Cryptocurrency is just the tip of an iceberg called blockchain technology

The record highs of 2017 lead to a bearish 2018 in the world of cryptocurrency trading.

What’s perhaps mention-worthy is the fact that some of the major coins incurred huge losses in their value in the fag end of the last year.

While Bitcoin was 74 per cent down, Ethereum and Ripple saw a steep decline of 84 per cent — and the trend has continued into the start of 2019 for other coins as well.

However, the bigger picture is that the declining market may work as a stepping-stone for the creation of new value products and services using blockchain.

The pundits expect the market to be quiet for some time before investors and developers start creating future value products for the masses.

The expected developments through blockchain

Cryptocurrencies are the wonders of blockchain but the question remains — have we been able to explore it to its fullest potential?

The industry experts are of the view that more companies, charities, and financial organisations may start accepting cryptocurrencies in the near future.

Also Read: Batam’s TOP100 winner is on a mission to destigmatise disabilities

The blockchain market is expected to be worth US$20 billion by 2024. Billions of dollars are being spent on blockchain to utilise its effectiveness in financial services, cybersecurity, and other blockchain-based solutions.

Did you know 69 per cent of the banks are already experimenting with this technology to make their services more transparent, secure, and seamless?

Ventures like Resistance are the face of blockchain technology as they are based on the core values of privacy and decentralisation.

Its founder, Anthony Khamsei, believes in adopting an open-source policy that ensures the project remains transparent. “Transparency and privacy are critical for the success of a crypto project”, he quipped.

The company has come up with a platform that helps people to trade in cryptocurrency while maintaining their anonymity and privacy – the essence of promising blockchain technology.

Crypto still has a lot to offer

Cryptocurrencies have received a lot of flak from financial critics for volatility but the truth is, there are numerous other commodities in our day-to-day life, which can prove to be equally unpredictable.

These critics fail to realise that cryptocurrency is only the start of the journey for blockchain technology. This is just the tip of an iceberg!

There is still a lot of room for development because no matter what, Bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrencies will never be a complex form of technology.

Also Read: The Philippines rejects Go-Jek’s appeal for ride-hailing licence

With the introduction of complex codes in blockchain, we can expect a lot more.

For instance, the principles behind blockchain can be taken up by large corporations to enhance the security and privacy of their data as well as smooth execution of the projects.

Cryptocurrency is still at infant stages in terms of credibility in the financial world, but the attention it has managed to garner from the masses indicate a positive step in discovering further underlying blockchain functionality.

Conclusion

In simple words, cryptocurrency is still an interesting case study for people that are still unsure about its future.

While some people think that it will meet the same fate as the dotcom bubble, others regard it to be the invention of the future.

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A founder meeting is not just about choosing the right company, but also persuading the right founders to accept your cheque

For any angel investor, having access to quality-deal-flows will always be a key priority.

This is because, as compared to the stock market where all investment opportunities are readily available for you, it is not as easy to find the best startups to invest in.

Thus, most angels will need to be active in seeking out potential investments, such as meeting entrepreneurs through events and conferences, attending demo days, joining angel groups etc.

Over time, when an angel becomes more active and well known in the ecosystem, they are likely to receive direct investment opportunities from startups or their individual networks. This is a relatively easy process as compared to what comes next — meeting the founder one-on-one.

Through my experiences hearing both founders and investors, here are some useful things you should know when conducting a meeting with a founder.

1. The best startups will have investors competing

During fundraising, the key challenge for founders with high-quality startups will not be about convincing angels or VCs to invest. Instead, their challenge lies with knowing which investors they would want on board instead.

As an angel, it is important for you to understand the value you can bring to founders. Money aside, founders will look at what each potential investor can bring to them, be it your networks and contacts, industry experience, skillsets, etc.

For example, the value of two of AngelCentral’s Partners, Der Shing and Shao Ning, will be their past experience as founders themselves, having grown and ultimately exiting their startup.

Because of this, they are able to understand the challenges other founders are going through and be able to advise and help based on their own experience.

During your meetings with the founders, as much as it is important to use that opportunity to find out more about the company, you will need to know how to sell yourself and the value you can bring for the startup.

Thus, the objective of a founder meeting is not just about choosing the right company to invest in, but also persuading the right founders to accept your cheque in the first place.

2. Prepare even before the meeting begins

As Jason Calacanis stated in his book, “Angel: How to Invest in Technology Startups”, it’s not just a simple Google Search.

In order to make the best of time during each founder meeting, it is key you conduct some preliminary research before it begins.

Also Read: Startup that helps hotels perfect their deals raises US$3.7M Series A

You should research on information such as reviewing the product itself, going deeper into their target market, info on their competitors, customers’ reviews and testimonials, etc. Most of the info should hopefully be in the pitch deck that you would have already received beforehand, but you should not be taking everything the founder claims at face value.

Juicero, a US-based startup that raised more than US$97.4 million in funding from prominent investors such as Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures and even the Campbell Soup Company.

