My startup Sleek accomplished its important goals, but the path taken was unexpected

The article was written by Julien Labruyere, a serial entrepreneur based in Singapore. If you would like to contribute an article, follow this link.

Whether it is January 1st or Chinese New Year, this time of year always invites reflection about the year that is wrapping up.

Since growing a startup makes you feel like you’re moving in hyperdrive, I’m amazed when I think back about what I wanted to do back in Jan/Feb 2018 with my startup, Sleek.

It’s funny – did we end up getting to where we wanted to? Yes, almost to the dollar, revenue-wise.  Did it look anything like we expected?

Not at all.

We planned one roadmap of where we wanted to go, then wound up at the same destination but from a very different route.

When my cofounders and I sat down to make a business plan for this year, that plan contained assumptions that were fairly wrong compared to what we know now.

To illustrate – here’s three resolutions I made as a startup founder at the beginning of 2018 that didn’t turn out anything like I planned.

Grow our tech team

Sleek helps entrepreneurs and investors with their company secretary and accounting needs, all online. Central to our services is an cloud-based platform that means people based in Singapore (and overseas) can incorporate their company from wherever they are. We wanted to create an easy, intuitive interface (don’t we all!) and so we needed a solid technology/development arm of our business.

This is a tricky one. In December, our technology/platform team was seven strong, up from four at the start of 2018.

What’s unexpected is that no one from our core tech team from the beginning of 2018 is still with us. We’ve had 100 per cent turnover of our development team.

Some have left for larger companies, some were interns that finished up their time with us, some we exited on good terms. The plan was to have a great team — and I think that we do — it just wasn’t smooth and incremental.

The current team has been rebuilt from the ground up and I would say it’s stronger than ever now – I just wasn’t expecting it to look like this.

Also Read: Top 10 mobile app development companies in Singapore

We have also brought in two senior guys, who are just in a different league to our initial team members. I’ve learned this year that having talented developers isn’t the whole game. Having some great product managers, designers and veterans with the skills to manage a team goes a long way in keeping the dev team focused, engaged, and supported, so that they have everything they need to get their best work done.

To me it also shows just how strong the tech scene in Singapore is right now. Tech talent is scarce and everyone is scrambling to hire devs. This means that resources are in demand, which can sometimes lead to friction, big egos and expectations, and occasionally complacency.

Build a flourishing marketplace of accountants in Singapore

When we began in 2017, our core offering was online company secretary services to disrupt the conservative paper-based industry. But we quickly found that once people had incorporated, they were also on the hunt for an accountant.

We didn’t have the capacity in-house and wanted to focus on doing one thing really, really well – and so our solution in 2018 was to build a marketplace of accountants that we could connect customers to, and take a margin off the services rendered. We thought, let’s get a range of different accountants – from startups through to ex-Top 4 CPAs, something to match every type of business.

Our goal was to get to 100 accounting clients? Did we get there? Yes – but we completely ditched the marketplace model along the way.  The classic startup pivot!

We had the demand, but in the end we realised that although we were passing the work onto the accountants, we were still accountable for the quality since it was sold under Sleek, and because of that accountability, we were still very much involved… way more than we should have been given the margins we were making.

Since the accountants offered came with Sleek branding, we knew we needed to deliver on our brand promise of quality; the price, commitment, and level of engagement that we had made us think, ‘this is not going to scale’.

So we took a different route and took it all in-house. Now we can control the quality of our output. And since then it has been crazy.

In less than five months, we have a team of eight, 100 clients and, thanks to the great work of our Accounting & Tax Practice, we have been consistently delivering great work, with great commitment. There’s a great synergy between the corp secretary team and the accounting team, and the result has been great customer service to our clients.

Daily one-on-ones with my employees

When I became CEO I instituted daily 1-on-1s with different staff of the company every day. I’d first heard about it on a podcast, and I thought it would be a good way to spend more time with my staff. I wanted to prioritise getting feedback from the team, since they’re the people on the front lines, growing the company.

So I thought ok, let’s do it. At the same time every day, I’d be catching up with someone – taking a meeting room, or have coffee in the sofa area, not with any precise agenda, just catching up and hearing what they had been working on and what was on their plate.

But I noticed after about two months – that was about two cycles through everyone in our company – that my time was getting too fragmented, and I felt like it was harder getting into the ‘flow state’.  Yes I was getting more feedback, but it also made my agenda feel hectic.

Overall I thought, “I’m not doing better as a CEO because of this”. I knew I needed to retune things.

I dropped the one-on-ones. Instead I’ve moved to weekly Friday lunches with small huddles of 4-5 people from across the organisation. I’ve made it clear to the team that they always have my time, if they need it. If there’s a topic, put a time in my calendar, but if there’s no topic – skip it and let’s save it for lunch.

