2020 has taken a huge toll on the workforce. In the USA, at the beginning of the pandemic, more than 20m lost jobs, though the numbers started looking better post-July, and employment is on an upward trajectory at present. Though the ones in jobs didn’t have an easy time, either.

Lack of remote work infrastructure and overnight adjustment to this working style came with its own set of challenges. Businesses worked hard the entire year to find the right model for continued uncertainty in bringing the workforce back to normalcy.

This dilemma alone has led to a record investment of US$1 billion+ in Q2, which is greater than the 13-quarter average of US$841 million.  

HR tech is considered white-hot, because companies operating in talent-constrained environments seek to invest in tools to help them better recruit, develop, and support their workforces. A record amount of capital has gone into AI solutions for talent recruitment.

However, the pandemic has shifted the quest to find solutions in the other overlooked areas of HR that require urgent attention and breakthrough solutions. It is hence safe to say that the next wave of investment in the HR space will likely be focused on the solutions in the areas listed below.

Self service technologies

The post-pandemic era will see a rise in the demand for employee self-service (ESS) and manager self-service (MSS) tools to make HR information more accessible.

Historically, ESS and MSS tools being purchased are seldom fully rolled out to the organisation. Mainly because organisations perceive this as putting too much burden on managers to accomplish tasks. The MSS tools were generally shelved and instead, a shared-services centre with HR administrative services was made available to the line managers.

Also Read: In October, logistics tech startups continued to gain investors’ attention as the world struggled through a pandemic

This approach is obsolete now and will not work well with the remote working era in the foreseeable future. The industry will be vying for interactive self-service tools in the area of on boarding, performance monitoring, and employee training and development.

The industry is yet to be disrupted by a comprehensive technology that will take away a lot of manual, repetitive tasks from the administrator’s hand.

Human capital management solutions

Although the majority of organisations have flat organisational structures and teams, much human capital management (HCM) solutions haven’t been built to support those structures. Post pandemic, the future of work lies in flat working structures that unlock the potential of dynamic teams.

As business strategies and teams grow more agile to keep pace with recurring change in companies, HR technology must adapt as well, including providing employees with more user-friendly and efficient experiences. The industry will see a rise in the demand for HCM solutions to deliver improved levels of system uptime and scalability.

For instance, a rise in remote working and gig working will lead to changing needs for remuneration cycles. HCM solutions with a more personalised, easier payment methodology will be of interest to many. 

Work redesign

Historically, companies have mitigated skill imbalances by redeploying staff continuously across teams, unbundling job roles into specific competencies by training and development modules.

Organisations are focused on redesigning jobs as one alternative to thwart the recruit from a shrinking supply of “purple unicorn” candidates in the job market. Investment in the skill set enhancement of the active employee will be top on their agenda.

In the remote work era, organisations will be looking for solutions that are leveraging technological systems and tools to reduce in-person dependencies and creating a virtual learning environment. 

Also Read: Propseller raises US$1.2M in seed funding to ease property sales through a combination of tech, property agents

Data privacy

The expectation of employees today is that internally they’ll be treated more like customers, and that includes how their personal data is handled. Many expect more transparency and control over their data.

To a certain extent, it’s up to HR to ensure that the policies and technology systems being used will provide the right level of transparency, as well as the right level of protection for employee data.

As more data-privacy laws are enacted to join the likes of the General Data Protection Regulation and the California Consumer Privacy Act, HR leaders, and technology solutions will play a growing role in helping to strike the right balance to win employees trust.

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As an employer, you stand to benefit as part of your workforce goes remote. Recent studies have shown an increase in employee productivity when teams work from home. 

As you reduce your office real estate footprint, you will also get to enjoy substantial cost-savings. That’s why nearly 84 per cent of companies expressed an intention to increase their work-from-home capacity even beyond the pandemic. 

However, your employees also face a different set of risks when working from home, compared to working from the office.

And under the law here in Singapore, you owe a duty of care towards your remote employees to take all reasonably practical measures to keep them in a safe and healthy work environment.

This duty of care applies whether your employees work in the office or at their homes. And it also applies to companies of all sizes – from startups and small-medium businesses to the largest enterprises.

How am I responsible for my remote employees?

Singapore legislation and common law require you to provide a safe work environment for your employees and not put them in harm’s way.

And note that the term “workplace” isn’t limited to just offices but to any premise where your employees work, including their homes!

The duty of care you owe to your employees includes the following:

• Conducting risk assessments to identify hazards and implement effective risk controls.
• Taking reasonable practical measures to make sure that their work environment is safe.
• Ensuring safety measures are taken for any machinery, equipment, or process used at the workplace.
• Developing and implementing systems for emergencies.
• Ensuring your employees are provided with sufficient instruction, training and supervision to work safely.

Failing to carry out this duty of care can result in fines of up to S$500,000 for the first time offenders to S$1 million for repeat offenders.

Also Read: Work from home risks every employer needs to be aware of

How can I fulfill my duty of care in a practical way?

Carrying out your duty of care to your remote employees does not have to be difficult or expensive. We suggest a simple five-step approach.

