Undeterred by a slow start, startups in the land of smiles are growing rapidly and increasingly attractive

According to the Global Entrepreneurship Index 2018 (GEI), Thailand is ranked 71st out of 137 countries (65th in 2017) and 15th out of 28 countries in the Asia-Pacific region (12th in 2017).

The GEI measures both the quality of entrepreneurship and the extent and depth of the supporting entrepreneurial ecosystem.

It identifies 14 components that are essential to the health of the entrepreneurial ecosystems:

1. Opportunity Perception
2. Startup Skills
3. Risk Acceptance
4. Networking
5. Cultural Support
6. Opportunity Perception
7. Technology Absorption
8. Human Capital
9. Competition
10. Product Innovation
11. Process Innovation
12. High Growth
13. Internationalization
14. Risk Capital

In 2018, Thailand scored a 27 per cent on GEI, while the United States leads with 84 per cent, Australia has 75 per cent with Singapore at 53 per cent, Malaysia 33 per cent, Vietnam 23 per cent and Cambodia 18 per cent.

Thailand scores best on Human Capital and Product Innovation and is weak on Internationalization and Technology Absorption.

Having relatively strong entrepreneurial people in the ecosystem, Thailand can move up the GEI ranking by improving the quality of the institutions that support entrepreneurship, which is exactly what is happening at the moment.

Entrepreneurship has been high on the government’s agenda, and there have been numerous initiatives to improve the startup ecosystem.

The latest can be seen at the National Innovation Agency (NIA), as it is overhauling its financial support program for startups to accelerate their progress, facilitating access to THB 44 billion (USD 1408450692) in funding from various sources and targeting one to two unicorns in five years.

This strategy aims to build 3,000 innovation-based startups in the next 10 years and the program will train and network with master’s and doctorate students to help build deep tech entrepreneurs.

There is not one single solution to creating a startup ecosystem.

Ecosystems are formed by people, various startups at different stages, and different organizations with different roles and in different locations (be it physical or virtual), all working together as a system to create new startups.

This system is dynamic and evolves with the external and internal factors of each location, entrepreneurial culture and resources available.

At the heart of any startup ecosystem are the ideas, research and innovations.

Also Read: (Exclusive) NEXEA invests in Malaysian startups ParkIt, Plush Services, RunningMan

Talented individuals called entrepreneurs will turn these into startups and take it through various stages, from getting mentored in incubation programs to being funded by investors.

The journey turns ideas into businesses and teams into organizations.

Throughout this journey, many supporting organizations and services are involved.

Higher education institutions are the first supporting organization in this journey. Innovations are often born, and talents usually identified within the university compound.

Once the startup is formed, advisory and mentoring organizations are involved along with incubators, accelerators and co-working spaces.

With the scaling stage comes the investor networks, venture capital companies, crowdfunding portals and other forms of funding providers (loans, grants, etc.). Big companies usually come in at later stages as they help create successful growth companies from the startups.

However, the term successful startup can have different meanings for different people.

Some may think of a successful startup as business unicorns like Facebook or Airbnb, while others have a different definition of what being successful means, like being your own boss or making a positive impact on the world.

One thing for sure though, a successful startup is a company that is sustainable, at least in profit terms.

Large Thai companies have also recently become very active in the startup ecosystem.

Beacon Venture Capital, the corporate venture capital arm of Kasikornbank (KBank), has invested US$50 million in Grab for GrabPay service and US$6.5 million in Jitta, a Bangkok based “wealth-tech” startup.

Siam Cement Group (SCG) has embraced open innovation by creating SPRINT accelerator programs that help mentor Thai innovators.

And, the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), together with Sasin School of Management, has put together the Sasin Startup Incubator by SET where facilitators are trained, and budding entrepreneurs are put through intensive boot-camps and mentorship programs.

“However, the growth of startups is very limited because they don’t have a global or Southeast Asian perspective, they lack deep technology, and they often cannot access investors nor the market”, said Mr Pun-Arj Chairatana, Executive Director of the NIA.

But that too is about to change.

Also Read: Taking a sabbatical: slowing down to go faster

SCG has again teamed up with Sasin to hold the SCG Bangkok Business Challenge @ Sasin 2019 where teams from top universities around the world bring their innovations with global applications to compete for investments in this three-day event, held at Sasin from February 21 – 23.

Startup ecosystems often take time to develop and mature.

They also require a significant commitment of resources and support from a broad range of organizations and people.

Despite a somewhat sluggish start, Thailand’s startup ecosystem is now rapidly moving beyond the early stages of development and is attracting attention around the region and throughout the world.

There are even indications that with continued support, Thailand has the potential to become a major entrepreneurial hub in Asia.

