Lancify is a managed marketplace that connects students to startups and SMEs for freelancing jobs

Should you hire a freelancer or an intern when you are on a tight budget?

This is a global dilemma many early-stage startups and entrepreneurs face.

For the uninitiated, an internship is a temporary form of full-time or part-time employment that can be paid or unpaid. An intern can have several roles and responsibilities. A freelancer, on the other hand, is a contractor for a very specific task or to solve a very specific problem that he/she is highly skilled at.

“A freelancer is typically one who is given a set of deliverables, on the completion of which the contract is terminated. An intern on the other hand is a form of short-term employment where the candidate is given various different roles and tasks,” says Gowtham Sundaresan, a tech entrepreneur. “An intern is meant to be provided with time, mentorship and attention which will lead to their positive growth.”

According to him, most startups and SMEs know they can’t dedicate enough resources to track the personal development of the intern, thus voluntarily signing them up for exploitation.

“This is the perfect situation to hire a student freelancer instead. With minimal dedication of time and effort, the company can be sure that they will be given the deliverables required and with quality. Hiring interns, getting them used to the company culture and processes, and then figuring out what work to give them is big waste of time for the intern and the company. Hire student freelancers for efficiency and quality work. Hire interns when you’re ready to impart mentorship”, he continues.

With the intention to universalise student freelancing, Sundaresan along with his BITS Pilani classmate Azan Barodawala launched an online platform called Lancify.

Also Read: Freelancing is a new norm, but it still faces a massive problem

“While in university, we were figuring out ways to stand out to employers in the future, to get a good job after graduation. After getting into freelancing, we discovered a huge gap in the market that we were filling. We started getting projects that we couldn’t do ourselves, but our friends could, and so we started connecting people over email and WhatsApp,” adds Sundaresan.

“The impact it had on our personal and professional development was immense and we knew that we wanted to take this to the world and give every student this opportunity. This made us create a platform which can bridge the gap between students and the startup ecosystem,” he says.

Lancify was launched by the duo in 2017. Gowtham is a tech-enthusiast who has previously worked with multiple early-stage startups to build and launch apps, whereas Barodawala was a key member of GearShifters, UAE’s first student team that builds F1 cars.

Based out of Dubai and Bangalore, Lancify aims to build and back the world’s strongest young workforce by universalising the concept of student freelancing.

Sundaresan points out that internship is currently the norm and is the only way for students to gain experience. Having said that, majority of students find internships to be pointless, exploitative and more of a formality to blow up their CV. “With the future of work leaning towards flexibility and efficiency, we can safely assume that freelancing is the next big thing. It’s only a matter of time that freelancing replaces these pointless internships. Lancify aims to effect that change sooner and also be the pioneers of the concept.”

How Lancify works

Students can apply to be a part of Lancify and undergo a pre-screening procedure, after which they will be able to create their profiles and showcase their past work. At the same time, employers can post their projects and requirements. Students look through projects and bid for the ones they are interested in. Employers will then select the suitable student and a virtual workspace will be provided.

All payments are protected by an ESCROW system and a robust dispute resolution mechanism.

The USP

Globally, there are quite a few online freelancing platforms such as Freelancer.com and Upwork.

“Our USP is that,”continues Sundaresan, “startups and SMEs can use Lancify to get amazing quality of work that is cost-efficient, too. Also, thanks to the hyper-local aspect, there are endless possibilities of what work can be given to freelancers. Student freelancers do work in almost every field from developing software to painting wall murals at bars — students can do it all. There is also a much higher quotient of trust and effectiveness of work. All talent is verified and pre-screened by default. There is no mediocrity in our talent pool.”

“As for students, Lancify is a perfect platform to be introduced to the gig economy without being overshadowed by professionals and agencies. The kind of projects that students get are also in-line with their skill level. We’re building hyper-local communities so that students can network and learn form one another,” he says.

Sundaresan says that Lancify is aimed at students, dropouts and very recent graduates. In other words, it is exclusively for those haven’t entered the professional world yet. “We aim to solve the problem of youth unemployability by providing them with real-world problems to work on. There are tons of platforms for professionals to find big projects for themselves, we cater to a completely different side of the market.”

