How similar are you to Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs?

If we had a magic crystal ball to predict future outcomes, everyone would be an entrepreneur and have a flourishing business.

Fortunately, there’s no such thing and as the saying goes:

“Your future is whatever you make it.”
– Doc Brown from Back to the Future Day

However, there are traits – pre-cursors of successful startups and ventures.

In this article, we’ll be covering seven traits of highly successful startups.

1. Led by the great leadership

Have you read the book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey?

Being an effective person is the foundation of building a successful startup.

In addition, beginning with self-improvement is essential in building great leadership qualities that every business requires.

Great leadership is not a matter of experience or age. A person who has been using one traditional solution isn’t a great leader by any means.

A great leader possesses personal traits and success-driven principles and characteristics.

2. Have a clear vision

The first highly successful person who perfectly brings this point across would be Steve Jobs.

He was the only candidate who could get Rob Campbell, CEO of Voalte, a wireless software provider for hospitals and point-of-care facilities, interested enough to buy into his vision.

Although it is important to have business financial goals and realistic desires, that’s not what a vision is all about.

A vision is something that is seemingly unattainable in the next year or so but is possible in the long-run.

Having realistic goals can make us reach greatness, but a scary yet clear vision would leave a legacy.

Dream big for your startup, you’ll be surprised how the gap between present and future can spur you to achieve success and more.

3. Great sales and marketing

In the case of every startup, the best salesperson and marketer has to be you – the owner of the business.

Who else cares more about your business than you? Who can compete with you in terms of understanding your business?

Grow your sales and marketing skills first then outsource it to a marketing team when you already understand what works for your business.

This can save you a sum of money, plus maximize every dollar you spend on outsourcing.

Getting sales is the lifeblood of every business; you can’t survive without sales and you can very well do with more of it.

The third trait of highly successful startups is having great sales and marketing.

4. Valuable offering (product/service)

You can’t polish a turd.

Providing something that helps people avoid something unpleasable or painful is valuable.

Offering something to serves joy and pleasure is valuable. And when served on a silver plate, it could double in value.

One statement that Mark Zuckerberg said in an interview with Sam Altman, president of Y Combinations, is this:

“I always think that you should start with the problem that you’re trying to solve in the world and not start with deciding that you want to build a company. And the best companies that get built are things that are trying to drive some kind of social change, even if it’s just local in one place, more than starting out because you want to make a bunch of money or have a lot of people working for you or build some company in some way.”

Solve a problem, enhance a solution – provide a valuable offering.

5. Have short and long term goals

Earlier in trait number two, we touched on having a clear vision and about realistic goals.

Now, before you start throwing shade that I’m contradicting myself, allow me to clarify.

Having realistic goals, both short and long term helps in the practical steps to work towards the vision. Pinning up detailed objective helps to track the progress which is crucial for a highly successful startup too.

Also Read: Focus on productivity, not efficiency

The point of a vision is to ensure that you always stay hungry, and never get complacent. Whereas, short term and long term goals are more about the mission, strategies, tactics, and action plan.

Thus, having these goals are important in seeing success for your startup.

6. Open to changes

In the past three decades, the growth of technology supersedes human growth.

It’s exponential – meaning it is extrapolated to only get faster and time goes by.

Can you keep up? Can your business keep up?

In our world where everything is going digital, and socializing has new normality, it is paramount to be ahead and stay competitive.

Nowadays, consumers can instantly sniff out an advertisement and nobody likes to get sold.

Thus, we have to connect to people first and offer something that is risk-free yet ultra-valuable.

Content marketing has been shown to do this extremely well, with proven reasons why one should focus on content marketing in 2019.

Be open to changes and ready to include them in your startup.

7. Fail Fast, learn fast

As a startup, things start off pretty lean and on a tight-belted budget.

Decisions can be made within a few seconds and implemented quickly. That’s the beauty of a small startup.

You have the agility to change, cut your losses, etc. almost instantly.

Also Read: Our idea of a good Valentine: Free Echelon Asia Summit 2019 tickets

Gary Vaynerchuk has preached about the benefits of running a small business or a lean startup that is remembered in 4 simple words: “Macro patience, micro speed”.

He stresses the importance of speed in business. But not in the way that most people would think which what he wrote in the following really explains what I mean perfectly.

“To me, it’s all about speed. I actually don’t care about anything else. Speed, both in people skills and hard work will trump anything.

