Cheryl Yeoh

Cheryl Yeoh
Cheryl Yeoh at Brain Bar Budapest, June 2016
Born	(1983-05-31) May 31, 1983 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Nationality	Malaysia
Occupation	Chinese-Malaysian entrepreneur and speaker
Years active	2010-present
Known for	Founding CEO of the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC)
Notable work	Co-Founder of Reclip.It, acquired by Walmart Labs in 2012

Cheryl Yeoh (born May 31, 1983) is a Chinese-Malaysian entrepreneur, speaker and angel investor currently living in San Francisco, best known for being the Founding CEO of the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC),^[1] a government-funded agency to support entrepreneurship in Malaysia and ASEAN that was launched by President Barack Obama ^[2] and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on 27 April 2014.

She is also known for being the Co-Founder of Reclip.It, that was acquired by Walmart Labs in 2012. She is currently the Chief Marketing Officer of Hack Reactor based in San Francisco and a Non-Executive Board of Director of Flexiroam Limited (ASX:FRX),^[3] an Australia-based telecommunications company.

Yeoh’s most important legacy is that she has helped put Malaysia and its startups on the world map,^[4] successfully helping Malaysia build up its startup ecosystem in under 2 years. She is one of four Southeast Asians to be selected as a LinkedIn Influencer. In 2012, Yeoh was named “Top 44 Female Founders Every Entrepreneur Should Know” by Mashable.^[5]

Early life and education

Born and raised in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, Yeoh is the eldest daughter of Audrey Chan & Allen Yeoh. Yeoh was a valedictorian at Seaport High School and went on to receive a full scholarship from the Public Service Department of Malaysia (JPA) to study in United States of America when she was 18.

She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. At Cornell University, she was inducted into a secret honor society called The Sphinx Head. In university, she was most known for being the chaperon to Sage Chapel for four years and for her efforts in introducing the labyrinth concept to the university for students’ psychological and health benefits.^[6] She subsequently received the Lester Knight scholarship to pursue her masters in Engineering Management, also at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

Career

CityPockets

In 2010, Yeoh and her co-founder founded her first start-up CityPockets, the very first digital wallet and secondary marketplace for daily deals. CityPockets was among 7 startups selected to participate in an accelerator in North Carolina called LaunchBox Digital.

Some users called CityPockets the "mint.com and ebay for daily deals." The technology supported over 50 of the top daily deal sites including Groupon, Living Social, BuyWithMe, Gilt City, Bloomspot, Google Offers, Restaurant.com and Zozi. CityPockets was featured prominently in many news and media sites including Fox News,^[7] ABC7,^[8] CNN, WSJ, Forbes, Netted by the Webbys, TechCrunch, GigaOm, AllThingsD, Lifehacker, CNET, Mashable, and TheNextWeb.

At the beginning of Yeoh’s startup journey, she was known to be a scrappy startup entrepreneur where she crashed in a friend’s living room futon for 5 months and put herself on a “kale and quinoa” diet in order to maintain a food budget of $35 a week.^[9] Yeoh eventually raised $770,000 from venture capitalists and angel investors in New York in 2011.

Reclip.It (acquired by Walmart Labs)

When the daily deal space started consolidating,^[10] Yeoh shut down CityPockets and pivoted the company to launch Reclip.It in 2012.^[11] Reclip.It is a personalized list-making app featuring weekly ads and digital coupons from top retail stores like Walmart, Macy's, Walgreens, Target, BestBuy, Home Depot, CVS, etc. Reclip.It was selected by Instyle Magazine as "2012 Best of the Web," mentioned as the #1 tool to Shop Smarter on Daily Tekk, and also featured on TechCrunch, Huffington Post, FastCompany, USA Today, Xconomy, and Forbes.

In Spring of 2013, Reclip.It was acquired by Walmart Labs. While the sale amount was not disclosed, Yeoh was reported by the media to be one of nine self-made women millionaires who are making a difference to the US economy.^[12] The startup had previously received funding from 500Startups, Great Oaks Venture Capital and angel investors in Silicon Valley and NYC, bringing the total funding to almost $1M.

Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC)

In April 2014, Yeoh was headhunted by the government of Malaysia and appointed to become the Founding CEO of the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC). She left her blooming career in Silicon Valley to return to Malaysia to contribute back to her home country. MaGIC was given an initial grant of US$21.4 million ^[13] and was launched by President Barack Obama and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on 27 April 2014.

In under 2 years, Yeoh successfully launched a few globally known programs such as Malaysia Accelerator Program (MAP),^[14] bringing many startups all over ASEAN together, 500Startups’ Distro Dojo,^[15] the MaGIC Academy and also inked a 3-year partnership with Stanford University and Techstars, where she create immersive programs as a bridge for entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia to be exposed to the Silicon Valley startup ecosystem.

Among MaGIC’s Board of Directors are Mark Chang, Founder of Jobstreet, Khailee Ng, Managing Partner of 500Startups, Sajith Sivanandan, Managing Director of Google Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines and New Emerging Markets, and Tan Sri Jamaludin Ibrahim, Axiata Group CEO and President.

Yeoh announced that she was stepping down from her position at MaGIC in January 2016,^[16] which came as a big surprise to the whole startup ecosystem in Southeast Asia. Many know Yeoh as a charismatic leader who have put Malaysia and its startups on the world map, attracting many foreign investors to set their sights on investing in Malaysia, which is home to prominent startups such as Grab.

Other work and ventures

Yeoh previously mentored at The Founder Institute and The Thiel Fellowship on product management, building teams, fundraising, marketing & operations. She has mentored entrepreneurs from all over the world.

In 2014, Yeoh invested in BloomThis, a fast growing startup in Southeast Asia that reported successful secured seed funding of US$200,000. Yeoh is also an investor and advisor for NEXT Academy, a coding school based in Malaysia that received US$300,000 in 2016 as seed investment from 500 Startups to focus on educational technology.

Yeoh is frequently invited to speak at global conferences and have spoken in the UK, Croatia, Hungary, Australia, Japan, India, Hong Kong, and more. She recently spoke at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) 2016^[17] in Silicon Valley alongside President Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg. In 2015, Yeoh represented Malaysia in a debate for Innovation Awards & Summit by The Economist in Hong Kong. Yeoh was a keynote speaker for 7th World Chinese Economic Forum held in London, United Kingdom in 2015. In the same year, Yeoh had various live appearances on BBC World News, Bloomberg TV Malaysia, and many other news channels. In December 2013, she gave a TEDxKL speech titled "Success begets passion, not the other way around.^[18]”

In February 2016, Yeoh moved back to San Francisco, CA and is now the Chief Marketing Officer of Hack Reactor based in San Francisco and a Non-Executive Board of Director of Flexiroam Limited (ASX:FRX),^[19] an Australia-based telecommunications company.

As an immigrant to the United States herself, Yeoh is an avid supporter of immigration reform as a way to boost economic growth and create jobs for Americans.^[20]

Awards

In August 2016, Yeoh won the Best Social Media Influencer Award by Malaysian Rice Bowl Startup Award. Besides being chosen as Top 40 under 40 by Prestige Malaysia, Yeoh won the Golden Globe Tiger Awards in 2015 for Women Leadership. In the same year, she was also chosen to be Malaysia's Top 10 Most Impactful Young Leaders Award 2015 by UCSI. Yeoh was also given recognition as Great Women of Our Time in 2014 by Women's Weekly.

In March 2013, Yeoh was selected as one of ten Global Ambassadors to hike Mt. Kilimanjaro on charity fundraiser. Her story was featured in the world’s first book about women who’ve climbed the mountain.^[21] In 2012, Yeoh was featured as the Top 10 Women in Digital Award 2012 by L'Oreal.^[22]

Personal life

In August 2016, Yeoh was engaged to Jason Sew Hoy, COO of 99designs who is great grandson to Charles Sew Hoy, a notable New Zealand merchant, Chinese leader and gold-dredger. The two first met on 8 September 2016 when Sew Hoy was invited to speak at the MaGIC Academy Symposium 2014 as a keynote speaker.

References