Shekhar

Senior Product Manager @crib.in | Jack of all trades, master of some; talks about products and user behaviours

[Balaji @balajis]

Should the global tech community continue investing in Malaysia?

Given recent events, I raise this question respectfully for the consideration of Prime Minister Yang Amat Berhormat Dato’ Seri Anwar bin Ibrahim (@anwaribrahim), for the people of Malaysia, and for our friends in the Malaysian tech community. The answer will be of interest to anyone in global tech that’s considering building, investing, or expanding in Malaysia, including executives at Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft, founders of tech unicorns like Coinbase and Solana, and investors at the world’s largest venture capital funds like a16z and Polychain.

As context, I am the former CTO of Coinbase and former General Partner at a16z. In October 2024, I opened a startup society called Network School in Malaysia, because I felt I’d been invited in by the government’s pro-tech policies.

Specifically, the KL20 initiative set out Malaysia’s ambition of becoming a top 20 global tech hub. Their MDEC digital nomad visas and MM2H investor visas were created to facilitate an influx of global talent and capital. And the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone was announced to facilitate the flow of capital and talent between Malaysia and Singapore, where I live. When taken in combination with Malaysia’s datacenter buildout and its policy of welcoming visa-free visits for 98% of the world, it seemed like Malaysia might be a great place to build a global tech hub that was simultaneously inexpensive and easy to visit (especially for non-Westerners).

And that’s what we did, by creating Network School. It’s an international tech community with its first node in Forest City, Malaysia. We picked Forest City because it had millions of square feet of empty space, because it was one hour from Singapore’s capital markets, and because it was within the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone. Then, within 18 months, without a single penny of government money, we built Network School into a global attraction that brought thousands of engineers, investors, and builders from 70+ countries to learn technology, burn calories, earn online, and have fun, integrating with the local Malaysian economy along the way.

Indeed, in terms of quantifiable contribution to the Malaysian economy, we’ve already invested 100M+ MYR in our campus to make it startup-friendly. For perspective, that’s about 4% of the budget of Johor, the Malaysian state where Forest City is located. We employ dozens of Malaysians directly and indirectly at every level from executive to staff. We’ve backed Malaysian tech startups like Collektr, hosted events for local teams like Superteam Malaysia, and are major customers of many local businesses like barbers, laundromats, and restaurants. We’ve also revitalized the multibillion-dollar Forest City project, causing millions of MYR in real estate appreciation. And, as the video below describes, we were on the cusp of a 500M+ MYR expansion to grow our community, as well as a global merit scholarship with my friend Amjad Masad of Replit.

However, that emerging multi-billion dollar success story — which should rightfully have been hailed as a huge victory for the pro-tech policies of the Malaysian government — is at risk of being derailed by a fake story spread by an anonymous account named MP4P.

In short: on the day before the July 11 Johor elections, MP4P posted an Instagram post falsely accusing Network School of harboring illegal aliens. The sensational accusations caused a tizzy in Malaysia, until Malaysian authorities came to our campus on July 14 to investigate. (I should note that the officers were very polite and professional.) After checking hundreds of physical passports from 40 countries, including dual passport holders, the authorities confirmed to the press on July 15 that all travel documents were in order. During the process, we cooperated fully; in the thread below you can see a photo of the men, women, and children of Network School smiling and holding up their passports in the bright daylight. Our faces are shown and our names are known; we have nothing to hide.

With that said, the process is the punishment. What MP4P did is very similar to the American crime of “swatting”, because MP4P created a hoax report of a serious threat, thereby forcing the Malaysian police to take time away from protecting the Malaysian people towards investigating a nonexistent issue. Moreover, this anonymous MP4P account has also called for Malaysia to boycott Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft…a move that would cost ordinary Malaysians thousands of jobs…even while MP4P’s own Instagram collaborators promote their Apple and Google apps! I mean, we aren’t talking about a credible accuser, but just someone screaming inconsistently at the top of their lungs on social media for traffic, an all-too-common phenomenon these days.

Anyway, at this point, all further investment we were planning to make in Malaysia is on hold until we get sufficient assurance that such issues won’t recur. So are the investment plans of many of our friends, including the execs and investors at global tech firms that we brought to Forest City. Because to put it very plainly: we have invested 100M+ MYR in Malaysia, while creating jobs for dozens of Malaysians, and our faces and names are known. Our Malaysian executives and employees deserve the benefit of the doubt over anonymous internet trolls.

There are two paths forward. In the first case, if Malaysia still wants continued global tech investment, if it wants to be a top 20 tech hub, if it wants us to revitalize Forest City, then we request an audience with the Prime Minister’s office to discuss the terms of a memorandum of understanding between Network School and the Malaysian government, similar to the document recently signed between the Solana Foundation and the Kazakhstan government.

