Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the buzzword on everyone’s lips and the technology is expected to almost double the rate of innovation and employee productivity by 2021, according to a Microsoft and IDC study.

AI has widespread business benefits, not only in automating time-consuming and resource-heavy tasks but also in using predictive wisdom to inform smart decisions and increase efficiency. It is particularly beneficial to digital advertising, where it is becoming an essential differentiator.

AI can be used in a variety of ways to enhance an ad campaign, from detecting fraud and powering the programmatic bidding process to delivering precisely targeted, highly personalised data-driven messaging that resonates with brand audiences.

Using AI to personalise and localise ad messaging is particularly beneficial in a region characterised by diversity, allowing brands and advertisers to dynamically tailor their strategy to individual markets rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach. The use of AI in digital advertising is essentially joining multiple data points and interpreting the resulting patterns to identify and act on opportunities.

With AI for digital advertising still in its infancy in Asia, now is the ideal time for the industry to establish best practices and ensure its approach to implementing AI-powered ad campaigns allows it to make the best use of the technology as adoption inevitably accelerates.

Also Read: How to optimise adtech for the next decade

Implementing robust algorithmic architecture

The first step in implementing AI in advertising is to ensure robust algorithmic architecture. Traditional algorithms use step-by-step processes to achieve a particular result or solve a specific problem.

In theory, algorithms should be able to make better decisions than humans because they can factor in more variables and analyse them all in milliseconds to reach the right conclusion.

AI algorithms take this ability one step further because they have the capacity to learn from previous outcomes and therefore make smarter decisions, continually improving their performance through machine learning. Powerful AI can learn in real-time, refining processes, improving organically, training, learning and then adapting with minimal human intervention, enabling intelligent and accurate forecasting as well as data-enriched decisions.

For instance, a programmatic advertising AI– such as Adform’s Odin– can oversee the trading process, analysing when to bid as well as how much to bid, and learning from failed bids to continuously improve towards the perfect strategy.

Naturally, this ability to make increasingly intelligent decisions depends on the underlying structure or architecture of the algorithm. With AI, programmers do not need to code for every possible action and reaction as the system will identify all potential patterns for itself, but they do need to create sophisticated machine-learning algorithms that are fit for purpose, as well as impartial and free from unintended bias, which requires a high level of experience and expertise.

Also Read: AI-powered adtech platform ADBRO closes financing round with 500 Startups, eyeing APAC expansion

AI algorithms must be continually monitored, and their output verified, to ensure their function and subsequent learning does not become distorted.

Ensuring the quality and diversity of data  

In addition to establishing robust algorithmic architecture, the advertising industry also needs to ensure data quality and diversity as the output from AI is only ever as good as the information that trains and feeds its algorithms.

AI algorithms become increasingly effective as they are exposed to more data, so the advertising industry needs access to large volumes of information that are typically held in siloes.

It needs the technological capacity and infrastructure to handle these vast volumes of data, ensuring information can be accessed, unified, aggregated and analysed quickly and accurately enough to provide actionable insight.

But volume alone is not enough; the information must be sourced from across the entire digital advertising and marketing ecosystem and should incorporate multiple data streams to make it as diverse and representative as possible, enabling powerful, broad-based decision making.

And of course, the data used to feed AI algorithms in advertising needs to be of the highest quality. In a world where misinformation, inaccurate reporting, fraud and obscured signals are all too common, it is essential data is accurate, ethically collected, sourced from reliable providers and free from the bias of all kinds.

Also Read: An industry insider’s analysis of Indonesia’s adtech industry in 2019

Data must be current and refreshed regularly to ensure recommendations are based on the latest intelligence, not information that is hours or days old, allowing effective, real-time optimisation.

The use of AI for digital advertising in the APAC region is still relatively nascent, but it is about to escalate. AI is key to advertising’s data-driven future, but to make the most of its many benefits, marketers need to implement best practices now, leveraging knowledge, expertise and technological infrastructure to ensure the algorithmic architecture is robust and the data that feeds it is plentiful, diverse and of exceptionally high quality

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Switzerland-based World Tourism Forum Lucerne (WTFL) has announced the four winners of its Indian Start-Up Innovation Camp 2019, which was held in Bangalore on Wednesday.

The camp focused on talent, innovation, diversity and sustainable development within and beyond travel, tourism and hospitality industry

The winners were announced in the categories of ‘community’, ‘conservation’, ‘culture’ and ‘commerce’, in the field of travel, tourism and hospitality from the Indian subcontinent.

The four startups also received US$10,000 each along with a personalised two-year mentoring by industry experts.

