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My start-up (now dead) attended the first batch of the MaGIC's Global Accelerator program (GAP) by the Malaysian government in 2017. The talks were bad, the "me
by archibaldJ 7y ago
My start-up (now dead) attended the first batch of the MaGIC's Global Accelerator program (GAP) by the Malaysian government in 2017. The talks were bad, the "mentors" were useless and everything was extremely inefficient. Most of the founders who came only stayed for the first few days, realised the situation and dropped their interns for the free co-working space, and left. The whole program smelled like money laundering or nepotism at best. I thought it was satire when I read this headline.
Also, at least >70% of the start-ups in my cohort have died by now. Maybe one or two good ones exited (who were already doing really well before joining).
- dbcooper 7y agoVery interesting post. I was going to cynically ask if this was another 1MDB scam ...
- morningseagulls 7y agoI'm sorry to hear that. However, Malaysia isn't alone in doing this. A lot of governments are pumping money into developing their own startup scenes, and the article's mentioned the other ASEAN countries that have been doing that, Singapore being the most successful one so far. And Malaysia will have to do this eventually: they're just fashionably late and playing catch up. You can see with Grab how they lost what was supposed to be a home-grown business to Singapore. Governments everywhere are also seeing how a startup scene can create jobs and absorb the surplus of highly-educated people that universities everywhere are churning out.
- hitekker 7y agoAre you a Malaysian perchance?
- StreamBright 7y ago70% would be a great number. Usually 90%+ of startups fail.
- privateSFacct 7y agoIs this the follow-up to the 1MDB investment effort? The 1MDB investment program also had Malaysia step into the shoes of investors. What's weird about all of these is Malaysia is struggling with an austerity budget, has a fair bit of debt etc. I never fully understand these situations where things like pension funds borrow lots of money to invest in the market to make money. How can you borrow at one rate and earn a higher risk adjusted rate in an efficient market? I know a bunch of folks in middle east are getting into the Vision fund so I know it does happen, but just interesting. At least they have the actual excess cash.
- jnaina 7y agoHave dealt with a number of Malaysian Government groups, including MDEC, InvestKL and MaGIC, etc. The amount of incompetence, basic lack of follow through, and inefficiency are indeed breathtaking.