Step 1: Create a work from home policy

Even if you have only a few employees working from home, this is the first step you should take. A thoughtfully drafted work from home policy will help to align your company’s expectations to your employees’ responsibilities.

And more importantly, it also helps to prevent disputes if anything happens when working from home. An effective work from home policy should include the following:

• Your policy brief and purpose
• Who’s eligible to work from home 
• What the approval process like like 
• What’s the frequency employees can work from home 
• How are employees expected to communicate with onsite staff 
• Is there an expected response time 
• What are their productivity measures and markets 
• Will the company provide or subsidise work from home setups 
• What equipment and tech support can employees expect
• The dress code 
• What remote work locations are available
• Channels for feedback 

Here is a template you can use to get started. 

Step 2: Review your employment contract template

We recommend reviewing your template employment contract and making changes, if necessary. Singapore labour law requires the employment contract to mention the employee’s place of work.

So if your company allows employees to work permanently or partially from home, you should also mention this inside the employment contract.

Also Read: Why remote working is the future for startups 

Step 3: Conduct risk assessments at the workplace

Workplace risk assessment is an integral part of health and safety at the workplace.

A proper risk assessment helps both you and your employee to identify potential hazards that could potentially cause harm to your employee. 

Once you’ve identified the risks, you can then evaluate it, find appropriate measures to control it and communicate this to your employees.

Often overlooked areas of potential risks when employees work from home include:

• Poorly set up workstations that can cause postural issues 

• Wires, cables, rugs or mats that are a trip hazard 

• Overloaded power strips that pose a fire risk


You can conduct a risk assessment in two ways.

The gold standard, which is expensive and time-consuming, is to have an in-person or virtual assessment done by a professional who is trained in workplace safety and/or ergonomics.

An alternative cost-effective method is to have your employees fill in a self-assessment checklist with photo submissions of their home workspace and receive workplace safety training.

Step 4: Evaluate and fill in the gaps revealed by the risk assessment

A properly designed self-assessment checklist and photos should allow you to assess whether there are potential risks or hazards at your employee’s home workplace.

If the gap exists, you should proceed to advise your employee to remedy the issues and train employees on how they can work safely.

For instance, this photo reveals that the employee is working from his bed and on an ironing board. 

This should immediately raise a red flag – employers can then choose to provide a proper work desk and chair or a stipend to purchase one, according to the remote work policy. 

Do note that while it is your employee’s responsibility to comply with your policy, it’s also your responsibility to ensure that these policies are clearly communicated to them.

Step 5: Ensure you are sufficiently covered for work-from-home related liabilities

If your existing business insurance doesn’t cover liabilities when employees work from home, it’s worth considering adding insurance to protect you and your employees in case of any work from home mishaps.

These insurance could include:

• Specialised work-from-home insurance This covers work-related injuries more likely to happen at home, such as ergonomic injuries, mental health support and accidents (trips and falls).

• Cyber insurance This covers any losses from cyberattacks which have increased due to more people working from home. 

• Property insurancee This covers damages to the company’s assets outside of the office premises and includes monitors, laptops, phones, chairs, etc.

• Employer or D&O liability insurance This covers the employers for any claims made by the employees, for instance, relating to health and safety injury claims

At the end of the day, other than it being a legal requirement, showing your employees that you care is also good for business. 

It helps to increase employee retention, improve their productivity and increase their engagement levels.

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To learn more about how to keep your employees safe and avoid legal liabilities, join our webinar with Esevel founder, Yuying Deng.

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.

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For many of us who are excited about the advent of 5G, it would be hard to believe that there is still a section of the population out there, who struggles for basic needs such as electricity, 3G, open borders for travel and safe working environment.

But for the residents of Gaza, this is a living reality. For, they have long acclimatised to the deprivation caused by the incessant conflicts between Palestine and Israel dating back to the 1940s.

Needless to say, this has largely affected the tech ecosystem in the region, which has witnessed airstrikes being launched in the middle of a startup pitching competition and startup offices being blown up— incidents that are part of their daily lives.

For a country that has been imprinted with the title “warzone”, it can be challenging to find financial resources and access to global payment gateways, despite having a growing talent.

It is not that investments are completely absent in Gaza; some amount of startup funding still comes in, especially from investors in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. However, investors tend to prefer having physical contact with the founders — a criterion that is difficult to fulfil, because of the travel restrictions imposed on the residents.

Regardless of the piling problems, locals have remained largely resilient and continue to show persistence by bringing new ideas to the table. Even during extraordinarily abnormal circumstances, creativity blossoms but lacks expression because of limited access to resources.

Also Read: Meet the Southeast Asian startups participating in the Expara VirTech Global Accelerator programme

In this article, e27 highlights the efforts of Gaza Sky Geeks (GSG) — the only startup incubator in the city — that provides opportunities for young Palestinian entrepreneurs to kickstart their own startups.

Founded in 2011, GSG is the result of a collaboration between global NGO Mercy Corps and Google for Startups. Since its inception, it has not only been helping founders to launch successful companies but has also been running programmes to help local individuals upskill.

Currently, GSG runs three programmes: 1) an academy that helps to teach and train individuals to become online freelancers, 2) Codeacademy, which helps individuals learn to code, and 3) GeeXelerator, an accelerator programme for early stage startups.

