Becoming an accomplished entrepreneur isn’t just about creating a great product

Being afraid to lose. Thick skin. The patience to queue for hours. While these traits form part of the (stereotypical) Singaporean’s DNA, such qualities might not make for a successful entrepreneur.

Instead, what traits would be required? The best way to find out is naturally to ask people who are successful entrepreneurs themselves. That’s what Dr. Lillian Koh, CEO of fintech education provider FinTech Academy, did in a “The Art and Science of Entrepreneurship” panel discussion at the Young NTUC’s recent inaugural LIT DISCOvery conference, which involved veteran entrepreneurs such as:

• Christopher Yeo, CEO of artificial intelligence platform Sentient.io,
• Rachel Lim, co-founder of fashion e-commerce store Love, Bonito, and
• Entrepreneur and investor Teo Ser Luck

Drawing from their wealth of experience, they shared their thoughts on five traits that Singapore’s entrepreneurs need to develop to excel in their business ventures.

Self-awareness

Self-awareness refers to being aware of who you are as a person, such as your interests, qualities, and shortcomings. With entrepreneurship being all the rage these days, being self-aware can help you decide whether this is what you really want for yourself before you take the plunge.

For example: are you keen on pursuing a particular business venture because you have passion for it, and believe it can – as Lim puts it – “make a dent in the universe”? Or was that business idea the first one that came to mind, and you’re charging in blindly because you see entrepreneurship as your ticket to fame and stardom?

When you start building your business, you’ll likely also have to build a team that can complement your strengths and weaknesses – assuming you know what these are in the first place.

“If there’s one thing I wish I had known earlier, it’s that I had known myself inside out,” shares Lim. “It’s only in knowing yourself and your values, what makes you tick, your motivations, what are the areas of the business that you can and want to focus on, that allows you to have that knowledge to bring the right people to come and team up with you. And the right people at the right time is everything.”

Business-mindedness

Let’s say you’ve exercised your self-awareness muscle, and decided that entrepreneurship is the right path for you. You’ve also decided that your business will be one selling your favourite snack: salted egg yolk fish skin.

However, imagine that we live in an alternate universe where absolutely no one will eat nor buy salted egg yolk fish skin. Do you go ahead with this business, even though you love salted egg yolk fish skin to bits?

Probably not. Remember, you’re running a business here. If you don’t have a product or service that enough people will pay for, you may face difficulties covering your expenses, let alone make any profits.

You can’t afford to be too romantic about your business. The longer you let a failing business drag on, the more money and time it’ll cost you, Teo says.

“If nobody’s paying for your services, or the products you’re trying to develop fail, or you can’t raise money, maybe you should review your business model, your products and services, and take a hard look,” he advised.

“Cut your losses [if you need to] and do it quick, then review if you can make a comeback.”

Salesmanship

To complement your workable business model, you need to be able to make sales. Your revenue certainly is going to materialize out of nowhere.

Based on his experience in the fintech industry, Yeo opined that the “biggest blind spot for entrepreneurs who are geeks and techies is actually in sales […] many of them are so deep into their tech that they think customers will just bash down their door to say ‘Let me buy, let me buy’.”

Also Read: A customer-centric and cross-channel approach to payments will drive growth for your business

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. Having the world’s best product or service isn’t going to do your business any good if you can’t persuade people to open their wallets for it.

Yeo said that even if you don’t do the selling yourself, you’ll likely need to manage the sales team you’ve hired to close the sales. Naturally, you can’t do this well if you don’t have some prior sales knowledge or experience, so be prepared to brush up on your sales skills.

Avoid micromanagement

Congratulations! After a long search, you’ve managed to hire the right individuals who identify with your values and business goals, and have the required skills, to help make your vision a reality.

The next step is to give your team space to actually do their work.

“I like to empower my team members to make decisions without micro-managing them,” shared Yeo. “I think people appreciate that you trust them, and allow them to do their job without you looking over their shoulders all the time.”

Your business is your baby – we get that. It can be terrifying to see your business in the hands of others, because there’s a chance they’ll make a mistake that erases all your hard work. But remember that you hired these talented people because you trusted they could get the job done.

So learn to let go and let your team do what they were hired to do, Yeo advised. More likely than not, their competence and dedication to your cause will exceed your expectations by a mile.

Grit

In theory, starting a business is really easy. All you need to do is to engage a corporate secretarial firm to incorporate a company for you, and voilà! You can immediately put the title of Founder on your CV.

