Congratulations! You sent the deck to your target VC and the VC’s associate responded to ask you to meet to discuss more your startup company.
Many startup founders already get really excited when they reach this point but unfortunately, a lot of them screw-up the potential investment opportunity from VC because they were not prepared for the first meeting.
Meeting with VC is pretty much like any first date. It’s more of an art than a science. Hence, there’s no specific guideline to guarantee you can ace that first meeting.
However, the tips below might help you survive through that first meeting and perhaps win the VC’s heart:
Research, research, and research
Any successful warriors know that you need to know the terrain before you jump into the battlefield. You as a founder should research as much as possible about the VCs that you’re going to meet and you can never ever miss-out on things such as their existing portfolios, investment coverage, and their average ticket size.
In addition, you also need to know the associate/analyst’s profile that you’re going to meet since they are the frontline of VCs and they will have a huge influence in the VC’s decision making.
Create a conversation
Just like being on a first date, meeting with a VC for the first-time also makes a lot of founders become nervous. To help reduce your anxiety, you should always treat the meeting as a conversation meaning that it should go as a two-way street.
The VCs will most likely ask you the most questions but you should also ask questions about the VC and give them some compliments about the recent achievement they’ve made.
Believe it or not, asking questions to VC will create a long-lasting good first impression about you and your company since it shows a serious interest from you in continuing the relationship with the VC.
The time for your meeting with the VC will most likely be very limited so you need to be as clear as possible of who you are, what problems you’re trying to solve, how can your company provide the solution to the problems and be better than other competitors, why are you currently fundraising and what is it for, etc.
But always remember to assume as if the VC ‘does not understand’ anything about the problems you’re trying to solve or the technology you’re using so that it’s your most crucial task to make sure you explain everything to them in the most understandable way and make them curious about your company.
Always be respectful and professional
Even though the associate/analyst you’re meeting is still a fresh-graduate and being a VC is their first full-time job and they may not know much about the industry you are in, you should never treat them differently.
Most of the time the associate/analyst has a very significant influence behind the VC’s General Partner’s decision and once you create a bad-impression to the associate/analyst during the first meeting, your chance of having the second meeting with that VC will be close to none.
Never ask VC to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement
Although your first 50 minutes meeting with the VC has been going very smoothly and you think they have some serious interest in learning more about your company, many startup founders still screwed-up their first meeting just because they ask VC to sign an NDA before proceeding further.
Why? The VC-Startup relationship is quite like a marriage. If you ask VC to sign an NDA, it shows that you do not trust them and you did not do your research about them (i.e. if you’re worried they might have a similar company in their portfolio) and there’s no reason for VC to go further down with you as well.
Only ask VCs to sign NDA if it’s absolutely necessary such as when you’re about to show a prototype that is still pending for patents.
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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.
Tranglo recently inked major partnerships to tap into China’s US$17 trillion mobile payments market.
Globalisation has led to not just skilled workers crossing borders, but with them, the rise in e-payments services such as remittances, and e-commerce transactions. Fueled by the mushrooming of e-wallets, the high levels of bank account ownership, and widespread smartphone partnership, China leads the world in the digital payments space, with total value hitting US$17 trillion as of 2017.
In its 2019 Migration and Development Brief, the World Bank found that global remittances totalled US$689 billion in 2018, with China being the second-largest remittance recipient at US$67 billion).
Just as tech has helped bridge the global communications gap via social media and broadband connectivity, so too must tech play its role in the payments systems that international payments can be made seamlessly and quickly, at affordable rates.
Fintech has paved the way in recent years through e-wallets for local payment activities and e-marketplaces, yet needs more to be done to address high remittance costs (which average 7% for US$200) as well as international transaction costs involved where merchant and buyer use different payment providers, currencies or wallets.
Tranglo, an international cross-border payments specialist, boasts a global network that spans more than 100 countries, 300 mobile operators, 50 billers, 1,300 banks/wallets, and 130,000 cash pickup points.
The fintech player recently inked partnerships with AliPay and WeChat Pay HK to integrate two of the world’s biggest mobile payment platforms into Tranglo’s cross-border payment network.
Tranglo CEO Jacky Lee said, “When you look at the customer and growth numbers of Alipay (over 1.2 billion) and WeChat Pay HK (over 400,000), the partnerships make perfect sense as they are the most direct route to the heartland of the Chinese payment industry.
“For other industry players, a Tranglo-enabled access to the wider Chinese market puts them in a prime position when we talk about branding.
“The Chinese diaspora around the world is increasing too, and we see a huge potential in terms of processing value,” he added. China (including Hong Kong) is the world’s second-largest remittance market.
Reducing remittance costs to 3% by 2030 (from 7% averaged currently) is a global target under the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10.7. The same World Bank study notes that remittance fees tend to include a premium where national post offices have an exclusive partnership with a money transfer operator.
The World Bank believes the high costs of money transfers reduce the benefits of migration. Renegotiating exclusive partnerships and letting new players operate through national post offices, banks, and telecommunications companies will increase competition and lower remittance prices.
Tranglo is doing its part through its extensive network and by adding partners with wider reach such as AliPay and WeChat Pay HK.
