Drift bots

You might have noticed Drift bots on some of the pages on e27, including our Pro Membership page and our Fundraise Programme page. We are experimenting with different ways to engage our users. Messaging seems to be an interesting way for users to get their questions quickly answered. We might bring this to more parts of e27 in future. For now, we are testing these in the Pro Membership and Fundraise Programme page.

Image uploads for Contributor Programme

We recently updated our Editor widget in our Contributor Programme to the latest version of TinyMCE. This gives users more features and control over the content you create. We pride ourselves over the amazing group of contributors we have and want to make it easy for them to share posts and content. Image uploads allow you to share team photos, profile photos, etc. This can add colour and vibrancy to your content.

Improving data security

We take data security very seriously in e27. We have been working on various initiatives to improve the overall security of our systems and data. You won’t notice anything different on the front and with your usage of the platform. But under the hood, we have been making some amazing changes. Along the way, we might have little glitches here and there, please do bear with us.

Revamped Pro landing page

We have revamped our Pro landing page to better showcase what Pro members can get when they sign up. Since the launch of our Pro Memberships Programme, we’ve added a load of new features including our Perks programmes to save you costs on some of the popular startup packages. We are also continuing to update the list of investors in our Connect Programme. Be sure to check it out.

Keep checking back for more updates as we push monthly updates to e27. Feel free to reach out to us for tweaks and improvements.

The post August Update: Drift bots, revamping our Pro landing page, image uploads for Contributor Programme, and more appeared first on e27.

We all grew up having our imaginations run wild from science fiction movies on what the future would look like. There are myriads to recall but growing up, I remember thinking that flying cars and personal assistant robots would be the future.

It’s 2020, while we are still working to introduce flying cars to the neighbourhoods, we’ve managed to bring in robots to remind us to keep a safe distance – it’s not quite what we imagined but it’s close!

While we have the brightest minds and entrepreneurs working on these groundbreaking inventions, predicting far into the future is hard to get right. As we discovered in recent months, all it takes is one new discovery or world event to change the course of history.

So instead of predicting the future through my imagination and ideals, another way to look at it is through the lens of opportunity. Great problems and opportunities often attract the best minds to work together to solve them.

My firm belief is that when the best of various fields come together to work across disciplines, amazing progress and breakthroughs happen. To answer the question about what our smart cities of tomorrow will look like, here are some of the opportunities that are worth looking at and should be making good progress in the next 10 years:

Better use of data

Millions of data points are being collected daily and it’s continuing to expand as IoT devices proliferate our cities. The data collected will help us to understand patterns and identify behaviours that are changing as well as how they interrelate.

Utilising the data sets collected would help us to make better decisions in our solutions and improve the quality of our lives. Startups that can harness the data and create meaningful innovation stand a good chance to solve or improve our traffic, energy usage, safety, and social challenges.

Also Read: Life after COVID-19: How and why smart cities need to focus on sustainability

Smart home and IoT security

Smart connected homes are growing at an incredible pace as we continue to add on devices to make our lives at home better. Global forecasts put it that the number of smart homes would increase by 2.6 folds, up from 180 million in 2020 to mind-boggling 480 million households in a short span of five years.

With this proliferation, the importance of keeping our home safe and secure is more important than ever, unscrupulous actors would now be able to compromise the integrity of the smart home system and exploit security loopholes without the need to be physically present. Perhaps subscribing to an anti-virus service for our homes in the future is not too far-fetched an idea?

Sharing economy

In the last five years, we’ve had a wave of startups working on ideas revolving around the sharing economy. The trend seemed to have tapered recently, possibly due to the number of challenges and stakeholders involved in the sharing economy ecosystem.

Uber has been one of the leaders in the sharing economy yet they too faced an incredible amount of challenges in their journey to revolutionise the mobility industry. No doubt, we have seen successful cases i.e. Airbnb but the recent COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the company’s plans and is forcing them to adapt to stay relevant to new norms.

Closer to home, we have seen startups attempting to tap into the sharing economy in various industries i.e. bike-sharing, last-mile transportations, and freelance-gigs, but we’ve yet to see much success due to various factors.

