Also, Grab is adopting GrabFood into its app and Monk’s Hill has its first ever female Partner

YouTube accidentally fans the flame by sharing 9/11 info on Notre Dame fire livestream — [CNET]

While Notre Dame was burning on Monday, YouTube accidentally released a 9/11 related entry from the Encyclopedia Britannica to its live coverage of the tragedy. Netizens were quick to voice their criticism on YouTube’s loose algorithms and the company said that the algorithm, “made the wrong call”.

Some speculate that the video site’s algorithms may have misinterpreted the chaotic imagery from Paris as footage from the World Trade Center tragedy. Regardless, CNET reports that this mishap has sparked concerns over Youtube misleading viewers toward videos with fringe or extremist viewpoints.

Grab to integrate GrabFood into everyday super app — [e27]

GrabFood, Grab’s food delivery service, will soon be integrated into its everyday app and will be beta-tested in May. The test will commence in Southeast Singapore covering Kallang, Marine Parade, Geylang, and Bedok at the end of the month before being brought islandwide, the official statement of the company said.

The move comes just before GrabFood’s first anniversary in Singapore, and is a part of Grab’s everyday super app strategy. The unicorn attempts to provide the most frequently used daily services in one app.

Co-founder and former CEO of China’s Byton is abandoning ship to pursue newer startup endeavours — [TechCrunch]

Chinese electric car startup, Byton has just lost its Co-Founder, former CEO and Chairman, Carsten Breitfield “to start(ing) a new adventure within the start-up industry”, sources from TechCrunch reported.

Byton is currently on a hunt for a new CTO and is trying to close its US$500 million Series C funding amidst reports that it was losing money fast nearing the end of 2018.

Monk’s Hill Ventures appoints Michele Daoud and Justin Nguyen as its new partners — [Tech in Asia]

Monk’s Hill Ventures, a Singaporean tech venture capital firm, has just appointed Michele Daoud and Justin Nguyen to be their new partners. According to Tech In Asia. This is a double-pronged move that will help augment its deal-sourcing presence in Southeast Asia and cushion the growth of its portfolio companies.

Interestingly, Daoud is set to become the first female partner at Monk’s Hill and has previously supported a slew of startups including Ninja Van, Padlet and C88 Financial Technologies.

Nguyen is from Vietnam and already had a seat on Monk’s Hill executive board as their operating advisor since 2016. Prior to this position, he helped launch three startups in China and the US.

Cathay Sustainable PE Fund invests in Whoscall, Taiwan’s answer to Truecaller — [e27]

Taipei-based startup Gogolook, which owns and operates caller ID app Whoscall, has received an undisclosed sum in investment from Cathay Sustainable Private Equity Fund in return for 30 per cent stake.

Whoscall is not just a caller ID app that identifies unknown callers and blocks spam calls for users, but it also offers value-added services to small and micro businesses. The firm claims it can analyse a long history of data with the goal to prevent crimes by simulating call patterns of scammers, with the support of the government as well as telecom companies.

In addition, Whoscall intends to develop Internet of Things (IoT) devices which can be connected to its database of one billion, in order to protect more Whoscall users.

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Image by gurgenb

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While a large portion of its previous investments had been channelled towards tech startups, the focus of the latest fund will be broader and more sector-agnostic

Malaysia’s private investment firm, RHL Ventures, has announced the launch of a RM100 million (US$24.3 million) sector-agnostic fund, which will focus on backing startups and early-stage SMEs with significant operations in Malaysia.

Several notable investors backed the fund, with significant money coming from SME Corp. Malaysia, a central coordinating agency under the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development.

While a large portion of its previous investments had been channelled to grow innovative startups within the tech space, the focus of the firm’s latest fund will be broader and more sector-agnostic.

Meet the VC: RHL Ventures on sniffing out a good deal and why VCs need to work together

“Ever since we started RHL Ventures, we have been inspired by how small businesses — even those with the humblest of beginnings — can make transformational impact in their industries and the greater economy,” said Rachel Lau, Managing Partner of RHL Ventures.

