Joshua Ong: Relentless proptech founder, gone too soon

  • Co-founded MHub in 2015, grew it proptech solution used in 2.5k projects
  • Survived by wife Kelly and two young children; Lauren and Asher

Joshua Ong (right) with his parents and siblings when he was 12.
Startup founder, Joshua Ong passed away on 22 July at 11:45 pm. He was 38 – too young.

His sudden passing from heart failure came as a profound shock to all who knew him, especially since he was still actively texting colleagues and friends hours before his heart failure.

Joshua was one of four co-founders of MHub, a proptech company headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His passing leaves a void in the hearts of his co-founders, Quek Wee Siong, Jon Saw, and Jason Ding. They each share their thoughts on Joshua - their 'fallen comrade' .

Jon Saw

Joshua and I were childhood friends in Klang, reconnecting years later. Always on the lookout for business partners, Joshua, (with help from his then two co-founders) ‘con’vinced me to join MHub. We started with the four of us, now we’re 65 strong.

Joshua’s intelligence and confidence shone through in everything he did. His determination was infectious, inspiring those around him to strive for excellence. His warmth, especially during meals, endeared him to all. No one goes hungry around him.

Joshua was larger-than-life and never hesitated to challenge the status quo. His vision for MHub was revolutionary, aiming to redefine the property industry with streamlined, user-friendly processes.

In sales, his stubborn determination was unparalleled; he would greet a prospect with “good morning,” “good afternoon,” and “good evening” daily until they finally responded. When they asked why he did that, he would respond “There’s nothing wrong with that, right?” It’s no wonder through the years many once-clients are now considered among his close friends.

Losing Joshua was a devastating blow. We've lost not just a colleague, but a mentor and friend. Even now, I can “hear” him advising me on things to do that will improve the company, improve myself. I wish I had taken the time to listen to him more. His legacy of passion and dedication will guide us forward.

Joshua Ong, right, at a town hall with his co-founders. It was not uncommon for him to break into minister “ceramah” mode to inspire the team to fight on despite the odds against the company. To his right are, Quek Wee Siong, Jason Ding and Jon Saw.

Jason Ding 

2015 was the year we started our company. That same year, I emceed Joshua and Kelly’s wedding ceremony. Nine years later, I found myself speaking at his wake and funeral service.

In my eulogy for him, I shared the Fs that I feel embody the person Joshua was:

  1. Founder - Besides MHub, he started several other businesses, a bakery, a coffee bean distributor, and a digital solutions company. If he had his way, he would start a new business every few months. We had to rein him in. His mind ran on a different level; constantly looking at business opportunities, solving problems, and connecting dots.
  2. Food lover - He was always unabashed about his passion for food. From conversations over meals to ordering food for his team, to food analogies - food was indeed his love language. Whenever we had our founder meetings, he was the default chief food officer. We could always count on him to sniff out the best makan spots in the area.
  3. Fierce fighter - Josh is a natural fighter. Josh and I clashed constantly. I concluded that fighting is how he processed things, and how ideas flowed. Recently after doing the Myers-Briggs Test Indicator test, it was confirmed that as an ENTP (Extraverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving) - he enjoyed debating and "one-upmanship." There was no doubt he was a fierce fighter - ultimately for his wife and family.
  4. Faith-driven - I met Josh because we went to the same church. Although we never served in the same ministries; we would sometimes speak about it being a blessing that we were brought together through MHub. In our honest moments, Joshua acknowledged he was far from perfect but was trying his best to be better. At the end of the day, being our best is all that we can strive for. Everything else is out of our hands. Even the moment of our last breath.

Often we would talk about "one day when MHub... " this and that. I always imagined a longer runway of achieving milestones and celebrating together. But it is not meant to be. A humbling reminder especially to entrepreneurs and business owners; your “one day” may never come. So, enjoy the journey, not just the destination.

The Mhub team at Joshua's wake.

Quek Wee Siong

I first met Joshua when we were both 13. Back in school, he was always the top student and a natural leader, liked by teachers and peers alike. He was the “pengawas” we could count on, helping misfits like me hide our handphones during spot checks.

Through the years I’ve grown to respect Joshua’s boundless entrepreneurial energy, constantly exploring new ideas, and relentless persistence. He had a remarkable ability to unearth information about competitors or business opportunities. In other words, he was “kaypoh” like nobody’s business.

Joshua was the starting point of our startup in 2014, originally called “MortgageHub” providing tech solutions to financial institutions. It has since pivoted to property industry-centric, the MHub we know today.

It was his deep conviction that the real estate industry in Southeast Asia was ripe for disruption that birthed our startup. This same conviction led him to sacrifice so much for MHub, including taking pay cuts and moving his family from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur just before the pandemic. His vision was to create a fully digital end-to-end real estate ecosystem, streamlining every transaction from renting apartments to property management and fractionalized investment.

Sure, we were up against strong incumbents and giants but that didn’t scare him, on the contrary. His fighting spirit was infectious. In our town halls, he would break into minister “ceramah” mode to inspire our team to fight on despite the odds against us.

Close to a decade of partnership, we weathered many challenges and we kept fighting, oftentimes each other! Joshua was a formidable opposition leader within the leadership team. The way we argued can be likened to a husband and wife which included silent treatment of not more than 2 days.

But this time, there’s no coming back together.

I believe his passing is not just a loss to MHub, but to the wider real-estate industry and tech ecosystem. We will realize our shared dream of unicorn status and we will make you proud. 

As always, Joshua has the final word. Here is a post of his from March 2018:

“Feeling thankful. Received confirmation that one of the largest developers in Malaysia has decided to vote MHub and gave us the mandate to power up and supercharge their business.

Not an easy journey but it is my sincere wish that MHub will be truly a Malaysia Boleh regional brand, leading the proptech transformation. More to come and more to climb. I just felt the gradient became steeper.

It came with lots of sweat, tears, and hard work.

Thanks to those who looked down on us, who laughed at us, who said ‘No’ to us.

Thank you to those who believed, who told us to not give up and to keep hustling.

Thank you to those who encouraged us.”


As a company, MHub has faced many challenges and uncertainties but this is by far the biggest. On the office wall is the quote “Fall down seven times, get up eight” - an expression of grit, a value exemplified by Joshua repeatedly.

Getting back up is exactly what they’ll do. The leadership team has decided to name an upcoming product release “SalesCandy JO” in honor of Joshua Ong.

 

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