The Story Behind Drawlah
So, spending four years on one idea might seem like forever, right? And it feels even longer when you're trying to turn that idea into an app without losing it lah (both your sanity and your sense of humor)! The picture above was taken after we launched our first version as an experimental project in 2022.
When I first started working on Drawlah, I had this vision. My background in architecture and a real passion for how we explain stuff to each other drove me. I spent years with our customers behind the scenes at Iwi Digital in Kuala Lumpur, jumping into high-stakes meetings to help customers boost their presentation.
But, no matter who I was working with, I kept noticing the same problem: my customers were losing their audience unless we worked together and pieced an elaborate presentation. But for the day to day comms stuff, you know that look people get when they totally zone out? It’s like they turned into an old Game Boy handheld console that hasn’t loaded yet. Their eyes go blank, screens take forever to load, and my customers’ brilliant messages get buried under a pile of bullet points that are about as thrilling as kopi O' kosong.
I call this the "Vision Gap", that super frustrating place between a person's awesome ideas and an audience that’s busy wondering what’s for lunch. I've been there too and so I've always emphasised on communicating visually in a world where people are dealing with information overload across all ages (yes, kids too).
This was an early version in 2022 when we had to draw visuals manually to populate the app.
The Spark that Changed My Life
The game-changer for me wasn't some piece of software or attending a motivational talk; it was a book I stumbled upon in my twenties, almost fifteen years ago at the Borders bookstore in Penang near Christmas time. It was The Art of Explanation by Lee LeFever, and I read that thing five times! It totally shifted how I think about ideas.
I started mixing up the logic of explaining things with my architecture background to help out my customers. I realised that, like a building, an idea needs a solid blueprint. After years of fixing these idea gaps manually, I had a lightbulb moment: I wanted to do more than just help my agency customers. I wanted to get a million more innovative ideas out there by giving everyone the tool I’d been using behind the scenes.
I’m just reminiscing about my final presentation back in architecture school—can you believe it was in 2012? Time flies! Like many I struggled in my presentations and I created this app to solve my own problem.
The Process
Going from “fixing presentations” to “building an app” has been quite the ride. More like a bed of LEGOs, really—sometimes painful especially when you terpijak on one, but I'm not complaining.
To make my dream a reality, I had to learn how to build the very tool I envisioned. It’s been two years of steep learning curves, late-night YouTube university sessions, and all the grit that comes with bootstrapping every progress. I’ve learned that being a "self-taught developer" mainly means being yelled at by my computer for the past two years!
Here’s the truth: Drawlah is still a work in progress. It's not a shiny, polished masterpiece yet. It’s got some character (and maybe some "surprising features" we used to call bugs). It’s a living project shaped by the challenges of the last two years and the real communication struggles I’ve seen in boardrooms across KL.
A New Purpose: Cognitive Accessibility
As I continued building it, I noticed my goals got bigger. I started to realise that Drawlah could be more than just a way to make PowerPoints and Canva presentations less boring. I see a real chance to support neurodivergent kids and those with communication disabilities. For them, a “Wall of Text” isn’t just dull; it’s a huge mountain to climb without shoes. I'm interested to see how Drawlah might help change those complicated steps into helpful visuals that can improve their learning and communication. Because everyone deserves to be understood—lah.
Try to Draw—lah!
I’m building this for thinkers, teachers, parents, and teams who are done talking in circles. It’s like a shortcut for your imagination.
The model is live and ready for you to check out. Come join me in bringing the next million ideas to life. It's time to stop just telling people about your vision and start showing them.
Dom
Creator of Drawlah & Iwi Digital