The collaboration with Alipay is expected to benefit a multitude of users, from business payments such as e-commerce transactions to personal remittance among migrant workers, particularly in Asia, where Tranglo has a foothold in the payments market through local partners.
Meanwhile, its partnership with WeChat Pay HK allows the e-wallet’s users to transact via the We Remit function on the mobile payment platform, thereby expanding WeChat Pay HK’s footprint and offering its users more seamless, secure and easy ways to make cross-border transactions.
Lee explained: “Cross-border payments can be quite fragmented. Businesses and consumers can sometimes find the simple process of transferring money daunting, with the involvement of many different players at different stages of an inherently simple process.
“What Tranglo does with these partnerships is to consolidate the global payment services and seamlessly link businesses and consumers, making the process as painless as possible. When you don’t need to jump through lots of hoops, things get really easy and quick, as they should.”
He called on payment firms to leverage Tranglo’s global network to gain access to giants like Alipay and WeChat Pay HK.
“We act as a bridge between these firms in a huge global market (over 1,300 partners), at the lowest cost to their business. Tranglo essentially takes care of their back-end operations while they take care of their customers,” Lee said.
As of December 2019, Tranglo has processed US$5.05 billion in transaction value. In addition to eyeing more global partnerships in 2020 and beyond, Tranglo is actively harnessing and incorporating big data, machine learning and AI into its processes.
Work-life balance is one of the most talked-about concerns by both professionals and entrepreneurs. e27 is no stranger to founders’ stories about how to be productive amidst major life changes or even personal crises.
In many fields, there’s also the proverbial glass ceiling to deal with – female entrepreneurs facing much bigger challenges because of societal expectations regarding having children and raising a family.
For Eynat Guez, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Israel-based startup Papaya Global, this could not be farther from the truth. She recalls an incident during which she had to deal with noisy kids while on the phone with a potential investor. “That was one of the most embarrassing calls because I had a screaming child in the background,” she shares.
That call was with Insight Partners, and although it was two years in the making, Papaya Global eventually got the deal.
In November 2019, the startup raised a US$45 million Series A led by Insight Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, New Era Capital Partners, and Dynamic Loop Capital, as well as existing investors. During that time, the company focused closely on growth.
“We scaled, we grew, we automated, and we invested heavily in our product, technology, and offering. We tripled the size of our team, the number of clients, and our revenues year-over-year,” shares Guez.
The company has the distinction of its growth being achieved from an initially small seed round before growing into an international company with 75 employees and US$10 million in annual revenue. It now counts over 150 customers, including Microsoft and Intel, among other major users. Papaya Global now has offices in Singapore and Shanghai to address the needs of the growing APAC market.
Does a female co-founder make a difference in fundraising and running a startup?
Commitment and dedication to the business are among the drivers of success. Between launching in 2016 and the Series A fundraising, Guez has given birth twice. She recalls returning to work shortly after childbirth.
“I came back to work two hours after I gave birth. This is my choice. This is what drives me,” she shares.
According to the Crunchbase EoY 2019 diversity report, only 20 per cent of newly-funded startups have a female founder. However, the report also stated that “many notable female-founded venture firms have been set up in the last 10 years.”
Additionally, the concept of “investor bias” is not necessarily dominant, although the opportunities might be hard to come by without the right connections. “This is an industry that has always run on relationship networks,” shares Susan Lyne, co-founder of BBG Ventures, and who established a VC that specifically invests in consumer tech startups with a female founder. “Someone you know and respect makes an introduction to a great founder and you agree to hear their pitch. But if women are not part of your network, you’re at a disadvantage — you’re going to miss a lot of great companies.”
For Guez, this rings true. Having worked in the global workforce industry for a number of years, she was introduced to Ofer Herman (who leads R&D) and Ruben Drong (who leads product development) by friends, who gave the much-needed introductions to people who eventually became co-founders.
Integration
Another factor that sets the company apart is its focus on integration. Papaya’s product integrates closely with an array of other ERP, HRIS, expense management systems, thus providing global companies a way to manage these from one single point of contact.
Having a global focus, the company ensures compliance with regional and local regulations, such as GDPR for data privacy, and local taxation requirements. The service also provides employer-on-record (EoR) capability for businesses that prefer to hire employees in other countries through local entities, rather than go through the expense of setting up a local legal entity.
Guez and co-founders conceptualised Papaya to be a global company from day one. “There is no such thing as an Israeli company,” she has shared, referring to how her startup had a global market in its sights upon launch.
The right timing
Businesses are increasingly going global, and this includes both enterprise and small-scale businesses. At least 65 per cent of small and medium businesses work with vendors and suppliers from overseas. There are nuances that these companies must deal with, including ever-changing regulations on pay, withholding tax, and benefits. Guez says that many companies around the world are still using spreadsheets to manage their global payroll — thus an opportunity to provide a disruptive global payroll and payment services to the market came about.
In the end, family matters for Guez, but she worked to ensure that the company could run itself even with her temporarily out of the picture. She says that with each of her two childbirths, she successfully delegated key decision-making capabilities: “I rebuilt the company to ensure they can all work without me.”
