A career in biotech can be a great choice for a multitasking, team-oriented individual who does not fear changes

Choosing a career can be the most difficult decision we make in our lives. Although some people seem to know from childhood what they want to do, others struggle through college and beyond.

Here are some things to know about the biotechnology field that will help you decide if a career in biotech is right for you:

Biotech is an ever-changing field

Science, in general, is ever-changing, so if you work in biotech, you need to be flexible and ready to roll with the changes that come your way. You will work with different people, you will need to learn new procedures, and you may even change where you work throughout your career. If you do not mind changes year after year, you will have a better chance of enjoying biotech.

You will do better in biotech if you are team-oriented

You might imagine your life in biotech in a lab, working by yourself all day. But the truth is that many projects in biotech require teamwork, including operations, production, marketing, and R&D. If you work well with others, you are more likely to excel in a career in biotech.

Biotech requires multitasking

A career in biotech requires multitasking. You will often be working on more than one project at a time and trying to balance it all. It can be fun and challenging, but it can also be stressful if you are someone who prefers to focus on one thing at a time. If you are someone who loves to do a lot at one time, however, biotech might be perfect for you.

Also Read: Biotech startup RWDC raises US$13M co-led by Vickers Venture, WI Harper to produce biodegradable plastic

Biotech requires you to learn quickly and handle setbacks

Biotech is a fast-paced industry that requires much learning and adaptation. You will need to learn quickly, and most likely you will be teaching yourself. You will also need to be resilient and effectively handle setbacks, such as having a project terminated. This can happen for numerous reasons, including business decisions, technical issues, or scientific reasons. If you can handle these types of setbacks and not allow them to shake you, you are more likely to succeed in biotech.

Careers in biotech often come with pressure

A career in biotech will often come with pressure because large amounts of money (sometimes even millions of dollars) will depend on the results of your work. You will also have deadlines and expectations from marketing teams. So, if the idea of pressure terrifies you, biotech is probably not the right fit.

Only you can decide if a career in biotech is right for you. Consider your personal strengths, as well as your likes and dislikes.  Do you prefer a consistent work environment with less pressure and changes? If you do, you have probably already realised that biotech is not for you.

Or do you love the idea of a challenge? Can you learn quickly, handle pressure, work with others and effectively multitask? If you can answer yes to these questions, biotech be perfect for you.

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Image Credit: Drew Hays on Unsplash

This article originally appeared on weigarofolo.wordpress.com.

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Malaysia is one of the most multicultural nations in Southeast Asia, and so are her startups

As famously stated by Mark Suster of Upfront Ventures, “individuals don’t build great companies, teams do”. From speaking to both Founders and startup employees over the years, the imperative of building leaders and developing team dynamic has become clear to us.

It is the interaction of each stellar individual member that will maximise the performance of your team.

Back in February, ConnectOne teamed up with iPrice Group, Southeast Asia’s leading price comparison and coupon platform in seven countries (Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, and Hong Kong), to conduct a team building workshop using Emergenetics for their Leadership team in Malaysia.

Working in a region that is a melting pot of different cultures, the company fully embraces diversity — which requires an even greater awareness of each other’s learning style and work habits.

“It’s extremely difficult to understand how to work effectively with other people from different cultural backgrounds with different preferences to think and act. This is crucial to if we want to grow 10x in the business”
– Heinrich M. Wendel, iPrice CTO

Also Read: Indonesia’s Startup Legal Clinic, a helping hand for startups’ legal woes

From that day we found three key lessons on building the ultimate power team:

Lesson 1: Understanding each team members’ communication style as well as your own

We have all heard the saying “communication is key” and this could not be more emphasized for any fast-scaling startup team. It is not only about making sense of your own communication style but understanding those of others.

The workshop brought this dynamic team of leaders together as we guided them on how to adapt their individual approaches to suit one another and to facilitate effective communication.

Lesson 2: There is no one-size-fits-all leadership model

“The most valuable lesson is that no preference or combination of such is the “right” one”
– iPrice participant

Whilst some may argue that scientific tools are restricting and place individuals into boxes, we take an educative approach to identify behavioural preferences and improve self-awareness for better performance.

This allowed participants to recognize their personal strengths and weaknesses, encouraging them to work around them by understanding what works and what does not.

