Tan, who hails from Penang, secured a full-time placement with a corporation that would come into effect as soon as her internship in its business development department ended.
Things, however, took a turn when the pandemic hit, and new policies were introduced regarding international students and work placements in the United States.
As companies began to recoil at the thought of hiring fresh grads, her job offer was rescinded.
Unemployed and fearing they had no future prospects, Tan and her friends began discussing the cost of living in the US, versus sky-high unemployment rates.
“Something in me clicked when they said they did not even have money to spend on food,” she recalls.
Fuelled by homesickness, and observing a lack of food-delivery businesses that offered homecooked meals, Tan began selling Malaysian dishes online.
“It was a big hit,” she tells FMT. “People in California loved Malaysian food and how cheap it was.
“My Hainan chicken rice, in particular, was half of what a normal meal would cost in a café there, and customers kept returning for more.”
Things seemed to be going well until a loyal patron informed her that her business was technically illegal in the US.
“You could be charged with misdemeanour for cooking food in your own home and making an honest living,” she reveals.
“That’s when I knew this was not the right country for me to settle down in.”
‘Economic empowerment’
Tan decided to move back to Malaysia in January last year and settled in Kuala Lumpur, still unclear on her career path. But she was certain she wanted to run a business, and knew she wanted to work with home cooks.
Tan thus decided to embark on a food delivery platform. She reached out to home cooks in KL through Facebook and, within two days, received 15 signups from candidates interested in selling their homecooked food under Hawkr.
Initially, the platform did not have a website or application of its own. Customers had to submit their orders through Google forms, which proved inconvenient and difficult for the technologically challenged.
But Hawkr has come a long way in the year since it was established and today has more than 100 merchants on its website, offering freshly cooked meals to hungry customers in Penang and the Klang Valley.
For now, Tan is focused on helping her sellers generate a steady – even lucrative – income through Hawkr. She doesn’t charge any subscription fees for merchants and only takes a small commission for every order received.
Merchants can also open multiple stores under Hawkr at no additional charge.
Tan singles out Hokano, which sells Japanese cuisine on the platform and only accepts orders on weekends but makes up to RM10,000 monthly, and hopes all merchants will be able to emulate its success.
“My ultimate goal is to create economic empowerment on a massive scale, one homemade meal at a time,” she adds.
Looking for homecooked food delivered to your doorstep? Visit Hawkr now to discover what’s on offer and place an order.