#Asia Why angels are not flocking to invest in Taiwanese startups

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Lack of successful exits and quality startups are just two of the many reasons why angel investment still hasn’t taken off in Taiwan, says the author

If you look at the statistics of a country like Taiwan you would automatically think: “why isn’t this country producing more startups?

For one, although it is a small with only 23 million, it has one of the largest number of electric and computer engineers in the world, together with a long history of tech production.

For another, money also doesn’t seem to be a problem, since just recently Jack Ma announced that Alibaba would start providing funding to Taiwanese startups in different stages through its non-profit Taiwan Entrepreneurs Fund worth almost US$307 million. Taiwanese entrepreneurs in the commodities and services space can apply for investment in order to expand their market to Greater China or the world through this fund.

It also has startups that have managed to raise great amounts of funding and expand beyond its borders such as Taiwan-based artificial intelligence startup Appier, which closed a US$23 million Series B round, and Pinkoi, an e-store for designers to sell their wares that secured a US$9 million investment.

However, most of Pinkoi’s and Appier’s investments came from foreign investors, such as Sequoia India and Japan’s GMO Venture Partners. And cases of Taiwan startups expanding outside of its borders are still rare.

PicCollage, a photo collage app, is still one of the few local businesses that has managed to break into the US market.

The lack of good exits is a problem that some people in Taiwan have attributed to the lack of angel investment, while others blame the lack of quality startups.

No traction? No deal

“If you’re an entrepreneur just coming from university, you better have a rich daddy,” says Ronald Yu, an entrepreneur who has already created two startups — an online store that uses facial recognition, and Get Alfred, a valet parking service.

Also Read: Taiwan startup Kdan Mobile talks challenges in building a sustainable app

He started Get Alfred with US$200,000 raised from friends and family. He believes that if you have a concept but no traction, it will be very hard to get investment in Taiwan.

“I’ve heard that in China if you have a good educational background, some investors will trust you. Investors are smart, they want to see a constant growth and get a return on their investment as fast as possible. So, without exciting traction, you won’t attract them that easily,” he says.

Many of his friends working for corporations such as HTC, Mediatek or Asus ask him if they should quit and create their own companies, rather than just working in the programming sector. And he tells that the way to getting investment can be arduous.

The changing scenario

Weiting Liu knows all about how difficult it can be. When he first started Codementor, an open marketplace for coding tutoring, he needed investment in order to find a partner and expand. Thanks to personal contacts, he got a five-figure investment from local VC fund, TMI.

After receiving funding, he graduated from the Silicon Valley accelerator TechStars and raised US$1.2 million from TechStars Ventures, 500 Startups and the Foundry Group. But he is one of the privileged few.

“The last three years have seen the number of startups in Taiwan and angel investment reach an all-time high. However, I think investment knowledge in Taiwan is still not evenly distributed. There’s a couple of smart angel investors (sic) but a lot of investors who see themselves as angels but invest in an outdated and local way,” says Lu.

He believes because Taiwanese startup success stories are still rare, the average Taiwanese angel investor is reluctant to make risky investments.

Kickstarting the ecosystem

The Taiwanese government has tried creating incentives for international investors to not only invest in Taiwan but also bring in international know-how, mentorship and partnership to the ecosystem.

It has also begun investing on its own by creating the National Development Fund, which gathered US$438 million in funds last year for developing a local startup ecosystem. It was planning to direct US$83 million of the total amount in four different venture capital firms, such as 500 Startups and the local accelerator Appworks.

It has also exerted many crucial changes, such as the creation of an Entrepreneur Visa — providing 2,000 visas for a period of one year starting this July — to foreign entrepreneurs looking to create startups in Taiwan. And it has established a Taiwan innovation and entrepreneurship centre in Silicon Valley.

Some of the most active angel investors in Taiwan are home-grown accelerator programmes modelled after Y Combinator such as AppWorks, which has a US$10 million fund for domestic startups. AppWorks has recently helped 91App, a Taiwan-based startup that builds customised apps for brands and retailers, to raise US$9 million in Series A funding.

