Nexting has also developed four startups in-house for an incubation program — Lifyn, Vision Building, Next Pictures and Pinnacle Living

Malaysia has got a new startup incubator, with Selangor-based Nexting Venturesannouncing its official launch.

In a statement, the company said it has also raised RM1.6 million (over US380,000) in funding from undisclosed angel investors.

Nexting aims to impact living in the coming decades.

“We want to provide a more convenient, humanized, and implementable solution for the next generation. We programmed impact living in all the aspects of our product and services — from the stage of ideation and development, to bringing it to our users and clients,” said Penny Leong, Chief Business Development Officer, Nexting.

Also Read: Alibaba, Facebook co-founders back East Ventures’s new US$75M fund focused on Indonesia

“Malaysia, with its strategic location and diverse culture, is a nation with a rapid-growing ecosystem that has much to offer the world. With that, we would like to seize the potential and opportunity of technology, talents, and innovation to redistribute opportunity in the community and society in which we live,” said Nexting Ventures CEO Sophia Tey.

Nexting was founded in 2017 by six founders. In the current form, Nexting is a multi-platform business solutions provider, focusing on a diversity of entities. The company intends to nurture diverse talent with great opportunities, including great products, services, and solutions geared directly towards next generation needs and wants.

The four-month-old incubator has also grown its team from six to 40 people in 2019, and recently expanded its operations to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.

Nexting has also developed four startups in-house for an incubation program.

Below is a brief profile of each startup:

Lifyn Co: A tenant management app, Lifyn is designed to solve problems between the house owner and the tenant.

Vision Building: A team building and training company in Malaysia. It helps organizations build a team with a vision, inculcate, and instill corporate vision, mission, values, and cultures to employees.

Next Pictures: A media production house specializing in channeling art through story-telling.

Pinnacle Living: It aims to empower people in creating a happy home by providing top-notch home and living products specializing in bedding, bathing, home decoration, and home planning items.

 

The post Malaysia’s new startup incubator Nexting Ventures launches with US$380K funding appeared first on e27.

Tips that will help you avoid the main challenges of a distributed team and move on to startup success

By Christin Baumgarten on April 11, 2017. Originally published on Startups.co– the world’s largest startup platform, helping over 1 million startup companies. More from Startups.

Remote work. Work from home. Telecommuting and teleworking. Whatever you call it, distributed teams are becoming increasingly popular …  and it’s here to stay.

A recent Gallup Poll noted that, in the US, telecommuting for work is up 37 per cent in the last decade. Thirty-four per cent of business leaders surveyed at a recent Global Leadership Summit in London predicted more than half of their company’s global workforce would work remotely by 2020. Around the world, more and more companies are building distributed teams, just like we have at Mailbird.

When you look at the benefits of having a distributed team, it’s understandable why we chose to build our team this way. Happy people make great work and, generally speaking, those who work remotely are happier, more engaged, and dedicated to the work they do. At Mailbird, we have access to some of the best and brightest minds around the world—not just within a 100-mile radius of an office. Our talent pool isn’t limited by geography, and that means we can hire the perfect person for every job.

Despite these benefits, it’s not always easy to manage a distributed team. We have faced (and still face!) a lot of challenges. But we think the benefits of remote work vastly outweigh the challenges. Through experience, we’ve learned how to tackle these challenges and become experts on telecommuting.

Also Read: Reid Hoffman: I think it’s always smart to be terrified

So let’s look at some of the keys to successful remote teams, and how we handle the challenges of them.

Hiring the right people

The most important step you can take in building a distributed team is hiring the right people. But that’s much easier said than done. It’s much more challenging to assess a candidate through technology, rather than in person. The best things you can do is clearly define what you’re looking for —and do not compromise on it— and take your time with the interview process. You wouldn’t buy the first car you test drove, right? Maybe you would, but most likely not. New hires are an investment, and you should interview multiple people before you decide who to hire, even if it doesn’t end up being the first person you met with.

Even if you follow all the right steps in the interview, people can still surprise you. They may have seemed great on paper and in the interview, but when actually put on the job, they fail. It happens! That’s why we always recommend a probationary period to assess fit and productivity, usually around three months. If it doesn’t work out on either side, you can go your separate ways.

Finding the right cultural fit

Hiring the right people isn’t just about finding someone with the right qualifications and skills to do the job. It’s also about matching on cultural fit. If your entire distributed team isn’t on the same culture page, it can be disastrous for your business.

