How a 19-year-old youth became Malaysia’s #1 hosting provider
He is the CEO of Exabytes, Chan Kee Siak (a.k.a Ah Chan), 29 of Penang and college dropout.
Son of a food stall operator, during his first year of college he dabbled in website design, and found it difficult to find good webhosters in Malaysia.
Yes, you saw it coming, it’s the classic stumble upon a problem – find no solution – provide that solution yourself formula.
As with the guy who created Hotmail, he saw the enormous potential, yet realised that if he didn’t act fast, somebody else would, hence scrambled to get his idea off the ground.
Started off in 2000, he set up Exabytes Network Sdn Bhd in 2002.
In its first year of operations, it was a reseller for a US-based company, and already managed to record an astounding RM100,000 in sales.
By 2005 his company was already MSC-status.
Now, he has 32,000 clients from 120 countries, a revenue of RM8.5 million in 2009, a staff of 55 and a growth rate of 20% annually.
But I think the most compelling / inspiring part of his experience is that day he decided to quit his studies due to “overwhelming response from clients” which caused him to initially skip lectures and finally exams.
He gave himself a year. If it didn’t work out, he’d re-enroll.
The rest, as they say, is history.
His next challenge: a globally managed company with improved work procedures and financial management.
His ultimate goal: turn Exabytes into a multinational IT conglomerate.
I think he’s well on his way to achieve that, and could very well be a billionaire before he needs any anti wrinkle creams…
