Starting a business takes more than just a cool idea and some fundraising. Behind the scenes, the details run the gamut from establishing company structure to protecting intellectual property. Attorney Willa Kalaidjian, the chair of the Chambliss Startup Group, shares her insights on what it really takes to stand up a startup.
Deciding on structure
There are several entity types, but startups and small businesses typically organize as limited liability companies (LLCs) or corporations. Choosing which entity is best may depend on the industry, number of owners, and other legal and tax preferences. Both LLCs and corporations provide similar protection from personal liability for business debts.
LLCs are often favored by small businesses and generally offer more flexibility than corporations, which are subject to strict statutory requirements. While LLCs are also governed by state law, many of those laws can be modified in the operating agreement.
Equally important to choosing the right entity structure for your business is ensuring all owners understand their roles. Ownership interest, rights and obligations should be clearly outlined in organizational documents to reduce uncertainty if relationships do not work out or if an owner needs to leave the company for unforeseen circumstances.
Protecting intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is often the most valuable asset of a startup, and it is critical to take steps early on to secure and protect inventions, know-how and other proprietary IP. Failing to protect IP appropriately—through patent, trademark, copyright or trade secret—can have serious consequences and result in loss of protection. It is critical to secure rights to use essential intellectual property through IP assignments, employment agreements and license agreements. Finally, all startups should take steps to protect their confidential and proprietary information through non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements with employees, service providers, vendors and other parties who have access to proprietary processes, financial information, client lists and supplier information of the business.
Building company culture and smart partner relationships
Implementing a great idea requires support from a strong team. Your company culture will be a driving force in retaining and attracting employees. Engaging employees at every level and valuing their contributions will pay dividends down the road. Building and nurturing company culture is a process and takes time, effort and insight; but starting with a strong mission and identifying core values and a vision is an important first step.
At some point, it may be appropriate to bring on a corporate partner or strategic investor with access to resources and networks. Such relationships can provide much needed support and spur rapid growth. Smart partnerships involve a balancing of roles. It is important to identify business milestones and deliverables to ensure the partnership will align with the company's goals. Finally, make sure you spend the time to document partner relationships through a written agreement to ensure both parties have a clear understanding of expectations and responsibilities.
Managing regulatory risk
All businesses are subject to regulations, although certain industries may inherently be subject to more regulatory risks and requirements than others. Health care companies with access to personal health information must follow strict privacy regulations and ensure such information is protected from improper disclosure. Makers of new drugs or medical devices go through approval processes with the FDA before their products can be marketed and sold. Devices that emit radio frequencies are subject to certification processes with the FCC. Manufacturers may be subject to regulations with respect to air emissions or waste generated. Companies that own or develop real estate may need to address environmental issues and negotiate liability protection with state agencies or the EPA. Your company may be subject to state and federal employment laws, including worker health and safety laws. All companies must comply with state and federal taxation laws and regulations. Through proper due diligence and seeking specialized legal advice where appropriate, a startup can largely predict, identify and navigate regulatory risks successfully.
Contributed photo / Attorney Willa Kalaidjian focuses her practice on startups and emerging companies, general commercial and business transactions, environmental compliance, and telecommunications and energy law.
Willa Kalaidjian focuses her practice on startups and emerging companies, general commercial and business transactions, environmental compliance, and telecommunications and energy law. She works with startups and entrepreneurs on entity choice, governance and business planning, trademarks, technology rights, and financial transactions. Kalaidjian holds a bachelor's degree from Columbia University, a master's degree from Pace University and a law degree from Emory University.
(TNS) — Alto CEO Will Coleman is used to getting lots of questions when he tells people he leads a ride-hailing company. When he founded the startup a year ago, Uber and Lyft were already household names. Now they’re publicly traded giants.
But the Dallas-based company is showing signs of growth, even in a competitive industry. It has about 10,000 active members who pay a subscription-based fee. It’s driven nearly 100,000 rides. It serves more than 900 square miles of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Alto has also raised an additional $6 million to expand in Dallas and enter two new markets — another metro area in Texas and one in California — by the end of the year. Its venture capital backing now totals $20.5 million, with most from Road Ventures, a Swiss fund focused on transportation.
The company wants to operate in 15 large U.S. metro areas in 3 to 4 years, Coleman said.
Alto’s business model is nearly the opposite of its better-known rivals, who rely on contract workers who drive their own cars. Alto owns a fleet of about 60 SUVs. It employs more than 100 drivers who get health insurance and other benefits, along with pay. It has a membership-based model and a higher price tag.
Instead of competing on price, the company seeks out riders who are willing to pay for a more upscale experience.
“We are an accessible luxury," Coleman said. "We are focused on safety, consistency and quality, and for people that care about that, we think we’re the best in the space. If all you care about is getting the absolute cheapest ride from point A to point B, that’s not Alto.”
Coleman would not share Alto’s annual revenue but said the company’s Dallas operations will become profitable in late 2020 or early 2021. Starting in October, Alto’s revenue covered the direct operating cost of each ride, including drivers, vehicles, fuel and insurance.
Coleman, a Dallas native and former McKinsey & Company consultant, said Alto’s focus on profitability is timely. Uber and Lyft are under pressure from Wall Street as investors push for proof that they can make money.
Alto spends a higher percentage of its revenue on employees. About 60% of its overall costs are employee salaries and benefits, Coleman said, but that allows the company to train and screen drivers, he said. It also translates to lower insurance costs and lower vehicle expenses, since the company can buy and maintain the SUVs at scale.
Alto’s major backer, Road Ventures, was instrumental in its founding, and it led the recent round of funding. Road Ventures is majority owner of Alto. Patrice Crisinel, a Road Ventures board member, said it owns “just a little more than the majority" but wouldn’t disclose the percentage.
The venture firm hired consultants to explore investing in a ride-hailing company. Through the research, the firm’s leaders met Coleman and decided to fund a new company instead.
