Entrepreneur Malcom: Founder & CEO of Marvel Technologies

Born in 1979 in Hillbrow. Malcom is an entrepreneur from "Rivaks" Riverlea in Johannesburg .He is the Founder & CEO of Marvel Technologies, the Dr CL Smith Foundation, MyDigiVault and several other ventures. His childhood were full of love and joy. His close family surrendered him growing up and his extend family members. He attended preschool in Coronationville. He has shown an early sign of creativity and developed attention to details. Malcom attended primary school from grade 1 to 6 at TC primary school.

During that period, he was becoming more and more aware of the environment, particularly the racial segregation that South Africa was facing.

His parents removed him from public school to Sacred Heart College, a private school. His environment was completely different from his "coloured" neighbourhood. Due to financial situation, he was forced to go back to a public school. He matriculated in 1997 and applied at Wits University for a Bcom degree but ended up in sociology international relations and statistics.

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He changed his major to enrol at Wits Technikon to do a national diploma in computing systems engineering .After saving for 5 years, he was finally able to afford a trip to England .When he came back, He worked as a PC technician for an small business and later applied for an internship at High performance systems

After being the only selected for a permanent contract among 24 interns, his job allowed him to work across different industries, which include manufacturing, finance and public sector after securing a permanent job at HPS travelling opportunities were offered to him.

During that time, Malcom developed skills through reading as well as the help from his friends.

He started a property business in 2007 while he was still working in corporate. He registered the business and started selling property. He learned how to set up a company, together with the laws around setting up a company, the responsibilities and how to manage in terms of accounting, the flow money in a business, accumulated losses, member's loans and shareholders loans.

He left his corporate work completely because he was driven by a fallout with management. After being able to manage his own time from 2009 to 2011 he had a huge opportunity with the city of Johannesburg and his job was to look at the revenue collection for electricity. The vision was to help the city improve the revenue collection and have more money to put that into infrastructure and electrification. Therefore, it was at that stage that his vision of improving society started growing. It was not just about business, there was a social impact at the end of it. Overall, it was a matter of, is there a business? Can we make money? Is there an impact in people's lives? He reproached his old company to seize the opportunity to apply for the tender but the deal fell through the cracks because of personal vendettas with him and managements.

He switched from for a profit company to a non-profit company because various stakeholders loved his idea but could only support him as a NPO. Therefore, he needed to go learn what is required for a NPO, the benefits, laws and legislations.

Not looking to go back to work, He enjoyed the free time and management. He pivoted his business model from Energy to education. He saw an opportunity during the Limpopo textbooks crisis and went into education to help solve this problem so that pupils can have textbooks on time. He saw a business opportunity but also he asked himself if there was a social impact behind it. Once he got into that sector, he saw what was really going on. He noticed that everyone is in it for him or herself not willing to collaborate but did their own things. He has a small development company that he works with on his technology. He has teachers in his family so he approached them to market the benefits of the company which include 'time-saving', stress management, skills upgrading, making use of twitter, Facebook and best practice.

Launched on March 1st 2015 Zibuza.net is an online community for teachers in South Africa that aims to improve the quality of education outcomes by elevating the status of teachers in society. The project, in partnership with the Department of Basic Education and other stakeholders aims to connect 433,320 teachers, spread across 25,691 schools in all 9 provinces, to impact 12,814,473 learners. Value chain provides value for schools (Access to networks and recruitment), teachers (teaching material and process, networks and publications), publishers (Data) and learners (Improved standards of learning)

Zibuza connects teachers a multitude of stakeholders in the Basic Education ecosystem to create value by facilitating interactions around professional development, teacher support and appreciation. The goal is to build a common platform for all stakeholders that will connect the collective knowledge, experience and investment to realise an increase in learner performance. Zibuza.net links to the strategic outcome-oriented goals of the Department of basic education to improve the Quality of Teaching. The Learning Outcomes are to improve teacher capacities and practices; Increase access to high-quality learning materials, and supports the objectives outlined in the department of basic education's Action Plan and Vision for Schooling 2025 as well as the National Development Plan 2030.

Zibuza.net was a recipient of the Misk Grand Challenge awarded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with the Misk Foundation. It received a cash injection to growth as well as being observed for future funding, this achievement provides visibility and exposure .The award ceremony took place in Saudi Arabia in November 2018 and he represented South Africa as one of 15 winners from over 3000 applications submitted globally. Zibuza.net was also country winner as nominated for best and most innovative Learning and Education digital solution in the 2018 World Summit Awards

While he was still leaving out of the commission he made when he was working at HPS, he interacted with his financial planner on how to invest his money. He started doing research and found out that 3 million South African and foreigners who left the country after their work permit expired owed 450 billion in unclaimed pension. The reasons were the failures of employers and funds to provide information about beneficiaries, poor administration, and failure to inform the beneficiaries they claim benefits after death. This situation was convenient for financial institution.

Malcom created MyDigiVault is an online asset registry and planning tool that will empower and educate people to organize and securely store and share important personal, financial, legal and health information, all in one convenient place. He helps financial institutions establish new relationships of trust with customers.

In January 21st 2013, he founded a non-profit organisation called the Dr CL smith foundation as a homage to the legacy of his grandfather five years after he passed away .Dr Smith was specialised as a paediatrician, general practitioner and district surgeon and he dedicated his life to serving the healthcare needs of others.

Malcom applies the Technology progression road map, which is study from industry disruption through 6D framework: phase one - digitization (Digitize the products/process), phase two - deceptive (Unclear on the product), phase three- dematerialization (remove physical components), phase four - Demonetize (Remove money gain from it), phase five - democratize (Give accessibility to all).

He conducts meetings at home and meets clients where it is convenient. He does not have a physical team (staff) but a virtual team. His team consist of university lecturers, students and alumni. He sends out task through an online portal to challenge the team

"You must fail ,accept it, but most importantly, is it taking you towards your goal? You can get 90% at school but that does not really matter in the real world. Attitude counts as well. And the other thing is that you must teach yourself is to be accountable and responsible", said Malcom.

He believes entrepreneurs are practical and employing people for their immediate skills and not a long-term employment .Entrepreneurship can solve many problems but the economy is not mature enough. Entrepreneurship is very glorified but it is hard work and entrepreneurs must have a balance. South Africa does not have adequate infrastructure for venture capitalist and there is a problem with the labour force. He encourages people to be persistent, resilient and resourceful. Entrepreneurs need to question themselves on what's the pain threshold emotionally and physically. You have to sacrifice a lot. He is 40 and unmarried and still staying with his parents. You must have your WHY? And his "why" is resolving issues of education. There are no guidelines, use flexibility and bending rules to your advantage.