Local start-ups are greedy and don't want to pay well in terms of salary or equity. I've encountered situations where engineers are expected to match the business founder in terms of cash in order to get significant equity. Their mindset is wrong. A techie's investment is his/her ability to build the product and that itself is an investment starting from RM 30K to RM 100K+ depending on how long he/she has to code and how broad his/her skills are - back-end, front-end, iOS app, Android app, etc.

There is actually a success story outside Silicon Valley, namely Israel. Not sure what the Malaysian government thinks about it but I guess there a few lessons to be taken out of the pages of the book Startup Nation:
- http://www.amazon.com/Start-up-Nation-Israels-Economic-Miracle/dp/0446541478/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403150314&sr=8-1&keywords=startup+nation