“The government has typically led investments that support local businesses during their early stages, so we are glad that the current administration is ramping up its support to instil more innovation within the local business sector. What RHL Ventures aims to do with this fund is to invest in new businesses that are looking to bring new ideas and disruption in the current ways of doing business,” Lau added.

“In Malaysia, SMEs comprise over 98 per cent of total business establishments and contribute more than 37 per cent to the national GDP — they form a central pillar of Malaysia’s economy,” said Noor Azmi Mat Said, CEO of SME Corp. Malaysia. “To ensure a higher contribution of SMEs to the national economy, there is a need for more concerted efforts to be affected by stakeholders within the SME ecosystem; an example which private sector players such as RHL Ventures is helping to lead.”

Founded in 2016, RHL Ventures is led by Rachel Lau, Raja Hamzah Abidin and Jo Jo Kong. To date, it has invested several tech startups, including healthcare SaaS company HealthMetrics, and healthy snacks e-commerce platform Signature Market.

In February, RHL Ventures invested an undisclosed sum in Atap.co, an online marketplace for interior designer sourcing and hiring.

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This heavily-funded online automobile marketplace has done everything possible to make its employees happy and healthy

What is the greatest asset of an enterprise? Is it a great business idea, a team of experienced and veteran leaders or great infrastructure and resources?

While every aspect has a significant role to play, it is the employees of an organisation that bring all these elements together and turn ideas into reality. This, then makes employees arguably the most significant organisational resource, which demand focused attention and engagement.

In India, online automobile marketplace Droom has been giving great focus to employee engagement and care, organising fun activities. The company claims careful planning has gone in identifying the right kind of activities that result in holistic care of employees.

Recently, Droom tied up with one of the leading spa and massage service providers in Gurugram, which will frequently organise Zumba training sessions, rejuvenating massages, chair yoga sessions and meditation days at its office.

While Zumba, chair yoga and meditation sessions are to be held once in a week, the massage sessions will be available to Droom employees once in a month.

According to Founder and CEO Sandeep Aggarwal, it is the organisational constituents that determine its success. “Employee engagement and attention is an avenue that needs considerable attention and at Droom, we ensure every one of us feels constantly connected to the team, colleagues and the organisation and the bond grows stronger throughout the hierarchies.”

Droom was founded by Aggarwal, who is also Co-founder and former CEO of ShopClues, an e-commerce unicorn in India. Droom is an online marketplace for buying and selling new and used automobiles.

Droom is headquartered in Gurugram, with a team size of over 365. It has four marketplace formats — B2C, C2C, C2B and B2B. The platform offers a range of categories from bicycle to plane and all automobile services such as warranty, RSA, insurance and auto loan.

Droom boasts of having nearly 250,000 auto dealers in more than 500 cities across India on its platform and 27.3 million monthly visitors.

Droom is a Singapore holding company with subsidiaries in India and the United States. The company has so far raised close to US$125 million over six rounds of funding.

Some of the prominent investors are Lightbox, Beenext, Beenos, Digital Garage, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Integrated Assets Management and family office of Japanese investor Joe Hirao, Founder ZIGExN.

Last May, Droom secured US$30 million in Series D funding, led by Toyota Tsusho Corporation, a member of automobile giant Toyota Group, and co-led by Japanese tech company Digital Garage.

Image Credit: Droom.

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The unicorn status is a mean and not an end, according to Bukalapak President and Co-Founder Fajrin Rasyid

Get insights from Fajrin Rasyid and more at Echelon Asia Summit 2019. Happening on May 23-24 at the Singapore Expo. Tickets are now available at US$10 each!

The year 2018 was fantastic for Indonesian e-commerce startup Bukalapak.

After expanding to fintech verticals with the launch of their gold and mutual funds trading in 2017, the startup continued on adding new offerings for their customers with the launch of its O2O initiative Mitra Bukalapak, which enables individuals or small businesses owners to act as an agent for Bukalapak services.