However, it closed after four years when a video from Bloomberg showed that their produce packs were essentially giant ketchup sachets of fruit and vegetable pulp that you could scoop straight out of the bag and squeeze with your hands.

If investors were able to try out the products for themselves even before the meeting, they might not have made such a “foolish” mistake.

3. Get the crucial answers answered first

As angels, it is important for you to know the right questions to ask the founder. This is because while any (sensible) question you ask will be answered with much gusto and passion by the founder, you both have limited time.

Thus, according to Calacanis, the four most crucial questions you will want to have answered after the first meeting is:

– Why has this founder chosen the business?
– How committed is this founder?
– What are the founder’s chances of succeeding – and in life?
– What does winning look like in terms of revenue and my return?

If you do not like the answers to these four critical questions, you do not have to proceed with the more tactical or operational aspects of the business.

You also realise that three of the four questions are closely related to your assessment of the founding team, in line with what we have been sharing at AngelCentral: that the team is the most important factor when assessing a startup.

4. No need to say yes or no during the meeting

Some founders are excellent salesmen, and their charisma and persuasiveness will entice you to say yes to investing in them right away.

As it is a good practice for angels to say yes only when they are absolutely certain they will invest, it is important to remind yourself to inform the founder of your decision in a few days time via email, and not instantly.

I have heard of cases where investors have committed to investing in a startup, only pulling out at the last moment because they realised the amount of competition in the market was a lot higher than what they initially assumed.

This is also why the previous point of making preparations before the meeting begins is extremely useful.

Conclusion

It is hard to conduct a perfect meeting with a founder when doing it for the first couple of times.

However, you will be able to conduct such meetings a lot more effectively through enough experience over time.

Meanwhile, to start off, it will be useful to sit in meetings conducted by more experienced angels or attend pitch days that have a high level of interaction between the audience and founders.

Also Read: What’s in store for blockchain and cryptocurrency?

These would help you get a better sensing of how to go about asking questions and assess the team.

Lastly, many angels find this part of the journey the most exciting, as this is when they get to learn about new industries, be exposed to cutting edge technologies, and meeting exciting individuals.

So, do enjoy the process while you are at it!

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Anyone — from the regular joe to a huge MNC — can fall prey to cybercriminals

Today, with an increasing number of reports related to cybercrimes, it is no wonder that cybersecurity is a prime lookout for everyone.

Especially in the case of government websites or databases that contain highly classified and confidential information, cybersecurity becomes the top concern.

In order to fiercely protect this confidentiality, enterprises are now willing to go that extra mile, and take all possible measures to ensure top-notch cybersecurity. Consequently, the demand for cybersecurity experts is soaring today.

However, in spite of skyrocketing demands for experts skilled in cybersecurity, there is a lingering shortage in their supply.

This is something of interest and concern and is a hotly debated issue around the world.

Even though there are literally hundreds and thousands of vacancies across companies looking for cybersecurity experts, the problem with the skill gap is ever-widening.

In the World Economic Forum’s report published in January 2019, it has been expressed that there are more than 200,000 job posts that are yet to be fulfilled by qualified cybersecurity experts.

In other words, employers are constantly on the lookout for trained professionals in this field but are struggling to find suitable resources.

Such reports expose the deficit that enterprises are today experiencing, thereby giving an upper hand to the cyber miscreants who are leveraging this gap to their best advantage.

With every passing day, cybercriminals are coming up with newer and more complex ideas that can easily break through the most sophisticated of cyber security mechanisms.

As a result, companies all over the world are making a scramble to garner more information and fight against this security breach with whatever resources they have.

Earlier gaffes that have led to this gap in talent

As the world becomes ever more digitised and more people are shifting their focus to the internet, many unforeseen incidents and newer challenges are being created.

With easy access to the web and its myriad services and applications, no one can really predict beforehand what unscrupulous cyber activities could happen next.

Therefore, it is almost unsurprising that many industries are unprepared to face this issue that has now assumed alarming proportions.

Also Read: Batam’s TOP100 winner is on a mission to destigmatise disabilities

And, although top global firms and governmental agencies are now ready to invest huge chunks of money to equip their cybersecurity department with expert minds, there was a major issue of underinvestment.

This is somewhat related to the point that has already been mentioned above, that the rapid up-shooting of cybercrimes was not something that companies had predicted.

Therefore, investments to bring on board skilled cybersecurity experts was not considered a necessity back then.

Owing to the IT boom, there has been a mushrooming of hundreds of other technology companies. Now, even if the larger enterprises have sufficient budget to employ top cybersecurity experts, the newer and smaller companies often fall short of funds.

As a result, these hundreds of smaller IT companies all over the world suffer a lag in cybersecurity solutions. Not only are they left unguarded, but they also act as potential channels for cybercriminals to attack the larger organisations.

Apart from budget issues and failing to anticipate this danger, the dearth of necessary cyber security skills is also a major contributor to this skill gap.

