Happy Chinese new year and I hope that 2021 turns out to be more upbeat than its predecessor in many ways.

And going by the enthusiasm in our contributor community, we sure are seeing a lot of action in the fintech space with BNPL and e-wallets becoming the norm. Also find out what we have done right and what we need to do better about the remote working life (hey hey…who said it was only a 2020 thing?).

Have a great time reading and feel free to share your views and opinions (or even how you celebrated a rather-virtual CNY) by submitting a post.

9 fundraising mistakes entrepreneurs and founders must avoid by Izwan Zakaria, startup lawyer

“Smart money” means money raised from an experienced, smart and well-informed investor. A “smart investor” provides both cash and invaluable benefits to your company like opening new doors to other strategic investors, partners, or potential new customers.

“Dumb money” means exactly what it means. A “dumb money” usually described an investor that invests in nothing more than capital with no real influence on growing the business.

Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs and founders can quickly end up as “dumb entrepreneurs” by making frequent and easily avoidable mistakes. These mistakes often create another risk of the venture and startup success and expose the entrepreneurs to even criminal offences.”

The WFH era: How SMEs should select the right digital collaboration tools by Joey Lim, VP of Commercial – Asia, Lark

“With COVID-19 still affecting hundreds of millions around the globe, it’s safe to say that the pandemic isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon.

But what does this mean for Singapore’s workforce? Truth be told, when work-from-home arrangements were first rolled out in February 2020, many expected to return to the office by the new year. Only a handful thought it would stretch for longer.

As we approach our one-year anniversary of working from home, there’s no better time to take stock of the current arrangements thus far and reflect on what has worked, what can be improved, and what should be tossed out.”

Here’s why universities are turning towards blockchain partnerships and bitcoin by freelance journalist, Luke Fitzpatrick

“Blockchain technology in higher education primarily dates back to October 2017, when the University of Melbourne became the first university in the Asia Pacific region to issue recipient-owned credentials via the nascent technology — effectively ensuring that credentials remain owned by the recipient and verifiable by third-parties, even if the issuing institution ceases operation.

Though late-2017 and early-2018 was a speculative bubble for blockchain projects, a 2019 report from Gartner found that 18 per cent of respondents planned on deploying blockchain solutions within the following 24 months— a trend we indeed saw play out in 2020.”

Shaping up of the fintech world

Is Southeast Asia ready to buy now, pay later? by Clarence Siut, marketing and CS Specialist at Arcadier

“By splitting up payment, consumers feel less ‘pain’ and view purchases as more affordable than if they had to pay the full amount all at once, and are therefore more willing to make purchases.

BNPL has since taken off in various parts of the world, with pioneer firms such as AfterPay and Klarna achieving unprecedented successes. In fact, BNPL pioneer firm Klarna from Sweden has become the highest valued fintech firm in Europe, with a valuation of over US$10.6 billion as of November 2020. However, in some parts of the world like Southeast Asia, BNPL is still in its infancy. Thus arises the multi-million dollar question: is Southeast Asia ready for BNPL payments?

The answer is a resoundingly positive one.”

Telling the fortune of digital payments in 2021, CNY style by Tristan Chiappini, VP (APAC) at PPRO

“Just over one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been impossible to ignore the stratospheric growth of digital payment methods across the world. In APAC specifically, we’ve seen Facebook and PayPal join Google, Tencent, and other leading technology firms in backing gojek, a popular Southeast Asian super app.

Not missing a beat, Gojek’s competitor Grab has been keeping busy by purchasing stakes in popular e-wallets such as Indonesia’s LinkAja.

It’s safe to say that there’s never a dull moment when it comes to the region’s fintech scene! But once the dust has settled behind this latest wave of M&A activity, what will be the next frontier for digital payments?”

To code or not to code

Why is hiring a good offshore developer for your startup so difficult these days? by Trung Ho, digital marketing lead at Tech JDI

“Developers are the lifeblood of tech companies! They help bring your idea into existence, breathe life into your product, and power up the whole system. Sadly, hiring a good offshore developer is so difficult these days, especially for a young startup.

But do not fool yourself into thinking that you can’t hire them because of their rising salaries across the world. There are always good developers who are willing to stick with startups for values beyond the money.

Instead, the one major challenge that young companies face when hiring quality offshore talent is the painstaking process of searching, evaluating, and convincing candidates within a stipulated time period.”

From brick-and-mortar to e-commerce in just 7 steps and no-code by Neelima Goel cofounder at Purple Nooks and SolvingMinds

“For many major brands, the global pandemic has accelerated the pre-death stage of retail stores into a possible extinction moment. For a smooth transition into online selling, retailers need to keep up with the digital transformation and the only way to go is to adapt no-code to run their e-commerce store.

From brick-and-mortar to selling online in seven simple steps”

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The post From our community: BNPL readiness, reflections on the remote work life, hiring offshore developers and more… appeared first on e27.

Mosaic Solutions, a Philippines-based tech startup offering cloud-based management software for F&B and hospitality companies, announced today it has raised an additional US$1 million in a pre-Series A preferred equity offering.