She highlights that motherhood has put things in perspective, “being pregnant ensures you align everything, that the company can really continue working without you, quite a lot of CEOs aren’t doing that.”
Guez concludes: “I’m a ‘people person’ and my experience has taught me that value comes from being truly motivated to help someone else succeed.”
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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.
During a trip to visit his village in north India sometime in 2016, Tikendra Yadav’s two-wheeler ran out of fuel and broke down. Yadav, then an Assistant Manager at Samsung Electronics, had to walk about 10km in search of the nearest fuel station to refuel his vehicle.
When he returned to work, he thought about this incident. He wanted to put an end to this ordeal — of motorists being forced to walk or drive kilometres to refuel their vehicles — which is common in the far-flung areas of India.
Later, he discussed this problem with his former colleague Sandeep Thakur, and they created a fuel delivery startup, Pepfuels, in May 2016. The duo later on-boarded their friend Pratik Kathil.
In May 2019, Pepfuels signed a partnership with state-owned oil marketing company (OMC), Indian Oil Corporation, for doorstep delivery.
“India has over 64,000 fuel retail outlets, and over 3.5 million transactions are conducted daily at these outlets,” Co-founder Kathil tells e27.
According to standard fire and fuel safety regulations, one can only store less than 20L of fuel in jerry cans. Saving more fuel than the restricted limit is dangerous, especially when one carries the containers in a vehicle.
“There are some businesses, industries, hospitals where fuel is required in large amounts regularly. Standing in queues during peak hours for fuel not only wastage of time but also generates a lot of pollution and traffic issues,” Kathil reveals. “Pepfuels was started to address this issue.”
Pepfuels is a location-based fuel delivery system. The startup delivers “quality fuel” to enterprises and industries at economical prices.
Customers can place their order through its app by entering the vehicle type, selecting fuel quantity, choosing a delivery slot, and entering a shipping address.
“Companies having demand less than 1,000L get fuels in drums and cans, which are transported in an unsafe manner. This method is costly and is dangerous,” warns Kathil.
For instance, industries with a demand for 5-6 kilolitres get fuels in unapproved tankers with no control on the quantity or quality. This requires additional workforce and is also unsafe. In-transit pilferage is also an issue.
Pepfuels co-founders
“We deliver fuel in the PESO (Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation)-approved browsers, equipped with dispensing machines which are safe. We also conduct on-site quality and quantity check,” Kathil claims.
Pepfuel’s dispensers are equipped with in-built fire extinguishers. Its vehicles are also geo-fenced and equipped with GPS and fuel sensors.
At present, Pepfuels delivers to 200-plus enterprise customers (a combined volume of 300,000-400,000L/mo), and generates revenues of INR 2-3 crore (US$270,000 to US$400,000) per month.
Its customers include Delhivery, Oyo, AVG logistics, Triumph Motor, RGL Flexible, Jaquar, and SOIL Business School.
Competition
Based in Delhi, Pepfuels is not the only fuel-delivery company operating in the country. MyPetrolPump, a Bangalore-based venture, provides doorstep delivery of diesel for generators/cars/fleet vehicles in Hyderabad, Pune, and Bangalore. BookMyPetrol is another player, which also runs a similar business in Western India.
At present, Pepfuels operates in eight cities, including Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Manesar, Gurugram, Bilaspur, Delhi and Dadri. Expansion to 10 news cities, including Bangalore and Hyderabad, is on the cards.
“We receive 100-plus orders through our app, and our turnaround time is three to four hours,” claims Kathil.
The startup’s current delivery hours are between 8 am and 8 pm. It plans to launch 24×7 delivery soon.
IoT-RFID-based device
Pepfuels recently introduced a location-based fuel delivery system through its patented IoT-RFID (radio frequency identification)-based device to help industries, the farm sector, hotels and malls, save on fuel cost, time and prevent pilferage. It is a server-monitored reader which is connected through the dispensing machine. It is developed to provide accurate and theft-proof delivery, and to prevent fuel loss.
India is a third-largest fuel-consuming market in the world. The country consumed approximately 84 million metric ton in 2018-19. As per the future projection, it will go by 160 million metric ton by 2030.
As India is an emerging county in technologies and infrastructure, and the consumption grows in a range of four to six per cent a year.
To date, Pepfuels has received angel funding of INR 4.5 crore (over US$600,000) from undisclosed investors.
“We are now looking to raise pre-Series A round to expand into the B2C segment this year,” Kathil concludes.
There’s a lot of buzz and confusion around the term ‘digital workplace’. Many businesses make it a synonym of their collaboration tools, intranet software, and various network solutions.
But this is a shortsighted view of what a digital workplace can be. Leaders need to look beyond the past and into the future about how a digital workplace might really transform the entire ecosystem of work.
We interviewed business leaders around the world to see what they had to say about what a digital workplace is and what are the problems it will solve in 2020.
We asked, “How will a digital workplace help you at work in 2020?” Here are their most common responses.
