The Story Behind Favoriot, By Dr. Mazlan Abbas
Nine years. Four failed products. One idea that finally worked.
Before Favoriot became an IoT platform with partners across four countries, it was a founder’s fourth attempt, built out of pure necessity, and nearly given up on more than once. Dr. Mazlan Abbas has been writing that story in real time, one honest chapter at a time, on his personal blog.
A Startup Told In Real Time
Every near miss, documented as it happened.
Most founders tell their story once it is safely over. Dr. Mazlan has been writing his while the outcome was still uncertain. Here is a glimpse of the road so far, from a spare desk in 2017 to a platform now used across borders.
February 2017
The humble beginning
Favoriot was registered on 20 February 2017 and opened for business barely six weeks later. It was not the founder’s first idea. It was his fourth, arriving only after three earlier products failed to survive contact with the market. What made this one different is the thread that runs through everything that follows.
The Early Years
Building in the dark
No one was waiting for an IoT platform from a professor turned founder. Emails went unanswered, opportunities slipped away, and the first ten customers had to be found one uncomfortable conversation at a time. This is the chapter most success stories quietly skip.
A Hard Pivot
Raqib, and a pandemic’s timing
The team built Raqib, an IoT product designed to monitor the elderly and Hajj pilgrims, right as a global pandemic upended every assumption about how it would be used. Some of the toughest lessons in this story were never chosen. They were forced.
February 2023
Six years, still standing
On its sixth anniversary, Favoriot had already outlasted the startup valley of death that quietly swallows most of its peers. Survival, though, only opened a new set of questions: chase an award, court an acquisition, or build toward something else entirely.
Early 2025
Twenty chapters, one confession
Dr. Mazlan sat down and finally wrote the full story behind Favoriot in twenty parts: the humble beginnings, the exit he weighed and walked away from, and what he calls the unspoken truth about what startup success actually feels like from the inside.
Mid 2025
Looking beyond Malaysia
Partner network agreements followed in Indonesia, the Philippines, Canada, and India, alongside university certification programs built to grow the next generation of IoT builders. The platform Favoriot once struggled to give away is now something others are asking to build on.
January 2026
The journey, bound into a book
On 1 January 2026, the story was compiled into a free eBook, Favoriot, The Journey of an IoT Startup, alongside a companion title, The Favoriot Way. Nine years of notes, finally in one place, for anyone building something uncertain of its own.
Worth An Hour Of Your Time
A few chapters to start with
Twenty parts, and counting, live on Dr. Mazlan’s blog. These are the ones readers keep coming back to.
The Humble Beginnings of Favoriot
How a fourth attempt at a product, born out of necessity rather than ambition, became the one that stuck.
Read the chapter Part 3Why No One Wanted Our IoT Platform
The uncomfortable stretch where the product existed and almost nobody wanted it, and the turn that followed.
Read the chapter Part 7Finding Favoriot’s First 10 Customers
No mailing list, no inbound traffic, just a founder chasing ten yeses one conversation at a time.
Read the chapter Part 12The Dream of an M&A Exit
Every founder imagines the acquisition call. Here is what that dream actually looks like from the inside.
Read the chapter Part 14To Exit or Not to Exit
A candid look at the question that lingers for every founder: is walking away ever the right kind of win.
Read the chapter Part 20The Power of Belief in a Startup Journey
The closing chapter of the series, and the quiet conviction that carried Favoriot through nine years of doubt.
Read the chapterThe Journey of an IoT Startup
A Life of Curiosity and Courage
Released 1 January 2026
Nine years of notes, finally bound into a book.
The full journey, and the mindset behind it, are now available as free eBooks: the complete account of building Favoriot, and a companion reflection on staying curious when nothing about the outcome is guaranteed.
Download the free eBookStill being written
The next chapter has not been published yet.
Follow Dr. Mazlan Abbas as he keeps documenting the build, the setbacks, and the wins, in real time, straight from the founder’s desk.
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