I was 22 years old when our product was sold for five-digit UK pounds. It was the beginning of everything.

Studying in the UK gave me exposure, and I participated in a start-up competition called the Venture Catalyst Challenge with my classmates. We have used the Internet of Things (IoT) technology to control household items such as TV sets and curtains remotely. It was a great motivation for my interest in exploring entrepreneurship. 

Later, I returned to Hong Kong and worked in a bank to save some capital for a start-up. Three years ago, my two partners and I developed a takeaway mobile app, allowing users to order meals through apps picked up on their own while enjoying a generous discount.

However, our project ended after running for six months because the takeaway market in Hong Kong was already overcrowded. In six months, I burned through six digits’ worth of funds and had to fire seven employees, one of the hardest decisions I had ever made to date.

After that, I twisted the app idea and created an all-in-one communication app tailored for hotels. Yet, I realised that my second idea wouldn’t work towards success after joining an international exhibition named RISE.

I got a chance to talk to the potential customers directly, but there were no inquiries from hotels, only from people in the e-commerce and retail sector.

It seems that I was unlucky, but I don’t think so. I have learned some things from these two experiences, which have driven my success with SleekFlow today.

“There is no such thing as overnight success or easy money. If you fail, do not be discouraged; try again.” – Henry Sy

Keep optimistic but don’t love your product too much

To develop an error-free product that can satisfy the market’s needs, you may experience many trials and failures. Like my previous two start-up experience, I thought my ideas were good at the beginning stage, but later I discovered some bugs.

Also Read: How this founder went from being a tutor to a modern day mompreneur

I tried to make improvements or even twisted to another idea when I found that they may not be possible or unable to fulfil the market’s needs. So, failure always happens when you develop your products, and you have to be optimistic.

Also, you cannot love your products too much. Otherwise, you will not be able to improve them when you discover any problems.

Know your market

Understanding the market size and the market behaviour is vital when you try to create a product or start a new business. You can develop a prototype first and let people try this Beta; you may receive constant feedback.

It’s okay if your first idea isn’t perfect. Find out your niche advantage, leverage it as a starting point, and then keep promoting and expanding.

For example, when we first started with SleekFlow as an omnichannel chat management platform, we only carried a message of “multiple logins” for our customers. Other than constantly assimilating the technical knowledge for our tech start-up, we have had to take the initiative by collecting the opinions of clients and those in the industry.

Even competitors are our source of information and learning. Fast forward to this day, we have expanded with a wide range of functions according to their needs and requests, making it a sales accelerator that generates conversions through conversations.

Use low resources to make a minimum viable product

You won’t know whether your product is suitable for the market or if there are any bugs if you don’t have any viable product. However, developing a small sample of products may require a high cost, and it may not be affordable for start-ups.

No worries! Actually, there are many resources for you to grab for free. You should leverage low resources and make a minimum viable product first to test if it works. There are also some useful podcasts sharing insights from industry experts that could be inspiring for you!

Don’t be afraid to seek advice

Advice brings you surprises sometimes! I found out that my second idea, an all-in-one communication app tailored for hotels, wouldn’t work either after joining an international exhibition.

Also Read: Investor-turned-founder on building SEA’s EV motorbike ecosystem

I heard a lot of opinions from that exhibition and got tangible resources plus industry networking. I used to be afraid to seek advice, but now I know that advice is essential for your future success.

You can get advice from others by simply messaging people on LinkedIn or joining an incubation program like mine. People always share their insights genuinely, and what you have to do is just write a proposal and struggle through a series of interviews.

Make evaluations from time to time

The budget for a start-up is limited, so you have to be careful in making every step. You should not merely spend on increasing the number of users but make evaluations from time to time.

You have to evaluate whether the current customers are worth it for you to spend lots of resources to retent and whether your business model can generate income and be sustainable. By making evaluations frequently, you will be able to find problems and solve them immediately to ensure your business is running smoothly the right way.

Success will follow if you don’t give up

Starting a business is not easy, and I experienced it twice before starting my current business. The best advice that I can offer is not to give up easily. Keep trying and squeeze every last drop of success out from failures. I wish every one of you the best of luck.

