Catalysing Malaysia as the startup capital of Asia

On the road towards achieving the mission to catalyse Malaysia as the startup capital of Asia, MaGIC Startup Academy is established as a platform to equip entrepreneurs with the right skills and tools required to scale and stay competitive in the regional and global market.

Under the umbrella of the academy, MaGIC offers both full-time programs and weekly workshops to empower participants with knowledge and skills from leadership, wire framing of ideas, market validation to web development, programming and design.

With the right amount of support and guidance, Malaysian entrepreneurs have the capacity to build high growth and impactful companies on a regional and global scale. In August 2014, Business Insider ranked the largest listed tech companies in ASEAN, based on respective market capitalisation; out of the eight companies listed, six are from Malaysia, along with two Singaporean companies.

When it comes to high growth companies, enterprising Malaysians have repeatedly proven that building successful and scalable companies is indeed in our DNA.

With MaGIC in the lead, fast forward five years down the road as the startup ecosystem in Malaysia develops further, the country will soon witness more home-grown ‘entrepreneurial rock stars’ achieve beyond their potential, making headlines in the regional and international market.

MaGIC Startup Academy will be a great launch pad for existing and aspiring entrepreneurs. To provide an introduction to the academy, a five-day event “MaGIC Startup Academy Launch” from October 15 to 19, 2014 at MaGIC, Cyberjaya offers a condensed version of how the academy will contribute to the local startup community.

During the official launch ceremony, Secretary General of Treasury of the Ministry of Finance Tan Sri Dr. Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah, who is also the Chairman of MaGIC, highlighted that since the market potential for ASEAN is huge (over 600 million in population, a USD 1.2 trillion consumer market), Malaysian entrepreneurs have the opportunity to scale their companies and products at a regional scale.

He believes that ASEAN entrepreneurs, innovators and creators have the capacity to take innovation to the next level.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer of MaGIC, Cheryl Yeoh said in order to build great entrepreneurs who will help achieve MaGIC’s mission of making Malaysia the startup capital of Asia, they will have to go beyond just organising another conference that offers inspirational talks, but also create a platform which provides startup education and training, helping entrepreneurs develop skills and knowledge to solve real world problems.

MaGIC Startup Academy Launch presents opportunity for entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs to participate in beginning and advanced level workshops led by some of the most-experienced local and international domain experts, such as Neil Patel (Founder of Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics), Cezary Pietrzak (Founder of Cezary & Co and Growth Strategist), Randy Lubin (Consulting Entrepreneur), Malek Ali (Founder of BFM 89.9), Jocleyn Ling (Co-founder of The Design Gym), Azran Osman-Rani (CEO of Air Asia X), Vishen Lakhiani (Founder & CEO of Mindvalley) and more.

High Impact UX – key strategies and methods (Part 1) with Sajid Reshamwala (Lead Product Designer, Jut, Inc.) & Raphael D’Amico (Designer, Jawbone)

Advance Class 2 at MaGIC Startup Academy Launch’s Product Day

Advance Class 2: A deep dive into Business Models & Revenue Strategy with Randy Lubin (Consulting Entrepreneur)

Over the course of 5 days, participants will get to learn from some of the brightest in the community:

Day 1 - Product Day Participants will learn about developing their business model and gain insight into various aspects of product development such as product U/X, management, and techniques used.

Day 2 - Marketing Day Participants get to learn about product sales growth and marketing using proven tactics.

Day 3 - Investor Day Founders sharing their experiences on methods to raise funds, negotiating and structuring a deal, and the obstacles they have faced. There will be a Pitching Session during the latter part of the day.

Day 4 - Culture Day A series of workshops teaching participants how to make an awesome startup.

Day 5 - MSA Career Fair More than 70 startups are looking to hire driven and talented individuals at MSA Career Fair. MSA Career Fair is open to the public and focuses on connecting startups with entrepreneurially minded candidates looking for internship, part time, and full time job opportunities.

The five-day workshop-intensive event is organised less than a month after GREAT 2014, a gathering of rising entrepreneurs in Malaysia.