Early stage venture capital firm Saison Capital today announced that it has teamed up with global data analytics platform Mixpanel to introduce a practitioner-led programme for product managers in Southeast Asia.

The first cohort of the analytics programme in January 2023 will connect Saison Capital’s 2to3 Product Manager Community directly with Mixpanel leaders across product management and engineering. This will allow the PMs to tap into specific and actionable insights during group learning sessions.

In this programme, the Mixpanel team will study insights from more than 7,000 tech companies and answers more than 70 million product questions every month, with some of these insights to be shared with the programme’s cohort.

In an email to e27, Looi Qin En, Principal at Saison Capital, explains the programme and its long-term benefits in further detail.

Also Read: Singapore faces talent crunch for engineering and product manager roles: Report

“During the programme, participants will have a direct touch point at Mixpanel who will partner with them as they make sense of how to implement the knowledge and skills they’ve picked up. Once they’ve completed the programme, they’ll have further support from the 2to3 Community for peer-level learning and networking,” he wrote.

“Ultimately, we launched this with Mixpanel in response to a gap we noticed in the tech ecosystem – a need for a PM community to support the role they play in driving the delivery of solutions in the market. Doing so benefits the industry at large by ensuring we’re lifting the talent level out there.”

The programme is ideal for PMs with at least one year of experience.

“That way, participants can bring their industry perspectives on product building, management and challenges to the table to make for a more engaging way to brainstorm and troubleshoot with fellow PMs,” said Looi.

The 2to3 Product Manager Community, which will be involved in this programme, is a ground-up initiative organised by Saison Capital to invite product managers working in both Web2 and Web3 roles who are curious about the impact
blockchain, crypto, and decentralisation could have on future products and solutions.

Also Read: Lockdown learnings: How I became a half-decent product manager in 2020

Saison Capital said that the community had grown organically to more than 300 PMs within the first month of its launch.

“The 2to3 Community is a ready pool of almost 400 PMs growing based on word-of-mouth referrals. These are all executives who came together because of an organic interest in peer-level learning, so developing this fresh programme was very much in response to the positive feedback from our past 1-on-1 matching sessions and breakfasts,” said Looi.

Fresh intakes of product managers are constantly invited to join the community.

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Image Credit: Saison Capital

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I have been a VC for over 12 years, and while it’s not too long a tenure, it also isn’t a short one.

But if you can change your mind in a few minutes, imagine how much you can change in a decade. During this time, I have definitely grown in my experience, thoughts and approaches.

The journey hasn’t been a linear one, but I thought maybe this is a good time where I reflect and share my learnings for the benefit of others.

Many of these values (and lessons) that I have learned may not be new to you, but as values go, they are unique to everyone, and everyone applies them differently. But I do hope it provides you with a different perspective through my lens.

(Re)building trust

If building a business is tough, the next hardest thing to build is trust, especially one that has been broken before.

Also Read: 5 lessons from 5 years in venture capital

Building trust is a long-term game, and speaking in investment terms, it starts from the early stage, and you need to keep investing time and effort to make sure it gets stronger. For trust to get to the stage of being unconditional and truly mutually cherished is akin to getting to the unicorn stage- not easily done and not as common.

Trust is the most important currency we speak of in the VC world (or at least within AJWC). The value it brings is almost immeasurable. When we have mutual trust between us and our stakeholders (investors, founders, and also especially between partners), conversations become more honest and impactful, deals close quicker, and we are seen as a partner of success rather than just as an investor.

For me, I have also learned that trust needs to be equally strong between co-workers and co-partners. Having my trust broken once before in a business partnership, I became more resolved that in my new partnerships and ventures, it is vital for me to work with people who are not only trustworthy but also value it as much as I do.

Lastly, trust in yourself is often forgotten too. You will learn that there will always be naysayers or detractors who will try to bring you down. But you need to trust in your own abilities, actions, and conscience to rise above all the negativity.

We talk about trust between people, but trust is also about believing in yourself to be able to achieve your goals and be the best version of yourself.

Integrity

So how do you command trust? What kind of person do you trust? To me, it would be someone with a strong sense of integrity.

Having worked in the corporate world (in Credit Suisse and Citibank) for over 10 years, the importance of possessing strong integrity (in myself and the people I work with) played an inherently critical role in further shaping my professional career and how I approach my relationships with my co-workers and clients.

Having worked with different people and faced different challenges and opportunities, I also got to witness (and learned the hard way) how a person’s sense of integrity can be tested in different situations and sometimes that integrity is compromised over short-term gains, thus ruining relationships that took years to build.

I value a friend, a partner, and a colleague who has an unwavering sense of integrity. That is the number one quality I look for in a founder too, because that is the kind of founder that commands respect from his team and who will do the right thing for his team and company.

