China’s economy, especially the consumer internet segment, is slowing down, prompting investors to look for opportunities in Southeast Asia and India, according to Renchuan Chen, Vice President of TH Capital, a boutique investment firm which also makes startup investments occasionally.

“The whole Chinese economy, especially the consumer internet segment, is sort of slowing down. While the mobile penetration rate in the country is relatively high, it has started to drop when compared to the fast growth in emerging markets. We can hardly find many great opportunities in the consumer internet segment in China,” he said. “Not many investors are looking to back consumer internet startups anymore. They are now shifting their attention to industrial internet.”

The logic is quite reasonable, according to Chen. There are fewer opportunities in the consumer segment because of the dividend of the population. Plus, the overall industrial internet segment in China is under-developed. It is just five to 10 per cent, compared with 50 per cent in the US.

Also Read: Fashion tech startup Zilingo acquires software company nCinga Innovations for US$15.5M in cash, stock deal

“If you look at the industrial internet segment, it’s much more underdeveloped compared to the consumer internet. We are most developed or one of the most developed consumer internet economies in terms of e-commerce penetration, third-party mobile pay penetration and online population penetration. But we’re one of the least developed industrial internet economies,” he elaborated.

While similar trends are also happening in Southeast Asia and India, their TMT (tech, media and telecom) infrastructure is still in the early stages of development, which offers massive opportunities.

“If you look at Indonesia and Vietnam, these two countries have registered dramatic improvement in the past three to four years. The overall underlying GDP or economic development in these countries are growing fast, but there is still room for improvement. This presents great opportunities to investors,” he remarked.

Talking about the overall PE/VC investments in China, he said in 2018, it was US$200 billion, but this year, it dropped significantly to less than US$100 billion. True that the overall PE/VC investments were relatively lower in emerging markets (Southeast Asia, India, South America, East Europe, the Middle East and Africa) also; in 2018, the total volume was only one-seventh or one-fifth of China. However, because China has dropped to half, those markets are growing, he said.

TH Capital, which expanded to India and Southeast Asia in late 2018, is bullish about these fast-growing markets. In his view, Southeast Asia is a group of developing countries with high-density population and social structure like China. Their TMT is growing fast.

He rejected the notion that there is a lack of supply in terms of good startups for investors to invest in India. According to him, the absolute volume for the entrepreneurs in India is perhaps less, compared with China. But because of the stable economic growth, the supply of good entrepreneurs is booming. It is developing in much faster speed as compared to China and even compared to Southeast Asia, he said.

Also Read: A multi-disciplinary approach to product development requires collaboration

“When we came to India for the first time early this year, we talked to a data-driven early-stage investor. They had a database of about 1,000 to 2,000 SaaS entrepreneurs back then,” he noted. “When we came to India after six to seven months again, the total number had risen to 10,000 to 12,000. So it is booming and at a swift pace, supported by the TMT infrastructure. A lot of diversified investors are looking into this market right now. Given China’s stagnant consumer internet segment, there is a lack in China, not India,” according to Chen.

Since its launch in 2012, TH Capital has served 40-plus unicorns in China and helped 100-plus startups to raise more than US$15 billion in the primary market.

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Image Credit: TH Capital

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We tend to say that about the year, that is about to end. But this time, we mean it when we say that 2019 is game-changing for the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem for things will never be the same after this.

There are at least two major reasons why this happened, which led us to decide to publish this article as a series.

Today, we are going to start by talking about money– and burning them.

Watching money goes up in flame

Years ago, when I was a young Padawan, I published an interview with two ride-hailing giants in the region: Grab and gojek. In the article, representatives of the two companies talked about subsidising their marketing and promotional efforts.

This is a move that remains popular among the major tech startups in Indonesia. Walk into a typical mall in Jakarta and you will see all sorts of cashback offers by leading e-payment providers, including OVO and GoPay. In some cases, the cashback can even go as breathtakingly high as more than 50 per cent.

Also Read: Tech powerhouse taps into the Southeast Asian ecosystem’s pool of startups

Indonesia is not the only place where burning cash for customer acquisition is common. Even top-of-mind US-based companies such as Uber and Airbnb have been known for burning cash; they are considered “generously rewarded” in this article by Inc as their market share and revenue also grow with every cent they burned.

But in the middle of the year, something exploded. WeWork and its failure to launch an IPO had led investors to be more critical of overvalued tech startups. Under this scrutiny, there is a growing pressure for startups to justify their large valuation. Perhaps for once in their life, startups are pressured to act like a ‘real’ business.

Closer home, the nail in the coffin hit when Mochtar Riady –the founder of OVO-backer Lippo Group– publicly commented about the company’s money-burning habit.

