- David Wong ran Deemples as a small fleet of 5 team when he raised US$ 2m ,  ,
- Moving from 12 % to 15 % of GTV, the company achieved first profitability last year.
Deemples and chairman of Malay golf Deemples and creator David Wong received US$ 2 million from a Singapore-based business venture capital firm, V Ventures, in May 2024. 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.
This is David’s eighth month, making this the longest David has ever lived. Since the late 1990s, startup founders have been trying to break into the Indonesian golf industry from a player and golf club perspective. Few have succeeded.  ,
Not a bad achievement by the 41 , year-old David, who admits,” I actually did n’t want to do it, because I just wanted to be a user, and play more golf”.
Grains wrought in 2014
Deemples seeds were planted in 2014, to be planted in 2015. Users then presently had programs to address their needs for a lot of items, like Tinder with dating, Capture with ride-hailing, FoodPanda with food and food delivery, Airbnb with hospitality.  ,
Therefore, it made feeling for there to be a system where golfers could enjoy along, as David had intended.
” I was hoping that there was a Tinder for sport out there that I could use to meet and get different people to play with at particular times that were suitable for me,” he said.
But he could n’t find such a platform.
Deemples ‘ concept was born with the intention of amp;nbsp; achieving his desire to play more golf. ” My friends could n’t play whenever I wanted to play because our times did n’t match, and I did n’t know a whole lot of golfers”.
With a full-time career in Shanghai and the luxury of working with an outsourced development team to create the software in the hopes of testing the market response, he decided to jump in with both feet and took the only chance. It did not go well.
Working with a team that did n’t care about his project was a lot of work. So he gave up on this. It was 2015.
At this point, David however wanted to pursue Deemples, even though it would be simple to do so. He took the experience while,” Part-and-parcel of trying and failing”.
He was aware from the beginning that it would be challenging, particularly since he had no leader to give him a blueprint or advice. He continues to struggle with the latter.
His knowledge selling books during his student days helped him emotionally for the challenging road ahead.
” I was selling ebooks door-to-door part-time, across three state, 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 ready”.
He adopted that mind-set and was willing to give up a bit, also go broke developing Deemples.
Things improved in 2016 when he hired a friend with a background in technology to work on the game for his first CTO.  ,
The software was launched in Sept 2016, with David’s primary aim to find 1, 000 downloads in Malaysia and 500 in Singapore. ” I told myself that if this hits 1, 500 files, I had quit my job”, he said.
Little did he know, but by Jan 2017 it had reached over 3, 000 files. David left his job in June with a distinct market potential.
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.
A minute funding round was provided for David in April 2019, which ultimately totaled US$ 150, 000. It was announced as US$ 105, 000 but David explains that another US$ 45, 000 came in after the news. In the interim, he appointed Ahmad Daleen as CTO, replacing his second CTO who left the same year.
Trying to monetize the marketing design and user growth
David made a point of getting as many users as possible in accordance with the company ecosystem’s prevailing pre-pandemic time mantra.
” In that same year, 2017, we expanded to Manila, to Jakarta, trying to build a customer basic, but nothing really stuck”, David said.
The corresponding argument of Deemples was finally realized that neither the business model nor the user experience aspect were sufficient. After all, no a pays to record for their Grab, FoodPanda, or Boost apps, charging customers to use the matching services may turn many people out.
From the user experience, it does n’t complete the experience.  ,
” After I find someone to play golf with, I would still need to book a golf program”, David explains. Which is why David focused on a transaction-based booking system for Deemples in 2019 where users give a tee off fee to Deemples, who would then reimburse the clubs. This marked the beginning of his monetization journey.
” We started testing the model at a number of programs in the Klang Valley,” he said.
When profits started coming in 2020, he immediately raised US$ 350, 000 through pitchIN’s capital fundraising program 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 income type, 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 and were profitable”, David said.
” This year however, we wo n’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 begun developing innovative features, underlying fundamental modifications, and design improvements that may make it simpler for both golfers and golfers to employ.
Running a small fleet
What is distinctive about David is how, pre-raising the US$ 2 million, he has run Deemples as a very small fleet with staff at five individuals.
” We had to concentrate on growing the business rather than creating new products, so it was only Ahmad on the digital side.” But after May of this year, we have grown the technical staff to five top designers and one UI/UX people”, said David. The current personnel is 16
The latest overall customer base is between 80, 000 to 90, 000 with 11, 000 monthly active users on the game while the web has 30, 000 monthly active users.  ,
This engaged user base provides useful information for golf clubs. ” Since many of these clubs do n’t have their own CRM ( customer relationship management ), they can use us to reach a lot of golfers”, he said.
” While sportsmen is article games at all golf clubs in Malaysia, we work competitively with 80 venues, who accept payments sincere from golf via Deemples”, he added.
Hotels work together to offer package services for lodging and transportation when golfers travel from outside the state or the 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 everyone will want you to behave in their ways, it’s clear that you wo n’t do anything well and that there are only so many hours or resources to play around with if you try to please everyone.
He has also learned to be focused, especially when resources are tight, not just on the product offering but also on the geographic focus. 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 ardent golfer, who has been playing since 2009 and has a lowest ever handicap of 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.