PUCDC Organizational Talk Series: Alumni to impact founder - An entrepreneurial journey

Ko Danny did not begin his career knowing that he would one day become a founder.

His path took him through business studies, the private sector, Parami’s Leadership Program, and seven years at Phandeeyar before he began building Impact Oasis, a platform connecting impact organizations, communities, and individuals with opportunities and resources. Looking back, each stage gave him something he would later need, even when he did not know where those experiences would lead.

Returning to Parami as an alumnus, Ko Danny shared this journey with current students during “Alumni to Impact Founder - An Entrepreneurial Journey.” He spoke about finding a sense of purpose, learning through years of work in the startup and social impact space, and what it has been like to build something of his own.

Finding a sense of purpose 

Ko Danny began his career in the private sector after studying English and pursuing business and management qualifications. He had a job and qualifications, but he had not yet found the kind of work he wanted to commit himself to.

Looking back, he described himself as working “like a robot,” doing what was expected and working for an income without feeling a strong sense of purpose.

Joining Parami’s Leadership Program (PLP) became a turning point. 

Through a liberal arts and sciences education, the PLP encouraged students to develop four key 21st-century skills, known as the 4 C’s: critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication. Students developed these skills through research projects, discussions, and debates.

The discussions and debates at Parami gave him room to question ideas, listen to different perspectives, and think more seriously about what he wanted to do with his life. He also found a community where people could openly exchange ideas, opportunities, and feedback.

Years later, that community remains part of his life. He is still connected with fellow Parami alumni and continues to exchange ideas and opportunities with people he met through the program.

For current students, Ko Danny encouraged them to make use of that community while they are at Parami, not only through their classes, but also through the relationships they build with classmates, professors, and alumni.

Seven years of building a foundation

In 2019, Ko Danny joined Phandeeyar, drawn initially to its work with startups, accelerators, and Myanmar’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. He had long been interested in creating something of his own and wanted to understand how startups were actually built.

His work there eventually took him beyond entrepreneurship and deeper into the social impact ecosystem. Over seven years, he worked with startups, organizations, funders, and communities, seeing ideas tested, changed, and sometimes rebuilt entirely when they did not work as expected.

Looking back, Ko Danny described three forms of capital he built over those years: financial, human, and social capital.

Financial capital came from learning to manage resources and saving from his work. Human capital grew through the skills and experience he gained across his education and career. Social capital came from the relationships and communities he built and continued to nurture.

By the time he decided to become a founder, those three forms of capital had become part of the foundation he could rely on.

It was also one of the practical messages he wanted students to take from his experience. They do not need to wait until they have a business idea or a leadership position to start building these resources. “The skills you develop now, the way you manage your resources, and the relationships you maintain may become useful much later in your career.”

Creating a solution to a problem he kept seeing 

The idea for Impact Oasis grew from a problem Ko Danny had encountered repeatedly through his work.

Organizations doing meaningful work on the ground often struggled to find funding opportunities relevant to what they were actually doing. Teams could spend considerable time searching through websites, newsletters, and funding announcements without finding the right fit.

Funders faced another side of the same problem. They wanted to support particular areas of work but did not always know which organizations were already working on the ground.

Ko Danny had seen both sides.

That gap became the starting point for Impact Oasis, a platform he is building to make discovery easier across the social impact ecosystem. It is designed to connect individuals and organizations with relevant funding and other opportunities, while helping funders and ecosystem actors discover organizations working in different areas.

“Your experience is your advantage,” Ko Danny told students.

Impact Oasis grew from exactly that. His years in the sector gave him first-hand experience of a problem, an understanding of the people affected by it, and eventually an idea for how he might address it.

For students who are still exploring their own career paths, his experience offered another way to think about the work they are doing now. An internship, project, first job, or even a recurring problem they notice in their field may later become more important than they expect.

Building without knowing everything

Starting Impact Oasis also put Ko Danny in unfamiliar territory.

He is a non-technical founder and does not come from a coding background. Still, he began developing the platform with AI tools and later received support from a former colleague with technical expertise to review the code and further develop the product.

Ko Danny did not present this as having found an easy way to build a startup. He was open about how much he still has to learn.

He called this having a “beginner mindset”: being honest about what you do not know, recognizing your own gaps, asking questions, and seeking help from people who know more than you do.

“You just have to do what you have to do. The first way to learn something is by doing it. You might fail the first time, but the second time, you already know more about how to do it.”

That mindset has shaped the way he is building Impact Oasis. He tests ideas, asks others for feedback, and brings in people with different expertise when he needs support.

His message to students was not that they need to know everything before starting. In his own experience, much of the learning has happened after he started.

Coming back to the community

Ko Danny’s return to Parami brought his story back to one of the places where his direction first began to change.

Years after completing the Parami Leadership Program, he remains connected with Parami alumni and with other communities he has become part of throughout his career. Some of those relationships have grown into people he now turns to for feedback, ideas, and support.

“Community matters more than you think,” he told students.

For Ko Danny, those relationships have grown over time rather than through one networking event or one request for help. They came from staying connected, exchanging ideas, sharing opportunities, and being willing to support one another.

His own career has developed in much the same way. Parami helped him think differently about what he wanted from his work. Phandeeyar gave him years of experience inside the startup and social impact ecosystems. His professional communities became sources of knowledge and support. A problem he encountered repeatedly through his work eventually became something he decided to build for.

For current Parami students, his story did not offer a fixed roadmap to becoming a founder. It showed something more realistic: a career can take shape gradually. The skills they are developing, the people they are meeting, and the problems they are beginning to notice may connect in ways that are difficult to see now.

Ko Danny's path was not a straight one, and becoming a founder has not meant reaching a point where everything is figured out. He is still learning, testing, asking for help, and improving what he is building.

That may be the most useful part of his journey to share with students who are still working out their own next steps: you do not need to have the whole path figured out before you begin.