Martin Barth, President and CEO, WTFL said: “Out of all the game-changing ideas by 200 startups that applied for Indian Start-Up Innovation Camp 2019, we are happy to announce the names of four most unique startups that stood out with flying colours.”

Also Read: ScaleUp Malaysia kickstarts the three-month programme with 20 Companies in its first cohort

“India has a niche product portfolio in the travel, tourism and hospitality sector and is expected to grow at a rate of 100 per cent by 2028. We are sure to make a mark and create awareness around the on-going environmental issues and look forward to holding more such engaging events in India in the coming years,” he added.

Below is the description of each winner:

F5 Escapes (Community): A Bangalore-based experiential travel company, with a focus on redefining the way women travel in India. F5 intends to put India on the global travel map as a preferred destination for women from across the globe. F5 Escapes offers fixed departure all-women group tours, customised itineraries for families, groups and solo travellers. It also does in-city engagements which include #JustGo travel meetups, workshops to educate women on travel safety, sustainable menstruation, and motorbiking.

Quick Ride (Conservation): It is a real-time ride sharing application for the convenience of consumers. It helps to connect daily commuters at one common platform and makes it economical, eco-friendly, social, safe and convenient to use for all.

NotOnMap (Culture): It is a platform that connects travellers to culturally rich remote villages after restoring houses, training, community members thereby creating an alternative livelihood for villagers and minimising unskilled migration.

Me Tripping (Commerce): MeTripping is an Intelligent travel search platform that helps in making the best travel decisions by making sense of the world’s data. MeTripping claims to solve this problem by launching a revolutionary travel search engine that can help users go “from desire to decision” in minutes. Users can figure out everything – destination, flight, hotel, and activities – within budget and on their travel dates.

WTFL is a platform for tourism, travel and hospitality companies meet to shape a more sustainable future for tourism. It provides decision-makers with insights into the core themes of the tourism industry and a global network. The platform also integrates startups, young executives and students into one programme.

Over the past ten years, it has evolved into a year-round network of leaders and innovators who are driving positive change in the travel, tourism and hospitality industries. This includes an influential network of leaders from the business, education, politics, finance and community sectors.

The camp was organised in association with IHCL and Tata Trusts.

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Look up, out of the weeds, and open yourself up to external help. You never know what simple advice can alter the way you run your company.

I am proud to say that Reach52 (formerly Allied World Healthcare) has now helped 50 communities access healthcare in the Philippines and Cambodia.

But while our goal to deliver low-cost digital healthcare to underserved communities was always clear, our pathway to this point wasn’t always as straightforward. Four years on, reach52 today is barely recognisable from the platform we first launched.

Our story started in 2015. I had worked with the UK Government’s National Healthcare Service (NHS) on various programmes to support the design and delivery of low-cost primary care digital services, so I understood the power of digital technology to deliver healthcare support to those underserved by the traditional healthcare system.

I believed that the same principles could support communities across Southeast Asia that lack access to care, so I left for Singapore with the idea to deliver essential primary care support in rural communities through digital apps, and new financing through private sector engagement.

Also Read: Why China should be the next market for your startup or scaleup

I gave myself six months to get the venture off the ground and invested the majority of my savings. The aim was to fill the gaps in existing government health support by providing access to a marketplace of affordable products and services (working with health businesses that wanted to create a new kind of impact, in heavily out-of-pocket paid markets).

At the end of six months, we had launched in the Philippines and had started to deliver this vision to address the need for affordable, accessible healthcare.

Version 1.0: A project out of control

Three years later, the simple idea that inspired the creation of reach52 evolved into a thriving social enterprise partnering with some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. But while the team had grown to fifteen people, we were still bootstrapping and growing with no proper investment capital.

As the company founder, I was very much involved in all the day-to-day activities because we did not yet have the systems or team in place for me to be able to step back and release control of the detailed operations and look at the bigger picture. It felt like a project that – albeit a successful one – was out of control and with an uncharted future. It needed better governance, and I knew this need could impact our ability to scale if not fixed.

I recognised reach52 had a lot of responsibility to those we had been helping and that, should we cease to exist, they wouldn’t have the tools to plug the gap we would leave. This sense of responsibility drove me to do everything I could to ensure the sustainability of our business.

Also Read: How can multinational startups administer employee benefits on a global scale?

We had an almost existential need for better, lightweight processes and structure, regulatory compliance, accounting, and onboarding programmes. It was clear for the future success of the business that I needed to look for external support and guidance. This was key if we were going to reach new markets and fully realise our ambition. It was clear we needed help to ‘level-up’.