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Investors are bullish on the industry, but some important factors act as counterweights

The worst kept secret in Singapore ahead of yesterday’s Budget 2019 announcement was the plan to focus heavily on healthcare — specifically support for the Merdeka Generation, a term used to describe the people who lived through the island’s independence.

To highlight the priority, after a brief announcement of a bicentennial fund, Singapore Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat jumped into various initiatives aimed at helping the elderly better afford healthcare in their later years.

With aggressive government focus, it is reasonable to expect a bumper year for the medtech industry.

The difference between now and 2015, when people were pointing to the healthcare sector as a giant startup opportunity, are underlying statistics that suggest the medtech sector is gaining momentum.

According to e27 data, 13 health-tech companies raised funding in 2018, the fourth-highest amount of deals in the country.

If we consider the government priority, plus the natural momentum of the industry, it beg’s the question if medtech is set to enjoy a hype cycle similar to e-commerce years ago, fintech after that and, more recently, blockchain.

After speaking to investors and startups, the answer is, “yes, but…”

According to Albert Shyy, a Principal at Burda Principal Investments, most of the VCs he speaks with have put medtech on their watchlist because of the potential for mobile phones to disrupt the value chain.

However, there is a ‘but’.

“I think the main forces that could work against it are that healthcare may have a slower ramp-up due to higher regulatory concerns, so I am not sure if the acceleration will be as steep as e-commerce/fintech were (especially in moving from seed to Series A and beyond),” he said in an email.

When fintech was exploding in 2016, it was very common to walk into finance-industry events and listen to smart people argue vociferously for deregulation. In healthtech, nobody really makes that argument.

If deregulation in finance results in a few people getting burned financially, that is bad, but at the end of the day it is just money. If deregulation in medicine results in deaths, that is an entirely different conversation.

This is coupled with the fact that medtech companies are typically more expensive to run than an e-wallet, so startups are at further risk of running out of cash while their product navigates bureaucracy.

That being said, governments across the world are opening options for experimentation in medtech. Singapore has a medicine-focussed sandbox and the US Food and Drug Administration has launched a programme to help startups get approval from insurance companies.

But this being said, investors are still bullish on the industry’s future. No, it may not “pop” like blockchain, but it is widely anticipated to grow, and one reason is advancements in artificial intelligence.

According to Will Klippgen, a Managing Partner at Cocoon Capital, the growth of artificial intelligence has made starting a medtech company cheaper. This has helped entrepreneurs sidestep hospitals to get the MVP off the ground.

“More machine learning talent is available, both in Singapore and across the world along with better algorithms as well as better tools for scaling up AI software,” he said.

Today, the Cocoon announced a US$1 million investment into See-Mode, a startup that uses AI to help predict strokes.

Also Read: (Exclusive) NEXEA invests in Malaysian startups ParkIt, Plush Services, RunningMan

The most important part of any business is its customers. It is easy to complain about regulations, or the ability to get financing, but it is irrelevant if nobody is buying the product.

For WhiteCoat, a company that allows people to perform check-ups via their phone and order medicine-for-delivery, a lot of the traditional barriers are starting to fall.

“I think Singaporeans are well educated and mobile phone penetration rate is high. Therefore they get a lot of information online. But they need a professional to help them. For older groups, [our product] is a big bonus because doctor consultations are a logistics exercise,” said Dr. Yii Heng Seng, the Chairman WhiteCoat Global. 

People trust doing business on their phones and for some in Singapore the convenience of performing checkups at home outweighs the benefits of trekking to the doctor for a face-to-face consultation.

Dr. Yii acknowledged that WhiteCoat is entering uncharted territory without guidelines or protocols.

This means, and these are my words not his, it will be more useful to look at consumer adoption in a year or two.

Also Read: Shake up your tech startup by joining Echelon Roadshow 2019 Phnom Penh

There are a couple of other weights dragging down explosive growth in medtech. They are as follows:

Southeast Asia is not a medtech hub: There are two Southeast Asian countries that see significant innovation in medtech, Thailand and Singapore. After that, there is not a lot of interest in the industry. According to an Indonesian investor, the region’s largest country will not be seeing a medtech boom in the near future.

Data hacks are a real problem:  If we focus on Singapore, two of the biggest controversies in the past year have involved personal medical data being hacked or leaked. Over the summer, the National University Hospital was hacked in an incident that affected 1.5 million people. Currently, the government is dealing with the fallout from a leak that revealed the HIV-positive status of over 14,000 people.

These incidents have severely harmed public trust in online security and the willingness to pass over sensitive information to the medtech industry.

After Singapore Budget 2019, it is clear that medtech will be a major theme for the remainder of the year. It may not experience a hype-cycle at the same level of blockchain, but the industry should experience solid and stable growth over the next 12 months.