With the launch of the initiative, the company managed to secure a total of 1.2 million new users (500,000 small businesses or warung owners and more than 700,000 individuals) in addition to the four million merchants in its online marketplace.

The company had also secured a partnership with Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) and the Ministry of Research and Technology to launch an artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud innovation lab at the campus, in addition to its own R&D centre.

Last but not least, Bukalapak had been crowned as Indonesia’s fourth unicorn startup through its latest funding round.

Also Read: Bukalapak confirms new funding round by Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund

In an interview at the startup’s office in South Jakarta with e27, President and Co-Founder Fajrin Rasyid explains their views on the unicorn status.

“Being a unicorn is a means, not an end. It is just like gas stations; we need to stop at a gas station to add fuel [to our vehicle] so that we can reach our destination … We don’t build companies in order to look for investments. We are here to serve the customers,” he says.

“However, we are grateful of the trust given by our users and investors, which had encouraged us to give more to our customers, employees, and stakeholders,” he adds.

The sleeping giant

During our interview, we also discussed about the state of Indonesian e-commerce industry. Despite being the breeding ground of four unicorn startups, and continuing to receive a flow of funds from abroad, Rasyid sees that there are many parts of Indonesia’s potential that remains unknown to the international community.

“Some even called Indonesia the biggest invisible country,” he points out.

Also Read: Naver Corp possibly takes part in Bukalapak’s potential fresh funding

This has led to Indonesian talents being overlooked by the global tech community. Rasyid describes how the global tech industry is more familiar with tech talents from China, India, and Russia, but not with Indonesia. Meanwhile, there are actually many Indonesian talents who are working in tech giants such as Google and Facebook, indicating their level of capability.

Apart from the issue of visibility, the e-commerce industry in Indonesia also faced several challenges, including in the matter of payments. This issue has led to an even greater problem for industry players: Lack of trust towards online services.

“Many people [in Indonesia] have gone online, but only limited to functions such as chatting and social media. The percentage of people shopping online leaves much to be desired, and this is strongly related to trust,” Rasyid explains.

The launch of services such as Mitra Bukalapak is a form of the company’s effort to tackle the issue of trust among potential users, apart from introducing escrow system to their platform in 2011-2012.

“[Mitra Bukalapak] is able to give an introduction to online shopping through a more intimate setting with customers. Some people may feel overwhelmed when they first open our app, but when they are being offered our services by their owner of the warung, whom they might already known, it can help build trust between the customers and our platform,”

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Get insights from Fajrin Rasyid and more at Echelon Asia Summit 2019. Happening on May 23-24 at the Singapore Expo. Tickets are now available at US$10 each.

Image Credit: Bukalapak

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The household name insurance enters into partnership with the digital healthcare provider based in Singapore, Whitecoat

WhiteCoat, the Singapore-founded on-demand telemedicine service provider, announced that it has been appointed by AIA Singapore to be its telehealth provider.

With the partnership, WhiteCoat will extend further its corporate client reach to AIA’s 1.2 million corporate base and its dependant access to qualified Singapore-registered general practitioners (GPs) in the form of a one-stop service covering diagnosis, treatment, medical referrals, and delivery of medication.

Furthermore, AIA and WhiteCoat will also co-create a digitally integrated platform in Singapore which facilitates claim processing for telemedicine services, presenting unprecedented convenience for the global insurer’s corporate clients and their employees and dependents.

WhiteCoat’s telemedicine services are done via video calls and have been dubbed as a solution to overcome both rising healthcare costs and hectic work schedules faced by employees in Singapore.

WhiteCoat’s mobile application allows users to video call any of WhiteCoat’s Singapore-registered GPs from wherever and whenever.

Also Read: (In photos) India’s Droom is your dream workplace

The approach offered is eliminating travel time and reducing waiting times to see a doctor.

“We are honoured to partner AIA as its exclusive telehealth provider for its corporate clients. We are dedicated to simplifying complicated processes reliably and safely, and making it easy for patients to navigate the intricacies of the healthcare system to make informed medical decisions early in order to prevent disease progression,” said Bryan Koh, CEO of WhiteCoat.

