“I was 17 going on 18. I had started my own talent management company, broke even but because it was tough, I had to let it go…”

It came about when I realised the degree in music I was studying for was not something I want. My passion was always music but the degree taught me how to be a performer and not the business side. 

I was more curious of that (the business side). I thought why not explore to see if there is a potential growth in this market. 

The music industry doesn’t have much support from both private and government sector, which led alot of local talents moving overseas to gain popularity before coming back. 

With this little experience, I wasn’t ready to go into it. It was a struggle, so I went back to university, did my degree in commerce; but before that I sat down with my dad. 

He has a unconventional parenting method of his own, something that I’d pass on to my own kid. He said: ‘you’re smart I know you’ll get it but let me count the cost in funding your degree and all that extra cost of accommodation and cost of living. 

You see this amount here – RM300,000 to RM500,000. What if I take that money, give it to you to start your own business and you don’t need to go to university?’

I was 19, failed my first business, lost my footing for the longest period of time. I knew I need to be in an environment to gain my footing again. My response to him was to get a higher education. 

My dad asked me why do I wanna study commerce and why do I wanna go to university, but I knew this is the right one for me. I need to share my experience with people my age. University was a good experience and a place for me to study. 

My main aim at that time was to work in an investment bank or go into management consulting. I was young, full of self-confidence and highly influenced by the people I stumbled into. 

I tried to pursue a career in consulting, worked six months of consulting in Australia and some work with a company in America. 

Then I attended a community event and my friend who worked in a local venture capital in Malaysia was introducing venture capital to the public. From that event, I met two ladies of whom one of them got me to work up consulting slides. 

This was where I started my exposure to the tech start up scene. I met a lot of entrepreneurs at this time. One thing led to another and three months before I graduated I got this random email from a person to be a launch manager for Yelp in Malaysia. 

I thought this was a good opportunity to come back to Malaysia, packed my things and moved back to KL. In my stunt to launch Yelp, I thought I could have my own team but I had to do everything my myself. 

My biggest challenge was learning to manage a huge number of people, including hiring and firing close to 300 people. It was an interesting experience, the pay was extremely good but I was tired, burnt out and had no weekends. 

Since I was back in Malaysia, I thought let me understand and get connected to the tech start up scene here. That was when I started working with Aizat at his then tech management company. In 12 months we networked with so many people, understood how the ecosystem is and the amount of innovation in place. 

I had also went back to my family business. I was figuring things out. I knew I was passionate with the tech space, digitalization and how innovation can help the economy. 

And that is how the idea for Dropee.com came about. 

We understood that FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) products move fast every single day. People keep thinking prices keep increasing but the fact is there are multiple layers and middlemen that are in the supply chain. 

These days with the internet you can know who is buying your products. 

There are many brand owners who doesn’t know this because the middlemen refuse to give the information to them. 

Today we are the one stop shop for inventories and have retailers from a small town pub all the way to four star hotels. What we sell is convenience and transparency in pricing. 

Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centrewas the someone from day one who can hook us up with the right investors or partners. They have been helpful in networking, connecting us to people within Malaysia, regionally and globally. 

I had grown up in a family of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship was sort of my second language. We believe in owning scalable and sustainable businesses. Scaling and we have that. 

We understand the trading industry quite well and I am confident we can make it into a profitable business”. 

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Lennise Ng is the Co-Founder of Dropee. She was recently awarded the ‘Founder of the Year’ Award at the ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards!

Humans of Kuala Lumpur is partnering withMalaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre(MaGIC) in featuring inspiring and impact-driven entrepreneurs, problem solvers and startups in their mission to solve Malaysia’s problems!

#HumansofMaGIC

Photostory by Christine Cheah
Edited by Mushamir Mustafa

Do you have a story? Let us know here: https://forms.gle/ht4HsvbxgSgcKS5h8

 

(This post was first published on October 25th 2018)

“When I was in high school, I was a naughty kid. I always find ways to get things done in the shortest period of time…”

“In my final year, and everyone sits for SPM, I made myself sick so that I can extend the papers to resit the exams.

After that happened, my dad kicked me out of my own house because he was so upset with me. I was not even 18 years old. So, I said, ‘ok, cool’ and I went to stay at my friend’s place.

It was only when I came back to the house, my mom opened the door for me and he told my mom not to. I realised he really meant it. I saw my sisters tearing up to help me, but my dad didn’t want to see me.

At that time, I was in UiTM. I had to struggle for a little then, working at 7-11 at night and selling ‘nasi lemak’ to my university mates to keep myself afloat. At that point of time, I realised how important studies are. I didn’t study when I was in high school, I’d copy someone or come up with my own thing and do barely enough just to make sure i pass.

