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I have had many people through the course of my career, try to change my natural accent.  Essentially, not what I say, but the way I say it. 

Some well-intentioned employers did it with a view for me to ‘better’ my broadcast reports, as my accent cannot be categorised in any one natural box.

It has shades of my heritage (I am South Asian, from India), my roots (I grew up in Dubai, a melting point of different cultures) and my life experiences (studied in London, worked for multinationals all my life). Some others plain told me on my face that I have a South Asian accent which will not be understood by most. 

If I had listened to one manager in my early 20s, I would have never been a TV journalist. He basically told me that I had the face for radio and a voice for television.

Yes, it hurt. But it also made me reflect on how biases creep up at different times in our career. 

Accents equal intelligence?

Another former manager asked me to keep repeating myself as she could not understand my English, and that also got me reflecting on how our intelligence is directly perceived with our accent, and by corollary, how it defines our career path. 

Also Read: Managing the millennial workforce over coffee and culture

It is clearly not fair -some of the most intelligent people are not articulate or have challenges expressing themselves. Think Marie Curie, the Nobel Prize Winner for Physics and Chemistry,  who had to learn a new language in her 20s whilst she was studying in Paris to be taken seriously by her all-male peers.

And while most of us cannot boast a natural IQ as Madam Curie to help us get along in our professional life, or win two Nobel Prizes at that, we can only tend to adapt. So, just as a chameleon who changes its spots to suit its environment to survive, we unwittingly do the same. 

A very dear friend of mine pointed this out to me recently, when she said, I have started adopting more North American shades of vocabulary when I speak, a natural shift to my corporate environment. I had no idea I was even doing this. That is how subtle my actions were. 

But, do we really need to do this? One could argue if your work is good (or even excellent), then your accent should not be able to define your career prospects. In reality, biases are very powerful. 

Biases

You may be sitting in a meeting room with several other colleagues coming from different backgrounds, ethnicities with who are equally qualified as you, and you may start wondering why you are suddenly silencing your opinions. Why you are afraid to express yourself when you clearly know your stuff. Why suddenly this self-doubt creeps up.  

It has happened to me many times and I know the feeling only too well. At that moment, I enable others to take the lead, afraid of judgement both from others as well as myself and it is a very disempowering feeling. I know I can do better, I know I have what it takes but I allow my earlier experiences of people telling me about my accent, colour my present moment. 

Also Read: Netflix partners with Indonesia’s Ministry of Education and Culture to boost local film industry

Authenticity 

So, how am I dealing with this when my primary role is that of communicating? I am working on just being myself. Not the NY/London/Dubai/Delhi Prerna but the true authentic Prerna who knows who she is at her core and who leads by example, not by taking on the guise or crutch of some other persona.

That crutch will invariably be used at some time in the future, there is a lot of work to be done to undo the years of being judged harshly, but at least I am taking my first few steps towards it. 

In the process, I am finding myself to be more articulate, exceedingly confident in my abilities and more importantly, not feeling like I need to be someone else to further my career prospects. 

So, how do we start unpacking?

I am a big fan of listing thing, so here is my list of how I started my process:

• Be true to the real you: There is a reason why you have come this far on the journey that is called life- it is because of the real you. Not the fake, inauthentic self who comes on momentarily and opportunistically. Take an hour off from work and really reflect on who you are, what you stand for and what you’re passionate about. The answer will come to you.

• Remain pure: Does one person’s judgment really matter to you? Trust your gut on this one and let go off the negative comments like a lotus which lets the dirt fall off its petals and yet remains pure. Be that lotus. 
• Stop judging: Just as you expect not to be judged, stop judging others who have different forms of communicating. Cut some slack to that difficult colleague as she may be having a tough day at home or may have a sick family member she needs to take care of. 
• Fight the fakeness: If the company you are in is enabling others who are not as well qualified as you to get ahead primarily because of the way they speak or encourages sycophancy, then you are probably either going to be very unhappy (most days), will not feel fulfilled (all the time) and will probably not be true to yourself. During times of uncertainty, we all do not have the luxury of leaving, but if you do, then stand up for what is right for you. Your future self will thank you for sparing you the months and years of emotional misery. 
• Upskill: We are not all perfect so go take that communications course or whatever tickles your fancy. I am a big fan of upskilling and am planning to take a course on general management later this year (will keep you posted on how it goes!). Your interpersonal skills will improve and you will learn something new. 

So, let us go conquer those naysayers, be true to ourselves and more importantly, be kind to each other. 

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page and sign up for our upcoming webinar on how to manage founder’s burnout. 

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Google Trends shows that inbound marketing has existed for a long time but only gained relevance in 2010. The whole idea of this marketing strategy has always been to promote brand visibility and gain customer interaction by sharing valuable content with your target market.

With more startups, business brands and digital marketers tapping into this trend, how does one stand out in the crowd?

While Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is fast becoming obsolete due to the rise in blog competition, videos seem to have become the new wave.

Video marketing has become a desirable marketing tool among B2B and B2C brands as they have been found to be better engaging and adaptable. Reports by Wyzowl shows that 63 per cent of startups and businesses have absorbed videos into their promotion strategy. 

