A quiet, honest story about how Favoriot found its way
I remember the early days of Favoriot very clearly.
It started with a simple belief. If we make it free and easy, people will come. They will build. They will stay.
So we did exactly that.
We built the platform.
We opened the doors.
We told the world, “Come in. Try it. It’s free.”
And people did come. Students. Lecturers. Curious engineers. Friends I met during talks at universities. I would personally invite them. Sometimes I would even hand out complimentary access codes for a full year of the Beginner Plan.
I thought to myself, this is how adoption works.
But something felt off.
When subscribers were not really users
On paper, the numbers looked comforting.
Subscribers were growing. Accounts were created. Dashboards were viewed.
But deep down, I knew something was missing.
Why are so many accounts quiet?
Why do I see logins, but no devices connected?
Why do dashboards stay empty?
That was my first hard lesson.
A subscriber is not always a user.
And a user is not always a builder.
Many people came just to look around. They clicked. They browsed. Then they left. Some even won vouchers but never built a single IoT project.
It hurt a little. Not because of revenue. But because I wanted Favoriot to be used. I wanted it to matter.
The wrong assumption about behaviour
I used to think users would log in every day, tweak dashboards, run experiments.
Reality taught me otherwise.
A typical IoT builder behaves differently.
Once the device connects and the data flows, they step back. They look at the dashboard occasionally. They only return when something breaks or when the project evolves.
Students behave differently, too.
They come intensely during one semester. Final year project season. Late nights. Panic. Excitement. Then, silence.
And to make it harder, many of them already knew other platforms. Some popular. Some free. Some are recommended by seniors.
Favoriot was often an unfamiliar name.
So ,how do you enter the education space when choice is already wide open?
Teaching before selling
I stopped pushing plans and started focusing on learning.
We introduced public IoT training. Beginner. Advanced. Mastering IoT.
Lecturers started attending. Some became trainers themselves. They went back to their universities and taught students using what they learned.
That felt good.
Then we went a step further.
Professional certificates.
Either embedded into the curriculum or offered as short intensive training. Students could finish the course and receive a certificate, or sit for an exam and earn a more formal credential.
Interest grew. Enquiries came in.
But adoption was still slow.
Universities move carefully. Curriculum changes go through committees, boards, and senate meetings. Nothing moves overnight.
I had to learn patience.
Labs instead of just logins
That’s when we bundled everything.
Not just software.
Not just subscriptions.
We created labs.
An IoT Lab with devices, Beginner subscriptions, training, and ready-to-use kits like indoor air quality monitoring.
An AIoT Lab with more advanced tools. Edge devices. Developer Plan access. Machine learning features. Analytics. A space for research, experimentation, and deeper thinking.
Suddenly, Favoriot was no longer just a platform.
It became an environment.
That changed the conversation.
Why Favoriot stayed a platform, not an app
People sometimes ask me, why not make Favoriot simpler? Why not hide everything?
Because IoT is not simple.
If everything is hidden, nothing is learned.
Favoriot is a Platform-as-a-Service by choice. Builders can see the flow. Devices. Protocols. Data ingestion. Visualisation. Rules. Actions.
When something fails, they learn how to troubleshoot.
When they graduate, they carry understanding, not just button-clicking habits.
That’s the skill that survives in the real world.
The restaurant analogy that finally made sense
One day, while explaining our plans, I caught myself using a food analogy. And suddenly, everything clicked.
The Free Plan is peeking into a restaurant.
You look at the menu. You walk around. Then you leave.
The Lite Plan is tasting the food.
You sit down. You try a dish. You smile.
The Beginner Plan is a full meal.
You are satisfied. You build. You complete your project.
The Developer Plan owns the kitchen.
You cook. You create menus. You serve your own customers.
The Enterprise Plan owns the whole restaurant.
You decide everything. Security. Scale. Who gets served and how.
When I explained it this way, people finally nodded.
Overseas users and a quiet mystery
Here’s something that still amazes me.
Favoriot has users from more than 130 countries.
Yet most revenue comes from Malaysia.
How did they even find us?
Blogs.
E-books.
Social media posts.
YouTube. TikTok. Facebook groups.
They came. They explored. Most stayed free.
And that taught me another lesson.
Free users overseas were often explorers. Platform shoppers. Comparing interfaces. Looking around.
Not every visitor is ready to commit.
And that’s okay.
Personas matter more than pricing
Over the years, I stopped blaming pricing.
Instead, I studied personas.
Browsers.
Tasters.
Builders.
Integrators.
Operators.
Each one needs a different message.
Each one enters the journey at a different door.
And that was the missing piece all along.
Partners instead of long walks alone
I also realised something else.
We cannot do everything ourselves.
We do not have endless arms and legs to reach every market.
So we shifted.
System integrators.
Hardware partners.
Domain experts.
Universities.
They already speak the language of their customers. We just give them the kitchen.
That felt right.
AI as my late-night thinking partner
I will admit this honestly.
AI changed how I think.
When I was in corporate life, clarity came from meetings, workshops, and committees.
Today, clarity comes at night. Quietly. One question at a time.
I talk.
I reflect.
I get challenged.
Not every suggestion is usable. But every session sharpens my thinking.
Sometimes, you just need a friend who listens without ego.
Community as the long game
Lately, I spend more time on LinkedIn.
I see students from India proudly showing their projects. Some use other platforms. Some barely send data to the cloud.
I comment. I encourage. I invite.
“Try Favoriot.”
“Show us your project.”
“We will feature your story.”
Because visibility matters.
When builders are seen, they stay longer.
And when they grow, they remember.
This journey is still unfolding
Favoriot did not arrive here overnight.
It took years of confusion, wrong assumptions, quiet learning, and small corrections.
But today, the path feels clearer.
Free curiosity has a place.
So does tasting.
So does building.
So does owning the kitchen.
If you are just browsing, welcome.
If you are ready to build, stay.
If you want to serve others, let’s talk.
And if you are a student building your first IoT project somewhere in the world, remember this.
The platform you choose today might become the one you trust tomorrow.
I would love to hear your thoughts.
Where are you in this journey?
Peeking, tasting, cooking, or running the whole place?
Leave a comment. Let’s talk.
Dr. Mazlan Abbas 