Teresa Yeo
Mindvalley, the brainchild of its CEO and founder Vishen Lakhiani, plans to recreate Silicon Valley in KL and reverse the brain drain in ten years.
Mindvalley, the world’s leading online publisher of personal growth products, recently announced the establishment of Project Renaissance, a new initiative designed to provide an effective platform for Malaysia’s top talents to unleash their potential.
Lakhiani says he is following the Italian Renaissance model for the KL Project Renaissance.
He continues, “I’ve always believed that the best way to solve a practical problem is to create a vision to render that problem obsolete.”
The objectives of the Project include reversing the brain drain in Malaysia by providing opportunities for local talents and inspiring the creation of new businesses in various tech and creative fields.
Its newly completed headquarters in Bangsar, KL was recently voted as one of the Top 10 Coolest Offices by Inc, Magazine’s readers.
It also has offices in Argentina and Costa Rica.
He has people from 31 countries working in this organisation, people who call themselves visionaries, rebels, crazed inventors, best-selling authors and the like.
Vishen’s vision is to drain smart talents from other countries to come and work in his project.
He fervently believes that when Malaysians see these people moving from, say New York to KL, they would not think about migrating.
He would like to spark great talent in art, inventions and scientific discoveries.
Mindvalley recently extended its support to the project by building a RM7 M new space in Bangsar complete with a 150-seater state-of-the-art auditorium and expects to sponsor RM1M worth of meet-up space over the next two months.
It would provide for a gathering space for groups to meet, to collaborate and network and if they meet likeminded people, they would be less likely to migrate.
Currently, Webcamp KL, Incitement and EduCamp are amongst the groups that meet up regularly in the Mindvalley space. He hopes to start ten more communities in the next 12 months, starting groups for design, film and copywriting.
Vishen mentioned that Steve Jobs and Woznaik met in similar groups – the Homebrew Computer Lab – and Apple Computer was born through such a meet.
For more information about Mindvalley, visit their website and Facebook page.
Photo Credit: Paulius Staniunas
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