Peter Shearer never thought he would run a thriving startup focussing on empowering traditional mom-and-pop eateries –known as warung— in Indonesia.

Upon looking back, he realises that food and social impact are two things that have been close to his heart.

“My background was in branding and tech and I spent more than 10 years in the industry. I was intrigued to create something meaningful and an idea occurred to me in 2017,” he recalled.

Shearer realised how these traditional eateries have been a place for people from all walks of life to get an affordable and home-cooked meal. “I figured that this is a sector that the industry has forgotten or has ignored.”

When he went around the capital city of Jakarta to get a deeper observation of warung, he found hygiene concerns were the number one roadblock that impeded the growth of these small businesses.

Revolution for “warung”

One by one, Shearer visited these mom-and-pop eateries (also called warung makan or warung tegal). “As I was trying to understand their struggles and problems and how we can help, I realised that they face the same generational problem.”

Most of these eatery businesses, which have long been in the market, were passed on to their children by their parents. They still follow traditional methods and often have become averse to changes.

Also Read: Wahyoo raises US$5M Series A led by Intudo to digitise small eateries in Indonesia

He started Wahyoo simply from the desire to build a system to help these warungs with operations, so they can save cost, have enough time to relax, and have tangible business growth.

It took Shearer two years to collect the data of all the warungs in and around Jakarta  — about 13,000. And he worked on this project all by himself and reached out to acquire them, thereby marketing his company. In September 2019, Wahyoo acquired Alamat.com and then the digitisation took place.

“We looked at Alamat.com, and their tech team was already solid with a product that back then wasn’t working well. So we got in touch with Daniel Cahyadi and Michael Rahardja, and now they are our COO and CTO, respectively,” said Shearer.

Once the tech side was settled, Wahyoo immediately got into the fundraising mode.

Early investment

Although Wahyoo was started in 2017, the tech acceleration didn’t take place until last year. Last month, it caught the attention of Intudo Ventures and led a US$5 million Series A funding round in the company.

“The reason Wahyoo raised funds is that there’s still so much untapped potential with warung makan, and our team could use the financial resources to enhance tech development. Plus, the investors realised that we have a lot of room to grow,” Shearer said.

“We came across Intudo and we felt like the team had so much to offer. They have a partner in the US with a good network and connections, especially with Indonesian students studying there. We asked them to bring home these potential Indonesian graduates and bring them to join Wahyoo,” Shearer added.

Besides Intudo, Wahyoo also scored Coca Cola Amatil’s investment.

What Wahyoo offers

Before COVID-19, these warung makan had a high occupancy rate in terms of their work on the field. This meant they rarely held smartphones because everything was done by themselves. “This is where Wahyoo’s product assumes significance,” said Shearer.

Wahyoo wants to help warung makan addresses challenges such as getting extra income and more customers, opening more stalls and getting basic help, so they can have time to digitise and grow their business.

Also Read: Indonesia’s digitised hawker startup Wahyoo acqui-hires online store directory platform Alamat

“So we came up with a programme called P3K, which consists of training, guidance and income. The income part is crucial as we help them get on board with financial management, maintain customers well and ensure hygiene so they can get more income. We also help them go online, putting them on food- delivery app. We connect them with advertising partners, getting income from brands by putting ads on their walls and tables,” he explained.

In addition to that, Wahyoo also has created its own food product, called Ayam Goreng Bikin Tajir (“the fried chicken that will make you rich”), and has placed it on the warungs’ menu to provide more meal options to customers.

The app also connects warung vendors to shop groceries, allowing for delivery to their doorstep and cutting the time and resources needed to bring all the ingredients to the stall.

COVID-19 breeds new business units

In the past few months, Wahyoo saw its warung partners suffer, as their patrons were worried about dining in due to the pandemic. As per data, in April, there was a steep 50 per cent decline in sales at warungs due to their red zone location.

So the company came up with a campaign called Rantang Hati (“lunchbox of the heart”) that supports about 60 warung makan to have new normal protocols. “We provided a washing station, face shield and a separator on each table,” Shearer said.

Aside from that, it also invented a way to help the warungs to get income through a charity movement that empowered 200 of them to feed people who were in need (such as homeless people and those who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic). Wahyoo managed to gather donations by synergising with companies to use the money to order from warungs.

“We secured 50 to 100 pax orders a day, which is unlikely for them during a pandemic. They’re happy that they were still able to operate under such circumstances,” Shearer said.

Inspired by this movement, Wahyoo realised that a lot of people miss this type of food but the digitalisation on their fingertip sort of reduces their fighting chances to stay relevant.

“I figured that since we’ve all the infrastructure we need, we have the storage, inventory and logistics, why don’t we serve companies which are located around these warungs anyway and why not open the warung catering for them. This way, it’s a win-win for both parties, as it will be more efficient in terms of delivery. The subscription model also allows for a cheaper price,” he added.

Also Read: Free lunch no more: For food delivery startups in Indonesia, this is the time to rethink their moves

Wahyoo has also set up another business unit called langganan.co.id, wherein using its already established infrastructure, it covers some housing areas around West Jakarta and Tangerang to get grocery deliveries to people’s doorstep.

Bargain power

Wahyoo is trying to provide what the big tech companies miss out on empowering warung makan.

“Warung makans’ existence allows them to cater to their own markets and target audiences, such as low-income people and office workers. With cloud kitchens on the rise, we think these warung makans can be a new type of micro cloud kitchen that can then bring them another type of income,” said Shearer.