Also Read: 15 more awesome startups that will be apart of TOP100 APAC 2019

I still get ideas and feedback from the ground – and I’ve noticed that there’s also the benefit that colleagues have the opportunity to catch up with people they mightn’t necessarily get to talk to every day, so there’s a lot of cross-company team building.

People don’t know as much about each other as I expected, we need to do more to encourage the team to talk to each other — especially in a place like Sleek with massive diversity of jobs, nationalities and cultures. I’ve found that when they know each other, they like each other, and work better together.

In terms of feedback I feel like we’ve gone from nothing (no structured feedback) to something that didn’t really work well, to something that I feel works.

It’s progress.

The road to success is non-linear, but I’m proud of where we are now. Do I have resolutions for 2019? Definitely… but that’s a topic for another time.

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While there are a lot of potential benefits from blockchain, the industry’s branding is a real anchor to growth

The stratospheric rise of Bitcoin and accompanying cryptocurrencies like Ethereum has certainly helped garner a significant amount of attention for blockchain, the technology that underpins such mediums.

Blockchain – an open source, peer-to-peer, and distributed ledger which is virtually unhackable and theoretically has the power to do away with intermediary bodies like central banks and regulatory agencies – is predicted to have a profound impact on the way ordinary humans go about their everyday lives. Applications of the technology range from fintech to agriculture with even the media and music businesses predicted to benefit.

Futurists are excited about a world of blockchain as it could iron out many of the trust deficiencies we have with the internet and other legacy institutions. But why are we not seeing a more rapid dissemination of the tech and why are consumers growing increasingly wary of companies building products on the blockchain?

Cryptocurrency gold rush

The introduction of initial coin offerings (ICOs) — the process where companies choose to crowdfund upcoming projects by issuing their own tokens on the blockchain — was meant to democratize access to potential riches. No longer would hungry venture capitalists have their pick of a slice in up-and-coming companies; members of the public could buy tokens and see the value of their investments rise over time.

This utopian vision fit in directly with the wider ideals of blockchain: to facilitate the growth of a true peer-to-peer economy and cut out intermediaries who often had access to more opportunities than others.

Unfortunately, the absence of a robust regulatory mechanism has contributed to the dampening attitudes around both cryptocurrencies and ICOs.

Scams are rife. Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges have constantly been targeted by hackers, with a recent heist causing about $60 million worth of losses. A Finnish bitcoin millionaire lost $35 million to scammers in Thailand and a brief search on the topic will reveal dozens more. It’s a similar story with ICOs with many just vanishing into thin air after duping small-scale investors of their hard-earned cash.

Such events have prompted a wave of criticism from some of the world’s most renowned academics in business and trade. Nouriel Roubini, professor of business at New York University and former economist at the World Bank, likens Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies to the ‘mother of all bubbles’.

Also Read: Three startup resolutions I made that did not work out the way I expected

Governments have followed suit. China completely prohibits the trade of cryptocurrencies and others, like South Korea, restrict it to a high degree. The United States has preferred to take a ‘wait-and-see’ approach, with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) examining an approach to view tokens in the same lens as securities.

Are blockchain projects dying a slow death?

Despite a dampening outlook, it’s clear that blockchain is here to stay. Companies looking to circumvent traditional methods of funding need to learn how to distinguish their ICO projects in order to build trust and credibility with the public.

Any company can cobble together a landing page for their ICO and spend some money driving traffic towards it. But does that engender trust? A carefully orchestrated public relations campaign requires a lot more effort and rapport but it brings legitimacy to the table, a trait that new companies woefully lack.

The fact of the matter is that the current climate around blockchain automatically conjures up images of manipulative hackers and sordid cybercriminals. That’s not the fault of well-intentioned founders, who might be sitting on an idea that could radically transform the way humanity functions. Unfortunately, unless they adopt the right approach this idea could very well end up castigated to the annals of history.

Planning for a better future

A hurried approach towards ICO planning and marketing reeks of a short-term approach. If founders don’t actively try to bring clarity to their vision and elucidate the problem they’re trying to solve, then it’s impractical to expect the public to warm up. After all, almost everyone thinking about investing in an ICO is carefully monitoring the space and is aware of the rampant scams that exist. Why should they trust you, a complete stranger

That’s where brand building comes into the equation. Earned media is infinitely stronger than simple advertising; that’s because consumers have a certain degree of trust and affinity with the newspapers or publications they choose to read. A nuanced description of a forthcoming ICO can do much more in inculcating positive brand image than a fancy landing page outlining the background of the founding team.

A well-defined communications strategy is the bedrock of any young company looking to break out by launching their own ICO. That’s why it’s referred to as ‘earned’ media; by earning the trust of a publication you’ve automatically earned the trust of its readership. Yes, this is difficult and requires time. Be prepared for tough questions about your business plan and why you’re confident about the product. Why should people invest in you when things could fall by the wayside?