Lesson 3: Knowing your team will better determine what new hires you need

Earlier in the year, we carried out a survey asking members of the startup community on their top hiring and organization problems, and ‘hiring the right people’ easily emerged at the top of the list. Workshop participants shared that uncovering the preferential composition of their team paved the way for continued growth and team improvement as it highlighted what skills and working styles were lacking.

All in all, we want to say a huge thank you to our friends at iPrice for their fantastic engagement during the day and delighted to hear that they continue to reflect upon the day’s learnings three months on.

“We are now able to create our own management style without exhausting ourselves but still able to fulfil the requirements of the role”
– iPrice participant

Likewise, it was an eye-opening experience for our consultants to observe the high-level of willingness demonstrated by the team to learn more about each other and to see the growth that can occur from a single day.

Also Read: Is a career in biotech right for you?

“My role is to ensure that the environment is safe enough for a participant to open up and express their frustrations without fear of being labelled an outcast. That was certainly achieved when the minority thinking preference spoke their minds; and the majority immediately sought to assure them of their value and thank them for their contributions.”
– Joanna Yeoh, ConnectOne Director and Workshop Leader

The workshop helped build rapport for a fast-growing team and improve communication between different leads and seniority. Making the right hire can take many hours and rounds of decision making.

Why waste that talent away by not strengthening how these individuals think and act together as a team?

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It’s high time Singapore SMEs fought back against the evolving cyber-threat landscape

As the Asia-Pacific region undergoes rapid digital transformation, emerging technologies are coming to the forefront of many businesses in Singapore.

Despite the positive business benefits delivered by such technologies – including fostering innovation and optimised workplace efficiencies – with any digitisation comes an inherent risk. As organisations move into this new cyber era, the expanding digital business has opened the door for cyber-criminals to launch increasingly potent and sophisticated attacks.

Due to often limited reliable cyber resources and insufficient IT talent, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly falling prey to cyber-threats.

In fact, recent surveys show that three in five SMEs in Singapore have had cybersecurity breaches that resulted in business disruptions and data leaks over the past 12 months – and of these, 40 per cent of cyber-attacks in Singapore have been found to target SMEs.

Also Read: The essentials of mapping a customer journey across digital assets

Amidst the constant rise in data breaches, SMEs must stop consigning cybersecurity to the backburner.

By taking a preventative, rather than reactive, approach to cyber defences – such as harnessing the power of cyber AI and fostering a strong – SMEs can overcome the roadblocks they face in defending themselves, and rise as more resilient against the evolving threat landscape.

Raising cyber awareness by cultivating a robust corporate culture

According to a survey from Chubb, half of all SMEs said key staff members may not be fully aware of their obligations to protect the data to which they have access. Even further, the survey found that most do not fully understand what constitutes a cybersecurity risk.

The lack of awareness around the urgency of cyber defence in light of an advanced and evolving ecosystem of cyber-criminals, coupled with the traditional downplaying of such risks, threatens the lifeline of the SME economy in the region.

Therefore it has become critical that SMEs foster a culture of cyber awareness across the entire business – from top management to entry-level employees – which can be achieved as easily as organising regular staff training sessions and briefings on cyber best practices.

Since workplace culture drives employee behaviour, SMEs can engage both new and older employees in campaigns and workshops. Staff training can focus on case studies of previous cyber-attacks, some of which have stemmed from e-mail phishing – clicking on suspicious links, tech support scams, malware infection, among others.

By encouraging such educational programmes at the workplace, businesses can reduce employee vulnerability to cyber-attacks, and educate them on how to boost frontline cyber defence to safeguard critical information.

Overcoming limited resources and talent by tapping into cyber AI defence

While fostering a culture of cybersecurity and getting familiar with potential risk is a strong start, SMEs simply cannot defeat sophisticated cyber-attackers without the help of AI technologies – the cyber threat landscape evolves too quickly, and attacks strike at machine speeds.

And after all, many SMEs still lack sufficient cyber security infrastructure and headcounts required to defend against minor cyber breaches.

Human teams and traditional technologies are already outpaced by cyber-criminals. What will happen when threat-actors turn to AI to supercharge their attack methods? Cyber AI is thus imperative to actively detect and neutralise threats within seconds of it emerging on the network. SMEs will have to arm themselves with AI, combatting these adversaries with machines to win the war of algorithm against algorithm.