It was interesting to see how these turn of events led to changes in such a quick time. Or possibly, the startup community has long seen this coming and decided that it was now time to take action.

Profitability, which was once seen as a good-to-have bonus, is now the name of the game.

Also Read: How Southeast Asia can benefit from a new wave of Russian innovation

Recently, Indonesian e-commerce giant Bukalapak announced that Co-Founder and CEO Achmad Zaky is stepping down from his position. As a replacement, instead of promoting someone from within the company, Bukalapak appointed Rachmat Kaimuddin, who had a strong background in banking and business consultancy. We see this move as part of its effort to promote stronger financial management and most likely, profitability.

Carsome, who just announced a US$50 million Series C, also publicly declared its goal to be “operationally profitable” by the end of next year.

Another move towards profitability had become apparent since the end of 2018, particularly from the side of the investors. Newly launched venture capital (VC) firm Kinesys Group puts emphasis on having a path towards sustainability for its portfolio companies.

VC firms are investing in non-tech industries that have been known to have a more certain path towards sustainability such as F&B or hospitality, adding variety to their portfolio. In addition to growing their businesses, these F&B and hospitality companies are also looking forward to digitising their operations.

But I’m fundraising!

Yes, yes. We get how this can be scary for those who are in the process of fundraising. It is challenging enough to prove to potential investors that there is indeed a demand for your product; let alone having to show them how you can be profitable within a period of time.

So, how will this affect fundraising in 2020?

Our guess is that the scrutiny will be harder for companies that are in the later stage.

Basically, when considering a potential investment, VC firms are looking at different points between early-stage and later-stage startups. While investors tend to focus on the potentials and opportunities with early-stage startups, they would put more consideration on the growth aspect for later-stage startups. Yes, you have a product and people are using it.

But how fast is your growth? Any plans to expand to a new vertical or geographical region? Is there any sign of profitability? How can we work together to move this forward?

If anything, as confirmed by leading investors such as Vertex Holdings in this interview with e27, the early-stage investment will remain a “robust” asset class for next year.

In another interview with e27, the corporate VC arm of Salim Group also confirmed their preference for early-stage startups, which is seen as being more malleable or coachable.

If you are fundraising for a later-stage startup, this prediction is not meant to discourage you. In fact, these changes in the ecosystem are a trigger for startups to build a stronger, self-sustaining business.

In the end, we all want to see the companies that we are building thrive.

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Image Credit: Florian Wehde on Unsplash

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Over the past few years, Southeast Asia has continued to grow and advance digitally. In 2017, a study found that there 339.2 million internet users and 305.9 million active social media users, with more than 200 million of those people using their mobile devices to browse social media networks.

Unlike in the US, internet access is not something that was always so readily available. But with more than half of Southeast Asia’s population using the internet, it is no surprise that users have quickly picked up on social media platforms.

With continued growth in digital connectivity, it is expected that more and more people will begin to use and invest in social media tech in the region. Here’s what you need to know about social media tech in Southeast Asia.

A boom in influencer marketing

For years now, influencer marketing has experienced a huge uptick in popularity. These days, companies are always looking for the latest and greatest ways to best market their brand and image. In the US, influencer marketing has experienced amazing success, and the same stands true in Southeast Asia.

With influencer marketing, brands are able to depend on modern-day word-of-mouth in order to increase brand recognition, reach, and visibility as ways to drive more interest and sales.

Also Read: 6 effortless ways to grow your small business through social media

According to a survey conducted by PwC Global Insights, social media is the top factor that consumers consider both online and off. In fact, the survey found that more than half of Malaysian consumers reported being influenced by social media networks.

So what does this mean for you? If you are a brand on Instagram or some other social media platform, you’ll want to place a heavy emphasis on not only getting Instagram followers and building a community but also identifying a well-known name in your industry that can serve as an influencer.

Mobile connectivity is on the rise

In terms of mobile social media use, Southeast Asia is ranked third worldwide. In fact, there are more than 376 million people that access social media using their mobile devices on a routine basis.

Just as mobile usage has become very popular in the US, it has become common in Southeast Asia for similar reasons, including:

• Ability to interact with content
• Instant and convenient online shopping
• Access to more information and connections

As more and more people become connected, it is expected that the middle class will grow and get stronger, which paves the way for new businesses that look to social media and mobile connectivity as a way to marketing and engage with consumers.

Also Read: Ex-Facebook execs think social media is destroying society, but is it really?

Facebook is extremely popular

More than 60 per cent of Southeast Asia’s population is active on social media, a number that has steadily increased over the years. While people in the region use many social media platforms, Facebook is one of the most popular.

In fact, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Taiwan make the network’s top ten largest advertising audiences. With almost 98 per cent of its population aged 13 and above, social media sites such as Facebook have become the goldmines of social media, allowing brands to reach millions of users on a regular basis.

