E-sports Company GCG Asia Founder and CEO Phillip Chow Opens Up About the Company and Giving Back 

Since being founded in 2018 GCG Asia Games as an organisation has tried to build a strong name for itself on the scene. GCG Asia Founder Phillip Chow and Co-founder Anita Loh have seen GCG Asia SCAM and other teams grow from strength to strength.

At the same time, GCG is not legitimately shy about doing things for the benefit of the community. For example, handing out covid masks to schools and colleges around Kuala Lumpur and supporting similar initiatives in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where they support local efforts by the gaming community there. 

In this post, we hear from GCG Asia founder speaking from GCG’s Malaysia office, on some of his efforts on community building, giving back, his gaming background and GCG Asia Games vision for the way forward. 

GCG Asia’s Community Initiatives and Social Issues

“Presently, 71 million youths are jobless. In Malaysia, Cambodia, even in Singapore, with the pandemic conditions, it’s even worse than before. So we are just trying to do what we can and not turn a blind eye because we can’t. We try to create a favorable atmosphere for youngsters, helping them to connect during this time,” said GCG Asia founder Phillip Chow. 

Since 2020, GCG Asia Games has launched many small-scale initiatives that support gamers and their community. The company has been distributing free masks and health packs to low-income families and subsidising costs of mental health support to gamers and the gaming community. In 2021, the GCG Asia Founder also held various fundraisers to support various initiatives via streaming tournaments. All proceeds are donated to local charities. 

“GCG Asia co-founder Anita and I strive to position ourselves as more than just an e-sport brand, and we do want to tackle topics that other organisations may be hesitant to tackle because it may be risky. We wanted to do more than just send out something on our official twitter or Instagram,” said GCG Asia Founder Phillip Chow. 

Digital technology is driving the production and use of products and facilities in new ways. “The technological revolution brings about major shifts to economic forces throughout the industry, affecting the type of jobs and the capacity of young people in the labour marketplace to prosper,” GCG Asia founder Phillip Chow said.  

For a sustainable future, according to GCG Asia founder Phillip Chow, we must provide chances for today’s youth and treat them as active participants. “Over the next few years, we want to build a community that’s healthy in all aspects–career development, mental health, character-building, these are key for GCG,” said GCG Asia founder Phillip Chow.  

Phillip Chow, GCG Asia founder, believes today’s youth are drawn to digital technology, and wants to provide the opportunity to define a new path. “Digital technology such as digital banking has immense potential to assist e-commerce, e-sports, and financial technology may provide opportunities for the young in the global economy and responsible development in a rapidly shifting market context. Things like e-commomy, as well as entrepreneurs seeking self-employment locally,” explains GCG Founder Phillip Chow.

According to GCG Asia Founder, GCG youth and gamers get to also discuss their personal experiences by voicing their opinions on critical problems that need to be addressed for them and their community. “We let them take the lead since it’s their future, the community belongs to them so it’s only fair. We merely facilitate,” explains GCG Asia Founder Phillip Chow. 

Performance Coaching  

In esports, performance coaching is becoming more popular. “I like to believe we’ve done well in this area; we’ve been one of the few local organisations to openly advocate for it. We started with a two-person performance team in 2020, with a performance manager Johnny Lum and another coach Andy from Japan who does the 1-on-1 sessions,” explained GCG Asia founder Chow.

Lum would discuss what it means to be a team, how to eat and sleep better, and other topics. GCG Asia founder said that it was fantastic to see the crew connecting and participating in the workshops. “It’s just as essential for us to improve outside of the game as it is inside,” Phillip Chow said, GCG Asia founder. 

According to the GCG Asia founder, GCG’s youth-centered approach underlines the vital role that new management methods in the company play into facilitating the e-sports company development and increasing the efficiency of current operations.  

