Basic HTML Version
28 | FireFlyz
STARTUP
Of course being in the Valley, the
need to network is as important. The
startups had the opportunity to meet the
“who’s who” in ecosystem. According
to MDeC officials, the startups met with
investors behind the rise of Waze and
PayPal. Mac Jake, founder of Repark
said he received several feedbacks from
the sessions arranged and personally had
gained experience and the know-how to
pitch better for his product.
Upon their return from Silicon Val-
ley, just like the earlier batches, the
startups have had the opportunity to
share their experiences by participating
in various roadshows and awareness
talks in the hope that the tips they shared
could change the life of other Malaysian
startups.
Currently, they are working on improv-
ing their products based on the input that
they received from their global mentors.
Some of the startups have generated
interest for investments or partnership
opportunities while the rest are using
the knowledge received and networks
established to take their products a step
further.
Malaysian startups get a taste of theValley’s relentless pace and emerging technology.
Global Linkages Programme Gives
Insight into Silicon Valley Culture
O
ver
the years, Malay-
sia’s startup ecosys-
temhas seen an influx
of tech entrepreneurs
with exciting and
innovative products.
To ensure startups
receive the right lift to develop and grow
their products, Multimedia Development
Corporation (MDeC) has introduced MSC
Malaysia Global Linkages Program.
The aim is to link startups to regional
and global ecosystems, in this case going
to Silicon Valley, in the United States.
Through this programme, the cream
of the crop of Malaysian startups have
been selected to participate to go beyond
borders to validate and expand their
products on a global scale.
In February 2015, another five startups
were selected to be immersed into the
Valley following the last batch back in
September last year. GetDoc, QSmart,
Petsodia, Hamele and Repark were in
the Valley for a two-week bootcamp
programme focussing on three main
pillars of immerse, learn and apply
As Silicon Valley is more of “a state
of the mind than a place”, the need to
understand the local culture and seize
the opportunity to network with fellow
startups from the Valley were crucial.
Understanding the culture expedites the
startups’ understanding in how things are
done and the extreme speed of execution
in the Valley. Clearly the startups needed
time to adjust to the cultural differences
and some did experience culture shock
the first week there.
Startups attending the MSC Malay-
sia Global Linkages Program, received
high-touch mentorship, coaching by
expert mentors of discipline related to
their ventures. Specific workshops were
conducted and startups were very appre-
ciative of obtaining one-on-one sessions
with tech giants such as IBM, Skout,
Paypal, Amazon and Twitter.
One of the startups favourite sessions
was with a gamification expert, Mario
Hager. “Gamification is basically about
making your UX (user experience) design
interesting by incorporating gaming ele-
ment … one of the well-known company
using gamification would be LinkedIn,”
said Alvin Chua from QSmart.