May 16th 2015 was the first day we opened the doors of Double A Cafe. It was a trial run, with the shop at 80% completed, for family members and walk-ins.

It was the first time I wore a work apron and the first time I made a sale through a POS system. It was an exhilarating experience (in fact, I was so excited I blanked out for a while when a customer gave me money, then change her mind to give smaller notes. I was like, omg mental maths fail moment).

Being corporate people that we are, my wife and I did feasibility studies before we opened, we scouted the potential of the place, calculate the cost per item, fixed what our target rate-of-return and challenged ourselves to face the uncertainties of the business, such as the fact our cafe is in a new part of Ara Damansara.

I am constantly reminded by how fortunate Alia and I have been since embarking on this journey. From the support of fellow cafe owners in KL giving free advice on cafe pitfalls to avoid, to our awesome suppliers, to engaging a superbly talented interior decorator that is Adrien Kent (whose introduction is nothing short of serendipity), to engaging Feng, the one time Aeropress Malaysian Champion, who has been generous in his advice on running a cafe and also a magician of the highest calibre at making coffee, to hiring a most hard working group of people who I proudly call my team.

I’m excited to see where we will go with this venture. Inshallah, with providence, we shall continue to be lucky with all manners of running this business. Come try our coffee, treat your palate with our cakes and if you’re looking for happy, passionate and fun colleagues, come join our team.