If I could turn back time, I would appreciate studying because subjects such as history, accounting and Bahasa Malaysia could have made me learn faster with lesser mistakes. In business, if people did a mistake, you need to learn and think better, and do stuff differently to avoid that kind of mistake. People usually don’t see a value in reading and all these education including myself. Only when I realised that everyone is ahead of me, did I understand its importance.

After my diploma in UiTM, I found out that it wasn’t an easy thing to do for my dad when he kicked me out of the house. I reconciled with my dad after I graduated and made it up when I got a scholarship and went to Adelaide.

I wanted to make a come back so I did my whole degree in 2 and a half years instead of the usual 4 years. As I was finishing my business and finance degree in Australia, I worked there for about a year. After more than a year, I found out there are a lot more opportunities in Malaysia, especially in the financial sector. There were also not many players in the tech industry, as compared to the states.

I came back and opened my own tech investment fund, raised close to RM 2 million in less than 3 months. Back then I was working with Ashran (current CEO of MaGIC), and he was impressed. I went and looked at companies in the States where we could replicate in Malaysia, seeing if investors wanted it or not. We helped build 11 companies in that a year.

During that time, I met my other co-founder for Dropee. I came out of the company and we startedDropee.com from scratch.

And in that one year and nine months, we serviced 1,200 retailers and over 700 brands in the Klang Valley”.

______________________________________________

Aizat Rahim is the Co-Founder and COO of Dropee. 

Humans of Kuala Lumpur is partnering withMalaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre(MaGIC) in featuring inspiring and impact-driven entrepreneurs, problem solvers and startups in their mission to solve Malaysia’s problems!

#HumansofMaGIC

Photostory by Christine Cheah
Edited by Mushamir Mustafa

Do you have a story? Let us know here: https://forms.gle/ht4HsvbxgSgcKS5h8

 

(This post was first published on October 26th 2018)

Thanks to Ashraf Romli, one of the people whom we have interviewed and told his inspiring story of being an artist who is struggling with bipolar disorder, for telling his story in person here at Carcosa Seri Negara at the Humans of KL ‘Stories from Malaysia’ Photostory Exhibition !

And thank you so much for your artwork featuring us and DiverseCity as part of the Kuala Lumpur International Arts Festival and
for giving an inspiring talk about being an artist!

Do you have a story? Let us know here: https://forms.gle/ht4HsvbxgSgcKS5h8

 

“My dad passed away 2 years ago during my 3rd year in university. He has always been the biggest motivator in my studies and provided me with a lot of mental support and encouragement…”

“As a Johorean, dad used to fetch me back and fro to the bus station whenever I make the trip back to my university in KL. Soon after dad left us, I have got to learn to drive all the way from Johor to KL by myself on our family’s Kancil.

My life turned upside down after dad left us. For the remaining time in university, I was barely myself. I pretended to be happy and cheerful when deep down, I knew I was not. I almost gave up in my studies. But I persisted.

Looking for a job in my hometown was not easy either. It took me 7 interviews before I got a job offer as an accounting assistant in Senai. In fact, every time I was rejected from a job interview I felt like giving up. 

Instead, I decided to improve upon each rejection by rebuilding my CV and practicing prior to each interview. In between the interviews, my friend asked me to come back to KL for more opportunities. But as the eldest of 5 siblings in the family, I have to stay close to my grandma that is nearly 80 years old as well as my siblings that are still schooling. 

As an Economics graduate, people around me felt that I am not qualified for the job in accounting as I am not familiar with the accounting field. At times, I got scolded while trying to pick up the skills and techniques in this field. But I take this as a great opportunity to build my network and gain knowledge in this field. 

I find it fulfilling when I am able to help people in one way or another. Lately, I have been volunteering in an initiative by a friend in my hometown to provide support to the unemployed individuals and those who are from challenging family background.

For now, I have yet to know what I really want in life, but I aim to learn as much as I can from my job. One thing for sure, by 30, I will do the things that I truly enjoy doing in life.

In a few weeks time, I will be officially graduating from University of Malaya (UM), and I dedicate my jubah (graduation robe) to dad that will be watching me from the other side. I am sure dad will be proud of me.

– Humans of Kuala Lumpur

Photostory by Chin Yi Xuan
Edited by Mushamir Mustafa

Do you have a story? Let us know here: https://forms.gle/ht4HsvbxgSgcKS5h8

 

(This post was first published on October 25th 2018)

“Humans baffle me. We are the only species that goes to war and kill each other. It goes against the survival of a species…”

“Animals almost never kill their own species. Humans however, are so caught up with their social, geographical and political differences, that they fail to unite under a single species cause.

