Chu Tzu Ming has made a name for himself as a business expert among the current generation of entrepreneurs in Malaysia’s developing startup community. News of Chu’s pioneering endeavors was covered by Gabey Goh in a Digital News Asia article titled Digerati50: Quietly helping others in the ecosystem.
Chu Tzu Ming is a Co-Director and Mentor of the Kuala Lumpur Founder Institute.
Beginning his professional career as an analyst with leading management and technology consulting firms AT Kearney and Deloitte Consulting, Chu was involved in Oracle applications and databases. He has also spent time as a venture capitalist, having served as a director and partner at Netrove Partners, a regional venture capital and corporate finance advisory firm that provides critical capital and venture advisory services.
In addition to co-directing and mentoring the Kuala Lumpur Founder Institute where budding entrepreneurs create successful and sustaining companies, Chu’s day job is serving as the director of Persuasion Technologies, an online analytics services firm specialising in e-commerce. The company's main focus is developing new services and products, as well as constantly improving customers’ businesses.
I would probably have been a better venture capitalist if I tried founding and creating a business myself. The only thing I knew reasonably well that constituted any meaningful vertical or industry expertise was in internet and software.
So instead of doing something different like running a pub or a fancy cafe I just looked at doing something I already had a reasonable footing in.” - Chu Tzu Ming
For people looking to embark on the entrepreneurial journey for the first time, Chu stresses the importance of learning how to be self-sufficient and to rely less on others, citing how difficult it is for senior people to start their careers over when leaving a major company.
Usually most people forget about you after you have left the big brand. You become a ‘nobody,’ but that is okay because you build your own future and not dwell on past achievements. You will run out of money but that is really part of getting there.”
As for the best piece advice he's ever recieved, Chu looks to his late mother: "You can always make a good living, as long as you keep doing it better than the next guy."