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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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Being an entrepreneur is not easy. Whether bootstrapped or raising the next round, the founder experience comes with life lessons. Every founder’s journey is different from the other. Full of challenges, burnouts, small joys, and aptly glorified highs, this roller coaster of a journey deserves to be told.

Even if you have just joined the bandwagon, your story is valuable and inspiring. Building a SaaS product to help small businesses or working on climate change innovation; revolutionising health, education or any other consumer space; the ecosystem wants to know you and what you are building.

At e27, we always strive to serve the ecosystem. This time around, we want to open up our platform and its wide reader base for founders of all ages and backgrounds to share their stories.

Inspire the next generation of founders, share life lessons with your counterparts, attract investor attention, and even present your idea/product/MVP to the ecosystem via the e27 Contributor Programme: Share your story campaign.

What you need

All you need is about three hours on your calendar, a calm space to gather your thoughts, and the will to share your story with the world. We will do the rest of the heavy lifting for you.

Use this magic template and follow the instructions.

Also read: How to use the e27 editor to write great articles

What will founders gain

As a startup, you don’t always have the luxury of hiring a particular PR person to build media relations. Getting your founder story published with e27 will make it easier for you to take it to investors and establish greater credibility.

Investors are looking for founders with a story, and your article can you get your foot in that door. Sharing your motivation and product expertise will build a stronger case for your startup when fundraising in the market. This also shows how passionate you are about making your startup.

We will share your story just like all other e27 articles amply on your social media and send it to our entire newsletter audience. The added validation of your ideas from other founders and professionals in the community will greatly endorse your ideas.

Managing Partner at RHL Ventures, Rachel Lau, says: “The visibility has been great. Like, someone from LinkedIn would occasionally say to me ‘Hey, I read your article on the Vietnam stuff, and I think it’s great”, and it’s nice to get that kind of message. I think the contributor channel has the right exposure from the right target audiences, which also becomes a challenge to me to write to the right target audiences.”

We have groomed a thriving community of two million readers in the tech and startup industry, making it a great place to reflect upon the interests of the startup economy in Asia. The e27 Contributor Programme is your chance to share your thoughts and opinions with this community.

With the anticipated slowdown in the tech space, it may be hard to keep the spirits up, but we need each other even more at times like these. Plus, a little bit of fame never hurts.

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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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Blockchain Fest 2022 is set to be held in Singapore next month with a lineup of speakers that includes Andy Meehan, ex-Captain of Special Investigations who had spent over a decade in Asia as a private litigator and in-house counsel for cryptocurrency and blockchain international institutions. Meehan currently works at Gemini APAC as Chief Compliance Officer and will present his point of view about the state of crypto regulation in Singapore and the region.

In addition to Meehan, the event is also set to bring in Anndy Lian, business strategist and author of the best-seller Blockchain Revolution 2030. With a 15-year of experience in the business field, the Chief Digital Advisor of the Mongolian Productivity Organization will explain how the technology will revolutionise and redefine traditional business.

These two speakers are just two of the industry professionals that you will get to meet at Marina Bay Sands on June 2-3, 2022. As Asia’s largest international B2B event on Blockchain, Exchanges, Cryptocurrencies, DeFi, GameFi and NFTs, Blockchain Fest 2022 covers top-level content from leading brands and speakers.

Also Read: AI enhanced blockchain: Changing the security game

Through a series of formal and informal events, the conference agenda is created to explore the convergence of these technologies in one place: a series of keynotes, interactive panel discussions and speeches from honoured speakers with impressive expertise in blockchain.

Besides Meehan and Lian, it has also confirmed Co-Leader of the Financial Inclusion and CBDC Working Groups at the Global Impact FinTech (GIFT) Forum Dr Oriol Caudevilla and Executive Director of the Inatba Marc Taverner.

Tickets to Blockchain Fest 2022 are available under the online, standard, business, or VIP categories. To purchase these tickets at a discounted price, head over to the event website.

For the latest updates on the conference agenda and speakers, follow Blockchain Fest 2022 on social media: Facebook, LinkedIn, Telegram, and Twitter.

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Image Credit: Blockchain Fest

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Tokocrypto Sembrani Blockchain Accelerator, a programme run by Indonesian cryptocurrency exchange Tokocrypto in partnership with BRI Ventures, has announced US$40 million investments in its participating startups.