For businesses, this means that Facebook should be the first platform to use as a way to digitally market your brand in Southeast Asia.

… and so are other social networks

While it’s not uncommon for people in Southeast Asia to use Facebook, Instagram, and other well-known social media platforms, the region also has a host of its own networks.

For example, people also use platforms such as WeChat, Sina Weibo, and others to stay connected and in the know. WeChat is the most popular social media network in China, serving more than one billion monthly active users.

Sina Weibo works very similar to Twitter in that users can share short messages, use hashtags, tag people, comment on posts, and even create polls.

Also Read: Developing your brand voice on social media: 5 mistakes to avoid

Online regulation is real

As the online space in Southeast Asia continues to grow, governments in the region have quickly learned that regulation is a must. There are all sorts of laws that have been passed in order to provide an online environment that promotes social harmony and respect for the government.

For example, there are anti-fake news laws as well as laws that allow the geo-blocking of certain platforms and apps in many of the Southeast Asia countries.

While these laws are designed to keep citizens safe, there are opponents of many of these laws, citing free speech and overly broad legislation that is open to interpretation by those enforcing said rules.

Similar challenges

For years there’s been an ongoing debate as to whether or not social media is more helpful than it is harmful. Have you ever looked at a photo on Instagram or Facebook and wish that you had that person’s life? You are not alone.

Many people use social media as a way to share an insight into their enviable lifestyles that seem to be nothing short of perfect. And while others don’t let lavish photos both them, studies have found that for some, these posts can have a damaging effect.

Indonesian researchers found that teenagers and young adults often feel resentment towards their richer friends after seeing their posts on social media. In a region where there is dramatic inequality, many agree that social media can lead to jealousy, bitterness, and envy.

Also Read: 5 ways to monetise social media technology for startup success

Indonesia and other countries in Southeast Asian have a growing consumer class, but this class is a stark contrast between those who are unemployed or have less education.

Whether you are an everyday consumer or the owner of an upcoming business, it pays to know what is going on in the world around you. While you may be aware of how people in your country use and embrace social media tech, it is eye-opening to see the changes and statistics in other places throughout the world.

With Southeast Asian on the up-and-up, keep your eye on this region to see what newest social media tech innovations come about in the next few years.

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Editor’s note: e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or like e27 Facebook page here.

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Asia Pacific’s largest and fastest-growing companies talk about how NetSuite’s integrated platform helped them expand quickly across continents and plan roll-outs efficiently.

Business, whether SMEs, mid-market, or large public-listed corporations, have faced the same challenges when expanding and scaling since time immemorial: hiring new teams, working around different regulatory environments, understanding different cultures and languages, and ensuring the financing can support all these new changes.

With the advent of Big Data and digital transformation, a new wrinkle has been added to the mix: putting all these data together and making sense of it.

In the digital age, expansion is now not a matter of years, but weeks or even months. NetSuite, the world’s first cloud computing software company, has been through that same journey of expansion with over 18,000 customers globally since it was founded in 1998.

Its suite of business software solutions on the cloud include enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), professional services automation (PSA), and e-commerce solutions.

Traversing countries, currencies

With cross-border expansion comes not just different cultures, but also costing in different currencies and taking into account different tax and regulatory regimes. Manila-based Jollibee Foods took on the Chinese market in 2009. The food chain brought in NetSuite OneWorld to run multiple subsidiaries and multiple currencies in one system.

NetSuite OneWorld gave Jollibee a fast and cost-effective way to automate reporting, perform real-time analytics, conduct audit trail analysis, operate an international supply chain, consolidate international financials, and enforce corporate governance standards in its subsidiaries and divisions.

Before rolling out NetSuite OneWorld in China, Jollibee first ran the solution in Vietnam — complete rollout for 10 stores took only two months. China was a go: NetSuite OneWorld was implemented across all 265 Jollibee stores in China.

The solution’s multi-language support allowed the China team to access systems in Chinese while global management saw the same information in English. Online supply ordering also helped cut store restocking costs, and shave order times from three days to one.

Another NetSuite OneWorld user is Singapore-based online property portal PropertyGuru, which leveraged the solution to accelerate its expansion across Asia Pacific. Replacing MYOB, Salesforce and numerous Excel spreadsheets, NetSuite OneWorld was deployed in 2012 to support financials, revenue recognition, subsidiary management, workflows to manage lead orders to cash and tax calculations across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

PropertyGuru co-founder and managing director Jani Rautiainen said: “We needed a solution that would scale with us and manage our business operations across multiple countries. NetSuite OneWorld allows us to consolidate financials from four different currencies in real-time, which has given us unprecedented insight into our operations, wherever and whenever we need it.”

