ENTERPRISE SPARKS- Issue 13 (Jan-Mar 2017)

ISSUE

013 Jan - Mar 2017

enterprise@nus.edu.sg enterprise.nus.edu.sg fb.com/NUSEnterprise

A quarterly publication of NUS Enterprise

GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURS’ CONFERENCE 2017

MAKING WAVES IN SUSTAINABLE DESALINATION

CHOOSE WHICH BATTLES TO LOSE SO YOU CAN WIN THE WAR

/03

/09

/12

MCI (P) 097/01/2017

FEATURES SPARKS interest with the latest in the start-up and entrepreneur scene within our community

Editor’s note

03

Global Entrepreneurs’ Conference 2017

04

An immersive experience with NOC

05

Innovfest unbound 2017

In tandem with the many new developments and initiatives planned out for NUS Enterprise in 2017, Enterprise SPARKS reflects the changing trends and momentum in the entrepreneurial landscape with a refreshed look and feel. Enterprise SPARKS aims to capture the trials and celebrate the successes of our many start-up founders and budding entrepreneurs in an up close and personal fashion.

Partnerships and collaborations that bridge the gap between inventions in the lab and the marketplace will be constant features that highlight the importance R&D brings to impact businesses, industries and society at large. Interesting and innovative technologies relevant to various industries will be captured in a “fun fact” manner.

SPARKS ideas with different thoughts and perspectives

06

Purposeful Living in Ageing SPARKS action with fireside chats and tips from experienced entrepreneurs

07

No more parking woes with SUREPARK

08

Thinking out of the box

SPARKS partnerships with industry and market leaders

09

Making waves in Sustainable Desalination

This issue also encapsulates the voices of young start-up founders and individuals making mid-career shifts in the Global Entrepreneurs’ Conference. NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC), being in the forefront of pushing the frontiers of entrepreneurship, enthusiastically participated and showcased its start-up founders at NUS Open Day. Modern Aging, a key business accelerator programme run by NUS Enterprise in collaboration with ACCESS Health International, unveils the secrets to purposeful ageing. The entrepreneurial journeys of various start-up founders are vividly captured demonstrating the fire in their mission to succeed. This issue also shares useful tips on winning the entrepreneurial battle.

Enterprise SPARKS continues to hail the enterprising spirit of our ecosystem. Enjoy!

SPARKS passion with exciting entrepreneurial internships

10

Crossing borders with RATEX

SPARKS interest in past events and activities

11

Flashback

SPARKS food-for-thought

ENTERPRISE SPARKS

12

NUS Enterprise 21 Heng Mui Keng Terrace, Level 5 Singapore 119613 enterprise@nus.edu.sg www.enterprise.nus.edu.sg Company Registration No: 200604346E

Choose which battles to lose so you can win the war

Editorial Team: Bhawani Balakrishnan (Lead), Ng Su Fen

Contributors: Joanna Hioe, Valerie Wong

GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURS’ CONFERENCE 2017 Small businesses, like speedboats, can make big waves. The same can be said of young, ambitious student-entrepreneurs.

Themed “Blazing the Technology Trail”, the Global Entrepreneurs’ Conference (GEC) 2017 was birthed from a spirit of continuous innovation. The inaugural GEC expanded from an audience of students-only in the previous iteration of the conference - the Global Youth Entrepreneurs’ Summit (GYES) - to now include early-stage start-up founders and individuals making mid-career shifts.

Participants were given clues to succeed in their entrepreneurial journeys through panel discussions, masterclasses, and a pitching session titled the Entrepreneurs’ World Cup. In addition, they were able to dip into Singapore’s start-up ecosystem and cultural landscape through a walkabout at Blk71 and a tour of Chinatown.

“Seek advice, get money twice,” quipped Seedly studententrepreneur Kenneth Lou, who moderated a panel of start-up founders sharing their early successes and obstacles. The diverse audience of 45 was privileged to gain a wealth of wisdom from entrepreneurs, start-up employees, and venture capitalists alike.

