Many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of believing that they need to create something new when starting a business. The truth is startups that launch with new products often run a high risk of failure, since it is built upon assumptions that may not necessarily be true.

Instead of creating something new and then finding a reason for its existence, try reversing the thinking process. Identify a problem first, then find ways to address it. This, along with a solid plan, is the key to a sustainable business.

It was with this principle that Shootsta was founded. The opportunity presented itself when I realised that the demand for video content was growing, but client budgets weren’t.

Organisations that wanted to produce more videos would often hit a wall when they realise the high cost involved, and a large number of resources and time required to produce quality videos.

Responding to the industry demand for cost-effective, high-quality videos with quick turnaround times, Shootsta empowers clients to become videographers and support them with the post-production work. This essentially means that clients can record their own videos any time, at their own pace, with a kit that is provided to them.

The idea quickly took off, and Shootsta is now one of the fastest-growing video production companies in the world.

Know the landscape well

No good idea is formed in a vacuum. The best way to come up with a new business idea is to first be actively involved in the industry. Having also founded a video production agency over 10 years ago, I had a clear understanding of the market and its demands.

Also read: Why every startup needs to embrace video marketing in 2020

Knowing that the enterprise video market is also projected to grow from an estimated US$16.34 billion in 2017 to US$40.84 billion by 2022 helped propel the idea to fruition. Of course, if you have an idea and want to test the market fit, interview as many prospective clients as possible.

You’ll pick up some valuable information but just remember that their words mean nothing until they put their money where their mouth is.

Starting on a shoestring budget

It is a common belief that having a large capital is necessary to run a business successfully. However, there are many ways to skin a cat. While having a sizeable capital to work with can be beneficial, it isn’t necessary.

Just look at how renowned brands like Spanx, GoPro and Craigslist, for example, bootstrapped in their early days. As for Shootsta, we nearly tripled our business growth in Asia while bootstrapping the growth from our positive cashflow.

Running the numbers can be scary, especially in the early stages of a business, but don’t let the fear of a thin cashflow hamper your potential for growth. Once you have tested your idea, really ask yourself whether you need early-stage funding or if your product is enough to attract clients from the get-go.

It can be tempting to aim for hyper-growth, but I believe that slow and organic growth is more beneficial as you focus on market demand and gain a strong reputation in the long run.

If a product is a right fit for a market, growth will come naturally. Just don’t take anything for granted – treat every percentage of equity-like gold, because it’s quite possibly the most valuable asset you own.

With the right attitude and enough research, it is likely that any new venture can thrive. In a world where hypergrowth has become an expectation and entrepreneurs harbour hopes of becoming overnight millionaires, it’s worth keeping in mind that that the slow and steady, more often than not, win the race.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post. We are discussing inclusivity at work and women all of March. Share your thoughts, tips and best practices on how we can make the startup ecosystem more inclusive, gender and culture diverse.

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Vietnam witnessed a fierce battle in the e-commerce industry, while billions of US Dollars have been invested with no current return. However, it is still attractive for investors, especially those of foreign origin. 

The reasons partly came from the scale and market size. In fact, Vietnam e-commerce was reported as the third-largest market in Southeast Asia (SEA), which expectedly increase the total revenue to US$10 billion in 2020.

In comparison with other markets in SEA, Vietnam got the highest conversion rate across Asian 6. A report from Deloitte emphasised that the online conversion rate of Vietnam reached a peak of 1.3, followed by Indonesia and Singapore with an index of 1.1. It means that commercial brands in Vietnam converted relatively more online visitors to a sale than any other area in SEA.  

Overview of e-commerce market in Vietnam 

Regarding e-commerce platforms in 2018, Lazada was the most popular platform choice with the monthly traffic of roundly 42.5 million visitors. Unfortunately, it could not protect this position.

In 2019, Shopee raised to become the market leader with the monthly traffic of over 40.7 million, dramatically increasing by 71 per cent compare to its performance in 2018.  

With the enormous investment in advertising in music MV, Tiki was successful in capture the market share of Thegioididong, which claimed to be the second-largest platform with a growth rate of 58 per cent to gain average traffic of approximately 35.7 million visitors per month.  

Also Read: How COVID-19 is changing traditional retail and e-commerce in SEA

In terms of devices and channels, smartphones still dominate the market, generating over 70 per cent of user traffic. As a result, about 30 per cent of the last shopping trips made in e-commerce apps, surpassing e-commerce websites and manufacturer sites.

Furthermore, Facebook refers to one of the popular channels for online shopping, especially for small retailers due to lower requirements of technical capacity. For website and app developments, e-commerce firms commonly hold a strong in-house developer team, which enclosed with high operating costs. 

Unfortunately, the trust of online payment might not have any significant improvement last year. In which, cash on delivery (COD) has been the most proffered payment method, constituting approximately 88 per cent of total transactions.

Only 17 per cent of consumers used e-wallet to make their payments. Fortunately, the increasing rate of the whole e-wallet sector reached 10 per cent, which is over the double value of the year before.

That is why there still be a growing trend for investing in e-wallet business. However, 90 per cent of this market share belongs to five giants, which have a portion of foreign investment range from 30-90 per cent. 

One of the on-demand platforms that enjoy the greatest growth in Vietnam could be food delivery. Last year, 50 per cent of customers using food delivery apps to orders their meals due to the surge in the number of delivery apps, which led by Grab Food (63 per cent ) and Now Shipping (43 per cent ).

