is where you’ll

see it in action, and these are the people who have evolved, adapted and

triumphed. So yes, while each of them has gone through their dark times,

all the stories have happy endings.

More importantly, however, these stories are Malaysian. Finally, here’s a

book that says you don’t have to look at the Silicon Valley for inspiration.

It’s proof that, in a wired world, you don’t have to be in US to strike it big

as a technopreneur. Far too often, I’ve come across people who say they

could’ve become a big shot with their big ideas, if only they were born in

the US. Nonsense. This is the book that says: If you have what it takes, do

it, right here, right now.

Now get up and start living the dream.

Oon Yeoh

April 2008

ForewordTechnopreneurs are a lot like pilgrims on a long journey. Sometimes the journey is smooth, other times it’s bumpy. Most of them give up the comforts of a secure job and family time to embark on this quest.

Along the way, these modern-day pilgrims meet good Samaritans like angels and venture capitalists who believe in their vision, while others soldier on alone or with a small band of fellow pilgrims who share the same entrepreneurial dream.

All of them have remarkable stories to tell that could fill volumes of MBA course books. TeAM decided it’s time to compile some of these stories into a book. On behalf of MSC Malaysia, Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) is proud and delighted to support this endeavour.

Through various MSC Malaysia programs, MDeC is committed to help technopreneurs on this journey. Our Technopreneur Pre-Seed Fund Program, for example, addresses the funding gap at pre-seed stage and is expected to boost the development of commercially viable ICT projects and kick off a chain reaction in the creation of new local ICT companies.

MSC Malaysia’s Start-Up Development Program aims to generate a rich pool of business and innovative technology ideas and boost technopreneurship, thus encouraging entrepreneurial activity in Malaysia.

Our partner programs are designed to offer budding technopreneurs with end-to-end facilitation and support by providing strategic and development resources at each phase of the technopreneur and venture development value chain process.

This dynamic ICT hub has put Malaysia on the world map as a country committed to creating a knowledge-based economy. Its core initiatives include building up the ICT industry, boosting ICT capabilities and using ICT to spur socio-economic development.

Badlisham Ghazali MDeC CEO

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v

MSC Malaysia trade missions to various countries have opened up

partnership possibilities and in the process helped us open our minds to

how foreign companies are doing things. It’s been a great form of informal

education.

Going with such trade missions is also great because it imparts on us

credibility as people abroad are familiar with the MSC Malaysia brand.

Having MSC Malaysia Status has also assisted us when bidding for

some government projects that give preference to MSC Malaysia Status

companies.

Lastly, MSC Malaysia’s incentives under its Professional Development

for ICT Professionals program has enabled us to empower our key

staff servicing accounts with PMP (Project Management Professional)

Certification.

iv

A Note From Ashran Ghaziof Asia Stream about MSC Malaysia

MSC Malaysia is a great initiative that has been giving much assistance

to technopreneurs for more than a decade now.

My company, Asia Stream Digital TV, has benefitted tremendously from

the various programs MSC Malaysia has on offer to start ups like ours.

Its knowledge sharing sessions have increased my personal understanding

about the industry. They have also helped to expand my business network.

This has been very fruitful to my business as we are able to cross-sell our

products and bundle them in various ways for mutual benefit with many

other companies.

MSC Malaysia’s foreign guest delegation programs have proven to be

greatly beneficial to us. Our best experience was during the recent visit by

the Ruwad group from the Middle East. In a single meeting, we got them

interested in our Internet TV product and services. The fact that we are

an MSC Malaysia-Status company definitely helped because they were

looking to do business with MSC Malaysia-Status companies.

During their one week stay, we immediately negotiated a partnership

agreement to promote and our products in the UAE and Syria. This is our

first step towards penetrating the Middle East market. Finding a good

reliable partner is indeed very crucial to the success.

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TMS alongside companies software companies like XYBASE and PATIMAS

is developing an Asia Pacific alliance called Software Asia Alliance. MSC

Malaysia made it possible for us to develop and promote this new alliance

to build a global brand presence.

With the help of MSC Malaysia we are able to promote local software

usage in government today. This includes using TMS products to power

some of MSC Malaysia’s online properties.

vi

A Note From Chris Chanof TMS Asia about MSC Malaysia

Like all start ups with big ambitions, TMS Asia has been benefited

significantly from MSC Malaysia.