Panelists shared key aspects of being an entrepreneur at the Global Entrepreneurs’ Conference 2017

So, is it a good idea to become an entrepreneur upon graduation?

The panels touched on key aspects of being an entrepreneur: the entrepreneurship journey, achieving rapid growth, challenges faced in a start-up’s infancy, a venture capitalist’s mindset, and stories of start-up founders and employees who turned their back on the corporate world – even big name tech corporations.

Such knowledge cannot be taught in theory. “What matters is the mindset,” said East Ventures Managing Partner Willson Cauca.

One compelling reason to join or found a start-up is the impact you can make as an individual. Said Steve Feiner, Google-employee turned founder of A Better Florist, “my impact now is worth magnitudes more than my impact then (at Google)”.

Through the masterclasses, the audience gained practical handles on the lean start-up method, product management, UX design, and business development. These perspectives from tried and tested professionals in the start-up space were immensely valuable, ultimately culminating in participants pitching their own startup idea.

Students in the audience were encouraged to tap onto the advantages of youth – having less responsibilities, and being familiar with the needs of this generation of users – to start their own companies.

For updates on future events, please visit www.nes.org.sg/gec

At the Entrepreneurs’ World Cup, teams were given a chance to pitch their ideas to a panel of four venture capitalists. The event provided “a wealth of opportunities” to meet likeminded people, and “a chance to pick the brains of those in the industry,” observed Vulcan Post reporter Samantha Tay.

03

AN IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE WITH NOC 11 March 2017 was a blast, with over 24,000 visitors to NUS Open Day. Many prospective students visited the NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) booth to find out about the programme, which offers students the opportunity to undertake start-up internships at nine entrepreneurial hubs around the world.

This year, the theme was centred on NOC’s “immersive experience”, with the main attraction being a Virtual Reality (VR) game station, which reflected the same immersion our NOC programme provides.

NUS Overseas Colleges alumni ready to chat with prospective NUS students

NOC students and alumni were stationed all around the large booth, excited to share their lifechanging NOC experiences with the enthusiastic crowd. Talks were also held throughout the day to give interested students and their parents detailed information on the programme.

The talks featured NOC alumni who went on to found their own start-ups after their NOC experience.

PS Love co-founder, Tan Peck Ying, giving advice to 3 budding entrepreneurs in the midst of setting up their start-up

NOC alumni Tan Peck Ying (co-founder of PS Love), Chia Lih Wei (co-founder of TinyMOS) and Veerappan Swaminathan (founder of Sustainable Living Lab) were present to impart advice on founding a start-up and how an entrepreneurial education benefitted them.

The NOC booth also featured a start-up product display area, with interesting devices such as the world’s first roti-making robot (Rotimatic), the world’s tiniest astronomy camera (TinyMOS), and a brain-training

NUS President Prof Tan Chorh Chuan trying on the VR headset

sensory headband that connects to a mobile application (Neeuro).

All three products came from start-ups founded by NUS or NOC alumni, showing the entrepreneurial spirit of NUS students.

Many candid shots were taken of our spontaneous crowd, including that of NUS President Prof Tan Chorh Chuan. Check them out on our Facebook page - facebook.com/NUSEnterprise

Open day visitors fascinated by Rotimatic – the world’s first roti-making robot made by Zimplistic. Zimplistic is a start-up founded by NUS Alumni and couple Rishi Israni and Pranoti Nagarkar

04

PURPOSEFUL

LIVING

IN AGEING When my step-mom retired, she turned her occasional volunteer activities into a full time (unpaid) job. An occasional Saturday at the animal shelter became regular activities during the week. She joined the board of directors at the local food shelf, helping them improve operations, reach new fundraising targets, and bring fresh perspectives to the virtuous work of helping families in need. This was during the global recession, and her corporate experience brought fresh perspective to non-profit work. Somehow she also found time to join exercise classes at the community center and learn how to play pickleball.