So is medtech ready to explode?

Yes, but…

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Photo by John Jackson on Unsplash

 

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The announcement also kickstarts the pre-incubation period for 36 local online media in Indonesia

kumparan, an online media startup based in Surabaya, announced today that it has commenced the pre-incubation stage of 36 selected local online media across Indonesia. All 36 local online media will be available to access on kumparan’s platform starting today, Tuesday, February 19.

Also Read: Marketing tech startup SilverPush secures US$5M Series B funding

The launch itself has been a part of a long-standing program by Kumparan called 1001 Start Up Media Online that aims to help setting up and maintaining online media across the country.

kumparan said that it received over 1700 proposals from online media across Indonesia in 2018. 25 of the proposals were selected and these online media were brought to Jakarta last month to get training in journalism, content management, social media, commercial strategy, and company management alongside other 11 online media that have joined kumparan prior to the program.

Training was handled by kumparan’s internal team in partnership with Google News Initiative and with Ipang Wahid and Putu Aditya from Aliansi Jurnalis Indonesia (AJI) or Indonesian Journalists Alliance.

The official statement from kumparan said that the company also invest in the selected media in a form of seed funding, working asset, and mentorship.

“Our vision is to build Indonesia through helping digital business grows in other cities across Indonesia,” said kumparan’s Editor in Chief Arifin Asydhad.

Also Read: (Exclusive) NEXEA invests in Malaysian startups ParkIt, Plush Services, RunningMan

Not only supporting local online media and its business but the program also strategically will help kumparan to put forward local contents from the area where the selected online media are based, considering all 36 media are based in each and every 34 provinces of Indonesia.
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Big names, small origins

With the heightened negativity associated with cryptocurrencies, many would assume that blockchain, the accompanying technology is dead.

But on the contrary, blockchain as a technology is very much alive and applicable as a deep tech layer that would significantly impact the way we operate.

In fact, a number of blockchain projects exist right here in Singapore.

So what are these blockchain projects about?

TRIVE’s team that runs Tribe, Singapore’s first government-backed blockchain accelerator, investigates and tell us more.

Automotive – MVL

The automotive industry faces multi-faceted issues.

Examples are cab drivers with discourteous service, unreliable service by mechanic shops, a lack of consistency and transparency on used-cars by dealers, and accidents caused by reckless driving.

Current solutions are unable to address these individual issues effectively, let alone solving them as a whole.

To further compound the issue, the lack of transparency often leads to an increase in prices customer has to pay for.

MVL Chain was born based on these issues. It is a vehicle data collecting ecosystem based on blockchain technology which aims to resolve these issues.

It is an ecosystem that connects all services, like the car dealer shops, mechanic shops and car rental companies, touchpoints that your car engages in its lifetime.

These participants will insert core data related to driving, traffic accidents, repairs and other car-related transactions into the blockchain.

With this ecosystem, records of all activities relating to a particular vehicle for the entire duration of its lifetime can be maintained.

It can also be ensured that such records are kept free from corruption. Only the owner will have the authority over his or her data stored on the decentralized blockchain.

Previously, a limited number of centralized services monopolized data, but now the power of who owns the information is distributed evenly to the people.

Various participants in the vehicle market can continue to add trustworthy data and be connected in one ecosystem.

User Data – Indorse

In order to generate revenue, social networks sell user-generated content and information to providers, advertisers and recruiters.

This leads to a loss of user privacy.

Furthermore, users do not get any revenue-sharing for the information they produce.

Indorse seeks to address this issue and wants to use the blockchain’s decentralised network to allow people to regain control of their data.

Plus, the nature of the distributed ledger means Indorse users would enjoy significantly more privacy within the ecosystem than the current model for social networks.

The startup is a skills-based professional network platform using new models of tokenization and decentralisation to change the shape of professional social networking — letting the users own and earn from their data.

The solution replaces the current way social networks operate.

It is a decentralised one that places ownership of information back in the hands of the members.

They have control of their own profile with themselves and they get to choose how their data is used by the Social network.

It also allows members an easy way to earn rewards for the activities that benefit them.

With participation in the network, members can earn Indorse Rewards for sharing more about themselves and for endorsing the claims of others.

Indorse is co-founded by David Moskowitz and Gaurang Torvekar, known figures in the Blockchain Industry Association.

Food – Whatshalal

Always wondering whether food consumed is Halal in origin, or to discover new sources of Halal eateries?

This is a major pain point in the world’s Muslim population, especially when travelling to overseas destinations where Halal food is hard to find and not certified.

To address this, WhatsHalal aims to be the definitive guide and provider of unquestionably Halal Thoyiban food to the Muslim community.

