Staying true to our mission of empowering founders with the tools and resources to grow their business, the TOP100 has been our most popular programme since its inception in 2014. Run annually at Echelon Asia Summit, the programme serves to democratise fundraising for startup founders — by giving startups the opportunity to succeed based on their kickass business.

However, despite Echelon enabling founders to condense months of investor outreach into 2 days, we have come to acknowledge that fundraising is a continuous and long-term effort in which 2 days simply isn’t sufficient. As a result, in September 2019, our team embarked on a 6-month long customer development exercise to discover how we can best connect Costartups with relevant financiers year-round.

This journey has led us to e27 Pro, a membership programme dedicated to giving people access to what’s essentially an Echelon experience — providing insights, networking platforms, and access to necessary tools for business growth — on a year-round basis, where e27 Connect is one of our most prominent features.

Curious about e27 Pro? Find out more here.

Connecting the tech ecosystem

With that, e27 will be launching e27 Connect Online — a programme exclusive to our Pro members that will bring together hundreds of active startup financiers and startups across APAC. Investors looking to deploy capital in early-stage startups may click here to apply for a spot in e27 Connect.

If you are still reading this, I’d like to think that you are either a founder that can relate to the pains of fundraising, and would like to learn more about how e27’s position as an ecosystem builder can ease your fundraising process. Below are key reasons why e27 Connect is a game-changer for startups looking to get connected with startup financiers across APAC.

Let us do the dirty work for you!

Funding is an extremely crucial factor for many founders, and we have seen many debates on whether fundraising should be a core competency of any startup founder. However, whenever we bring up the topic of fundraising to founders, we are met with heavy sighs. This is very unfortunate because despite being extremely important for many founders, many lack the expertise and connections to be efficient in their fundraising journey.

Not only is fundraising tedious, but it is extremely time-consuming and distracts founders from focusing on product development or driving business. Founders spend months trying to connect with investors, or even worse, prospecting potential investors on Linkedin, Google, or Conference Agendas.

This is where we are able to help. Let e27 do the dirty work for you, as we bring together 160 active startup financiers this April, with information on each investor for you to examine, navigate through, and connect with based on relevance to your business.

We ensure that investors actively opt into each session of e27 Connect to guarantee that they are actively looking to source for startups to deploy capital.

Kick-start your investor relations with e27

Have we already mentioned how fundraising is an extremely relationship-driven process? It often takes most startups months from meeting that investor for the first time, to securing the capital injection. While no one will be able to promise to shorten the investment cycle, e27’s role as an ecosystem builder will enable us to provide you the warm handshakes through a neutral party, to enable you to jump right into business.

At the end of the day, we feel that fundraising should not be a priority for startups especially so that they can focus on developing their products and services. However, we acknowledge that it is essential for many founders to elevate their business to the next level. As a result, we want to ensure that when that time comes for you to fundraise, we will be able to help.
At the end of the day, fundraising absolutely sucks, but we can help make your journey slightly less painful with e27 Connect. Join e27 Connect today.

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Malaysia’s Forkwell.io partners with Microsoft to host “Forkwell Coronavirus Hackathon”

Forkwell.io and Microsoft have partnered to conduct a hackathon to encourage data scientists and software developers to find solutions to the COVID-19 virus, according to a statement. Other partners of this initiative include Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Runcloud, and Sunway iLabs.

The event is to begin on Monday, March 30, at 12 PM, until Monday, April 13, at 12PM. Participants can win worth up to more than US$3,200 (approximately MYR14,050) and access to an accelerator programme to further develop ideas.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Baby products e-commerce startup Kyarlay raises US$750K from EME Myanmar, United Managers Japan

The competition will aim to tackle both drug discovery to combat the virus as well as the prevention, prediction and containment solutions from a tech perspective.

Singapore’s ARA Asset Management acquires major stake in Venn Partners 

Singapore-based ARA Asset Management has acquired a majority stake in Venn Partners, an investment manager in European real estate private debt, according to Dealstreet Asia. The companies will now be renamed as ARA Venn, with the purpose of establishing a global real estate credit platform.

Capital will be provided by ARA in order to drive Venn Partners’s expansion in the credit market.

“The real assets credit market is viewed as a positive space to be in, particularly for participants with committed undeployed capital, and those with established track record managing government programmes,” said ARA CEO Mark Ebbinghaus.

India’s Coverfox names new CEO after reported funding struggle

Indian insurtech platform Coverfox has appointed Sanjib Jha as its acting chief executive officer (CEO) after struggling to raise funding according to Dealstreet Asia.

Jha has previously been the co-founder of growth-stage venture investor Avaana Capital and will be heading Coverfox’s operations in his current position. His role will also include mid- and senior-level leadership mentoring. He will be also be involved in optimising and streamlining the company’s resources.