With over 50 per cent of the population under the age of 29 by 2020, there is a pressing need to up-skill the workforce that is graduating every year.

Also Read: The knowledge gap may be the biggest hindrance to blockchain adoption

“Freelancing is a fairly new concept for students here and we aim to launch programme soon that will help up-skill students and get them freelance-ready in a certain skill of their choice within a few weeks. With the booming startup ecosystem, we see a beautiful synergy that can be forged with the students community it thrives around. We are looking to get into Tier-II and Tier-III cities and leverage the drive and determination of the young workforce there to truly provide an equal footing for every student in the country to have access to amazing opportunities,” Sundaresan states.

Currently, Lancify is operational in India, the UAE, Sweden and Romania. So far, it claims to have connected close to 750 projects since inception, and has a talent pool of 5,000 students across four cities in Europe and Asia.

For students, the platform is free to use. However, Lancify takes an additional 18 per cent service charge from the employer on each project.

Gig economy in India

It is estimated that the gig-economy will comprise 80 per cent of the workforce in India by 2030. “We ourselves keep discovering new skills that can be freelanced. Football freestyling, dance performances, mock paper question creation, etc. are not typically associated with traditional freelancing, but with curated hyper local talent, everything is possible! The trend is here to stay, and we aim to provide students a launchpad to enter the future of work,” he goes on.

In his view, balancing both sides of the marketplace is a big challenge. The company doesn’t want too many students with no projects for them, or too many projects and nobody takes up. It requires a pipeline to be created on one side and deep foresight into what the month is going to look like on the other.

“Making students aware of their skills and eliminating the traditional thought that they need to do pointless internships or jobs they don’t like in order to gain experience and build their careers, is also challenging. This rhetoric is forced on to students as they are made to be seen as easy/cheap labour. It is sad to see many new-age companies with internet presence perpetuating the same message too,” he says.

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The accelerator has support from Enterprise Singapore and is partnered with a few well-known corporations

A new accelerator is in town! Tribe Accelerator, which is focussed on blockchain startups, is backed by a venture capitalist firm and supported by a local government agency and various corporates.

The accelerator, launched on Wednesday, March 27 at an event in Singapore, is part of TRIVE Ventures, an early-stage VC in Singapore. It is supported by Enterprise Singapore, a government agency, and includes corporate partners like BMW, Intel, Nielsen and PwC Singapore’s Venture Hub.

“We are very excited to welcome our first class of companies. Over the next four months, they will have a great opportunity to develop their ideas on our platform,” said Yi Ming Ng, Managing Partner of Tribe Accelerator.

The basics on the 10 companies participating are as follows (remember, they all working on integrating blockchain-built products):

sgCarMart — The largest online car marketplace in Singapore.
TADA — A young ride-hailing startup that is trying to compete with Grab.
WhatsHalal — A startup trying to streamline farm-to-table food processes for halal food.
MightyJaxx — The team is trying to build a platform for the global arts and collectables industry.
Limestone Network — A startup that is powering a smartcity development project in Phomn Penh.
Digix — A company that is digitising traditional asset classes, notably finding success in gold
Chorus Mobility — This startup is working on a product to build the technology architecture behind autonomous vehicles.
TEMCO — A supply-chain company that wants to help verify expensive goods on second-hand marketplaces.
Halo — Halo wants to build an alternative cloud storage platform that gives users full ownership over data.
Accrue — The company has built tools for event analytics and easy-to-use algorithm development.

Now, let’s take a look at some photos from the event!

Tribe Accelerator launch event

Startup launch events are an excellent opportunity to meet knew people and catch up with close friends.

Enterprise Singapore is the government agency supporting the programme.

Edwin Chow, the Enterprise Singapore Assistant CEO for Innovation and Enterprise, was the keynote speaker.

Chistopher Quek, of TRIVE Ventures, poses for a picture with the WhatsHalal team.