Being authentic

Trust and integrity then bring about authenticity in the way you present yourself, run the company, and work with founders and investors.

When we were raising fund 1, the best thing we had was our trust in our network. We hustled and went out hunting and farming investors, and it took us over a year to close our first fund. A lot of hard work and time was put in to raise that first round.

What we told ourselves was that there is no shortcut to this, and whatever it is, we have to be authentic and be real about what we can do and achieve and not overpromise to get investments.

I believe that being authentic helped us gain not only the trust of our investors to raise our first fund and showed them who we truly are, what we are capable of, and how we will run our firm.

Also Read: What lessons can crypto investors draw from the Luna, UST episode?

Authenticity in our relationships with our founders is equally important. We knew the kind of partnerships and roles we wanted to play in our portfolio investments, and we were always upfront with would-be founders on our approach to active involvement and open communication. This ensures a right fit between the founders we invest in and us.

Onwards

I have learned many lessons from my professional and personal journey, and I know those lessons will continue to come my way. But as I was once told, if you learn and grow from them, they become valuable lessons. If you don’t, they will remain regrettable mistakes.

In our industry, where failures are costly and challenges can rife, I am very glad that we are able to build a great team at Alpha JWC who uphold those values and work very closely like a family to make things happen for all our stakeholders and most of all our portfolio founders.

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Garnering corporate partnerships is often a coveted goal for many startup founders. Still, it may not always be perceived as an immediate strategic priority, given the relative differences in scale of business operations, thereby giving a perception that possible intersecting priorities are thin to nil. However, in a conversation among Southeast Asian startup founders at Echelon, along with e27 and SAP, key insights about emerging use cases where corporate-startup partnerships in the region have served to be a compelling avenue to drive more significant business value were shared.

Tackling the topic of how startups can scale sustainably and enter new markets through corporate partnerships, the panel speakers were Raunak Mehta, co-founder and CEO of Igloo, Junkai Ng, co-Founder of Janio Asia, Shamir Rahim, founder and Group CEO of Versafleet, and Aaron Ang, SAP head of Southeast Asia mid-markets. The conversation was moderated by Justin Chin, head of business development at e27.

The conversation focused on what they did to prepare and secure corporate partnerships, how they navigated associated challenges and overcame them, as well as insights on how to effectively forge long-term collaborations with corporates.

Corporate-startup collaboration

Touching on the mindset needed when deciding to work with corporates, Shamir, who runs a transport management software that digitalises business execution and last-mile route optimisation, shared that it was a challenging journey at the start.

Initially starting out with SMEs as their primary client pipeline, their team eventually faced pains associated with inconsistent sales cycles, not to mention encountering partners with misalignments in innovative mindsets. From their seventh year of operations, they gathered the courage to target corporates. While they had to grapple with going through long contracts and questionnaires, they persevered. Getting their first corporate client gave them the confidence and experience in their playbook to win more corporate partners. These now include Resorts World Sentosa, Watsons, and Indofood.

Expanding on the massive potential of corporate-startup collaboration, Aaron elaborated SAP’s strategy to build value and sell to, through, and with startups, “You can no longer ignore the proliferation of tech moving the market and changing trends. Rather than solving everything, partnering is always the way to go”.

Aaron is excited about partnering with startups, citing Versafleet as a successful case study wherein they have developed APIs and intellectual property through the SAP Innovation Platform and have since reaped substantial business value through catering to more corporate clients via this avenue. Providing the leading enterprise software in the market at its core, SAP also serves as a platform for startups to be connected to other enterprise clients globally and access this as a compelling business development channel.

Also read: Optimising business solutions through customer-centricity

Overcoming challenges and building strategies

On the challenges involved in forging corporate partnerships and overcoming them, Raunak, who runs a regional insurtech company spanning Southeast Asia with a vision of insurance for all, emphasises the importance of having clarity in the fundamental aspects of every deal and being deliberate on your ability to deliver promises. This may entail saying no to fluid sets of requirements, in order to commit to things that your startup can deliver on and deliver well. 

Junkai reiterated this insight and urged other founders to consider the costs of client acquisition versus the costs of losing them. He emphasised the importance of focusing on what you do really well, staying true to the fundamentals, and treating the rest as noise. As most things are already digitalised, it is not hard to find direct and indirect competitors for your solutions in the market. Therefore it is important to focus on solving the core pain point well. They embodied this case recently and have had to cut 500 clients and instead focused on delivering compelling value to their over 60 clients while retaining 90% of revenues.

