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Here’s our newest round-up of the featured startups on our site this week. If you have startup tips or story suggestions, feel free to email us. Enjoy this week’s list!

1. Crowdport | Japan (Startup Profile)

Crowdport currently is the only service in Japan which compares all 18 Japanese social lending services. Users can sort by company, investment genre, and availability of collateral, as well as filter funds by interest rate and payback period. The company also provides interviews and news about the crowdfunding market.

2. LibeRent | India (Startup Profile)

With the idea of dressing up the middle-class Indian woman in fashion that she is comfortable with, LibeRent launched in 2014. It rents everything from sarees to cocktail dresses, and allows trial options at home. The company services 11 cities, and has filled in 10,000 rentals as of date.

3. TravelTriangle | India (Startup Profile)

Holiday marketplace TravelTriangle connects a globetrotter to multiple local travel agents and lets users book, plan, and curate vacations. It not only takes care of tickets and bookings, but also customizes holiday packages depending on client needs.

4. ConneXionsAsia (CXA) | Singapore (Startup Profile)

CXA lets employees choose a mix of insurance and wellness benefits that best suits them. It aggregates all providers in its platform – from insurers to gyms and yoga studios. Employers can use the service to consolidate their vendors, digitize claims, and manage payments. Using CXA’s big data, they will be able to directly link their wellness and disease management programs to health outcomes and premium reductions.

5. Wealth | Singapore (Startup Profile)

Singapore-based Wealth helps high-net-worth individuals seek out wealth management experts and investment opportunities. The software matches users’ needs and preferences to the right wealth services providers, including private banks, financial advisors, lawyers, tax advisors, and more.

6. Zenatix Solutions | India (Startup Profile)

Zenatix Solutions is an energy efficiency startup. It’s device fits into the local electricity grid, which then collects and analyses energy usage based on temperature, humidity, and occupancy. The data is processed and analyzed to provide tips on how to reduce electricity consumption.

7. Qourier | Singapore (Startup Profile)

Singapore-based Qourier does work very much like an Uber for logistics – people can open the app, request a delivery person and entrust them with their package. Couriers can be anyone and people can register through the app and, after a verification and selection process, start taking jobs.

8. GharPar | Pakistan

GharPar provides beauty services at your doorstep. The startup works with the beauticians in its network very closely. It sticks to fixed rates that are clearly spelled out before people request a manicure or massage.

Startup lists

9 – 13: 5 rising startups in Japan

14 – 16: 4 rising startups in India – Feb 7, 2017

17 – 26: Check out these 10 global startups from Hack Osaka pitch contest

27 – 30: 5 rising startups in India – Feb 10, 2017

Related startup stories

• Singapore’s iFashion buys lifestyle brand Megafash for $2.5m
• He joined Rocket as an intern. Now he’s a co-founder at one of its hottest startups

• New Stellaris fund wants to give India’s tech startups a $100m leg up

• Uber debuts UberHire in India so you can rent a driver all day

• 3 financial aspects startups need to look at before launching

• Singapore’s Honestbee to launch food delivery. It’ll get lots of competition

• Grab gets into coach booking for groups of passengers

• How do you build a billion-dollar startup? Lessons from a CEO who just did it

• Snapdeal’s go-to man for fundraising quits amidst mild investor interest

• 3 finance and accounting ideas for bootstrapping startups

• How this company is using data to shake up the billion-dollar employee benefits industry

• How this entrepreneur bounced back from being broke and living on his sister’s couch

• Snapdeal’s Shopo to shut shop on Feb 10

• Ola’s high-profile CFO quits

• Plug and Play’s Indonesian program is accepting applications

• Indonesian Stock Exchange sets up startup incubation program

• Tokopedia CEO: Choose which battles to lose so you can win

• 80% of the world’s blindness is preventable. This hardware is fighting it in 26 countries

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On-demand startups such as Uber and Airbnb have been criticized for increasing income inequality, but a fledgling company in Pakistan wants to ease such concerns.

GharPar, which translates loosely as “AtHome”, provides beauty services at your doorstep. It’s a recent startup, mainly operated in stealth mode since September, but it’s starting to make a real impact on the lives of its freelance beauticians.

“The basic inspiration behind the idea was that we realized there’s a lot of exploitation in the salon business,” says Arooj Ismail, co-founder. “The average beautician in these parlors, according to both official statistics and our findings, is only paid roughly US$80 a month. They get a little bit extra as tips but that’s about it.”

