It’s a hard adventure, but it’s also a rewarding and fun one, as well

I spent a large part of my youth playing video games. RPGs, like the Final Fantasy series, and tactical RPGs, like the Fire Emblem series, were my favorites. There was something riveting about a group of characters banding together and taking on challenges and dungeons, one after another, and eventually saving the world at the end.

As I spent more time in the entrepreneurial world, I noticed increasing number of parallels to RPGs. It was a fun realization because it frames how we can approach entrepreneurship for younger aspiring startup founders. As I mentor other startup founders, I find myself using these comparisons more often (provided my mentees play RPGs as well).

In this article, I will introduce some of the more obvious parallels! This comparison is not meant to reduce entrepreneurship into a game (it’s serious business). Instead, I’d like to propose an alternative and hopefully refreshing way to think about entrepreneurship, especially for the younger audience.

#1 You and Your Co-founders = Main Characters

Shout-out to fellow founders out there: you guys are the main characters of your own journey.

Think of the co-founding as a group of adventurers — the CEO as a warrior, and the CTO as a wizard or vice-versa. Each character comes with their own skills, strengths, and weaknesses. These adventurers also come with equipment, and how much starting gold they have.

There are rare founders who are multi-class characters that can equip many different hats, but those are few and far between and it makes more sense to engage in division of labor.

Eventually, you’d have enough gold to hire your own minions (employees) to do your bidding. That’s when your team expands and you start taking on more strategic decision making for your underlings to execute.

Balance is important — you wouldn’t want a team filled with nothing but warriors, do you? You’d be wiped out if you encounter monsters that are immune to physical attacks.

In addition, having a team is advantageous because it’s important to have the right mix of skills and equipment. Those things determine how well you fight monsters. Monsters? Speaking of monsters …

#2 Problems to solve = Monsters

Adapted from http://nes-sprite.resampled.ru/ff/. Credits to Polar Koala and Dixet.

There are many monsters (problems) to slay (solve) in this world, each with their unique properties and levels of difficulty. Adventurers band together to fight these monsters. When you slay those monsters, they drop loot and money. Slay enough, your team levels up and get to buy sweet equipment.

Adventurers that slay low-leveled monsters will level up slowly and they’ll take forever to buy new equipment. You can grind all day, but it’ll never match up to those adventurers who tackle increasingly stronger monsters over time. At this stage, adventurers can either continue slaying monsters as usual, i.e. become long self-sustaining companies, or save the world/join a bigger group of adventurers, i.e. go for an exit via IPO/M&A respectively.

What if adventurers want to slay larger, bigger, monsters? Introducing … merchants.

Also read: Failures teach us way more than the successes, and other lessons I learned as an entrepreneur

P.S. The thing is, sometimes you have a team that suits up and heads out…only to find that there is no monsters to kill. So make sure you identify the right monsters to kill, else at the end of the day you might just disband after running out of time and resources.

#3 VC = Nobles

For a price, you will gain power and equipment. Source: YouTube.

You’re doing well, slaying smaller monsters and you think you’re ready to slay larger ones. However, the equipment and party size required to tackle these huge monsters are just too much. These monsters can span continents and/or multiple areas. It’s a humongous monster, but it offers great rewards as well. Furthermore, other groups of adventurers are trying to kill it at the same time.

To compete with other adventurers and to overcome the huge monster, adventurers will now have to make an appeal to nobles. These nobles provide excellent equipment, money, and advice for you to slay humongous monsters. In return, when you save the world, they get a piece of the reward as well.

P.S. Admittedly, it was hard drawing deciding whether to consider VCs nobles or kings. Why aren’t VCs kings? They serve the funds they raise from. VCs do have bosses too, just so you know. That’s a topic for another day.

Conclusion

Using RPGs as a lens was an amusing exercise, but one that makes sense as well. As I continue on my startup journey in fundMyLife, it does really feel like I’m in an RPG with my co-founder. It’s a hard adventure, but it’s also a rewarding and fun one as well.

Have any more comparisons that you’d like to share? Please comment below and let me know! Looking forward to gathering enough material for Part II.

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This article originally appeared on Medium, and was first published on e27 on September 3, 2018.

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

Photo by Pierrick VAN-TROOST on Unsplash

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The funding will accelerate its growth to help more entrepreneurs succeed through its accelerator programmes, startup ecosystem activations, and corporate innovation

Techstars​, a global seed-stage startup accelerator, announced today it has secured US$42 million in an investment round led by ​SVB Financial Group​, the holding company of Silicon Valley Bank.

Existing investors including US-based VC firm Foundry Group also participated.

As per a press note, this funding will accelerate Techstars’s growth to help more entrepreneurs succeed through seed-stage accelerators, global startup ecosystem activations, corporate innovation, and entrepreneur-focused events.

Techstars runs two accelerators in Singapore annually — one with Rakuten and the other with Eastern Pacific Shipping. It is now planning to expand its presence in the region. “We certainly plan to expand further in Southeast Asia in the future. This is a primary reason why we raised this capital — to speed our further global expansion and to help connect the Techstars network even more deeply into Southeast Asia. We recognise the tremendous opportunities in the region to extend our investment activity there, as well as to potentially help build strong ecosystems,” Techstars Co-founder and co-CEO David Cohen told e27.

