BY SAMIRA RASUL
A special dialogue session was hosted by the Research Management & Innovation Complex, University of Malaya recently.
The speaker, Rekha Pai Kamath, is a well-recognised name in the area of mentoring emerging entrepreneurs with more than 15 years of experience, working in the Silicone Valley of the United States.
[ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ]Her usual focus is on her passion which is social entrepreneurship, angel investing, incubating start-ups and mentorship in general.
The event was a collaboration between University of Malaya Centre for Innovation & Commercialisation (UMCIC), the Girls in Tech Malaysia and the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
Rekha spoke on the subject of “Productilisation and Commercialisation”, motivating Malaysian entrepreneurs to ramp up and bring more value to society.
Her talk was followed by a workshop conducted by her in iLabs, Sunway.
Prof Dr Rofina Yasmin Othman, director of UMCIC, started the session on a positive note saying: “The aim is to bring passionate young entrepreneurs a notch higher.
It is all about the passion and how you pace the ecosystem.”
Later in the workshop, Rekha also touched on the ecosystem of emerging entrepreneurs which can be a great influence on managing their mind shift.
She said among Malaysian students she sees the trend to have more ideas on consumer apps but not on enterprises.
She also focused on considering different aspects of launching a start-up and all the possible opportunities that are wide open for the young people to grab.
Nadira Yusoff, managing director of Girls in Tech emphasised: “If you think that companies are not accepting research projects than you are wrong. Right now, there are many companies who are willing to invest in start-ups.”
Rekha said: “Information is everywhere. We have a lot of data and it lowers the cost of complementary technologies. It is important to look for these and find a correct partner.”
Rekha thinks that the big challenge in Malaysia is that the industry is more conservative to accept new technology.
“They are looking for consumer-ready products rather than putting the time in minimum value products.”
To overcome this, she says it is wiser to reach out to the intensive tech-based companies who are looking for research projects and are investing in researchers and university students.
According to Rekha, students from science background can team up with students from various disciplines to form a versatile team.
“An idea is as good as the product. It gets back to validation. We need that kind of drive to go and pitch our idea,” she said.
She emphasised that it is important to have value-added products to attract investors.
When it comes to pitching the idea, Rekha says there can be two approaches.
One is to look for deep tech companies to invest in your project and the other idea is to team up with other like-minded entrepreneurs.
[/ihc-hide-content]
