FEATURE-Cyberjaya-Connects

82 ESQUIRE MAY 2015 ESQUIRE MAY 2015 83
In a 1991 working paper entitled “The Way Forward”,
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad laid out nine challenges in turning
Malaysia into a developed nation by the year 2020. Among them
was the challenge of establishing an innovative and forward-
looking society—one that would not only consume technology
but also contribute to technological advancements in the country.
“Entrepreneurs must be spawned,” Tun Mahathir wrote. “Where
necessary, technological and training help must be extended; and
infrastructural support must be given.”
With this in mind, the Multimedia Super Corridor was
inaugurated in 1996, five years after the former Prime Minister
unveiled his plans. Now known as MSC Malaysia, the original
project covered an area of 750sqkm that included the Twin Towers,
KL Tower, KLIA, Putrajaya and Cyberjaya—a 50km long “corridor”
that aimed to be the hub of innovation in technology.
Two decades on, the MSC seems to have fizzled out, but new
developments could bring much needed revitalisation to the
project. Esquire explores a small pocket in the world of start-ups
to find out what could potentially turn Malaysia into the region’s
next tech hub.
Words by Shermian Lim
Photographs by Gerald Goh

trepreneur, Ng believes the government, through
different venture capital agencies and accelera-
tor programs, has provided enough funding and
incentives to kick-start a healthy ecosystem. Ng
should know personally: he was one of the early
entrepreneurs who went through the grind, re-
ceiving a RM150,000 grant from the Multimedia
Development Corporation (the agency tasked
with overseeing the development of the MSC and
is known as MDec) to build Groupsmore, the first
start-up he founded with partner Joel Neoh, which
was later acquired by Groupon.
“Huge companies are made not because
the government is doing things right,” Ng says,
“they’re made in spite of the government doing
things wrong.” More importantly to Ng is what he
calls “software and networks” that need catching
up. “The urban rakyat has a default bias of hating
on the government,” he says. “And that’s what the
rakyat has to realize: at the end of the day, it’s about
Malaysians themselves getting off their ass and
getting s**t done.”
Changing a mindset is never easy, but
things seem less far-fetched when one can build on
a concrete example of how other successful start-
up ecosystems became reality. Cheryl Yeoh, Chief
Executive Officer of the year-old Malaysian Global
Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) intends
to draw on Chile’s start-up ecosystem that began
barely four years ago, but has propelled itself into
the 20th-best ecosystem in the start-up world. The
takeaway that Yeoh gets from the Start-Up Chile
program in Santiago is that if the program were
modeled to be more insular and more focused on
A 2011 study conducted by Ritsumeikan
Asia Pacific University on the impact of the MSC
indicates that the project has done reasonably well
in impacting Malaysia’s ICT industry. Between
2004 to 2010, a total of 2,520 MSC-affiliated en-
tities produced a combined revenue of RM 92.8
billion, created 99,590 knowledge-based jobs, and
garnered RM1,512 million in investment for re-
search and development. The project has hit some
of its targets, the report states, but with “additional
room for improvement”. The original MSC corri-
dor has grown to include “cyber-cities” and “cyber-
centres” in states such as Penang, Kedah, Johor
and Melaka. Within the Klang Valley are 20 cyber-
centres—some are well-known properties such as
Mid Valley City, the Intermark Quill 9 and Jaya
33—while another seven developments stamped as
MSC-approved are in the works.
But the MSC, according to Khailee Ng, se-
rial entrepreneur-turned-venture capitalist and
start-up mentor, is just infrastructure. “It’s the
hardware, and it works fine.” As a long-time en-
Above
A MaGIC employee finds a
quiet space in the building’s
co-working area.
Cheryl Yeoh
CEO of MaGIC.
Khailee Ng
Managing Partner,
500 Startups.
Data from 2012 Start-Up Ecosystem Report by Start-Up Genome and Telefonica Digital.
A look at start-up ecosystems around the world
tel aviv
london
bangalore
new york
silicon valley
singapore
santiago
Population: 8.1 million
Average age of start-up
founders: 33
Culture: Start-ups here focus
on consumer services and
prefer to tackle new markets,
rather than niche markets.
Eighteen percent of start-up
founders in NYC are women.
Slower to adapt to new
technology and tend to
monetise early, reducing the
ability for high-level disruption.