It is important to understand that cybersecurity skills are no longer confined to mere degrees and certificates.

Reasons behind this increasing gap

Although much has changed from before, and companies have sprung to their feet to take necessary action, the lag in cyber security skills is still a reality.

There are several reasons why this gap is still growing today:

Ever-rising demand
With cybercrimes increasing at an appalling rate every year, it is truly hard to predict if the forces can overcome these and put an end to them for good.

It is possible to take time and address different technological issues, by researching and finding out appropriate technical solutions. But when it comes to addressing cybersecurity threats, the sheer speed of evolution leaves no time to come up with solutions.

With every passing day, the issues are becoming way more sophisticated and getting out of control.

Nowadays, companies are hiring engineering graduates for cybersecurity roles and enrolling them to in-house certificate programs to train them as cybersecurity experts. But even after this, studies have estimated that in the USA, there will be around 3.5 million vacancies for cybersecurity jobs by the year 2021.

Inadequate compensation and exposure
One of the most important determinants of any job is the compensation offered, not to mention the experience that one can gain.

In fact, these two are major factors that influence cybersecurity professionals when they join an organisation.

Today, all industries are equally vulnerable to cyber threats, owing to which there should ideally be unanimous demand for professionals across all verticals. However, it is observed that the IT giants are typically more upbeat in recruiting cybersecurity experts and offering them highly lucrative compensation packages as well.

This scenario leads to the distribution of necessary skills that are not uniformed.

If all industries can grow more upbeat about recruiting experts to tackle the technological crisis and are ready to compensate them proportionately, the gap can be bridged to some extent.

Poor communication skills
Simply going by degrees and experience is not enough in today’s world; professionals need to be thoroughly well versed in their communication as well.

This is not just limited to written communication. A cybersecurity professional must be capable of addressing the company management about cyber threats and possible solutions.

They must have the necessary soft skills to convince top managers about the investments that need to be made and steps that must be undertaken to protect the enterprise from cybersecurity threats.

Without effective communication skills, it is hard to survive any job today.

Recruitment prejudice
More often than not, it is found that companies tend to emphasize a lot more on the number of years of work experience while recruiting.

What most of the recruiters fail to realise is that the experience gathered on the job is of far greater significance than just the years of experience acquired.

When it comes to dealing with cybersecurity threats, exposure to various real life incidents plays a much more important role. It makes an employee truly seasoned to think out of the box and come up with effective solutions, rather than just having the theoretical knowledge about stuff.

Going beyond such prejudice can help companies get exactly what they need to keep themselves protected against cybersecurity threats.

How to bridge this talent gap

If you keep tabs on cybersecurity-related news, then you would already know that this shortage in supply of trained cybersecurity experts is not something new.

But, given that the gap in demand and supply of cybersecurity professionals is increasing rapidly, there still seems to be a few options we could use to turn the tables on the situation.

Public sector tie-up with private companies
One of the best ways to deal with the growing menace of cyber threats is to unite against the criminal forces.

When public or governmental agencies collaborate with top private technological companies, they are surely going to be a force to reckon with. With the aid of funds combined with the talent pool in private companies, there is bound to be better and more effective means of dealing with cybersecurity concerns.

Also Read: Startup that helps hotels perfect their deals raises US$3.7M Series A

With this intention, former US President Obama had already tied up with the US Government and Silicon Valley to bridge this talent gap in the cyber security industry.

Joint development of futuristic tools
If all the different industries decide to pool together their resources and cultivate the talents needed to fight against cybercrimes, then such cases can be curtailed to a great extent.

Instead of trying to go out all alone against cyber miscreants, gathering the top minds to create an industry-wide cybersecurity panel can devise cutting edge strategies to protect cyberspace.

However, such moves of collaboration depend on various factors, and of course time. But till then, the best move can be to begin right away by guarding your own cyberspace with the use of latest VPN technologies like ExpressVPN.

Although there is a long long way to traverse, in this endeavor to thwart the cyber-criminal activities all over the world, a VPN is an effective way to make the first move towards it.

Companies can gather more information on the best VPN applications that can be used for this purpose. Accordingly, they can recruit new talent and train them as per standards, to scale up to the requirements.

Cybersecurity threats are no less serious than the top worldwide concerns such as global warming. Therefore, it is extremely crucial to overcome this talent gap crisis and protect the cyberspace from persistent and targeted threats every time.

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Grab introduced lending services, payment channels, insurance updates and even instalment plans

Grab Financial Group, the fintech arm of Grab, announced today a host of new services that include SME lending, insurance updates, an online checkout system and the ability to pay bills via instalment plans.

The offerings are split into two core roadmaps, one is called ‘Grow with Grab’ and includes the lending/insurance services. The other is called ‘Pay with Grab’, which covers the payments services.

Grab’s long-term ambition is to become Southeast Asia’s largest merchant network, fintech lending platform and insurtech policy provider.