The creation of a Halal ecosystem seeks to reduce, even eliminate, doubt of the “Halal-ness” of the food you consume, in fast-changing times where information may not be substantially available or easily sourced.

The startup wants to strengthen the Halal integrity of certificates by ensuring each stage in the life cycle of a food item or product can be established with certainty the conditions that the item was produced.

Integrating Halal traceability in the food chain is greatly improved by Blockchain technology.

This ensures that the movements of an ingredient or product can be tracked even as it changes hands.

Enterprise customers who wish to go Halal simply need to initiate the application on the blockchain platform and several smart contracts will determine the assurance process, working in collaboration with consultants, labs and certification bodies.

Locally, consumers can order products from Halal-certified merchants and send orders on demand.

The consumer app is also touted to verify the Halal validity of products by scanning its barcode, perfect for travelling in non-Muslim countries.

Gaming – Enjin

Gaming is one large worldwide community and Singapore-based Enjin validates that.

It is one of the largest gaming community platforms that support over 250,000 gaming communities and around 20 million registered gamers.

Internet users, gamers and developers demand fast and effective user interfaces that not only appeal to the human eye but also make operations efficient.

This is coupled with the need for a trustworthy platform that keeps their data and intellectual property safe.

As an all-in-one website platform, Enjin can help build websites, forums, voice servers, donation stores among others. It applies blockchain technology on some of its products.

EnjinX is a web-based universal blockchain explorer, built with a focus on user experience, speed and ease of use.

Efinity is Enjin’s solution to the scaling problems in the Ethereum blockchain. It supports various Ethereum tokens and provides end-to-end e-commerce solutions.

Also Read: Singapore-based anime startup BlockPunk raises US$957K seed funding round

The Enjin team comprises of technology and crypto coin enthusiasts with Maxim Blagov and Witek Radomski as the founders of the company. They bring decades of experience in the field of gaming technology, game development and security.

Digital currency backed by gold – Digix

Much of the criticism levelled against cryptocurrencies is due to their price volatility.

It is critical that a digital currency is stable, especially when used as a transactional medium.

Digix makes a digital currency possible to buy gold in an efficient manner via cryptocurrency by providing investors with a tokenized version of gold so you don’t have to physically own or store it.

The company proudly gets 99.99 per cent of its gold from LBMA-approved refiners, with zero per cent from fractional reserves, delivering confidence.

With Digix, investors can take advantage of the stability and value of gold as well as the ease of using cryptocurrency, much similar to that of a fiat currency.

Digix differs itself from other existing investment options by issuing the allocated bullion immediately from a point of digital purpose.

This makes client ownership the priority, instead of the company as a whole. Gold bullion is traditionally challenging to use and trade. Digix overcomes the liquidity by converting gold to a digital currency.

Tokenization of assets – Rate3

The Initial Coin Offering space is a little dicey, to say the least.

There is a real deficit of accountability in the space because of a lack of regulation for utility tokens.

In the same breath, traditional financial transactions are expensive because of all the fees associated with the middlemen like bankers.

Rate3 aims to address the lack of credibility of tokens and overcoming the weaknesses of traditional financial transactions.

It is an end-to-end protocol for tokenization of assets (or security tokens) across both the Stellar and Ethereum networks and a protocol to create and manage a unified cross-chain identity.

Also Read: AI, big data company AiSensum receives seed funding from 500 Startups

Rate3 wants to be the bridge between enterprises today and the tokenized world.

They believe that assets can be tokenized in a legally-compliant, interoperable and scalable way, so they will become widely liquid, usable, tradable and accepted for as cases as possible.

Scalable database service for dApps – Bluzelle

The rapid growth of blockchain technologies is transforming the way data is exchanged via the use of decentralized applications, or dApps for short.

These dApps continuously exchange massive amounts of data that must be stored and managed. However, the current blockchain platforms in existence like Ethereum are unable to store and manage this data due to lack of space.

To fulfil the need for data storage and management, Bluzelle has created a decentralized, on-demand, scalable database service for dApps.

Without a decentralized database like Bluzelle in place, dApps would not be able to run efficiently and scale to massive use.

At its core, Bluzelle’s ecosystem connects consumers wishing to rent out database space to providers with additional computing resources to offer this storage.

Using this data storage, dApp and application developers alike can optimize their products by accessing reliable data when necessary and storing their data on a secure platform.

Providers can, in turn, be compensated for providing this storage.

Bluzelle has the potential to play a pivotal role in the blockchain infrastructure landscape. The company’s decentralized database services have the potential to fulfil a significant need for the advancement of blockchain technologies in enterprise use-cases.