Start-ups based here: Kayak,
Foursquare, Tumblr, Bit.ly,
Meetup.
founders: 36
Culture: Has the highest density
of tech start-ups in the world, with
63 companies listed on the
NASDAQ—more than Europe,
India, Japan, Korea and China
combined. Funding is healthy
throughout the lifecycle, but
overall, entrepreneurs take fewer
risks, focusing more on small
market exits.
Start-ups based here: Waze,
Mirabilis, Fring, Babylon.
founders: 37
Culture: Bangalore
entrepreneurs prefer to
tackle niche markets, and
are more likely to commit
full-time to their start-up.
India’s huge market provides
an ideal foundation for start-
ups to flourish. They rely
heavily on PHP and Java,
and are slower to adopt new
technology such as Ruby on
Rails and Python.
Start-ups based here:
Flipkart, Tally, Zoho,
Hungama, Make My Trip.
Average age of
start-up founders: 28
Culture: An example of how
bold government policies
can foster a thriving start-up
ecosystem. The Start-Up Chile
program, started in 2010, has
attracted nearly 500 early
stage start-ups from around
the world to set up shop in
Santiago, and turned the city
into start-up hub in just
four years.
AgentPiggy, QuantConnect,
Glazeon, Kuotos.
founders: 33
Culture: Start-ups based here
are forced to think globally
from day one. Singapore is
seen as having the potential
to become the central start-
up hub for Asia, pulling vast
market resources from China,
Indonesia, and the rest of
Southeast Asia. Currently,
the ecosystem might be over
reliant on government funds.
Tencube, Viki, Buzz City,
Bubble Motion, Zopim.
founders: 34
Culture: A pay-it-forward,
change-the-world mentality
draws world-class talent here.
A vibrant support system by way
of mentors, start-up funding, and
legislative breaks makes it the
most competitive ecosystem in
the world. Cost of living is high,
but failure is considered a badge
of honour.
Start-ups based here: Google,
Apple, AirBnB, Twitter, Facebook.
founders: 36
Culture: Has produced the
largest output of start-ups
in Europe in recent years.
Strategic location, diverse
talent, good infrastructure
and ease of setting up
a business are London’s
advantages. However, there
is a gap in seed funding, as
investors are risk averse.
Tweetdeck, Moo, Wonga,
Autonomy.

A quick look
at start-ups
based in MaGIC’s
co-working space
iKargo
iKargo is an online commer-
cial logistics marketplace
that connects SMEs and
SMIs with third-party ship-
pers who are returning to
base without cargo or deliv-
ery jobs for the day. Shippers
get their return trips covered
by these iKargo jobs, and
the SME gets a discount on
their shipping costs. iKargo
began a year ago, and its
database lists nearly 2,000
trucks from Malaysia, Singa-
pore and Thailand. Founded
by Richard Kok, 45, and Mu
Sichen, 29.
ikargo.com
GetDoc
Launched in January and
founded by Jerry Hang, 32,
and Chris Ching, 30. Utilising
the flight-booking model,
GetDoc is a platform that
easily connects patients to
the right doctors. Users can
search for the right doctors
at nearby clinics and hospi-
tals, and make appointments
online. Hang and Ching drew
from their late father’s pain-
ful experiences with hospital
visits to create this start-up.
beta.getdoc.my
DobyBox
Founders Elmi Haryadi Daldi-
ri, 40, and Edwin Jesu Dass,
20, met here at the MaGIC
co-working space. Elmi, who
owns a laundry business,
noticed that his customers
often delivered and picked
up their laundry outside of
business hours, which is why
he came up with a 24-hour,
online payment laundry
locker service to solve that
problem. DobyBox is slated
to launch in June.
dobybox.com
Golfbogey
Golfbogey, a tee-off times
aggregator, provides book-
ing solutions for golf clubs,
golfers and travel agents
looking to resell tee-off
times. Users of the Golf-
bogey app can choose a
participating club and easily
pre-book a time to go golf-
ing. Founded by Prathib
Sooria Demudu, 27.
golfbogey.com
Shoptizen
Shoptizen’s tagline is, “Ev-
eryone’s a brand ambassa-
dor”, and using this lifestyle
platform is that simple: it
connects fashionistas with
emerging brands. Users
share images of their favou-
rite outfits and tag the brand
on social media. Users get
rewarded if their tag triggers
a sale from any of their fol-
lowers. Founded in January
by Looi Choon Beng, 26, and
Johansen Chew, 28.
shoptizen.co
Chile itself, it might have taken them 10 years to
get to where they were now. “Instead, they invited
entrepreneurs from around the world to come,”
explains Yeoh, who recently returned to Malaysia
from Silicon Valley after 12 years abroad. Even sea-
soned entrepreneurs from the US and UK flew in to
Santiago. In the first year, the Chilean government
found that they only had 10 percent local participa-
tion, but by the third year, the figure had risen to
33 percent. “When you get people from around the
world doing smart things, you’d be curious, and
you’d be inspired to get into the game as well,” she
adds. “They had that cultural revolution.”