Also Read: Do not do superficial things to help startups: AppWorks’ Jamie Lin

Some groups like Angel Club Taiwan have done early-stage investment in many local startups such as PCHome, VMfive and the successful online restaurant reservation EZTABLE. However, before they invest they conduct three-six months of due diligence, so their SOP is not in true angel investor fashion.

“We say here that Taiwan suffers from an “angel” rare disease (sic). We prefer to invest in early stage, but always in VC style, not angel style,” Su Shi Zhong, Secretary General of the Taiwan Angel Capital Association, tells me.

Nevertheless, if you’re a Taiwanese startup, your choices for seed investment are still scarce and a lot of your chances for angel investment reside on successful entrepreneurs looking to blindly invest.

But angel investors do exist in Taiwan

People like Wayne and Matt Huang are there to help you. They are two brothers who, after successfully founding cybersecurity company Armorize Technologies and selling to US’s Proofpoint, now focus on mentoring Taiwanese and advocating Taiwanese innovation.

Both the Huang brothers and Weiting Lu serve as mentors at Taiwan Startup Stadium, a government-created startup cluster looking to educate local startups through mentorship bootcamps and promoting them in overseas startup events. It recently managed to help send UX Testing, a Taiwanese startup that helps improve mobile user experiences using data visualisation, to TechStars and are looking to bring more foreign investors to the island.

However, these mentors also have some complaints about the lack of Series A funding in Taiwan. For which they cite the following factors:

– Lack of business experience in Taiwanese startup founders, who usually come from the same engineering background.

– Lack of a target market for some of the products created by teams

– Lack of global thinking

– Too many copycat products

“We need to bring more successful stories to Taiwan, and show outside and local investors that we have valuable people who can create good products,” says Lu. “Silicon Valley wasn’t created in a day.”

Also Read: In Photos: On the ground as Taiwan Startup Stadium pivots

In order for a startup ecosystem to be healthy, it needs success stories and entrepreneurs who, after making it big, go back to do some angel funding. What Taiwan needs is that first ‘unicorn’ to break the mould, and for that Taiwanese entrepreneurs have to start being more innovative and finding their market.

Luckily for Taiwan, that unicorn might’ve already been born.

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: Supavadee butradee/Shutterstock

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#Asia These are the teams we loved at SparkLabs’ 6th Demo Day

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Home cleaning, remittance and GIF creation services — these are a few of our favourite teams from the Korean accelerator’s big event

John Lee, CEO, WaHome, one of the companies graduating from SparkLabs Demo Day

John Lee, CEO, WaHome, one of the companies graduating at SparkLabs Demo Day

Now in its sixth year, SparkLabs‘ Demo Day is more impressive than ever, with more than 2,100 registrants and seven stage-ready startups graduating from its programme.

SparkLabs is a South Korean startup accelerator founded by Jimmy Kim, Bernard Moon and Hanjoo Lee. It has invested in 48 companies, with 76 per cent of them receiving follow-on funding from venture capitalists across the globe.

“The energy in Korea and Asia is amazing,” said Frank Meehan, Partner, SparkLabs, in a statement. He added that more and more people are leaving big corporations like Samsung, McKinsey and Goldman Sachs to start their own businesses.

Also Read: Things I learned at JFDI Accelerate

In the same statement, Sophia Choi, Senior Associate, SparkLabs, said that most of the companies graduating from this particular batch were less mature than their peers from previous batches. “It took more engagement and guidance from us, but [it was] also more enjoyable in some ways,” she noted.

SparkLabs has a focus on startups operating in the Internet, online gaming, mobile, e-commerce, digital media and healthcare sectors. The programme usually runs for three months, and comes with funding, office space and access to a network of other entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors and professionals.

These are the companies in the latest batch: WaHome, Next MakersBlocko, Sentbe, PicPic, AMADAS and BigBrainLab. You can click through to learn more about the companies.