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This is part of the “VC on Blockchain” series, where I dwell into the blockchain industry. Ethical disclaimer: Tribe Accelerator is a unit of TRIVE, which is a Singapore government-backed blockchain accelerator. Applications for the first cohort are open.

Image Credits: leungchopan

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

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Moovaz champions the digital nomad lifestyle providing easier transition by handling all headache-inducing moving process

San Fransisco-based venture firm Hustle Fund has just financed the Singapore-based moving-logistics startup Moovaz for an undisclosed amount.

The funding will be used mainly for building a product team and for setting up the company’s go-to-market in Melbourne, Australian, which will be done in Q3 this year around August, said Lee Junxian, Co-founder and CEO of Moovaz.

Junxian added that, considering what Moovaz does in logistics is really niched, the company’s choice of Australia as their next go-to market is essentially a corridor to the rest of the world.

Also Read: Having the right team is the single biggest determinant of your success: 123RF Co-founder Stephanie Sitt

Moovaz primarily targets digital nomads, with the belief in location-independent working lifestyles for everyone. To champion the lifestyle, Moovaz’s service allows people to more easily relocate to-and-from Singapore, partnering with the destination country’s local logistics players.

“Moovaz works with our network of contractors and partners, the result of being in the moving industry for eight years. So let’s say you’re moving to Paris from Singapore. You only need to tell us the origin and the destination. What will happen next is that our contractors will come help you pack your stuff, followed by a container that would have been arranged to pick up your stuff, then a freight-forwarding partner of ours will take care of your stuff to get it safely to Paris, where our French partners will take care of the moving-in, all the way to the unpacking,” explained Lee to e27.

Lee mentioned how stressful the moving process can be, and Moovaz offers to take care of all the needs via several options of service that customers can choose from.

“Our main goal is to tackle lot of waiting and unpleasantness when managing travel visas, accommodations and bank accounts. Global citizens don’t want to deal with that. It’s down to the entire seamless experience of moving for our customers and partners,” said Lee.

True to Lee’s words, Moovaz’s services range from next-day sorting at higher prices. Cheaper options range from seven or 21 days.

“We are solving all things moving-related, like choosing the best rates of freight forwarder and warehouses in specific areas in your destination city,” Lee added.

Over the eight-years-long operation in offline moving industry, Moovaaz has assisted 12,000 moves in every major city in the world. Once an offline business, Moovaz just went online a year ago and has since facilitated a little under a thousand move with their new digital platform.

“Moving is an extremely fragmented industry which has often neglected customer experience and been slow to adopt technology, and Moovaz is doing it in a way that builds relationships with digital nomads from the start of their move into a new geography,” said Shiyan Koh, Hustle Fund’s Managing Partner who’s based in Singapore.

Also Read: Blockchain gaming platform PlayGame secures funding from TRON

Hustle Fund is a venture fund investing in early-stage startups in the US, Canada, and Southeast Asia. The fund was co-founded by two ex-500 Startups partners, Eric Bahn and Elizabeth Yin, and are backed by Shanda, a global investment firm focussed on the online gaming industry, messaging, and communications company like LINE, Korean search engine Naver, and others.

Previously, Moovaz raises seed funding from MOJO Partners in June 2018.
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Image Credit: Moovaz

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If there’s a will, there’s always a way

The year was 2014 when I was a college senior.

As a computer major, having my own startup was always on my mind. I really had some brilliant ideas.

Finally, in the last year of college, I managed to find some initial funding from my parents and friends to start my own thing.

From the many startup ideas I had, one of them was a digital couponing website.

Since 2015, there had been a few similar websites plus my brother had experience in this field, so I chose to move forward with this idea.

My brother was a coupon specialist and taught me different ways of utilizing coupons in order to save money. I took advantage of his skills and gathered a few other specialists to start my very own startup named SavingBro.

Now when I look back, it seems almost impossible — and it somewhat was.

But the adrenaline I had at the time had fogged every possible reality check.

It did not take long for me to realize that how I had anticipated it to go down was far from reality.

In just two months, I was struggling to keep a balance between work and classes. There was so much to do that I had to hire professional developers. And this meant finding office space.

Finding office space meant spending more rent in addition to my already expensive room.
We were burning through our money, which was not a lot to begin with.

I was running back and forth from different cities looking for more funding. Right when the SavingBro website was ready to launch, two of my best developers quit.

I had zero bank balance to spend any money on promotional activities. Before it could even pick up, I knew there was no way I can salvage it.

As much as I hated the fact that my very first startup idea has failed, I knew there were lessons to be learnt.

Soon after, I graduated from college and used my failed startup experience as a new starting point.

After careful consideration and analysis, I found three things that resulted in my startup failure:

Not every idea is a good idea

There were some serious flaws in my startup idea.

