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July 14, 2015

The startup ecosystem in Myanmar

So, I had another blog post all lined up to be my first one post-launch but given my afternoon, I think I’ll go ahead and write this one. It’s been on my mind for a few weeks so good to get it off my chest.

A few weeks ago I saw a Tech In Asia post about the writer’s view on the weaknesses and challenges in the startup ecosystem in Vietnam and then asked for feedback on other countries. I knew immediately what I would have responded. Since I didn’t then, I will now.

First off, some background. After months of intense work, our team finally launched Jzoo yesterday!! It was one of the most complicated projects I’ve ever worked on given how many online and offline components we needed to juggle. There was the tech piece, which is usually difficult enough to get right but also selling/signing partners, training our staff, their staff, finding hardware and vendors (in Myanmar!!) who could do what we needed, installation in partner stores…the list goes on and on. That’s all on top of all the regular fun of a tech startup when it’s just an apk file you throw out to the universe. Our team is brand new (two of them were only with us a week at the time of launch) and yet they pulled together to FLAWLESSLY roll out the hardware and software, not an easy feat by any stretch, made almost impossible by the fact that we were in Yangon 🙂 I’ll definitely share some of the behind the scenes fun on another post. Suffice it to say, I’m extremely proud of the team and how much work they put into this launch.

We have purposely been fairly quiet as it’s literally day two and we are focused on getting the hardware into stores, and finding issues, optimizations, etc…this strategy (and subsequent tradeoffs) was to be the original blog post but I’ll write about it later. Most of the feedback we have been getting has been positive and while the whole concept is new to Myanmar, people seem to be understanding immediately what they need to do…which is clearly important.

So here’s where the point of this post comes….

I received some negative opinions about the product today, which in and of itself is fine. Had it been actual feedback that I could have actioned, it would have been better 🙂 But it was the way the opinion was delivered that got me going. A Facebook post with me publicly tagged. Basically an open invite for all their friends to jump on top of the dog pile. This happens ALL the time in Myanmar and it’s a terrible thing that needs to stop. The public mocking and ridiculing are immediate and non-stop. The road to entrepreneurship is extremely difficult and mentally draining and if at the end (or beginning) of it, you can expect a public lynching, it’s going to stop even more people from going live, which is a real tragedy. And what’s really funny is that I fully expected this from one of the founders here and would make bets that there are far more out there that I’m not tagged in. But here’s a quote I always try to keep in mind: “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late”. True words by the fabulous Reid Hoffman, a personal hero. While i’m not actually embarrassed, I do know that the product isn’t perfect. That said, I’m not sure that it ever will be perfect because my bar keeps rising 🙂

My point to the erstwhile poster (who has since graciously removed the post) is that the startup ecosystem in Myanmar is one of the most divisive and derisive that I’ve come across. There are all kinds of camps and no one is supportive of the other. A very good example: Last year Ooredoo/IdeaBox organized a Connected Women conference and one of the panels was around women in tech. Now, I personally know of four other female founders/leaders in the tech space here and yet I was the only one on the panel with a bunch of bankers and lawyers from outside Myanmar (oh, and one of their staff members). Great women but if there’s only ONE panel about women in tech in a Connected Women conference, couldn’t they have at least made an effort to find some women who are actually in tech? Plus, I wasn’t even invited by Ooredoo but rather their partners, GSMA!

A very successful Burmese businessman once told me that if there were a national pass time in Myanmar, it would be jealousy. But there is simply no need for this in the startup space here – Myanmar is a world full of opportunities and a robust and healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem benefits all. This isn’t a zero sum game folks.

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June 30, 2015

Why Myanmar?

I very often get asked this question – what bought me all the way here to start a tech startup of all things back in 2013, and more recently, what keeps me here. I find that the Letter from the CEO section of the business plan I originally wrote in 2013 still explains why I’m here better than anything…so here it is:

The development of our business model came about when I visited Yangon, Myanmar in early 2013. It was immediately clear that there was something special happening in the country. The locals were young, energetic and motivated. The government was determined to pull Myanmar into the 21st century and the people were clearly eager to help. Over the course of several months traveling to Yangon, I started to notice something amusing. In downtown Yangon, the street vendors began to remove all their random wares from the shelves, and they started filling their stores, tables and kiosks with mobile phones. The digital revolution had arrived in Myanmar.

The very idea of developing a tech start up, especially a consumer- focused one at such an early stage of Myanmar’s infrastructure development is a bold one. While there are clearly accessibility issues today, there’s no doubt that this is going to correct itself rapidly. Myanmar’s re-emergence is occurring at a time when bridging the digital divide is cheaper and easier than ever. This is a country that will come online faster than any other nation we have ever witnessed. Not only that, Myanmar will go straight to the smart phone, largely bypassing desktop and feature phone adoption as was seen in other countries.