Since deploying NetSuite OneWorld, PropertyGuru has tripled revenues and staff headcount across the region. At the same time, the solution has helped PropertyGuru slash the time it takes for month-end close reconciliation from over a month to an average of 10 days.

It also made the revenue recognition more efficient which resulted in a tripling of the portal’s online advertising revenue. NetSuite OneWorld’s audit and compliance reporting feature provides an always-on audit trail as well as built-in analytics and enhanced compliance support, to support the group’s compliance across all its markets.

Streamlining product rollouts

Phillipine media conglomerate ABS-CBN is a global behemoth with services as wide-ranging as content broadcasted to various platforms, cargo, money remittance, retail and telecommunications.

The group’s legacy systems were a patchwork of software applications across multiple operating regions (US, Canada, Middle East, Europe, Japan, Australia, and Asia Pacific), which hindered efficiency and growth, requiring constant and costly IT maintenance.

Reconciling all that data across different business divisions and markets led ABS-CBN to adopt a flexible, efficient two-tier NetSuite ERP model with integrated reporting into parent company’s SAP instance. This enabled greater speed and flexibility in rolling out different products whilst empowering hundreds of business users with self-service management capabilities, eliminating reliance on IT for everyday tasks.

“Our previous system was simply not fast enough for our people to be as proactive as we needed them to be. NetSuite provides the functionality and flexibility we needed, and a single version of the truth, with a reduced initial cost outlay,” said ABS-CBN project manager Marvin Sanchez.

Another company that used NetSuite to accelerate its expansion was Zimplistic, which is a Singapore-based product design company founded with the bold mission of simplifying lives, needed an integrated platform to consolidate its financial data for reporting and business strategy.

It can be argued that with the help of NetSuite, Zimplistic is able to connect its back-end systems to its e-commerce website and automate its back-office management, rendering a more agile platform that can help the company scale.

This increased visibility across the supply chain helped improve workflows, reduce lead times, and enabled the company to have better control of its inventory. Moreover, the fully integrated system made it easier for Zimplistic to know the company’s financial performance at any time.

“NetSuite has set us up for success — having up-to-date financial data at any time enables us to make better decisions for business growth and realize our vision of becoming a leader in the smart kitchen appliances market,” said Simon Chua, Finance Director, Zimplistic Pte Ltd.

NetSuite’s solutions not only retain the agility of scaling together with a customer across borders, but also are flexible enough to incorporate and streamline data from different tech software, analysing information to enable quick management decision-making.

Kickstart your business growth today with the help of NetSuite’s slew of services. Connect with them here to find out more.

 

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Singapore-based online corporate services provider Sleek just announced that it has snagged US$5 million in an extended seed round, expecting to use the funds to accelerate its development in Hong Kong.

It also plans to use the new funds to expand its tech team, develop new features, and increase its operational capability.

Sleek’s funding round was led by Asia-focussed private investment firm MI8, Trafigura non-executive director Pierre Lorinet, who will be taking a seat at Sleek’s board of directors as part of the deal, and angel investor Fabio Blom. Other investors joining on the round include current and former executives at Vistra, Wavecell, TransferTo, LinkedIn, and Stem Financial, as reported by Tech In Asia.

Sleek was formed in 2017 to serve companies in both Singapore and Hong Kong and provide an online platform that helps them with governance, accounting, and tax matters. Founded by Julien Labruyere and Adrien Barthel, the company was in fruition after both experienced the frustrations of dealing with the traditional paper-based company registration process.

Also Read: Three startup resolutions I made that did not work out the way I expected

Sleek offers services such as company name changes, updates on registered business addresses, and declaration and distribution of dividends. It provides more premium packages for additional services that include setting up a central business district address in Singapore for companies starting from overseas.

“As a historical Asian financial hub with six times more operating companies than in Singapore and an amazing business ecosystem, Hong Kon is the market that looks for new user experience,” said Barthel, Sleek’s co-founder and chief growth officer.

The startup said that it serves local startups and multinational corporation subsidiaries, as well as private equity, venture capital funds, and family offices.
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Photo by Rikki Chan on Unsplash

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Bangladesh’s Pathao is said to merge with SureCash – Dealstreet Asia

Bangladeshi ride-hailing startup Pathao is reported to be in talks to merge with local digital payments provider SureCash, Dealstreet Asia wrote, quoting various local media reports.

The merger is expected to place the two companies in a better position to attract funding and provide a wider range of services to its customers, according to the report. It is also said that they will continue to operate independently post-merger.

Pathao declined to comment on this story.

Deliveroo to double its walker fleet in 2020 – Press Release

Food delivery startup Deliveroo announced its plan to double its walker fleet in 2020.