WhiteCoat’s target market includes travelers, especially those who visit places where language may be a challenge. WhiteCoat presents itself as a trusted doctor to be consulted with anytime, anywhere.

“Next, aside from continuing to put our patients first, our plan is to materialise our vision toward transformative care utilising data-driven technology to make WhiteCoat the everyday go-to digital health provider for all healthcare needs,” Koh added.

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Plus, Aida raises Series A round and Jack Ma defends 996 culture

MaGIC announces Dzuleira Abu Bakar to take over top job 

Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC) has announced the appointment of Dzuleira Abu Bakar today by the Malaysian Ministry of Entrepreneur Development (MED). She was the motor behind Cradle Seed Ventures (CSV) for the past 2.5 years and will be replacing Ashran Ghazi as the new MaGIC CEO.

Dzuleira Abu Bakar brings on board her 15 years of VC & PE experience to focus on driving national entrepreneurship via MED, according to Digital News Asia.

MED has been under the spotlight for stalling on the appointment of MaGIC’s new CEO, but Abu Bakar’s appointment now has been welcomed positively, according to an aware resource. “She is a good choice for the role. Learning from Mavcap’s and CSV’s dealflow and industry relationships, I’m sure she has the experience to differentiate between ‘valuable’ and ‘investible’ ventures,” the source told Digital News Asia.

Jumper.ai integrates social media product for Amazon merchants —[PaymentsSource]

The Singaporean social-selling startup Jumper.ai has launched a product that allows people to buy Amazon goods online without ever having to visit the website. According to PaymentsSource, the product allows Merchants who sell via Amazon Prime to complete the checkout process via their social media accounts.

Jumper.ai Co-founder Nyha Shree posted on Facebook that it is the first deal of its kind with Amazon.

The product allows people to post sales links in their social media accounts (like Instagram) which help people complete an entire e-commerce checkout process within the platform.

Jack Ma defends China tech 996 culture

Asking, ‘if not now, then when’, Jack Ma defended China’s 996 tech working culture last week, according to CNBC.

He sent a message to employees via WeChat that said employees should be grateful for the opportunity not granted to workers in other industries.

The workplace culture has recently come under scrutiny after recent reports have suggested the industry faces a much higher burnout rate than its global peers.

Aida nabs Series A from trio of investors — [e27]

Singapore-based machine learning insights provider AIDA Technologies announced that it has raised an undisclosed amount of series A round from Mastercard, Kuok Ventures of Kuok Group, and Singapore government-tied SG Innovate.

According to Deal Street Asia, the company noted that the investment will be focussed on supporting its market penetration and North Asia’s expansion, especially Hong Kong and Japan.

AIDA Technologies was founded in 2016 by its chief executive Dr. Tan Geok Leng. Tan Geok Leng was a senior fellow and executive director at A*STAR, the Singapore government’s research agency.

Singapore trials facial recognition technology at Malaysia Johor Strait immigration check point — [CNA]

The Singapore Immigration and Checkpoints Authority announced today they are testing a system that allows people to “breeze-through” the immigration checkpoint at Tuas Link, according to Channel News Asia.

The system would not require people to register their passport as the system automatically registers their information. Currently, the trial is open to Singapore citizens whose passport names ends with the letter K.

The trial, which was announced today, is set to run for six months.

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Mental health and wellness is a real problem in the startup world and these four Echelon speakers want to provide some advice

Already excited for Echelon? Buy your tickets here! 

As with most of our social media life, the life we see online is a curated — and often inaccurate — version of ourselves. This is even more true for a Founder, who needs to maintain a certain public perception in order to benefit the company.

The crazy part of this is its also a job with a ton of pressure, a lot of stress and bouts of incredible loneliness.

This life can lead to serious bouts with depression, troubles with anxiety and a general mental health that is far from ideal. Thankfully, it is a fairly well-discussed topic in the Southeast Asian startup scene.