Crisinel said the research uncovered large segments of the market that didn’t use ride-sharing as much — particularly professional women and families. He said Road Ventures believed a new kind of company focused on safety and superior customer service could appeal to those customers.
“Our bet was right,” he said.
In addition to drivers, Alto has grown to about 25 home office employees, including software engineers and a customer experience team. It hires an average of eight drivers a week to keep up with demand.
Customers are equally split between men and women but tend to be more affluent. Most have household incomes of $100,000 or higher, Coleman said.
Unlike Uber or Lyft, Alto doesn’t raise prices during busy times — but riders must plan ahead for trips. Riders request a ride through a smartphone app. The wait is typically about 10 minutes. It doesn’t have a shared ride option either. (Uber and Lyft don’t have a carpooling option in Dallas but offer it in cities like San Francisco and New York.)
Over the past year, Alto has expanded its coverage area in Dallas and tweaked its approach. It launched with a members-only subscription model but now allows guests to pay per ride. Membership costs $12.95 a month or $99 a year, in addition to the cost of rides. For guests, there is no membership fee, but rides cost about 30% more. About 85% of its rides are taken by members.
Alto isn’t the only company putting its own spin on ride-hailing. Via offers ride-hailing in several major cities and has struck deals with public transit agencies. Zum and HopSkipDrive market themselves as a solution for busy parents who need help with kids’ pickups and dropoffs. Dallas-based Bubbl hires drivers who are off-duty police officers, veterans and first responders.
Alto has tried to stand out with unique touches. Uniform-wearing drivers pick up customers. All rides are in white Buick Enclave SUVs with vanity license plates and a leather interior. Riders can pick music or select “Do Not Disturb," if they have a work call or prefer quiet. And the company borrowed a strategy from high-end hotels by developing a signature scent that drivers spray before each ride. It’s a subtle mix of cypress, vetiver and bergamot.
Alto plans to add other customized features, such as allowing riders to turn up the air conditioning or dim the lights. In the future, the seats may be preprogrammed to adjust for customers, for example, Coleman said.
“We want our customer to feel like they are in control and to feel like they are getting in their car — not someone else’s car,” Coleman said. “That’s really the feeling that we think differentiates us from our competitors.”
Foto: Screenshot/The Internet Archive Proprly provided cleaning and key delivery services for short-term rental hosts listing their properties on platforms like Airbnb and VRBO.
Airbnb quietly bought Proprly, a property management service for short-term rentals, in a previously unreported May 2016 deal, an Airbnb spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider.
The purchase suggests that Airbnb’s appetite for expanding beyond bookings to become a one-stop shop for travel predated its 2018 acquisition of property management software Luckey.
In a previously unreported deal in May 2016, Airbnb bought Proprly, a property management service that managed cleaning, guest check-in, and other aspects of the rental process on behalf of hosts, an Airbnb spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider.
The popularity of platforms like Airbnb and HomeAway’s VRBO has given rise to a related industry of startups, like Proprly, that cater to the newfound needs of property owners. Countless companies have popped up to offer everything from cleaning services to home security to insurance, custom-tailored for short-term rental operators.
Airbnb has mostly stayed out of offering those services itself, preferring instead to partner with other providers. But its acquisition of Luckey, a property management software company, caused some observers to speculate whether it might be adjusting its strategy.
While Airbnb eventually shut down Proprly, the purchase suggests it may have been experimenting with building out more in-house services as far back as 2016.
Airbnb did not disclose how much it paid for the company or what the terms were, though Proprly’s founder, Randy Engler, joined Airbnb shortly after the deal and currently works on its Olympics partnership team, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Before the industry became as big as it is now, fintech and agri startups' main arena to attract investments were startup competitions
5 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Those familiar to the ins and outs of startup communities in Asia would know: there’s at least one startup challenge happening in the region every quarter, as governments and organizations seek new innovative ventures that tackle some of the world’s most pressing problems.
Perhaps one industry that has benefitted the most from this phenomenon in recent years is the fintech scene. With half of the region, or at least 1 billion people still unbanked, truly, there’s a vast opportunity for fintech players to close the gap between the financially marginalized, and affordable financial products.
In 2018, global investments in fintech ventures more than doubled from previous year levels to US$55.3 billion, with the majority of that amount going to Asia Pacific-based fintech firms, according to the data provided by CB Insights.
Before the industry became as big as it is now though, fintech startups’ main arena to attract investments were startup competitions. In 2010, the entire industry worldwide only managed to get US$1.8 billion worth of investments, and those in the Asia Pacific hardly got a dime of that.
Philippine-based startups would know this well. With access to capital as their primary problem based on a Pricewaterhouse Coopers study, some founders have turned to pitch competitions worldwide for cash.
For example, fintech startup Ayannah, which offers affordable online remittance services to Filipino overseas workers, joined a number of startup competitions just when it was raising seed funding. In 2011, Ayannah won the now-defunct ON3 Pitching Competition, which gave its founding team a chance to pitch to Silicon Valley-based investors. Two years later, it closed a $1-million funding from Singapore-based fintech VC Life.SREDA, Silicon Valley VC 500 Startups and London-based fintech VC Blue Compass among others. It has continued to join a number of pitching competitions even after reaching maturity.
This series of fundings has allowed the fintech startup to grow into one of the largest agent network fintech firms in the Philippines. Latest reports show Ayannah now processes around 50,000 transactions per day.
Another Filipino fintech firm that has taken a similar route is Acudeen, which purchases invoices of micro and small enterprises at a discount, to give them access to their capital at a faster and more convenient timeline. In April 2017, the startup won the Seedstars World Competition where it brought home $500,000 worth of equity prize.
Months later, the company closed a $6-million financing deal with a unit of Philippine-listed Rizal Commercial Banking Corp (RCBC), which allows the company to grow its capital access for invoice purchases.
This pattern has continued even in the agritech sector. In an agricultural country ridden with challenges, startups have risen to the occasion to bring innovative solutions to the table. And much like their fintech predecessors, some have turned to startup competitions for financial and institutional support.
