As Thailand positions itself to becoming a tech hub of the future, Startup Nation brings together the country’s hottest startups and more!

The National Innovation Agency (NIA), a government agency of Thailand with the mission of supporting and developing Thailand’s innovation system, reintroduces Startup Nation this year as Southeast Asia’s biggest tech conference — gathering the nation’s hottest startups, along with entrepreneurs, speakers, and investors from all around the globe. Placing Thailand well and truly on the startup map, NIA unveils Bangkok as a tech hub of the future.

NIA seeks to support and develop Thailand’s innovation system by virtue of improvements and initiations — all to promote economic restructuring and competitive enhancement. NIA functions as the vehicle for Thailand’s national innovation through co-creation, networking, fostering, and partnering with different organizations from various spaces including academic, technology, industry, finance, and investment.

With this, NIA’s launching of Startup Nation comes as no surprise as the 5-day event happening on 23 – 27 July 2019 works congruently with the agency’s vision for a future Thailand.

Also read: Thailand’s innovation agency launches cyber tech district for local, international startups

At the Startup Nation, around 500 startups hailing from 25 countries will be showcasing their latest innovations, meanwhile the programme will exhibit key insights to be discussed by 300 tech gurus and speakers sharing the space alongside those startups—making Startup Nation one of the biggest tech events in Southeast Asia.

The event also features pitching opportunities for participating startups, market insights from Asia and Europe, 2019 highlights that will identify global trends in deep tech, as well as MAR (music, art, recreation) tech with a special AR/VR music festival—essentially a hodgepodge of all the things that startup founders love and the things startup founders need.

A total of 9 government agencies, private sectors, and universities will also be hosting these respective events in 9 different venues, namely: NIA, Siam Innovation, The Knowledge Exchange (KX), AIS Design Center, Hanger by DTAC Accelerate, Glowfish, Naplab, Thailand Creative & Design Center (TCDC), and True Digital Park.

All nine venues are located on the BTS and MRT lines, making it very convenient for participants to go to each venue during the 5-day Startup Thailand event.

Southeast Asia Startup Assembly: an initiative co-created by NIA

With Southeast Asia being comprised of ten countries, collectively encompassing a total population size of about 650 million people, Southeast Asia has become one of the fastest growing region when it comes to technology adoption globally.

The main problem faced by the region is how fragmented it is despite the strong regional and cultural ties that tethers Southeast Asian countries together. Members of the region are separated by differing currencies, languages, and business environments.

Because of this recent boom in the tech and startup scene, however, certain key players and institutions recognize the need to accelerate the formation of new and improved government policies and programmes within the region.

Thus, the Southeast Asia Startup Assembly (SEASA) was forged and is to be inaugurated through the SEASA forum that aims to start the first discussion on market access programmes available to the growth of startups in building their various businesses across the region.

SEASA was formed primarily when the idea was mooted by Dr. Pun-Arj Chairatana of NIA and Thaddeus Koh of e27. The goal is to form a semi-government bloc that aims to create a continual discussion of e27 hosted grassroots issues accompanied by proposed solutions.

As such, the inaugural SEASA will be hosted by Thailand on 24 July 2019 at the Avani Sukhumvit Bangkok, from 8:00 to 8:30, under the theme “Advancing Partnership for Sustainability.”

This inaugural theme is consistent to NIA’s mission to bridge further the different countries of Southeast Asia to achieve common goals, reestablishing concerted efforts from the government agency to push for Thailand as a global startup hub of the future—efforts such as Startup Thailand’s 5-day event, and many others.

Deep Tech in Startup Thailand

What can participants expect in Startup Thailand, exactly? Well, for starters, Startup Thailand will be putting the spotlight on certain key topics, namely: agritech, foodtech, healthtech, MARtech, hackathons, and whatnot. The event will have ample time for participants to meander through the different venues on the different dates to be able to explore the diverse topics and trends featured in the 5-day event.

One of its key issues this year that’s already making a lot of noise in the startup ecosystem is the topic of deep tech. On July 24^th at the KX Knowledge Exchange, Startup Nation will be highlighting trends surrounding AI & robotics, energy, the restaurant of the future, medtech, as well as technology commercialization.

When we talk about deep tech, we talk about technology that’s based on tangible engineering innovation or scientific advances and discoveries. Deep tech is often set apart by its profound enabling power, the differentiation it can create, and its potential to be a catalyst for change—all important factors being looked at by today’s tech spectrum, especially ones that seek to impact the world in truly life-changing ways.

Some of the key players who will be taking the stage to talk about deep tech are Philipp Kristian Diekhöner, a global keynote speaker on innovation, Thomas Chrometzka of Enapter, and Thanyathat Angsuphisit, Managing Director of Technimal, among many others.

Want to be part of Startup Thailand?

