Local entrepreneur makes ‘Forbes 30 under 30 Asia’ list

23-year-old founder and CEO of JomRun, Chang Yi Hern was recently listed in Forbes 30 under 30 Asia. (Pic courtesy of JomRun team)

PETALING JAYA: Success doesn’t come without its fair share of hard work and 23-year-old Chang Yi Hern knows this better than most.

The founder of fitness app, JomRun, Chang recently snagged a coveted spot in the “Forbes 30 under 30 Asia” list under the category of consumer technology.

FMT recently caught up with this remarkable young entrepreneur and asked him how he felt about this recognition.

“It’s truly an honour to be listed on ‘Forbes 30 under 30 Asia’ list. I see it as a recognition of my hard work and dedication, as well as what my team and I have achieved in building our start-up.

“This achievement is also an indication that our start-up has made an impact in the field of consumer technology,” Chang said.

JomRun rewards its runners with vouchers to get people to be more active. (Pic courtesy of JomRun team)

A Johor Bahru boy, Chang said he was always interested in starting his own business someday, even when in school.

Throughout secondary school, he was constantly thinking up new business ideas, from selling sports shoes online to peddling soft drinks at the basketball court.

Although his secondary school business endeavours did not take off in a serious way, Chang’s passion for entrepreneurship never flagged, in fact, it spurred him forward.

After completing his A-levels, he was offered a full scholarship to pursue an engineering science degree at Oxford University.

During one of his summer breaks there, a chance visit to a park led him to a big group of people hurriedly walking and running around, deep in focus in the Pokemon Go game they were playing.

Like a lightbulb going off inside his head, Chang thought of an app that would reward people with vouchers and free gifts when they ran or walked. So he got down to work.

However, striking out as an entrepreneur at such a young age was an uphill battle for him. He admitted that the most challenging period was right at the start when he was trying to get JomRun off the ground.

“Back in 2017, the app was at its ideation stage and I was only a university student so I didn’t have a lot of savings to pump into my business. As a full scholarship recipient, I was given RM54,000 annually for my living expenses in the UK.”

Yi Hern at the Hatyai Reviving Marathon. (Pic courtesy of JomRun team)

But being dead set on making his app a reality, Chang took on multiple part-time jobs to generate the funding he needed for it. He worked as a street promoter for a bubble tea store, a deliveryman and even gave private tutoring.

At one point during his university years, he lived in the storeroom of a friend’s house so he could halve his rental expenses.

“I spent very little on essential items like food and transport. To get around, I managed to buy a second-hand bicycle for just RM26.

“In total, I spent only RM16,000 a year thus saving 70% of my allowance. In the end, I used all of it to start JomRun.”

After his third-year exams, Chang made the tough decision to discontinue his studies and head back home.

He collected his bachelor’s degree in engineering science and threw himself into JomRun full time, growing his team of just three people, to 50 today.

JomRun began with just three people. They have now grown into a team of 50. (Pic courtesy of JomRun team)

“In August 2018, we launched a new feature in the app which allows users to search and buy tickets to sporting events,” he said, explaining that there was an obvious gap in the market that they pounced on.

“During the early days at JomRun, we would always go to running events and promote our app via on-ground marketing efforts.

“However, through speaking to organisers directly, we realised that they were keen to sell their sports event tickets on our app. So, we started the ticketing portal.”

To date, JomRun has hosted more than 1,500 sporting events in Malaysia and every single month, the team onboards more than 150 sporting events whose organisers are interested to sell their tickets with them.

Being only 23 and having achieved so much, Chang believes however that many young people today do struggle to identify what they want out of life. Being lost, they run the risk of not having any aim or ambition to work towards.

“The most important advice that I can give to people in my generation and my peers is to find something you love doing and put in extra effort and hard work to make it a success.” - FMT