The successful global community from Silicon Valley finally lands in Malaysia, hosting its first event in Kuala Lumpur on March 20th
Back to a day in 2010, Derek Andersen - founder of Startup Grind - walked back home wondering if he wasn’t wasting his time with this Startup Grind idea. Why did he, still, kept going with it?
We can’t tell why, but we're glad he didn't quit. 2 years later, Derek leads a global network that gathered over 25k people to local events run by 80 chapters around the world. In its 3rd year, the community expects growing to new chapters and we’re glad to announce that Kuala Lumpur is one of those! This will be the first time the Startup Grind happens in Malaysia.
On it’s first event on March 20th, we’ll be glad to count on the presence of Khailee Ng, one of the most young and eminent entrepreneurs in Malaysia, who's currently a Venture Partner at 500 Startups - responsible for the whole Southeast Asia. Before, he founded companies like Groupsmore (acquired by Groupon) and SAYS.com (acquired by Catcha Group).
The event will be held at the awesome new space opened by Khailee and its partners, The Canvas Engine Room.
A thriving community
Startup Grind aims to inspire, connect and educate entrepreneurs at global level, by organizing monthly meetups where relevant characters from the entrepreneurial world share their experiences with the audience in an unique fireside chat.
The more spontaneous the conversation is, the better to really get to know the speakers, as well as what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.
Once a year, startup Grind organizes a Global Event in Mountain View. Over 1000 people attended the last one this February 3-5, building connections and getting inspired by the biggest names of entrepreneurship in North America, from outstanding founders to VCs, Accelerators representatives, and big companies who support entrepreneurs, such as Google for Entrepreneurs and Microsoft Bizpark.
Great characters such as Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn Co-Founder), Ben Horowitz (Andressen Horowitz), Steve Blank (4 Steps to Epiphany), Dave McClure (500 Startups), Ben Silbermann (Pinterest) and Jessica Livingstone (Y Combinator) were already on the stage at the Startup Grind.
The success formula: get some smart people into a garage
The Startup Grind secret formula could be resumed to 3 simple ingredients:
- A strong purpose and values behind it,
- A very simple and replicable model
- High level of empowerment and commitment to each of its directors all around the world.
“Get a group of smart people in a room at see what happens” - this is what Derek would say. That could explain the reason why in only 2 years the community could grow so rapidly in different parts of the world, with no bit investments nor a complex strategic plan.
Collaboration is in the core of Startup Grind community and it has been surely setting the bases for what it has become today.
If you want to know more about the Startup Grind, drop us a message to Lais at lais@startupgrind.com.