Also read: Supercharging B2B startups with SAP’s enterprise collaborations

Helping startups navigate the market

As for advice to startups on driving growth for their companies as they navigate through more VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) environments, Shamir shared, “Think of distribution. Partnering with corporates is important for new markets.” Versafleet has adopted this themselves as they leveraged SAP’s collaborative programmes where they got to work with SAP executives across continents, learned how to integrate out of the box with SAP, and eventually accessed wider networks and strategic partnerships. Due to this, Versafleet now enjoys having a larger corporate business development pipeline within the ecosystem. 

Raunak emphasised this and shared, “find platforms that have enough captive audience, requisite network effects, and piggyback on what they offer”. It is practical to identify platforms that give you substantial access to your target customers, rather than having to work on the distribution piece first-hand. He also urged startups to focus on strong business fundamentals, looking at the business financial statements as guidance to weather through macroenvironmental changes. He encourages leaders to build 12-18 months of runway, and look beyond P&L to focus on ensuring that margins are liquid, and power through by having a good spread on working capital.

Junkai reiterated the advice to focus on what is controllable versus what is not. Ultimately, the economic climate is a business cycle, and the focus is to survive this slump. Therefore it is important to get rid of the noise, focus on the business, build value for customers and meet payroll.

He shared, “the market doesn’t care if it’s startups or corporates offering, but the value you bring. There are two main principles of focus: cost and speed of distribution. Once put in place, the rest will follow.” They have the same perspective when it comes to their clients as well as to their suppliers and partners. Ultimately, it’s about providing value at scale, speed and efficiency.

Harnessing the power of SAP

Aaron encouraged startups to never stop innovating and to always share solutions that can help startup founders to manage various situations, including the good, bad, and ugly. SAP has supported startups in their growth in various ways, by either being a technical partner or a consumer of their tech solutions.

Rather than being stage-specific, SAP focuses on the value that startups bring, and how they disrupt markets and differentiate themselves through their products and innovations. “Startups can develop their IP, integrate with SAP solutions, making their IP sellable”, Aaron shared. With this, startups that become tech partners of SAP can tap 440,000 customers across 180 countries.

SAP looks forward to bolstering its provision of value through strategic partnerships with leading startups in the Southeast Asian region. Apart from Versafleet, they have collaborated with other innovative businesses in SEA such as Opsis which offers emotion and facial-recognition based AI business applications, F&B businesses like Jumbo Group, and e-commerce businesses like Love Bonito.

For more information, visit https://www.sap.com/sea/index.html and https://sap.io/startup-programs/.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by SAP

We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.

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It has been a crazy journey for me over the past three years, especially during the COVID-19 lockdown. I had a lot of time to reflect on the life I desired and what I needed to do to achieve that goal.

I used to work as a client project lead for a smaller agency and got to learn the ropes of managing clients, but over time it was not sustainable because I had to deal with the stress of managing my boss while also working long hours, and it took a huge mental toll on me. I badly wanted to upskill, but I also did not have the time to do so while working my full-time job.

It was a mindset shift that pushed me to take control of my own life and build toward the work-life balance that I wanted.

I tried the nine-to-five and hated it because I love my freedom of working wherever I want. My creativity certainly does not suit the corporate environment either, so I knew that I had to take things into my own hands.

Also Read: Dedoco: A founder’s journey to building next-gen digital trust technology

When I decided that I had enough and quit my job, I positioned myself as a digital marketing consultant and, over time, built my pool of freelance clients who would eventually refer me to more clients, but I eventually realised that there was a cap on how many clients I can manage as a solopreneur/freelancer because I do not have the time to juggle so many things concurrently. I am but one person with only 24 hours a day. That was when I decided to build my own team. 

It was very profitable being a solopreneur, but when I built my team, I slowly realised that I had to pay more expenses and, simultaneously, make sure I would bring in more revenue to support the business growth. It was a new set of problems that I had to work through, but I had to do it if I wanted to scale.

It was not an easy journey for me because the rigours of entrepreneurship demand sacrifices. I was working 24/7, wearing a dozen hats, and pushing myself to learn dry subjects I had never considered.

The mindset shift from freelancer to entrepreneur was the toughest, in my opinion, because I had to remodel my offerings and be comfortable delegating and increasing my pricing strategy.

Lessons I have learnt as an entrepreneur

Here are some lessons I have learned along the way in bootstrapping my company from the ground up:

• Concentrate. Try not to juggle too many things in one go.
• Understand dealing with setbacks is an ongoing process, and you will get better at handling failures over time.
• If you are an introvert and don’t like to network like me, try mastering other verticals like social media ads, Google ads, email marketing, influencer marketing and etc. Set up a solid funnel and drive leads you can convert into sales. Keep A/B testing and optimising one funnel if you are strapped for time. I see many businesses driving leads successfully by mastering one funnel, and they do it really well as opposed to creating multiple funnels and becoming a jack (or funnel) of all trades.
• Set up your SOPs, then delegate everything. I hate to break it to you, but you are not so special that the business cannot function without you. You should want the business to function without you because that indicates that you have built a business, and ‘you’ are not the business.

