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Rocket Internet is not walking into an empty market as Vanitee and Wellnessly are both working to bring the beautician industry online

Rocket Internet’s beauty and wellness marketplace Vaniday announced it has formally launched operations in Singapore, the company’s first venture into Asia.

“As there is virtually an app for every single need and desire of the customer, we aim to fulfill the customer’s needs in the beauty and wellness market. Our goal is to create the best possible experience for our customers,” said Global Founder and CEO Maxime Legardez in an official statement.

Vaniday is an online booking platform that connects customers with beauty shops like Kim Robinson and Estheva. Users search the service, postal code of a given salon, find the best price and location before finally booking an appointment. It includes a men’s section and an option for deals.

It also includes a review system so companies are rewarded for service.

Also Read: Rocket Internet launches mobile app for second-hand goods in Pakistan

Launched in March 2015 in Brazil, it quickly went for its original goal of fast international expansion. The company now operates in Brazil, United Arab Emirates, France, Russia, Australia, Italy and now Singapore.

Vaniday raised a EU15 million (US$23.2 million) round on July 30, 2015.

But Vaniday is not walking into an empty market. Singapore does have a host of beauty-related Internet platforms.

Wellnessly is a homegrown company very similar to Vaniday. But Wellnessly has an in-depth and detailed desktop platform while, based on Legardez’ comments, Vaniday is focussed on mobile.

Vanitee is well-funded, having landed a US$3-million round in mid-October, but it is focussed on independent beauticians akin to the “Uber of beauty”.

FoodPanda and Lazada are notable Rocket Internet success stories in Southeast Asia.

The post Rocket Internet launches beauty booking platform in Singapore appeared first on e27.

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The best of Kickstarter, LinkedIn and Amazon all in one platform just for writers. Meet India’s Kitaab

Zafar Anjum, Founder, Kitaab

For Zafar Anjum, Kitaab (book in Hindi) is the best chapter he has ever turned in his life. Yet.

With around 15 editors on board and a steady publishing flow, the time has come for the startup to look for a business model in order to sustain and expand the platform.

“When the publishing programme started, there was no revenue model to speak of, so it just started as a thing that one is passionate about. Being a writer myself, I wanted to create a platform for Asian writers,” he says.

He does not view Kitaab as a bottom-line driven venture. “We thought we if could get a little bit of money, get an author’s short story collection or poetry out, and in the process get some revenue, it will help grow the activity,” adds Anjum.

Also Read: Call me a plumber, not COO: GrabTaxi Co-founder Hooi Ling Tan

Growing up — from a book to a library

Anjum has big plans for Kitaab, which he wants to project as a complete platform for Asian arts one day. Crowdfunding is the first step in that direction.

Kitaab recently started a crowdfunding campaign for publishing of books, and has raised around US$1,200 till date.

“Crowdfunding is not only for money; it is also for validation and to generate some publicity. So the message is going out to people; some have donated and some are just supporting,” says Anjum. He plans to launch a marketing campaign for the initiative soon.

But the plans are much bigger than the recent campaign.

“I want to introduce crowdfunded publishing within Kitaab. We need to re-jig our platform to have that functionality within our website. Initially, we might do it through some platform like Indigogo or Kickstarter, or we can choose some Asian service, but ultimately we want to have it within our site,” he says.

On the cards is also an e-commerce feature to enable selling of books that are published by the company on its own platform. While the books are already available on marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart, Anjum envisions a library of books on Kitaab.

Also Read: Behind the Startup: A government official, a law grad and a coder walk into a startup

“We want to have books which we feel need to be told more or exposed more, so we will acquire books from other places and sell it on our platform and promote them,” he says.

Excited about all the possibilities with the platform, Anjum also wants to create a database of writers for writers on the lines of LinkedIn, where they can create their profiles and have their fans follow them and interact with them.

“So it will be an integration of Amazon, LinkedIn and Kickstarter — everything into one platform,” he laughs.