The fresh funds were provided by Gentree, a VC fund launched by a prominent Filipino family to support new digital economy startups in the Southeast Asian region. Mosaic shared the fresh additional funds will go towards fuelling its regional expansion across Southeast Asia.

Mosaic had recently announced a US$1.5 million pre-Series A round in September 2020 from a slew of investors including Australian early-stage VC firm Investible, IdeaSpace (a non-profit which recently launched Opportunity Fund out of Manila), KMC Founders Fund, and JC Capital.

Launched in 2016, Mosaic provides “cloud-based profit optimisation” solutions for F&B, retail and hospitality industries across the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam, with a primary focus on the Philippines. The firm noted its cloud-based product suite includes data analytics, inventory management, point of sale and purchasing.

Also Read: Mosaic Solutions raises US$1.5M to provide data analytics, inventory management solutions to SEA’s F&B industry

Mosaic shared its clients include multi-unit restaurant and bar groups, hotels and retailers including supermarkets and convenience stores, and its subscription-based platform helps companies digitalise their daily operations, driving improvement in profit margin.

“While the global pandemic has been a catalyst for digital transformation in the Philippines and across ASEAN countries, there are still strides to be made for our industry to be truly digitized and more efficient,” commented Brett Doyle, Founder & CEO of Mosaic.

“Mosaic has remained resilient over the pandemic, a testament to the strong relationships they have developed with their customers,” says Mark Sng, Vice-President of investments and portfolio management at Gentree.

The startup sees a great opportunity in the F&B sector across Southeast Asia, with on-premise F&B spending projected to double to US$5 billion by 2022, and the total F&B market projected to grow to over US$125 billion by 2023.

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Image Credit: Mosaic

 

The post Mosaic Solutions bags extra US$1M in pre-Series A to expand cloud-based platform targeting F&B, hospitality industry appeared first on e27.

Developers are the lifeblood of tech companies! They help bring your idea into existence, breathe life into your product, and power up the whole system. Sadly, hiring a good offshore developer is so difficult these days, especially for a young startup. 

But do not fool yourself into thinking that you can’t hire them because of their rising salaries across the world. There are always good developers who are willing to stick with startups for values beyond the money. 

Instead, the one major challenge that young companies face when hiring quality offshore talent is the painstaking process of searching, evaluating, and convincing candidates within a stipulated time period.

What makes hiring offshore developers hard?

‘Good’ developers refer to those who are technically proficient and have a fundamental understanding of computer science, including their chosen programming language.

Other crucial requirements that also need to be assessed during the recruitment process include: 

• Ability to write good, clean code
• Understand the software development process
• Can communicate effectively and with clarity
• A team player who can adapt and solve problems as they arise
• They must fit in with your startup culture

You’d need an elaborate screening and hiring process to ensure you’re in the best position to hire the tech team you need.

However, the average length of the interview process is around 25.4 days in Singapore, with IT roles often taking double that amount of time, due to additional complexities and the competitive labour market.

It is also worth noting that the interview process can only start when you are already done with the necessary background checks. Unfortunately, screening often takes three to four days to complete. All in all, it can take as much as two months to complete the full cycle! 

Also Read: How young and women developers are nurturing the tech ecosystem for a stronger post-COVID-19 world

It can’t be this bad right? Well! Let do some simple math, with a few very idealistic assumptions:

There are 10 candidates who all applied to your company for the same role.

1. The Screening process only takes 30 minutes 
2. The Testing process takes another 30 minutes
3. The Interviewing process takes another 30 minutes
4. You also take another 30 minutes to sort out information and communicate with all parties

That means you have to commit two hours of your time per candidate.

Let’s say you are lucky and all the candidates are suitable. Meaning you spend 20 hours with them before being able to make an offer, or around five days (four hours/day) if you try to fit other tasks in.

Now let’s scale this process up with multiple hires for different roles. According to a recent job survey, slow response and long hiring processes are the two main reasons for candidates to turn down interview opportunities. 

For startups that want to offshore their tech operations to Vietnam or other “low cost” countries, recruiting good tech talent is even more difficult due to communication, culture, and legal challenges.  As a result, the execution of such a complex process could take months. 

How to hire a good offshore developer, faster

Time is the essence of every business. After all, your team has goals to hit and they need more talents to push through the product roadmap. So, how can we improve the hiring process and hire top-notch offshore developers more quickly?

Implement an effective communication system

From reaching out to the candidate to scheduling interviews with all parties, you need a dedicated process to sort out and update all the data throughout the hiring process. This is critical to facilitate timely correspondence and improving the chances of snatching a good developer ahead of your competitors.

Flexible interview arrangement

With the COVID-19 pandemic still affecting our daily lives, online interviews through video conferencing have become the new default in recruitment. Candidates now prefer to video conferencing remotely instead of having to travel to the office physically to be interviewed. 

Unfortunately, such an elaborate screening and hiring process can be daunting for startups as they lack sufficient resources to do both product development and recruitment simultaneously. 

That’s why many businesses are relying on third-party HR services to keep their hiring processes lean and reduce downtime in recruitment while acting as a bridge to connect them with the offshore tech team. 

