Malcolm Ong
Founder of Skillshare
Malcolm Ong
Founder of Skillshare
Hong Kong
Overview
Work Experience
Co-founder & CPO
2023 - Current
https://terminal3.io
Co-founder
2010
Co-founder of Skillshare - a global online learning community for creativity. Primarily led the Product and Engineering teams as CTO from Nov 2010 - Mar 2013 Skillshare is funded by OMERS, Union Square Ventures (USV), Amasia, Spero / Omidyar, Burda (BPI), Spark Capital, Vegas Tech Fund (Tony Hsieh), Founder Collective, SV Angel, and Collaborative Fund. https://www.skillshare.com
Senior VP of Product
2017 - 2021
SCMP's mission is to lead the global conversation about China. We are a global, English-language news media company owned by Alibaba. - Reporting to the CEO, started a new department and grew it to 75+ team members across Product Management, Engineering, Design, Growth, Labs, and Partnerships functions - Helped grow audience from 3m to 50m MAU, and expanded from primarily-HK to globally with 35% users from US, and 92% outside of HK - Managed US$5m+ P&L and improved revenue channels w/ ad-tech, subscription, and commerce - Relaunched SCMP flagship products across numerous platforms (e.g. scmp.com, iOS + Android, video, AMP, FBIA) and launched new award-winning products (e.g. Inkstone, Abacus, Goldthread, SCMP Research, Voice on Alexa + Google Home) - Led internal digital transformation by instilling Lean Startup culture in company values and processes
Venture Partner
2020 - 2021
Capital Formation @ 500 Southeast Asia (part of the 500 Startups family). 500 Startups is a global venture capital firm on a mission to discover and back the world’s most talented entrepreneurs, help them create successful companies at scale and build thriving global ecosystems. We have invested in over 2,500 companies across 70+ countries. Notable investments in the 500 portfolio include Credit Karma, Twilio, Canva, Grab, Bukalapak, The RealReal, Talkdesk, Knotel, Udemy, and Ipsy. 500 Southeast Asia has backed over 225 companies across multiple sectors from internet to consumer to deep technology. It continues to connect founders with capital, expertise and powerful regional and global networks to help them succeed. https://sea.500.co
Panel Liaison & Speaker & Mentor
2009 - 2019
Advised and helped organize panels for SXSW Interactive Festival 2009-2019. Speaker during SXSW Interactive: - 2019: "How AI Has and Will Change the News Industry" ; and - 2014: "Feature Assassins" Mentored during SXSW V2V 2013.
Product & Growth
2016 - 2017
Led the following teams and initiatives: 1. Organic Growth - Passenger and Driver acquisition via Organic channels, such as SEO - Ambassador program to acquire users via referrals - Local Partnerships program to acquire users via local businesses (e.g. restaurants, gas stations, etc) 2. Lyft.com - Managed entire lyft.com site for various company initiatives, collaborating with marketing, customer service, legal, etc. 3. "Brand Experience" team - Amp (driver dashboard light hardware) - Local Promotions (e.g. Magic Mode) - Brand Partnerships (i.e. Disney "Minnie vans", Taco Bell "taco mode") 4. Lyft Web Client (ride.lyft.com) - Launched new product to allow users to request rides via Web. - Targeted desktop, low-end mobile devices, and 3rd party services like hospitals, schools, and hotels. 5. Amazon Fire app - Partnered w/ Amazon to create Lyft's first presence on Fire devices 6. Microsoft Windows 10 app - Partnered w/ Microsoft to create Lyft's first presence on Windows mobile and Surface devices 7. Frontend (Web) Platform - Scalability, maintainability, and performance of Lyft's internal Web infrastructure and platform
CEO & Co-founder
2014 - 2015
At Sandstorm Labs, we developed a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) -based analytics and communication platform for offline and low-connectivity experiences and environments. Starting with the live music industry, our B2B product allowed brands, event producers, and industry professionals to analyze "foot-traffic" data at their events, such as music festivals and conferences, to optimize operations and enable personalized performance-marketing campaigns. Our B2C product was a live music community for fans to discover, discuss, and relive concerts and festivals.
Mentor for 20 Under 20
2014 - 2015
Founded by technology entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel in 2011, the Thiel Fellowship is a two-year program for young people who want to build new things. Thiel Fellows skip or stop out of college to receive a $100,000 grant and support from the Thiel Foundation’s network of founders, investors, and scientists. http://thielfellowship.org/about/
Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR)
2014 - 2014
Served in a 6-month program where I: 1) helped manage and operate our startup accelerator program, and act as in-house advisor for batch of 30+ companies; 2) researched new-business venture ideas (i.e. healthcare, music, analytics) with the potential of starting a new company at end of program (or "converting" into a VC) 500 Startups is a Silicon Valley venture capital seed fund & startup accelerator. Our investment team and mentor network has operational experience at companies including PayPal, Google, YouTube, Yahoo, AOL, Zynga, LinkedIn, Twitter, Apple & Facebook. http://500.co/
Product Lead
2010 - 2010
OMGPOP (acquired by Zynga) was a developer, publisher, and destination for free-to-play, casual multiplayer online games. - Served as the Product Management lead in a small team of ~25, collaborating with Engineering, Design, and Revenue. - Managed portfolio of 10+ games; best known for our game Draw Something, which reached 30m MAU at its height. - Managed platform partnerships to distribute games on Facebook (one of FB's first game partners), Yahoo, IMVU, etc. OMGPOP is funded by Spark Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Baseline Ventures and Betaworks, as well as angel investors including Ron Conway, Kevin Rose and Marc Andreessen.
Education
Latest Articles
Coronavirus: observations on how Hong Kong has limited the pandemic
Talks about Coronavirus, Covid-19 and Hong Kong