“We can leverage our scale and data insights to bring financial services products to market at a more competitive price point than anyone else,” said Reuben Lai the Senior Managing Director of Grab Financial Group in a statement.

The updates were announced at the Money 20/20 conference happening in Singapore this week.

Let’s get a bit more detailed into the updates.

Grow with Grab

In March, 2018, Grab announced a joint venture with the Japanese consumer finances company Credit Saison. The core focus of that partnership was to help people buy the products they would need to become Grab drivers. For example, loans to help buy the smartphones that are necessary to do the job.

The JV eventually started providing working capital loans for SMEs in Singapore. Today, the company announced it will pursue lending across Southeast Asia.

Last week, SGSME, a media company, reported that Grab will offer working capital loans of up to S$100,000 (US$74,000) to SMEs at an interest rate of 1 per cent per month.

Additionally, Grab announced ‘Pay Later’, a post-paid service that will launch in Singapore over the next few months. Pay Later is like a typical mobile phone subscription, allowing people to pay their Grab bill at the end of the month.

Grab will also facilitate an instalment plans that include a zero per cent interest rate over multiple months.

The goal is to provide people who may be under financial strain to have flexibility in their payment structure and avoid high interest rates or missed credit card payments.

Both the lending and payment-instalment services will only be offered to Grab’s most credit-worthy customers, which includes analysing spending patterns on the platform.

Pay with Grab

The two core products of the Pay with Grab roadmap is an online payments tool and a POS-integration service.

The online payment tool allows for e-commerce companies to facilitate transactions using GrabPay. It works just like any other online payment tool like Stripe or PayPal.

The selling point is that, for people who are deeply integrated into the Grab ecosystem, they can start to pay for a large variety of their daily life using Grab.

The e-commerce marketplaces Qoo10 and 11street are two big names that have come onboard and two movie theatres, Cathay Cinemas (Singapore) and SM Cinema (Philippines) will also host the payment tool.

For merchants, Grab has inked partnership agreements with Adyen, Boku, iPay88 and Dragonpay.

The other payment service is an integration service for point-of-sale (POS) devices. Merchants can now add GrabPay as a payment option for their POS system, which will help them streamline their accounting infrastructure.

To date, GrabPay for merchants has used a QR-code system. It is convenient for customers but separates the “Grab bills” from other forms of payment. Integrating into the POS system would shorten this gap.

The POS system will begin in Singapore before expanding regionally. Brands like Coffee Bean Tea & Leaf and Paris Baguette will be early adopters.

Insurance updates

For both Go-Jek and Grab, insurance has become an important avenue for attracting new drivers and riders. On this note, Grab partnered with China’s Zhong An Insurance back in January to expand its services.

Grab already offers medical leave insurance for drivers and personal accident insurance during all rides. It also has an Emerald Circle programme for drivers that covers lost earnings due to injury or illness.

The announcement today was that drivers can now use the app to tap into two different insurance products.

First, drivers will be able to top-up their long-term medical leave insurance within Grab. It would also allow drivers not using the Emerald Circle program to apply via the app.

The other update is Grab will let drivers top-up their personal-accident insurance using the app.

Over the rest of 2019, Grab will pursue policies of fractionalised premiums, micro-life insurance and critical illness policies.

Speaking on Grab’s overall financial services plan, Lai said,

“We are beating Southeast Asia’s fragmentation problem by bringing together the largest payments and financial services ecosystem. We have opened up our platform for more than 100 partners across a diverse set of industries ranging from malls to card networks and banks.”

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Ernst & Young welcomes application for its early stage startup incubator program, EY Foundry

Professional services organization Ernst & Young now welcomes applicants into its incubator program for early stage startups in the accounting, tax, fintech, legal tech, and regulatory tech space in Singapore. The invitation is extended from now till 26 April 2019 here (www.ey.com/eyfoundr) for Singapore-based startups in the mentioned areas.

Also Read: CoHive to launch 18-story co-working building CoHive 101

The official launch of the program itself will be in June 2019. The participants will get a chance to win a six-month rent-free residency at the growth center of the company EY wavespace in Singapore, offered only to up to five selected startups.

During the residency, EY will provide a tailored learning program that is based on EY industry insights experience in helping startups accelerate their business growth and develop their technology. What’s interesting is that EY will take no equity in the startups and will give the startups S$120,000 worth of Microsoft Azure credits to further support the building of participants’ technology stack.

EY will also open the opportunity for participants to pitch their ideas to EY leaders and the supporting corporate community, as well as their technology, or products generated from EY Foundry’s residency time.

“By working with the smartest talent in the startup space, we are unlocking new markets and innovation, building new relationships, and ultimately better serving clients,” said Jon Dobell, EY Asia-Pacific Tax Innovation Leader.

Previously, EY Foundry had a successful run in Sydney, Australia in 2018. Singapore would make its second country.