External support

Recognising the need to focus my energy on learning how to scale reach52 sustainably, I began reaching out to other startups and looking into mentorship programmes in the region that could improve our internal operations, as well as give opportunities for new partnerships and scale-up channels.

In early 2019, we joined Facebook and IMDA’s accelerator programme. The six-month accelerator programme based in Singapore, offered direct feedback to startups and access to methods and structures to help companies like us level-up.

The programme included business and product training, mentorship, and opportunities to meet potential partners and customers. Alongside ten other startups, we went through three intensive weeks of training aimed at helping us build the necessary foundation for a sustainable business, including building human resources processes, creating effective branding, capturing consent and enacting compliance standards.

Out of the weeds

While being part of the accelerator programme on a whole was valuable, I could not have foreseen that one three-hour course, in particular, would fundamentally alter how I run the company.

Also Read: Social entrepreneurship is key to sustainable and inclusive growth in Asia

The course was about product management road-mapping and showed me a really simple and effective way to sort through the seemingly thousands of tasks and responsibilities and prioritise steps to reach the core objectives for our product. I learned methods to map out clear steps for setting targets, templates for reviewing our business, and steps to iterate our product. And importantly, the course showed me the importance of linking business value to results.

I could see clearly how to get out of the weeds to reach my target goals. It had all clicked into place for me. Armed with a few simple techniques learned in the span of just a few hours, I had refreshed calmness and confidence in how to execute my ambitions.

The lesson

While the business model of reach52 is unique, I am sure that I’m not the only business founder who has found themselves so bogged down in day-to-day tasks that they are unable to clearly visualise their business’ future; sucked into low-value tasks instead of strategic priorities.

I imagine there are hundreds of people across the region who are in a similar position – as it’s a phase many businesses go through, and while some work through it, others are unable to ever progress.

My recommendation to startup founders who find themselves overwhelmed is to be realistic about what your company needs to grow and don’t sit idle waiting for clarity. Seek out external guidance or learning opportunities and apply for programmes that will help you achieve your ‘aha’ moment. Couple this with working insane hours, being visionary but ruthless when needed, relentless enthusiasm, and a good sense of humour — startups aren’t so hard.

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Ant Financial acquires a sizeable minority stake in Vietnam’s e-wallet eMonkey- e27

Ant Financial, an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, has acquired a sizable minority stake in Vietnamese e-wallet eMonkey, says a Reuters report, citing three unnamed people aware of the deal.

With this deal, Ant Financial is attempting to gain entry into Vietnam with a population of nearly 100 million people, a quarter of who are under 25. Vietnam has one of the fastest-growing e-commerce markets in the region.

The Chinese fintech giant will have significant influence and provide technical expertise to the e-wallet.

Ant Financial has already obtained operating licences from the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV).

Animoca appoints Raymond Shuai as finance director- Press release

Animoca Brands Corporation Limited has appointed Raymond Shuai as the finance director.

Shuai has over 17 years of experience in finance and industry. His professional career began in 2002 at Deloitte & Touche, followed by JP Morgan in 2004, then Ambrian Partners from 2006 to 2008, where he gained substantial experience in audit, operations, fundraising, M&A, and IPOs, and advised corporates listed on the London Stock Exchange.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and was a CFA Charterholder from 2006 to 2014.

OYO appoints Ankit Gupta as COO to lead Frontier businesses for India and South Asia- Press release

OYO Hotels & Homes, announced the appointment of Ankit Gupta as Chief Operating Officer & SVP – Frontier Businesses, OYO India & South Asia.

This appointment comes as a part of the company’s efforts to continue to invest in and attract world-class leadership, to drive innovation and growth in the company. Frontier businesses will comprise OYO’s self-operated hotels (OYO Townhouse, Collection O, SilverKey), student housing and co-living and OYO Home businesses.

Ankit has over 14 years of experience and is entrusted with the responsibility to strengthen and consolidate existing opportunities in the co-living, student housing, self-operated hotels, and rental homes businesses of the company.

He has moved on from a 14-year long tenure at McKinsey & Co where, as a tenured Partner, he was the global leader of their real estate transformation practice with a mandate to drive P&L impact improvement (scale & profitability) for real estate clients.

Facebook acquired a startup to build a live shopping feature- Bloomberg

Facebook Inc. acquired a small video-shopping startup earlier this year to help build a live shopping feature inside the company’s Marketplace product, according to a person familiar with the plans, said a Bloomberg report.

