Awesome Programmer, Co-Founder wanted for Food Sharing App

Looking for a Awesome Programmer + Co-Founder

to develop an awesome food sharing app, and change the world together :)

I read somewhere that co-founder is not someone you can find (but earned), and this post sounds like a “Girlfriend or Wife wanted” ads, but I still believe there is a good reason and purpose behind it. I know it’s not easy to build a team that jelled, and most start-up would probably fail, but I still think it's worth pursuing since I can't shake the idea (start-up and co-founder) off my head. I choose the path to go far.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” - African Proverb. 

For starter, let's learn something together about Co-Founder and Partnership through the following wisdom:

• The Co-Founder Mythology
• Choosing A Minimally Viable Co-Founder
• Dear Co-Founder: Open Letter to your Co-Founder
• Co-founder or employee? 

What is Malaysia Most Wanted?
Malaysia Most Wanted started as a property website 6 years ago, and Food & Restaurant is the second product. We developed an event listing and a price checker, and almost went on to do travel website. Our current plan is to focus on Food; she serves as a restaurant review and directory site at the moment, but we plan to slowly transform her into a food sharing app. [some snippets]



Some statistics: Malaysia Most Wanted food is hovering around 250-300K unique visitors per month, almost clocking 1M page views with 8000+ restaurants listed coupled with almost 20K reviews. Arguably, we are the No.1 restaurant reviews website in Malaysia.

Cruel fact: we have no business model except some AdSense dollar. Why do it? There must be some values when 1 million people use our app to search for restaurants every month.

What’s our target? Double everything within a year: 600K unique visitors and 2M page views per month, 16,000 restaurants listed, and 40K reviews. With you on board, we hope to make some inroad for mobile app.

Who should apply?

• Motivated to do a tech start-up, and ready to take on the hardship and uncertainty of start-up.
• Like the idea of food review & sharing app; better than Yelp in terms of usability, something nearer to the domain of foodspotting. 
• A passionate programmer, enjoy hacking on iOS and Android, and perhaps Facebook development as well.
• Decent UI/UX/Design sub-skillsets: the app needs to be useful, creative and beautiful, right? 
• Expected to work on the product for at least 2 years (expected to achieve business sustainability), and probably extend up to 4 years (if you are looking for a greater exits). Vesting is expected.
• We can’t afford to payout salary, but pocket money is possible.
• We are looking for a co-founder, not an Engineering Bitch.
• Part-time? As long as you can churn out a MVP iOS product within 3 months, make it really cool within 6 months, and make sure it kick-ass within a year. Don’t forget about Android as well.
• Preferably staying around Puchong, Selangor; ease of meet up and communication is an important part of bonding.
• No CS degree required.
• No monetary investment required.
• Do not apply if you are looking for short-term monetary remuneration; or have personal cash-flow issue. 

Why choose Malaysia Most Wanted? 

• You believe in the idea, right?
• We have good traction, and possibly market leadership position.
• Our current product doesn't sucks too much, and determined to improve it further.
• Perhaps you might like me? I have been going from freelance to developing Malaysia Most Wanted for past 6 years, so I have a bit of experience and perseverance in doing startups.
• Making millions is still a possible dream, but we shouldn't knock our head against the wall if we don’t make it.
• The business should be able to sustain the co-founders plus expenditure within 2 years (even though we do not have a business model). 
• Perhaps it could help to understand why are we looking for a co-founder.
• Just in case you missed out, I'm a coder as well :)
• One more thing: to change the world together :) How people look for good food, and share them with  others, shall never be quite the same again.

How it works?
Start-up partnership is like a marriage and courtship, and we are not going to get married on the first date. We would need to know each other, understand each other, respect each other and eventually trust each other. We shall go hangout and yum cha, talk about start-up and technology, and start working with each other by starting in some small ways. Besides passion, work compatibility and culture fit is equally important, IMHO :) (how can we work together if I hate your guts, or you found me annoying).

Though it might not sounds like a "passionate" affair, do consider the following:

It is increasingly popular to have “founder dating” or “startup weekend hackathons” of some variety or the other. We get cast together with a team of people we barely know and if we win we gleefully announce we’re going to do a company together. We don’t even know whether they snore. – Mark Suster, Both Sides of the Table


Feel free to drop me an email (the worse thing can happens is that we end up as friends, not partner, but preferably both):
desmond [dot] lua (at) malaysiamostwanted [dot] com


Forrest Gump: My momma always said, "Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." 