Here’s our list of the startups we liked:

WaHome

WaHome is an on-demand home cleaning service that allows people to be matched to helpers via its flagship smartphone app available on iOS and Android. The company claims to check the backgrounds of all registered helpers and puts them through a training programme.

It aims to expand to Japan and Hong Kong in 2016, a goal that will come after expanding throughout South Korea. We recently reported about the South Korean company when it received US$1 million in seed funding.

Sentbe

Sentbe is a company that allows customers to send money abroad without going to the bank.

Instead, it lets users do so via their smartphones any time during the day. It has partnered up with KEB Hana Bank and claims to reduce up to 90 per cent of remittance fees customers would otherwise pay if they used a standard bank to remit funds into foreign accounts.

The company managed to facilitate transactions amounting US$150,000 in four weeks. Users can do so via Bitcoin transactions and peer-to-peer schemes.

PicPic

PicPic is a service that allows people to create GIFs, an acronym that refers to the popular Graphics Interchange Format that people use for moving images, and share it on the company’s platform.

With PicPic, people can adjust the speed of the movements in the GIF file, and follow their friends and hashtags. The service is currently available on Android and iOS devices, and on the web.

Also Read: Malaysia’s LaunchPad raises US$1M to incubate startups in-house

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#Asia The search for India’s answer to WeChat

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Photo credit: gerlos

At first glance, they look similar. WeChat and Hike are messaging apps and they’re both focused on their home nations.

Though WeChat has attemped the international stage, features like Lucky Money, based on the tradition of gifting red envelopes, are unabashedly Chinese. Hike was specifically designed for what founder and CEO Kavin Bharti Mittal calls the mobile-first people in India who are coming onto the internet for the first time. These users don’t have a lot of data, and Hike caters specifically to that audience.

It’s hard to get data in India. Many phones can only manage a 2G connection, and even if the app loads what you’re looking for, the connection can be quite slow. Hike Direct, for example, connects a smartphone with another phone within 100 meters of it – no wifi needed. It also features an offline service that converts messages into SMS when a user is not connected to the web.

The app also offers a hidden mode that allows the user to hide messages and protect his or her privacy. “In a tier 2 or 3 town, phones are often shared in the household,” Kavin explains.

Sounds good. So is Hike really set to become to India what WeChat is to China? At the moment, it doesn’t seem like it, and here’s why.

Hike is not the most popular messaging app in the country

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Photo credit: Sinchen.Lin

Unlike in China, where WeChat is overwhelmingly the most popular messaging app, India’s most popular messenger remains Whatsapp. 56 percent of Indian instant messaging users chat on Whatsapp. Facebook dominates social media in India, which means Facebook Messenger also claims a decent amount of instant messaging users.

In short, Hike faces competition that WeChat doesn’t. India doesn’t have China’s censorship laws that block apps like Facebook Messenger, and India’s market is a lot easier for the US market to crack than China’s. Whatsapp has a small user base in China, but WeChat can do for Chinese users everything Whatsapp does and more, particularly inside the country’s borders.

For now, Hike’s use is mostly limited to messaging

WeChat isn’t just China’s most popular messaging app – it also makes life so much easier. The app can be used for anything from video chat and calls over wifi to paying bills, ordering cabs, and buying plane tickets. WeChat has evolved from being a simple messaging app to being a go-between for any transaction requiring two parties. It’s the equivalent to several apps in one, and similar apps are trying to get a piece of the action.

Currently, Hike allows for text messaging, file sharing, networking, and social updates. Its users can check the weather and news as well.

Hike plans on remaining a domestic app

WeChat rebranded itself for the international market in 2012 and has since become available in a number of countries, although Tencent has not provided data for how many active users the app has outside of China.

According to Kavin, Hike is best suited to India. For the time being, India’s where the app will stay.

“We don’t look at the US, Europe, or China at all – those are not our markets,” he says. “Our model works extremely well in a mobile-first market, and […] we’ll remain in India for now.” He adds that Hike’s considering looking into nearby markets like Sri Lanka’s, but no definitive plans have been made.