How so? “I get asked often if these warung makans’ kitchens are available for them to use for cooking, as they also need a spare kitchen with the growing demand of their online food business,” Shearer added.

With this in mind, the growth possibility for Wahyoo is tremendous. “We believe that our B2B approach to food and social tech provides huge potential. With good service and quality and a revamp, customers will come,” Shearer signed off.

—

Image Credit: Wahyoo

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Ninety-two per cent of startups fail in their first three years. The top five reasons account for 87 per cent of the failures. Venture Builders can dramatically increase the survival rate of their venture portfolios by applying a methodology that addresses each one of these failure points.

Our experience is that industrialising failure this way can reduce the mortality rate in the first three years of a startup from 92 per cent to around 50 per cent.

Venture builders are a special kind of early stage investors. They actively build startups together with founders, rather than just investing in them. They are organisations dedicated to systematically producing new ventures, which they help grow and succeed.

Providing founders with mentorship, a clear funding avenue, and a wide range of services including software development, user design, marketing, and other business skills.

These are the five biggest reasons for startup failures and how venture builders can address them:

Building something nobody wants (36 per cent of the failures)

One of the first goals that a startup mentor in a venture builder must set for a new founder is to form a user panel, a group of 10-15 people who understand the problem that the entrepreneur is trying to solve. The true value of user feedback in startups is not well understood by many founders.

It is essential to validate whether the founder is addressing a real problem worth solving, one that customers feel like a genuine issue and one that is significant enough that they would pay to have it solved. A user panel provides frequent feedback to the founder and product team which is also crucial to getting the solution to that problem right.

Also Read: Roundup: Tuas Capital joins hands with The Hive to launch a venture builder fund for SEA startups

Hiring poorly (18 per cent of the failures)

Venture builders typically hire teams to support and develop new businesses alongside the founders. A venture builder in that sense is like a pool of professionals working on multiple startups at the same time. By getting staff supplied by the venture builder, founders know they are getting reliable staff.

It also reduces HR issues as such people are usually available quickly. The capabilities of the seconded staff are usually very well known, allowing a more accurate assessment of sources of progress. Additionally, for early stage startups getting resources this way is also more economical than hiring separately, because when the startups are facing a blockage, they can release the resources.

Failing to execute sales and marketing (13 per cent of the failures)

When it comes to marketing and sales, the main risk for a startup is the premature scaling of a company. It can be tempting for a startup to attempt to scale once it has created a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), rather than waiting until the product is right. Another mistake is to scale before it has a repeatable sales process in place. Mentoring by the venture builder should aim to help companies avoid these mistakes.

Not having the right cofounders (12 per cent of the failures)

New teams of co-founders have often not worked together before, which can be challenging in the high-pressure situation of a startup. The venture builder is actually a co-founder for the entrepreneur. As a result, the pressure to get a team of co-founders is alleviated. However, this set-up is better suited to the solo entrepreneur or a pair of founders than a fully formed team, which might already have many of the skills that the venture builder staff bring.

Chasing the investors, not the customers (Eight per cent of the failures)

It is easy for founders to spend more time seeking investment than working on the business. Venture builders typically provide a clear path for funding, subject to making progress, for the first couple of years. They can also assist with introductions beyond that. Companies that reach this stage should have expanded their capabilities enough to allow founders to seek investment.

The rest of the reasons only account for the remaining 13 per cent of the failures.

This research is based on Nova, a UK-based tech venture builder, launched in 2009. We partner with entrepreneurs to turn ideas into successful, scalable tech startups, in sectors including healthtech, fintech, and edutech.

Also Read: Venture Builders are a criminally underrated contributor to the startup economy

With no personal capital investment required, Nova provides entrepreneurs with mentorship, guidance, and funding. We invest at the pre-seed stage, and through our team of more than 20 startup mentors – plus over 100 designers, software engineers, and marketeers globally – we take startups from idea to product, to market.

We become an equity holding business partner in each of the startups we support. Our startup success rate is five times higher than the industry average. Additionally, our portfolio’s value has been growing at 83 per cent year on year and we have had four exits to date.

Nova is currently expanding to Asia. We are looking for working professionals in ASEAN to co-found startups with us. If you are interested in our venture building philosophy, please apply to our Southeast Asia programme.

–

Register for Meet the VC: DTribe Capital

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Needless to say, COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on a lot of businesses around the world. Being in the real estate industry in Myanmar, iMyanmarHouse was no exception. We went from doing two to three concurrent physical property sales events a week to zero almost overnight.

Our customers – property agents and developers – temporarily paused subscription and stopped spending marketing budget because of uncertainties in the market. We immediately went into the danger of having almost no revenue and facing the possibility of letting go of our staff. That’s when our survival instincts kicked in and did everything we could.

In the end, I believe we emerge stronger. We were profitable last year, and we remain profitable throughout the worst lockdown in history during Q1 2020 without having to retrench any staff. We continue to revolutionise the real estate industry in Myanmar. After all, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

Just recently in late August 2020, we have been named as the Top Property Portal in Myanmar and as one of the Top Property Portals of East Asia alongside the likes of PropertyGuru, iProperty, and 99.co by OnlineMarketplaces.

We have:

• the most number of property listings
• the most number of property agents and developers
• the most number of site visits
• the most number of leads being sent to advertisers every month
• the most number of followers on social media

Lastly and most importantly, we are profitable. These are the lessons we have learned from the pandemic.