This article is largely focussed on GeeXelerator and its works.

How the programmes are run

According to GeeXelerator’s co-ordinator Yousef Elhallaq, the latest cohort received over 600 applications from idea-staged startups, of which 12 have been selected. The programme is currently being run virtually due to the pandemic.

The equity-free programme runs for 16 weeks wherein startups are provided with mentorship and funding to build on their ideas.

The first four weeks are dedicated towards the idea and market validation and the next few weeks on building an MVP and finding the right marketing strategy to get the product out.

An amount of US$1,000 will be provided to each startup in the third phase, which they can spend on marketing. At the end of the programme, the two top startups will be provided with a grant of US$10,000.

As for the selection process, the founders are asked to send a two-minute video to introduce the idea and the team, from which the best are chosen.

“There is no one strong criterion for founders to join the programme. Basically, we are looking for people who have the passion, skills and knowledge about the sector or the idea. We also focus on the scalability of the idea. The other factor is that the team should have at least one technical founder, so they can build their product during the programme,” Elhallaq added.

The GSG advantage

Access to payment gateway: Access to global payment gateways like Gpay and PayPal is hard in Gaza. So GSG has collaborated with global payment platform Stripe to make it easier for individuals associated with the accelerator to receive payments.

Access to global mentors: Even though travelling to Gaza is extremely difficult and requires a special visa or travel permit issued by the Israeli or Egyptian embassy, GSG has access to an online community of mentors from global companies, such as Google, Apple and Facebook.

Access to travel: Individuals are not allowed to leave the Gaza strip, therefore GSG allows founders to go on a field trip once a year to neighbouring countries to get more exposure.

Simpler to register a company: Thanks to its good relations with the government, GSG has made company registration easier for founders, which otherwise is a cumbersome process.

Innovation in a mysterious market

While Palestine might not have the best resources, Elhallaq shares that the region has one of the highest educated population in the world — about 90 per cent of all the residents in Gaza are university graduates.

A large part of innovating in Gaza involves self-learning because of the lack of global resources, which is also part of the reason why GSG runs programmes to upskill individuals via Codeacademy, so that they can bring their idea to life or get them matched to other co-founders.

Hakini is one of the startups being incubated at GSG. Founded only three months ago, the firm focuses on increasing access to mental health resources and service in the Arab world and has already acquired 150 users.

Also Read: This Surabaya-based startup is tackling depression by providing easier access to mental health services

The other is Tourud, which provides delivery services for e-commerce businesses. According to Elhallaq, establishing online businesses via social media handles such as Instagram and Facebook is very popular in comparison to setting up websites. Since Tourud takes care of delivery, it is easier for small business owners to focus on the core product.

There are a few popular startups in the region (not part of GSG), including Tashkeel3D, a 3D-printing service that provides customers with medical equipment; and Mummy Helper, a platform that gets Arab mothers to receive support on parenting.

E-commerce currently remains one of the popular sectors in Gaza, after health and education.

Supporting tech in Gaza

While this is only one side of the coin, tech in Gaza is largely under political pressure which disallows it from reaching its fullest potential. Luckily, since the world is not defined by physical borders, there are many ways for mentors, investors and founders from Southeast Asia and other parts of the world to contribute towards empowering the ecosystem in Gaza.

Here are some ways to support Gaza’s tech ecosystem:

1. Mentorship support: While GSG already has more than 300 mentors from global companies such as Apple, Facebook and HSBC, it constantly looks to recruit new mentors, who can not only share their experience and knowledge about the software development and entrepreneurship but also about freelancing and self-growth. There are no specific criteria to be a mentor, and anyone can apply to join the network.

2. Hiring Gazan talent: Through the Codeacademy platform, Gazan talent can be supported by hiring talented developers and designers at a cost that is lower than most countries.

3. Offering investor network: By connecting GSG with MENA-based investors.

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Image Credit: Gaza Sky Geeks

 

 

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As the Smart Nation push continues to position Singapore as a compelling innovation-led market for businesses and high-tech talent, the demand for software and the role of the developer based in the Southeast Asia region will evolve over the next few years.

GitLab’s 2020 Global DevSecOps Survey found that developers are already reporting new responsibilities – such as tasks normally associated with ops and security – while at the same time releasing software much faster and embracing new technologies including Kubernetes, microservices, and even artificial intelligence (AI).

The adoption of Agile and DevOps processes and practices across the software development life cycle are still somewhat immature. Enterprise leaders in ASEAN are focused on ways to provide faster releases and fixes and create innovative customer experiences.

To achieve the acceleration, they need to address the various dimensions of the changing developer role to stay ahead of the competition.

A new org chart

Goodbye, IT department and hello line of business. As the software stakes get higher and product managers continue to set software development goals, it makes sense that developers will end up embedded on business teams rather than technology teams.

A report from Forrester Research looking at trends for 2020 refers to this shift as the “dev diaspora” and predicts that after some bumps in the road it will improve productivity and release speed. The basic message: Software is critical to business success so should be located with the business rather than in the IT department.