From a scribe to an entrepreneur — the journey

“In the process of tech journalism, I got exposed to the innovative things a lot of tech companies and startups were doing. That kindled a fire in me to try entrepreneurship and apply technology into the literary space, my prime love,” he says.

And thus, Kitaab was born in 2005. It subsequently merged with an Australian website that could not sustain at the time due to lack of funds.

The evolution of technology brought Kitaab back to life in 2013. “I revived Kitaab in 2013 because then technology had made it possible to run a journal like this on a very low cost. So, I used WordPress platform to build the site on my own,” shares Anjum.

Also Read: Startup in Spotlight: Miso helps South Koreans find home cleaners

The other reason that literally pushed him to revive the site was his wife, he chuckles.

“She kept egging me on that we should not let Kitaab die as it is a beautiful concept. She was a big driving force. She dragged me into a firm that helps register businesses. So she’s the Co-founder of Kitaab in a sense,” he says with a hint of pride in his voice.

The phase of disappointment came between 2005 and 2013, but since the re-launch, there has been no looking back. “Now the crunch will come when money will be needed to take it to the next level. I’m not sure any VC will give money for such a project or not,” he says.

Once the website becomes self-sustainable with the planned launch of the e-commerce platform and the publishing business, he also plans to bring in video content, which he has already started working on, separately.

“I’m also working on a separate platform that will enable crowdfunded short-film making. We have not launched it yet, but are working on the backend at the moment. There might come a time when we might merge the two things together — literature and screen, as to how to transfer literature to screen,” he reveals.

After listing all his plans excitedly, he sums up by saying, “It’s an exploration; it’s a journey.”

The post Is there a writer in you? You should know about Kitaab appeared first on e27.

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One step forward, one step back for Uber in Indonesia. After the company last week claimed to have received the “green light” from Jakarta’s Governor to operate in Jakarta, the governor responded that he had never made such remarks and that Uber’s statement was a “one-sided claim.”

How did this misunderstanding come about, and what does it mean for the company?

The big meeting

Uber’s statement on Tuesday last week followed a milestone meeting between Uber, GrabTaxi, Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (often referred to by his nickname Ahok), and Jakarta’s transportation agency (Dishub).

There’s a recording of the meeting:

Governor Ahok clearly states his support for ride-sharing apps like Uber and GrabTaxi, welcoming the competition they bring. He lashes out at the Dishub on several occasions, saying it was not quick enough to adapt to the new era and failed to provide adequate safe and affordable transportation options for Jakartans.

The meeting was a breakthrough because the parties for the first time collectively laid out the rules that app-based transport companies need to follow to operate in Jakarta.

So is Uber legal?

Uber’s application to set up a foreign technology company in Indonesia has been accepted and is currently being processed by the Indonesian Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM).

Karun Arya, Uber’s spokesperson in the region, tells Tech in Asia that Uber has completed six out of the ten points required for a foreign company to set up shop. You can look up here what these ten points entail. Karun expects the set-up process to be finalized by early next year.

GrabTaxi, Uber’s competitor in the region, is actually a step ahead in this process as it has already established a local company.

The more complicated question, however, is that of the legality of the cars in Uber’s network.

Uber works with independent “driver partners,” as the startup likes to call its uncontracted workers, who themselves have to comply with a set of rules before they can join Uber. For example, they cannot join as individuals, but need to be part of a car-hire company. For this reason, several such companies have recently sprung up in Jakarta – “more than 100,” according to Karun.

Car-hire companies need an operational license from Dishub. This process has previously been a bottleneck. “There used to be a quota,” Karun explained. Dishub would only give out a certain number of those licenses a year.

If you watch the video documenting Monday’s meeting, you can hear Mike Brown, Uber’s regional manager for APAC, make the case for this quota to be lifted (30m 29s).

Uber continues to emphasize it is a technology company – implying it’s not responsible for the drivers using its app. But obviously it has an interest to make sure potential drivers receive the necessary operational licenses and insurances as easy as possible so that Uber’s network can grow quickly.