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Vietnam’s e-commerce startup Leflair accused of owing US$2M to suppliers

Generation X reported spending more than others, which experienced an average of US$4 for each order, while Generation Z spent only US$2.3.

Undoubtedly, e-commerce in Vietnam has a large space to grow in the next five years. It generates both opportunities and challenges for investors. Here are some key points: 

Heavy investment from foreign titans 

Vietnam’s e-commerce market is still standing in the initial stage, which requires a tremendous amount of capital to invest in. Apart from the power from domestic sectors, foreign investors have already entered the game.  

JD.com, a corporation from China invested two disbursements in Tiki.vn, with undisclosed value to take over the 25 per cent stake. Additionally, another stakeholder of Tiki is VNG with the total investment of roundly US$22.3 million in exchange for a 28.9 per cent stake.

Additionally, Tiki received US$75 million from Northstar Group in 2019, which expected to increase shortly. With enormous capital support, Tiki had a dramatic expansion period in both scale and scope, which currently provide millions of products in its platforms, including flight bookings, insurances, vouchers, motorbikes, and cars. 

From 2016 to 2017, Chinese tech giant Alibaba invested US$2 billion to buy 83 per cent of Lazada stake. Moreover, in 2019 Alibaba had announced to double its investment on this Vietnam e-commerce platform. 

Also Read: Why 2020 is the year for tech startups in Vietnam

Sendo.vn had received approximately US$1 million from several Japanese companies, including SBI holding, Daiwa PI Partners, and SKS Ventures. Shopee Vietnam also got support from its parent company in Singapore with the amount of US$50 million.  

Generally, investment in Vietnam e-commerce currently suffers high risks for investors, which have strong barriers to exit. In fact, the entire commercial platforms have endured a loss that investors might lose all their investment in case of withdrawing. 

Promotion wars and greater losses 

Vietnam’s e-commerce market is seemingly driven by promotion. Particularly, 46 per cent of customers claimed that they choose e-commerce sites because of the promotion it offers.

Therefore, e-commerce platforms were burning their massive amount of money to run campaigns to attract users. In 2020, Shopee, Tiki, and Lazada are expected to become the three key players in the promotion war.

Particularly, regular deals and flash-sales are successful in becoming the brand images of Shopee, while Tiki tends to be popular with the supper-fast delivery. 

Also Read: How are small brick-and-mortar retailers in Malaysia coping with the e-commerce revolution

On the other hand, to pursue sales and marketing plans, e-commerce firms have to deal with the huge loss. Shopee, Tiki, Lazada, and Sendo had announced the net loss of roundly US$221.4 million in 2018, while this data in 2016 and 2017 was US$73.9 million and US$147.8 million, respectively. 

Clearly, customers gained a great benefit from the promotion wars due to more beneficial services, lower product prices, and higher technological innovation. 

Several e-commerce giants withdraw from Vietnam Market 

Unable to withstand the fierce competition in Vietnam e-commerce industry, several players gave themselves up. In Q4 2019, Vingroup decided to cancel its online retail sector.

Meanwhile, Adayroi platform had merged to VinID, which had closed down several of its brick-and-motor stores. Zalora, commonly known as Robin Online, had shut down all selling activities in March 2019 after seven years of launching its business in Vietnam.

Other collapses of e-commerce platforms in Vietnam can be told through stories of Beyeu.com, Lingo.vn, Deca.vn, etcetera.   

The biggest reason why these companies were heading towards a sad ending is related to financial exhaustion after promotion races. This means e-commerce firms without continuous investment will die.    

Big risk followed by a big opportunity 

Obviously, e-commerce companies do not only consider dry numbers in financial statements. What they are looking for is the users’ data and the future of e-payment.

Also Read: 3 trends that will drive Vietnam’s e-commerce sector in 2019

Additionally, in the era of big data and IoT, the outlook of these companies refers to the advertising platforms, similar to Amazon, Facebook, or Google. As a result, profit will come from providers that are willing to purchase advertising.    

In reality, no e-commerce site has positive profit within the first three years. As the largest e-commerce companies in the world, Amazon suffers net loss in several years before obtaining an impressive profit in 2019.

Moreover, in addition to selling in virtual stores, advertising sales on Amazon and Alibaba has grown rapidly, accounting for US$44 billion in the US alone, according to eMarketer. 

As a final word, Vietnam is claimed as a promised location for e-commerce firms, which attract even more foreign investment in 2020, including new entrance by Lotte and Aeon Mall.

It is due to the large market of over 95 million population and the remarkable increase in the speed of digital transformation.

As the above opportunities revealed, we expect more foreign investment in e-commerce and e-payment sectors in the next five years.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post. We are discussing inclusivity at work and women all of March. Share your thoughts, tips and best practices on how we can make the startup ecosystem more inclusive, gender and culture diverse.

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According to the latest Nielsen Report, US consumers of 18 and older spend close to 12 hours each day engaging with podcasts, which is up nearly one-and-a-half hours from a year ago.

Also, the number of heavy podcast listeners— those listening every day —grew by more than 3.6 million. The U.S. podcast audience could double by 2023 as per Nielson.

The number of podcast listeners is growing exponentially. And this reiterates the importance of optimising this media and making it an integral part of your content marketing strategy.

No matter what business you are in —the fight to stand out always remains and podcast helps you achieve just that. Providing a perfect mix of education and entertainment, podcasts are a compelling, engaging, and useful medium for businesses and listeners alike.

Most companies do not realise the true potential of podcasts and how including it in the content strategy can help their brand build trust, earn goodwill, and position themselves as a market leader.