The programme was officially launched to the firm’s riders last month, following a pilot with 50 selected riders in July. It enables new and existing riders in Singapore’s Central Business District (CBD) can opt to fulfil orders on foot, reducing time spent on the roads and looking for parking spaces in high traffic areas.

Since its launch, Deliveroo said that its walker fleet has grown to over 100

Also Read: Deliveroo Singapore appoints new country manager, will push for expansion and development

Indonesian edutech startup said to raise US$100M – Dealstreet Asia

Indonesian edutech startup Ruangguru is reported to have raised US$100 million in funding, according to a Dealstreet Asia report.

The funding round is said to be led by General Atlantic.

The news came after Ruangguru co-founder and managing director was named special staff for President Joko Widodo.

E-wallet OVO launches SMEs-targeted financing service DanaTara – e27

Indonesian digital payments platform OVO announced that it has launched financing services to address SMEs’ needs, called DanaTara.

The new offer aims to widen business access for SMEs as well as supporting them in improving business potentials.

OVO President Director Karaniya Dharmasaputra said that OVO DanaTara offers to be a solution for business expansion, balance stream management, and to be additional equity for Indonesian SMEs.

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Image Credit: rupixen.com on Unsplash

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“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” – Socrates

We’ve crossed the 7.5b mark in terms of the global population if you haven’t heard yet. With 5b unique mobile users and 3.5b active social media users, it’s clear as daylight we can’t live without our phones. But that’s relatively obvious. Just look around you.

Something less obvious though is the total labour force within the global population. For that, we’d have to look at some interesting data from the International Labor Organization. According to the ILO, about 3.5b people have jobs.

For the curious mind, the statistical concept and methodology are outlined on their website. But if you scratch further under the surface, you’d quickly notice an interesting composition of the workforce.

By 2020 the global workforce would comprise only 6 per cent of baby boomers. The remaining  70 per cent of the workforce will be made up of Gen-X and Millennials (or Gen-Y). Meanwhile, Gen-Z rounds up the balance of 24 per cent. 

For clarity, generation names and age spans are defined somewhat differently depending on country and/or region. Roughly speaking, the subsequent generation names and age spans are considered “global” generations¹. 

• Baby Boomers: 1946–1964
• Generation X: 1965–1980
• Millennials: 1981-1996
• Post-Millennials/Generation Z: After 1997

A new generation enters the workforce

In the past, most businesses have focused on understanding the needs of Millenials while searching for talent. Many businesses identify Millennials as an immediate or near-term labour pool.

Older millennials, a 1981-1988 born subgroup, express certain characteristics in their approach to work. They have drastically higher expectations for their lives and prospects, and some may say these borders unrealistic demands. It is probably the result of being raised by baby boomer parents, who protected older millennials from many of the dangers of the world and gave them a strong sense of individualism.

Nonetheless, its this very sense of individualism that has paved the way for change in the workplace. They have challenged norms, questioned authority, pushed for transparency and reignited remote work and work-life balance among other things.

Many older millennials are now inching into middle and senior management and are between the ages of 31-39. This is well known by the majority of companies, although they may struggle to make them feel completely accepted.

On the flip side, harsh economic realities have been part of the lives of younger millennials and Gen Z as they’ve matured. They have experienced the global recession and its lasting impact and are living in a time of great social change. These are the first generations for whom digital technology is intrinsic to their way of life, and their parents have been less able to shield them from news stories that are alarming and disturbing.

As a result, Gen Z and younger millennials differ radically from older millennials, with new perceptions, beliefs, and aspirations of life and unique demands for jobs. Younger millennials and Gen Z have an ambitious and “do-it-myself” mindset. They have grown up looking for answers on the internet, YouTube and their global peers. They’ve watched people from their generation build successful businesses on their own.

Generational Gap

The 2015 AfterCollege Career Insight Survey reviewed how undergraduate, graduate students and recent college grads viewed potential jobs, and it found that 68 per cent wanted jobs where they could work remotely.

Yet many top company executives come from a different generation: Gen-X members or baby boomers, and are used to a more conventional workplace. 

Millennials and Gen-Z are what’s to come. There’s no denying this. Both these generations fully comprehend what they need. And their natural instincts will see them lean them towards employers who recognize their needs. 

One such need as recently referenced is remote work. The view on remote work is generally divided. A view divided between the old guard and the new breed of the workforce. 

The idea of ending remote work appears to be motivated by the notion of going back to the way things – in hopes of restoring past glory. At least this is what may have inspired Michelle Peluso and Marissa Mayer when they made headlines for calling remote workers back to the office. 

Some remote workers, in this case, were given impossible choices to relocate across the country or face termination. The issue with this “my way or the highway” policy though is that it completely ignores how remote work ties into employee satisfaction over the last decade. 