Beyond the operational licenses for car companies, Uber and its drivers will need to figure out taxation. According to the rules laid out in the meeting, Uber’s drivers need a tax number. And the income they generate through driving for Uber will be subject to taxation. How exactly this will be handled by Uber is still in negotiation, Karun said. “We are looking into whether we can pay that for the drivers.”

Uber and its drivers also need to get the necessary insurance and ensure that cars are inspected for safety at regular intervals by authorities.

Unfortunate wording

Uber, in its press release on Tuesday after the meeting, chose words like “greenlighted,” and other statements which made it appear that Uber’s compliance process was already completed rather than a work in progress.

Governor Ahok, known for his short temper, shot back to emphasize that some aspects of Uber’s operation still need to be figured out.

This public spat was particularly confusing because the head of Jakarta’s transportation agency, Andri Yansyah, had previously confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that Ahok gave the nod to car-hailing apps such as Uber and GrabTaxi to operate in the capital.

Karun maintains that the statements made in the press release are clear and correct and that all quotes attributed to the governor were approved by him. He said Uber wasn’t sure how the misunderstanding came about. “It’s something we’ll speak about with [the governor’s] office and [the governor], and make sure we clear the air.”

This post In Indonesia, Uber’s ‘green light’ changes to orange appeared first on Tech in Asia.

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Using Myanmar and India as examples, Telenor’s Karianne Melleby shares insights on why mobile communication is the new digital frontier to conquer emerging markets in Asia

It was less than three years ago that Myanmar opened up bids to build its first modern and competitive mobile networks. Within 18 months, two new entrants had launched their networks and millions of people started joining the telecom revolution.

During the country’s recent milestone elections, mobile communications played a key role in helping inform citizens’ decisions and contributed to political transparency.

From a flourishing new crop of social media-based apps designed for the elections to the number of mobile towers sprouting across the country, Myanmar is a shining example of the impact mobile communications can have in the frontier markets of Asia.

Mobile adoption is surging in emerging economies 

Consider this: According to an Ericsson mobility report, 87 million new mobile subscribers were added globally in this past quarter alone, and nearly six per cent of them came from Myanmar – making it the fourth fastest growing mobile telecommunications market on earth. India came in first place, adding 13 million subscribers in the same quarter.

The telecom industry aims to stimulate demand by developing its core services, such as faster networks and more advanced handsets, as well as by introducing innovative new services.

For example, in India, global telecom giant Telenor has introduced a free life insurance scheme for its more than 47 million customers, as well as potential new customers. Previously, less than four per cent of Indians had insurance of any type, the offer from the company enables a greater part of the Indian population to easily activate a life insurance policy and sustain it through their monthly mobile top-ups.

Also Read: Myanmar startups ready for more disruption after historic polls

In Myanmar, industry observers have been surprised by high Internet usage among the country’s telecom subscribers. Among the company’s customer base, more than 55 per cent use the Internet on a regular basis on their mobile phones — a figure that easily beats the usage levels in neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh and Thailand.

People in Myanmar have fallen in love with the ability to play games online, share their updates on Facebook and get their horoscope from one of the popular fortune tellers on the mobile Internet.

Looking beyond subscribers and the evolution of the industry, mobile telecommunications is enabling innovation and delivering on the promise of a digital transformation of emerging Asia.

Transforming Asia…digitally

The economic impact of innovation driven by mobile apps is not to be underestimated. According to the Asia Pacific Mobile Economy 2015 report, content, applications and services alone contributed US$52 billion to the Asia-Pacific GDP in 2014. The same report also pointed out that this sector contributed to approximately 2.4 million jobs in the region.

At the recent Digital Winners conference in Oslo, Norway – a Telenor platform which offers thought-provoking perspectives on innovation and digital business opportunities – six promising Asian startups from Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, India and Pakistan competed for the conference’s ‘Best App in Asia’ award.

The six shortlisted Asian startups, which presented mobile apps focussing on education and agriculture, embody the rising trend seen across Asia: startups want to launch innovations that empower societies.