The investees are VC Gamers, nanobyte, Avarik Saga, Creo Engine, Eizper Chain, Duckie Land, Play Fix, Play it Forward DAO, Mythic Protocol, getKupon, Avarta and Survey.

The startups were also provided with the necessary tools for fundraising, team culture, blockchain development, listing advisory and tokenomics to develop the skills required to make a mark within the blockchain industry.

“The startups selected reflect the flourishing blockchain ecosystem in Indonesia, and this is just the beginning. Two years ago, the term blockchain seemed foreign, but today it is a digital powerhouse in NFTs, decentralised finance, and even GameFi,” said Tokocrypto CEO Pang Xue Kai.

Also Read: Tokocrypto, BRI Ventures launch blockchain accelerator programme

Tokocrypto Sembrani Blockchain Accelerator is part of the multi-dimensional TokoVerse by Tokocrypto created to bolster blockchain technology adoption in Indonesia and beyond. It focuses on four primary pillars: branding and marketing, investment strategies, investment landscape tactics and access to fundraising opportunities.

The programme’s mentors include Nicko Widjaja (CEO of BRI Ventures), Pang Xue Kai (CEO of Tokocrypto), Teguh Kurniawan Harmanda (COO of Tokocrypto), Lai Chung Ying (CSO of Tokocrypto) and Nanda Ivens (CMO of Tokocrypto).

As per a statement, the programme has initiated the support of over 50 investors, including Tokocrypto, Binance Labs, Cydonia, Solana Labs, Signum Capital, YGGSEA, Alameda Research, Huobi Ventures, Crypto.com, QCP, Avocado DAO, and Intudo Ventures.

Since the programme’s launch, Tokocrypto has connected the participants with global mentors such as Tamar Menteshashvili from Solana Labs and Nicole Zhang from Binance Labs. Investors listed previously were invited to the programme’s Demo Day, which took place on April 11 2022, where participants demonstrated the progress and achievements that have been made to date.

Together with TokoLabs, Tokoverse has developed Asia’s first crypto hub, T-hub, Indonesia’s first and largest NFT marketplace, TokoMall, and an educational mobile app, Kriptoversity, to name a few.

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The fast spread of COVID-19 in India highlights the critical significance of public health. There has been an ardent need to strengthen public health services to serve India’s population beyond the pandemic by offering them instant access to healthcare solutions.

With India being one of the second-fastest adopters of digital services, constituting about half a billion internet users, there is an immense scope to unlock an additional economic value of US$1 trillion through inclusive growth.

Additionally, with the right application of digital to the Indian healthcare sector, the issues of access and affordability are getting tackled. The accelerating need for medical care is steering the country in the right direction amid a Medtech revolution.

The digital healthcare market in India stood at US$116.61 billion in 2018 and is expected to increase at a CAGR of 27.41 per cent to US$485.43 billion by 2024, according to The ‘Digital Healthcare Market in India 2019’ report.

The underlying challenges

However, despite the positives, the country still faces the acute problem of an unequal healthcare system where the wealthy have access to the best care while the impoverished are restricted to limited options.

It can be addressed by improving hospital and clinic infrastructure, bringing in telehealth facilities, channelling resources in the most disadvantaged areas, building awareness around chronic diseases, and prioritising early diagnosis.

Also Read: Modern solutions to modern problems: How Plusman LLC innovates healthcare

The other challenge is the lack of uniformity in record keeping. In most instances, local healthcare facilities or hospitals cannot uniformly document all records for services, especially in rural areas.

This results in repeated diagnostic tests and consultations, delayed treatments, concealment or ignorance of medical history etc. This can lead to a wrong diagnosis and further increase treatment costs.

Even in hospitals where digital records are maintained, there is no provision for the electronic transfer of patient records from one service provider to another. The lack of access leads to either the patient physically carrying the medical records or having no access to them.

Digitisation for bridging the healthcare gap

Through the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) announced in 2020, the government endeavours to create a digital health ecosystem by leveraging the existing digital infrastructure (including frameworks related to Aadhar and UPI) and the pan India coverage of internet-enabled smartphones. The other objective is to ensure equitable real-time healthcare service delivery in India.