At Mailbird, open communication, transparency, and autonomy are extremely important to our culture. If someone isn’t pulling their weight on the team, it’s obvious. That can be challenging, especially for new hires —but it also presents the opportunity to address the issue early and avoid any tension within the team. Transparency through time and task management tools holds our employees accountable, but also helps them feel empowered and that they have impact in the organisation. We’ve also built an agile business with minimal hierarchies. Some people need more oversight to be successful, and that’s okay. They just wouldn’t fit well culturally on our team.

Every company is different, and it’s important to be clear upfront with new hires on what kind of culture exists at your company. You’d hate to waste your time on someone who isn’t a good cultural fit, just like that person would hate to waste their time with a company that misled them on culture.

Also Read: Expecting chaos with former Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson

Maintaining great communication

Once you’ve hired the right people, open and effective communication is key to a successful distributed team. It’s how collaboration occurs, despite being around the globe. It’s how innovation happens. It’s how project move forward and success if achieved. Every employee has to be available when needed (or communicating when they’re not available) and actively communicating with their team.

Of course, nothing beats a face-to-face interaction in effectiveness. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be effective while distributed. There are so many tools available to stay connected with your team, from video calling to workflow apps to productivity tools. Real time, real life interactions (such as through video chats or conference calls) are ideal, but that can’t always work due to time zone differences. Still, the right tools will keep you on track and staying in touch.

Maintaining high productivity

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges on an individual basis for a remote worker is staying productive. Without your boss constantly checking on you, it can be easy to get distracted and difficult to manage your own tasks. The simple solution is to hire the right people —those who take initiative, work well independently, and have a strong work ethic. But we’ll admit it’s much more complicated than that.

We combat this challenge in two ways at Mailbird. First, by having an awesome set of tools in our productivity toolbox. Regardless of time, distance, and location of your team members, these tools will help you stay on top of tasks and get the job done.

Our second solution is to get our team together two times each year, in-person and in awesome exotic locations, such as Bali. We call these “Mailbird Hackathons,” where we prepare for a big software release/launch or update. It’s our chance to hang out in person and bond as a team over a huge accomplishment, while having a lot of fun as we do it.

Conclusion

Whether you like it or not, distributed teams are the future of work. Employees are looking for jobs that allow them the freedom and flexibility to work from anywhere in the world. If companies want to hire the best candidates, they’re going to have to start accommodating this desire.

Having the right programmes and processes in place before you adopt a remote work culture will help you avoid the main challenges of a distributed team. Make sure you have a solid interview process in place, so you can hire the right people with the right cultural fit. Implement the right tools, so you can maintain great communication and keep your employees motivated and productive. In the end, you’ll have happier employees and, ultimately, better results because distributed teams rock!

—

The article How To Deal With The Challenges Of A Distributed Team first appeared in Startups.co and was first published on e27 on September 27, 2019.

Image Credit: rawpixel / 123RF Stock Photo

The post How to deal with the challenges of a distributed team appeared first on e27.

As automating anti-counterfeit systems are being adapted with AI mobile app technologies, it is becoming possible to overcome fakes on a global scale.

The immediate thought to a mediocre person, when spoken of counterfeiting, is the low rip off pricing of products that are sold at the sidewalk of any prestige or monumental building.

Whereas it is often overlooked, but the fact is that fake goods also include business and enterprise products. Which most certainly are part of an everyday consumer good.

The dangers of these counterfeiting goods can impact fatal as well. The WHO (World Health Organization) has calculated that to an approximate rate of 10 per cent pharmaceutical drugs sold in low or moderate earning/ income countries are found to have either fake or substandard medications.

As a consequence, thousands of people, every year, die due to these fake pharmaceutical drugs and counterfeit booze.

On a global scale, when seen the actual trending amazement is how technology is advancing with the collaboration of AI (Artificial Intelligence) to fight against counterfeits.

Also Read: Why AI will be critical to brand strategy

The technology of AI has truly aided as an asset. Even Google’s Duplex integrated by AI is seen to sometimes mimic humans. Presently AI has been collided to save mobile app tech from counterfeits as currently, online money transaction apps are the most popular medium used.

When speaking of AI integrated mobile apps that secure the apps from counterfeits.RetroCube is seen as a prime mobile app development company that takes account of security to the highest regards.