New colleagues and culture

With developers moving “into the business” and a growing emphasis on citizen devs, it’s clear not all teams will be filled with hardcore coders. Some certainly will be working alongside citizen developers. But others may also find “team members” in unexpected places, like their integrated development environments (IDE).

Also Read: PoC to prototype to MVP: Software development 101 for early-stage tech startups

Although AI is still nascent in most enterprise development teams, some industry analysts are bullish that AI can bring speed, advice, structure, and perhaps even coding to the table in three to five years from now.

However, no matter how quickly AI ends up as part of the pro-developer work experience, it’s clear dev culture is going to have to change if “development” is no longer such a specialised skill.

To achieve a successful transformation, leaders need to figure out how to improve collaboration across different teams and encourage rapid, continuous learning and improvement, especially from their mistakes.

Yet another shift left

Security, test, and automation may have already shifted left, so now, organisations need to get ready for customers to shift left. Traditionally, developers have been largely absent from customer interactions, but that’s going to change moving forward. Developers need to be taking on a design mindset, thinking about the customer and building features together with the customer they are connecting with them as humans.

The humble growth curve

From 5G to edge computing, micro services and more, cutting-edge technologies will be mainstream soon. Developers will need to understand how to tie them neatly together. The fast-growing Internet of Things (IoT) market – predicted to offer US$31.7 billion in opportunities for Communication Service Providers in Asia-Pacific by 2025, according to Frost & Sullivan – means edge computing may be coming to DevOps teams sooner than anticipated.

Edge computing will challenge developers to literally put processing power within the application (on the “edge,” in other words) rather than having to reach out to the cloud for computations. Despite the immense hype, a 5G wireless network rollout is underway in Southeast Asia. Singapore is expected to start commercial 5G from January 2021, with two 5G licenses being issued to StarHub and SingTel.

With the aim of 5G coverage of at least half of Singapore by end 2022, 5G has the potential to upend mobile application use as we know it, and thus mobile application development.

Dramatically faster download and upload times will give developers the chance to create more-feature-rich applications with better user experiences including potentially both augmented and virtual reality.

Also Read: The open source business model: can ‘free’ be ‘profitable’?

Micro services go mainstream

The GitLab survey found that only 26 per cent of respondents fully use them but they are key to the future. Distributed systems will have a greater need for tracing and troubleshooting services and as such, the interactions between services are going to be especially important.

Developers will need to know how to manage micro services in the near future. AI has often been dismissed as a promising technology breakthrough that somehow remains out of reach, particularly when it comes to software development.

However, the 2020 Global DevSecOps Survey found that close to one-quarter of developers surveyed said that an understanding of AI/ML will be the most important skill for their future careers. And roughly 16 per cent of testers said their teams are using bots right now or have an AI/ML tool in place for testing.

It’s certainly an exciting time for DevOps and developers across Southeast Asia, as organisations look to harness the opportunities from the market’s unique position to lead the region in innovation. By understanding how the role of the developer is changing and the tech coming their way, organisations can undertake the necessary process and culture shift to enable changes in the developer thought process.

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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.

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Question: What’s the most important consideration when deciding, among founders, who should take on which leadership role?

Play to your strengths

“I have been involved in multiple partnerships at the founder level and have learned through experience it is always best to play to your strengths. While one person may have initially come up with the product or model, another may be more suited to lead the company as the CEO. Every role at the founder level is equally important, so assign them with the company’s best interest in mind.”

– Dustin Cavanaugh (@renewageenergy), RenewAge

Look at team dynamics

“In every team, there are dynamics that should be taken under consideration when distributing roles. In the very early stage, everyone wants to be a C-Level, but as time goes by people should be willing to drop the CxO title and take over what they can handle best.”

– Yiannis Giokas (@ygiokas), PCCW Global

Look at various life stages

“Most entrepreneurs never weigh their personal life and the overwhelming power it has over their business. Marriage, kids, grandkids and health concerns should all be factored in when deciding on leadership positions. They should also be re-evaluated as your business and you grow and evolve. The pace you worked at two years ago may not be the pace you’re at now with differing factors in place.”

– Kim Kaupe (@kimkaupe), ZinePak

Look at proven expertise

“If you have to ask yourselves which role each co-founder should have, it means that the team is likely not balanced to begin with. The co-founding team should be chosen so that the expertise of each one covers a certain aspect of the business: tech development, business development and management. It’s not about what one wants — it’s about what one brings to the table.”

– Daniele Gallardo (@472), Actasys

Also Read: Angel investors appreciate these 5 uncommon things that founders do

Think about what you want most

“As an entrepreneur, you have the opportunity to build toward the future you want to create. When deciding who should take on what role, play to each other’s strengths, but also think about what it is that you all really want to be doing. Strive to create a team and an environment where you can make that happen. You founded a company to do more of the work you love.”

– Lindsay Mullen (@LindsMMullen), Prosper Strategies

Divide and conquer, then trust

“Most founding teams already have complimentary skill sets (someone technical becomes the CTO, someone more business oriented becomes the CEO, et cetera). The most important things is to have a delineation of roles so the founding team can get the most done, and then leave space for the other(s) to do work without micromanaging.”