The social media company bought Packagd, a five-person company founded by Eric Feng, a former partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and most of the startup’s team joined Facebook in September.

Packagd was building a shopping product for YouTube videos. “Think of it as a re-imagination of QVC or a home shopping network,” Feng said in a 2017 interview with Bloomberg Television’s Emily Chang.

The acquisition by Facebook wasn’t announced, but the small team is now working on a project for Marketplace, which would let users make purchases while watching live video broadcasts.

Facebook tested a similar product a year ago in Thailand, though that effort didn’t include a way to buy merchandise directly from the video and has been shut down, a person familiar with the matter said.

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Cross-border e-commerce sales poised for explosive growth: Visa Study [press release]

Online businesses see a world of opportunity for cross-border sales.

According to a Visa Global Merchant eCommerce Study (GME Study), e-commerce leaders globally view international expansion and finding new cross-border customers critical to driving growth, particularly heading into the prime holiday shopping period.

While a vast majority of leaders (87 per cent) surveyed believe expanding cross-border e-commerce is one of their company’s biggest growth opportunities, almost all Singapore business owners (96 per cent) agree that having an international presence is key to their company’s success in the years ahead.

Today, two in three businesses (66 per cent) that sell online have international customers. These sales account for nearly a third (31 per cent) of those business’ revenues. Even with the significant revenue from cross-border sales, more than half (51 per cent) of companies who are selling to international customers need help to optimise their international online sales processes.

Oikocredit leads US$5M Series A funding of Kaleidofin [press release]

Kaleidofin, a neobank for the informal sector customer in India, has closed an INR 360 million (US$5 million) in Series A round led by impact investor Oikocredit.

Existing investors Flourish, a Silicon Valley-based VC firm, and Omidyar Network India, also invested. Blume Ventures, angel investor Prof. Shlomo Ben-Haim, and Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund, also joined.

Founded in 2017 by Sucharita Mukherjee and Puneet Gupta, Kaleidofin provides curated, goal-based financial solutions to customers in the underbanked segments using proven financial planning and wealth management principles. For each customer, Kaleidofin begins with understanding the financial goals of the household, its main sources of financial vulnerability, preferences, and tolerance toward financial risk.

It creates individual ‘personas’ of households through multiple sources of information, such as the demographic profile, income sources, asset ownership, among others, to tailor specific financial solutions for its customers.

Seekify raises US$1.5M seed funding from Sequoia India [press release]

Customer experience SaaS platform Seekify has raised US$1.5 million in seed funding as part of Sequoia India’s rapid scale-up programme Surge.

Nishant Rao (Founding Partner at Avatar Venture Partners), Gaurav Agarwal (1mg) and Sameer Maheshwari (HealthKart) also participated.

Seekify is now available in Beta for enterprises – and the company has started multiple pilots with customers across the world. With the funding, Seekify will invest in building technology and hiring new talent across functions.

Seekify can be easily integrated with different software of businesses, allowing them to aggregate all the data that drives their customer experience. The platform helps teams to set clear goals and KPIs, providing data-driven insights using AI and ML.

Finally, it automates the workflows needed to improve the customer experience – hence closing the loop. Overall, the goal is to simplify the complexities of CX and deliver great customer experience through innovative technology.

Hong Kong gets its first virtual lender ZA Bank [Finews.Asia]

ZA Bank, co-owned by ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance and Sinolink Group, has launched to become the first virtual bank to kickstart services in Hong Kong.

According to its CEO Rockson Hsu, the name ZA represents a reversal of alphabetical order which is a reminder to ‘think out of the box and view things from a different perspective’.

ZA Bank said it would offer interest rates of 1.4 per cent for one-month Hong Kong dollar deposits and up to 2 per cent for three-, six- and 12-month deposits.

Dable Partners with Malaysia’s Malaysiakini to provide personalises content recommendation [press release]

Dable, a content discovery platform, has entered into a partnership with Malaysia’s independent news platform Malaysiakini.

With this partnership, Dable will provide a personalised content recommendation solution on the
Malaysiakini (Chinese) website, via a widget. The service will help increase the site’s traffic and boost article consumption by feeding readers with content they are interested in.

Dable is a startup based in South Korea that uses Big Data and personalisation technologies to analyse the media content consumed by visitors in real-time and provide quality, personalised recommendations.

 

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Luxury lifestyle brand Oxwhite has raised RM5.02 million (US$1.2 million) via pitchIN to become the largest ever equity crowdfunding campaign in Malaysia.