Also Read: 15 more awesome startups that will be apart of TOP100 APAC 2019

But nothing worth having comes easy. To set yourself up for long-term success it’s important to break through all the noise and invest the time and money that it will take to position yourself as different to the crowd.

Credibility and trust may be intangible metrics, but they are invaluable in ensuring the long-term viability of your company. That’s the foundation you should aim to build upon.

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The new batch focuses on boosting growth with the support of US$25,000 investment from the accelerator

Myanmar-based Phandeeyar Accelerator just announced the acceptance of five tech startups to join its third batch in its innovation lab. Each business will receive up to US$25,000 in investment as well as six-months-long mentorship, training, coaching, access to a network of venture capital investors and services from strategic partners including Amazon Web Services and Facebook. Plus office space.

Entering the third batch, the program focuses on companies with technology that it believes can change and develop Myanmar. These companies are mostly helmed by early-stage founders and they provide new digital products and services, contribute to social and economic progress in the country.

Also Read: IOT-based bike-sharing service GOWES launched in Semarang, Indonesia

The businesses in this third batch are varied from art, agriculture, construction, real estate to fashion. Here they are:

Asia Art Connect

Asia Art Connect is a marketplace site to sell local artists’ works from Asia to the international market. It seeks to support Myanmar Art industry with tech support while also selling and renting paintings and other art-related services.

Hivephing

It is a company that’s aimed to help blue-collar workers in the construction industry by connecting projects with masons, carpenters, painters, small labor groups, and professionals through an online marketplace.

Hydro Plant

The company is offering hydroponic and aquaponic farming technology to farmers in all levels. The company also supports those who want to grow vegetables in affordable price, efficient technology, and accessible place.

Nay Yar

It is a site that provides accessible housing options for rental with monthly affordable payments, targeting people who have low or middle income by avoiding the market practice of paying large fees in advance.

One Sett

It is an online tailoring marketplace sourced by Burmese tailors who cannot afford to open their own shops. It also includes people who lack marketing knowledge or a large network to help them gain a better income stream.

Also Read: Top 10 mobile app development companies in Singapore

According to João Dutra (Kyaw Aung), Accelerator Director at Phandeeyar, this year’s diversity of sectors shows the transformation of tech startups in Myanmar. “Every year, there is a new generation of startups changing the way many economic sectors work in Myanmar. Many people are already using their services, and thousands of people in Myanmar and abroad will benefit from them as well,” he added.

The first batch ever of Phandeeyar Accelerator was launched in 2016. Since then, eleven tech startups have graduated and four of them have already received follow-on funding from local and international investors.

Most notable alumni are Chate Sat, Ezstay, GoP, MMTutors, NextCode, and Shwe Bite.
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Photo by Maria Bolgiani on Unsplash

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Gramener augments human intelligence by extracting insights from heterogeneous data sources and converting them into memorable stories for decision making

Recent reports have highlighted the alarming rate at which species are being categorised as endangered. India has high-profile cases of endangered species like the Bengal tiger, Asiatic lion or the red panda. This environmental crisis requires cutting-edge solutions that can track and help combat the loss of biodiversity.

New-age technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have the potential to find solutions to problems such as these.

Data science company Gramener could probably help in this regard.

This Singapore- and US-based firm has created a deep learning AI application that, for example, can track salmon and fish populations over time in order to detect changes in the habits and decline of the salmon species — making what used to be a labour-intensive effort into an automated tool.

“Our purpose is to augment human intelligence by extracting insights from heterogeneous data sources and converting them into memorable stories for decision making,” Gramener Co-founder S. Anand tells e27. “We help organisations and clients analyse data and consume insights. We build custom Big Data analytics and visualisations on our platform and bring expertise to data, design and business.”

Gramener was founded in 2010 by Anand (CEO), Naveen Gattu (COO), Mayank Kapur ( CDO) and Ganes Kesari (SVP– Analytics & AI Labs).

“Data generation and analytics are not sufficient for making decisions. Automated insights and narrative stories not only help you consume data easily and consistently, but also help cross the analytics chasm. Humans don’t  understand data or models innately. Design principles derived from an understanding of human perception help visualise these and absorb their implications subliminally,” Anand observes.

Also Read: Is data science still among the sexiest jobs of the 21st century?

In addition to helping organisations and government agencies to address pressing environmental issues, Gramener’s products are also used by companies across various other sectors for various purposes, including:

Financial services: Offers a suite of data visualisation and analytics solutions for retail banks, corporate banks, investment banks, asset management, insurance and regulatory bodies.

Retail and consumer goods: Offers retailers, malls, consumer goods and product companies visual analytics for in-store insights, product and channel performance, as well as optimizing supply chain performance.