Moreover, and a huge value add for SMEs, AI-enabled technologies play an active role in filling the gap of IT talent shortage. Industry sectors that are currently under-staffed are turning to cyber AI defence solutions that autonomously pre-empt and neutralise cyber risks before they turn into full-fledged cyber-attacks. With such technological help, SMEs can minimise the odds of a major cyber incident and lower potential damages.

This has already been proven to work across thousands of customers. In one example, cyber AI found that a senior executive at a financial services company in Singapore became a target of a phishing scam launched by sophisticated cyber-criminals.

After entering into the corporate network via a malicious link within an email, the attackers were able to move laterally through the company’s cyber infrastructure looking to compromise sensitive information.

However, Darktrace’s AI technology identified this suspicious, irregular behaviour within two seconds, buying back critical time for the lean security team to respond and mitigate the threat – before it escalated into a crisis.

Time for cyber-readiness is now

As SMEs currently make up 99 per cent of Singapore’s enterprises, employ two-thirds of the workforce, and account for half of Singapore’s GDP, any vulnerability to cyber-threats will have a toll on our economy and wider society.

Also Read: What I learnt from training Malaysia’s most multicultural startup

These organisations must acknowledge that despite the various barriers they may face, a proactive cyber approach should still be adopted.

The first half of 2019 has seen multiple high-profile cyber incidents and the trend is unlikely to stop any time soon.

Organisations, regardless of size, must not only cultivate a better understanding of cyber-risks among their employees, but also ramp up rapid detection and containment strategies fuelled by AI technology – enabling institutions to stay one step ahead of tomorrow’s threat.

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Content marketing need not only be done by content marketers

The looming content war in Asia

Content was once hailed as king in the new digital economy, a comparison which may be apt in a way beyond originally intended.

While content does have the power of royalty — allowing founders to seize share from competitors, enrich their coffers, and secure market leadership — it is also becoming as scarce.

The content crisis in Asia

To look at it another way, compare the creation to consumption ratio for most forms of digital content. The gripping series you consume on Netflix over the course of a weekend might have taken more than a year to produce and tens of millions of dollars to bankroll.

The same goes for other digital mediums. The column you read in The New York Times may have taken the essayist the course of several weeks to write, revise, and rewrite. The ten-minute documentary you watch on your Facebook Newsfeed was probably created with man-hours a thousand times that figure.

In short, the cost of creating content — including not only money, but time and resources — is spiralling ever upward, and even then, it seems to barely keep pace with our insatiable demand.

But, much like a price war, a content war produces only a pyrrhic victory: The ostensible winner may have the most popular content for viewers now — until that is someone with a bigger warchest comes along to produce more, produce better.

Also Read: What I learnt from training Malaysia’s most multicultural startup

Companies in Asia Pacific staring down a possible content war should avoid one at all costs, and instead take notes from their peers in the region succeeding through co-creation or outright user-generated content.

These collaborative approaches allow the companies to keep pace with the demand for content, while minimizing the necessary investment to the bare minimum. These companies are pioneering a MVC, if you want to repurpose a term from startup terminology, with their minimum viable content.

Everyone is a content creator

Perhaps the most prominent example of co-creation content in Southeast Asia comes courtesy of iflix.

The Malaysian video on demand service launched what it calls a Creators Hub earlier this year, which will incubate 30 content creators for one year, providing them funding, networking, bootcamp, and other resources. As the program is still in first year, the results remain to be seen, but iflix knows very well the goldmine it is tapping into: It will source and develop the very best content creators from the more than 500,000 active across the region.

One platform that has already benefited from a surplus of user-generated content is livestreaming hub Kumu from the Philippines. While Kumu has its own shows produced in-house, the vast majority of its content is user-generated.

The very best of its user-generated content is as creative and slick as any in-house show — these amateur hosts self-produce livestreams that including singing, dancing, improvisational acting, and even games.

The proof that such user-generated content is as effective at capturing hearts and minds as traditionally produced shows is in the numbers: Although it launched only last year, Kumu already boasts of an astounding 500,000 users. Venture capitalists see the value of these user livestreams, too, as a group of top investors, led by Summit Media, invested US$1.2 million in the company at the tail end of last year.

Their dollar goes further here: That warchest will support exponentially more user-generated content than it will studio-produced shows.

Even traditional publications are getting in on the action.