Also Read: Afternoon News Roundup: Vietnamese startup Waves raises US$1.2M seed funding for its podcast service

Here are five reasons why podcasts should be an essential part of your content strategy:

Low competition means more opportunity

Online marketing channels are highly competitive—and it is not easy to stand out. The challenge all marketers face is to find a platform that gives them maximum returns with minimum cost.

There are more than 80 million Facebook business pages, but only 850,000 podcasts, and the numbers reduce when you search by topic, making podcasts just the right content marketing platform for your business.

This confirms that it is the right time to start one of your own or reach out to popular podcasts in your niche for an interview or a talk.

Convenient to consume

A podcast is an ultimate multi-tasking content format making it easy to consume. According to Edison Research, 59 per cent of Americans do chores while listening to podcasts, making it an efficient way to educate oneself while doing mundane tasks like cleaning, grocery shopping, etcetera.

Unlike written and video content such as blogs, webinars, e-magazines, YouTube, etcetera, which requires a consumer to devote a specific time regularly to entertain and educate—all that a podcast listener has to do is plugin and play.

That allows people to consume the content as per their convenience. Therefore, we can see the massive jump in the number of listeners monthly.

Also Read: The podcast fever: why are listeners tuning in more frequently than ever?

Podcast ads are cost-effective and engaging

As per Nielsen, nearly 70 per cent of podcast listeners agreed that the podcast ad they experienced increased their awareness of new products/services. Showcasing that consumers are engaged listeners, and they do get influenced by what they’re hearing.

The storytelling and conversational format of podcasts tend to gravitate the listeners more—that’s the reason ‘host-read ads’ are more popular as it adds personal touch and credibility.

Also, people go to podcasts because they are interested in a particular topic that allows brands to reach an extremely attentive audience while leveraging trust and loyalty.

Establish yourself as a thought leader

The best way to boost your brand’s reputation—and build authority, expertise, and credibility in any industry is through publishing knowledgeable and engaging content. Where all other forms of media are getting saturated, podcast presents an exciting opportunity to help catapult your influence and pave your way as a thought leader.

Also Read: How to use podcasts to enhance your brand visibility and reach

Listeners get to hear personal stories, strategies, experiences straight from an expert’s mouth, which brings any subject to life—which gives podcast an edge over other forms of media.

Strengthens your relationship with customers

Online media platforms like blogs, newsletters, Facebook, etc. have allowed businesses to establish a more direct relationship with their customers.

Still, nothing can beat podcasts as it helps you connect with your audiences at a more personal level. Hearing your voice, your expressions, and listening to ‘live’ you make a whole lot of difference. They can put a name and voice to you and build a healthier and more personalised relationship.

From giving interviews, or having a chat with successful personalities from your industry or participating in an exclusive Q&A episode to dive into customer questions, podcasts opens a lot of doors and helps you create a long-form dialogue between you and your customers.

It is time to swoop in and become a winner in your industry by making podcasts an essential part of your content strategy. The best way to start would be to tune in to the podcasts specific to your industry, schedule a few talks on existing shows.

Once you get a taste of this medium, chances of you walking away from a platform that allows you to connect with your audience in an uninterrupted and unfiltered way are zero.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post. We are discussing inclusivity at work and women all of March. Share your thoughts, tips and best practices on how we can make the startup ecosystem more inclusive, gender and culture diverse.

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

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Mandiri Capital Indonesia team

Finance

Bank Mandiri’s Mandiri Capital plans to invest up to US$5M in startups

Mandiri Capital Indonesia (MCI), a subsidiary of Bank Mandiri, has said that it seeks to expand its investment portfolio in startups to tap into the growth of digital businesses in the country, The Jakarta Post reported.

According to MCI President Director Eddi Danusaputro, the company plans to provide an initial investment of up to US$5 million for startups targeting especially the e-payments sector. 

MCI stated that it would give out between US$2 million and US$5 million to acquire at least 10 per cent of the selected startups’ shares.

Danusaputro confirmed that MCI has invested a total of US$70 million in 13 startups since 2016. They include Amartha, a P2P lending platform for micro-enterprises owned by women; Investree, a small and medium enterprises-focussed lending platform; and Crowde, a P2P platform focused on farmers.

Before investing, MCI said it would take into account several parameters such as whether the startups are involved in providing solutions, have appropriate business models for sustainability, a sensible and profit-oriented projected valuation, and have reliable founding teams. 

The founding team of a startup is also an important factor in decision making as it will never invest in a startup with a single founder because of its high-risk.

Business

Blockchain startup OKCoin expands to Singapore, adding Singapore currency as digital assets exchange

OKCoin, a fiat-focussed digital asset exchange platform, has opened an office in Singapore. 

The company said it will add the Singapore dollar to its digital assets exchange, enabling traders in the country and Brunei to exchange the currency for bitcoin and ethereum, with additional trading pairs coming soon.

The Singapore dollar joins the US dollar and the euro as the third fiat currency to become available for purchase or withdrawal in exchange for digital assets through the OKCoin platform.

Also Read: Indonesian P2P lending startup Amartha snags Series B funding led by LINE Ventures, to grow lending capacity across country

Hong Fang, Chairman of OKCoin, said: “By adding the Singapore dollar to our global digital assets exchange, we’re doing our part to help make the blockchain a vital part of everyday life for the people of Singapore, while also moving closer to making digital assets readily available to the whole world.” 

Singapore’s blockchain market is predicted to reach US$272 million by 2022.

