Inmagine-owned Pixlr, a design and photo editing ecosystem, recently introduced Pixlr Genesis, a non-fungible tokens (NFT)-based movement. The project intends to build the world’s largest decentralised art museum on the metaverse to rival the Louvre, MOMA and National Gallery. Its mission is to empower creators and art owners to display 10,000 pieces of NFTs to the entire world in a crowdsourced museum.

But why is Inmagine entering the NFT space, and what does the company hope to achieve with this? 

e27 recently spoke to Warren Leow, CEO of Inmagine, to know more about this movement.

Excerpts:

Why is Inmagine venturing into NFT/crypto space?

As you know, Inmagine is a creative ecosystem powered by design, technological innovation, and entrepreneurship. Our mission is to make design smarter, faster and easier for everyone to simplify the creative process.

Our 20-year track record is built on strong value propositions, community focus, and unique insights into the creative industry. Our primary brands include 123RF.com, Pixlr.com and Designs.ai.

As Inmagine is one of the largest creative ecosystems globally, there is a logical fit to link our strengths in content ownership, creation and management with the concept of NFTs.

Also Read: Tokens 101: How they work and where they provide value

With the ability to uniquely mark ownership on the blockchain and royalties payable via smart contracts, NFTs provide new ways to handle intellectual property (IP) management and empower content creators.

NFTs are gaining traction as a marketing tool for brands and artists to monetise their work through new business models.

There are several areas where Inmagine aims to play a part:

• new ways to manage intellectual property (IP)
• community building and sparking a movement
• brand engagement via NFTs

What does Inmagine hope to achieve by entering this space? How is the company rolling out its initiatives in this area?

We foresee that there will be more tokenisation opportunities within our core businesses, especially 123RF and Pixlr, when it comes to empowering creatives to mint and market their own NFTs.

We are using NFTs as a way to empower creators to publicise themselves and showcase their content. In addition, we aim to build a network where fellow art collectors and creators can learn, grow and inspire each other within a tightly-knit creative community.

Also Read: (Exclusive) Inmagine Group launches AI-powered online creative platform Designs.ai

We have also rolled out projects around our own IP within the generative art and collectibles space via our sister company, Phosus.

Can you give us an example of the NFT project that you are working on?

Pixlr Genesis. It is a revolutionary movement to build a 100 per cent decentralised art gallery on the metaverse to rival the Louvre, MOMA and National Gallery.

It aims to bridge artists and art connoisseurs from around the globe. This movement aspires to display 10,000 pieces of NFT artwork in a world-class online gallery.

Each NFT holder will get the art generated, which acts as a pass to our community. It will also give the holder the option to display a piece of art. A decentralised art gallery on the metaverse can be curated by the public for the public.

In addition, the piece of art can be viewed from anywhere in the world by anyone. We also have the intention to allow art owners themselves to sell and auction their art within the gallery.

We hope Pixlr Genesis can be our contribution towards helping NFT creators showcase their art to a wider audience. As Pixlr founder and CEO Ola Sevandersson said, Pixlr has always been at the forefront of creative expression. The NFT space is an exciting possibility for artists to reach new audiences and show off their work.

How does it work and what will be the pricing? Who is your customer base?

Within Inmagine, we are also launching 123mint.com and minting within Pixlr.com soon, allowing anybody to mint NFTs easily and intuitively. We are also building an NFT marketplace to help creators monetise their assets.

Different collections have different pricing, typically starting at 0.05 ETH. The key is not about the initial pricing but rather the value accrual to the NFTs as more things are built on the foundations.

For example, a customer who owns Samurai Doge, Meskullz, or Nouns3D can use them as collectables and in-game characters across games.

As for our other intellectual property, the target customer base for our NFTs is those looking into digital collectibles, especially for utility, art aesthetics, and investment purposes.

Many of our NFTs are also designed with the upcoming metaverses in mind, especially the 3D models, which hopefully can spark additional creativity amongst the community members who own our assets.

Why are NFTs important in this era?

NFTs allow new products and experiences to be created around digital communities. When one owns an NFT, it’s like buying a tangible asset, albeit digital, for either social validation, self-actualisation or community signalling.

Some also have utility features such as tokenisation of asset ownership, usage within games or supporting certain causes.

Besides that, NFTs also allow new business models to be formed between the creators and the buyers, particularly around rights sharing and royalty management without the need for a centralised party.

