Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is a comprehensive suite of integrated applications designed to streamline and automate core business processes. From finance and human resources to supply chain and customer relationship management, ERP systems provide a unified platform that enhances efficiency, reduces redundancy, and enables data-driven decision-making. In today’s competitive environment, ERP software is no longer a luxury but a necessity for businesses seeking scalability and operational excellence.

Unique requirement of ERP software in Singapore

Singapore’s business ecosystem is unique, characterized by its highly globalized economy, stringent compliance standards, and emphasis on digital transformation. ERP solutions in Singapore must cater to:

• Regulatory compliance with local tax laws, GST, and employment regulations.
• Multilingual and multi-currency support to serve regional and international operations.
• Scalability for SMEs and large enterprises alike, given Singapore’s diverse business landscape.
• Cloud readiness to align with the nation’s Smart Nation initiative.

Benefits of using ERP software for business in Singapore

Implementing ERP software offers several advantages for Singaporean businesses:

• Operational efficiency: Automates repetitive tasks and integrates workflows.
• Regulatory compliance: Ensures adherence to Singapore’s strict financial and employment laws.
• Data-driven insights: Provides real-time analytics for strategic decision-making.
• Scalability: Supports business growth across Southeast Asia and beyond.
• Enhanced collaboration: Breaks down silos between departments, fostering transparency and accountability.

Also read: Why Singapore manufacturers must embrace MES for the future

Top 10 ERP software in Singapore

Below is a curated list of the top 10 ERP solutions in Singapore, with Multiable and Chillaccount leading the pack. Each vendor is evaluated with three pros and three cons.

Also read: How the top 10 best HR systems in Singapore reveal the new standards for HR technology

Criteria for our evaluation of ERP system

Our evaluation framework for ERP systems includes:

• Scalability: Ability to support business growth.
• Compliance: Alignment with Singapore’s regulatory environment.
• Integration: Seamless connectivity across departments and third-party applications.
• User experience: Ease of use and accessibility.
• Cost-effectiveness: Transparent pricing and long-term value.

Why we write this analysis

PRbyAI aims to provide updated market insights using our team’s technical expertise. This analysis is designed to help B2B customers, especially non-technical decision-makers, make informed choices about ERP solutions in Singapore. By breaking down complex technology into digestible insights, we empower businesses to navigate digital transformation with confidence.

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About PRbyAI

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The nation-state has long served as the planet’s default operating system, but the code is creaking. Satellites now rent cloud capacity above every frontier; smart contracts manage treasuries larger than many central banks; fandoms and faiths funnel billions through apps that answer to no capital city.

This two-part essay is exploratory: we scout the places where sovereignty itself is decoupling from soil, flag and parliament, migrating instead to servers, stages and shared myths.

Part one traces the cultural franchises that already behave like embryonic kingdoms. Part two will sketch the wilder scenarios that could jolt Southeast-Asian boardrooms and regulators.

Consider what follows an exploratory map—drawn in pencil, not ink—of a frontier whose co-ordinates (or lines) are still being coded.

Seoul’s idol-state, Rome’s click-cathedral and the stadium sovereigns

South Korea’s entertainment giants may have built the world’s first metaverse micro-kingdom. Zepeto, the Naver-backed avatar universe, boasts 400 million registered accounts and roughly 20 million monthly active users.

Within its digital walls, HYBE’s fan-token experiments let holders vote on merchandise drops and playlist decisions—an embryonic parliament for a population larger than many Pacific island states. With low-Earth-orbit (LEO) compute leased from satellite operators, even the Montevideo Convention’s “territory” box is partly ticked.

The Catholic Church is taking a parallel road in cassock rather than sequins. A “digital baptistry” project run by the Vatican Apostolic Library awards non-transferable NFTs to donors and aims to register sacramental records on-chain, widening Rome’s flock through Web3 rails. Where indulgences once rang through bronze coffers, stable-coin alms may soon glide across blockchains.

Then come the stadium sovereigns. Taylor Swift’s Eras tour has grossed about US$2.1 billion, overtaking the annual GDP of several UN member states. Dynamic pricing, resale taxes and geo-fenced AR quests turn her ticketing stack into a de-facto central bank for “Swifties.”

Lady Gaga’s fan economy, meanwhile, channels cosmetics revenue from Haus Labs into LGBTQ+ mental-health grants, knitting welfare functions into a merch machine. Across the Pacific, China’s animated blockbuster Ne Zha 2 has become the first domestic film to smash the CNY10 billion (US$1.4 billion) box-office mark, spawning deity NFTs and VR temples that rally Mandarin speakers as effectively as any passport.

Also Read: How to scale voluntary carbon markets with DeFi and Web3

If digital congregations can already levy taxes, adjudicate disputes and defend virtual borders with copyright takedowns, how long before their “citizens” demand a seat in the General Assembly?

When super-apps become shadow states

Southeast Asia already hosts contenders for post-national power—and they hide in plain sight on smartphones.

Grab logged 44.5 million monthly transacting users in early 2025. Those riders and diners possess an e-wallet, a credit score and a tiered loyalty status; one firmware update could re-badge that status as a passport and float GrabRewards as a sovereign token. If a K-pop agency can run a playlist legislature, a super-app can convene a budget committee for promo subsidies.

The blueprint—and the competitive threat—comes from the north. Tencent’s WeChat fields about 1.38 billion monthly actives , issues tax receipts, settles court fines and, during the pandemic, controlled internal movement through health-code passes. Mini-program “consulates” already handle property transfers for Chinese expatriates; bolt on a dispute-resolution DAO and WeChat begins to look less like an app and more like an administrative capital floating above 190 jurisdictions.

GoTo, Indonesia’s home-grown giant, wields a different asset: religious affinity. The group counts 20.6 million monthly transacting users and dominates local halal commerce. Imagination: picture GoTo launching “Home-to-Haram”—a single flow that books a scooter to Soekarno-Hatta, bundles an e-visa, charters a group flight, hails a ride in Jeddah and settles all fees with a Sharia-compliant stable-coin. In effect, one app would shepherd pilgrims from doorstep to the Kaaba, minting a Sharia Cloud-State whose jurisdiction is faith, not latitude.