Also Read: From hobby to startup: Here’s my story as IKIGUIDE’s Co-Founder

• Learning is a continuous process. It never ends. So it is important to set aside time to build on your knowledge and skills. When I started building my agency, I fashioned myself as an autodidact and continuously scoured the web looking for answers to every question that I had, which led me to understand design thinking, marketing, and how to run a business. I believe you can learn anything online these days.
• Be a reasonable yet firm leader. I believe that if you are genuine and want the best for your employees, they will feel it. At the same time, when shit hits the fan, you need to be firm, you need to be direct so your employees have the structure they need to get the job done and learn and grow from their mistakes.
• Find a mentor. I cannot emphasise the importance of this enough. You need at least one person to bounce ideas off, gain new perspectives from, and also give you advice. He or she will be the one that impacts your career trajectory.
• Choose your network of friends wisely because they influence your decision-making process. And if you are an introvert like me, there is only so much time you can afford to socialise until the overstimulation and fatigue hit you. I like to spend my social time wisely and surround myself with entrepreneurs because of their spirit and resolve. I have realised over the years how big of an impact these people have on my life and how vital it is to surround myself with people who challenge and elevate me.

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There are many more remote work opportunities now than a few years ago. More companies are hiring remote workers, and employees now prefer to work from home at least a few days of the week rather than commuting to the office all of the time.

The sudden popularity of remote work in 2020 came with many advantages. Organisations gained 21 per cent more profit on average, and employees turned up for work more than they would in the office. It seems like a win-win for both sides — but, unfortunately, there is at least one glaring negative: the increase in successful cyberattacks on remote workers.

Remote work and cyberattacks

A cyberattack is any activity that intends to destroy or steal information stored on a network, particularly from devices like laptops, phones, servers, and other electronic devices that could endanger a business’s reputation and operation if compromised.

Just as remote work created opportunities and advantages for businesses and workers, it also created risks like cyberattacks that companies and their employees need to work together to address.

Also Read: Why firms need a multi-layered approach to cybersecurity

In fact, 43 per cent of remote employees inadvertently allow cyberattacks on themselves or their employer. As a result, businesses are encouraged to develop a cybersecurity policy to prevent potential cyberattacks during remote work.

Nine tips for creating a remote work cybersecurity policy

A cybersecurity policy contains a set of guidelines and rules that monitor the access and usage of an organisation’s information technology systems.

To make sure your data is protected and that there is accountability if it is compromised, you, as a business owner with remote employees, must introduce an effective cybersecurity policy. Below are nine tips for creating a cybersecurity policy for remote work.

Educate employees on cybersecurity

Your employees need to know about cybersecurity and all it entails. This is why it is important to introduce regular training sessions in order to update employees on the latest trends and how to avoid falling victim to a cyberattack.

Provide approved work software

When you provide your remote workers with dedicated, work-only software, it means you know what you’re getting when it comes to cybersecurity precautions and built-in safeguards. This will limit potential dangers like accidental loss of, or damage to, company data or risking computer viruses from using unauthorised software.

Encourage two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication (2FA) ensures authorised verification on a second device before access to information is granted. 2FA is easy and smart and requires little effort to enable. Having your remote workers turn on 2FA for their devices doubles your company’s security and consequently protects your data more thoroughly.

Remind employees to auto-update devices

A regular system update is an excellent way to prevent cyberattacks. Companies should ensure remote employees set up automatic updates for their company-issued and personal devices. Updated devices are beneficial to both organisations and their employees.

For example, data accessed on an employee’s personal device may leak company intellectual property if the operating system is out-of-date. Employees must show equal care in updating their work-related and personal devices.

Use a template

The best way to formulate, communicate about, and enforce a cybersecurity policy is to use a template. Templates ensure your policies are readily available and can be updated at any time. You can easily send a cybersecurity policy template to a remote worker you just hired instead of writing new ones every time.

Here is an outline to create a remote work cybersecurity policy:

• Purpose: This states the reason for a remote work policy.
• Scope: This provides details on the parties involved in the policy.
• Policy details: Contains everything about the policy. From remote access control to data protection and remote system management, this is where you’ll find the main content and everything employees need to know about the policy. You might have different templates for different roles, or you might use this section to describe all roles and how data-handling procedures change accordingly.
• Violations: Provides details about disciplinary actions the company would take if its policy is violated.
• Definitions: This contains descriptions of keywords in the policy.
• Related documents: This names and provides links to other policy-related documents that add further context to the organisation’s remote work policy.
• Approval and ownership: This is where the policy author and organisation members add their signatures to signal their understanding and approval of the document.
• Revision history: This section lists the changes that have been made to the policy since its first publication.