The real value of Startup Nation in Thailand is to help you shift your mindset, mode of business, and future, all by joining the event that can revolutionise the nation. New graduates, budding entrepreneurs, and potential investors are all welcome to join and help shake up the nation.

If you’re interested in being part of history and immersing yourself not only in a sea of some of the hottest innovations spicing up the global tech spectrum today, but also to learn from the hotbed of ideas and insights being exchanged by some of the best and the brightest in the world of tech, then Startup Nation 2019 is for you.

You can register as either an attendee or a startup booth by clicking here. Check out the link for more information on Startup Nation 2019.

 

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image credit: 123rf.com / ID 24528780

 

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Businesses that don’t disrupt themselves risk getting left in the dust by their competitors

Business transformation can vary from companies to companies. Some may view it as a major disruption to the business while others think that this is a passing phase that the business needs to go through. Whatever it takes, business transformation is often complex and requires a lot effort for it to succeed.

It is my privilege to share some of my insights on business transformation. I am a business and technical strategist armed with more than 15 years of experience in helping businesses to propel to a greater height. Being a serial entrepreneur and investor myself, I usually dissect a challenge into pieces and formulate solutions in various perspectives in order to help my clients to achieve desired results.

Below are my views on business transformation.

Transforming business to stay competitive

Businesses will have to evolve as the world is continually changing with various needs and requirements.

I view business transformation as changing the business to be more efficient and effective than ever to fulfill the increasing demands in a competitive environment.

By doing so, it should help companies to bring on board better systems, people, products, processes and technologies to enable fulfillment.

It’s all about digital, solution, and data

Business transformation should revolve around digital, solutions and data. These three core elements can be often adopted independently, but many companies deploy all three elements to increase value.

Applying new technologies can improve the customer experience. There must have deep understandings on what the modern customers want, and what technology to adopt to modernise the business models.

Also Read: Customer experience: The opportunity that growing businesses are failing to see

As for the solution, companies will need to focus on solving the customers’ challenges holistically and realign the parts around what the customers really desire. Companies can increase revenue by providing a comprehensive solution that serves the long-term needs of the customer.

Lastly, data can change the way companies make decisions. This allows companies to gain better information on customer experience and areas of improvement. Companies should create a data culture that relies on business intelligence rather than internal or anecdotal opinions to test what the customers want.

Personal challenges in transforming my business

The common challenges I faced when transforming my own businesses are often categorised into people and processes.

Many people that I have known are accustomed to the traditional ways of how things run. Their resistance to changes is high and they are not willing to unlearn processes that they are used to. This can be detrimental as it closes the door to many opportunities and new ways to improve the overall business.

Also, by taking risks to undo the processes or introduce new methods, this may disrupt the flow of delivering consistent results. This can be worrisome as the results may not be guaranteed and many stakeholders can be affected along the way.

Taking small steps

I usually recommend my clients try to make changes in different phases to get the buy-in from the management as well as the other levels of employees. Baby steps should be made and feedback must be gathered to allow the transition to be as seamless as possible.

It will also be viable for the company to employ the right people to inculcate the right mindset within the organisational culture. This promotes innovation which is essential for the transformation. More options can be explored to further modernise the whole business.

Also Read: 10 reasons why businesses need to get involved with their communities2019

Business transformation may look different for every company but it is inevitable. The company must understand the current situations and adopt appropriate transformation strategies. This involves improving the processes, changing mindsets of personnel, managing data and incorporating technology to align and deliver the real value to the customers. Furthermore, the company can identify and leverage the strength to overcome the challenges ahead.

At BlackStorm Consulting, we guide our clients through their business transformation journey to ease the transition and ensure success. They can be motivated by several factors such as:

1. Hindered by internal weaknesses, which can affect the company growth.
2. Shield against external threats that can endanger the company.
3. Personal interest such as building a family legacy.
4. Urge to build higher barriers of entry to sustain a leading position in the market.

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Paddy Tan is the co-founder of boutique growth consultancy firm BlackStorm Consulting.

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

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

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Saphron’s platform NANAI will enable CARD MRI’s microinsurance agents to enrol clients, monitor policies, and initiate claims in short time and lesser cost

Philippines’s insurtech startup Saphron has received an undisclosed sum in investment from local microfinance firm CARD MRI, which also partly owns microinsurance company CARD Pioneer Microinsurance (CPMI).

The strategic partnership will see Saphron marrying AI and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) technologies with CPMI’s products, which is aimed at making microinsurance accessible to the bottom of the pyramid.

Saphron’s platform, NANAI, will enable CPMI’s microinsurance agents to enrol clients, monitor policies, and initiate claims in short time and lesser cost.

According to a press release, CPMI’s enrolments grew from 995,000 in 2014 to over 18 million by the end of 2018. One of the keys to this effort was the tapping and training of nanays (Filipino: mother) as the company’s microinsurance agents for their communities.