But growing and scaling your new business is the tough part. Every day, new problems will present themselves, shares Teo. You’ll need to have the grit to press on through these, even if others may just admit defeat.

Lim is no stranger to adversity. To start her blog shop (which later evolved into Love, Bonito), she dropped out of university and broke her government scholarship bond. And to repay the bond, she had to borrow a five-figure sum from her mother — wiping out her mother’s entire life savings in the process.

Also Read: How to avoid the pitfalls of starting up

“At that time, my dad had also just gone through bankruptcy so it was financially a very tough time for us. That gave me even more impetus to make sure I wouldn’t fail, that my business would do well, because I really didn’t want to waste my mum’s sacrifice,” recounted Lim, to applause from the audience.

You’ve heard from the experts. Now, it’s your turn.

You may be tempted to mug the five traits shared above like how you would for study for an exam back in school.  Unfortunately, entrepreneurship is not something that you can memorize your way to success.

Instead, you’ll have to practice these five traits throughout your entrepreneurship journey until they become second nature to you. And if you’re serious about being an entrepreneur, there’s no better time to start than now.

Good luck with your business, and godspeed!
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Image Credit: J. Kelly Brito on Unsplash

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

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The startup also offers a Bluetooth-enabled dive computer, called COSMIQ, which lets divers track and calculate important information, such as when they need to take a decompression stop

(Editor’s Note: Here’s a story from our archives we feel is relevant even today and deserves your attention)

In 2011, James Tsuei, a scuba diver enthusiast, decided to plan a vacation and get his Open Water Diver certification, an entry-level autonomous diver certification for recreational scuba diving. But the process of planning and finalising the trip took a whole month, which consisted of hours of internet searching for suitable destinations and finding the right dive operator, along with multiple postings on dive forums looking for advice.

“There wasn’t any centralised information resource on the internet for scuba trip planning, and all dive-related bookings required a long emailing back-and-forth process with clarifying details to accomplish,” Tsuei tells e27. “I saw a business opportunity here, and this led us to founding Deepblu, which aims to solve problems associated with dive trip planning and booking.”

As per some estimates, there are currently about six to eight million active divers (defined as people who make three or more diving sessions each year), and dive trips are big investments. Divers spend an average of US$1,000 on equipment and certification, and then even more money on dive shops (businesses run by dive professionals who provide training and tours), flights and accommodation. However, information about diving (destinations, quality of dive operators, etc) are all very fragmented online with no central location to assist divers with their trip planning process.

Founded in 2015, Taipei-headquartered Deepblu brings resources for divers onto a centralised platform. In addition to a social network for divers to share dive logs and photos with other enthusiasts, the startup also offers a Bluetooth-enabled dive computer, called COSMIQ. A wristwatch-like device, COSMIQ lets divers track and calculate important information, such as when they need to take a decompression stop.

“Divers can capture and record their dive experiences through the COSMIQ device. They can also capture all of their precious dive memories under their Deepblu profile stored in the cloud. It also enables them to share their dive adventures through social media posts on Deepblu with location tags,” he explains.

Divers are also able to ask questions or exchange opinions in the discussion groups on the social networking platform.

Also Read: As Southeast Asia pushes to digitise SMEs, Echelon is here to help facilitate the process

Recently, the startup rolled out Planet Deepblu, an interactive dive travel booking and planning tool. “Planet Deepblu is a marketplace, where dive shops can list their services on the platform, and divers can chat directly with dive shop owners, making for a personal experience. We position it as the ‘Airbnb for diving’,” he adds.

According to Tsuei, Planet Deepblu enables users to research thousands of dive spots throughout the world. The platform has accumulated over hundreds of thousands of user generated content (UGC) shared by its users about dive destinations including dive data, dive spot reviews, photos, and videos covering over 10,000 dive sites around the globe.

“Planet Deepblu already has over 500 dive experiences for scuba divers to discover and book directly with dive operators. Divers can directly contact the dive operators through the in-platform messaging feature to learn more about their services and book their trip,” he shares.

While the current focus is the North American market, the company plans to quickly scale Planet Deepblu to cover Southeast Asia and the Asia Pacific, which has the world’s most stunning dive sites.

Tsuei claims that the niche scuba diving market has a considerable economic scale. The total global spending in recreational scuba diving and snorkeling was around US$25-30 billion in 2017. The largest piece of the average diver’s spending on scuba activities outside of scuba travel-related expenses (transportation, lodging and meals) is on dive experiences, which is approximately 30 per cent of the total pie. This is the focused business of Planet Deepblu.