As a business owner, you should consider adding videos to your advertising toolkit. It is your best shot at levelling up to the strife out there.

Videos are vital to your startup’s growth as they have been found to be an essential tool for brand publicity and one of the major digital marketing strategies for startups that still work today. They are great for growing your brand network and clientele. 

Gone are the days where you would need to hire an entire media crew to produce high-quality videos. With the aid of good apps and software, you can create professional videos on your mobile device. 

Also Read: Today’s top tech news: SoftBank-backed Brandless shuts down, Aussie video platform raises US$8.8M

I will outline some reasons your startup needs to embrace video marketing.

Effective Storytelling

Videos are undoubtedly a more effective means of communication. You’ve probably heard the saying “A good product without a good story is like a good engine without a steering wheel”.

Videos are one of the best content forms to use in telling your brand story. They are said to be the consumer’s favourite content medium. 

Visuals easily appeal to our human sentiments and emotions. Writing a wonderful sales copy may be genius, but more than throwing pretty words around, you need to connect to the heart of your prospective clients to spur them to purchase your products.

This differentiates the awareness, consideration and decision stages of purchases. Written words are nice, but high-quality videos with good visuals and background music convey the message explicitly.

Improve brand awareness

What better way to make your brand know than to use videos. Videos are said to get more attention compared to other digital advertising mediums. According to a study by Optinmonster, videos increase brand recognition by 54 per cent. As the attention span of internet users continues to decrease, it reduces their ability to read long product descriptions.

They are more inclined to watch, like, comment and share a short video clip in split seconds just at the click of a button. You know what this means: more brand awareness.

Also Read: Today’s top tech news: India considers censoring Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

Oberlo postulates that video marketing will drive 82 per cent of global internet traffic. That is expected as videos are easy to consume. Videos display your deliverables to make them appear real and tangible to the buyer. 

Customers want you to show, not tell them what your brand is about. It doesn’t matter if they are Youtube videos or videos you embedded on your blogposts, the laziest buyer would rather watch them than strain their brain cells to read those pretty words about your brand offering.

If your video appeals to them, you will instantly get social shares. This increases your competitive advantage.

Expand audience reach

With more brands engaging via email, blogs, and social media, it is only wise that you seek for a means to stay afloat amidst the intense competition. Videos may be time, energy and capital intensive, but they are worth it. Video marketing increases your brand exposure to a larger target population.

Research shows that one-third of the activities on the internet involves watching and downloading videos. Over 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every day with 53 per cent of the viewership requesting more videos. 

A single viral video may be all your small start-up needs to boost brand engagement. A classic case study is the Dollar Shave Club which grew into a billion-dollar brand from one viral video.

As of 2015, the video had over 22 million views. The brand is currently valued at US$615 million with a customer base of 1.1 million individuals. Who knows? Your startup may just be one video away from hitting the jackpot.

Also Read: In Video: Watch a robochef cook this Hokkien mee dish

Boost sales

The exposure gained from video marketing can be channelled into a sales funnel to increase conversion rates. The average internet user spends approximately 88 per cent extra time canvassing through a page with videos that improve the engagement on your website.

This means users will stay on your website longer than expected if there is a video to keep them engaged. You can capitalise on this traffic to generate leads and subsequently boost sales on your website. 

Do not undermine the power of videos in the buyer’s journey. It plays a vital role in the buyer’s decision-making process. Videos are said to increase purchase decisions by 93 per cent and brand engagement by 139 per cent.

Statistics show that eight out of ten people make a purchase after watching a product video. Lead generation can also increase based on the quality of your video content.

Now that you know how video marketing can be useful to your brand, consider including videos to your digital marketing strategy. If you want to launch your brand online, then think of making more videos. 

It’s okay if you are a sucker for web articles and blog posts, but integrating videos into your content plan could be the icing on the cake.

You can start your video marketing journey by creating product demos, customer reviews, vlogs, promotional and how-to videos, and upload them on distribution channels like your official social media handles, website, and email broadcast list.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page and sign up for our upcoming webinar on how to manage founder’s burnout. 

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In a joint report released recently by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and SME Finance Forum, it was found that the global funding gap for small, medium and micro businesses amounted to US$5.2 trillion per year, with the East Asia and Pacific region representing 58 per cent of the global demand.

A massive figure for a massive market, but one that lies in a severely fragmented region with 11 countries, each with its own unique economy, infrastructure, culture and significant differences in terms of laws and regulations.

While the region has seen exponential growth over the past few decades, financial inclusion remains limited – with only 33 per cent of businesses having access to proper financing.

The SME and startup financing landscape in SEA

Worldwide, financial regulators are enforcing stringent laws on the lending/banking industry when it comes to business loans and lending, requiring specified amounts to be held in the capital at all times to cushion them against financial emergencies.

This has led to stricter risk profile assessments, especially when lending to startups or SME’s who typically can not show constant profits or afford to offer a lot of collateral, making them too “high-risk” to qualify. 

In SEA, SMEs employ half of the workforce and contribute between 20-50 per cent to the national GDP. These businesses have little to no resources and some lack even the most basic business skills, such as how to add a markup to products or filling out business loan applications.

