Start Up with Mentors
Three startups celebrated the end of their six-month mentoring journey with three partners from PwC Malaysia’s Assurance, Deals and Tax practice in a graduation ceremony on 27 November.
They were the first cohort of the PwC-MDEC Immersion programme, a two-way mentoring programme to immerse, exchange ideas and discover new paradigms for businesses in the digital world.
They are:
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Mark Koh, CEO and Co-founder, Supahands | paired with Yap Sau Shiung, Tax Partner
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Lennise Ng, CEO and Co-founder, Dropee; Aizat Rahim, COO and Co-founder, Dropee | paired with Yennie Tan, Deals Partner
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Jimmy How, Founder and CEO, Involve Asia | paired with Kelvin Lee, Assurance Partner
“We would like to congratulate the startups for completing this mentoring journey. The mentoring programme was an opportunity for the participants to build trust with each other, a fundamental for any learning experience, be it in the course of making business decisions or through knowledge-sharing initiatives like this. We plan to continue growing the conversation on trust with the startup community with the support of this inaugural Immersion programme in collaboration with MDEC.”
“As MDEC continue to build local champions, we are excited to work with PwC in supporting these promising companies. We see growth in these companies, they could potentially be Malaysia's unicorn someday. At every stage of any entrepreneurial journey, guidance and mentorship are important to keep progress consistent and steadfast. We hope that this programme gives impactful value to the startups.”
The highlight of the event was a fireside chat themed ‘Start Up with Mentors’ moderated by Freda Liu, Producer and Presenter at BFM 89.9.
Part of PwC’s Building Trust programme, the fireside chat expands on our earlier conversation with the startup community on the topic of trust.
Lennise and Mark shared their takeaways from the mentoring programme, and how trust played a role in allowing them to make the most of their experience. Rounding off the panel was Malek Ali, founder of BFM 89.9, who shared his perspective as a business leader and mentor of several entrepreneurship programmes.
The event was attended by various players from Malaysia’s entrepreneur ecosystem, including startups, scale-ups, and small and medium enterprises.
Friend-tors vs Mentors
Early on in the fireside chat, it was quickly established that mentors or ‘friend-tors’ can both be counted on to provide feedback.
While most of us know what mentors look like, friend-tors are people including colleagues, peers, friends, or even family members whose close relationship can create an environment of trust for startups.
Malek didn’t find his mentor until the age of 47. In the early days of his career, he relied more heavily on friend-tors.
“Mentorship is more of a one-way relationship. Friend-tors are more like peers that you exchange ideas with. I get so much energy from talking to my colleagues.”