Perhaps one of the best examples of this phenomena is Cropital, an investment-matching platform that serves as a bridge between small financiers and farmers. Since its inception in 2015, it has consistently joined pitching competitions, almost on an annual basis, most recently winning a trip to the Seedstars Regional Summit where they can have a chance to bag the $500,000 equity investment prize.
Its string of pitching competition wins has allowed it to remain running in the last four years as it remains to bootstrap for funding. So far, it has helped 700 farmers in seven provinces in the Philippines, with 3,000 active accounts on its investment platform.
Another startup that is taking a similar path is Talino Lab Ventures’ ASENSO, which aims to be an end-to-end microbusiness enabler, as it seeks to provide the key pillars needed by farmers to be successful in their ventures: capital, insurance and a ready marketplace for their goods.
While the ASENSO already has institutional support from the Philippines’ largest microfinance institution, CARD MRI, it didn’t stop the startup from the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Global AgriFin Innovation Challenge in November, where it won $10,000 but more important, the opportunity to do a pilot backed by ADB in an ADB project in the region.
It shows that aside from access to capital, startup challenges allow startups to garner the traction it needs to achieve access in the investing circle, and encouragement that their business ideas are not just good on paper. Moreover, these challenges allow founders to reassess their business models as they defend their startups in front of a jury who may not be their investors for now, but could be their backers in the future.
It’s a healthy environment for startups who wish to test the waters for their ideas. And with the success for these startups come the success as well of the very markets they cater to— the unbanked, the small entrepreneur, markets once ignored by the big establishments.
Self-driving shuttle company May Mobility has revamped its senior management team.
COO Alisyn Malek will leave her position with the company at the end of this week, but will retain an advisory role. Her departure follows the exit of former chief technology officer Steve Vozar, who left last week. Both are co-founders of the company.
Their departures come at a time when the company plans an expansion. Ann Arbor-based May Mobility closed a $50 million investment round in December that will enable it to deploy its six-passenger electric vehicles on routes in more communities. Toyota Motor Corp. was the largest investor in the latest investment round.
"After we wrapped up that fundraising, I thought about what I wanted to lean into next," Malek said. "I'm really proud of everything we accomplished, and the team we've brought in. I trust that they're going to keep killing it and continue to grow the company."
May Mobility has pilot projects deployed in Detroit, Grand Rapids and Providence, R.I. A testbed in Columbus ended last fall. Between those locations, Malek said May Mobility has offered more than 200,000 rides in its vehicles.
"It hasn't really dawned on people how impactful this has been," she said. "We've carried more passengers than Aptiv and Waymo combined."
As it has transitioned from a startup to a bigger company, May Mobility has added seasoned executives. Last year, the company hired Brett McMillan, who had previously worked at Aptiv and KPMG, as its vice president of finance. Joaquin Nuno-Whelan, who had been a chief engineer of full-size engineers at General Motors Co., joined May Mobility as its vice president of fleet engineering. It's not yet clear how Malek and Vozar will be replaced.
Malek, a 2019 Automotive News All-Star, had previously worked at GM, where she played a role in the company's acquisition of Cruise Automation.
Each week we round up travel startups that have recently received or announced funding. Please email Travel Tech Editor Sean O'Neill at so@skift.com if you have funding news.
This week, startups of interest to the travel sector publicized more than $30 million in funding.
EQT Ventures led the round. Blossom Capital, Datartis Ventures, Tenderloin Ventures, and others invested, too. The startup raised an $8.3 million Series A round two years ago.
Frontify isn’t a travel startup, but many of the company’s 2,500 clients are travel businesses. For example, Lufthansa unified its branding guidelines across departments with the tool, which is used by more than 1,200 of the airline group’s 120,000 employees.
On a smaller scale, Ticino Turismo, the tourism marketing organization of the Swiss region of Ticino, uses Frontify to make sure that the most current digital assets, such as ads, videos, and logos, are consistently used internally and externally.
Frontify is based in St. Gallen, Switzerland and launched in 2013.
>>Upgrade Pack, a travel rewards financial technology startup, has had an extension to its seed round of funding that had reached $4.3 million last August as Skift reported. The company has now raised more than $6.5 million (£5 million) in the seed round overall from undisclosed investors.
The company, founded about 18 months ago in the London area, offers leisure travelers who pay a subscription fee access to “exclusive discounts” on flight and hotel upgrades. The startup plans to open a Toronto office by June.
>>Get-E, which runs a tech-enabled transportation service for business travel, has raised $2.5 million (€2.25 million) in seed funding.
Axivate Capital led the round.
Based in Hoofddorp in the Netherlands, Get-E offers transport for individuals and also for airlines such as Ryanair and CityJet to arrange the tricky ground logistics of flight crew transport.
>>NexTravel, a corporate travel booking service, has raised $2.4 million in Series A funding.
Pipeline Angels and Quest Ventures participated in the investment round in the New York-based company.
Founded in 2013 as travel concierge company Jetaway, NexTravel pivoted to serves as a tech-enabled travel management company. It launched out of the famous YCombinator startup incubator in early 2015.
Skift Cheat Sheet:
We define a startup as a company formed to test and build a repeatable and scalable business model. Few companies meet that definition. The rare ones that do often attract venture capital. Their funding rounds come in waves.
Seed capital is money used to start a business, often led by angel investors and friends or family.
Series A financing is typically drawn from venture capitalists. The round aims to help a startup’s founders make sure that their product is something that customers truly want to buy.
Series B financing is mainly about venture capitalist firms helping a company grow faster. These fundraising rounds can assist in recruiting skilled workers and developing cost-effective marketing.
Series C financing is ordinarily about helping a company expand, such as through acquisitions. In addition to VCs, hedge funds, investment banks, and private equity firms often participate.
Series D, E and beyond These mainly mature businesses and the funding round may help a company prepare to go public or be acquired. A variety of types of private investors might participate.