Keep it simple

Less is more. The easier it is to understand a policy, the more employees will comply with it. A simple and easy-to-read policy will result in a faster onboarding process because the reader will begin implementing the content and may not have a reason to ask for clarity because it is simple and easy to read.

Also Read: Strengthening cybersecurity measures in the face of Web 3.0

Advice on the use of VPNs

You can ensure cybersecurity in remote work through the use of a virtual private network (VPN). VPNs protect your device’s data and prevent websites from collecting information based on your location because they encrypt all your internet traffic. Urge your remote workers to install a VPN on their computers.

Encourage the use of antivirus software

You can quickly detect and prevent viruses from spreading through your devices by installing antivirus software. Encouraging your employees to do the same will ensure company-wide safety from cyberattacks.

Create a sense of urgency

As an organisation, you must emphasise how vital a cybersecurity policy is to your workers, no matter where they report from. Even big companies have fallen victim to the malicious activities of cyber criminals, and it is essential that you make active efforts to prevent the same thing from repeating itself at your company.

Secure your company

Remote work is here to stay. As such, companies need to keep up with the challenges that come with it. From ensuring systems and software are up-to-date to installing VPNs to protect data, cybersecurity is essential and requires the collaborative work of employers and employees alike.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page

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E-commerce technology is evolving at a fast pace post-pandemic. The reason is most people avoid stepping into crowded areas to ensure their health and safety.

Among the countries facing a surge in e-commerce industries, Singapore is on the top list. The reasons behind this growth are constantly evolving innovation and technology.

This growth is due to the many benefits that e-commerce provides, including lower costs, convenience, and access to a larger range of products.

In the coming years, e-commerce will continue to be a popular option in Singapore. With the growing economy, more and more people are looking to purchase goods and services online. This is good news for businesses, as online sales have seen an increase in recent years.

Additionally, the rise of social media platforms has made it easier for customers to connect with businesses and learn more about their products and services.

It leads the pathway to various home-led and global brands to explore areas of improvement and enhance their productivity.

This article discusses the growth of e-commerce in Singapore and what the future holds. It also covers challenges, opportunities, and import and export regulations. It should prove to be useful to businesses and entrepreneurs looking to expand their businesses.

Growth of e-commerce in Singapore

According to a recent survey by JP Morgan, most Singaporeans now prefer to shop online. Most of them buy merchandise from international online stores.

This rapid growth in e-commerce is accompanied by the increasing popularity of cashless payment options. According to the WorldPay Global Payments Report (2021), nearly half of consumers in Singapore choose credit cards. Similarly, nearly twenty per cent of them prefer digital wallets to traditional bank transfers.

In addition, 90 per cent of Singaporeans are regular internet users. They spend approximately eight hours online daily on average. This is good news for businesses, as e-commerce has made it easier for consumers to purchase. However, it is important to note that the country is not yet at a saturation point in e-commerce adoption.

Also Read: How e-commerce brands can tap into the US$600 billion social commerce market potential

E-commerce is expected to grow by a factor of four in Singapore by 2022. The country’s high internet and mobile penetration make it an excellent location for e-commerce.

It also has a large and affluent population. This means many consumers are willing to make purchases online, including high-ticket items.

Opportunities

The opportunities for e-commerce in Singapore are huge, and factors are aligned to make this growth explosive in the years to come. This US$10 billion opportunity will allow Singaporean companies to tap into a rapidly growing market.

With high internet and mobile penetration, Singapore is a prime candidate for e-commerce businesses. Its large population is fluent in both English and Chinese and is ready to make large purchases online.

Furthermore, the city’s small size means that shipping costs are low, and the infrastructure in Singapore is fast facilitating nationwide delivery. Singaporeans are also used to receiving next-day delivery from local businesses, making online purchases easy.

Infrastructure

With its strategic location, Singapore is an attractive e-commerce market. Most locals speak English and Chinese, and the country’s infrastructure supports fast deliveries of goods from anywhere in the world.

As a result, Singapore is the perfect location for international brands and businesses to expand their reach.

Singapore has high internet penetration, with ninety per cent of the population using the internet at least once daily. The country also has a large and affluent population, with many consumers having a high disposable income.

Import regulations

Import regulations for e-commerce in Singapore are set to change significantly in 2022, allowing more flexibility to companies and entrepreneurs.

Currently, only certain types of goods can be imported into Singapore, and they must be from an approved country. The legislation differentiates between “prohibited” goods and “controlled” products. The former may be imported only under specific conditions, such as being derived from endangered wildlife.

Currently, Singapore’s e-commerce market is one of the most advanced in Southeast Asia. In addition to having a large and growing middle class, the country is an essential hub for transport within the Asia-Pacific region.