It is time for a Malaysia Most Wanted Co-founder

It had been 3 months since Silicon Valley Comes 2 Malaysia, where during a discussion our team told Jawed Karim (co-founder of YouTube) that we are going to push through with Malaysia Most Wanted Food for another 3 months, before deciding on our future directions. After a few pitches and meet-ups, I think the general consensus is that we should be focused (preferably laser-focused); and I agree (we just don’t have enough resources in terms of time and money), thus I have leave the idea of Travelopy behind, cut down on Property, Event and Price, and focus on Malaysia Most Wanted Food. Why Food? It had gotten some good traction, an interesting market and plenty of ideas flushing out of my mind to make it better :)

After going fulltime on Malaysia Most Wanted for about 3 months, we manage to create a new UI for the entire site, keep track of restaurant promotions, allow restaurant search by map, fun ways to write reviews and do a monthly newsletter. I found that the progress is not quite up to par (could have more releases), the amount of work in the pipeline could easily take up another 6-12 months, and our mobile version (Android) haven’t quite got an update for almost a year (this is really bad). I have to accept the fact that the scope of work is beyond one person’s capability, and delaying for another 6 months to 1 year is not a good idea. I need a technical co-founder.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen, ca. 1980. Courtesy, Miller-Nagan Wealth Management Weblog
Source: High Tech History

Why not a business co-founder? I always imagine I would have a business/marketing co-founder, to complement the skills which I don’t have, inspired by the dream team of Steve Jobs/Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates/Paul Allen and Max Levchin/Peter Thiel. I notice an article which mentions that “MBA etc are actually worth -$250k to the valuation of a startup whereas an engineer is worth +$500k”. I am guessing unless we have a solid business model in place and ready to monetize, we don’t really need an MBA; I believe a business model is settled through iteration, trial and exploration, not from the magical light bulb of a business person.

Why a technical co-founder? I think the most valuable assets of a tech start-up are its early programmers, especially in the consumer Internet space. We need to create useful, creative and beautiful product to gain adoptions, and that is not an easy task (I am still learning and iterating), and we need awesome programmers to do that. I wish I could do everything, but it’s just not possible due to time constraint and probably not advisable as well. I could manage the web-based side pretty well nowadays, could probably delve into the mobile web version as well; but I need help on the mobile side, someone to do an iPhone app, Android and probably an Facebook app as well. It’s time to harness the power of two :)

Why not employ a programmer? First of all, I don’t have the money to pay for the programmer. I don’t believe we should subcontract our core products to freelancer as well, as it sounds suicidal. I could probably raise some angel money and use that to employ a programmer, but I would prefer to give the equity to the programmer instead and let him or her to part of the family. For a small start-up like us, I need someone who could be my equal (or better than me), take initiative to suggest new ideas and says, “let’s do this!”; I don’t really need someone who ask “What do you want me to do” at this critical stage in time. I believe the first employee, should be a co-founder.

Why do it now? I guess I am a bit paranoid about getting a “stranger” as partner because breakup is hard, it’s like afraid of marriage due to worrying about a bad divorce. Partnership is like marriage, so it’s a big decision for me. Friends of my age prefer security, that’s why I went ahead solo; I need to explore beyond my usual social group, meeting people I don’t usually hangout with. It might sounds risky, but I believe it’s the right thing to do. Another reason I didn’t try to get a co-founder in the early stage is that I don’t have the heart to ask my friend to quit his job and so something crazy with me, with no promise of success or money. Now, we are slightly better off with something viable in hand.

Picking a co-founder is your most important decision. It’s more important than your product, market, and investors.
The ideal founding team is two individuals, with a history of working together, of similar age and financial standing, with mutual respect. One is good at building products and the other is good at selling them (ops!). - Venture Hacks

Will you be my co-founder, so that we can change the world together?
Email me:
desmond [dot] lua (at) malaysiamostwanted com

PS: will do a courtship write-up next courtship write-up is ready :)

We painted the front door :)

the new flowery goodies

now this looks like Vintage

Make The Pitch Ep 2: Photo Kiddos, Malaysia Most Wanted and Worthy Book

Aizuddin from Photo Kiddos, a talented children photographer who wanted to setup a photography studio.


Desmond (me) from Malaysia Most Wanted Food venturing into Malaysia Travel; to easily find hidden gems  of good travel places within Malaysia.


Jia from Worthy Book, bringing discount coupons to mobile devices; and probably a very good salesperson who persevere well.


Guess who won?