When you’re not spending any time worrying, you’re spending time on executing. That’s what a great culture is, it’s speed. You’re not spending the 15 minutes a day bickering. You’re not spending the four hours a day wondering if that person’s trying to ruin you…

It’s just hustle. Input and output. It’s very binary. You can’t expect 30 years of results from 30 minutes of work.”

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Image Credits: blocberry

e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

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The currently standalone app will be joined as one with Grab’s “super app”

Albeit doing well with separate apps, Grab announced today that it will integrate its standalone GrabFood into its Grab’s main app in a bid to become a super app; a term that has been repeatedly coined by the unicorn company. It will be done in the first half of this year, according to The Business Times.

Also Read: Indogen Capital reveals plan to make 10 investments for 2019

The Head of Grab Singapore, Lim Kell Jay, highlighted the advantages of having the two joined. Grab said that it targets to become the leader in order volume for food delivery app in Singapore, leveraging on its wide selection of merchants and short delivery time.

“We have been working hard to build a customer base that’s actively transacting on our main app, which is an advantage for our merchants. By our own estimates, an average user transacts 100 times a month, and the top two use cases are transport and food. This is something that the other players aren’t able to do,” Jay said.

Aside from integrating into one app, GrabFood is looking into the possibility of opening a central kitchen in the country, following rivals Foodpanda’s central kitchens in Woodlands and Mandai as well as Deliveroo’s kitchens in Katong and Lavender. Currently, the company has a kitchen in Jakarta, Indonesia, facilitating popular food merchants from outside of Jakarta.

Also Read: Blockchain-based e-KYC platform claims the throne at Binar Academy and Tokopedia’s Hack of Thrones

Currently, Grab offers free delivery on 30 orders for just S$7.99 (US$5.88) a month under the newly launched GrabClub subscription packages.

GrabFood currently has over 4,000 merchants compared to Deliveroo’s 4,500 merchants and Foodpanda’s 6,000 merchants.
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Also, Huawei sales soar in China and GrabFood Singapore merges with main app

Vietnam logistics company LOGIVAN raises US$5.5 million from Alpha JWC Ventures – [e27]

LOGIVAN, a Vietnamese company that specialises in cargo transportation between Northern and Southern Vietnam, announced today it has raised US$5.5 million from Alpha JWC Ventures and Matrix Partners China Founding Partner David Su (through his family office)

Today’s news brings the company’s total funding to US$7.9 million. The money will be used to finance data analysis and cross-platform integration.

LOGIVAN was founded in November 2017 and at the end of 2018 had 22,000 transportation partners with “every major commercial truck type” and 10,000 shippers registered on its system.

Co-working spaces Found. and Collision8 merge to form new co-working space — [e27]

Two of Singapore’s most prominent co-working spaces, Found. and Collision8, announced today a merger that will rebrand the company into Found8.

The merger will combine the two company’s investment war chest and give Found8 US$20 million of financing.

The first major event post-merger will be the impending opening of a new 22,000 square feet space in Kuala Lumpur. The Kuala Lumpur project is part of a drive to build a large startup ecosystem in the heart of Sentral Station, a strategy that is being borrowed from Station F in Paris.

Also Read: Our idea of a good Valentine: Free Echelon Asia Summit 2019 tickets

Found8 will pursue further regional expansion.

Grab Singapore to merge food and transport in same app in H1 2019 — [Business Times]

Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab told the Business Times today that the company plans on integrating its food app with the rest of what it is calling its ‘super app’.

As of now, Grab and GrabFood had been separate apps, a legacy from the acquisition of Uber from last year.

The company is also looking into opening a centralised kitchen in Singapore, a strategy used by other food delivery companies.

HAK wins hackathon hosted by Tokopedia and Indonesian coding school Binar Academy — [e27]

On Sunday, February 10, in South Jakarta, team HAK was named as the first prize winner of Hack of Thrones, a hackathon hosted by Indonesian coding school Binar Academy and e-commerce giant Tokopedia, in partnership with Proud Media Group.

Consisted of three members Ahmad, Aulia Hakiem Noersedya, and Khalil Ambiya, the team built a platform called KYCepat, a blockchain-based peer-to-peer (P2P) network for banks, financial institutions, and other businesses to perform know-your-customer (KYC) tasks.

The team beat 30 other participants in the competition and won a IDR25 million (US$1,782) cash prize.