The Singapore office becomes OKCoin’s eighth international location, joining the US, Hong Kong, England, Malta, Argentina, Vietnam, and the Philippines. 

OK Group develops a range of blockchain initiatives, ranging from data and technology to education and investments. Its business lines include OKCoin, a fiat-focused digital asset exchange; OKLink, a technology service provider that provides blockchain information and big data services; OK Capital, an investment arm focussed on the blockchain industry; B-Labs, an incubator program for early-stage blockchain companies; OK Engineering Academy, an open-source developer community working on blockchain technologies.

Vingroup’s VC arm closed down, focussing its fund to real estate subsidiaries

Vingroup Ventures, the venture capital unit set up by Vietnam’s conglomerate Vingroup in December 2018, has ceased its fund operation. 

The conglomerate, as reported by DealStreetAsia, has renamed the unit to Vinhomes Industrial Park Investment JSC in February and has now transferred its ownership to its real estate subsidiaries, Vinhomes JSC and Green City Development JSC.

Also Read: Vietnamese retail tech Vingroup to sell US$1B shares to SK Group

Vingroup said that the move is a restructuring exercise to foray into the industrial real estate sector. 

“Vingroup will continue to consider venture capital investment opportunities in technology, but has delegated this mission to subsidiaries so that they can select investment options within their own sectors,” said a Vingroup spokesperson.

Vingroup Ventures’s existing website and LinkedIn page mention a US$100-million corpus with no investment made since its establishment in 2018. Just in January, the CEO of Vingroup Ventures, Linh Thai had left the firm, along with other employees.

OneDash launches personal shopping messenger app to tackle e-commerce cart abandonment issue

OneDash, an e-commerce marketing technology startup, has announced that it has launched a chat-to-checkout service in the form of a messaging platform. 

The platform allows online shoppers to perform direct, in-app, add-to-cart functions, with the option to check out in the very same chat to eliminate the need to exit a chat session to complete a purchase.

With cart abandonment becoming a major issue in online retail, OneDash is looking to address this pain point by optimising the online shopping experience, providing a real-time service for customers to see their purchases from start to finish.

OneDash’s app also enables interactive video allowing customers to connect with retail outlets, in real-time to enhance customer engagement to boost brand loyalty.

Oleksandr Matviishyn, CTO of OneDash, said: “We were driven by the idea of making video more affordable and providing the ability for every business to create, distribute, and monetise their video content, while at the same time, improving the production speed of interactive video content. During the implementation phase, we came up with a few additional ideas like advertising, Messenger commerce, and live streaming to make the platform even more robust.”

OneDash was founded by Rayhan Perera in 2017 with a vision of creating a more immersive shopping platform, allowing consumers to better engage with brands online.

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Picture Credit: Mandiri Capital Indonesia

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Why IT professionals are intrigued by EVOLVE Online

Is your business in pursuit of next-level digital transformation in 2020? Are you keen on learning how the latest cloud technologies can help you reduce costs, accelerate innovation, improve customer and employee experiences, and much more?

If so, make EVOLVE Online one of your “must-attend” virtual conferences this year. This live virtual conference explores everything you need to know about building an infrastructure platform to power your digital business.

Best of all, EVOLVE Online is designed for IT professionals of all levels, from experienced digital-savvy professionals who are looking for an edge in their careers to businesses that are taking their first steps towards digital transformation.

EVOLVE Online covers a wide spectrum of topics that are relevant to today’s IT professional, including:

• App modernization: We’re living in an app-driven world and EVOLVE Online is ready to equip IT professionals with the insights and skills needed to successfully build, deploy and manage modern and cloud-native applications.
• Multi-cloud: A deep dive into hybrid and multi-cloud solutions. Participants learn how they can prepare to build, run, manage and secure business-critical applications on any cloud.
• Networking and security: Explore the full L2-L7 stack of network services, including network virtualization, load balancing, SD-WAN, network management, extensibility and more.
• Digital workspace: As the workforce becomes increasingly mobile, businesses need to adapt. Discover how to securely enable productivity across endpoints – empowering employees to work wherever they are, and on multiple devices.

Headliners and experts

The upcoming conference on 24 March 2020 features two executive speakers who are very well-respected in the industry, Pat Gelsinger (Chief Executive Officer, VMware) and Bruce Davie (Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Asia Pacific and Japan, VMware). Both keynote speakers have years of experience and leadership in the IT industry, as well as a wealth of knowledge that past conference attendees have gained a lot from – based on a series of glowing reviews left by the attendees.

EVOLVE Online also features many VMware experts who will share their product and solutions expertise. These experts will also answer your questions on the conference’s live chat platform.

What you can expect from EVOLVE Online in March 2020

VMware EVOLVE Online 2020 will be launched on 24 March 2020. The areas covered in the upcoming event include the abovementioned areas – multi-cloud, networking and security, app modernization, and digital workspace. For a detailed look at the specific topics that will be discussed in each of these key areas, click here.

The virtual conference also includes a lineup of engaging activities that elevate it beyond most online events. You can chat with experts, participate in hands-on labs, test your skills, apply your knowledge, and possibly even walk away with attractive prizes!

Attendees are welcome to participate in the area of interest that relates directly to your primary job function. You can also explore other areas and topics by attending the presentations and live discussions within the seamless online environment. No matter what your priorities are for digital transformation in 2020, VMware EVOLVE Online will give you the knowledge and skills you need to realize them.

Registration for the virtual conference is now open. To secure your place, submit your registration at the VMware EVOLVE Online website.