He hints that next year may see Hike adding food recommendation and cab hailing services to the app.

WeChat’s had more time to establish itself

The easiest difference to spot between the two apps is age. WeChat’s had more time and room to establish itself. The app was founded in January 2011, while Hike got its start nearly two years later in December 2012.

WeChat has Chinese tech giant Tencent on its side. WeChat is valued at an estimated US$83.6 billion, nearly half of Tencent’s current market capitalization.

Hike is a startup creation, but it isn’t without its own resources. We named Hike India’s 14th most-funded startup earlier this year.

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Photo credit: Pabak Sarkar

Hike shouldn’t by any means be written off just yet. According to Kavin, 2016 holds a lot of promise for the app.

“Global is fantastic, but we’re going to keep up what we’re doing,” he says. “We want to focus on reshowcasing what it means to have microsocial as a platform.” He adds that Hike’s focus is on innovating further the concept of messaging in India. For example, he’s interested in broadening the app’s use as a web browser. I bring up tapping into India’s quickly growing ecommerce market as another option, and he agrees that it’s a good idea and one that remains to be seen.

Hike’s biggest challenge, however, remains competing within its own market against larger, international players like Whatsapp that aren’t going anywhere soon.

“We believe that people use more than one messaging app on their [phones],” Kavin says. He doesn’t mind if people are using Whatsapp and Hike together – as long as they’re using Hike.

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#Africa SA startup NicheStreem launches Afrikaans music service

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South African startup NicheStreem has launched music streaming service Liedjie, dedicated entirely to Afrikaans music and launched in partnership with mobile communications service WeChat.

Disrupt Africa reported in July NicheStreem was beta testing Liedjie ahead of its full launch, and planned to use the platform as a proof of concept for other streaming services aimed at niche genres.

Liedjie is now live, with users able to follow the NicheStreem account on WeChat, register, and use the service for the first three months free of charge, sponsored by WeChat. An Android app will launch in the next few weeks, followed by an iOS app in January.

Catherine Lückhoff, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of NicheStreem, told Disrupt Africa Liedjie is the first music streaming service dedicated entirely to fans of Afrikaans music.

“It’s quick and easy and give users access to a world of Afrikaans music. Playlists have been curated specifically with Afrikaans music fans in mind and our database of music tracks continues to grow,” she said.

The Liedjie promo teams will be activating at key Afrikaans music shows across South Africa in December and January, and working closely with labels and artists to help them promote their music via the service.

“NicheStreem’s mission is to identify underserved markets where the music and culture are intrinsically linked and to offer these fans curated music-streaming solutions that meet their specific needs – a home for the music they love. Liedjie is our very first stream and is proudly South African,” said Lückhoff.

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#Asia Ratan Tata funds Indian local services marketplace UrbanClap

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Last month, UrbanClap raised US$25 million in Series B funding from Bessemer, SAIF and Accel Partners

UrbanClap Founders (L-R) Varun Khaitan, Raghav Chandra and Abhiraj Bhal

UrbanClap Founders (L-R) Varun Khaitan, Raghav Chandra and Abhiraj Bhal

India-based online marketplace for local services UrbanClap has.received an undisclosed sum in investment from business tycoon Ratan Tata.

This comes barley three weeks after the Gurgaon-headquartered startup raised US$25 million in Series B round of funding, led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from SAIF Partners and Accel Partners.

Started in October 2014 by Varun Khaitan, Abhiraj Bhal and Raghav Chandra, UrbanClap enables users to find and hire trusted service providers like plumbers, beauticians, yoga trainers and wedding photographers.

Also Read: Ratan Tata invests in Singapore’s Big Data startup Crayon Data

The platform currently lists services across more than 80 categories. The company is operational in six cities – Delhi-NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad — and plans to expand its presence to over 25 cities and offer over 100 services over the next year.

UrBanClap claims to serve 5,000 customer requests a day, and has built a base of more than 25,000 service professionals.

