Not another wellness app. This one started with a loved one's struggle.
For Barry Ooi — economist turned fashion founder, data analytics entrepreneur, and corporate venture builder — the industries changed constantly. As he puts it, he went wherever the wind blew. But the one constant running underneath it all was watching a loved one navigate depression, anxiety, and borderline personality disorder: the exhausting cycle of finding the wrong therapist, starting over, reopening old wounds, never feeling like they'd found the right kind of help.
In this episode, we dig into how that lived experience became Chengal, a one-stop clinical mental health centre that deliberately broke every convention in Malaysian healthcare — from irreverent social media that makes psychiatrists look human, to being the only clinic in the country publicly declaring itself queer-affirming, to building a multidisciplinary team where a psychiatrist, an art therapist, and a life coach sit in the same room with no hierarchy.
We cover the regulatory landmines of building in healthcare versus tech, the founder who takes anxiety medication and openly says so, and what it actually means to build a business where kindness isn't a culture initiative — it's the entire product.
For founders, the second half is a masterclass in finding your unfair advantage when you have none. Jump straight to the start if you want the personal origin story — how a decade of watching someone you love struggle eventually becomes the clearest brief you've ever been given.
The anti-hustle, anti-tech, deeply personal mental health story.
𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗹'𝘀 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀:
→ Profitable by Month 4 of operations
→ Only psychiatric centre in Malaysia publicly queer-affirming
→ Clients across Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and the Middle East
→ ~30% student clientele — reaching the most underserved demographic
→ Next step: inpatient care facility to fill the gap between institutions and full independence
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