Our team at ACCESS Health recently conducted an exercise to define purposeful ageing. Is purposeful ageing reinvention of the self? A meaningful life? Extended employment?

We came to the conclusion that purposeful ageing is an abstract idea with very real world implications. Personally, my vision for purposeful ageing is my step-mom. In her life, it means spending more time for causes she is passionate about, with a hearty dose of travel mixed in.

The Milken Institute recently published a report calling for greater understanding on the benefits of purposeful ageing

Image courtesy of Modern Aging Singapore

and a cultural shift on how we view ageing. We know that ageing with purpose can result in lower rates of cognitive decline and depression, and better physical health across a number of measures. For a shift in our collective perspective, we need to facilitate more interactions between generations and recognise the value of older adults’ knowledge and experience, and value the importance of inclusion across the lifespan.

When I read articles on centenarians, or anyone of advanced age and highly independent, the common determinant of their health is their purpose. They all have a reason for getting out of bed in the morning and greeting the day, whether it’s keeping up with their grandkids, tending to their home and garden, visiting with friends, going to a job they enjoy, volunteering in their community, or challenging themselves by learning a new skill. People who age purposefully are those who lived a purposeful life in their younger years. They are the ones who stay busy.

For the 2017 Modern Aging accelerator, with the theme Aging Unlimited, ACCESS Health and NUS Enterprise are bringing special attention to business opportunities that engage older adults in meaningful work. Companies of all sizes can implement policies and processes that help older employees maintain their current work. They can also launch initiatives that welcome older adults to the silver work or volunteer force. Start-ups in particular can benefit from their seniors’ decades of experience and knowledge.

Apparently the secret to health and happiness in our senior years is the same as our younger or middle aged years: embracing life. It’s something we can also work on, now, for ourselves and others.

06

Adrienne Mendenhall is the Country Manager of ACCESS Health International, a non profit organisation with the vision that all people have access to high quality, affordable health care.

ACCESS Health and NUS Enterprise jointly organise Modern Aging Singapore, an accelerator and ecosystem for the business of ageing.

Find out more at modernaging.sg

In densely-populated, spaceconstrained Singapore that has a car to citizen ratio of roughly 1:10, finding parking lots can be a hassle for motorists who have to spend time searching for available spaces or queuing outside carpark entrances.

NO MORE PARKING WOES WITH SUREPARK Reducing search times, waiting times and long queues in carparks

SurePark aims to solve this problem by installing palm-sized sensors that are placed on the ground of every lot to detect the presence of vehicles. These sensors feed data into the software platform to generate reports on the availability of the carpark spaces.

Through the SurePark app, motorists can access this information, which serves as a navigational guide to lead the motorist to the exact vacant lot, while also suggesting alternative parking spaces in nearby carparks should the current carpark be full.

SurePark co-founder Neil Mehta shares more about the Singapore-based Internet of Things start-up.

Milestones • July 2015 – Part of the Smart Nation Showcase under the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA).

• Oct 2015 – Beta-testing commences at three carparks in NUS. • May 2016 – Declared top start-up of the year at TiE50 awards program held at TiECon Silicon Valley, the world’s largest conference for entrepreneurs.

• 2017 - As part of the Singapore Smart Nation initiative, SurePark was awarded two key government projects which they are currently working on to fine-tune their systems.

SurePark co-founder Neil Mehta (middle), with two of his engineers

What mooted the idea of looking for parking solutions?

How did the NUS Enterprise eco-system help your start-up?

The origins of SurePark go back to a hackathon, in which the Singapore government provided raw carpark data. The SurePark team created a parking reservation system for which we were declared winners.

NUS Enterprise definitely looks out for its start-ups and provides amazing support. Since our inception in 2014, NUS Enterprise not only provided us with a great incubation space, but participation in large-scale entrepreneurship conferences like InnovFest unbound. The NUS Faculty of Engineering also provides us access to many talents.

