Vivy Yusof

About Vivy Yusof Founder FashionValet and Duck Scarve

I’m 30. I am happily married with 2 children; Daniel and Mariam. With my husband, I currently run FashionValet, one of Asia’s leading multi-label online sites carrying Asian designer labels, and The dUCk Group, a lifestyle brand of headscarves and stationery.

My education history is pretty interesting because I’ve had a taste of every different school; public school, boarding school, all-girls school, Islamic school, private school. I changed schools a lot because I used to get bored and had to fight my way with my parents to let me change schools. One agreement was if I could get no 1 in class, I could get out of boarding school, and I did! I also studied my A-Levels and SPM at the same time, flying back and forth between KL and the UK where my college was. It was crazy because my continuation at the college depended on my results (that was the deal if they allowed me to study both at the same time), but I managed to get all A’s in all my formal examinations in school; UPSR, PMR, SPM and A-Levels. I loved my colourful education life, and I often write about it to my young readers to inspire them to not take education and exams lightly.

I started blogging back in uni, where I read law at London School of Economics, UK (LSE). Writing has always been a passion of mine and I’ve been blogging for almost 9 years now at Proudduck.com about everything under the sun; love, life, career, family, and now motherhood. Upon graduating with a law degree, I decided the legal life wasn’t for me and I returned to Malaysia to work with my dad’s company the Proven Group which is in property development. The entrepreneurial spirit in me made me restless and pretty soon, I decided I wanted to have a business of my own. My husband (then boyfriend) and I came up with the idea of having an online store, after we saw that I had a big following online through my blog, of fashion-savvy females. Thus, FashionValet was born in Nov 2010. We were the first multi-label online site in Malaysia at the time and we only had 10 brands. We now have over 400 brands and offices in Malaysia and Jakarta, Indonesia. We are in the midst of setting up in Singapore now.

In your own words what is FashionValet?

One of the largest fashion sites in SEA, FashionValet is the pioneer multi-label online site stocking over 400 fashion designers and brands from South East Asia. We started our first flagship retail store in Bangsar Village, KL and are in the midst of setting up in Singapore and Brunei as next locations.

How did you come up with the idea of FashionValet?

Both of us studied in the UK where online consumerism was a part of daily life – you could even buy your groceries with the click of a button! We enjoyed the convenience of shopping online and it soon took over the way we conventionally shopped. After graduating university and returning to Malaysia, we realised that e-commerce was non-existent at home back in 2010. After being frustrated at the lack of online shopping options available to Malaysians (and Fadza being frustrated driving me around and being stuck in traffic jam and crowded parking lots), we decided to fill the gap ourselves! We talked to local designers and realised they were having challenges in reaching out to the masses and developing a solid customer base. We created FashionValet to push Malaysia towards expanding its consumer habits, but also to promote local designers and their immense talent.

Could you walk us through the process of starting up FashionValet?

We started off in 2010 with only RM100K of our own savings and borrowings. After two years on the relatively new e-commerce scene, we participated and won MYEG Make The Pitch Season 2, a nationwide TV programme, in 2012. We were able to expand FashionValet with our winnings and the exposure from the show widened our audience. This year, we secured Series A investment funding from Elixir Capital in Silicon Valley, California earlier this year and became one of the only companies in Malaysia to get funding from the tech city.

Fadza and I had no background in e-commerce or fashion in which I did law and he did Aeronautical Engineering. Therefore, we had to do everything from scratch with the limited amount of capital we had. Meeting local brands every day and convincing them of this new idea was easy because they were excited about the new online shopping phenomenon, and with my blog following, we connected the 2 parties (designers and customers) together. Our challenge was more on the tech side; everything was outsourced in the beginning from website design to payment gateway to managing bugs etc. We learned a great deal and the learning curve was very steep.

Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur?

It was when I was a child and accompanying my dad in his office during my school holidays. It’s not so much about the money, but it’s so exciting seeing him handle different departments and tackling problems and moving around all day. I get bored and restless very easily, so entrepreneurship is really for me because there’s never a dull moment. Everything depends on you; from decisions you make to the mood you give off to your team in the morning, you are responsible for steering the ship. My husband and I both grew up in entrepreneurial families, so it’s all we know!

In your opinion, what are the keys to entrepreneurial success?

For me, it’s the need to always want to win and be no. 1. Once you have this drive, you’ll want to see your business do well and you don’t need any other motivation but yourself. Passion for something is very important, you will only really excel at something you love doing. Find that something you’re passionate about.

Any parting words of wisdom for entrepreneurs out there from your personal experience?

I repeat this a lot, but it’s very important to not look for praises but instead you look for your weaknesses to overcome them. Ask people what they hate about your business, that’s the only way to strengthen your model. And don’t ask your family or best friends because they will love you no matter what and you are always a hero to them. I love critics because they help me improve my business; I love competitors because they challenge my work. My dad never taught me to be comfortable in what I do. Even when I got 90% in an exam, he would ask me why not 100%? I used to get so annoyed with him, but now I think that is the best training I receive to always want to win and excel in my work.