The winner was Myanmar’s e-book app, Wun Zinn, which was selected for its impact on education and access to learning. The app is designed to connect writers with their readers in an online sourcing, publishing and selling platform. Its creator, Bagan Innovation Technology, is looking to scale up regionally in order to introduce the platform in Thailand and Malaysia.

What needs to be done now

However, for innovation to take flight, there are many challenges for startups. To overcome the hurdles of finding distribution, funding and partnerships, support needs to come from within the ecosystem: the telecom operators, the technology giants and the already successful entrepreneurs.

Platforms such as Digital Winners and incubator programmes such as dtac’s Accelerate, demonstrate the role telcos play in broader digital initiatives. Startups should look towards telecom operators for their strengths in networks and distribution, funding and access to a broad and digitally hungry audience.

Also Read: Startups betting big on quick growth of Myanmar’s user base

The digital transformation in emerging Asia is one of the biggest industrial shifts in modern history, and one that the telecom industry is committed to driving forward.

Just think about Bagan Innovation Technology: If a Myanmar-based startup already has the potential to create the best app in Asia in 2015, imagine what the future might look like for its fellow innovators in the years to come.

The views expressed here are of the author’s, and e27 may not necessarily subscribe to them. e27 invites members from Asia’s tech industry and startup community to share their honest opinions and expert knowledge with our readers. If you are interested in sharing your point of view, please send us an email at writers[at]e27[dot]co

Image Credit: Lewis Tse Pui Lung/Shutterstock

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The Korean online food delivery marketplace’s Chief Strategy Officer talks about the country’s penchant for dialling

Christoph Mayr, Chief Strategy Officer, Yogiyo

For Christoph Mayr, Chief Strategy Officer, Yogiyo, the Korean arm of Germany-based food ordering marketplace Delivery Hero, starting in the Northeast Asian country was a no-brainer.

He arrived in Seoul, South Korea, in February 2012, but his colleagues had already set up an entity in the capital city in 2011, and had started work there.

“We scouted the market here in Korea early in 2011,” he tells e27. “I guess it’s one of those cases where done is better than perfect.”

“We just kind of jumped into the cold water… Even though we didn’t have the master plan in place yet, we just thought, “Okay, there’s no time to waste here. Korea is a great opportunity. Let’s get the ball rolling.”

There were about three to four full-timers back then, alongside a small pool of interns, serving the still nascent online food delivery scene in Korea. That is a far cry from Yogiyo’s headcount of 350 people in 2015.

“It’s different from Germany, but the market opportunity was pretty obvious at that time. So, it was not like, ‘Oh, this is a super exotic market and we don’t understand it at all.’ We had some of the key people in Germany, and I don’t know exactly how and why, but they had travelled to Korea and they knew that there is a lot of delivery going on,” says Mayr.

Also Read: These are the teams we loved at SparkLabs’ 6th Demo Day

“We wanted to automate everything — online, no calls needed and so on. So, there was a clear opportunity from my perspective. I was quite excited at the time,” he adds.

Modernising Korea

As the old saying goes, “Hindsight is always 20/20.” Today, tech companies are increasingly mobile-first, knowing that consumers are leaving their desktops for their tablets and smartphones.

Masao Kahihara, Senior Research Manager for Asia-Pacific at Google, wrote that Korea is a “smartphone paradise” with the second-highest smartphone penetration rate in Asia and the market for most apps installed on smartphones.

But for Mayr and his team back in 2012, going mobile-first wasn’t exactly as intuitive or easy as it sounds.

“We quickly realized that we had to change our strategy a bit, and a website alone is not going to cut it in Korea. Korea is very, very far ahead of the curve in terms of smartphone penetration…” he says.

Meanwhile, globally, other subsidiaries of Delivery Hero looked towards what Yogiyo was doing in Korea and learnt to optimise their mobile experience quickly.