I did not weigh the technical expertise such a complex idea would require. There was no feedback or discussion with friends or people from the tech industry.

Just because an idea seems good to you does not mean it is and it never hurts to ask for a second opinion.

No money, no honey

If you do not have enough money to complete something you want to do, do not bother starting it.

You need to have funding for at least the first six months of operation.

This includes everything you will need to set up the business. Do not expect to get free services from friends or just ask around for money.

No strategy means more risks

When I started designing the app, I had absolutely no strategy.

I was treating it as one of my class projects. My entire focus was on the product.

There was no strategy for the future. There was no vision about what the startup would be like in a year or five years.

This lack of strategy made me overlook the possible risks.

So, how do we bounce back?

If you are reading this, you might have probably faced a failure like I did.

Maybe you are afraid to return to such a position in the future.

However, you need not worry as it is possible to bounce back from your failed startup.

Just because you failed once does not mean you will fail again. In fact, if we have learned anything from the most successful businesses is that those earlier failures do lead to eventual success.

If you are struggling to recover from a failed startup, here is what I recommend from my own experience:

Analyze the problems

The very first step is to analyze.

Also Read: This year, be a good friend and bring your BFF to Echelon Asia Summit 2019!

In fact, investigate what went wrong. Look back at every tiny detail, spreadsheets, programs, customer feedback etc.

Get to the bottom of the matter.

Learn the skills you lack

After your business failure analysis, you need to do a self-analysis.

Your own shortcomings may be a cause as well.

Do you lack leadership skills? Are you not good at managing money? Is there a new technology you need to master?

Work on the skills you lacked during your first startup.

Do not hide your failures

Many people are afraid to write about their failed startups on their resumes, professional profiles, and social media.

Your failure shows that you persevered and that you have learned your lessons.

In the professional world, this would be deemed as a learning experience which it obviously is.

Start thinking like a businessman

Many tech startups fail because there is no one with the business acumen on the team.

Things like marketing on social media, promotions through coupons, participating in conventions, and networking with established businesses are often overlooked.

Also Read: Why the world needs deep generalists, not specialists

They develop great products that no one knows about.

When you restart, you need to act like a businessman. If you lack such expertise then hire people who excel at running businesses.

Inspire yourself

You may be tempted to give up after your failure.

However, you need to keep yourself inspired to keep working towards your goal.

There is plenty of reading material about failures.

Another way is to surround yourself with people who matter most to you and who bring positivity in your life.

Before you know it, you will be ready to start again with your next great idea.

Conclusion

My failed startup was not the end of the road for me and neither is yours.

You must have heard many times that failure leads to success. There is a reason why this saying is so common — it’s true!

For some, it may take just one attempt, for some it may take many.

However, if you keep struggling and treat your mistakes as lessons, you too can succeed in the crazy world of startups.

Pat yourself on the back for making it through the tough times and start prepping for the next venture. Now that you know what can go wrong, it will be easier to dodge the pits.

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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 is specifically aimed at people who are at high-risk of having a stroke

See-Mode, a medtech startup based in Singapore, has raised a total of US$1 million led by Cocoon Capital, also from Singapore. SGInnovate and Australia-based Blackbird Ventures join the round.

“We in particular invested in the multidisciplinary background of the See-Mode team and how they came up with a solution that is already creating strong interest in all corners of the world,” said Will Klippgen, Managing Partner at Cocoon Capital, who recently joined See-Mode’s board of directors.

Also Read: Hustle Fund has invested in Singapore-based moving logistics startup Moovaz

Inspired by the fact that stroke has been the second leading cause of death and the main leading cause in preventable disability, Dr. Milad Mohammadzadeh and Dr. Sadaf Monajemi co-founded See-Mode in 2017. Both founders have PhDs in biomedical engineering.

See-Mode uses AI, computer vision, and computational modeling that’s turned into a medical software to equip clinicians in predicting and preemptively treat stroke in patients.

See-Mode believes its method can help clinicians to save time, objectively interpret ultrasound images, and assess blood flow patterns in patients based on a routine CT scan or MRI and doctors to detect vulnerable plaques, setting the precedence for creating better stroke screening and treatment planning, something that’s currently inaccessible in clinical practice.

Its treatment planning mostly relies on tracking conventional risk factors of stroke that has a whopping number of 15 million sufferers in the world with one-third of that statistics ended up dead or permanently disabled.

In Singapore, See-Mode collaborates with the likes of National University Hospital, Changi General Hospital, and the National Neuroscience Institute of Singapore. The company is also starting a multi-centre clinical study with leading hospitals in Australia and USA.

