For Malaysian entrepreneurs, a chance to learn from Stanford’s brightest

Barack Obama’s visit to Malaysia early last year for the launch of the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) was an apt prelude to the many entrepreneurial partnerships that Malaysia and the US are undertaking. In particular, MaGIC sent a group of 32 entrepreneurs to Stanford last year as part of its e@Stanford program. This year, it will continue to partner with the world-renowned university with the launch of the Stanford Go2Market program, to be held at the center’s headquarters in Cyberjaya.

The week-long course – from March 15 to 20 – will be conducted by faculty members who teach the Stanford MBA program. Targeting pre-launch startups, the program will culminate in a pitching session where participants will present their ideas to a panel comprising of local, seasoned entrepreneurs and investors, as well as Stanford Graduate School of Business faculty members. Program director Han says that the line-up is not confirmed yet, but points out that local hero Mark Chang, CEO of Jobstreet, was part of the e@Stanford’s panel – presumably, the same standards will be upheld in this edition.

This program is one of three annual programs that MaGIC and Stanford agreed to partner on for a duration of three years. “While these two [e@Stanford and Stanford Go2Market] are targeting entrepreneurs and founders, there’s a third program that targets university faculty members, who will learn from Stanford on how to engage and increase students’ interest in entrepreneurship,” reveals Han.

Based on e@Stanford, Han feels that the partnership has been very beneficial for local startups so far and fully expects that Stanford Go2Market will be the same. “Quite a number of founders have successfully engaged individuals from the Valley as their mentors, including Stanford faculty members,” he says. “A couple of founders have also mentioned that they have since tweaked their business model and key tracking metrics based on what they have learned during the program.”

While e@Stanford only accepted Malaysian applicants, Stanford Go2Market will be setting aside 10 slots out of a total of 50 for entrepreneurs from ASEAN countries. The enrollment fee for successful applicants is MYR 150 (US$42), which does not include flight tickets.

See: This pre-accelerator wants to help nascent Malaysian startups cross the 1st hurdle