Photo Credit: Frontify Founder and CEO Roger Dudler launched the brand management platform in 2013. The startup, based in St. Gallen, Switzerland, has now raised fresh funding. Frontify
Liputan6.com, Jakarta -Startup lokal yang menyediakan ekosistem smart city Qlue mengawali 2020 dengan menerima penghargaan ASEAN Best IoT Startup di ajang ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards 2019 di Sasana Kijang, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia pada Kamis, 16 Januari 2020.
Menyisihkan lima nominator dari berbagai negara lainnya di ASEAN, Qlue dinilai sebagai startup yang konsisten dalam berinovasi dan berhasil mendorong perubahan positif di Indonesia melalui solusi smart city komprehensif berbasis IoT.
ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards telah memasuki tahun kelima dan diakui sebagai penghargaan bergengsi bagi startup di kawasan ASEAN. Pada tahun ini, ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards 2019 menerima 3.170 nominasi dari Asia Tenggara, meningkat 60 persen dari tahun sebelumnya. Dari ribuan nominasi yang masuk, 107 startup terpilih menjadi finalis ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards 2019.
Founder & CEO Qlue, Rama Raditya menyebut penghargaan ini merupakan hasil kerja keras dari setiap individu di Qlue. Sejak berdiri, kata Rama, Qlue selalu berusaha memberikan solusi teknologi untuk mendukung ekosistem smart city berbasis kecerdasan buatan, IoT, dan mobile workforce yang dapat memudahkan warga, pemerintah, dan bisnis untuk dapat bekerja lebih efektif.
"Pencapaian di awal tahun ini sangat istimewa bagi Qlue dalam menyambut tantangan baru di 2020. Penghargaan ini semakin mengukuhkan rencana kami di tahun 2020 yang menargetkan pertumbuhan bisnis lebih dari 50 persen," tutur Rama dalam keterangannya. Penghargaan ini, lanjut Rama, juga diyakini akan "meningkatkan skalabilitas Qlue untuk masuk ke pasar internasional".
2 dari 3 halaman
Konsisten berinovasi
Sementara itu, Chairman ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards and New Entrepreneurs Foundation, Hamdi Mokhtar, menyebut Qlue "telah berhasil mengimplementasikan teknologi IoT sebagai salah satu basis teknologi untuk mengembangkan ekosistem smart city."
"Qlue terus berinovasi dari aplikasi pelaporan masyarakat menjadi penyedia ekosistem smart city terlengkap di Indonesia dan ASEAN. Kami berharap, Qlue dapat terus mewakili Indonesia dan ASEAN di Global Startup Awards untuk berkompetisi dengan berbagai startup lainnya dari seluruh dunia," ujar Hamdi.
Penghargaan ini juga tidak lepas dari berbagai inovasi Qlue. Dengan memanfaatkan IoT dan smartphone, misalnya, Qlue membuat sensor pengumpul data di sebuah area melalui aplikasi QlueApp.
Warga juga dapat memantau status laporan di aplikasi, mulai dari menunggu, proses, hingga selesai. Warga juga dapat menggunakan foto dan video untuk membuat laporan dan dapat memberikan penilaian terhadap kinerja petugas dalam menanggapi laporan.
Selain itu, fitur geotracking memungkinkan laporan warga langsung masuk ke dalam QlueDashboard agar masalah dapat langsung didata, dipetakan dan ditindaklanjuti.
3 dari 3 halaman
Pengguna aktif
Pengguna QlueApp saat ini sudah mencapai lebih dari 750 ribu orang di lebih dari 20 daerah dan 23 Polda di Indonesia, dengan beberapa daerah baru antara lain Minahasa, Tarakan, Kupang, Kabupaten Gorontalo, dan Kabupaten Belitung.
Solusi CCTV & video analytics Qlue juga telah digunakan oleh tiga Balai Besar Jalan Nasional untuk mendapatkan analisis secara otomatis mengenai jumlah kendaraan yang melewati ruas jalan nasional di Banten, Mataram, dan Papua. Analisis tersebut digunakan oleh Kementerian PUPR untuk menganggarkan perbaikan jalan secara akurat.
TechCrunch ist jetzt Teil der Verizon Media-Familie. Wir (Verizon Media) und unsere Partner benötigen Ihre Einwilligung, um auf Ihr Gerät zuzugreifen, Cookies zu setzen und Ihre Daten einschließlich Ihres Standorts zu nutzen, um mehr über Ihre Interessen zu erfahren, relevante Werbung bereitzustellen und deren Effektivität zu messen. Verizon Media stellt Ihnen zudem relevante Anzeigen auf den Produkten unserer Partner zur Verfügung. Lernen Sie hier mehr darüber
Wie Verizon Media und unsere Partner Ihnen bessere Werbung anbieten
Um Ihnen insgesamt ein besseres Nutzererlebnis zu bieten, möchten wir relevante Anzeigen bereitstellen, die für Sie nützlicher sind. Wenn Sie z. B. nach einem bestimmten Film suchen, nutzen wir Ihre Suchdaten und Ihren Standort zur Anzeige von Kinos in Ihrer Nähe. Zudem nutzen wir diese Daten, um Ihnen Werbung für ähnliche Filme zu zeigen, die Ihnen vielleicht auch gefallen könnten. Wie bei Verizon Media zeigen Ihnen unsere Partner eventuell auch Werbung, von der sie annehmen, dass sie Ihren Interessen entspricht.
Wählen Sie „OK“ aus, damit Verizon Media und unsere Partner Ihre Daten verwenden können, oder „Optionen verwalten“, um unsere Partner und Ihre Auswahlmöglichkeiten anzusehen. Tipp: Melden Sie sich an, um Ihre Auswahl zu speichern, damit Sie diesen Vorgang nicht auf allen Geräten einzeln durchführen müssen. Sie können Ihre Einstellungen jederzeit im Datenschutzcenter aktualisieren.