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Asia surpasses North America in corporate VC-backed deals

Asia has surpassed North America in corporate venture capital (CVC)-backed deals in 2019, according to CB Insights’s 2019 Global CVC Report. 

North America has been leading since 2014 in global CVC investments. However, last year Asia’s deal share spiked to 40 per from 22 per cent in 2014.

Most of the deal volume was driven by Japan and India, whereas China saw a drop of 19 per cent in CVC deals and 41 per cent drop in funding. This could be attributed to the trade war between the US and China.

Asia, however, has also not fared well in fundraising with a drop from US$19.9 billion a year to US$15.9 billion in 2019.

Vertech Capital partners with LAB.PH to accelerate the growth of their combined portfolio

Singaporean advisory firm Vertech Capital has announced a partnership with LAB.PH to support large-impact technology integrations in the ASEAN region with their combines portfolios.

LAB.PH is an economic development management firm in the Philippines.”This partnership furthers both organisations’ commitment to innovation that empowers sustainable development across ASEAN.

We are excited to combine LAB.PH’s economic and social analysis with our expertise in investment and smart cities to identify data-driven growth opportunities and truly quantify the impact in the region” said Sheryl Foo, Director for APAC & EMEA at Vertech Capital.With this alliance, the duo aims to grow their portfolios in the Philippines and produce opportunities for local companies.

Bytedance launches new music streaming service Resso in Indonesia

Bytedance, the company behind TikTok, has officially launched its latest music streaming app Resso in Indonesia, says a DailySocial report.

The service is currently available on a freemium model.

The streaming service also offers other features such as lyrics sharing, social sharing, commenting on songs, and music-accompanied GIFs and video clips.

Resso has already won partnerships with major music labels like Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and Indian music giant T-Series.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Mandiri Capital to invest up to US$5M in Indonesian startups; OKCoin expands to Singapore

Samsung Ventures, Microsoft’s M12 fund, Comcast Ventures, and SmilegateInvestment make up the list of top 10 most active CVCs in 2019.

Right Hand, the Singaporean cybersecurity firm, raised US$1M from SGInnovate, others

Right Hand, a Singapore-based cybersecurity startup has raised USD$1M in seed funding led by VC fund Atlas Ventures. Other participants in the round include SGInnovate and Entrepreneur First.

The new proceeds will be used towards product development, research and towards data scientist teams.

Since launching Right-Hand’s solutions have been used within government and financial sectors across Southeast Asia and Australia.

Also Read: Singapore-based Group-IB opens inaugural CyberCrimeCon to the public for the first time

“Although humans present one of the biggest loopholes in cybersecurity, much of the focus from both investors and corporates alike have been on various technical solutions like threat detection systems, firewalls, and such. The human aspect is often overlooked,” said Maxim Shkvaruk, Atlas Ventures’s investment director.

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Image Credit: Shutterstock

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The Philippines has become the latest country to join in the lockdown caused by COVID-19 outbreak alongside China and Italy; both are currently among the top five countries with the highest numbers of affected patients detected. South China Morning Post reported that starting on Sunday, March 15 to April 14, Metro Manila will be on a “lockdown” with travel ban.

In a statement, Duterte also said that he might call on China to help with the outbreak as President Xi Jinping had offered help through a letter. The issuance followed Duterte’s meeting with Huang Xilian, China’s ambassador to the Philippines, on Wednesday night discussing the countries’ economic cooperation as well as the challenges caused by the novel coronavirus.

The decision is also supported by experts in the matter such as Dr Anthony Leachon, who is a health reform advocate and former president of the Philippine College of Physicians, who called the lockdown “necessary”. Leachon said that the only way to contain the virus was a lockdown of Metro Manila and its 12.8 million people.

The current situation

So far, the Philippines has 52 confirmed cases and has reported five deaths from the virus. Most of the government officials are of the vulnerable age group (including the President) and had recently been in the same room with a person who is tested positive. This is why most cabinet members have undergone tests and some even decided to undergo self-quarantine for precautionary measures.

The Philippines has a population of more than 100 million, but currently had only 2,000 novel coronavirus test kits available, as assistant health secretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said. Earlier this week, persons could only be tested if they had travelled to a place with a local outbreak or if they had come physically close to an infected person.

The health department said 2,000 more test kits from the WHO would arrive this week. The Philippine Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved a test kit developed by the Philippine Genome Centre at the University of the Philippines, which can be made more cheaply and provide results faster than imported kits.

Also Read: Finding solace in Stoicism as coronavirus looms over the economy

Despite the media calling it a lockdown, Cristian Jon Rillera, CEO of Gasmee, corrected the addressing of the situation, saying that the fitting term would be community quarantine within Metro Manila.

How it is affecting the startup community

e27 gathered responses from the startup community in the Philippines and how the government’s decision would affect their operation. The responses have been varied; each one depends entirely on the type of the business and how each runs the day-to-day operation.

For e-commerce, Steve Sy of Great Deal e-commerce Corporation weighed in on the situation. “E-commerce would spearhead the movement of goods for the Filipino people in this time of crisis. We will be in the forefront to deliver essential goods to the people.”

Furthermore, Sy remains positive that this crisis can “produce champions”.

“We need to persevere and we will all bounce back. But to raise funds at such time would be a vulture move from VCs and PEs,” Sy continued.

Another startup that is relatively new in the field, Apex Digital Marketing, has said that the situation is hard on their business, especially having to move the work setting to work from home.

