BFM 89.9

HIGHLIGHTS 
Podcast  >  Enterprise  >  Enterprise Explores  >  42Geeks' Mission, Lessons from Building Multiple Startups, and How to Build a Startup Ecosystem

42Geeks' Mission, Lessons from Building Multiple Startups, and How to Build a Startup Ecosystem

Chok Ooi, Co-Founder and Chief Geek, 42Geeks

04-Mar-24 12:00

42Geeks' Mission, Lessons from Building Multiple Startups, and How to Build a Startup Ecosystem

Enterprise Explores 42Geeks, the 3rd venture of PJ boy Chok Ooi, and the mission of his new business. We also explore his journey of building multiple Silicon Valley startups, and the lessons and mistakes he learnt along the way, including rookie mistakes from his first exit.

Chok’s Silicon Valley journey took flight after being laid off by Goldman Sachs during the Global Financial Crisis when Sam Altman (yes that Sam Altman) hired him at Loopt back in 2008. Today he is building 42Geeks, an organization with a mission to foster cross-border tech collaborations & investments through the global Geeks Tour, and they were in town last week as they toured Southeast Asia, specifically Jakarta, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and now the BFM Studio.

Between then and 42Geeks, Chok started and built Agility.io, a global product design and software development company that works with 300+ startups and Fortune 500 companies to design and build game-changing technology and solutions, and also Kenzie Academy, an online tech and coding school headquartered in Indianapolis, which was later acquired by Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) in March 2021.

Prior to Agility.io and Kenzie, Chok was CTO at SF-based Azap Mobile, Senior Software Engineer at Loopt (acquired by GreenDot), and Lead Engineer at Selerity (acquired by Dealogic).

Produced by: Roshan Kanesan

Presented by: Roshan Kanesan


This and more than 60,000 other podcasts in your hand. Download the all new BFM mobile app.

Categories:  technologyentrepreneursmanaginginvestments

Tags:  tech collaborationssilicon valleystartupstech investmentssoftware development





Play / Pause

Listen now : BFM 89.9 -- The Business Station

Today’s Shows



6:00 AM

The 6AM Stretch

Thought-provoking discussions on ideas, people and events shaping our lives.

7:00 AM

World Market Watch

Vishnu Varathan, Head of Economics & Strategy, Mizuho Bank, tells us where international markets are heading.

7:15 AM

Morning Brief

We recap global and local headlines from today's papers and portals.

7:30 AM

Morning Brief

Denise Wong, Bloomberg Intelligence gives us an outlook of China's infrastructure sector.

7:45 AM

Morning Brief

Adrian Pereira, Executive Director of the North-South Initiative on foreign workers in the country

8:00 AM

The Breakfast Grille

Human Rights Lawyer Siti Kassim and Tengku Mohamed Fauzi Hamid of SUHAKAM discuss critical issues facing Orang Asli communities.

8:30 AM

Morning Brief

Dr Hasdy Haron of the National Transplant Resource Centre weighs in on Malaysia’s urgent organ donor shortage and potential reforms to save more lives.

8:45 AM

Morning Brief

(REPEAT) We dive into the local and international news that matters to you.

9:00 AM

Opening Bell

(REPEAT) Vishnu Varathan, Head of Economics & Strategy, Mizuho Bank, tells us where international markets are heading.

9:15 AM

Opening Bell

(REPEAT) Denise Wong, Bloomberg Intelligence gives us an outlook of China's infrastructure sector.

9:35 AM

Ringgit & Sense

Fazrul Farouk, licensed financial planner, I-Max Financial talks about the proposed monthly withdrawals from EPF for retirees,

10:05 AM

Open For Business

LIGNO Biotech's co-founders on how they turned a PhD project on Tiger Milk Mushroom into a profitable and patented RM13M business with global ambitions.

11:00 AM

Tech Talk

12:00 PM

Enterprise Explores

1:00 PM

The Breakfast Grille Repeat

Siti Kassim, Human Rights Lawyer & Tengku Mohamed Fauzi Hamid, Vice Chairman, The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM).

2:05 PM

Discovery Hour

3:05 PM

Beyond the Ballot Box

How Gendered Disinformation Is a Threat to Women’s Political Participation

4:05 PM

Health & Living

The recently published National Health and Morbidity Survey 2024 focussing on nutrition revealed just how bad Malaysians’ diets are. Now that’s probably not a surprise to most of us but the question remains: what can we do about it? Here to help us break down how we can easily improve our diets and make sure we get all the nutrients we need is dietitian Prof Dr Winnie Chee.

5:00 PM

Top 5 at 5

6:00 PM

Talkback Thursday

8:00 PM

BBC World Service

This episode of Crowd Science explores all things light - from its properties to its potential.