As a CEO getting ready to have my third baby, people tend to have a lot of opinions about my maternity leave. I hear comments like "You really should take as much time as possible" and "Remember, you're setting an example for your team," which are well intentioned, but not especially helpful.
Birthing caregivers are under tremendous pressure to rest, heal, and bond with their baby, while startup CEOs face pressure to continuously grow their companies. Balancing these pressures simultaneously means some creativity around maternity leave. I know from experience that completely checking out and delegating all work post-birth is not always practical for early-stage founders. The good news is, it's not the only way.
Part of setting an example for your company is also showing that you can do what works for you. If you're running a business and, for whatever reason, do not want to step away completely for an extended time after having your baby, here are four ways to do it differently.
Get Detailed Updates
Something that worked really well for me with my second daughter was keeping my head in the game. I struggled with a painful birth injury and my daughter had a medical issue that required frequent doctor's visits in the beginning. But even then, I found that reading a weekly detailed email with company updates and any key decisions that would benefit from my input was not too much for me to handle. It was an especially welcome distraction during all those hours spent breastfeeding and stressing about my baby's health.
Rather than checking out completely after giving birth, you can have someone update you weekly about what's going on, even in your first week or two away. If you choose not to read it, that's OK too, but you might find it comforting to know what's going on. You might also surprise yourself by how much you can still be involved in decisions and high-level input.
Put Help in Place
One of your superpowers as a CEO is likely delegating to great people. It can also be a superpower when parenting. I hired a baby nurse so I could get as much sleep as possible at night, and my husband and mom helped with everything else during the day so I could spend my free time bonding with my baby and older daughter. This huge privilege of having help and child care meant I had the rest, right mental state, and leftover capacity for my business.
As a CEO or entrepreneur, money can be tight, but this postpartum support may be money better spent than a hire for your business. Think about how valuable your time is and the ways you want to spend that time.
Bring Your Baby to Work
The newborn stage is probably the most portable your baby will be. Take it from the mom of a toddler and a preschooler--you want to take advantage of the early days when babies can go almost anywhere. I brought my newborn to business dinners and events.
You can even bring your baby into the office in the pre-crawling stage. You really just need a place for the baby to sleep, to change a diaper, and to lay out a blanket or a mat for some tummy time. It doesn't work for every baby, but for many it's not as complicated as you might think.
Be Flexible
Parental leave doesn't have to look like one continuous chunk of time away from the office. You can split up your leave so you can take time with your baby as a newborn, and again when they are older and less sleepy. You can take a period of leave, and then transition back by working shorter days. You can work from home. Just as you have agency in how you choose to build your business, you have options in how you design your leave.
You are not a bad leader or a bad parent for doing what works for you. In fact, I'd argue that when you do what works for you in spite of what others may tell you, you are exhibiting exemplary leadership and parenting skills all in one.
Published on: Jan 30, 2020
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
SoftBank money is fueling a battle between food-delivery services in Mexico City.Photo: Jake Naughton for The Wall Street Journal
MEXICO CITY—For two years, the legendary late-night snack spot El Moro relied on Uber Eats to deliver its churros and hot cocoa to takeout customers across the capital. Then, in late 2018, it dumped the Uber Technologies Inc. app for an exclusive deal with rival delivery startup Rappi Inc.
“Rappi pursued us really aggressively,” said Santiago Iriarte, El Moro’s chief executive. The Colombian company offered to make deliveries for 10% of the price of an order, compared with Uber’s 30%.
Uber is under siege in Latin America amid a bruising price war where its ostensible rivals are Rappi and China’s Didi Chuxing Technology Co. But here’s the twist. All the combatants have as their biggest owner the same tech investor, Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp., which has injected a total of $20 billion into the three.
Startup investors typically don’t back competing companies. SoftBank, which runs the world’s largest venture-capital fund, has poured so much money into popular tech categories that it created a sort of circular firing squad in which SoftBank-backed companies use SoftBank cash to attack one another.
Uber Eats is facing stiff competition in Latin America from Didi Food and Rappi.Photo: Bruno Fernandes/Fotoarena/Zuma Press
Former managers of all three delivery companies say they were frequently baffled by the amount of money the companies were willing to spend to compete. Uber, the only one of the three to disclose financial results, lost $8.3 billion in the 12 months through September.
The SoftBank-funded fight is “just bad business,” said Chris Sacca, founder of Lowercase Capital, an early investor in Uber. “When an investor infuses multiple direct competitors with money to spend in a race to the bottom, it’s just a waste.”
SoftBank’s Latin America spending shows how messy it can be when a torrent of investment money overwhelms a modest startup market. In recent years, SoftBank has deluged the tech industry with spending from its flagship $100 billion Vision Fund, the largest tech investment fund ever. Now, as it tries to lock down funding for a second Vision Fund, it has instructed its companies to focus on becoming profitable, reversing prior guidance to prioritize growth.
Softbank’s intention was to fund promising startups, not to trigger a three-way war between portfolio companies, according to people familiar with its strategy. Nevertheless, SoftBank executives believe emerging markets such as Latin America and Southeast Asia have enough untapped growth potential that they can support multiple winners, and their bets will end up looking smart in the long run.
Soon after SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son launched the Vision Fund in 2017, the company began investing enormous sums, including in office-leasing startup WeWork, which turned into an investment flop.
Mr. Son picked ride hailing and food delivery as two important areas. The Vision Fund invested $7.7 billion in Uber in early 2018, and is now the company’s largest shareholder. Through its various funds, SoftBank also has committed $1 billion to Rappi and nearly $12 billion to Didi.
After San Francisco-based Uber started operating in Latin America in 2013, it quickly overtook local competitors to become the region’s dominant player, enabling it to charge high fares and take hefty commissions. At its peak, Uber operated in 14 Latin American countries and controlled nearly the entire ride-hailing market in big cities such as Mexico City.
Then came two competitors also bursting with SoftBank capital.