“As a young startup, we really prefer that our employees show up at the office as communication is so much easier when the team is together. But prioritising our employee’s health, we transition to work from home setup after two years of being in operations,” said Edward Solicito, CEO of Apex Digital Marketing Inc.

Solicito added that such force majeure taught the startup that they need to be on top of any situation, especially as managers. “It can be as simple as losing a client or a pandemic. It will affect the team’s productivity and their morale. But if we pull this off, it opens up endless possibilities on how we can scale up our business,” Solicito explained.

Also Read: Coronavirus is driving the world into an economic slump. How to cope up?

However, looking at the bigger picture, Solicito said that the pandemic can be the unexpected cause of closing down of many niched startups, which he believes to be the majority of startups in Metro Manila.

“If you are not a startup that covers the essentials, or a startup that does not have excess capital, it will be tough,” he said.

Pros and cons

Gasmee, an on-demand refueling service, admitted that there are two sides of the situation and both affect the startup. Cristian Jon Rillera, CEO of Gasmee, explained that as an on-demand service, Gasmee’s customers are still able to utilise service even if they are not going anywhere.

The restriction of travel, however, has worked against the startup because it means it has limited people that can be utilised in its service.

As for HR tech field, GrabJobs’ Managing Director Valentin Berard said that the slowdown in hiring and recruitment needs for such industries is to be expected.

In the case of GrabJobs, a SaaS recruitment platform powered by interview chatbots, its mission has always been to help recruiters and job seekers connect smoothly with the help of technology.

“We feel this is even more relevant in this climate of crisis,” Berard said.

How the startups plan to continue

Most of the startups have taken precautionary measures such as temperature scanners, continuous cleaning of our facilities, social distancing as well as encouraging digital-enabled meetings. They also include their team in the decision-making, such as Solicito of Apex Digital Marketing, who asked employees to give suggestions on how they will best implement the work-from-home setup.

As for Gasmee, the precautionary measure that the company take should not compromise the business by “enhancing the technology that it has developed”.

“We need to think about ideas that can utilise our resources, not just the person who can deliver our fuel but also the safety process and other internal processes that we need to enhance,” CEO of Gasmee Rillera, explained.

Venture Capital’s woes

For Venture Capitals, the stakes are higher.

“The business of venture capital is built on relationships and so any situation that restricts our ability to meet others face-to-face and to travel affects our business,” said Bit Santos, Portfolio Operations Director of Kickstart Ventures, Inc.

Santos further breaks down the process of taking pitches and doing diligence in a VC’s daily operation.

“The community quarantine has been heavily impacted as meeting and getting to know the people and teams behind the startups that we meet with are key parts of the process,” he said.

Also Read: Blessing in disguise: How coronavirus is helping China’s tech sector

“We do a lot of business development in support of our portfolio companies, and we’re also facing many challenges to continue conversations with potential partners and customers as they themselves are having to figure out how to continue their operations while keeping their people and partners safe,” Santos added.

Santos admitted that the VC suffered lost opportunities due to cancelled and postponed events, originally scheduled for the first half of the year, as there was also uncertainty about how the COVID-19 situation will unfold beyond the next few months.

For safety measures, VC’s approach is similar to the startups’, with moving all the company’s communications digital. But in the case of Kickstart Ventures, they are also responsible for supporting their portfolio companies.

“We’ll be working closely with our portfolio companies to ensure that they have the necessary support to continue their operations. We’ve been able to extend connectivity support to our portfolio companies so that they can ensure business continuity with alternative work arrangements for their people,” Santos explained.

CEO of Talino Venture Labs, Winston Damarillo, approaches the situation by making sure the VC has instituted business continuity plans within each of its startups and teams.

“We now have a ‘buddy’ system in place to ensure that deliverables do not fall through the cracks, in case someone from the team falls ill. This buddy system also allows us to check up on each other and make sure that nobody gets left behind as we continue to operate remotely,” Damarillo explained.

Taking things to the next level, the VC has already started building a studio to deliver digitised services to partners and clients.

Damarillo also said that the VC learned the importance of being prepared.

“In times like this, having internal systems and tools from Day 1 of any operations is crucial. There’s also a need to create tighter digital collaboration with partners and clients. Being prepared helps ensure that our systems, tools, policies, and culture will be able to support such conditions,” Damarillo added.

Also Read: Finding solace in Stoicism as coronavirus looms over the economy

The takeaways
To have optimism in such distressing time is not foolish, but rather a sign of strength. That was the sentiment most of the Filipino tech communities have shared with us.

“COVID-19 crisis presents opportunities for startups–and many other companies–to seriously think about how they will continue to operate, create products and services, and reach out to their customers digitally, but without losing the human connection. We see opportunities in e-commerce, AI and automation, fintech, logistics, healthcare, foodtech. We just need to reframe ourselves and look beyond COVID-19 and ask ourselves:

“What is the COVID-19 situation teaching us about the future of work?” said Damarillo.

Santos added, “The global economy undoubtedly will slow down and it will affect all businesses, whether established or new, traditional or startup. It may affect some startups harder than others, depending on the nature of its business, its geography and market, and many other factors.”

Also Read: Keep calm and remain communicative: Startup founders share how they cope with coronavirus crisis

“If anything, the COVID-19 crisis has increased the need for everyone to review and reconsider how we live, how we work, and how we conduct business. We’ll all have to make changes and with these new needs may be the kinds of opportunities that startups are well-positioned to address.”

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Anisa Menur Maulani, Lyra Reyes, Nina Palad, Sainul Abudheen K., and Shagun Karki contributed to this story.