Due to its highlighting aspects, RetroCube was also mentioned in an article from Forbes for its drive to be one of the best entity which protects privacy as an app development company.

Through recent studies and analysis, it has been gathered that the problem of counterfeits is simply going to grow.

INTA (The International Trademark Association) and The International Chamber of Commerce informs that the values estimated by the counterfeits could rise till US$2.3 trillion by 2022.

AI is great to save mobile app technology from counterfeits on a global scale, as apps have a huge influence in making tasks quicker while acquiring huge information that is crucial to be kept secure.

App authentication

AI and ML algorithms have made it easier to reduce concerns regarding security breaches and multiple other frauds. Now mobile apps can analyse any occurrence of unauthorised security breaches or logins to smartphone users.

In terms of cybercrime, AI plays out with a massive role to encounter the issue. With the continuous evolution of technology and day by day, reliance and usage of mobile apps require an even advance level of data security as well.

Also Read: Malaysia approves motorbike-based ride-hailing services

One of the biggest concerns to new android app developers is to provide security. With the advancement and adaption of AI and MI technology security issues and concerns have certainly reduced.

As with the integration of AI, users are provided with alerts of possible threats and exposure to such viruses that can be avoided by analysing the behaviour of the users.

AI boosting the app security

AI is making a significant impact in taking security measures for mobile apps. Avoiding threats from Malware ensures optimum data and network security as a key concern of most mobile apps.

AI integrated apps can detect security vulnerability very effectively and efficiently at the very initial stage. AI also assists in filtering out a plethora of inappropriate content or material that can access the apps via social media or other mediums.

The AI followed with a cognitive structure and behavioural science assist in maintaining the correct and precise balanced amount of accessibility and security protocol in the mobile app technologies.

AI technology adapted in mobile apps are amazing in tracing fraudulent transactions that suspect the threat at the earliest possibility based on any irregular activities.

Crypto anchor verifier by IBM research

IBM Research has developed the Crypto Anchor Verifier that uses the concepts of block-chain to work as an AI-based counterfeit detector.

The best part is that you can run it on your phone and by simply clicking a few pictures of the item, the user will be able to check the products for any good.

The Crypto Anchor Verifier adapted with AI will function accordingly ahead to reduce fraudulently.

IBM has also stated that the Crypto Anchor Verifier not necessarily is adaptable to the smartphones hardware camera but may require a certain specification to be accessible.

Also Read: Creativity is humanity’s only advantage against AI, but can bots be creative in their own right?

The Crypto Anchor Verifier is used to verify an unnumbered item, including medicines and paper currency. It is best used to analyse liquids such as water to figure out the per cent of contamination or than to detect batteries in the water.

Financial frauds

With the ability to analyse data accurately, there has been a decrement in financial scams solely because of AI.

All the concerns and challenges of the banking sector have been somewhat minimised by the intelligent decision-making skilled by both AI and MI (Machine Learning).

It is by the assistance of the mobile app technologies and AI features that have created higher convenience and accuracy for the users to avail banking services via this reliable medium.

Technology has the risk to be hacked relatively easily, but thanks to the AI integrated mobile apps, the access to such vulnerability has reduced to an incredibly low.

Also Read: How Appinventiv Grew to 400 in Just 4 Years

These online money transaction apps are AI-assisted that helps the user detect any sudden counterfeit or abnormal activity compared with the user’s regular activities to alarm any financial fraud.

Detection of counterfeit products

Products such as handbags, accessories and even perfumes of notable brands tend to be sold in counterfeit forms. Now, AI technology can detect what is original and what is not to help you beware of potential frauds.

These integrated AI techs are adapted to mobile app technology that allows the user to scan the good or than compare the product with the picture generated in the app to detect if it’s an original product or then a counterfeit form.

Being a tremendous asset to reduce the implications of counterfeit items, the AI adapted mobile applications are of great assistance to detect such products.

They are easily and efficiently designed to be of assistance to users. These applications take action on a large and individual scale as well, which truly can be used to eradicate counterfeit on a global scale, especially during importations of goods.

Conclusion

Even with these adoptions, legitimate products must be circulated by their companies with complete ownership while also contributing to putting an end to these counterfeit products.

With advancement, even the perpetrators would evolve on their stealing/hacking practices. Therefore it is always crucial to stay in tacked on the most latest and better AI app technologies to stop them.