“The rapid growth in the volume of enrollments has brought about its own challenges, resulting in a few months worth of backlog as the insurer sought to encode thousands of hand-filled paper forms into the system. But this will soon be resolved through the insurtech platforms we are deploying,” said Lorenzo Chan, CEO of Saphron.

Also Read: Why business transformation is important in the digital age

According to Chan, the challenge has been to process business efficiently — be it enrolments or claims notification — so as to sustainably serve the mass market by delivering insurance inclusion in a timely and mission-critical manner. For Saphron, the answer lies in Artificial Intelligence, robotics, analytics, and chatbots — highly advanced deeptech that lies underneath a simple user interface.

“We’re able to leverage high-end technologies like NLP and AI to enable insurance inclusion for as many people as possible. Through this partnership with one of the largest microinsurers, we are confident of inching closer to our mission of making insurance radically accessible,” added Chan.

“What makes the Saphron tech even more valuable to the nanays is its ease of use. As high-tech as it is, NANAI is, in fact, easy to understand, with nanays reporting ease and comfort in familiarising themselves with the new technology,” said Winston Damarillo, Chief Strategy Officer of Saphron.

Saphron aims to make insurance accessible and close protection gaps in the Southeast Asian region via insurance platforms combining the latest technology with industry expertise. In March, Saphron secured SGD1.35 million (US$1 million) in seed funding from Sage, a VC fund that targets fintech startups, and Talino Labs, a venture lab that supports companies engaged in digital transformation.

Founded in 2013, CPMI is Philippines’s first microinsurance company. The firm is borne out of the partnership between CARD MRI and Pioneer.

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He believes in a technological endeavor that would last indefinitely, despite the market trends

Thanksgiving is a unique phenomenon here in the US. Schools and offices close for up to one week in observation of the holiday. I did not travel anywhere this time. I had hectic last few weeks with jobs and other stuff.

However, I was glad enough to have some time to catch up with friends. I also took some ‘me’ time.

It was delightful.

On the Friday night after Thanksgiving, less than 20 twenty-something recent grads gathered in a meeting room, somewhere in Palo Alto.

We had an intimate discussion with Derianto Kusuma.

He is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and co-founder of Traveloka, a leading online travel-related services startup in Indonesia.

Derianto is smart, humble, and interesting. My good friend said that Derianto thinks like an economist — he considers the prices, supply, demand, and its relationships and apply those to his wide-ranging domains. At the same time, he is a true engineer. He believes in a technological endeavor that would last indefinitely, despite the market trends.

Anyway, I thought that the insights from the meetup are worth sharing:

1. Building a top engineering team

For the scale that they do, Traveloka has one of the best engineering teams in Indonesia. As of now, there around 200+ engineers who work under Derianto’s guidance. But, in the early days, it was only him and his group of friends who built the product.

As Traveloka gained traction, they started hiring the top senior engineering positions from companies such as Apple, Flipkart, Google, and the like. Derianto purposely tapped into the best practices of these senior engineering hires and tried to replicate them in order to make Traveloka a world-class company. If you notice, Traveloka instills a degree of technical rigor in their business, marketing, and sales teams.

Derianto also shared some insights about the software engineering talents in Indonesia. He said that there is an upward pressure on salary, due to the demand and competition for startups to hire the ‘most competent’ talents. They have also started to include ‘stock grant’ (a modification of stock option system) into the salary package.

To give you an idea, there may be 300–400 new graduates every year from the top Indonesian universities. However, not all want to work in the tech industry, thus the number of ‘qualified talents’ is actually smaller.

2. Understanding the political landscape

We digressed a little bit from tech. But, this was the most interesting part.

We talked about the current political landscape in Indonesia, and the nature of the public and private sector. We discussed that in general, the private sector may have an expertise in execution, however, the public sector may have a ‘better’ network and leadership to reach everyone in Indonesia.

How can we best solve this problem?

For example, in the education sector, especially in smaller cities, we see that children feel reluctant to go to schools or universities. They may actually earn money by doing casual labour and therefore have less motivation to achieve a formal education. When they are in school, they may still suffer from lack of inspiration because the teachers are not that ‘competent’. This issue could be caused by the low wages that teachers get, for example. In turn, their teaching quality affects the students, and so on. It’s a vicious cycle similar to the cycle of poverty.

How can we best solve this problem?

The private sector may help in distributing educational materials, but would this solve the root cause?

In terms of policymaking, we also discussed how the legislative body has a ‘monopoly’ on power. There is already high risk of corruption (outright or clandestine alike) in Indonesia. Given that, the executive and the judiciary have to be able to keep the legislature’s actions accountable. Still, this is not that simple due to the complex political bargains that happen under the table, invisible to voters and most people.

To quote on a participant’s comment, “Could we then democratise our ‘democracy’?” Could we use the internet and technology to make sure that the voters’ hopes are fulfilled and delivered?

Okay. Enough about politics. We could talk all night.