Kill tab switching
“I think the biggest challenge of the digital workplace is that we all have like 20 applications and 100 tabs open at once, with Slack, email, and text notifications popping in overtop of it all. In 2020, I’ll be looking at any applications or systems that will help me avoid that kind of context switching so I can be more productive,” said Yaniv Masjedi, CMO at Nextiva.
Context switching is a real problem that most people do not think about. It is the new age equivalent of people dropping by your desk to discuss ‘work’, ‘not work’, and everything in between. It is affecting productivity in ways we don’t realise.
Data silos are the main reasons for tab switching. A classic example is the use of emails for ‘official’ internal communications and chats for all other communication.
Despite some clear differences, there aren’t standard rules in place for when to use each form. Thus, when its time to find the details of communication, you now have to search at least two places to find what you need.
API integrations can fetch data from different apps, and greatly reduce tab switching. However, it does not eliminate it. To have a higher impact on eliminating tab switching, transition your operations to multi-functional platforms from separate disparate tools.
Collaboration tools should work in tandem with projects
“The capabilities I want from a digital workplace are the following. First, I need a capable communication platform, which lets me send texts and make audio and video calls, as well as share my screen. Next, I need a feature that lets me manage my projects better. We built a tool that aims to blend these two together and I think it’s doing a good job so far,” says Dmytro Okunyev, founder at Chanty.
Many organisations are trying to build their own tools to bring their communication into their projects. Each project needs high-end analytics and reporting capabilities to really get control and insights over all the activities running within.
The next challenge is to take these insights into actions, to manage work, people, and their collaboration in one go. Many enterprises build their own tools for the purposes of customisability and data security. They cost a fortune, but get the job done in an efficient way.
However, there are some collaborative project management tools that SMBs and mid-markets could use to get the job done. They can still catch up with their enterprise giants if they realise this problem and start acting upon it.
Improved knowledge management
“We can also expect enterprises to pay greater attention to their employees’ competences and knowledge augmentation. In this context, digital workplaces could get expanded with previously unavailable knowledge management features.
I am looking forward to welcoming software solutions capable of sorting out batches of business content and capturing valuable knowledge that could be further automatically relocated to employees’ competence centres, as well as shared across teams and communities,” says Alex Paretski, Knowledge Manager at Itransition Group.
In today’s dynamic work environment, it is important to document and manage information that needs to be on common grounds for all-round access. Getting new employees up to speed is easier when they can find the resources by themselves and fill their knowledge gaps.
It also lightens the load on all teams when users can search for information right at their fingertips with ease- it simply gives a better experience for employees. With powerful search tools that can understand queries based on the context, a digital workplace should have knowledge management as a priority for every organisation.
Increased productivity with remote work
“As more people work from non-traditional locations (even within a traditional office), it’s critical for employees to provide tools to enable productivity while being mobile. The Capital One 2019 Work Environment Survey found that 61 percent of professionals expect their next employer to offer flexible hours, and 54 per cent expect the ability to work remotely.
To meet those expectations, business leaders and employees must make smart technology choices that allow for collaboration and seamless work/life integration,” says Christian Teismann, Senior VP and General Manager at Lenovo.
Remote work has been on the rise over the last decade. It allows employees to work at their own time and place. Studies have shown that the performance of employees increases when they work remotely.
But how to make remote work a reality that works for both the organisation and employees?
The best way forward is to give employees the right digital tools to stay connected to work. It has to be the right mix of providing maximum functionality and flexibility along with data security.
To keep a tab on everything, it is also necessary to reduce the number of apps used by employees to get more visibility.
Employee-centric approach while adapting to new technology
While software applications are expected to become more intelligent, employees will need to be empowered to leverage these technologies to become more effective and productive.
Until now, the solution to any work problem is looking for digital tools. However, the biggest mistake is assuming that buying and implementing a tool will solve the problem automatically.
Make sure that employees adapt to a new work culture with those new tools. Only then will you see a significant change in ROI.
After all, employees are human beings with habits that are hard to change.
How to approach a digital workplace?
Digital workplace initiatives are bringing in a lot of benefits to businesses of all sizes. Even if the term ‘digital workplace’ is loosely defined, it is necessary for leaders to try and understand why people are talking about it.
The ideal approach to your digital workplace should be to identify the current needs of your business, get digital tools if required, and implement them in the system through people. The vision for a digital workplace is an ongoing wave. Better to ride it than be late to the party.
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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.
What’s in a brand? It’s fundamentally so intangible but yet might just be the single most vital thing that draws loyalty and success for a business.
According to Steve Forbes, “Your brand is the single most important investment you can make in your business”. What does that mean for startups and how can founders start thinking about this when building a company?
We’ve been building Delegate for more than five years now and distinctly, it seems we have a brand. At the very basic, we have a brand identity — logo, colours, typography and the things that look great on paper.
We got many compliments on this and somehow have made it through the past few years with some consistency. Truth be told, I have no one else to thank but my Co-Founder for this — she has a great eye for detail and design.
As much as I loved our early days of picking colours and typography out of a catalogue, there comes a time in every startup’s lifecycle to connect the dots on what this all means. How does everything connect — our genesis, our values and where we want to be?