We believe fundamentally that NFTs of today will be the vintage collectibles of tomorrow that will only grow more valuable with age and new applications as web3 takes off.

Do you see NFTs becoming more common in trading and collecting art?

Yes, we are just at the beginning of a new NFT revolution. There will be more business models around royalty management, community building and engagement, access to new derivative products and services and even linkages to the upcoming metaverses being built.

Also Read: How Inmagine is Googlising its workplace to foster an inclusive and collaborative work culture

The concept of digital ownership and portability across ecosystems would allow new experiences to be designed, built and curated.

Which are the other NFT projects that the group is involved in?

Via Phosus (a subsidiary established for research in AI as well as NFTs as a business), these are some of the other projects that we are actively pushing currently: Samurai Doge (10k PFP, game-related), GenArt.AI, MeSkullz, and Nouns3D.com.

What is the longer-term vision for Inmagine/Phosus for NFTs?

We foresee ownership of digital assets to be a significant segment of its own, whether it is from a utility or securitised asset perspective. Our goal within this NFT space is to be the preeminent player within Asia by building a portfolio of assets, platforms and IP using the foundation we already have.

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Image Credit: Inmagine

The post ‘NFTs provide new ways to handle IP management, empower content creators’: Inmagine CEO Warren Leow appeared first on e27.

In The Market for Lemons, George Akerlof described frustrated sellers of high-quality used cars as not fetching a fair price because the prospective buyers could not distinguish between high-quality used vehicles and low-quality ones (known as “lemons”), that on the surface looked identical.

Sellers could only find takers at a discounted price, considering the possibility they were buying a lemon. Those who have experienced swift price depreciation upon driving a new car off the lot know this well intuitively. Eventually, sellers of high-quality used vehicles leave the market, as they cannot be fairly compensated due to the market’s inability to appraise their vehicles fairly.

A new study suggests that the same applies broadly to entrepreneurs. It is impossible for companies to 100 per cent accurately appraise the capability of job applicants and current employees.

Hiring managers assess talent based on traditional credentials, such as educational background and work experience at prestigious schools and companies.

And managers tend to assess current employees through a combination of perceived signals, personal bias, and company politics. Those who may be highly capable but lack traditional credentials or particular signals sought by senior management (akin to the frustrated sellers of high-quality used cars) withdraw from the labour market and ultimately choose entrepreneurship instead, a path to earnings not constrained by uninformed buyers of labour on the market.

Going from unhireable to startup founder may sound fanciful, but there are some high profile examples. Brian Acton’s capabilities were not accurately assessed by Facebook and Twitter, where he failed to pass the interviews in the summer of 2009.

By November, he joined San Jose State University dropout Jan Koum in starting WhatsApp, which the duo later sold to Facebook for US$19 billion. 

Many immigrant entrepreneurs face the same choice when they arrive in a new country without recognising their foreign degrees or accomplishments.

Also Read: SpeakIn founder on the value of lifelong learning for entrepreneurs

They can either work low-level jobs not requiring any credentials, or they can start small businesses and capture more of the value of their talents. 

More precisely, the study finds that entrepreneurs tend to be those whose talents are better than the credentials and abilities readily observed by outsiders.

When we choose to go work for someone, the company retains our productivity minus our wage, based on the company’s assessment of our “market value”, or the cost of replacing us with another worker who shares similar backgrounds and experiences.

Those who feel that the gap between their productivity and their market wage is too wide can take the entrepreneurial plunge and, if everything works out, capture the entire value of their productivity.

A separate but related finding was that “entrepreneurs have higher cognitive ability than employees with comparable education.” If those with comparable educations exhibit comparable signals and end up at similar jobs and companies, it suggests that many entrepreneurs decide they’re out of place, “cognitively” speaking, even when surrounded by similarly credentialed peers at their job.

Their boss might see them as just another employee, but the would-be entrepreneur believes this is wrong and that they should be several titles up, running entire departments or even the whole company.

They can’t fathom how the ship is being run. Since the company can’t evaluate their actual value and compensate accordingly with much higher responsibilities and pay, they run their ship.

On the flip side, those underperforming yet well-credentialed workers that exhibit positive observable signals can’t believe they’re getting paid so much to add so little value.

They would thrive in a large corporation that is blind or apathetic because the worker is capturing the gap between their high wage and their scant contributions. These lucky workers would find no incentive to pursue entrepreneurship, where the market would discover their actual value. 