Hovering above these contenders is a purely borderless behemoth. Ethereum now lists more than 321 million cumulative unique addresses and, at roughly US$300 billion in market capitalisation, would rank comfortably inside the G-20. Its protocol upgrades (EIPs) function like constitutional conventions; its 2016 hard-fork—The DAO bailout—was effectively a civil-war reconstruction act.

The inflection point

Combine a tokenised treasury, an on-chain court, rented LEO compute and—crucially—millions who recognise a claim of sovereign immunity, and a network no longer fits inside any national rule-book. Enforcement tools built for banks and telcos fail against smart contracts that migrate chains at block-confirmation speed. The result is not an outlaw realm so much as a shadow state—negotiated with, taxed lightly, but increasingly able to set its own rules.

Next we examine how ASEAN and global frameworks might—perhaps unintentionally—midwife these entities, and what happens when the child pulls away from the midwife’s arms.

Borrowing the rule-book, then setting it on fire

ASEAN’s legal scaffolding is, ironically, primed to help the first borderless “cloud-state” get off the ground.

The upcoming Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA) pledges trusted cross-border data flows, common e-ID standards and interoperable e-payments across the ten-member bloc. National privacy laws are converging too: Malaysia’s refreshed PDPA guidelines now codify how firms may export personal data overseas, provided they tick transparency boxes.

On the payment side, Singapore’s PayNow already pipes retail QR transfers into Thailand’s PromptPay network, with caps of SG$1 000 per day, while Malaysia’s DuitNow wallet now scans Indonesia’s QRIS and Singapore’s NETS codes at thousands of stores.

For a cultural or faith-based DAO, these look like a ready-made customs union, for example:

• Step one: use DEFA’s “free-flow-of-data” clause to host an on-chain census in a low-cost data centre.
• Step two: rely on PDPA reciprocity to shuttle member data around the region without forced localisation.
• Step three: plug into the QR-linkage mesh; tithe payments clear in seconds from Chiang Mai to Penang.

The moment of sovereign over-ride

But what if, having exploited the plumbing, the DAO decides it no longer needs the plumber?

• Declaration of immunity – a super-majority vote writes a new article: “Our treasury and token holders are exempt from national securities and AML statutes.”
• Network recognition – millions accept the clause; merchants follow the money; satellite operators lease compute because the DAO pays on time.
• Enforcement gridlock – regulators issue takedown orders, only to find there is no domain registrar, no bank account, and smart contracts that migrate chains at the speed of a block confirmation.
• Host-state competition – smaller economies, hungry for data-centre jobs, quietly offer the DAO tax holidays and legal “innovation zones” in exchange for being named an official edge-node capital.

Also Read: Building foundations, not just speed: Why Web3’s next chapter must be about meaning

In effect, the same DEFA clauses designed to knit ASEAN together also allow a digital polity to step outside the stitching. The plumber hands over the wrench—and the house declares itself independent.

Conclusion: A frontier of risks and rewards

What unites a K-pop avatar kingdom, a pilgrimage super-app and an on-chain commonwealth is not geography but gravity: each pulls people, payments and purpose into a centre of authority that sits outside the Westphalian grid. For Southeast-Asian companies and investors, this presents a two-sided frontier.

On one flank lie the opportunities—new revenue ladders (fan taxes, pilgrim-as-a-service packages, tokenised loyalty float), cheaper entry to overseas markets via cultural or faith networks, and first-mover advantage in edge-compute or language-model infrastructure that tomorrow’s digital polities will need.

On the other flank gather the risks—regulators struggling to tax or tame borderless treasuries, brand damage if cultural tokens misfire, and new choke-points where a satellite licence or API ban can strand millions of users overnight.

Whether these proto-sovereigns mature into recognised partners or remain tantalising anomalies will depend on how quickly policy catches up with code—and how deftly firms hedge across both realms. The border between digital and physical; corporation and country is blurring; so too is the line between customer and citizen. In such terrain, map-making becomes strategy.

Part two will chart the wilder horizons (e.g. DAO freeports) and suggest early markers that companies and investors should watch. See you then!

You can also find me on my podcast and newsletter, where I share regular insights on geopolitics and leadership.

—

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The post Beyond borders, beyond brands: Why the next sovereign might be a concert tour – Part 1 appeared first on e27.

2.5 days. Three brands. Three locales. Nine languages. One person — and Claude.

I built a custom e-commerce platform covering Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan. Different business rules, offerings, and compliance requirements for each market.

The team? Me, Claude Opus 4.5, and Claude Code — multiple instances running in parallel.

What would this have taken with an offshore team?

The hidden tax

For decades, the dominant model for software development looked like this: Product managers sit near the business. They write detailed specs. Those specs get shipped to a large development team — often offshore in the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and India. Each developer gets a well-defined slice. They implement exactly what’s described. Ship it back.

The economics seemed compelling. Local engineers cost more. Offshore developers cost a fraction. Scale up the team, ship the specs, get the code back.

But much of the logic rests on a fallacy Fred Brooks identified in 1975 in his classic software text: if it takes a woman nine months to have a baby, can nine women have a baby in one month?

Brooks’ The Mythical Man-Month taught us that adding people to a late software project makes it later. The corollary: throwing bodies at software development doesn’t scale linearly. Communication overhead grows exponentially with team size.

And yet the offshore model doubled down on exactly this fallacy — betting that cheap labour would compensate for coordination costs.

It doesn’t.

A systematic literature review of offshore software development identified 18 problem areas. But they all boil down to, in one form or another, the bandwidth, latency, and cost of communications.

What you save in labour, you lose in agility and velocity.

Also Read: Why Singapore startups are sleeping on their secret weapon (spoiler: it’s not AI)

What we built

Let me be transparent: nothing we — me, Claude Opus 4.5, and Claude Code — built was groundbreaking. It’s foundational platform work — the kind of thing that’s been sitting in someone’s product backlog “for way too long.”

A multi-brand, multi-locale e-commerce platform supporting Singapore (English, Mandarin, Malay, Tamil), Hong Kong (Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English), and Japan (Japanese, English). Each locale with its own business rules and compliance requirements.

