mentor for hope

This article is published in partnership with Startup SG, an initiative of Enterprise Singapore that provides comprehensive support for startup development in Singapore.

—

It takes an entire village to support the startup community. When COVID-19 hit, it took a toll on human lives, and also the lifespan of companies, especially startups.

We immediately saw an urgent issue that we wanted to resolve – to support startup founders. Amid the tragedy and uncertainty ran a strong undercurrent of hope, the startup community responded with strength and resilience.

This was when Mentor for Hope was born.

Mentor for Hope is a programme aimed at raising money for charity while matching founders and mentors together. Through carefully curated mentorship sessions and workshops, we wanted to inspire founders and the public to pay it forward through donations and support our beneficiary charities, Willing Hearts, and Beyond Social Services.

Founded by Elise Tan in April 2020, who was inspired by an article on venture capitalists in France who were hosting virtual office hours for startups. Elise was joined by Janet Neo, who expanded on this idea to raise funds for charity while providing office hours to mentor startups through this period. She gathered a team of like-minded peers in the community, including myself, Minh Vu Hong (Qualgro Partners, based in Singapore), Clinton Swan (Codelex Legaltech, based in Singapore), Aparna Saxena (Torajamelo, based in Indonesia), Gwen Sim, Sharon Yeo (TalentTribe Asia, based in Singapore), Roy Ong and Ajith Isaac (STRIVE, based in Singapore).

The small idea gained traction not just within the startup community but also garnered the support of the oscar@sg fund through the Temasek Foundation.

So far, over S$25,000 has been raised in three weeks, with over 200 mentors and 300 startups who have participated and benefited from the campaign so far.

A startup that has benefited is Intellect.co, a Singapore-based digital health company building a new form of digital therapy that is more affordable and accessible to the masses. Theodoric Chew, co-founder of the firm, was matched to Janet Neo, a mentor with vast experience in sustainability and mental health startups.

Also read: Meet Mentor For Hope, the startup mentorship programme that will donate 50K meals for those in need

“We benefited tremendously from the insights and expertise she generously shared over a few calls. She helped push us to think in a much bolder and exciting manner. She also plans to provide us with introductions in the industry”, said Theodoric Chew, CEO, Intellect.co

Other support for the ecosystem

As Saison Capital provides both equity from the VC fund, as well as debt from the parent company across the region, we were able to get early indicators of how different industries were performing across different countries, especially in the current situation.

Aside from mentorship, we also understand that startups needed the right talent to tide them through this period.

One of the first problems that we wanted to solve quite quickly was that individuals were getting laid off. Over a weekend, a few friends and I created SEAcosystem.com, which helped match great people who got laid off from COVID, with startups who were still hiring.

Being part of the Singapore startup ecosystem, we are able to tap on the vast network and get the support of 25 other funds. Together, we managed to gather a database of over a thousand people, and list over 400 jobs on the platform, with many matches happening within days and even hours of jobseekers listing themselves on the platform.

Pivoting to capture opportunities amid uncertainties

What I have learned over the past few months is that some of the best startups were very quick to identify what some of the longer-term implications of COVID were, especially under the assumption that COVID and COVID-related behaviours from businesses and consumers were likely to stick around in some form over the next few years.

Such companies then built business units or pivoted completely to serve that segment, and were able to internalise that some of their business strategies could not be salvaged piecemeal, and really had to see fundamental revamps.

For example, to meet the global shortage, Structo, a 3D printing startup, taps on its 3D printing technology and strong product development expertise to pivot from manufacturing dental/orthodontics applications to produce COVID-19 nasal test swabs. Another example will be Move.AI, an AI-powered software, that was hit by the travel restrictions to China (largest robotics and AGV market) to deploy their solutions, quickly shifting resources to internal development.

They had enhanced their software platform such that project implementation can be done remotely from Singapore. This also puts the company in a better position to cope with a possible surge in demand eventually, as they foresee an uptake in usage of robotics in a post-COVID-19 world.

In the immediate period, companies have been able to realise that their customers, businesses, and individuals, are human too and are equally uncertain about the future. Great startups have been able to capture immediate growth opportunities and rally customers and investors around them, by creating a narrative about how the industry is likely to evolve, and how they and their products will continue to be a big part of their lives.

Continued efforts to support startups beyond COVID-19

While the plan is currently for Mentor for Hope and SEAecosystem.com to be an initiative for COVID-19 specifically, we have been eager to continue at least the spirit of community building and have partnered with Asia institute of Mentoring (AIM), who will, over the next three months be hosting a mentoring programme dedicated to improving the state of mentoring for Singaporean mentors and founders.

We hope that these initiatives can continue to sustain and grow as more partners join us.

—

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

The post How startups can tap community networks to pivot for growth amidst the pandemic appeared first on e27.