The Next Dream
The forward thinking and down-to-earth Dato’ Kelvin Kwek shares his journey of being a small-town boy to becoming the man behind creating mobile apps, writes Fiona Kee
When we think about technology, we often think about physical devices that are electrical or digital. In fact, technology encompasses far more than that. From automation to sustainability, organisations are adapting to a whole new wave of consumer preferences with apps made for services like ride-sharing, bill payments and ticket purchasing. Yet, have we ever stopped to wonder who invented these apps? Founder and CEO of Nexstream, Dato’ Kelvin Kwek, is the brains behind some popular local mobile apps like that for TGV Cinema and Tune Talk. In 2005, he dived full force into building Nexstream, after leaving a stable job at tech conglomerate Huawei. At 33 years old, he was a man on a mission with the foresight to help corporations turn their business processes and ideas into mobile apps through modern-day technology. “Nexstream was built to reinvent the idea of mobile phones and cloud technology,” said Dato’ Kelvin. With his vast knowledge in digital technology, I had to ask if this was his ambition from a young age. To my surprise, he initially wanted to be an electrical engineer. Inspired by his uncle, Dato’ Kelvin recalls him giving his family their first television and meticulously setting it up in his childhood home. The technicality of the profession motivated his decision for a college degree, but little did he know it was simply a stepping stone for his enrolment into a programming course that lead to the dream of Nexstream, and the rest was history.
“As desperate as we were to put food on the table, we remained determined”
Despite his growing success, he still remembers his struggles and his humble beginning. “I grew up in a small town in Perak, and we weren’t well-off,” shared Dato’ Kelvin. “But as desperate as we were to put food on the table, we worked hard and remained determined. Even after graduating college, I worked two jobs: during the day, I worked at my regular job, and at night I worked on my start-up company.” Dato’ Kelvin recognises the opportunities that he has been given, and has decided to give back by using his company to inspire and motivate his staff members. At Nexstream, staff are expected to be self-driven and become entrepreneurs of their own in the future. Dato’ Kelvin helps by training them on the technicalities of building their own business. With 20 being the average age of everyone in the company, he sees a younger version of himself in all his staff members, and makes it his job to train them the tricks of the trade. With the recent launch of their food service app, Alíments, Dato’ Kelvin reveals that 60 per cent of the mobile app is currently owned by Nexstream, while 40 percent is owned by four staff members. The purpose is to help them successfully run the business before handing it over entirely. In the words of Dato’ Kelvin, “I hope to give them the opportunities I did not have, while coaching them to think outside the box.”