Social news network Rappler has been embroiled in political issues as of late, which has arguably overshadowed its incredible effort for user-generated content with RapplerX. The platform allowed non-journalists to contribute meaningful stories, as part of the company’s overall commitment to citizen journalism.

That RapplerX is reportedly being shuttered to give way to building a new, improved platform only shows the value of user-generated content. Rather than adding more journalists one-by-one, you can expand storytelling capability exponentially by giving way to community voices.

It would be a mistake to think that co-creation and user-generated content can only benefit companies already in the media space. Entrepreneurs in consumer or enterprise verticals would be well served to look into producing their content this way, as part of a more efficient bid to be the thought leader of their respective industry.

Recruitday in the Philippines, for example, is leveraging knowledge and data gleaned from its stakeholders — job seekers, recruiters (“Scouts”), and employers — to create content beneficial for all three, in a way that no other competitor can. This creative alchemy helps job seekers land the perfect job, scouts to successfully refer candidates, and employers find the best talent.

Also Read: The clock is ticking for SMEs to get their shields up against cyber-threats

Other consumer and enterprise companies should take note and think of ways on how they can use their already existing community to create content marketing that is a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Content marketing, in short, need not only be done by content marketers. You can tap into the collective wisdom of your community and emerge with a winning strategy.

While your peers sink time, money, and resources into expensive, company-owned content, you should turn to co-creation and user-generated content to achieve thought leadership in your space, and before long, market leadership.

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The startup arm at Intellectual Ventures formed a joint venture with NTU’s innovation and enterprise company NTUitive

ISF Incubator announced that it has formed a joint venture with NTUitive, the innovation and enterprise company of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore to form a new 3D printing startup called Secur3DP+.

Secur3DP+ is a startup that brings additive manufacturing to global companies by providing a supply chain hub for 3D printing. The system is built on a blockchain solution.

Secur3DP+ will be initially funded by a contribution of seed capital from ISF Incubator. It also has partnered with NAMIC (the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster led by NTUitive) to tap into the country’s thriving startup and 3D printing ecosystem.

Secur3DP+ claimed that it has acquired certain patents and patent applications related to 3D printing and it has access to NTU’s expertise in 3D printing and blockchain. With Secur3DP+, additive manufacturing is intended to be a viable option for more companies through the creation of a global 3D printing network that will connect companies with vetted service providers.

Secur3DP+ allows secure workflow solutions through validation and authorisation of all projects, ensuring the right products are created and delivered in the most cost-effective way, and it enables startups and multi-national corporations to protect and track their IP assets.

Also Read: Indonesia’s Startup Legal Clinic, a helping hand for startups’ legal woes

“Our partnership with NTU gives us access to one of the region’s top technology institutions,” said Jerome Hewlett, vice president and head of Asia business development for ISF. “We will continue to look for strong local entrepreneurs to lead other companies throughout the region.”

“Our company is filling a critical gap in the mass adoption of 3D printing,” said Eng Kiat Low, CEO of Secur3DP+. “By creating a global ecosystem of trusted partners, we hope to accelerate the adoption of 3D printing and allow businesses all over the world to get the products they need and do so securely, anytime, anywhere.”
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The Singapore personal mobility startup started off operation with about 200 vehicles in Kuala Lumpur

E-scooter service Beam announced that it has set up operations in Malaysia, as reported by Asia One.

Its corporate affairs vice president Christopher Hilton said that the e-scooters will be available at various designated parking areas in Bukit Bintang, Lot 10 mall, and Mont Kiara township because of its high foot traffic, wide walking paths, and convenience to public transport.

With the service made available in mentioned areas, Hilton said that the users won’t need to park the e-scooters anywhere specific. “We believe the most natural way is for people to stop the ride where they choose,” he said.

During the launch, the company expressed that it welcomes businesses and shop owners that wish to have more traffic to offer parking spaces for Beam’s e-scooter.

By downloading the app, customers can use e-scooter connecting to Bluetooth and mobile data, and entering their credit/debit card details.

The rides start at S$0.80 and cost an additional 30 cent for each extra minute with facilities such as general liability and personal insurance while using the service.

The e-scooters can travel a distance of 45km to 50km or about four to five trips before it needs to be recharged. The vehicles are tracked on the app using the rider’s smartphone and an IoT (Internet of Things) device on the e-scooter.