Also Read: Cambodian internet startup company Groupin secures US$5M Series A funding

The criteria to qualify for EY Foundry program are as follows:

• Must be an early stage (pre-series A funding) startup that is technology or product-related (not a service offering).
• Must have a working prototype or working towards a prototype that is scalable and can be used internationally
• Must have a headcount of four individuals or less, with demonstrated experience in the relevant industry
• Must have a cash flow to sustain nine months of operations
• Must be able to provide a business pack in the EY Foundry application

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Sometimes, the truth hurts and it ain’t pretty

In 2018, AngelList, the world’s leading start-up directory, listed over 4.6 million start-ups, with only 0.4 per cent listed as seed stage businesses.

All this talk of hubs, incubators, accelerators, coworking spaces and launchpads can seem like everyone’s giving it a go. This is due, in part to greater access to public and private resources, and to a new culture of entrepreneurialism sweeping the globe.

With so many of us seeking independence, it’s an uncomfortable statistic to know most start-ups don’t make it past the three-year mark.

Why?

Put simply, turning an idea into its own commercially viable business is really difficult. It takes a lot of grit, but more importantly, it takes good strategy and tactics.

Here are six tactics to help you reach three years and beyond.

Learn the lingo and decide on yours

Even if you are not planning on raising capital or joining an accelerator, learn the lingo. The conversations you’ll need to have are likely with entrepreneurial enthusiasts and they speak start-up fluently.

Some words to start with — churn rate and exit strategy. This is particularly difficult if you are transitioning from an SME into the start-up space with the focus of the conversation now on scalability and growth rather than profit margins.

While you learn the newfound culture of start-up land, listen out for the differences in business activities and decide how you are going to explain what you do.

Decide if you are a small business, a start-up, an idea, a firm, a consultant or a freelancer. Whichever you decide to label yourself as, stick to it.

Don’t be afraid to find competitors

The idea of competitors is an inherently scary one.

Similar people with similar ideas and sometimes a thousand times more capital than you. It’s important to start by understanding the commercial landscape you are about to enter, and validating your place within it.

Find competitors from all over the globe, even if your business will only be local.

If there’s genuinely no competitors because your business idea is entirely unique or you are entering an emerging industry, then find businesses in industry verticals who have a similar model in another market. Grill them, their customers, wording, branding and pricing models. A great way to do this is through analysing available competitor data.

There is a fantastic book by Seth Stephen-Davidowitz ‘Everybody Lies’ where Seth highlights just how important search data is for uncovering human truths. When you apply this logic to your business idea you can form a clear idea of what your users want, and what your competitors are already offering.

Tools such as Semrush and Google Trends can let you see what people are really looking for and how they’re trying to find it.

Be a pessimist

Aspiring entrepreneurs always have an ongoing motivator and that’s their fan club. It usually consists of very close family and friends, perhaps a few ex-colleagues.

This initial network is your support group and sometimes your seed funding. They’ll likely tell you your idea is great and although it really might be, it’s really important to keep one eye on the potential pitfalls and not focus solely on opportunities.

Large organisations hire business analysts to find potential risks. In the beginning it’s unlikely your office will consist of more than yourself, maybe a co-founder or two and some Ikea furniture.

But, as a start-up, constantly assessing your risks is really important.

Also Read: CoHive to launch 18-story co-working building CoHive 101

This is especially true in your first year. It’s not quite the glamorous start-up life you see in the movies, the key to success is often a strong pinch of paranoia.

When we launched Hassl this purposeful paranoia showed itself in many ways — extra user-testing, additional legal scrutiny of our contractual arrangements and international tax planning before we’d even left Victoria.

These sorts of actions, driven by the fear of something going wrong, means you stay on top.
A good idea and hard work can take you far but it’s the risks that you didn’t see coming that will stop you passing that three-year mark.

For example, an uninspected increase in tax or an employment contract error.

Pitch it ugly

Branding is an invaluable part of a successful business. Especially in the consumer space, creating a brand personality that oozes into every inch of your user experience is effective, but it shouldn’t come first.

Why?

First, ideas change once you’ve had more time to think it through, research the market and speak to potential customers.

With Hassl, it wasn’t until we interviewed other teams that we realised they wanted a project collaboration tool designed for the team member, not the project manager.

This is the core of Hassl’s brand, down to every piece of microscopy in the app.

If we’d created the branding first, we’d inevitably have to either redo it or the product would have ended up being moulded by a brand not that did not speak to its purpose.

Secondly, good branding takes time and time is money. Whilst there’s the temptation to start with the fun stuff, just work with a really basic logo initially and put your funds to crucial business activities.

Lastly, good ideas and great leaders should be able to pitch it ugly. Reach out to potential users and investors armed with only a word document and your voice. If people like your idea without the frills, it gives more credence to your vision and confidence to take it the next stage.

One line business plan

There are on average 200,000 people in the US alone who search for ‘business plan template’ every month. There are lots of templates out there and they range from half-page diagrams to 50-page documents.
We have never made a business plan. Instead, we set six-month goals to achieve.