In exactly one year after taking the helm at
MaGIC, Yeoh is now rolling out an accelerator
program that she calls a game-changer in South-
east Asia. Known as the MaGIC Accelerator Pro-
gram (MAP) and modeled after Start-Up Chile, it
is currently the only government-funded accelera-
tor program in Southeast Asia that will support the
growth of 50 early-stage start-ups with a potential
to expand on a wide scale, especially in Asean.
MAP, which will run from July through Novem-
ber, has already received a few hundred applica-
tions since April 1, and is open to entrepreneurs
from anywhere; but Yeoh stresses that 40 out of
the 50 start-ups will have an Asean focus. “The
good part about Southeast Asia is that it has 600
million people, and it’s still a white space. A lot of
products are not there yet,” Yeoh says. “There’s a
lot of opportunity, and once entrepreneurs capture
those markets, it’s very defensible. It’s not easy for
someone to come in and expand, and you have to
have regional contacts, the sensitivities and the
knowledge on how to tweak that.”
One of the more common criticisms
about Malaysia’s ecosystem is that it loses out in
visibility. “The Singapore government markets
themselves a lot, but Malaysia actually has more
top regional Internet companies based here,” says
Patrick Grove of Catcha Media. Four out of the top
five start-ups in Southeast Asia—Jobstreet, iCar,
iProperty and MyEG—are Malaysian start-ups.
“But there is so much more we can do to market
Malaysia,” Grove stresses. Recognising this as a
stumbling block to Malaysia’s potential as a start-
up hub, Yeoh and her team also designated one of
the goals of MAP is to build a critical mass of start-
ups that investors could get enthusiastic about.
“Prior to MaGIC, even I didn’t know where to
go to find them,” says Yeoh, an entrepreneur her-
self. In a typical co-working space, people usually
rent a space and work in private until it’s time to
go home. There wasn’t a co-working space that fo-
cused on building a “cohort-driven” mentality. “It’s
so lonely and hard to be an entrepreneur; nobody
understands your problems,” Yeoh adds. Putting
like-minded people in one room gives them peer
support and a network. “It doesn’t feel like they’re
just in their room or in Starbucks, hacking away.”
At MaGIC’s co-working space, there is a commu-
nity manager who oversees the space.
Soon, perhaps, private start-up spaces might
catch on to the community-driven mentality as
well. At the Hideout, a co-working space at One
Tech Park, an MSC-approved building in Bandar
Utama, there are roughly eight start-ups in the
space. Hideout’s manager Erik Gan says that they
don’t take freelancers—every company is a regu-
lar with designated work desks. While everyone
there works quietly at their laptops most of the
time, founders can share ideas and resources—and
if they get to know one another well enough, they
could even collaborate on new ventures. Hideout
is very industrial in its look and feel, with bare ce-
ment floors, open-plan Ikea desks, exposed ceil-
ings and glass-enclosed conference rooms. It’s the
type of hip workspace that you’d expect a start-up
to set up shop in.
But the types of companies and per-
sonalities in the space bring a range of expe-
riences that give insight into what attracts them
to Malaysia’s start-up scene, and what they see as
challenges in the ecosystem. One of them is Hajime
Hirose, co-founder of Buzz Element, a proxim-
ity marketing platform that recommends person-
alised merchant deals to nearby shoppers. Hirose,
who is originally from Tokyo, had planned to set up
shop in Singapore. “I was pretty sold on the idea
of moving to Singapore,” Hirose says. But then, he
visited Kuala Lumpur for one day. “I guess it was
the chemistry, that I thought Malaysia was better.