But this platform enables what comes next:

• AI Agent for Pre-Sales Consultation on features and benefits
• AI Agent for Pre-Appointment Consultation — gathering the information that matters before a customer meets with a representative and making that appointment for the face-to-face meeting
• AI Agent for Customer Support and Success
• A next-generation customer database

We laid out 14 sprints. Cleared 7 in 2.5 days. Halfway there — and tracking toward something I’m excited to show in the New Year.

What’s coming is harder. But the foundation is solid.

And that foundation? A two-pizza team without AI would have taken at least a week. Maybe longer.

The workflow

A solid workflow was what made this possible — and it started with augmentation at the meta level.

I’ve spent months developing an AI-Augmented Writing workflow. Project instructions that evolved from three sentences to over 2,000 words. A system of editorial calendar chats, handoff briefs, and sprint-style execution.

To bootstrap the development workflow, I took those writing instructions into a new Claude Project in a chat dedicated to creating and evolving project instructions for AI-augmented Development. Then I worked with Claude Opus 4.5 to identify what was different between writing and coding.

The gap was smaller than I expected. The same patterns that make AI-augmented Writing effective — sharp instructions, short time horizons, iterative refinement, clear handoffs — translate directly to development.

Call it augmentation, augmenting itself. I used AI collaboration to build a better system for AI collaboration. Yes, this might be a bit too meta, but then I’m a nerd, and the results speak for themselves.

The workflow:

• Project-instructions chat: Establish the workflow and working agreements — bootstrapped from my writing system
• Product-definition chat: Lay out the vision, analyse existing platforms, generate a product spec
• Mission-control chat: Break the spec into sprints, create handoffs for each sprint, coordinate the whole, and keep track of everything (including reminders for me)
• Sprint chats: Individual chats for each sprint, feeding work to Claude Code

But here’s what made even greater velocity possible: parallel workflows and automated validation.

I used Claude Chrome — which Anthropic opened to all paid plans on December 18 — with shortcuts to automate the analysis phase. Nine websites across three brands and three markets, each captured and audited automatically. Those audits fed directly into the product definition.

I had separate chats for mundane automation: translation verification, repetitive code generation, quality gates, and testing. And I used Claude Chrome integrated with Claude Code to validate work in the browser — catching errors, verifying before the next sprint.

Original expectation: one sprint per day. Blindingly fast compared to non-AI-augmented teams.

Actual result: seven sprints in 2.5 days. Framework running locally in two hours. Up and running in the cloud with CI/CD pipeline the same day. With time and bandwidth to tackle even more.

The formation that emerged:

Jordan
(orchestrator)
    │
    ▼
Claude Opus 4.5
(planning + coordination)
    │         │
    ▼         ▼
Claude Code #1   Claude Code #2
(core features)  (content/polish)
    │         │
    ▼         ▼
Working Software

While one Claude Code instance worked, I planned the next sprint. Claude Opus 4.5 tracked time on tasks and prevented conflicts. After every sprint, a quick retro is conducted to revise the project instructions.

I’ll publish a detailed breakdown of the Claude Chrome workflow next Tuesday, December 30 — the shortcuts, the automation patterns, and what I learned.

Also Read: Why Asia sits at the centre of the global AI chip disruption?

The cost

I used to be a Claude Pro subscriber at US$20/month. That was sufficient — until Opus 4.5.

To get the capacity I needed for this kind of intensive work, I upgraded. First to Max 5x at US$100/month. Then to Max 20x at US$200/month.

US$200/month for what would have been weeks of a distributed team’s time.

Have the ups and downs of Claude’s stability the last few days been frustrating? Sure. But I’ve worked through them and am still moving fast.

The fluency insight

Here’s what struck me: we’ve been applying the wrong framework. With people, not just AI.

For decades, we tried to “automate product development” by sending work wherever labour is cheaper and plentiful. Directed Contribution work — well-defined tasks in unambiguous contexts — shipped over the wall.

The result is what we see when we have AI write for us instead of writing with AI. Slop.

And more slop.

We were using the fluency framework wrong.

In my previous piece, I described three modes of contribution:

• Directed Contribution: Under someone’s guidance, executing well-defined tasks in unambiguous contexts
• Independent Contribution: Operating autonomously, first in well-defined situations, then in ambiguous ones
• Working through others: Setting vision and direction, guiding others toward outcomes

The offshore model was built on Directed Contribution — the work AI now handles.

But software development requires augmentation and collaboration. Human-AI collaboration (and human-human collaboration). High-bandwidth communication. Real-time problem-solving. The ability to clarify the problem space as you go.

You can’t do that across communication gaps — whether those gaps are time zones, organisational silos, or oceans.

What this means for Southeast Asia

The offshore model that built much of SEA’s IT services industry is dying.

Vietnam produces 50,000 IT graduates annually. Over 45 per cent of its developer workforce operates at the junior level — trained to do Directed Contribution work. The Philippines has built a massive tech services industry on similar foundations.

The question for the region isn’t whether AI will disrupt this model. It already is.

The question is whether Southeast Asia can compete on value, not volume.

Can the region produce engineers who operate in Independent Contribution mode? Engineers who understand the What and Why, not just the How? Engineers who can be part of elite, co-located teams — whether those teams sit in Singapore, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City, or alongside clients in Tokyo, Sydney, or San Francisco?

The opportunity isn’t to fight the transformation. It’s to ride it.

Small teams. Co-located. High-bandwidth. Fully exploiting AI augmentation.

For this project, I was flying solo, but I built what would have taken a distributed team weeks, or a co-located two-pizza team at least a week. This is solo development — team workflows are still being invented. But it proves the thesis: a small, focused team that can understand and clarify the problem space in real-time can build and deploy at a velocity that human waves cannot match.

The equation has changed

Labour cost arbitrage no longer compensates for the collaboration tax.

The hidden costs — communication latency, coordination overhead, the telephone effect, revision cycles — matter more when AI handles the Directed Contribution work that justified the offshore model.

It’s time to reshore. Not to human waves in different locations. To small, AI-augmented teams that can think, iterate, and ship.

The question is whether you’re building the team that leads, or the team that gets left behind.

—

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The terms “vicious cycle” and “virtuous cycle” originate from Latin – circulus vitiosus (flawed circle) and circulus virtuosus (excellent circle). This describes self-reinforcing feedback loops where negative outcomes perpetuate decline or, when positive, outcomes compound growth.

