It takes a crowd to raise a startup, so that’s what turned up to support the fourth CrowdFundHer Live event, held by Woomentum at the Bloomberg offices last week.
Conducted like a live crowdfunding campaign, the evening saw five startups across a range of industries (from travel to cosmetics) pitch their business ideas to an audience of willing micro-investors as well as a panel of judges, who were all too familiar with the trials and tribulations of the startup game.
Before the evening kicked off, Nitin Jaiswal (Head of Sales for ASEAN and South Asia, Bloomberg) described feeling “overwhelmed, honoured, and speechless” in his opening address, as he cast his eyes out at the number of pledgers in attendance.
“Being an entrepreneur is challenging,” he said, “to be a woman and a startup entrepreneur is much more difficult.”
Woomentum’s founder and CEO, Mouna Aouri Langendorf, relayed the statistic that only 5% of tech startups were done by women, despite an increasing number of women getting advanced degrees. One of the primary obstacles, according to 48% of US women, was the lack of available mentors and advisors to help cultivate their business ideas.
Thus, beyond simply raising funds, CrowdFundHer Live supported Woomentum’s broader mission of connecting female business-starters with mentors, experts and funding.
Prior to the event, Langendorf coached each of the candidates, helping the entrepreneurs prepare their presentations and what key questions they should anticipate.
Founder and CEO Mouna Langendorf and this year’s startup contestants
During the fourth and most recent edition, over 30% of the audience took part in the pledging process, donating both time and money to help the young businesses gain traction. Within 20 minutes, CrowdFundHer raised at least $350,000 worth of expertise (279 hours committed so far) and about 15 rewards bought for $1,500 cash.
Also – a little like the popular British television show, Dragon’s Den – a judging panel oversaw proceedings, comprised of successful entrepreneurs, including Yeoh Siew Hoon (founder and managing editor, Web In Travel), Clara Nguyen (senior manager, Garena) Pat Law (founder, GOODSTUPH), Turochas “T” Fuad (founder, Spacemob) and Will Klippgen (co-founder, Cocoon Capital).
While the judges did not have any executive power in deciding on a ‘winner’, they were able to provide each startup with plenty of feedback regarding their business plans, as well as raise any critical questions about issues they may have overlooked.
The sheer diversity between each of the five business ideas presented was impressive. It acted as a microcosm for the potential that could be unlocked if only women had greater accessibility to the necessary funding and guidance.
In travel, startup TouriMe took on the mission to restore authenticity to travel experiences through curated local activities, actively avoiding ‘duplicated listings’ commonly found on major sites. Currently available in Cambodia, part of TouriMe’s point of difference lies in the fact they have recruited and trained local drivers to double as personal travel hosts.
Joice of Cooking had a more health-focused idea, specifically a personalised healthy recipe generator designed to help families make wiser food choices and to expand their recipe repertoire. The startup generates profit based on a tiered subscription scheme and has recently partnered with RedMart to help boost their reach.
Joice of Cooking
Content marketplace Bolt Media was also present, connecting businesses with suitable writers to help with their content marketing needs so that businesses can “act as their own media companies.” It aims to evolve into an end-to-end content marketing platform, eventually replacing the legacy systems that are still commonly used by major media firms.
Also aiming to gain traction in the media industry was Klaud9, a stock photo provider specialising in Asian images. It aims to overcome the limitations of the largely Western-dominated stock image industry where Asian-focused images are often mislabelled and lack diversity. Having just launched their beta version, they are seeking funding to create images and increase size of their image library.
Perhaps the most stereotypically and outwardly ‘feminine’ idea of the lot was Nail Deck, which was pitched by a male co-founder and CEO, Daryl Chew – a beautiful irony. Nail Deck is a shopping app that enables consumers to find the perfect nail polish shades, try on various colours virtually, and make online purchases. They also outlined inventing a machine that could concoct the ideal nail colour based on a user’s preferences, coined the “Nespresso for nails.”
The audience was encouraged to pledge either time or money, to support the pitching startups
All the judges commended each startup for not only their courage to pursue their dreams as entrepreneurs but also remarked on the level of professionalism they presented on stage.
As the evening came to a close, Fuad reminded entrepreneurs, “it all boils down to focus. Keep it simple… do something and do it well. Keep focused and execute that.”
His comment was complemented by Clara, who added “You all have a good platform and the right kind of ideas. It’s about how fast and how hungry you are in getting your customers and suppliers. You need both sides to come together.”
Having seen her fair share of pitches since starting her own series of startup competitions eight years ago, Siew Hoon reminded the entrepreneurs that doing a startup is a 10-year commitment, and urged them to be persistent and to have faith in their journey.
Coupling the sound advice with words of encouragement, Pat Law said “a lot of naysayers will say you can’t make it… but if a [hawker’s daughter] can, you can” reflecting back on her own humble beginnings.
Very Grateful for the article shared. It is exceptionally beneficial to the end users. I may well propose more articles on Best SEO Training in Bangalore
ReplyDelete