In addition to the cash prize, they also won the opportunity to join a Golang and Swift training with Tokopedia’s engineering team.

They will also be put on a fast-track to the last stage of Tokopedia’s employee recruitment process.

Huawei phone sales jump in China, Apple slides — [South China Morning Post]

Huawei registered a 23.3 per cent gain in China shipments in Q4 2018, a signal that consumers are working to support the company amidst its battle with the US, according to the South China Morning Post.

Apple shipments dropped by 19.9 per cent — a number the company had warned about in Q4 that led to a stock tumble. It will be worth watching the US trading day to see if that number is considered high or low by investors.

Also Read: Found. and Collision8 merge in major co-working consolidation

Xiaomi also got killed by the Chinese market, seeing a 34.9 per cent drop in shipments.

Based on these shipment numbers, Huawei is the most popular phone company in China, followed by Oppo and Vivo. Apple comes in fourth and Xiaomi is fifth.

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The e-commerce startup plans to expand into key markets including the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia in 2019

Singapore-headquartered Zilingo, an online marketplace that connects online sellers/retailers in Southeast Asia with fashion lovers across Asia, has secured a massive US$226 million in Series D round of funding from a host of investors, including Temasek, Sequoia Capital India, Singapore-based Burda Principal Investments, Sofina (Belgium) and EDBI.

This brings the total funds raised by the three-and-half-year-old startup to US$308 million. This includes a US$54 million Series C in April 2018,  US$17 million in Series B in 2017, US$8 million in late 2016 and US$2 million in November 2015.

Zilingo will use the fresh capital infusion to invest in the infrastructure and technology needed to further integrate and digitise the fashion and beauty supply chain. It also plans to expand into key markets including the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia in 2019.

Established in October 2015 by Ankiti Bose (CEO) and Dhruv Kapoor (CTO), Zilingo lets merchants upload and manage their inventory in any language using any currency. Sellers get facilities such as free shipping, free packaging, doorstep pickup and free and secure payment options.

In addition, it also helps sellers maximise their reach through various tools and strategies. This is important because Zilingo’s marketplace focusses on the long tail of merchants, also known as merchants who deal with niche products.

Also Read: We’ve learnt the hard way that the entire Southeast Asia can’t be painted with the same brush: Zilingo CEO Ankiti Bose

Last year, Zilingo claims it grew 4 times in the past 12 months after investing in building up its B2B and supply chain capabilities and delivering them through the Zilingo AsiaMall and Z-Seller platform.

According to CEO Bose: “The role of technology should be to create inclusive growth. In the fashion industry, core supply chain inefficiencies hinder small and medium merchants from unlocking their full potential as compared to the big brands. We are building a level-playing field by providing the best-in-class services and products to each merchant — irrespective of their size. We think this approach can unlock immense growth for Southeast Asian suppliers.”

As per an estimate, of the US$3 trillion of global fashion manufacturing, US$1.4 trillion comes from Asia alone. If this supply is optimised further, billions of dollars’ worth of value can be unlocked.

“Fashion and beauty merchants are hungry for tools that can help them scale. At the same time, the ecosystem is marred by outdated tech. So it’s imperative for us to build products that introduce machine learning and data science effectively to SMEs while also being easy to use, get adopted and scale quickly. We’re re-wiring the entire supply chain with that lens so that we can add most value,” says CTO Kapoor.

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These companies will compete for country glory before heading to Echelon to try to be the

Just got your pitch deck ready? Drop it here and register for TOP100! https://goo.gl/forms/kEm7nG0If6nr6AbH3

TOP100 APAC 2019 is right around the corner! The best pitching competition hopes to travel to 17 countries and find Asia’s best startups.

We will be visiting countries like Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Philippines, Myanmar, Indonesia and Malaysia to make sure no startup is missed.

The programme is organised by e27 with the mission of empowering startups with insights, connections, talent, and funding opportunities. This year, the programme has shifted to a private pitching competition to better facilitate quality pitching.

But hurry!!! Applications will close on 28 February 2019. To give you a teaser of the competition, these 15 awesome startups who will be taking their first step to TOP100 APAC 2019 and get a chance to pitch at Echelon Asia Summit 2019:

Meet the 15 startups!

Muzaara Pty Ltd – Australia

Muzaara’s intelligent marketing platform has been developed by industry experts who saw a need to offer small to medium advertisers an advanced but simple platform to create and manage their online advertising on Google Shopping and Facebook.