After viewing the full video, I do have to admit my pitching skill sucks. I could argue that some judges misunderstood my idea, or the judgement of market saturation is unfounded, or it's like selling a bat to a golfer (view my post-mortem). But still, I fail to deliver a solid pitch, and I sure didn't look convincing nor confident; but that doesn't mean the product sucks, or we are not moving in the wrong direction. I believe we are in the right market, doing things we are passionate about, solving a good problem; we have a solid team, a decent product and good traction (IMHO, haha), though we could always do better.

I guess I am more a executioner that a seller; then again, if I wanted to ask someone to give me some money, I better come up with a more convincing pitch. A lesson well learned.

Until the next time, we shall continue to do what we do best: to build better product for you, be it food, travel, property prices or price checker.

Make the Pitch: Malaysia Most Wanted booted (ouch!)

Very recently, we decided it’s the right time to get some funding on a reality TV show (Malaysia’s version of Dragon’s Den). Why? I would like to test if the ideas of Malaysia Most Wanted would hold, and whether I can present a convincing case. Since I get a face-to-face time with some potential investors, I hope to get some valuable feedbacks. Hopefully we would get some exposure for our brand (and get more people to be aware of it, and use it), secure some funding to accelerate our growth, and perhaps get some help in the Sales & Marketing department. Our pitch focus on expanding MMW into Travel, and monetization of MMW Food.

The 1st round went quite smoothly, as one of the judges was quite impressed with our achievement in the Food & Restaurants segment, though there are concerns that we would not make enough money (our revenue is not very promising at the moment, as no one is responsible for sale). They get to thinker with our website on the iPhone and Blackberry (because the video won't play on MacBook), and trying to find their favorite local restaurants (luckily one of the judges’ favorite, Bawang Merah is in the list). So we are safe!

On Round 2, we face Round 1’s judges’ bosses (the CEOs). We need to submit a business proposal (which we are notified 1 day before, OMG!), and realize on the spot that we can’t do a PowerPoint presentation (the assumption is the judges already seen our previous slides and business proposal). Anyway, PowerPoint presentation on TV show looks boring, so we need the more dramatic verbal exchange.

I decided to keep my introduction short, since I assume they read the proposal and seen the previous PowerPoint. Perhaps it’s a bad move, as I could sense at least one the judges seem confused of what we are doing (perhaps she thought I am creating a blog and writing my own reviews based on my personal taste). For those who don’t understand MMW, it is a collaboration platform where users could submit recommendations, ratings, pictures and comments on their favorite restaurants. So it’s community driven, and the community decides and votes for the best.

The worst is yet to come, as I realize later in the show that the main VC (the guy with influence and experience) already has prejudice about the segment we are going into: it’s saturated with low profit margin. So Travel is too competitive, and there is no money to be made (or not enough money). On the global scope, we might have TripAdvisor as the leader (and other names don’t event popup in our mind). In Malaysia, we have static government endorsed travel websites like Tourism Malaysia and Virtual Malaysia, and Cuti-cuti focus on promoting travel packages rather than promoting places of interest. Do we have a really good (at least TripAdvisor-grade) travel website in Malaysia, where we can like really cool places like The Dusun or Sungai Klah Hotspring (and many more we are unaware of)? We don’t, and that’s why I wanted to build one. I guess my argument didn’t shake the “saturated” thought off the judges. Besides, company like KAYAK (USD 835 Million evaluation), TripAdvisors (USD 82 Million Revenue per Quarter) and even China's lvmama 驴妈妈 are closing multi-millions dollar round of funding. Do we want to wait for Foreign companies to dominate entire of Malaysia's websphere?

Actually I was pretty confident after the pitching (before the judges give me their piece of mind), but I was so wrong. First of all, one of the judges still think I write reviews (I hope the rest get the idea), and they still believed the market is saturated and we are not unique (even though we have proven to be the best in the Malaysia Food & Restaurant segment), and they don’t believe we have the capabilities to make Malaysia Travel another success. My heart just sank, WTF! Before we build MMW Food, perhaps no one would believe us. Now we have built MMW Food with reasonable success, and you don’t believe we can do it with MMW Travel. How many times do I have to prove myselves? The Venture Capitalists are not very adventurous, aren't they? I thought of putting in another final word, but I didn’t. I don’t want to beg you if you don’t believe in our idea and capability. I take it we are not on the same boat, and it would probably be hard for us to work together if we don't share the same belief and vision.

I think the judges don’t believe that number 1 Food & Restaurants guide in Malaysia is a valuable asset (or they don’t think I can monetize it, which might be true, since I am still “unproven”). Then again, I got reminded that Cradle have an “unofficial policy” not to invest in something “normal a.k.a saturated”, they prefer some really niche, unique or with buzz (MMW is definitely not their cup of tea, but sadly no other judges back us as well). Another thought is that the judges don’t use online websites to look for food and travel (they can’t relate well because they are not the target users); they get their recommendation from friends, and ask travel agency to arrange their travel.

