As the world recently commemorates International Women’s Day on 8 March 2024 and will continue to do so throughout the entire month of March, it is a fitting moment to reflect on the strides made in promoting diversity and inclusion (D&I) within the corporate landscape.

Having delved into this crucial topic extensively in previous articles and media interviews, the discussion predates the formal celebration of International Women’s Day. In the ever-evolving dynamics of workplace culture, these initiatives have evolved from mere aspirations to becoming the bedrock of progressive and forward-thinking organisations.

Setting the stage: Company goals and principles

Diversity and inclusion are not just corporate buzzwords (I truly hope organisations will stop capitalising on this for self benefits); they represent the foundation upon which thriving, innovative, and harmonious workplaces are built.

Companies, guided by principles of fairness and equal opportunity, aspire to cultivate a workforce that mirrors the rich tapestry of the communities they serve. The core principles involve embracing differences, eliminating biases, and ensuring equitable treatment for all.

Initiatives to bridge the gap

Translating these admirable goals into tangible actions is crucial for our success. Diverse hiring practices, unconscious bias training, mentorship programs, inclusive leadership training, and regular diversity audits on pay equity are among the essential initiatives. These measures transform diversity from an abstract concept into a living, breathing part of the organisational culture.

Also Read: Invest in women, accelerate progress: Why gender equality matters now more than ever

Real-life triumphs: Shaping the future of work

With a career spanning over 13 years in the human resources sector, I have been an active participant in the unfolding narrative of diversity and inclusivity within various organisations. The stories that emerge from these experiences weave a tapestry of transformation, illustrating the profound impact of initiatives to foster diversity.

Prioritising diversity in talent management has proven to be a beacon of creativity and innovation. By intentionally hiring employees from diverse backgrounds, I have seen companies that have not only expanded their talent pool but have also witnessed a surge in fresh perspectives and creative problem-solving. The workplace becomes a melting pot of ideas, each contribution unique and valuable in its own right.

I have also seen organisations that are committed to impact sourcing and hiring, where they set specific percentage targets as yearly objectives and find themselves undergoing a remarkable metamorphosis. The deliberate pursuit of diversity, reflected in the tangible commitment to change, fosters an environment where inclusivity is not just a goal on paper but a lived reality. This commitment propels organisations toward a more vibrant and diverse future.

With the advent of Women in Tech programs, designed to support the growth of women in technology, they extend beyond empowering individual female employees. They become catalysts for a more inclusive and innovative tech industry, breaking down barriers and reshaping the narrative of a traditionally male-dominated field. The success stories of women thriving in tech roles inspire a new generation of talent, transcending gender stereotypes.

In the context of leadership, providing opportunities for women and ensuring proportional representation on the board becomes a pivotal plotline. As organisations embrace diversity at the highest decision-making echelons, the impact is profound.

The boardroom transforms into a space where various voices and perspectives are heard, leading to a more balanced and effective decision-making process. The empowerment of women in leadership becomes a beacon, guiding organisations toward a future where leadership is synonymous with diversity.

Amidst these stories, a common thread emerges – the commitment to equitable salary structures. Implementing fair grading and benefits reinforces the fundamental principle of treating all employees fairly and equally. It becomes a cornerstone of an inclusive workplace, where everyone, regardless of background or identity, is recognised and rewarded based on merit and contribution.

Also Read: Buy from her: Elevating women’s entrepreneurship

These stories collectively serve as tangible evidence that diversity is not merely a lofty goal but a tangible catalyst for creativity, innovation, and, ultimately, business success. As we navigate the evolving landscape of workplace culture, these narratives underscore the importance of embracing diversity as an ongoing journey, one that transforms organisations into vibrant and inclusive spaces where every individual can thrive.

Sustaining the momentum: Practical advice for organisations

The journey toward diversity and inclusion is perpetual, requiring organisations to strive for improvement and evolution continually. To maintain and grow these initiatives, I recommend the following key steps:

• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and metrics: Establish a range of KPIs and metrics to assess D&I efforts. This could include workforce diversity metrics, retention, attrition, and promotion rates, representation in leadership roles, pay equity assessments, and regular employee surveys.
• Diversity in recruitment: Regularly assess and improve diversity in recruitment processes, ensuring that the talent pool represents the broader community.
• Commitment to inclusivity: Embed the commitment to creating an inclusive work culture into the organisational DNA. This involves not only setting policies but also fostering an environment where every employee feels valued, respected, and empowered.

