(second from left) Muaz Mustaffa,SUSS Venture Builder Programme participant and co-founder of Hust, together with his team.
Inspired by his friends who embarked on their own entrepreneurial journey during the COVID-19 circuit breaker period, Muaz Mustaffa was struck with an idea to create Hust, a centralised platform for gig workers. His goal is to connect businesses to the right student freelancers who will help digitise operations and drive business transformations.
It started in late 2021 when Muaz met his co-founder, Ezra James Ho, and they decided to start small through the “TalentedSG” Telegram channel that pooled mainly people from their connections. Through word-of-mouth, TalentedSG grew and the supply of gig workers expanded. This prompted them to upgrade and provide better opportunities to their clients by creating Hust. Muaz shared that there was a need to scope their efforts into something more niche and professional, through digital transformation such as web design and remote opportunities.
In January 2022, Muaz and his co-founders, Ezra and Loke Kar Chun, joined the SUSS Venture Builder Programme with Hust. Through this programme, they refined their idea and focused on the digitalisation of SMEs by having students take on project-based experiences. They helped students to bridge the gap between what was learnt in school and what was applied at work. With Hust, the service-learning approach to develop solutions for students to measure their learning outcomes is achieved through the industry’s exposure to digitalisation, positively transforming SMEs.
Grateful for their mentors and industry experts who have guided them through the various SUSS entrepreneurship programmes, Muaz credited the Venture Builder Programme for kickstarting his ideas as an entrepreneur and turning them into reality. His subsequent experiences with SUSS’ Gig Academy and Alibaba Cloud – SUSS Entrepreneurship Programme exposed him to the different ways of developing his portfolio and attaining valuable advice from industry experts to better engage clients.
A piece of advice from Muaz to budding entrepreneurs is, “Start with the purpose first. Find out what you are interested in and through this purpose, through the challenges, that purpose and motivation will guide you through as you know you are impacting people.”
Have a start-up idea you want to build? Find out more about the SUSS VentureBuilder Programme, and take it to the next level with the Alibaba Cloud – SUSS Entrepreneurship Programme.