Healthcare: Helps pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, clinics and healthcare providers visualise sales performance, improve the service operations, and communicate better with customers and channels.

Agriculture: Helps agricultural, commodity and food organisations analyse and visualise data on their purchases, identify factors driving productivity, and forecast prices for improved inventory management.

Marketing: Helps marketing teams understand customer behaviour, uses this to segment customers based on their actions, and recommends product, pricing, or promotions for each closely defined segment

HR: Offers solutions for corporates to improve their talent recruitment, performance improvement and attrition defense – using text analysis, Machine Learning, data visualisation and narratives.

Media: Partners with various media organisations for digital content and data journalism, data-driven market research, communication through infographics and consumer insights via advanced analytics and visualisation (In the Assembly elections in India in 2018, the company worked with a leading TV news channel for election analytics).

“A leading print media organisation approached us for a solution that could automatically tag the three million images it hosts with the people (faces), objects and texts present in the images. We worked with them, and now it has a scalable web service that lets users upload images and accurately recognise people, objects and texts in the images within seconds,” he shares.

The company has also worked with ‘Microsoft AI for Earth’ and ‘Nisqually River Foundation’ to automate identification of fish species. Gramener’s solution processed the video feed from the cameras, extracted images, and classified the type of fish based on a pre-trained neutral algorithm. The interface allows  biologists and non-technical users to interact with ease.

“Our products are deployed in critical business functions in Fortune 500 enterprises, government and non-profit organisations across the world to solve complex business problems and enable business users towards data-driven leadership,” shares Anand, himself a data scientist and a Gold Medalist from IIM Bangalore.

Anand reads three key trends in the market — data visualisation, cognitive research and business-driven analytics. “Data visualisation is no longer in the realm of pure numbers. Text analysis is relatively mature and is being applied routinely to various problems. Even a pure text corpus like The Mahabharata (Hindu mythology) can be visualised. Images, audio and video are rapidly becoming analysable and visual sable.

Secondly, cognitive research. What we know of the human eye and brain is increasingly making its way into practical visualisations. For example, most men can name only 11 colours (women can name about 15), but can differentiate between over a million colours when placed next to each other. So, while a heatmap that places regions adjacently can be coloured with millions of shades, a bubble chart should have 11 colours at most. Such rules of thumb and now baked into the software people build for data visualization these days.

Thirdly, business-driven analytics. Analytics is shifting more towards business users or consumer driven, this has been the evolution,” he explains.

But data science business is a challenging industry. Visual analytics requires a combination of statistics, programming and design. Finding good people with one of these talents is hard. The combination is near impossible.

“Another challenge is the longer sales cycle. Almost every person on the business side understands the value of analytics instantly. Once we hit the next stage of sales closure, however, there is the learning curve around how to classify Analytics (software? service? consulting?) and how to price it (by number of users? reports? templates? rows of data?). We spend a fair bit of time educating our enterprise customers and evolving our commercial models,” he adds.

Although bootstrapped, Gramener has been operationally profitable from the third year of its inception. “We have proven ourselves in the enterprise market with various customer accolades, analyst recommendations. We have devised value driven engagements models, GTM strategies scalable with partners and stickiness with our clients.”

Gramener is now looking to raise growth capital, and is having conversation with a few chosen partners, who can “enable our growth plans and be part of our growth story”.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

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Harshwardhansinh Zala, who claims he has received many offers from abroad, wishes to help the armed forces through his technology

What were you doing when you were 14 years old?  At this age, I was still struggling with Maths and Science in the 9th grade.

But this wonder kid from the Indian State of Gujarat was already working on a revolutionary drone when he was this age. Now 16 years old, he has fully developed the drone, EAGLE A7, which can detect and destroy landmines, minimising  the risk of losing human lives.

Harshwardhansinh Zala, Founder and CEO of Aerobotics 7, the company behind EAGLE A7, claims that this drone can go from, say the Indian army base station, to the path where it has to go and detect the landmines. After detecting the landmines, the drone will send the information back to the base station. The landmines can be viewed real-time and destroyed real-time without human risk, he told in an interview to The Quint .

“We have developed the entire technology using raw materials and multi-spectral landmine detection technology. It is now under the process of international patent registration. We can detect landmines through different wavelengths,” he said to the publication, adding that this technology is not available anywhere else.

The model is currently under the process of international patents registration.

Also Read: Drones will revolutionise these 3 industries, so watch out

Aerobotics 7 was founded by Zala when he was 14 years. The startup’s mission is to make the “most innovative and advanced products for a better life”. Its main focus is designing and developing life-saving drones.

Zala, who claims he has received many offers from abroad, wishes to help the armed forces through his technology. He said he has got partnership offers from South Korea, the US, France, Dubai and Thailand.