Just two years ago, we had six companies offering a total of approximately 200,000 dockless shared bicycles around Singapore, but most of them shut down by 2019. I’m sure all of us recognise that there is much efficiency to be gained from unlocking utilisation of assets through sharing, but the implementation will need to be a win-win for the idea to take off and truly be successful.

While no one seems to have cracked the code of maximising the potential of the sharing economy, the recent resurgence in companies looking at bike-sharing in Singapore seems to indicate that there is a huge potential in this market waiting to be tapped on.

In the next ten years, we should see more startups learning from past mistakes and making a comeback to tackle the sharing economies in better and more innovative means.

Also Read: Life after COVID-19: How and why smart cities need to focus on sustainability

More efficient home cooling

In tropical climates, living without air-conditioning would make many of us miserable. As the planet warms and more of us continue to work from home, usage is definitely on the rise and projected to double in the next 20 years. Did you know that air-conditioning accounts for almost 40 per cent of the total electricity consumed in Singapore homes?

Providing cooling is expensive and demanding on the power grid, and district cooling is among one of the best options to improve efficiency. It works by aggregating demand among multiple buildings that combine different usage patterns.

District cooling works well with solar and other renewable energy sources, which adds on to its appeal. While this is not something entirely new, there may be more focused implementations and hopefully further efficiency breakthrough within the next 10 years.

Last-mile delivery

As the demand for e-commerce and parcel delivery surge, how will this affect last-mile delivery? Our current infrastructure and logistics operations are not built for future projected growth.

With only 20 per cent of all sales happening online, there is much room for e-commerce to grow. Startups will continue to figure out how to deal with this increase at scale. Is there a possibility that drones and robots may very well be the future of delivery services?

Sustainable living

It’s undeniable that humanity has made much progress in the last 10 years, but the advances will mean nothing if we do not leave a better world for our future generations. Our cities today consume more than 60 per cent of the world’s resources, contribute to 70 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, and account for 70 per cent of global waste which all leads to the devastating impacts on the very place that we live in.

To accommodate this growth sustainably, our smart city will need to address traffic congestion, air pollutants, and waste processing. Over the last 15 years, HDB has been introducing various solutions to drive sustainability efforts in our estates.

We have been harvesting rainwater for non-potable uses like washing of common areas, introduced smart motion sensors that automatically adjust the luminosity of the LED lights depending on the motion detected, and is currently piloting the Pneumatic Waste Conveyance System (PWCS) an automated waste collection system to solve environmental and sanitary issues associated with open refuse collection.

As more of us are aware of the importance of preserving our environments and understand the importance of sustainable growth, more attention will be shined on startups working on sustainability goals and will continue to attract investments. Sustainability would without a doubt be an overarching theme that will shape the future in the next 10 years.

So what do you think future estates will look like? If you visualise a very different smart city from the one we live in now and have some great ideas worth building, join us at the HDB Cool Ideas Hack 2020 to ideate with the best minds, build a prototype and bring those amazing ideas to fruition.

–

Register for Meet the VC: DTribe Capital

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.

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page

Image credit: shade jay on Unsplash

The post Getting smarter with tech: How will smart cities look like 10 years from now?  appeared first on e27.

Securing investment requires more than a great idea. In essence, beyond a compelling executive summary to tell your story and get you the pitch meeting, you will need to craft a great pitch deck. In my years as an angel investor, I’ve seen hundreds and hundreds of presentations. By the way, without a doubt, the best investor presentations use consistent building blocks. Have the right assembly and the components are arranged in a strategic flow.

You actually need two versions of your deck

Surprise! Generally, you should have two different versions of your deck. Firstly, one that has lots of white space and relatively few words; For instance, to be used as a back-drop to a live presentation. In addition to that, the second one that has enough words that it can stand on its own if you need to email it to someone. By the way, never email the white space one or present from the wordy one. Overall, don’t try to get by on just one version. For instance, both mistakes are going to lead to bad results.

Metadata matters

The single most important data to include in your deck is your contact info. For example, list every single means of getting in touch with you. As an example put it on the very first slide. Sounds like a given, but the stories I could tell you …

Deck building blocks

Hence what does the deck need to have in it? After your contact information, it should cover the following topics in a 10-15 slide decks.