SurePark has now evolved into a complete solution, a hardware-and-software platform enabling smart cities to provide a seamless parking experience to motorists and effectively monetise their parking spots.

How did the team behind SurePark come about?

We are a small but growing team of product designers, software developers and business people. In less than a year we went from idea to beta-testing the SurePark solution across three carparks, both indoor and outdoor.

What were the challenges faced when starting up the company?

Building a full-time team with the complementary skillsets for hardware and software was challenging.

During our first two years, we had to work with (almost) an entirely part-time team which elongated our product development timeline.

07

Furthermore, NUS has a very good reputation locally and regionally. When you’re a nobody trying to start something, the NUS brand name opens doors. One of our first angel investors was an NUS visiting faculty member and alumnus.

What are the future plans for SurePark?

SurePark aims to serve as an end-to-end solution for the parking industry. This essentially means that we won’t just be navigating drivers to their lots, but also streamlining the way payments are done and empowering parking management to make better parking pricing and allocation decisions.

THINKING OUT OF THE BOX As an undergraduate in NUS, Tan Peck Ying participated in the NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) programme. Through NOC, Peck Ying was “incepted with the concept that small companies can make a huge impact in society”.

In 2014, Peck Ying decided to embark on her own entrepreneurial journey with her boyfriend and current business partner, Caleb Leow. Introducing: PS Love. PS Love currently provides a drug-free alternative to relieving menstrual pain by means of a heat therapy patch. The patch, known as MenstruHeat, helps women alleviate cramps that strike during their period.

Past vs. Present Initially starting out as a monthly utility subscription service for lady supplies, Peck Ying soon realised that subscribers tend to prefer receiving a surprise together with their necessities. Thus, the subscription service became increasingly challenging from a logistics and fulfillment angle. She then decided that PS Love needed to grow out of the subscription service model and focus on their MenstruHeat product.

Developing MenstruHeat During their interactions with customers, they found that many were not able to easily find a good, natural product for menstrual cramps.

Existing solutions such as water or electric bags were heavy and inconvenient, required substantial charging time, and did not have long-lasting effects. Hence, they innovated something convenient that the modern woman would prefer — MenstruHeat.

Breaking into the Brick-and-Mortar space

“

I’m really grateful for the (Blk71) community.

It’s not just a journey of ourselves — well, a large part of it is our personal journey — but I think a bigger part of this is our journey together.”

-Tan Peck Ying, Founder of PS Love

Larger retail chains tended to be skeptical towards smaller companies like PS Love, as they felt new products with limited budgets would not be able to survive. Despite a throng of rejections initially, Peck Ying and her team fully believed in their product and were determined to list it at physical stores to increase their accessibility. By faithfully and aggressively knocking on many more retail doors, PS Love’s channels grew from there. Now, MenstruHeat can be found in over 500 retail stores including Guardian and 7-Eleven. The team currently adopts a 2-pronged approach: physical retailing to widen reach, coupled with online retailing to engage with loyal customers.

From Subscription Boxes to Shelves Island-wide Currently, MenstruHeat is available in over 70 retail stores, 90 Guardian stores and 300 7-Eleven outlets. They have also introduced two more pain-relief heat patches – BackHeat and NeckHeat. Alongside working on their three products, they also have a team that works tirelessly to grow their online community by sharing their thoughts and insights about female topics on PS Love’s blog.

Working in Blk71

PS Love, in time to come

NUS Enterprise supported PS Love through providing a range of good mentors and an incubation space in Blk71 with a community that helped provide a conducive and cohesive environment. PS Love even had the opportunity to be connected with P&G, who are in the consumer space to understand what works in the market; how the distributors work, how to manage exports, marketing, and pricing strategies. Their mentor from P&G also helped them to determine their target market by focusing and narrowing down the group, so PS Love could reach out to them in a more specific way.