For an entrepreneur, we thrive in an environment
with more chaos,” Hirose adds with a laugh. Kuala
Lumpur, according to him, has a good balance of
English-speaking residents, education options
and lower living costs. Hirose doesn’t even mind
that Malaysia’s 4G network isn’t great. “As long as
I’m at home or in my co-working space, I’m okay.”
Hirose’s biggest challenge is manpower. “Hiring
is difficult, especially for positions with specific
skills, like developers and social media marketers.”
Hirose would prefer not to hire someone to do
the job remotely, as Buzz Element is still an early-
stage start-up. With things changing constantly, he
needs his team to be there physically.
Other founders, though, are more liberal about
telecommuting employees. “I do have a preference
for them being here, but it’s not a deal-breaker,”
says Chin Xin-Ci, founder of WatchOverMe, a per-
sonal safety app. Chin currently retains a former
intern based in the US due to her experience with
paid acquisition. “It’s really hard to find someone
here who can manage USD20,000 budgets for ad-
words, Facebook ads and media buying, especially
for performance-based marketing.” Chin observes
that, though the shortage of performance-based
marketers is systemic in other ecosystems, devel-
opers—though they are in shortage—are slightly
easier to find.
In an attempt to address the shortage, MaGIC
partnered with Code Division, a nine-week boot
camp that trains people with no prior coding back-
ground to become world-class junior software de-
velopers. Taught by Josh Teng, the founder of Code
Division, students at the boot camp are given cod-
ing challenges to solve, increasing their knowledge
of web development as they work through each
challenge. Teng says 40 students have undergone
his coding boot camp, and they plan to train anoth-
er 100 students this year, partly to “help solve some
of the talent shortage problems faced by start-ups
trying to grow faster”. Currently, the boot camp
costs RM 9,000 per student, with RM 8,000 offset
by a scholarship from MaGIC. Yeoh points out that
similar programs in America cost USD10,000, but
she doesn’t intend for MaGIC to continue subsidis-
Photographs produced by ImageRom.
ing low rates for such services—be it boot camps or
workshops—to avoid creating a scenario of overde-
pendence on government financing.
“Things would not be sustainable if you keep re-
lying on government support,” Yeoh says. For the
first few years in operation, Yeoh believes that they
need to show value to the community. With devel-
opers, subsidising their training helps people un-
derstand why they are so valuable and in such high
demand. But over time, when a proven track record
has been established, Yeoh sees that all funding will
need to be reduced. The idea is not to spoon feed,
but to supplement other grant-giving organisations
through education and exposure to successful men-
tors and other ecosystems around the world. With
the accelerator program, Yeoh believes that, after
a few batches, investors will come to see Malaysia
as a destination with “really good entrepreneurs”.
Yeoh encourages anyone from any in-
dustry with a very good idea for how to innovate to
try out their ideas. “Another challenge is that people
think MaGIC is very niche, but, no, we’re not just fo-
cused on tech companies.” She brings up MyTeksi as
an example: “They’re not a tech company—they’re a
transportation company that is using innovation to
change their business model for how they charge
taxis. They’re getting rid of call centres and making
it safer for people. Everything these days is actually
tech. Everyone carries a mini computer these days,
and if you’re a brick and mortar business without e-
commerce, you’ll be left behind.”
Hajime Hirose
Co-founder of Buzz Element.
“Huge companies are
made not because
the government is
doing things right;
they’re made in spite
of the government
doing things wrong.
At the end of the day,
it’s about Malaysians
themselves getting off
their ass and getting
s**t done.”
—Khailee Ng
“The good part about
Southeast Asia is that
it has 600 million
people, and it’s still a
white space. A lot of
products are not there
yet. There’s a lot of
opportunity, and once
entrepreneurs capture
those markets, it’s very
defensible. It’s not
easy for someone to
come in and expand,
and you have to have
regional contacts, the
sensitivities and the
knowledge on how to
tweak that.”
—Cheryl Yeoh
“I was pretty sold
on the idea of mov-
ing to Singapore.
[But] I guess it was
the chemistry, that I
thought Malaysia was
better. For an entrepre-
neur, we thrive in an
environment with
more chaos.”
—Hajime Hirose
Right
Chin Xin-Ci, founder of
WatchOverMe, and
Alla Berdnikova, head of
growth, work in a relaxed
space at the Hideout.
Erik Gan (right)
and a cohort take
a break at the
Hideout.
Opposite page,
top to bottom
MaGIC’s headquarters
in Cyberjaya; the future
space of the MAP
programme.

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