At that time, while there were many consumers familiar with the ins and outs of food delivery, there were only two dominant online food delivery options: Baedaltong (which Delivery Hero invested in) and Baedal Minjok.

People weren’t going online to order food yet. Even today, according to Mayr, only five to 10 per cent of those who order food are doing so over the Internet.

In Korea, people are “used to it”, says Mayr, talking about how consumers are familiar with the “traditional” way of ordering food via the phone. They get a flyer, which comes with a pictorial menu and a phone number.

They pick up the phone and call in. Sometimes, the restaurant owner would recognise these callers and know exactly what they would like to order. Other times, the call ends two to three minutes later, and the food would arrive a while later.

“Also, it’s quite efficient in a way, at least comparatively speaking. So, for example, in Germany, if I’m ordering in Germany, and I dial a hotline or the restaurant’s phone number, there is an 80 to 90 per cent chance that I will speak to someone who’s not a native German speaker.

Restaurants are mainly run by immigrants in Germany, and that’s actually a common theme in almost all countries we’re operating in. But in Korea, there are not many immigrants running restaurants, so everyone speaks the same language,” he says.

“The majority of Koreans actually know us, but still, for one reason or another, they don’t use mobile applications for ordering. For me, that’s a bit of a sign – Okay, we are not done. We have to constantly improve our service offerings. There’s a bit of inertia, right? So it’s not enough to be a little bit better than the traditional [way of ordering food] but we have to be much better,” he adds.

Even if Koreans continue to pick up their phones only to call restaurants manually, not the automated way Mayr had intended them to go with, there is still a problem. Discovery. There was no way for people – even those who order food via phone delivery – to know and order from the different restaurants around their area. They definitely won’t be able to do so via a call.

“I think, for this office, for example, I can choose from more than 500 restaurants,” says Mayr, referring to the Yogiyo headquarters in Gangnam, Seoul. In that case, the company’s ranking system helps users know just which restaurant to order from.

Also Read: In photos: Yogiyo is more than a food delivery marketplace

Korean only

At the moment, the Yogiyo app still does not support the English language. Mayr also does not think that the service will support the language in the near future.

“It depends on other priorities right? There are still so many things that we have planned that will give us a better return on our time,” he says.

“First of all, there’s not so many foreigners in Korea anyway, compared to other countries. Even once you have the interface, that doesn’t really solve the problem. I give you one example – I use Uber from time to time if I’m abroad but not in Korea, because if I use it in Korea, then basically I will get a call from the driver and he’s like oh where should I come? … But then, he talks to me in Korean.”

Doesn’t that mean that perhaps the interface is not as automated as Mayr was hoping for? Why do consumers still need to pick up calls from drivers, if they are able to confirm their location via the app?

“The problem is even if it works 90 per cent of the cases, what do you do with the remaining 10 percent? If the motorcycle rider cannot find it, you know, it happens, it’s not really my fault… He calls me, of course, because he has my phone number but we cannot communicate. Then, what happens? That is a big problem,” he tells e27.

Does Mayr order through Yogiyo, then, despite not being able to speak Korean? “I don’t speak, but I can read the text … so for me, it works quite well,” he says, ending our interview.

The post Can’t be a bit better, have to be much better: Yogiyo’s Christoph Mayr appeared first on e27.

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The CEO tells her side of the story of her impending departure from the Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC)

A file photo of Cheryl Yeoh, CEO of the Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC).

Cheryl Yeoh, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC), intends to get back into the business of launching and running a startup herself.

But it will not be for another year at least, as she prepares to leave the agency that she has played a leading role in setting up since it was launched to much fanfare by US President Barack Obama and Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak in April, 2014.

“I will eventually start a business. Maybe 2017 and beyond I can consider… but probably not in the next year. I really want to take a break and not work for awhile,” says Yeoh in a phone interview with e27.

The Malaysian was speaking last week in the wake of news of her impending departure from MaGIC, an agency under the auspices of Malaysia’s Ministry of Finance.

