Don’t build a business to just capture Malaysia, says VC

Dan Lain-Lain (Malay for “and others”) is a weekly column by TIA journalist Emmanuel Samarathisa that dissects the goings-on in the Malaysia tech scene but with a heavy mix of current affairs, policy, and politics. Click here to read past articles.

We don’t usually hear about Malaysia’s so-called founders 2.0 – entrepreneurs with successful exits. I wanted to use the term “tech mafias” but then I’d be caught in the crosshairs of grammar gurus.

Scaleup Malaysia managing partner Tay Shan Li. / Pic credit: Tay Shan Li

This time around, I wanted to get in touch with someone successful but under the radar. So, after some digging and asking around, I connected with Tay Shan Li, a managing partner at Kuala Lumpur-based accelerator ScaleUp Malaysia.

After years in corporate finance and investment banking, Tay ventured into the startup world as co-founder of Baby Dash, an online platform for baby products. Her past accolades include working with PricewaterhouseCoopers and the CIMB banking group.

When Tay and Lavinie Thiruchelvam, her business partner and friend, launched Babydash in 2011, ecommerce was still a nascent sector in Malaysia. But the platform was able to grow, raising funds via equity crowdfunding at a time when the concept was still new here.

Tay exited Baby Dash in 2018 by relinquishing her stake in the company, and, in 2019, joined ScaleUp Malaysia, an accelerator that buys equity in startups while helping them, well, scale.

ScaleUp announced its first cohort in 2020 and will be announcing its fourth cohort soon, where it’ll invest up to US$100,000 in each of the 10 selected startups.

Here’s our short interview edited for brevity and clarity:

Why are we not seeing more founders reinvest in the scene?

Tay: I think most founders are not qualified as investment managers. So it’s mostly that, right? You could come back and reinvest as an angel and that would be mostly through the equity crowdfunding platforms that are available.

But a lot of that is you doing your own work, having to read up and find out about the companies and making your own decisions. So, I’m not sure whether the founders out there are comfortable – I am because of my background.

I would say put your money with someone who knows what to do with money.

Yeah, there are places you can invest in that will help invest your money for you. Of course, this has to be people that you believe in and you trust that they know how to grow your money. Founders can also invest in accelerators or VCs like us.