Arooj explains that there’s an existing network of freelance beauty professionals in the country – but they’re highly fragmented, don’t offer uniformity of service, and often have poor work ethic. As a result, they’re not able to solicit much business.

Two of GharPar’s freelance beauticians. Photo credit: GharPar.

Another issue is that payment for services rendered is almost always left to the client’s discretion – who may choose to severely undercut them. After all, this is an informal market.

The startup works with the beauticians in its network very closely – service and standards are paramount in an industry like this – to upskill them, provide them feedback on communication skills, as well as presentability.

It sticks to fixed rates that are clearly spelled out before people request a manicure or massage. That was crucial in attracting beauticians to the platform, adds Arooj.

“In the beginning, when we had just started our community mobilization, lots of women we spoke to were highly skeptical of the idea. They were used to being paid low wages. When we told them they could increase income by more than 300 percent, they laughed at us,” she says. “Some thought they might be forced into prostitution.”

Equipped

Arooj – who is one of four co-founders – says it took a lot of convincing and working closely with the communities to get them on board. One of her sisters manages a salon, so they tapped into her networks as well. Little by little, people started to warm up to it.

There are now 17 freelance beauticians on board. GharPar takes a 30 percent cut on each transaction to pay for overheads and marketing expenditures. But the women feel safe, secure, and have a lot more disposable income. A 15 to 20 percent cut is typical for on-demand startups. Uber takes 25 percent, not including any booking fees.

The average take home pay has now swelled to US$450 per month. GharPar’s highest-performing beautician raked in US$1,000 in December, according to Arooj. It may be small compared to Western markets, but in Pakistan the minimum wage works out to only US$140 per month. It is also poorly enforced, meaning some workers are paid drastically less.

“We are first and foremost a social enterprise company,” explains Arooj. “A lot of our work is centered around helping minority groups and other disadvantaged communities.”

Photo credit: Pixabay.

The startup, which claims to have a roster of over 1,200 clients in the eastern city of Lahore, plans to expand to other cities soon.

For the time being, bookings can be done via the website, Facebook page, as well as phone. There’s no app just yet, mainly because they’re trying to figure out the best way to incorporate it.

The reason is that each beautician has their own niche skillset. When a prospective client requests multiple services, then it’s likely that two or three women will fulfill the task. One might work on her hair, while the other finishes up a manicure.

GharPar provides all the necessary styling products and accessories. That’s also essential, Arooj explains, to make sure the women stick to the scope of work requested and not go above and beyond.

If clients misbehave or refuse to pay, they’ll be banned and blacklisted. And to ensure they’re legitimate in the first place, they have to provide a government-issued ID during the registration process.

“It’s vital for security and safety of our beauticians – we need to make sure there’s a pleasant and professional experience for both,” says Arooj.

*Converted from Pakistani rupees. Rate: US$1 = PKR 100.

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Beyond race and gender: Social and cultural diversity help improve the flow of ideas in the workplace

Diversity. Immigration. Cultural fit. These are hot topics right now. Between the politics of the moment (think the recent immigration battles in the U.S. and Brexit) and divisions in society becoming more acute (at least if you read the popular media), how do we as business leaders continue to promote diversity? Should we?

If you’ve been following the news lately, you might realise there are seismic shifts going on in the movement of people around the world. There’s also a lot of noise about the value or risk of these movements. Whatever your beliefs on these issues, the world is changing. Right now the debates may be on keeping borders, sovereignty and national identity but what people may not realise is that a shift has already occurred.

The internet has created a borderless society. There is no going back.

In fact, a Pew Research Center survey finds that people generally place a relatively low premium on a person’s birthplace. Only 13 per cent of Australians, 21 per cent of Canadians, 32 per cent of Americans and a median of 33 per centof Europeans believe that it is very important for a person to be born in their country to be considered a true national. Cultural fit. It’s less important within borders now than ever. So why do we keep looking for it in the workplace?

Cultural fit — is it still important in the work environment?

Hiring managers and CEO’s too often look for a “cultural fit” over and above skills when they hire. Sure we all want to be able to have a beer together at the end of the day, and by hiring that “cultural fit”, we think we can – with less effort. But is that really true?