Also Read: Salary guide to hiring web designers and developers in Asia-Pacific

For example, startups will be free from the burden of these recruiting steps below:

Sourcing and screening

Based on the hiring JD and other given requirements, a trusted third-party HR service provider will help proceed to source suitable profiles through an assessment for their technical proficiency, as well as soft skills. It consists of several different stages:

• Pre-screening to eliminate candidates who do not meet the basic requirements of the position
• Preliminary assessment to screen out those who lack the desired level of skills and competencies for the job
• In-depth assessment through a phone call and/or 1-to-1 meeting to select candidates with the highest potential for a successful application
• Verifying candidate CVs, include stated employment record and qualifications

So clients only have to spend their time interviewing curated candidates who are best suited for the job. 

Technical test and interview

Depending on each particular position, tests can be arranged through different methods and timelines with professional meeting rooms for online testing or interviewing. 

Through the HR service provider, candidates’ status and progress is monitored daily and will be informed directly to the startups by an internal communication system. 

Offer and onboard

For remote hiring, using a 3rd party HR service means you do not have to worry about collecting all necessary personal documents and keeping in contact with candidates for on boarding. 

They also handle all ancillary tasks related to hiring, like drawing up contracts, facilitate proper communication, and also ensure best practices are followed throughout the engagement. Thus, increase the success rate of recruiting the best offshore tech talents for startups.

There is a global war for talent, and developers will continue to be a challenging area to recruit for. But do not go into it blindly. Instead, if you can optimise the hiring process and rely on professional help to carry the tedious parts, this will position you ahead of the competition.

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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.

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

The post Why is hiring a good offshore developer for your startup so difficult these days? appeared first on e27.

Debt has always been a dirty word in the lexicon of Asian households, where frugality is a virtue and extravagance is frowned upon. However, the recent emergence of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) feature in e-commerce platforms seeks to redefine age-old adages. By allowing payment in installments with little or minimal interest, BNPL has fuelled a change in consumer purchasing behaviour, largely thanks to what is known as  ‘present bias’.

By splitting up payment, consumers feel less ‘pain’ and view purchases as more affordable than if they had to pay the full amount all at once, and are therefore more willing to make purchases. 

BNPL has since taken off in various parts of the world, with pioneer firms such as AfterPay and Klarna achieving unprecedented successes. In fact, BNPL pioneer firm Klarna from Sweden has become the highest valued fintech firm in Europe, with a valuation of over US$10.6 billion as of November 2020. However, in some parts of the world like Southeast Asia, BNPL is still in its infancy. Thus arises the multi-million dollar question: is Southeast Asia ready for BNPL payments?

The answer is a resoundingly positive one.

The first indicator of the market potential of BNPL in Southeast Asia is its age group demographics. In Australia, the National Retail Association found that the BNPL market is dominated by customers under 35 years, accounting for more than half of total BNPL users while being less than 20 per cent of the population.

This is attributed to young users being early adopters of innovative solutions and typically having limited finances, resulting in the preference to pay in installments. Based on this, Southeast Asia’s population seems to hold outsized potential for BNPL, given that the median age for all Southeast Asian countries (save Singapore and Thailand) are below 35 according to Statista. 

Also Read: Why the Buy Now Pay Later concept makes sense for the Southeast Asian market

A second indicator is the underbanked population of Southeast Asia. BNPL in itself is not a completely novel concept. Traditionally, flexible installment plans have been commonplace as part of credit card plans. However, the ability to tap on this installment payment method requires the consumer to have both a bank account and a credit card plan (which has a credit rating as a requisite).

This makes the method inaccessible for the unbanked and underbanked – a huge group in Southeast Asia. According to a 2019 brief by Bain & Company, more than 70 per cent of adults in Southeast Asia (roughly 450 million) are either “underbanked”, have no access to credit cards or have no long-term savings product, or “unbanked,” without access to a basic bank account.

BNPL seeks to eradicate this barrier by making it hassle free to apply for installment plans, without the need for a credit card. With a market size of nearly half a billion potential users, Southeast Asia’s underbanked population is ripe for BNPL’s capture.

Finally, the growth of e-commerce in Southeast Asia highlights the viability of BNPL in the region. The two go hand in hand, as the usage of BNPL payment services are derived from e-commerce transactions. BNPL platforms are already on the rise in the e-commerce scene in Southeast Asia, with BNPL service providers such as Singaporean based Hoolah seeing unprecedented growth.

The company experienced a  700 per cent increase in transaction volumes over six months between April and October 2020, and a 280 per cent increase in the number of e-commerce retail stores partners (totally 1,000) from October 2019 to October 2020. If Hoolah’s success is still in doubt, it raised a whopping eight-figure sum in its Series A funding round.

Starting from humble beginnings, Southeast Asian eCommerce revenue will grow from a mere USD$17.2 million in 2017, to an expected US$100 million by 2025. With e-commerce revenue in Southeast Asia expected to show an annual growth rate of 10.3 per cent between 2021 and 2025, the ground is fertile for BNPL to take hold.

This opportunity is underlined by the increasing number of BNPL providers available to consumers. In the Philippines, BNPL platforms such as BillEase, Jungle and TendoPay are seeing growing traction, while regionally a slew of new entrants have emerged and incumbent businesses are adding BNPL options to their repertoire.