Also Read: [Updated] P2P lending platform Investree buys stake in B2B startup Mbiz, to develop supporting infrastructure for SMEs

Several companies are stepping up to the plate with initiatives to educate and inform young entrepreneurs and SMEs while at the same time investing in flexible and lively cloud data storage strategies in order to provide more personalized services to these business owners.

As the traditional banking relationship model doesn’t find any value in underwriting loans for these businesses, SME lending platforms, online lenders and fintechs are making credit more accessible by trying to address the problem through alternative lending and the use of technology and AI, bringing new solutions and new, digital-first models to assist these business owners in growing their businesses.

Who is stepping up?

• Jenfi

One of the most exciting newcomers is the startup Jenfi, who has already established its first base of operations in Singapore. To date, they have lent over SG$600,000 to their first 50 borrowers since launching during 2019. What makes their offering profound is its business model.

Approaching their lending from a growth perspective, Jenfi helps business owners invest in their businesses mainly through digital marketing, and takes a percentage of future revenue instead of fixed monthly repayments. In their bid to revive entrepreneurial spirit across Southeast Asia, the company has confirmed that even though marketing growth is their initial product focus, they ultimately want to solve small business lending throughout the region.

• First Circle

Growing by leaps and bounds is the Philippines-based First Circle, who managed to acquire US$26 million in funding to commence with regional expansion. This after raising US$2.5 million (including a US$1.8 million seed round) in 2017.

First Circle’s loans are usually transaction or working capital used to secure contracts or deals with guaranteed financial returns. Unlike Peer 2 Peer (P2P) models, First Circle sources capital from third parties who take on only half of the loan, as such they remain invested in the deals and do thorough due diligence before committing.

They are also looking into their data to include more options that include little to zero human interaction, as they believe a massive amount of their financing processes do not need any human interaction.

• Venturra Capital

Venturra Capital is a US$150 million fund that is actively looking at new opportunities in the digital space. A very smart move when one considers that mobile internet adoption in the region is growing at an unprecedented rate across the population of over 600 million.

The group has already spent close to US$500 million developing its own e-commerce platform in Indonesia but continues to remain flexible in their focus. According to the founder, German Jung, “Our themes are broad and include ecommerce to fin-tech, healthcare, and education. We are primarily looking at consumer businesses, but there are bigger opportunities in the B2B space, too.”

Also Read: Venturra Capital launches seed investment arm Venturra Discovery, armed with US$15M fund

The fund will also invest in startups in various industries across SE Asia, with scope to look at international companies that may have business potential in Southeast Asia.

• Insignia Venture Partners

Taking the success of their first fund which closed at US$120 million a bit further, Insignia Venture Partners hit an oversubscribed close for its second fund at US$274.1 million at the end of 2019. The powerhouse fund gave away that they would be doubling down on early-stage technology in Southeast Asia.

“We do not see a change moving forward, especially as there is more smart capital and top talent flowing into the region that spurs the formation of great companies,” said Tan Yinglan, founding managing partner of Insignia. Insignia has won the Singapore Venture Capital & Private Equity Association’s “VC Deal of the Year” award for two years in a row, first with the automotive marketplace Carro in 2018, and again in 2019 for their investment into the Indonesian fintech firm Payfazz.

• Tryb Group

The Tryb group is another major player with a unique business model, focusing on fintech in the region, it functions as an umbrella company by taking stakes in promising companies and buying up other by way of acquisitions. Playing directly into predictions for the future of the financial industry and trade finance, their predominant focus lies in the digitization of the mainly analog systems of financial institutions and banking services in Southeast Asia.

Another major area of interest for the Tryb Group is in capital markets, where there is increasing interest in Southeast Asia from outside the region. The group is not currently showing direct revenue but is in the process of finalizing several acquisitions in the enterprise space which will bring revenue to the group once finalized.

Current and future trends

During 2019, both local and international players were actively investing in the region. Several local players started providing lending and micro-insurance services to businesses and individuals who previously had no access to those services provided through banks. There is a definite shortage when it comes to the financial literacy of the larger population in the region as a whole.

As such, when looking at the personal and nationwide financial statistics, it becomes easier to see the steps the US had taken to include a larger portion of the population and how this same approach can provide inclusion to smaller businesses in Southeast Asia. One of the most significant trends driving alternative lending is the number of fintech firms that have taken the opportunity to launch their products.

We’ve also witnessed the growth of Southeast Asia’s cross-border ecosystem. Countries collaborating within special frameworks like the pan-Asian Fintech Cooperation Committee and the Asia-Pacific Fintech Network will assist the market in further strengthening the region’s position in the fintech scene. 

Google and Temasek have predicted that SEA’s loan book will increase two-to threefold reaching $110 billion by 2025 (link to image)

New technologies are influencing the fintech sector in major ways with AI, chatbots and surprisingly, some ideas around the uses of social media, leading the way. According to Andrea Baronchelli, CEO of Aspire, a Singapore based company offering direct loans to SMEs, social media can be used to determine a business’s overall health.

“In this era of social media, there are huge amounts of data freely available online. Companies that have perfected the method of tapping this data will have a key competitive edge moving forward.” As such, innovative new methods of credit verification will become key in revolutionizing SME financing methods. 