Or does cultural fit really mean we’re hiring based on whether that person is most like us? It certainly seems so. Fortune magazine recently titled an article, How ‘Culture Fit’ Can Be a Shield for Hiring Discrimination. I think most of us can relate. Perfectly qualified but we didn’t get the job because we didn’t go to the “right” school or maybe even have the “right” hobbies. Class, race, religion, gender – it’s all been used against us on a hiring decision at one time or another. Human nature? Yes. But used to find the best fit for a company? Not always.

McKinsey studies show that companies in the top quartile for gender, racial and ethnic diversity typically have above average financial returns. Likewise, companies in the bottom quartile in diversity are statistically less likely to achieve above-average returns. Diversity is also most likely to make companies more competitive, shifting market share toward more diverse companies over time.

If you want to beat other companies diversify your workforce

Most companies bring diversity into their company by the most obvious means – moving the needle by hiring more women or looking for candidates who represent a minority race from the local community. But how often do they look completely outside their country for cultural diversity?

For the most forward thinking and successful companies in the world, hiring internationally is the norm. When hiring from within your city or country, you will most likely find like-minded thinking, even while improving diversity. I’d like to challenge you to think beyond borders.

New research finds that socially different group members do more than simply introduce new viewpoints or approaches. In the study, diverse groups outperformed more homogeneous groups not because of an influx of new ideas, but because diversity triggered more careful information processing that is absent in homogeneous groups. The mere presence of diversity in a group creates awkwardness, and the need to diffuse this tension leads to better group problem solving.

Simply put – adding a completely new or divergent idea to a homogenous group will result in a shake up that brings better outcomes.

So how should you hire?

Building a globally-competitive business in a networked age means you’re competing for the best people in the world.

Think beyond borders. Break down barriers on all fronts. Adding the best person for your team might just mean getting out of your usual comfort zone. Right now, in order to build globally competitive teams, we need to bridge borders across the world.

Talent is mobile. Don’t limit your hiring to whoever happens to be available in your neighbourhood. Expand your hiring campaigns globally and inspire the best people from around the world to join your team.

After all, variety is the spice of life.

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A link to our Hiring Blog.

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, submit your post here.

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KC never set out to build a healthcare startup. An avid reader and cricket fan, K. Chandrasekhar – known to colleagues as KC – was working in the semiconductor industry years ago when he visited a hospital and discovered how big a problem preventable blindness was: around the world, 80 percent of blindness is preventable.

Blindness takes a toll on families too, he explains. The affected individual’s responsibilities may include earning for the household, taking care of elderly parents, and looking after children.

In 2007, India had 12,000 opthamologists. The ratio of ophthalmologists to people in urban areas is 1:25,000, while the ratio in rural areas is 1:219,000. (In comparison, the US’ ratio was 1:13,000 in 2010.)

KC, an IIM-Calcutta alum, says the number of eye doctors in India now is closer to 20,000, but they still can’t cater to everyone who needs eye care. That’s where he thinks technology can help, especially when a majority of blindness cases in the country – 75 percent, or over 11 million in 2007 – are preventable if causes like cataracts or glaucoma are caught early.

See: Meet the doctor turned inventor who wants to make India’s healthcare accessible

A solution

(From left to right) Forus Health’s devices 3Nethra neo, 3Nethra classic, and 3Nethra flora. Photo credit: Forus Health.

In 2009, KC and Shyam Vasudev began work on healthtech hardware startup Forus Health. The Bangalore-based company has four products that range from US$4,000 to US$50,000. The 3Nethra classic is a small, portable digital imaging device. It’ll take, store, and transmit pictures of the front and back of the human eye that help carry out a routine eye exam. It can detect problems like cataracts, glaucoma, diabetic retinas, problems with the cornea, and refractive errors – all contributors to blindness that can be treated if caught early. Unlike other eye exams, the 3Nethra classic does not require pupil dilatation.

The 3Nethra Flora is a non-contact eye scanner that works with pupil dilation. It takes more in-depth pictures, including the layout of blood and lymph vessels in the eye.

Detection of eye issues in children, especially younger children who can’t always communicate whether a lens prescription is correct, can be difficult. For younger or non-cooperative patients, Forus Health has the 3Nethra Kiddo, which helps detect refractive errors in eye patients. Refractive errors like nearsightedness or farsightedness occur when the eye is misshapen, causing light to bend differently around the eye. The 3Nethra Neo takes pictures of infant retinas to help diagnose and monitor diseases and disorders.

The 3Nethra classic at work. Photo credit: Forus Health.