“We have got offers to establish our company there. We have been ensured funding as well. But, given the number of jawans (soldiers) being martyred (due to landmines) in our motherland, if I can develop this technology to serve the Indian Army and the CRPF, I will be glad,” he said.

The child prodigy is also the winner of the “International Peace Award” (Billion Acts Hero Award 2017).

Zala had sealed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Gujarat government at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in 2017, and bagged a deal worth INR 5 crore (USD4700,000) for the production of his self-designed drone.

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SEAF Women’s Opportunity Fund (SWOF) is joined by CyberAgent Capital and other investors in funding e-learning solutions KYNA

KYNA, an all-age e-learning solution, has announced its second investment from CyberAgent Capital, who was joined by SEAF Women’s Opportunity Fund. Previously, KYNA receives the first round of investment in April 2016 from Cyberagent Capital.

KYNA has shared that it will use the new funding for growing Kynaforkids.vn. The startup claims to have attracted more than 150,000 parents paying for its Math and English programs.

Also Read: 16-year-old Indian prodigy has developed a drone that can detect and destroy landmines

“This funding will help KYNA fostering new product development, upgrading technology infrastructure, learning experiences, and gaining new market share,” said Tram Ho, Co-founder and Managing Director of KYNA.

In five years, KYNA claimed to have attracted more than 600,000 users in all age ranges. Its products include Kyna.vn, an online short courses in different topics for adults and Kynaforkids, an online courses for children from age 5 to 12 years old.

Adding to its products option, KYNA also has become an e-learning contractor for large corporates in Vietnam.

“This investment will support KYNA’s growth plan, deliver significant social impact through skills training for adults and effective education service for children,” said Jennifer Buckley, Senior Managing Director of SEAF Women’s Opportunity Fund.

Previously known as CyberAgent Ventures, CyberAgent Capital is a Japanese venture capital firm that has been focussing its investment portfolios in Internet startups with founding teams who show potential. In Vietnam, CyberAgent Capital has backed around 30 startups like Foody, NCT Corp, VNG, Tiki, Topica, and Luxstay.

Also Read: Sam Tsai: The pivotal figure behind Taiwanese e-commerce giant PChome’s entry into Thailand’s e-commerce market

SEAF is an emerging markets private equity fund manager that provides capital, capacity building, and a global network to support small and medium-sized business expansion. The firm is particularly focused on women’s economic empowerment and gender equality. It also pursues companies in health and education, clean energy and smart solutions, sustainability in agribusiness, financial and technological inclusion, and displaced and migrant peoples investing.

The Women’s Opportunity Fund is investing up to US$2 million per investment in growth-oriented, women-led businesses in Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
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Karan Bharadwaj, CEO of Singapore-based PLMP Blockchain and former CTO of XinFin talks about his experience at Echelon Asia 2018

Get ready for a bigger, better, and bolder Echelon Asia Summit 2019! Been waiting for this? Then get your tickets here.

I’ve spoken at many blockchain and technology events, and I remember e27’s Echelon 2018 event quite fondly. I think the culture of Echelon is the biggest draw for both speakers and participants alike.

The organisers were extremely helpful and the staff assigned to me made sure I had been introduced to my co-panelists, had my paperwork for travel in order, and even made helpful suggestions about my stay in Singapore.

I had a chance to come early to the event and take a look at the other talks and panels. The diversity of the crowd was very refreshing. Echelon featured young startups and mature companies rubbing shoulders with each other, which, I feel, always leads to the emergence of interesting perspectives.

The panel I was speaking on was about the ‘limitations of blockchain technology’. I was expecting contradictory views but was surprised at our consensus on the fundamental issues with the ecosystem. I do remember having quite an intense discussion with one of my co-panellists before the the panel actually started. It reminded me of my run-ins with bitcoin maximalists!

Another unique aspect of Echelon was the format/arrangement of the venue. Because of a number of simultaneous stages I could simply walk into an area that caught my fancy. I quite literally stepped off stage and joined the crowd to listen to other speakers.

Also Read: Registration is now open for Echelon Asia Summit 2019

The speakers’ lounge was an excellent place to talk to entrepreneurs from all walks of life. The sheer diversity of the speakers was an enriching experience in itself. I had not planned on networking too heavily, but I incidentally made quite a few interesting connections.

I also had an interesting experience at the venue. I was sitting in the speakers’ lounge and was having a call with my business team back in India, before my panel started. We were discussing our possibilities of our token being listed. We really wanted to list the tokens on Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange Huobi.co, and had been talking to them for a while.

After my call, I picked up a conversation with the two guys sitting next to me in the speakers’ lounge and I realised halfway into the conversation that they were both wearing Huobi shirts! It turned out that I was talking to two senior executives of Huobi Southeast Asia. I told them ‘hey, we are trying to list our token on your exchange, but no luck so far’. They smiled at me and asked to email them. I did so and they followed up within an hour and got us the help we needed.