Also Read: MaGIC’s Cheryl Yeoh gives her notice, leaving CEO post this month

Achieved KPIs ahead of time

Citing unnamed sources,  a Digital News Asia (DNA) story indicated that “mounting pressure” on MaGIC to adhere to its original mandate of reaching out to entrepreneurs of all types and that a focus on tech startups and entrepreneurs has been a factor in Yeoh’s impending departure.

It also mentioned that her contract was for two years, with the option of an additional year at the discretion of the Malaysian government.

But Yeoh, whose tenure at MaGIC will fall three months short of two years when she leaves on January 14, 2016, says that she is leaving simply because her contract is up.

“My term was two years [but] I’ve achieved my KPIs (key performance indicators) ahead of time. I’ve achieved all of the programmes I’ve wanted to set up and I’ve made sure that the team is strong enough to continue running those programmes,” says Yeoh.

Also Read: Macro-view of Malaysian ecosystem with MaGIC’s Cheryl Yeoh

No mounting pressure

Downplaying her impending departure, she says, “My title is the ‘Founding CEO’ because I was meant to start something up. Sometimes, you do need different leaders for different stages of the company. I’m not so sure why it’s so surprising for people but it’s quite normal for where I come from in the [Silicon] Valley for people to come and go.”

While making clear that DNA first reached out to her to confirm the news and that she had sent the ‘official statement’ carried in the story as a response to questions that they sent, she adds that there had been no clash in ideas between her and the Board.

“There was no ‘mounting pressure’ at all. The board meets quite frequently and we always tell [them] what we are going to do and they are fully supportive of our plans. There has not been any push back to focus on other types of entrepreneurship,” says Yeoh.

Yeoh’s links with Silicon Valley, where she became a successful entrepreneur in her own right, having co-founded and sold Reclip.It, a personalised shopping list app, meant that she was always going to bring in a focus on tech startups and entrepreneurs.

She indicates that this was something she did not hide from MaGIC when interviewing for the job of CEO last year.

“When I was being interviewed (for the MaGIC CEO role) in February 2014, I did a whole one-day presentation about what I would do for MaGIC, and 95 per cent of what I presented last year was what I eventually executed. So it (MaGIC’s development) hasn’t veered off from what I had presented,” says Yeoh.

Emphasising that her ideas were backed by the Board, she refers to comments made by Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah, the Chairman of MaGIC, covered in a February 2014 DNA story.

She says, “In fact, our Chairman himself made a statement that MaGIC would focus on tech entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship. And this was two months before I actually came back [to Malaysia].”

Also Read: MaGIC wants to make Malaysia the startup capital of Asia

A variety of industries

But a focus on technology and social entrepreneurship did not mean discrimination against other industries. In fact, she says that technology and social entrepreneurship encompasses a variety of industries.

“There’s this whole misconception about the tech and ICT (information and communications technology) industry – that it’s only one industry and it’s very niche. But the truth is that we support all industries. The component they share is that they all leverage technology,” says Yeoh.

Explaining why this focus on technology is necessary, she says, “If our intent, which I was told is to push us (Malaysia) from middle-income status (for Gross National Income) to high-income status (under the National Transformation Programme), then we have to be forward-thinking and that means we adopt technology because the world is moving that way.

“So it doesn’t make sense if you ask me to start up an agency that trains traditional entrepreneurs. There are already agencies doing that and those agencies still remain relevant for that group of entrepreneurs.”

Also Read: 10 cool startups that caught our eye at MaGIC’s inaugural demo day

Highlights

The programmes that MaGIC has launched under the stewardship of Yeoh include the MaGIC Accelerator Programme (MAP) and the MaGIC Academy. Along with its global and regional programmes aimed at lending startups exposure to ecosystems outside of Malaysia, Yeoh says they form three pillars (to accelerate, educate, and expose) for MaGIC to move ahead without her.

The four-month-long MaGIC Accelerator Programme, whose inaugural batch of 50 startups from 12 countries — all with a focus on ASEAN — graduated and had their Demo Day in November, was a highlight for her.