Welcome to the Fractional Executive hiring playbook. This is the field guide for leaders who are intrigued by the fractional promise but terrified of the potential fallout.

Part one: Is this role even fractionalisable?

Do you need a scalpel or a Swiss Army knife?

• Scalpel (fractional friendly):

You have a specific, well-defined problem. IE: “We need to be SOC2 compliant in 10 months” / “Our Series B pitch deck needs a complete overhaul”

These are projects for a specialist.

• Swiss Army knife (full-time required):

The role is a blend of strategy, team management, cultural leadership, and crisis-of-the-day firefighting. “We need a lead to build our culture from scratch and also manage payroll”. That’s not a fractional job; that’s a co-founder you haven’t hired yet.

Can the outcomes be measured independently?

• Yes (fractional friendly):

The success of the role can be tied to clear, objective metrics. “Increase the headcount of the R&D team by 10 per cent.” “Reduce customer churn by 50 per cent.” “Successfully implement the new systems by Q4”

• No (full-time required):

Suppose success is deeply intertwined with team morale, cross-functional collaboration, and lots of cultural influence. These are nearly impossible to achieve in 15 hours per week.

What’s your corporate bureaucracy score? (be honest)

• Low (fractional friendly):

A Fractional Executive can get a decision from the CEO in a single discussion. They have access to all the data and people they need.

• High (full-time required):

Decisions require three committees and a VP’s sign-off. Accessing data involves a formal request to another department. If your Fractional Executive needs to spend the duration of their entire retained time emailing back and forth, they will leave out of frustration.

Part two: Spotting the master from the Mercenary

Once you have confirmed that the role is fractional friendly, the next filter would be a series of interview questions you should not forget to ask. This is not for assessing skill; you are assessing mindset.

Fractional talent interview questions:

Walk me through your most successful and least successful fractional engagements. What was the difference?

• A maestro will talk about client readiness, clear objectives, and their own abilities. A mercenary will blame the client for the failure.

Here’s our current challenge. (Describe your scalpel problem.) What would your first 30 days look like?

• Look for a bias towards action, and an analytic mind towards diagnostics. They should be talking about looking into your data, interviewing key team members, and delivering a concise plan – not about “getting to know the culture.”

How do you usually handle knowledge transfer at the end of an engagement?

• This is the million-dollar question. A great Fractional leader is obsessed with making themselves obsolete. If they have a clear methodology for documenting their work, plus training your internal team, and ensuring a seamless handoff, you’ve won. If they look confused by the question, they are the type of consultant who plans to be on your payroll forever.

Like every successful relationship, an immediate note-taking of red and green flags would be of interest for a successful fractional project outcome.

Also Read: Why inclusive hiring matters for a startup ecosystem

Red flags to watch out for:

• Mr Big (Name Dropper) – talks more about the big logos on their CV than the specific problems they solved
• Madame Woof – a process-worshipper, they are dogmatic about a specific methodology, “We have to use my eight-step framework”, without first understanding your needs and context.
• Mr #ForeverAlone – has a lone wolf mentality and is likely to be found in the jungles of Bali as a buff digital nomad. They seem uninterested in mentoring your team. They see their job as doing the work, not upgrading your organisation.

Part three: Onboarding blueprint pitfalls and pleasures

Not all gloomy news here, though. Research shows that there is a high success rate in hiring Fractional talent – it comes with a giant, bold print: if onboarding is deliberate. A fractional executive that is poorly onboarded is just a very expensive consultant.

Here is what deliberate onboarding looks like:

• Effective meetings

The CEO and our hire sit down with the executive team. The CEO gives the mandate: “Ms Lee is here for the next six months with one goal: to fix our hiring needs. She has my full authority to get it done. Your job is to help her, not hinder her.” This grants our Fractional hire the political capital they need to be effective.

• Be good at interviewing, and interview the right folks

Week 1 consisted of interviewing all the people that matter, right from the senior exec us to the junior analyst who actually knows where the data is buried. This provides powerful context for our hire.

• Data-driven immersion

Weeks 2–3: Our Fractional hire takes a deep dive – unrestricted access to all relevant dashboards, reports, and historical data without any delays.

• The Master Plan

By Week 4, they present their 30, 60 and 90-day plan to the executive team. It should be strong, outcome-focused and have concise metrics. This document becomes the capstone of the engagement.

A big plus: the Fractional Executives who do not forget about the exit plan – if he is a true maestro, he should begin planning his departure from day one. Their last deliverable might be a comprehensive playbook that documents everything they’ve built, why they built it, and how to maintain it. It’s the instruction machine for the machine they’ve created.

Final thoughts – Escher’s staircase – The two fates of fractional hiring

Four years prior, I was lucky to have the time to visit the exhibition of M.C. Escher’s work in Europe. There is a paradoxical beauty to M.C. Esher’s 1960 lithograph, Ascending and Descending. It depicts a monastery rooftop where two lines of identical, cowled monks trudge alone a squarish, continuous staircase.

One line shuffles endlessly upwards, the other, endlessly downwards. They are busy; they are moving with purpose. Yet they are trapped in an impossible loop.

This architectural illusion is known as the Penrose Staircase, an impossible object that can be depicted in a 2D drawing but cannot exist in three-dimensional space. It creates the paradox of a perpetual climb or descent.

For a leader, this is the unintentional perfect allegory for the two destinies that await any company that steps onto the path of fractional hiring.

Also Read: Levelling the playing field: How AI can transform SME hiring

Here’s how to avoid the descending staircase

For a startup founder, the risk of accidentally building a Penrose staircase to nowhere is particularly high. Here are four steps on how to avoid it:

• Hire for the battlefield, not the boardroom

Prioritise hires who have recent, relevant experience in your startup’s size and stage. A VP from a 10,000-person company has a different skill set than someone who helped a 50-person company get to 200.

• Define the mission, not the title

Be ruthlessly specific about the one or two key outcomes you need. This forces clarity and makes it easier to measure success. Don’t just hire a “Fractional CMO”, hire a “Lead Generation Builder for a B2B SaaS Product.” A vague title invites a vague approach.