Intuitively, I think this makes sense and matches what I have observed at AppWorks. A lot of great founders have elite degrees and prestigious work experience, but they look around at their workplace and think: “This is a great gig, but I’m capable of so much more in this life.”

Also Read: Managing your wealth as entrepreneurs with Dimitry Farberov

Other great founders went to average schools or were late bloomers stuck at mediocre companies and didn’t have any luck applying to elite companies and jobs, perhaps due to their lack of pedigree. They couldn’t bear delaying greatness any longer and took matters into their own hands.

I asked a couple of our portfolio companies’ founders for their take, including Wayne Huang, co-founder and CEO of Taiwan-based XREX. This neo-fintech solves dollar shortage issues for cross-border merchants in emerging economies that recently announced a US$17 million financing.

“I can quite relate to this,” the second-time founder said. “It was just obvious to me that I wouldn’t be happy with the employment opportunities that I had when I graduated. I was not going to be happy. That part I understood very well.” 

Indah Maryani, the co-founder of InfraDigital, a company digitising Indonesian schools’ data and billing, had frustrations as an employee at a previous startup.

“You’re not an owner or an investor. You don’t own the vision; others are driving it. We said it should be done another way, but it was hard to convince the others. So my co-founder and I said, let’s create another company and build it ourselves,” she says. So they did.

Of course, this is an academic study. It would be presumptuous to suggest that an entrepreneur’s or employee’s motivations are purely financial (though the survey controlled several correlations of entrepreneurial choices, such as worker wealth, risk-taking, locus of power, and other demographic features).

I would also argue that adding economic value is not the same as the capability to add entrepreneurial value. 

But it does shed light on some of the common thoughts and fundamental drivers of entrepreneurs. “I’m more capable than this.” “I feel out of place among my coworkers.” “Is this all the impact I’m going to make in this life?” “My work is useless or misguided, and I can’t believe my boss can’t see it.” “Why am I working so hard for these wages?” “I’m not getting the respect I deserve—let me prove that I’m way more capable than this.”

After simmering in these types of thoughts, entrepreneurs of all colours make the jump, despite how scary, lonely, and risky the journey is. They move toward the entrepreneurial abyss, despite scepticism by their peers, doubts by observers, and mockery by salaried workers, all things that exist in today’s society which values so much name brands, stability, and validation by others.

Despite risking being viewed as overconfident, egotistical, or doing it because they can’t find a good job, they set out on the journey anyway.

They have a special drive that enables them to do this, and perhaps part of that drive for some entrepreneurs is the information asymmetry between actual talent and perceived talent.

Also Read: Why UK is the new global tech capital for Southeast Asia entrepreneurs

I suppose you could say we’re lucky that this information asymmetry exists. Without it, some founders would instead find high-level jobs, having their hands on the wheel while adding great value at great companies, getting richly compensated, and perhaps even being able to spin their divisions off while having significant equity ownership.

Instead, they embark on the difficult road of entrepreneurship, and in the process, create massive value that only a startup founder could create — more value than they ever could have imagined—making lemonade out of lemons.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic.

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Image credit: thevisualsyouneed

The post Entrepreneurs: The highly capable and under-appreciated appeared first on e27.

In honour of International Women’s Day that fell on March 8 every year, I decided that instead of having a guest on that day, I wanted to speak with you directly.

My message is short but hopefully sticks with you. What I want to say is that women are amazing.

They are our mothers, sisters, daughters, wives. They give us their love and energy and encourage us to be better humans.

Without them, life would be boring.

They deserve our love, our respect, our kindness, and our support.

So I hope that today you can think about what you can do to help the women in your life.

Also Read: What Cambodian women taught me about being a better woman entrepreneur

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

Acast
Apple
Spotify
Stitcher

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This article about International Women’s Day celebration was first published on We Live To Build.

Image Credit: standrets

The post A tribute to women entrepreneurs on International Women’s Day appeared first on e27.

We are thrilled to announce that we are working with AppWorks to provide startups with access to e27 Pro.

Founded in 2009, AppWorks is a startup founder community and venture capital firm built by founders, for founders. AppWorks Accelerator, the renowned 6-month free accelerator program, admits 30 – 40 AI, Blockchain, and Southeast Asia startups per batch from across the region and boasts 414 active startups and 1,396 founders in its alumni network. Collectively, all companies produce a turnover of US$ 12.9B, an annual increase of 124% compared to the same time last year, and provide 18,591 jobs, 24% more than the year prior. Altogether, the Ecosystem raised a total of US$ 4.3B, an annual increase of 221%, with an aggregate valuation reaching US$ 17.4B, growing 231% YoY. 