As of now, Planet Deepblu is a free-to-use platform. In future, as it matures, it will pivot into a commission model, wherein it will take a cut from booking transactions. The firm also plans to expand to a wider audience by moving into other water activities like snorkeling to earn additional revenues.

Deepblu recently raised US$3.9 million from Silverlink Capital, which helped it to bring COSMIQ to the market and build the Deepblu social platform. It is now raising its second pre- Series A and looking for strategic investors that will be able to help us to develop Planet Deepblu and its services to the next stage.

Currently, US based users account for the the largest user base for Deepblu, followed by China.

In the scuba dive booking space, Deepblu competes with PADI. But unlike PADI, Tsuei claims, Deepblu does not just provide a limited selection of expensive live board experience, but all kinds of diving experience such as wreck diving, shark diving, cave diving and even dive experiences for physically challenged divers.

“In emerging market like China and Southeast Asia, scuba diving is perceived as a trendy sport amongst young professionals and a great way to explore the world. We hope to leverage this trend to grow our platform,” he concludes.

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Echelon Asia Summit 2018 is e27’s flagship platform that brings together startups, investors, corporates, governments, tech ecosystem players and customers. Register for your conference passes today.

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It is important to stay on top of the trade war news, but picking sides is an egregious mistake

I have spent the last month procrastinating on a Huawei column. To me, it felt like breaking up with a significant other because it is a terrible experience but one that is necessary. Being a tech reporter and not commenting on Huawei is like being a culture writer and ignoring Keanu Reeves.

The reason I had been so reluctant to write my opinions about Huawei is because the entire discussion has been poisoned by nationalism.

This is problematic for me because I despise nationalism. I think it is a common thread in most wars, it allows people to make racial proclamations that are almost always wrong and it creates emotional stubbornness that is quite ugly.

Then, I realised, that is the column.

One of the first learnings any immigrant will experience is the realisation that every person thinks their home country is the best in the world. This is why debates over food, culture or national preferences are so pointless. Truly being stuck in a nationalistic mindset is a fantastic way to miss out on great food, excellent conversations and new friends.

When this mindset is transferred to a telco brand caught in the middle of a bilateral trade war, it results in a truly toxic conversation.

I am an American, which means that if I wrote an anti-Huawei column it would immediately be picked apart as another bullet fired to defend my team.

But the thing is, I don’t care about Huawei, I think both Washington and Beijing are acting like spoiled children in the trade war and the only good thing that has come out of the Huawei mess is the sliced Apple logo metaphor (because it’s clever).

Also Read: Fintech startup Arax Wallet merges with crypto exchange COSS

If Huawei navigates the global turmoil and supplies the world’s 5G, then great. If they collapse because they can’t survive without the American market, then so be it.

Huawei is not a friend, colleague or even local small business, so why do we care about their success or failure (except for the job stability of the average employee). Huawei is a gigantic corporation, not some plucky startup trying to take on giants. They are the giant.

And yet, people either root for them — or wish them ill — as if their success actually makes a difference in our lives.

This is because Huawei has done a brilliant job of leveraging the victimhood narrative to build its brand. The clear winner of the trade war has been Brand Huawei (only the c-suite actually knows if this transfers to Company Huawei).

The result is that the media now covers media “Apple-style”…aka no matter how minor the update, Huawei will receive coverage. This is the dream of any public relations team, even if sometimes the news is not positive.

Because of this, Huawei has become the substitute for all things trade war. When people talk about Huawei, they aren’t really talking about the company, they are talking about China.

Most arguments fail to acknowledge that Huawei could dominate 5G for the next decade, while China struggles to recover from the trade war. Or, Huawei could collapse in financial ruin but China could skyrocket blast the US and become the next global hegemon.

Unfortunately, neither of these narratives fit the nationalism that drives the discussion around Huawei. One good example is the impending launch of HongMeng (Huawei’s new operating system).

People were absolutely certain this thing would be a TOTAL FAILURE or RESOUNDING SUCCESS. Anybody making these all-bold predictions have no clue what they were talking about. Only the people personally involved in making the operating system have any ability to predict if it will work or not — and even then they are just making an educated guess.

Also Read: e27 partners with Wholesale Investor to help startups raise funds

But in our desire to defend or destroy a gigantic corporation, absolute certainty is the only way to approach the subject.

I guess the hope of this column is to remind people to continue to watch the trade war, stay informed and make decisions accordingly. But, don’t pick sides.

