Day: December 23, 2019

One of the areas that will always remain challenging while launching a startup, is funding. Funding is a necessary part of any startup and getting it is far easier said than done. The ideal type of investment for an early-stage startup is an angel investment, an injection of a good amount of cash to fuel the early stages of your project.

However, it is surely not easy and there are steps you can take to increase the likelihood of attracting one. So let’s take a look at what those might be.

Lay down the basics with care

A business needs a solid foundation. It has to be built on rock, not on the sand and if you are all enthusiastic but fail to and no planning at the start, then you won’t achieve this. This means bad things for the company as a whole, but it also means bad things for your investment prospects.

“Angels are looking at a few things when they size up a startup. One of those key things is how rigorous the process of establishing the company has been, something which will indicate to them the care and effort that will be maintained once their money has been put into the business,” explains Dick Rutherford, tech writer at LastMinuteWriting and Writinity.

Have a concrete understanding of the basic principals of your business to impress a potential investor.

Also Read: Angel investor Mike Flache shares his tips to begin investing in startups

Don’t be afraid to say what you need

An angel investor would far rather have you making solid demands based on actual projections and the data that you’ve gathered about your idea than floundering or asking them what they think they ought to give.

You’re not talking to them for business advice, you want money, it’s as simple as that. So there should be no beating around the bush, just try to get straight to the point about what it is you need to make your startup a success.

Research your angel

Reaching out to a stranger that you don’t have any information about and asking for massive amounts of money is not a good idea. You need to know who you’re pitching your business to in order to be able to impress them in the proper way.

“Ideally you know as much about your potential angel investor as you can without it getting weird. You need to be able to predict the conversation so that you come to it prepared with all you need to prove to whoever it is that you are worth both their time and, crucially, their money,” explains Doug Howard, business blogger at DraftBeyond and ResearchPapersUK.

Also Read: What your startup needs to know about angel investor funding

Contact people who know them, try and encounter them out of a pitch meeting, do anything you can to know that there won’t be any personality curveballs when it comes to the crunch.

Professionalism to a fault

Don’t make any mistake about it. It’s crucial that when you engage with your potential investor, everything about the way in which you act is geared for professionalism. Essentially, you’re auditioning and the part they are auditioning you for is the dedicated, organised professional who will continue to do their absolute best to avoid letting them down or causing them big financial losses.

Even once you’ve relaxed with them, you need to be on guard against any sort of test and make sure that you stay on top of your game for the entirety of your meeting and any further exchanges.

Conclusion

Getting an angel investment is hard, but it’s by no means impossible, it happens all the time. You just have to make sure that besides having a good idea, you are setting up for success in those crucial pitch meetings.

Hopefully these tips will help to maximixe your chances of securing funding.

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All over the world, companies are increasingly providing remote working as an option to employees. It helps companies save money, while at the same time it provides flexibility to employees (we at e27 also have overseas employees, most of who are working from their home).

The infographic given below discusses every aspect of remote working.

 

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The fourth industrial revolution bought more than a few drastic changes with itself. We now live in a world that is driven by technological advancements. No matter where we look, we find the technology present and penetrating in every sector.

Most of the tasks are automated or digitised and we turn to Google for all answers. The internet is our go-to for everything we can think of. Booking movie tickets, checking show timings, finding locations, paying bills, getting online consultation along with plenty of other things.

Moreover, combined with the internet we have devices that we can’t live without. Whether it is our smartphone, wearable watches, home automation appliances or more.

As humans, we want to stay in a connected world. This connection need not be just with each other but also with our devices, home, vehicles and everything else in between. As a result, we are progressing towards a world of the Internet of Things (IoT).

The more we embrace IoT, the more we will be moving into a world filled with all kinds of new and smart devices. Statistics suggest that by 2020, we will have more than 20 billion devices that will be connected and running fundamentally on the principle of the internet of things.

Whether we choose to realise it or not, the expansion is far bigger than we can imagine. While last year experts could only conceptualise IoT and dream about it going mainstream, the day has finally come when it takes over the world.

IoT explosion

Everything, as we know today, will be impacted by the explosion of the internet of things. Be it web application development, testing, or devising practices for cybersecurity, all major industries will undergo a rapid transformation.

Moreover, the market size of IoT will reach 11.1 trillion by the year 2025, giving more than enough reasons for entrepreneurs and researchers to enter the segment and capitalise on it.