The bottom line

The future of the e-commerce technology trends in Singapore looks bright with the continued growth of online stores and the increase in demand for quality products. The country is well poised to become a leading player in the industry, thanks to its forward-thinking policies and infrastructure.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page

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Vietnam-based electric motorbike startup Dat Bike today announced a US$8 million funding round led by Singapore-based Jungle Ventures.

GSR Ventures and Delivery Hero Ventures also participated in the round, along with Wavemaker Partners and Innoven Capital. This brings the total funds raised by the company to US$16.5 million.

Dat Bike intends to use the fresh funds towards building and improving tech and product; hiring across sales, support, R&D and product teams to manage growing volumes; and investing in capacity building in its factories.

The company also announced plans to expand beyond Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Da Nang, to other Tier 1 cities in Vietnam such as Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Nha Trang, Binh Duong, and Can Tho in the coming months.

It is also preparing to launch its latest model shortly.

Also Read: Dat Bike bags US$2.6M pre-Series A to bring more electric motorbikes to Vietnam

Dat Bike is a technology startup whose mission is to drive the mass adoption of green transportation in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. In a press statement, the company said that it is recognized by the Vietnam Ministry of Transportation as the first domestically-made electric bike.

Founded in 2019 by Son Nguyen, a software engineer from Silicon Valley, Dat Bike was built with a vision to drive mass adoption of green transportation and transform Vietnam’s vehicle market from petrol to electric.

Since its launch, the startup said that it has received an “overwhelming” response and increased revenue by 10x in the last 12 months.

It has opened three official stores in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Da Nang, with more stores in the pipeline.

Son Nguyen, founder and CEO of Dat Bike said, “We are incredibly proud of the progress we have made so far, and we continue to strive to make electric vehicle performance at par and better than gasoline. With the fresh funds, we will be able to invest in building top-of-the-line manufacturing capabilities, scale production efficiently, and continuously improve our products for our consumers in Vietnam and beyond.”

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Fundraising or preparing your startup for fundraising? Build your investor network, search from 400+ SEA investors on e27, and get connected or get insights regarding fundraising. Try e27 Pro for free today.

Image Credit: Dat Bike

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Everyone is searching for the right job, and every business is looking for the right employee. The quest seems never-ending, and no one seems happy, at least for long!

The ramification of constantly shifting socio-economic conditions is leading to the ongoing phenomenon of The Great Resignation. More and more people are waking up in the morning and dreading going to their job, even if it is virtual.

Do we need a change?

While the answer is not straightforward, one crucial change in society is that we have started valuing emotional wellness more than ever in our modern history.

The need to lead a happy and fulfilling life is not just a prerequisite for the people of first-world countries but also for the citizens of developing nations, which is the key contributor to global workforce needs.

Improved quality of life and better access to education, healthcare, and financial benefits in the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Latin America have caused a shift in expectations even for relatively younger job seekers. Job satisfaction and security rank as high as the salary to be the critical factors in selecting a job.

Most regions have a significant talent crunch, resulting in highly competitive talent acquisition practices. Even in one of the most developed economies in SEA, Singapore, according to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), there were 242 job vacancies per 100 unemployed persons in March 2022.

Also Read: X0PA AI bags US$4.2M Series A to scale its SaaS recruitment solutions

This gap keeps increasing each quarter as more employers are now willing to hire in the new normal of COVID-19 resilience.

Several challenges exist in the current recruitment process, and solution providers are fragmented. A typical recruitment funnel starts with sourcing candidates, screening applications, and interviewing and selecting candidates whose credentials and references get checked before offering the job.

Most employers have adopted the funnel framework to determine the best candidate and not someone who will successfully fit and enrich the team.

Sourcing

Consider a modern-day employer who has a vacancy. The company either writes the job description knowing the attributes of a suitable candidate or copies from one of the templates representing the often popular yet unrealistic industry standards. There is always a risk of using non-inclusive language that creates gender and racial biases right at the beginning.

Now to reach out to qualified candidates, the employer must do the following:

• Post on the career page
• Post on social media – Meta and LinkedIn
• Post on various job sites
• Contact headhunters
• Post on specialised platforms like AngelList, Glassdoor, etc.
• Reach out to internal employees for referrals or internal applications

Except for the career site and employee referrals, all other methods are intermediaries between the employer and the job seekers. The recruiter more often has to pay to avail of services that will help them reach the most suitable talents.

In this endeavour, these platforms apply the methods of microtargeting and behavioural targeting to identify qualified candidates, thus restricting access to the broader demographics to apply for the job.

Screening

If the employer is lucky or has spent enough money and time, there are now choices to make from a considerable pool of applications. These resumes may or may not be pre-screened, so the recruitment team must spend significant hours scouring these applications and finding the desired candidates who are qualified for the interview.