Alice Labs Pte Ltd. – Bangladesh

ALICE provides multiple platforms (automated or manual) to gather user data and transform those to actionable insights. In ALICE, customer experience can be enhanced through auto responses (i.e. chatbots) or manual agents. Also the organisation receives insights on customer behaviour and patterns.

Yunfengsu – China

Yunfengsu provides an accelerated big data pipeline and augment intelligence for business intelligence through something they call ZHIS.AI . They aim to create a cohesive environment for all isolated and silo’d data into a unified avenue for data utilization across all platforms

Pricekart – India

Pricekart is a leading product search, price comparison and discovery engine that helps users find the latest and most trendy products. It uses tools, reviews and rich content to better understand which product suits their needs while ‘choosing the best, but paying the least.’

Pollen Tech Pte Ltd – Malaysia

Pollen leverages sellers existing communities to make it easier for people to earn a side income.

The Community Commerce Network aim is to “Spread Commerce – Sell Anywhere, Earn More”

DDIY – Myanmar

DDIY is a trusted online home concierge platform that combines technology with top-rated home managers to provide and manage a suite of in-home services and deliver retail products and experiences right to your door.

Also Read: Why TOP100 made the decision to host a private pitching competition

From grocery shopping to housekeeping to house party planning, DDIY completes your to-do lists so that you can spend more time living life.

TripZeeker, Inc. – Philippines

TripZeeker is an online bazaar of travel experiences that connects travelers with multiple tour operators across the globe.

ELXR – Singapore

ELXR is a all-in-one scientifically driven fitness mobile App that analyses your genetics analysis and fitness assessment to customise your best training programme. ELXR is also a community for meeting like-minded people who enjoy the same workouts.

QLC (NewCampus) – Singapore

QLC is a global co-learning school delivering bite-sized learnings and strong takeaways in inspiring 21st-century classrooms. NewCampus is a different type of school, for curious people who never want to stop growing. Attend daily small-group classes hosted by global instructors about big topics in the world today.

Whether you’re looking to gain specific new skills, or window-shopping different topics to get inspired, they’ll help you get where you want to be. They’ll be running an event on 23rd February do check it out!

Seekster -Thailand

Seekster serves as a platform for home services whose main foucs is on household helpers and technicians. Seekster curates the service provider and sets the standard for the fragmented service market.

They are currently entrusted with over 100,000 jobs done and have distributed jobs to over 7,000 service providers

Getdone Pte. Ltd – Vietnam

Getdone is a platform for Hiring trusted Blockchain talents and freelancers across the world for your project while assuring 100% successful hiring by their Data and AI driven reviewing system.  

Erxes Inc – Mongolia

Erxes is an open-source growth marketing platform. They provide a marketing, sales, and customer service platform designed to help your business attract more engaged customers.

Semut – Malaysia

Semut is a recruitment company that offers the industry low-fees, chargeable to the hiring company, only upon successful hire. What’s even better, people involved in the process, be it referrer, nominator and domain experts will be incentivised with commission.With the help of domain experts and artificial intelligence in the matching process, we have our best bet in achieving our vision – right talents to the right opportunities.

Zigway – Myanmar

We are building a sustainable, scalable social enterprise that will lift 20 million people out of poverty by 2030 through building a mobile technology platform to help low-income families access NanoLoans, quick, cheap and flexible loans to cover their daily needs.

Noodle Factory – Singapore

At Noodle Factory, they believe that learning is essential throughout our lives, but there isn’t always time or money for classes or workshops, and sometimes, we just want something more engaging.

Online learning has evolved rapidly over the years, and while it can be effective, it often is a time-consuming process for content owners to digitalise their content. As tech junkies, they are always striving to leverage technology to make things better.

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So what are you waiting for? These guys didn’t!

Calling all startups to sign up: https://e27.co/echelon/asia/top100

Not a startup but keen to meet the e27 team while we tour Asia Pacific? We’re running a series of Echelon Roadshows (Founders Confession content session, networking opportunities and F&B provided), RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.sg/o/e27-61600204

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The local government is behind the eco-friendly initiative for the capital city of Central Java province

Semarang, the capital city of the Central Java region, just hosted the launch of GOWES, a bike sharing platform and app supported by the government.