Adapt quickly to changing market situations

Here I emphasise on the words “quick” and “adaptability”. I will explain more about that later.

The first cases of COVID-19 were announced in late March in Myanmar. By the end of March, people were panic buying in supermarkets. The government had suspended international travel and imposed social distancing measures.

Also Read: Lessons from a travel tech startup founder on navigating the pandemic-stricken business landscape

In mid-April, during week-long Water Festival holidays, city streets were practically empty – a stark contrast to the hugely popular traditional festival that is held every year in Myanmar where many people, young and old, would be out on the streets throwing water at one another. People were too scared to go out, and most of the businesses were closed down.

Since we couldn’t do any business activities, we initially thought of hibernating throughout the lockdown. But we came to realise that this virus situation was not going to go away any time soon, and the viable vaccines would be months away, if not years.

As soon as the holidays were over, we set up task forces and started working from home. We started brainstorming among different teams and finding ways to reduce costs and increase revenue. We started video conferencing to conduct town hall meetings.

To reduce costs, we froze our staff hiring and promotion activities. We reviewed and stopped any expenditure that was not essential and not directly related to our top line. To bring in revenue, we decided to move our physical property sales events, online and set up a skunked team.

The team worked day and night to make it happen quickly. From idea conceptualisation to actual implementation, it took us one week to launch our first online sales event – first ever Online Property Sales Event in Myanmar – in early May.

It was also possible because of our very good relationship with property developers in Myanmar. We made use of various technologies such as VR and drone video footage and mapping to present the property projects online. We used our strong marketing channels to advertise for the online sales event. When the whole market was quiet and we were the only one being extremely active, the market paid full attention to what we had to offer. That was the opportunity we grabbed.

The market responded very well, and we sold over 60 property units during the two-week online event. With that success, our online sales events snowballed, and so far, we have done over 20 online sales events for different property projects. We are proud to say that we have remained profitable Q1 and Q2 of the year despite COVID-19 and lockdown.

Reflecting back, I believe we were able to “adapt quickly” to the changing market situations. The lesson for the startups is that if the market situation changes, you cannot say, “Oh, it’s out of our control! There is nothing we can do!” and sit back and hope for the best. You have to move quickly together with the market.

You have to adapt to the changing winds of the business world. Otherwise, you will go the way of dinosaurs, Nokia, Kodak and Blockbuster.

Technology at the core of everything

Although we are in the real estate industry, we consider ourselves a technology company first and real estate company second. Technology is at the core of everything we do. We make use of various latest technologies.

We gather as many data points as possible about the customers and the market trends. We then crunch and leverage those insights to predict customers’ preferences and their likely purchase decisions.

Also Read: How travel tech startup Travelhorse survives the pandemic by branching into new territory

Now everything from house-hunting to making a purchase decision and applying for a mortgage loan can be done online at iMyanmarHouse. The technology landscape is constantly evolving. In order to succeed and thrive in the market, we need to rapidly adapt and improve our technology strategies accordingly.

Team spirit is very important

While there were rampant retrenchments and closing downs of the businesses in the industry, we chose not to let go of any of our staff. After all, every single one of them was carefully selected and groomed. They are treasured as part of our big family. Instead, we chose to reduce the number of working hours and reduced the pay accordingly.

I personally chose to forgo any salary during this trying time. I personally gave out necessities like rice and instant noodles to all team members during the lockdown. I personally made a loan to any team member who needed it.

Thankfully, our staffs are beautiful souls who understood the situation and were happy to help out one another. We are extremely grateful and thankful for that.

When it comes to team spirit, our philosophy is that if a company takes care of its employees during difficult times, they will take care of the company no matter what. If they feel that they are treasured and valued, they will go the extra mile and move mountains to help the company achieve the impossible results. In fact, we have bonded closer because of the pandemic.

Resilience

It is my strong belief that resilience is very crucial in a person’s life or a startup’s journey. After all, if you are doing a startup, you will be facing countless setbacks, struggles and adversities. Unless you can demonstrate resilience during difficult times, you will give up and accept failure as a default option.

The storm will pass. Keep calm and do what you can, with what you have, right where you are. You will emerge stronger.

Gain market trust

Lastly, trust from the market is very important because a company can’t exist without its customers and users. It is our mandate to go above and beyond the call of our duty to make a customer happy. Our management team would call up a property agent and apologise if he or she is not satisfied with our services.

We would then do whatever we can to make him or her happy. By doing so, we would have turned an unhappy instance into a happy one, and the customer will become a loyal fan of ours. She would be singing praises about our services.

There have been many instances where the property seekers who became homeowners because of our efforts, were so happy that they sent gifts to us. We take extreme pleasure in that. Because of the enormous trust that the market has in iMyanmarHouse, we have been able to capitalise on it and make property transactions happen online during the pandemic. It has ultimately expanded our revenue streams.

These are the valuable lessons that we have learnt from the pandemic. I hope you will make use of them in your startup’s journey.

–

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.

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The post How proptech startup iMyanmarHouse remains profitable despite COVID-19 appeared first on e27.