• Rent the scalpel, not the surgeon

You are not hiring a person, you are hiring a specific, high-impact skill for a limited time. Make it clear from the start that their goal is not to “run the department” but to solve a specific problem and, most importantly, to upskill your internal team in the process.

• Give them a crowbar, not a suggestion box

If you’ve decided to bring in an expert, empower them. A Fractional leader bogged down by politics and bureaucracy is a waste of everyone’s time. Grant them the authority to make changes and show your team that the hire has your full support. If you are not ready to do this, you are not ready for a fractional hire.

Consider how hiring the right fractional talent can create a positive, self-reinforcing loop.

The five-step virtuous cycle

—

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic.

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Marketing for startups has been a buzzing topic for many years. Still, no matter how much it gets discussed, early-stage tech startups often wrestle with some persistent misconceptions about how to handle marketing.

Let’s clear up the confusion and steer you away from some of the classic marketing pitfalls, so your startup gains unstoppable momentum right from the very beginning.

“Our product is so good, it’ll sell itself”

This is a phrase often spoken by founders who come from a strong technical background. The reasoning often is: “We’ve invested considerable effort into creating something exceptional—surely it will naturally attract attention and draw people in.”

The truth? Even remarkable products need to be seen and understood to catch on.

As a mentor, I’ve met a hardware startup that dedicated all its resources to perfecting the technical side of its product. However, when they finally launched, they realised that their brand was virtually unknown to their potential customers. This forced them into a costly scramble to create quick advertising campaigns just to appear on their customers’ radar. Had they started their marketing efforts earlier, they could have avoided this scramble and used their resources more efficiently.

“Marketing means advertising”

Many technical founders consider marketing as synonymous with ads—Google banners, Instagram promos, maybe a couple of paid posts on digital media. But that barely scratches the surface.

Marketing is much broader: it is how you figure out if your offering fits what your potential customers actually want, what price they’re willing to pay, and how you’re different from (and better than) your competition. A smart marketing plan is as much about understanding people’s problems and mapping their journey as it is about running campaigns.

Ideally, you start thinking about this the moment you’ve got a product hypothesis, not waiting until launch time.

Also Read: The human factor: B2B marketing in 2025

“We’ll just handle marketing ourselves”

It’s tempting to try everything yourself, especially when budgets are tight. But unless you have a knack and experience for marketing, it’s easy to get stuck running inconsistent campaigns, trying random tactics, and chasing what your competitors are doing.

Sometimes, bringing in marketing expertise—even if just for guidance—helps you stretch your limited resources much further. For instance, one deeptech company realised early on that they needed help with product marketing and positioning. By working with a marketing advisor to define their positioning and messaging before launching, they set themselves up for a much stronger debut and better long-term outcomes than if they had gone it alone.

“We’ll start marketing once we launch (or gain traction)”

It’s common for founders to want to wait until the product’s “ready”—or even until there’s already traction—before thinking about marketing. But doing so misses out on the huge value strategic marketing brings earlier in the journey.

Getting marketing involved from the get-go means you’ll better understand market needs and avoid costly missteps. You’ll be far less likely to end up launching something nobody’s interested in. The sooner you start, the stronger your launch will be—and the faster you’ll find your real target audience.

Of course, there are other myths out there, but these four tend to pop up again and again. If you’re a founder, rethinking these beliefs can unlock new possibilities and significantly improve your startup’s chances for success.

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Many of us discover new things by accident. A curious click, a small experiment, a playful idea. That is how Aunty Good Good began.

When I first started playing with AI, I did not plan to build a project or brand. I was simply curious about how AI could speak Singlish, make videos, or tell stories. It was meant to be fun, a bit of learning mixed with laughter.

But somewhere along the way, that fun became something more serious. Play turned into purpose. And that shift is what creativity in the age of AI is all about.

Curiosity is not childish

Adults often forget how to play. We are taught to be efficient, serious and productive. Yet curiosity is the first step of every innovation we admire.

Playfulness opens space for discovery. It gives us permission to fail safely. And when there is no pressure to be perfect, imagination comes alive.

When Aunty Good Good started teaching Singlish through AI, it was not part of a business plan. But the laughter that followed showed something deeper. People learn faster when they are relaxed. They connect better when they can laugh at themselves.

Small experiments lead to big ideas

Every major innovation begins with a small “what if.” What if AI could speak our language? What if seniors could use AI to tell their life stories?What if midlifers could create digital art without training?

These small questions are seeds. When we water them with play, they grow into solutions that serve real needs.

In my workshops, I notice that once adults stop saying “I am not creative,” ideas begin to flow naturally. A little curiosity removes fear. A little success builds confidence. That combination creates transformation.

Also Read: A prettier you: How AI avatars make storytelling easier for midlifers

The mindset that matters

Technology changes fast, but mindset changes slowly. The people who thrive in the AI era are not the ones who know the most tools. They are the ones who stay curious, adaptable and open.

You do not need to be a coder to be creative. You only need to ask better questions and dare to explore.

When we treat AI as a partner instead of a threat, we rediscover the joy of making things again. That joy is what keeps us relevant. It turns learning into living.

From curiosity to contribution

Purpose is born when curiosity finds direction. Once you learn to play with AI, you start to see ways it can help others.

Teachers use it to personalise lessons. Artists use it to explore new media. Midlife creators use it to tell stories and reconnect with their communities.

Play opens the door. Purpose keeps you walking through it.

When I see learners light up after completing their first AI project, I realise that the real innovation is not the tool itself. It is the courage to try.

The gentle reminder

Play is not a waste of time. It is practice for a purpose. When you allow yourself to explore without fear, clarity follows.

The age of AI rewards the curious. Those who start small today will lead with wisdom tomorrow.

So the next time you open an app or try a new tool, do not worry about results. Just play. You might discover not only how AI works, but how imagination works inside you.

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I have spent almost all of my adult life keeping track of as well as analysing digital trends, and I am fascinated by Meta’s latest move to bring ads to WhatsApp. For the first time, WhatsApp is stepping into the advertising world.

This is a huge change for everyone who uses the platform, and I want to share my take on what’s happening now and what I think the future holds.

