He grew up on a rubber estate in Tawau, Sabah, a place often called the final frontier where the roads weren’t even paved, the dial-up internet cut out every twenty minutes, and the nearest big city felt further away than Bali. Yet, from that quiet corner of the country, Richard Ker taught himself how to build websites, accidentally started a one-man global e-commerce business fixing iPhones out of a Beijing Starbucks, and spent twenty years living and working across the UK and China. When he finally came back to Malaysia, it was with one clear mission: to help entrepreneurs tell their stories.

What does it actually take to walk away from a comfortable life and build a business from scratch? At 33, Derek Toh did exactly that—abandoning a highly stable corporate accounting career in London to return to Malaysia and dive into the unpredictable world of recruitment. When he eventually decided to launch the job platform Hiredly, he didn't wait for massive funding or perfect software; instead, he walked into pitching rooms armed with nothing but a basic PDF mockup and a compelling vision. He proved that resourcefulness and a rock-solid personal reputation are worth far more than any legal contract or polished pitch deck. But the entrepreneurial dream isn't all cover stories and immediate wealth. In this incredibly candid conversation, Derek strips away the glamour of being a founder to reveal the true mental and financial toll of leadership. He opens up about the brutal reality of Year 3, where despite gaining major media traction, he found himself with just 7 ringgit in his bank account, unable to pay for a simple mamak dinner. He also walks us through the painful internal crisis of scaling Hirely, sharing how an layers of middle management almost destroyed the company's core culture by hiding real problems behind picture-perfect corporate messaging. Deeply introspective and fiercely honest, Derek Toh joins the podcast to share his ultimate guide to mental resilience. Tune in to learn why asking "stupid" questions is the fastest way to learn , how to look for the "blessing in disguise" when everything goes wrong , and how separating your true self from the stressful thoughts in your head can save you from burning out.

If you ever feel pressured to stick to just one career path, Dr. Soo Wincci’s journey will completely change your perspective. Best known initially as Miss Malaysia World , she quickly refused to let the industry label her as just a "vase" or a one-hit wonder. Instead, she submerged herself into entirely different worlds, capturing hearts on MasterChef Celebrity Malaysia , becoming a recording artist and actress , and defying all odds by earning two PhDs while actively working. She proves that you don't have to limit your potential to traditional boxes to build a lasting legacy. Today, she balances her time as an Associate Professor teaching hybrid courses in music business and production while continuing to push boundaries in the creative industry. Raw, gritty, and fiercely independent, Dr. Soo Wincci joins us to share her hard-earned life lessons on surviving toxic work cultures , building a career foundation from the ground up , and why we must constantly reinvent ourselves to ride the next big wave.

Before Malaysia had a comedy industry, there was one man, a borrowed stage, and ten minutes of material scribbled on the palm of his hand. On the 31st of August 1990, Merdeka Day, of all days, a young Harith Iskander walked into the lobby lounge of the Subang Airport Hotel and made a handful of hotel waiters and two tourists laugh, and in doing so, quietly planted the seed of an entire art form in this country. 

The son of a Malay army officer and a Scottish United Nations secretary who fell in love in the middle of a civil war in the Congo, Harith was never going to be anything other than extraordinary and three decades later, the man the world knows as the Godfather of Malaysian Stand-Up Comedy has the accolades to prove it: Asia's Best Stand-Up Comedian, the first Southeast Asian comedian to release a Netflix special, and the 2016 Laugh Factory Funniest Person in the World, beating out 88 international comedians to bring that title home to Malaysia. But beyond the trophies and the punchlines is a man who has spent his entire career believing that laughter is the most honest language we have, tune in, because this conversation is funny, raw, and more meaningful than you'd expect.

Sometimes the idea that changes everything doesn't arrive in a boardroom, it arrives in a vet clinic, staring at a broken fixed deposit and the creeping realisation that the financial system was never really designed with ordinary people in mind. Teoh Wei Xiang is the co-founder and CEO of Versa Asia, Malaysia's first online platform licensed to distribute investment products digitally and the story of how it came to be is as human as it gets. When his family dog needed emergency surgery, Xiang broke his fixed deposit and lost all the interest he had carefully accumulated, and instead of simply accepting that this was just the way things worked, he asked a different question entirely: why should Malaysians have to choose between their savings and their emergencies? Built from scratch alongside his long-time friends Nelson and Richmond, Versa has since grown into a wealthtech platform trusted by over 270,000 users, 90% of whom are under 40, helping young Malaysians save close to RM500 million in 2024 alone. In a world where personal finance can feel intimidating, inaccessible, and frankly boring, Wei Xiang built something that actually feels like it's on your side, tune in, because this is a conversation about money that has nothing to do with how much of it you already have.

It started the way so many great Malaysian things do, over a late-night mamak conversation, two young people complaining that nobody was telling their generation's stories the way they deserved to be told. Chris Khristie and Michelle Tan are the co-founders of Influasia, the digital media powerhouse behind World of Buzz, Lobak Merah, Noodou, and In Real Life, a network of publications that collectively became the pulse of Malaysian internet culture. What makes their story remarkable isn't just the scale of what they built, but how they built it: no funding, no safety net, working seven days a week while Chris had just quit a high-paying job and Michelle was still completing her degree, both of them learning everything from scratch because there was simply no other option. 