Quek and Chow posing with an ummmmmmmm, another Chow? While we are not entirely sure what is happening here, this picture is too good not to post.

Representatives from Enterprise Singapore pose for a photo.

Ryan Chew (Middle), a Managing Partner at Tribe Accelerator, poses with two guests.

Representatives from PwC, SMBC and SG Innovate pose for a photo.

Hanging out with some food, drinks and good company.

Elmo is looking a bit worse for wear after his surgery.

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In implementing the technology, Shopee believes that it is important to be considerate of your business’ needs

Data science has become one of the hottest trends in the Southeast Asian tech community nowadays, that many businesses have recklessly jumped into the bandwagon for fear that they might miss out on the opportunities it can provide.

Dr. Pan Liaozhang, Head of Data Science at Southeast Asian e-commerce giant Shopee, reminds us of the need to be considerate in implementing the technology.

“The use of technology needs to meet the needs of your business,” she says.

“Not every area might requires the use of data science in the beginning. Even with Shopee, we didn’t have that since the very beginning. We started one year after the launch of our app, so that we have enough data to work with,” the scientist continues.

In principal, for data science to be able to drive an e-commerce business, Dr. Pan stresses on the importance of combining deep business understanding with the technology itself. Businesses need to have an understanding of where they are as a company and the strategy that they intend to use at that particular stage.

That way, the use of data science will be aligned with the company’s strategy in driving key business metrics.

Also Read: Sea Group trying to raise US$1.5 billion likely aimed at Shopee

Dr. Pan is leading the data science team at Shopee, where she had built the team from scratch and has grown it to a more than 50 person strong team. She joined the company in 2015

Before Shopee, she worked for Grab, Greenwave Systems, and was a research scientist at the Institute for Infocomm Research, A*STAR.

In an Academy interview with e27, Dr. Pan shares how the company is implementing the use data science in order to answer some of the greatest challenges in running an e-commerce business in Southeast Asia.

What they do 

 

She begins by giving examples of the three use cases of data science in the company:

1. To optimise key business processes, such as detecting bad listings or potential fraudsters
2. To reduce costs, such as by using in-house translation engine to translate product information
3. To improve customer experience and optimise services, such as giving personalised recommendation of products

Apart from these examples, Shopee is also currently working on their long-term data-focussed goal: Developing an E-Commerce Knowledge Graph.

For context, the Knowledge Graph is Google’s systematic way of putting facts, people and places together, to create interconnected search results that are more accurate and relevant. Using Natural Language Processing technology, the Knowledge Graph will encode relationships based on taxonomy and characterise the nature of each linkage, responding to queries even before if answers were not explicitly discussed beforehand.

Also Read: Petitioned for its Blackpink commercial in Indonesia, Shopee replied: “We’ve wrapped that up”

Started by Google and popularised in China, the Knowledge Graph is described as being “quite massive” in scale.

Shopee’s implementation of the technology aims to better understand changing consumer habits and patterns in Southeast Asia.

Dr. Pan says that the company is currently in the “very initial stage” of implementing this technology.

“Usually, building up a knowledge graph includes several stages. The first stage is the knowledge attraction, the second stage is the knowledge storage, and the third stage is the knowledge processing and calculation. We are currently at the stage of knowledge attraction, so we use all tangible technologies including NLP, predictive analysis, and machine learning model to try to extract the most valuable information from the abstract data,” Dr. Pan explains, adding the abstract data include product images and information.

“The purpose is to attract the key information from the abstract data and to store the information in a structured way which is the graph database,” she concludes.

Once completed, the Knowledge Graph will enable the Shopee platform to run faster and further with greater efficiency, benefiting the whole ecosystem – buyers, sellers and the business.

The company says that it will be one of the first e-commerce platforms to launch the system in Southeast Asia and Taiwan.

The process would be even more complex compared to its implementation in US and Chinese markets, as e-commerce platforms in Southeast Asia are dealing with unique challenges, such as the use of multiple languages even within a single market.