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page and sign up for our upcoming webinar on how to manage founder’s burnout. 

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The novel coronavirus –now named COVID-19– that surfaced a few weeks ago has now seen cases in several countries around the world. The fear over the spread of the new coronavirus has led millions of people in China to remain at home.

Given China’s role in the global supply chain, businesses both in China and abroad have felt the impact of this unfortunate event. The situation has put pressure on some of the more obvious sectors such as retail, travel and tourism, hospitality as well as the service industry.

But the question is: are all industries negatively impacted by the outbreak? And what trends will surface from this?

Gamification

As unfortunate as this global catastrophe is, some sectors seem to have been benefitting from the recent outbreak. As recent data has shown, the gaming and streaming industries have been some of the major beneficiaries. As most people in China in the past few weeks found themselves restricted indoors, gaming and video streaming apps popularity further rose. The most popular among them being Tencent’s Honor of Kings.

According to Japanese investment company Nomura, the mobile game that has around 60-70 million daily active users on average surpassed 100 million DAU over the Chinese New Year Holidays. Another one of Tencent’s popular titles, Game for Peace, generated revenue between US$28.7 million to US$71.5 million on the eve of the Chinese New Year alone, as reported by securities firm Sinolink Securities.

The fact that some video game publishers including the likes of NetEase, Tencent Games, and Kingsoft extended the promotions on their games until February 10 goes to show that the significant impact the outbreak has had on their bottom lines and their desire to retain these users. Given that schools and universities across the country will remain closed until the end of the month, we can expect this momentum to continue.

Also Read: Keep calm and remain communicative: Startup founders share how they cope with coronavirus crisis

Remote rules

In addition, even though several educational institutions and companies have closed down, there still remain several more who have begun teaching and working remotely, giving a push to remote office apps such as Alibaba’s DingTalk, Tencent’s WeChat Work, ByteDance’s Lark and Huawei’s WeLink.

Though one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, if not the most, China has so far lagged much of the world in permitting telecommuting till now. But as data suggests, this may be fast-changing.

According to a statement published on Weibo, employees from more than 10 million corporations began working from home on DingTalk, with the number of users on the app exceeding a whopping 200 million users on February 3 as reported by 36Kr.

Earlier this week, DingTalk announced that more than 50 million students and 600,000 teachers used the live-streaming feature on DingTalk to hold online classes.

In order to keep up with the competition, WeChat Work, the enterprise communication app from Tencent also released a set of new features aimed at facilitating remote work including online meetings for up to 300 people and live streaming.

Remote office apps such as Slack and Microsoft Teams have been highly successful in the west. In China, since telecommuting or remote work has not really been popular so far, we have not seen any significant numbers coming in from Chinese remote office apps until now.

Also Read: Coronavirus is driving the world into an economic slump. How to cope up?

The world’s largest work-from-home experiment currently going on in China has the potential to drive the use of such applications further.

E-commerce boom

China already leads the world in terms of e-commerce but given the current state, Chinese online sellers are also on the more generous side of the aisle with regards to the impact they have felt. As more people are stuck at home in China waiting out the outbreak, delivery and e-commerce companies have seen a surge in contactless delivery and online grocery shopping.

As reported on CNBC, a delivery guy for JD.com who would deliver about 140 to 150 packages per apartment complex on a typical day previously, now delivers more than 200 packages a day at present. JD’s sales of fresh products increased by more than 300 per cent compared to the 10 days of Chinese New Year from the previous year, selling 15,000 tons of fresh products.

Furthermore, its affiliate Dada, which delivers for Walmart and other grocery chains, also reported a quadrupling in its sales compared to the previous year. And while it can be argued that rising sales could be a result of maturity in online grocery shopping from YOY basis, it is very likely that the current crisis has brought more users to these online platforms.

In the midst of the crises, what we are currently witnessing is a new way technology is being used in China like never before with some of China’s biggest tech companies leading the way.

Live streaming and online teaching existed but not at the scale it is being used now or potentially in the days to come. Remote work apps existed but only now have companies started leveraging them.

Chinese kids being homeschooled through live streaming has suddenly opened up an entirely new possibility in online education that was so far used only to supplement offline teaching. Furthermore, more people buying fresh produce and groceries online would further highlight the significance of the New Retail (Retail 2.0) concept popularised by Alibaba in China.

Also read: Keep calm and remain communicative: Startup founders share how they cope with coronavirus crisis

The coronavirus has undoubtedly changed the way of life for many people all over the country, altering consumption pattern among other things and providing a boost for the tech industry. Crisis brings risk but also brings opportunity.

Several tech companies in China have managed to seize this opportunity so far and as this health risk prolongs further, the need to innovate will grow further.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page

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Trax, a retail tech unicorn with a valuation of US$1.4 billion, announced today that it has acquired Qopius, a Europe-based image recognition company that has raised close to US$1.8 million.

The company refused to comment on the terms of the deal.

Trax CEO Joel Bar-El said that Qopius’ expertise in digitising supermarket shelves across Europe and phenomenal talent line-up make it a strategic fit for Trax. Trax offers vision and analytics solutions for retail whereas Qopius provides AI-based in-store technology solutions. Both companies are focussed on digital retailing services.