Tata, an industrialist-turned-serial investor, has actively been investing in a range of startups in India. Till date, he has invested in over a dozen startups that include Ola, Snapdeal, Urban Ladder, CarDekho, Bluestone, Crayon Data. He is also an investor in Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi.

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#Africa Kenya’s Powerhive partners multinational utility EGP in $12m deal

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Kenya-based microgrid electricity provider Powerhive has partnered multinational utility Enel Green Power (EGP) in a US$12 million deal that will see them build and operate mini-grids in 100 villages in the country.

Disrupt Africa reported in July Powerhive, which was founded in 2011 and partners utilities and independent power producers to provide access to productive, affordable, and reliable microgrid electricity to rural homes and businesses, had become the first company in Kenya’s history to be granted a utility concession to generate, distribute and sell electricity to the public.

The startup has now gone one better by partnering EGP, with the project requiring an investment of around US$12 million, 93 per cent of which is borne by EGP and seven per cent by Powerhive.

The project, developed by Powerhive, consists of a portfolio of solar mini-grids with a total installed capacity of 1 MW, to be built in the counties of Kisii and Nyamira. It will bring clean energy to 20,000 households, small businesses, schools, and healthcare centres, thus powering and connecting around 90,000 people to the grid.

“We’re excited to partner with a visionary company like Enel Green Power,” said Powerhive chief executive officer (CEO) Chris Hornor.

“Emerging markets will require major investments in off-grid energy access during the next decade, and this partnership – which combines Powerhive’s proven mini-grid solutions with Enel Green Power’s capacities as a market leading renewables company – is a blueprint for meeting that unserved energy demand.”

Francesco Venturini, CEO of EGP, said Kenya’s “rich and differentiated technology mix” in the renewables industry offers a unique platform for the business development of Enel Green Power in Africa.

“This country couples a low electrification rate, still in the range of 30 per cent, with one of the highest mobile phone penetration rates of the region, thus making this union ideal to implement innovative solutions able to integrate the electrification of rural areas with generation from renewables, storage facilities as well as advanced billing systems,” he said.

The project will also provide customers with an easier and more reliable payment system through the adoption of a mobile phone prepayment application.

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#Asia Axiata fund to inject up to $1m more into each of 6 portfolio startups

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Photo taken from The Star Online.

Photo taken from The Star Online.

This week, the Axiata Digital Innovation Fund (ADIF), which was set up by Asian telco Axiata Group Berhad and Malaysia Venture Capital Management Berhad (Mavcap), announced it poured in a total investment of MYR 12.5 million (US$3 million) into six Malaysian startups.

But that’s not all the good news. ADIF will invest up to MYR 5 million (US$1 million) more into each of the companies, Jamaludin Bajung, CEO of Mavcap, the Malaysian government’s VC arm, tells Tech in Asia.

“We can’t disclose the amount each company received out of the MYR 12.5 million. However, that was only our first investment, and there will be follow-up investments into the companies later,” he says. “We anticipate a funding of around MYR 4 million to 5 million for each company eventually.”

The six startups include Supahands, a virtual outsourcing assistant; Spot News, a curated news app; Tripfez, a company that provides hotel and tour packages to Muslim travelers; MaidEasy, a platform to hire cleaners; EasyUni, which lets parents and students search and connect with universities and colleges; and Easyparcel, which allows people to book courier services. Supahands and Spot News also received funding from 500 Startups for this round.

“We chose them for their strategic fit with Axiata’s business model. Axiata is looking for opportunities to invest in companies that can be regional champions in their respective verticals,” says Jamaludin.

For their part, the companies will benefit greatly from Axiata’s exposure in seven countries in the region, where the telco has 260 million subscribers.

“Axiata provides a ready market. It has a vast network of digital companies developed over the years [and] has access to a multitude of experts in digital services such as ecommerce, online-to-offline (O2O), internet of things (IOT), and other internet services, which the companies can leverage on. We are already planning to bring the companies on a tour to explore business opportunities in the respective markets,” Jamaludin adds.