Perhaps my presentations lacks emotions, all seems to focus on facts and figures (perhaps nervous and not straight to the point, and probably didn't clear the confusion as well). Clearly I fail to convey my ideas strongly, and fail to convince that we create cool and useful stuffs. The guy from PhotoKiddos was worried after his pitch because he got shot on this business plan, and I told him human are emotional beings, and the big cute smiling child photos on the stage might do some magic. And I was right, haha. Anyway, I like his photos and could be his potential customer (though not necessary means I would like to invest in his business).

What have I learned? This is tricky, as I seems pretty defensive and still believes strongly in my own ideas. The main reasons I do MMW Food and Travel is because there are no decent products out there that meet my needs, and my sole purpose is to create something useful and people would enjoy using it (and it helps them). Perhaps there are not much monetary values in it to make millions, but it should not be difficult to feed one mouth (or a few). You probably can doubt my capability to make money, but I am offended when you doubt my capability to build a successful web platform. Then again, it gave me more motivation to prove that I am right: I will develop the most useful travel website in Malaysia within 2 years. Hopefully I am not an arrogant and ignorant bastard, as I have no way of knowing (unless more people told me so). Anyway, this is probably my 3rd failed VC funding attempt in relation with Cradle, perhaps I am destined to walk the no funding required path. "Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results." - Albert Einstens

MMW Food might not met 100% of my expectations yet; as there is a bunch for really cool features I would work on to make it more useful and cool. It would be cool to do use User & Content Profiling, to understand if the user prefers Western or Asian, Spicy or Mild, Halal or non-Halal, and match the relevant results with their preferences. As for the content, we like to know if the restaurant is romantic or child-friendly, good for supper or dinner, modern or classic, etc. At the same time, we would create community guides, where community expert recommends their favorite restaurants. If Jack prefer Western food particularly Italian, then those with the same taste as Jack would follow his guide (if the Jack’s guide have more followers, he might become a celebrity). We might have another person’s guide which focus on Indian and Spicy Food, etc. All sounds cool and fun to me, and I hope you will like it as well.

Lastly, I hope you would like what MalaysiaMostWanted is doing, and enjoy its services (we are hoping MMW could make our life slightly better, slightly easier). Do let us if you you like us (we could use some love), and give us feedbacks to help us improve.

PS: watch the show starting on NTV7 starting from 12 October 2011, and tell me how badly I did.

Save our Children's Education

Most of us know that our education system is “broken” (Even the US Education system is failing: Waiting for Superman), yet we are not sure of the better alternatives. Should we send our kids to Montessori School? Is International School really better? How about school for special kids? Is there transparency in the teaching methods and programs? How about project-based learning? Can we change the education paradigm (which doesn’t fit the needs and style of today’s children) according to Sir Ken Robinson’s analysis? All of us wanted a change, but we don’t know where to start.



I stumbled upon an article talking about DonorChoose, where teachers post small projects which they like to do with their students, and the public can choose to donate in any amount (minimum is USD 1) in their favorite projects and causes. There might be a class to form a music band, or teaching English to rural children. We can donate to projects in our hometown, or any topics which interest us or matter to us.



I think education is important, but it’s not functioning as I expect it to be. I wanted more open learning, where students are encourage taking on special projects and taking up more hobbies. I wanted them to start a rock band, kick start a small business, build a game, help the community, create arts, active in sports, etc.

Though I don’t have the education background (I did teach computer class to children for 4 years, where I felt my contribution and impact is extremely limited), but I believe there are people out there with more passion and capability than I am as a teacher.



I (or rather Malaysia Most Wanted) would like to contribute in terms of technological skills to develop something like DonorChoose, where we can get people passionate about education and start doing something about it. I can’t do this alone, as a great piece of software without passionate people driving it would be utterly useless.

If you have an idea, with passion and time to improve the education of children in Malaysia, and you need a collaboration platform (like DonorChoose) to spread your idea and gather support: contact us, as we would like to help.

Malaysia Most Wanted Microblogging

Forgive us for the lack of update on this blog, as we make small announcement and updates through MMW Facebook and MMW Twitter. Do subscribe to them to get the latest updates.

We'll continue to post major product upgrade and release through this blog.

Broswer Compatibility: IE8, Firefox 3.5 and Chrome 4

Our previous browser compatibility strategy support Internet Explorer 6 and Firefox 3 is a bit outdated, and it’s time to relook into the current browsers’ trend in order to introduce a more intuitive user interaction by leveraging on the power of more advance browser.