(But, seriously, hit me up if you share the same vision to build the country’s financial access and education system)

3. Product and strategy excellence

Derianto mentioned that it was his “rational focus” in identifying gaps that led him to start Traveloka. I believe that his high-calibre team helped him to do the execution, extremely well.

Also read: Insights on tech and the Indonesian diaspora in Silicon Valley

He said that the consumers’ need in emerging markets is quite simple. If you are good enough in your execution, the market will respond to you.

In regards to the Chinese investments in Indonesia, there is a risk that the big ones would ‘kill’ all the smaller startups easily, either through price wars or mergers and acquisitions. We can already witness this in certain verticals such as e-commerce and ride-hailing. Apparently, the marketing and acquisition spend for the biggest ride-hailing rivals in Southeast Asia can easily reach up to US$1 billion per year.

There are no price wars in the online travel industry (yet?). And, regardless, Derianto plans to build features that would make the consumer’s demand to be more price inelastic.

My personal takeaway

I enjoyed the talk as it was different from most of the talks I have attended in the Bay Area. It was great to have an intimate sharing session with one of the most prominent players in the Indonesian tech landscape.

It was a two-way street, as we also shared our passion and thoughts about things that matter. Thank you for your time, Derianto. My best wishes for the great work you and the team do at Traveloka.

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This article was first published on e27 on December 1, 2017.

Special thanks to Mellisa Luis and Samuel Halim for organising the event. The author is not endorsed by nor affiliated with Traveloka.

Originally posted on Medium.

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

Image credit: Unsplash

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More than their mid-stage and late-stage counterparts, early-stage startups and the people working for them are likely to use their time inefficiently

Managing and/or working in an early-stage startup is exciting; you have the potential to grow into an internationally known business, but you also get to see it in its infancy. You’ll be making the decisions and taking the actions that (hopefully) allow you to become profitable and self-sustain—but you’ll also be vulnerable to a few key weaknesses that have the power to wipe out that potential altogether.

Most entrepreneurs understand the financial threat; if you go through your initial funding before you can establish a line of consistent revenue, the company could implode. But wasted money is only half the problem; early-stage startups are also vulnerable to wasted time.

More than their mid-stage and late-stage counterparts, early-stage startups and the people working for them are likely to use their time inefficiently, resulting in lower productivity, a lower ROI on your employee salaries, and of course, a delay in accomplishing your goals. Understanding the categories and nature of this time waste is critical if you want to overcome it.

1. The Wrong Ideas

For starters, you and your team will probably spend some time working on the wrong ideas. According to a thorough evaluation of more than 200 startup postmortems, 51 percent of businesses fail because their business model isn’t viable. Of those that succeed, many had to overcome the hurdle of a non-viable business model by pivoting—in other words, changing their approach. If you find out your existing business model isn’t going to work, all the hours you spent fleshing that model out will be at least partially wasted; you may walk away with more experience and a better understanding of what to do, but you’ll have developed modules or practices that no longer work.

2. Unclear Processes

In the early stages of a startup, managers care about getting things done. They aren’t particularly concerned with documenting that process with a formal SOP, nor are they worried about keeping the process consistent between days or employees. That process ambiguity may give employees more flexibility in a chaotic and demanding environment, but it also leads to a drop in productivity and consistency of work.

3. Email and Communication

Most people don’t notice just how much time they spend emailing, and in an early stage startup, the problem is even worse. If you’re sending and receiving 200 messages a day (or more), even a 1-minute loss of time per email can lead to more than 3 hours of lost productivity in a single day. Few managers want to invest the time in tracking down these email- and communication-related issues, but they can save your team dozens of weekly hours if you can correct them.

Also read: Solver teams sail, while cross-functional teams fail

Time-Consuming Clients

Your earliest clients are the hardest to sell. That’s why early-stage clients often require making sacrifices, such as lowering your prices and/or dealing with difficult people. These clients may be necessary to build a reputation for yourself early on, but if you keep them too long, or aren’t able to supplement them with any clients, the work you spend on their account may be wasted.

Generalist Employees

Startups usually need people to flesh out the core team, but they don’t have much money to pay for top talent in a given field. They also have many roles that need filled simultaneously, but might only be able to afford one or two people. Accordingly, startups tend to hire “generalist” employees, rather than “specialist” employees, who are capable of a broad range of tasks, but only excel in one or two areas. As a result, you and your team will spend hours on tasks outside your realm of expertise, which means you can’t possibly work at peak efficiency.

Chaos, Tracking, and Discovery

Even the most planned-out startups tend to be chaotic in their early stages. Your workspace is new, your system is disorganized, and your plans are constantly evolving in response to new threats and needs. Keeping track of all that chaos is exceedingly difficult, and nobody wants to take the time to document how and why they’re spending time. That means you’ll have limited insight into your existing productivity issues, and you certainly won’t have a tool to help you compensate for them.