In conclusion, embracing diversity and inclusion is not just a moral imperative but a strategic business decision. By fostering an inclusive culture and continually refining strategies, organisations can create workplaces that not only reflect the world’s diversity but also drive innovation, creativity, and sustained success.

March celebrates women’s voices and drives change globally, from Women’s History Month to International Women’s Day. In conjunction with that, let us recommit ourselves to the journey of creating workplaces where everyone has an equal opportunity to thrive.

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Eric Ries popularised the term “Minimum Viable Product (MVP)” in his book The Lean Startup. The concept refers to creating a basic version of a product with the minimum features, just enough to satisfy early customers and gather feedback for future development.

Prioritising speed and cost allows companies to validate their assumptions, test hypotheses, and refine their product based on real-world data and user insights as soon as possible. It also allows startups and product developers to test their ideas quickly, enabling them to learn from real user interactions and iterate based on that feedback.

As such, the MVP approach has become an important principle in modern product development and entrepreneurship.

That sounds like the logical thing to do, right? But here lies the issue.

We had the good fortune to be accepted into multiple incubators. Making an effort to receive as much help as possible for our journey, I also made the effort to connect and to know as many mentors as I could on Linkedin. However, I quickly realised that many of them did not even understand the concept of MVP. 

An MVP should be minimal. But it should also be viable. Many mentors or so-called experts focus on the word minimum but forget about viable. 

Take, for example, what is considered alive. A dog, a cat or a bird are obvious examples. Even children can do high-level definitions. But when it comes to viruses, you will realise that there is a lot of debate among microbiologists. Only if you understand the concept well, your space, and your competition can you decide what your MVP should constitute.

Also Read: Daniel Tan: Banker turned fintech founder, finding opportunity in crisis and market inefficiency

The US Air Force in 1996 estimated the F-22 programme could overrun its budget by US$15 billion. Many engineering projects go over budget because it is impossible to forecast exactly how long it takes to build something.

A different understanding of how a simple website function works between frontend and backend developers alone could have a cascading effect on how other functions are interpreted and, therefore, the time needed.

We did not have enough for the project, and when asking for help to raise funds to complete it, the word build an MVP was thrown around far too often. Nailing everything down to a high degree will, by itself, ironically require months of effort and, thus, cost. 

Reid Hoffman said, “I believe starting a company is like jumping off a cliff and assembling a plane on the way down — your willingness to jump is your most valuable asset as an entrepreneur.”

And sometimes that is what exactly we need to do.

We were building a loan marketplace, and in Singapore alone, we were at least the fifth claiming to be one. When the product was just ready enough to demonstrate the underlying concept to onboard the lenders, we got a rude shock that many lenders were so sick of hearing about yet another marketplace that many of them did not even want to hear us out.

With much effort and gathering the testimonials of earlier onboarded lenders, we were able to show that to subsequent lenders we were trying to onboard, and it helped so much more.

We have begun onboarding lenders even before the MVP was fully built to overlap things and go to market faster. We rehearsed the presentation and demonstrated the capabilities of the platform by carefully navigating the website to show pages that demonstrate what borrowers and lenders can do while avoiding the pages with bugs or not built out. As a result, we were able to attract a good number of lenders while trying to complete the MVP, allowing us to overlap things by a good 6-9 months.

All these would not be possible if we had not stubbornly insisted on what should be constituted as our MVP instead of listening to them. Many tried to guide us by asking us to remove this and that. The reason why lenders were so sick of hearing about other loan marketplaces was because most of them were just tech-enabled brokers but still brokers.

If we had removed many of the functions that allowed a borrower to apply with multiple lenders at once, allowing for back and forth all with a middleman, we would have been just another tech-enabled broker or broker and never be able to onboard the lenders.

Also Read: Depression was the best thing that happened to me as a founder; here’s why

Only if you understand the concept well, your space, and your competition can you decide what your MVP should constitute. It should be differentiated and viable while trying to strike a balance between cost and time to market.

I suspect the issue lies with how incubators recruit mentors. With the boom of the tech scene, many incubators, etc., began to pop up, and next thing, it became a fight to showcase the most exciting names in a bid to draw startups in. Senior directors from banks, insurance companies, marketing gurus, you name it, they got it.