This is where we sought advice and guidance from the ecosystem. We had our core team sit through a half a day session with Peggy Wu from Monk’s Hill Ventures to understand how we can tie in branding with our growth.
Peggy has amassed years of experience consulting financial institutions and MNCs on their branding strategy. Since joining Monk’s Hill in 2019, she has shifted her attention to technology businesses and startups in Southeast Asia.
In my view, she’s bringing a wealth of professional strategy experience to the scrappy world of startups and doing us a huge favour!
The session, which is an adaptation of GV’s branding guide, has been tested and tried in Silicon Valley for startups. I found the session hugely impactful, which got me inspired to share some of our experiences and takeaways below.
20-year road map
Although we had the foresight to map out our vision from day one, it was ironically an exercise done in reverse. This means we came up with our product before we came up with the mission — no surprise, this is common in many other startups too.
As founders, we often need to do storytelling to stakeholders. We’ve always had a five to 10-year roadmap but never in my wildest dreams did I think we had to do this for 20 years. Let’s be real, the average lifespan of a tech startup is usually 3 to 5 years and 98% of startups are predicted to fail.
Hence, I never thought to even do this five years ago but since we’ve survived thus far, we decided it was time to start thinking further.
Think about Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and all the great companies had their own stories and have shifted focus on products. While understanding that the roadmap might change for the near and very far future (because all startups pivot at some point), what was interesting was not only about how our core team saw the future but also about how they saw the NOW.
The golden circle — Why, What and How?
We’ve all heard about Simon Sinek’s “Golden Circle” and how it should impact one’s purpose in life. I recently did an exercise on this during Founder’s Coaching Pause (FCP) on a personal basis and it was impactful. And yes, why not think about this from a company perspective?
A great example Peggy cited was Nike and how they wanted to inspire others through successful athletes — it made a lot of sense from all the ads they were putting out. But, how does that apply for a tech startup? How does that apply for Delegate?
Truthfully, many companies grow their businesses without the why — the why should be the purpose, cause and belief. It should be the reason why the company exists.
Then why should help convey a company’s passions that help drive emotions, trust and loyalty i.e. Why would someone want to work with your company? Why would investors want to be a part of this? Why would your customers be loyal to you?
The typical why any founder would put out would typically be a very specific problem statement and often falls in line with the start of their investor pitch. There’s nothing wrong with a specific problem statement but once you’ve done a 20-year plan, the why naturally becomes way bigger and a lot more visionary.
Within less than an hour, we came up with Delegate’s why. Our why is “To experience life better through connecting and celebrating memorable experiences”. The HOW and WHAT are naturally become things that are fairly obvious for a company but for definition sake, here goes:
HOW — The value proposition on what sets the company apart from its competitors
WHAT — The product
Truth be told, building a startup is tough work and sometimes, the regular notion of pivoting can allow you to lose track of the why. This is a great framework to get reminded of even if you’re pivoting. Don’t ever forget the WHY.
Cultural values
Being more data-driven in most of my decision making, cultural values are similarly intangible to me as to what branding is. We understand the culture and why it’s important especially for a startup. A loosely defined term I had in mind was this — we needed every one in our team to live and breathe these values in all aspects of operations and decision-making.
Here’s the caveat — I had no idea how it tied in with branding until Peggy connected the dots for me. Our 20-year plan and Golden Circle should in fact highlight our cultural values pretty evidently if we’re doing a good job at being authentic.
As our why tends to be the emotional connection to why the company exists, our culture values need to be how we live by this existence.
Top three audience
From a branding perspective, it’s pretty clear why we need to know our audience well. What the exercise helped us most with was aligning our core team’s perspective on our audience based on priority. It was exceptionally refreshing for me as a founder to hear how different team members trashed out discussions on why their priorities were different.
As a company scales, more revenue channels come to surface and naturally, there’s a larger varied audience. The key takeaway here was to make sure everyone on the team was on the same page in terms of priorities.
What’s our personality?
As with what attracts us to friendships and relationships, we’re often drawn to brands of traits we can relate to. What’s in a brand? This is where all the tangible stuff is defined. Some things to think about:
Why is Chanel seen as a luxury and elite brand? Is it just purely because of the cost?
Google is seen to be a fun and playful company — their brand colours are vibrant.
Why is Bloomberg seen as high authority as a financial resource above everyone else?
This was the most fun exercise for me especially because it was tangible and actual definitions could take place. Peggy made it fun by creating a personality slider for us to think about. Here are some examples. Whilst attempting to define this, think about the trait you are at now and where you’d like to to see yourself become as a company then, put a number to it.
Elite Vs. Mass Appeal?
Serious Vs. Playful?
Conventional Vs. Rebel?
Friend Vs. Authority?
Mature/Classic Vs. Young/Innovative?
Thinking about these traits allow us to think of reasons related to our identity especially in design, marketing and communications. Think about why you would choose this font compared to another and why these colours make sense. Another level to think about things is to understand how you can use your traits to distinctly differentiate your brand.
The fun part is also having your core team deciding on this together.