Also Read: Buy now, pay later: The changing face of finance for a mobile generation

Since the end of 2020, Razer, a Singapore-based company, has enabled a BNPL option for merchants that utilise their payment gateway, Razer Pay. Pine Labs, an India-based provider of retail point of sale (POS) solutions, has even collaborated with Mastercard, to form a Pay-Later solution to be rolled out in five Southeast Asian markets, namely Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore. Even established Australian BNPL player, Afterpay, has taken note of Southeast Asia’s potential and made their move by acquiring EmpatKali, a BNPL provider focused on Indonesia. 

Moreover, just this year, Pace Enterprise, a fintech solutions provider with a buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) solution, was launched by former managing director of WeWork, Turochas Fuad. Pace has since already obtained a seven-figure funding in the seed round, and will serve the markets of Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

These new entries herald greater things to come for BNPL in Southeast Asia and provide a clear answer: Southeast Asia has never been more ready for BNPL.

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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.

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

Image credit: Avery Evans on Unsplash

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Temasek-backed Reefknot Investments announced today it has made a strategic investment into Silicon Valley-based Roambee, an on-demand supply chain startup. This follows the latter’s Series B1 fundraise led by Swiss-based Anchor Group, which totalled in excess of US$18 million.

The fresh funds will go towards furthering Roambee’s technological capabilities and global expansion into new markets, including Asia. It seeks to open its Southeast Asian headquarters in Singapore by Q1 2021. Besides, the supply chain startup disclosed it is talking to key strategic investors as part of their plan to close Series C funding by Q2 2021.

Launched in 2018, Reefknot Investments is a Singapore-based VC firm seeking to invest in logistics and supply chain startups. Roambee will be the firm’s third major investment, joining Previse, an AI B2B financing platform and Secondmind, a platform that uses Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to aid humans in making complex business decisions.

Also Read: Teleoperation: It’s here to revolutionise the logistics and supply chain industry

Co-founded by Sanjay Sharma and Vidya Subramanian in 2014, Roambee claims it provides “enterprise-grade” Internet of Things (IoT) with on-demand, worldwide real-time location and condition monitoring for shipments and in-field assets. Its sensor technology and AI-based platform allow clients to integrate and manage data from multiple sources to produce “actionable” insights, down to the item level.

It is currently present in the US, Mexico, Brazil, UK, Germany, UAE, India, and Indonesia.

Roambee shared it experienced both new and existing customer growth in 2020, with sales orders doubling from 2019. It also entered into contracts with new customers. Notable clients include Lenovo, Mondelez and the United Nations World Food Programme.

“The pandemic has changed the dynamics of supply drastically, lengthening any recovery period. Our goal is to expand our platform’s capabilities to include more sensor and non-sensor data sources to eliminate disruptions and reduce risks in the supply chain,” shared Sharma, who is also the CEO.

“Roambee’s platform is uniquely positioned to support its clients as well as the industry’s push towards on-demand multi-modal Supply Chain Visibility and insights. This aligns with our mandate to invest in transformative technologies that drive supply chain and logistics evolution,” said Marc Dragon, Managing Director of Reefknot Investments.

Based on a research report by Markets and Markets, the IoT cloud platform market is expected to grow from US$6.4 billion in 2020 to US$11.5 billion by 2025. Companies, especially manufacturers from the pharmaceutical sector, are looking for AI-based demand sensing algorithms to simulate multiple scenarios and plan their distribution well in advance as they witness supply-side disruptions and demand contraction.

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Image Credit: Reefknot

The post Temasek-backed Reefknot invests into US-based supply chain startup Roambee appeared first on e27.

Meet Yuri Cataldo, who grew and lost a multi-million dollar bottled water company. Today, he bravely explains how!

We discuss:

• How he became an entrepreneur
• How he realised what his business should do
• How he used PR to grow faster than he knew how to handle
• How he lost it all overnight
• And much more!

If you don’t see the Apple player above, click on a link below to listen directly!

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This article was first published on We Live To Build.

Image Credit: Michal Czyz on Unsplash

The post How to start, grow, and lose a 7-figure business with Yuri Cataldo appeared first on e27.

The transition from a brick-and-mortar store to an e-commerce website is not easy and can be intimidating. However, this digital transformation cannot be delayed any further. 

For many major brands, the global pandemic has accelerated the pre-death stage of retail stores into a possible extinction moment. For a smooth transition into online selling, retailers need to keep up with the digital transformation and the only way to go is to adapt no-code to run their e-commerce store.

From brick-and-mortar to selling online in seven simple steps:

Know your customer 

The one valuable thing about having a brick-and-mortar store is the face to face interactions you have with your customers on a regular basis. You can use this as an advantage to leverage your e-commerce store as knowing your customers behind a screen requires a lot of research and resources.

Since you are very well aware of what kind of customers you need to target, their purchasing habits, their likes and tastes, you have a head start to sell online. 

You can start from your existing customer base and your online store by:

• Talking to them and asking them if would they be interested in the online store?
• Collect their emails: for marketing purposes.
• Spread the word: they could help you set it up and might know of someone that would be interested in shopping online at your store.

