This article is part of a sponsored series for AmBank TRUE Lab
I was at a BFM conference last year when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and saw a guy a few years my junior, wearing a t-shirt and dressed in jeans. He extended his hand out and said
Hi Tim, My name is Wee Kiat and I’m one of the Co-Founders of myBurgerLab
It’s hard to live in KL and not have heard about myBurgerLab. For the past year or so I’ve constantly seen them being mentioned all over social media and have seen pictures of their saliva-dripping burgers.
I told him how much I’ve heard of his burger but I’ve never been able to try it because I’ve heard the queues are really really long. He gave me his card and told me to pop by any time and let him know when I do. I took on his offer a few weeks later and over a burger and soft drinks I learned about his entrepreneurial story. A story that I will share here today.
myBurgerLab was started by 3 guys. Wee Kiat, Ren Yi and Chang Ming. Their initial idea was to start a cafe. One of the many hipster cafes that we see in KL. When working on that idea though they decided that they had to have some food at the cafe. Neither of them knew how to cook beyond the usual student-level pastas but they thought burgers would be an interesting thing to try. Well.. because… how hard is it to cook a burger? It was all in the ingredients.
They Googled for different burger recipes online and experimented. Then when they found the recipe that made a fantastic burger, they stumbled upon something else that would become their trademark. The black charcoal bun.
Once their product was complete, they decided to test it first before opening a full blown restaurant. Red Bean Bag in Publika gave them the opportunity to do just that, serving burgers on some nights to a sample number of customers. The most positive reviews came back and not just that, they had began to build a fan base that was waiting for when they would open a physical shop.
Finally after pulling RM200,000 in startup capital from friends and family they started myBurgerLab at Seapark. The shop lot they got was old, run down and wasn’t at a very high traffic area but they went for it because the rent was low and they believed that good burgers will bring the traffic they need.
They were right.
myBurgerLab became an instant success with photos circulating online of people lining up around the block just to get their hands on the burgers they sold. Lines that reminded me of Shake Shack in New York.
A few years down the line myBurgerLab has grown to 3 stores in Malaysia now. The original in Seapark, one in OUG and one more in Sunway. While chatting with Wee Kiat over the weekend I learned that he had another one in Cambodia too.
The myBurgerLab story is yet another Malaysian success story of how 3 guys chased a dream to build something from nothing. If you have a dream that you want to chase, submit it on the TRUE Lab platform here and TRUE Lab might just help fund your dream.
I will be giving a pair of movie tickets for every idea submission too, so be sure to leave a comment below with the title of your idea and email address.
Read my first and second post to know more about AmBank TRUE Lab.
Good luck!
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space