Bar-El expressed that the key to success in retail lies in technology to support employees.

“This means capturing critical shelf data in real-time to enable employees to fix merchandising and availability issues faster than ever before,” he said.

Also Read: Trax secures US$100M in Series D to become Singapores second unicorn

“Qopius’s mission is to transform brick-and-mortar into a data-driven and frictionless operation while empowering store employees to focus on providing the best customer experience. We are thrilled to join Trax. Together with the reach and resources of the Trax group of companies, we will deliver scalable, easy-to-deploy digitisation solutions to improve the health of every shelf, which will revolutionise how shopping is done today,” said Qopius co-founder Roy Moussa.

Other recent acquisitions by Trax included LenzTech in China (June 2019), Shopkick in the US (June 2019) and Planorama in Europe (July 2019) as reported by DealstreetAsia.

The company’s lead investors are Warburg Pincus, and private equity firms such as BlackRock, GIC and Boyu Capital.

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Image Credit: Trax

 

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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is is a 2019 British drama film written, directed by, and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor in his feature directorial debut.

Based on the heartwarming true story of William Kamkwamba who gained fame in his country when he built a wind turbine to save his family from a severe drought that devastated his village killing many. 

His wit, ingenuity, perseverance is something we as startup founders can learn from.

Learn how when not to take no for an answer

The film is an inspirational true-story film based on a memoir by the Malawian engineer William Kamkwamba. As a teenager, he built a wind turbine for his famine-stricken town in Malawi, helping to power small appliances and eventually irrigate crops.

William needed parts from his father’s bicycle to build a full-sized windmill!

In rural South Eastern Africa and many parts of the world, where basic transport infrastructure is lacking, a bicycle makes a big difference between spending a full day walking into town and back –or riding for a few hours ride.

His father thought William was up to one of his crazy ideas again and refused to give up the bicycle as parts for the windmill. He scolded William very harshly, tears streamed down his eyes but he didn’t give up and he tried again soon after.

Also Read: Why successful startups often have a pair of founders

As founders, we are not invulnerable to rejections. It hurts. I have been many a time as a result of getting rejected. At such time I did not want to spend time with my family, instead chose to brood in my room replaying over and over in my mind what I could have done better, how could I have answered a question better. 

It’s understandable, we are only humans. William is but a kid and many didn’t want to take him seriously, just like we are – a small startup.

But we must all be like William and wipe away the tears and stand up to try again.

MVP

He believed he could build a windmill to drive a water pump and water the village land. He first tested the idea by making a small one to power a radio. After this, many in his village were encouraged and decided to assist him in building a full-size windmill.

Many times, startup founders hit an epiphany and start thinking they found something that might make them the next Google or Facebook. However, it is important to perform tests to prove that the concept works and building an MVP is one of the many ways we can use to gauge if something is viable before we start to enroll the entire village and sink valuable time and money into something that may not work.

Educate yourself

When his parents could no longer afford to pay his school fees, he was disappointed but did not let that stop him from getting the knowledge he needed to build the windmill. He found a way to get into the library –despite not being a student at the school– and poured over books on magnets and how to build a dynamo. 

There’s a saying, “leaders are readers.” We as founders do not always have to be from prestigious universities, but we must be resourceful enough to know where and how to get the knowledge we need to successfully build what we are building and the hunger to always explore.

Support from family

We often say it takes a village to raise a child.

The importance of having multiple support roles enable a startup to flourish. That said, it doesn’t necessarily have to come from a co-founder.

Also Read: Finding the right co-founder is worth the trek

Your family’s understanding is equally important for you during this journey as starting up could mean time and financial resources being allocated to building this new business. Their understanding could elevate a lot of stress off you. 

When William’s father refused to give up his bike for the windmill, it was his mother’s conviction in him that persuaded his father to. When the father knows they have to start to ration their food, he got the family to vote, which meal of the day they should be eating and which to skip.

I too might not be able to continue in this journey without the support of my family and my wonderful girlfriend who have been understanding of the fact that its no overseas holidays for us for the next couple of years, not being able to help out financially at home that much, believing in me and that I am fighting hard each day. So learn to share with your loved ones and prep them for what is required of you and how it might affect them.

I hope this article inspired and taught you something, just like the movie did for me. Now founders lets go out and harness the wind.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page

 

 

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These days, everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, pitching their latest and greatest new idea, and looking for someone to give them money. Angel investors, like me, have long figured out that asking to see the prototype is a quick way to separate the ‘wannabes’ from serious players. Talk is cheap, but entrepreneurs who show you a working model of their idea know how to execute.

In reality, it does not take a huge investment of money and time to build a prototype today. If it is hardware, look for one of the ‘makerspaces’ such as ProtoStripes, with all the tools you need to prototype almost anything yourself. Software products and apps can be quickly wire-framed with free tools such as MockFlow, or even Microsoft Powerpoint to lay out the key screens.

