Ep 55: Karl Mak (Co-Founder, Hepmil Media Group - SGAG, MGAG, PGAG) - Running a Meme Business

Karl Mak is a Singaporean entrepreneur and co-founder and CEO of HEPMIL Media Group: a holding company that owns SGAG, MGAG, PGAG, SGEEK and HEPMIL Creators’ Network. If you’re a fan of memes, then you’re in for a treat because that is precisely what HEPMIL specialises in! Karl shares how he almost became a professional swimmer, how he built a flourishing real estate career while in school, his experiences (and failure) with his first startup & how he ended up co-founding SGAG with Adrian Ang, whom he had first met back in 2005 in junior college. Highlights: 3:32 Swimming competitively 9:53 Entering the real estate business 13:28 The gift of the gab 20:26 Learning from Professor Soon Loo 22:23 Attending a coding bootcamp to find a co-founder 26:26 “Crazy” things Karl did to get enterprise clients 28:22 Why Televate, Karl’s first startup, failed 33:43 Meeting Adrian & starting SGAG 38:27 How they come up with memes 40:32 The Ah Lian meme, which was picked up by mainstream media 42:36 Milestones to track 47:47 The early days of SGAG 49:04 Land grabbing tactics used by SGAG 51:42 Distinguishing SGAG from other similar pages 56:40 Selling vulgar T-shirts 59:18 How the business deal with Scoot happened 1:00:57 Changing the engine of a plane in mid-air 1:06:03 Your failure makes you more valuable 1:07:26 Building a creators’ network 1:15:58 How COVID-19 impacted Karl & HEPMIL Media Group 📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/55 💌 Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605