Grab-gojek merger talks gain steam as key investors push for a deal: report; Both firms are still deadlocked over management and geographical control; As per DSA sources, a core group of the Grab management strongly opposes the idea and is interested only in an Indonesia-only merger. DealStreetAsia

China’s Ant eyes SEA e-payment dominance with IPO; In the region, Ant has already invested in Thailand’s Ascend Money, with its TrueMoney brand, Indonesia’s Dana, and the Philippines’ Mynt, under partnerships with major local companies; When Ant invests in local players, it likes to highlight the benefits it brings to its new partners beyond cash, such as its tech and know-how. Nikkei Asia Review

Freshket nets US$3M from Openspace Ventures, Tanihub founders, others; It is an e-commerce marketplace that brings together farmers and food processors to supply fresh produce to B2B and B2C customers in Thailand; For the B2B segment, the local food service market is worth over US$7.7B in annual purchases spread across more than 200K restaurants. e27

CEO Nay Min Thu on how iMyanmarHouse remains profitable despite COVID-19; He says since they couldn’t do any business activities, they initially thought of hibernating throughout the lockdown; But they came to realise that this virus situation was not going to go away any time soon. The big lesson is that “adapt quickly” to the changing market situations. e27

Golden Equator Capital (GEC), Korea Investment Partners (KIP) reportedly deferred final close of US$87M joint fund; The GEC-KIP Technology and Innovation Fund has secured just US$57M, far below the target; The GEC-KIP Fund fund’s portfolio companies include Rever and Glints. DealStreetAsia

Should SEA’s super apps follow the same route as their Chinese peers?; To become super apps, each company is taking different routes; While China’s WeChat and Alipay opened their system to third-party companies via mini programmes, companies like Grab and gojek decided to add more functions into their app through in-house development of new functions or the acquisition of existing startups. KrAsia

How Supahands works with customer feedback to plan their international expansion; According to its CRO Greg Meehan, 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. e27

Enterprise Singapore launches Energy Open Innovation Challenge for startups, SMEs; The challenge is calling for innovative solutions that address 19 challenge statements spanning asset management, robotics, sustainability and workflow; Eligible SMEs and startups will get up to US$730K in grants. SGSME

Indonesia’s vehicle tracking, fleet management startup Webtrace raises funding from Corin Capital; This is the extension of its seed round, which was led by Prasetia Dwidharma; The funds will be used to strengthen its marketing and customer acquisition strategy as well as expanding sales headcounts. e27

Singapore remains APAC’s most innovative nation; The Global Innovation Index ranking is based on 80 indicators, such as mobile app creation and ease of starting a business; Singapore fared well in traditionally strong input indicators such as political and operational stability, government effectiveness and tertiary education. The Straits Times

Malaysia’s Science and Tech ministry (MOSTI) launches US$2.4M social impact match (SIM) grant to elevate social enterprise (SE) recovery; The SIM Grant aims to support local SEs and other social impact businesses to sustain their initiatives and programmes, harness their capability to fundraise, increase public awareness in social innovation and scale their solutions for good social and/or environmental outcomes. Digital News Asia

How can startups be crisis-proof?; Adaptability is the only way for companies to come out of a crisis like COVID-19; Companies that cling to old models of operations are only accelerating their demise; A good example here would be that of the fitness industry. e27

What you need to include to build an effective pitch deck; Generally, you should have two different versions of your deck; Firstly, one that has lots of white space and relatively few words; the second one that has enough words that it can stand on its own if you need to email it to someone. e27

Getting smarter with tech: How will smart cities look like 10 years from now?; To accommodate this growth sustainably, our smart city will need to address traffic congestion, air pollutants, and waste processing; Sustainability would be an overarching theme that will shape the future in the next 10 years. e27

E-wallet providers reaching out to all Malaysians; The steady growth of e-wallets signifies that Malaysians are resilient and open to exploring new ways to live, pay, and transact; To achieve widespread acceptance, there is a need to encourage behavioural changes towards a cashless lifestyle. The Star

Disruptive fintech is the best bet to economic recovery post COVID-19; Fintechs can provide solutions to SMEs that are not only more comprehensive and convenient, but also safer; Perhaps one of the most important qualities about fintech solutions today is that customers can remotely access financial services without the need to physically visit a bank, or handle physical cash. The Next Web

The architect, the sunbird or the integrator: What kind of entrepreneur are you?; Creators are very hard to find and the country, ecosystem, or government that is the most welcoming will be the one that ultimately wins; The opposite is also true; creators might leave if they find that their existing surroundings are not ideal. e27

MaGIC’s Global Accelerator Programme (GAP) cohort 4 will focus on innovation, transformation and resilience in the face of crisis; GAP is a mid-to-late startup growth programme offering startups with upskilling opportunities, access to mentorship and route-to-partners, and a chance to expand their business regionally. Digital News Asia

Singapore’s YouthTech programme to equip 1K youths with digital skills, offer work experience; It is open to all youths, but recent graduates from the Institute of Technical Education, polytechnics and universities will get priority; Unemployed people aged 35 or younger in 2021 may also apply, regardless of their educational background or qualifications. Channel News Asia

‘Not the time to be slowing down’: YouTrip CEO on pivoting from travel spend to e-commerce; With the complete halt in travel around the world, VCs-backed YouTrip ran the risk of users completely forgetting about its existence; The two-year-old company had to quickly refresh its business model to ensure that it remained relevant despite the pause in travel. Vulcan Post

Vietnam eyes development of smart cities; The nation is building three of the first 26 smart cities in the region — Hanoi, HCM City and Đà Nẵng; These three cities have seen the development of public infrastructure to provide residents services in education, health care, transportation, construction and environmental protection. Vietnam News

The post Ecosystem Roundup: Grab-gojek merger talks gaining steam; S’pore is APAC’s most innovative nation; Freshket nets US$3M appeared first on e27.