1. Customer Problem: description of customer pain and how you solve it –concept & key elements.

2. Product Overview: what you do, for whom and why it’s compelling

3. Key Players: founders, key team members, and key advisors, with industry backgrounds and expertise

4. Market Opportunity: market size, growth characteristics, segmentation

5. Competitive Landscape: competitors and competitive feature sets, plus your sustainable competitive advantages

6. Go-To-Market Strategy: how you will sell your product

7. Stage of Development: product development, customer acquisition, partner relationships

Also Read: How to create a great investor pitch deck

8. Critical Risks & Challenges: what can go wrong and how you plan to manage it

9. Financial Projections: how much time and money it will take to get to cash flow break-even. Including your five year projections (best to show Yr5 mid-case, worst case and best case with key assumptions)

10. Exit Options: categories of likely buyers, rationales, list of specific likely buyers and comparables with valuation multiples

11. Funding Requirements: how much, what you will use it for, what milestones you can hit

That’s it! For instance, trying to do much more is not going to make your pitch more effective. It is merely going to increase the likelihood that you will not get through it which can be the kiss of death. Details can be drawn out in the Q&A or during subsequent due diligence. Instead, you should focus on covering all of the key elements to ensure you get the next meeting. If you have extra material, stick it in an appendix in case you need to flip to it during Q&A.

Tips on mechanical construction and delivery

Mechanics matter too in successfully presenting your deck. Consider these points:

• Consider avoiding complicated animations or builds in your deck –they make it very hard to go backwards if you need to. Do not build in any videos –it is an AV disaster waiting to happen. Plan ahead to avoid last-minute changes to your deck. Swapping and fumbling while everyone waits for you makes an unprofessional first impression and wastes your presentation time.
• You may want to avoid exotic presentation programmes such as Prezi. Even PowerPoint can be pretty buggy on some machines. So you may convert to PDF. But check the conversion before sending to make sure it didn’t introduce any embarrassing formatting glitches.
• Do not plan to spend time on product demos –just a couple screenshots if necessary.
• Plan for the worst in terms of screen size: no small fonts. And finally, bring multiple memory stick copies, as well as your own remote.
• If it makes more sense to use the remote that is provided. Get familiar with it before starting so you don’t get flustered and make a hash out of your presentation.

Hence with some time upfront and some practice. You will be well on your way to having an effective pitch deck is by learning the Pitch Deck Fundamentals.

—

This article was first published on nfinitiv.

Image Credit: Kaleidico on Unsplash

The post Pitch deck fundamentals: What you need to include to build an effective one appeared first on e27.

Even with a global health crisis looming in the background, to expand their business internationally remains on the agenda of many tech entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia (SEA). In the first week of September, SEA-based companies such as PasarPolis and Livspace included international expansion plan with their latest funding announcement.

In fact, Harvard Business Review stated that despite the decline in merchandise trade, foreign direct investment (FDI), and international air travels, these numbers “do not signal a fundamental collapse of international market integration.” This allows companies to remain hopeful about their international expansion plans. But how can they get it right?

Supahands, an end-to-end data labelling partner for AI/ML companies, are basing their operations in Kuala Lumpur, but its clients are based in various countries –from neighbouring Singapore to the US to (even as far as) South Africa. To get to this stage, the company has gone through several steps that include strategy building and execution.

To understand the steps that startups need to take to expand internationally, in this deep dive series, e27 speaks to Greg Meehan, Chief Revenue Officer at Supahands.

He will explain the steps that include:

• Is international expansion right for you?
• Making a move beyond the sea: Market Review, Budgeting, Product-Market Fit, Human Resource, and Review
• International expansion in time of the pandemic

Is international expansion right for you?

Meehan begins the interview by explaining that international expansion is something that a startup should consider ever since its inception. In fact, it should be part of the problem scope that they aim to solve with the solutions that they build.

“Why did you start the company in the first place? Did you start with a global or a local perception to solve a problem?” he asks. “You start to build with that in mind. When we started to build Supahands, we started with a global mindset.”

Also Read: Human-powered training data provider Supahands raises Series A funding

Another set of questions that startups need to answer is related to the reason why international expansion has to be in the picture. Is it because your competitors are doing it? Or is it because there is a market for what you are offering? For Meehan, the key lies in understanding what the market “tries to tell you.”