Try to remember that both China and the US are great-but-extremely-flawed nations. A person making decisions out of nationalistic tendencies is going to make zero impact on the actual outcome of the war, and in doing so is going to close themselves off to regular folks who don’t care about Apple, soybeans, Huawei or rare earth metals.

It’s okay to be patriotic, but nationalism leads to wars and it is up to the individual to act as a saucer and cool off the boiling tea.

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Climate change presents a real existential threat to the human race, but can technological solutions stop it in its tracks?

Early June, New Scientist published an article with a chilling headliner:

“Is it true climate change will cause the end of civilisation by 2050?”

The article paints a disturbing future of the consequences of lethal soaring temperatures hitting the globe: imagine, ice being non-existent in the Arctic during the summer; rising sea levels; the total collapse of the Amazon ecosystem; and more than half of the world’s population subjected to nearly a month’s worth of fatal heat — it’s not a pretty picture.

While efforts have been made to circumvent the inevitable end, we all play a huge role to prevent this from happening. It’s important to really consider the implications of your day to day activities that are currently affecting the environment.

Cities are responsible for 70 per cent of global emissions and 65 per cent of global energy demand. In 2030, cities will account for more than three-quarters of electricity use. How can we leverage technology to accelerate our cities into being zero carbon – transforming us from climate culprits to climate solvers?

That is why it is important to find out how companies are taking measures to contribute to reducing their impact on the environment.

As urban residents, our carbon footprint is largely determined by our city’s building infrastructure, transportation options and food systems. FASTRACK explores technology’s role in making significant changes at a wider scale quickly for a zero carbon city.

When you attend Fastrack: Tech for zero carbon cities (presented by ENGIE Factory, in collaboration with e27), attendees can find out more on current and upcoming technologies that pave the way for zero emission buildings, green mobility and sustainable food systems.

Plus, discover the exhibition of innovative startups, earth-friendly products and services (and how their products and make your business greener), and great networking after!

Find out more about the event at this link

RSVP now at our Eventbrite link

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Image Credit: Roxanne Desgagnés on Unsplash

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This year’s edition of ORIGIN will be held in Malaysia on June 21, 2019

ORIGIN by TechNode — an international conference that aims to examine the latest developments in ASEAN’s and China’s tech startup scene – is back for its second edition. It will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on June 21, 2019.

The event, which saw its inaugural run at SWITCH 2018, will be collaborating with the Malaysia Tech Week 2019 this year. ORIGIN will be expanding beyond the shores of Singapore to help more people around the Southeast Asia region understand why and how to get involved in this new stage of China-ASEAN development.

A conference to bridge China & Southeast Asia’s tech ecosystems

According to Tan Shi Hui, Country Manager, TechNode Global (SG), “ORIGIN aims to facilitate more interaction and cross-pollination between China and Southeast Asia’s sharing economy by bringing international industry leaders and technology-changers globally to different Southeast Asia’s cities.”

“Attendees will gain insights on the latest trends and developments in China’s vibrant tech scene and Southeast Asia’s rapid growth landscape,” she says.

Tan adds that the conference is aligned with TechNode’s vision — to be the number one platform bridging Chinese and global tech ecosystems.

“We recognize that Southeast Asia’s tech ecosystem is booming and as China’s digital economy matures, Chinese tech firms increasingly look to Southeast Asia for growth opportunities. With our Southeast Asia regional office set up in Singapore a year ago, TechNode aims to power up the bridge between Southeast Asia and China.”

The ASEAN-China Synergy

ORIGIN’s conference agenda consists of four hours worth of content uncovering insights on the latest trends and developments in China’s vibrant tech scene and Southeast Asia’s rapid growth landscape. This would include topics such as fintech, AI, e-commerce, venture investments, and micro-influencers.

The agenda boasts of a stellar line-up of household names in the Southeast Asia tech industry, such as Sharmeen Looi, Co-founder at ShopBack Malaysia; Yeoh Chen Chow, Co-Founder at Fave Group; Ng Sai Kit, Chief Executive at Captii Ventures, and Navin Danapal, SEA Director at SOSV to name a few.

Also Read: Smart Axiata’s Young Innovator Program names top 5 teams in Impact Hub incubator

The speaker roster also includes the likes of Maggie Long, Director of Global PR & Communications at Kuaishou Technology, and Dr. Lu Gang, CEO & Founder, TechNode, to represent China’s tech scene.

Tan sums up the content strategy nicely, “Southeast Asia is about five to six years behind China; we can learn from the challenges China faced, the lessons have they learned, as well as what paths to follow.”