Plentina is a Techstars startup that focuses on building a digital micro-credit application for everyday purchases; it has started its Philippine operations this year gearing up for the launch. As a co-founder of Plentina, we asked ourselves, who would be the best marketing minds that could help shape our marketing strategy for the Gen Z and millennial segment?

We quickly realised that even with our deep backgrounds in technology, data, and artificial intelligence, there is no substitute for customer empathy, especially coming from the generation that you want your product to serve.

Because of this, my co-founder Kevin and I decided to search for some of the smartest marketing interns in the Philippines to join our startup programme. Not just to do admin tasks, but to actually lead a critical part of our marketing strategies.

We kicked-off Plentina’s Marketing and Product Summer Cohort on June 30 with five starry-eyed interns: Ericka, Franco, Robin, Carlos, and Aby. The interns were put in-charge of three streams: Brand, Product, and Company.

Their internship coincided with the start of the Techstars programme. Starting on July 13, it focussed on financial access. Anyone in our company, including the interns, was welcome to attend any session during the programme –this was a part of the experience.

Six weeks into the internship and four weeks into Techstars, we asked them about their reflections on building a fintech startup and the lessons they have learned during the experience. Here is what they told us:

Also Read: Roundup: Ryde launches cryptocurrency wallet; Techstars-EG partnership to drive more investment into APAC

Lesson 1: Mentors enable your growth

“Compared to established corporations, I believe that startups offer a lot more room for growth as we are given more responsibilities and are constantly challenged to keep up with the fast-paced, action-driven work environment. Additionally, working in a startup usually means working closely with the founders of the company’s core team,” said Ericka Frances Chan, students at the University of the Philippines – Diliman.

“As someone who would want to have her own business in the future, this was the best opportunity for me to get a better grasp of the realities of entrepreneurship and gain a deeper understanding of what it takes to start and scale up a business,” she added.

“I believe that Plentina’s co-founder, Earl Valencia, and general manager, Alexander Capulong, both played key roles in guiding us, interns. They were both very welcoming and valued all our contributions and ideas. Having this open and trusting work environment encouraged us to experiment with new ideas and to just learn from one another.”

Lesson 2: Responsibilities hone your skills

According to Franco Dytianquin, a student at Ateneo de Manila University, Plentina gave him opportunities for growth and to experience how startups work intensively.

“We were given a lot of responsibilities with Plentina’s branding and their product’s marketing. The interns were grouped into different streams according to a specific function in the company, having certain interns lead each stream. We’d have weekly meetings for each stream where we’d present our deliverables and check-up sessions with the entire team to see our progress,” he said.

“Though it seemed difficult, the co-founder, Valencia, ensured that we’d be guided all throughout the internship programme.”

Lesson 3: Your attitude towards work and colleagues matters

Carlos Dimailig of the University of the Philippines – Diliman said, “I learned that kindness and success can exist in a working space.”

“I learned multiple things about starting a business, primarily teamwork. Valuing the team’s opinions, regardless of hierarchy, is one of the best ones I’ve learned. My insights as an intern were given the same attention and value as other people in the team. I also learned that, as an entrepreneur, you must be ready to juggle multiple responsibilities,” he elaborated.

“Because Plentina is still in its grassroots, Earl and Kevin are tasked to juggle multiple responsibilities. We, interns, were tasked to deliver multiple outputs concerning several departments. This just goes to show the extraordinary ability that is required from those working in a startup. But, most importantly, I learned that kindness and success can exist in a working space.”

Also Read: Techstars community leader on how to save yourself from the gloominess of a pandemic

Lesson 4: Everyone compliments each other

“The most impactful thing that I was able to realise is that everyone is different, and it’s this difference that makes us complement one another well,” said Robin Oo from Ateneo de Manila University.

Oo added, “With the time I’ve spent with the interns throughout the programme, I have nothing but love and appreciation towards them. The most impactful thing that I was able to realise is that everyone is different, and it’s this difference that makes us complement one another well.

“An example of this is that we have interns who take more initiative, while others are better exchanging thoughts and ideas. Despite being very quiet, everyone’s gradually opening up through our weekly meetings and team-building initiatives. Moreover, each intern has been very responsive and considerate with one another, trying to align all deliverables to create one cohesive output. I think all of us will keep this internship programme as a fulfilling experience where we make new friendships that can last as we continue to progress into our respective careers.”

Lesson 5: Passion and purpose are important

Abelyn Bunagan from University of the Philippines – Baguio, said, “I am thrilled to design something that generates a type of culture in the corporate space.”

“Unlike the other interns, I am already three years into my career. After a couple of major research projects, a teaching and media job, I felt being back to square one. Figuring out what I want to do for a career and finding my passion. The Plentina internship couldn’t have come at a better time.”

“It has given me a purpose after a few months. What I love about this experience is how much involved we are in building the company, this means that we were given a lot of responsibilities. It is tiring but fulfilling at the same time.”

Also Read: Lessons from a student entrepreneur on building a successful startup

“I am also part of the HR stream for Operations. One of my tasks is to create an employee handbook. The handbook may look insignificant but it is actually the bedrock of company culture. As a Social Anthropology graduate, I am thrilled to design something that generates a type of culture in the corporate space. This is something that I have never done before but I am grateful to have mentors to guide me along the process.”