Owned by PT Surya Teknologi Perkasa (STP), the subsidiary of digital company PT M Cash Integrasi Tbk (IDX: MCAS), the company created a GOWES fleet, which is an e-bike and e-scooter fleet that provides transportation alternatives aimed at the locals and tourists that come to the city.

Also Read: 15 more awesome startups that will be apart of TOP100 APAC 2019

A total of 30 bikes unit, 20 e-scooters unit, and 10 e-bikes unit from GOWES were available to try in a government-facilitated CFD event. Involved in the event was Jajaran Musyawarah Pimpinan Daerah (Muspida), the region’s discussion leader for Semarang and the local telecommunication provider XL Axiata.

XL Axiata provides the SIM card and internet connection to support the Tracking Device feature in the GOWES app.

“We want to provide a transportation alternative that’s air and noise pollution free for everyone to use, especially the residents of Semarang,” said Iwan Suryaputra, the President Director of PT Surya Teknologi Perkasa (STP).

Suryaputra also added that the launch seeks to promote a healthier lifestyle among the locals.

GOWES will first be made accessible in the tourist spots all over the city such as the the legendary Lawang Sewu, the gift shops center, Goa Kreyo, Buddhist worship temple Kelenteng Gedung Batu Sam Poo Kong, and many more. The goal is to eventually have hundreds of the fleets in the city.

The bike sharing platform is the development of STP’s main product of Tracking Device & Digital Indonesia Map, utilising Internet of Things (IOT) technology applied to each bike to let users leaving the bike anywhere in the operational area of GOWES. The GOWES team will then collect the bike after use.

Also Read: How does my startup make it into Echelon’s TOP100 this year?

So far, GOWES has operated in Bali, covering Kuta, Legian, Sanur, Nusa Dua, and Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK) in Bali. GOWES also can be found in Jakarta, specifically in Monumen Nasional (Monas) area, Gelora Bung Karno (GBK), residential areas like Bintaro Jaya and Nava Park BSD City, as well as at Telkom University, Bandung.

By downloading the app in Google Play Store and App Store and credit topping up into the app in digital kiosks, users can use GOWES’s services that also provide internet data and other digital products.
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Image Credit: GOWES

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The rise of micro-influencers are among Indonesia’s top prospects

2018 was a rocky year for Tagtoo, the digital advertising company I work. But, by the end of the 12-months, we were ahead of where we were at the end of 2017.

The road was filled with hardships and hurdles and we had a close call with failure. But, we persevered through the tough times  and eventually found success.

A major reason our hard work paid off is we got a grasp on how we could make a breakthrough in Indonesia.

Since our entrance into this market, we have been paying close attention to the digital marketing development in Indonesia.

As an ad-tech company, we are fortunate to receive first-hand information of future growth trajectory through clients we collaborate and approach. Coupled with insights gained from interviewing marketing professionals, we cherrypicked four key marketing trends to watch out for in 2019.

We hope this can help more companies prepare themselves better for the upcoming challenges.

The strong growth in digital advertising

The demand for digital advertising — banner ads, video ads, and native ads — will become stronger as more Indonesians have access to internet service via their desktops and mobile devices.

Despite 2017’s internet penetration standing at only 54.68 per cent, The Association for Internet Service Provider in Indonesia has revealed that the total number of internet users (around 144 million) signifies a lucrative digital advertising opportunity.

The outlay for mobile ads will account for nearly 50 per cent of total digital ads expenditure in 2019, reaching US$312 million. Since buying a decent smartphone is increasingly conventional, mobile ads are becoming the first touchpoint for advertisers to enter an Indonesian user’s personal space.

The emergence of more personalized ads on mobile devices is anticipated. More Internet user data will be collected from smartphone use.

The next problem for Indonesian e-commerce is how to harness user data to drive more conversions.

In addition, ad-targeting is going to shift from traditional demographic targeting to advanced behavioural targeting. This transformation will show a significant increase in the effectiveness of digital ads and drive more transactions.

More transparent reports are needed

Indonesia’s digital advertising is at a nascent stage.

Many companies are just beginning their online presence and have a limited understanding of digital advertising. This situation creates a grey area or a loophole that can be exploited.

Transparency and reliability in digital advertising remains a serious issue in Indonesia.

Also Read: Internet penetration in Indonesia reaches 143M people: APJII Report

Fake reports and incorrect data are frequently disclosed after advertisers outsource digital advertising to some traditional agencies.

It’s hard to judge the campaign performance.