Founded in 2006 by Cohen and David Brown (co-CEO), Brad Feld and Jared Polis, Techstars is a worldwide network that enables founders to connect with entrepreneurs, experts, mentors, alumni, investors, community leaders, and corporations to grow their companies.

Techstars consists of both an investment management business with US$500 million in assets under management, as well as an operating business that is approaching US$100 million in annual revenue. Its investment activity now includes 49 accelerator programmes in 35 cities across 16 countries, deploying US$80 million into nearly 500 startups on an annual basis.

Also Read: Techstars is helping to grow Southeast Asia’s startup scene; Here’s how they did it

The firm claims its portfolio of 1,900 companies currently attracts an annual US$2 billion in downstream investment from the venture capital industry. It also invests in global emerging startup communities by operating approximately 1,000 annual ​Techstars Startup Weekend​ events in 600 cities across 120 countries to help surface and support future high growth companies.

Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, Techstars employs more than 280 people across 20 countries.

“Being the largest and most active global seed investor requires a mindset and approach that is completely distinct from traditional venture capital,” said Cohen. “Techstars has created and is scaling an entirely new type of early-stage private equity asset.”

Through its operating activities, Techstars’ partners with ​nearly 100 corporations​ to provide corporate innovation solutions.

SVB Capital President John China, who has joined Techstars’s Board of Directors, said: “The Techstars team is well-positioned to keep developing its platform and enable and support founders, investors and startup ecosystems around the globe,” said China. “SVB has a long history working with Techstars and its portfolio companies and we’re enthusiastic about the opportunity to further our relationship and make a bigger positive impact on the innovation economy.”

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These five ventures have the potential to bring hundreds of millions of people into the mainstream

The kind of social impact that startups around the world have created is massive. They not only make people’s lives easier and better, but also generate millions of employments in their respective markets and contribute to the economic growth. Some build companies with the single goal of profit, while some others have twin objectives of profit making and impact making.

Of all the industries, fintech is probably a vertical that has brought in massive changes to the lives of millions of people around the globe. The industry has played a vital role in democratising the banking industry and level the playing field. Fintech has forced banks to be innovative and competitive.

Since the beginning of the fintech revolution, hundred of products and solutions have been developed and deployed by different startups, targeting the underbanked, or those living on the bottom of the income pyramid.

Here we introduce to you five such startups, which are striving to create an impact through their innovative products in their respective markets in Southeast Asia.

Kredivo (Indonesia)

Getting a loan from a bank is no mean task. If you approach a bank for a loan of any kind, the bank will ask you a lot of questions, check your creditworthiness and ask you to pledge a collateral. Getting a loan sanctioned by the bank may take weeks and even months.

Kredivo, a product of Indonesian startup FinAccel, aims to address this with its a digital payment solution. It provides different options of payment methods and terms to help customers break large payments into monthly, affordable, and safer payments. The startup gives users the convenience to buy now and pay later in 30 days with no interest or with 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month installments. Users need to put in basic details and their social networking account details to avail the loans provided by Kredivo.

The company uses data science in credit-scoring algorithms, combined with more traditional measures such as credit history and income, to determine creditworthiness, unlocking access to credit to a whole new set of consumers.

To date, Kredivo has raised more than US$30 million in funding, from investors including Telkomsel Mitra Inovasi (TMI), MDI Ventures, Jungle Ventures, Openspace Ventures, GMO Venture Partners, Alpha JWC Ventures, and 500 Startups.

MyCash Online (Singapore, Malaysia)

Being migrants themselves, Mehedi Hasan Sumon and Nurol Haq know the major challenges faced by the massive 40 million migrant population in Malaysia — one being the inability to access various financial services, as most of them are unbanked. The duo’s urge to solve this problem drove them to start MyCash Online, an online financial marketplace for the underbanked migrant population in Southeast Asia.

In 2014, the two met while working for a Value Added Service (VAS) company in Kuala Lumpur. Whenever they met, they would talk about the problems of migrant population in Malaysia, particularly those coming from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. They wanted to develop a simple and cheaper financial alternative for them. This led them to start MyCash Online.

Incorporated in 2015 and headquartered in Singapore, MyCash provides a tailor-made platform for the unbanked migrant population, where they can purchase products and services online without using any bank account, credit cards, or prepaid cards. Users can reload phone credit, pay bills, and buy bus tickets through MyCash.

In June last year, MyCash raised RM500,000 (US$120,000) through equity crowd-funding platform pitchIN. A significant part of this investment came from Hong Kong-based JC Management.

HelloGold (Malaysia)

Traditionally, gold savings has been classified as a financial product for the upper class, but here is an app to give everyone access to gold savings and to serve as a secondary platform for savings.

HelloGold is a mobile app that allows you to buy and sell gold on a single platform for as little as RM1. You can manage your account and enjoy competitive buying and selling prices in the market. Your physical gold is fully insured and stored in a secure vault.

Founded in 2015 by Malaysian co-founders Robin Lee and Ridwan Abdullah, it claims be the world’s first Shariah- compliant gold mobile application that “changes the way you buy, sell, send and redeem physical gold”. The company also runs a digital token called GOLDX, a ERC-20 token the startup has pegged to gold. What this does is allow people to make transactions outside of the platform. Without the crypto tokens, the app is a self-contained wallet.

Last year, the startup raised an undisclosed sum in Series A funding from 500 Startups.

Julo (Indonesia)

Julo is a P2P lending startup that has developed a digital data-driven credit underwriting and risk assessment platform to process consumer loan applications and determine their creditworthiness through its mobile app. The app uses Machine Learning technology to provide tailor-made, low-interest instalment credit products to the unbanked population, most of whom are tech-savvy young people and micro-entrepreneurs currently locked out of the formal financial system.

With low overhead costs thanks to a purely digital architecture, Julo offers competitive interest rates to no-file or thin-file borrowers at 4 per cent per month.

Last year, Julo raised US$5 million in a Series A funding round, led by Skystar Capital and East Ventures. Gobi Partners, Convergence Ventures, Provident Capital, Central Capital Ventura, Heyokha Brothers, and other investors also participated in the round.

soCash (Singapore)

Headquartered in Singapore, soCash is a classic example of out-of-the-box thinking.

In developing countries in Asia, millions of people still deal with cash, in spite the massive growth of digital banking services. These people often rely on money-dispensing machines a.k.a ATMs to withdraw cash for their daily needs. In some countries in this part of the world, people often have to walk or drive kilometres in search of the nearest ATMs, which add inconvenience to their lives.

Now, from the banks’ point of view, setting up and maintaining ATMs is a money-draining affair. This often runs into  millions of dollars and also affects their bottom-line. Three entrepreneurs have decided to address this challenge and came up with an innovative concept called soCash. Headquartered in Singapore, soCash is a fintech startup that allows bank customers to perform banking services like cash withdrawal and loan applications at retails shops via a mobile app.

A few days ago, it has raised US$6 million in its Series B round of funding led by Japan’s cash automation tech company Glory Ltd.

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Photo by Peter Hershey on Unsplash

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Artatler is trying to change the facet of digital art by providing a go-to platform for artists to source, distribute and deliver arts

Art isn’s necessarily a hot commodity when it’s in its digitally-adopted, tech-enabled forms. Although there are many online art galleries, such as Artling in Singapore and Moselo in Indonesia that sell crafts, a dedicated platform for artists still needs a ground-up work, the right market penetration, and strong network of artists to be able to survive.

Artatler is trying to change the facet of digital art by providing a go-to platform for artists — who are trying to make a living out of their job — to source, distribute and deliver arts.

“Existing creative marketplaces are focussed on providing a platform for people to sell their products which is useful but is insufficient for those making a living through art,” said Martin Lim, Founder of Artatler.

Art can be a steady job

Artatler’s vision is to enable artists to make a living through art, which Lim believes is a way to help reduce the stigma around art and artists as a non-steady job.

“I once read an article about the struggles of surviving in a gig economy, in which budding creators have to take on multiple gigs to make ends meet. That really rang a bell with me,” Lim recalled.

It brought him back to the time when he and his fellow art enthusiast-friends in school had to stop pursuing their passion due to lack of resources, knowledge and skills. “It got me thinking about ways that artists can specialise in the craft they were passionate about, instead of having to diversify for utility’s sake.”

Artatler was started off as a standard online gallery and provided manual assistance to artists to get some help on printing or showcasing their works.

Also Read: Indonesian handicraft marketplace Qlapa shuts down

“I received direct requests from China, Thailand and even Russia, and they provided me their online works. But as I received more and more interests, it got hard to do it manually. I decided that I had to take a step back to focus on preparing an online marketplace to serve such needs,” said Lim.

While there has been increasing acceptance and government support for the art industry throughout Southeast Asia, artistic endeavours are somehow still seen as impractical, unrealistic and unprofitable.

“It was originally started as an initiative to support creative people, especially young people who are in need of making a career out of doing creative works, but it eventually became something that is aimed at helping to grow the creative industry locally,” said Lim.

An art e-commerce platform and beyond

In March 2019, the art and craft space was left vacant with the shutting down of Qlapa, which dominated the space for four years. Despite raising funds and being recognised by Google and Forbes Asia for its potential, the company was ‘unable to turn Qlapa into a profitable and sustainable business’. Lim, who currently resides in Singapore, mentioned that he wants to fill this gap.

“What we offer is not simply a creative e-commerce platform. We want to become a digital multi-platform that provides a variety of means for creators to make earnings from art, design, and lifestyle experience — from end to end,” Lim explained.

Founded in May 2018, Artatler targets independent creators and creative small businesses such as jewellers, craftsmen, fashionista, illustrators and painters to set up a page and sell their creations.

Artatler aims to help artists tackling the multiple processes they need to be able to sell their works. It offers to take care of the production of non-digital arts and delivery. The idea is to save production time for artists by providing an all-in-one service, allowing them to just focus on making creative works, instead of having to source multiple platforms or services in order to develop their products in time for sale.

One step at a time

Artatler said that the process to sell artwork on the platform has been made simple.

“Artists can go to our website and sign up. They then need to provide us with the URL(s) of their sample works for our approval. Once approved, they can start uploading their products (both digital and non-digital artworks) and create their online gallery and shop. We can also help set up all these if the artists email us their work sample files,” Lim explained.

Given its vision and mission, the journey to discover and promote artists and their works is indeed ambitious, but Artatler needs to start somewhere.

Learning from Etsy, a public-listed company with US$2 billion valuation, the challenge for Artatler is to educate the sellers and buyers about the platform.

According to a case study published by Growth Hacker, Etsy’s Brand and Community Hacker Danielle Maveal explained that in its early days, Etsy did what other online brands avoided; it got off the internet to educate and recruit. Etsy had a team attending art and craft shows across the US and Canada almost every weekend.

Also Read: This startup puts the AR in art and makes collecting easy through tech

TheEtsy team would single out influential artists, crafters, and vintage collectors, and basically court them for their strong offline followers and community. The timing was in Etsy’s favour back in the early 2000’s because during that time, more and more indie artists and crafter emerged and the company quickly grasped them.

Etsy managed to grow quickly from then on.

Despite being early in the sector, Lim said Artatler is optimistic with the collaboration-marketing model. He continued: “Right now, we are having discussions with businesses providing on-demand printing, international logistic platform, and digital support by allowing buyers to connect to the creators directly. Let’s start there.”

As for the number of artists signed up, as many as 50 artists have started selling on the platform. “Our current goal is to gradually improve through effective collaborations, operations, and partnerships,” Lim noted.

The future of art tech and e-commerce

“I strongly believe that you need to keep looking out for the new trends and never stop innovating. Art is evolving and technology is a big part of its future, with the blockchain implementation, AI, and Augmented Reality. However, we should be careful not to create too much disruption, as such technology advancement needs to be rolled out along with the efforts to educate, assist, and bring a positive contribution to the society,” Lim stressed.

Lim emphasised the importance of collaboration and partnerships for growth. Marketplaces, he said, can co-exist and give options to creators that will provide channels for them to promote branding and improve their chances for earning a living.

As for Artatler’s next plan, Lim says it’s currently looking for angel investment and seed funding to accelerate growth. It’s a five-men operation and still missing a co-founder, something that he still scours as he wishes to have someone with strong background in business development, art, and tech.

“When we get funding, we will improve the infrastructure, business development, and marketing,” Lim concluded.
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Photo by Alice Achterhof on Unsplash

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As employers find it challenging to hire individuals,  here are the upcoming trends in HR

Today, HR professionals are not just looking for employers that offer fat paychecks.

They’re more concerned about engagement and promoting wellness.

Technology is making strides in the current competitive market; people who are adapting to newer technologies remain to be the hottest trend.

Here are the top four HR tech trends you need to watch out for:

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Also Read: Health and wellness startup The FIT Company acquires three local startups

Natural language processing, a subset of artificial intelligence provides software with the ability to comprehend the human language in either spoken or written form.

For instance, a recruitment chatbot can pick up a conversation with the applicants for the initial stage like asking them for their resume, contact information, knowledge, skills, and even inquiring regarding the candidate’s experience to scheduling interviews with the recruiter.

As technology keeps growing, NLP will be applied in several areas of human resources.

The rise of natural language processing has transformed the way workers perform tasks.

Automated chatbots are now used frequently by many businesses. Such practices will enhance HR in becoming responsive.

Talent analytics

The HR tech is on the verge of taking people analytics to a different overall horizon. From predictive analytics to the generation of talent analytics.

Several HR functions today are engaged in producing analytics. However, the usage is on the lower side. Reason being an organisation gets laid back in selling one or more product.

Working with data has laid down a great foundation to the HRs, allowing them to understand talent insight and the way businesses function.

Augmented analytics

Also Read: Success through planning — a wakeup call for “startup snobs”

Augmented analytics is a whole new class of smart software offering HR professionals as well as people leaders a better way to analyse their data and draw a conclusion out of it.

You can easily automate insight using machine learning and NLP using augmented analytics.

According to Belong, augmented analytics projects itself to be the next wave of disruption in the field of data and analytics job market.

This will help HR technology build and scale up their team in pretext to present insights to customers or stakeholders take a better decision.

Practical AI

With the hype and the buzz around AI in 2018, 2019 now is said to be the year for realistic AI.

HR leaders will now have to focus more on the technology and how this will solve the problems that leaders and professionals in the HR domain are facing.

Though the hype is here, it will still take time to cause an impact.

The fact that we know what is and what will come to be tomorrow, organisations should focus on fulfilling the needs of tomorrow.

Also Read: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation invests in Indonesian healthtech startup Halodoc

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The company raises funding from Openspace Ventures and SEEDS Capital of Enterprise Singapore

Singapore-based agtech company Nutrition Technologies announced today it has raised an undisclosed sum in Series A round from a host of investors, led by Openspace Ventures and Enterprise Singapore’s investment arm SEEDS Capital.

The proceedings from this round will go into establishing an insect protein production facility in Southeast Asia, which aims to produce over 18,000 tonnes of insect-based feed ingredients and organic fertilisers every year.  The new facility will incorporate Nutrition’s insect-rearing production system to manufacture Hi.Protein insectmeal, its flagship product. The goal is to market it as an economical and scalable alternative to competing for fishmeal products on the market.

A significant portion of the funding will also be used to continue its black soldier fly genetics and biology research.

Founded in 2014 by Nick Piggott & Tom Berry, Nutrition manufactures sustainable animal feed ingredients and organic compost, using a combination of special selected bacteria and black soldier fly larvae to recycle nutrients from agricultural and food processing by-products.

The whole project is supported under Startup SG Equity’s scheme for private-sector investment for startups through government equity co-investment.

Also Read: The Singapore-based startup that wants to cut bad sugar secures US$5M funding

“The key to be successful in this sector is being able to produce a consistently high quality product at an affordable price for feed manufacturers without charging a sustainability premium,” said Nick Piggott, Co-founder and CEO of Nutrition. “We have achieved this by developing a unique combination of bio-processing steps, which enables us to optimise the nutrient uptake in our insect larvae.”

There’s been an increase in demand for livestock and seafood in recent years. However, the demand is not met by the global fishmeal supply for livestock feeding, causing a deficit in high-grade proteins. This has triggered Nutrition to turn to black soldier fly larvae as a sustainable protein alternative to fishmeal, a commonly used ingredient in animal feed.

Also Read: Online food company Grain secures US$10M Series B funding

Hian Goh, Partner at Openspace Ventures, shared that the investment the VC made into Nutrition Technologies is also a part of its “OPENHAND” initiative to follow United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment leveraging environmental, social, and governance factors in the agri-food tech space to feed the world.

Moving forward, SEEDS Capital and Enterprise Singapore are to continue to work with Nutrition Technologies to connect with industry partners in aquaculture and alternative protein innovation.

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Photo by Antonio Grosz on Unsplash

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StashAway is a digital wealth management platform that delivers automated, personalised portfolio management to each client’s individual portfolios

StashAway founders

StashAway, a robo-advisor for both retail and accredited investors, has completed a US$12 million Series B round of funding led by Eight Roads Ventures, the proprietary investment arm of Fidelity International.

Existing investor Asia Capital & Advisors, the PE firm led by Francis Rozario and Aaron Rozario, also participated in the round, which brings the Singapore startup’s total funds raised to date to US$20.4 million.

As per an agreement, Raj Dugar, Managing Partner Asia at Eight Roads Ventures, will join the Board of Directors.

StashAway Co-founder and CEO Michele Ferrario said: “The financial backing from Eight Roads Ventures, one of the earliest investors in Alibaba, alongside the continued support of Asia Capital & Advisors, will accelerate our investment product development for our clients in Singapore and Malaysia, while also supporting market expansion throughout the APAC region and doubling down on financial education content development and distribution.”

Also Read: A peek inside the culture at Stashaway

StashAway was founded in 2016 by Ferrario, former chief of Zalora Group; Freddy Lim (CIO), former MD and Global Head of Derivatives Strategy at Nomura; and serial tech entrepreneur Nino Ulsamer (CTO).

It is a digital wealth management platform that delivers automated, personalised portfolio management to each client’s individual portfolios. Its risk-management investment strategy ERAA is designed to maximise clients’ long-term returns while keeping each individual customer’s specific risk exposure constant through changing economic cycles.

StashAway has a Capital Market Services License for Retail Fund Management from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and a Capital Market Services License for Digital Investment Management from Securities Commission Malaysia.

StashAway currently employs 40 people across its two offices in Malaysia and Singapore.

In March 2018, StashAway closed US$5.3 million Series A funding round from a group of family offices and individual investors.

“Since launch, StashAway has proven not only to be at the forefront of advancing the investment experience, but has also shown, especially over the past year of significant market volatility, the resilience of the investment strategy and the team in dealing with market ups and downs,” said Francis Rozario, who was previously the CEO and Executive Director of Fullerton Financial Holdings, a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings.

“StashAway has emerged as a market leader for low-cost, sophisticated, institutional-level investing for retail and accredited investors alike. This has only served to further increase my confidence that the business can continue this trend in additional underserved markets in the region,” added Rozario.

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The best ideas come from something you noticed that really sucks and you stop and think “why is the world this way? Could it be different?” then set out to validate the idea

It’s funny and annoying. There is a tonne of super capable people who simply can’t find a great idea for a startup. There are also a lot of incapable people with ostensibly great ideas!

I get asked by really awesome people all the time ‘how do I find an idea for my startup!?’ And do you know what, I don’t really have a great answer. It’s just really fricking hard if you are not thinking the right way, and looking for insights in the wrong places.

The best ideas come from something you noticed that really sucks and you stop and think ‘why is the world this way? Could it be different?’ then set out to validate the idea.

By the way, if you are wondering how to validate an idea, check out this monster blog on validating startup ideas.

Fundamentally great ideas come from two insights:

• Behavioural. The way people do things is either inefficient or a better solution doesn’t exist so they are hacking it
• Technical. Tech changes and you come up with a way to digitalise it or say the move to the ‘cloud’ and you see that trend coming. Blockchain, whatever, sure.

Business founders are more likely to see the former, and techies the later. Ideally, you have both, which requires great timing (A really key factor!).

So, I’m going to mind vomit some ideas to think about on this topic. Sorry, there is no perfect silver bullet here, but it will save you some time if you are stuck in this quandary.

Founder/market fit

The notion of ‘founder/market fit’ is important, so start here.

What are you actually really good at? What do you like? Where do you have a huge network for sales or hiring? Are you from a certain industry?

The goal here is to figure out what you shouldn’t do and what you might do. Removing options helps you focus and serves to kill certain ideas you might have (which saves time in validation).

If you don’t know enterprise, then you prob don’t want to do that. Figure out what kind of model you actually want to do and can be good at (+ ideally have network) then you know what pool you are fishing in. You can kill whole sectors like fashion etc and focus on specific areas. So figure out what you don’t want to do first to aid in better idea triage.

So, for example, do you want to do:

• Enterprise
• SME
• Consumer

You probably will be drawn to one. That’s fab. Go with that.

Next, what sector:

• Infrastructure
• Direct to consumer
• Fintech
• Adtech
• etc..

Maybe you are open to just one, maybe 5, but list them. Focus on ideas in those spaces.

Also read: From validation to profitability, here are 5 tips for launching a saleable product

Rocket style copy

Copying ideas is really a viable option. It does not guarantee success, though. Often, you copy most of the business model, BUT you have to then innovate in the execution, depending on where you transfer the idea to. This really is important especially in Asia, Africa and LATAM where executing is simply harder for so many reasons.

The process is as follows:

• Read Tech Crunch about companies they write about
• Subscribe to StrictlyVC etc and look at all the companies funded. This is wildly more effective than reading TC as you see what is working on that basis of VCs funding the ideas. You probably want to stick to series-A and maybe B. Seed doesn’t get covered much though, which is both good and bad
• Then check them out on Crunchbase, etc., and triage. Then do startup business model validation, until you get something that makes sense.

One opportunity in my head, which I haven’t really analysed, is copying proven models in 2nd rate countries like Eastern Europe. So a bit of a Rocket job. Obviously, you don’t do it Rocket style, but the same principals apply. The benefit is you actually can take an analytical approach. List cool models then analyse if there are the op and market size for it through local execution and marketing. If you are an operator, this might work for you… If you don’t know how to scale companies already, maybe less so.

Old industry

I’ve been talking to some people and they have been creating solutions for old industries like cement! Those industries don’t know what a push notification is (no joke). One corporate thought the fact you could use IP to know what country customers were in with live chat was revolutionary … That really is opportunity for disruption.

You could pick some large, old industries and talk to people at the right level. You can find out what sucks. One regional CMO at an insurer told me they would love a sales support tool to help 50k agents to sell more and different products in China. They all sell the same RMB product as they know it. He also was aware that ‘face saving’ was really important. There you go — I talked to someone and he told me a problem.

I think this is a genuine goldmine for ideation. The downside is that you need to have enough connections, or the ability to get meeting with people to figure out what their issues are. It is easier for some and it will be impossible for others (basically, young people).

One tip is to do some homework before you meet them. They will take you more seriously and open up if you have some ‘good chat’ and can engage them, and maybe share interesting insights so they get engaged in the conversation. This is why I mean it will probably be harder for younger founders who don’t have as much experience.

Also read: Is the unbanked sector a real problem, or just a bubble created by fintechs?

Issue is insight

You make big money often by solving something someone hasn’t solved yet, and that’s because no one has had the insight. You can’t get insights from Google, you have to talk to people that have the problem. People who have problems don’t post them on Medium. Do you know what, they may only grumble about things and not realise that there is in fact an opportunity in the first place!

In order to get the insights, you have to have access to those that have the insights. It’s insight by proxy. You are an agent of change, and your audience is an agent of the status quo. If might take a few conversations to really get to the crux of issues. But I can tell you, I’ve talked to people in business operations at major banks and man, if you get them a few pints they’ll chat your fricking ear off with opportunities (read things that stress them out). They just need to like you enough to start sharing.

The only real structured approach would be to pick an industry and start to talk to enough people to glean an insight and think ‘hm, why is it done that way?’ So following on from ‘old industry,’ go fishing there and ask ‘why?’

Business model analysis

Every time you have an idea you need to run an analysis to figure out pricing, margins, market size, execution difficulty, capital intensity, competition, etc.

Competition is the first thing to check. I spent a night digging into marketing automation ops for SMEs with my housemate last week, only to call his mum and she said ‘um, doesn’t Sage do that?’ We just started brainstorming without checking the landscape. This isn’t to say there isn’t an op. I just haven’t figured out the value prop yet (aka put in the time). But I can … if I put in the time.

I have found the more I dig into a sector the more I am able to get my own insights and identify opportunities. But it’s a LOOOOT of work! I mean reading everything on the internet and being sick of it, till you finally internalise everything and suddenly gain mastery. Then the dots connect and you see the matrix.

When I wrote the ESOP training course and the ESOP model, I literally read every single article on the internet. I’m not even joking. I got so sick of the topic, but at the end, I started being able to invent new concepts I thought were missing, it was a feeling of flow. The same has happened with my work in virality and cap tables.

Man … I was so sick of reading the same crap, but only when I got really sick of it, did I see the matrix.

So if you are not going to glean insights from experts, you need to put in the work. And trust me, this level of commitment isn’t for everyone.

Also read: How do you size employee ownership of your startup? This is your comprehensive guide to ESOPs

Get pissed off more

Every time you get annoyed by something. Stop.

Question ‘why do I feel this way and is that an opportunity?’

Run a quick analysis and decide if it’s worth checking out the competitive landscape. Then figure out the high-level numbers.

Scratching your own itch is a great place to start.

Honestly, I get pissed off by pretty much everything. I have this weird OCD for lack of logic, that if I see, for example, people not walking in straight lines on the street optimally, it gnircks me. I used to resent being annoyed all the time by everything, then I thought about this ‘weakness’ and thought ‘how can I turn it into a strength?’

So now I have trained myself to turn ‘annoyance’ into a trigger for ‘what is the implication for the way I am feeling? Is there an opportunity?’

Ok, I know that is a little weird But Alice told me all the best people are.

I’ll do this at some point, but I hate how hard it is to manage my network well. I personally need a better personal CRM. It has annoyed me for years, so it’s a problem I have and feel others have. I want to solve that. But I’m aware my network management could be better … if there was only a solution.

Talk to strangers

There are so many smart people around if you are looking for them. If you talk to enough you’ll be overcome with potential ideas. You just need to be in the right place.

When I talk to devs, it’s funny. They complain it’s hard to find a business co-founder. How often do you hear business people complain they need a techy .

You are only going to meet PLU (people like us) if you talk to PLU.

If you are a business founder and looking for a CTO, you don’t find them at startup events. You only find business founders (extroverts). If you want to find the techies you try Haskell forums on Reddit, Python MeetUps etc. If you are a techy, just throw a rock at a startup drinks and you’ll hit a business founder. LOL.

There are people with ideas already, you just need to find them. But you have to look in different ponds than you probably fish in.

Get out of your comfort zone. Go to random ass, niche events you would never thing of attending. Hell, I don’t know, knitting mothers of London. You never know …

Also read: Meet the first batch of epic speakers who will be coaching and mentoring the next generation of Founders at e27 Academy

Apply a cool business model to something else

In this blog I talk about the fact any successful business model is a combination of a business model and strategy for a new industry/problem. The business models have all been pretty much invented, it’s a matter of combination to the industry niche you have identified.

I was in Home House with another ex-Rocket MD who works for a huge PE firm now, and we were talking about Auto1. It’s just so smart (if you know the details). He said ‘I spend time figuring out what industry I could apply the same idea to.’

So you can pick a business model and work methodically through industries and see if that could work. Then you pick the strategy. No, we haven’t figured out something yet.

Tim Draper said to me at the first Web Summit (like 30 people) years ago regarding ideas ‘you can pick a business model like Uber and combine it with something totally unrelated like carrots. Would uber for carrots work?’

It wasn’t Uber but you get the point (I forget what company he randomly picked). But the principal is you can combine very random things together and you might find a needle in a haystack that way. I just think that’s ineffectual.

Start and fail forward

The last thing I want to say is that the startup landscape is not just a graveyard, but a Sand Hill dream. There is a tonne of companies that ‘just started,’ built shit and accidentally saw an opportunity. I kid you not. I wrote a 8,000 word blog on the topic last weekend on just this topic. 15 startup pivots to fame.

Let me just give you one … Slack!

Yeah, the fastest growing company of all time. They started as a video game, built on top of ICQ and realised after shutting down that other startups might like the tool too, as they would never do another game without it. Yeah, so that was the idea for Slack.

I think smart people, like really smart people, can be the worst founders. They know too much and think their time is too valuable to work on anything other than the next biggest thing. Dumber people with less to lose, just do as they don’t have an option. So if you are really smart, I’m talking to you! Do less than you think you are worthy of, you may fail initially, but the act of doing something might help you find that big thing as you become and industry expert and world class operator.

Also read: You do not need to choose a methodology to innovate

Conclusion

That’s a few ideas. But generally getting a good, viable model is fricking hard!

Sometimes you just need to pick a vague problem and start and fail forward. Once you really focus on a problem you will start to get to the truth, or learn a way not to build a lightbulb.

P.S. Don’t forget that passion is overrated! Startup is all about making a better mousetrap. There’s a blog on that topic.

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This article was first published on e27 on November 5, 2018.

This article was originally published on alexanderjarvis.com.

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 post A structured approach to finding the next big thing appeared first on e27.

In addition to SoftBank and Tokopedia, we also have updates from ONE Championship, StashAway, and Nutrition Technologies

The company’s HQ in South Jakarta

SoftBank to increase investment in Grab, Tokopedia – Bloomberg

In addition to investing US$2 billion in Indonesian market through Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab, SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son also announced that the group will increase its investment into e-commerce giant Tokopedia, Bloomberg reported.

Speaking to the press following a meeting with President Joko Widodo today at Merdeka Palace, Son stated the investment into Tokopedia is aimed to push for the company’s further growth.

The group also has plans to explore investment opportunities in the electric battery and renewable energy sectors in Indonesia.

The meeting with President Joko Widodo was attended by Grab CEO Anthony Tan, Grab Indonesia President Ridzki Kramadibrata, Tokopedia CEO William Tanuwidjaya, Coordinating Minister of Maritime Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, and Head of Investment Coordinating Board Thomas Lembong.

ONE Championship, Dentsu team up to launch e-sports championship – Official Statement

In a LinkedIn post, ONE Championship Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong announced that the company has formed a partnership with Japanese media agency Dentsu to launch ONE Esports, an e-sports championship series.

The event will be held in October in Tokyo and in December in Singapore, featuring games such as Dota 2, Street Fighter, and Tekken. It is held in partnership with leading e-sports producer PGL.

Sityodtong also named media and e-sports veteran Carlos Alimurung as CEO of ONE Esports.

Also Read: Sources: Tokopedia is involved in a funding round for Sayurbox

Singapore-based agritech startup Nutrition Technologies raises Series A – e27

Singapore-based agritech company Nutrition Technologies today announced an undisclosed Series A funding round from a host of investors, led by Openspace Ventures and Enterprise Singapore’s investment arm SEEDS Capital.

The startup plans to use the funding to establish an insect protein production facility in Southeast Asia, which aims to produce over 18,000 tonnes of insect-based feed ingredients and organic fertilisers every year.

The new facility will incorporate Nutrition’s insect-rearing production system to manufacture Hi.Protein insectmeal, its flagship product.

A “significant” portion of the funding will also be used to continue its black soldier fly genetics and biology research.

StashAway raises US$12M for APAC expansion – e27

StashAway, a robo-advisor for both retail and accredited investors, has completed a US$12 million Series B funding round led by Eight Roads Ventures, the proprietary investment arm of Fidelity International.

Existing investor Asia Capital & Advisors also participated in the funding round.

The startup plans to use the new funding to support product development for its clients in Singapore and Malaysia as well as to support market expansion throughout Asia Pacific.

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Image Credit: Tokopedia

The post Today’s top tech news, July 29: SoftBank to increase investment in Tokopedia appeared first on e27.

Advantages of being in a coworking space for your startup

I happened to have a conversation with a friend yesterday. We were talking about startups and freelancing life. Out of nowhere, he asked me, “What’s the most startup thing ever?”

I thought of a few answers. Clichés like “The Social Network is the best movie”, “Elon Musk is God”, etc. But, nothing tops the answer I gave him.

I told him, “The most startup thing ever is a coworking space.”

Coworking space, while not a startup cliché, is a fact of most freelancers and (tech) startups. And there are a few reasons behind it.

1. Low cost

Money matters. 

Also Read:Standing vs. sitting desks: the ongoing debate on best company practices

Not every startup is a unicorn business that gets millions in funding. In fact, that’s a rarity. In the real world, some bootstrap; some get little capital; some wait for their brand to get noticed. 

There can be a thousand such possibilities to not rent/buy a commercial space and build everything ground up. In such cases, coworking space is a low-cost option.

2. Value for money

Coworking spaces, despite being low-cost, are a super-value deal.

Coworking spaces have hot desks for individuals to dedicated offices for an enthusiastic business team. Facilities like stationery, printers, pantry/cafes, parking spaces, high-speed internet,  meeting rooms, and many such essential amenities come with the package.

Value for money deal, indeed!

3. Environment

A startup is like a baby. It takes the right environment to grow. And coworking spaces provide that.

Most of the coworking spaces are filled with like-minded people, may it be startup founders or freelancers.

Jim Rohn said it best: “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

In coworking spaces, people from different professions help each other, adds a new perspective, motivates and inspires, and do everything in their power to support your goal. You do the same too, of course.

Overall, it’s a bonding — a mutual push — that the surrounding of a coworking space provides.

Also Read: The benefits of coworking based on business size

4. Opportunities

One of the popular sayings in any business is, “Your network is your net worth”.

Meaning, to improve your net worth, you must grow your network.

And coworking spaces provide that opportunity. 

You can compare a coworking space with a community. You get to meet new people every single day.

Moreover, many networking events get organized for coworking space people, which can add up more opportunities for your startup.

5. Others

There are several additional advantages, as well.

Minor things such as no distractions or temptation, a physical business address, etc. also add up in making “Coworking space” the most startup thing ever.

Wrap up

Though there are several startup clichés, coworking space is the most startup thing ever, according to me.

What is the most startup thing, in your opinion? Let me know in the comments below.

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Image Credit:Helena Lopes

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