Fortunately, like most problems your early-stage startup will face, the time loss vulnerability issue is fixable with sufficient investment and attention. Becoming more aware of how you spend your time, and addressing known time wasters proactively are your best tools in ensuring that your team remains as productive as possible throughout your run.

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

Featured Image Copyright: flynt / 123RF Stock Photo

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Scaling your business effectively can give you a huge edge over your competitors, whether they are domestic or international players

Scaling is one of the most discussed topics among entrepreneurs. However, it is a term that often being confused as growing. So what exactly is scaling?

Growing a business is not equivalent to scaling one. To grow a business, it can be done by investing more resources such as staff and raw materials to increase output. Both revenue and cost, in this case, will grow proportionately.

Scaling, on the other hand, is about being able to grow the revenue while keeping operating costs low. It is not just about selling more products and services.

This article serves as a guide to scale up your business, be it for a small business owner or someone who is managing a multinational corporation.

Four key factors of scaling

Premature scaling occurs in 70 per cent of companies and is responsible for the failure of 74 per cent of tech startups.

To ensure that scaling is not done prematurely, you must first understand the four key factors of scaling. The four key factors are: Market, cash flow, internal control, skills, and attitude.

1. Market

• What are the key cultural factors in your new market do you have to be aware of?
• What is the demographic of your target audience?
• What opportunities does this market have that can be exploited?
• When is a good time to enter this market?

Also Read: 5 content marketing trends you need to heed

These are some of the questions that you should think about before scaling. Be it entering a new market or expanding within the current one, you should have in-depth knowledge of the dynamics of the target market, and the taste and preferences of the consumers. You will then be able to position your company better to reach out to the target market.

2. Cash flow

Without money, a company cannot survive. As scaling aims to keep the operational cost low, cash flow management is essential. Having strong credit management and tight control of overdue debt allows companies to constantly track their cash flows in and out of the company, minimising unnecessary loss.

3. Internal control

Scaling allows the company to become bigger. In a small company, internal control may not be such a big of a problem as everyone is kept updated all the time. Once the company grows, there will be more people to handle and internal control becomes increasingly complicated.

Proper documentation must be done; policies and procedures need to be put in place to provide guidance for the employees. Stricter management standards and quality control systems are needed to ensure that the company is running effectively and efficiently.

4. Skills and attitude

Companies at different stages of scaling would require people with different skill sets. Initially, companies will need generalists with strong problem-solving skills. When the company grows bigger and segregation of duties occurs, specialists are required.

Companies will need to hire more specialists along the way and be able to assimilate them into the team. Messaging of the scaling activities of the company has to be clearly communicated to team members to ensure attitude alignment.

Three ways to scale your business

Here we have three common ways to scale up a business.

1. Market penetration

Market penetration is about selling more of the existing products to the existing clients/markets. To sell more you will need to look at four elements: business model, distribution network, marketing, and operations. Some ways that you can do so is by modifying the business model, building partnerships and alliances, or enhancing distribution deals and marketing efforts.

Before deciding to scale the business in this manner, you should ask yourself these questions:

1. What is the current size of the market? What is the potential size of the market? Will it grow or contract?
2. How much of the market share can we take?
3. How well does your product fit into the current market?

2. Introduce new products

The second method is to introduce new products. This does not mean that companies have to spend big bucks to develop totally new products to existing clients. It can be about making modifications to the existing products, repackaging it to increase value to clients for their purchase.

Also Read: Don’t be anchored by the anchor2019

This can be done through the enhancement of the product by eliminating obsolete features and adding new innovative features. Alternatively, companies can create and launch a completely new product that is related to existing products.

These are the few questions that you can reflect on:

1. Will the new product address the unmet need of customers?
2. Will the product make money?
3. How will your new product fit into your core competencies?
4. Is this new product a complement to your current offering? Or is it a replacement?

3. Add a new target market

The last method is to add a new target market. This is done by selling the existing products to the new markets. To do so you can reach out to new customer segments or expand outside the home country. The easiest way is to identify a market that is geographically close to the home market and has a relatively close culture to the home country.

Think about these questions:

1. Do you need a new set of strategies?
2. Can the same value proposition be applied to the new target market?
3. What is the market size you are looking at?
4. What are the environmental factors that can affect company performance in this new market?
5. Who are the main competitors in such markets?

Four scaling strategies

With the understanding of the way to scale a business, you can now proceed to adopt one of the four strategies that are classified based on two attributes – efficiency vs. speed and level of certainty.

1. Classic startup growth

For the classic startup growth model, efficiency is prioritised in the face of uncertainty. You will be aiming to minimise uncertainty while still growing. You will need to be resource efficient and need to learn about the market, technology, and team before commencing on scaling. In this controlled and efficient growth, you can work to minimise the uncertainty while trying to seek for product/market fit.

