Category Archives: MaGIC

Startup Academy – What Have We Learned?

Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) launched the much awaited MaGIC Startup Academy (MSA) in October 2014. An intensive 5-day event called MaGIC Startup Academy Launch was organized by MaGIC for the startup community.

The grand event was full of talks and workshops conducted from reputable speakers from around the world. It created much buzz in the local business community, including Pitch ‘n’ Win members.

As many of us could not attend the launch event for one reason or another, some members suggested we send representatives to the event instead. After a selection process, 2 members were chosen to represent Pitch ‘n’ Win in the event. Their expenses were paid for.

One of the representatives, Learnvenue co-founder Jerome Lee, gave back to the Pitch ‘n’ Win community by conducting a talk on the lessons learned from the various sessions in the event.

A sharing session by Jerome called Startup Academy – What Have We Learned? was organized on 6th December 2014 in Blac-n-Wyte, a startup accelerator in Putrajaya owned by Pitch ‘n’ Win organizer Wadud Mughal. However, only 9 of us managed to come out from Klang Valley to attend the weekend session.

Some members in Jerome's sharing session

Some members in Jerome’s sharing session

Despite the small turnout, the sharing went well for around 2 hours, which was obviously not enough to share what he had learned over 5 full days.

Nevertheless, Jerome shared well on various topics including an overview of startup ecosystem in Malaysia, what it means to be startup and a few other startup topics.

Many questions were raised during the sharing. Jerome answered all our questions based on what he knew and learned from MaGIC. Other members including Steason Tee, Karg Weng and Wadud Mughal also joined in to share our views near the end of the session.

In fact, Jerome has managed to summarize and cover less than half of what he wanted to share. Another follow-up session has been arranged near the end of December to finish what he would like to share.

Key Lessons

  • Event participants normally don’t go to the far-away places, except for good reason.
  • 2-hour session to share what was learned over 5 days seems not practical enough.

Startup Academy – What Have We Learned? – Photo album

1st Pitch ‘n’ Win Event in MaGIC

The first Pitch ‘n’ Win event in Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) in Cyberjaya was made possible thanks to the D.A.R.E. BizStart 2014 event organized by MAD Incubator.

Two demo sessions were organized to showcase Pitch ‘n’ Win as part of the grand event. The first session called Pitch ‘n’ Win @ MaGIC – More Than Just Pitching was organized on 26th November 2014. The Chinese session came on the next day.

Rani Wemel from MyMobileUni.com, who has been great supporter and organizer of Pitch ‘n’ Win since our inception, was given the honor to host the English session. She first welcomed everyone and introduced about Pitch ‘n’ Win.

Participants of one-hour sharing session

 Participants of one-hour sharing session

About 18 participants attended the 1-hour session. Everyone was given an opportunity to speak about himself or herself for up to 3 minutes. It was more than pitching. Everyone can share anything, from business to startup, from career to passion, in the stipulated time.

The event was gamified in that all of us chose the best 2 presenters among all who presented. Obviously most of us were curious about WeChat marketing and voted for KC Tan and Nick Albert Choo to elaborate more.

The host Rani also presented about herself and her online learning platform MyMobileUni.com. The event was closed by our founder Ricky Soo who elaborated on what Pitch ‘n’ Win is for.

Key Lessons

  • Collaboration with bigger players help bring more exposure.
  • It is indeed more than just pitching in Pitch ‘n’ Win. It’s about sharing anything about yourself.

Pitch ‘n’ Win @ MaGIC – More Than Just Pitching – Photo album