Also Read: Cultural transformation and digital transformation go hand-in-hand. Here’s how to get it right

Select your products

As a retailer, you already have an existing range of products at the brick-and-mortar store and are aware of best-selling and underperforming products. This information will help you made decisions when you set up your online store. Here are a few options of products that you can choose from to sell online:

• Best-selling products: These are the set of products that already perform well in your retail store.
• Underperforming items: These are the range of products that are hard to sell in person. You can boost the sale of these products with a new online audience.
• Unique products: These are the products that must be highlighted in your online store, as uniqueness pays off for handcrafted or personalised products.
• Make it a niche store: You can focus on just one product category for your online store. This will be easier to market as well. 

After finalising on what you’ll be selling, it is time to move straight into the action, and start to set up your first e-commerce store.

Select an option to set up your online store

There is a misconception among many business owners that online stores are difficult to create and manage. With the existence of platforms, who provide the opportunity to retailers to create, manage and customise an online store with zero technical knowledge, starting an online store in 2021 is much easier and affordable.

These platforms are designed for anyone who is new to e-commerce and provides all the necessary solutions such as hosting your website, designing your online store, adding products and so on. These platforms are:

• Shopify: the most popular e-commerce platform out there as it provides the most versatile options.
• Woocommerce: This is a free plug in of WordPress
• Wix: One of the most popular drag-and-drop website builders, Wix gives a lot of clean templates to choose from. 

Depending on your priorities, you can choose to set up your own website with the above platforms or to sell on Amazon, Flipkart or Ebay. Choose what makes sense for your business and products.

Choose a suitable payment method

Choose a suitable platform that will serve as a financial bridge between you and your customer. This step is important as choosing a payment method allows customers to complete their purchase on the site itself. 

You can subscribe to a third-party service, these are the options:

• Paypal or Paytm is the most popular, Paypal and Paytm (India) offers online checkout experiences, invoicing, and in-person payments.
• Stripe is a payment solution created specifically for e-commerce that allows for international payments and a lot of customisation
• Square provides both online payment processing solutions and Point of Sale hardware (card readers, stands) for brick-and-mortar businesses.

To subscribe to the above payment platform, you first need to create an account and then connect your bank account to the payment processing account. While making the choice, make sure to keep in mind the fees and the features of each platform.

Also Read: In August, digital transformation took centre stage as startup investors embraced a whole new normal

Set up a backend workflow option

The make-or-break factor of an e-commerce business is the backend workflow which is essentially the processes that take place to ensure smooth delivery of the product to the hands of the customer. From accounting to the management of vendors and inventory, the backend processes are many.

For any brick-and-mortar store to transition into an e-commerce website, adopting a no-code approach is a no brainer. Currently, companies understand how crucial the mobile-first approach is when it comes to serving and communicating with their audiences. With e-commerce workflow automation, streamlining processes helps with both efficiency and productivity. 

Here are the major no-code process automation platforms that you can choose from:

• Quixy is a leading No-Code Process Automation Platform that simplifies business with which repetitive operations can be automated and streamlined. It offers automation of management of vendors and inventory, addressing grievances and returns, accounting, fulfilment of orders and more.
• Quickbase is an application development platform that helps businesses accelerate the continuous innovation of unique processes by enabling citizen development at scale across one common platform.
• Mendix low-code application development platform offers building, deploying, and operating enterprise-grade applications.

Pick a convenient shipping option

This step depends on how much control you want to have on the shipping process. You can either handle the shipping yourself or contract a third party service to do it for you.

By managing the shipping yourself, you will be able to control the packaging of products, manage your own schedule, and deliver according to your needs and capacity. The problems you will have to deal with are handling taxes and fees, managing warranty-related issues and doing all the manual work by yourself.

By using a third-party shipping service, the company will store and manage inventory at their location, package your products and ship it to customers. The problems associated with this are the limited packaging options, extra costs and less control over your business.

If you are handling small quantities of products it makes sense to manage the shipping yourself. If you’re selling in large quantities, the amount of time and money you can save by using a fulfilment warehouse can quickly add up.  You can choose your preferred shipping option by carefully considering factors such as your budget, availability and the nature of your products.

Also Read: Why brick and mortar shops are here to stay

Build a strong online presence to attract new customers

Build an online presence with different social media platforms to reach new audiences and to make them aware of the existence of the your online store and products. Engage different audience members through Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other platforms to promote your products, communicate current offers or discounts, address relevant grievances and questions.

Post regularly and encourage clients to share their pictures, videos or feedback about products. You can also make use of other digital strategies such as email marketing or online ads to reach a segment of your audience.

The above steps and tools have helped us at Purplenooks in selling my artwork online. Using no-code platforms has allowed me, a person who doesn’t have the slightest notion of programming, to smoothly run my business every day. I am sure these steps will help you set up any business online with a great amount of ease!

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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.

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

Image credit: Claudio Schwarz | @purzlbaum on Unsplash

The post From brick-and-mortar to e-commerce in just 7 steps and no-code appeared first on e27.

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been working on verifying the investors on the e27 platform.

Being a verified investor means that there are people managing the investor profile in an official capacity. More than just reassurance that these are legitimate investor profiles, it also means that e27 Pro members can directly engage with these investors via the Connect feature.