Here are six results that you can achieve by building a prototype, which are really the reasons that investors and partners will give you a whole new level of credibility as they evaluate your startup for potential funding:

1. Something you can touch and feel helps validate the opportunity. When you wave your arms and describe your future product, everyone sees what they want to see, and it looks great. With a realistic prototype, you can get more accurate feedback from customers on their real need and what they might pay, before you invest millions on the final product.

2. Quantify the implementation challenges. Many ideas I hear sound great, but I have no idea if they can be implemented. Building a prototype at least allows both of us to ask the right questions. Visions and theory are notoriously hard to implement. A prototype has to be real enough to be convincing, without looking like science fiction.

3. Give yourself time to pivot without dire consequences. It does not matter how certain you are of your solution, it is probably not quite right. Every entrepreneur has to deal with the realities of constant change in today’s market, and it’s much easier to pivot the pre-production prototype than to dispose of unsellable inventory.

Also Read: Didi Chuxing speeds up autonomous driving project as prototype cars hit the road

4. Show investors that you are committed, and past the idea stage. Without a prototype, most professional investors will not take you seriously. In reality, the process of designing, building, and validating a prototype does dramatically reduce the risk, and allows everyone to hone in on the real costs of going into production.

5. Reduce the time to production and rollout. For both software and hardware technology, multiple iterations are usually required to achieve production quality and performance. Time is money, and may be your primary competitive advantage. Do not spend your whole development budget, before finding that you need another iteration.

6. Support early negotiation with vendors and distribution channels. A three-dimensional prototype is always better than just a documented specification when negotiating contracts for manufacturing, support, and marketing. As a startup, you need all the leverage you can get.

If you are not comfortable or skilled enough to build a prototype yourself, it is time to find and engage a co-founder who has the interest and background to at least manage the work. You should never outsource the management of your core technology. At worst, maybe you can find a trusted friend to guide you, or a nearby university with expert professors and the proper tools.

Of course, there are many commercial resources available on the internet, including the Thomas Registry, which is an online database of 500,000 specialty manufacturers, distributors, and prototype developers, across every state and country. There are also a wealth of invention support sites, such as InventorSpot and IntellectualVentures.

Unfortunately, working with any of these outside services is hard to manage, risky in results, and some have developed a reputation for taking advantage of unsuspecting entrepreneurs. The amount of money you spend on their services is never an indication of potential success. There is no magic formula for success while inventing. Proceed with your wits about you.

Overall, building a prototype is still a great way to bring your idea to life, for yourself, your team, investors, and future customers. Your target cost expectation should be one-tenth of the total commercialisation cost, with the assumption that it will be throw-away. Even still, I cannot think of a better way to validate your solution early, and get credibility with the people who count.

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The article was first published on nfinitiv.

Image Credit: bruce mars on Unsplash

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Having been reported since last year, today Bloomberg published a coverage that confirmed Indonesian ride-hailing giant gojek acquiring minority stake in taxi operator giant Blue Bird.

The e27 content team considered this update big enough that it deserved its own stand-alone coverage, instead of going to our newly minted Morning and Afternoon Roundup. However, when the news came out, we received questions from different parties: Why does this matter so much?

Yes, gojek is a major player in the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem and we are accustomed to keeping a close watch of their every move. But it seems like there is nothing new about this move, because so far, they have:

– Acquired companies
– Secured a partnership with Blue Bird

So why was it a big deal that they eventually bought stakes at the company?

The question is even more prevalent especially when we consider Blue Bird stocks’ performance. While their stocks climbed from IDR2,410 (US$0.17) on Friday, February 14, to IDR2,500 (US$0.18) on Tuesday morning, the numbers have been sliding down since August 2019 and peaked on December 2019 at just around IDR2,890 (US$0.21). Not exactly the kind of performance you would imagine could attract a tech startup of gojek’s level.

Also Read: gojek purchases US$30M stake in Indonesian taxi operator giant Blue Bird

For us, the answer lies in the tech giant’s long-term plan to go public.

In this coverage by The Jakarta Post, gojek co-CEO Andre Sulistyo revealed the company’s goal to do a double listing on Indonesia Stock Exchange and “other major stock exchange overseas.”

While Sulistyo also stressed that this IPO can only happen in the long run, we could see that gojek has begun to take baby steps towards that goal.

A known fan of the cash-burning method, gojek begins to inch away from it to the point where it begins to shut down services that are facing stagnant growth. A report by Ipsos even stated that 54 per cent of Go-Pay users –gojek’s e-wallet service– would continue to use the service even without promotions such as cashback, as explained in this KrAsia report.

gojek is making a move to be more efficient with its war chest. This is only the first step it needs to take to prepare for a public listing.

Having been an asset-light company, gojek certainly sees merit in owning a minority stake in Blue Bird. Their stocks’ performance may have been lacklustre recently, but Blue Bird owns 29,000 fleets –consisting of a variety of vehicles from regular taxis to buses– by 2019 and is operating in major cities in Indonesia.

We must also never forget the power of brand-building and strong public perception. Blue Bird is the top-of-mind for taxi operator in Indonesia, even after it was being disrupted by ride-hailing services such as gojek itself. If you have ever been in the country, you may have had well-meaning friends or colleagues reminding you to “take only Blue Bird” if you ever need to hail a taxi.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: gojek’s accelerator program introduces 3rd batch of retail startups

From gojek’s side of the house, to be able to own a stake in a major, traditional corporation like Blue Bird is an achievement of its own. It is certainly a promising publicity move.