All start ups need financing in order to grow. We are grateful that MSC

Ventures was willing to invest in TMS. We actually got to the stage where

we got a formal offer but unfortunately, we did not take it up due to some

technical reasons.

As a software company, we need to spend a lot of money on research and

development. We received an MSC Malaysia Research & Development

Grant Scheme (MSG) worth RM2 million which helped us greatly.

It allowed us to develop tmsFRAMEWORK, an application development

platform that powers all our current Java-based software. The grant

allowed TMS to do research and development on tmsFRAMEWORK for

two years.

I’m delighted to say that tmsFRAMEWORK today powers brands like

AirAsia, Harvard Medical School, Khazanah National, Media Prima and

many other famous brands.

I’ve personally gone on several MSC Malaysia promotional trips, where

we were introduced to different potential partners overseas. This is crucial

for local start ups hoping to penetrate foreign markets. You can’t do it

alone.

viii

A Note From

The Cradle Investment Program

First and foremost, I would like to congratulate the Technopreneurs

Association of Malaysia (TeAM) and Oon Yeoh on the great success of

coming out with “Go For Broke”, which is an inspiring book on the blood,

sweat and tears, relating to technopreneurship in Malaysia.

The stories shared by the 21 technopreneurs in this book, should

serve as an inspiration point and guiding light to current and budding

technopreneurs, in their search for success.

The theme running through the stories of these technopreneurs show

that the path to success requires a technopreneur to be determined,

persistent and to risk it all – to “go for broke” – to savour the fruits of

wealth and recognition.

The Cradle Investment Program (“CIP”) (www.cradle.com.my) is proud

to be a strong supporter of TeAM’s efforts within the industry and co-

sponsor to the first edition of this great book.

As is well-known, CIP is a RM100 million grant, (under the auspices of

the Ministry of Finance and administered under Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd)

which was born out as a brainchild and lobbying efforts of TeAM, to help

seed innovative technology ideas into businesses and to spur technology

commercialization, both within the public and private sectors.

CIP not only offers funding via its CIP Catalyst fund, but also other

business value-add like commercialization support, domain mentors,

strategic partnerships, training and competency building, networking,

pitching and media publicity support - to help kick-start the budding

ideas of technopreneurs, to commercialization and further growth.

Mistakes are extremely costly for budding technopreneurs – and our role

in Cradle, is to ensure that they start on the right footing, with proper

planning, funding and support.

A partnership with CIP does not just begin and end with the funding

provided – it is a lasting membership of the Cradle business-building

ecosystem for technopreneurs, which has been built to ensure that more

CIP-funded technopreneurs will succeed.

It is the business-building environment that makes up half the

stimulus for growth and success – and Cradle is there to provide it,

for technopreneurs.

Once again, congratulations to TeAM and Oon Yeoh on the launching of

“Go For Broke!”. It is a significant landmark – one that will be the catalyst

to growing the number of successful technopreneurs in Malaysia.

Sincerely,

Nazrin Hassan Chief Executive Officer,

Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd

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Acknowledgement by TeAM Council 2007-2008

No project of this nature is possible without the collaboration of

many dedicated people behind this project. This includes TeAM advisors

Sivapalan Vivekarajah, Wilson Tay and Chris Chan, and the 21

technopreneurs featured.

Special thanks goes out to our executive secretary, Eliza Elias,

who tirelessly juggled managing the interview schedule as well as coordinating

the funding for this project and our executive director, Andrey Abraham,

for doing all the tireless logistics works to finalize the production of the book.

We are also grateful to MDeC and Cradle for their sponsorship

this project, without which this book would not be possible.

Lastly, many thanks go out to the GoodBasic Media team

for producing this book.

x

Chapter 1

Ashran Ghazi

New Media Ahoy!

Go For Broke ~ Tales of Technopreneurship

William DuIngenious Haus

44

William Du • Ingenuity at Work

William Du

Ingenuity at Work

Financing is an important component of entrepreneurship. Although

some start-ups are able to make it without investors’ money, most do

need this in order to take their business to the next stage.

William Du’s Ingenious Haus helps start-ups get the financing they

need and prepares them for investment – be it by venture capitalists,

corporate investors or angel investors.

In many ways, Du seems more like an entrepreneur himself than an

investment broker or corporate advisor. “I take a very hands-on approach

in building up the value of the companies we assist,” he says. “I don’t

mind getting my hands dirty learning the ropes of the businesses those

companies are involved in.”