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Image Credit: Markus Spiske on Unsplash

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He will also be leading the management of Gobi’s newly announced early-stage Pakistani fund with Fatima Ventures

Leading venture capital firm Gobi Partners announced today it has appointed Jamaludin Bujang, former CEO of Malaysian Venture Capital Management (MAVCAP), as Managing Director for Malaysian operations.

In the new role, Bujang will be overseeing investments and fundraising for Gobi in the Malaysian market. He will also be leading the management of Gobi’s newly announced early-stage Pakistani fund with Fatima Ventures.

Bujang was with local and international investment banks as a sell side analyst for 15 years before joining a subsidiary of a sovereign fund and later MAVCAP for 13 years combined, first as a Head of Investment in the former and as CEO in the latter.

Also Read: Gobi Partners-Core Capital JV invests in Filipino startups MariaHealth, Edukasyon

At MAVCAP, he changed the company’s strategic direction to focus on raising funds from the private sector and managing funds with local and international VC partners. He attracted a number of local corporates to — for the first time — invest in VC funds. This has allowed MAVCAP to reduce its dependence on funds from the government and at the same time increase private sector participation and investment in the technology space.

Together with its partners, MAVCAP has managed to raise funds from a sovereign fund and several foreign investors. In total, he helped MAVCAP to create, manage, and participate in nine funds with a combined size of up to RM2 B since 2014. All the funds focus on technology companies and some have specific investment mandates including investment in Bumiputra companies, regional tech companies and early and growth stages companies. The funds had invested in 943 companies so far, 103 of which are Malaysian tech companies.

Bujang is also active in the local VC industry. He was the Chairman of Malaysia Venture Capital Association (MVCA) for the 2012-13 period and has spent a lot of effort in helping the industry grow by engaging with stakeholders including the regulators, government agencies, private sector VCs and accelerators, universities, NGOs, limited partners and corporates.

Also Read: Malaysia-based logistic platform TheLorry raises US$5.85M Series B funding

Bujang graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration (Economics) from Wichita State University in Kansas in the US and a Master’s Degree in Business Law (Executive) from International Islamic University, Kuala Lumpur.

Thomas G. Tsao, Chairman and Founding Partner of Gobi, said: “Jamal was a key part of the reason why Gobi established our office here in Kuala Lumpur. We have known Jamal for a long time, and are honored to have him on board.”

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The Vietnam-based company combines technology and clinical services to complete care benefits ecosystem

Vietnam-grown healthtech startup Jio Health announced yesterday that it has raised a US$5 million Series A round of funding led by led by Monk’s Hill Ventures.

With the new funding, Jio Health is looking to scale its care provider team and clinical operations across Vietnam.

“We look forward to working with Monk’s Hill’s team as we scale our operations and capabilities to meet the growing need for quality, affordable healthcare in the region,” said Raghu Rai, co-founder, and CEO of Jio Health.

Kuo-Yi Lim, the Managing Partner at Monk’s Hill Ventures, will also be joining the board of Jio Health.

Jio Health offers full-stack technology-driven healthcare that is combined with clinical services. It provides consumers with the ecosystem of care benefits such as home doctor visits, nursing services, pharmacy delivery, lab collection, telemedicine, and digital medical records.

Also Read: Online freelancing platform Lancify helps you earn extra money as a student

Jio Health champions affordability and accessibility in the whole spectrum of healthcare, letting customers have ab on-demand healthcare access.

Covered healthcare includes pediatrics, primary care, chronic disease management, and ancillary care services. It uses proprietary systems and technologies to scale and optimise care delivery in a vertically integrated polyclinic, lab, and pharmacy.

Jio Health was founded in 2014 by Raghu Rai and serial entrepreneur Ken Rohl, with offices in Irvine, CA as Rai is University of California, Irvine (UCI) alum, and in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

In 2018, the company experienced growth when it managed to complete several thousand home-visits and check-ups, taking a part in the out-of-pocket healthcare industry worth about US$70 billion in Southeast Asia.
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Don’t let Alice fool you, the rabbit hole isn’t a magical affair at all

With the economy roaring right now, it’s unsurprising that eager entrepreneurs across the nation are keen on announcing their ambitious startup companies to the world.