Check out these ten verified investors that you can connect with for advice, mentorship, and fundraising opportunities”

GAOGAO Pte. Ltd.
Stages: Pre-See, Seed
Verticals: Healthcare, Advertising, Automotive, Manufacturing, Trading, HR, Food, Education, Enterprise Solution, SaaS, etc.
Investment Range: USD 50K-200K
Straight from GAOGAO: GAOGAO is a startup studio based in Southeast Asia. Starting this year, we are also planning to invest in startups. We offer consultancy and software development especially for new startups & for businesses accelerating their DX (digital transformation). We match curated top talents to be blended with our client’s in house team and offer end-to-end execution for client success.  To provide maximum flexibility and support, especially to early-stage startups, we offer equity-based payment options. Under this model, companies that do not have the cash but are in need of our resources can pay us in shares instead. We are currently headquartered in Singapore with offices in Bangkok and Japan.
Connect with them

Widuri Capital Management
Stages: Series B, Series C & Above
Verticals: Education, Healthtech
Investment Range: USD 1M – USD 5M
Straight from Widuri Capital Management: Widuri Capital is a private equity management company licensed and regulated by the Securities Commission of Malaysia. We invest in businesses that we understand, emphasising on preserving and growing investors’ capital. Our business networks and value-centric investment strategies are honed by decades of industrial and regulatory experience. Our advisory board and management represent a combined track record of more than 50 years’ experience in investment and operations across various industries.
Connect with them

Northeast Venture Capital Fund
Stages: Series A, Series B
Verticals: Agritech, Consumer, E-commerce, Energy, Enterprise Solution, Food & Beverage, Healthtech, Medtech, Travel
Investment Range: USD 33K – USD 1.35M
Straight from Northeast Venture Capital Fund: NEDFi Venture Capital Limited (NVCL), is formed with the objective of acting as Investment Manager to Venture Funds. NVCL was incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act 2013 on 2nd August 2016. NVCL is a wholly owned subsidiary of North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Limited(NEDFi), a Public Financial Institution and registered as an NBFC (NDSI) with RBI. NEDFi with its network of branches has more than 21 years of experience in financing various projects of varied sizes in the NER and NVCL has direct lineage of NEDFi.
Connect with them

Philips Ventures
Stages: Series B, Series C & Above
Verticals: Healthtech, Medtech
Investment Range: Not specified
Straight from Philips Ventures: Philips Ventures’ focus areas span the health continuum, from healthy living to prevention, diagnosis, treatment and home care – and from hardware through to services.
Connect with them

SEAbridge Partners Pte Ltd

Stages: Series B, Series C & Above
Verticals: Advertising, E-commerce, Finance, Internet of Things, Software as a Service
Investment Range: Not Specified
Straight from SEAbridge Partners Pte Ltd: SEAbridge is a leading technology M&A advisory and investment firm in Asia. They advise local technology companies on their fund raising and exit strategies. They aim to be the trusted financial adviser to the best technology companies in Asia, helping them grow and eventually exit.
Connect with them

Creation Investments
Stages: Private Equity
Verticals: Finance, Insurtech, Mobile, Social Enterprise
Investment Range: Not specified
Straight from Creation Investments: Their experienced team of global investment professionals with over 35 years of combined international finance expertise work from their headquarters in Chicago. The breadth and depth of their team helps them identify and evaluate new investment opportunities on a global basis. Their investment team is responsible for leading the daily activities of the firm, including evaluating, structuring, and negotiating new investment opportunities, and working closely with the management teams of their portfolio companies to build value through a variety of initiatives.
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The Mediapreneur
Stages: Seed, Series A
Verticals: Advertising, Big Data, Consumer, Entertainment, Internet of Things, Media, Mobile
Investment Range: Not specified
Straight from The Mediapreneur: Under Mediacorp’s The Mediapreneur incubator programme, selected start-ups will spend a year of incubation to become competitive high growth companies. We accept teams at various stages of the innovation lifecycle – from teams with just an innovative business idea to those who have already developed prototypes and gained customers. We provide different funding amounts for teams at different stages of development.
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CPEC.fund
Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
Verticals: Agritech, Architecture & Construction, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Cleantech, Education, Energy, Finance, Healthtech, Information & Communications Technology, Media
Investment Range: Not specified
Straight from CPEC.fund: China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is a framework of regional connectivity. CPEC will not only benefit China and Pakistan but will have positive impact on Iran, Afghanistan, India, Central Asian Republic, and the region. The enhancement of geographical linkages having improved road, rail and air transportation system with frequent and free exchanges of growth and people to people contact, enhancing understanding through academic, cultural and regional knowledge and culture, activity of higher volume of flow of trade and businesses, producing and moving energy to have more optimal businesses and enhancement of co-operation by win-win model will result in well connected, integrated region of shared destiny, harmony and development.
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Block by Block Capital
Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
Verticals: Finance, Hardware, Information & Communications Technology, Internet of Things, Software as a Service
Investment Range: Not specified
Straight from Block by Block Capital: Founded in early 2017, our co-founders established BXB Capital from their passion of emerging blockchain and cryptocurrency technology. Our initial building blocks started with global crypto arbitrage, prop trading, and exploring the APAC, US, India and Europe markets.
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Amadeus Ventures
Stages: Angel / Pre Seed, Seed, Pre-Series A / Bridge
Verticals: Transportation, Travel
Investment Range: Not Specified
Straight from Amadeus Ventures: Amadeus Ventures was born in 2014 as an innovation vehicle to drive collaboration with the startup ecosystem. Since then, we have introduced more than 150 startups to our business units and we have developed more than 20 joint projects with our portfolio companies. Our portfolio continues to grow by 3 – 5 companies every year.
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Watch out for more announcements of new verified investors (yes, there is more!). If you’re an investor and looking to get verified, find out how here.