Also Read: From products to businesses: the hidden opportunities of IoT

It’s amusing to even imagine that the internet of things didn’t even exist a decade ago, but today here we are witnessing a world transform due to it. Be it the changing customer demands or the need for staying connected, the tipping point of IoT is finally here.

By 2025, we can expect more than 75 billion devices installed under IoT. This is also being fueled by the popularisation of technologies such as 5G.

The implementation of IoT solutions will play a crucial role in business applications throughout industries and societies. The IoT edge is closer than ever before, while the top tech enterprises around the world are on board with it, small and medium enterprises are still struggling and trying to find a middle ground amidst the market chaos.

Edge computing

In its latest mobility report, Ericsson predicts that by the end of this year there will be as many as 1.3 billion cellular IoT connections. By the year 2025, this is expected to jump to five billion.

Moreover, as enterprises embrace digitisation and enable more connected machines, the current computing power of the cloud will fall short enough. Organisations will, therefore, need to invest in computing power that can sustain a plethora of devices.

If we look at the current scenario, enterprises are mostly centralised or using cloud service providers such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft that perform all the computing at their specific data centers. But, with the changing implications of storing, utilizing, calculating and analysing data to the limit, IoT experts want the data to be transferred first to a local computing centre that is closer to the source or edge of the network.

Being referred to as edge computing, this offers a series of benefits such as reducing the traffic to a network, better management of large amounts of data, reduced dependency on the cloud along with lesser consumption of bandwidth. But Gartner predicts that by 2023 there will be a shift from edge computing to another form of computing which removes the dependency on the internet.

Also Read: The IoT opportunity is right outside your door

Moreover, 2020 will witness the emergence of mesh networking which will be a type of computing designed just for the needs of IoT. With this, the transmission of IoT messages will be done through a network topology of radio nodes, where every node transmits data to the next through flooding or routing.

5G will be a hit

The need for ‘on the edge’ computing provides an opportunity for communication service providers who are building and expanding the 5G network. The rapid deployment of 5G networks around the globe along with an uptick in 5G subscriptions will contribute significantly towards increasing the number of IoT connected devices, all across the globe.

The fifth-generation cellular network technology, along with giving faster speeds, better connectivity and lower latency will improve network responsiveness. This means it will allow connectivity on far more devices than 4G.

Finally, IoT innovations such as driverless vehicles among others will have a technology that can handle and sustain their needs. Considering the massive expansion scenario.

Moreover, the reduced power consumption will also unbridle energy and cost savings, thus, making IoT even more popular at a household level. In other words, the high capacity, speed, and density of the 5G network, when combined with cutting edge technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, will allow enterprises to adopt and make shifts to their existing processes for a higher ROI.

This will also enhance node participation and decentralisation, enabling shorter block times and facilitating on-chain scalability.

Statistics suggest that 90 per cent of senior executives in media companies believe that IoT is crucial to their growth, while 80 per cent of retailers will use it to customise store visits in 2020. Similarly, 66 per cent of US cities are investing in smart city IoT technology and the healthcare industry has saved as much as 25 per cent from the adoption of IoT devices.

As we progress towards 2020, we will see the widest number of applications of IoT. From smart speaker displays to the product as a service ecosystem, smart cities, unified IoT framework, industrial IoT, there will be far smarter applications on the internet than there are people in the world.

For customers, it could mean the age of personalised and revolutionary services, while for enterprises it can be an excellent opportunity to jump into the opportune market.

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Thanks to growing internet connectivity, in addition to the increasing ownership of more sophisticated mobile devices that can stream high-quality video content, the OTT industry is on track to reach a sky-high value of US$52 billion over the next five years.

This growth is unsurprising as OTT can provide content to users when and where they want it– regardless of place, time, device or network– and as such content producers are focused on generating as many profits as they can from distributing content directly to consumers.

This is urging traditional content providers to rethink their strategy in this on-demand age; they need to evolve their marketing strategies to catch the consumers’ attention when their eyeballs are now on a wider variety of devices.

Also Read: 5 email outreach tips to aid your startup marketing efforts

At the same time, as OTT viewers also have the benefit of choosing what they want to watch at their own leisure, how these platforms contextualise their offerings to the viewers need to be laser targeted to be in line with their preferences.