In late 2017, SoftBank led a more than $4 billion investment into Didi, a Beijing-based ride-hailing company. Didi, the dominant ride-hailing player in China by far, had long harbored ambitions to expand beyond its home base, company executives have said.
Shortly after SoftBank invested, Didi bought a majority stake in the struggling Brazilian ride-hailing service 99, Uber’s main competitor in that country, for a reported $900 million. Didi began ramping up spending in Brazil, sending teams from Beijing to São Paulo to oversee an offensive against Uber in that country, former Didi employees said.
Then it expanded into Mexico, first into the smaller cities of Toluca, Guadalajara and Monterrey, then into the capital.
With the Mexican market now in play, both Didi and Uber began spending money on the fight.
‘Rappi pursued us really aggressively,’ said Santiago Iriarte, CEO of El Moro.Photo: Jake Naughton for The Wall Street Journal
To gain share, Didi inundated consumers with free and heavily discounted rides, and offered double or triple the normal pay for drivers who signed up. Uber was slow to react, reluctant to match the discounts over its entire customer base, given its size, current and former employees said. So it responded with targeted discounts, trying to identify riders most likely to switch over to Didi.
Uber executives were shocked at how quickly Didi gained market share, former employees said. Head of rides Andrew Macdonald and other executives moved to stem the market-share losses. Uber eventually agreed to increase incentives for drivers and lower some prices.
Uber executives were mystified by SoftBank’s decision to fund a rival, the former employees said, especially because that was hurting Uber’s attempts to reduce losses in preparation for its initial public offering.
César Manuel Barroso drove for Uber in Mexico City for 2½ years before switching to Didi last year.Photo: Jake Naughton for The Wall Street Journal
César Manuel Barroso, 25 years old, drove for Uber in Mexico City for 2½ years before switching to Didi last year after a friend recruited him. He and his friend are splitting the 9,000-peso (about $475) signing bonus, and lower commissions to Didi and other incentives have raised his weekly income about 10%, to roughly $260.
Didi charges drivers a commission of less than 15% of the cost of the ride, Mr. Barroso said. That is well below the global average “take rate” of around 23% reported in Uber’s public filings. Mr. Barroso also tries to earn Didi’s driver bonuses, such as an incentive of nearly $100 for completing 25 rides over six consecutive days in Mexico City’s busy central zone.
Didi has blanketed the city in orange billboards that tout it as “the world’s biggest mobility app,” and it bombards consumers with text messages offering daily deals. It believes it has a market share of about 30% in both Mexico and Brazil, according to a person familiar with the company’s internal data.
Much like their counterparts at Uber, this person said, executives at Didi say the Latin American market is ripe for growth and big enough for several large companies, and that they are in it for the long haul.
In November, Didi took aim at Uber Eats, launching its own restaurant delivery service in Mexico City called Didi Food.
Uber Eats already was engaged in a bruising battle with Rappi, an on-demand delivery company based in Colombia that launched in Mexico City in 2016. Bicycle couriers with boxy, peach-colored backpacks bearing Rappi’s name over a swooping mustache logo have become ubiquitous in the city.
Last April, SoftBank committed $1 billion to Rappi, the largest-ever single venture-capital investment in a Latin American company. The investment “emboldened” Rappi to compete with Uber Eats by picking off more of its rival’s most popular restaurants, as it did with El Moro, and making them exclusive Rappi offerings, said a senior Rappi executive.
Among the Mexico City eateries to shift to Rappi are popular taqueria El Califa, sushi restaurants Koku and Tori Tori, and global names including Le Pain Quotidien and Dairy Queen.
Rappi has seen sales growth in Mexico of 20% a month for the past two years, and has nearly pulled even with Uber Eats in terms of market share in the Mexico City, according to the Rappi executive. Downloads of Rappi’s app in Mexico surged 141% in 2019 to an estimated 5.9 million, according to analytics firm Apptopia. Downloads of Uber Eats were up 45% to 6.2 million.
Rappi, which also counts venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz as a backer, has modeled its expansion on so-called Asian “super apps” such as Grab and Go-Jek, which offer a range of services from payments to scooter rentals to grocery delivery.
While Mr. Son has said that Vision Fund’s strategy is to create a “cluster of No. 1” companies in various markets, SoftBank executives believe each market can have multiple winners, according to a person familiar with its strategy. “Border skirmishes” sometimes occur, this person said, because SoftBank’s model offers founders free rein to operate as they see fit. That sometimes leads startups to offer incentives that cut into profits.
Can too much investment money be a bad thing for a startup? Join the conversation below.
Until SoftBank finally overcame those objections last year, it kept its big stakes in Didi, Singapore-based ride, delivery and payments company Grab and Delhi-based ride-hailing company Ola either on its own books or in a sister fund. In food delivery, SoftBank portfolio companies Uber Eats and DoorDash are rivals in the U.S. In ride-hailing, Uber is competing with Ola in its home market of India as well as in the U.K. and Australia.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has said he believes the company’s revenue in Latin America will improve.Photo: philip pacheco/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
In Mexico, all three food-delivery companies continue to spend money to recruit drivers, lock in popular restaurants and roll out new products, including driver and supplier financing, payments apps and retail-delivery services.
Didi Food has showered Mexican consumers with discounts—first a free meal, then a half-off meal—while also shouldering some of the costs of coupons offered by the restaurants themselves, said one former manager. Drivers got bonuses to join.
Rappi, for its part, identified popular chains in several Mexican cities that didn’t deliver to neighborhoods where its data indicated there was high demand, according to Ulises Zarate, a Rappi sales manager until November in the central Mexican city of San Luís Potosí.
Then it would build prep kitchens, which cost as much as $12,500 a month to operate, where restaurants could prepare food exclusively for customers who ordered through the app—all of it financed by Rappi.
Some restaurant owners were nervous that by switching from Uber Eats to Rappi, they would lose their customer base, and that the prep kitchens and other customer incentives might not drive sales high enough to make up for lost sales, Mr. Zarate said.