Also Read: Why TOP100 made the decision to host a private pitching competition

Overall, Echelon was a great experience for me. We expect e27 to continue the good work in future as well.

I wish all the best for e27 and the Echelon team.

(As told to our Editor Sainul Abudheen K)

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Register for TOP100 today!

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The rise of e-sports in Indonesia has provided a new opportunity for gaming companies to tap into. So what can companies do to stay on top of players’ mind?

The Indonesian gaming industry has reached a new milestone with the rise of e-sports in the recent years.

In the archipelago, e-sports industry has a history that goes back to the late 1990s. However, at the recent Kopi Chat Deep Dive Series: Gaming event at Block71 Jakarta, Eddy Lim, President of Indonesia e-Sports Association (IESPA), explains why 2002 was considered as the official founding year of the country’s e-sports industry.

“We first made a game event in 1999, but [we can say that] e-sports in Indonesia began in 2002 as that was the first time we host an international gaming event,” Lim says.

Within 17 years, the sports gained such popularity and reputation that an e-sport exhibition was held at the last Asian Games, held in Jakarta and Palembang in 2018. Even in the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games 2019 in the Philippines, e-sports will be featured as a medal games for the very first time at a competition held under the International Olympic Committee.

As the sports gain its momentum, so is the opportunity for athletes and clubs to collaborate with brands and businesses.

Also Read: Go-Jek arm in talks to invest US$30M Indian e-sports gaming startup Mobile Premier League

“‘There’s a good e-sports player here, I wonder what he drinks?’” says Haryono Kartono, COO of e-sports enabler company Mix 360, pointing out an example of partnership opportunities with brands that e-sports athletes and clubs can take.

“Back then the opportunities are limited to IT companies, but today other products, such as isotonic drinks, are beginning to open themselves up to e-sports,” he adds.

Even with all the available opportunities, gaming companies continue to face challenges in dealing with the different aspect of product marketing. From the event, e27 has compiled how two Indonesian companies –a game developer and a game publisher– deal with theirs.

Here are some of the most valuable lessons that they have learned about marketing games in the e-sports era:

User demographic

 

Before we begin developing marketing plans, we need to look at the people whom we are reaching out for.

So who are the primary target audience for gaming companies in Indonesia, particularly those who aim to reach out to the e-sports category?

Also Read: Beyond gaming, these are 6 potentially disruptive uses of augmented reality

According to Shieny Aprillia, CMO at Bandung-based game developer Agate, the profile of a typical Indonesian gamer can be seen through the audiences of their title E-Sports Saga: Its 5,000 players are dominated by male audience aged between 18 and 24 years old.

Her view is agreed by Kenken Rudi Salim, COO of game publisher LYTO, who sees that there are reasons why it would be rare to find an e-sports players aged beyond 30 years old.

“There’s no scientific study to support this, but the most ideal age to build a career in e-sports is up until the age of 28. This has something to do with the fingers’ reflexes,” he explains.

Apart from that, e-sports athletes that have gone beyond 30 tend to explore different aspects of their profession. For example, by expanding into content creation.

“This enables former e-sports athletes to make money for themselves. When they were still part of a team, the money that was earned has to be divided among the team members,” Salim continues.

Challenges in product development

 

With the rising popularity of e-sports, game developers are facing a fresh new challenge in Indonesia: Every single new title that they release has to have an e-sports angle.

Also Read: Here’s how blockchain can disrupt the billion-dollar gaming industry

“E-sports has become a part of the most successful marketing strategies to increase the games’ [sales] performance. Each developer wants to try their best to make sure that their products are being included in e-sports tournament. If there is no e-sports angle in it, then how are we going to market a title?” Salim says.

“[For games like that] the only solution is to market using advertisement,” he adds.

Another pressing challenge that developers are facing is the fact that the Indonesian game market is still dominated by foreign titles.

In dealing with this particular challenge, Agate chooses to “play it safely.”

“This means, within the next one to two years, we are not going to develop something similar to Mobile Legends, or enter the enemy’s lair in any form. We need to be able to find our own niche,” Aprillia says.

“Out of the 50 million Mobile Legends players, there is got to be something that separates one from the rest. Some of them will like robots more, et cetera. We try to find a segment that is sizeable enough to work on, and find a niche with no major player yet,” she elaborates.

Also Read: Myanmar-based mobile gaming subscription startup Goama launches in India

As a game publisher, LYTO is taking a completely different approach. Instead of going against the current, they have to follow through with what the audiences want.

“Unless there is a certain intellectual property rights that prevent us from doing it, we will seek for something similar to what is trending,” Salim says.

Maximum returns

 

At last but not least, game companies in Indonesia continue to struggle with this particular challenge: How to maximise return with a limited marketing budget and average revenue per user (ARPU)?