“One strategy for Chinese VCs is not to invest directly into Southeast Asia but rather to help their portfolio companies get into specific countries,” says Tan.

“Generally, Southeast Asian startups are open to Chinese money. We believe Southeast Asia is now in a strong position to ride this wave and also better prepare to resolve similar challenges if they surface in Southeast Asia,” she adds.

A freebie for the #e27community

At e27, we avidly support and participate in ecosystem building initiatives. These help us stay true and relevant to our mission — empowering entrepreneurs with the tools to build and grow their businesses.

Similarly, TechNode hopes to reach out to a wider community through e27, specifically those based in Malaysia to inform them about ORIGIN.

We are inviting the #e27community to gain access to ORIGIN by TechNode and other partner events happening from 19th – 21st June at  Malaysia Tech Week 2019 by submitting your request here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2FBDYSF

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When choosing an incubation programme or an innovation partner, entrepreneurs and  organisations need to be aware of their underlying business models

Singapore’s start-up ecosystem has been growing fast. The number of startups here has increased by more than three times in the past decade[1]. One only needs to visit the startup enclave LaunchPad at One north to find out how vibrant the startup scene is. The JTC hub is home to more than 800 startups and close to 50 incubators[2]. Incubators in the ecosystem play an important role behind successful startups by providing targeted business assistance at very early stages of the company.

In recent years, I have had the chance of interacting and collaborating with different incubators in Singapore and overseas. Although many of them offer similar business assistance, they have vastly different business models which define their priorities. I would classify incubators into four different categories:

• Teacher
• Agent
• Merchant
• Builder

1. The Teachers

The “Teacher” operates the incubation program similar to a MBA program. They are a school for startups. After the application and admission process, the startups will be put through classes, trainings, and consultancy to get themselves ready to pitch their ideas to the selected investors. There will also be networking events and parties where startups get connected to the who’s who.

The secret sauce lies in the inherent good quality of their applicants. To succeed, they need to develop an outstanding brand name to attract the best candidates. Y Combinator is one of the most successful “Teacher” type incubator, and other notables include 500 Startups, AngelPad, Chinaccelerator. There are many more trying to follow this model. However, their successes are extremely difficult to duplicate. It is akin to creating another Harvard MBA program in Singapore.

2. The Agents

The “Agent” type of incubator typically help start-ups to reach out for customers or investors in a different region. In some variations, the Agents also help large corporates to search for disruptive innovation.

The “agent” is a viable business model because there are real needs for both startups and corporates. Besides the plain vanilla servicing fee, Agents often provide additional services such as market research and consultancy to generate more income. The paying customers are the core of their business. Agents have a strong imperative to maintain good linkages with customers and ensure efficient operation to bring the information/start-ups that customers are interested. Some of the “agent” types incubators are LabCentral, Plug&Play, and MBC Biolabs.

3. The Merchants

The top priority for a merchant is to sell its own product or service to its customers. Similarly, Merchant-type incubators are most willing to help start-ups whose successes better market their products or services. They are usually incubators belonging to large corporates.

Necessarily, Merchants spend a lot of effort on marketing. Sometimes, its whole incubation programme is supported by the marketing and sales budget.  They would love to organise or participate in high profile events and promote incubatees’ success stories to sell their own products. Some of the “Merchant” types incubators are Huawei i5Lab, HP Enterprise Incubator, and Microsoft Accelerator.

Also read: Accelerators versus incubators: Which one should your startup go to?

4. The Builders

The Builders are creators of new ventures. Typically. they are small outfits that build companies using their own ideas and resources. Unlike venture capitals, the Builders take a different approach in starting a new business. They pull business ideas within their own network and form internal teams to develop them. These teams spend most of their time pushing the product into the market and focus little on raising funds. It is natural process of how a business owners start their new ventures and has been a rising trend in the startup ecosystem.

The Builders has a much higher success rate of starting a new company. The startup projects are initiated by experienced and resourceful entrepreneurs who are actively looking for new business opportunities. More importantly, the projects are driven by an internal team who are tightly knitted through previous start-up projects. There are also economics of scale since the teams are able to re-use infrastructure and best practices across different projects.

At the core, the venture builder model is centered around internal teams led by experienced entrepreneurs. Although it is a resource-intensive model, there are some notable examples including Rocket Internet, Obvious Corp, Incube Labs, JCS Venture Lab, and Betaworks.

