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Cheo Kar Shin, a BSc (Hons) Statistical Data Science student from Heriot-Watt University Malaysia, was recognised as one of the top three finalists together with his teammates at the “Creators of Tomorrow” university challenge organised by HP Inc. Malaysia.
Early stage investments are one of the main barriers to entry for budding student entrepreneurs. The “Creators of Tomorrow” university challenge aimed to bring the visions of aspiring student entrepreneurs to life by providing them with resources to help elevate their business.
Kar Shin teamed up with students from other Malaysian universities such as Sunway University and Tunku Abdul Rahman University College to come up with a business idea. The team, Top Flow, proposed the idea of Bumbung, an online property dealing platform that allows rental transactions between landlords and tenants. According to Kar Shin, the platform also enables a peer-to-peer review and rating system which allows users to identify the best landlord or tenant. With the online tenancy agreement system, the platform “streamlines the process of renting a house and makes it smarter, cheaper and safer”.
He commented, “My team and I are really happy to achieve this because it proves to us that our effort is worth it. We spent a lot of time on it and the fact that they recognised our product actually encouraged me to continue developing this product and even potentially release it in the market.” Furthermore, he found the experience of working with teammates from other universities challenging as the team had to set consistent routines for discussion. Nevertheless, it was also enriching as the team got to have multiple perspectives which allowed them to develop the product further than expected.