Also Read: Why business transformation is important in the digital age

2. Classic scale-up growth

Classic scale-up growth focuses on growing efficiently once the founders have achieved certainty in the environment. Typically, founders will only begin scaling once they are sure of the environment. This strategy is good if you are maximising the return of investment in an established and stable market and it is usually done in industries where there is no need to grow quickly.

3. Fast scaling

If you are adopting the fast scaling strategy, you will usually give up efficiency for growth. Fast scaling takes place in the environment of certainty, which means that the cost is well understood and predictable. This is a very good strategy to gain market share or when companies are trying to achieve revenue milestones.

4. Blitzscaling

Blitzscaling (a term coined by Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh) works only if founders are willing to give up efficiency for speed but without waiting to achieve certainty. The aim of blitzscaling is to gain market shares quickly to become the market leader. This approach is a “do or die” method in which the company either succeeds or dies within a short time. The team has to accept the risk of making wrong decisions in exchange for the ability to move faster and achieve success.

Five steps to minimise the risk of scaling a business

Scaling a business has never been an easy task and many organisations had to learn in a hard way to get it right.  Here we present five steps to minimise the risk of scaling:

1. Evaluate & plan: Identify a strategy early in the planning and often evaluate the plan.
2. Find resources: Ensure that there are enough funds and internal capability and capacity to support the scaling plan.
3. Upgrade technology: Start to automate the processes to make things easier to execute.
4. Revise processes: Automate and add more processes to support the scaling plan.
5. Leverage on Strategic Business Relationship: Identify and work with current or existing partners and clients that can assist with scaling the business

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In addition to TikTok, we also have updates from Cailu, Waresix, and Naspers’s digital payments unit PayU

UK investigates TikTok over children’s data privacy handling – SCMP

Elizabeth Denham, head of the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, announced in a parliamentary committee hearing earlier this week that the regulator is investigating ByteDance’s TikTok over its handling of children’s data privacy, South China Morning Post reported.

The regulator is investigating the app’s open messaging system which allows adults to contact children. It is also investigating how private information of underaged users is collected and stored. It is looking forward to seeing if the platform is violating the European Union privacy law, which requires companies to provide specific protections related to children’s personal data.

ByteDance, as the company behind the platform, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Singapore’s GBCI Ventures leads US$10M pre-Series A funding for China’s Cailu – Dealstreet Asia

Singapore-based smart city venture fund GBCI Ventures has led a US$10 million pre-Series A funding round for Chinese blockchain media firm Cailu, Dealstreet Asia reported.

Digital asset investment fund Orka Capital also participated in the funding round.

Founded in 2018, Cailu integrates industry information, content socialisation and token mechanism to provide content and servers to users and creators.

The company plans to use the funding to further research and development on blockchain immersion media (IM), CLC ecosystem building, engineering expertise, platform operations, and partnership programmes to build a blockchain ecosystem.

Also Read: Why Tik Tok is not a real competitor to Instagram

Naspers’s PayU expands into Southeast Asia by acquiring Red Dot Payment – e27

The payments arm of South African internet conglomerate Naspers, PayU, has announced its entry to Southeast Asia by acquiring Singapore-based online payments solutions company Red Dot Payment (RDP).

PayU acquired a majority stake in RDP in a transaction valuing the company at US$65 million.

RDP founder will continue to retain a stake in the company, while the majority of other shareholders will exit.

“We will now provide our existing global merchants access to Southeast Asia with single API integration, thus strengthening our global PayU Hub platform. PayU will continue to look for prospects to reinforce our footprints in this market,” said Laurent le Moal, CEO of PayU.

Indonesian logistics startup Waresix raises US$14.5M in Series A – e27

Indonesian logistics startup Waresix today announced that it has raised a US$14.5 million in Series A funding round led by growth fund EV Growth.

SMDV and Jungle Ventures also participated in the funding round, which comes less than eight months after raising its pre-Series A of US$1.6 million.

The startup has previously raised a seed funding round in February 2018.

The funding will be used to expand Waresix’s land transportation service and further strengthen its warehousing network to second-tier cities.

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Image Credit: Caleb Woods on Unsplash

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You’ve got a great idea, but how do you sell it to industry greats? Check out our guide to pitching 101, with tips from established investors and corporates.

Pitching is a necessary experience for every budding startup who wants to launch their ideas into the global spotlight. There’s no better way to hone your skills when it comes to selling your business model to a potential investor.

More importantly, pitching gives your startup the opportunity to connect with venture capitalists (VCs) and corporates, which are often on the lookout for partners to co-innovate with and fund.

If you’re new to the concept of pitching, not to worry. Here are some tips from investors and corporates on what they look out for in a startup pitch, and what you should avoid!

Also read: SLINGSHOT 2019: A launchpad for promising startups across the world

How to impress with your pitch

It’s important that your pitch offers unique insights. Investors and corporates are on the lookout for uncommon solutions that tackle markets ripe for disruption.