Rappi was “burning too much money to get people to download the app, to win customers, and it definitely raised a lot of eyebrows,” said Mr. Zarate, who now works for the Softbank-funded hotel startup Oyo Hotel & Homes. “But they were winning so much market share so quickly that it made sense.”
The SoftBank-backed battle for market share appears to be hurting Uber. In 2017, its revenue in Latin America grew by 215%, making it the company’s fastest-growing region by far. In the first nine months of 2019, revenue in the region fell by 11% from the year-earlier period, while Uber’s revenue from the rest of the world grew by 26%.
An Uber Eats delivery man bikes through the Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City.Photo: Jake Naughton for The Wall Street Journal
Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi told investors in December he thinks revenue growth in Latin America will “accelerate to pretty darn healthy levels.” Uber’s shares are down nearly 20% since its May IPO.
In November, Didi announced a wave of new launches of its ride-hailing service in Costa Rica—where Uber set up in 2015—and eight new cities in Chile. Soon after, Didi said it would kick off food delivery in Brazil, the continent’s largest market, where Uber and Rappi have been competing for three years.
—Preetika Rana in Hong Kong and Phred Dvorak in Tokyo contributed to this article.
Kloud.io today announced a $4 million seed round led by Unusual Ventures, with participation from Jason Calacanis and Firebolt Ventures.
Founded in 2016, the Silicon Valley-based startup helps financial analysts access business data from multiple sources while staying inside a spreadsheet or similar tool. The company bills itself as a “robotic process automation” startup. Automation Anywhere and UiPath are some of the leading RPA startups.
Krishna Bhat, co-founder and CEO of Kloud.io, previously worked at Amazon for three years in Seattle. He still owns a home in the region and is a “huge Seahawks fan.” He met his co-founder, Sathish Raju, when they both worked at Oracle.
“Unlike other BI tools, Kloudio doesn’t create another data island or visualization tool,” Bhat told GeekWire. “We seek to empower business users in the tools that they are already using such as Excel or Google Sheets. There is no learning curve associated with it and doesn’t require engineering resources to implement.”
Jakarta: Di periode Rudiantara menjadi Menteri Komunikasi dan Informatika (Menkominfo) perusahaan rintisan atau startup Tanah Air tumbuh subur. Indonesia sendiri disegani karena di tahun 2019 berhasil masuk sebagai negara kelima di dunia yang punya startup terbanyak.
Menurut data dari Startup Ranking yang dikutip oleh Menkominfo Johnny G Plate saat berbicara di World Economic Forum yang berlangsung di Davos, Swiss, disebutkan bahwa pada tahun 2019 Indonesia punya 2.193 startup. Dia sendiri tidak mau mengklaim bahwa di periode jabatannya sejak Okober 2019 telah ikut berkontribusi di dalamnya.
Saat proses serah terima jabatan dari Rudiantara pada 23 Oktober 2019, dia menyebutkan akan melanjutkan program Menkominfo yang sebelumnya, salah satunya mengenai startup.
Bagaimana tanggapan anda mengenai artikel ini?
"Saya yakini bahwa kementerian ini, periode kabinet ini bukan periode awal, tapi periode lanjutan. Ini masa jabatan incumbent, jadi, saya tidak perlu ditanya program 100 hari, 1.000 hari," ujar Johnny.
"Tapi yang saya lakukan adalah kontinuitas program yang sudah dibangun. Dalam rangka hal-hal yang harus ditindaklanjut, tentu, yang diminta adalah akselerasi," tuturnya.
Sebelumnya Rudiantara menyebutkan bahwa fungsi atau peran Kominfo tidak lagi sebagai regulator, tapi juga fasilitator dan akselerator. Johnny menyambutnya dengan menyebut topik mengenai startup khususnya prestasi unicorn Indonesia.
Rudiantara menyebutkan bahwa fungsi atau peran Kominfo tidak lagi sebagai regulator, tapi juga fasilitator dan akselerator. Johnny menyambutnya dengan menyebut topik mengenai startup khususnya prestasi unicorn Indonesia.
"Ini Indonesia harus mampu menghasilkan lebih banyak unicorn, decacorn, dan kalau bisa kita punya startup dengan skala hectacorn," ucap Johnny. 100 hari kepemimpinan dari Menkominfo Johnny sudah berlalu dan harus diakui bahwa belum ada kabar terbaru dari startup Indonesia yang berhasil menjadi unicorn baru selain Gojek.
Di awal masa jabatannya, Menkominfo Johnny memang belum bisa memberikan strategi yang dirancang olehnya selain bercita-cita memiliki startup unicorn baru, decacorn, bahkan hectacorn. Dalam beberapa kesempatan dia berhasil memperlihatkan bahwa dirinya sudah punya visi dan misi yang akan direalisasikan.
"Yang realistis berapa, bagaimana itu kita bantu. Kita tidak ingin bangun startup, terus mati. Kita ingin bangun startup terus berkembang," ujar Menkominfo Johnny saat ditanya fokus pengembangan startup yang tidak terpaku hanya pada jumlah.
Menkominfo Johnny juga beberapa kali memberikan pesan terkait investasi pada startup. Dia mengaskan bahwa investasi ini tidak hanya menyoal jumlah dana yang dierima tapi juga peluang startup melakukan komersialisasi atau memonetisasi.
Lebih jauh lagi, Menkominfo Johnny ingin startup tidak hanya menjadi tempat berkembang bagi generasi milenial. Menurutnya startup arus menjangkau masyarakat termasuk petani, peternak dan nelayan, sehingga dapat saling berkesinambungan.
Sektor produksi dan platform sebagai sektor distribusi juga disebut Johnny harus dapat dipertemukan melalui solusi yang dihadirkan oleh startup.
Di World Economic Forum, Menkominfo Johnny berkomitmen untuk kembali menggelar Gerakan 1000 Startup yang juga digagas pada masa Rudiantara. Dia menyatakan akan menciptakan seribu startup baru hingga tahun 2024 termasuk di dalamnya memiliki unicorn baru.