The ecosystem seems to be trying to find  solutions and genuinely wants to be supportive of people who are struggling during their entrepreneurship journey.

At Echelon Asia Summit 2019, we will have four fantastic speakers on stage to discuss the topic. Let’s meet them!

Panel: Why it is dangerous to be a “rockstar entepreneur” 24/7: The importance of mental wellness

Moderator: Zi En Wong, Co-founder, Hasiko

Wong is a veteran of the startup ecosystem, having Founded a startup that connected corporates and startups named Detecq. Her startup was acquired in 2017. During her time as the Founder of Detecq, she also Founded the Singapore branch of Founder Institute, a global pre-accelerator company from the Silicon Valley.

So she clearly has the startup chops, but what makes her unique to host this panel is her time as the Co-founder of Hasiko, a company that mixes physical, mental and emotional wellbeing to help people live a sustainable lifestyle.

The company believes that a well-balanced life is a key to success, and Hasiko works to help people find this place in their lives.

Panelist: Bjorn Lee, Founder, MindFi

During his time as a Product Manager for the Zopim-Zendesk acquisition integration, Lee discovered firsthand the risks of a high-stress no-sleep lifestyle.

Lee decided to pursue meditation and went on a deep-dive into the practice. As he puts it, it was a fantastic experience, but it isn’t overly sustainable in our day-to-day lives. So, in an effort to help regular people integrate meditation into their schedules, he Founded MindFi.

MindFi is a meditation app that helps people pursue active mindfulness. This may mean learning how to be mindful during meals, finding a post-work meditation practice or learning useful breathing exercises.

Panelist: Desmond M. Koh, Managing Director, Southeast Asia, BNP Paribas

In the world of wealth management, Koh is an important person, helping BNP Paribas achieve the designation as the top bank for sustainable finance in 2019, according to EuroMoney.

But the reason he is on this panel is his passion for wellness. He is part of two organisations — Mind Warrior and Compassion Capitalist — that work to help people find the balance in their lives that they need to achieve their full potential.

Koh works to evangilise his ideology of ‘mindful flow states’ to help people achieve the correct balance between mind, body and spirit. His hope is that his sharings will help make the world around him a better place.

Panelist: William TOV, Associate Professor of Psychology, Singapore Management University

William TOV is a psychology expert, having received a Phd from the University of Illinois in 2008. But more relevant for this panel are is specific research interests.

TOV has spent a lot of time looking into the impact that well-being and personality make on our everyday lives.

This includes how social media affects our wellbeing, the social implications of certain personality traits, how culture and society impacts the individual and policy measures governments can pursue.

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Already excited for Echelon? Buy your tickets here! 

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Five examples of AI in healthcare and how this collaboration will grow more important in the coming years

The healthcare industry is undergoing a tumultuous period of change where it’s being forced to evolve in the face of rapidly growing consumer demand.

With an increasing global average lifespan, rising healthcare demands have pushed modern hospitals and healthcare providers to their limits and forced to call upon any tool that can help them provide positive patient outcomes.

Over the past few years, it’s become obvious that AI has become nearly unrivalled in its ability to help hospitals and medical experts heal patients while cutting costs.

Here are five powerful examples of AI in healthcare, and why this technology will only grow more important in the forthcoming years.

1. Flagler Hospital is using AI to create health-enhancing Clinical Pathways

For those who doubt the ability of hospitals around the nation to innovate and make use of AI, look no further than Flagler Hospital, where healthcare professionals have harnessed the power of intelligent machines to create care-enhancing clinical pathways.

They have also drastically cut the costs of providing healthcare. The Saint Augustine, Florida-based hospital has decided to use AI to help improve the treatment of pneumonia, sepsis, and other high-cost conditions to wondrous effects.

The AI program analyzes clinical pathways for patients with high-cost conditions and recommends the most efficient option for doctors; it’s already expected to save at least US$1,356.35 per pneumonia patient.

As hospitals become swamped with more and more patients, they’ll find it necessary to follow in the footsteps of Flagler Hospital and employ AI programs that help them deal with high-cost conditions.