Most advertisers don’t know if their ads are properly displayed or if the post-campaign reports are authentic. Many are mislead by the incorrect data and falsely believe their advertising campaign performs well.

“That’s why we highly encourage our clients to set up Google Analytics,” Mick Lu, head of Indonesia, Tagtoo, shared.

As more advertisers become tech-savvy, the use of a third-party tracking tool, such as Google Analytics, will help more professional ad-tech companies rise to the top.

“Learning how to interpret their own data in a correct way is critical for the business operation. That way, it helps clarify the performance attribution between agencies and clients, avoiding unnecessary trust issues,” Lu continued.

A report that fully reflects the real performance is what the Indonesian market desperately needs.

This 2019, we are positive that digital advertising will become more transparent.

Agencies offer more strategic values

There is a huge gap in terms of digital marketing in Indonesia.

Top internet businesses have built relatively competitive digital advertising teams and are well-equipped with the latest digital marketing skills.

On the other hand, SMEs and budding startups are trying to catch up.

Indonesia will see this gap becoming bigger in the coming years as more capital is instilled to cooperates and unicorn startups. Most digital placements are tightly grasped and leave no room for small players.

To surpass these difficulties, digital agencies play an important role.

They could provide strategic value through strategy, campaign execution, and scale; helping smaller companies compete with bigger names.

By collaborating with professional agencies to leverage their expertise, smaller companies can stay focused on their core business and product optimization with limited resources at hand.

This way, it could create more chances for smaller companies to survive and transition into the next stage where more resources and capitals are available to assemble a competent team.

Also Read: Happened in Indonesia: Bukalapak launches R&D centre, bike-sharing service in Bandung

“Most Indonesian entrepreneurs haven’t realized the importance of data collection while many international companies have been utilizing data for product optimization for so long,” shared Kent Kong, marketing director of Wellcomm, Indonesia’s largest electronic gadgets retailer.

“With more new methodologies and marketing tools brought by agencies, I strongly believe it would help radically change the way Indonesian entrepreneur does business,” Kong continued in the exclusive interview with Tagtoo.

Micro-Influencer marketing becomes popular

Influencer marketing is the next holy grail for Indonesia companies to push sales to another level.

By utilising the influence celebrities have on their huge fanbases, companies gain an additional secret weapon to stimulate the stagnant growth of revenue.

However, not every company, especially for SMEs, can afford to pay a celebrity millions of dollars for a simple one-time campaign. This amount of money is enough for a startup or small company to run operations for several months.

Actually, turning to micro-influencers (those with 50,000 followers and below) in a specific field could be a more realistic and cost-effective method.

Also Read: 4 startups making an impact by including corporate social responsibility in their business model

While these micro-influencers may not possess as many followers as popular celebrities, their fanbases are far more focused and more likely to make conversions.

Unlike megastars, these micro-influencers seem much more relatable to the average person.

The grassroots spirit they represent shows greater authenticity and reliability, which people can easily resonate with.

Think of it this way, a friend’s recommendation is always more impactful than what TV stars boast of.

The importance of tapping into Influencer marketing is well recognized.

With more micro-influencers mushrooming up in major platforms, such as Instagram and Vigo, it’s widely believed that micro-influencers will become mainstream in 2019.

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e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

The post What we learned from almost failing before an Indonesia break through appeared first on e27.

Go ahead, ask someone to join you at Echelon. We got your second (and third) ticket covered.

We’re not giving you flowers or chocolates or cards or plushies. But because we do love you, we want to make a good impression this Valentine’s week (yep, we’re going for a Valentine’s week and not just a day).

So, two things:

Get one free Starter ticket for every purchase of 1 Starter ticket

We have a lot of things in store for you this Echelon and we know it would be a lot more fun if you bring someone with you. Starter tickets give you access to all three conference stages (Founder, Future, Capital), the TOP100 pitching stage, exhibition areas and partnered zones (TOP100, Marketplace, country pavilions and Talent Zone), the official Echelon App, and the Echelon Official Afterparty.

Our Valentine’s promo can be found here.

Find out more about Echelon 2019

Get two free Starter tickets for every purchase of 1 Premier ticket

They say three’s a crowd but we say the more the merrier. Besides, your Premier ticket will give you all Starter ticket access plus other special features like one-on-one meetings, business matching, access to workshops and roundtable discussions, and many more so you’ll be busy in case you lose track of the two people you’re giving your free Starter tickets to.