I am an ecologist, and I have always been interested in nature from a young age. Growing up in Sarawak, of Iban-Malay parentage, I was surrounded by beautiful tropical rainforest. My father and I used to trek in the jungle to find earthworms for fishing, but sadly, these rainforests are no longer there. 

To date, about 90{eb97150a49149dc6c9e8165e90f1c9129bb6172e02a598b4264a1fc329d7d5bc} of the Sarawak rainforests have been destroyed by logging for timber activities. We only have a few, still intact, virgin jungles.

I have been living in the deep Borneo jungles for the past seven months, conducting research on the sounds that frogs make.

I have been studying about frogs since 2012 when I did my Masters in Animal Ecology. I have never looked back since. 

I was offered a placement in Imperial College London to do my PhD in Ecology and Conservation, but I wasn’t able to secure funding. It was really frustrating when that happened, but now I’m working with Imperial College as a Research Assistant. 

Sometimes, I feel like our work in trying to save the jungles are pointless. We can try our very best to save the jungles, but if we are the only ones doing it, it won’t go very far. 

Humans and nature should coexist in an intimate way. Somehow, humans have managed to overpower nature and exploit it. At the end of the day, others will only care about making money and pursuing their own self interest. 

That’s the sad truth of human nature.”

Photostory by Amalina Davis
Edited by Mushamir Mustafa

Do you have a story? Let us know here: https://forms.gle/ht4HsvbxgSgcKS5h8

 

(This post was first published on October 12th 2018)

Hey all! This is Mushamir speaking. This is it, my team and I have put our best efforts in getting all these amazing speakers on board

This is our last weekend and I want to end it with a bang! It’s been a long, 1 month unique Photostory exhibition at Carcosa Seri Negara where Crazy Rich Asians the movie was shot) and it would mean a lot if you guys can make it and share this post on your profiles. I’m proud to see my baby Humans of Kuala Lumpur grow big and huge, since its first days when I was doing this solo when I was in university – just a lonely boy who wanted to meet new people and capture their interesting stories.

Come meet and greet these fellow speakers (and cats) whom Humans of Kuala Lumpur has featured before! Listen to their amazing, inspiring stories, get to know them and ask them your questions! This is our last weekend at Carcosa Seri Negara at theHumans of KL ‘Stories from Malaysia’ Photostory Exhibition with DiverseCity‘s International Arts Festival! 

List of speakers: 

Fahmi Fadzil – Engineer-performer-activist turned politician (MP for Lembah Pantai)

Fluffy Empire The Cat – Rides Motorcycles, Watches Movies, And Goes Wherever Afiq Shawan Goes

Roshan Thiran – Founder & CEO of Leaderonomics, Leadership Expert

Hannah Lo – Woman’s Wellness Advocate

Mushamir Mustafa – Founder and Storyteller at Humans of KL – Storytelling Workshop

Staci KY Tan – Young Cancer Survivor

Low Ngai Yuen – President of Kakiseni, Tech & Arts Advocate and Women’s Rights Activist

Jon Tham Nam San – Freelance caricature artist

See you all there!

 

Do you have a story? Let us know here: https://forms.gle/ht4HsvbxgSgcKS5h8

“When I was first announced as the winner of an international photography competition, I really thought someone was playing a prank on me.

I was an ordinary law student from Kota Bharu who loves photography. How could I have won one of the world’s most prestigious photography competition?

The announcement of the Hasselblad Masters Awards 2018 came to my email. So I looked at the name of the sender and quickly Google-d to check his identity, but I still had doubts. Only when my name and photographs was published on the Hasselblad website did I really believe that I had in fact won the under 21 category project! 

When I was in Form 2, I watched a documentary about Pete Souza, the official photographer for Barack Obama on National Geographic. There was a particular photo of President Obama in a black and white frame, and that spoke volume to me. I just sat there, on my family room sofa and kept staring at that frame. 

It was my father who then suggested that I try my hands on photography. A couple of days later, he bought me a small digital camera – which at the time was all we could afford; and he asked me to take pictures of our family, our friends and our home. That was my first venture with the lens and ‘that something’ that added fire to my passion for photography. 

A few years later, when I was in Form 4; I entered the very first photography competition of my life. It was organised by UNICEF and The Star, and the theme was ‘children’. So I sent a picture of my cousins playing by the sea side in Terengganu. 

To my surprise, I was picked as a finalist and my picture was published in The Star. Being picked as a finalist was the stimulus that pulled me deeper into photography and I realised that there is so much more I need to learn to excel in this field. 

