‘I just wanted to play more golf’ says the most successful golf startup founder in Malaysia

• David Wong ran Deemples as a tight ship of 5 staff when he raised US$2m  
• Moving towards a 15% cut of GTV from 12%, hit first profitability last year

In May 2024, Malaysian golf startup Deemples and founder David Wong raised its most recent funding with US$2 million from a Singapore-based corporate venture capital firm, V Ventures. This brought its total funding raised to US$2.625 million (RM11.6 million), making Deemples the most successful startup, from a funding point, targeting the Malaysian golf market.

David has lasted the longest in this space, with this being his eight year. Startup founders have been trying to crack the Malaysian golf market from a player and golf club aspect since the dotcom era of the late 1990s. None have succeeded. 

Not a bad achievement by the 41 year-old David, who admits, “I actually didn't want to do it, because I just wanted to be a user, and play more golf.”

Seeds sown in 2014

The seeds of Deemples were sown in 2014. Consumers then already had platforms to address their needs for a lot of things, like Tinder with dating, Grab with ride-hailing, FoodPanda with food and grocery delivery, Airbnb with accommodation. 

So it made sense for there to be a platform where golfers can connect and play together, which was what David had thought back then.

“I was hoping that there was like a Tinder for golf out there that I could use to match and find different people to play with at specific times convenient for me,” he said.

But he couldn’t find such a platform.

Thus the idea of Deemples was born with the goal of  fulfilling his desire to play more golf. “My friends couldn't play whenever I wanted to play because our times didn't match, and I didn't know a whole lot of golfers.”

With a full time job in Shanghai, and not having the luxury of hiring full-time developers he took the only option available and worked with an outsourced development team to build the app in the hopes of testing the market reception before he made a decision about jumping in with both feet. It did not go well.

Working with a team that was not dedicated to his project consumed a lot of time with the back and forth. So he pulled the plug on this. It was 2015.

While it would be easy to quit at this stage, David still wanted to pursue Deemples. He took the experience as, “Part-and-parcel of trying and failing.”

He knew from day one that it was going to be difficult, especially since he had no blueprint nor guidance from a mentor. The latter is still a challenge for him.

His student days experience of selling books helped mentally prepare him for the tough journey ahead.

“I was selling books door-to-door part-time, across three states, while studying in Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business in the US. They told me it was going to be hard, and I was mentally prepared.”

He adopted that mind-set and was willing to give up a lot, even go broke building Deemples.

Things got better in 2016, when he tapped a tech savvy friend who helped build the app in eight months and came on board as his first CTO. 

The app was launched in Sept 2016, with David’s initial goal to get 1,000 downloads in Malaysia and 500 in Singapore. “I told myself that if this hits 1,500 downloads, I would quit my job,” he said.

Little did he know, but by Jan 2017 it had reached over 3,000 downloads. With the market potential clear, David quit his job in June.

His confidence was further bolstered when three friends whom he pitched Deemples to in 2014 when he was based in Shanghai, invested a combined US$125,000 (RM525,000) after he went full time.

In April 2019, David received a second funding round that eventually amounted to US$150,000. It was announced as US$105,000 but David explains that another US$45,000 came in after the announcement. He subsequently brought in Ahmad Daleen as CTO, replacing his first CTO who left that same year.

Chasing user growth and the monetization model

In line with the prevailing pre-pandemic era mantra of the startup ecosystem then, David focused on acquiring as many users as possible.

“In that same year, 2017, we expanded to Manila, to Jakarta, trying to build a user base, but nothing really stuck,” David said.

It was then that he realized the matching proposition of Deemples was not enough from either a business model or user experience aspect. Charging users to use the matching service would turn many off, after all no one pays to register for their Grab/FoodPanda/Boost apps.

From the user experience, it doesn’t complete the experience. 

“After I find someone to play golf with; I would still need to book a golf course,” David explains. Which is why in 2019 David focused on a transaction-based booking model for Deemples with users paying Deemples the tee off fee, which would then pay the clubs. This was the start of his monetisation phase.

“We started testing the model at a number of courses in the Klang Valley,” he said.

Once revenue started coming in 2020, he quickly raised US$350,000 through pitchIN’s equity crowdfunding platform in Sept. He actually raised US$230,000 but with the Malaysian government matching any funding raised through equity crowdfunding via the Malaysia Co-Investment Fund (MyCIF) grant initiative, he received an extra 50% investment. 

Moving from 12% to 15% cut of GTV & doubling revenue for past 3 years

Initially from 2020, Deemples took a 12% cut of the Gross Transaction Value (GTV) from tee off bookings. “Only now, we are moving towards a 15% cut,” he said.

The first year it activated its revenue model, Deemples generated RM1 million in GTV; in 2021 it was RM2 million; in 2022 it was RM4.8 million and last year it was RM9 million in GTV.

“We've been doubling our GTV every year for the last three years, and 2023 was the first time that we reached revenue at around RM1 million (based on his 12% cut) and were profitable,” David said.

“This year however, we won’t reach profitability because we are investing more into growing the business, growing users, increasing marketing activities, and helping golf courses achieve their revenue goals by upgrading our product.”

The team has already started working on new features, underlying structural changes, and design upgrades that would make it easier for both golf clubs and golfers to use.

Running a tight ship

What is notable about David is how, pre-raising the US$2 million, he has run Deemples as a super tight ship with headcount at five people.

“It was just Ahmad on the tech side, because we had to focus on growing the company and not building new products. But after May of this year, we have grown the tech team to five senior developers and one UI/UX person,” said David. Headcount is now at 16.

The current total user base is between 80,000 to 90,000 with 11,000 monthly active users on the app while the website has 30,000 monthly active users. 

This active user base turns up valuable insight for the golf clubs. “Since many of these clubs don’t have their own CRM (customer relationship management), they can use us to reach a lot of golfers,” he said.

“While golfers can post games at all golf clubs in Malaysia, we work commercially with 80 clubs, who accept payments upfront from golfers via Deemples,” he added.

Hotels partner to provide package services of rooms and transportation when golfers travel from out of state or country.

Various brands in real estate, finance, travel, luxury, and automotive who want to engage with golfers, who are mainly middle to high income males ranging between 25 and 65 years old, also partner Deemples. 

Lessons learnt

Over his eight-year journey, the key lesson David has learned is to say ‘No’ to a lot of things, and focus on things that matter.

“Because everybody will want you to do things their way, if you try to please everybody, you will definitely not get anything done, and if you try to do everything you also won't do everything well as there's only so little time or resources to play around with.”

He has also learnt to be focused, not just on the product offering but geographic focus as well, especially when resources are limited. And even now, with resources available, thanks to the US$2 million funding, he says, “you can plan product and geographic expansion accordingly with a specific amount of focus.”

For the avid golfer, who has been playing since 2009 and enjoys his lowest ever handicap at 14 versus 19 when he launched Deemples in 2017, David says he has “no desire to improve it - because golf is a tough game and it takes a lot of effort to improve.”

Nonetheless, it is a game anyone can enjoy, despite their handicap, says the Deemples power user who has racked up around 450 tee times. “Sadly, I am not the top power user as there are those who have racked up over 500 tee times.” But that’s good for business.