For a guy who is so tech-savvy and forward looking, Du has a very

traditional finance background, graduating from the University of

Hertfordshire with an MBA in 2000. His MBA thesis was entitled:

“Acquisition of Midland Bank by HSBC”, about the latter’s acquisition

of the UK bank, resulting in the creation of one of the largest financial

services firms around. The paper was presented in the World Association

for Case Method Research and application (WACRA) Conference in

Mannheim, Germany in 2002.

Upon graduation, Du worked for a London-based chartered accountancy

firm, as a trainee doing auditing. But he learned more than just auditing

there.

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Wan Mohamed Fusil Wan MahmoodMesiniaga

52

Wan Mohamed Fusil Wan Mahmood • From Foot Soldier to Leader

Wan Mohamed Fusil Wan Mahmood

From Foot Soldier to Leader

If you ask people to name the most established, well-entrenched local

IT company, there’s a good chance Mesiniaga would crop up.

In terms of brand recognition, revenue and profitability, there are not

many local IT companies that even come close. But it was started by a

band of unlikely entrepreneurs.

“All of us were good soldiers, good administrators at IBM,” says Wan

Mohamed Fusil Wan Mahmood. “Not entrepreneurs.”

In the late ‘70s, the government came out with a firm directive that

companies doing business with the government must be locally

incorporated.

IBM led by the late Ismail Sulaiman, formerly general manager of

IBM Malaysia, responded with a proposal to form a new bumiputra-

controlled company that would handle roughly 30% of IBM’s business

and provide more effective skills transfer to locals.

Fusil was amongst the five founders who got together to execute this

plan with the full blessing and support of IBM. In late 1982, Mesiniaga

was born.

“I was 32 at the time and a 10-year veteran at IBM,” says Fusil.

“I was excited and worried at the same time.”

To facilitate the execution of this plan and to give the new start-up

viability, IBM decided that they would close down an entire Information

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Ganesh Kumar BangahMOL AccessPortal

60

Ganesh Kumar Bangah • Cashing In

Ganesh Kumar Bangah

Cashing In

Starting young and dropping out of college to found your own company

is a common story in the American tech landscape but is rare in this

part of the world.

That probably has to do with cultural factors. Over here, education is

prized and paper qualifications are considered an important safety net

in case your entrepreneurial ventures fizzle out.

Not that any of these factors stopped Ganesh Kumar Bangah from

getting into the “go-for broke” entrepreneurial spirit so typified by

American technopreneurs.

He demonstrated his entrepreneurial zeal early on. While still in

secondary school in Johor Bahru, he would travel over to Singapore

to buy computer parts and accessories to sell to his schoolmates. “I’d

buy a soundcard for S$30 and bring it back to JB to sell for RM200,” he

recalls. “I did brisk business. I even assembled PCs and sold them to

teachers.”

After his Form Five exams in 1996, he worked for and later became a

partner in Cyberfield, a small but successful software company that

had the Johor State Government as one of its key clients. He continued

working part-time in Cyberfield while in university.

He studied engineering at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in Skudai but

dropped out in his third year to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams.

He did, however, get technical certifications — he has a Certificate in

Computers Studies from the National Center for Information Technology

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Rajen. MHolista Biotech

108

Rajen. M • An Alternative Approach

Rajen. M

An Alternative Approach

There’s nothing like first-hand experience to convince you that

something works. And that’s what got Rajen. M into the holistic

medicine business.

A trained pharmacist, the first time Rajen encountered holistic medicine

was when he had difficulty getting rid of a rash on his back. He tried all

kinds of pharmaceutical medication but to no avail.

“Nothing worked,” he recalls. “I went to see all kinds of doctors too. One

gave me a drug that worked 20%. I realized that if I were to take more of

the drug it would end up killing me.”

Rajen’s mother insisted that he see a traditional medicine man. “The

homeopath was not a doctor in the Western sense of the word, so I was

not confident about his abilities to cure me,” he says.

The medicine man gave him sugar tablets that looked liked lizard eggs.

It cured Rajen’s rashes. “That made me think, maybe I don’t know so

much about medicine after all,” he says. “This spurred me to do more

research on alternative medicine.” But it took a bad experience at work

to make Rajen decide to come out start his own business.

He had joined Ciba Pharma, a Fortune 500 company, as product

manager in 1990. A self-described workaholic, he worked up to 18 hours

a day. He even took up an MBA from the University of Strathclyde to

enhance his career prospects. Not surprisingly, he quickly rose through

the ranks to become marketing manager within a few short years.