The younger generation is well aware and confident they can be anywhere, virtually. If employees are producing valuable output, it doesn’t make a difference where they are physically. It, however, remains crucial to treat your employees as adults and respecting their personal lives, because in the end that pays-off. 

Collaboration makes distributed work the norm, not the exception

As a Gen-X’er, I vividly recall my manager calling me in for an explanation even if I was 5 minutes late to my desk. In those days, it was nearly impossible to work outside. And the idea of collaboration back then was sitting in long counterproductive meetings.

True collaboration is the new normal today. You could say the genie is out the bottle and it’s here to stay. There’s no putting it back. While the older guard may take a defensive stance or even reject the idea of remote work outright, it’s impossible to ignore how far technology has come.

Collaboration and team-work both within or beyond the walls of traditional office space is now a reality thanks to inexpensive cloud solutions, higher processing power and cost-effective devices for people to work anywhere, anytime. Thanks to Moore’s law, a single Apple iPhone 5 has 2.7 times processing power over the 1985 Cray-2 supercomputer. 

The influx of productivity tools available in the marketplace allows businesses and individuals to choose what works best for them. You could find tools which helps you organize emails, store & share files seamlessly, video conference with colleagues, manage task and set goals, and the list goes on.

“Technology now allows people to connect anytime, anywhere, to anyone in the world, from almost any device. This is dramatically changing the way people work, facilitating 24/7 collaboration with colleagues who are dispersed across time zones, countries, and continents.”

— Michael Dell, Chairman, and CEO of Dell

With so many of these tools available, it’s understandable finding one that best fits you or your team is anything, but easy. Whilst every team operates like a living organism with specific functions, workflows & processes, it’s imperative to acknowledge no single tool will address every requirement towards the holy grail of collaboration.

What works for one team or group of people within an organization doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to work for others. The sales team may need a tool that helps track leads, conversion, and appointments. The folks over in projects are driven by milestones and deliverables towards project completion and signing-off.

Whatever these needs are, it’s significant to have critical stakeholders talking and communicating with each other in real-time. Ever so often, these communication takes place on social messaging apps, outside of the office. Tracking what’s said or done on these apps becomes a massive challenge in itself.

Luckily, there are a variety of alternatives. No matter if you’re starting out research to implement team collaboration, or a pro Slacker finding the 10,000 message limit a little crippling, here’s a list of 30 team collaboration tools for you to consider. 

For any business – regardless of a startup or global player – collaboration is the way for long term growth and sustainability. Interactions built & nurtured with others, particularly among colleagues with a common & shared vision will enable your business to function as large global corporations do. Thanks to technology and innovation, developing and harnessing these interactions within your team doesn’t have to wait. Subsequently, it also doesn’t require a gargantuan budget needing layers of approval.

If you hit a snag, simply bear in mind, old ways won’t open new doors.

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Editor’s note: e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or like e27 Facebook page here.

Image Credit:  Jerry Zhang

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Indonesian ride-hailing giant gojek is nearing an agreement to buy five per cent of local taxi operator Blue Bird, Bloomberg reported.

Citing people familiar with the matter, gojek is set to pay US$30 million.

“That implies a price of more than 20 per cent above what Blue Bird closed at in Jakarta on Monday and would value the company at about US$600 million,” the report stated.

While gojek spokesperson said they will not comment on market speculation, a Blue Bird representative did not respond to queries for comments immediately.

Also Read: Indonesian consumers can now book a Blue Bird taxi via Go-Jek application

The partnership between gojek and Blue Bird came with a long history of competition and reconciliation.

When gojek first took its claim to fame in the Indonesian market, it was met with protests by taxi drivers who believe that the service threatened their livelihood.

But in March 2017, the two companies announced a partnership that would see Blue Bird service being available on the gojek platform.

More on this story as it develops.

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Accelerating development in decentralized platforms will require a paradigm shift, which requires developers to collaborate and learn through a multidisciplinary approach. There needs to be a more collaborative approach in order to produce real-world solutions that can make a big impact, and the developer community expects to have better capabilities and tools on hand.

In terms of skill, blockchain programming has mostly been learned through experience and community participation, there is no doubt that certain industries need more robust standards when it comes to how products are built. Industries like finance and security will require a more well-rounded and collaborative approach when building blockchain platforms and solutions, for instance.

Learning institutions are already addressing this trend. According to the second annual Coinbase Report on Higher Education done in partnership with Qriously, the percentage of top global universities offering courses and programs in blockchain has increased from 42 per cent in 2018 to 56 per cent this year, with Cornell University topping the Coinbase 2019 Leaders in Crypto Education list.

The report also cites a growing number of students who have expressed interest in learning blockchain. This means there is a growing demand for educational institutions to actively include blockchain in their curricula and course offerings – not just colleges and universities, but even primary education, as well.