“We had over 150 investors come and a lot of them said it was the best Demo Day they’ve ever attended in the region. MAP was for any startup (local or foreign) as long as they’re focusing on the ASEAN market. The emphasis on ASEAN was important to us and the fact that investors are now paying attention is a great achievement,” says Yeoh.

Reflecting on what MaGIC has achieved, Yeoh says, “I think what we’ve managed to do is create this agnostic, neutral, and agenda-free platform that has managed to earn the trust and respect of the community – all the successful entrepreneurs, the investors, the VCs and corporations.

“We have helped shed light on what startups are, removed the taboo around them and created this critical mass [of startups] that [has] made Malaysia visible globally in terms of being a good place to start a company in Southeast Asia.”

Also Read: MaGIC whips startups into shape and preps them for the world stage

‘Not an easy task’

The journey, as one imagines, has not been all that easy, especially moving from the progressive culture of Silicon Valley to one fraught by racial (or bumiputera) policies, which critics such as Jefrey Zan Dain Yunan of Pergerakan Pemuda UMNO (the Malaysian ruling party’s youth wing) have used as recently as last week to censure MaGIC.

When asked about some challenges she has faced, Yeoh says, “It’s obviously not an easy task. The first six months, I didn’t know anyone so I wasn’t lucky enough to come in knowing people that I could hire right away.”

Hiring her first 10 staff in her first two months, Yeoh also needed to understand the needs of the startup and entrepreneurial ecosystem and the other organisations already existing within the space.

“I [also] didn’t want to simply impose what I thought we should do. I needed to validate my ideas for what the ecosystem needed.

The other challenge is that there are a lot of other agencies who are already supporting entrepreneurship in very different ways so I’ve had to make sure our mandate didn’t overlap with other agencies,” says Yeoh.

She has also worked to instill an organisational culture that is not common in Malaysia.

“Malaysia is known to have a very high power distance (a phrase that describes how much people at the top of the hierarchy expects to tell people at the bottom what to do, and how those at the bottom expect those at the top to tell them what to do). Obviously, in Silicon Valley, it’s the other way around. So we try to practise it (through initiatives such as a weekly Ask-Me-Anything sessions with her or the VPs) here at MaGIC as well and I think it’s worked well for the company,” says Yeoh.

Also Read: It is time for Malaysian startups to look beyond MaGIC

Developing individuals, not just companies

Underlying this openness to staff members is a desire Yeoh has to contribute as much as she can to their personal development.

“I want to be known as someone who develops individuals, not just companies. Every team meeting, I try to do a personal growth exercise for them to develop personally and professionally as well. I will definitely miss my team a lot but I know we’ve accomplished a lot and that the team is passionate about staying and carrying on the work that we started,” says Yeoh.

And while MaGIC will soon carry on its work for startups and entrepreneurship in Malaysia and the region without Yeoh at the helm, the Cornell University alumna imagines she will be travelling somewhere in the world, not that she has had time to plan for it.

When asked whether she sees herself staying in Malaysia or returning to the US, Yeoh says, “I’ll probably travel back and forth. And I’ll probably travel around. Africa, South America, Antarctica, Europe… Who knows?”

And while she travels, she will have time to consider some of the varied proposals she has received, from building a startup ecosystem from scratch to setting up a venture fund and helping to vet startups; building co-working spaces, academies, and accelerators; and playing advisory roles.

She is unsure what she will take up or if she would even accept any of these proposals.

“I’m not rushing to get a job,” says Yeoh, who expresses more certainty about the sort of impact that her next venture would have.

“Whatever I work on in the future will have global-level impact, not just regional,” says Yeoh, who adds she will not be turning her back on the region. “I definitely want to find a way to keep myself connected to the region even if I return to the US.”

Also Read: 500 Startups, MaGIC announce new ASEAN-focussed growth-stage accelerator

The post Whatever I work on in the future will have global impact: Cheryl Yeoh appeared first on e27.

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