Ultimately, expediting the treatment process and saving hospitals money could be the most impactful way that AI comes to change the future of the healthcare industry.

2. Machine learning is supercharging the medical diagnostics process

Medical diagnostics are about to get a lot easier than ever before thanks to the help of machine learning applications, which are supercharging the ability of healthcare professionals to comb through huge reams of patient data in pursuit of crucial insights that could mean the difference between a healthy patient and a suffering one.

According to the Institute of Medicine at the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, diagnostic errors contribute to approximately 10 per cent of all patient deaths. This means that any innovation to help make the diagnostics process more efficient is sorely needed in the modern healthcare system.

Hospitals can use AI for a wide range of purposes when it comes to diagnostics; chatbots, for instance, can have friendly conversations with patients over the phone or computer before they actually head into a hospital, and thereby prevent any hospital errors later on.

This will cut down the number of people who needlessly head into the ER when they’re only suffering from a minor condition, and chatbots could also help lure in patients who are otherwise untrusting of doctors and medical experts.

3. AI is making analysing patient records easier

Combing through a huge sum of patient data is never easy, as any medical professional can attest to. In the future, this process could be greatly expedited by injecting AI into the works, as a number of healthcare providers are already finding machine learning techniques useful when it comes to analyzing patient records.

A recent research report demonstrates that systems like IBM’s Watson can be used to screen literally millions of patient records for clues to identify who may be at a higher risk for cancer.

More hospitals and medical researchers will doubtlessly come to view the application of machine learning to patient records as an essential part of digitising their operations and moving headfirst into the 21st-century healthcare environment.

4. Medical image interpretation is about to get better

Interpreting medical images, x-rays, and scans aren’t easy, yet it’s a crucial part of monitoring patient health and ensuring that diseases are detected early on.

As another recent research paper on AI and its application into various areas uncovered, images of brain tumours can be analysed by machine learning programs that learn to recognise common trends and can recommend useful insights to researchers.

Also Read: Solidifying Singapore’s standing as a leading global blockchain hub

The future of medical image interpretation is going to become dominated by intelligent machines – human workers in this area can legitimately fear automation, as software is likely to prove much more efficient at image analysis and pattern recognition than the human brain.

5. Robots are becoming surgery assistants

Perhaps the starkest example of AI in healthcare is how robots are slowly but steadily becoming surgery assistants. While some healthcare professionals dismissed the idea of AI being useful in the operating room, a number of medical procedures have already been conducted with AI-assisted robotics playing a key role in the process.

The New York Post has already reported on one of the world’s earliest examples of micro-surgery conducted with the assistance of AI, and these instances are only likely to become more common as the tech becomes cheaper and more widely accessible in the medical industry.

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Image by aleutie

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The e-scooter startup plans to expand regionally, starting with local presence in Singapore

Lime, the mobility service startup that provides e-scooter for an easier commute, announced a new headquarter set up in Singapore that will be officially opened in the third quarter of this year. The new headquarter will be the hub of its Asia Pacific operation, as reported by The Straits Time.

Lime chose the Republic as its strategic location due to its “strong potential for growth” and high existing adoption rate of personal mobility devices.

Lime said it plans to expand local capabilities by including government relations, partnerships, brand, and operations from its central business district-located hub.

Lime is following its electric scooters pilot with Ascendas-Singbridge group back in November 2018. The pilot then continued with an investment in in-house research and development for new e-scooter models which it said: “meet local safety and usage needs”.

“The country’s strengths in terms of infrastructure readiness, macroeconomic status coupled with the presence of progressive government support and regulation made this decision an easy and natural one,” said Ashwin Purushottam, Lime’s general manager for Singapore.

Also Read: Space sustainability company Astroscale receives US$30M funding, expands to US

Lime said it also has collaborated with various stakeholders to promote a sustainable and responsible riding culture throughout the city to kickstart its expansion.