However, all this needs to be done by balancing the line of understanding the consumer without making it appear as if they are too intrusive. Here are some ways in which OTT platforms can market their products to viewers with better contextuality to improve their ways of monetisation. 

Customer is king

OTT platforms have upended traditional viewership, placing far more power in the consumers’ hands than ever before. Yet, while viewers now have greater control over how they want to watch content, addressability has become a greater concern.

This is as viewership has become more fragmented, therefore posing a greater challenge for marketing efforts as compared to their prime-time broadcast forebears. They now need to target different ads to different audience segments watching the same content.

To overcome this, OTT marketers need to gain a better understanding of their marketplace to determine the best messages that can resonate with this fragmented base. They need to do so by utilising richer data to create relevance amongst viewers in order to deliver the best possible customer experiences.

Messages should be present on all devices

OTT platforms were born in the digital age, and therefore many have been designed to be viewed on devices that can be connected to the internet. In regions such as Asia, traditional TV viewership remains dominant, however, most OTTs require smart TVs to be played or separate devices connected to more conventional TVs to power them.

However, portable devices such as laptops and smartphones seem more practical for many viewers, especially if they’ve subscribed to OTT services for their own personal use.

Mobile is already replacing TV as the go-to choice for video content and thus, marketers to rethink the channels they use to engage with customers. This is as mobile and desktop marketing require different engagement strategies than viewers; they need to keep in mind which devices are being used, as well as when and where they’re being used. Marketers, therefore, need to adopt a wider-reaching omnichannel strategy to reach as many consumers as they can throughout the day.

Minimising friction

Broadcast TV has traditionally been the medium for ads, and therefore viewers are more than familiar with the concept of needing to sift through a programme’s sponsors to be able to enjoy their content. However, OTT platforms – especially the on-demand kind – are perceived as a more attractive option as they’re typically less ad-heavy, or have no ads at all.

As such, when ads do appear, they need to be done by keeping viewing disruption at a minimum, which is best served by ensuring that the messages being receive relevant or well-targeted.

This is why understanding customers are paramount. By using the right data, marketers can better contextualise their messages according to the consumers’ viewing preferences so that they won’t seem disjointed at best, and at worst, intrusive.

Also Read: 6 strategies to give valuable feedback that sticks

It is the challenge of intrusion that marketers need to be wary of. While using data to laser target consumers can help marketers sift through the audience clutter and target may help to ensure that the outreach is effective, using consumer data that’s not relevant to the content at hand can be off-putting and may even alienate consumers from the OTT platform.

Sophisticated solutions for today’s on-demand viewers

The upside is that we now live in a digital age where we can leverage more sophisticated tools to reach customers effectively.

For instance, SilverPush are artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, which – when coupled with computer vision – help ups understand large droves of complex data to get the right messages out at the right time to the right people.

This is done by using our technology to identify the specific context in video content and serve in-video ads which align with the advertisers’ core messages without detracting the user experience.

To illustrate how our technology’s been applied, we’ve worked with iflix and HOOQ to disseminate ads based on specific metrics – namely TV and film genres. What this does is help us make better recommendations to viewers based on what they’ve already watched and positioned them in ways that enhance their viewing experience.

OTT platforms are bringing video content viewership into a new era, and therefore marketers need to understand how they work to reach audiences effectively.

While this task is definitely more complicated than before, marketers also have the choice to adopt technologies which are designed to do the tedious legwork that can support valuable human operations and, in turn, help them add more value when conducting their outreach strategies.

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Being named Asia’s Best General Insurance Company of the Year in just two years of starting operations, has been humbling and overwhelming for us. When we started the company’s operations in 2017 with a mission to simplify the insurance this was a dream that we did not imagine to be fulfilled so soon.

Now that we look back, we would like to share seven important learnings have helped us be on the track that can be helpful for changemakers and innovators in building a digital business:

Learning #1: Choosing a purpose

One of the key learnings to build any business is the importance of the company’s purpose. Everything you build, or your company offers should be an answer to the purpose and problem you are trying to solve. This purpose should be ingrained in each and everything the company strives to do.

We started with a mission to “Make insurance simple”. Our goal was not only pasted on our walls, but it was also the thought-starter for everything we did. And in that process, if we had to change the entire process or go against the tide, we weren’t hesitant about it.

