This story starts in Tujoh Cafe in Seksyen 17, Petaling Jaya.
Adrian Ching was sitting with 2 partners — all 3 had left their jobs at an app development agency to strike out on their own.
As they sat at the table, sipping coffee, Adrian’s hands were cold with sweat.
Anxiety coursed through his bones.
They were discussing if they should walk away from their very first client — who was going to pay them USD 50,000 (~RM 200,000).
Should they choose to do so, they’ll have no client, no business, and heck, no money.
But after serious consideration, they came to a decision…
This client had TOO many red flags. There were glaring signs of a scope creep about to happen — they were asking for more and more… for the same price.
So they did it. They said no.
This chapter taught Adrian plenty about running an app development agency, but it would be just the first of many tough decisions he’d have to make.
Within a year, both co-founders would leave.
He’d face months without projects.
And he’d find himself close to tears in a meeting with a potential client.
Let’s rewind a couple of years earlier…
Adrian was an electrical engineering student in University Malaya (UM).
And for as long as he could remember, he wanted to build something.
This burning desire led him to sign up for Programmer Finishing School, a coding bootcamp co-organised by MaGIC (Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre) — now known as MRANTI after a merger with Technology Park Malaysia.
Miraculously, he got in – despite not having a computer engineering background.
His desire to build wasn’t just about technology.
In university, Adrian was searching for ways to build businesses, though he says he “didn’t know sh** at the time.” This led him to join an MLM from the US — not because he was particularly interested in direct sales, but because they were teaching marketing.
He even spent RM 3,000 on an NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) certification. “I forgot everything already because I didn’t practice it,” he chuckles now.
But these seeming detours weren’t wasted.
Those experiences taught him marketing concepts that would prove valuable later. Meanwhile, he landed a part-time job at a software development agency, earning RM 2,000 monthly for 20 hours per week.
He stayed for two years, learning how to build projects — though he still says he “didn’t know sh** about sales.”
When it was time to start his own company, Adrian and his partners chose a name that seemed cool — AZBOLT, complete with a lightning bolt logo.
“A potential client told us it was weird,” he laughed. They later changed it to Upstack Studio.
After walking away from that first problematic client at Tujoh cafe, luck smiled upon them. An ex-colleague referred them to a telemedicine company who needed an app — they had their first real client.
But the challenges were just beginning.
One co-founder left almost immediately. The second stayed for a year before leaving, worried about overhead costs and making payroll.
And in the end, there was just one founder left — Adrian.
There was a period where they had no projects for three months while supporting 2-3 developers. They survived on cash reserves while trying to build their own products.
During one particularly dark moment, meeting with an education platform CEO, Adrian nearly broke down.
“I told him straight up, I don’t know whether I will still be here,” he recalls. But then he thought about his team members and clients who trusted them.
“I couldn’t just shut everything down, people need me,” he told IRL.
One particularly painful incident occurred a few years ago.
A client approached Adrian to build a location-focused job-matching platform.
The client insisted on cramming numerous features into the app, disregarding his advice to focus on the primary goal.
Convinced that a feature-rich app was essential for user retention, the client pushed back the deadline and escalated the development costs from USD 35,000 to USD 70,000 (~RM 140,000 to RM 280,000).
As the project dragged on, the client’s existing business encountered internal issues. The client’s partner left and the company was in a mess.
But despite these warning signs, Adrian finished building the app.
When he invoiced the client for the latest codebase, they refused to pay. The client, a co-founder, said he didn’t know how to launch and market the app now that his partner had left.
Until today, Adrian is stuck with an unpaid invoice of USD 20,000 (~RM 80,000) and a useless codebase — a stark reminder of the importance of standing firm in his expertise.
This experience was a turning point for Adrian.
It taught him the crucial lesson of pushing back against unrealistic demands, especially when it could jeopardise the success of the project.
Through trial and error, Adrian learned to build a company.
At one point, he had to replace the entire team because they hadn’t established core values yet. He methodically built up cash reserves from 1-2 months to 3-4 months.
He developed proper hiring processes.
Even recently, from late 2023 to early 2024, when their biggest client pulled their budget due to internal politics, the company faced its first annual loss. But they had the reserves to weather it.
Nothing comes easy in this world.
Adrian hustled and hustled and hustled.
He landed 9-figure brands and public-listed companies as clients.
And today, he’s generated RM 2 Million building apps.
But he’s still learning.
Over the years, he’s developed a razor-sharp process for screening clients. He asks them three key questions: Why now? Why this solution? Why us?
More importantly, he’s learned when to say no — turning away businesses who don’t actually need custom apps.
“You don’t need an app, you need better marketing,” he sometimes tells them. Instead, he focuses on businesses making 5-10 million who understand the value of custom software but trust his team with the technical decisions.
Some things haven’t changed though.
Just like that day in Tujoh cafe, Adrian still knows when to walk away from red flags.
The difference is now he has the experience — and the cash reserves — to back up those tough decisions.
–
Hi, Adrian here.
I help non-technical entrepreneurs with $5M+ businesses build custom software to disrupt their industry.
Want to build your own app?
I’ve learned plenty of costly lessons and also made some huge wins over the years building RM 2 Million worth of apps for businesses.
Before you invest in development, learn the 7 costly mistakes that sink most digitization projects. I’ve compiled them in my Survival Guide so you don’t have to learn them the hard way: 7 Money-Burning App Development Mistakes
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