Entrepreneurship is all about learning from failures. Here are some of my past projects which I’ve done on a small-scale basis. Most of them are failures, but to me failures are just one step towards success.

1. MalaysiaContests.com

One of my interests in secondary school was winning contests on radio, TV, online, newspapers etc. My good friend, Bryan and I are somehow real masters at this game. We collected so many free stuff that we frequently compare who won the most and biggest prizes. We are on the constant lookout for more competitions to enter. One fine day, I decided to put all these research into a website hoping to attract some crowd and earn some advertising dollars. This project did not go on as I got bored compiling all the research.

2. 69Tribe.com

Trust me, there is nothing sexual in this website. Started out as a pet project by 4 of us in our Fifth Form class, we wanted this to be an exclusive youth tribe. 69 was just a ploy to attract some attention. As the saying goes, sex sells. We used this mantra to test how well this works if it is used as a marketing name. We tried our way with some guerrilla marketing in school. The school authorities did not take it so well. We received complaints through our parents to take down this website after we graduated – while we were all away in different states.

3. Mugger/Slacker T-shirts

In Singapore I found a niche market to tap into. Singapore’s public education system is extremely competitive and everyone is always taunting each other about being a mugger – a Singaporean slang for a person who studies a lot. I thought it would be a good opportunity to tap on this uniquely Singaporean saying. After my lower 6th Form exams, I decided to throw some cash where my mouth is and print these t-shirts. The t-shirts sold like hot cakes I had to do a reprint. This venture taught me the power of word-of-mouth advertising and the strong influence of a brand ambassador.

4. I Love KL/I Love Eat & Sleep

After A-Levels, I collaborated with Bryan again on another t-shirt venture. Bryan had an I Love Eat & Sleep t-shirt design while we taught it would be cool to also print I Love KL t-shirts and sell them at a youth festival in KL. We taught it would be easy money, a brainless opportunity. Feeling confident, we ordered plenty of t-shirts to sell at a high margin. Alas, market sentiments affected us a lot. After a few hours, we realised we are going to lose a lot of money if we do not change our strategy. We slashed our prices and started approaching every passerby. By the end of two days, we managed to turn in a tidy profit but the lessons learnt from this venture was strong. We learnt that bazaar trading business is hard work. We also learnt big time that inventories can be a big cash-flow problem.

5. RedPimple.com, NonMugger.com and ApaKata.com

These websites are all started back-to-back during my 9 months break post-A-Levels. The lack of a proper plan led me to abandon all these websites.

6. SendBobToBerkeley.com

When I found out that I did not manage to win a scholarship from my preferred scholarship provider, I decided to start a fundraising round to obtain funds to pay for my international student university fees in University of California, Berkeley. The fundraising idea is to sell virtual real estate online for a certain amount of money. The website was featured on a major newspaper and was on track to be featured on another newspaper. Alas, I was offered a scholarship by a company to read Economics in University College London.

7. Summer Storage & Shipping Services

While studying in London, I found myself another niche. There is a lack of marketing initiatives by summer storage and shipping companies among the international student target market. Cutting a deal with a storage/shipping company and taking cue from the marketing strategies of nightclubs, I led a London-wide initiative to sell summer storage and shipping services. This had been a pretty good venture for us.

8. SexyFoodie

We created a food delivery service for students living in self-catered halls of residences. We created an affordable service for students so that it will be convenient for them to not cook effectively creating a ‘virtual canteen’ in halls.