Brand competition
There is much context around this that can be quite customised per every industry thus, with the interest to make this as generic as possible, a good way to think about this is brand positioning. Is your competitive landscape diluting or increasing your brand awareness? How can you leverage this as a brand and company?
Next steps
This is my favourite part — thinking deeper about how this could impact the company within each business unit especially in how we work and make decisions. This is a list I came up with — feel free to comment if you have more ideas on how branding the above might impact a startup effectively.
Hiring decisions on who joins the company
Product decisions on why we build and improve products
Who we want to bring on board as an investor, advisor and board of directors
Marketing decisions on who to market to and what we’re planning to convey
Design decisions to convey the right brand identity
General operations on how we make decisions as a team and how we work with each other internally and externally
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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.
AI-powered healthtech Biofourmis’s remote monitoring platform supports Hong Kong in fighting COVID-19
Leveraging its wearable and Artificial Intelligence, Singapore-grown personalised digital therapeutics platform Biofourmis will deploy its remote monitoring platform to accelerate disease surveillance and interventions in Hong Kong.
It will remotely monitor coronavirus infected and suspected patients using its Biovitals Sentinel platform, a turn-key solution. It will provide clinical decision support for early identification of any physiological changes that could indicate deterioration, to enable earlier interventions for better outcomes.
The programme is administered by The University of Hong Kong and includes Hong Kong-based Harmony Medical, which is Biofourmis’s joint venture partner for the China region.
Prof. David Chung Wah Siu, MD, Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, said: “Patients with COVID-19 deterioration commonly exhibit symptoms such as fever, cough, and shortness of breath, all of which can be closely monitored through related physiological parameters via Biofourmis’s biosensor Everion, which is being worn on the arm by patients quarantined in their homes or clinical settings.”
Finance
Indian proptech investment platform Strata secures US$1.5M seed funding from SAIF Partners, others
Strata, a tech-enabled commercial real estate investment platform, has raised US$1.5 million in a seed round, led by SAIF Partners and Mayfield India. Real estate data analytics platform PropStack and three other angel investors also participated.
The startup, which was incorporated in May 2019, plans to utilise the fresh raise to expand to other metro cities and strengthen its current tech stack.
The platform is designed with a three-pronged approach to help reduce the high capital requirement for investors, bring in expertise, and introduce liquidity to an otherwise rigid marketplace.
Strata aims to create new investment opportunities in premium commercial properties for the middle-class Indians who to date could only invest in low-yielding residential properties.
Currently operational in Bangalore (HQ) and Mumbai, Strata is hoping to double in team size this year to over 45 members, with a majority of hiring in roles related to technology and investor relations.
AI-powered conversation intelligence platform Salesken nabs US$8M in Series A funding from Sequoia India
The funds will be used for further development of Salesken’s AI-based conversation intelligence platform (Salesken.ai) and for expansion across the Asia Pacific and North America markets.
Inside sales is a rapidly growing industry worldwide with nearly 48 per cent of all sales teams now selling products over the phone or web conferencing tools.
Salesken helps these teams with real-time intelligence during their sales conversations to help them win more deals by receiving intelligence on various aspects of the sales pitch, from lead qualification to navigating pricing discussions and gauge the sentiments of their customers during the conversation.
People
Pomelo names Piyanuch Limapornvanitch new Chief People Officer
Pomelo, Asia-operated omnichannel fashion brand, announced today the appointment of Piyanuch Limapornvanitch as its new Chief People Officer.
Limapornvanitch brings over 15 years of experience in HR across a variety of companies and will oversee Pomelo’s human resources division, driving its people experience, development and operations, talent acquisition and strategy, and employee engagement initiatives as the company continue to scale at speed.
Limapornvanitch most recently served as the Head of HR at Accenture Thailand. Prior to Accenture, she led HR initiatives across Thailand and Vietnam at Christian Dior.
The announcement follows Pomelo’s recent appointment of Anders Heikenfeldt as Chief Retail Officer, as the company continues to expand its operations across Southeast Asia.
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Silicon Valley-based VC firm Sequoia Capital has warned its portfolio companies of the alarming situation as COVID-19 is spreading globally.
In a Medium article, titled “Coronavirus: The Black Swan of 2020“, the VC firm also provided guidance on how to ensure the health of their business while dealing with potential business consequences of the spreading effects of the coronavirus.
The warning comes as the disease paralysed cities and isolated millions around the world. It has taken a big toll on the startup industry and led numerous companies to lay off off employees and freeze salaries. It also influenced negative performance in stocks and affected the nonstop work culture, especially in startups.
Below is the note:
Dear Founders & CEOs,
Coronavirus is the black swan of 2020. Some of you (and some of us) have already been personally impacted by the virus. We know the stress you are under and are here to help. With lives at risk, we hope that conditions improve as quickly as possible. In the interim, we should brace ourselves for turbulence and have a prepared mindset for the scenarios that may play out.
All of you have been inundated by suggestions for precautions to take around COVID-19 to protect the health and welfare of you, your employees, and your families. Like many, we have studied the available information and would be happy to share our point of view — please let us know if that is of interest. This note is about something else: ensuring the health of your business while dealing with potential business consequences of the spreading effects of the virus.