Also Read: Co-founder Affi Assegaf leaves Female Daily Network management team

See-Mode was an alumnus of Singapore-based talent investor Entrepreneur First.

Regarding the innovation the company brings, Niki Scevak, Partner at Blackbird Ventures said that See-Mode’s technology essentially presents a new world where the collective intelligence of the medical community can be employed systematically via computers on every patient whose life has been affected by a stroke.
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Image Credit: Entrepreneurs First

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Having been non-active in the past one year, Assegaf left Female Daily Network due to personal reason

Following collaboration with Co-Founder and CEO Hanifa Ambadar, Female Daily Network Co-Founder and Business Director Affi Assegaf announced her resignation from the company’s management team.

Ambadar told DailySocial that Assegaf’s decision to leave the company had been made two years ago. In the past one year, Assegaf no longer actively working at the Female Daily Network office.

“The point is that Assegaf’s decision to leave the company is due to personal reasons. Assegaf, who was in charge of content on the Female Daily Network platform, could no longer contribute fulltime to the platform,” Ambadar said.

When asked about whether Assegaf’s resignation will affect operations at the company, Ambadar stressed that her resignation will not disrupt business and managerial activities. The CEO also stated that the company currently has no plan to recruit a new executive to replace Assegaf’s position as Business Director.

“We will remain focussed on recruiting young talents to host the Female Daily segment on YouTube and our own site,” she added.

Also Read: Indonesia’s women lifestyle portal Female Daily Network acquires mobile developer JTECH

Gaining popularity among Gen-Z

While the platform maintains its focus on beauty information, Female Daily Network claimed that it has begun to be visited by users of Gen-Z.

Millennials are no longer the target of startups and major brands; secondary school students have started reading and enjoying the content on Female Daily.

The Female Daily app itself is currently available on both Android and iOS apps.

“At the moment we have two million users, in line with our commitment to focus on 99 per cent beauty content since 2014. It is expected that the number of our users will continue to increase,” Ambadar said.

Female Daily also plans to announce its most recent business plans and updates in the year 2019.

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The article Affi Assegaf Keluar dari Jajaran Manajemen Female Daily Network was written in Bahasa Indonesia by Yenny Yusra for DailySocial. English translation and editing by e27.

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The Singapore-based company got backed by the global marketing company FreakOut Holdings

SilverPush, the marketing tech based in Singapore has announced the injection of US$ 5 million Series B funding into its company led by Japan-headquartered FreakOut Holdings, Inc., a global marketing technology company.

Also Read: Medtech startup See-Mode secures US$1M funding from Cocoon Capital

SilverPush shared that it will use the funding to expand business globally and enter new markets in the APAC region such as Hong Kong, Australia, and South Korea. It seeks also to increase it’s AI capabilities by applying the technology in industries outside of advertising.

The company plans to explore the possibility of tapping into the OTT space with its new product called Mirrors, followed by the relaunch of another product called Prism, as a brand reputation monitoring platform.

“We’ve expanded into Southeast Asia in 2018, and we’ve seen rising customer appetite for on-demand and multi-screen viewing across the APAC region. At the same time, advertisers and brands have become more open to integrating new technologies in their audience outreach strategies,” said Hitesh Chawla, CEO of SilverPush.

Although categorically being in the marketing sector, the company differentiates itself with the use of AI to improve the engagement between brands and consumers.

Its product, Mirrors, was launched in late 2018 to help contextualise ads when people are viewing video content on their devices with the intention of tackling the misplaced online advertising problem. To do so, Mirrors detects context in video content that aligns with an advertiser’s core communications objectives, allowing more effectively targeted ads using AI with computer vision.

With its products, SilverPush has supported the campaigns of APAC-based brands such as Indofood, Unilab, and Tiger Beer. Its international brands’ repertoires include Unilever, KFC, Coca-Cola, Samsung, Johnson & Johnson, and others.

Also Read: Hustle Fund has invested in Singapore-based moving logistics startup Moovaz

Outside of India and Southeast Asia, SilverPush is available in South Africa, Tanzania, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates.
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Image Credit: YouTube SilverPush

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You need to score at least two out of three to qualify for a good case

What are the justifications for doing this?

When is the timing right?

What is the best way to do this?

These are three of the most important questions to ask when it comes to overseas business expansion.

This post aims to answer these questions and offer insights on how to make the most out of the globalized business landscape.

Why should you consider expanding?

There are three possibilities:

1. You want to generate more revenue.
2. There’s demand in a new market that matches the products or services you are offering.
3. The local market is getting too crowded and local customers no longer favour your brand.
   Businesses naturally expand to make more money.

It’s inherent among businessmen to seek more. It’s not necessarily being greedy.

It’s just illogical to forego opportunities for growth, especially when the facts on the ground are favourable.

