Southeast Asia’s internet economy alone is poised to surpass US$300 billion by 2025. The wealth of opportunities offered for startups in the region is immense but startups will need to future-proof their processes in order to build scalable businesses. Startups in this region face several challenges associated with scaling in Asia, as they go from startup to scaleup mode.
Businesses not equipped with the right tools and knowledge can end up trying to reinvent the wheel — inadvertently wasting valuable dollars on technology platforms or software in their quest to accelerate new business opportunities and scale up revenue channels.
Mentoring is therefore extremely important — allowing startups to receive the guidance needed to ensure success. Navigating the various challenges associated with scaling in Asia needs capable mentorship from those with experience in scaling up in these markets. Establishing the ability to go to market requires careful planning and organisations need access to important insider tools and insights that will enable them to build the kind of infrastructure and processes required to scale.
Learn from experts on how to innovate, grow, and scale your startup
So much more than just securing funding
Startups operating in Southeast Asia are also hampered by the lack of access to a constant source of funding that can enable scalability and accelerate growth. Even when they are able to secure funding, there is often a knowledge gap on how to spend it effectively and achieve maximum impact. Talent acquisition and retention is another area where startups often overlook the importance of building a great company culture, specialisation of roles, career paths, onboarding and other factors which affect their talent resources.
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Faced with these challenges, prioritising the right capabilities and infrastructure becomes highly critical. But with the right tools and insights, and propelled by a fast-growing base of digital consumers and merchants, your start up could enjoy a slice of the US$360 billion digital economy projected by 2025. In the MasterClass Accelerator 101 Series, notable industry leaders outlined the priorities startups should focus on so they can continue to scale:
- A Customer obsession: building in the usability and intuitiveness to delight their customers constantly. Invest in customer experience and customer success.
- Driving exponential growth while keeping investment under control — going from startup to scale-up requires a change of mindset so that you build your business around the idea of scalability and use your resources optimally.
- Improve the way they run their businesses. This entails investing in talent and culture for improved productivity, optimised operations to focus on core strengths, and lower operational costs through best practices, automation, and investing in the right tech stack
How you can innovate, grow, and scale your startup: A masterclass webinar
The MasterClass Accelerator 101 Series is a new programme series by Salesforce crafted with customised offerings and designed to help startups and SMEs scale their businesses.
In the first webinar of the series held on 28th April, an expert panel of startup investors and entrepreneurs discussed the roadmap for startups moving from exploring their potential to scaling their company and actually taking advantage of those opportunities.
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Moderated by Garry Huang, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at 500 Startups, the webinar panel featured Daisy Hoang, SVP of Sales and Success at test automation startup platform Katalon; Danny Chong, Senior Investment Director at Gobi Partners China; and Thomas Lim, Regional Vice President of ESMB Emerging and Growth Business at Salesforce.
Apart from the challenges and priorities discussed above, the topics discussed by the panellists were:
- What startups should keep in mind when fundraising — a discussion of the things VCs look for from startups and their founders, that get them noticed and funded.
- Current trends that VCs are seeing in startups that have successfully raised funds in the recent months
- The importance of setting a company culture to scale properly
- Focusing on your core strengths: choosing the right tech stack to support your growth
- How being data-driven can improve your business productivity and operations
- Small business is big business. How Salesforce is ready to help startups accelerate.
Scaling a business on an international scale involves tackling significant challenges in building a company culture across countries, evolving your product, and putting the right processes in place. The Masterclass Accelerator 101 Webinar provided valuable insights on how startups can scale up people and processes, build the right tech stack, and navigate the funding journey.
Even as Southeast Asia is poised to enter a digital-first future, Startups and SMEs will need to equip themselves with the tools and insights so they can implement strategies for digitisation. The pandemic has been a major catalyst in accelerating this process of digitisation but even post-pandemic these changes are here to stay. Participants in the Masterclass Accelerator Series can learn how to view digitisation as an opportunity to grow even faster in Southeast Asia’s digital economy.
Also read: Get to know the startups in the 2022 APT 5G Challenge
The webinar series shares important lessons for Startups and SMEs on how to adapt to customer expectations, differentiate their customer experience from competitors, and the technology enablers that can help them continue scaling in the digital-first future. Learnings that will enable startups to build businesses that are sustainable and create long term value for customers and stakeholders.
To learn more about growth tips, watch the webinar during your free time and learn how to drive the future of business with growth and success in this fast-changing landscape.
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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Salesforce
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