Forus Health’s devices have been installed in nearly 1,400 places in 26 countries, including the US and countries in Europe and Asia. In April 2012, the startup raised US$5 million in series A funding from Accel Partners and IDG Ventures. Two years later, it bagged US$8.2 million in series B funding from Asian Health Fund, Accel Partners, and IDG Ventures.

See: 14 cool hardware startups in India you didn’t know about

Tackling prevention

Forus Health’s team. Photo credit: Forus Health.

KC and his team – now 125 people – faced several of the problems other medical hardware makers come across. The product needs to be effective and cost-efficient enough to convince doctors, but also must appeal to the average patient, who doesn’t have enough time to take off work unless there’s something already wrong. Convincing those patients of the value-add of preventative care like eye screenings can be difficult.

“The hardest thing is actually making people have a behavioral change,” he tells Tech in Asia.

The argument for preventative care is simple – spend a little time and money examining and monitoring your health now, and you’re likely to catch problems early. Treatment for problems caught early will cost much less. That’s why Forus Health’s flagship product – the 3Nethra Classic – doesn’t require pupil dilation. The test can be done in five minutes, and the person can go straight back to work instead of waiting hours for his or her pupils to return to normal size.

It also needs to be user-friendly – a lot of medical equipment is bulky and made for use in a hospital, but for the technology to work outside of cities, it has to be small, portable, and cost-efficient.

It took the company around 18 months to develop its first products; it would be three years before the team reached a satisfactory model.

Other startups working with low-cost healthcare hardware include Stasis Labs, Medaino, and Ten3T.

Now, the startup’s focus is on expansion into other countries, something that KC mentions has always been their goal: if preventable blindness is a worldwide problem, the same goes for the company’s focus.

See: Exclusive: How a medical device maker got $5 million seed funding

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From new incubator to customer rewards programme, this looks like a busy week for the startup community

Ah, the startup life. There are times when you just cannot take a breath with all the incoming news about fundings, shutdowns, and new product launches. Not that we are complaining, though.

This week seemed to be an exciting one for the Indonesian startup ecosystem as we managed to gather information about several new product and feature launches, and even a revamping of the existing platform.

e27 compiles events from some of the most notable names in the ecosystem for your reading convenience.

OLX

On Tuesday, C2C online marketplace OLX launched the new look of its platform, which dubbed as “The New OLX.” The new user interface is more visual-heavy, with the goal to attract OLX’s new target market: the impulsive shoppers. It also includes new abilities such as location and chat-based search engine.

The company also claimed that it has secured 67 per cent of market share for second-handed goods marketplaces. It expects to double last year’s number of daily visitors from one to two million with the new launch.

OLX also stated that it has experienced a shift in its core users, which was usually dominated by male.

Also Read: In Pics: Meet Oneco.work, the new co-working space in india

Ruangguru

Edutech startup Ruangguru launched a new feature on its mobile app, a subscription-based video streaming named RuangVideo. Targetting final year high school students, the feature enables students to prepare for their examinations by watching up to 1,528 short videos hosted by graduates of top local and international universities, including Harvard University, Oxford University, and National University of Singapore.

Ruangguru Co-Founder and CPO Iman Usman explained that apart from helping students with their study, the video also aims to inspire students to reach academic success as achieved by the hosts.

Go-Jek

Ride-hailing startup Go-Jek introduced Go-Points, a loyalty programme for users of its e-wallet Go-Pay. For every transaction using Go-Pay, users are going to receive tokens that can be used to play games on the Go-Jek app. Users will then get points that can be exchanged with various gifts from motorbikes, hotel vouchers, to ticket to see a Coldplay live show in Thailand.

Michael Perera (Product Owner GO-POINTS), Eva Celia (musician and Go-Jek user), and Piotr Jakubowski (Chief Marketing Officer GO-JEK Indonesia)

Also Read: Fall in love with these 6 jobs for the techie at heart

Indonesia Stock Exchange

Rumours about the launch of an incubator programme and a special technology board have circulated in Indonesian startup communities for a while. But rumours can now rest easy as the Indonesian Stock Exchange has officially launched the IDX Incubator programme on January 26, and registration is now open.

With a monthly fee of IDR1 million (US$75) per person for six months, participants will have access to training facilities, mentoring, coworking space, and access to venture capitals and registered companies.