Unfortunately, because of Sequoia’s presence in many regions around the world, we are gaining first-hand knowledge of coronavirus’ effects on global business. As with all crises, there are some businesses that stand to benefit. However, many companies in frontline countries are facing challenges as a result of the virus outbreak, including:
Drop in business activity. Some companies have seen their growth rates drop sharply between December and February. Several companies that were on track are now at risk of missing their Q1–2020 plans as the effects of the virus ripple wider.
Supply chain disruptions. The unprecedented lockdown in China is directly impacting global supply chains. Hardware, direct-to-consumer, and retailing companies may need to find alternative suppliers. Pure software companies are less exposed to supply chain disruptions, but remain at risk due to cascading economic effects.
Curtailment of travel and canceled meetings. Many companies have banned all “non-essential” travel and some have banned all international travel. While travel companies are directly impacted, all companies that depend on in-person meetings to conduct sales, business development, or partnership discussions are being affected.
It will take considerable time — perhaps several quarters — before we can be confident that the virus has been contained. It will take even longer for the global economy to recover its footing. Some of you may experience softening demand; some of you may face supply challenges. While The Fed and other central banks can cut interest rates, monetary policy may prove a blunt tool in alleviating the economic ramifications of a global health crisis.
We suggest you question every assumption about your business, including:
Cash runway. Do you really have as much runway as you think? Could you withstand a few poor quarters if the economy sputters? Have you made contingency plans? Where could you trim expenses without fundamentally hurting the business? Ask these questions now to avoid potentially painful future consequences.
Fundraising. Private financings could soften significantly, as happened in 2001 and 2009. What would you do if fundraising on attractive terms proves difficult in 2020 and 2021? Could you turn a challenging situation into an opportunity to set yourself up for enduring success? Many of the most iconic companies were forged and shaped during difficult times. We partnered with Cisco shortly after Black Monday in 1987. Google and PayPal soldiered through the aftermath of the dot-com bust. More recently, Airbnb, Square, and Stripe were founded in the midst of the Global Financial Crisis. Constraints focus the mind and provide fertile ground for creativity.
Sales forecasts. Even if you don’t see any direct or immediate exposure for your company, anticipate that your customers may revise their spending habits. Deals that seemed certain may not close. The key is to not be caught flat-footed.
Marketing. With softening sales, you might find that your customer lifetime values have declined, in turn suggesting the need to rein in customer acquisition spending to maintain consistent returns on marketing spending. With greater economic and fundraising uncertainty, you might even want to consider raising the bar on ROI for marketing spend.
Headcount. Given all of the above stress points on your finances, this might be a time to evaluate critically whether you can do more with less and raise productivity.
Capital spending. Until you have charted a course to financial independence, examine whether your capital spending plans are sensible in a more uncertain environment. Perhaps there is no reason to change plans and, for all you know, changing circumstances may even present opportunities to accelerate. But these are decisions that should be deliberate.
Having weathered every business downturn for nearly fifty years, we’ve learned an important lesson — nobody ever regrets making fast and decisive adjustments to changing circumstances. In downturns, revenue and cash levels always fall faster than expenses. In some ways, business mirrors biology. As Darwin surmised, those who survive “are not the strongest or the most intelligent, but the most adaptable to change.”
A distinctive feature of enduring companies is the way their leaders react to moments like these. Your employees are all aware of COVID-19 and are wondering how you will react and what it means for them. False optimism can easily lead you astray and prevent you from making contingency plans or taking bold action. Avoid this trap by being clinically realistic and acting decisively as circumstances change. Demonstrate the leadership your team needs during this stressful time.
Here is some perspective from our partner Alfred Lin, who lived through another black swan moment as an operating executive:
“I was serving as the COO/CFO of Zappos when I was summoned to Sequoia’s office for the infamous RIP. Good Times presentation in 2008, prior to the financial crisis. We didn’t know then, just like we don’t know now, how long or how sharp or shallow of a downturn we will face. What I can confirm is that the presentation made our team and our business stronger. Zappos emerged from the financial crisis ready to seize on opportunities after our competitors had been battered and bruised.”
Stay healthy, keep your company healthy, and put a dent in the world.
Best,
Team Sequoia
Equally as concerning for companies has been the spread of the virus beyond China to nearly every continent. Brazil, Italy, Nigeria, India, Europe and the US have all reported new cases last week.
During this time, the firm advises companies to ask key questions about cutting down on extra headcount and be more cautious about expenditures.
The company’s portfolio includes some of the world’s most successful venture capital firms including GitHub, Google, LinkedIn, Nvidia, Oracle, Square, YouTube and Zoom.
Singapore’s VC firm Monk’s Hill makes the final close of fund II at US$100M
Singapore-based VC firm Monk’s Hill Ventures (MHV) said that it has made the final close of its second fund at US$100 million.
Temasek, the anchor investor in the first fund, besides several unnamed US-based and international endowments, foundations, and family offices, also invested in Fund II.