“Many universities have started introducing courses in blockchain in recent years. Most of them are focusing in exploring the possible use cases,” says Richard Tiu, Strategic Alliance and Partnership Director of NEM Philippines, which has been working with 24 universities in the Philippines in offering blockchain courses.

“Reckoning that having a supply of developers with blockchain knowledge is fundamental for blockchain to flourish, universities start to offer courses for developers. There is more and more training conducted by the developer communities too.”

A multidisciplinary approach in building solutions

At first glance, blockchain development might seem to be more focused on the technical aspect of product development. However, according to those involved in blockchain education at universities, the interest has been diverse. After all, this technology has a multidisciplinary nature: It cuts across computer science, finance, legal, economics, social sciences, medicine, and so forth. 

The Coinbase study notes that after computer science, business and law are the biggest areas of interest when it comes to blockchain education.

This is not surprising, due to the relevance of regulatory frameworks in blockchain and cryptocurrency platforms today. Speaking on the topic, Anatoly Ressin, Co-Founder and Chief Blockchain Architect at PARSIQ, says that blockchain companies are pushing for enhanced regulation in order to arrive at better standards and utilization.

“Our ultimate goal is to push for the mass adoption of blockchain technology in general. Currently, most [crypto and blockchain companies] are not compliant with the current regulations.” 

NEM’s Tiu says that in order for educational institutions to participate in accelerating the development of decentralized platforms and applications, they need the ability to quickly adapt and change with the growing needs of the industry. But beyond this, there is also the feedback mechanism — building more capability in blockchain will also contribute to a more active blockchain community. 

Jean-Charles Cabelguen, PhD, Chief of Innovation and Adoption at iExec, says that developers need to build products with convergence in mind:

“They need to understand blockchain tech but also other technologies working in interaction with decentralized platforms. IoT, AI, Trusted Execution Environment is a great additional tech, providing highly valuable services when combined with blockchain. It may be a strong stretch from web applications. But we will see more and more full-stack developers with understanding in another tech, as well as specialized developers.”

iExec is addressing the machine-to-machine economy and the edge computing economy in showcasing a proof-of-concept illustrating how connected devices can collaborate and share services. Here’s where the multidisciplinary nature of development will play a big part.

Collaboration and interoperability as an integral part of blockchain development

“Indeed for a lot of actual tech infrastructures, blockchain is not needed. But it is easier to see its strong necessity when forecasting the rise of smart industries where interoperability layers will be needed to aggregate digital infrastructures,” says Dr Cabelguen, who is Chair of the Board at the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance, a member-driven standards organization, whose charter is to develop open blockchain specs that drive interoperability.

He adds that accelerating development in decentralized platforms and applications will need two criteria: development of tools and federating around game-changing services. “I think it is key to find the equilibrium between providing tools for concrete needs of today and as well as building tools for coming challenges.

The first part is key in order to bring onboard people and companies focusing on short term financial profits. The second part is key in order to federate around a strong vision delivering game-changer services. Innovation is often a mix of changes in technology, adoption and/or business models.”

Ressin, whose platform provides tools for blockchain intelligence and analytics, agrees that development tools are important criteria in accelerating development in decentralized platforms. The fast-paced nature of blockchain development today necessitates collaboration among developers, in order to build on each other’s strengths and experience. 

“Supporting new blockchains (e.g., simply listening for activity, monitoring them in real-time, scrapping data, automating on-chain processes) requires time and effort, since it is not only about the support, but also the reliability, maintainability and ability to work with big data – each of those will require the proper distribution of resources to save time and money in the future,” Ressin says.

He adds that leveraging third-party tools and services can enable faster deployment vis-a-vis building these from scratch.

“Third-party tools and services exist to eliminate the learning curve for developers [as they can] delegate responsibility and abstract from underlying complexities, being able to concentrate over the features the business requires without any worries that something will get broken the purpose for collaboration, according to Ressin, is “to build fast, integrate faster and measure the results on customers even faster.”

Beni Hakak, Co-Founder and CEO of LiquidApps, likens current blockchain development to the early days of the internet: “Only when developers could begin to move resources away from infrastructure and towards building experiences did the internet revolution really take off. Similarly, for blockchain developers to create products with real end-user value, they must focus their resources on optimizing user experiences, not on building and maintaining the service infrastructure to support their dApp.”

He adds that developers need to collaborate in order to avoid reinventing the wheel, citing the work that his company does in supporting development of decentralized apps (DAPPs). “Trustless DAPP Network services offer developers web oracles, seamless user onboarding, databases, computation, inter-blockchain communication, memory, and more. These services are not restricted to a single base-layer blockchain, either, thanks to LiquidX – which allows developers to use the DAPP Network on their blockchain of choice. They can even potentially use multiple chains or seamlessly migrate later, should the need arise.”