The training programme will include materials on ideation, paperworks, market research with big data, branding/marketing, and preparation for public offerings.

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The platform’s target market comprises solopreneurs, musicians, SMEs, small business owners, freelancers and anyone who desires a flexible and affordable working space

Oneco.work

Oneco.Work is an office space provider for entrepreneurs and startups. It offers premium co-working office spaces and essential back-end services, with a broad range of facilities that meet the requirements of startups of all scales and sizes.

Oneco.work2

Its mission is to enable entrepreneurs to scale their businesses with alacrity by offering them a conducive work environment.

Oneco.Work was founded in October 2015 as One Internet. Ramping up its operations to offer comprehensive support services to startups and entrepreneurs, One Internet has now been rebranded as Oneco.Work.

Under the umbrella brand of Oneco.Work, the company offers a unique product titled Oneco.Cafe which converts cafes into vibrant co-working spaces. The company also plans to launch an incubation programme six months down the line.

The portfolio of services under Oneco.Work includes state-of-the-art open and private offices, hot desks, high-speed internet (LAN and Wi-Fi), conference rooms, HR/admin/reception/IT support, legal services, networking and mentoring sessions, membership privileges, as well as prestigious business addresses for web, print and mails.

Since the launch of the platform, Oneco.Work caters to the needs of over 100 startups and entrepreneurs. Working on a lean workforce of 17 professionals, the platform’s target market comprises solopreneurs, musicians, SMEs, small business owners, freelancers and anyone who desires a flexible and affordable working space.

Its payment models are designed on convenient hourly, daily, weekly and monthly basis.

The firm is present in Central and West Delhi, and will soon roll out its services in Gurgaon. Over the next three months, it aims to make a foray into Bengaluru and Mumbai with an overall pan-India target.

Oneco.Work Founder Himanshu Bindal

The larger vision of the team is to establish Oneco.Work as the largest office space provider across the globe and to help entrepreneurs fulfil their dreams.

Himanshu Bindal is the founder of Oneco.Work. Himanshu started juggling between his studies and his family business of steel, cement, and power at the age of 17. He founded One Internet in 2015 after completing his formal education.

Under his leadership, One Internet operated on a self-sustainable model. He counts Bradford University, SP Jain Institute of Management, and London School of Economics as his alma maters.

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Only for those who speak geek

Love to code? Raring to create beautiful user experiences? Then check out these tech jobs!

Happy job hunting, e27 Community!

UX Designer at Piktochart Sdn Bhd

Location: Malaysia
Job Description:

• Conceptualises, designs and assists with implementing highly engaging and intuitive user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) solutions
• Create effective user flow and wireframes that solve problems faced by Piktochart users, and propose changes or new ideas to designers and developers
  Conduct usability test to observe one’s behavior towards the product
  Act as the user-advocate during the development process, subjecting early-stage designs to usability testing or expert review, and offering implementation suggestions from a user-centered perspective & design thinking methodology
  Work closely with data scientists, UIUX and project teams to offer insightful guidelines focused on user experience when building new features
  Interview Piktochart users to identify qualitative key aspects that create great user experience for users. You will talk to users via phone/Skype/face-to-face

Salary (USD): Not specified

Backend Engineer at TenOfTen

Location: Singapore
Job Description:

• Participate in architectural decisions
  Develop and improve key backend systems/sub-systems including user authentication, market place matching, scheduling etc
  Build and deploy RESTful APIs to support mobile/web clients

Salary (SGD): Not specified

Technical Support at TechGrid Asia

Location: Indonesia
Job Description:

• Understanding the needs of the company clients
• Help the on-boarding support team
• Maintain relationship with clients, daily support, assisting on-boarding support for implementation
• Attract potential customers by answering product and service questions; suggesting information about products and services
• Maintain customer records by updating account information
• Resolves product or service problems by clarifying the customer’s complaint; determining the cause of the problem; selecting and explaining the best solution to solve the problem; expediting correction or adjustment; following up to ensure resolution
• Prepare product or service reports by collecting and analyzing customer information

Salary (IDR): Not specified

Senior Software Engineer at Grana

Location: Hong Kong
Job Description:

• Write well designed, testable, efficient and reusable code by using best software development practices
• Be responsible for full software development life cycle (SDLC), in an agile way, include requirement analysis, software/solution design, coding and programming, functional test and create/maintenance technical specification
• Maintain, expand, and scale our eCommerce platform
• Integrate various back-end services and databases
• Be a thought leader, stay plugged into emerging technologies/industry trends and apply them into operations and activities