Specifics can of course be discussed, but we would publicly commit to abiding by all Malaysian laws (we already do) and respecting Malaysia’s sovereignty (never in question). In return, they’d get to know our friendly community, and realize that we actually chose Malaysia because we thought it was a great place to build a tech hub where engineers from the global South, investors from the West, and builders from Malaysia itself could meet new people, build cool things, and perhaps create millions of dollars in economic growth in the fullness of time.

That vision of peace and trade, internationalism and entrepreneurialism, is still on the table. We aren’t asking for any money — just a meeting, to help restore confidence in Malaysia as an investable jurisdiction. Alternatively, if you don’t want our investment, or those of our colleagues at billion dollar funds and trillion dollar companies, we will of course respect your wishes, and reallocate our capital to other countries instead.

Either way, we will remain friends and abide by your decision. Please let us know.

[Aditya Mulukuri @adityamulukuri]

Everyone is building with AI
Very few are making it efficient

We are hosting an invite only brunch for founders and engineers
Talking SLMs, post training, and what happens after deployment

No fluff, just serious builders

Reply or DM if you want in!!

Friday, 17 April | Bengaluru

[Shekhar @thisisdojo37]

Anybody who thinks they need to get their shit together to get started. This is literally what it takes to move the muscle and things start to fall into place.

[Archit Chauhan @architchauhann]

Throwback to the day when @iamsunnygarg , @sjshaifalijain , and I sat down and talked up this idea of @cribdotin . This image from June 2021 captures the beginning of a wild journey! 🌟 ❤️

[Shekhar @thisisdojo37]

Outcomes over output is something you keep in mind while shipping any feature.

[Shekhar @thisisdojo37]

I have witnessed more than half the sunrises and even more sunsets this year because of my dog! Feels pretty good.

[Shekhar @thisisdojo37]

Being a dog parent, I have always admired Sir Ratan Tata for what he has done for dogs. Not just a businessman, he was a dear soul to so many. Feels like a personal loss!
#RIP

[Arpit Bhayani @arpit_bhayani]

A good engineer always thinks like a product manager ⚡

A good engineer creates differentiating business value by aligning the work with business priorities. It is easy to write code and design systems, what's difficult is to drive business outcomes.

When you get your next work item, show extreme ownership and understand how your work fits into the larger scheme of things. Some questions about your work that can help you get clarity could be

- is your work helping in acquiring user acquisition?
- is your work helping in making experience 10x better?
- is your work directly or indirectly affecting the revenue growth?
- is your work helping the company reduce its expenditure?

Always remember, the priority is always business > product > engineering. Without business we do not stand a chance, so always align yourself with the business and drive positive outcomes.

⚡ I keep writing and sharing my practical experience and learnings every day, so if you resonate then follow along. I keep it no fluff.

https://t.co/cxLmaedYcH

#AsliEngineering

[Shekhar @thisisdojo37]

Visited a doc today, I think I’m a firm believer of Placebo effect now.

[Bandan (Productify) @bandanjot]

Top 1% Product Managers
are just not same as Top 10% Product Managers

5 things set them apart:
(explained in 2 mins)

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

“There is no easy way from Earth to the stars” – Seneca 40 AD

[Shekhar @thisisdojo37]

Knowledge is mostly limited, “will” has to be abundant

[ISRO @isro]

Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
'India🇮🇳,
I reached my destination
and you too!'
: Chandrayaan-3

Chandrayaan-3 has successfully
soft-landed on the moon 🌖!.

Congratulations, India🇮🇳!

#Chandrayaan_3
#Ch3

[Shekhar @thisisdojo37]

Understanding customer problems is like peeling off layers of onion! The more you dig, the more you get to the core.

[Tarumeet Singh Bedi @tarumeet]

https://t.co/Y6yci9dvlY साहित्य जैसी जागीर जहां में कोई नहीं
दिल ने बया करा है दिल से सुनना सभी

[Shekhar @thisisdojo37]

@readwise save thread

[Ankur Warikoo @warikoo]

11 shocking facts about managing time.

A thread...

[Marc Randolph @marcrandolph]

Any founder who doesn't acknowledge the role that luck played in their success is fooling themselves.

[Shekhar @thisisdojo37]

@readwise save

[Clint Murphy @IAmClintMurphy]

The 2-minute rule

Will improve your life.

Let me break it down for you:

[Stoa @StoaHQ]

100 RTs and we’ll actually sell degree ka achaar 👀

[Dan Shipper 📧 @danshipper]

I spent Christmas programming with ChatGPT.

Some observations:

[Kunal Shah @kunalb11]

Year end makes many people reflective and zoom out to look at their life and choices.

It maybe useful to do this every month and not wait for year end if one wishes faster iteration in themselves.