Be ready when opportunity knocks

MaGIC was initially unveiled by Datuk Seri Najib Razak at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2013 (GES) in Kuala Lumpur. In the past week alone, MaGIC signed two memorandums with Stanford University and UP Global respectively, a significant collaboration to accelerate the growth of the Malaysian entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country.

To help you understand the larger context, we have to backtrack to 2011, when “Startup America” a White House initiative was formed in response to President Obama’s call to celebrate, inspire, and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the United States.

In May 2013, Startup America Partnership and Startup Weekend joined forces to assist entrepreneurs in the United States and abroad. Startup Weekend is a 54-hour event where developers, designers, marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts share ideas, form teams, build products and launch startups. The two organizations merged and formed what we now know as UP Global, an organisation that connects startup communities around the world and gives entrepreneurs access to programs and resources.

As MaGIC and the Malaysian startup community work even closer with fellow entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley and beyond, there couldn't be a better time for Malaysians to open up to the culture of ’building things’ and ’creating solutions’ that the startup community widely embrace.

This brings me to the story of the day.

This is a story about how I got to learn about startups and entrepreneurship through a group of “forward thinking” people in Malaysia and Silicon Valley; about how I came across an opportunity, which helped set my course for what will became my first trip to the innovation powerhouse in the United States of America.

February 23, 2012 was just another Thursday in office.

I was sorting out the production requirements for “Gadget Nation”, a technology magazine TV show I started in late 2010, when a particular e-mail caught my attention.

It was an e-mail by Mr. Azam Noor Shairi, currently the Managing Editor for AWANI Digital division, with the subject 'US TV Coop project 2012 - call for proposals'.

It was then that I knew about an ongoing TV Cooperative program supported by the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Broadcast Services in Washington D.C. The program provides opportunities for TV stations around the world to compete for a chance to send a producer and production crew to the United States to produce original documentaries and news features.

This opportunity came just months after the first “Silicon Valley Comes to Malaysia” that was held in late 2011 organised by StartupMalaysia.org, an event which not only ignited my curiosity about the startup culture in Silicon Valley but also granted me valuable friendships with some of the featured speakers at the event.

In the months that followed, I familiarised myself with terms like “startups”, “venture capital”, “Series A” and later “Ruby on Rails” and “JavaScript”. My fascination for Silicon Valley and entrepreneurship grew. I started to read and follow tweets of notable entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and tech journalists. I started to feature some of the local startup events and initiatives in 'Gadget Nation'.

So when the e-mail about the TV Cooperative program came to my inbox, I saw it as an opportunity to perhaps produce a documentary about Silicon Valley. Immediately I jotted down a note to myself: “Silicon Valley - Tech Hub Role Model for the World; Documentaries with the tech gurus”. That was the angle I intended to work on, and started to set the wheels in motion.

After several back and forth e-mails and discussions, I had my proposal ready within weeks. It was going to be a documentary about Malaysians in Silicon Valley. The documentary will tell the story about the entrepreneurial culture that embrace diversity and failures, that nurture, encourage and value creativity and risk taking, and how this culture influenced the startup mentality of Malaysians and their friends who relocate to Silicon Valley to pursue their startup ideas.

I didn't give the proposal much thought after that - but my interest in uncovering and understanding the startup culture remained and continued to grow.

As 2012 went by, I produced two 30-minute documentaries about the startup communities in the Klang Valley and Singapore and in the process, enriched my understanding about entrepreneurship, and forged new friendships.

It wasn’t until mid 2013 that I received a call from the U.S. Embassy. My proposal had been chosen. I was going to embark on a journey of what would eventually become a 4 part series of “Life in the Valley: The Digital Gold Rush”.

To me, this documentary would not have been possible if not for the TV Cooperative program by the U.S. Department of State and the support of Astro AWANI’s leadership team. I am grateful that for the second time in my career - I have realised that having ideas alone is not enough (it was the same when I started 'Gadget Nation').

One has to take action, no matter how hard it may seem in the beginning.

I believe that if you really want something, you will be able to quickly connect the dots when the opportunity comes knocking.