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Four to five years – that’s how long Education Minister Lawrence Wong thinks the pandemic will last before we can even look to a “post-COVID-19 normal”. To some, this estimate may seem far too conservative, considering the vaccine’s rapid development and Singapore’s plans to make it available for all.

However, with COVID-19 still affecting hundreds of millions around the globe, it’s safe to say that the pandemic isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon.

But what does this mean for Singapore’s workforce? Truth be told, when work-from-home arrangements were first rolled out in February 2020, many expected to return to the office by the new year. Only a handful thought it would stretch for longer.

As we approach our one-year anniversary of working from home, there’s no better time to take stock of the current arrangements thus far and reflect on what has worked, what can be improved, and what should be tossed out.

Most employees aren’t satisfied – but decision-makers don’t know it

Lark and Milieu Insight’s recent study on 1,000 Singapore professionals, managers, and executives (PMEs) revealed that 94 per cent want flexible work to stay. This sentiment is also consistent across all age groups, industries, and job levels, which shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering its slew of benefits such as the autonomy to plan your schedule, saving time and money on commuting, and spending more time with family at home.

However, does this mean that employees are satisfied with their remote work setup? Lark’s survey findings suggest otherwise. Only one in five PMEs are very satisfied with their current remote and online collaboration arrangements, while 22 per cent are neutral and 11 per cent reported feeling dissatisfied.

What’s more, companies’ decision-makers aren’t aware of this dissatisfaction either. The study findings show an apparent mismatch in satisfaction and perceived adoption among different levels of employees. Forty per cent of decision-makers (director level and above) said that their team is very well adapted to using collaboration tools compared to 25 per cent of all respondents.

Also Read: Work from home risks every employer needs to be aware of

Personal bias and lack of exposure: possible reasons for the disconnect

One possible reason for this disconnect between senior leaders and junior to mid-level employees is that the former were more actively involved in implementing these online collaboration arrangements and, thus, are more likely to view these changes positively.

Think about it. If you were personally involved in starting a new initiative in your company, you would also be inclined to believe that it positively impacted your colleagues. This is because you would’ve likely spent hours researching, planning, and setting up this initiative, and hope that your efforts led to an improvement.

Another possibility is that senior leaders may not be exposed to these changes in their daily work compared to junior and mid-level staff. Whether it’s holding video conferences, co-editing documents on the shared drive, or communicating with one another on messenger, junior and mid-level employees who use these collaboration tools more frequently would run into issues or difficulties, and hence view them less positively.

Regardless of the reason, this disconnect further highlights the importance of having regular check-ins and feedback collection to ensure that senior management is in touch with the realities on the ground.

Deciding on the right digital collaboration tool

So, you’ve learnt that there’s a discrepancy in satisfaction and perceived adoption of your company’s online collaboration tools. What’s next? With so many options available in the market, how do you decide which is right for your team?

The first step is understanding which features your team uses most often. According to the Lark study, the top three tasks among Singapore PMEs are chat/messaging, video meetings, and emails. With the rise of remote collaboration, the study also found that Singapore PMEs use video meetings (94 per cent), file search (90 per cent), and messaging (80 per cent) for up to half of their day.

Identifying these frequently used features will help you select tools that best fit your team’s needs. Are you always uploading and sharing files? A shared drive with large or unlimited storage space might be a top priority. Is instant messaging your team’s go-to communication method? Then perhaps having a built-in chat feature is critical.

With different teams prioritising different features, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Selecting a digital collaboration tool that’s customisable and built around your team’s requirements is ideal. Importantly, remember to include your team in this decision-making process to help reduce dissatisfaction in the long term.

Also Read: e27’s remote staffers sharing their work-from-home experience

Beyond ensuring productivity, we need to prioritise enjoyability

2020 was a challenging year for many as we were forced to stay indoors and adjust to a new way of life and work. In these isolating times, companies need to look beyond efficiency and productivity and start prioritising enjoyability at work. With mental well-being a rising concern in Singapore, there is a greater need to ensure a positive work experience even when we’re not physically together.

Thirty-nine per cent of PMEs reported that having the right collaboration tool can make work more enjoyable – a sentiment shared across all age groups, but most strongly felt among Millennials (25-39 years old). Enjoyability and satisfaction are increasingly becoming priorities among employees and they actively seek companies that can offer that.

How can employers make work enjoyable? For starters, choosing a digital collaboration suite that seamlessly integrates the various functions like messenger, video conference, docs and more, can reduce the friction and frustration of working in teams remotely. For instance, how often do you get frustrated when you can’t find a particular file, document, or email? Consolidating the most frequently used tools onto a single platform makes working and collaborating much more enjoyable.