Healthtech has a crucial role in tackling the problem of an unequal healthcare system, thereby bridging gaps in India’s healthcare ecosystem, especially preventive healthcare and disease management.

This is evident with the vertical recently witnessing exponential growth, prompting trends like online patient consultation, e-pharmacies, telemedicine, integrated digital insurance memberships, etc. Investors are accelerating their funding in this sector due to the pandemic.

Democratising healthcare solutions

But the need of the hour is affordable real-time healthcare solutions encompassing OPD, IPD and wellness, facilitating instant access for different classes of the population.

We have been trying to democratise the affordable healthcare experience for SMEs, MSMEs, startups and growing businesses and their workforce across India by providing them monthly, comprehensive employee healthcare, including group health insurance, discounted telemedicine, teleconsultation etc.

More organisations should provide inclusive insurance to reach the unserved, underserved and low-income households. This will ensure deeper penetration of health insurance to families at grassroots levels.

What also works are innovative healthcare solutions in the form of sachets offering preventive care like doctor teleconsultations, affordable health checkups, discounted medicine, group mediclaim and accidental covers and hospitalisation support related to claim processing and reimbursements. Similarly, more startups should work on innovative, inclusive initiatives to improve India’s health equity.

Also Read: Bolstering healthtech: Thailand’s bid to become Asia’s medical hub

The insurance industry, which has always been under the dark cloud of mistrust due to rampant mis-selling, is now seeing disruption and innovation with Insurtech startups driving the transformation by leveraging technology.

Hence, there is an ardent need for them to deliver quality service that they have promised to rebuild trust with their customers. However, a lot of work needs to be done to change long-held consumer perceptions. But it’s not impossible.

Thus digitisation has the potential to bridge the mighty healthcare gap and improve the quality, access and affordability of health services by penetrating at grassroots.  This can lead to public-private partnerships, the birth of indigenous start-ups, path-breaking ideas, and thereby more skewed investment in India’s healthcare and healthtech sector.  

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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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In a typical Silicon Valley startup, you look to start with an innovative product or service and then match that to customer demand, testing out your hypothesis with an MVP (minimal viable product) before seeking to scale up the business backed by VC funds.

The VC model seemed in decline during the crypto ICO boom years in 2017/18, when an ambitious whitepaper and an impressive founding team and advisors were enough to gain token investment.

But nowadays, as the world of DeFi, the metaverse and NFTs all usher in the Web3 world, that’s certainly not enough. Projects need to have purpose and be community-led, in a real sense, in terms of both governance and tokenomics.

As Maggie Hsu, partner at top crypto VC Andreessen Horowitz pointed out regarding the nature of Web3 projects earlier this year, “It means having a strong community, not just being “community-led” or “community-first,” but also being community-owned, blurring the distinction between owner, shareholder, and user. What allows for long-term success in Web3 is a clear purpose, having an engaged and high-quality community, and matching the right organisational governance to that purpose and community.”

That being said, how does the current practice of whitelisting, allowing early pre-sale access to NFT and DAOs, square with this Web3 vision? When there is an opportunity from being lucky enough to be whitelisted to make a significant short-term profit, is that right from the longer-term view of the project.

What is whitelisting?

Before we get into the expert discussion, let’s briefly consider the focus of this article. Whitelisting was introduced in the NFT space near the end of 2021 after NFT enthusiasts identified a critical issue during the launch of new projects.

Also Read: NFTs: The good, the bad, and the future

Before the concept of whitelisting became popular, NFT projects with a lot of hype were usually ‘botted’ on the mint day by NFT whales (people who hold large amounts of crypto), leaving little to nothing for retail investors. Using trading bots allows the whales to buy the NFTs before community members have a chance to buy.

As explained in the NFT Examiner, whitelisting is when a specific crypto wallet has been approved for minting a specific NFT.

“As an example, Neo Tokyo is a project where participants have to pass a test to become eligible to mint a Neo Tokyo Identity NFT. If they solve the challenge, they are added to the whitelist, allowing the participant to mint the highly sought after NFT. Without being on the whitelist, buyers could attempt to mint the NFT, but the transaction would fail.”

In the NFT world, whitelisting typically means that a crypto wallet address has been pre-approved for the minting of NFTs on specific dates and times.