As a VC, AppWorks manages 3 funds at US$ 212 million. It invests in 20 deals a year, now with 70+ companies in its portfolio, including leading startups in such as Lalamove, Dapper Labs, 91APP, Animoca Brands, Carousell, ShopBack, Tiki, 17LIVE, and KKday, while having produced 5 IPOs, 3 IEOs, 1 hectocorn, 2 decacorns, and 4 unicorns.

Also read: The growth of electric vehicles is saving the planet, one trip at a time

“AppWorks is all about founders. Our mandate is to build a startup founder community to help speed up their growth. It matches our long term goal to collaborate with the network of e27 Pro,” said Joy Chiang, Alumni Community Manager of AppWorks, “The one principle where we start any initiative at AppWorks is to always put founders first.”

“We understand that raising from VCs is always challenging for startups, especially since the industry info and contacts to VCs are not as accessible for most of them. We want to help solve this problem. Working with e27 to build this platform is a good start,” said Chiang.

With its commitment to fostering a strong ecosystem, AppWorks supports a diverse array of startups hoping to push for business growth. Here are some of the startups from AppWorks’ previous accelerator cohorts that are also on e27.

1. Portto – is a blockchain technology company dedicated to making blockchain simple so everyone can use it without hassle.
2. Xfers –  aims to accelerate financial access within Southeast Asia by enabling businesses to accept payments and send money. 
3. Glints – bridges the gap between education and employment by being a professional platform for young people focused on career discovery and development.
4. Mighty Jaxx – is an award-winning future culture company that designs and manufactures collectibles and lifestyle products.
5. Sendjoy is a platform where everybody can book personalised celebrity video messages to surprise their loved ones. 
6. Docosan lets you compare doctors and dentists across specialties, book appointments 24/7, and take control of your own health data.
7. Abivin – provides AI-powered Supply Chain Optimization solutions for enterprises.
8. Partipost is a crowd marketing platform that allows brands to engage micro-influencers to generate authentic content through social media.
9. Worth The Health (WTH) Foods – is a plant-based alternative protein company that uses local, sustainable ingredients to create plant-based versions of processed meat products that Southeast Asians love.
10. AsiaYo–  is the most intimate Asian booking guide, offering more than 60,000 listings in 60 cities in Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Thailand and Hong Kong.

Opportunities to build your investor network

Over the past couple of months, we have served over 5,000 connections between startups and investors through e27 Pro’s Connect feature.

In this new normal, there is a distinctive lack of ability for different parts of the Southeast Asia tech ecosystem to reach out to each other.

We used to have thousands of offline activities happening monthly, connecting various local and regional ecosystems, connecting startups, corporates, governments, and investors. Even our very own Echelon used to bring in more than 10,000 people over two days to achieve these meaningful, often serendipitous, connections.

Also read: From fashion to insurance, lessons on making products accessible from Igloo CCO

This is a real pain, especially if you are new to the ecosystem and do not have existing networks that can introduce you to new ones. Online webinars and conferences seem to alleviate this issue temporarily, but we find that the startup ecosystem requires more.

e27’s mission has always been to empower entrepreneurs with the tools to build and grow their companies. With e27 Pro, we’re going back to our roots and helping startups with their fundraising by providing a platform that allows not only discovery but a tool to begin conversations with investors and update them on their progress.

With over 390 verified active investors on the platform, e27 Pro members have in their reach the ability to find, connect, and engage with investors that are right for them (not a Pro member yet? Start here).

Get the chance to connect with AppWorks

AppWorks is onboard e27 Pro, and members can reach out directly to them via Connect.

Any e27 Pro member can simply visit AppWorks’ profile and click the Connect button to get the ball rolling.

The post AppWorks partners with e27 to help startups build investor network appeared first on e27.

Astro, a quick commerce startup in Indonesia, has received a US$4.5 million (IDR 64 billion) seed funding.

Investors are Global Founders Capital, AC Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Goodwater Capital.

The startup will use the funds to build and strengthen the technology and operations teams and expand into new areas in Jakarta.

Launched in September 2021 by Vincent Tjendra, former associate VP at Tokopedia, Astro offers more than 1,000 products ranging from daily necessities (snacks, fresh fruit, and vegetables) to emergency over-the-counter medicines. The firm claims it does the product delivery in 15 minutes and operates 24×7.