Before you think about finally going public and acting on your plans to start your own business, you need to do plenty of research to ensure that your company doesn’t fail from the get-go. More often than not, startups suffer because they lack legal expertise and the ability to properly plan out their future with a lawyer’s help.

Here are the five biggest legal mistakes startups make time and time again, and how you can avoid them when launching your own business.

1. Passing up on a founder’s agreement

Many startups that are launched by a group or pair of similarly minded entrepreneurs feel that they can pass up on a founder’s agreement, which they wrongly view as an unnecessary expense that will take up time, money, and potentially divide them in the future.

While it can be appealing to launch your startup without feeling constrained by a founder’s agreement, such an agreement is absolutely necessary to the longevity of your business. Far too many companies failed because they mistakenly believed they could survive and thrive off the force of the personalities of those running them.

Also Read: Blockchain-based fintech company Everex signs deal with Krungthai Bank, SHWE Bank

Avoid letting a small conflict spin out of control in the future and destroy our startup’s chances of success. You should take some time now to read up on why founder’s agreements are so important, and what crucial details you should be covering when forging an agreement of your own.

2. Hiring a shoddy lawyer

In order to navigate all these legal documents without going crazy, your startup will likely be depending on the expertise of a lawyer sometime in its opening days. However, if you hire a shoddy lawyer, the consequences could reverberate and diminish your business’ ability to succeed for years to come.

Having excellent legal expertise isn’t cheap, and you may think this is the proper time to keep expenses low, but don’t hesitate to spend what’s necessary on acquiring a good lawyer who can give you solid advice in times of trouble.

What you should know about hiring a lawyer largely revolves around testing their character, credentials, and determining if their personality is a good fit for your startup. Keep focused on recruiting stellar legal experts to your team and your startup will be sailing in safer waters than many of its competitors.

3. Dismissing compliance as an unnecessary regulation

The bane of any new business owner is the dizzying system of regulations on false advertising he or she will soon have to grapple with as they attempt to wrestle a profit from the marketplace, but it’s a terrible mistake to dismiss compliance with industry standards as just another regulation to be ignored.

Cutting through red tape isn’t always worth it, and if your company starts cutting corners when it comes to making sure it’s compliant with all the necessary regulations you’ll soon land yourself in legal jeopardy. Unless you want to face an expensive lawsuit, you should be sure to make compliance a priority at your startup.

If you lack a compliance program, that says a lot about your startup’s ability to ensure a future for itself in a crowded marketplace where regulators are always looking to cull the weak from the rest of the herd. You may think a dedicated compliance professional on your team is expensive, but they may end up saving you a ton of money in the long run by avoiding stiff fines and legal nightmares that occur when you’re noncompliant with important laws.

4. Your startup and its roles are vaguely defined

You may think keeping the roles of your senior executives vague gives you some flexibility in your daily operations, but it’s a crucial legal mistake that could end up muddying the waters in the near future.

Also Read: Why an open office design makes you less productive

Your startup’s founding partners may quickly find that the task they set out to accomplish was completed much earlier than they thought possible and try to foray onto another partner’s turf in search of additional work, overstepping his or her boundaries.

Making sure that everyone’s role is clearly defined, and responsibility is fairly dished out, is essential to success.

5. Remaining ignorant of tax laws

Finally, the biggest legal mistake that countless startups make is remaining ignorant of local tax laws and how they can be exploited for a profit. If your company isn’t properly incorporated, for instance, you could be saving yourself literally thousands of dollars a year in taxes.

Furthermore, knowing where to incorporate and where to base your business operations could end up being the difference between a startup in the black and one that’s struggling to make a profit.

Dig deeply into your local regulations and arrive at a comprehensive understanding of your nearby business environment before you create your startup, and you’ll be avoiding the biggest legal mistakes that countless other entrepreneurs have made before you.

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Image Credits: frimufilms

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