In November, Axiata and Mavcap inked an agreement for ADIF worth MYR 100 million (US$23 million) as part of the Malaysian government’s initiative to build up the country’s tech sector. Axiata committed MYR 50 million (US$12 million) to the fund, while Mavcap pledged MYR 20 million (US$5 million). The remaining amount would be raised from other principal investors, Axiata had said.

ADIF will hold a 20-40 percent stake in the startups in exchange for its investment.

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#Asia 7 work-life balance tips that can change your life

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For the entrepreneur, achieving a work-life balance is the equivalent of walking the tightrope. Learn how to navigate it

relax

Work-life balance. Sounds simple enough. Whether you’re a student, a parent or an executive, finding the ideal balance between work and living our lives is something we’re all constantly striving to achieve.

For the entrepreneur, however, achieving a work-life balance is the equivalent of walking the tightrope: with constant demands from both family and work, the entrepreneur faces the risk of plummeting to the ground in the blink of an eye.

Young entrepreneurs have an especially difficult time maintaining this balance as their drive and focus is purely based on seeing their idea coming to life — a grand opening, for instance, or seeing their product on the store shelf. This requires countless hours spent on getting the business off the ground. And even after it does, an entrepreneur is relentlessly consumed with growing the business. In my more than 10 years as a business owner, I’ve gone through it all (sometimes more than once!)

Fortunately, I’ve learned that there’s more to a work-life balance than saying “I am successful” and “I have a life outside of work.” It means making daily efforts to ensure that both aspects of my life are equally addressed and neither is neglected.

While I can’t say I have necessarily achieved that precious balance, I have made great progress in striving towards doing so. By making small adjustments in my daily routine, I am able to enjoy being both an entrepreneur and myself. Here are a few changes I’ve made that have brought me closer to a more well-balanced lifestyle — and perhaps will help you too.

Also Read: Using lessons from technology innovation to build change elsewhere

Don’t let your business define you

Early on in my career, I assumed that everyone would look at me based on how successful I was. That idea alone kept me awake at night: What if I fail? What if all I’ve worked for turns out to be nothing? What will I tell everyone? What will they think of me? These thoughts began to keep me at work for longer and longer. Failure was simply not an option.

Today, though, I’ve learned that failure isn’t the abyss I had imagined it to be. I’ve actually failed (plenty of times), yet my family and friends are still around and have always been my biggest supporters. No matter what type of business you’re running, don’t let your business define you.

Disconnect (even if it’s for just a bit)

My work hours? 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Well, maybe 18 hours a day (I do sleep after all). Unlike most Americans who have a regular nine to five job, an entrepreneur’s job has no start and stop: we’re constantly working.

Thanks to my iPhone, I can work from just about anywhere: standing in line at the grocery store, waiting at the car wash, waiting for my lunch to arrive, sitting at a red light, and the list goes on. The ability to be constantly connected is a monumental struggle for the entrepreneur looking to disconnect, even if just for a bit.

While my wife will tell you that I can’t live without my phone more than six feet away from me, I have learned that turning off my notifications and ringer can be helpful. It allows me to clear my mind and breathe for a bit. While this was (and still is) a big challenge for me, I’ve learned that some things can wait, and the world won’t come crashing down if I don’t immediately answer an email.

Also Read: 7 startup metrics all entrepreneurs must track

Remember it’s OK to (not) talk about work

I have to be honest: This is terribly difficult to do. I work with my wife, and while I’m blessed to work with her, it’s even more difficult not to do so sometimes. On the way home, during dinner and before going to bed, it’s almost impossible to not get into a discussion that somehow relates to work.

For our own sanity, we’ve made a commitment to not talk about work unless we’re ‘officially’ working. This allows us to enjoy our favourite TV shows, go out with friends and the like.

Embrace scheduling

While your work calendar may be filled with meetings and phone calls, that’s hardly the case for your personal calendar. Though it used to make me feel silly to schedule in a time to call my dad or a date with my wife, I’ve learned that there’s nothing wrong with scheduling in your personal life. It’s actually a great way to ensure that you don’t miss out and let your days go by. So go ahead and schedule some ‘me time.’