Not all business incubators are created equal

When choosing an incubation programme or an innovation partner, entrepreneurs and  organisations need to be aware of their underlying business models. Not all business incubators are created equal, so is their value to your business. Understanding them and selecting the right one could be the first step of your challenging journey as an entrepreneur.

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References:

1. Singapore Department of Statistics
2. SPRING, More support for startups to growth locally and globally

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

Featured Image Copyright: bozenafulawka / 123RF Stock Photo

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These curated deal-making sessions will be organised based on sectors such as banking and finance, fintech, transport and mobility

Singapore launches matchmaking initiative for startups and potential investors [KrAsia]

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Enterprise Singapore has jointly launched Deal Fridays, an initiative that will match startups in the city-state with investors.

These curated deal-making sessions will run every Friday for 19 weeks, from June 21 to October 25. They will be organised based on sectors such as banking and finance, fintech, transport and mobility, and more.

Deal Fridays is meant to connect startups with potential investors that are keen to tie up with companies with new ideas and scalable business models in their fields. The idea is to limit the time that startups normally need to burn through while seeking new investors.

This initiative is part of the Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) x Singapore Week of Innovation and TeCHnology (SWITCH) event, which will be held in November.

Nikkei acquires 26% stake in Indian media startup NewsRise [press release]

Nikkei announced today that it has acquired 25.99 per cent of the outstanding shares in Indian media startup NewsRise Financial Research and Information Services.

Under the brand of Nikkei Markets, Nikkei and NewsRise have been jointly providing English-language news on Southeast Asian stock markets since April 2017, independently reporting from Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

With the capital tie-up, Nikkei and NewsRise will step up co-operation to deliver  quality and quantity of the region’s market news.

NewsRise was founded in 2013. It is a publisher of real-time financial news, research and information for currency, debt, equity and resources asset classes for use by banks, broking houses, asset managers, corporate treasurers and individual investors. It has news bureaus in Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata and Bengaluru which are manned by competent business journalists and news editors.

The investment in NewsRise is one of Nikkei’s strategic initiatives to expand its footprint in Asia. Nikkei has recently acquired a majority stake in DealStreetAsia, a Singapore-based financial news site with a focus on corporate investment activity in Southeast Asia and India.

Korean lending marketplace PeopleFund bags US$35m Series B extension [DealStreetAsia]

South Korean lending marketplace PeopleFund has raised US$35 million as an extension to its Series B financing round, led by Lending Ark Asia Secured Private Debt Fund, a secured private credit strategy of Hong Kong-based CLSA Capital Partners.

New and existing investors including Shinhan Invest Corp. and D3 Jubilee also participated in the round, according to a statement.

The funding will help PeopleFund pursue international expansion as part of its strategic plans. The investment by Lending Ark comprises both secured debt and equity financing. The US$30 million debt financing will allow PeopleFund to scale up its lending business.

China opens Nasdaq-style board to lure tech firms back home [TechCrunch]

China’s much-anticipated Science and Technology Innovation board officially launched in Shanghai today, marking Beijing’s major step in drawing high-potential tech companies to list at home.

The new Star Market, first announced by President Xi Jinping in November, is expected to be a key fundraising avenue for tech companies from an array of stages, given its criteria (link in Chinese) are less stringent than other domestic boards. Beijing has over the past year encouraged local firms to become more self-reliant in producing chips and other core technologies as an escalating trade war threatens to cut China off the U.S. supply chain.

The new startup board began taking applications in late March and have so far received applications from 122 companies, according to information from the Shanghai Stock Exchange .

Enterprise conversational AI startup Yellow Messenger raises US$4M [press release]

Yellow Messenger, a provider of conversational AI solutions to enterprises, announced today that it has raised Series A funding of US$4 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners and prominent angel investors.

The angel investors that participated in the round include Phanindra Sama (Founder, Redbus and CIO of Telangana State), Kashyap Deorah (Founder of Hypertrack, Author of Golden Tap), Anand Swaminathan (Senior Partner, McKinsey & Co.), Prashant Malik (Co-founder, Limeroad), Nishant Rao (former MD, Linkedin India), Kunal Bahl (Co- founder Snapdeal) , Rohit Bansal (Co-founder, Snapdeal), Monisha Varadan (Zephyr Ventures), and Alap Bharadwaj (APAC Innovation, Google).

Yellow Messenger plans to use the funds to further its tech capabilities, and also to expand its customer success teams and presence in high-potential markets across Asia, the Middle East, and other emerging markets.

The post Today’s top tech news, June 13: Singapore launches matchmaking initiative for startups, potential investors appeared first on e27.

