moderating a panel on sports business

2017 SEA Games Business Summit - Entrepreneur Forum

Last Friday 11 August, I was given the privilege to moderate a session on entrepreneurship in conjunction with Junior Chamber International (JCI) Malaysia's 2017 SEA Games Business Summit. 

Held in Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC), the panel consisted of 3 entrepreneurs in the sports industry. They are:

1. Tan She Yong (Co-Founder, BiiB)
2. KG Chung (Co-Founder, Sportsplay)
3. Jin Tan (Co-Founder, Sportsplay)

We talked about opportunity in sports business. 

All three have digital apps that are revolutionising people do sports. Interestingly, all three were selected for MaGIC's Global Accelerator Program (GAP); they are the 5% selected from a highly competitive process that involved over 1,000 applications. 

She Yong, founder of BiiB started the app based on his experience as a runner. Running shouldn't be a lonely sport. It should involve the community as peer-to-peer interaction serves as a motivation to keep running and staying fit. He has a vision to create a running community across ASEAN. His app is free and he charges for joining teams online and to participate in challenges. He believes through running challenges on BiiB, he can attract more people to run. You can read She Yong's story at Vulcan Post. 

Jin and KG are co-founders of Sportsplay -- a mobile app that connects user interested in various sports. It matches individuals interested to join teams while enabling them to find sports venues with their vicinity. They have amassed over 10,000 users in a span of less than 1 year. Both co-founders attributed their success to always going down to the ground and speaking to the customers to improve their user's experience. Read their story also at Vulcan Post.

She Yong, Jin and KG had many interesting insights to share. Among them are:

• Entrepreneurship is about solving problems. Yes, it has risks but the rewards are worth it. Ultimately, entrepreneurs make people's lives better. 
• There are opportunities everywhere. You don't need to be an expert in this (sports) field. If you have the passion and drive, then, you should consider pursuing a business. You won't know everything on day 1 but you will learn along the way. 
• Going digital is key. ASEAN has among the highest and most active digital users. Leverage on our youth dividend (predominantly young population; 400m below 30 years old). 
• Whatever industry you're in, you can always find ways to improve it or better yet, disrupt it. It's up to you.

This event was also covered by state TV RTM. You can view their coverage here.