It is also instinctive for determined and astute businessmen to branch out to a new market with a high demand for products similar to what they are selling. Businesses typically spend time and resources to discover new markets.

It does not make sense not expanding when a new viable market has been found.

Moreover, it’s only commonsensical to expand when a surfeit of competitors have entered the present market for your business.

When your products are no longer preferred by the customers you used to call frequenters or patrons, it’s high time to consider expanding overseas.

These three reasons for expanding are generally interrelated. You need at least two of them for you to put up a good case for expansion.

It’s not enough that you just want to generate more revenues. There should also be demand in the new market you want to expand into, or you are forced to find other greener pastures as stronger competitors slowly eat away your customer base.

When is the right time to expand?

You may have encountered eager pundits who would say that the right time for business expansion is “now” or “as soon as possible.”

Know that haste almost never gets you to the best outcomes.

Expanding your enterprise overseas needs to be meticulously planned and should only be done once you are ready.

How do you know when you are ready for expansion? The following circumstances should be good indicators.

• Your customers are asking more from you and you have a growing customer base abroad.

They could be looking for a product that is related to your present line of products, and something you are capable of offering. Not responding to the clamour or demand can make your customers go to your competitors.

• You have regular customers and steady profits.

It’s not a sound business decision to be satisfied with a constant stream of revenues and profits. If you are already on a comfortable point in your business venture, it’s the best time to explore other opportunities and reach out to new markets.

Also Read: e27’s Daily Digest is that sprinkle of humanity in your email inbox

• The sector or field your business is in is expanding or evolving.

You can’t be stagnant when the industry your business is operating in is advancing. Refusing to level up will not only mean sustained stagnation but will most likely result in falling revenues and profits. Your business may even head to devolution or irrelevance.

• You have a lot of unused cash.

If your business is too liquidy, it’s only logical to find ways to put the free cash to good use. Expanding internationally is an ambitious endeavour but definitely worth considering.

• A new market, especially overseas, presents a tempting scenario of high demand and profitability.

This does not mean that you have to instantly grab an opportunity you deem feasible. Make sure you study the new market carefully. Be cautious but have some optimism to try uncharted grounds after seeing high potential demand, good purchasing power among prospective customers, and overall market receptiveness to what you are offering.

How should you expand your business?

Is there a formula for expanding your brand overseas? Nope.

The how’s of business expansion are dependent on the kind of business you have and the market you are trying to exploit. However, the following guidelines should be helpful.

• Meticulously and scientifically study the new market and carefully plan your strategy.

This sounds cliché, but it’s still worth repeating. You can’t just go to war without the knowledge of the terrain, opponents, preparations, and the right weapons.

Conduct thorough foreign market research and feasibility study to find out if it’s really worth expanding to the market you are considering, or if you should try other new markets. Arm your venture with accurate and relevant information about the competition, potential customers, and the most suitable business tactics and marketing campaigns.

• Localize or make your branding and promotions compatible with the new market.

Yes, the process of adapting your strategy for a foreign market you want to capture is also called localization. You have greater chances of success in your attempt to go global by thinking local (at the standpoint of the new market you want for your business).

Also Read: Can fintech resolve the healthcare crisis?

Localization, however, is not just about translating your product labels, slogan, advertisements, or brand jingle into the language of the prospective customers in the new market. It’s a more sophisticated form of language-to-language as the resulting translations have to be culturally sensitive, appropriate, not offensive, and relatable to the target customers.

To achieve the best results for your marketing campaigns and to make it easier for potential customers to get accustomed to your products, it’s important that everything is localized.

• Form a committed and proficient team.

For any business activity, human resources are a vital component. If you want success, you have to make sure that the people you work with are competent and convinced in the goals you seek to achieve for your business.

• Develop solid plans and contingencies.

You should have all the standard business plans and more, from the financial to the strategy, operations, and even the growth plans. It’s important to have details and projections to work with, so you can formulate courses of actions in case events don’t turn out as expected.

Study how you should deal with the government or regulations in the new market. Learn the best tactics for setting prices. Don’t forget to carefully organize your logistics. Find the best ways to lower operating costs while maximizing profits.

• Consider all the leverage you can use.

Moreover, it is advisable to use everything you can to facilitate success. You can forge tie-ups or collaborations with local players (in the foreign market). See how far your business network or connections can take you to cushion the difficulties you may encounter.

Once you have solid answers to the why, when, and how questions for your overseas expansion, it’s safe to say that you are on the right track.

Expanding overseas entails major capital outlays and challenges that can test the limits of your business acumen and management skills. You need to plan and be prepared for the many hurdles that may come your way.

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Image Credits: imtmphoto

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