Image Credit: unsplash.com/@eugeniopastoral

The post How Metro Manila’s COVID-19 community quarantine is affecting the local startup community appeared first on e27.

Remote work was first thought of as a trend. Today, that has changed substantially — especially during the coronavirus outbreak — and companies are also increasingly transitioning into remote, distributed teams, regardless of whether there’s a crisis or not. In reality, 70 per cent of people globally work remotely at least once a week, as seen in a study by real estate company IWG.

The “remote work revolution” isn’t just creating distributed teams within conventional incumbents, it has also given rise to fully remote companies such as Buffer and Reedsy. Teams live in Slack chatrooms and see each other face-to-face once or twice a year. Work is done in the comforts of their own home or desired workplace.

Remote work sounds sexy, but it’s potentially more demanding. With physical presence, sense, and emotions out of the window, manging remote teams can be tougher. Without proper execution, remote work can be more unproductive than working together physically.

Yahoo is an exemplary example: in 2013, the company forced employees to come back and work at the office, curtailing their previous remote work attempts. In 2017, IBM did the same with a harsher ultimatum: it’s either you return to the office, or you pack and leave for good. Social media photography app Timehop also failed in their remote work experiment.

One of the biggest problems with remote work is the lack of execution, stemming from a lack of good planning. Typically, companies imagine it to be the same as working in the office: the only difference is the travel to the workplace and being physically there at their desk. Instead, that’s replaced by pajamas on a swivel chair.

Also Read: The future of remote work is happening now, here’s how to make it work for you

To make things easier to manage, companies will also impose “core working hours” or “main online hours”, just so they can mimic the previous operating hours in the office. Having ‘everyone’ online at the same time during the day can seemingly make things easier to manage — especially when you communicate to everyone at the same time — but it’s a lazy remote work policy that makes no sense.

Respect the time zone difference

Not all distributed teams work in the same time zone. Unless the time zone difference is similar to how Chicago is 2 hours ahead of Los Angeles, it’s absurd to expect someone living 16 hours ahead to be awake at an ungodly hour. This can be a headache when the team is comprised of people living in different time zones (e.g. Vietnam + Australia + UK + Argentina).

Defeating the purpose of remote work

When you work remotely, you think of freedom — sure, you still have to do work, but unless there’s a video call meeting you can pretty much stay in your PJs the whole day. You can eat at any time you want and get copious amounts of coffee without your co-workers asking if you’re feeling alright over and over again.

By setting “core hours”, it forces everyone to be online at that moment in time, defeating the purpose of remote work that’s supposed to inject freedom into an employee’s daily work cycle.

Creates artificial anxiety

Suppose an employee misses a few core hours. During that time, a team video call was made. Messages were also sent back and forth in the chatroom. One might think that he can easily scroll through the chatroom and search for chat history, but it’s more likely to provide misinformation or inaccurate perspectives.

Over time, if the employee misses more core hours, he will feel anxious and stressed over it, knowing that he has no way to find out whether his colleagues are commenting about his absence behind his back.

Endangers performance evaluation

Does spending more time online means get more work done? That’s a fatally flawed mindset. Managers need to rethink how they evaluate work performance when everyone is working remotely.

Without seeing the employee sitting at his/her desk for hours (even if he/she is scrolling through Facebook), it’s difficult to have any impression of the employee being busy at all.

Managers that dictate working hours even while everyone is working remotely will send the wrong message about how they are evaluating performance.

In other words, it means that having everyone online during a period of time is equivalent to getting all the work done in that period—a quick look at a software company’s Jira will tell you something else.

The post Don’t tell your remote employees when to work appeared first on e27.

There’s a great scene in HBO’s Silicon Valley that takes place at TechCrunch Disrupt where each founder is pitching their big idea at Demo Day.

We see each founder going up to the stage one by one where they start with “We’re making the world a better place by [insert super technical business proposition].”

One founder says, “We’re making the world a better place… through paxos algorithms for consensus protocols.” The next founder says, “We’re making the world a better place through … canonical data models to communicate between eggs.” One founder at the end finally says, “We’re making the world a better place through … scalable, fault-tolerant, distributed databases, ACID transactions.”

While the scene is a parody, in reality, this is not so far off from the stuff that reporters hear day in and day out with tech founders.

How do I know?

Other than working with reporters across the region daily, I’ve asked tech reporters from various media outlets including The Business Times, KRAsia and The Ken about their experiences interviewing startup founders in Southeast Asia.

Also Read: Using social media to grow your startup: What companies can do to avoid disappointment

Everyone thinks they are special …

Imagine yourself sitting in the shoes of a reporter, listening to a company founder droning on about how he is going to change the world.

“The thing with startups sometimes is that they believe that whatever they’re doing is the most novel thing out there. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it’s not,” said a tech reporter from a first-tier publication in Singapore.

So how do I stand out from the pack? What if I really am special?

Start from a clean slate and rewire yourself. Avoid technical jargon at all times. I have sat through interviews where the founder cannot help themselves from going straight into the nuts and bolts of their data-driven algorithms or proprietary solutions.

“The spokesperson should be able to explain succinctly why their solutions work, what pain point it addresses, and how they stand out from their competitors. Basically, why their news matters,” said another tech reporter.

Who should I speak to? How should I speak? And how should I know what to say?

This is what founders often ask me. So, let’s break it down:

Who should I speak to?

Let’s start with the first step. Do your homework. You have practiced your elevator pitch time and time again for your VC investors. You have by now spent hours absorbing details about the firm’s previous investments, its investment theses, what the partners like and do not like to hear in pitch meetings.