Unsatisfied with staying in just the local market, Peck Ying has plans to expand throughout Southeast Asia. Currently, the team has already started sourcing for suitable partnerships in regions like Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Vietnam.

PS Love has the vision of growing MenstruHeat into a mass-market, evergreen brand that females can relate to when they suffer from period cramps. They hope that females no longer need to struggle through their periods and feel secure that there is a product out there which they can rely on.

08

FUN FACT Mouthpiece with two silver electrodes

Superimposing virtual colors

Mouthpiece with two silver electrodes

MAKING WAVES IN SUSTAINABLE DESALINATION Rotating dial

TASTE+ We all love good food. Food aficionados wax poetic about the careful selection and preparation of ingredients, as well as thoughtful presentation of dishes, but what if the utensils used can also further enhance the food experience?

Introducing Taste+ utensils with a simple yet delicious twist!

HOW DOES IT WORK? The Taste+ utensils – which currently comprise a spoon and beverage bottle – have a silver electrode coating, which triggers weak and controlled electrical pulses on the tip of the tongue upon contact.

This stimulates one’s primary taste sensations, thereby enhancing the flavour of food. The Taste+ bottle is also embedded with an RGB Light Emitting Diode, that changes the colour of the beverage.

WHAT IS IT FOR? Taste+ enables a healthier diet without compromising on taste by reducing the need for condiments such as sugar and salt or artificial flavouring. At the same time, as taste buds begin to deteriorate with age, Taste+ can also enable seniors to continue enjoying the same pleasurable taste sensations. Ever had problems getting your kid to drink more water? Well, in addition to boosting the flavour of the meal, one’s drinking experience is also made much more entertaining. Kids won’t need to be reminded to stay hydrated!

Founder of Medad Technologies Joseph Ng (seated 2nd from right) at a signing ceremony for the development of Solar Village of KACST and the four party MOU. On his left is His Excellency Minister Khalid A. Al-Falih, Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources

On 23 February 2017, NUS spin-off Medad Technologies, in partnership with King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST), signed a four-party Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Saline Water Conversion Corporation and Advanced Water Technology to build a 2000 m3/day (0.52 MGPD) hybrid desalination plant in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.

Invented by: Nimesha Ranasinghe, Yan Liangkun, Tram Nguyen, Lin LienYa, Ellen Yi-Luen Do Keio-NUS CUTE Center, Interactive and Digital Media Institute, NUS For more information please e-mail: iloquery@nus.edu.sg

09

Essentially, Medad strives to turn water from undesirable sources or saltwater into a pure drinking source. Tapping on research innovation from both NUS and KAUST, Medad Technologies is currently incubated at The Hangar at the I-Cube building in NUS. Medad has won global acclaim for its unique and efficient yet low-cost method of desalination, termed “hybrid multi-effect adsorption desalination”.

Simulations on the hybrid Medad system indicate that it could double or even triple desalinated water production, compared to existing solutions.

Medad CEO and founder Joseph Ng reiterated the importance of effective water management to a city’s sustainability, especially waterscarce cities like Singapore, while aiming to commercialise low-cost green technology.

Hear from our NOC students two co-founders, Davis and Jing Rong, attended the Silicon Valley programme. The trio crossed paths while serving National Service. While initially meant to feed their personal “addiction” of online shopping, they soon realised that their “hack” was something truly useful to all Singaporean online shoppers – thereafter roping in a few other NOC alumni. Launching on Christmas 2016, they secured their first organic transaction that very day.

CROSSING BORDERS WITH RATEX Goh Jian Kai, co-founder of RateX, shares the entrepreneurial journey of the start-up’s inception and a few tips for budding entrepreneurs

Overcoming challenges Launching on Christmas meant the team had to work hard prior to and following Christmas Eve. Determination and discipline were imperative as they had to give up their personal time and freedom to devote themselves into building a start-up. Furthermore, getting users to adopt a new form of payment – payment via extension on a web browser, was also unprecedented and risky. However, they managed to build up trust and credibility with their users, and fully equipped themselves with the relevant operational capabilities. Through internalising such challenges, their team evolved to deal well with the different type of curveballs thrown at them.