The company raised the funds from 485 investors and also attracted the largest individual crowdfunding investment of RM1.09 million (US$260,000). Well-known digital marketer and entrepreneur Vince Tan also contributed.

With this, Oxwhite smashed the record of Commerce.Asia’s MR5 million raised via the same ECF platform in 2017.

CK Changr, CEO of Oxwhite, said: “The 485 investors who have come on board will help us push out our brand further into the market. We will be using the money raised to launch new products and I am certain that our new ECF investors will serve as our brand evangelists.”

Also Read: How top e-commerce platforms are fuelling Philippines’ online economy

As per a press release, the campaign that ran for just two weeks garnered over RM11 million in investment interest. It subsequently went live for seven days, during which it achieved its RM5 million funding target from RM3 million in ECF investments and RM2 million in private placements.

CK Changr, CEO of Oxwhite, said: “In just over a year, Oxwhite grew to nearly RM5 million in sales. We are growing very fast and capital was needed to fuel our expansion plans. Our first choice was equity crowdfunding with pitchIN because we wanted to give our loyal customers the chance to be part of our growth story.”

“Together with my fellow Co-founders ZiKang Tai and Jave Ho, we take this opportunity to thank the investors for the overwhelming support. We will build the next chapter of the Oxwhite story with them. Oxwhite will be launching new product lines that will strengthen our position in the industry,” he added.

Sam Shafie, CEO of pitchIN said that Oxwhite has set new standards in the running of successful ECF campaigns. “The Oxwhite campaign was well planned and skillfully executed. The response from interested investors was overwhelming. Oxwhite surpassed the previous most backed campaign by more than 120 investors; setting a very high bar for the next big ECF deal. Coming at the end of the year, the Oxwhite deal fittingly closes what has been a very explosive growth year for pitchIN. We have surpassed the targets we set ourselves for 2019 and credit goes to great companies such as Oxwhite.”

Also Read: This startup took only 38 minutes to achieve its US$720K crowdfunding target

The Oxwhite campaign is the 18th successful deal on pitchIN in 2019. Five deals are currently live on pitchIN, Malaysia’s leading equity crowdfunding platform.

In October last year, online marketplace for P2P financing Fundaztic raised RM3 million (approximately US$720,000) within 38 minutes of the launch of the crowdfunding campaign on pitchIN.

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Terra, blockchain payment network that offers a price-stable cryptocurrency, has marked its expansion to Singapore with the appointment of Rahul Abrol –Uber’s former APAC Head of Strategy– as Head of International and Strategy.

The new venture in Singapore will be its Southeast Asia hub; it will also hire locals to drive localisation. It plans to have a strong root in the country before branching out to countries such as Taiwan and Thailand in 2020.

Terra said that its expansion is its way to grow its on-the-ground network through strategic partnerships with local businesses. This builds on Terra’s existing e-commerce alliance, which includes 25 partners across Asia, such as with Carousell, Qoo10, and Rakuten-owned EBATES.

Terra will also launch its stablecoin-powered mobile payments app in Singapore in early 2020. Terra uses stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency which is price-stable and pegged to real-world assets such as the Singapore dollar, that can fund ongoing discounts without burning investor dollars like the usual investment models in most e-commerces.

Also Read: Blockchain startup Terra gets funding from HashKey Capital, to expand alliance in Asia

The global blockchain race

It is estimated that by 2027, 10 per cent of global GDP could be stored on blockchain technology, according to the World Economic Forum.

Responding to that, Abrol said in a press statement, “There is a global race among nations to embrace blockchain payments and Singapore has all the right elements to lead the charge. It is not only welcoming of the technology but created clear regulatory frameworks so emerging companies can thrive.”

He added, “My focus in 2020 will be to replicate our success in Korea internationally and Singapore is the perfect springboard to help us realise this. Beyond attracting key local talent, we also plan to acquire the applicable license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore under the Payments Service Act. We have already launched in Mongolia and aim to have operations launched in five or more countries within the calendar year for 2020.”

Recent moves from Terra

Terra co-founder Do Kwon explained to Bloomberg that its partnership with South Korean mobile payment app CHAI has resulted in transaction volumes of US$54 million within four months of its launch.

CHAI enables consumers to pay for items online by adding their bank account. It is available on TMON, one of the largest e-commerce platforms in the country, to all of Terra’s e-commerce partners.

Also Read: How Terra aims to get people to use its price-stable cryptocurrency

According to a separate statement by Terra, CHAI’s approach is similar to the user experience of PayPal. It already partnered up with 15 major local banks to facilitate convenient fiat on- and off-ramp.