Currently, Astro has serves customers in Senayan, Permata Hijau, Gandaria, Kuningan, SCBD, Kemang, Cilandak, Cipete, Puri Indah, Kebon Jeruk, Kelapa Gading, and PIK (Pantai Indah Kapuk) areas.

Also Read: Everyday e-commerce: New ways of paying, new ways of buying

The e-commerce startup will expand in the Jakarta area (and parts of Greater Jakarta) by December 2021.

“Astro’s quick commerce service will fundamentally change the way millions of Indonesian consumers buy their basic daily needs, electronics, snacks and pet food,” said Melvin Hade, partner at Global Founders Capital.

Indonesia is in the first place as the country with the most active online shopping population, which continues to grow amid the COVID-19 pandemic. As much as 87.1 per cent of internet users in Indonesia use online shopping services to buy certain products, including food and daily necessities.

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Ready to meet new startups to invest in? We have more than hundreds of startups ready to connect with potential investors on our platform. Create or claim your Investor profile today and turn on e27 Connect to receive requests and fundraising information from them.

Image Credit: Astro

The post Ex-Tokopedia AVP’s Astro attracts US$4.5M to expand ’15-min e-commerce delivery’ service in Jakarta appeared first on e27.

Singapore-based True Global Ventures has invested US$10 million in The Sandbox, an open NFT metaverse platform.

The Sandbox, owned by global game developer Animoca Brands, has raised a total of US$93 million in this Series B round.  

SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led this round, marking its maiden investment into crypto assets. Animoca Brands, SCB 10X, Liberty City Ventures, Galaxy Interactive, Kingsway Capital, LG Technology Ventures, Polygon Studios, and Samsung Next co-invested.

True Global Ventures invested in The Sandbox through its blockchain fund TGV 4 Plus, which was launched in 2019 and hit the final close at US$100 million this September. 

The Sandbox will utilise the funding to strengthen its platform as an entertainment destination where businesses, intellectual properties, and celebrities can interact with their followers through virtual experiences such as games, live events, and social media.

The firm claims to have partnered with major IPs and brands, including Snoop Dogg, The Walking Dead, deadmau5, Atari, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Care Bears, The Smurfs, Shaun the Sheep, and Binance.

Also read: Next blockchain unicorn will be from gaming: Dusan Stojanovic of True Global Ventures

Launched in 2012 by serial entrepreneurs Arthur Madrid (CEO) and Sebastien Borget (COO), The Sandbox started as a 2D metaverse game with more than 40 million players worldwide. Following Animoca Brands’s acquisition in 2018, it developed a metaverse built on the Ethereum blockchain. It offers players and creators a decentralised and intuitive platform to create immersive 3D worlds and game experiences and safely store, trade, and monetise their creations.

True Global Ventures has been a shareholder of The Sandbox since its US$2 million funding round in 2019. It also has a stake in Animoca Brands, a global “play-to-earn” blockchain gaming and NFTs developer. 

“We believe that the prominent unicorns in the blockchain sector will be coming from the gaming blockchain area in the short term,” founder Dusan Stojanovic said in an earlier interview with e27. “Later on, companies linked to renewable energy will have a significant impact.”

Licensed by the Monetary Authorities of Singapore, True Global Ventures is a distributed ledger technology equity fund launched in 2010 by serial entrepreneurs-turned-investors. It targets blockchain startups operating in entertainment, infrastructure, financial services, data analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI), focusing on late-stage Series B and C companies.

Upon the closing of its US$100 million fund, TGV said it would invest in around another 10-20 companies with cheque sizes ranging from US$3 million to US$10 million. 

In addition, True Global Ventures offers its portfolio startups with follow-on investments with its network of over 80 investment partners, including seasoned general partners of VCs, business angels, institutional investors, top corporate executives, and family offices.

The venture capital firm now has a presence in 20 cities, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Moscow, Stockholm, Paris, Warsaw, New York, San Francisco, and Vancouver.

As noted in TGV’s vision statement, the fund believes that multi-metaverse systems based on Blockchain and NFTs would provide true digital ownership of digital assets while also promoting interoperability, open standards, and transparency.

“These metaverses will have new types of distributed governance, where both large corporations and smaller communities will exist side by side more equitably,” the firm stated. “Many of these communities will be owned by the communities and creators themselves.”

Besides, the firm underlined that innovations in this space would drive Web 3.0 adoption and bring these technologies to the masses for positive change.

