.commers Gone Space 1999
Once upon a time dot-com is an uber catchphrase synonimous with instant millionaires. Nowadays it is looked down as a period of crazy excess and irrational behaviours. Very few people want to be caught dead with a dot com tag on their name.
Have you wondered what happened to all those young entrepreneurs that embraced the dot com dream of 1999? It seemed that most of them have gone Space 1999 (to those young fellows, it’s the ultimate geek-cool TV series in the late 1970s) and disappered under the radar.
I happen to know a few of them here in KL. Let’s have a look what they’re doing now and how they fare from the Dot Com age.
Al Ishal is one of the poster boy of the dot com era. An interesting character, he’s still living the dot-com dream. Last I heard, he set up a company called Neuronet to develop nationwide WiFi network and has recently managed to snare a VC fund from Silicon Valley.
Phua started with a smallish e-commerce company in Jln Klang Lama and managed to get on the dot-com tail end and had the company listed in Singapore. Now entrenched in the corporate life, he has gone on to ‘real business’.
Fahmy run a company called Earthmedia that had its heyday during the early millenium ages. Whenever I bump into him nowadays, he is more excited to talk about his Salsa exploits and the occasional real-estate super deals.
The first dot com wave landed here in June 1997 when T Farith and his Skali gang launched multimillion dollar AltaVista search engine. That AltaVista is long gone but T Farith is still very much in the dot-com business with his data centre in UPM and the ‘enterprise solutions’ by Skali.
Together with Farith in TeAM (Technopreneurs Association of Malaysia) is Chris Chan who came back from USA in 1996 to start his startup with RM10,000 capital. That startup is now listed in Mesdaq as TMS - The Media Shoppe Bhd.
Mark hit the jackpot with his Jobstreet that is now a darling of Mesdaq. You can regularly see him featured in TV and newspapers.
Yours truly also invested in a startup company in 1997. Unfortunately that company didn’t reap the dot-com windfall but it is doing okay in its niche defense industry. But folks, do watch out for this 3-letter company - it’s coming out of its shell soon.
Do you know any personal ‘old’ dot-com warriors? Please do share with us and tell what they’re up to now.
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April 18th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
hey..very hostilelah you talked about my boss there –>Fahmy. Well he will laughing if he read this blog.Yeah dot comm days are over, I’m still remembered that golden years, lots of top brash IT hot-shots funded by ultra rich investor and you can find lots of young IT ages 19-27, drive sports car, hagging around with hot chick and setup an office with swimming pool (remember that lucky bustard company called Catha?).
I’m also have chances working with cronies-linked IT company back then in 1999 called by the name Aqilqisti Technology. What special about this company?hehe they secure a 27 millions worth of project from MAS just to solves the Millennium’s bugs aka Y2k. Yes..27 millions..Ringgit Malaysia…could you believe it? My Boss and his director spends the bloody money like water and pay me like SHIT!! Arghhh. What happen to my boss now? The last thing I’m here, he’s now searching for stable jobs just to get stable income to manage his 3 wives. hrmmm…kesian very the pitty
Now I’m 29 years old and still not rich, darm it! If I started earlier, now i will be in magazines & tv and rubbing shoulder with that Dr. Khairy Irfan so-called internet millionaire. Well too late now to regret.
So the conclusions,(drum rolls) you need to be in the 1999 with really-really good luck.
April 18th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
Welcome to the club sukral! Just one advise - never be bitter at other people’s success (however ludicrous they come about). Just work hard yourself and have faith that your day will come - some day. As the saying goes, those who laugh last, laugh best!
April 18th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
HEHE..no heart feelings, yup good advice from Taiko itself, millions appreciates and will keep it on my head… still work hard and waiting for my pursuit of happiness. Kachingg!! Nah…. for me it’s not about money it’s all because of self passions - hard to believe I’m still doing this IT business for 10 years and still got the believe & passion for it. Ash, it is very interesting subject you brought up and Kudos to you for bringing this up.
I meet Chris Chan (TMS) with Fahmy recently, we had fruitful conversations. I think the secrets of his successes are believed, focus and humble. Yeah, humble - you need this and it’s seems very hard to find people can eat their humble pie nowadays.
And who can forget Mr.Ash itself, the Malaysian Techpreneur that invented Malaysian own Youtube website by the name of Cyberjaya.tv long before Youtube. The Cyberjaya.tv was very inspired project where user can watch live streaming Internet TV programme via broadband. Too bad MiTV doesn’t look at your works; otherwise they will be hell success back then.
You are part of Malaysia internet baby boomer’s dude! Malaysian Internet Taiko Hall of Fame. But people says , one day a boy need to grow like a man, and same as Mr Ash going from IT to Brick and Mortal business, far more profitable in terms of investment .
Oh yea, may I remind you, I wrote this is not just kipas your backside hehehe.
August 2nd, 2007 at 11:35 pm
[…] my earlier post .commers Gone Space 1999, I wondered where have all the poster boys of the .com age in Malaysia has gone to. It was thus a […]