Also Read: RateIt raises US$5M to expand its real-time customer feedback solutions in SEA

Making it essential for any enterprise to take consideration of all the opportunities and options companies can avail on how to best use the AI integrated tech to avoid any effects from the counterfeiters.

–

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.

Image credit: Rami Al-zayat

The post How AI is saving mobile app technology from counterfeits on a global scale appeared first on e27.

The other big development of the day is Indian startup Zendrive’s US$37M fundraise led by XL Innovate

Oyo plans to lay off 150-200 sales staff [The Economic Times]

Oyo Hotels and Homes plans to lay off 150-200 people from sales teams across the country, people familiar with the matter said.

About 60 salespeople in Oyo’s New Delhi and Gurgaon offices were the first to be fired and got their letters on Monday. A similar number is in the process of being let go in other locations including Mumbai and Pune. Those being asked to leave range from executives to managers.

“Other employees in sales are getting their letters and some will get them soon. No reasons have been given to employees in these letters. They are being given a one-month notice period,” said a person familiar with the developments.

SoftBank-backed Oyo did not confirm or deny the developments.

Mobile money soon to be piloted in Vietnam [KrAsia]

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has submitted a proposal to the government on piloting mobile money services in the country and if approved, this is hoped to further boost the country’s non-cash payment rate.

Despite much improvement, Vietnam’s cash transactions rate is still astonishingly high, at around 90 per cent. While there has been a boom of e-wallet services providers in the country, e-wallets in Vietnam thus far have to be linked with a bank account. This automatically excludes about half of the population that current do not have access to bank accounts.

Now, two of the country’s biggest telecom providers, Viettel and Vinaphone, have been given the green light to roll out mobile money services once the pilot project is approved.

India’s Zendrive raises US$37M [press release]

Zendrive, a data and analytics company providing mobile driving safety solutions, today announced it has raised US$37 million in Series B funding, led by XL Innovate. Hearst Ventures and existing investors, including ACME Capital, BMW iVentures, NYCA, SignalFire, also joined the round.

With this funding, Zendrive will continue to build out its mobile driving safety solution and grow its team across five continents to deepen its focus on the global insurance market.

Zendrive works to make roads safer with data and analytics. It uses AI and machine learning to improve driver safety and help insurers accelerate their digital transformation.

The startup has offices in San Francisco and Bangalore.

“Our world-class team of data scientists and engineers are building technology that reduces collisions, improves road risks and ultimately saves lives,” said Pankaj Risbood, Zendrive’s Technical Co-founder. “It’s of utmost importance that we invest in our teams as they tackle important technical challenges that also have a direct social impact.”

Porsche invests in Israeli startup TriEye [press release]

Israeli startup TriEye, whose Short-Wave-Infra-Red (SWIR) sensing technology enables vision in adverse weather and night-time conditions, has expanded its Series A round to US$19 million with an investment from the German sports car manufacturer Porsche.

The additional funding will be used for ongoing product development and operations, as well as team growth.

In May 2019, TriEye announced a Series A funding round, led by Intel Capital. Other investors in the round include Marius Nacht and TriEye’s existing investor Grove Ventures.

Lo! Foods raises US$500K angel funding [press release]

Lo! Foods, a low-carb and Keto-friendly range of packaged foods brand, announces seed funding to the tune of US$500,000 from a group of angel investors, including Anuj Golecha, Co-founder, Venture Cataylst; Rashmi Daga, Founder, Freshmenu; Raveen Sastry, Co-founder, Myntra; Mitesh Shah, CFO, BookMyShow; Sunil Chhabra, Advisor & Founding Team Member, Jumbotail; and Gaurav Arora,Chief Investment Officer, ASK Wealth

Lo! Foodswas started in early 2019 by former Ola senior executive Sudarshan Gangrade,

“Lo! Foods was started with a single purpose – to build a truly healthy product that works. A brand that creates a healthy and low carb keto friendly food that is inherently Indian. Our products have seen great traction and validation with our consumers, with extremely high monthly repeats,” Gangrade said.

 

The post Today’s top tech stories: Oyo to lay off 150-200 staff; Mobile money soon to be piloted in Vietnam appeared first on e27.

An analogy of building a leadership mindset and leading a team to success

 

When I started Melewi, it never crossed my mind how much time I’d spend figuring out how to lead.