Furthermore, due to the high demand for these projects, particularly on the Ethereum blockchain, there were usually ‘gas wars’, with transaction fees reaching thousands of dollars, which was a bad look for the NFT sector and hampered user adoption.

In addition, pre-approved users on the whitelist can spread out their minting so that they are not all transacting simultaneously, avoiding a sudden spike in transaction prices caused by demand. Most new NFT projects layout their whitelisting requirements on their respective

Discord servers, with different tasks and assignments ranging from chatting to a certain level, posting fan art, promoting the project on social media platforms, etc.

In some ways, it’s an evolution of the practice of ‘bounty campaigns’ used in the days of ICOs in 2017/18 to market token offerings by offering giveaways in return for tweets and Facebook likes to help promote the coin offering.

The lure of big profits

Of course, the popularity of getting yourself invited onto an NFT or DAO whitelist isn’t just about being part of an exclusive community, to be part of a long term Web3 project; for too many people simply a chance to make a quick buck.

In his video explainer on the power of whitelisting, YouTuber ‘_DB’ points out that if you get access to a pre-sale token, it usually sells between US$10 to US$20 or even US$30, though how much can vary according to the amount of hype behind a project; with a limit in the amount of pre-sale tokens typically set between US$1,500 to US$2,000.

The new NFT drop from the High Sloth Society (HSS) of 10,000 Elite Sloths recently organised a public sale that was sold out in 29 minutes for US$1.2 Million.

Also Read: 3moji aims to transform the way NFTs are used in metaverse with its composable avatars

The High Sloth Society NFTs started their public sale at noon UTC on the 28th of April. Then on the next day, they sold another 1,000 pieces at 0.08 ETH each at their whitelisting event.

“The High Sloth Society is a group of people that are no longer interested in money but want to focus on what money cannot buy. By owning a high sloth, the users are granted the opportunity to have a direct interest in the ancient artefacts. The Korean National Treasure is just the first one,” Leon Kim, Core Contributor of HSS, said.

What’s the benefit for the community?

The purpose of whitelisting serves two core purposes. The first relates to the fact that if you are going to have any degree of success, you need to build a community around a project. Achieving this involves driving online engagement through social media.

And using a whitelist is an excellent way to do this. For the user, it’s a way of getting preferential access to a project, providing an incentive for a community to rally around a project.

“It can be a really good way to start getting people again, like talking about things on social media, retweeting, commenting, sharing pictures, all that sort of thing, because if you if you make things obvious, then you’ll get like, you’ll get some pretty good organic traction,” confirmed Ben Baldieri, Director of a Web3 tech consultancy Disintermediate Ltd.

The future for whitelisting

The whitelisting method currently dominating the NFT space is relatively new. Therefore, while it’s successfully prevented botted NFT project launches and conserving gas fees, they need to be used with the community in mind.

BigONE Chairman Anndy Lian said, “While the whitelisting practice was founded on good intentions, it has been tainted by some bad actors in the NFT space; this ranges from over-stringent requirements for being considered for a whitelist to some Discord server moderators giving out multiple whitelist spots to their family and friends.”

“I believe that commonly agreed best practices for the NFT space are the logical next step forward to ensure all participants’ safety and security in this exciting marketplace. NFTs have a lot of potential as their utility develops from collectibles to allowing fans to connect directly with artists and creators and their role to prove ownership in the metaverse and GameFi projects. But as things move quickly, we need to ensure we get the balance right in such a fast-changing technology,” Lian added.

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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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Lazada receives US$378M from parent Alibaba
This is the largest capital injection since June 2020, when the company had received US$1.3B from Alibaba; Alibaba, which has a huge presence in SEA, is looking to expand into Europe; Alibaba already has AliExpress in Europe.

Indonesian used-car platform Moladin raises US$95M
Investors include DST Global, East Ventures, Northstar Group, and Sequoia India; Moladin helps agents and smaller dealers use tech to simplify transactions for selling used cars; It said it has over 40K agents and dealers across Indonesia.

Indonesian digital identity network VIDA raises US$47.7M Series A
London-based Hedosophia is likely the lead investor; Other backers are Alpha JWC, SEA Frontier Fund, YTL Corp., Endeavor Catalyst, and Breyer Capital; VIDA offers ID verification, legally binding and verifiable digital signatures, and verifiable credentials.