My team and I are big advocates of bringing joy to work. Happy workers are productive workers, and employee’s happiness can lead to other benefits such as customer satisfaction and success, job satisfaction, and employee retention – it’s a win for all.

Overall, remote working tools play a huge role in shaping our work experience today, allowing us to communicate, collaborate and create from the comfort of our own homes. And while Singapore is poised to offer flexible work arrangements for the long term, there is still a need to ensure that employees are equipped with the right tools to foster a positive and enjoyable work environment.

Leaders and decision-makers should also collect feedback from their employees regularly to make sure that their remote work setup meets their evolving needs.

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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.

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COVID-19 has significantly changed the way customers communicate. Now accustomed to social distancing and movement restrictions, customers are communicating from the comfort of their homes, preferring online and social channels rather than visits to malls, restaurants or the doctor.

This is driving a communications revolution across industries and modes of communications, changing how businesses; both large enterprises and startups, communicate internally, as well as how they interact with, sell to and support their customers. 

Customers are the lifeline of any successful startup. Providing a great customer experience and using the appropriate communication channels will continue to be crucial to maintaining and strengthening the relationship with customers in 2021. To help businesses understand customer experience in the new normal we released our 2020 Global Customer Engagement Report.

The report surveys 5,000 consumers across 14 countries in January and August 2020 to find out the impact of COVID-19 on how they prefer to communicate with businesses. 

Evolution of channels across Asia Pacific

We saw an urgent need for organisations to accelerate digital transformation and adopt digital tools that enable business survival and growth. We also noticed the adoption of newer communications channels while increasing fragmentation in channel preferences, especially in the way consumers interact with businesses and service providers.

Businesses that largely communicated through emails and texts are now enabling their customers to reach out through video and social channels like WhatsApp for instant, convenient communications. Our report revealed a global consumer preference for emerging channels, including video, social messaging and chatbots, notably in banking, finance and insurance, education, healthcare, retail as well as transportation and logistics.

Also Read: How HackerNoon uses customer-centric approach to build meaningful new features on their platform

Among APAC consumers, 69 per cent preferred connecting with their service providers through a variety of options including video, SMS, emails, and social applications such as WhatsApp. 

Video communication increased significantly in Asia, with 60 per cent of consumers reporting using video chat to connect with businesses in August 2020, up from 53 per cent in January 2020. Consumers from Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia showed the highest increase in preference for video chat.

Visual channels and engagement are set to see huge growth in 2021 given the increasing customer familiarity and comfort with video communications since the pandemic. Like Singapore-based startup HeyHi, an interactive online educational platform, that uses Video API to bring enhanced online classroom learning experiences to educational institutions and private tutors in Asia and North America. HeyHi’s easy to use, fully interactive whiteboard with unlimited writing space and multiple screens simplifies the learning process using video, screen sharing and instant messaging. 

COVID-19 also impacted how frequently people communicated with their services providers across industries. Customer engagement with retail and e-commerce providers has seen the highest increase since the COVID-19 outbreak. Over 54 per cent of consumers have made online purchases more frequently as compared to pre-COVID-19.

Following that, logistics (44.9 per cent), education (44.7 per cent), media and entertainment (41.6 per cent), healthcare (32.1 per cent) and financial services (28.4 per cent) sectors respectively registered higher customer engagement.

Communication pain points among APAC consumers

Businesses are not the only ones facing challenges, customers too are having to adapt to the new normal. Our study revealed several pain points faced by customers in communicating with their service providers. 

Globally, consumers’ top frustration was repeating themselves to different people, and calls going unanswered.  Asia has the highest share of consumers (37 per cent) who reported being frustrated when they receive a message from their service provider, but were unable to reply to it directly, which is the highest globally.

Thirty per cent of consumers also reported being frustrated when they were unable to switch between different communication channels when communicating with a business. 

Enhancing customer experience during COVID-19

Implementing a multichannel customer engagement strategy and enabling your customers to choose their preferred channel of communication is the need of the hour. Businesses need to integrate these channels to effectively manage the variables of every customer interaction while maintaining the context of the conversation across all channels.

Also Read: The only customer engagement strategy businesses need during a crisis

Various companies across APAC are leveraging this approach, especially during the current pandemic, to reach customers on their preferred channels, automate resources to create time and address more complex tasks.

Indonesia’s largest telecommunications and network provider, PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia uses Messages API integrated with WhatsApp and SMS to respond to customers with commonly requested information including billing queries, product details and corporate information. By implementing a multi-channel communications strategy PT. Telekomunikasi is able to overcome the barrier of undelivered notifications.

In the coming years, agility will be the key to survival. With social distancing likely to continue into 2021, organisations must successfully adapt to new ways of conducting business and interacting with their customers virtually.  But this will mean little if the experience isn’t frictionless. Organisations that meet consumers on their communications channel of choice, while limiting frustration, while continuously innovating may emerge from this turbulent era victorious.

Implementing a multichannel communications approach and creating an integrated experience that unifies the various communications services of the organisation on the same platform will remain essential for long-term business growth.

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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.

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

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