Just like the different VCs you speak to, media outlets come in different sizes, shapes and tastes — even within the tech universe. Within tech, there are reporters who cover a country, such as tech in Indonesia, reporters who cover ride-hailing only (which for the most part is Grab and Gojek), and reporters who cover tech across the region — e.g. The Information or TechCrunch.

Also Read: 3 genuine ways to get media attention for your startup in Southeast Asia

“Before pitching, it is essential to consider whether your news could really become a story on the reporter’s website. For example, at TechCrunch, I didn’t ever write about partner deals or appointments, but yet some people would still pitch these types of news. That showed they don’t read the publication. You’d expect a reporter to know something about your company before they speak to you, so it’s only fair to think you’d research the publication and reporter too,” said Jon Russell of The Ken.

So, do your research and get a sense of both what the publication likes to cover and what the reporter likes to write about. Do not send reporters the same generic email with a sales pitch for your company or product. The media landscape is small in Southeast Asia. It is even smaller for tech (and for the most part, a lot of the reporters know each other), so be sure to do your homework and shape what you say accordingly.

A good resource that takes a deeper dive into this topic is Tech In Asia’s article which is aptly titled How do I get covered by Tech in Asia? 

Many points in this article cover a lot of basic principles for approaching any tech publication.

How do I know what to say?

For the most part (and I can at least attest on behalf of our portfolio companies) as a founder, you are not in it for the money. You’ve conceptualized an idea, that became a prototype, that is now a product or solution that you truly believe will change the lives of millions. You have a team of 50, 100, 500 that you’re now in charge of that believe in you and the mission of the company.

Also Read: How effective PR can be a game changer for tech startups in 2020?

Tell a story. Show your passion. Demonstrate your expertise in the industry. And why you are the right company to do what you do.

I sat in on an interview last year with the founder of Saleswhale Gabriel Lim and the editor of Campaign Asia to discuss the growth of the company and outlook for the sales and marketing industry.

On one hand, Gabriel could have just spouted off the tech behind Saleswhale or the growing revenues they’re seeing year-on-year, and the fact that they were a recent graduate from the Y Combinator program. But rather, he started the conversation with why he decided to start Saleswhale, the pain point he was seeing between sales and marketing teams at organizations across the board, and why Saleswhale is best positioned to solve this solution and maybe even more importantly, why they are poised to solve this solution today.

Before going into the interview, think about the headline you want, the audience you’re intending to speak to and how do you provide the context and color to the reporter in an interesting and insightful way? When you are able to tell a compelling story to a reporter that is insightful and relevant, you will see it translate into a strong piece. In this situation, the published article led to sales leads for Saleswhale.

How do you be insightful? Often times, it is just about doing your homework and providing interesting nuggets of information including stats, facts or anecdotes throughout the interview.

How should I speak?

It goes without saying, reporters are people too and when you want to work with people, authenticity plays an important role.

“I hope founders or startup executives can provide honest insight, not too PR-y answers or general statements,” said Khamila Mulia of KRAsia.

Khamila cited her recent interview with the founder of Wahyoo as being honest and insightful which translated into this piece.

Where you can and without divulging any trade or business secrets, candidness and authenticity is key to not just a strong interview but a strong impression with the reporter.

“It would be great if founders can speak candidly about challenges as no one’s expecting them to be perfect,” said one tech reporter in Singapore.

At the end of the day, as a founder, you are there to solve a problem and it is okay to talk about the good, the bad and the ugly of the industry that you are trying to solve.

Getting burned and how to work with media

As a final note, there’s always a degree of risk when being open to speaking to reporters. Though keep in mind you take a similar risk when you want to build any relationship — whether it is with a new investor, customer or team member.

I once went to Maxwell’s one evening, ate some cockles, and ended up with severe food poisoning with an IV drip at a public hospital in Singapore. Am I going to stop eating cockles? Am I going to stop going to Maxwell’s? You may say maybe, but I say no!

Ok, it may not be the best analogy for the cockle-haters out there.

The point is, in business, there are instances where you can get burned by a business partner or someone you’ve hired, but that does not mean you stop doing business with other business partners or stop hiring talent.

Also Read: How startups should approach public relations

Similarly, one bad instance with a reporter does not mean they should be shunned or for you to be guarded in an interview.

It would be great if founders have a degree of openness and trust when meeting with reporters,” said a reporter from a first-tier tech trade.

Good reporters value your insight and the relationship. It is important to build a rapport with them and invest time in your relationship and trust with them.

“The best relationships I have with founders/PRs are those that aren’t just transactional. That means that they don’t only call when they have a story to pitch, and likewise, I don’t only contact them when I want something. Keeping in touch has never been easier with messaging apps, and having a relationship with a reporter makes pitching far easier—because often the tricky part is simply getting them [the reporter] to read and respond. Reporters are spread pretty thin across various beats and companies, so they’ll always appreciate someone in an industry who can give them straight opinions or even story tips,” said Jon.

At the same time, do understand a good reporter’s job is to tell a balanced story and there are always two sides of a coin.

“I think the common misconception is startup founders tend to think tech writers are natural evangelists for the ecosystem. All businesses and companies are open to scrutiny,” said Ka Kay.

It probably goes without saying that when a founder invests the time in a media relations and builds a rapport with a reporter, it can pay dividends in supporting the growth of the company as you hire and fundraise.

Are there any other tips for engaging with media for startups? Feel free to share any thoughts or comments on the article.

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