Liputan6.com, Jakarta - Moka sebagai startup penyedia layanan kasir digital, menghadirkan acara atau event “A Cup of Moka (ACOM)” dalam format baru untuk mengundang partisipan yang lebih aktif, dengan konten berkualitas untuk memperkenalkan teknologi digital pada UKM.
Sesuai dengan semangat Moka untuk tumbuh dan berkembang bersama pelaku UKM, ACOM diharapkan dapat mendorong UKM untuk naik kelas sehingga mampu bersaing dan berinovasi dengan memanfaatkan teknologi di tahun 2020 ini.
“Nah melihat antusiasme dari UMKM untuk berpartisipasi di a A Cup of Moka, tahun ini Moka memulai tahun 2020 dengan berkomitmen untuk step up a Cup of Moka lagi, supaya bisa melayani lebih banyak UMKM lain, supaya bisa meningkatkan kualitas dari kontennya dan sama-sama mengedukasi merchants (pedagang) di Indonesia,” kata Haryanto dalam acara A Cup of Moka 2020: Menggerakkan Digitalisasi untuk Memajukan UKM Berkelanjutan di Indonesia, di XXI Lounge Plaza Senayan, Jakarta, Kamis (30/1/2020).
Dalam kurun waktu satu tahun, ACOM telah berhasil mengedukasi lebih dari 2.000 pelaku usaha di 13 kota, melalui puluhan acara sepanjang tahun 2019 di seluruh Indonesia, baik secara offline maupun online. Berawal hanya dari tujuh rekan, kini ACOM telah bekerja sama dengan 124 institusi seperti pemerintahan, penyelenggara swasta, akademis, LSM, dan lainnya.
Kendati begitu, Moka berkomitmen untuk mengadakan gelaran ACOM dalam skala yang lebih besar. Materi yang dibagi pun lebih bervariasi dan lebih berkualitas, terbagi menjadi dua format baru yaitu ACOM Talks series berupa workshop yang terdiri dari sesi inspirasi dari pelaku usaha dan pembicara yang berkaitan untuk berbagi pengalaman dan key learning, serta praktik yang langsung mengajarkan peserta untuk membuat atau mencoba belajar sesuatu.
Kemudian ACOM Forum yang membahas diskusi in-depth mengenai isu pengembangan UKM, dengan para ahli dari pemerintah, LSM, swasta, startup dan pihak lainnya.
“Dimana A Cup of Moka series ini akan berisi bisnis prkatis dan bisnis inspiration, di mana kita akan mengundang me merchants-merchants dan para ahli yang menginspirasi, untuk memberikan tips-tips sukses dibidang masing-masing, dan ACOM forum akan membedah topik-topik secara intens, yang bersangkutan dengan UMKM seperti perpajakan dan lain lain, dengan para expert juga,” ungkapnya.
2 dari 3 halaman
Targetkan 2.500 UKM
Pengunjung melihat produk UMKM dari Rumah Kreatif BUMN (RKB) binaan BNI saat Launching Halal Park di Senayan Jakarta, Selasa (16/4). Halal Park yang akan bertransformasi menjadi Halal Distrik didesain menjadi ekosistem bagi pelaku industri gaya hidup halal di Tanah Air. (Liputan6.com/Angga Yuniar)
Melalui format baru ini, Moka menargetkan lebih dari 2.500 pelaku UKM untuk berpartisipasi di dalam rangkaian acara ACOM dan harapannya, materi yang telah dibawakan di ACOM dapat diterapkan pada kegiatan bisnis sehari-hari sehingga UKM di Indonesia dapat naik kelas.
Selanjutnya, Moka sendiri telah membantu merchant dalam menjalankan usahanya hingga mampu berkontribusi sejumlah Rp21,6 Triliun untuk perekonomian Indonesia tahun 2019, dan melalui Moka Capital, Moka telah menyalurkan lebih dari Rp40 Miliar untuk permodalan usaha UKM di Indonesia.
“Nah dan Moka juga sudah Launching produk Moka capital ditahun yang lalu, di mana kita menyalurkan Rp40 miliar dana usaha yang dipakai merchants kami untuk menambah outlet baru, membeli inventori lebih banyak, dan mengembangkan bisnisnya lebih lagi, jadi kami merasa sangat beruntung karena dengan melayani merchants kami, secara tidak langsung Moka sudah berkontribusi juga untuk perkembangan ekonomi di Indonesia,” ujarnya.
Selain itu, dengan semangat mewujudkan cashless society di Indonesia, penerimaan transaksi mobile payment melalui platform Moka telah mencapai Rp1,1 Triliun sepanjang 2019. Ia pun menjelaskan lebih lanjut, bahwa digitalisasi dari layanan yang diberikan Moka sudah sepantasnya didampingi dengan wadah edukasi yang sesuai.
Menurutnya, tidak hanya fokus pada solusi operasional dan ekosistem bisnis saja, dirinya berharap Moka dapat menopang keberlangsungan UKM, dengan penyediaan sarana edukasi yang dapat menjangkau banyak pelaku bisnis melalui gelaran A Cup of Moka ini. Moka akan memfasilitasi beragam materi mulai dari penerapan teknologi hingga peningkatan penjualan dengan strategi pemasaran melalui ACOM.
“Melalui A Cup of Moka ini bisa menciptakan ekosistem UMKM yang kondusif dan saling membantu, dan juga bisa menjadi langkah kecil untuk membantu pemerintah, untuk mengembangkan ekonomi Indonesia lagi melalui UMKM sebagai tulang punggungnya,” pungkasnya.
:strip_icc():format(jpeg)/kly-media-production/medias/3037773/original/013548400_1580458227-Asean_Rice_Bowl_Awards_Trophy_1.jpg)
:strip_icc():format(webp)/kly-media-production/medias/2780080/original/004133300_1555397097-20190416-Berburu-Produk-Bangun-Halal-Park-di-Senayan-ANGGA-4.jpg)