Preparing for the future

Dr. Cabelguen concludes that mindset is what’s important when building on these disruptive trends: “When learning new tech trends, it is key to have a strong commitment and to gather sources from different industries and media. The first step is to not tag too strongly our technical identity. For example, being a hardcore Java developer is great. But other languages are also making sense. It’s the same with new tech in general. The idea is to be committed but to do so with an open mind in order to welcome disruptive approaches.”

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Startups today are inundated by the narrative of being showered with copious amounts of funding. Companies can hit astronomical – and some would say logic-defying – valuations, as investors place large bets on companies in the hopes of landing a golden goose. Indeed, there’s a lot of hype around the VC-startup relationship, but is it healthy for the entrepreneurial ecosystem?

How can investors avoid a sense of FOMO (‘fear of missing out’) when looking at trendy but not necessarily lucrative investment opportunities? And how can they apply more logic and sense to a financing decision and securing the right investee?

At a panel discussion at WiT 2019, VCs from across global markets discussed strategies investors should apply to make more sound investment decisions, and how startup founders can develop stronger relationships with their investors.

Moderated by Stephan Ekbergh, CEO of Travelstart the panel included William Bao Bean Managing Director of Chinaccelerator; Kuo-Yi Lim of Managing Partner, Monk’s Hill Ventures; Oliver Rippel, Founding Partner of Asia Partners; Melissa Guzy, Co-founder & Managing Partner, Arbor Ventures.

Here are the key takeaways:

Don’t fear FOMO; think about the long-term approach instead

The temptation to give in to FOMO will always be there. And for VCs that focus on making a limited number of significant deals annually, there will inevitably be times when they miss out on companies that eventually turn out to be a winner.

However, the panel advised that instead of feeling regret, investors should ask themselves a fundamental question: “Based on the same amount of information available at that point in time, would I still have made the same investment decision?”

If the answer is “yes”, then they have built a system of strong investment values that is consistent and repeatable across different cycles, which is more important than being driven by emotions that can be illogical and lead to short-sighted and ill-advised decisions. Staying true to the philosophy that has served them well in the past will keep them on track to making stronger investment choices.

Investing in business means investing in its founder, which is akin to getting into a long-term relationship or marriage, said Bean. It is a lot of commitment and investors are usually tied up with the company for at least five to 10 years. It’s a lot of effort and devotion to an impulsive investment decision.

Before investors sign a cheque, what they really need to consider is whether they would be willing to continue working with a founder and company during a downturn. Are they prepared to fight through tough times and tackle problems together? Does the company’s culture align with its philosophy and would they be able to overcome conflict amicably?

Backing the right founder and building strong relationships

To judge a founder’s capabilities, character and compatibility is not a simple task. Today, however, investors can leverage advanced tools to filter out founders who may not be a good fit or whose character is suspect.

For example, there was talk about developing AI programmes that can assess any founder’s behaviour profile based on online data, to give investors a clearer sense of if they will be good to work with or if they should be kept at arm’s length. Investors could also use the HBDI (Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument) test to analyse how a founder would approach a decision-making process.

Nonetheless, measuring the calibre and integrity of a founder is not an exact science.

Many entrepreneurs, especially in Southeast Asia, are young upstarts in their mid-20s whose behaviour and thought processes are still subject to major change as they continue to mature. Plus, it is virtually impossible to predict every possible scenario that could occur, regardless of how much due diligence is done on the founder and their company.

Ultimately, investors have to feel comfortable working with the founder and their team from day one. “Make sure you are a good fit,” said Guzy. “As an entrepreneur, it can take 35-40 venture firms before you find the right one. There are lots of ingredients that go into if a match can work and you have to meet a lot of VCs to find the one you want to partner with.”

After that match is made, maintaining an open, communicative relationship is fundamental to sustaining a long and happy ‘marriage’. Lim advised that it is more productive for founders to open and vulnerable about business than feel the need to pitch about how great the business is doing all the time. Being honest about the challenges a business is facing will help investors get a better sense of what support they can provide to overcome any problem.

Rippel added, “The biggest mistake is trying to manage everything in your board room meeting… Keep the quarterly board meeting to focus on the bigger things that matter and what you need to keep things going.” Beyond the boardroom, he advised regular meetups to work through the smaller, grittier details of the business that both sides can work through together.

Most importantly, the investors advised that a positive relationship is one where founders can feel vulnerable with their investors. Founders should feel comfortable writing emails or weekly newsletters to their investors that speak openly about struggles and achievements. Ditch the polished, PR lingo; speak the unfettered, unvarnished truth that comes from the heart instead. Investors appreciate honesty and directness, and this way founders and their investors will develop a stronger bond.

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This article was first published on WiT.

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