– Fan Bi (@blanklabel), Menswear Reviewed

Look to performance as the primary consideration

“Founders spend a lot of time thinking in the abstract about who will be the CEO, COO, et cetera. Ultimately, it’s all guesswork. You just have no idea until you’ve tried it. At InGenius, we gave all the founders projects typically done by the CEO, and the person who performed best took that role. It takes a little longer than just choosing, but it dramatically reduced the chance of error.”

– Joel Butterly (@JoelButterly), InGenius Prep

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The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organisation comprising the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship programme that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

Image Credit: chuttersnap on Unsplash

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What is weakness?

Everyone has at least one or two weaknesses that afflict them. Even people you look up to and admire are still human inside, and they still have problems to deal with.

My biggest weakness is sugar, and it’s why I slowly gained 50 pounds (25ish kilos) over the last decade without realising it, leading me to now have to eat very carefully and workout six days a week with a trainer to get the weight off. But weaknesses can be more than just excess fat or atrophied muscles. It can also be a lack of knowledge or experience in an area of life/work, or a fear that prevents you from making a decision. What matters most is how you think about and handle weakness. Every entrepreneur has their own attitude towards their weaknesses, and that mindset will determine future failure or success.

Avoiding weaknesses is the first step towards failure

Some entrepreneurs avoid their weaknesses because, for them, it’s easier to pretend they don’t exist, and ignoring them may feel like the fastest, safest bet to make them go away. While this may work in some instances, like being afraid of snakes, in other instances, it can be catastrophic, like not knowing how to manage your finances.

In this situation, a weak financial foundation can be why she never grew a business beyond just herself working like a mad dog for years before burning out, since she didn’t take the time to arm herself with the knowledge to manage the accounting and correctly deploy capital to hire employees to offload tasks so she could focus on business development. Her company fell apart because she avoided making a crucial decision early on about getting rid of her fear of understanding her numbers.

Another example of avoiding weakness could be when he tried to develop an application without a technical leader and didn’t spend time learning to fill that gap personally since he was afraid he was too dumb to develop technical skills, or he just felt inundated by the process, and instead outsourced the development of his baby to a team somewhere else in the world and the team completely screwed up the development and wasted all of his capital. His company fell apart because he avoided making a crucial decision early on to find someone he could trust and empowered them to help manage the technical development who would also be passionate about the company’s future. I think you get the point.

Also Read: Malaysia as springboard to the ASEAN: A tech pass for global entrepreneurs

Acknowledging weaknesses is the first step towards success

Now let’s look at another personality type, the entrepreneur who acknowledges their weaknesses, and works intelligently to resolve them. Those who acknowledge their weakness are more self-aware than those who avoid them, which leads them to be more capable of understanding why they have this weakness, and then decide the best course of action.

One example of an entrepreneur who acknowledged their weaknesses was a non-technical founder with no co-founder who hired an amazing technical employee to guide him through the process of becoming knowledgeable. Then, the founder was able to make better decisions about what languages to code with, how to hire the best developers and give them the tools they need to develop the MVP smoothly. He could have tried to learn how to become a CTO on his own, and he may have found success, but he certainly would have spent a long time and the team would have suffered until he found his footing, so by trusting someone to give him advice, he found a way to learn over the long-term while minimizing the negative effect on the company at large.

The second example of an entrepreneur who acknowledged their weaknesses was someone who was great at the product and leading a team to develop it but had no idea how to market it. Instead of spending the time to learn about marketing, she found someone who was an expert in marketing and empowered them to develop a marketing strategy, and the product launched successfully. If she had tried to learn and do it herself, she may have found success, but it would have taken time away from her larger responsibility of managing the product and developing the business. See the differences between these examples? Those who dealt with their weaknesses through learning or trusting others to handle them, they found success, but those who avoided their weaknesses failed miserably.

How to turn your weakness into a strength?

Is it really possible to deal with weakness though? The answer is of course, yes! But only YOU can take the first step on this long journey. So how do we do this? As mentioned above, there are essentially two paths you can follow to turn a weakness into a strength, and it depends on your personality which path you take.

The first path is to learn the skills yourself and take on the responsibility and develop the systems so that when you inevitably hire someone to take over for those tasks, you know you can trust them because you understand deeply what you need to expect of them to perform at a high level.

Also Read: Lightspeed launches Extreme Entrepreneurs 3.0 for high potential startups in SEA, India

The second path is to find someone you can trust who already has the skills, and work with them to do what is necessary, and give them the tools they need to get it done and empower and encourage them to develop the systems so they can automate and hire people to run them so they can manage those people.

Tackle each weakness separately for the best results

Before you decide which path to take, remember that it’s dangerous to take one path for all of your weaknesses. This is because if you learn every skill for yourself, you may never have the time to develop the systems to then hire people, and your company could fail because you lack the energy to focus on the most important thing, which is getting and serving customers. If you find someone to handle every task without knowing anything about those parts of the business before you find them, you may be hiring the wrong people without realizing it, and they could damage your company long-term because it would take you a long time to figure out who is doing the damage, what the damage is, and how to fix it. So based on your current situation and your personality, take all of this to heart when deciding how to handle each of your weaknesses.

