Kayacore: IMU Student-Led Startup Shines at the Malaysian Youth Empowerment Fair 2024

The Youth Empowerment Fair 2024 (MYYEF2024) serves as a platform to inspire, engage, and empower the youth leaders in Malaysia in the field of education, career, and entrepreneurship. This year, the event was held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center (KLCC) on 3 and 4 February 2024 in the presence of the guest of honour, His Royal Highness YAM Tengku Arif Bendahara Tengku Muhammad Iskandar Ri’ayatuddin Shah Ibni Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah.

IMU was one of the 34 exhibitors, alongside Berjaya Properties, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Yayasan Hasanah, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), and Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNIRAZAK), showcasing innovative products.

There were also interactive talks lined up for the participants that were brought by the prominent figures from the fields such as the Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental, the Minister of Finance II, and the Minister of Communications. All these activities were streaming live on Astro Awani for the public viewing.

It was with great honour for Kayacore to be invited to work with Metacare4u in manning the booth of IMU Innovibe Hub, organised by IMU Industrial and Partnership Engagement (IPE) to showcase our proud productions from the School of Health Sciences (SOHS) Entrepreneurship Challenge 2023. Kayacore is a food production company that manufactures healthy avocado kaya jam while Metacare4u is a company of a telehealth application. Both are founded and run by current IMU students. We are truly excited to share our roller coaster experience of participating in this event with you!

As Kayacore is a startup company with limited financial support, many efforts were spent in sourcing for suppliers that could offer the best price for our ingredients and deliver the stocks on time. We also had to finalise our packaging, recipe, booth design, marketing materials, and production plans within the 2 weeks given. Thankfully, with the team’s efficiency, we managed to overcome each of the challenges and execute our plans well despite ongoing lectures in the university.

During the two-day Malaysian Youth Empowerment Fair 2024, we offered visitors a taste experience by serving a spoonful of jam atop a bite-sized biscuit, as that was considered the perfect combination.

We also did our parts by conveying to them that our jam is worth every single cent, considering its convenience, healthiness, and tastiness.  Every positive response added to the joy of accomplishment in us!

We were delighted to realize that we sold all the jars we had prepared and generated a four-digit revenue that exceeded the cost of production, enabling us to focus on improving our products.

On top of that, we were honoured to have the Finance Minister II, YB Senator Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan, Kidd Santhe (music artist), Ceddy (content creator and entrepreneur), and Keanu Azman (HitzFM DJ) visiting our booth!

Acing our very first sale is truly a strong motivation to keep us going. The feeling of witnessing our hard work and dedication finally come to fruition and gaining validation was beyond words.

With that being said, we have also received heartfelt compliments and advice for improvement, met people from various backgrounds and had the opportunity to connect with O’Briens Café, The Quack Movement Malaysia, Higher Education Malaysia Association (HEYA) and Youth Beyond Boundaries. Overall, we gained a lot of exposure and valuable inputs from serving more than 100 visitors at our booth over the two days.

If you are considering the road less travelled like ours, let us share our thoughts with you. Embarking on the journey of entrepreneurship is undoubtedly filled with challenges, especially the uncertainties that you may not have anticipated or prepared for. Yet, maintaining resilience throughout the entrepreneurial journey has so far been the most crucial aspect in helping us thrive in the face of adversity, because the key principles in maintaining resilience mainly comprise of positive mindset, adaptability, problem solving, resourcefulness, communication, continuous learning and risk management.

By staying resilient in pursuit of a clear vision and long-term goals, you will still emerge stronger despite any setbacks because rewards await those who persevere. Yes, theoretically, it may sound easier said than done, but there’s no one formula to success that suits every kind of business, the only way is to get hands-on, keep learning and trying until you achieve each checkpoint, you will find your very own formula along the way.

Although Kayacore is still a startup, transitioning from a group of students with zero experience and countless doubts to making sales despite lingering uncertainties marks a significant leap forward. As such, we humbly aspire to share these reflections with anyone interested in entrepreneurship. Doubts are inevitable, it is fine as long as we acknowledge them, analyse and proactively address them, but never let them stop you from progressing because failure is only when you stop trying.

With the revenue we have made and feedback collected, Kayacore will proceed with research and development before our healthier and tastier final recipe is ready for sale again on our instagram @kayacore_ and other e-commerce platforms, possibly physically in Pandan Serai IMU Bukit Jalil as perks for all staffs and students as well to mark the inception of our startup, made possible with IMU’s assistance. We envision more upcoming booth sales around the Klang Valley area and collaborations with other startups or interested industries in future, with the aspiration of providing sustainable, nutritious, and delicious food to every Malaysian, and ultimately, to the world one day.