Co-founders: (L to R) Davis Gay, Lim Jing Rong and Goh Jian Kai

While undergoing the NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) programme in New York, Jian Kai had many requests to help his friends and family purchase items to bring back.

It occurred to him that crossborder shopping was a painful process for the average online shopper. Even though the items are cheaper abroad, the lack of transparency in terms of fees and exchange rate were problematic. And thus, RateX was born.

What is RateX? RateX is a cross-border payment solution in the form of a Google Chrome extension that helps online shoppers pay less. Often with overseas online shopping, transaction fees and marked-up exchange rates are inevitable.

However, RateX automatically finds coupon codes and the best exchange rates for shoppers, completely free of charge!

Future plans Currently available only on Amazon, RateX is looking to open up to an additional 20 sites in the next quarter. Their mission is to turn cross-border e-commerce transactions into a frictionless experience, anywhere and everywhere in the world.

Their vision: when people think of buying overseas online, they think of RateX.

The team The three co-founders of RateX are all NOC alumni. The other

What surprised you most when you first arrived at your NUS Overseas College?

Nur Muhammad Ashraf NOC Silicon Valley Faculty of Engineering, (Electrical Engineering) San Francisco / Bay Area, USA

The people here are generally very nice and helpful. This surprised me.

Once I was looking for the bus stop to get home from work and asked a stranger for directions. Instead, he offered me a lift and drove 20 minutes to my house!

Shuy Wan Xin NOC Lausanne Faculty of Engineering, (Mechanical Engineering) Lausanne, Switzerland

3 Tips for aspiring entrepreneurs 1. Anybody can innovate

2. Don’t think different

3. Start today

Don’t do this big ‘think different’... screw that. It’s meaningless. 99% of it is get the work done. – Linus Torvalds

Think Big. Think Global.

Understanding the market size, consumers’ need and how to deliver instead of extracting value is of crucial importance.

There’s no gain in waiting, planning or finding the right time. The right time is now.

10

We spent a full week trying to hunt down the perfect slipper, and finally settled for Ikea slippers (we had to travel out of our zone!) in the end.

NUS Enterprise Events & Activities

JAN - MAR 2017 Stay updated on our upcoming events at: enterprise.nus.edu.sg/events

JAN 11

N-House: Welcome Party

12

Transforming aging with health innovation: Outreach Workshop @Blk71

FEB 01

Enabling Massive IoT with LPWAN

i5Lab: Open Mic Session

18

NOC Tea Chat with Tom Kosnik Scale Up Singapore - Ike Lee

Wicked Wednesdays at N-House: Customer Acquisition Strategy for Entrepreneurs

09

IoT Business Model Design

13

Enabling IoT with Huawei

15

Wicked Wednesdays at N-House: Design Thinking Workshop

Wicked Wednesdays at N-House: Ed Tech for Start-ups

20

23

Ask NOC @ Central Library for SDE, FASS, FoS, Biz and Law students NOC Alumni Speaker Series: Entrepreneurship – Are you ready to take the leap?