Also Read: Sustainable and healthy food startup Boxgreen raises funding

The e-scooter has a 20kph speed and helmets are not mandatory although encouraged. It’s also looking at providing a helmet with the vehicle and parking responsibly will get the customers a discount on the next ride.

As for maintenance plan, a geofence is in place to make sure riders don’t park the e-shooter beyond the designated area with a fine at RM5 as a few “pick up” fee. The company claims that the vehicles are checked regularly by marshals for safety and will be brought in for maintenance after every 300 rides.

So far, Hilton claimed that the service has clocked over 15,000 rides, and the app has been downloaded 10,000 times.
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The saturated and tricky Asian e-commerce space raises many doubts but little room for error

Thanks to the stunning rates of tech adoption, the increase of open trade across Asian borders and the rise of discretionary income, e-commerce has become the newest young-hot-thing.

The potential for growth is high as ever. Asia-Pacific (APAC), for instance, is currently home to over 60 per cent of the global population – and the world’s fastest-growing economies.

Given that the online economy of Southeast Asia (SEA) alone is expected to hit US$240 billion by 2025, global players are keen to participate in the space despite the challenges they have to face.

To start, they have to compete with homegrown ventures that already have a pool of loyal local customer bases. This is perhaps best exemplified by Amazon’s recent retreat from China due to its struggle to compete with the likes of Alibaba and JD.

Still, the relative newness of the space means that there are opportunities for established companies with global experience to offer value to the region’s various e-commerce stakeholders. Texas-based e-commerce platform BigCommerce, for example, announced on February that the company had opened an office in Singapore in an effort to expand its reach in the region.

BigCommerce Director of Asia, Dene Schonknecht, recently agreed to share his thoughts on the challenges and strategies involved with expanding an e-commerce presence through a partner ecosystem in the APAC region, in this article.

The APAC e-commerce opportunity

Despite rapid developments in Asian e-commerce infrastructure and fintech, barriers to launching an e-commerce business still exist.

Many Southeast Asian merchants simply choose to set up shop on marketplaces like Lazada, Tokopedia and Shopee, opting to trade sales percentages and pay fees for an easier way to establish their online presences.

Smaller sellers even continue to rely on free online classifieds and Facebook Marketplace due to the capital and technical expertise needed to create an e-commerce app or site. These businesses miss out on the benefits that having their own e-commerce channel brings, such as better branding, customized experiences, and omnichannel opportunities.

“We’re still seeing a gap in the platform market, so we believe in the opportunity available to us in APAC – and believe that we can add value to merchants in the region,” Shonknecht explained. “We spend a lot of time telling our story, educating merchants and partners on how we are unique relative to the established competition.”

Also Read: E-scooter startup Beam sets up operations in Malaysia

By entering the arena, BigCommerce is banking on continued growth in regional demand for e-commerce tech solutions, which in turn, is contingent on continued e-commerce shopping growth in the region.

While it already has existing customers in Asia including brands like Isetan, Resmed and Suntec, the company believes that the wider community of Asian entrepreneurs is still under-served.

The challenges of being a challenger

Schonknecht says that he sees two key challenges to his company’s Asian penetration efforts. First is market prioritisation. They need to ensure that their team is focused on markets where there is the best combination of merchant demand, product fit and partner competency.

Second is branding and education. As a new entrant in the space, the company needs to be able to communicate its distinct identity as well as its global credibility.

To overcome these challenges, it’s critical for them to establish a partner ecosystem consisting of agencies and developers, to encourage merchants to adopt the solution.

“As anyone who has done business in APAC will know, there is no monolithic market known as ‘Asia,’” Schonknecht asserted. “In order to be able to serve this region effectively, we need local agencies and developers that operate close to merchants and understand the intricacies of the local or regional e-commerce markets they operate in.

They will ultimately be the ones working with merchants to bring all parts of the ecosystem together – including localized solutions for payments, shipping, tax and marketplaces,” he said.

The region’s diversity is both a boon and bane for e-commerce players. While the variety of niches and locales can provide them with fresh opportunities, this also means that platforms need to support integrations with hundreds of locally favoured services.

How to win as an outsider

Other platforms like Magento and Shopify have already made some headway in the region, establishing regional offices in 2017 and 2018, respectively. A Magento veteran himself, Schonknecht is aware of the strategies needed to make a splash in the Asian market.

Each of these American e-commerce giants have attacked Asia with their own distinct strategy.