It’s a match made in startup fundraising heaven

For years, we have been privileged to be at the center of it all – we have seen how Southeast Asia’s tech ecosystem has grown with the explosion of new ideas, and we have done our best to make sure that everyone gets the chance at the spotlight.

But for us at e27, empowering entrepreneurs with the tools to build and grow their companies is both mission and ethos; the very reason that we exist.

Our mission dictates that we do more than just feature, more than just announce, and more than just cheer on. Because while yes, we can do all that, we also need to do something about the fact that for most startups with great products, lack of funds and resources hold them back.

That’s why in Echelon 2019, we featured a Capital Stage to talk about the funding landscape of the region. We also deviated from the previous “speed-dating” format and made Echelon Connect investor-startup meetings longer to open the opportunity for deeper discussions.

But we also understand that a single event is not enough. We understand that while fundraising is about potential, it is also about relationships.

That’s why we’re happy to announce that we have partnered with Wholesale Investor to help us get you access to over 21,000 investors.

Get in front of investors

Wholesale Investor is APAC’s leading investment platform that showcases private, pre-IPO, and small cap listed opportunities to their network of high net worth, professional, and international investors and investment groups.

Startups who sign up with us will also get their significant milestones highlighted to both e27 and Wholesale Investor network – it’s a great way to get into the radar of potential investors and partners.

This partnership between e27 and Wholesale Investor utilises the recently launched Capital Raising Intelligent Investment Secondary Platform (or CRIISP), an end-to-end SaaS capital raising platform that digitises the capital raising process.

According to Wholesale Investor and CRIISP Managing Director and Co-Founder Steve Torso, CRIISP was built on the foundations of the belief that the most important component of raising capital is to get in front of investors.

With CRIISP, startups not only get access to a vast investor network but also to build and manage their relationships by engaging in question and answers through direct messaging, promote dealrooms to interested investors, and track investor interest.

We are looking forward to everything that this partnership would offer. Interested? Curious? Sign up to our mailing list to be the first to know how e27 x Wholesale Investor can help you get the funding you need.

The post e27 partners with Wholesale Investor to help startups raise funds appeared first on e27.

With 45 employees and with no office, Johannes Larsson’s two-year-old startup Financer.com generated US$1.69-2.25M in revenues in 2018 itself

“As a child, I didn’t like going to school,” he says. “I was more interested in traveling around the world.”

And Johannes Larsson not just fulfilled his wish, but his globetrotting has also led him into the world of startups, or rather the world of uncertainties.

A Swedish by birth, Larsson stumbled upon online marketing when he was just 15 years old. He started learning about it and building websites. He sensed a huge opportunity in this space. This is when he felt there was no point wasting time studying in school and college when he could make money at a very young age.

“However, it was hard to make any money out of this business, but I was intensely curious and continued to experiment with different methods,” he recounts his story for e27. “I worked hard but I couldn’t still earn enough money until I turned 18. The money was still considerably less than a thousand euros per month. However, I was happy and this small amount kept me going,” he goes on.

Larsson continued down on this path for one more year. When he turned 19, he started making enough money to meet both ends. It was this year he moved to Malta and decided to work full-time on digital marketing.

Also Read: How the son of a humble watch repairer became the owner of a multi-million dollar realty tech startup

“Although it was hard to get by with less than EUR1,500 per month in Malta, I enjoyed this new life. I lived cheaply and spent most of my days working,” he says. “But what was more important was that I got to meet new entrepreneurs, who had many more years of experience than I did. I learnt a lot from them.”

By the time he turned 21, his business reached a level that he made his first hire. Shortly after, he hired one more person. He also rented an office, which was something he would not have thought about before.

“It felt great having an office, but a year later I started getting bored. I felt a little bit like an office rat, which was the last thing I wanted to become. I decided this lifestyle wasn’t what I wanted. So I closed the office, let go of my employees, and went out to travel the world. At that time, I wanted to build something that could scale without sacrificing my lifestyle,” he shares.

From then, Larsson decided to travel for at least six months in a row, without having a base, home or any plan, although it felt to him like going a bit backwards. He was still running the business. But at one point of time he realised he could not run the business alone; he had over 400 projects (affiliate sites) in hands and didn’t know where to focus. Time wasn’t enough to handle all of it on his own, and he felt stressed and asked himself whether he had taken the right decision.

“This is when I was forced to think bigger,” he adds. “I was fed up with having my focus all over the place, doing too many things at once, but nothing really good. I realised that I needed to create something valuable instead of dividing my energy and resources to complete many half-done projects. So I picked one project that was the most successful, and completely withdrew the focus on the other 399.”