“For Fund II, we will continue to invest in great founders, who are addressing sizeable market opportunities in tech at the early-stage, mainly Series A in Southeast Asia. We focus on investing in founders with a plan to scale up profitably in major economies, including Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines,” an MHV spokesperson told e27.
The VC firm has already made three investments from Fund II – Glints, STOQO and Padlet.
Online fashion company Koovs lays off a significant portion of its team
Indian fashion startup has announced the lay-off of half of the buying and merchandising team, according to Economic Times.
The reports come two months after India’s central bank RBI rejected Kishore Biyani‘s investment proposal to throw a significant amount of capital into Koovs.
“Koovs has successfully refinanced the business and refocused its business priorities, which included streamlining of some of its operations,” Mary Turner, CEO of Koovs, said without answering specifics on the sacking of employees.
Singapore’s startup Paktor cuts jobs amid market slump
Singaporean startup Paktor has announced job cuts this year, compared to multiple layoffs since 2018, according to reports by Tech In Asia.
The company’s headcount has reportedly fallen from about 250 to 190 between 2018 and 2019, according to ex-staff.
Paktor’s CEO Shn Juay said that the startup now has around 200 employees. It makes job cuts every year as part of regular operational reviews, she adds.
The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data. Since ‘The Economist’ published this ground-breaking truth in 2017, “Data, as the new oil,” has become a common refrain in business circles. But far from becoming a cliché, the weight of this statement is so heavy and profound that companies are taking heed.
With AI and ML making forays into several industries, we are coming to terms with making decisions based on petabytes of data.
Single-handedly, the data revolution has revamped the way in which most businesses today operate. It forms the backbone for customer-led innovation, business policies and practices, and even new product and service offerings.
For instance, companies like Amazon and Netflix that utilise customer data to provide customised user experiences have proven to be unstoppable.
In the financial services industry too, data plays a pivotal role in initiating positive changes across the board. Over the past few years, we’ve welcomed the emergence of challenger banks and mobile payment solutions that rely heavily on data.
Most notably, the far-encompassing definition of fintech, as a term that refers to the innovation that aims to improve and automate the delivery and use of traditional financial services, is now an everyday term that even the layperson can relate to.
Clearly, in this data-inundated marketplace, an organization’s winning edge will depend largely on how it is able to control its data. However, data supremacy is only one side of the coin. Equally important is its oft-overlooked flip side.
Consumer trust, the flip side of data overload
A recent study by the World Economic Forum and the University of Cambridge found that “trust and user adoption” of the latest technologies, such as AI, seemed to be the topmost hurdle faced by the financial industry today. Though technological improvements are indeed viewed positively, trust and buy-in from current and future customers will emerge as a key differentiator in the days to come.
Forbes noted that consumer trust directly impacts the bottom line.
Apparently, the average consumer today not only wants but demands to know all about a company before opening his/her wallet. More than 73 per cent consider transparency more important than price and 40 per cent say they will switch from their preferred brand to another that offers more transparency.
Clearly, the compulsion to base decisions on data runs both ways!
The cost of poorly handled data
In 2018, 500 million personal records were stolen. According to the RiskBased Data Breach QuickView Report at the end of September 2019, there were 5,183 breaches exposing 7.9 billion records. Compared to the 2018 report for the same period, the total number of breaches was up 33.3 per cent and the total number of records exposed more than doubled, up 112 per cent.
Another report from Norton reveals that there were 3,800 publicly disclosed breaches and 4.1 billion records exposed in the first half of 2019 alone.
All these data breaches affect companies in myriads of direct and indirect ways that we may not have completely fathomed as yet. Short-term direct losses—a drop in share price, revenue loss, and increased crisis management budget—are inevitable. In the ASEAN region, the average organizational cost of a data breach stands at about $3.6 million.
However, the indirect cost, often overlooked, is even more noxious—loss of reputation and customer trust. Data stewardship and protection or its lack thereof can directly impact your enterprise’s reputation, customer trust and overall business health for years to come.
Why data supremacy and trust must go hand-in-hand
How do these findings translate into the operational activities of a fintech? The Global FinTech Adoption Index 2019: notes that the ‘trust gap’ can create opportunities for both incumbent financial institutions and FinTech challengers.
“Even though non-financial services companies have led the way in deploying new technologies to deliver innovative services and have raised the bar on consumer expectations, they do not yet have the full confidence of consumers when it comes to providing financial services on their own.”
Fintech players must ensure that their offerings take heed of both the financial institutions’ need for data and the customers’ concerns for privacy. In May 2018, an EU regulation around data protection and privacy—the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)—came into effect.
Japan’s Act on the Protection of Personal Information and California’s Consumer Privacy Act also steps in the right direction. All these regulations ensure that data regulators protect personal data and establish data privacy standards for their businesses across the globe.
Above all, it puts the power back into the hands of the consumer—ensuring they have the right to demand how their personal data is being used and requesting companies to delete it if required.
Though the Fintech industry is well-equipped with technologies, communicating this message to customers and winning their trust will need to be prioritised.
If businesses can showcase their ongoing effort to keep stakeholders constantly updated, we can reduce indirect costs and more importantly, build a community of trust that will propel the industry to greater heights.
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.