“Shopify’s approach seems to be more focused on serving smaller startup businesses with a closed ecosystem of Shopify services like payments and point-of-sale,” Schonknecht said.

“Magento, on the other hand, is trying to push more into the enterprise segment of the market following the Adobe acquisition and subsequent price increases for its Commerce Cloud. So while our strategies may be similar in terms of market entry in Asia, we believe the BigCommerce value proposition of ‘open SaaS’ will serve a significant segment of Asian markets.”

Indeed, the platform’s customisability and available integrations will also be key. The specific needs of e-commerce stakeholders in a market like Asia may not be supported out-of-the-box by platforms that were initially designed for use in the West.

For example, due to the large population of unbanked customers, cash-on-delivery (COD) remains to be a preferred payment method in the region. For a platform to be of value to merchants, it must be able to work smoothly with the various logistics providers that can handle COD.

“It’s early, and the market feedback has been validating our approach. That said, we are making tweaks – for example, around which agency or technology partners we work with – in order to have the most impact in the markets we prioritise,” Schonknecht shared.

“For example, we often provide product roadmap feedback and development requests to our teams in Austin or Sydney to accommodate a local requirement like a specific payment gateway, logistics solution or the like.”

New players are (somewhat) welcome

Considering that its formal foray in the APAC scene is just a few months old, BigCommerce’s efforts in building a partner network is already showing promise.

“On the agency partner side, during Q1, we have signed up 50 per cent of the target agencies we intend to work within 2019, so interest in partnering with BigCommerce is strong,” said Schonknecht.

Also Read: Are you the solution to Asia’s content crisis?

“The partners are already driving the incremental net new pipeline of business that we simply would not have been in consideration for until we had established our presence here.”

It will be interesting to see how well the platform fares in the year ahead. E-commerce stakeholders in the region definitely stand to benefit from the presence of another platform, especially one that offers support, active development and a growing ecosystem.

But nothing is a sure bet anymore, particularly given how saturated and tricky the Asian e-commerce space is. And with increasing signs of global and regional economic uncertainty, Schonknecht and team have their work cut out for them.

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The funding for Singapore-based Performance Rotors marks the she1k’s first investment ever

Singapore drone startup, Performance Rotors, raises funding from she1k, who was joined by other undisclosed institutional and angel investors.

she1K is a women’s corporate executive network that champions, funds, and boards startups. In its first-ever investment, she1K said that it’s syndicating angel investments from its members.

Performance Rotors is a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) solutions company focussing on confined spaces inspection. she1K decided to invest in the startup after selecting it during the first she1K private pitch to its members and co-investing partners that are held every 2 months, both in-person in Singapore and Hong Kong and via Zoom calls globally.

Also Read: Yummy Corp acquires Berrykitchen, aims to become the largest online catering service

Around 10 startups are regularly selected to pitch to she1K members, angel investors, and VCs. Two or three will be shortlisted for further examination and within two months an investment decision would be made by syndicating investments from members and co-investing partners.

“Performance Rotors was chosen because they have a highly qualified team, acquired some significant reputable customers, and are already revenue generating. Furthermore, they were recently accelerated at PortXL, the world’s first maritime tech accelerator, which opened doors to large maritime, oil and gas and plantation conglomerates – which can use their drones to conduct inspections in confined spaces,” said Christina Teo, Chief Builder of she1K.

“By using Performance Rotors’ drones, companies can reduce manpower and completely eliminate significant human hazards in toxic and flammable confined spaces.”

Performance Rotors’ drone confined space solutions have already made inroads into oil & gas and brewery storage tanks and will be moving into mining, agriculture, aerospace, underground tunnels further down the road.

“As a true homegrown startup, our technology is completely developed in Singapore. Raven is the smallest smart inspection drone which can operate in non-GPS assisted and dark environment. With Ultrasonic Thickness Measurement and AI (artificial intelligence) analysis platform integrated, we provide proactive and more effective detection of surface structural defects,” said Keith Ng, CEO, and Co-Founder of Performance Rotors, explaining the product.
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For people who are in the very early stages of their startup journey, a pre-accelerator can be great

Unlike accelerator programmes that jump straight into accelerating a startup with a confirmed business idea, pre-accelerator programmes are like a marketing strategy phase.