Also Read: 3 reasons why attending a webinar is probably the smartest thing to do for busy bees

Other important hires that the company has made include Piyush Ranjan as CTO and Manish Sultania as its CFO. Coverfox provides online insurance broking services for car, bike, health, life and travel insurance and claims to have over 35 insurance providers on their platform.

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Image Credit:  Headway

 

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Being a successful entrepreneur requires many qualities: intelligence, time management, discipline, and motivation, among many others. But in the uber-competitive business landscape of today, can increase empathy separate businesses from the rest of the pack?

Daniel Goleman, a prominent behavioural science expert, certainly believes so, claiming that 80 per cent of adult success comes from emotional intelligence (EQ).

In a business sense, this means that those who go the extra mile have a much higher chance of succeeding.

This ability to discern our feelings – and those of others – actually makes us more successful entrepreneurs. Here is why entrepreneurs with high EQ tend to be more successful in the workplace.

High EQ means high connectivity

High EQ helps entrepreneurs find success in multiple ways– most prominently in forming connections with employees, investors, and customers. 

In regards to employees, a high EQ promotes a feeling of belonging amongst your workforce. When employees don’t feel emotionally connected to their leader, they are less likely to feel valued, which in turn affects productivity.

Furthermore, a high-EQ leader is able to convince their employees to trust them enough to share their specific knowledge or any issues they face.

Also Read: E-commerce startup Get acquires Daung Capital to provide one-stop fintech solutions to Myanmar’s micro-entrepreneurs

Having high connectivity with your employees can also result in being able to identify a problem within your team. For example, in the case of an under-performing marketing executive, a CEO is much better able to identify if it’s a role problem, a person problem, or a resource problem.

Because they hold a high EQ, they are in a much better position to make a quality employee decision.

A high EQ also allows you to connect with potential investors because building a relationship with them simply makes them like you better. Hence, they are much more likely to put in the extra effort while working with someone they enjoy being around.

An entrepreneur in control of their emotions is also a more skilled negotiator. Displaying an aura of calm in a stressful situation is likely to win an investor’s confidence in your abilities.

Investors often rely on their gut feeling about a person to determine if the person is coachable or too egoistic. If you’re rigid, people sense it, and your negotiating skills will suffer for it.

Lastly, a high EQ can help you to read and understand your customers, giving you the ability to update and improve your products rapidly. Sometimes customers are too nice to give it to you straight and tell you that your product isn’t easy to use.

Also Read: Entrepreneurs in 2020: How to become more powerful

So being able to read their response allows you to quickly tell which part of the product flow needs some changes.  

A high EQ also lets customers feel emotionally attached to your service and hence remain loyal to your brand. For example, Apple is able to connect really well with its users so that customers feel the need to purchase and stay updated with their products.

CEOs need a high EQ to thrive

A TalentSmart study found on average, CEOs have the lowest EQ scores in the workplace compared to other positions. This can harm the company in the long-term, because a leader with low in EQ stays out of touch with employees and investors, eventually leading to burnout.

A leader with high EQ has many desirable qualities that make them more successful. CEOs such as Jeff Bezos, Ursula Burns, and Elon Musk, are known to be highly intelligent CEOs, whose control on their emotions and ability to connect with people has rendered them successful.

To increase their EQ, CEOs need to develop a greater sense of self-awareness – if CEOs are aware of the decisions they make and are able to reflect on the consequences while making them, they never lose sight of the big picture.

Cultivating an EQ culture in your startup

When a startup begins with only a few employees, it’s easy to keep connected with everyone. But when a company starts growing it can be hard for the CEO to touch base with everyone individually on a consistent basis.

The best way a CEO can this is by connecting with those working directly under them. The people directly below the CEO are the eyes and ears of the company, so connecting with them emotionally is important to set an example for how they then behave with their own subordinates. 

Also Read: Creativity meets entrepreneurship: Why it is the next big thing Singapore needs to thrive

Greater self-control is another effective way to increase EQ. When leaders in a startup are able to control their emotions and remain calm, the rest of their employees will follow suit. 

Emotionally distressed employees don’t work at their optimum level. You should also encourage your team to express themselves – talking about feelings with peers or seniors will allow them to brainstorm ideas, ultimately improving the bottom line.

These days, entrepreneurs must go the extra mile to stand out from their competitors and find success. Those that don’t aim to increase their levels of emotional intelligence will indeed miss out on the many benefits that come from having a high EQ, including happier employees, better relationships with customers, and more high-quality relationships with investors.

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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 and earn a byline by submitting a post. We are discussing inclusivity at work and women all of March. Share your thoughts, tips and best practices on how we can make the startup ecosystem more inclusive, gender and culture diverse.

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Image credit: Tengyart on Unsplash

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