Based on Google Analytics’ report on visitor’s Browser, Malaysia Most Wanted will gradually support the Top 3 most popular browser: Internet Explorer (51%), Firefox (34%) and Chrome (8%). Though Apple’s Safari share of 4% is quite significant as well, but we do not have the necessary resources to do so at the moment (and we are hoping support for Chrome will do some good for Safari, since they utilize the same browsing Engine, WebKit).


Among different versions of Internet Explorer, IE7 (37%) is the most popular followed by IE8 (34%) and IE6 (28%). We shall focus on supporting IE8, since the adaptation rate of IE8 will pick up very soon and IE6 is too old (and too buggy).


As for Firefox, we shall focus on Firefox 3.5 (62%). The market share of Firefox 3 (25%) will continue to fall.


Chrome 4 (6%) market share is still very little is due to the recent release which was only 1 day ago. We are sure that Chrome’s automatic update will upgrade the current Chrome 3 (88%) very soon, thus we will emphasize on supporting Chrome 4.

It’s almost impossible to support all browsers (sorry to Opera) and all versions (goodbye to IE6), but we will continue to make sure future enhancement will support Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.5 and Chrome 4.

Malaysia Most Wanted (MMW) on Twitter

With all the Internet Buzz about Twitter, Malaysia Most Wanted (MMW) had decided to give this simple yet noisy social network / micro blogging platform a try.

Malaysia Most Wanted (MMW) on Twitter

Why twitter? Basically it will be used as compliment to this Blog. We will make major announcements through this blog as usual, and smaller updates and changes will be introduce through twitter for those who are interested.

Either Blog or Twiter, it is a platform to bring us closer to our users, and keep you updated if you are interested :)

Malaysia Most Wanted 2008

It had been a fun and fulfilled year for Malaysia Most Wanted (MMW) in 2008, with lots of launching and enhancement, with a few more unrealized projects and potential.

January
We put in a full load of enhancement for Malaysia Food with Voting System, Location & Cuisine Listing, Food Listing, Advance Search and Map Enhancement. We officially launch MalaysiaMostWanted.com as the main portal for all MMW’s offerings.

February
More ways to search for food, and offering for the most romantic dining place in Malaysia for Valentine.

April
Malaysia Property is featured on TheEdge Malaysia.

May
A new version of Malaysia Property is launched.

June
RSS for Food, and Google Search for Property.

August
Major enhancement for Malaysia Property with better search and ranking by popularity. Beta Launching of Malaysia Most Wanted EVENT! Listing of best places for Merdeka Eve Celebration.

September
Malaysia Event and Festival Calendar. MalaysiaMostWanted Office is closed for 3 weeks for Annapurna Circuit adventure in Nepal.

November
Upgrade of MMW’s server due to increasing traffic. Beta launching of Malaysia Most Wanted Map and listing of best Halloween Party weekend in Malaysia.

December
Practical Testing of Malaysia Food in Penang, and closing with listing of New Year Eve countdown party!

It is really a great year for Malaysia Most Wanted, with growing visitors and participations thanks to your support. We hope MMW will continue serve its purpose of finding the things you need in Malaysia easily with its services such as Food & Restaurants, Property & Real Estates, Events & Festivals and Map & Places.

Malaysia Most Wanted (MMW) Upgrade

Thanks to your support and frequent visit, Malaysia Most Wanted (MMW) had upgraded to a bigger and better home to serve you better (hopefully more uptime and faster speed).

Some might experience problem in accessing the website due DNS Propogation, but it should be solved by now since we had moved for more than 48 hours. If you had any difficulty accessing the website (or found the website misbehaving), leave a comment here and we will certainly look into it.

Nepal Annapurna Circuit - "Remember to live life"

Malaysia Most Wanted

"Malaysia Most Wanted will be an online service to provide the Most Wanted information in Malaysia, in a useful and easy to use manner"

Malaysia Most Wanted (www.malaysiamostwanted.com) is Malaysia brand name for all about the most wanted things in Malaysia, from Property to Food to Travel. It is a collection of information and resources (blog, web site, forum, etc) of local contents which are archived with contributions from the community, and preferably following some Web 2.0 mantra in concept and design.

Malaysia Most Wanted will archive public internet resources, provide simple yet powerful searching, be community-focused, equipped with simplicity and usability in design. We strive for continuous innovation and pain solving. If we manage to solve your pain by providing what your desired, then we should be on the right track.

The 1st product launch for Malaysia Most Wanted shall be on Property. The BETA version shall be around the corner soon.