Dedicated to early-stage founders, pre-accelerators help to give an indication of where your idea stands in the market and how well it will appeal to your potential customers. In a sentence, it is a high-growth results-driven startup programme designed for early-stage founders.

As Robin Wauters from tech.eu said about pre-accelerators,

“Pre-accelerator programmes essentially cater to people with ideas (or not even that yet) who are gearing up to join a ‘proper’ startup accelerator such as Y Combinator or Techstars, or for an early product launch – but aren’t quite ready yet.”

Applying to a pre-accelerator requires work; though catered to early-stage startups there is still expectations to meet for companies hoping to get into the programme. The fact is that pre-accelerator programmes typically have low acceptance rates.

This year, we kick-started The Start, our inaugural pre-accelerator programme powered by StartupX, and selected 10 teams to be part of the programme. The selection process required our team at StartupX to be objective, smart and rational about the decisions we made.

Here are some tips early-stage founders can follow to get a spot in our next pre-accelerator programme.

Be transparent about your startup

It can be enticing to exaggerate about the achievements made by your startup to put you at a better position when applying for such programmes.

However, all companies appreciate honesty, especially from the startups that they are going to partner with. We want to be able to understand you completely, including your past mistakes and current struggles. Being transparent about your company will allow us to provide you with the relevant resources needed to achieve the most efficient results during the pre-accelerator journey.

In essence, we only want what is best for you. So, be honest and transparent, and we will try to help you with the best of our abilities.

Do your prior research on the people you are trying to impress

Take some time to learn about the programme you are applying for, the company running the programme, and the team behind it! Ensure that the programme is the right fit for your company and that their values are aligned with yours.

It is important to have trust and confidence in the programme that you are participating in, because it encourages you to give your hundred percent throughout the course of it.

Also Read: Yummy Corp acquires Berrykitchen, aims to become the largest online catering service

Besides, companies are usually impressed when applicants are able to point out how the programme is able to help them grow and achieve specific goals that they have set for themselves.

Highlight your experiences and achievements

Unlike normal accelerators, pre-accelerators do not place a focus on traction or numbers. We understand that at such an early stage, ideas are still being built and founders are still searching for funding.

Therefore, being able to showcase your other achievements can increase your chances of being noticed by the pre-accelerator.

Come with a good attitude

Apart from funding, the highlight of a pre-accelerator programme is the mentoring sessions specially planned out for participants.

A good pre-accelerator programme usually brings together the best mentors in the industry to help its startups in specific areas they require help with; they are dedicated to supporting and coaching participants in the programme.

These mentors are more than willing to spend their time and effort on participants, however, they like to see their efforts being reciprocated.

Therefore, pre-accelerators have to consider the attitude of the founders applying for the programme as one of the criteria of a successful application. It is important to select founders who properly deserve a spot in the programme, especially since there is a limit to the number of teams a pre-accelerator programme is able to support per cohort.

Have a solid team

At StartupX, we value companies with a strong and solid team of co-founders and employees.

At such an early stage for companies, we put a strong emphasis on the quality of teams because we believe that the team plays a crucial role in driving the success of a startup. Your team will always be your most valuable asset in a startup, hence we take into account the makeup of your team and the chemistry between all co-founders and employees.

Fortunately for early-stage founders, pre-accelerator programmes do not look at how good your traction is. In fact, pre-accelerator programmes are there to help you get your first paying customers; to validate your idea.

Also Read: 3 promising fintech verticals in Southeast Asia

If you think The Start Pre-Accelerator could be just the programme for you, start your journey with us. We’ll be sure to notify you when applications are open for our next cohort of early-stage founders in Singapore. We want to watch you grow and begin an exciting entrepreneurial journey!

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Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

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Whilst more women are breaking into the industry, the pay gap still persists

It is almost always men who appear in the news, often as innovative technological pioneers and thought leaders.

Upon thinking about the big names and personalities who inspire the tech industry, it isn’t Susan Wojcicki, Meg Whitman, or Sheryl Sandberg who spring to mind.

More often than not, its Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Andrew Jassy. It is no secret that men dominate the industry, and the only time we really hear about female CEO’s is upon their appointment.

However, female tech positions are growing 238 per cent faster than their male counterparts, and 20 per cent of all tech startups across the world are funded by women.

Do not be mistaken. This is not a new wave of female interest in the industry. In fact, the first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace, a British mathematician became known for her pioneering work in technology long before any man in the 19th Century.