Your brain is a muscle

If you are afraid of the path where you learn a skill first, develop the systems, then hire someone to take over, consider that every part of your body is a muscle. When you do a push-up, you are targeting your chest, back, and shoulder muscles. Every time you do a push-up, your chest gets bigger and stronger. The more times you do it, the greater the results will be, but remember it will always take TIME to see those results because nothing is immediate.

Learning a new skill is the same thing: the more you read about it, the more you apply what you’ve learned, the more likely you’ll be to get better at it and eventually be able to teach your team how to do it, why? Because your brain is a giant muscle. So, consider that any weakness in your mind is something that can be “exercised,” the more you exercise it, the higher chance is that it will become a strong muscle. Makes sense, right? But before you can exercise your weakness, you must first understand how to exercise it and why.

Foot in the door theory

There is an idea in psychology called “foot in the door.” What this means is if you want to do something big, you should first try something small. If you succeed, then you will feel more confident in trying something bigger. Instead of looking at how some people are masters at this new skill, you are working towards learning, look at ways to just get started.

Also Read: How youth entrepreneurship and social innovation can overcome the COVID-19 hurdle

Let’s use fear of water as an example. Imagine you were thrown into the deep end of a pool as a kid, but because no one taught you how to swim and you almost drowned, you avoided going into the water again for fear of dying. Now as an adult, you have kids and want them to enjoy the water, so to be a good role model, you decide to deal with your fear.

The first natural step you would take is to put your toe in the water. Doing that didn’t kill you, did it? If it did, please tell your family, I’m sorry. I’m going to assume you didn’t die, so let’s move on. The next step would be to put your ankle in the water and walk around, then your knee and continue to walk around. You are slowly becoming comfortable with the water, and realizing that you did not need to fear it. Before you know it, you’ll be learning how to swim, and possibly even scuba diving to see what’s underneath the water, causing your friends to be jealous of your confidence and strength!

Takeaways

Use the “Foot in the Door theory” to help you quickly break down the different parts needed to learn how to become skilled with whatever it is you are interested in. If you decide to go down the second path, you should ask for people you trust to recommend someone they trust with the skills you need. Interview them, get to know them, see if they will be a good fit for the culture you are establishing, and test their hard skills in a way that proves they know what they are talking about. From there, we can only hope they thrive! And remember, entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint.

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This article was first published on We Live To Build.

Image Credit: Michal Czyz on Unsplash

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There’s no understating COVID-19’s impact on businesses across Asia. As economies across Asia start to emerge from lockdown, business leaders are reassessing their plans and projections to accommodate the ‘new normal,’ and creating opportunities for startups.

Many startups already possess one of the qualities that could prove most beneficial in the post-pandemic world – business agility. But being agile and moving fast is just the beginning. Startups also have to look for opportunities to pull unnecessary costs out of their business, forge new links to partners and customers, and ensure their employees are continually developing new skills. With this focus, startups can lay the groundwork to survive and thrive in the new normal.

The urgent need for digital transformation

During these challenging times, we are seeing companies of every size, including startups, express their desire to transform more quickly into the cloud as a way of breaking free of the legacy on-premises infrastructure that holds them back from trying new ideas.

According to Daphne Chung, a research director at IDC, the pandemic has underscored the importance of digital transformation across all industries. Cloud continues to be the underpinning platform for all digital transformation initiatives and has therefore seen an acceleration in demand in the wake of the pandemic.

In Singapore, the public cloud services market is expected to grow by 13 per cent from 2019 to 2020. All that cloud promises when it comes to elastic consumption, agile development, and global reach are in demand, and the value is being realised across Southeast Asia.

The education and health sectors have embraced digital solutions in an unprecedented way.

An example of healthtech responding to changing business conditions, is Japanese telemedicine startup, MICIN, a company that offers a free app for virtual doctor appointments, and other features like medical questionnaires and billing. MICIN experienced a substantial surge in demand for their telemedicine app, Curon, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also Read: How Salesforce attained its clout in cloud computing in Southeast Asia

Running on the cloud, they were able to sustain a near ten-time increase in new patient registrations from January to April. Curon runs on services including Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), AWS Lambda, and Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), which many startup customers rely on to scale quickly and accommodate unpredictable growth or demand.

As consumers continue to embrace digital services, their behaviour change creates opportunities for agile startups that quickly innovate with cloud technology to deliver great experiences online.

At AWS, we are helping startups rise to meet this opportunity. One example is the Indian health and fitness startup, Cure.fit. When COVID-19 hit, the company had to shut its physical gyms, but quickly saw they could stay connected with customers by running virtual workout classes, and creating personalised online programs.

The success of this new offering led to a sudden spike in traffic to Cure.fit’s website, which they were able to manage by leveraging Amazon CloudFront, a fast content distribution service that securely delivers data, videos, and applications to customers globally.

Saving money

Running a startup can be a stressful experience at the best of times, and one of the most critical factors underpinning their success is how well they manage their cash. And that means making sure they are only spending money on things they absolutely need.