At the end of each six-month period, we reflect and then build on where we’re at. I have founder friends whose business plans are the size of a book and are referred to weekly.

Whether you prefer a high-level goal approach or a detailed plan, it is important to be able to communicate what your business is going to be and how in a sentence. This is your vision.

For example, our vision is ‘Hassl will be a leading project collaboration tool built entirely for the team member through exceptional user design’. Write it down and practice it over and over again.

In the future when you need to answer many quick-fire questions about your strategies and tactics, it’ll be very useful to have your underlying vision to refer back to.

Understand your technology

This one only applies to technologically led start-ups, of which there are many.

We have an ongoing joke that most start-ups at tech conferences are looking for a technical founder. While this is funny to joke about, we do have an international skills shortage when it comes to coding and engineering.

Also Read: Hanoi TOP100 winner shows the best Vietnam has to offer

If you don’t have a technical founder, it’s essential you take the time to understand the technology that fuels your idea. Ask for documentation and a run through of the languages, disciplines and proprietary tools used.

Spend a day doing a basic online course. It’s inevitable that a potential partner, investor or user will ask you technical questions along the way, so it’s best to have a broad understanding of how it works and what the technical limitations are.

Reach out for free, local advice

If there is one thing the start-up world has it is lots of friendly faces to reach out to.
While we haven’t taken on any investors, we have had absolutely great advice along the way. Who you reach out to is really dependent on the sort of advice you are looking for.

If you are looking for financial or logistical guidance, reach out to your local council or government small business department, most of whom have a dedicated business budget that goes to a wide range of free workshops, mentor programs and walk-in office hours.

If you are looking for product or service design guidance, there is no greater value than designing for your ideal customer. Try reaching out to them.

Where possible, invite your ideal customer to be a beta user, helping you to shape your product in exchange for discounted services into the future. This will set the groundwork for a loyal customer-base too.

Lastly, for growth advice find industry experts you admire and reach out to them. If possible, find an event they are going to be part of and meet them in person. Remember their inboxes are likely to be as busy as their schedules so pick several and don’t get disheartened if you don’t hear back.

Another avenue for industry advice is service providers. Google for Start-ups offers great online resources and their local teams regularly engage with entrepreneurs. For example, Google reached out to us when we first launched and offered us free digital strategists to work alongside us for 12 months.

Whether you’ve got an idea in the back of your mind, or you’ve set up shop in someone’s basement, it’s best you take these challenges head-on. Underlying all of these considerations needs to be perseverance and acceptance of rejection.

It’s going to be hard, but it’s also going to be really, really exciting.

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Plus SC Ventures launches fintech bridge for startups and Tookitaki raises US$7.5 million

Cambodian startup-owner raises important funding round — [e27]

Groupin, a company that owns Little Fashion and Mediaload (famous for Khmerload) announced today it raised US$5 million from Belt Road Capital Management, a Mekong-focussed private equity firm.

The company claimed that the funding is the largest in the history of Cambodian tech startups.

Little Fashion and Mediaload are now squarely one of the most important startups in Cambodia, a country that has a small-but-burgeoning startup ecosystem.

Mediaload had previously raised financing from 500 Startups.

SC Ventures launches programme to match fintechs with Standard Chartered — [Press Release]

SC Ventures, a corporate VC arm of Standard Chartered, announced today it has launched a new programme called the ‘Fintech Bridge’ which aims to connect fintech companies with the bank.

The goal is to bring startups into Standard Chartered and have the fintechs pitch solutions that may help fix problems at Standard Chartered.

The programme is making four commitments to help improve the relationship between startups and corporates. They are:

• Connecting the the correct people
• No time wasted
• Funding guaranteed for proof of concepts
• Exposure to our markets

Tony Fernandes quits Facebook after New Zealand terror attack – [CNN]

Tony Fernandes, the Founder and CEO of AirAsia, quit Facebook after the platform was used to spread a video of the New Zealand mosque attack, according to CNN.

He said that the platform needs to clean itself up and that the harm of social media can outweigh the benefits.

According to the article, Facebook removed 1.5 million instances of the mosque attack video.

OVO acquires P2P lending startup Taralite – [KrAsia]

In a bid to start making marks in online lending sector, Indonesian conglomerate-owned e-wallet OVO has bought Indonesia-based P2P lending service Taralite, as first reported by KrAsia.

The acquisition is said to be finalised in February, but no terms from the deal are revealed.

“For the larger part, the decision to join OVO is because the link-up will help Taralite diversify the types of loans and credits we offer and reach a bigger scale,” said Abraham Viktor, Taralite’s founder, who will remain Taralite’s CEO after the buyout.

Singapore regtech startup raises US$7.5 million — [e27]

Singapore-based Tookitaki, a regulatory tech company that aims to enable financial institutions to develop sustainable compliance programmes, today announced that it has raised a US$7.5 million in Series A funding round.