Paul Santos, SEA Managing Partner for Wavemaker Partners, said: “Pitches that wow me are often the ones that can explain tremendous opportunities that aren’t so obvious. The challenge is that you have limited time to do this. This is why pulling it off makes it impressive.”

For Kelvin Ong, Founder and CEO of FocusTech Ventures, what gets his attention are “well-defined or re-framed problems in underserved markets that are solved with differentiated approaches.” This includes proposing multi-faceted solutions that span from business model analysis, channel strategies, to user experience.

Graham Howes, Managing Director of BP Ventures Asia, echoed similar sentiments. As BP Ventures Asia aims to invest in solutions that can produce energy more efficiently and contribute to a low carbon future, his firm looks for startups that have a differentiated technology or business model, on top of a clear and realistic business plan.

Examples of such innovative efforts include the electrification and digitisation of mobility, as well as the move from individual vehicle ownership to fleet.

Also read: Joining pitching competitions is good for founders and startups

Key traits investors look out for

Kelvin Ong from FocusTech Ventures said: “When it comes to early stage investing for us, founding team dynamics and positive traits that signal execution ability, commitment and conviction are table stakes.”

He added: “With the right market dynamics, customer understanding and product mindset, positive validation of key assumptions and traction will follow.”

Daniel Lin, Co-Founder and Executive Director of FundedHere, has four key criteria in mind when selecting the kind of startups he’d like to work with: (i) founder’s experience and executional capabilities; (ii) industry of the startup; (iii) scalability of the business; and (iv) valuation of the startup.

What to say and avoid during pitching

You’re confident in what your startup has to offer. But now you need to tackle the execution. Here’s a list of things you should say and avoid during your pitch session:

• Avoid saying “we have a passionate team”. Instead, prove why you’re the best team for this opportunity, convey how you spotted the opportunity, why it was meaningful, and why you’re the right team to pursue it.
• Articulate and divide your time around market, product and business areas, while framing your pitch around what your startup has achieved so far.
• Be humble in listening, and flexible enough to let go of pre-conceived assumptions. At the same time, you must remain confident, firm, and stay true to your vision and unique way of thinking.
• Rehearse your pitch and ensure that your slides bolster your verbal presentation. Never underestimate the power of first impressions for your audience. Begin with a bang.

Test your pitch out at SLINGSHOT 2019 – Asia’s most exciting deep tech startup competition!

Want to earn the chance to pitch to some of the world’s best and brightest? Check out SLINGSHOT 2019, Asia’s most exciting global deep tech startup pitching competition powered by Startup SG, organised by Enterprise Singapore. More than US$1 million in prizes are up for grabs!

Good news: the application deadline for SLINGSHOT 2019 has been extended to 12 July 2019! Don’t miss the chance to pitch your startup to more than 160 of the world’s biggest investors and corporates – apply here!

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With the e-commerce industry heating up, how do you get users to turn into paying customers

Growth of any e-commerce business zeroes is largely dependent enticing the customers to make a purchase. It is as much about generating repeat business as it is about acquiring new customers. While e-businesses are gaining immense momentum with each passing day, getting users to buy from you can be difficult owing to the increase in competition. Cart abandonment is one of the biggest conversion woes for e-commerce websites.

Imagine the disappointment of having an “almost-converted” customer who added a product to their cart only to leave it behind. There are several reasons for this, as enlisted below:

However, it is not all doom and gloom, as you still have a chance to turn them into paying customers by reminding them of the products they have saved in the cart. The best way to recover the cart abandoners is through real-time web and mobile push notifications. These messages pop up on the user’s desktop or mobile screen and prompt the reader to take the next action.

10 strategies to increase the chances of a complete transaction

Having a user-friendly interface, informing the user about the total cost beforehand, offering multiple payment options, and a simple checkout process can help to reduce cart abandonment. You might have implemented SMS marketing and email marketing to communicate with the cart abandoners, but it cannot outperform the instant influence of push notifications.

So, how can you create push notification strategies to reduce cart abandonment?

1. Segment the users

At the outset itself, you should segment the users based on parameters such as:

• The device used (mobile, tablet or computer)
• Browser used (for web push notifications)
• Language of the device or browser
• Geographical location
• Frequency of purchase
• Past interaction of the prospect like products browsed, pages visited, resources downloaded, etc.

Also Read: Why business transformation is important in the digital age

Doing so will help you determine the loyal customers so that you can send them personalized discounts. This eventually leads to a higher engagement rate and more conversions.

2. Add a human touch to the automated push notifications

Batch and blast messages fail to appeal to the customers. According to a study, 31 per cent of consumers wish that their shopping experience was more personalized than it is at present. Therefore, you should draft tailormade push notifications that include the name of the customer and an image or images of the abandoned product. This will help the customer to connect with the message and recognize the brand. An engaging or punny headline will work as an icing on the cake.