Alternatively, hiring techs like applicant tracking systems can help the employer have a more organised approach, and machine learning technique-based predictive tools can recommend the best fit.

Although everything comes at a cost, it will stretch the hiring budget to the limits to implement these technologies. There are also pitfalls of a steeper learning curve and synchronising multiple solution providers to build a seamless process flow.

Interviewing

This is the trickiest step of all. Due to the lack of a standard approach, a candidate’s experience gets negatively impacted if the interview process is lengthy and unorganised.

Will you rent a car from a company that checks your driving license and asks you to take a driving test? The answer is no. So, despite having adequate qualifications and experience, if a candidate feels challenged during the interview process, a social media outcry might impact employer branding, an acute concern in a tight job market.

Artificial intelligence-based advanced assessment platforms collect and analyse data and even implement innovative assessment approaches to standardise the process and save time. However, the model’s ability to set thresholds, auto-reject candidates, and reward others, has often lacked independent validation.

Selection

In the final moment of negotiation, both the employers and the applicant want to establish favourable terms, leading to an offer that often gets predicted by the employer to increase the chance of acceptance by the candidate.

Also Read: Ethical implications of using AI in hiring

However, a large organisation seldom goes beyond the benchmark of previous offers or perceived market standards, widening the racial salary gaps based on gender and race. Smaller enterprises generally lack salary benchmark information and are under pressure to increase offer acceptance chances and not to lose the candidate to the competitors.

They either make very high salary offers to entice the candidate or can have a restricted offer due to a lack of budget. High salary disparity within a small employee base can spark early discontent and attrition.

Do we have a solution?

We expect the businesses would have identified solutions and adapted to address the problem by now, but unfortunately, the recruitment process has changed very little in the last 75 years.

Now one may debate that the process has evolved over the period. With the advent of the internet and technological progress, many heavy-lifting steps and decision-making have been outsourced to specialised platforms or automated to improve efficiency and accuracy.

Today’s large-scale recruitment processes are sourcing candidates through multiple platforms, machine learning algorithms facilitate candidate assessment and selection decisions, and process management software reduce hiring cost and improve quality.

However, on average, it still takes several weeks or even months for most organisations to recruit. A study by LinkedIn’s Economic Graph team shows that it takes more than 40 days for candidates to get hired in most job functions.

Also Read: Hiring a VP of Engineering if you’re an early stage startup: Dos and dont’s

Implementation of advanced hiring tech that improves process efficiency does not fit into the budget of most startups and SMEs, leading to a large job market that is still unorganised and inefficient. Probably it is time not to improve the efficiency of the current process but to change it completely.

How can web3 solve this problem?

As the Web3 foundations are getting laid, it is evident that the decentralised web will transform the recruitment process. The technology providers will have the Web3 infrastructure to implement solutions that will change the recruitment process forever.

Think about a global candidate pool whose credentials like education, past experiences, and skills-sets are pre-verified and genuine. These credentials are automatically updated, removing the challenges of multiple versions and outdated resumes.

The tech platforms in the current era are trying to monopolise the market and commoditize data. In contrast, web3 service providers can only charge for the tech infrastructure and cannot manipulate the process for their profitability.

For example, Decentralised Apps (DApp) powered by decentralised computing techniques, blockchain, and other distributed ledger systems can operate autonomously without any human intervention or ownership.

The fundamental characteristic of Web3 is to build a safer and more trusted internet where individuals can control their digital identity. Self-sovereign identity (SSI) gives individuals complete control of their data so that no sensitive data gets stored in the centralised database that can be stolen or manipulated.

Credentials or identity proofs are integral to human life, from passports to educational certificates. An absence of credentials can deprive someone of access to healthcare, employment, and even citizenship.

It is not different when a job seeker is looking for a job —transfer and verification of proofs of candidates’ identity, education, past employment, and skills take a considerable amount of time. Although most employers rely on third-party tech or services to perform this task on their behalf, there are significant risks of delay, inaccuracy, and data breaches during this process.

Web3 can provide a verifiable credential ecosystem where a holder of a credential (a candidate with an education certificate) can share a zero-knowledge proof presentation to a verifier (an employer seeking proof of the candidate) without sharing the original credential.

The cryptographically verifiable data can be tamper-evident and prove the authorship if the employer trusts the issuer (the university issuing educational certificates). So, without sharing the actual degree certificates, the job seeker can prove to be a degree holder from a trusted university and qualified for a particular job opportunity.

There will be a large pool of verified candidates if there are more and more trusted issuers of verifiable credentials, such as universities, employers, and organisations.

A time might come when an employer can skip several iterations of screening and background checks by directly offering a job interview to a candidate.