Salary (USD): Not specified

Software Engineer at Knorex Pte Ltd

Location: Singapore
Job Description:

• Plan, design and develop components in our RTB platform
• Develop connectors to integrate with major ad exchanges
  Develop metrics to measure the outcome/impact of your introduced solutions
• Work with other members to implement and integrate into our existing systems
• Document and improve the solutions over time
• Evaluate and identify new technologies for implementation
• Communicate with our business and technical teams to understand the analytics requirements
• Respond and follow up to incorporate feedback and draw new insights
• Prioritise tasks to meet multiple deadlines.

Salary (USD): Not specified

PHP Developer at TotalStudio

Location: Indonesia
Job Description:

• Work closely with the Project Manager/Team Lead, the Graphics Designers, Senior coder, and with clients
• Build backend technology for web apps, mobile apps, and content management systems, based on requests from clients, directives from Project Managers/Team Leads, etc.
• Contribute ideas to the team when inspiration rouses

Salary (USD): Not specified

Looking for other openings? Search for more jobs.

And are you a startup with job openings? Post them here.

Thanks and keep visiting e27 for more tech job openings!

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“The e-commerce unit is not growing as fast as we expected and as a small startup, we think it’s better to use our capital elsewhere,” says its founder Natavudh Pungcharoenpong

Ookbee Mall

Ookbee Mall Thailand will bring the curtain down to its e-commerce business, ookbeemall.com, from March this year due to heavy competition in the market, its founder Natavudh Pungcharoenpong told e27.  

Launched in November 2015, Ookbee Mall is a joint venture between Japanese BPO company Transcosmos and Thai e-book store Ookbee.

Also Read: Tencent and Ookbee launch joint venture to grow digital content in Thailand

According to him, running an e-commerce business in the country requires large scale of operations and investments. Large global players are using subsidised promotion strategies to acquire customers, which Ookbee cannot afford to do. “We can no longer afford the losses. Our capital can be better used in other area mostly digital products,” he added.

In his view, Ookbee’s e-commerce business is not that bad and it’s growing. “But it’s not growing as fast as we expected and as a small startup, we think it’s better to use our capital elsewhere.”

He, however, added that the closing down of the e-commerce business will not hurt Ookbee’s digital business (e-book store). “Many people in Bangkok are panicked and called us to cancel their digital subscription, as they confuse e-commerce with our core business. Our core business is e-books and it will remain intact.”

Ookbee Mall was established as a one-stop e-commerce portal for magazines and books, beauty and cosmetics, and products sourced directly from Japan. The company was betting big on the rapid growth of e-commerce in Thailand, along with its love of Japanese culture and products. 

Last year, many e-commerce firms in Thailand shut down due to the intense competition.

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So you’ve landed that startup job. Here’s what you should do so you don’t get left behind.

Whether you’re a fresh graduate with zero work experience or a seasoned alum of the traditional corporate world, you may find that working at a startup can be quite jarring. Startups, after all, are quite different from your traditional multinational companies and even SMEs; everything, from the product to the process to the team, is still in the development stage and every member of the team get to experience the growing up pains of being a part of the company.

But for all its hardships, working at a startup is very much rewarding. You just have to survive it. How, then, do you do that? Here are a few things:

If you feel like you’ve bitten off more than you can chew, chew faster.

Operations-wise, things happen fast in startups. Startups are flexible and prone to product pivots, team reorganisations, and process changes as it tries to figure out which works best for the business. This means that changing teams, designations, and/or responsibilities twice in a span of a year is not unheard of, nor is a pivot in the overall business model. This also means that it is highly likely that people don’t end up doing what they were initially hired to do.

Work fast. Make informed decisions but make them quickly. And if you find yourself thrust into a  business development job four months after accepting a content development one, do your best to learn what you need to do at the shortest amount of time. And speaking of learning…

Do these two things: learn while you work and learn on your own

Unlike large corporations where there’s usually a standard training programme for employees, startups seldom have the budget or even people to develop a semblance of a training programme. If you’re hired by a startup, it means that your employers trust you with the task of helping the company be a success. And that includes trusting you to be aware of your strengths and ensure that your weaknesses don’t remain weaknesses.