The company was formed to capitalize on the massive opportunities presented by recent reforms in Myanmar. Virtually overnight, an untapped market of 60 million consumers has opened up. Infrastructure gaps have been – and continue to be – a central focus of the reform. However as the technology of access and distribution improves rapidly, major problems remain in engaging with these new consumers.

As for the question of why I stay…I guess the best way to explain that is to take an excerpt of my current business plan, which I’ve posted below. But the short story is that the country is going through a time of exciting and unprecedented change and I still want to be part of it. I will write much more openly about what I’m doing in the coming weeks and months but this sets up the basic framework for why I’m still here and launching a second venture.

In 2012 there were over 190 million people in Southeast Asia who belonged to the middle class, meaning they have the ability to make purchase decisions based on a level of disposable income. Research shows that Southeast Asian consumers are impulse buyers with a growing preference for early adoption. They are also increasingly affected by the consumption trends of their northern counterparts China, Korea and Japan, where brand identification is slowly becoming a primary driver in consumer behaviour. As manufacturing moves south from China’s hub cities, we are also seeing countries like Myanmar and Vietnam become literally closer to the products that their growing middle class are buying, setting a precedent for a rich consumer ecosystem.

With a combined population of over 150 million people and economic expansion exceeding six percent annually, the spotlight of consumer growth is on Vietnam and Myanmar. Vietnam has the fastest-growing middle and affluent class (MAC) in the region. Business operators have tapped Myanmar and Vietnam as Southeast Asia’s new growth frontiers, as Vietnam’s consumer population will rise from 12 million to 33 million between 2012 and 2020 while Myanmar stands to have a consumer class that is the same size as Malaysia and The Philippines by 2030. Consumers in Vietnam and Myanmar are rapidly developing purchasing power making them increasingly attractive global business prospects. Their MAC segment is expected to double in size by 2020 according to BCG.

And yet Myanmar is a country that has no consumer-friendly banking, no common e-payments system, no credit ratings, not even reliable postal, telecoms or logistics networks – digital or otherwise. There is literally no central data. The government recently carried out their first census in 30 years. International market research companies like Nielsen are still sending out foot soldiers to interview villagers selling shampoo sachets in remote areas. A consumer-led initiative like Jzoo, which doesn’t even require our members or partners to have a mobile phone poses one of the simplest solutions to bridge the information gap – both to the citizens as well as back to decision makers.

Stay tuned for some exciting times… 🙂

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May 7, 2015

Moving beyond betrayal

Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of when my world blew into small, dull pieces and it’s made me reflect on the past year. The road to today was not easy but as I sit here and take stock, I must admit that I’m in a much better place now. My life is vastly richer and full of shiny, new opportunities. I have (mostly) culled out the people that no longer add value and am focused on relationships that enrich my life.

And yet, as I stand on the very edge of launching a new venture, I found myself constantly fighting anxiety with taking the next, critical step. I wrote previously about how I would be opening myself up to pain and failure again but I’ve come to realize that this isn’t what’s holding me back. A few months ago, a good friend (and highly experienced entrepreneur and VC) told me, “I don’t know how you did it, this wasn’t simply about you failing but overcoming betrayal on a massive scale”. And he’s right. Frankly, I wasn’t around long enough to have a chance to fail.

A year later and I’ve realized that I’m finally not angry anymore. It’s so tiring to be angry all the time. But here’s a truth that stays with me:

“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.”
― William Blake

The hardest parts of last year was coming to terms with the actions of those I considered friends and who I provided opportunities to, treated with dignity and respect and invited along on my journey. That they were part of something that was so incredibly ugly and cruel still astonishes me. But my very awesome and loyal co-founder forwarded me this quote:

“Karma: No need for revenge. Just sit back & wait. Those who hurt you will eventually screw up themselves and if you’re lucky, God will let you watch”

So now, this is what I try to keep in mind as I firmly shut the door to last year and move ahead with my life:

“It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.”
― Confucius

I can say with real honesty that the haters haven’t won – I haven’t lost faith in humanity (or investors). As a matter of fact, I’ll be bringing on new advisors and investors this month as I gear up for the next journey, which promises to be much more fulfilling and rewarding. Time to stop looking in the rearview mirror…the road ahead is going to require all my considerable focus and energy.

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November 3, 2011

The Verge

Have you guys heard? There’s a new tech site in town…well, not our town of course. The former Engadget guy launched The Verge this week. Aesthetically, I’m not a fan of the big boxes. It takes up so much room above the fold and really doesn’t prioritize content for me. But I guess that’s really subjective.

Product-wise, this is from the Engadget guy so I was expecting some pretty deep community hooks and was not disappointed on that front. However, they had a pretty horrific signing up process, even using FB connect. Side note, who still uses A)Yahoo! or B)OpenID and where are Twitter or Google logins?

After selecting FB Connect link, I still have to fill fields and fields and fields. And they don’t even tell me WHY I should go through the hassle. Then, I have to stop and wait for a confirmation email, during which time there’s no way browse the site or anything. After finally validating my account, I am told I am fully registered….then let’s me upload a photo. That’s it?!?!