Avoiding Burnout in Gaming 

The GCG Asia founder addressed issues of hustling to grow the company and the competitive nature of the e-sport game. “When Anita and I started, we really did and still do to an extent, do everything from A-Z. It’s a grind, nothing romantic about it. I understand that and, in a way, agree with it, especially in my case. I performed a lot of work that I didn’t need to do at times,” the GCG Asia founder Chow said. 

Now however, things have changed which brings with it a different perspective. “I think that working smarter, not harder, is the way to go. I’ve seen streamers go for 13 or 14 hours, which is certainly excessive. You wouldn’t play football for eight hours every day, so why would you overdo it with other sports? 

“I enjoy the concept of individuals being passionate about something and working hard to achieve their goals, but I don’t believe we should celebrate it or imply that working [unrealistic] hours is the only way to go ahead,” said Phillip Chow, GCG Asia founder. 

It is critical that individuals do not become burnt out. It relates to the topic of performance coaching that we discussed before. It would be beneficial to get additional information and data from them on this.”

It’s just as essential for us to improve outside of the game as it is inside.”

Reach out to GCG Asia and follow us on social media and visit the official website for more updates, latest news and announcements. 

Starting a business is not as difficult as many make it out to be. Entrepreneurs indeed carry a lot of risks, as most experiments fail. But losing money in your start-up business doesn’t have to mean the end of the line—it’s an opportunity to learn and improve. GCG Asia CEO Phillip Chow has some experience as a founder who has failed and succeeded. As he strives to help others through sharing knowledge, CEO of GCG Asia Phillip Chow draws from those experiences to offer some tips to entrepreneurs who are beginning their start-up journey. Read on for GCG Asia CEO’s advice from the GCG Malaysia office! 

The hardest thing about being a founder is that there’s no blueprint. When I first became CEO of GCG Asia Games, I made many of the same mistakes as other founders. This was partly because I didn’t know any better, and partly because after a time I got too competitive to admit mistakes. The best way to learn from your mistakes is by comparing them with other founders. One of the best (and certainly most entertaining) ways to do that is to look at someone who just sold their first product or service (and probably their first fully automated product as well), and see how they made it work.

It’s a good thing that there are a surprising number of up-and-coming businesses popping up now on all sorts of channels, especially ones that don’t have an established following yet. For entrepreneurs who aren’t part of the scene yet, one very important point of entrepreneurship is to branch out and take risks: to ask hard questions, to get passionate (and sometimes obsessed) about where you want your company to go.

Start-ups are often viewed as glamorous jobs, with lofty goals and near-term success on the forefront. But not all start-ups are glamorous. When things don’t go as planned, it can be heart-breaking. And that’s when you first need some perspective to help you get back on track – perspective is taken from someone who has lived through something similar before. Those who have survived many such setbacks can offer valuable perspectives, including past experiences, faulty assumptions, and good practices (even if they are not part of the official playbook).

As CEO, GCG Asia is my baby. If I had to put a label on what defines a start-up, as CEO of GCG Asia I’d probably say it’s a group of people set loose with purpose: In other words, a willingness to take calculated risks, break new ground and learn from failure. This is a surprisingly abstract definition, but it’s the one I’ve used most often as CEO of GCG Asia Games. In most cases, it’s not the specific product or service that makes a company a start-up, but rather the culture that embraces risk-taking wherever possible.

Being a founder and CEO of GCG Asia Games is truly one of the greatest accomplishments in my life. I get to combine my passion for gaming and esports and for building communities.  

Before I started my company GCG Asia, as CEO I conducted in-depth market research on your field and the demographics of your potential clientele. 

Conducting surveys and focus groups is an excellent way to understand your market and what they want. You can even use what you learn from these studies to create marketing materials or advertising campaigns that appeal to everyone regardless of age, gender or economic status. Start-ups have different needs even if they share some similarities that make for a great core business relationship.

Startups have unique challenges, but luckily, as CEO of GCG Asia Games, I assembled an amazing collection of resources to help make you successful.