The technology can create a global passwordless standard where individuals can own their data and get seamless access to financial, educational, employment, and travel services by instantly and securely authenticating their identity.

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In October, the Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU) and ReGov Technologies unveiled the APU-myBID Web3 Innovation Lab (WIL) to promote and nurture Web3 talents in Malaysia.

Through this collaboration, APU and ReGov aim to respond to the global need for Web3 talent as the world gradually shifts from Web2 to Web3. APU will conduct the Innovation Lab with support from ReGov, which specialises in eKYC for financial institutions and owns the Web3-based identity management platform myBID.

The Web3 Innovation Lab will be open to APU students from all faculties, granting students access to specialised Web3 training and opportunities to sharpen their skills through experiential learning.

In this conversation with e27, Jasmine Ng, Co-Founder of myBID and founding member of Women In Blockchain Asia, discusses the programme and its objectives.

Excerpts:

How severe is the Web3 talent crunch in Malaysia? How the APU-ReGov collaboration aims to address this?

There is a growing demand for Web3 developers, but less than 1 per cent of programmers have the necessary skills to do the job. Due to this, companies that require this skill set are often forced to look elsewhere. For instance, ReGov recruited our blockchain engineers from India and China.

Web3 Innovation Lab is a not-for-profit aiming to empower the next generation of Web3 developers from within the university students with the skills, real-life experience, and training necessary to address the technology talent gap.

Also Read: Breaking the bro code: How women are taking over the Web3 world in Asia

To address the Web3 talent crunch in Malaysia, we are also working on securing two more universities to set up Web3 Training and Innovation Lab.

How is the overall Web3 ecosystem growing in Malaysia? Is there an eagerness among local companies to embrace Web3 and blockchain?

Web3 as a whole is a relatively new technology to Malaysia as the government is still evaluating and understanding the impacts of Web3. It is one of the most popular terms associated with the next digital leap forward in data security and privacy.

The importance of Web3 is rapidly being recognised by startups and large and established companies. This is represented by the fact that over 80 of the world’s top 100 listed companies currently employ some form of blockchain.

The potential benefits are not just limited to reduced cost but also improved security and compliance. These benefits are too good to ignore. The dilemma is whether they have the willpower to embark on Web3 transformation as it will consume resources.

Can you share more details about the programme? How many candidates do you expect to join it? Will you help the successful candidates with placements etc.?

We cannot share more details as it is still in the execution phase.

Once students complete their training and practical assessments, they will be given opportunities to work on myBID use cases supervised by ReGov. They can choose from various use cases depending on their interests, allowing them to pick up real-life Web3 knowledge.

Upon completion of the programme, students can enter the workforce with a healthy blend of hard skills and professional experience, maximising their employability within the Web3 industry.

One of the benefits of this programme is that ReGov ourselves are willing to hire participants who impress during the programme immediately. By doing so, we can offer these candidates stable employment and prove that the demand for Web3 is not just hot air.

What is the role of ReGov here?

ReGov will assist APU in designing the course syllabus to ensure the students receive a curriculum that fully addresses the market’s current needs.

Additionally, students will be working with ReGov during the practical portion of the course to develop Web3 projects that may be deployed within APU or even to other commercial entities.

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NOVI Health, a tech-enabled chronic disease and preventive healthcare company in Singapore, has announced closing its Series A fundraising at US$5 million, led by Monk’s Hill Ventures.

The funding will be used to accelerate hiring for the company’s technology, growth, and product teams while investing further in its online platform.

Globally, one in ten adults lives with diabetes. Diabetes was responsible for 6.7 million deaths in 2021, one every five seconds.

NOVI Health aims to bring a change. It provides hyper-personalised holistic health solutions integrating precision medicine and behavioural and lifestyle interventions to prevent and better manage metabolic disorders such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity.

Also Read: How new technology is improving patient journeys

The company offers two core products through its digital platform.

NOVI Magnum combines continuous glucose monitoring technology with medical care and dietary and lifestyle coaching to optimise diabetes control. This product targets individuals with diabetes.

NOVI Optimum Plus is meant for those with excess weight. It builds on the fundamentals of healthy eating and exercise by integrating validated medical treatment to complement health coaching to achieve sustainable and healthy weight loss.

“Our vision is to empower people to live free from the burden of diabetes and other chronic weight and lifestyle-related conditions. We enhance clinical care by incorporating holistic lifestyle interventions, supercharged by deep human expertise and data insights for better outcomes,” said Sue Anne Toh, Co-Founder and CEO of NOVI Health. “Our digital-first approach allows us to increase accessibility and affordability of our services and impact more lives.”

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Fundraising or preparing your startup for fundraising? Build your investor network, search from 400+ SEA investors on e27, and get connected or get insights regarding fundraising. Try e27 Pro for free today.

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