Animoca Brands leads US$24.3M Series A of gaming metaverse firm Untamed Planet
Untamed Planet plans to create metaverse games that immerse players in virtual worlds featuring wild natural landscapes wherein NFTs can be collected; The studio also secured a partnership with nWay, Animoca’s video game arm.

SG CRM startup Privyr raises US$6M
Investors include MassMutual Ventures SEA, Vulcan Capital, and Wavemaker Partners; Privyr’s CRM mobile app helps sales staff and businesses contact and convert leads into clients; It claims to have 45K+ sales professionals across 75+ countries.

Indonesia’s community-powered social job platform Atma nets US$5M pre-seed funding
Investors include AC Ventures, GFC, and individuals from GoTo Group, Ula, Lummo, Kopi Kenangan, MMS Group and Xiaomi;
Atma intends to build an end-to-end ecosystem that includes a job marketplace, an upskilling institute and a community-based support system.

New Zealand VC firm Global From Day One launches US$5M Web3 fund
GD1 Crypto Fund 1 will invest in pre-seed series A firms across verticals, including DeFi, DAOs, and NFTs; The fund has also sealed two deals that will see GD1 invest in companies backed by global VCs like Andreessen Horowitz, True Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins.

Carsome acquires WapCar, AutoFun to strengthen automotive content strategy
This follows its acquisitions of CarTimes Automobile in Singapore and iCar Asia; WapCar provides a full range of content which covers car exploration, transaction, and ownership experiences that aim to assist customers and car enthusiasts in their journey.

Carousell to buy Singapore fashion recommerce firm Refash
Carousell will leverage Refash’s network of 10 physical thrift stores across Singapore to help users sell their secondhand products in a shorter span of time; Refash has processed 5M+ pieces of clothing.

Play-to-earn gaming model bound to evolve, experts say
The primary objective of the emerging model will be to build games that are fun to play, where players will be incentivized for their skills and the number of hours they spend on the game.

Lazada faces backlash from Thailand for ‘insulting’ monarchy
The e-commerce firm released a promotional video, now-deleted, which portrayed a woman in a wheelchair wearing a traditional Thai costume, being accused of stealing her daughter’s clothes; Lazada has since issued an apology.

SG crypto firm Coinhako gets MAS nod for digital token services
The license allows the firm to operate as a regulated provider of digital payment token services; The company has more than 400,000 registered users in the city-state; Coinhako reported a total trading volume of about US$5.1B in 2021.

Chinese Tesla rival Nio eyes secondary listing in Singapore
Nio’s class A ordinary shares will be listed at US$0.00025 per share by way of introduction; The company is among a number of Chinese firms that have been found not to meet the US SEC’s regulatory requirements related to auditors.

YGG SEA to kick off US$37.5M token sale
The subDAO will initially offer 75 million SEA tokens worth US$0.50 each; SEA token ownership will give its community members voting rights on proposals, ecosystem reward allocations, features, and rewards systems.

UOB to inject over US$100K to greentech startups with new accelerator
The Greentech Accelerator will focus on energy efficiency, zero-waste supply chains, and carbon management and reporting; For its first cohort, it will take on 10 startups and SMEs for a three-month-long programme.

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Starting a business is hard. And scary too.

If we fail, we have to go through the rigours again. However, if we succeed, the fruits of our labour may well be worth it. Having mentored and trained thousands of entrepreneurs since 2016, I have realised that new business owners typically face this problem they create for themselves, and that is seeking perfection.

Please don’t get me wrong. Perfection is good. But it is often the pursuit of “it must be perfect the first time!” that made many new business owners stuck in their little bubble. Yet many do not understand that perfection is the end goal, not the starting line.

Before the pandemic, many business owners were afraid to go online because they did not understand the potential of having a digital presence and showcasing their business. It was ubiquitous to hear them say, “Digital marketing is for the big brands. They have the budget, and I don’t.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

Contrary to popular belief, digital marketing has allowed new and small business owners a much more levelled playing field with the big brands, allowing exposure on massive platforms.

Imagine this. A business used to need to pay at least five figures or more to advertise on traditional media like newspapers or television, but now, your business can be on anyone’s mobile phone screen for as little as US$2 a day. This is a game-changer.

