Kuala Lumpur, Oct 28: A teen’s big risk to forgo a scholarship for a startup has paid off big time.
Aziz Iskandar Ahmad Nidzam gave up his post-SPM scholarship to study in Germany to start his startup – Cikguu.
“After watching The Social Network [a movie about how Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook], it was like a lightbulb went off,” said the teen.
“I immediately called my best friend, Arif Ikmal, and we learned to code from YouTube.
“We did this everyday at night for a year.”
Cikguu, an education-tech startup, has emerged victorious from a cohort of 71 teams to receive RM 50,000 in funding.
Cikguu is a social network platform for tutors and learners to meet, book, and learn, with focus on autonomy and community.
The duo worked on their startups for two years, while working on day jobs and studying coding during their spare time.
They are also part of the 42 per cent of participants that were gainfully employed while working on their startups.
“Cikguu’s story is exactly why we keep reiterating this programme.
“We’re constantly asking how we can make entrepreneurship more accessible, from schedule flexibility, language, and geographic region,” 1337 Ventures CEO Bikesh Lakhmichand said.
“Right now, about 70 percent of teams (including Cikguu) are from the Klang Valley.
“With Digital Penang coming in as a supporting partner of this cohort, we’ve gone from one per cent representation to 14.8 percent for the island state,” he added.
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