For instance for our flight delay claims in Travel Insurance, we intimate the customers about their claims proactively. All they have to do is send us a photo of their boarding pass and their bank details. This not only makes it extremely simple for the customer but also ensures that when the customer is already frustrated, their insurance only gives them a sigh of relief.

Learning #2: Build a product like it was meant for you

This was one learning that completely changed our perspective and the way we build anything for our customers. We realised that understanding what the customer wants will naturally happen if we build a product like it was meant for ourselves.

Also Read: What startups can learn from the challenges and success of Uber

Hence, any product or service that Digit offers to the customer is first tested by the internal team and if it is something that we would buy for ourselves or our family members. We recognise the points that make our colleagues hesitate and simplify it to suit the needs, ending with a product that is completely in sync with the customer’s ask.

For instance, we found that 65 per cent of people accidentally damage the screens of their mobile phones. Hence, we thought of building a sachet Mobile Insurance product where people could protect their mobile screens for their new as well as old products. What better way to be relevant to the customer!

Learning #3: Making sure customers understand

With insurance customers, most of them often complain that they do not understand what they are purchasing and at the time of claims it is too late an understanding about what is not covered by their policy. This gave us an understanding of gaining customer trust by building products that are transparent and simple to comprehend.

We came up with a simple solution, to introduce a policy summary that gives a birds-eye view of everything that the policy includes and includes. To further understand the simplicity level of the document, we shared the document with 15-year olds and tested if they understood clearly the terms and conditions of the policy. And they did!

For our Health Insurance product, we went a notch higher where we invited kids to co-create the policy with us, simplifying it till the last word.

Recently we also launched a board game called InsuRace, that lets you learn about insurance while playing! Well, you always learn better when you are having fun!

Learnings #4: Building processes that build customer trust

The current market is such that customers want convenience and speed over everything else. So, processes should be such that empowers the customer, more so making it smartphone-enabled. Also, we believe that every good relationship stays only based on trust. So, as much as the customer trusts as, it is important that we trust the customers too.

Also Read: 11 easy strategies that are important for every start-up to succeed

Hence, we built a DIY smartphone-enabled self-inspection process for Car Insurance where the customer could shoot the damages using their phone and complete the inspection. This removed the need of waiting for a manual surveyor to come and check the car. This brought down our inspection time from 24 hours to seven minutes and also improved our TAT for claims! What more we got kids to test how fast the process is!

Learning #5: Use automation not to replace but aid humans

Technology should help humans and continually work towards making processes easier and removing redundancies. We looked at our value chain and identified repetitive tasks for our teammates and partners. We automated such tasks that helped in increasing the overall efficiency.

For example, we observed that we were spending 4 minutes 15 seconds post the approval of a claim to process the payment. This time was taken for manual checking and filling of data for all the parts of the vehicle that were damaged and for which the claim was approved. We felt this time could be shortened, so we now run a BOT for this, bringing down this time by almost 50 per cent, to two minutes 30 seconds!

Learning #6: Co-create with partners and customers

We firmly believe to grow we need to work in tandem with our customers and partners. This brings the need for empowering our partners with the right tools. So, we set out to build our partner’s knowledge on what we are trying to do, how they can contribute and take their inputs on how we can help them further to make the journey smoother.

One such tool was an “Endorsement and Cancellation Module.” This was built to help partners in cases of changes to the policy documents or if any policy requires to be cancelled. They do not need to send mails to us asking for the changes to be done. Instead, they can select the data fields that need to be changed, upload the relevant documents on the portal and the request is processed via a bot. This tool has seen a 100 per cent adoption and an improvement in productivity by almost three times!

Learning #7: Environment that supports continuous improvements

Building a digital business in this modern world would mean constant updates and constant updates means continuous improvements. We can’t build and invest in business thinking this is where it ends! There will always be a new update, a new way to look at improving the current performance. This is what will help the business grow and gain continuous momentum leading to a successfully built organisation.

For example, We publish a Transparency Report every quarter sharing all numbers and updates, any process delays or achievements. This helps us be more accountable to our customers thereby leading to continuous improvement. It also helps us in looking at our processes from a fresh perspective, find newer, faster ways of doing things and reinvent ourselves over and over.

It has been a fun journey building our dream brick by brick. The satisfaction of our five million customers and their happy reviews online with a 4.7 rating on Facebook gives us assurance that we are on the right path motivating us to continue to think differently to build our business around our core value – Simplicity!

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas by submitting a post.

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