Untapped potential in the digital space

Many businesses focus only on one aspect of their business, and it is usually one of these two. Their offering and marketing.

Those who focus on the former usually believe that they have the best thing ever and that everyone will buy from them, and they do not engage much in marketing. They don’t realise that if no one knows about them, no one will buy from them.

Also Read: What you need to know about digital marketing for the new normal

Those who focus on the latter will spend on marketing and sometimes neglect the value of their offer. But what they don’t realise is that if you do not provide the correct value to your customers, they won’t buy. In the rare instance they did, they will not come back again.

The sum of all parts makes a business tick, and there is a better alternative to address this issue for any business entrepreneur.

It is a well-known fact that 95 per cent of businesses fail within the first five years. While many contributing factors exist, offer and marketing are usually the prime culprits. I learned this as I experienced what it is like pivoting into a new business and career venture first-hand. 

My first-hand experience

I had a relatively stable life growing up. I attended good schools, had the freedom to pursue my interests academically, and I primarily did not need to worry about finances. As I found a stable career path in the military as a Naval Officer, I started to have fear, which is the fear of regrets.

That is why I left my stable career on my 30th birthday, which is a symbolic date to give me a second shot to give myself a chance to live life without regret.

After volunteering to help out a contact for an event pro bono, I realised that I had a knack for offer creation and marketing. The second round of this event was done to prove the process’s success, which paved the start of other opportunities coming my way.

Through this experience, I started to share how they can achieve such success with others. 

That is when Inbox Income Academy started and birthed my passion for helping others achieve success in their business. And very soon, I realised two things:

• Some people want to learn and do it themselves, and others want me to do it for them.
• I did not want to be a “trainer” with no real life and everyday experience.

To fill that gap, I started Inbox Consults. Now, I share up-to-date practices with my students in Inbox Income Academy, which I execute for my clients and myself through Inbox Consults.

Embracing failure and executing your business plans

These are the two lessons that have shaped my business today.

The first is to embrace “failures”, or as I prefer to call them, lessons learnt. More often than not, things do not always work in your favour in the first instance, and that is ok. What is important is that we learn from these episodes, improve upon what we need to do, and go for it again.

The second lesson is that while planning is important, execution is even more so.

In my years of military training, planning was drilled into me. We have the primary plan, the contingency plan, the back-up to the contingency plan, the what-if-the-back-up-also-fails plan.

Also Read: Diversity and inclusion marketing campaigns: Everyone, every day, forever

In business, if we only plan without executing it, nothing will happen. The execution brings results, and striving for progression and work towards perfection is part of the process.

A “soft love” approach

My SSG-approved program, “Soft Love” Launch Formula, is an acronym for sales, offers, funnels, traffic, leverage, offers, visibility, and execution. My framework and system are to help anyone start their business online and achieve more revenue online in 30 days or less.

Many people want to be able to start a business online, but they lack the system and knowledge to do so. I condensed my years of experience and proven track record into an easy to understand and implementable framework to help entrepreneurs and businesses head into the digital world and start making more.

It is clear that the future is in the digital space, and businesses that refuse to pivot will be left behind. But for the uninitiated, moving online could prove daunting. They need a proven framework that they can use to begin this journey, and SOFT LOVE Launch Formula provides that.

Final thoughts

For those who are looking for a change, ask yourself this question. “What is the best, probable, and worst-case scenario?” If the “worst-case” consequences are something you can live with, do it.

If you are content and happy with life, it is ok to stay where you are. There is no need to follow the trend, be an entrepreneur, or have a career change. However, if you are unhappy with yourself, do something about it. Your life won’t change unless you take action to change it.

If you are looking to do business online, I highly recommend that you learn from someone actively doing an online business. Online is a rapidly changing and unforgiving space. The pace of change is too fast. Something that worked just two days ago may not work today.

Have the courage to test out some campaigns, and do not be afraid to invest in advertising. Only when you do you will get data that will help you become better, and your business will grow the next time you do it. Once you are familiar with the basics, you can choose to work on your business and outsource the work to others and maintain oversight.

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Technology and artificial intelligence have transformed the educational landscape in recent years, creating a paradigm shift in education as we know it. Now ubiquitous in many of our lives, these technologies have become an integral part of the way we learn.

