The founder of the popular Malaysian burger chain opens up about parting ways with his co-founders and why happiness, not sales, is his business priority on the latest episode of Gen.T’s Crazy Smart Asia podcast
An introvert who had to nurture his extroverted side for business, Chin Ren Yi is the co-founder of Malaysia’s wildly successful burger chain, MyBurgerLab.
Established in 2012, the brand pioneered the use of charcoal buns before they were widely used in the industry. It is also known for successfully matching the Western invention of a burger with familiar Malaysian flavours such as laksa and budu, a fermented fish sauce from Kelantan.
Speaking to Gen.T’s Chong Seow Wei on the latest episode of our Crazy Smart Asia podcast, Chin recalls how he skipped school to spend more time on the shop floors of his first job at a coffee shop, the experience at In-N-Out Burger that got him into F&B and the decision to part ways with his original co-founders.
Below are a few excerpts from the conversation. Click the audio player to listen to the full episode or subscribe via Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
On loving his first job
“Some days, I would skip classes I didn’t like just to go to work because I wanted to serve people. That was my first taste of hospitality and the joy you get from serving people.”
On why sharing is believing
“Coming out to be an entrepreneur, I didn’t know that I had to be out in public, talking so much. But I realised that part of the business is putting a part of yourself into what you’re doing to show people how genuine you are about your service and products.”
Read more: MyBurgerLab co-founder Chin Ren Yi on how to build a restaurant empire
On elevating Malaysia’s burger experience
“In Malaysia, we have our street burgers, our Ramly burgers, and then we have our fast-food burgers, which is McDonald’s and so on. After that, it’s immediately TGIF, Chili’s or your hotel gourmet burgers. I saw a gap there, where fast-food burgers can also be artisanal.”
On the reality of being in F&B
“F&B is a lot of work, a lot of dirty work and you got to get your hands dirty. For every success story you hear, there are another hundred to a thousand failures. It’s not an easy industry and I would not recommend it to everyone. I would never recommend [it to] my friends and family. However, I would recommend it to my enemies.”