Also Read: Being the apex of the APAC is no menial feat for an outsider, says BigCommerce Director of Asia

During WW2, tech jobs were filled by women. Computers were expensive, but using women to advertise them inferred that jobs involving computers were easy and can be done with a cheap labour force.

But what does the women labour force in the tech industry look like today? And how does the gender pay gap measure up to that of the past? What external influences should be considered when determining the best location that meets the needs of women in tech? Which of these locations best closes the gap between men and women in the industry?

To begin with, there are a clear set of tech positions that are currently dominated by women. Project managers, business analysts, QA testers and technical recruiters within the industry are predominantly filled occupations by women.

These workforce and working environment considerations can all be addressed by carefully measuring and manipulating the variables in the 2018 Women in Tech Index. This index measures over 20 workforce and industry variables across over 40 different countries.

For example, in the United States, the tech workforce is made up of 6049.11 employees. The percentage of which are women sits at 24 per cent. This is relatively high compared to the percentage of women in the tech workforce of Turkey, Croatia and Spain, which are 9.9 per cent, 13.19 per cent and 15.39 per cent respectively.

The average pay for women in tech in the U.S. is US$86.608, making the gender pay gap in the industry a surprisingly high 11.86 per cent. If the world hegemonic power that claims to be leading in civil rights and equality are still facing challenges in the pay gap between the genders, what can we expect from the rest of the world, in particular, the LDC’s of the developing world.

Bulgaria is the poorest member state in the EU, and yet is an oddity in this discussion as it has the highest percentage of women in ICT positions in the entire bloc, at 30.28 per cent.

One possible explanation is the country’s communist history. There were fewer separations between men and women, both had to work and this notion has spilt over into today’s workforce.

Unfortunately, the gender pay gap in the tech industry is amongst the mid-higher percentages at 19.20 per cent. The impressive statistics when it comes to the relative percentage of women in the sector, are neutralised when it comes to light that there are three men for every woman in the industry.

Still, as Europe’s growing and leading tech hub, the “bro-culture” in Bulgaria is not that common.

Further hope for tech in Eastern Europe could be found in emerging technological areas like Augmented Reality and Remote AR, and the progressive organisations, like Watty and MedicHome that such developments support.

The difference in the tech environment for women between the UK and Ireland are astonishing. By crossing the 60 minute Irish Sea, women can find themselves in a far more accommodating environment. The average pay for women in tech in the United Kingdom is US$49,201, women in Ireland are earning on average US$60,558 in the tech industry.

If salary is any indication of the value placed on the workforce, the industry in Ireland appears to be more ‘pro’ woman in tech. At first glance. Further considerations into the gender pay gap, provides grounds to infer that perhaps there is still room to improve.

The gender pay gap in the UK is 16.80 per cent. In Ireland, 17.30 per cent.

If it is true that salary indicates some level of value, this might suggest that men still dominate the preferences of tech companies, as they are still paid relentlessly higher salaries. This is not exclusive to the UK and Ireland.

In fact, every country measured in the index has, to some degree, a pay gap that favours the bank accounts of men.

The lowest account being 8.42 per cent in Turkey, which has only 0.80 per cent of their entire working population currently employed in tech.

The significance of the percentage of women in tech, per country, can be resultant of accessibility and inclusivity of the industry. Yet, many of the countries with a higher number of women in their workforce, have a generally higher gender pay gap.

These figures show that whilst more women are breaking into the industry, the pay gap persists. Relative to other industries, the gap is slim.

For example, the financial sector can carry a gender pay gap of up to 70 per cent. Despite these relative industry differences, the ageing tech industry is seeing more women entering into it, with fewer advancements.

Also Read: 3 promising fintech verticals in Southeast Asia

Eastern European countries appear to have the highest number of female employees in the industry. The gender pay gap in these countries may emerge from their former Soviet Bloc status. A time where the rejection of feminism was tied to an idealised national past, where the roles of women were as wives and mothers.

Today, the rights of women in Eastern Europe are picking up momentum. This combined with its leading number of women in tech, may well lead to it overtaking the West.

The history of women in technology has been curious. Whilst it is great to see an increase in the number of women entering into tech, their efforts are proving to be less fruitful than their male counterparts.

As technology evolves at impressive speeds, it’s rather saddening to see its values seemingly stuck in the past.

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