The remaining question would be, what is next?

Only time would tell. But we have this gut feeling that this may not be the last from gojek.

 

 

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The number of millennials entering the workplace in Singapore is increasing rapidly, presenting a new challenge to employers in the region.

It is impossible to bury your head in the sand and ignore it—by 2025, three out of four workers in Asia will be from that generation. While managing a workforce made up of workers across multiple age brackets can seem like a headache, the reality is that research has made it easier than ever to be a positive influence on them.

Getting to grips with it now will give you a great head start when it comes to retaining the talent that you desperately want to keep within the organisation.

As long as you’re willing to use that data to understand the expectations of your employees, and can adapt to try and accommodate them, then you can be reassured that you’re already winning the battle.

Understanding the starting point

It is worth being aware that millennials are, generally speaking, an unsettled group. Growing up around their data being misused, media frenzies predicting the worst for the world’s future, as well as dealing with the aftermath of a global financial crisis, has resulted in a generation who are sceptical about everything.

Whether their goals are owning a home or seeing their career prospects being fulfilled, the bottom line is the same; their overall optimism is low, and according to Deloitte, Singapore’s millennials sit slightly below the global hopefulness average.

Their expectation is also that the responsibility for improving this scepticism lies at businesses’ feet rather than anyone else, which makes it essential that you do your bit to address it.

Also Read: The millennial force: changing the workplace and its culture

Look at what they want from you, understand it and act on it. If you don’t, be aware that this disrupted generation will move on: in a recent survey we carried out amongst AWS professionals, 26 per cent of millennials said they were actively looking to change employers in the next 12 months, with less than half being satisfied enough that they see themselves staying where they are.

What makes them leave?

The most common reason any member of staff leaves will always be around salary, which can be the most difficult thing to control.

Your resources are finite, but as millennials have an eye on more than just their paycheck, it is important to ensure you are doing the most you can to hold onto them. At the heart of it all is company culture.

Millennials place the greatest importance of any generation on their work-life balance, meaning that offering benefits such as flexible hours or working from home will help go towards them facilitating this.

The digital age is making it less essential that your staff are based permanently on-site, so if you can allow your employees more flexibility, then you’re going to be more valued as an employer. An environment that allows a better mental headspace will result in a more productive workforce as well as a more loyal one.

Also read: Startup pointers: essentials for aspiring millennial entrepreneurs

Catering for staff development is also essential. Paying for relevant training is an investment that makes your staff more valuable—both to your own organisation as well as to others—but it’s a vital spend if you want to foster a culture of loyalty.

Millennials may be sceptical about the world, but having an employer placing that much importance on their development will always pay dividends. When your workers trust that you have their best interests at heart, why would they look elsewhere?

Talking to them

Ultimately, regular and direct communication is never a bad way to manage if you are unsure of what it is you need to be doing. Regular 1-to-1 meetings, away from the shop floor, will give a safe space for an employee to tell you their concerns that will not always happen in front of their colleagues.

It also provides you with the opportunity to ask them for any issues that they have, giving you a chance to address them before they spiral into something that can result in them looking at alternative employment options. The easiest way to find out what’s happening inside your employees’ minds is to ask them!

Different trends emerge and will continue to do so as the digital age progresses. Within our own business, we’ve found that a younger workforce doesn’t want to be provided with devices to work from, and would far rather use their own.

We’ve invested in software and security measures that make that possible, but without asking outright we’d have been behind on that. Asking for feedback isn’t a sign of weakness, and acting on it only puts you in a stronger position.

It’s down to you

You may not be up to date with the latest Netflix series, or have heard of the social media platform that everyone is using now, but that unfamiliarity doesn’t mean you are trying to navigate unchartered territory.

Understand that you are dealing with a pessimistic generation, but one whose needs are largely the same as any other part of your workforce. Communication is the way to overcome all of the hurdles that millennials may provide you with. And knowing what they want is easier than you may think, too!

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page and sign up for our upcoming webinar on how to manage founder’s burnout. 

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Last December, the South Korean bio venture fund Aprogen Pharmaceuticals became Korea’s 11th unicorn, according to tech market tracker CB Insights.

The firm that specialises in antibody engineering and recombinant protein engineering received US$16.7 million investment earlier in the year from venture capital firm Lindeman Asia Investment, helping take its valuation over US$1 billion.

The rise of Aprogen temporarily made Korea home to the fifth-largest number of unicorn startups in the world, though Berlin-based delivery company Delivery Hero’s blockbuster US$4 billion purchase of Korean delivery service Baemin in December 2019 reduced Korea’s unicorn total to 10.

This still places Korea in sixth place behind the US with 210, China with 102, the UK with 22, India with 18 and Germany with 11.

The growing number of Korean unicorns — and the blossoming of Korea’s venture ecosystem the trend represents — comes as nations around the world look increasingly toward startups to provide fresh growth engines in the innovation economy.