The answers to those questions will be crucial as companies weigh in the potential risks involved in expanding internationally. According to Meehan, there are two risk factors that need to be considered: Capital expenditure and the process that you will be building on.

If a startup enters a new market too soon, with a shaky foundation and an unoptimised process, they can expect to burn a lot of money –with no guarantee of success.

“We started to receive inbound inquiries that led us to believe that there is a big opportunity for us internationally. Then we need to factor in all the different kinds of costs –and that can be a big risk,” Meehan points out.

“For example, if clients want to buy from us. What would it mean if we had, like, thousands of leads come in overnight? Do we have the processes, people, and systems in place to cope with that? And then we need to start thinking about optimisation … and how we can position people for that. Having [both] the team and the [right] kind of mindset is really, really important,” he stresses.

Making a move beyond the sea

Once the founders are able to answer the questions, they can move towards the next stages of international expansion:

Market Review

Now that the startup has decided to expand internationally, how do they decide which market to start with?

There are two angles that a startup can approach here: They can do it as a company with an existing presence in one market that is aiming to widen its reach there, or as a completely new business launched in a foreign market. If the startup decides to go with the first option, then the first step they can take is to talk to their existing clients.

“Find out what led them to purchase your products in the first place. They are a great source of intel,” Meehan says, adding that from there the startup can see which kind of market they should be aiming for.

Also Read: Human-powered training data provider Supahands raises Series A funding

For startups who are going with the second option, what they can do is start their research online.

“Say you are building a CRM system for salespeople. Find out where these people are hanging out online and you go where they are and engage them,” Meehan suggests.

At this stage, founders do not even need to go for people in a specific market, as a sales VP in the UK will likely face the same challenge as those in other markets.

Budgeting

Budgeting starts with the founders figuring out the go-to-market strategy that they want to use when entering a new market: From opening an office, securing a referral partner, to hiring talents.

“How much budget you can allocate towards that expansion while still maintaining the growth that you’ve got in your current market as well?” Meehan gives the clue.

He also warns against experiencing a “false start” or a situation where a company sees a potential for growth in a market, but then they realise that it is all too soon.

Product-market fit

This is the part where it can get tricky, and Meehan advises startups to “listen to the people on the frontline” or those who interact with clients on a regular basis.

“What we look at here is the collection of this information. We speak to our marketing and product team as well, and feeding them back this information because you can start to see the evolution of your products and services as you grow, as the market matures,” he explains.

“A lot of the times it is like fitting a square peg into a round hole and having to feel your way through it,” he adds.

Meehan also reminds us that the market is changing really fast.

“Market research is a continuous thing and it is not done by just one person in the company … It is your entire business,” he stresses.

What about cases where startups need to localise their product to adjust to the market? Meehan brought forth the example of when Uber tried to enter the Southeast Asian (SEA) market, and their inability to quickly provide a flexible payment infrastructure for a cash-heavy market such as SEA.

“It all comes back to the elements of market research,” he says.

Also Read: Malaysia’s Supahands raises seed round from Axiata, 500 Startups

Human Resource

Regarding their point of how human resource matters during international expansion, Meehan says that the Supahands platform was built to be geography-agnostic. This means the company was built as an international business with the ability to work remotely.

“That is how we have always done our sales, engagement, and marketing,” he explains.

But in the case of its expansion to the US market, there were plenty of offline activities involved. Meehan and Supahands CEO Mark Koh travelled to conventions and meet with potential customers and even competitors in the country to get a first-hand understanding of the market and the strategy that they will need.

“We want to make sure that when we’re bringing people on board, we bring aboard bright people that are going to fit in the culture … that could represent us as a brand and a business externally as well,” Meehan elaborates.

To complete this process, Supahands took at least 12 months, but the company sees that as a necessary process to ensure the right candidate fit.

Review process

Lastly, how does one review the success (or failure) of an international expansion move? Certainly, it all comes down to the metrics, but listening to gut feelings is also important.

” … You’ve got these metrics but what does your gut tell you as well? So, you do a bit of a gut check … Yes, we have these numbers and metrics right in front of me and I will take note and trust the numbers, but I will also verify those numbers,” Meehan says.

