Ejen2u – The Startup That Helps in Enriching Malaysia’s Informal Economy

We talked to Sheikh Ezaiddin of Ejen2u about helping the Agentship market, and he had the following to say:-

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times?

Sheikh Ezaiddin: All my family members are doing great. None of us are infected, and hopefully, the virus will stay away from our family.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded Ejen2u.

Sheikh Ezaiddin: I am an engineer, and the very first company that I co-founded is a system development company. 3 years ago, I joined a business club with various SMEs in the group. A company requested us to develop a system because they had too much headache in managing their agents. We have successfully developed a system for them and solved a lot of issues. Then, we realized that the market of Agentship is huge, the pain is real, so we should focus on helping the industry. To make this happen, I built a dream team consisting of 3 different expertise, and we are all in the same business group, which I mentioned just now. I have 11 years’ experience in system development, Imran Hadi 20 years’ experience in Agentship, and Taufiq 15 years’ experience in branding. Together, we co-founded Ejen2u in September 2019.

How does Ejen2u innovate?

Sheikh Ezaiddin: Our intention at first was to digitize the business operation in managing agents. Since day 1, we have always said that we want to be the most comprehensive agent management system, and we dare to say that now. We use technology to help product founders to eliminate challenges on managing agents, and they are not afraid to scale once they use Ejen2u.

But now, we have a bigger vision. We have realized that there is a bigger issue. Agents fall under the informal economy. Now, we are innovating with the goal of helping to enrich the informal economy within the Agentship industry. We will provide a full-ecosystem consisting of business digitalization, life enrichment, and a community support system.

How does the coronavirus pandemic affect your business finances?

Sheikh Ezaiddin: It did affect our business at first, mainly during the first 2 months. Product founders did not know what to do. Few companies stop their business for various reasons, but mainly because of the panic created by Covid-19. Thus, we’ve had a significant drop in our revenue, and in fact, we haven’t had any new clients in that time. However, for the third month up to now, our revenue has risen from month to month. This is a reality: Agentship blooms during the economic crisis.

Did you have to make difficult choices regarding human resources, and what are the lessons learned?

Sheikh Ezaiddin: We did our Business Continuity Plan (BCP) in case the worst case happens. However, we tried our best to protect our team, we don’t want them to have their salary cut, and we are proud that we are able to keep them all. In fact, our family size is getting bigger now!

How did your customer relationship management evolve? Do you use any specific tools to be efficient?

Sheikh Ezaiddin: We are relatively new in the market, and we want to create advocates among our early adopters. We appointed a Customer Success Manager specifically for this. We have group telegram with founders; we always talk to them, we even come to their office to discuss their challenges. It is tiring, but it does works! Most of our clients are referrals from our existing clients.

Did you benefit from any government grants, and did that help keep your business e afloat?

Sheikh Ezaiddin: Yes, we’ve earned Cradle CIP300 grants, which really help us to scale our business during the early stage of our company. And then, during Covid-19, the Program Subsidi Upah (PSU) really helped us to subsidize the salary of our staff.

Your final thoughts?

Sheikh Ezaiddin: Covid-19 does have an impact on the economy. A lot of people are affected; they have lost their jobs, they are struggling to survive, and as a tech startup, we believe that we can play our

role in reducing their challenges. We need to think broadly and look at multiple perspectives in order to help them. We need to be bold and innovate quickly, and with God’s will, we will have an impact, in our case, on the informal economy of Agentship.

Your website?

 https://ejen2u.com/