Be proactive about your own learning. Start reading relevant books and articles. Watch how-to videos online. Find mentors and pick at their brain. Make use of whatever resources are available (and there are a lot) to grow as the company grows. Remember that no one is irreplaceable, not even founders.

Also read: Meet the VC: Investors are more biased towards younger entrepreneurs, says Kunal Khattar of advantEdge

Don’t be remiss about communication and collaboration

Small teams, cross-functional projects, and flexible workplace setups. Compared to traditional businesses, startups have freedom and flexibility when it comes to how their employees work. For startups, productivity and effectivity precedes proximity and having team members strewn across the region is a common occurrence.

While it’s tempting to go at it alone, don’t. Keep in constant communication with your team and collaborate as much as possible; update and be updated of what is happening in the company and take advantage of the brilliance of your colleagues to help you process and develop ideas. Use the tools at your disposal – there are a lot of communication apps and channels so you really have no excuse.

Be guided by the company’s vision

Startups, as with all companies, are built because of a vision by the founders. This vision is where innovation revolves around and for startups, whose employees come from different backgrounds and the product may be first in the market, it is what keeps the company focused and grounded despite possible unfavorable environments.

Live for the mission. It is easy to get drowned by the noise and be distracted by the myriad things you need to do but always keep in mind the reason for the company’s existence. Measure the things you do based on whether or not it leads you to the ultimate goal of helping the company achieve its mission.

Take part in developing the company culture

Culture is a popular word these days and for a good reason, too; it largely determines whether the company can retain a good employee or whether an employee can stand to stay in the company. How the company operates is affected by its culture and the people in it behave toward customers, each other, and situations plays a huge role in its success.

Embrace the culture. If you’ve been hired, the people behind it saw that you fit and have the potential to improve on the company’s culture. You have the chance to help make the company become one that you and other people would enjoy working in. Take it.

Also read: Girls are actually happy to work in STEM. So what can we do to make them stay in this field?

Go in with an intrapreneur mindset

By definition, an intrapreneur is someone who employs entrepreneurial skills to improve and innovate their work processes. For some companies, this is an actual position, and the intrapreneur is tasked with developing processes for the whole company. But anyone can be an intraprenuer, and the beauty of working at a startup is that any change can easily be implemented  with results easily felt and measurable.

Be an intrapreneur. If you think that there’s a more efficient way to do things, pitch it to your colleagues. Find ways to increase your productivity and share it with the team or suggest an easier way to collaborate. You are there to help build the company and that includes making it work better.

Also read: Match point: What tennis can teach us about entrepreneurship and leadership

Remember that questions are more than okay

If we haven’t said it enough, we’ll say it again: startups work fast. New technologies are explored and developed all the time, the market can be fickle, and sometimes all it needs is a day for companies to be a success or a failure.

Don’t shy away from asking questions. If something confuses you, clarify. If something bothers you, get other people’s thoughts about it. If there’s something you don’t know, ask someone who does. If you have an idea you aren’t sure how to process, ask your team members to help. Remember that there will always be someone who can provide a fresh perspective of things.

Think less of fears as actual fears but as life’s taunts

As mentioned, people who get hired in startups often end up doing something quite different from what they were hired to do. This usually happens when said people dispay a proficiency for certain tasks that are needed by the company and they are often faced with doing things that are out of their comfort zones. Like public speaking, for example, which is fine for some but downright frightening for others.

If life keeps taunting you with things you’re afraid of doing, get one over it and do them. That responsibility thrust upon you that you think is a great opportunity but had been hesitant to accept because of fear of failure? Pitching an idea to the team? Speaking at an event? Don’t let life bully you. Do them. You and your company would thank you for that.

Be your company’s greatest walking advertisement

Startups need all the help they can get; it is always a scramble to get investors, clients, and the right people to join the team. What some people fail to take note of, however, is the current team is one of the reasons all three of those are acquired. Investors look at not only the product and the market but also the team behind it, customers care about customer service and support as much as the product, and potential hires look at how the current team is faring before deciding to join the company.

Be enthusiastic whenever anyone asks you about your job. You are a salesperson, in all aspects of life, whether you like it or not. How well you explain your job and what the company does, and how happy you are in your explanation speaks a lot about the company. You never know when you’re talking to the next big investor, client, or talented hire.

 
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A comprehensive guide to buying or selling an entire company for its talent

If funding slows down in Southeast Asia and businesses start to struggle, acqui-hires could be on the agenda. Southeast Asia tech start-up and VC lawyer, Lee Bagshaw, discusses the issues to consider when you are acqui-hiring a team.