109


Harald WeinbrechtISS Consulting

156

Harald Weinbrecht • Not a Stranger in a Strange Land

Harald Weinbrecht

Not a Stranger in a Strange Land

Doing business in Malaysia as a foreigner has its good and bad points.

It’s actually a positive when you deal with other foreigners. However,

when you deal with locals, especially those from mid-sized companies,

it can be a negative in more ways than one.

Firstly, they might get intimidated and assume that your costs would

naturally be very high. Secondly, they might think you don’t understand

their business.

Harald Weinbrecht has been through all that. “It’s a perception thing,”

he says. “‘What do you know, you’re just a kwailo’ – I used to get that at

first but I’ve lived here for many years now, so it’s not such a problem

anymore.”

That’s an understatement. Harald has actually done very well for

himself. His company, ISS Consulting, has the distinction of being the

only company listed on Mesdaq that’s owned by a foreigner. He also

has offices in Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, as well as operations

in Dubai.

Not bad for a self-described kampung-boy. “I was born in a small

village of about 1000 people,” says the German-born Weinbrecht. “My

primary school and secondary school was just a few kilometers from

my house.”

He began his career in banking where he did an apprenticeship. It was

during that time that he first discovered the wonders of IT.

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Technopreneurs Association of Malaysia (TeAM)

The Internet boom of the late 1990s and the setting up of the Multimedia

Super Corridor in 1996 brought forth a new agenda for Malaysia; to

reposition the nation from an industrial economy to an innovation- and

technology-led economy.

This new direction triggered an influx of economic and business

activity creating a new class of entrepreneurs in Malaysia – technology

entrepreneurs or Technopreneurs.

Technopreneurs were mostly young, highly-educated and technology-

savvy entrepreneurs who wanted to live this new dream of creating the

next new billion dollar global technology company.

Armed with support from the Multimedia Development Corporation

(MDeC) and the government, they set forth building their companies

from scratch, not knowing where the Internet was heading but wanting to

be in the slipstream of this exciting new era.

The government too was as enthusiastic as these technopreneurs and

spurred the growth of technology initiatives and policies from growth

corridors to telecommunications infrastructure to venture capital

funding.

172

Yet, success was elusive and soon all parties discovered that Silicon Valley

could not be built in a just a few short years. The government realised that

policies without stakeholder input was not effective and technopreneurs

found that there was no avenue for them to voice out their concerns,

needs and interests.

Thus TeAM was born out of the need to further the interests of

technopreneurs and to assist in the development of the knowledge

economy in Malaysia.

TeAM has three key initiatives and objectives:

1) To act as a think tank and as a voice for technopreneurs. Much has

been accomplished in the six years since our formation. The first

initiative was the completion of a White Paper entitled “Fostering

A Sustainable Environment for Technopreneurship in Malaysia”.

This document received widespread acclaim in media, industry

and government circles for outlining the major issues and challenges

facing small- and medium-sized technology companies in a way that

encompasses the views of the industry’s grassroots. It served to share

the views of the community of technopreneurs with government

and led to better execution of the government’s plans for the MSC.

We continue to act through many discussions with key policy makers

and help guide Government policy to have the greatest impact and

benefit for industry.

2) The second and equally important objective is for the professional

development of members and the industry in general. TeAM has

initiated many events to share information and knowledge that help

to develop the skills, knowledge and abilities of technopreneurs

including forums, seminars, workshops and dialogues. These

173

initiatives are ongoing and we continue to provide innovative

and invaluable programs to further the development of members

and industry.

3) The third objective is to provide community education and to bridge

the digital divide. This has included technopreneurship programs

offered to more than 25 public and private universities in the country

where we promote technopreneurship as an alternative career path.

There is still a long way to go. The nation is also promoting the growth

of a biotechnology industry and TeAM supports this initiative. We now

include this new industry within its objectives.

While TeAM has been successful in achieving many of its objectives and

is now a highly recognised industry organisation, the principal aspiration

of making Malaysia globally-renowned and Malaysian firms globally-

successful remains to be achieved.

Hence TeAM will continue to work closely with the government and the

different agencies promoting the ICT and biotech industries to strive

towards creating more successful technopreneurs who can compete with

the best in the region and globally.

That is our goal and in championing the interests of our members and

stakeholders, TeAM will continue to do its best to improve the ecosystem

for technopreneurs and technopreneurship in Malaysia.

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