While leaders have their own rights and many things we can learn from them, they don’t necessarily understand startup principles or the particular space you are in, or worse, don’t want to. 

A friend who is the community manager of a large chamber with thousands of members lamented to me about decreasing engagement rates when they started splitting it into chapters run by chapter leaders. I asked how the chapter leaders were nominated. Do they have the know-how, interest or incentive to create activities, engage the chapter’s members and be a bridge to agencies? 

Just like many founders start a company for the wrong reasons, and there are many articles and conversations about it — I believe that is not enough conversation (someone should write another article!) on what it means to be a mentor and how to be one. If teachers have to go through years of training to teach, the least incubators need to do is to ensure the mentors have the correct motivations and not joining just to elevate their branding. 

As the saying goes, no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care. So, founders, stop listening to mentors who tell you to build an MVP until they bother to listen to you first.

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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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Singapore-based B2B startup Ailytics, which utilises AI-powered video analytics solutions to help heavy industry companies enhance their operational safety and productivity, has secured US$2.7 million in oversubscribed pre-Series A funding, led by Tin Men Capital.

The funding will fuel the startup’s expansion into new markets, such as Hong Kong, the Middle East, Japan, and Oceania and R&D efforts.

Also Read: B2B tech startup-focused VC firm Tin Men Capital makes first close of Fund II

Ailytics was founded in 2021 by CEO Wei Zhuang (Lenard) Tan and CTO Prateek Manocha.

The startup’s proprietary solution taps on existing cameras to provide real-time actionable insights into unsafe acts, productivity metrics, and security breaches. It can provide 3D dimensions using a 2D video feed from any single camera, which enables the deployment of complex use cases such as calculating the danger zone under heavy load and a fixed radius around hazardous equipment.

According to Ailytics, the solution can be deployed with high accuracy using existing low-resolution cameras, even in harsh environments, making it suitable for dynamic environments found in construction sites and manufacturing plants.

The B2B software startup’s solutions have already been implemented in over 70 projects, integrating with over 1,000 cameras spanning four countries and multiple industry verticals. It has enabled customers to reduce the need for manual inspections by up to 50 per cent while increasing hazard detection by up to 7x. It has reduced or eliminated bad behaviour, downtime from audits, stop-work orders and fines.

Ailytics clients include Jurong Town Council (JTC), Woh Hup, and ST Engineering.

“We would also be able to increase our R&D efforts to build the next generation of Video Analytics solutions, powered by Large Vision Models (LVM) capable of handling complex domain specific tasks,” said commented Zhuang (Lenard) Tan.

Also Read: Hard for VCs to influence the success of B2C startups beyond capital, advice: Murli Ravi of Tin Men Capital

“Regulators of construction and manufacturing are imposing stricter safety standards in these industries. Non-compliance leads to delays, penalties, and revenue loss. Rising labour costs and a tighter skilled labour market are posing challenges too. The right technology can drive productivity and serve as a reliable tool to safeguard workers lives by detecting and preventing accidents,” said Jeremy Tan, Co-Founder of Tin Men Capital. “Ailytics’s solutions have shown impressive results in reducing accidents, downtime, and boosting productivity.”

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X marks Echelon. Join us at Singapore EXPO on May 15-16 for the 10th edition of Asia’s leading tech and startup conference. Enjoy 2 days of building connections with potential investors, partners, and customers, exploring innovation, and sharing insights with 8,000+ key decision-makers of Asia’s tech ecosystem. Get your tickets here.

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Having worked in the blockchain industry, Dipesh Sukhani and Emmanuel Antony witnessed firsthand scalability issues related to Web3; these issues could inflate operational costs by up to 30 per cent and take a devastating financial toll on smart contract exploits that often exceeded US$1 million.

The duo believed that a platform capable of providing robust testing solutions was necessary to address the critical security and efficiency gaps.

“BuildBear Labs was launched as a response to these significant challenges,” co-founder Sukhani tells e27. “We were convinced that Web3 is the future of technology as we observed the market’s palpable shift in this direction. It motivated our mission with BuildBear Labs.”