Entering myself for the Hasselblad Masters Awards was just a lucky coincidence. I had just finished my SPM exams and had some free time on hand. Because I am quite an introvert, socialising is not big on my list and I turned to my camera. At that time, I had also sold my digital camera and bought a second hand DSLR camera. 

To play around with my ‘new’ camera and lens, I was hanging out with my friends at a taman (park) nearby. One day we came across an abandoned house. Feeling curious, we entered the house. 

On one wall there was a lot of graffiti. It gave out a mysterious hue bathed in the light that was streaming from a window. I had never played around with a natural light setting like this, so I asked my friend to be my model and pose. 

We tried to recreate a scene of a drug addict who was trying to escape from the world of substances and lust, but was pulled back into the vicious drug cycle again. That was my project which won me the Hasselblad Masters Awards.”

Photo and story by Nafisa Dahodwala
Edited by Christine Cheah
________________________________________

This story is written in collaboration with the Kuala Lumpur International Arts Festival 2018. Nabil Rosman is the official winner of the Hasselblad Masters Awards 2018 for photography project under age of 21. He will be flying to Germany at the end of the month to receive this honour. 

His work for KLIAF 2018 is entitled ‘Streets of KL’ and can be seen on digital billboards across the city.

Do you have a story? Let us know here: https://forms.gle/ht4HsvbxgSgcKS5h8

 

(This post was first published on October 21st 2018)

“We’re at the launch of the MagicalSouls book with the Youth and Sports Minister and Entrepreneurship Minister…”

“Compiling all the stories that Humans of Kuala Lumpur did with Malaysian Global Innovative and Creativity Center featuring inspiring Malaysian entrepreneurs! #HumansofMaGIC

We also wanted to thanks the CEO of MAGIC, and a close friend of mine, Ashran Ghazi, a happy birthday this very day! Thank you for this opportunity, and thank you to the MaGIC team as well! 

And most of all, big thanks to the team of storytellers and organizers for making this happen: Mushamir Mustafa, Amalina Davis, Yu Ping May, Samantha Siow, and Dao Hong in making this happen!

 

Do you have a story? Let us know here: https://forms.gle/ht4HsvbxgSgcKS5h8

“My mother was a rubber tapper from Penang and she met my Singaporean father in Johor Bahru, but my father passed away when I was in primary school…”

“So, in my early teens; I learned what it means to be independent because my mother wasn’t healthy and she is sometimes ‘emotionally disturbed’. I took up odd jobs, from wearing mascots to a lot of promoter jobs, ensuring that the my younger brother and mother has food on the table.

I was an ‘extreme’ student when it comes to result. I scored highly in science subjects but I was bad in language and subjects like history. Memorizing was not my strength, and so is language. For instance, I have lived in Kuala Lumpur for the last ten years but I still can’t speak Cantonese well! In Johor Bahru, we speak Mandarin because we watch Singaporean television programmes. 

Because I got the best marks in Chemistry, I decided to study Chemistry for my degree. University Malaya was my first choice. I got in with 3As and 1B from my STPM, and you can guess the B I got was Pengajian Am (General Knowledge). Then I was lucky to continue with my phD because i received first class honours for my degree. 

Again during my phD studies, I was looking to earn extra pocket money, so I tutored A-level Chemistry students. It was during this time I learned that tutors have to pay a high commission to agencies to get students. 

I thought, why not connect teachers and students on a platform without going through a third party human? I watched one hour of YouTube video and created a wordpress site, serving as a website to link teachers and students without an agency. The demand grew, with a focus on education and different types of lesson. Then I hired freelance developers to kickstart the development of the platform you see today – AOne. 

MaGIC taught me how to be an entrepreneur after my studies. The MaGIC Accelerator Program was intense and well-rounded, helping me to set the right track in my business. Fast-forward today, we have about 3,000 lesson providers in the span of two years. 

This year we launched a software aimed to ease the management of learning centres known as AOne School. We hope to reduce the paperwork and processes learning centres go through in keeping track of their students. 

If I could change something back in time, maybe, just a minor thought, I could have studied business instead of chemistry. However, this is after I knew I would be going into entrepreneurship, but I wouldn’t change anything major in my life because what has happened made me who I am today!”

_____________________________

Humans of Kuala Lumpur is partnering withMalaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre(MaGIC) in featuring inspiring and impact-driven entrepreneurs, problem-solvers and startups in their mission to solve Malaysia’s problems!
#HumansofMaGIC

Photostory by Christine Cheah

Do you have a story? Let us know here: https://forms.gle/ht4HsvbxgSgcKS5h8

 

(This post was first published on September 21st 2018)