AWS offers several ways for startups to save money on their cloud expenses. We work with startup customers to make sure they are using the most cost-effective pricing models and are not using more AWS services than they actually need.

The AWS Trusted Advisor online tool helps startup customers reduce costs, increase performance, and improve security by checking their use of AWS services, and making suggestions to help optimise performance.

In Singapore, we worked with fintech, MoneySmart to help reduce their cloud spend by more than 28 per cent per month through cost optimisation exercises. As an example, Spot Instance usage enabled the personal finance portal to achieve a near 50 per cent savings compared to On-Demand usage.

Also Read: From Archives: How startups can get a big boost from cloud computing services

Attracting customers

One of the hardest tasks of bringing a new idea to market is simply making people aware of it, and by identifying platforms to facilitate these introductions. At AWS, we work hard to forge connections between startups and potential customers and partners.

We regularly connect executives from large organisations with startups to hear about new solutions that might be of interest. These connections often involve ‘reverse pitches,’ where large organisations discuss their challenges and startups propose solutions.

And finally, while we know that startups rarely have spare time on their hands, it is important to never stop learning. Keeping up to date with the latest products and developing the skills to use them is more critical now than ever.

There is a variety of free online education and live-streamed or on-demand training events for startups across Asia at every growth stage, including AWSome Days and the AWS Builders Online Series for early-stage founders new to the cloud. AWS Innovate conferences are for startups looking to accelerate their cloud skills.

The natural agility of startups gives them the capacity to adapt quickly to market changes and presents a chance to win new customers. By using this time to take stock of their business and the opportunities available to them, startups can move forward with confidence into 2021 and beyond.

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In 2016, Nam Dang, a farmer hailing from a countryside in Vietnam, chanced upon a report, titled Edible Insects: A Solution for Food and Feed Security by United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The report documented how cricket, an insect, could play a key role in addressing food security, climate change and rural development as an efficient and environmentally-friendly food source.

“I was stunned by one finding of the report that to produce one kilogram of crickets, only two litres of water is required, whereas to make a single pound of beef, it costs about 10,000 litres of water,” says Dang.

Himself a farmer, he knew the importance of saving water, and he used water from a well to irrigate his crops.

“Back in the 2000s, a ten meter-deep well could provide enough water for a hectare of agriculture. But nowadays, even we drill down 100 metres below the surface, finding water is hard,” he adds.

When he learned that a tropical country like Vietnam would be suitable for farming crickets, he decided to try his luck.

Also Read: No animals were harmed in the making of this ‘meat’ burger

And Cricket One (C1) was born.

Established in 2017 by Dang and Bicky Nguyen and located in Binh Phuoc Province, C1 is a startup that cultivates and processes cricket, which is rich in protein and minerals, as an alternative source of food.

Cricket eggs hatch after a 7-day incubation period. From hatching to harvesting, it takes a total of 32-35 days. The company then processes crickets into products such as protein powder, high omega oil, soluble protein and meat analogue products and food ingredients.

Artificial Intelligence plays a vital role in the production and processing of crickets. The tech is used to improve the yield and enhance the process, thereby rising the economic base of farmers and ensuring the productive use of agricultural lands.

Currently, C1 claims it processes more than 100 million crickets a month. Its signature product Cricket One — cricket powder consisting of 60-70 per cent protein and seven per cent fibre — is exported into many markets around the world.

The startup has shipped the product to over 15 countries, globally. Dang said its products are used by bakeries and chip manufacturers in the EU, the US and Asia.

Aligning with UN goals

C1 aims to achieve three key Social Development Goals of the UN — namely zero hunger, climate action and no poverty.

“We use crickets as a solution to address malnutrition and global food insecurity. As an efficient protein and mineral-rich food source, crickets have the potential to sustainably feed to the bottom of the pyramid of the society,” he shares.

When it comes to climate action, livestock production is responsible for the 45 per cent of the global land use, 23 per cent of the global freshwater usage and 25 per cent of the greenhouse gas emission.

Compared with the production of beef, pigs and chicken, crickets requires just a fraction of land, water and feed, and it produces little greenhouse gases.

Also Read: Why Sesamilk thinks plant-based milk is healthier than cow milk and has a bright future

“Another fact is that modern farming ignores smallholder farmers. With crickets farming, we believe this community has what it needs to build a sustainable competitive advantage. We help them build their capability and improve their livelihood through training, supporting, and buying from them,” elaborates Dang, who leads a 20-member team at C1, who works in farming technology, food-tech and production.

The market size

A report by Barclays Investment Bank finds that the global edible insect market will reach US$8 billion by 2030 with a 24 per cent CAGR.

As per another report by UBS, the alternative protein market grew to about US$5 billion in 2018. It expects the industry to grow exponentially to US$85 billion within the next decade.

While it holds massive potential, the alternative protein segment, however, is still in its early phase. In the edible insects market, Thailand, Canada and Europe are ahead.

The market has not progressed to a stage where there is fierce competition.

Adds Dang: “When one player makes some noise, the whole industry reaps the benefits. I guess what we all are trying to do is drive consumers to conscious consumption and educate about its health and environmental benefits.”

In the alternative protein segment, Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have outstripped smaller players and have found a place for themselves around the world.