By the time Forbes named them both to the prestigious 30 Under 30 Asia list in 2019, they had already proved what most people twice their age were still figuring out, that if you understand your audience deeply enough and respect them enough to create content that actually matters to them, they will show up for you every single time. This episode is for every young Malaysian with a wild idea and a mamak receipt because this is proof that the best media empires are built one conversation at a time.

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Before the boardroom meetings with Samsung and Maybank, before the award-winning TVCs and the production house with its own creative directors, there was just a young Malaysian with a camera, a sense of humour, and an unshakeable belief that local stories deserved to be told beautifully. Jin Lim, known to a generation of Malaysians as Jinnyboy, is one of the country's pioneer YouTube creators, the kind who didn't just ride a wave, but quietly helped build it. What began in 2012 as a YouTube channel of short videos, parodies, and sketches grew into something far more expansive: a creative universe that proved Malaysian content could be both deeply relatable and genuinely world-class.

Before she became Malaysia’s most iconic supermodel, Amber Chia’s reality was defined by extreme financial hardship. Raised in a fishing village in Tawau, Sabah, she dropped out of school at 15 to juggle three grueling jobs including selling fish at a 3 a.m. morning market, just to help her family survive. Defying the odds, a 17-year-old Amber bought a one-way ticket to Kuala Lumpur with exactly RM300 to her name to chase an impossible modeling dream. The transition to the city was brutal, filled with constant rejections, odd jobs as a "car girl," and predatory agencies, but she refused to let it break her. Her relentless hustle paid off in 2004 when she made history by winning the Guess Watches Timeless Beauty International Model Search. Practically overnight, she shattered the industry's glass ceiling as the first Asian model to campaign for Guess globally, going on to grace over 200 magazine covers and walk international runways. However, Amber knew that true success is about legacy, not just the limelight. Remembering her own painful struggles as a naive teenager navigating KL with no mentor, she decided to pivot from talent to tycoon. In 2010, she founded the Amber Chia Academy, a premier modeling and beauty school designed to provide world-class, ethical training to aspiring talents. By transforming the local fashion education ecosystem, she ensured that the next generation of Malaysian models would have the guidance and protection she never had. Today, Amber Chia isn’t just a face on a billboard, she is a resilient entrepreneur whose ultimate mission is making sure no young talent ever has to walk the runway alone.

In 2013, civil engineering graduate Tai Hau took a backpacking trip across Europe and noticed a huge difference in culture. While Europeans wore glasses as fun fashion accessories, Malaysians only wore them as a medical necessity. He also realized a major daily problem that big international brands were ignoring: standard Western frames just didn't fit Asian faces well, causing the annoying issue of glasses constantly sliding down the nose. Leaving his engineering career behind, Tai Hau co-founded Pott Glasses to fix this. He designed a special "Asian Fit", creating frames with thicker nose pads and wider temples so they rest perfectly and comfortably on Asian faces, combining great engineering with everyday style. Instead of looking for big investors right away, Tai Hau built Pott Glasses from the ground up. He started small at pop-up bazaars and grew the business into a massive success, now hitting an 8-figure revenue across nine retail stores. He also changed the boring way people usually buy glasses by introducing "4D Optical Styling", a personalized service where staff help you pick frames based on your face shape, eye power, job, and personal fashion. But the best part of his business is how it gives back. Through their "Eyes for Education" program, Pott Glasses donates a pair of glasses to a student in need for every pair they sell. Tai Hau didn't just build a highly profitable business, he built a brand with a big heart that helps the community see clearly.

Joan Low’s journey is a testament to the power of breaking past limiting beliefs. Growing up in an average, middle-class Malaysian family as the child of a factory overseer and a government servant, Joan became a first-generation graduate. Encouraged by her parents to dream big, she left Malaysia at age 17 after securing a life-changing scholarship to a boarding school in Canada, followed by another full scholarship to a top-five liberal arts college in the US where she majored in political science. She eventually built a highly successful corporate career, which included working at J.P. Morgan and spending six years in Hong Kong. Despite her success in finance, Joan’s true calling was shaped by a deeply personal struggle back home. She had a family member who had been living with severe mental health challenges for more than 25 years. Returning to Malaysia at age 30, she began conducting grassroots community workshops and quickly realized that many high-functioning corporate professionals were secretly operating under severe stress and anxiety. Recognizing that the traditional mental healthcare system was fragmented and entirely reactive, she founded ThoughtFull, a Temasek-backed digital mental health company designed to make daily, preventative mental hygiene as accessible as text messaging. Building a health-tech platform from the ground up to partner with major insurers like AIA and Great Eastern came with massive systemic challenges. Operating as a solo female founder, Joan faced a fundraising landscape that is still remarkably biased against women starting families. After hearing firsthand stories of fellow founders getting ghosted by investors upon revealing they were pregnant, Joan made the difficult decision to keep her own pregnancy a complete secret during her last capital raise. Proving her sheer grit, she successfully navigated this scale-up phase and ultimately signed the final investment contract while two centimeters dilated on a gym ball, closing her funding round and delivering her baby in the exact same week.