For investors, the emergence of Korea’s unicorns demonstrates not only that Korea’s has become one of the world’s premier startup ecosystems, but also that excellent investment opportunities for late-stage investors exist if you’re willing and have the local connections to make the plunge.

A growing herd, now growing faster

Not only has the number of Korean unicorns increased but over time they are also emerging at a faster rate.

Korea’s first two unicorns, e-commerce giant Coupang and mobile business platform Yello Mobile, emerged in 2014. The next unicorn, L&P Cosmetic, did not emerge until 2017. In 2018, three companies joined the herd: game developer Krafton, fintech startup Viva Republica and Woowa Brothers, the operators of the aforementioned food delivery service Baemin. 

Also Read: Why the Singapore tech scene is a big draw for Korean startups

In 2019, no fewer than five Korean startups attained unicorn status. Motel booking service Yanolja and e-commerce platform WeMakePrice became Korea’s seventh and eighth unicorns in February and April, respectively. Cosmetics firm GP Club became number nine in June.

In November, the online fashion platform Musinsa became Korea’s 10th unicorn on the back of a KRW200 billion (US$165 million) investment from a consortium of global venture investors. And then Aprogren became number 11 in December.

E-commerce rules

The growing number of unicorns — and the nature of those unicorns — demonstrates much about Korea’s fast-developing startup ecosystem.

E-commerce services such as Coupang and WeMakePrice account for over half of Korea’s unicorns. This can be attributed to the rapid growth of the country’s market for online and mobile shopping and delivery apps.

That market has drawn record levels of venture investment, beginning with Softbank’s US$3 billion investments in Coupang in 2015 and 2018. Even the conservative National Pension Service felt the market attractive enough to invest KRW350 billion (US$290 million) in SK Planet’s online shopping platform 11Street.

Some of Korea’s unicorns have attracted significant investment by targeting overseas markets from the start. Game developer Krafton is perhaps the best example.

The company unveiled its smash hit PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds on the global game platform Steam, where it met with commercial success and critical acclaim. As a result, the company’s value skyrocketed from KRW920 billion (US$762 million) to KRW1.5 trillion (US$1.2 billion).

L&P Cosmetics sells its popular facial mask Mediheal in 26 counties, including China, Japan, Singapore, the UK, Italy, Canada, Australia, and Brazil. The overseas market accounts for over 60 per cent of the company’s sales. This was enough to attract the attention of Credit Suisse, which invested KRW40 billion (US$33 million) in the company in November 2018, propelling it to a KRW1.2 trillion (US$995 million) valuation.

The case of fintech company Viva Republica, the operator of the mobile remittance service Toss, shows another path to unicorn status: reshaping a traditional industry. Toss revolutionised Korea’s cumbersome online payments system with a Venmo-style payments engine.

Now the company offers a wide range of thirty financial services from a single mobile app that pays ruthless attention to user experience, in stark contrast to the experience Koreans had dealing with banks.

That kind of innovation drew the notice of US venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins and Ribbit Capital, which invested US$80 million in Viva Republica in December 2018, helping power them to unicorn status.

Government funds playing a part

Perhaps surprisingly, government policy has played a role in the emergence of Korea’s unicorns. Since the launch of the Moon Jae-in administration in 2017, the government has invested KRW800 billion (US$663 million) in its Fund of Funds, to improve the venture investment environment.

It allows the government to cultivate Korea’s venture capital sector by investing in funds rather than investing directly in companies themselves. As of July 2019, seven of Korea’s then-nine unicorns had received funding from the government’s fund-of-funds.

The example of Yanolja, Korea’s most popular hotel booking service, is illustrative. Yanolja became Korea’s eighth unicorn last year after a KRW50 billion (US$41 million) investment from Singapore-based booking platform Agoda.

Prior to that, however, the company received KRW8 billion (US$6.6 million) in investment government fund-of-funds vehicles in 2016 and 2018.

This fueled the company’s aggressive expansion, including acquisitions of hotel booking service Hotel Now in 2016 and leisure activity platform LeisureQ in 2018.

Also Read: South Korea’s thriving startup ecosystem: How “aggressive” VC investment, gender diversity play a role in it

WeMakePrice, too, received an injection of KRW10 billion (US$8.2 million)  in 2015, which is used to hire 1,000 new employees and improve its price competitiveness. And Krafton credits sizable investment from the fund-of-funds for giving it the breathing space to develop PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

An official from the company told the South Korean daily Dong-A Ilbo that game companies make little money during the long game development period and that fund-of-funds investment provided the momentum for future growth.

Success has bred success, too. Though the fund-of-funds has proven critical in early funding rounds, international investors have driven the late-stage investment that has produced all but one of Korea’s 10 unicorns.

Until recently, however, global venture firms had few reference points that could convince them to take the plunge into the Korean market.

The success of e-commerce giant Coupang — the Amazon of Korea — proved that Korean companies could grow fast even without sizable profits or an IPO.

The subsequent success of other Korean unicorns — let alone the US$4 billion dollar acquisition of Baemin by Delivery Hero — has further emboldened international investors by proving that lucrative opportunities exist in Korea.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page and sign up for our upcoming webinar on how to manage founder’s burnout. 

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