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Image Credit: Terra

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It is common knowledge that 90 per cent of startups fail due to a range of reasons: misreading market demand, weak founding team, poor communication, wrong product, wrong time; and or running out of funding or personal money are a few of these.

What do the 10 per cent of startups that succeed have in common, though?

Success factors of startups are timing, team/execution, idea, strength of business model, and funding, respectively. One of the common characteristics of startups that succeed is joining accelerator programs.

Last week, after spending over two months at AppWorks, I experienced Demo Day as batch #19 graduated. I observed 18 startup founders pitch their ideas in front of 1000 people from around Taiwan and SEA, from corporate leaders to investors, and the media industry.

This Demo Day gave me a chance to observe the change in founders and their teams from the early days of the accelerator program.

Here are my key takeaways

• Be passionate about what you do and show that you care, as founders are the most important factor in whether a startup grows or stops growing. Business models, markets, customers change; only founder qualities are the constant. Founders that can execute tend to be: Motivated, passionate, decisive and exhibit humility.
• Be proactive. Help is always there, you just have to reach out for it. People are willing to give feedback and share their own experiences. Alumni network connection, mentorship from industry experts, coworking space, recruitment, and many more resources provided for free can take your startup to the next level.
• Get a mentor as early as possible. They don’t require any monetary benefits and they are willing to guide you through your entrepreneurship journey. One-on-one mentorship provided by partners helps you focus on things that matter, find the right connections and urge you to think bigger and motivate you to do more. I saw teams improve dramatically as a result of the right mindset.
• Build long-lasting relationships. Being a founder is a challenging path with lots of ups and downs. The environment of like-minded startup founders helps you overcome obstacles of entrepreneurship. Not only local founders but also founders from other countries felt home in Taiwan because of building meaningful connections with people in this ecosystem.
• Work and have fun in an environment where people are valued. Whether you are a successful startup founder or a first-time entrepreneur, local or a foreigner, you are treated with the utmost respect and great hospitality when you work in an accelerator. Every Friday night founders come together as one big family over dinner and fun activities. This results in building strong bonds, connecting with new people, and feeling respected. People don’t naturally do this if there is no focus on values. It’s instrumental to socialize in this way where your core values are being addressed.

Based on what I have personally witnessed, I agree that startups have higher chances of succeeding after joining accelerators.

Also read: Why dyslexia makes me a better entrepreneur

The teams I met with every day learned from other entrepreneurs, were guided by experienced mentors, and leveraged resources provided to grow their businesses. They were exposed to media, potential partners and investors on Demo Day, but they were also nurtured with access to all of these tools even before the big moment. This constant exposure and the constant ability to calibrate and focus their aims is instrumental to their success, in my opinion.

Most importantly, they learned about the entrepreneurial mindset and made long-lasting friendships with like-minded people. Just like the minerals that take stressful compression of billions of pounds of pressure and develop it into a valuable resource, these founders emerged from their accelerator period ready to shine like diamonds, too.

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On an estimation, there are 582million entrepreneurs in the world. This count keeps increasing every day with the rapid growth of technology, trends, and inventions. While science is taking its steps towards 5G, Internet of Things, BlockChain, Artificial Intelligence, and Deep Learning, people are moving forward in entrepreneurship.

In the year 2016, around 25 million Americans were found to be business owners or startup entrepreneurs. Currently, 62 per cent of US billionaires are the best example of the word ‘entrepreneurship.’

The web has fascinating statistics and stories on the success of these doers. About 22.5 per cent of these failed during their startups. With such facts, newcomers earn motivation to climb the stairs of success.

Kickstart entrepreneurship

The main goal of entrepreneurship is being successful and never stopping at anything. It does not emerge from starting a venture and making it work in the very first attempt. You cannot get over every hurdle from the start. In the world of today, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, and J.K. Rowling are the inspirational examples of entrepreneurs.

Fame comes with struggle, and starting a new business can be extremely difficult without the right plan. None of these could be iconic stars without following proper strategies.

The rise of this word comes up with the idea of starting a personal venture that one can own. While you begin to dream passionately about something, you often try to make it possible. Serious people always estimate their dreams, and entrepreneurs make sure to afford them as well.

For this reason, you often find characteristics that build up men and women entrepreneurs. Of these categories, some are essential.

Characteristics of entrepreneurs

You may come across enormous characteristics of startup men and women entrepreneurs. Being passionate and flexible is essential for anything that you do. However, an overview of these can help you know if you can grow quickly or not.