Despite being interns, their insights and commitment have helped Plentina to rethink and reshape its marketing strategies and have served as key members of the team to contribute towards its product launch.  You can never underestimate the amazing knowledge and potential of this digital generation.

They have all the information at their fingertips because of the internet and can get up to speed much quicker than I might have done at that point in my career.

–

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

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Ever since its 2017 launch, blockchain company Binance has quickly established itself to become the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world in terms of trading volume, holding a market value of US$1.3 billion. There is clear competition around the crypto space but Binance has successfully managed to outgrow its competitors.

The company has a decentralized model and no single HQ. Its team members operate from all over the globe.

Last year, the company managed to launch a new platform called Binance Futures, which attracted billions of dollars of daily volume on average. Close to a year since its launch, the platform averaged 35 per cent in market share, making it one of the company’s most successful offerings.

The current estimate of Binance Futures holding 35 per cent market share of the top four derivatives exchange

Dive deeper on scaling and building a new product line as Vice President of Binance Futures Aaron Gong shares tips, strategies and lessons learnt from building a new product line to e27.

In this article, you will learn about:

• Who adopts cryptocurrency and why it matters?
• How to build and scale effectively in a market with niche customers
• 6 things to take into account when building and scaling into a new market
• Acquiring new users in a future-forward business

Also Read: Freelancing video platform Eristica partners with Binance to promote charity

Who adopts cryptocurrency and why it matters?

The entire cryptocurrency market is driven mostly by millennials around the age of 18-34 years old. The older population –above 55 years old– are generally not familiar with it. The market is categorised by having a base of niche users with the majority hailing from Asia. While there is plenty of data to back the fact, there are both economics and demographic factors behind this.

One reason behind the mass adoption of the digital currency is due to economic factors: It suggests that the Chinese yuan has been weakened by international trade disputes. Meanwhile, Kunal Barchha, CEO of India-based exchange CoinRecoil, believes that population plays a key role as “even a couple of percentage rise in users can show a boost to the overall crypto market.”

Barchha also predicts that “Europeans and Americans will lead the adoption side of the market, while Asians will act mostly as traders and investors.

While the cryptocurrency bubble was predicted to burst by some sceptics, the recent pandemic has given it an extra boost, with Bitcoin (the most popular crypto) being traded at its highest in comparison to the 2017 and 2018 boom.

The high liquidity of the currency makes it a good investment for someone who is looking for short term gains.

That being said, unarguably there have been a lot of doubts around the technology. One of the most common questions being “How does it have so much value when it is invisible?”

Safety concerns have also been raised as most countries have not issued regulatory laws around it. This is one of the reasons why scaling in such a market could be challenging at times.

Also Read: Binance Singapore partners with Vertex Ventures to set up fiat-to-crypto gateway

How to build and scale effectively

In his own words, Gong shares how Binance Futures managed to establish and scale its product line within just a year.

Start investing in customer feedback to enhance your new product line

Everybody listens to the community and customers. How did you approach customer feedback so that it brings maximum return?

User-centrism is one of our key focus from the beginning and that’s our key differentiation from our key competitors.

When we first announced Binance’s new product line Binance Futures, we also created our communities in Telegram and other social media platforms. And I was personally managing these communities. I was also the one who was personally doing customer support for our users.

As such, I was lucky to get direct feedback from users on what are the issues with our products and suggestions. Getting first-hand information is very important. We also hosted AMAs (ask-me-anything sessions) to get a better understanding of what users really want.

The next that we got is Binance Angels, which is a network of volunteers who are passionate about cryptocurrency and exchanges, and who are already a supporter of Binance.

We have a wide range of Angels working in different countries which act as our eyes and provide feedback to our investors and the Futures team. We work together with them to engage community members in different regions.

We offer these volunteers perks such as access to events as privileged guests, access to members of the Binance team, invitations to meetups and limited edition gifts.

Customer feedback is one of our most important modes of innovation and we invest and engage in it heavily.

Also Read: Today’s top tech news, May 8: Crypto exchange Binance is hacked

How do you organically acquire new users in a new market?

At Binance Futures, we have never used metrics or tools to scale but we never stop trying new strategies and innovations to provide better user experience to communities. Our goal is to increase the adoption of organic users for the new crypto industries and we do it through the following ways:

1. Product Innovation

The first one is product innovation which is something that has been reflected in almost all our strategies widely since day one.

For example, a lot of our users find that options trading is too difficult to understand with all the matrix as such, so we launched a more user-friendly version where they do not need to understand complex ideas such as charts, strike price, time decay.

Through Binance Options, users can simply trade based on views, simply as the prices go up or down.

Another example is when we first launched futures we only had USDT margined, which means that the futures contract was only priced in USDT (US dollars). However, we later observed demand from users who wanted their contracts to be margined in the crypto itself.

When we started, it was just that one product line Bitcoin perpetual futures, margined or priced in USDT. But as we grew, we offered futures margined in the respective cryptocurrencies. Now people can trade using both USDT or crypto.

2. Day-to-day campaigns

The second is to focus on day-to-day campaigns. We, for example, announce a global range of campaigns once every quarter and also every two weeks. We have region and token specific campaigns to engage communities.

We are also organising and planning a campaign next month for our first anniversary, which will be introduced in the next months. So this helped to increase the adoption of the new users, and I think fundamentally, in the long term, we want to get more adoptions from our traditional industries.

