How giving up in finance industry made his company a leading creative e-learning in Malaysia

As time stands still, I desperately wait for the clock to hit 6 PM. And even though I do not entirely know what I want at that moment, one thing I’m sure of is that I do not want this. Sometimes, it’s not all about knowing what you want, but knowing what you don’t want is also a way of life. Being in the finance industry wasn’t something I wanted, but just like many of us that we struggle with too, we completed a degree in this course and now we have no choice but to get our life together.

With so little that I had, I decided to risk it all for once. Back in 2017, I had only RM3000 in my pocket and zero knowledge about online marketing, and that is really all I had. I got out of the finance industry and started CRAFTLa just like that. Many asked me, so why did I choose creative e-learning? This idea didn’t happen overnight but has been baked, designed, and custom-made in many ways! In the beginning, I was just selling products from local craftsmen. In the initial stages, of course, the results weren’t banging on my front door asking me for collaboration nor even welcoming results. I went door to door, phone call after phone call to seek collaborations with local craftsmen. So, I proved my sincerity by purchasing 100 dolls from one of the craftsmen that I bought with almost all of my capital. And in 2 weeks, I’ve sold all of them with each unit for RM69! With the help of my mentor, the founder of TagLa, he has assisted me in branding strategy, copywriting, photography, and so on.

Only to build CRAFTLa to where it is now. It started with selling products, but I soon realised there was a greater potential when it comes to education and online. There were already a lot of platforms like this in the overseas market, but I realised that there was not much news and hype about e-learning, especially workshops and courses to cater for those that were out of curricular. I held on to the opportunity and sought for more local artisans to collaborate with and at that time, I thought to myself, “slowly but surely”. To my surprise, online workshops and courses were such an amazing encounter and opportunity! When we launched one of the first few courses online, people were connecting with each other and sharing the same passion that magically leads them to a beautiful relationship and friendship intertwined together. It wasn’t about the big bucks after that, it was about seeing people finding sparks with one another despite they were total strangers to start with. We do realise that the local market’s confidence and acceptance towards creative e-learning is still not strong enough, but with the statistics, numbers and data we have in these recent years, we are confident that it will grow and glow.

In order to develop and build CRAFTLa to the next level, I knew one man could not achieve much in the long run, and finding suitable people to partner with along the way was a key and will always be the key. I met our current CTO, Terence at one of the MaGIC events back in 2018, and from one conversation leading to another, we knew CRAFTLa were bound to do something greater than it is now. Let’s be frank, with all the successes we dream about, all the shining moments that are in our heads, sometimes, it does take a toll. One battle after another, just as you thought the waves are finally done hitting, another wave comes crashing in again. From the beginning until now, I have heard many voices of the impossible. People tell me that things aren’t going to work, until seeing some of my milestones, yet people will always have something to say. While there are still a lot of rocky paths, we are thankful and grateful to be a part of MaGIC, where we learnt the art of business and entrepreneurship and connecting with people who share the same value with us.

We are still relatively small, but one thing I’m excited for is the progress we make each day with one another to elevate CRAFTLa. And I’ve always believed that with the right bunch, our dreams will one day come to reality. As we aim to be one of the largest creative e-learning platforms in Southeast Asia in the next couple of years. And with that, we are working on projects that are able to cater to a larger market. For example, providing multilanguage, widening our courses and workshops categories, and engaging with more experts in different fields. And being in MaGIC definitely has helped us to grow better and stronger in times to come.  

This content is provided by Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC).