Seven reasons why working for a start-up can be rewarding

Getting a job in a start-up certainly has its pros and cons. Some people worry about job stability, but there are many benefits of choosing a business that thrives on a modern, collaborative way of working.

Start-up culture is a breakthrough concept. Here are seven reasons why:

1. Have more say and input

Start-up culture is built on a flat hierarchy. This means that there is no layer of middle management to deal with, which allows young graduates to have the same amount of access to the people at the top.

Also Read: Answer these 5 questions before you scale up your tech startup

This means that everyone is included in some of the most vital decision makings and most teams work by collaborating on projects.

All in all, it is a better use of resources and skills, allowing projects to be more successful, and removing issues of ‘red tape’ for workers at all levels and pay grades.

2. You’ll have a lot of responsibility, fast

Or “thrown into the deep end” as some would say. It’s very likely that in your start-up role, you’ll be given a long list of jobs and responsibilities. While some may find this level of workload overwhelming, others will thrive on it. It means you will learn a lot of new skills in a short space of time. Your CV will be impressive by the end of it.

3. Career development

Although not always the case, many start-ups are great for graduates who want to develop their careers. Working in smaller, close-knit teams in a collaborative way means having a chance of more recognition for hard work.

There is also the argument that flat hierarchical structures don’t present as many promotional opportunities, but you will be able to enhance your skills for the future at the very least.

Pay rises should still apply annually, and it’s always good to speak to your boss if you have aspirations to grow within the company.

4. Enjoy job variety

Also Read: The benefits of coworking based on business size

In small businesses, it’s not unusual for everyone to pitch in and help out.

You may find yourself working on a whole array of projects, giving your role a lot of diversity and allowing you to discover your forte.

5. Become a part of something amazing

The most prominent companies in the world all had humble beginnings as a small start-up firm. When you look at Apple, the most successful tech giant in the US, it’s easy to see how small ideas can change the world.

It has evolved from a brand into an entire ecosystem, and many of today’s start-ups model themselves on Apple.

However, it is not necessary that small companies become a giant company in the future. It is important to believe in the idea or the founder before joining a startup.

6. Work with talented people

Start-ups attract and breed talent. For graduates, that means getting to work with some of the best people in the industry.

Not only does that make your working life more enjoyable, but you’ll have the chance to network and meet amazing people.

Also Read: A look at workweek hours and differences in work cultures around the world

7. Have a better work-life balance

Remote working, flexible hours, office perks, exciting social events, and stylishly decorated offices are just some of the things that could be offered by a start-up employer.

It’s not always the case that employees get to enjoy a better work-life balance though. A lot of early-stage businesses require their staff to work very hard, but in many cases, you get to play as hard as you work, particularly when the company grows.

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The super app will enable buyers of designated segment to find curated solutions on merchandises, financing and logistics relevant to their business

Ralali, an online B2B marketplace in Indonesia, has closed a US$13 million Series C funding round led by Arbor Ventures, TNB Aura and Jo Hirao, Founder of life media platform ZIGExN.

Existing investors AddVentures (run by Thailands’s Siam Cement Group) and Qualgro also participated in the round.

As per a report by DealStreetAsia, Ralali plans to enter Thailand in collaboration with Siam Cement Group.

“Our mission is to help traditional SME grow by leveraging digital tech. This funding will help us scaling up our technology and our team to serve millions of Indonesian MSMEs in fulfilling their business needs through Ralali.com’s digital platform. By becoming a super app, a buyer of designated segment can find curated solutions on merchandises, financing and logistics relevant to their business,” said Ralali CEO Joseph Aditya.

Also Read: SoftBank announces new US$108B Vision Fund with Microsoft and Apple as investors

The new deal comes less than a year after the Jakarta-headquartered company secured US$7 million in Series B led by Japan’s SBI Group.

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These tokenised assets show, that blockchains are not just here to disrupt financial institutions

Ever since the year of Bitcoin in 2017, people of every stripe, from curious observers to Wall Street investors, have started paying attention to the technology known as the blockchain. While some still confuse the two Bitcoin is merely a product of the blockchain. Those who have done their homework have begun to realise the immense potential this technology holds. 

With a little digging and you will be surprised with the assets now being tokenised into the blockchain.

Also Read: Here is why blockchain will have a big impact on the healthcare industry

Today, digital currencies aren’t the only assets traded through the online ledger. In Singapore, there are now blockchain-powered marketplaces that buy and sell renewable energy certificates, for local and international clients.

Hong Kong, the city with the most expensive homes, now has property developers seeking regulatory approval for tokenised real estate. 

Startups have taken advantage of the immutable and decentralised technology to develop products that not only secure assets but more importantly, data.

As privacy issues continue to hound some of the Internet’s most prominent platforms, blockchain’s sophisticated peer-to-peer verification system becomes even more attractive. 

Blockchain IDs in India

The technology is so promising that even governments are realising the technology’s potential as they tap blockchain-enabled solutions to streamline cumbersome processes. 

In India, two municipalities have started issuing birth certificates through a blockchain-enabled system, cutting down the application process for citizens.

If parents had to register in government offices and wait for more than a month to secure a copy of a newborn’s birth certificate before, the new system will cut the waiting time and let them keep a certificate for life, as it’s stored in an app.

The government partnered with Netherland-based blockchain app developer Lynked.world, which runs a mobile app that locals use to access the personal information stored in their government documents like passport and driver’s licenses. 

The same company has also developed a blockchain-enabled marketplace for India’s farmers, where they can sell their products and goods directly to consumers, eradicating intermediaries. The government is hoping these initiatives will cut down red tape and lessen instances of corruption. 

Also Read:Trust : an essential component in the success of investment oriented blockchain projects

Tokenised homes

The decentralised ledger has also given way to open, accessible markets, that were otherwise exclusive to corporate investors.

Real estate, for example, is one of the industries set to be disrupted by blockchain through tokenisation. 

In theory, this means property developers may create digital counterparts of their projects with which small-time investors can buy shares.

According to the data provided by the price comparison site, GlobalPropertyGuide, the average price of one square meter of home property in premier cities in the Asia Pacific is now at US$9,895. 

With tokenised real estate, those who may be willing to invest in properties but may not have that much cash can still participate in the market.

This way, even those with small capital to invest can enjoy the growth of the property.

A Singapore-based startup called “BitofProperty” has already started selling shares of tokenized properties, allowing investors to earn returns on a monthly basis. 

Blockchain-enabled phones

Blockchain’s decentralised technology has also made way for a truly secure data collection. 

In Singapore, a startup called Pundi X is set to launch XPhone, a smartphone powered by blockchain, later this year.

The developers say the device can run even without any service provider, allowing the user to text and call through its blockchain-powered ecosystem called Function X.

The system is envisioned to be used and run by developers who wish to launch blockchain-enabled smartphones in the future, like the Android. 

Since all processes and functions that will run on Function X will be encrypted, users have ensured their data is theirs alone.

Also Read:5 Asia-based startups that are making blockchain part of everyday life

This now sounds like a luxury with some of the data issues the world’s biggest smartphone makers. Some, like Huawei, has been even labeled as a “security threat”, as the manufacturer is feared to be sharing user data to the Chinese government.

But with blockchain phones, privacy is one less thing to worry about as the entire technology is running on a “trustless” system, as no one entity owns the whole program. 

 

These products may still be in its early stages, but experts already expect funding to drive this technology forward continuously. 

Already, the IDC sees blockchain solutions spending in Asia to increase by 89% in 2019 to USD$523 million from US$284.4 million.

“Indeed, as we see the emergence of the concept of Digital Trust, blockchain is a key ingredient in delivering this trust, at scale, across many markets, allowing a new pace of business interaction that had previously been restricted by process and approval challenges,” said Simon Piff, VP for Security and Blockchain Research. 

Aside from artificial intelligence, it’s probably one of the technologies set to disrupt traditional businesses and practices completely, and will hopefully make more industries otherwise exclusive to select few, a more inclusive one. 

It’s already proven its power to change the rules in traditional banking with more blockchain-enabled fin-tech startups launching on an annual basis.

But with these tokenised assets, it shows, that the technology isn’t just here to disrupt financial institutions.

It’s set to change how we do things, from the way we communicate to the way we deal with public and private entities.

With these developments, it wouldn’t be surprising to find blockchain-enabled services changing the way people live in the coming years.

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One’s expertise and deliberate focus on one’s craft is actually the primary driver for success and not some crapshoot of a series of hacks

Often times when I attend a conference or a networking event I am surprised how many people operate at the periphery of the tech industry. Social media gurus, SEO ‘ninjas’, bloggers, etc. It’s a coterie of tech ‘club promoters.’ The hype men of the industry.

‘Hack your way to success.’ ‘Meet the right people.’ ‘Become a business superstar.’ They’ve found their silver bullet. They boast of building a passive income from a web business, all while traveling the world as the rest of us mortals are slaving away at our 9–5 jobs.

In a world where we are searching for silver bullets, these people seem to have amassed an arsenal of them. Moreover they’ve found audiences to sell their silver bullets to en masse.

The most blatant example of this are some of the disciples of the 4 Hour Work Week, by Tim Ferriss. The book itself is not really the issue. Ferriss indeed outlines some interesting tips on managing resources to get the highest ROI on your work. What is objectionable, however, is the hack-your-way-to-success mentality it has spawned in entrepreneurial circles.

It’s a mindset that is antithetical to everything I know about entrepreneurship. A mindset that I see when I hear people talk about having an amazing idea that they want to farm out to a young college student who can code or outsourcing development of a product to a cheap dev house. It’s a mindset that assumes entrepreneurship is a series of networking events and fundraising meetings, or even some silver-bullet business connection they have in lieu of a real distribution strategy. It’s taking a passive approach to a very difficult undertaking.

What is missed in all of this is the mindset of craftsmanship; that one’s expertise and deliberate focus on one’s craft is actually the primary driver for success and not some crapshoot of a series of hacks.

Also read: Advice for first-time startup CEOs

What happens on the periphery — whether it be the towel slapping we see on Twitter from tech celebrities or headline gossip out of TechCrunch — is not actually meaningful as a foundation of a business or a profession. Neither are the number of coffee meetings you have scheduled or the amount of networking meetings you attend. These things are tertiary at best, and at worst, just plain old distractions.

To be successful over the course of a career requires the application and accumulation of expertise. This assumes that for any given undertaking you either provide expertise or you are just a bystander. It’s the experts that are the drivers—an expertise that is gained from a curiosity, and a mindset of treating one’s craft very seriously.

A startup is by nature a crash course in developing expertise. What makes startups unique is the sheer dearth of resources. This dearth of resources forces founders to rapidly adapt their skills to meet the demands of the project.

‘I didn’t know how to do x, so I just had to figure it out.’ This is what I regularly hear from successful founders, whereas ‘I couldn’t find someone to do X, so I had to reconsider whether to pursue it at all’ is a common refrain from unsuccessful founders.

If you step up to the challenge, you’ll realize that the startup is nothing more than a teacher. It in fact is a great teacher for no other reason than it demands the accumulation of knowledge quickly for the startup to survive.

A technical founder, whose experience may relegate her or him to a specialist role in a large company, for example, has to adapt and take on more expertise in adjacent technical areas. There simply aren’t the human resources to hand off these tasks to another specialist.

Also read: Mindfulness matters: Why every entrepreneur should invest in good habits

This is true for taking on tasks in other domains, whether that be sales, finance, marketing, management or design. You have to take an interest in these domains because there is no one else to fill these roles in your early stage company.

It’s in exploring these unknown territories and facing the headwind of startup challenges that it becomes clear that the startup is merely a force of catalytic professional and character growth. With actual success of any given venture subject to the whim of outside forces, this growth is the non-monetary dividend that makes the experience priceless.

That is why the passive, 4-Hour Mindset is so self defeating. To lounge on a beach or travel the world and not actively engage in building your arsenal of expertise is professional malpractice.

It’s also not practical. No serious company has been created passively—the passive mindset that leads people to say “I’ve got a great idea. I’ll hire a team to build it out” or “I have this great connection who will drive sales,” while I play armchair visionary. Startup graveyards are full of visionaries without expertise or the proper skills to execute, for no other reason than ideas are not self executing, but are rather made into being by intense engagement by skilled operators.

Most importantly, to think of a business as a series of hacks and transactional relationships, you’ll never amass the expertise that your future self and future businesses need to succeed. Startups fail withstanding founder expertise, of course. It is certainly not sufficient to be an expert. However, expertise does make it possible to traverse the struggles of creating businesses over the course of a career. You’re not simply working on the idea in front of you, you’re building the knowledge to succeed at your next projects as well.

It is the expertise and the mindset of craftsmanship that allows someone like Elon Musk to jump from project to project and sector to sector with the knowledge of how to execute on the highest level problems. It’s not simply his ability to find interesting ideas. It’s his command of the domains of the business that allow him to execute the way he does. He is the epitome of interdisciplinary student of his businesses.

If you are to optimize for anything, optimize for the long term. Use the challenges of your business today to build mastery in your craft. There is no guarantee that any one venture will succeed, but that mastery will bend luck in your favor over the long course of your career.

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This article was first published on January 31, 2018.

Editor’s note: e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here. This article originally appeared on Hackernoon.

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Blockchains can get through traditional revenue models towards a more secure and effective model

Blockchain technology is used for a variety of industries throughout the past few years. Where users might not expect to see it is within the music industry.

However, it has rapidly altered how contracts are negotiated, how music is distributed among platforms, and how musicians are likely to get paid for their work in the future.

No matter what musical trends occur, blockchain will be an inherent part of it over the coming decades.

Also Read: 3 of your most important assets may soon have tokenised counterparts in the Blockchain

Technology has always been integrated within the music industry, and the two have had a symbiotic relationship since electronic music made waves in the 80s and 90s.

It has not been until recently that it has dramatically affected how musicians distribute their works. Even with the ability to burn CDs, an original copy of an album had to be purchased before it could be shared with others.

Now with streaming, it is almost impossible to track how many copies of an album have been purchased, and it is difficult to determine which royalties are due to which artists. 

“Currently, the global music industry has an estimated US$2.5 billion worth of uncollected royalties. Dubbed the ‘royalty black box,’ there have been more than 46 million instances of unidentified songwriters or unknown copyright owner notice of intents (NOIs) filed with the US Copyright Office by streaming services since April 2016,” writes Michaela “Mickey” Shiloh for Entrepreneur. 

Because it is so difficult to track how many times a song has been listened to through a streaming platform, artists and their teams are left with inaccurate ideas of how popular their music is and how much monetary value can be attached.

Also Read:Can blockchains significantly improve e-commerce security?

Much of this has to do with the accuracy of the data that is being shared and the fact that most of these streaming platforms are closed systems.

Platforms do not want to share data with other platforms, and in some cases, the technology so far is not advanced enough to exchange information even if streaming companies agreed to it.

Artists have had to adjust to this in several ways. Many have asked for higher advances knowing that there is no proper way to track whether or not their albums have sold.

Even if this means paying the record label back from copies that have not been purchased, it offers artists a chance to integrate better into the music industry. Record companies have also been willing to dish out massive advances knowing that artists might not be able to pay them back.

This is where blockchain can revolutionise how artists are represented and how first record deals are made in the first place. Instead of relying solely on one company, streaming services could be seen as companies instead.

Blockchain allows a greater understanding of what is being streamed, by whom, and when, which allows for more information that can be used to identify whether or not an artist is succeeding. 

Also Read: Future of gold: asset stored on blockchains

It is predicted that this will change the purpose of record labels entirely making artists choose to work without representation because of the additional complications that come with advances and royalty agreements.

With blockchain, it is already possible to get a sense of how well an album or song is performing.

If artists can analyse data without the need for a middle man, they have the potential to gain direct sales instead of having to wait for advances to be paid off. 

“Blockchain, by nature, enables transparency over who owns copyrights over a digital work of art or song and further promotes digital payment through cryptocurrencies and smart contracts. If the music industry adopted a blockchain-focused distribution model, artists might not need the help of labels to secure royalties or brand partnerships,” writes Angel DeForge for Blockstreet HQ.

It could be a few years before blockchain technology can be officially used to bypass traditional record companies.

Since the conception of online streaming, artists and those in the industry have been affected due to the uncontrollable distribution of their intellectual material.

However, blockchain might be able to put a stop to illegal sharing and ultimately disrupting the industry.

If artists can adopt a blockchain-focused distribution model, working with a label would no longer be necessary. 

Overall, blockchain offers several advances that are likely to continue to transform the industry, from insights on popular music to understanding where music is being pirated.

Only time will tell how these changes will affect musicians and smaller record companies who are not able to afford the new tech immediately.

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