The current state: WhatsApp’s big shift

For over a decade, I saw WhatsApp as a simple and private messaging app. It was free from the ads I see on Facebook and Instagram. The founders had even promised that it would never have ads. That promise started to change when Meta acquired WhatsApp in 2014. Now, in 2025, we are seeing the platform’s biggest step towards ads.

Ads are appearing, but in a specific place. They are only in the “Updates” tab, which is separate from my private chats. This is the area where I browse Channels and Status updates. About 1.5 billion people use this tab every day, so it’s a massive space for advertisers. Meta has been clear that our personal messages, calls, and statuses will remain end-to-end encrypted and free of ads.

WhatsApp is introducing three main advertising features:

• Status ads: Similar to Instagram Stories, ads will appear as you scroll through Status updates.
• Promoted channels: Businesses and creators can pay to increase their channel’s visibility in the Discovery section.
• Channel subscriptions: Channel owners can charge users for exclusive content, with Meta taking a cut – typically around 10 per cent.

The Ads targeting is based on data like your age, location, language, the channels you follow, and your interactions with ads – but not your personal messages, calls, or group memberships. If you link your WhatsApp account to Facebook or Instagram, expect more personalised ads.

Facts and figures: What’s at stake

Let’s ground this in numbers and context:

• User base: WhatsApp boasts over three billion monthly active users, with 1.5 billion visiting the Updates tab daily.
• Monetisation potential: Analysts at Morgan Stanley predict that WhatsApp ads could generate US$3–5 billion annually for Meta, with an optimistic scenario reaching US$6 billion. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Meta’s price target to US$807, citing upside from WhatsApp’s new ad features.
• Privacy: WhatsApp emphasises that ads will not use the contents of your private messages or calls for targeting.
• Global reach: About 95 per cent of WhatsApp users are outside the US, which means monetisation rates may be lower than on Facebook or Instagram, but the sheer scale is staggering.

The user experience: What changes, what doesn’t

My core WhatsApp experience of messaging friends and family remains the same. The ads are kept in the Updates tab. I can choose to ignore that tab or even disable it in the settings. Since I mostly use WhatsApp for chats, I don’t see a difference in my day-to-day use.

Also Read: Why AI is essential to understanding consumer behaviour for marketing success in 2025

However, when I do engage with Channels or look at Status updates, the experience is now more commercial. I see sponsored content next to updates from creators I follow. This was a deliberate choice by Meta to keep ads out of our private conversations. It’s how they are trying to make money while protecting the app’s reputation for privacy.

The business perspective: New opportunities

For businesses and marketers, this is a watershed moment. WhatsApp’s massive, engaged audience is now accessible through native advertising formats. Retailers can promote products via Status ads, boost their channel’s visibility, and even monetise content through subscriptions. The ability to target users based on location, language, and interests – without touching private data – offers a unique blend of reach and privacy compliance.

Performance marketing experts are calling this the next big opportunity for customer engagement, especially for online retailers looking to connect with audiences in emerging markets. The integration of click-to-message ads from Facebook and Instagram, directing users to WhatsApp for direct interaction, is already a proven channel. Now, with in-app ads, the funnel becomes even more seamless.

The future: What’s next for WhatsApp ads?

I believe the introduction of ads is just the start. Meta has a history of slowly adding more ads to its platforms over time.

Here’s what I foresee:

• Expanded ad formats: I expect to see more interactive ads, similar to what I already see on Instagram and Facebook.
• Increased personalisation: As more data is shared across Meta’s apps, the ads will likely become more tailored to my interests.
• Global growth: I think WhatsApp ads will become a key tool for businesses to grow, especially in markets outside of the West.
• User backlash: I do worry about potential user backlash. Not everyone will welcome this change. In places like the UK and Europe, WhatsApp is seen strictly as a messaging tool. There’s a risk that users will get frustrated if ads become too intrusive. Meta has to be careful to balance making money with keeping user trust.

Also Read: From one-off deals to long-term partnerships: The new rules of influencer marketing

My perspective: Balancing growth and trust

As someone who values both innovation and privacy, I see this move as a double-edged sword. On one hand, it’s a logical step for Meta to monetise one of its largest platforms, especially as traditional ad markets mature. The Updates tab is a sensible place for ads, keeping them separate from private conversations.

On the other hand, I have always loved WhatsApp for its simplicity. My main concern is that it could slowly become more like Facebook or Instagram—cluttered and commercial. This might cause it to lose the trust of users who, like me, appreciate its clean design.

For now, the changes are measured and respectful of user boundaries. But as Meta pushes for more revenue, the challenge will be to maintain that balance. If ads become too pervasive or the Updates tab feels forced, users may look elsewhere – especially in a market where privacy-focused alternatives like Signal and Telegram are waiting in the wings.

Final thoughts

WhatsApp’s entry into the world of ads marks a new chapter for the platform and for Meta. The current state is one of cautious experimentation, with ads confined to non-private spaces and targeting based on non-intrusive data. The future is bright for businesses and marketers, but the true test will be whether WhatsApp can grow its ad business without alienating its core user base.

As an avid WhatsApp user, I’ll be watching closely – hoping that Meta remembers what made WhatsApp special in the first place, while embracing the opportunities that this new era brings.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic.

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During my recent interactions with a number of founders at Founders Forum Asia 2025, I noticed that there’s this massive blind spot that’s driving me nuts. Everyone’s obsessing over the next unicorn, the latest funding round, or which AI tool will revolutionise their workflow, and rightly so. But something that’s taken a backseat that could actually make or break them: strategic communications.

You might say that’s probably because I work in the industry. But this isn’t some shameless plug; this is about safeguarding the license to operate in a market.

The “we’ll figure it out later” problem

The reality is that brilliant founders with game-changing ideas treat communications like that friend you only call when you need something. They’re out here raising millions, building incredible products, and then… radio silence. Or worse, they say something that goes completely obtuse.

Take that whole Chocolate Finance mess. The way they handled the suspension of its instant withdrawal was like watching a masterclass in how NOT to communicate. Zero transparency, confused messaging, mismatch in audience platforms, and suddenly everyone’s questioning whether they ever knew what they were doing in the first place.

That’s what happens when you treat comms as an afterthought. It doesn’t matter how brilliant your product is if people think you’re sketchy.