Purchase your Premier ticket and we’ll send you a code to get your 2 free Starter tickets. Get tickets here

This promo runs beginning right now until 17th of February (or until supplies last).

 

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Echelon Asia Summit 2019 is bringing together 15,000 of the best and brightest of APAC’s tech ecosystem. Happening on May 23-24 at the Singapore Expo, Echelon features 3 conference stages, over 300 exhibitors, TOP100 startup pitching, special workshops and roundtable discussions, and many more.

Register today!

Get updates and share your Echelon story on social media using #Echelon2019

The post Our idea of a good Valentine: Free Echelon Asia Summit 2019 tickets appeared first on e27.

Albert Lucius talks about OVO’s partnership with Grab as well as how he dealt with failures and challenges

Last week, we encouraged members of our Telegram Group to drop their burning questions for OVO Chief Product Officer Albert Lucius for the revived e27 Ask Me Anything (AMA) feature –and he has returned with his answers.

Find out what Lucius got to say about the company’s partnership with Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab –and how they plan to bring greater inclusivity through their work.

Will Indonesia become a digital-first market for payments? Should it? – Kevin M.

Currently, digital adoption for payments in Indonesia is still very low. However it is growing rapidly. Digital payments have many benefits, including [the ability to] onboard more unbanked Indonesians into financial inclusion.

Whether Indonesia will become a digital-first market depends on many factors: Infrastructure improvements, regulation, and technology enablement. I personally believe Indonesia is heading into the right direction. Indonesia will benefit greatly from digital payments, especially as a fragmented archipelago with physical infrastructure that is far too challenging for a full blown financial and banking service.

What exactly is the greatest challenge in promoting cashless payment in Indonesia? Why did it only begin to take off in 2018? – Anisa M.

The deeply embedded habit of utilising cash and infrastructure are the key challenges in promoting cashless payment. Having an expansive ecosystem also plays a key role in wider acceptance and adoption of cashless payment in Indonesia.

Also Read: [Updated] Tokopedia, OVO team up to offer the payment service on the e-commerce platform

What are some of your most memorable failures, and what lessons did you learn from it?
– Hiro

I’ve personally had many failures in life and I believe that’s part of life. The most important part is that we learned from it.

In the context of building a startup, my most memorable failure was when we put business first ahead of customers. I think the pressure to put business growth ahead is very strong in startup environment, especially due to pressure to grow the business for fundraising. Sometimes, when we are chasing growth, we made business decisions that prioritise short term growth instead of focussing on what the customers really need.

Fortunately, we realised this very early on as we have open communication channel with our customers. We’re here building products ultimately for the customers, so we have to strive to serve them. When you have customers loving your products and services, they will be your supporters for the long term and bring more customers for you.

What is the most unknown and counter-intuitive fact about Southeast Asian startup ecosystem? – Arnaud Bonzom

The Southeast Asia startup ecosystem changed dramatically in the past five years. I remember when I first started hearing about the large Indonesians unicorns (Tokopedia, Traveloka) back then in 2012. No one saw them as a destination to work for.

Then I started Kudo in 2014, we had to literally convince people to move from working in large corporations into joining a startup. Now in 2019, everything couldn’t be more further apart. Working at large unicorns is suddenly the cool thing to do.

What I’m trying to say is that Southeast Asia is a VERY dynamic ecosystem, and it changes very fast. This is not only in terms of people hiring, but also regulation, ecosystem, and competitive landscape. So my tips for any potential founders in Southeast Asia: Don’t wait, do it now. That six months of wait could mean the difference between “you’re the head of the train” or “you’re one of the ‘copycats’ who are always one step behind.”

Also Read: Indonesian digital payment services platform OVO appoints new CTO, with focus on growth

What’s your long-term vision on how the company will change the way Indonesians, Southeast Asians, or even global citizens live? – Julien Condamines

OVO aims to be the premiere digital wallet for Indonesians. We will be supporting Indonesians as they go about their days, from the moment they wake up until they fall asleep. We want to break the heavy habit of using cash, allowing more people to be part of the financial inclusion, and supporting, in the long run, Indonesia’s growth as a digital economy powerhouse.

What is the biggest reward from your partnership with Grab? And what’s the biggest
problem? – Patera P.

