How Propine aims to convince the private equity industry to disrupt itself

When e27 sits down with blockchain-based fintech startup Propine, it had been a month since the company was being selected to take part in a sandbox programme by Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Founded by CEO Tuhina Singh and CTO Wong Liang Zan, Propine offers services in the form of a full-service custodian for blockchain-based digital assets.

“We exist to reduce the friction in the close-bordered capital movement to increase efficiency in the capital market. We cannot do it by ourselves; we are building an infrastructure to enable other innovators to be able to build such innovative solutions,” Singh explains.

“For example, we are working with a company that is trying to come up with a new type of bond issuance which will create opportunities for startups investors which had never existed before,” she adds.

In the long run, through their works, Singh states that Propine seeks to disrupt the private capital market.

“The public market itself is already very efficient … there are lower hanging fruits to be picked in the private market,” she stresses.

The irony of the private market, according to Singh, lies in the fact that it is ripe for disruption.

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“Private equity companies tend to invest in companies that are disruptive to the traditional industry. However, it seems to me that they are being kind of slow in disrupting themselves. It is oxymoronic and it is only a matter of time until they get disrupted themselves,” she says.

“Eventually, there will only be the top firms who are able to justify the illiquidity of their LP interests. Most of the companies cannot justify it and they will have to go the tokenised route,” the CEO sums.

Promoting the mission

But how does Propine promote its products and services to these private equity firms? How do they build the awareness that change is necessary?

Singh states that the company did not play a very active role in promoting itself until very recently, dubbing itself one of the most “under-the-radar” in the space.

“We had zero marketing activities and we just focussed on getting the job done first. It was only after we get into the sandbox that we realise, ‘Okay, let’s start focusing on marketing and advertising,’” she explains.

Singh describes their marketing strategy as becoming the “super early adopter” in the space –an approach that involves practical steps such as doing a speaking engagement at events.

“We’re not focussing on large blockchain conferences; we’re focussing on talking to real stakeholders, striking to the heart of it,” she stresses.

But before making an outward move such as promoting their work, the company first needs to make sure that they have the right foundation for it. To achieve that state of readiness, Propine puts emphasis on the importance of focus.

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For Singh, these are some of the most crucial lessons that they got during their time in the sandbox.

“On a company level, there are so many opportunities that are coming our way. The most important thing is to be able to say no and focus on the reason why we exist,” she says.

“For example, there are four different types of tokens in the market: Cryptocurrencies, utility tokens, asset-backed tokens, and security tokens. We need to be able to say no to the three of them and focus on security tokens. It makes sure that our resources are being focussed, even though we do have the tech capabilities to support all of them,” she further explains.

Next steps

Moving forward, in addition to launching services for their new clients, Propine Capital is also looking forward to growing their team.

One of the key elements in growing a team is making sure that the people who are leading the team are sharing the same value as the company itself. This is another reason why having a clear focus is crucial, and Propine Capital achieve it through implementing objectives and key results (OKRs).

“We need to ensure that the same value is being propagated by every single person that is making decisions on a daily basis in the company … We started by implementing OKRs in a very generic way before adapting it to the company’s needs to ensure that everybody knows where the direction is,” Singh elaborates.

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Image Credit: Propine

 

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