Remember, that there is a real person at the other end of the notification who is looking forward to a memorable shopping experience.

Just like you can implement the nine-word template by Dean Jackson in the re-engagement email, you can do so even in the push notifications.

3. Time your push notifications right

It is recommended that you do not send a push notification as soon as the customer has abandoned the cart. This can, sometimes, annoy the users. On the other hand, the customer might make a purchase from the competing e-commerce player if you let too much time elapse after the cart abandonment.

Therefore, it is of paramount importance to send push notifications at the right time. Test and determine the minimum time that you should give the customer to come back. If they do not come back within the estimated time, you can remind them with a push notification.

4. Use the power of urgency

Often, your customers are merely building their wishlists by adding multiple items to the cart. They hope to come back to make the purchase later at a suitable time. Here’s where you can use the power of urgency. Send a push notification to inform the customers about a limited time availability or discount. For example: “The stock is running low. Hurry up.” or “Last 3 hours for the offer to end.”

This strategy creates a fear of missing out and entices them to complete the purchase before the offer slips out.

5. Request for the customer’s feedback and offer help

The cost might not be the sole factor that deters the customer from making a purchase. Technical glitches like website errors and payment failure can also lead to cart abandonment. In such cases, you can ask for the customer’s feedback and offer to help.

You can send a push notification with the contact details and phone number or link to the contact page. The error might have irked the customer, but the push notification can help you win their trust and make the purchase.

6. Incentivize the cart abandoners

Discount offers in a push notification can entice the customer to make the purchase. You can promote a limited time offer that would create a sense of urgency and prompt instant purchase.

For instance: You can send a push notification like “Use DISCOUNT25 to get extra 25% off on your cart.”

Also Read: 8 e-commerce trends to look out for in Southeast Asia 2019

Just make sure that the users do not gamify the system and you do not end up attracting the discount shoppers or impeding the profit margin.

7. Create a series of push notifications

A series of push notifications works the best when it comes to recovering cart abandoners. As the first push message, send a simple reminder that lets the customer know that they have forgotten something in their cart.

The subsequent notification can encourage the customer to complete the purchase with a limited-time discount coupon. The last message will notify the user that the offer is expiring soon. Once the customer makes the purchase, close the push notification campaign.

8. Showcase testimonials from other customers to instill trust

Trust plays a significant role in getting customers to buy in e-commerce as it directly influences their buying intention and indirectly influences the perceived usefulness. Considering this fact, include testimonials or product reviews from other customers in the push notification. This will not only emphasize on the popularity of the product but also build confidence in the customer’s mind. It will ease anxiety and convince him or her to make the purchase.

9. Monitor the frequency of push notifications

Of course, the objective of the push notification strategy is to recover the cart abandoners. But you should not get too salesy. Too many push notifications can turn off the customers and force them to block the notifications or block the app.

Also Read: Honest e-commerce mistakes that piss customers off

In order to avoid this, evaluate your push notification strategy and its performance regularly. Make the necessary changes according to the metrics like view rate, click-through rate, and conversion rate to name a few.

10. Carry out A/B testing to validate what’s working

A/B test the headline, copy, images used, and timing of the push notification to ascertain what’s working and what isn’t. Also, test the push notifications before sending so that there are no grammatical or rendering errors.

Summing it up

To wrap up, target the cart abandoners with the right push notifications and relevant offers. Utilize a push notification platform to improve the cart recovery of your e-commerce website.

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The Dublin-headquartered company’s investment amount was not disclosed

Experian, a global consumer credit company, has invested an undisclosed amount in Grab’s latest financing round, making it Experian’s fourth investment in Asia, as reported by Business Times.

The investment also opens a partnership in which Experian and Grab will see the use of technology and data analytics to support Grab’s customised offerings for its users, such as improvement in access to loans for aspiring entrepreneurs in the region.

Experian Asia-Pacific chief executive Ben Elliott said that the partnership also seeks to “improve access to mobility-enabled solutions and financial services for underbanked South-east Asia consumers”.

“Our vision for the future of financial services is that it will be powered by technology and alternative data. We want to transform the way consumers and businesses seek out financial products and services,” Elliot added.

For its Series H round, Grab has said that it plans to raise US$6.5 billion. The round is expected to close by the end of this year and so far has collected more than US$4.5 billion in capital.

Also Read: Naspers unit PayU forays into Southeast Asia by acquiring Singapore startup Red Dot Payment

This year alone, Grab has secured US$1.46 billion from Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Vision Fund and added another US$300 million from existing investor Invesco, a US-based investment manager.

Among Grab’s other investors in the Series H round include Toyota Motor Corporation, Oppenheimer Funds, Hyundai Motor Group, Booking Holdings, Microsoft Corporation, Ping An Capital, and Yamaha Motor.
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