Since partnering with Grab, we have seen incredible growth towards our goal of making digital payments something anyone can use anywhere, anytime:

• Made cashless payments available for millions of Indonesians for the first time!
• With OVO on the Grab and Tokopedia platform, OVO is now available on more than 115 million devices
• Our large, shared user base attracts many businesses including many small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
• With acceptance across offline retail, online-to-offline services and online commerce, we have become the most widely accepted payments platform
• As of December 2018, we have onboarded more than 230.000 SMEs into the cashless movement
• Finally, OVO has now become the e-wallet with the most use-cases
• Millions of middle class consumers use OVO now to pay cashless for Grab transport, Grab food delivery as well as offline transactions at small and large merchants, from warung stalls to major malls

Our value proposition isn’t limited to OVO. As we give Indonesians more reasons to use OVO at more places, I’m glad that it also means Grab drivers can earn more, as more people top-up their OVO wallets with Grab drivers.

Also Read: How coworking space operator UnionSPACE plan to support fintech startups in Indonesia

What are your plans to ensure inclusivity moving forward? – Prisca A.

OVO currently partners with many organisations focusing on financial inclusivity, such as Kudo and Warung Pintar. Through the reach of their agent network, OVO will be able to reach many Indonesians who are still untapped by technology and financial services.

In addition to that, OVO will continue to expand its partnership with notable brands in the technology and retail sphere, as well as strengthening OVO financial services to attract more merchants and customers. Ultimately providing significant contribution to the national financial inclusion rate.

More payments players will enter in 2019. What’s OVO’s user retention and acquisition strategy other than cashback? It seems like payment players are competing in giving bigger cashback percentage nowadays – Richard D.

We keep expanding our services based on Indonesian most use cases. We want to be their primary wallet where customers can use OVO’s financial services from the moment they wake up until they sleep.

In the long run, by enabling consumers to pay cashless for things they usually pay for –but in a more convenient, more affordable, and safer method– that’s what going to make cashless win against cash.

We’ve seen this trend happening in other countries, such as China. I recently visited China, and everyone is using digital payments to pay and send money around because it is the most convenient thing to do. When paying via digital is easier and more convenient than cash, eventually more and more users will create a snowball effect to move to digital payments.

Also Read: Aiming to add 4 new startups, Mandiri Capital Indonesia targets insurtech, investment management sectors

There are so many cashless services. What’s OVO doing differently, and is it too idealistic to think that mobile payments can solve financial inclusion challenges? – Budi Azwar

Our open ecosystem makes it super easy to choose cashless: Our strategy is to build trust and value. We open up our ecosystem and create interoperability with the partners people trust enough to spend their money with: Grab, Tokopedia, Hypermart, Matahari Department Stores, even your favourite cendol and satay stalls.

Is it too idealistic? I really don’t think so. Financial inclusion is all about opening access to the people to begin with, and then providing a product solution that caters to them. Digital payments have far less barrier to entry compared to a full blown banking solution. Digital payments also don’t require the heavy investment of infrastructure such as bank branches; it makes digital payment solutions able to expand more rapidly across the archipelago of Indonesia.

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Image Credit: OVO

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The Singapore-based company raises the round from Singapore’s Wavemaker Partners

Musiio, an AI-based digital music discovery and creation platform, has secured US$1 million seed round from Singapore’s Wavemaker Partners. Joining the round is Exponential Creativity Ventures from U.S. and angels, as reported by Techcrunch.

Musiio focusses on reducing inefficiencies in music curation using artificial intelligence that augments the human curators’ work. The purpose is to give those who lack the time to scour Spotify the opportunity to automate or partially automate the music search process.

Also Read: These are the five startups joining Phandeeyar Accelerator third batch

This would be the second deal Musiio secured but the first that is out of its Entrepreneur First (EF) program. The first one was done April 2018 and was worth US$57,000 courtesy of EF.

The seven-person operation was founded when Musiio CEO Hazel Savage, who’s a former streaming executive, met CTO Aron Pettersson in the Entrepreneur First program in Singapore.

Musiio’s clients include Free Music Archive (FMA), the public music site by independent U.S. radio station WFMU. With FMA, Musiio worked on developing a playlist that raised the profile of a number of songs that had been buried deep in the catalog, allowing fair chances for a track to get more number of plays.

Also Read: IOT-based bike-sharing service GOWES launched in Semarang, Indonesia

“We’re expecting two or three commercial announcements as we’re working with streaming companies and sync companies for now,”Savage said.
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Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

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