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.

The Engineer Who Quit His "Iron Rice Bowl" Before he became famous on TikTok, Chris MJ (Christopher Mathews Jacob) had the life every Asian parent dreams of. He had a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering and a steady job at Sony. But deep down, sitting in the office wasn't making him happy. He wanted to tell stories and make people laugh. So, he did something shocking: he quit his stable job to chase a dream with no guarantee of success.

In 2016, Jake Yap and his brother Chris launched Lifely (originally E-Living) with a singular mission: to democratize interior design for the "renter generation." Identifying a massive gap between cheap, disposable furniture and unaffordable designer pieces, Yap built what he calls the "Zara of Furniture"—a fast-moving supply chain that delivers on-trend aesthetics at accessible price points. Starting on marketplaces like Catch.com.au and eBay to validate demand without heavy overhead, the brothers rapidly scaled the business from a garage operation to an eight-figure revenue empire, growing their team from two to 50 employees and capitalizing on a 300% growth surge during the pandemic. By 2023, Yap spearheaded the strategic pivot from a transactional reseller to a distinct lifestyle brand, rebranding the company as Lifely to better serve their core millennial persona, "Ashley." This transition wasn't just cosmetic; it was built on Yap’s unique operational philosophy of "Firm Empathy." By cutting out middlemen and maintaining direct, emotionally intelligent yet uncompromising relationships with manufacturers, he ensured high-quality control that allowed the brand to survive early supplier boycotts. Today, Lifely stands as a major player in the Australian home sector, integrating social impact by pledging 1% of profits to Habitat for Humanity.

Long before she became the face of a modern Batik revolution, Dayang Syafiqah was a musician at heart. She didn’t study fashion, she studied music and she brought that same soulfulness to the world of textiles. When she looked at the Batik industry, she didn't see heritage, she saw boundaries. To her, Batik felt trapped, stuck in the realm of stiff formal wear and government uniforms that didn't resonate with her generation’s desire for freedom. She realized that for this art form to survive, it couldn't just sit in a museum or a bridal suite, it needed to flow, move and feel alive, just like music.

Before Minimalist Lab became a staple in Malaysia’s jewelry scene, Nicole Chia was already navigating the retail world with her first venture, Vintage 1988. While that brand celebrated the charm of the past, Nicole noticed a quiet but powerful shift in what modern women actually wanted. They weren’t just looking for accessories; they were seeking clarity, quality, and pieces that could survive the daily grind without losing their shine. Recognizing a gap between cheap "fast fashion" jewelry and inaccessible luxury, Nicole took a leap of faith. She pivoted from the busy aesthetics of vintage to the clean, disciplined philosophy of "less is more," launching Minimalist Lab (MNML) in a small lot at Pavilion’s Tokyo Street.

Abang Brian’s journey into the culinary world began with a deeply personal and emotional catalyst. Originally trained in accounting and finance, his life took a drastic turn in 2012 when his father was diagnosed with cancer. Faced with his father’s specific and strict dietary needs, Brian stepped into the kitchen for the first time, not as a chef, but as a caregiver. This period of selfless service became a profound discovery; through cooking meals that were both nutritious and comforting for his father, Brian found a hidden passion and a sense of peace that he had never experienced in the corporate world. This transformative experience propelled him from the boardroom to the set of MasterChef Malaysia, where he became a national favorite. His background in health-focused cooking for his father stayed with him, shaping his professional philosophy of "healthy-fied" comfort food and his commitment to education. Today, he is widely known as "Abang Brian," a relatable mentor who teaches that cooking is more than just a skill, it is a powerful way to show love, preserve health, and care for those who matter most.

Sarah Chen-Spellings is a Malaysian-born investor based in America, working at the intersection of women, wealth, and innovation. She works with family offices and institutional investors globally on capital allocation, portfolio construction, and long-term value creation.

She is the co-founder of Beyond The Billion, which mobilized over $1 billion into women-founded companies through a global consortium of venture funds. Partner funds within this ecosystem have backed 16 unicorns, including Canva and Airwallex, giving Sarah a rare vantage point into how early-stage capital compounds into category-defining global platforms.

Earlier in her career, Sarah was a corporate venture capitalist at a $13B Asian conglomerate, where she helped build a venture arm from the ground up and supported multi-million-dollar investments, gaining deep experience in underwriting, governance, and institutional decision-making.

She is also the creator and host of Billion Dollar Moves, part of the HubSpot Podcast Network, where she sits down with billionaires, unicorn founders, and global investors to unpack how capital, power, and influence actually move behind the scenes.

She is also a co-founder of Lean In Malaysia, one of Malaysia’s leading nonprofit platforms advancing women in leadership, convening senior executives, founders, and decision-makers across sectors.

Learn more about Sarah: www.sarah-chen.com / 

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Kim May Chee’s journey with COCOdry began long before the brand existed, in her father’s small hair salon in Penang. As a child, she swept floors, helped customers, and quietly observed the beauty industry from the inside out. She saw how meaningful a simple service could be, but also how intimidating, inconsistent, and underserved the experience felt for many Malaysians. Years later, after hearing a podcast about Drybar in the U.S., everything clicked. Kim realised she could bring a localized, inclusive version of that experience to Malaysia, one designed for Asian hair textures, local culture, and the everyday woman who just wants to feel confident again.

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