“This development will help set the groundwork for the firm’s Asia-Pacific expansion as it is geographically well-positioned as a communications touchpoint to support and connect the firm’s regional offices,” said Anthony Fleo, Lime’s regional general manager of APAC.

The American company currently operates in more than 100 cities across at least 20 countries, with over 10 million sign-ups on its app and over 34 million rides taken.
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Aiming to launch with a “perfect” version of your product is a blatant waste of time

I’m the co-founder of The Kint Story, an online platform dedicated to rebranding second-hand clothing so that they’re no longer seen as second best.

Currently, we are in a pre-accelerator programme, The Start, run by the organizers behind Startup Weekend. This 12-week long programme commenced in January this year.

Here’s what I learnt so far.

Being in The Start has rapidly accelerated our learning and progress. Even though both my co-founder Elisa, and I have worked in several startups and were also part of National University of Singapore’s Overseas Colleges (New York), this is the first time we are running a business of our own. From this programme, we’ve managed to get help in many areas.

For one, The Start provides us with mentors that are relevant to our business, and are able to give us valuable advice. Many times we commit mistakes that these successful entrepreneurs have made earlier on in their own journeys and being able to get advice from them helps to steer us back to the right path.

1. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. People want to help you.

There is no need to shy away from asking for help because you’re afraid that you might appear inadequate. The journey of every entrepreneur is never smooth sailing. There are so many entrepreneurs out there who have been through your struggles and are more than willing to advise you because they fully understand the situation that you are in.

Also Read: Space sustainability company Astroscale receives US$30M funding, expands to US

2. Your product does not have to be perfect when you launch.

Aiming to launch into the market with a “perfect” version of your product is a waste of your time.

When we first joined The Start, we had set a goal of launching with this ideal version of our website. It was only after our consultation with the mentors that made us realise that what we already had was good enough. After all, the first version of your product will rarely hit the nail on the head.

Your product will always have to go through several rounds of reiteration based on the feedback you get from your consumers because what they want will often be vastly different from what you had hypothesized. Instead, launch your product with the core features that you want to test out and work things out from there.

3. Listen to advice, but always remember what you stand for.

Everyone that you speak to will perceive your business differently because they come from different industries and are shaped by their own experiences. Being in The Start has given us the opportunity to speak to so many outstanding mentors, and each of them had varying views on our business.

What we’ve learnt is to take all these advice with an open mind, but to also always remember what we started The Kint Story for and the vision that we have, which is to reduce textile wastage.

4. All the resources you need are already out there waiting for you.

It is very easy to feel like the problem you are facing in your business has no solution. That is absolutely not the case. Being exposed to entrepreneurs working on different businesses has taught us to creatively implement solutions from other fields to our business.

Also Read: E-scooter company Lime to enter APAC region with Singapore headquarter

Therefore, do not limit yourself to the industry you are working in, instead, speak to the people around you because you never know what you might discover. If you are in need of money, there are many grants out there that you can apply for, you just have to be proactive in searching for them. This also ties back to our first point- do not be afraid to ask for help.

5. Always remember to have fun.

We received this valuable piece of advice from one of our mentors at The Start. He said, “Always remember to have fun because when you enjoy what you’re doing, your customers will be able to tell.” This really resonated with us.

It is so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you have to stick to only one way of doing things when what you did manage to strike a chord with your consumers. But doing things repetitively will not make your business mundane for you, but for your customers as well.

I think — especially when you’re still a young startup — it is a great time to be experimenting and introducing features that you yourself are excited about because you never know what might be the next big thing for your business.

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About The Start’s Pre-Accelerator Demo Day

15 April 2019, at Developer Space @ Google Singapore. This is the day when we will be showing potential investors and partners what we have worked on over the past 12 weeks in this programme.

RSVP now here.

About the Kint
We devote a lot of effort to changing the negative perception towards preloved clothing, by recreating the first-hand experience you get when you shop for brand new clothing. Each piece of clothing you see on our website has been carefully curated, washed, modelled for, and will be delivered to your doorstep after you make a purchase.

Visit us here, and follow us on Instagram!

Image by samuraitop

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

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