Open For Business

Co-founder of Incitement, Zikry is one of the two Malaysians who made in the recent Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list in the Social Entrepreneurs category.  Incitement is a movement to transform inspiration into actionable steps for the startup community with social businesses. After four years of bootstrapping, Incitement now has establishments in over 41 countries and co-created hundreds of social impact projects worldwide. This social enterprise has been sustaining a 400% year-on-year revenue growth. 

Cost of living is rising and so are the rent of any apartment. Especially in the city centre, the rent of any houses and apartments are skyrocketing. The irony is that people travel to the city centre for work and yet apartments in the area are kept bare and empty without tenants. Therefore, Trupcotel aims to change that.

Bohemian and New York inspired restaurant with an Asian-inspired food, M.A.D! Restaurant brings to life local and regional street food, reminiscing a hawker centre served in a classic and comfortable environment at an affordable price. Together with Afandi Oh and Tan Hang Yong, Dave Looi shares about how the three brought M.A.D! Restaurant (Modern Asian Diners) to life. 

Small companies find it a challenge to enter the export business. Is that true? Joe Ling, the current owner of Linaco has been exporting coconut products for the last 20 years with over RM200 million turnover annually. Erik Ong, founder of Durian King, on the other hand recently spotted the opportunity to export durians into China and Hong Kong. They chat about the requirements and challenges faced which involved losing millions of Ringgit. 

Customization is traditionally a privilege enjoyed by an elite few, particularly in the realm of beauty and skincare. Today, however, companies are reaching out to discerning urbanites, with offerings that are customized to a person’s specific skin needs. Wilson Goh, the Managing Partner at Singapore’s Face Inc, explains how they’re able to provide bespoke skincare that’s both exclusive and affordable.

PasarTap connects online shoppers with suppliers from Pasar Chow Kit. In other words, they are modernising the Pasar experience with just a tap of your finger. The site went live in December 2015 with a capital of RM7000 to develop the platform and four suppliers. Today, PasarTap has over 20 suppliers with over 7,500 product offerings.

 Ideas are cheap. Execution is everything. That’s a quote by Chris Sacca, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who invested in Twitter and Uber. Here in our region alone we begin to see startups blooming in this space. Today we have GetDoc, a medtech startup that connects patients to doctors. Now we’ve heard of similar ideas before. Jerry Hang, founder of GetDoc tells us how they plan to make it in this competitive space that we are at in Malaysia.

From a former brothel in the 1980s which later became a hostel renting rooms out to immigration workers, Ken Ho shares about how they ended up turning the place into Petaling Street’s brunch haven.

Starting up a restaurant usually begins with a few partners and a small sum of capital. But this week’s Kopitiam Talk we have two outlets that crowdfunded their outlets and today, they have to manage over 20 investors. How are they managing their expectations as well as their cashflow? TC Hui from Ticklish Ribs & Wiches and Hwa Yang Jerng from Sudobrew tell us more.

The name Arunanchalam Muruganantham is unlikely to ring any bells because Muruga, is much better known as India’s Menstrual Man. His story is legendary- Muruga was the school dropout who revolutionized menstrual health for women in developing countries by innovating a machine to make cheap sanitary pads.