Also Read: Web3 development tools startup BuildBear Labs nets US$1.9M funding

Founded in Singapore in 2022 by Sukhani and Antony, BuildBear Labs seeks to make the Web3 space more accessible and secure for developers. Its main product is the Phoenix Engine, a specialised automated & continuous testing engine (ACTE), which empowers developers to build secure, scalable, and interoperable dApps, mitigating the risks of post-launch fixes and fostering higher user adoption rates.

“Imagine it as a highly-skilled test engineer that continuously checks your work for any mistakes or vulnerabilities, ensuring everything runs smoothly and securely before your project goes live. This is crucial because, in the blockchain world, a small oversight can lead to significant losses or security breaches. This is what Phoenix Engine does,” he elucidates.

Providing a sandbox environment

The engine transforms how developers approach Web3 development by providing a sandbox environment for testing applications under real-world conditions without risking assets or security. Sukhani claims this approach ensures scalability, performance, and cross-chain compatibility.

From a business perspective, the Sandbox “significantly” enhances the capabilities of Web3 development teams by enabling the creation of tailored private testnets. It allows teams to conduct comprehensive and realistic testing of dApps in a secure, isolated environment.

Also Read: Web3 needs novel prevention tools for novel attack vectors: AI saves the day

By offering features that simulate real-world blockchain conditions, including network states, smart contract interactions, and cross-chain functionality, the sandbox empowers developers to rigorously test dApps for scalability, performance, and compatibility issues.

Sukhani claims that BuildBear Labs has already created over 8,100 sandboxes, with a 19 per cent month-over-month growth rate in active users.

Ensuring the security, integrity

BuildBear Labs takes the security and integrity of its testing environments seriously, he says. The firm plans to integrate advanced security measures and form partnerships with industry leaders like RemixIDE, Scaffold-ETH, Cookbook, Catapulta, and Loki.Code, and SolidityScan.

“Through these collaborations, we’ve incorporated cutting-edge security practices and tools into our Phoenix Engine. This provides developers with a secure and comprehensive platform for testing their dApps,” he remarks.

Amidst the abundance of opportunities, BuildBear Labs faces several challenges. “As the Web3 landscape rapidly evolves, we face challenges like adapting to new technological advancements, navigating the ever-changing regulatory environments, and ensuring our platform remains accessible to developers of all skill levels without compromising on advanced functionalities. Addressing these challenges head-on is essential for leveraging our unique position in the market. It’s our mission to drive innovation and cement our status as a pivotal force in simplifying and enhancing the process of blockchain application development.”

The Web3 startup recently raised US$1.9 million in funding co-led by Superscrypt, Tribe Capital, and 1kx, with participation from Iterative, Plug-N-Play, and angels. The money is being used to deepen to expand its core team with top-tier talent and its global footprint, particularly in the US.

Also Read: How AI and blockchain collaborate for a transparent Web3 future

In the upcoming months, BuildBear Labs will introduce a series of developments and advancements to “solidify our role” in the Web3 development landscape. It includes enhancing the Phoenix Engine with new features, integrating advanced analytics for deeper insights into dApp performance, and expanding its collaborative efforts with industry leaders to incorporate cutting-edge technologies and methodologies.

Web3 losing sheen?

Once the hottest vertical, Web3 seems to have lost its sheen largely due to scalability, user experience challenges, and regulatory uncertainties. However, the last few months have signalled a promising shift, he says.

“With Bitcoin reaching an all-time high, we’re witnessing the Web3 market start to heat up again, underscoring the enduring interest and confidence in decentralised technologies. As someone deeply invested in the potential of Web3, I’m optimistic about its resurgence. The comeback will be fuelled not only by technological advancements and clearer regulatory guidelines but also by increased mainstream adoption and strategic collaborations within the ecosystem. This renewed momentum and the convergence of efforts across the sector suggest that Web3 is poised for a significant comeback, ready to redefine the digital landscape in ways we’ve only begun to imagine,” Sukhani concludes.

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X marks Echelon. Join us at Singapore EXPO on May 15-16 for the 10th edition of Asia’s leading tech and startup conference. Enjoy 2 days of building connections with potential investors, partners, and customers, exploring innovation, and sharing insights with 8,000+ key decision-makers of Asia’s tech ecosystem. Get your tickets here.

Want more from your Echelon experience? Be an Echelon X sponsor or exhibitor. Send enquiry here.

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