Also Read: Crypto exchange Binance hacked, loses US$41 million in bitcoin

That’s actually where I come from and where most of our team members are from. For us, we want to have more similar products as traditional industries to be introduced to the industry.

3. Business model

I would like to highlight that the reason why we managed to get a tremendous success organically is also because of our main foundation –to build on a low taker fee model.

We had the most efficient price point for traders in the market. So we constantly focus and think about what our true strengths are and what we can bring to users.

Focus on creating one successful thing

Most importantly, we have extremely strong foundations as a company. Our philosophy is called The One Thing Philosophy which applies to our work.

Instead of devoting 100 per cent of our efforts to 100 different things, we dedicate 100 per cent of our efforts to only one part at a time, especially during the first few months.

We want to ensure that our first product is successful before we introduce any new products. So, everyone is very hard and devoting 100 per cent resources and efforts to the one thing. Our team is working 14 to 60 hours a day and seven days a week. We got to make sure that we can skill and learn from the experience, learn from the mistakes.

We spend a very, very long time to make sure our system can perform and it is tested many times from the market drawbacks since Binance Futures launched in September.

Also Read: 3 simple and valuable tips for startup productivity

6 things to take into account when building and scaling in a new market

• Listen to customer feedback, create channels to directly get in contact with customers. First-hand information is extremely crucial. don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty
• Be creative about creating new channels for yourself where customers can connect with the company easily
• Use feedback from users to improve your existing product or introduce a new product. Continuous innovation will help to stay ahead of competitors
• Invest in awareness and create day-to-day campaigns and invest in growing awareness for new customers
• Build a strong foundation. Learning should happen before
• Don’t be afraid to experiment with strategies, but focus to create one successful product before you move on to the next

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Image Credit: Binance

The post How Binance acquired 35 per cent market share in a year with its new crypto derivatives line appeared first on e27.

Anuj Srivastava, CEO and Co-Founder, Livspace

Singapore-based home interiors and renovation platform Livspace announced that it has raised US$90 million in an oversubscribed round led by Kharis Capital, a Switzerland based investment firm, and Venturi Partners, an investment platform in the consumer space in India and Southeast Asia (SEA).

Participating in the funding round are new investors EDBI and Peugeot Group’s holding company FFP. Existing investors Ingka Investments, TPG Growth, Goldman Sachs, UC-RNT, and Bessemer Ventures also participated.

Livspace shared in its official statement that the latest capital infusion will be utilised for further development of the technology platform, fund new market expansion, creation of new market offerings, expansion of supply chain, and private labels in Asia Pacific (APAC).

Livspace said it is eyeing countries such as Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia as well as the Middle East regions.

According to Livspace, the mentioned markets are where the interior and renovation industry is equally fragmented, therefore providing an opportunity for Livspace’s platform-based market entry.

In India, where Livspace is already present in nine metro areas, the company is evaluating dozens of new cities including Kolkata, Lucknow, and Ahmedabad.

Also Read: Home design and renovation platform Livspace raises funding from IKEA

Founded in 2014 by Anuj Srivastava and Ramakant Sharma, the company operated in Bangalore in 2015 before launching its services in Singapore in October 2019. Its three-sided platform brings together homeowners, a curated community of studios as well as vendors, and brands.

Homeowners get access to interiors for all rooms in a home, designed and delivered in a predictable manner.

In 2016, Livspace launched Canvas, its proprietary design-to-installation platform, a first for the interior design industry; which seeks to create unique experiences for homeowners and scales the job of interior designers.

Speaking about the investment, Anuj Srivastava, CEO, and Co-Founder of Livspace, said, “The Livspace model allows us to launch new offerings and expand to new markets rapidly and efficiently. We focus on the ability to digitise the large and complex home improvement industry verticals and integrate thousands of contractors, designers, home improvement professionals, and some of the largest brands and OEMs on our platform.”

Last year, Livspace raised Series C funding led by global investment funds TPG Growth and Goldman Sachs.

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Image Credit: Livspace

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The COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating consequences for economies across the globe. On one hand, the pandemic has impacted businesses negatively, on the other hand, it has also pushed organisations to rethink conventional knowledge and open up newer avenues.

More and more companies have adopted remote working, digital infrastructures, and more tech-based solutions to operate their businesses. All these changes have pushed the boundaries of what is possible and have helped companies, especially startups, wade through these turbulent times.

Startups have been the hardest hit during these past few months, while many have been pushed to the brink of survival; others have had an early demise. Hence, now more than ever, startups need to devise strategies that are crisis-proof, and here are a few ways in which this can be achieved.

Financial planning

Due to their nascent presence in the world of business, startups are particularly prone to financial turbulence. And crises like this pandemic can only exacerbate financial crunches.

According to a survey conducted by Startup Genome, a research and policy advisory organisation, the pandemic has led to a shocking 41 per cent of startups globally being in danger of slipping into a “red zone,” defined as having three months or less of cash runway left.

Such scenarios can be better managed, if not avoided when strong and strategic financial plans are put into place. A financial plan usually entails outlining business goals and setting aside enough money to achieve those goals. It also provides a sort of guidebook for expenses and in case of an economic crisis; it can help entrepreneurs come up with financial plans beforehand.

Also Read: Out of the woods: Why the Malaysian startup ecosystem will survive this pandemic

Taking charge of cash flow and cash reserves

This step is an appendage to sound financial planning. Several startup entrepreneurs often lack the appetite for number crunching and understanding financial data. This isn’t a good sign because understanding cash flow and being able to read balance sheets is crucial to the survival of any business.