First of all, it is important to note that ARPU in Indonesia is still relatively low with US$5-7 being the highest possible price a user is willing to pay for.

“ARPU from mid-core games tend to be bigger than those of casual games,” Aprillia comments.

“KotaKita is casual city management game that we have developed. We recently included in-app purchase and after one to two months, we checked the analytics … Even after we lower the price of in-app purchase from IDR9,000 (US$0.64) to IDR3,000 (US$0.21), people are still reluctant to pay and would rather watch ad videos instead,” she further explains.

When it comes to maximising their marketing budget, Salim has one thing to say: It will never be easy.

Also Read: Singapore’s gaming startup Mighty Bear raises funding; market-testing first title in India, Philippines

But from his experience, the COO learned that the “easiest, quickest” way to attract audiences is through offline events such as game competitions. The only downside to hosting such event is that companies need to invest heavily in the prizes.

Salim also stated that there is no guarantee that the more budget you spend for an event, the more successful it will become.

“We have held events at internet cafe where we managed to gather between 200 to 300 people,” he closes.

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Image Credit: Sean Do on Unsplash

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From the scarcity of furnitures, to the limited government’s support, Jeff Laflamme has seen it all and still run AngkorHub for almost six years now

Back when it was cool to be a digital nomad, Jeff Laflamme, like the rest of us, sure had been intrigued by the lifestyle that it offers. Ditching his-9 to-5 job at that time, he landed in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, when he bumped into a friend who told him about Siem Reap, south of Cambodia.
This friend introduced him to the idea of co-working space, at that time was one of the firsts in Vietnam, and Laflamme stumbled upon an AHA moment that became the preconception of AngkorHub, the first tech hub in the heart of the touristy city of Cambodia, Siem Reap.

Selling romanticised lifestyle

“It was really like the classic story of a digital nomad. I just got tired of the 9-to-5 routine,” said Laflamme.

Even so, Laflamme admitted that he realised how romanticised the nomadic lifestyle really was. “It sells the idea of working on your laptop with the beach view, remotely in an island with espresso on your table, but it was really interesting and people bought into the idea,” said Laflamme.

The reality, he added, was really trying to find a stable internet connection to be able to work for only a few hours at once. However, this seemed ideal.

Also Read: E-commerce Trends in Singapore to look forward to in the Year of the Pig

So Laflamme thought to himself, why not setting up one in Siem Reap, where tourists are flocking for the beach. “At that time I was really intrigued with co-working space industry and I fell in love with Siem Reap,” he explained.

Quickly he got to work. “I start comparing the situation, numbers, and average wages in Cambodia, especially in IT sector compared to other countries,” said Laflamme.

Challenging feat

He decided that the co-working space he was going to build should be approached with social enterprise concept. “I told myself that we can reuse the same space for training businesses that come to the place. So immediately I worked on a business plan and joined force with someone,” Laflamme added.

Laflamme proceeded to meet with a local who showed him buildings, something that he recalled was like a countryside project.

“There was no stable internet connection at that time, so that was my first challenge in setting up a tech hub, aside from how limited the buildings that are decent enough and being leased to be a place for a co-working space,” said Laflamme.

In addition to that, Laflamme remembered that it was exactly on August 2013 and Siem Reap was still the second poorest province in Cambodia at that time.

He mentioned other challenges like sourcing materials like furnitures to really create a comfortable and inviting co-working space. “You can’t find anything that fits. Sourcing it from Thailand was the closest you could get to a nice interior at that time,” he added.

“I remembered visiting the capital just recently and I was shocked seeing all the infrastructure and materials like furnitures to fill up co-working space that to me doesn’t look like it is in Cambodia,” he recalled.

Next comes the administration.

“Registering business, going to Ministry of Commerce, only to find that they didn’t speak English and they don’t have forms. I remember the guy that was there brought me to another city just to do the paperwork. It was all complicated and there was zero information online,” Laflamme told e27.

After what seemed like endless hurdles, Laflamme settled in the ex-building of a bank.

The socialisation part

Laflamme might have finished all the administration and the location necessity to build the co-working space in Siem Reap, but he wasn’t really prepared for what came next.

“I thought It will be obvious that it’s a co-working place with all the tables and facilities like a power generator. I just assumed people will jump over the idea. I was wrong,” said Laflamme.

AngkorHub was set in a tourist city, with the main attraction of the place being the leisure experience it offers. So it made sense when the firsts of their customers, the people who would need the place to work are expats, more so than the locals.

“The small network that we did have and would be a customers wouldn’t be our customers within a few months because they came during their vacation,” said Laflamme.

People around Laflamme was telling him that he needed to build a community first before starting the coworking space. “I get that, but that couldn’t be the case for every co-working space, especially not in a touristy area,” he said.