Stage one: Don’t be a hot mess from day one

In those early days, pre-seed through “holy crap, people actually want this thing”, your story is YOU. There’s no fancy office or impressive team headcount to hide behind. It’s just you, your pitch deck, and your ability to convince people you’re not completely insane.

Also Read: Singapore’s green future – Are homes and condominiums ready for EVs?

Singapore’s business community is tight-knit. Word travels fast, and reputations stick. Mess up your narrative early, and you’ll be explaining that fumble for years. Meetings can get tanked even before they even started because their LinkedIn was a disaster or they couldn’t explain their vision without using seventeen buzzwords that meant nothing.

Here’s the thing: credibility isn’t just about what you say, it’s about saying it consistently, authentically, and in a way that doesn’t make investors want to run for the hills.

Stage two: Growing pains are real (and public)

Once you’re scaling, things get messy fast. More employees, more customers, more opinions, and more ways to screw up publicly. Southeast Asia’s media landscape is like a game of telephone played across six countries with different languages and cultural contexts. One poorly worded statement can go viral in ways you never imagined.

Look at what happened with eFishery in Indonesia, the regional agritech darling until internal drama exploded online. Suddenly, everyone’s talking about poor governance and fraud instead of their innovation. That’s millions in reputation value down the drain because they didn’t have proper internal and external communications strategies.

When you’re growing fast, communications becomes less about telling your story and more about making sure your story doesn’t spiral out of control.

Stage three: The big leagues have big consequences

By the time you’re eyeing IPOs, acquisitions, or major market expansions, every word matters. Regulators are watching, investors are scrutinising, and the media’s ready to pounce on any inconsistency. This is where founders discover that their casual approach to communications isn’t going to cut it anymore.

Also Read: Singapore’s regulatory vision is shaping cross-border payments in Asia: Report

At this level, you need someone who understands that communications isn’t just about managing media, it’s about protecting and building the asset that is your reputation. Because let’s be honest: you can fix a product bug overnight, but rebuilding trust? That takes years.

The bottom line (from someone who actually does this for a living)

I’m not saying every startup needs a full communications team from day one. But treating communications as “something we’ll deal with when we have money” is like saying you’ll worry about brakes after you learn to drive. It’s backwards, and it’s dangerous.

The best leaders I’ve worked with understand that communications isn’t about spin, it’s about building authentic relationships with everyone who matters to your business. Customers, investors, employees, partners, even competitors. In a place like Singapore, where reputation and relationships drive everything, this isn’t optional.

So here’s my challenge to Singapore’s startup community: Stop treating communications like it’s beneath you or “just marketing.” Start seeing it as what it really is — your competitive advantage. Because in a world where trust can be lost in a tweet and built over years, the companies that master authentic communication are the ones that’ll still be standing when the dust settles.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic.

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Did you know that 59 per cent of marketers say email drives their highest ROI, yet most startups treat it as an afterthought. Ok, ok, I heard you. I know that you know that email works, and you are busy building awesome products and don’t need another ‘did you know’ post! 

So let me get straight to the point and share some actionable checklists that you can use to streamline your email strategy. I aim to get you thinking about how to engage your customers, drive meaningful conversations through email, and build a long-term relationship because a robust email strategy has been proven to work!

Let’s accept that startups come from an entirely different ecosystem than a well-established brand. At a hyper-growth phase, the main aim is brand awareness, acquisition, and ultimately sales. If thought through well, a boot-strapped and resource-crunched start-up can aim for organic growth through a well-established email strategy.  

Why Startups Need a Robust Email Strategy (or, well, at least a basic one)

So, where do you begin? While building your business, you may have come into contact with people or companies that showed interest in your products along the way. Whether it was a very early stage investor, a friend, an ex-colleague, mentors, VCs, etc., or you already have a fair idea of your ideal target customer. At a trade show, you accumulate name cards from visitors who may have some early-stage interest, curiosity, or collaboration potential.

Let’s not miss your site visitors who have willingly given their email addresses in exchange for valuable information on your site. These highly heterogeneous mixes of contacts could become your starting point for gathering leads and building your email database. This precious list of emails becomes your starting point for creating a snowball effect to build email databases.

Like your product, not one size fits all in marketing. Personalisation and custom-tailoring messages go a long way in building meaningful conversations with your contacts.

Thoughtful strategy will help you focus on where you want to acquire new leads, or have a thought-provoking discussion that helps retain your audience, and take the opportunity to showcase your product’s benefits that help solve critical business challenges.

Just a little bit of effort goes a long way!

Also Read: Unlocking email marketing success: 5 foolproof tips every startup must embrace

Some common mistakes startups usually make are:

• Sporadic sends without proper audience segmentation. (emailing a finance executive about technical specs of your services- mail lands in bin or worse, tagged as ‘blocked!’) 
• Infrequent email sends or just too many!
• Emails that look and sound like spam (sorry, but host providers may automatically label them as spam).
• Incoherent, inconsistent message flow, randomisation of messages.
• Unsure of the conversation flow and when to make the final proposal. 
• Not looking at the right matrix to evaluate the effectiveness of your email strategy.

Key components of a high-impact email strategy

• Audience segmentation

We know that in this highly heterogeneous mix of audiences, one size fits all fails to achieve a desired outcome. A highly personalised email strategy considers the audience type according to the industry, geography, product familiarity, audience seniority, and stage in the funnel, and then builds an entire chain of communication email content right from onboarding, to nurturing, enticing, and conversion.

It may sound like a lot, but to maximise the most out of crunched resources, priortising high-value clients is a good way to take the first look in email marketing. For example, create a simple matrix that maps your customers based on high vs. low value on one axis, and level of product familiarity on the other.

• Metrics that matter: Open rates, CTR, conversions

Track only the metrics that matter. A considerable number of emails sent with a low open rate might mean the irrelevance of the message to the recipient. What the post click conversion rate, unsubscribe rate, and mql rate tell a lot about the lead quality, bounce rate. The inbox placement rate is just one metric that guides your email strategy.

• Personalisation and automation

Why not get creative with your messaging and include a video in emails? Email is typically seen as a text-to-text, one-way messaging platform. Incorporating a hook with a call-to-action, infographics for visual appeal, using a first-person voice, adding GIFs, humour, and trivia as a sublime.