For those die-hard Engadget folks out there who understand what they will eventually get, this is totally worth the hassle. For everyone else, I’m not sure that they will understand the value to jumping through all the hoops just to read some news articles.

Have you started using The Verge? How do you like the content?

October 25, 2011

Power of the dark side

October 13, 2011

Vietnam’s Digital (R)evolution

There are a myriad of reasons I decided to move to Vietnam last year, most of which stem from a resigned “been there, done that” attitude towards my admittedly cool job at Electronic Arts. One day I may bore you with more details about helping to build an online marketing and community team for one of the largest gaming companies in the world but for now, let’s just say the thrill was over and I was eagerly facing the challenge of returning to the motherland.

Everyone talks about Vietnam being an emerging market and as I dug into the technology landscape here I could see that it was on the brink of a major transition. And with change comes opportunity. While the job I was offered was amazing and the product very cool, my primary motivation for moving here is that I wanted the chance to witness first hand how a country like Vietnam would embrace the digital revolution. Here was this country full of bored, young people where Internet access was almost free and everyone had at least one cell phone, though there were far less computers in each household like in the west. There is no question that the digital age was coming, but it was how this would play out that was the most interesting to me.

Over the past 12 years I was lucky enough participate in some pretty significant game changers in the online space. I was working in digital marketing before Facebook was a twinkle in the Winklevoss’….er, Zuckerberg’s eye or Twitter became a household name. I remember the early days of trying to figure out what the hell a “Like” button was and how we could drive more people to mark things as “del.icio.us”. At the risk of dating myself even further, I remember when the word “blog” first started surfacing to the amazement and amusement of most marketers.

One of my first experiences with Vietnam’s version of “online marketing” happened a week after I arrived. Still fresh off the boat, I attended BarCamp since our company had sponsored it. For those of you not familiar with BarCamp, it’s a one-day conference of user-generated presentations. Meaning, anyone is able to present whatever he or she wished. There were some really great, if highly technical presentations, along with a few that were little better than sales pitches. In the afternoon, there was a session around digital marketing, which I decided to attend.

This was one of the more crowded sessions I had seen all day. Clearly there was an interest and appetite on this topic. I sat in the room in growing horror as a girl with four years of “experience” in online marketing went on for 30 minutes about why online marketing was a waste of time and money, how it couldn’t be measured and why social media and community development were a hoax. Once I couldn’t stand it any longer, I decided to address the easiest (and most asinine) of her statements – that online marketing couldn’t be measured. Of all marketing mediums, online is probably the easiest to measure. There are countless tools to help a marketer determine exactly where and how their audience is finding, consuming and interacting with their content and yet here was a girl claiming that it was easier to measure direct sales & ROI from the impressions on a TV commercial than a click through on an online campaign. Gross stupidity or lack of proper training in the space?

Over my past ten months here, a common complaint I’ve heard from both locals and expats is the lack of training available in Vietnam around the digital space. I can’t argue since the majority of my online marketing conversations here have centered around either banner ads or SEO. I constantly have flashbacks to the 50 page social, community & online marketing presentations I used to have to create at EA without one mention of SEO or ad banners, since that was handled by our advertising team.

So I decided to do my small part to contribute to the knowledge transfer. Don’t worry though; I have no intention of writing tutorials around online marketing or product development. Besides the fact that I’m not a teacher, it would also bore me more to write it than it would be for you to read it. Instead, I’m largely going to be writing about whatever random techie thing that catches my fancy. And since I do have a day job, it will be more than likely that I’ll be writing bits of random things and why I think they are cool…or not.

Things that were catching my fancy earlier this year – Lady Gaga’s Born this Way digital launch and LinkedIn’s IPO. The first because, regardless of how you may feel about her music, you have to agree that this woman pushes boundaries like no one since Madonna was desperately seeking someone named Susan. Incorporating a wide range of partnerships with everything from Farmville to Words with Friends, this launch will one day be used in universities to teach students the power of a truly integrated online campaign.

As for Linkedin, this story deserves it’s own full article. What’s really exciting about it though is that it’s acting as a harbinger of things to come. With Facebook, Zynga and Twitter all looking to going public within the next year, the Silicon Valley is all abuzz and I for one cannot wait to see what’s next.

At times feels like we’re too far removed from all the hoopla in the US which makes it all the more important to find a network here in Vietnam who is also following the tech industry. I’ll be giving you my opinion but I recognize that I’m only one voice amongst many. So here’s my call for techie geeks in Vietnam to unite. Speak up! Let me know what you think about anything geeky. It’s such a dynamic space so lots of topics to choose from. Here are a few off the top of my head:

How is iOS 5 still not as good as Android?
Do you think GroupOn will ever IPO?
What’s next for Bartz now that she’s shed the Yahoo! dead weight?
Will George RR Martin take another 6 years to release his next book?

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Category: Random Geek Stuff