Happy 7th Anniversary Favoriot!

Getting Older and Wiser

Here’s to Favoriot’s expansion into new markets, wisely navigating global challenges, and making a mark worldwide with its innovative solutions.

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I keep tossing this one question back and forth in my head: “Is FAVORIOT gonna keep the lights on for another year?”

It’s like, running a startup feels like being in a marathon with no clear finish line – just hills, mountains, and valleys for days.

Jumping into entrepreneurship, I honestly didn’t see the rollercoaster ride coming.

From the outside, you always hear about these startups going from zero to hero, hitting that IPO jackpot in just a few years. It’s all about the glory days, right?

You often catch stories about startup founders bagging millions in funding, scaling from a duo to hundreds, even thousands of employees, and then making it big internationally.

Those are the success tales.

But for every one of those, there’s a bunch that just… vanish.

They’re part of the grim 90% of startups that crash and burn each year.

Those stories? Not so loud.

FAVORIOT kicked off officially on February 20, 2017, but didn’t really get rolling until April 1, 2017, with just a few of us.

Since then, a lot of the original crew has moved on, replaced by fresh faces.

The past seven years have been a wild ride, to say the least.

Here’s the scoop:

1 — Starting with Zero Revenue – We went a whole year without making a dime, with our costs through the roof.

All because we were deep in the R&D phase, working on our “Raqib” product (an IoT thing for monitoring the elderly and Hajj pilgrims).

Then, just as we were ready to roll in 2019, COVID hit, and Malaysia’s Hajj got postponed for two years (2020–2021).

Just like that, all the money we’d poured into Raqib felt like it went down the drain.

2 — When No One’s Buying – In the early days, folks would come up to me all excited about IoT, wanting to collaborate but not really sure how.

But then, crickets.

No one actually wanted to buy. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to thinking, “Are they just here to pick my brain or what?”

3 — Turning Down IoT Training Initially – At first, we thought people could just learn IoT on their own with all the tutorials out there.

Boy, were we wrong.

We only started offering commercial IoT courses by the end of 2021, almost four years too late!

4 — From 20 to 8300 Users – It began with just a handful of folks interested in our IoT platform.

Now? We’ve got users from 121 countries.

Talk about growth!

5 — Branding Favoriot – Once upon a time, googling “Favoriot” would get you “Favorito.”

Now, we’re the first thing that pops up.

We’ve made a name for ourselves in Malaysia as an IoT startup.

By some miracle, we’ve managed to claw our way out of the dreaded “Valley of Death,” despite its gravity trying to pull us back in.

Moving Forward

Maybe it’s time to hit up investors again, look for new partners, or VCs.

Back in the day, we didn’t stand a chance without traction or customers.

Rejection was the name of the game, whether pitching to investors or trying to get into accelerators.

But now?

It feels like it’s time to open up Favoriot’s doors again, see if we can snag some VC funding or find a company interested in making IoT part of their business.

Happy 7th Anniversary, FAVORIOT.

Here’s hoping this year, and the years to come, are even better than the last.

“May every team member of Favoriot grow wiser with the company, enjoying personal and professional development that leads to collective success.”

A shoutout to our earliest customers, too. Without their trust, it would’ve been a much tougher sell for the rest.

And finally, to my friends who’ve always had my back, thank you. Your support means the world.