Making sure the company has enough money to weather financial storms is important because the longer a business can sustain during a crisis, the more likely it is to survive harsher times in the future.

Maintaining investor trust

Investors today don’t just want to see great ideas; they want to understand the plans that entrepreneurs have to sustain their business through crisis situations. Startup leaders, therefore, need to be armed with risk mitigation strategies along with business vision and roadmaps for the future.

A key part of gaining investor confidence is showing them that your turnaround strategy in case of unforeseen situations is going to work and that the business will only emerge stronger. Startup entrepreneurs have to view crisis situations as opportunities to reinvent and reshape and not as a doom and gloom scenario.

Be willing to adapt

Adaptability is the only way for companies to come out on the other side of this pandemic. Companies that cling to old models of operations are only accelerating their demise. A good example here would be that of the fitness industry; at the start of the pandemic, predictions for the fitness world were bleak, with social distancing and hygiene concerns on everyone’s minds, gyms, and fitness trainers were staring into an abyss.

However, this industry has quickly made a turnaround because it adapted and made the best out of a bad situation. Most gyms and fitness brands have adapted to digital fitness and provide more than just boring exercise tutorials to their customers.

Fitness brands have created a whole new digital infrastructure equipped with virtual work-out sessions that are tailor-made for a variety of customers. Fitness trainers around the world are offering sessions via Zoom, Skype, Instagram, Facebook live streaming, and a host of other platforms. All of this has led to several fitness brand apps seeing a spike in customer subscriptions.

Empathetic marketing

Customers are literally the key to any business and they should be any entrepreneur’s number one priority. During a crisis like this pandemic, scores of people have been furloughed, thousands have lost their jobs, and countless others have witnessed their loved ones dying; therefore this isn’t the time for hard-sell marketing. Instead, brands and companies need to focus on communicating empathetically.

Brands have to walk the tightrope of subtle marketing and public service. A lot of brands have successfully done this during the pandemic, automaker Toyota that would usually have high-powered ads selling top-notch cars recently came out with its ‘We Are Here For You’ ad campaign.

Also Read: 3 essential crisis communication strategies every entrepreneur should know

The ad is a great example of empathic marketing attuned to the needs of customers. It reassures people that Toyota stands with people and will support communities through these tough times. It manages to strike the right tone of heartfelt empathy and brand recall.

Customer engagement

Now more than ever, people feel the need to be connected to each other. Just because people are not venturing out of their homes, doesn’t mean that they do not wish to be in sync with what their favourite brands are up to.

Hence, engaging with customers is important; out of sight does not have to mean out of mind. Several fashion startups have managed to harness the true power of social media during this pandemic by asking their customers to come up with style ideas and sketches of outfits. Such engagement activities can help keep the brand alive in audiences’ memories and lead to creating a loyal customer base.

Startups are at a clear advantage in this space because of the young workforce they employ.  Entrepreneurs must be willing to fully exploit the digital medium to their advantage; from putting out the right kind of content to creating brand recall, startups must cement their presence on social media.

Crisis situations are hard on everyone, but it is important to remember that companies who survive through this will be the ones to emerge stronger and more resilient.

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Register for Meet the VC: DTribe Capital

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Image credit: USGS on Unsplash

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As we are headed down a path of recession or even depression, societies and governments reflex and protectionism take the lead.

While understandable from a perspective of fear (people losing their jobs and livelihoods) and the need for governments to implement policies that reflect the demands of a society (“locals first”), protectionism is not the solution and never will be.

History has shown us that ‘open’ societies always win from those that are ‘closed’. Protectionism can bring us on a path that is very dangerous and we simply don’t want to go there.

In its most innocent form, protectionism just freezes the problem and doesn’t take us anywhere.

Focus on creation

We need to focus on finding and supporting architects, sunbirds, and integrators. These are the people that can create regardless of the circumstances. They are resilient enough to pivot when everybody else is ducking.

Exceptional entrepreneurs can create job opportunities and prosper regardless of the economical situation.

The categories have been made famous in The Creators Code by Amy Wilkinson:

Architects

Those that see problems (“What’s missing”) and are capable to come up with a solution where others didn’t even know they were missing something.

Examples: Elon Musk and SpaceX. Apple.

Sunbirds

Those that see analogies (“What if I could use this solution for problem X?”). They see a solution in an unrelated field and are able to copy them to a whole new place.

Also Read: The 6 types of entrepreneurs

Example: Starbucks, inspired by the coffee culture in Italy to enrich the ‘third place’ in society.

Integrators

Those that combine existing solutions and create a whole new product or service by smartly combining existing products and services.

Example: Chipotle.

Curiosity

All creators are driven by curiosity and an open mind (typically found with immigrants) and they disregard race, borders, and, to a certain extend, rules.

Creators are very hard to find and the country, ecosystem, or government that is the most welcoming will be the one that ultimately wins. The opposite is also true; creators might leave if they find that their existing surroundings are not ideal.

The solution is clear

We need leaders that don’t give in to fear or populism.

Also Read: What should be the vision of an entrepreneur?

Curiosity and creators are the solutions to any problem, it doesn’t matter where they come from. And honestly, we are looking for a needle in a haystack when it comes to these kinds of entrepreneurs.

So bring them in, embrace them and any society or economy will thrive.

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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

The post The architect, the sunbird or the integrator: What kind of entrepreneur are you? appeared first on e27.

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.

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