Laflamme added that AngkorHub is still struggling to date to make people understand the concept, even people that are well-traveled and professionals.

Pioneering the tech industry

“We used to be the only one, and in our first months we tried to connect with similar initiatives. It took me several months to get people’s awareness, and soon enough, like two months after opening, there were some expats starting another co-working space,” he recalled.

“Now there are around six co-working spaces, and this year local group will open one that’s going to be a big one,” he added.

Laflamme mentioned that when AngkorHub was first launched, the first idea was to be a social innovation center and become an incubation hub for young talents. It was in 2013 to 2014.

“The challenge with making it an incubation center was that people barely understood what co-working was. It was simply not ready for it. We could only plant seeds and shift focus until it’s ready. That’s what we worked on,” said Laflamme.

There’s a limited startups and investors in Siem Reap for AngkorHub to become an incubation center. “To do that, we’d definitely need the guidance. I myself have been playing an advisor role for some time, providing consult for people about their startup business,” said Laflamme.

However, Laflamme prided the fact that AngkorHub is well-positioned in Google search and reviews. “But even that’s still not enough for people to com. Startups are really limited here,” said Laflamme.

As the longest running co-working hub in the city, startup events that looked for spaces in the area would reach out to them. “Mostly are event organizers from outside of the country. The local ecosystem itself didn’t really connect and reach out to organize event with us,” said Laflamme.

Co-living in Siem Reap

Now that it’s been almost 6 years into operation, the hub has been operating from its second building, abandoning the ex-bank building. It also provides a co-living option now.

“Our business model is really working based on the co-living space. It’s creating community through renting the room, aiming at digital nomad who work online and need a good connection,” explained Laflamme.

Right now, the place is divided into two big areas: one is the common area downstairs, and the other is the upstair for co-living space.

“Now we have 20 spots, all in open space with no private offices. But we’re actually working on it because there are demands for it,” said Laflamme.

Right now, the hub provides one meeting room, a small one where people get their calls done there.

The hub offers monthly membership and options of Day pass and Weekly pass for the co-working space.

Also Read: Microinsurance is key to Southeast Asian financial inclusion

“20 per cent of our visitors are expats who will come living for a month or so. They are either a travelling professionals or digital nomads, who also stay in our co-living facility. We have more co-living members than the co-working members, actually,” said Laflamme.

“The plan for 2019 is to work on having a private office, and we will change the existing concept now, although I can’t get into details with the public yet,” said Laflamme.

What’s next

For AngkorHub, which Laflamme said has received an investment from an Angel VC based in Singapore, it’s still hard to keep the business afloat.

However, with the undisclosed number of investment they have received, the hub has begun their search for new location.

“This person helped us by investing in the project, enabling us to look for other locations with adjustment in concept,” said Laflamme.

For this year, since Laflamme has found that coworking space in the area is not valued properly if it’s not paired with incubation, AngkorHub will need to adjust business model.

“After all, the hub itself exists also to support the locals. The goal is to make people see Siem Reap and Cambodia past the temples, because it’s about the people,” said Laflamme.

Towards the end of the conversation, Laflamme shared his opinion on how Siem Reap has been overlooked by the government, especially in the tech sector.

“I would say Siem Reap is nowhere near ready to be the tech hub of the country. The government pays more attention to the capital, and the only time they were involved was a few years back, doing a business incubation 101 here. The government doesn’t connect with the existing players in both Phnom Penh and other provinces, and instead, they went out of their ways and created other programs and chose the same winners over and over again,” said Laflamme.

Laflamme believed that the only way Cambodia, and eventually Siem Reap, will be at par with other countries in terms of tech innovation and facility is for government and community to take it one step at a time. “Walk before we can run. The government should work their way from grassroots and collaborate with local universities. I believe doing it this way would create more lasting impact,” closed Laflamme.
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Both companies are education tech startups based in Singapore

XSEED, a Singapore-based edtech company, has reportedly acquired Report Bee, a cloud-based software solution for school management. The amount of acquisition is undisclosed.

Founded in 2010 by Ananthraman Mani, Bala Ganesh S., and Anjan T., Report Bee is a cloud-based software solution that allows schools to assess, report, and analyse the performance of individual students, classes, and teachers.

With the acquisition, the founders will join XSEED.

Also Read: Vietnam edtech company KYNA raises funding from SWOF and CyberAgent Capital

The acquisition will include the integration of Report Bee’s assessment platform and suite of products. XSEED intends to use Report Bee’s already established system to make real time assessments, provide personalised student feedback, and analyse data to diagnose teaching gaps.

Report Bee claimed that its platform has been used by close to 1,000 schools. Previously, it secured investment from India Education Innovation Fund which is wholly backed by Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.

Headquartered in Singapore with development centers in Delhi and Bangalore, XSEED said that it has reached one million children in eight countries.
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