1. Discover a need

Start-ups have to answer two questions. What problems do we solve? And what problems will our product solve? The answer to the first question is generally pretty clear, but the answer to the second question can be anything but. Plenty of start-ups try to sell their start-up as the solution to everything, but they often fail. The reason is that people have lots of needs that aren’t being solved by the product. The product is only useful if it can enable one or more of those needs to be fulfilled.

One of the biggest mistakes young companies make is to assume that people want just another version of what already exists. This was my mistake when I started as CEO of GCG Asia Games. The biggest risk people take in starting start-ups is that they think they can reinvent the wheel and create something revolutionary.  

The only way for you to truly succeed as a start-up is to solve a real problem that other people aren’t already solving. But in either case, as CEO of GCG Asia, I should remember that the true innovation is not in the details but in the goal: solving a real problem and meeting real needs with your product. In our case, e-sports teams and ecosystems support. 

2. Assemble a Dream team

Start-ups don’t always just need money. Often, they need people. As GCG Asia Games CEO, I think the best kind of start-up is the one that has parents, not founders. As CEO, GCG Asia Games   The best start-ups attract the best people who are willing to work for them. Those people get on board because of a shared experiment in which they have participated. Their success and failure help each other learn more about how to build and maintain the very thing they love working for.

At start-ups, people help each other. As GCG Asia CEO, my door is always open. People love start-ups because they want to change the world. Start-ups help people change the world. They bring cool stuff into the world and that makes it a better place. As CEO at GCG Asia Games, I truly believe this. 

That is why a team is vital to any start-up and a common goal that is defined in the mission of the business, many young people nowadays prefer working for an ethical and purposeful goal. Look out for your peeps.

3. Create a business plan

A successful start-up does not just occur overnight, and most start-ups require some amount of time and money. If your idea is worth pursuing, you need to act now! Look for ways to raise money. Look for partners. Explore how others have started their businesses and learn from their experiences. These are all great resources for starting a company that will change the world or at least make you feel better about how long it will take to get there. 

Here are questions I asked myself when I became GCG Asia CEO. What is the Purpose of Our E-sports Business? What are the end goals? How will you finance your startup? These questions can be answered in a well-written business plan. You should write a detailed business plan before you even begin talking to a bank or a lawyer. Creating a good business plan is a critical step before taking the next step in starting a business. This is what I did and it gave me as CEO of GCG Asia the clarity about the direction I wanted to take GCG Asia Games in.

When you have a great idea, it’s tempting to just go ahead and create it without any thought or planning. But that creates an entire slew of problems. Your focus will turn to the idea and you won’t be able to pull the right strings to get your company off the ground. Creating a good business plan or idea is essential to creating a great product. Without a solid structure in place, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut and never see the results you’re after.

4. Research

To start a company, you need research. One way to do this is to conduct market research. Market research can be incredibly valuable for understanding your target audience (at least as well as you can know them), as well as their needs, preferences and behaviour. As an entrepreneur, your job is to find ways to address those needs and satisfy those preferences. Market research can help you do this. My staff know me as GCG Asia CEO Phillip Chow, the avid researcher who is always looking at the market. 

Any good startup needs market research. It’s often the difference between success and failure, or between getting funded and choosing to go without. It can provide a vital advantage to your company development, allowing you to make informed decisions about where to invest time, money and resources. Through research, as CEO of GCG Asia it helped me to understand the market, competitor strengths, market potentials—and all the other factors affecting business success.

5. Have a good time

Work doesn’t have to be torture if you know how to start from scratch using your imagination. If you have the creativity and ability to think on your feet, in just a few hours you can create a start-up that could expand into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise. Now that I’m an older and wiser GCG Asia CEO, I am much better at letting go. The hard part is having the vision to achieve your goals and then sticking with them until the end. It takes an incredible amount of courage to keep going when the going gets rough. Most start-ups fail, but those that persevere usually become global giants. Might as well just have fun doing what you love with a team that has a passion for a common goal.