As AI solutions show increasing promise in supporting educational markets, online and tech-driven solutions have come under the spotlight in the fallout of the pandemic. Education institutions and classrooms worldwide are implementing edutech and artificial intelligence into their curricula, and the global edutech market is poised to reach US$181 billion by 2025 with increasing investments in AI to spur the development of technologies to support future educational needs.

With an increased need for dynamic learning strategies, educators have had to update themselves with new technologies and evolving pedagogies to cope with the learning needs of digital natives: their students.

But, the multitude of implications, applications and possibilities for AI in education remains vast. Still, one thing is for sure, the use of AI and edutech is now becoming synonymous with the future of education.

Unlocking the power of data

With the transition to virtual classes in the wake of the pandemic and the ever-growing use of technologies within the classroom, educational organisations now have access to a plethora of data and information on their students.

Also Read: How edutech is solving the global teacher’s crisis

Unlike the physical classroom, where data points on student behaviour and progress are limited to the observations of the teacher, AI can collect, organise and analyse learning behaviour and user interaction to determine current learning levels as well as uncover learning gaps and potential issues to be then raised to the educator. 

The data collected can then be used to create an adaptive learning curriculum that adapts to each student’s current learning progress. All learning materials and assessments can be customised and tailored to each student’s specific needs and levels to ensure efficient learning takes place.

Powering automation and simplifying administrative tasks

An educator’s workload never seems to end, and with the challenge of delivering high-quality learning materials digitally, AI has stepped up. By helping to automate time-consuming and tedious tasks such as attendance, grading, developing course content and tracking student performances, AI can help to ease the burden on educators. 

AI can be integrated with existing software platforms to provide automatic feedback and assessment results, automating repetitive processes such as marking homework and providing instant feedback on submitted work. This means less time spent manually entering grades or checking for plagiarism, which can free up valuable teaching hours.

Leveraging tutoring chatbots and use of NLP

In addition to automated systems, AI can also be utilised to develop intelligent tutors that can assist teachers in delivering effective lessons. These tutors can be programmed to respond to questions posed by students and offer guidance on topics they may not understand, all while keeping track of the student’s progress through the lesson. 

This allows learners to ask questions without feeling embarrassed and ensures that they receive the most appropriate response from the tutor. It also helps reduce the amount of unstructured time required for teachers to spend answering questions, thereby freeing up more time for teachers to focus on other activities. 

When combined with the other applications of AI, such as automatic grading and the generation of assessment questions, AI-powered tutors can provide immediate and real-time feedback to students.

With natural language processing (NLP), these AI tutors and chatbots hold conversations with users to assess student learning better, leading to improved knowledge and critical thinking skills through the use of question-and-answer to better gauge comprehension of learning material and reinforce new knowledge learnt.

Also Read: In this age of digitalisation, is edutech a bane or boon for educators?

Simply put, having an AI tutor in the classroom is akin to having a patient, relentless teacher who never gets tired, frustrated or bored and will never judge a learner for their nagging questions. 

Additionally, NLP features can also help educators better understand what is happening cognitively with their students. By analysing language use in the classroom, NLP can help identify and predict students’ mental states during learning.

When analysed in conjunction with data gathered from other student behaviour and activity, both the AI and educators can identify struggling students early on, leading to improved and timely support.

Becoming a classroom of the future

As technology advances, so too does the way we learn. The future of education is no longer confined to the traditional classroom; it’s online and accessible 24/7. By using AI to make learning easier, faster and more personalised, we are paving the way towards a brighter future for our children and youth.

To best utilise edutech and AI to provide a superior digital learning experience,  institutions and organisations should put proper thought into selecting tools after discussions with both technical teams and the educators on the ground. After all, the implementation of such solutions should only be for the betterment of students, educators and faculty.

No longer a distant notion, AI has come a long way since the term was first coined by John McCarthy at the 1956 Dartmouth Conference. Intelligent systems have become commonplace, a thriving innovation that’s taking us one step closer to the world of tomorrow. 

With the right kind of AI, edutech enterprises can shape the future of curriculum and the very culture of education and learning. AI’s prevalence is all around, and the possibilities are varied and endless, but it is up to educators to embrace it and use intuitive technologies to fuel the learning experience. 

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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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