• It is crucial to be self-motivating, for no one comes up to push an entrepreneur rather than you. You can only be successful if you know how to get up after every failure.
• An important point involves the estimation of one’s own self. You need to make sure of your abilities and provisions. Unless you are assured of what you are offering, you may not be able to stand at the right point in the market.
• Being risky for an entrepreneur is logically necessary because some strategies you apply for the first time. At the start of the business, you may take little steps but later on, you sometimes make a jump for better results.
• An entrepreneur is dependent on networks and connections a lot. You cannot move across the market without increasing your circle. Individuals connected together in a startup need to communicate for better working.
• Having enough knowledge about the market carries weight. It is because one needs to know the right plans for investing money. You may only be successful after an investment if you know where to invest.

How to become a successful entrepreneur

Mixing up between characteristics and strategies is not considerable. Every startup entrepreneur does not succeed for the first time due to different reasons. The rate of new entrepreneurs in the US from 2000-2017 is varying.

This rate is increasing every day with a maximum number of failed startups. You can find every individual working hard but tactics are crucial for the growth of a business.

Making sure of separating the personal and business account is essential for professional deals. If you work on a startup for shopping deals in UK, and your shopping revenue gets deducted from your official account, cost estimations can go confusing. Moreover, you may come across a situation that can be cost-inconvenient.

Manage your money

Rather than leaving everything on your bookkeeper, try to keep a record of every purchase. Men and women entrepreneurs need to make sure if their accountants are getting proper information about the business. Once you miss the records of some transactions, it is messy to catch up with the current dealings.

Financial clearance and understanding is the most important part of a business. Entrepreneurship demands responsibility, and so does a startup venture. Learn to analyse the finances of your business for solving them if a situation occurs. Keep a daily, weekly, and monthly check for better results.

Opting for cheap is opting for expensive

Using discounts and vouchers for shopping is acceptable; however, utilising these to invest less in your own business is wrong. Opting cheap items can be costly when an entrepreneur has to proffer them to a customer who trusts. It is necessary to estimate your budget and then select the business you wish to start.

Value in the market adds to success in the industry. Entrepreneurs need to estimate their value proposition. Once you realize how your business is going to add value to the customers, only then will you be able to market your provisions. Always vend something impossible to find elsewhere.

Customer service

Every business individual must keep customers as the utmost priority. Henceforth, work on your customer service. Frequenters often return back if they are treated pleasantly during their very first visit. The team of a startup entrepreneur must fulfill every desire that a customer comes up with.

According to Statista, about 70 per cent of startup companies fail due to different cited reasons. 42 per cent of these were not needed in the market, while 17 per cent lacked a business model. It results due to the scarcity of planning and wrong decision making. Being an entrepreneur is not difficult at all. But sometimes, it comes up as easy as falling off a log.

The most successful entrepreneurs started from scratch only to come up with Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Oracle, and much more. Therefore, there is a lot entrepreneurship can give you only if you opt for the right way.

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Ruangguru, Zenius and IniBudi are dealing with the country’s education challenges head-on and taking steps for a better future

Access to quality content is one of the biggest challenges in the Indonesian education sector. Whilst students from upper-middle-class families in Jakarta can afford private schools with excellent facilities and well-qualified teachers, their peers who go to underfunded public schools have to be content with outdated facilities and underpaid teachers.

Meanwhile, university entrances are getting more competitive each year. Going to cram school –known as bimbingan belajar or bimbel – has become the obvious next step. Studying in bimbels operated by a big franchise cost about IDR 10 million to IDR 30 million (US$708 to US$2,125) per year, a sum not afforded by the middle- and lower-middle classes.

So, how have startups answered this clarion call?

Zenius.net is one of the most notable names in providing study material via desktop and mobile devices. Bringing the bimbel experience online, Zenius has free and paid membership for students who wish to study without having to sit in a classroom. It offers free material in the form of PDF files containing a compilation of problem sets, whilst the paid materials are videos explaining basic concepts.

When it comes to teaching methods, Zenius stresses the importance of understanding, with an aim to provide a ‘great learning experience’ for students.

“Every child is born with the intrinsic motivation to learn,” says Wisnu OPS, CEO of Zenius.

“But this motivation is somehow lost in our current education system … Taught by teachers with no better understanding of the concept than them. We want to bring it back by encouraging fun learning, and to make sure that they really understand the concept, not just memorise things,” he adds.

Similarly, IniBudi.org (“This is Budi”) also provides online content that students can access for free. Named after a popular character that seems to appear in every textbook, the website has its own team that produces videos explaining concepts as taught in schools, but in a fun and engaging way.