However, Dang feels that food production is a vast market where there is still more than enough room for new players. The concept of winner-take-all cannot apply here.

“So we never know whether we are competing with plant-based meat players. Nevertheless, we both promote environmentally-friendly food and have our own unique selling points,” Dang observes.

In his opinion, although edible insects have always been part of the human diet, there are certain prejudices and misconceptions in some parts of the world when it comes to its consumption.

“Our mission is to make this earth-friendly food part of our daily diets. When we built the roadmap for crickets to go mainstream, we thought it had to come in a familiar form — a meaty texture. We developed a meat analogue technology for this reason — to bring crickets to a wider audience. The burger patty is just one of them,” he shares.

Also Read: Thailand’s plant-based meat startup battle intensifies as the annual Vegetarian Festival kicks in

COVID-19 has been a boon for many alternative protein companies. However, for Dang and team, the crisis has been a dampener; the pandemic hit his business in the initial months as logistics were disrupted, air freight cost went through the roof, and sea transport became almost standstill.

“Demand was also disrupted in some countries. However, in other countries, the demand was growing rapidly during the peak time. Since the start of Q4, we could sense everything is getting better.

Funding

In October last year, C1 received an undisclosed amount of funding in a round co-led by 500 Startups and Singapore-based Masik Enterprises. The startup has also secured another round of funding, which will be announced in the coming weeks.

What are your future plans? “Well, keep up with what we are doing, always find innovative ways to bring our crickets to consumers, be loyal to our social and environmental mission,” he concludes.

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Image Credit: Cricket One

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We are nearing the end of 2020 and we can now say for sure that WFH is here to stay.

While it saves commute time, WFH comes with a series of its own issues. We want to take this time to reflect on the struggles of working from home and try to resolve some of them, so we invited Yuying Deng, Founder and CEO of Esevel, to help us out at a recent e27 webinar.

Deng launched her company during Singapore’s circuit breaker because she saw that COVID-19 has accelerated the trend to work remotely. Her passion lies in empowering people to work from anywhere and still be capable of achieving their best work possible.

Her startup, Esevel, is a Singapore-based company that offers premium home office furniture to help you work from home comfortably and boost your productivity. From actual furniture to virtual ergonomic assessments, and packages for individuals and businesses, Esevel aims to be an end-to-end remote work platform that helps companies reduce the complexity of managing a dispersed workforce.

At the webinar, not only did she share some insights on how this trend is evolving and some legal angles to keep in mind for both employees and employers but also demonstrated ergonomic positions one can easily create with everyday items at home.

Also Read: The future of startup financing in the WFH age

Key takeaways

• Avoid bright and bad light. Sit away from a window.
• 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 mins looks away to something 20 feet away for 20 minutes.
• Screen has to be at eye level. Use an inexpensive laptop riser if you need.
• Switch hands ever so often while using the mouse.
• A good chair must be stable have a hand rest, and adjustable height and not more than 5 cm gap between seat band and back of knees
• You can add a monitor screen for a laptop at least 23 inches and above for better viewing.
• If you are working at a cafe, make sure your lower back is supported.
• Most importantly, keep it dynamic and don’t be in any posture for too long.
• Standing desks are a good investment. Follow the 1/3rd: 2/3rd standing: sitting rule
• At an average you can stand for 20 minutes or 30 minutes and then take a break

Resources

Watch the live demo and check out the full video for a special discount on Esevel services:

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Image credit: Andrew Neel from Pexels

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The changing dynamics of startup investment impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic have pushed investors and business to pivot their business.

But exit strategies that eye on mutually-beneficial remain critical for both investors and startup firms to discuss from early on.    

As exit discussions can be seen as negative, the dynamics and challenges from an exit strategy should be seen as positive.

An exit is essentially the first step of a potentially long business journey. When it comes to exits, there is either a true exit (where a company is acquired out right), or a partial exit (where all the funds and capital get released as a result of that).

Also Read: Stakeholders often prioritise glitzy exits, not the long-term longevity of the firm

There are three key things that both investors and founders need to hash out from the start. They are:

• Good investment returns (paybacks) always need an exit strategy.
• Investors will shy away from startups that have no exit plans.
• Preference by entrepreneurs for startup roles that avoid the big-company roles.  

As a corporate venture capital investor, UMG IdeaLab sees an exit as one of the means to provide funding — when and if needed — and as a stepping stone to invest in different startups.

If we combine startup entities in an M&A, we need to consider how they can synergise and the potential financial benefit from the merger.

An M&A should also take into account the shared visions and objectives of the startups that we try to grow that contribute to users.  

As for partial exit — or a complete exit — it requires a lot of preparation. It is important that all shareholder agreements and data room are properly sorted in advance to ensure proper and responsible data display. 

These are all important steps to ensure that the startup you have invested in is clean and remains attractive for other investors to potentially step in.

Also Read: Busting the 5 popular myths surrounding startup exits

The process of listing a company should be considered as a capital strategy to achieve the next business milestone.

Other options that can be taken into consideration as exit strategy — but not recommended due to possible negative perceptions — are asset liquidation and cash out investors. 

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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.

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

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