 It’s been a long way since our founder, Mr. Earnpin Lee won the Venture 2002 business plan competition. Jointly organised by the Malaysian Institute of Management (MIM), the Mesdaq Market and McKinsey and Co. Malaysia, the competition drew more than 200 entries. Last week, The Edge Malaysia caught up with some of the finalists to see how they were doing, one of them was 1.com.my.
Initially, we all thought it was a great idea. Then we were short-listed and we went through some of the sessions with the VCs. We listened to what they had to say and some were things that we didn’t think about. Eventually, we realised that the idea was not practical because it would have been too expensive and difficult to implement,” says Lee
Lee did not proceed to implement the idea he and his friend Daniel first initiated. A true-blue entrepreneur, he laughingly confesses that he has never attended a job interview in his life. He knew early in life that he wanted to strike out on his own. Hence, he began taking on freelance web design projects during his university days, and saved up RM30,000 to set up 1.com.my in Dataran Prima immediately after graduation. Aside from that, he lined up projects that would keep him afloat for the first six months of setting up.
“When I first started, I was the only person in the 800 sq ft office with my desk and PC. For the six months or so, I worked, ate and slept in the office,” says Lee
Indeed, success never comes easy. His hardwork is paying off as the company now has a larger premise, and is running an electronic visa system which was designed from ground up for the Cambodian government. To date, feedback about the system has been very encouraging. Currently, 1.com.my is working on a new project that involves advertisement-space booking on all mediums, and is on the lookout for investors to fund the RM1 million project.
Reference: The Edge Malaysia, by Toh Mei Ling
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