We Spoke with 500 Founders Around Southeast Asia and Here Are 4 Things We Learned
Wow, it’s February already and muru-D Singapore’s third Cohort is almost two-thirds of the way complete. With so much having happened — and our US trip and Demo Day still to come — it’s hard to imagine that I started as Head of muru-D Singapore just 6 months ago.
So, while flying back to Singapore from Jakarta, perhaps it’s a good time to take a few minutes and reflect on some big things we’ve learnt so far…
Jumping in Head First
Immediately upon starting with muru-D, I was on a plane to Vietnam, leaping into a series of Roadshow events designed to help recruit the 10 companies that would ultimately make-up Cohort 3.
There’s nothing like total immersion to learn a new role…
Together with Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) Craig Dixon and trusty intern/Jack-of-all-trades Joe Harris, I embarked on a journey that ultimately took us to six countries and eight cities across Southeast Asia. Our travels took us from Singapore to Jakarta, Bandung, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Manila, Bangkok, and Kuala Lumpur.
We conference-hopped from Tech in Asia to Echelon to Techsauce; and supplied leading co-working spaces with an excess of beer and pizza, and then — while consuming said beer and pizza — packed out event spaces with an average of 50–60 entrepreneurs per night.
Most importantly, we met with over 500 founders around the region, and learnt A LOT.
So here it is…
Lessons From 500 Founders
Disclaimer: Obviously not all countries in Southeast Asia are the same and while we saw variances within each country and city, I came away from the roadshow with a few thoughts that could be called “regional”:
1) Excitement With a Capital ‘E’
The level of energy and dedication among young founders in Southeast Asia is tremendous. We saw many, many teams building great products and services, articulating new applications of technology or just stretching their wings to create something of their own. Often untrained in entrepreneurship or technology, the excitement and energy was great to see, and is very inspiring for the future of start-ups in the region (and to me).
2) Who Run the World?
The number of female founders presenting at our events impressed me as well. I’d estimate at least one-third of the teams were either female led or co-founded; far more than I would have guessed going into the roadshow. It seems as though within Southeast Asia, it’s more common — and accepted — to have women founders than in the west, which is really great to see. By the way, that translated into our current SGP3 cohort as well, where nearly half our teams have a female co-founder.
3) Back to Basics
Less positive though was the supply of local seed or angel funding for these nascent founders. With the exception of Singapore, where the government has been investing heavily over the past decade to build the local start-up ecosystem, early stage founders in other countries have few opportunities or access to early stage start-up knowledge and funding.
4) Investors, We Have A Problem
In each city we visited we met founders who told a similar story of finding an angel investor who’d invest 40,000–50,000 dollars in exchange for half the company — or more. While the founders were, at least initially, thrilled with this type of initial investment, it would soon become apparent that this strategy ends up damaging the company due to lack of willing follow-on investors, pretty much ensuring that everybody loses: founders, angels, employees, etc.
In fact, the lack of a community of educated angel investors in each country and a similar lack of early stage founder education appears to be holding back the region’s start-up ecosystem at a very fundamental level.
The Tide is Turning, But Slowly…
Again, I know every country is different and there is a variety of maturity in the start-up ecosystems across Southeast Asia — and my research is largely anecdotal; hardly a scientific survey. But the stories were common enough across multiple cities to point to the emergent pattern of a lack of educated angels and start-up education for early-stage founders.
The good news is that we’re already starting to see change on these fronts around the region. Groups of angel investors are either forming or re-orienting themselves to help educate angels.
Here in Singapore, groups like BANSEA (Business Angel Network of Southeast Asia) and AngelCentral are both growing in numbers and adding angel education to their platform.
In Indonesia, ANGIN — The Indonesian Angel Investment Network — offers resources for both founders and angels, and also has a focus on women investors. Similar groups are forming in Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand, some with government help and support, others on their own.
And here at muru-D, we work hard to champion our vision of “Founder Friendly” by working to educate both founders and investors through courses, open houses and our progressive SAFE Note investment strategy. We also work with local groups like BANSEA to teach existing and potential angels about being a positive, supportive investor — our most recent event drawing over 40 angels and other investors.
Indeed, our own Craig Dixon, muru-D Singapore’s EIR has recently completed a 6-part series on how to become a good Angel investor — it will be appearing soon on this blog and other social media channels.
My first roadshow across Southeast Asia provided me with a rare opportunity to meet and learn from hundreds of energetic, optimistic and, perhaps, slightly (naïve) founders — and it was truly inspiring.
But it was also clear that for these seeds to sprout, more energy has to be focused on encouraging and educating a supportive network of angel investors, both regionally and within each country.
We’re already starting to see a new, better educated angel investor profile emerging but we can all do more. And, muru-D will be doing its part to help encourage this too because Founder Friendly, is Investor Friendly.
We’ll be hitting the road again in June to recruit for our next cohort, SGP 4. I’m already looking forward to meeting new founders, working with local investors, and seeing the progress we’re all making in building Southeast Asia’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