The funding round was co-led by Illuminate Financial, a London-based early stage enterprise fintech investor, and Jungle Ventures, a Singapore-based Southeast Asia-focussed venture capital (VC) firm.

Enterprise Singapore, Supply Chain Angels, and VWX Capital also participated in the funding round.

In a press statement, Tookitaki Founder and CEO Abhishek Chatterjee said that a “large portion” of the funding will be used to strengthen the company’s R&D capabilities.

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Almost all business functions are turning to data-driven analytics to manage increasing complexity and market volatility

Despite the attention paid to multi-nationals, government-linked corporations and prominent local public companies, the fact is that the economies of ASEAN’s member states are dominated by small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

In fact, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises represent around 97-99 per cent of the enterprise population in most ASEAN countries.

Southeast Asia is, however, one of the fastest growing regions in the world and although small and medium businesses have an important window of opportunity, they must increase their competitiveness if they are to survive and grow in a highly competitive marketplace.

What SMEs must do is deploy the power of analytics.

Blending data across traditional silos

Global businesses of every size and in every sector are facing increasing complexity and market volatility.

In response, almost all business functions are turning to data-driven analytics and insights as a means to manage this increasing uncertainty, and pursue growth through a better understanding of their organisations’ customer bases.

Also Read: Cambodian internet startup company Groupin secures US$5M Series A funding

Responding to consumers’ demand to engage with their vendors, many SMEs are already using a variety of tools to support and track customers, manage social media, and run advertising campaigns.

However, when these tools are stand-alones — operating in silos — their value is diminished.

Combining them all in a dedicated analytics platform vastly increases the value of this data and the decisions it facilitates.

Analytics can draw on, aggregate and analyse data from marketing, sales, and customer service – and derive transformational insights into customer behaviour and preferences

The potential for growth through data and analytics

The sheer pace of change and the jargon that goes with digital transformation may be disconcerting to traditionally-run SMEs.

In fact, however, cutting through the jargon reveals basic business objectives and methods that any business owner will immediately understand and endorse.

Big data, for example, is not all about having unlimited amounts of information. It’s more a case of receiving high-quality, timely information that is specific, relevant and valuable to the business.

Putting analytics to work becomes easier all the time — new generation analytics tools integrate with third parties making the job of data scientist or business owner far easier, as the hard work of pulling all the data from disparate systems is done on their behalf.

Analytics at your fingertips

Data analytics produces numbers, and businesses that put numbers to work can expect to see numerous improvements, including better service level performance, better order fulfilment, improved supplier management, maximised customer value, lower costs and better product management.

They are more likely to outperform competitors in key performance metrics — including sales, sales growth, profit and return on investment.

Analytics tools also incorporate data mobility, aiding faster business decision making since the data is available, when and where it is needed.

AI and predictive analytics is redefining reporting

Every business runs on multiple apps depending on their own unique needs. A company might use a CRM to manage customer interactions, a support desk app to resolve customer problems, and so on.

In such cases, data is being constantly generated from multiple sources, which is why a unified data analytics platform is necessary to make sense of it.

Also Read: Pessimistic tactics for optimistic entrepreneurs

With advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, today’s machines can read, have conversations, learn and analyse previously unmanageable amounts of data. By using such sophisticated analytics tools in conjunction with AI, the value that SMEs can extract from the vast amounts of data available to them is immense.

Beyond making day-to-day business tasks simpler and more efficient, and improving the quality of interactions with customers, analytics can provide businesses with important strategic support.

Analytics can help evaluate predicted outcomes to better understand the financial impact of key decisions, and can also be harnessed to better manage risks.

Conversational analytics tools improve user experience

With conversational interfaces in BI tools, the task of making sense of your data by querying the right segment of data that you need, in the right format becomes as easy as having a conversation with your personal assistant.

Improvements in natural language processing are taking the improvements right into data interpretation making it easier for business owners to make faster decisions without having to learn or unlearn complexities that are akin to data science projects.

The bottom line is that the right data analytics tool can combine and blend data from multiple apps to provide SMEs with end-to-end insights into their business, making sure they stay agile, relevant, and able to seize every opportunity for growth.

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Image Credits: yuryimaging

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Marketing consultancy platform Entropia has launched IoT service called Aladdin through the joint venture it forms with Rudra Labs

Entropia, Malaysia-based marketing consultancy has formed a joint venture (JV) with Rudra Labs and launched an Internet of Things service called Aladdin.

Aladdin seeks to bring IoT opportunities to consumer businesses to help them drive growth.

Also Read: EY to launch startup incubator EY Foundry in Singapore

Entropia is based in Kuala Lumpur and Manila. It says to be specialised in evolving customer value proposition (CVP), customer experience design, data, and UI/UX.

Bringing expertise in designing and producing IoT firmware, hardware, IoT cloud and native, and IoT security device platforms, Rudra Labs was launched in 2016 with offices in Singapore and Hyderabad.

