PUTRAJAYA: Teoh Jiun Ee decided to set up Carsome, an online platform to buy and sell used cars, after going through an awful experience trying to sell a used car.

Teoh, co-founder of Carsome and chief executive officer of Carsome Academy, shared his experience during a forum held at the Putrajaya Festival of Ideas last Wednesday.

He advised young people to take action.

“Make your first step, and you will then know whether your idea will work.

“The most important thing is the first step. Nothing is perfect.

“The same goes for business. Your business can’t be perfect right from the start. You will need to learn from the process,” he said.

He encouraged young people to share their views and find ways to progress based on the comments from other people.

By then, one can set up his team and look for investors.

Teoh shared his experience of setting up Carsome 10 years ago at the forum.

He was helping his elder sister sell her used car, but discovered that the process of finding a buyer and comparing car prices was not easy. He subsequently decided to set up a platform to resolve these issues.

The same for his partner Eric Cheng, co-founder and chief executive officer of Carsome, who also went through a terrible experience trying to sell his used car.

“The entire process is painful because of the many procedures.

“You need to find a buyer but you do not know whether you can sell your car at a reasonable price.

“Our experience selling used cars revealed that there is a big gap in selling cars.

“We discovered that such a gap does not only exist in Malaysia but other countries in Southeast Asia too.

“It is not easy to sell a car,” he confessed.

After setting up Carsome, many asked him: “Are you a fan of automobiles? Which is your favourite car?”

He replied, “I am only an ordinary man trying to resolve the issue of selling cars and help a customer sell his car,” he explained.

To Teoh, Carsome is not just a platform but also an ecosystem to help customers complete the process of selling a car and then buy a used car.

After setting up the company a decade ago, Teoh recalled that the greatest challenge was to have a sustainable business model.

They faced problem looking for investors and some told them they needed to change their business model.

“We continued to make changes and even started an academy to train people,” he said.

The Covid-19 pandemic was another major challenge encountered by Carsome that led them to set up the academy.

“Most people worked from home at that time and nothing was certain. We did not know when the pandemic would be over. So we started training and setting up the academy.”