Microsoft Biz Talk – Making Artificial Intelligence real for your business and customers

08

Wicked Wednesdays at N-House: Open House

09

Bayer-NUS Grants4Apps Challenge Roadshow

11

NUS Open Day

14

NOC 101: Intro to NOC

Brunch with Microsoft NOC – Spotlight on China

Microsoft Biz Talk – Gift & Passion

14

03

Robots for F&B and Hospitality

08

13

Wicked Wednesdays at N-House: Wicked Hack

MAR

Philip Yeo Innovation Fellows Programme MAD Talk

15

Wicked Wednesdays at N-House: Pitch Xpress

22

Wicked Wednesdays at N-House: Investors Fireside Chat

Bayer-NUS Grants4Apps Challenge Roadshow

21

Kopi Chat for Corporates: Design for Innovation

22

Bayer-NUS Grants4apps Challenge Roadshow

25

Shopee mCOMMERCE Challenge

Shopee mCOMMERCE Challenge

29

Kopi Chat Deep Dive Series: Big Data Intelligence

23

Philip Yeo Innovation Fellows Programme MAD Talk

NOC Jamboree STI Seminar: The Role of SBIR Awards for the University based Start-ups

24 25

24

Morning Pitch Asia – Robotics/Drones

27

Fireside Chat: Building machine learning-based products

28

Renting in Singapore: What you need to know as a tenant or landlord!

Ask NOC @ The Hangar for SoC and FoE students Morning Pitch Asia – Healthcare

11

Wicked Wednesdays at N-House: The Wicked Pitch

30

Kopi Chat for Corporates: Introduction to Deep Learning and AI

31

The Hangar First Anniversary Party and Open House

CHOOSE WHICH BATTLES TO LOSE SO YOU CAN THE WAR

WIN

Lessons from William Tanuwijaya, CEO of Tokopedia

Tokopedia is the leading e-commerce marketplace in Indonesia, garnering over 1.3 billion page views on a monthly basis. On 25 January, Tokopedia’s CEO William Tanuwijaya joined us for a Kopi Chat at The Hangar, sharing not just useful business tips, but also wise life lessons.

1

Build a sustainable business, not an immediately profitable one

While many may dream of starting up a business with quick and grand returns, a sustainable business model is ultimately better in the long run. Despite Indonesia’s low credit card penetration rate of about only three percent, Tokopedia chooses not to offer Cash-on-Delivery (COD) as it would be extremely costly. Rather than aiming to widen their market range to include consumers who prefer COD, they build trust with consumers by revealing sales figures, offering a robust system of shop reviews and trust badges, as well as payment at local convenience stores. Furthermore, Tokopedia rarely offers discounts as slashing prices to gain market share contradicts William’s philosophy of building a sustainable business – the only exception would be to change consumer habits.

2

3

Fundraising requires luck, lots of it

4

Don’t juggle all 5 balls at once

From William’s perspective, luck was a huge factor in him raising millions. In fact, Tokopedia is one of the luckier start-ups to have investors pursue them instead. While a business plan may not necessarily draw investors initially, a sustainable business has a high probability of eventually acquiring the funding needed.

There are five aspects of a person’s life — Work, Family, Health, Friends, and Spirit— expressed as balls that we juggle. Among them, four balls are made of glass. One ball is made of rubber, representing work. While the rubber work ball can bounce back after times of hardship or failure, other aspects of life don’t possess the same elasticity. If they fall, they shatter.

Choose which battles to lose

If building a start-up is like waging a war, then making decisions is like choosing one’s battles. In Tokopedia’s case, different markets represent different battlegrounds, and its strategy to survive was to lose the battles outside of Indonesia. Some of William’s competitors had great ambitions and chose to venture outside Indonesia early on. However, this caused two problems – inability to serve local consumers well; and facing cash-flow problems faster. By forgoing foreign markets, Tokopedia retained home-ground-advantage and was able to out-compete its Indonesian competitors, allowing it to grow into a billion-dollar business today.

William used to neglect time spent with his significant other, giving the reason that a quarter was ‘too important for Tokopedia’. He admitted that it was really hard for him to juggle his five balls of life all at once and if this had carried on, he would have broken some of them. During his thengirlfriend’s medical school graduation in Japan, William decided to set aside his work ball and proposed to her. Not only is she now his wife, but Tokopedia closed that quarter out-performing expectations. Hence, his solution is to set aside two balls and focus only on juggling the other three well at any time.

12