Apart from content based on the national curriculum, IniBudi also creates videos of professionals talking about their jobs. “If you visit schools across the country, and you ask students what they want to be when they grow up … The answers are most likely ‘a policeman’ and ‘a doctor’. Not that it is bad. But we want to show them that there are many more options out there,” says Wilita Putrinda, Managing Director of IniBudi.

Putrinda also explains how the startup complements its digital activities with offline engagement by talking to teachers and parents about educational issues, and most importantly, how to use the products.

“In the future, we would also like to branch out to mobile apps and paid content,” Putrinda adds.

Meanwhile, Ruangguru.com (‘Teacher’s room’) takes on a different angle in helping students achieve desired results. Started in 2014 as an online marketplace for private tutors in various school subjects, the company now brands itself as an end-to-end solution provider for educational needs.

“We are about to launch an online test platform for students undertaking final examination and public university entrance tests. It has always been a challenge to find a comprehensive collection of past exam question lists [for students to practice with]. We are planning to distribute it for free first, in order to make it accessible to everyone,” says Ikhsan Rahardian, Business Associate of Ruangguru.

Also Read: “If you can make it in Indonesia, you can make it anywhere in Southeast Asia”

It takes a village

The 2010 census revealed that 50.21 per cent of Indonesians live in rural areas. As remnants of the centralistic New Order regime, there is a wide disparity of development between Jakarta as the centre of all economic activities and many other places across the archipelago.

To be able to reach out to students in rural areas is certainly one of the challenges startups have. IniBudi answered it by creating ‘Dukung Belajar’, a programme where it distributed flash disks containing study material to students in the Western Southeast Maluku regency.

The flash disks were gathered through crowdsourcing, whilst the distribution was conducted in partnership with Indonesia Mengajar, a non-profit movement that recruits, trains and assigns volunteers to work as school teachers in rural Indonesia.

“We have the content, in (the) form of videos … These videos cannot be played without (the) Internet and there is very limited Internet in the area. The government had this programme where they installed WiFi in schools, but the router only works for 30 minutes a day. Meanwhile, Indonesia Mengajar knows these areas well, and they know how to reach these students. It was a very great form of partnership,” Putrinda explains.

By utilising the Internet, Zenius too is able to reach out to students in rural areas. The CEO could not contain his excitement as he told this author about a photo tagged by one user on Twitter. It was of a young girl working on a laptop in what seemed to be a paddy field.

“Our survey showed that we are able to reach about 20-30 rural areas. Mobility definitely helps people to get Internet access, even with our current phone penetration number,” he says.

But how about those with no Internet access?

Putrinda painfully recalled the time when the team visited a village in Ujung Kulon, Banten province. After talking to a group of students about IniBudi, one student raised her hand only to tell her, “But the Internet cafe is too far away, ma’am!”

Lack of Internet access is not only a problem for those living in rural areas. In an interview with BBC Indonesia, Teguh Hartanto, Head of Poverty and Development Study, Institute for Economic and Society Study, Faculty of Economics, University of Indonesia, stated that migration has caused a shifting of lower income citizens from the rural to urban areas. This indicates that even in big cities such as Jakarta, there would be students who would be too poor to own even a feature phone.

Rahardian admitted that in answering this particular challenge, Ruangguru has to begin by taking small steps. By partnering with a government-run child sponsorship programme, the company gives a percentage of its revenue to help support education for needy students.

“We keep on thinking of new ways to contribute,” he promises.

This leads to a concern that startups can only contribute as far as the nation’s infrastructure can allow them. “In order to make the programme succeed, it has to be supported from the offline side. We cannot rely on the online side alone,” says Putrinda, stressing the importance of a 360 degree approach.

Also Read: Indonesia wants to accelerate its gaming industry

Does this mean that there is no happy ending for the story?

Apparently not.

In May 2015, Indonesia’s Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Rudiantara, announced that the government will continue the Universal Service Obligation (USO) programme after a brief hiatus. The programme, which consists of providing phone and Internet services to rural areas, is a means to narrow down development disparity between each region in the country.

“By far there are at least 50 regencies that have not been reached by optical fibre network. Not only in the Eastern part of Indonesia, but also across the nation,” explains Rudiantara. “Using the budget for USO, we encourage operators to contribute in this programme,” he adds.

Good news also comes from the other side. “I have recently been informed by Google Indonesia that there is a 200 per cent increase in views for educational videos on YouTube. There is indeed a strong interest from the public to see more of this (initiative),” concludes Putrinda.

There is definitely hope for the future.

Image Credit: Flickr

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