Melvin

Poh
Melvin Poh

• 28 years old, Malaysian but live in UK

• Founder of The Asian Entrepreneur
• a private equity investor
• received his education at University of Cambridge,
Imperial College London and Harvard University
• At age 27, he’s featured in Forbes 30 Under 30
2019, an annual list highlighting 30 of the top
global entrepreneurs under the age of 30 list for
Asia in Media, Marketing and Advertising
5 Characteristics from Melvin

Hardworking

Creative Teamwork

The courage
Rationalism to accept
failure
The story of Melvin

However,
pursuing his
A barrister
“Asian dream” He had been Unfortunately,
specialising in
wasn’t easy and offered an Having done their business
corporate
The Asian investment their research on still failed in the
finance, mergers
a Malaysian by He never really Entrepreneur opportunity by a the market from end because
and acquisitions
birth, but mostly lived in Asia was founded as a close friend to existing those resources
7 years ago,
in the United before he start result of a launch a resources, they’d weren’t accurate
Melvin decided
Kingdom his business personal and seemingly thought that and relevant
to quit his
painful failure of lucrative they were good enough to the
profession after
Melvin’s where business in Hong to go. Hong Kong
a personal
he lost a large Kong. market.
identity crisis.
sum of personal
savings.
 A global knowledge-crowdsourcing platform and publishing house
that produces educational content on global Asian
entrepreneurship.

What is The Dedicated to facilitating greater access to knowledge and insights

on business in Asia.

Asian
Entrepreneu
r?
Currently reaches 20 countries and has an aggregate network of
650 writers globally.

Actively worked with various governments, private equity

investors and stakeholders around the region on facilitating the
growth of the start-up ecosystem through education, community
building and various other initiatives such as investment sourcing.
Learning from failure
Melvin realised one things after
that.
When it came to approaching the
Noticing a lack of effective access to
region, practical and personal
knowledge gained from speaking to
people and learning from their
insights was the way to go.
- Asia wasn’t as homogenous as Doing so would mean overlooking
often portrayed. Different Asian their idiosyncrasies and getting an
markets worked in different ways inaccurate understanding of the
and couldn’t be lumped together. Asian region as a whole.
The Asian Entrepreneur was then
founded with the goal of creating an
accessible knowledge resource
the above, Melvin took it upon
where people from all over the
himself to fill in the existing
globe could access and gain
knowledge gap.
practical insights from the collective
of individuals based in Asia.
Focus for success
“At its core, I would say the key vertical we’re in is media,” Melvin said of The Asian
Entrepreneur, “However, we are slightly different from other media companies.”
Melvin likened the platform to Wikipedia as an ever-growing knowledge platform with
practical relevance, but with the content integrity of an academic journal.
Other verticals they’re involved in are: investment sourcing and consulting, publishing
and community building.
They're currently working with notable Western publishers to produce book on
entrepreneurship from writers in Asia, many of whom are sourced from their network.
As of 2018, they’ve raised USD$4 million in funding and launched a subsidiary
publishing company.
 The Asian Entrepreneur started out with only 10 members as a
traditional print publication in the United States.

After realising that scaling the business as a traditional print

publication would have been incredibly capital intensive, they
changed their business model.

Understan In changing it, their editorial structure shifted and they now

ding when crowdsource knowledge instead of writing it themselves.

change is Not only did this introduce diversity to the platform’s content, they
also enabled the team to focus on editing and ensuring that the

necessary quality of knowledge resources remains consistent.

The platform is now able to produce content much faster while

capturing popular themes and prevailing interests in the region at any
given time.

Today, they have a team of 30 members who oversee a network of

over 650 writers from more than 15 countries.
What he wishes he knew sooner

• A mistake of his that Melvin pointed out sounded contradictory to common advice was getting too involved
with his start-up.
• “I quickly found myself working relentless hours which was psychologically and personally unsustainable,”
he said.
• In the beginning, he was the single driving force behind The Asian Entrepreneur. “Today, in absolute
contrast, our organisation is driven by people leadership and structures.”
• To him, people leadership means imparting your vision and being clear with your and your team’s roles.
• “Trust your team and allow them to develop into key players in your organisation,” he advised.
• Melvin also had to unlearn the idea that “you should only stick to your competence or what you know”.
• It’s important to keep our minds open to new ideas as these are where opportunities present themselves.
Advice from an established
entrepreneur to aspiring
ones
• Critical consideration of the financial model of your business is important because it is the bedrock of
operations and scaling potential, said Melvin.
• Entrepreneurs are often encouraged to just go for that idea that they have regardless of whether or
not it’s sustainable.
• Melvin doesn’t agree with that, saying instead that “we need to be strategic and calculative in our
approach to minimize failure.”
• Simple market research at the beginning is not enough to succeed; it has to be an ongoing effort of
actively educating oneself to make the most informed decisions.
The End