Also Read: Think you can spot email phishing? Privacy Ninja puts you to the test

• Test and iterate

I couldn’t emphasis more the test-learn-optimise loop. A broad-level strategy might cut across companies of all levels, but a customised approach needs first-hand data to establish best practices that work for your company. A gut feeling approach may help you take the first step, but moving on with experimenting with the timing, subject line, content form, content type, headlines, images etc will help you take data-driven, informed decisions. 

Some common pitfalls to avoid

• Overloading subscribers with too much information.

Once you’ve defined your goal, stick to it—and build a clear narrative around it. Don’t start with your hobbies or recent private yacht trip when introducing yourself to someone new. Lead with what matters. Make it relevant, purposeful, and aligned with the impression you want to leave.

• Don’t fall for sales offer trap

While making a sales pitch to every email sent may be tempting, placing yourself in the recipient’s mind and empathising with the email reader will help you define the messaging and proposition.

• Unethically gathering email database

I’ve been cleaning up my inbox by unsubscribing from emails I don’t even remember signing up for. Most of them are outdated or irrelevant, and they clutter my inbox, making me worry I’ll miss something important. Remember: open rates are influenced by how often your emails are opened, not by the size of your database.

A bloated list doesn’t help performance. Use a double opt-in process to improve deliverability and avoid the spam folder. It ensures your audience actually wants to hear from you—and keeps your list clean and engaged.

In short

Startups can’t afford to treat email marketing as an afterthought. With the right strategy—focused on segmentation, personalisation, and clear communication—email becomes a powerful tool to drive growth, engagement, and trust. Avoid the common traps of spamming, irrelevant content, and vanity metrics.

• ​​Start with a clean, relevant email list—quality beats quantity.
• Segment your audience by role, funnel stage, and familiarity, etc. with your product.
• Personalise your content to build real conversations, not just clicks.
• Focus on key metrics like open rate, CTR, and conversions—not just send volume.
• Test, learn, and iterate—your strategy should evolve with data, not assumptions.

And most importantly, improvise as you grow—just like your business.

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Public Relations (PR) has always been about building relationships, crafting compelling stories, and managing reputations. Traditionally, this involved a lot of manual work—researching media contacts, writing press releases, and monitoring coverage.

However, the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation has ushered in a transformative era for PR professionals. Programmatic PR, which combines AI and automation, is revolutionising how we approach outreach, making it more efficient, targeted, and personalised.

Understanding p PR

Programmatic PR refers to the use of AI and automation tools to streamline and enhance PR activities. This includes automating routine tasks like media monitoring, sentiment analysis, and press release distribution, as well as leveraging data analytics to craft more targeted and effective campaigns.

Key components of programmatic PR:

• AI-powered media monitoring: Tools that scan vast amounts of media content in real-time to track brand mentions and sentiment.
• Automated press release distribution: Systems that distribute press releases to targeted media lists based on relevance and past engagement.
• Predictive analytics: AI algorithms that analyse data to predict media trends and audience responses.
• Personalised outreach: Automation tools that tailor pitches and messages to individual journalists or audience segments.

Benefits of programmatic PR:

• Enhanced efficiency: Automation reduces the time spent on repetitive tasks, allowing PR professionals to focus on strategy and creativity.
• Improved targeting: AI analyses data to identify the most relevant media contacts and audience segments, increasing the likelihood of coverage and engagement.
• Real-time insights: AI tools provide instant feedback on campaign performance, enabling quick adjustments and more agile PR strategies.
• Cost-effectiveness: By streamlining processes, organisations can achieve better results with fewer resources.

Also Read: Community in thought leadership: Highlights from the e27 Contributor Programme Roundtable at Echelon Singapore 2025

Implementing programmatic PR: A step-by-step guide

• Step one: Identify Objectives

Before integrating AI and automation, clearly define your PR goals. Are you aiming to increase brand awareness, manage a crisis, or promote a new product? Understanding your objectives will guide the selection of appropriate tools and strategies.

• Step two: Choose the Right Tools

Select AI and automation tools that align with your goals. For media monitoring, consider platforms like Meltwater or Cision. For press release distribution, tools like PR Newswire or Business Wire offer automated services.

• Step three: Integrate with Existing Systems

Ensure that your chosen tools can integrate with your current CRM, email marketing, and analytics platforms. This integration facilitates seamless data flow and more cohesive campaigns.

• Step four: Train Your Team

Provide training for your PR team to effectively use new tools. Understanding how to interpret AI-generated insights and adjust strategies accordingly is crucial for success.

• Step five: Monitor and Adjust

Continuously monitor campaign performance using AI analytics. Be prepared to make data-driven adjustments to optimise results.

Case study: AI in action

A leading tech company aimed to launch a new product in the Asia-Pacific region. By implementing programmatic PR strategies, they achieved remarkable results:

• Media monitoring: AI tools identified key journalists and influencers discussing similar products.
• Personalised outreach: Automated systems crafted tailored pitches for each contact, increasing open and response rates.
• Sentiment analysis: Real-time monitoring allowed the team to gauge public perception and adjust messaging promptly.

The campaign resulted in a 40% increase in media coverage and a 25% boost in positive sentiment compared to previous launches.

Challenges and considerations

While programmatic PR offers numerous benefits, it’s essential to be aware of potential challenges:

• Data privacy: Ensure compliance with data protection regulations when using AI tools that process personal information.
• Over-reliance on automation: Maintain a balance between automation and human touch to preserve authenticity in communications.
• Tool selection: Carefully evaluate tools for reliability, scalability, and support to avoid disruptions in your PR activities.

The future of programmatic PR

The integration of AI and automation in PR is not a passing trend but a fundamental shift in how we approach communication. As technology continues to evolve, we can expect even more sophisticated tools that offer deeper insights and greater personalisation.

PR professionals who embrace programmatic strategies will be better equipped to navigate the fast-paced media landscape, deliver impactful messages, and build stronger relationships with their audiences.

Programmatic PR is transforming the public relations industry by combining the power of AI and automation to create more efficient, targeted, and effective campaigns. By understanding and implementing these strategies, PR professionals can enhance their outreach efforts, achieve better results, and stay ahead in an increasingly competitive landscape.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic.

Join us on Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and our WA community to stay connected.

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