Successful Malaysian Entrepreneurs After University

1)  Timothy Tiah

If you’re an avid blogger or just a blog lover, you have probably heard of Nuffnang, which is the first Asia Pacific blog advertising company. Timothy is the one of the co-founders of this ad network. Nominated by Businessweek as one of the Top 25 young Asian entrepreneurs, he was also shortlisted for the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in December 2014. He took a BSc in Economics at University College London, planning to be an investment banker after graduating. However, Timothy and his partner decided to explore the unknown territory during their final year in university and started to venture into the blogging world. Seeing the opportunities there, he turned down a job offer from an investment bank upon graduation and started Nuffnang. Starting from a small office in Penang, they expanded to KL and Singapore. Their clients have also grown over the years, from the small companies at the start to big multinational brands like Nike, Nokia, MAS, and HUGO today.

2) Bryan Loo

The man that brought Chatime to Malaysia is none other than 27-year-old Bryan Lee. Growing up in Perlis, he first started to show signs of an entrepreneur at the age of 7. Good at drawing, he sold hand-drawn comics to his friends at RM 0.50 for extra pocket money. Eventually, Bryan grew up and studied biotechnology at Monash University in Melbourne. Initially, he stayed in Australia to work in sales. After 2 years, he felt it was not fulfilling enough and decided to quit and return to Malaysia. He wanted to start his own business and saw an opportunity in beverages. So he flew to Taiwan and approached all the top brands of milk tea but was rejected by each one citing lack of interest in Malaysia. Two weeks after flying back to Malaysia disappointed, chance led him to a Taiwanese friend who told him a brand he had never heard of before - Chatime. Bryan managed to contact the CEO and two months later, Bryan opened his first Chatime in Pavilion. It was the 10th of August 2010 and well the rest, as they say, is history. Chatime today has over 100 outlets all over Malaysia and it’s still expanding.

3) Dr Khoo Kien Ling

From scientist turned wedding planner, Dr Khoo is next on our list. Dr Khoo, who took the plunge to start her own wedding planning consultancy and school, left her cushy job as a researcher in the United Kingdom way back in 2008. Back then, after graduating from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, she stayed behind to do her Ph.D. “My results were good in school so my parents encouraged me to take up engineering, which was my basic degree. My supervisor commented that I was quite an organised person and suggested I pursue my Ph.D. So, I continued studying and enjoyed it,” she says. Dr Khoo then worked as a research associate for a year, but after being away from home for seven years, she opted to return to Malaysia and quickly got a job as a quality management representative which she continued for 3 years until she saw an online wedding planning portal by chance. She took a risk registering her own company, and after a year of study, quit her job and started operating Adamas Weddings, a wedding consulting firm. Today, she is a Certified Wedding Specialist and President of Weddings Beautiful Malaysia & Singapore and is also the Vice President of Malaysia Young Female Entrepreneur Network. She was also named one of the Top 30 Women on Business Success and Equality by SME Magazine.[You might be interested to read: Top 10 Best Paying Jobs in Malaysia]

4) Huen Su Yin

Construction and baking are things that are vastly different, yet share the same process of creating something. This is the story of 28-year-old Su Yin, who is the proud owner of four Delectable Treats outlets. While studying a Bachelor of Construction Management and Property from 2004-2007, at the University of New South Wales, she worked at restaurants to earn extra pocket money and eventually learnt how to bake. There, she started a blog to share her culinary adventures and garnered increasing attention when she began to sculpt cakes. Returning to Malaysia after completing her studies in engineering, she continued to bake and became certain of her future goals. Su Yin first started her baking business at the age of 23. As the only one doing the baking, she discovered that she could not make enough profit to cover costs due to the limited supply so she decided to take the risk by expanding her business. She also started to sell pastries, alongside cakes. After all her hard work and determination, she has four outlets in Malaysia today.

5) Ammar Zahar

Another successful young entrepreneur is Ammar Zahar, who during his third year in university in 2008 set up his own company, Ammar Zahar Internet Marketing. He first ventured into running his own business while pursuing a landscape architecture degree at Universiti Putra Malaysia. At the time, he sold information products to earn money to buy colour prints and paper as his family was unable to support him adequately in his finances. In 2012, he set up a venture called Jootawan to achieve the ambition to become a millionaire through selling information products. He strengthened the Jootawan brand through ventures into publishing business information products such as books and DVDs, monthly seminars and a free monthly Jootawan Magazine.