Joining together, the two companies will operate Aladdin, which seeks to deliver end-to-end from value mapping to concept development to prototyping to final production. It will also close the full customer data-to-sales loop once usage begins.

Aladdin will be led by Rajeev Bala, CEO of Rudra Labs along with a team of 22 people spread across Hyderabad, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, and Singapore.

“An IoT based brand value can establish a more meaningful value exchange between people and brands. Aladdin aims to do exactly that, supporting brands to go beyond merely campaigns and content and offer IoT utility that creates a new level of value for customers and higher margins for businesses,” Bala, who’s the Chief Inventor of Aladdin, commented.

Also Read: Cambodian internet startup company Groupin secures US$5M Series A funding

According to the companies’ joint announcement, Aladdin is aimed at innovators, marketers, and businesses with its Aladdin’s Smart Artefacts that create interconnectivity and interoperability to sense, predict, and respond to consumer’s way of life. Moreover, it also builds new revenue and margin streams for brands across industries.
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Image Credit: Aladdin

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You’re not an entrepreneur if you can’t get investors to trust you with their money

Entrepreneurship has been a long journey for me.

In a way, it has been a culture inculcated by my parents into my brains ever since I was a child.

Here are valuable fundraising tips I’ve learnt along the way.

Clients have to be happy

My late father used to love sharing his business ideas. He would always encourage me to keep my eyes open for opportunities.

I recall going on holidays as a child and exercising business creativity skills with him. He would hold my hand while walking down the main road in Riccione (a holiday destination in Italy) and point out some stores, commenting on what they could have done better to attract more clients.

Then, later in the evening, he would bring up some business ideas during dinner, always focusing on the customer as a central point.

Therefore, I grew up thinking of ways to make clients happy.

Of course, there were many mistakes made but the foundation I received from my dad turned out to be one of the most useful skills I have learned.

The skill of connecting with investors

Over the past few years, I became interested in the startup culture as an alternative way of doing business.

My father couldn’t really grasp the concept of “Tech Valuation”. His approach was more like “brick and mortar”.

He could not clearly understand why a tech startup could have been worth billions while being at a loss.

I admit that sometimes that doesn’t make sense to me too. Take Uber for instance — worth in the billions while losing billions.

My father believed in bootstrapping businesses: you put your money in, work hard, take your profit, re-invest in your business, repeat. But, I recall a lesson I learnt from another great man and an extraordinary entrepreneur, Mr Giuseppe Fornasari, who once told me:

“An entrepreneur cannot complain about lacking capital for investment, because sourcing capital from investors is as crucial as executing.

Also Read: Innovation House Finland teams up with Mercatus Capital to open co-working space in Singapore

If you can’t get investors to trust you with their money, you are not an entrepreneur.”

As harsh as it sounds, this is the main reason why so many entrepreneurs fail in their business.

Recently I have been part of a success story, where one of my businesses was funded by a third party investor.

Although it is such a rewarding experience, the joy is somehow numbed by the fact that funding is not a goal but a start towards further business expansion.

Thus, the ability to fundraise, although crucial, cannot be seen as the only necessity.

The world is big

From an implementation perspective, everything becomes easier when a startup is funded, especially when looking at the soft spots in the market.

For instance, a startup with no funding follows the entrepreneur.

If the entrepreneur is based in a country, there most probably won’t be a relocation — even if needed — until funding is achieved.

Subsequently, after funding, an entrepreneur would need to look at the industry from a geographic expansion perspective. Ideally, such an analysis should take place even before the fundraising exercise.

Some entrepreneurs tend to look at their industry strictly within the comfort zone of their location, hence performing poorly when attempting to expand to other countries.

A wiser approach is to plan ahead which country “needs your startup” the most. Similarly, which country has the easiest regulation for your startup to exist.

Once pinpointed, fundraising becomes simpler because usually investors can be categorised by stage, industry, and geography.

This approach worked like magic during my last fundraising because I was able to look at the world map without restrictions, tailoring my pitch to investors based on their geography of interest.

Of course, the stage and the industry were already a match.

Conclusion

I believe that, firstly, a startup should keep its focus on customer satisfaction when designing the product or service.

Secondly, it is absolutely essential to have access to investors and work on gaining their trust.

Lastly, it pivotal to look at the world map and do the homework, find out where else you should go next.

Also Read: TOP100 is much more than a pitching competition

Lacking any of these three requirements would cause a possible pitfall.

I see this happening all the time with food-related businesses. For instance, one should never assume that what they like is what the rest of the world likes.

Similarly, don’t assume that if you have a habit, everyone else will have it too. That’s the unfortunate case of food delivery services — so popular in some parts of the world, and totally useless in others.

Another example is looking at the problem/solution at a local scale.

A Russian citizen might think that a professional social network is absolutely needed, but that would only be applicable to the few countries where Linkedin is not accessible or available.

In both examples, the chances of reaching investors interested in a global scale startup would be slimmed down, resulting in a potentially successful local startup or another imminent shut-down.

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Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

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