Richard Ker Profile picture
May 3 14 tweets 6 min read
Women were struggling to find comfortable & high quality prayer prayer garments.

A lady saw the opportunity to create better & more comfortable telekung (prayer garment).

Using innovation & clever marketing, she made it a global success.

This is the story of Siti Khadijah.👇
Siti Khadijah or SK was founded by Puan Hajah Padzilah Enda Sulaiman from Perak, Malaysia.

Her company was named after the wife of Prophet Muhammad, Siti Khadijah.

In 2009, she started selling telekung from her home in Kajang, Selangor to support her family.
After her husband's early retirement, he started his own business.

But the business was failing and they fell into heavy debts.

They had to do something to survive.

She started selling cosmetics and joined MLM schemes.
But, it didn't go well.

She knew she had good sewing skills that can be turned into a business.

Finding telekung where the face area can fit nicely was a problem then.

Her customers always asked for alteration.

She saw this as a big business opportunity.

(Photo: SK)
She started it from home with only RM10k capital.

Her husband helped with the production but selling the first 200 units was hard.

She tried to sell them to travel agencies for their customers going for Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca).

Nobody was keen.

(Photo: Majalah Labur)
People thought her telekung was too expensive.

One day, she met a journalist at an event and the person agreed to write about her telekung.

That changed everything.

She received endless calls from customers.

Then she was invited to appear on TV and the sales went up.
It was not all positive.

They were criticised of turning the telekung into a branded wear.

She said she designed it in such a way so that it would encourage the wearer to pray.

People also copied her design and made fake products.
In 2014, two major events happened:

1. Her son, a digital marketer who used to work with Google Japan setup an online store.

2. Her products appeared on Astro Go Shop, an TV shopping channel.

She sold more than 50,000 units worth RM10m.
They're constantly innovating with their products and marketing.

New and fresh designs every year.

Clever and catchy billboards around the city.

Their e-commerce website is well-built.

(Photos: @richardker & @ijaicool)
This Raya / Eid, they started selling them in vending machines at the rest areas along the highways.

They know people will stop and pray at the rest areas and may need to use them.

They go into their minds of their customers.

(Photo: Madam Padzillah's FB)
She now produces more than 2,000 telekung daily, 10 times more when she started the business.

She created a business that employs women and people under B40s.

SK has more than 40 stores in Malaysia and abroad.

They're sold in Australia, UK, Canada & Japan.
Her advice to aspiring entrepreneurs:

Be positive, strong, daring and never give up.

Always be learning and put your trust in God.

(Photo: PUBI Perak)
I share stories on entrepreneurship, science, tech and innovation. If you find this inspiring, please RT the first post.

Follow me @richardker for more.

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More from @richardker

May 1
It’s futuristic.

The design is extraordinary.

It was built to promote tech and innovation, especially in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI).

Welcome to Dubai’s Museum of the Future @MOTF. 👇🏼 Image
MOTF is one of the most complex buildings ever built.

The exterior is made of windows that form an Arabic poem.

They are 3 quotes from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE about its future. Image
He said:

1. We won't live for hundreds of years, but we can create something that will last for hundreds of years.

2. The future will be for those who will be able to imagine, design and build it, the future does not wait, the future can be designed and built today. Image
Read 8 tweets
Apr 30
This futuristic electric bike doesn’t have any hub.

You see it on science fiction movies.

It’s Malaysian 🇲🇾 and they have sold it to 70 countries around the world.

Who are they? 👇🏼
This is Alec Lim.

He co-founded this company called Beno @reevobikes in 2016.

Beno is short for Be Innovative.

The bike is the world’s first hubless e-bike.

Alec studied manufacturing engineering and worked at Motorola and Keysight Technologies.

He’s also a cyclist.
Without any funding or grant, they raised RM28.4 million through Indiegogo, an international crowdfunding platform.

With the money they finalised the design at their R&D office in Seattle 🇺🇸.

The bikes are in production and already started shipping to their customers.
Read 8 tweets
Apr 29
She’s @NASA’s Deputy Chief Technologist.

She builds advanced equipment for NASA’s spacecrafts and rovers.

She’s a Malaysian 🇲🇾 from Johor and now based at NASA Headquarters in USA 🇺🇸.

Introducing Florence Tan and this is her story. 👇🏼
Florence was born in Muar, Johor.

She grew up at a fishing village and her parents were teachers.

When she was little, she wanted to be a professor because her parents asked her to dream bigger.

But after watching Star Trek, she decided to be an Aerospace engineer.
She left Malaysia when she was 18 and studied at Western Michigan University.

Florence completed her degree in computer engineering at Maryland and got her master’s in EE and MBA from John Hopkins.
Read 9 tweets
Apr 28
Cyberjaya is a failure.

That’s what some people think.

Maybe because we’re not sharing our success stories to the world.

These successful tech entrepreneurs in Cyberjaya have proven that we all can do it.

Let’s get to know them. 🧵👇🏼 @Twt_Cyberjaya
1. Arif Tukiman @arifcooll

He’s the co-founder and CEO of @runcloud_io, a centralized control panel to help manage and monitor cloud servers.

His startup currently manages more than 220,000 web applications from over 100 countries including USA & UK. (Photo: Forbes) Image
2. Kamarul A Muhamed

The CEO and founder of @Aerodyne_Group — the world’s #1 drone solutions provider with operations in 35 countries.

They help companies transform digitally using their drone and data technology.

He was also named as EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2020. Image
Read 11 tweets
Apr 28
Malaysians are really smart people.

We have invented things that are being used around the world.

But most of us don’t know about it.

Here are the amazing Malaysian inventors 🇲🇾👇🏼
1. Nehemiah walls

These blocks on highways were invented by a Malaysian called Dr. Nehemiah Lee.

It’s being widely used in countries such as Singapore, Australia, and China. (Photo: Nehemiah Lee)
2. Automatic egg boiler

This famous device makes perfect half boiled eggs.

The inventor was Datuk Hew Ah Kow. (Photo: Marketing Scribe)
Read 8 tweets
Apr 26
People said you can only find call centre / customer service jobs in Cyberjaya.

It’s not true.

I searched on LinkedIn and found almost 900 high-value tech related job vacancies in Cyberjaya.

Here are some examples👇🏼

@Twt_Cyberjaya
1. Enterprise Solutions Lead. UST is a US company.
2. Digital Transformation Partner

DXC Technology is an American multinational information technology services and consulting company headquartered Ashburn, Virginia U.S
Read 13 tweets

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