“We believe that positive virtual worlds, e.g., open, transparent, sustainable, will positively impact the real world.”

Besides The Sandbox and Animoca Brands, the TGV 4 Plus fund has made investments in three other firms, including Forge Global, a global market firm in secondary private markets; Canada Computational Unlimited, a Bitcoin mining company powered entirely by renewable energy; and QuantumRock, an artificial intelligence asset management platform.

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Ready to meet new startups to invest in? We have more than hundreds of startups ready to connect with potential investors on our platform. Create or claim your Investor profile today and turn on e27 Connect to receive requests and fundraising information from them.

Image Credit: The Sandbox

The post True Global Ventures injects US$10M into NFT metaverse game The Sandbox appeared first on e27.

It’s safe to say that whatever qualms Southeast Asia had towards digital transformation, COVID-19 has effectively squashed them. With various iterations of lockdown restrictions across the region, either business go digital or they go dark.

For the foreseeable future, the region is now governed by an explicit digital mandate. As a result of government restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, Southeast Asia saw an accelerated adoption of digital services in e-commerce, food delivery and online payment methods.

According to a Facebook and Bain & Company report, an estimated 70 million more people have shopped online in six Southeast Asian countries since the pandemic began. 

With Southeast Asia’s foot still firmly on the digitalisation gas pedal, this has paved the way for “upstart” companies experiencing massive change and growth. There is a significant pool of emerging Series A, B and C companies thriving in the region.

This has become more prevalent, particularly in fintech and e-commerce companies, growing exponentially from 200 people to over 2000 people. 

Although tech companies have fallen on the “right” side of the pandemic, this hyper-growth phase presents new challenges. As these scale-ups evolve, there are growing pains to undergo.

There is a massive leap between a scrappy startup of 10 people and an organisation of 50 or 250 working towards their next round of VC fundraising.

Also Read: SEA tech founders playbook: A to Z of becoming a fundraising legend (Part 1)

The truth is that a lot of these challenges stem from the people within the organisation that have the heart and drive but need a leap in skill and mindset.

Startups need to build a culture of growth and maturity. They need good executors and entrepreneurs and strong leadership and middle management to translate this growth mindset to their junior teammates. 

Here are three business challenges that we have observed hyper-growth companies in the region are tackling and our recommendations on what is needed to overcome them.

The gap in leadership skills for new managers

As startups go into hyper-growth, this leads to exponential employee growth and individual contributors are pushed into people management responsibilities. What is unique about these scale-ups as they evolve into full-fledged organisations is that they tend to identify and promote internal talent with leadership potential rather than importing experienced hires.

This is critical to mention because the average age and experience of a manager have gone down – the average age of a manager working in a startup in Asia is someone in their mid-twenties or early thirties. In some industries, such as e-commerce, this could be lower. 

Unfortunately, more businesses do not have the capacity, talent and resources to provide impactful training to these new managers.

Formal training tends to be designed for senior leaders with an average age of 40, so there is a gap in training available for such emerging managers.

Hence, you could have a whole decade of the “blind leading the blind”, potentially leading to toxic work culture and employee attrition rates rising over time, much of which might have been avoided with more accessible leadership training earlier on. 

As such, businesses need to proactively think about developing their new managers in a standardised and effective way so that they can set them, and ultimately the company, for success.

Also Read: Workers are switching jobs now more than ever. Why upskilling matters most post-pandemic

After all, research by Boston Consulting Group and the World Federation of People Management Associations in 2020 has indicated that middle managers are, in fact, more critical than company leadership in driving employee performance. 

Fortunately, we have seen more companies aware of this leadership training gap in their new managers and have taken action. For instance, the Head of People for MyRepublic, one of the fastest-growing telecommunications companies, quickly connected senior leadership training to traditional MBAs but had realised that training for new managers was a gap that could not be ignored much longer.

As such, MyRepublic engaged NewCampus to upskill their middle managers to create the right kind of organisational change as they enter the next growth stage for their business. 

Learning and development as a necessary perk

Gone are the days where a cushy paycheck and office perks such as pool tables, gym memberships and stocked kitchens were enough to effectively retain talent. Back in 2018, a Work Institute report had already predicted that providing career development would be an essential tool for employee retention.

In an analysis of over 234,000 exit interviews, nearly one-third of the turnover was attributed to unsupportive management and a lack of development opportunities. 

