Precious Nnabuike – meeting and engaging new people

This week on Other Expats, we visited the World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) Foundation’s IdeaLab 2017 in Kuala Lumpur on 2 and 3 August. The event creates a platform for investors and innovative startups in ASEAN to connect, and for businesses to network.

Sign up for The Memo, the Other Expats' weekly newsletter with exclusive content - just for subscribers - to know more about events like the WIEF Youngleaders Network (WYN) IdeaLab 2017, and what we’re up to.

We also reached out to Precious Nnabuike - featured in the Vulcan Post last year - co-founder at Ditto Malaysia. Ditto is a mobile app that helps you find activity partners on demand.

According to Precious, “It was inspired by years of hanging out with friends and noticing the social trend in KL. It was either you’re a cool kid who has friends to always hang out with, or you’re the guy/girl who doesn’t have friends to hang out with for activities.”

To motivate higher participation and get people to meet in real life, the app offers cash bonus incentives for online-to-offline connections.

1. Tell us about yourself: who is Precious?

Precious is just another quirky dude from Nigeria who works for a digital marketing agency in Kl and loves to talk.

2. The question everyone asks is “Why Malaysia”?

I always get this question. Didn’t plan on coming to Malaysia. As a matter of fact, didn’t know it was a country until I saw it on CNN.

It was always a battle between going to the UK (parents’ plan) or going to Asia (personal plan). My plan ever since I came across martial arts movies as a kid was to somehow embed myself in the Asian culture.

The kid in me played a huge part in the decision that led to my coming to Malaysia. Summarising, parents got tired of me ranting about going to Asia.

Yes, I am aware Asia is not a country. But I didn’t have a firm choice of an Asian country and decided to find an agent to get me admission into a college in Malaysia. That’s how I ended up here.

3. You are a co-founder of Ditto Malaysia. Tell us about that: what inspired the company, and where you are now?

Ditto is a social activity app that connects people with shared activities on demand, and we organise house parties every other month.

It was inspired by years of hanging out with friends and noticing the social trend in KL. It was either you’re a cool kid who has friends to always hang out with, or you’re the guy/girl who doesn’t have friends to hang out with for activities.

My co-founder and I noticed that trend and decided to create something that could help connect people on demand; that’s how Ditto was born.

We are currently putting all that we’ve learned into practice and, on the other hand, analysing all the data we have, to approach our growth in a data-driven manner.

4. What’s your favourite thing to do in your leisure time? Perhaps to de-stress.

Over the weekend, I’m either playing soccer with the lads, out somewhere in KL being a low-key social butterfly, or just catching up on TV series with my girlfriend. I have only one thing I do to de-stress, which is travelling out of KL.

5. What good and bad habits have you picked up since you’ve been in Malaysia?

A good habit would be cooking; now I spend a good amount of time in the kitchen. The bad habit I picked up is becoming a workaholic, thus sleeping late at night.

6. What advice would you give to Other Expats out there about being positive reps of themselves and their countries?

Would want to thank those repping their countries the right way. My advice to other expats would be to persistently work towards their goals and keep making those good connections.

Those would take you to the next level. There is nothing more rewarding than repping your country in the right way. If you need guidance, reach out to the Other Expats community.