Ep. 272 - [Malaysia] Celebrating Native Indigenous Food and Durian with Daniel Teoh, Founder of Native Discovery

Today we’re interviewing Daniel Teoh, a serial entrepreneur in Malaysia and founder of Native Discovery, a social enterprise that co-creates community-based ventures with indigenous communities to boost livelihoods and grow their cultural confidence.

They specialize in sustainable tourism and work closely with our community partners in hosting unique experiences that are meaningful, challenging, and fun for both international and domestic travelers. Thank you Lee Swelin for this awesome introduction.

This was a super fun interview! Daniel guides us through audibly about how a tour through these indigenous populations works and I was salivating by the time it was done.

Like all creatives, Daniel’s path wasn’t set in stone. Daniel has a degree in Civil Engineering and split off as an entrepreneur as opportunities came. What was his guiding light, was his passion to share the indigenous culture of Malaysia.

Daniel is also a super cool entrepreneur who does things scrappily and hustles his butt off and you’ll hear a ton of examples of how he tested and validated his ideas into viable businesses.

 

This is also a great interview about indigenous people. Actually, all over the world, I’ve learned about indigenous people. America has its own issues, but surprisingly, in Australia, indigenous people were a huge part of the museums. I even went to a live event about some artists in Melbourne celebrating indigenous art.

 

In another part of this interview, you’ll learn a lot about Durian! Have you heard of durian? It’s a really smelly fruit that is very polarizing. In my opinion, it smells like rotten, overripe fruit. I can eat it, but not a lot. I find the texture super good.

 

Anyways, you’ll learn not only the magic of durian, but how they grow, how it’s harvested, and what might actually eat durian. You’re also going to learn some cooking tips with Durian! You’re going to learn so many things about Durian, you might actually want to buy it at an Asian grocery market.

 

Daniel’s story is an inspiring journey of following what you care about, and seizing every opportunity to build something amazing