Take care of your body

It’s a known fact that stress can wreak havoc in your body. In addition to the general stresses of life, add the stress from the upcoming meeting to fund your next project, that board meeting to report quarterly earnings, or the long 12- to 14-hour days at the office.

From forgetting to eat to losing sleep, entrepreneurs are rarely good to their bodies.

While I’m not Sports Illustrated cover material, I’ve learned to make time for the gym, a good night’s sleep and a meal that is not out of a to-go container. Although hard, at first, I soon learned that getting to the gym at 6 am, actually makes me more productive than not going at all. I’m energised and feel better about myself.

Also Read: 4 ways to make your company’s retreat worthwhile

Put yourself first

As an entrepreneur, it can be hard to focus on yourself when your business seems so much more important and time sensitive. Going to the gym? That can wait. Going on vacation? That can wait. Settling down? That can wait.

Very often, we tend to put things on hold so we can put the business first.

While some things can wait, it’s important that you don’t sacrifice absolutely everything for your business. After all, we only have one life to live and we have to be good to ourselves. Go ahead and take that vacation to Hawaii. More often than not, you’ll feel refreshed and re-energised after some time away from the business.

Spend time with others

While time is often our most important asset, it’s also the most fleeting. Sharing the little time we do have is extremely difficult. That said, I’ve found that some of my best ideas have come from the time I have spent with others.

As a coffee enthusiast, I enjoy trying out local coffee shops with my wife and friends. Not only will talking to other people outside the business keep you grounded, you’ll also realise how much you can learn just by spending time with others.

While I can’t credibly sing victory, I’ve come a long way to achieving a better work-life balance than when I first started out as an entrepreneur.

The best thing is that thanks to these small changes in my daily routine, I can actually say I’m better off today than I was before. Small as they may seem, these intentional changes have made me a more effective entrepreneur and business leader. And that’s a fact.

It’s never too late to start. Even though you may see work-life balance as your Mt Everest today, every bit of progress will get you that much closer.

As the Founder and CEO of OneIMS and Clickx, Solomon Thimothy has built his career around his passion for helping other businesses grow an online presence and thrive in the digital world. Solomon works with clients big and small to develop uniquely customized and highly effective marketing strategies that meet every company’s individual goals.

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: Shutterstock

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#Africa Kenya’s Kuhustle is Freelancer for the African market

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Kenyan online marketplace Kuhustle, which allows skilled young people to bid for jobs posted by companies, claims to be adapting the Freelancer and Upwork model for the African market.

Launched in October 2014, Kuhustle was borne out of the perceived need for a reliable local platform on which developers could showcase their portfolios, and offer their services to SMEs.

The marketplace connects young Kenyans with organisations looking to hire professional and affordable service providers on a project basis.  

“Our model seeks to improve access to digital jobs by providing a consistent and sustainable pipeline while simultaneously helping organisations manage their human capital costs,” Kuhustle chief operations officer (COO) Beverly Mbeke told Disrupt Africa.

Kuhustle was launched after its co-founders noticed that even though the technology ecosystem in Kenya was growing, people were still unaware of where and how to find skilled individuals to implement technology solutions for them.

“Kuhustle was started following the constant enquiries that we received to refer developers and designers to private and government institutions that needed technology services, Mbeke said.

“Referrals were difficult because of lack of access to proof of prior work, and we could not guarantee the quality of the ones we found.”

Essentially, the platform is a clone of western equivalents Upwork and Freelancer, but Mbeke says there are differences in that it is built for the African market.

“Our differentiating factor is that, unlike other platforms that have proved to be expensive and harder for Africans to find work, we are tailored to the African market, and also partnering with knowledge partners for technical skills and training our community on the soft skills needed to deliver jobs,” she said.

Funded by the Cheetah Fund and the Nailab incubator, Kuhustle is based in Kenya yet has attracted developers and clients from Nigeria and Uganda.