But what about the pandemic?

At this stage, we see that there are elements of international expansion that will require founders to travel and be on the ground. But as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage on and affect international travels, this begs the question, will this be the end of our international expansion plan?

Meehan reminds us that there are also elements of international expansion that are being done virtually. For example, market research.

“The global pandemic really levels the playing field for businesses and startups in Southeast Asia that are looking to expand, because everyone is in the same boat now,” he says.

—

Image Credit: Supahands

The post How Supahands works with customer feedback to plan their international expansion appeared first on e27.

Enterprise SG, energy firms launch innovation challenge for SMEs, startups

The story: Enterprise Singapore (ESG) on Thursday launched its inaugural Energy Open Innovation Challenge (EOIC) 2020, in partnership with energy companies Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Shell, to seek tie-ups with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and startups, according to an SGSME report.

Who all can participate?: The EOIC is calling for innovative solutions from SMEs and startups that address 19 challenge statements spanning asset management, robotics, sustainability and workflow.

Also Read: Meet the Govt: How Enterprise Singapore plans to deep dive into startup talent development, international collaboration

Shortlisted SMEs and startups will have the opportunity to work directly with the four companies to develop, refine and test their solutions both in Singapore and globally.

Up to US$730K grants: ESG will also provide eligible SMEs and startups with up to S$1 million (US$730,000) in grant support to ramp up the development of their solution, so they can build their track record, scale the business and create good jobs.

Rukita launches workpod to curb COVID-19 spread

The story: To curb the COVID-19 spread in office buildings, Indonesian proptech company Rukita (a Sequoia Surge startup ) has launched Rukita Workpod as an alternative that facilitates a more efficient work from home (WFH) by enabling employees to live in a group.

More on the Workpod: At Rukita Workpod, employees can work in communal areas with complete supporting facilities and the utmost comfort as presented in co-working space. Rukita also provides tailored services based on corporate needs.

Also Read: Bobobox raises US$11.5M funding when many of its peers in the hospitality sector are on the brink

For those who wish to have more privacy, available areas can be perfectly transformed into a small office or meeting room with sufficient capacity and good air circulation.

To ensure tenants’ safety and health, Rukita strictly implements health protocols as required by the government. In each unit, hand sanitisers are available and a regular body temperature check is performed for all tenants, on-site staff, and visitors.

On top of that, deep cleaning with disinfectants is conducted periodically in all areas, including communal areas, in which frequently touched surfaces will be cleaned every 20 minutes thus employees can live and work with peace of mind.

ZILHive startup accelerator announces 2020-2021 cohort

The story: Zilliqa, a blockchain platform, has announced its 2020-2021 cohort of selected companies participating in the ZILHive, a 6-month blockchain startup accelerator.

The programme is designed to support early- and late-stage startups that are using or looking to use the Zilliqa protocol to build blockchain solutions.

From digital asset exchanges to stablecoins, this year’s batch of 8 companies have been selected to promote blockchain development within Open Finance (OpFi).

Also Read: The battle between private and public blockchains

The programme will run from August 31 2020 to February 2021.

The startups are:

Propine: A Singapore-based startup that provides compliant end-to-end tokenisation and custody solutions

Notabene: A Y-Combinator-backed firm that enables financial companies to be compliant with the Financial Action Task Force’s “Travel Rule” for any crypto transactions

Rupiah Token: An Indonesian rupiah-backed stablecoin that looks to drive a more inclusive and open financial system within the country

MugglePay: A China-based startup that looks to enable far more cost-efficient cross-border transactions by providing a software development kit (SDK) to merchants that accept crypto payments at a fraction of existing fees

Moonlight: A US-based decentralised self-sovereign identity solution

CommX: A Singapore- and Australia-based startup that tokenises art into tradable digital assets

Moonlet: A Romania-based digital asset wallet that enables users to securely store their crypto assets, spend their tokens, and manage their returns from staking

Lumiere: A Singapore and Hong Kong-based film tokenisation platform that strives to boost liquidity, accessibility, and mitigate risk in the film investment space.

—

Image Credit: Rukita

The post In brief: ESG launches open innovation challenge for startups; Rukita launches workpod to curb COVID-19 spread appeared first on e27.