1. What is an acqui-hire?

In simple terms, it’s a transaction, the key driver for which, is the hiring of a team from another startup.

This might involve the acquisition of other assets as well.  Depending on how the deal is structured, it may be an alternative to a winding down of a financially distressed company. Other times, well-funded startups target developer teams from competing companies. Hiring a team in this way might enable your business to scale rapidly at relatively low cost.

There is no obligation to take on all members of a team. Nor is there a standard way by which payments are made for the hires. What is common, however, is that without its key team members, the existing employer often closes or pivots shortly after the transaction.

2. Structure and documents

The structure can vary significantly. You could acquire the shares of the existing employer. This, of course, results in all assets and liabilities being transferred to your business, as in any share acquisition deal.  More likely is that an acqui-hire consists of a team being hired, plus an acquisition of certain assets, for example certain intellectual property (IP) of the target.

You may, of course, not want any of the technology, IP, or other assets of the business. In which case, you are in effect making a payment to the current employer simply to ensure the immediate release of the hired team from their employment terms, and specifically any restrictive covenants. Whatever the structure, an acqui-hire agreement will generally look something like a short form acquisition agreement, potentially with some IP licensing provisions.

Also Read: Pro bono: Practical legal advice about startup funding from lawyer Yingyu Wang

3. Who receives what?

With an acqui-hire, you are paying to acquire human talent and therefore the deal is often costed on a per-head basis. In the US, these payments can be significant if star teams are hired, but this is much less common in Asia.

Any money passing on the transaction tends to be split into two parts. The larger share is likely to make up the acquired employees’ remuneration packages (cash or share options) with a much smaller payment for investors and/or shareholders of the existing employer. Rarely will investors receive back anywhere close to their full investment.

Whilst this might look rather imbalanced, the reality is that the team generally remains the key asset of the business. Plus, the existing employer could well be due to be shut down in its current form. Therefore, an acqui-hire is in theory a win-win scenario by which investors can at least receive some return, as opposed to nothing. Ultimately investors and shareholders will need to approve the deal, so the amount of payments made to them is a matter for negotiation.

4. Issues to consider

As the acquiring company, you are likely to have the bargaining power given the existing employer could be financially distressed, or have trading difficulties.  In our experience, the issues you should consider are:

Unless there are compelling reasons, it seems unattractive to acquire the target by way of a share sale simply to bring in a team. Aside from the more onerous due diligence that you would need to do to assess the liabilities of the target business, you would also then need to handle its winding up process.

If the deal consists only of acquiring a team and no other assets, remember that any payments that you make are simply for a release of the hired employees from their employment contracts and restrictions. With that in mind, the acquiring company should not take on unnecessary risk under the terms of the acquisition document.

Also Read: Pro bono: 5 must-have legal documents for cash flow optimisation

Seek indemnification from the existing employer, and ideally its founders and the shareholders. This should cover liabilities that may arise in respect of the acqui-hire.  You do not want to take on any unknown risks, for example for the actions of the team before completion of the acqui-hire, or in connection with the asset/employee transfers. If the existing employer is due to be shut down quickly, then remember than indemnification from it alone is worthless unless backed up by the founders and/or shareholders personally.

Like all transactions in which assets are acquired, you should seek some basic warranties to encourage disclosure from the existing employer and its founders. If you are acquiring any IP then you need to know, for example, whether there are any pending claims from third parties.

In situations where only employees are acquired, it is common to seek from the existing employer an exclusive license to use its IP as part of the bargain for the payments. Alternatively, to avoid any future claims you may seek a form of hold-harmless provision so that IP claims cannot be brought against your company by the existing employer or its stakeholders.

Consider whether some or all of the team being acquired should be required to stay with your company for a minimum period under the terms of the acquisition agreement. In some acqui-hire deals, payments made on the deal are either deferred or reduced if any one of the team leaves before the end of an agreed period.

Finally, control the communications that the founders of the existing employer can make regarding the deal. An acqui-hire can be a positive message for all participants, but as the acquirer, you should handle the content and timing of any press release.

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Lee Bagshaw is corporate lawyer at technology and VC law firm, Simmonds Stewart. He advises investors, startup and high growth companies on venture capital financing and tech M&A deals across Asia Pacific.

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, submit your post here.

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