“Our aim is to grow into already identified growth markets in Sub-Saharan Africa, starting with South Africa and Nigeria, and eventually provide our solution to western countries that are keen on working with skilled local talent,” Mbeke said.

Charging a commission on each job sourced through the platform – developers also pay 10 per cent for project management – Kuhustle has generated more than US$120,000 in revenues from over 4,000 users thus far. Mbeke said the startup was still adding to its product.

“We will soon introduce a freemium model that allows users to bid for a maximum number of jobs per month, while the subscription model allows unlimited bidding and interactions,” she said.

The startup has also increased its minimum budget range from US$35-US$150 to US$100-US$300, after developers said the minimum budget was not enough for them to deliver quality work and meet current market standards effectively and timely.

“This is also to help us to attain our goal of being a reliable source of income for people working on our platform,” she said.

“The budget increment will also help us improve on the quality of work we offer our clients as we will get a team of project managers to approve the work done by the developers.”

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#Asia Tech Helping Tech: How MiDash can bring realtors into the digital era

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Most realtors still depend on manual channels in order to reach out to clients. MiDash wants to change this with its digital and advanced marketing platform

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“The real estate industry, despite the size of the companies that dominate it, is largely dependent on a manual process,” begins Grace Granlund, CEO of MiDash.

Realtors, despite having their own computerised system for sales management and accounting, continue to heavily rely on printed materials. Sales and marketing strategies, explains Granlund, are also largely traditional, with realtors’ idea of online marketing limited to creating their own website and paying for listing spaces online.

By relying on traditional sales and marketing methods, the real estate industry also suffers from added consequential problems such as delayed payments, lack of real-time data, and high costs of selling and marketing. For these reasons, Granlund decided to use her local and international experience in real estate in order to address these issues.

Real estate goes digital

Enter a solution like MiDash, a platform that provides realtors digital and advanced marketing tools for their business. Should realtors decide to use the platform, coordinating and centralising sales efforts will be easier for them due to the platform’s real-time access to information. The platform provides instant updates and plan amendments to realtors instead of previously relying on numerous emails or printed fliers. This time around, realtors will have access to actual inventory, updates, new price changes and promotions that will make it easier for them to close client deals.

Additionally, the platform has an intuitive inventory system that allows realtors’ clients to view the actual floor plan, serving both as an inventory and reservation tool. Realtor client profiles, payment histories and transactions are tracked and updated by MiDash’s system automatically, along with prompt notifications and reminders, freeing up time for the sales team to hustle more clients in.

Also Read: Major Singapore real estate portal makes a major move in Indonesia

MiDash also provides an e-sales kit which can be downloaded from the system and can be emailed directly to the client or used in a presentation. Previously, most realtors would have to print expensive brochures for client visits, which usually take up a lot of their sales and marketing costs. The platform also comes with a CRM system that will allow real estate managers to track individual performances of their members, as well as continue to record and track their clients’ profiles.

Lastly, what is considered to be a staple of any real estate developer is MiDash’s lead generation package, in which pre-qualified real estate client leads are funneled directly through the MiDash system.

Market reach and the future

When it comes to reach, MiDash is already in talks with top real estate developers and companies in the Philippines, with a growing realtor client base every month. Internationally, the team is currently in negotiations with realtor clients in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Netherlands and India.

MiDash is also currently looking at raising US$500,000 in order to achieve fully covering the Philippines and Asia Pacific through a series of sales partnerships and resellers. By 2018, MiDash optimistically desires to penetrate the global market and to be used as the default system for real estate developers worldwide.

“MiDash system is the core that would bind all the disjointed sales efforts of real estate developers. This will change the game, by organising all that data in one place, in real-time,” Granlund concludes.

This is part of our Tech Helping Tech series, where we feature companies in Asia that are helping to solve business problems for the tech industry and startup ecosystems. Find out more how MiDash can help realtors get better sales and find out how you can list on the e27 Marketplace here. For more great products and services designed to benefit your growing business, visit e27.co/marketplace

Image Credit: MiDash Website

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