In a survey featuring NewCampus’ latest programme cohort, all 12 managers from scale-ups in the APAC region highlighted career development as the most important factor in staying with their reactive employers, and 30 per cent are in the process of transitioning companies for the lack thereof.

This ties back with retention research which indicates that individuals tend to stay longer when experiencing personal and professional growth. 

But at the same time, it’s not sufficient to promote employees without consideration. On the one hand, you have employees who express interest in becoming a people manager but have no training to succeed. A recurring theme we have observed is that businesses lose their top-performing employees by promoting them without training.

Also Read: Workers are switching jobs now more than ever. Why upskilling matters most post-pandemic

On the other hand, you have individual contributors who are great at their job but do not want to lead a team. Promoting them to become people managers is not aligned with their own goals.

Hence, we agree with the recommendations made by EngageRocket’s HR 2022 report. Indeed, the usual approach to manager evaluation and promotion needs to change. Instead of selecting task orchestrators for managerial roles, companies should be promoting those with leadership and coaching or mentoring skillsets. 

For those identified as potential leaders, businesses need to actively equip these new managers with all the ingredients necessary for them to be effective people managers. A majority of managers struggle to build relationships, develop and bring the best out of their team.

Hence, companies should help them acquire knowledge and skills such as identifying their leadership style and how it impacts them, learning delegation techniques to boost team output, and learning to diagnose and unblock productivity challenges.

Adapting to a remote and globally distributed workforce

The pandemic has accelerated remote work and proven its feasibility for the future of work. Businesses, particularly hyper-growth startups, have increasingly expanded regionally and distributed their workforce the same way.

We have increasingly seen business leaders having to manage geographies, cultures and timezones. It’s not uncommon for a product leader based in Singapore to manage and lead teams in Vietnam and Manila, for instance. 

However, this has proven to be a new hurdle for businesses to overcome. In our recent fireside series, I interviewed over 30 senior leaders from fast-growing companies in APAC.

Also Read: Voice of Employees: How the pandemic accelerated focus on employee welfare

A common pain point that emerged from our discussion was the difficulty in managing across cultures and doing so in a remote environment. After all, a standard model by startups here is to have headquarters in Singapore with small offices scattered across the region. 

Much like what I mentioned earlier, companies need to help set their employees up for success, and they need to tailor their strategies accordingly to make this shift work for them and not against them.

This is critical as a survey by Slack of 9,000 knowledge workers last year showed that middle managers felt the most stress with remote working compared to senior management and individual contributors. They also had the lowest scores in productivity and overall satisfaction. 

One way is to up-skill their people managers with remote team management, cross-cultural communication and empathetic leadership to lead in this new world.

Another way is for senior leaders to continuously check in on these managers and gather feedback on what they need to adjust better. Managers unable to handle the transition well could impact their team, so this needs to be addressed. 

Conclusion

The pandemic has undeniably accelerated a new world of work. Companies that are prepared will thrive, and those that do not will stagnate.

Ultimately, businesses investing in their people leaders are an important part of de-risking this transition. Leadership skills are no longer a soft skill but a fundamental and necessary skill to have in the future of work. 

Companies need to realise that career development and succession planning go hand-in-hand. When employees’ personal goals are aligned with the organisation’s current and future needs, it creates a mutually beneficial environment.

The synergy between career development and a company’s succession planning creates happier and more productive employees, which allow a company to avoid the constant burn-and-churn in Southeast Asia.

Moreover, this allows the firm to experience a positive bottom-line impact while preparing for its future business needs.

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It is well established that the tech industry has traditionally been male-dominated. While this gender disparity has narrowed in recent years, the sector could do well with the diversity of more women.

When I started the fintech startup, I uncovered a pool of highly-skilled and passionate women in tech who desired to find their way back into the sector after taking breaks to focus on priorities brought about by life changes. 

My personal experiences as a young woman in the industry do not quite fit into one of your underdog success stories. If anything, my overwhelmingly positive encounters as a fresh face in tech have influenced my outlook on the sector and shaped the culture I have built at my female-dominated fintech startup, Counto.

Here’s how I’m leveraging them to create a thriving environment for leadership in the industry.

Early years in the tech industry

Fresh out of university as an engineer by education, I began my career in the tech space from the get-go, after being campus picked and allowed to start my career at a software services firm. This was during the boom of the IT industry in India, where there were many great opportunities in the sector.

