Entrepreneurship Enabler · Effectuation Educator · Next Act Guide
Starting from exactly where they are.
Most of my friends, and the people around me, grew up planning their lives around a steady career or a professional track. Engineer. Doctor. Lawyer. Accountant. Perhaps, eventually, CEO.
I tried accounting. After a short stint at a Big Four firm, I knew I didn’t want to spend my working life as an employee. I’d always been drawn to business, to creating and building things of my own, and I valued freedom over security. So I quit, and charted my own path.
In truth, it started long before accounting. Growing up in a working-class family, I ran small ventures to earn my school allowance. I sold Matchbox cars. Then fighting fish. Later, I started a tuition centre teaching maths.
My working life became a series of projects. Some of them turned into companies. A consulting business, later acquired. A company that brought tech talent to Malaysia. A training outfit that grew into bringing technology education to students across the nation.
Then, as the tech startup wave gathered momentum, I built a company to strengthen Malaysia’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. I wanted to help people become better entrepreneurs, not just build better companies.
It became a movement. Through gatherings and programmes, we brought aspiring founders, educators and leaders together from across the country, sparking interest in entrepreneurship and in what people could build together. Out of that work came a technology platform, built with a global partner, that taught children to code. It too was later acquired.
Some of my projects grew and made their mark. Others faded and made way for the next. Each one taught me something, and every one began with who I was and what I had at that moment.
Decades later, I learned there was a name for how I’d been working all along: Effectuation.
Today, I’m building my most ambitious project yet: act2. After thirty-five years of creating my own next acts, I now help others create theirs, with a well-researched method behind them.
Now
The mindset and method of the world's greatest creators, for people and organisations working out what comes next.
Since 2020, more than 2,000 people have been through my programmes: people in transition, corporate employees, university students and business associations.
Visit act2.life ↗I'm a pioneer of Effectuation in Malaysia, and one of the first people in the world to take it beyond entrepreneurship, into how people shape their lives. I'm a student of Saras Sarasvathy, the creator of Effectuation, and I'm spearheading the expansion of her work in Malaysia and the region.
Between an ending and a next act, there's a space where most people get stuck. That's where I work, helping them do the inner work and take their first real step.
In their words
“You have truly worked on taking Effectuation to corporates and to individuals in the most innovative way.”
“It is more about stepping back and asking: what actually matters to me now, and how do I design my next chapter instead of just drifting into it?”
“Dash never pushed his ideas on me. He got me to teach myself. I had lost my self-belief and hope, and he re-ignited that flame.”
“Very few training programmes provide the kind of relevance and immediate application in such a short time, ensuring that even seasoned professionals stay engaged.”
“Dash has the gift of explaining Effectuation so that even a two-year-old could understand. If you’re in the chapter of starting something new, or learning to navigate uncertainty, I’d highly recommend Dash as the go-to expert.”
Founded a consulting business
I founded a boutique consulting firm to help small businesses think more entrepreneurially: to work on the business, not just in it. We later added an accounting and tax practice, led by my wife, a CPA. The business was subsequently acquired.
Founded Warisan Global
Warisan Global began as a corporate training company, helping businesses develop a more tech-savvy workforce. When the dot-com bubble burst, we had to find a different way forward. A timely corporate partnership took us into rural primary schools, bringing digital literacy to more than 15,000 children.
Alongside this, I began working to build entrepreneurial awareness among young Malaysians, a commitment that would shape the next chapter.
Brought Global Entrepreneurship Week to Malaysia
As Malaysia’s country host for the inaugural Global Entrepreneurship Week, I brought together partners, educators and entrepreneurs to help young people turn ideas into action. This is where I became one of the earliest fire starters of Malaysia’s startup ecosystem. My team and I turned a global initiative into a local movement: one of the largest GEW campaigns in the world, ranked among the top ten countries and winner of several GEW awards. It laid the groundwork for the startup community that followed. Read my notes from that time ↗
President Obama’s Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship
I was one of four Malaysians selected for the inaugural Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington, D.C., and received the US State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) fellowship, as the first Malaysian on its entrepreneurship track. It opened up new relationships and possibilities for the work I wanted to do back home.
Founded StartupMalaysia
I founded StartupMalaysia to help build a stronger, more connected entrepreneurial ecosystem. I wanted to help people become better entrepreneurs, not just build better companies. We brought founders, funders, educators and policymakers together, connecting Malaysia’s emerging startup community with the wider world.
Brought Startup Weekend to Malaysia
I brought Startup Weekend, the global 54-hour event where people pitch ideas and build startups over a weekend, to Malaysia, then took it to Singapore and Indonesia.
Silicon Valley Comes to Malaysia
I conceived the idea and, with a partner from Stanford University and a Malaysian government agency, brought 17 Silicon Valley entrepreneurs (including co-founders of YouTube and LinkedIn, and the founder of AngelList) to meet 1,000 aspiring Malaysian entrepreneurs. The invitation was simple: build things, think beyond Malaysia, and see the world as your playing field.
D-Code Bootcamp
We brought Silicon Valley developers to Malaysia, including a co-founder of Napster and an engineer from Twitter, for an intensive weekend coding bootcamp. Close to 500 young Malaysians learned by building. The top participants earned scholarships to a basecamp in Silicon Valley, to deepen their skills and experience its entrepreneurial culture first-hand.
Global Startup Youth
I conceived Global Startup Youth as an idea accelerator alongside the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Kuala Lumpur. It brought together around 500 young people from 105 countries, working in mentored, cross-cultural teams to build prototypes addressing challenges in health, education, the environment and women’s empowerment. Alongside it, I organised the first StartupNations meet-up, bringing together around 50 startup community leaders from around the world.
The in-between
After years of building StartupMalaysia, I stepped back to ask what my own next act might be. That exploration led, in 2020, to Midlife Enterpriser, a venturing school for people in a new season of life. I co-founded it with a retired Cambridge educator and former head of the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning. Its first programme was Basecamp.
Created act2
Growing out of Basecamp and Midlife Enterpriser, act2 brings together what I’ve learned about building ventures and finding a way forward. It helps individuals become founders of their own lives, and organisations discover and create their next growth engines.
Co-founded CAMentrepreneurs Malaysia
As co-founder and Country Head, I’m helping connect Cambridge’s global entrepreneurial community with entrepreneurs, educators and business leaders in Malaysia. Our aim is to turn connections into a community where people can learn, collaborate and create together.
Along the way: President, TeAM (Technopreneurs Association of Malaysia) · Founding Board Member, Allied for Startups · Founding Director, Founder Institute (Perth) · Judge, MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35
Postgraduate Diploma in Entrepreneurship, Cambridge Judge Business School · MBA, Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University · Certified Professional Coach · TEDx speaker
For people at a crossroads and organisations looking for their next growth engine. My clients include blue-chip companies and universities.
Write to me directly, or send a message using the form.
A life spent creating, building and helping others create.
Still going.