It was a turning point in his life.

The Inception

Launched in 2016 in Sweden, Financer.com is a finance products’ price comparison portal. A user can compare different products such as loans, saving accounts, credit cards, insurances, and cryptocurrencies.

As the business was picking pace, Larsson realised it would be impossible to grow and scale the business without a team. However, he could not imagine going back to the 9am to 5pm office work culture, monitoring employees. Larsson decided to find a way out.

“I hired my first freelancer, who I call intrapreneur today. The idea was that instead of telling your employees what to do, you hire people with the entrepreneurial spirit to help you steer the ship and to build the business together,” he says.

Also Read: Infightings, quitting of key people didn’t deter this entrepreneur from realising his dream

“It was a success. I loved working remotely with him because it allowed more flexibility in my life. After a while, I continued to hire more freelancers, as it became apparent that it was more of a win-win, both for me and the person who I worked with,” he adds. “We built performance-based payment models that motivated the intrapreneur, and it made them inspired to push harder. They were given heavy responsibilities and were rewarded accordingly.”

As of now, there are more than a dozen intrapreneurs in the company; everyone having a stake in the game and being responsible for their own markets. As revenue grew, the company hired more people and improved its product marketing faster.

“I feel this intrapreneur model will become more popular in the years to come, as it promotes growth and development in the company because everyone in the team wants to give their best,” he sounds confident.

Now, with a team of 45 people– all remotely working —  in 26 markets across Europe, America and Asia, Freelancer is a massive success. The company has presence in Indonesia, Kazakhstan The firm generates millions of revenues annually, and in 2018 alone, Financer generated around US$1.69 to US$2.25 million in revenues.

Larsson still keeps on globetrotting, seeking new opportunities for his business and for himself.

The post He dropped out of school to travel around the world and is now founder of a startup with presence in 26 countries appeared first on e27.

Customers can choose Buyandship for international shipping and deals, products, and exclusives from overseas merchants

Buyandship, a cross-border e-commerce shipping services company based in Hong Kong, has secured US$2.2 million in pre-Series B funding round led by existing investor Infinity Venture Partners.

Other investors include Asia-focussed VC firm SQ Capital and unnamed strategic angel investors, besides Buyandship’s key management.

The money will be used to improve operation efficiencies and also for market expansion.

In operations, Buyandship will streamline its logistics and shopping experience with an advanced warehouse automation system, simplified shopping procedures, and a new “one-click buy” tool. In market expansion, Buyandship will look to solidify its market presence in existing markets, including Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, India, and the UAE, as well as develop new markets in Southeast Asia.

Founded in 2014, Buyandship provides global shipping services for e-commerce customers. They can choose the firm for international shipping and deals, products, and exclusives from overseas merchants. Customers can pay up to HK$22 (US$2.8) per pound in shipping fees, and choose to either receive parcels at home or pick up from one of hundreds of collection points.

Also Read: Filipino K-pop fans accuse Shopee of scam over girl group meeting

It currently operates collection and export warehouses in Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the US, the UK, Italy, and Australia. Scheduled flights from these warehouses back to HK are arranged on a weekly basis, while the delivery fee will be based on the parcel’s actual weight (not parcel size).

After closing its Series A funding in mid-2017, it has expanded into China, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, India, Malaysia, Singapore, and the UAE. It boasts of more than 320,000 users.

Buyandship has already signed agreements with eBay, StockX, GLADD, Drop, and other merchants to support their Asia expansions.

As per a 2018 report by OECD, B2C cross-border e-commerce is growing fast as Asian e-shoppers look to buy directly from overseas brands rather than settle only for local options. B2C cross-border e-commerce to Asia should reach US$900 billion in value by 2021, with a CAGR of approximately 18.8 per cent. Demand from China alone will account for nearly two-third of this total, but Vietnam and Indonesia will show higher growth rates.

Wilson Chan, Co-founder and CEO of Buyandship, says that Asian e-shoppers are primarily motivated by the enormous difference in prices: “Buying a Dyson product in a Hong Kong retail store costs around HK$4,000, but only HK$1,800 from an overseas online store. At a discount rate higher than 50 per cent, customers naturally prefer to shop from overseas stores.”

“Our goal is to build a borderless, international e-commerce network for our users, so they can easily and comfortably enjoy the best bargains from around the world through our service. When they need a cutting-edge, forward-thinking e-commerce logistics service, they think of Buyandship,” he added.

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