From there, I quickly realised my affinity and passion for the field. I worked my way up, progressing through firms including Morgan Stanley handling tech and IT, and Credit Suisse, where I held various roles in programme management, procurement, governance and control.

When asked about the challenges faced as a young woman in the industry, one concern that often follows, and understandably so, is whether I felt the additional pressure to prove myself worthy of a place in the industry compared to my male counterparts.

Also Read: A woman among women: 27 female-led startups in SEA that are going places

My answer to this may come as a surprise, but at each of the firms I have worked with, I was never intimidated by the gender disparity and was always well-supported and backed by my managers. 

For instance, in a room full of people or even at a forum, I was always comfortable questioning discussion topics regardless of who was present openly. Undeniably as a newbie in the industry, though, mistakes were bound to happen.

However, when they did, my managers always stood up for me, allowing me to own my mistakes, nurturing and guiding me on how to overcome them. Additionally, when I was expecting, my managers and superiors were nothing short of understanding and accommodating.

The year that I conceived was also when I received a promotion, something I doubt any woman would usually expect.

Looking back, I firmly believe it is this culture of support and trust I received in my early years in the industry that set up a firm foundation for the values I now know are crucial for success. One of my main takeaways for anyone, but especially for a female in a male-dominated industry, would be to be resourceful and refuse to be intimidated by unfamiliarity.

Whether you are at a firm that trusts in your abilities or otherwise, harping on the preconceived notions others may have on you will only harm your confidence, in turn hindering your professional growth.

Conversely, recognising how as a manager, having a sense of understanding and empathy and allowing for flexibility at work can spur employees to stay driven, regardless of their circumstances.

Shaping Counto’s work culture to champion women in fintech

At present, 70 per cent of staff at my automated accounting fintech startup, Counto, are female.

Interestingly, my co-founder, Ishi, and I did not start with the intention of becoming a women-dominated fintech company. 

In March 2020, at the height of the pandemic when we launched and realised there was an untapped pool of highly qualified, capable women in fintech. Our hiring process found that many of them were looking to forge their career paths to achieve independence, on top of managing other priorities in life such as motherhood.

Also Read: 3 leadership lessons for women in tech

As many of them desire to pursue their own goals, independent of family obligations and possess the necessary skill sets to thrive in the industry, we then took it upon ourselves to champion these women and their aspirations.

As a mother of two daughters myself, I can empathise with the various challenges women face, whether that be feelings of inadequacy, juggling pregnancy, motherhood or other significant transitional stages in life.

From my experiences, I value the importance of building a flexible and accommodating work culture, recognising how a little compassion and consideration can go a long way. 

At Counto, our culture is built based on recognising the needs and priorities of each employee, allowing them to structure their workday however they wish. To illustrate this, all internal communications are done via messaging as opposed to email.

This takes away the formalities of emails and allows employees to set up impromptu calls to discuss matters or share lighter or frustrating moments over memes and emojis. Our internal calls are off video, so employees are not pressured to dress up or look right for calls.

We encourage and have regular video-on casual calls where families (including dogs) are welcome to say hello and meet the team. We also do not own a physical office and are proud to be remote-first. This has opened the doors to hiring incredible talent.

On top of the fact that we started during the circuit breaker in Singapore in March 2020, I believe there is no magic in having structured working hours. Instead, good work can be done anywhere, and this can vary significantly from person to person, depending on their habits and personal circumstances.

Not to mention that the viability of such a work culture is, of course, enabled by the acceleration of technology and pace of digitisation in today’s landscape of work. As a fintech startup, we only need to leverage these developments to maximise productivity while offering employees flexibility. 

Setting new industry standards

By showing our employees, especially women, that they are valued and that their unique circumstances are recognised, we can build a motivated and truly productive team beyond the false sense of productivity behind rigid work structures.

In doing so, we also aim to give our women a safe space to work and grow, setting them up for success and leadership, whatever stage of life they may be in.

Also Read: How women in tech can navigate the 2021 business landscape

Whether you’re a woman in the tech sector or any other industry, there is always bound to be a human failure. The critical takeaway is to learn how to bounce back from setbacks. Be humble and own up to your mistakes, but maintain dignity and always take things in your stride.

As someone who has walked the talk, my goal is to impart these values and habits to the women at Counto and positively impact the overall working culture.

Work and productivity are essential, but it is also imperative that accommodating and flexible work culture is fostered. Recognising the needs and priorities of each employee will show that they are valued, which helps build a motivated, resilient and truly productive team. 

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic.

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

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