It sounds laughable, and looking back, it feels as though I walked into a room with an elephant in it and managed to see everything BUT the elephant.

Growing a business from the ground up usually means you take on every role that exists. All at once I was the designer, project manager, sales manager, accountant, lawyer, HR, business strategist, admin assistant.

If we hadn’t been remote, I’d also have been taking the rubbish out and scrubbing the toilets.

Now with a full team, it’s easy to state what my role is: CEO or Founder. But describing what I do is difficult without a 5-minute monologue.

And while I’ve learned that a big part of my role is to lead my team, I could never quite describe what “leading the way” actually means.

So I’ve come up with a way to describe my role using an analogy (because as the Melewi team can attest to, I love analogies).

Also Read: A day in the life of StashAways CEO and co-founder

It doesn’t explain exactly what I do, but instead the leadership mindset I’ve adopted that drives my role. And that is the analogy of The Bushwhacking CEO.

Where do you want to go?

At any point in time, most businesses are trying to go from where they’re presently at (I shall call this “Today’s Spot”), to a goal future destination (and dub this “The Promised Land”).

The problems are two-fold. 1st, you’ve only a vague idea of The Promised Land’s direction, but no coordinates; and 2nd, there is no existing way to get there.

No trail, no pathway, just dense bush, muddy bogs, thorny vines, and a whole lot of very annoying bugs.

So when I think about leadership, I don’t think about sending in my team into the unknown mosquito-filled craptown. I go in first. My job is to whack my way through the thorny, muddy bush to get us to, well, ‘The Promised Land’.

It’s not that straightforward, literally.

Ever tried finding your way through an unmarked forest? I don’t recommend it. It’s never ever a straight line to get to your destination.

It’s the same thing with figuring out how to get to ‘The Promised Land’.

You run around in circles, you take bad guesses, you read bad intel, you get tired, torn up and more than a little annoyed.

But if you keep going, after all the wrong turns, running around in circles and stumbles, you finally find yourself at The Promised Land.

Awesome, what next?

A little dirt path is good enough (for now)

Over time as you travel back and forth, slowly straightening out the path, a little dirt path gets worn in.

Now if your team needs to, they can make their way from Today’s Spot to The Promised Land. It’s good enough, but everyone knows it’s not the most pleasant of journeys.

But as they walk through it, some of them clear branches along the way. Others lay out planks across the boggy areas. It goes from a grotty dirt path, so a nicer, wider dirt path.

Paving the way

Over time, as more people start to travel the route more frequently, you decide it’s time for an upgrade.

You clean up the route, making it straighter, easier and safer. Soon, it turns into a gravel path, then a few months later, a little concrete road.

And as the team gets bigger and their needs and speed change, it turns into a 2-lane road, then eventually a highway.

Also Read: Are you ready to go from side hustle to startup CEO?

So now everyone can travel back and forth to The Promised Land whenever they want, as quickly as they want, and probably with some Hotel California blasting and snacks in the car.

It all starts with you getting your hands dirty, by not being the smartest person in the room

My job as the leader — especially of a small business or startup with limited resources — is to be the first person to get my hands dirty.

Instead of tossing the job to someone else, I want to dig in, get lost, get un-lost, and then continuously make it easier and better for everyone else to get from Today’s Spot to The Promised Land.

Out of the forest; back to real life

Bushwhacking leading is really about starting with finding the simplest and least sophisticated way to do something that works. Whether it’s keeping track of cash flow in a word document, or managing a project via email — start with what works, clunky as it may be.

But you must constantly iterate to improve.

As you start to discover why a word doc is a terrible tool for numbers (lol), you can find better tools, systems or even automation.

Also Read: How Appinventiv Grew to 400 in Just 4 Years

You can start training people to help with the work. You can improve the process with their feedback and ideas, and codify them so now anyone can do the work.

Being the leader is not about being the expert at everything, or to be the smartest person in the (metaphorical if you’re fully remote like us) room.

It’s about getting your hands dirty, getting started, getting better, and bushwhacking your way forward, paving the way for your team.

–

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.

Founder of Melewi — We’ve helped McDonald’s launch apps in 4 continents, Visa test their tech innovations, and startups reach #1 in the app store.

(This article was originally posted on LinkedIn)

The post How I lead: the bushwhacking CEO appeared first on e27.