Tag: Start-ups

Auckland, New Zealand – Advertising agency Howatson+Company’s Chief Creative Officer Levi Slavin has announced through a LinkedIn post that he will be departing the agency and will be joining family start-up The Ironclad Pan Company.

Slavin will be joining Ironclad as its chief creative officer based in Auckland, New Zealand. He will be bringing with him more than 20 years of experience in the creative industry.

“While the job was incredible, and our success inarguable, living away from family became too hard. So, starting this year, I’m going to be joining our family start-up Ironclad Co. full time,” the post read.

In an interview with MARKETECH APAC, Slavin shared that his new role will encompass building digital platforms, making documentaries, creating movements, and building powerful communities, amongst others.

“At Ironclad Co. we make products that are designed to be handed-down — rather than the ending up in landfill. We started with a 100% recycled iron skillet that had a three generation guarantee engraved in the base. The response was remarkable. I think people are genuinely exhausted with brands that use the environmental or ethics as sales tool rather than a brand fundamental. I’d like to continue to see how far we can take that,” he added.

On moving on from Howatson+Company to Ironclad, Slavin commented that he was equally “terrified and excited.” He added, “I am finally able to take an idea from inception to market with no interference. That’s a big responsibility. There no excuses—like budget, or time, or odd feedback, or nervous stakeholders. It’s just us.”

Moreover, he shared Ironclad’s plans moving forward, including designing a restaurant, creating a remote cooking school for kids, and building a platform that stores secret family recipes for the coming generations.

Prior to the move, Slavin was also CCO of ad agency Colenso BBDO and global creative director at Anomaly.

Slavin joined Howatson+Company in January of last year and was based in Australia.

Singapore – Global financial services company Visa has officially announced the five start-ups it has selected in the Asia Pacific region to be part of its first-ever s accelerator program in the region. They are Brankas, Curlec, DigitSecure, ModusBox and Open. 

It should be recalled that Visa had announced last December 2020 the start of the application process for the Visa Accelerator Program, which is designed for start-ups that have built a consumer base in their home country, and are ready to enter new geographical and consumer regions. 

Speaking about the announcement back then, Dan Wolbert, Visa country manager for the Philippines & Guam stated, “What’s most important to Visa is how we can support those solutions getting elevated to a stage where in a few months’ time, they could be pitched as a commercial deal to a leading bank, retailer or technology company in the region. A big differentiator for the Visa Accelerator Program is our concentration on a small number of startups that are truly ready to unlock that next level.”

Brankas is a fintech company that provides financial software and solutions, will leverage the open banking and open data environment to create new payment and data-led experiences. Meanwhile, Curlec, a subscription management platform and ModusBox, an open source platform for real-time payments, will develop new ways to pay and be paid digitally to help drive financial inclusion for more consumers and businesses

Open, a neo-banking platform for small businesses, and DigitSecure, an omnichannel payments acceptance platform, will find new ways to support small businesses in managing and streamlining their operations digitally as they adapt to changing technology demands.

“Hundreds of startups came forward with outstanding ideas for new and enhanced commerce experiences, but the five participants we’ve selected truly stood out. We’re excited to work with each of the startups in our first cohort to bring their concepts to life and expand their businesses into new markets across the region,” said Chris Clark, regional president for Asia Pacific at Visa.

Over the next four to six months, the startups will focus on creating defined commercial opportunities to collaborate on new payment solutions with Visa and its extensive network of bank and merchant partners. A key goal for the accelerator program is to support startups that have launched successful solutions in their home markets as they plan their next stage of growth.

Hong Kong – Previous entrepreneurial experience is one key factor that can influence and spell out success for people planning a start-up launch, a big contrast to the common anecdotal impression that ‘college dropouts’ have successfully established their own companies, a new research article shows.

Through the research, data have pointed out that entrepreneurs with no prior experience tend to concentrate too much on one role, such as being the product developer and lose sight of other important things. On the other hand, experienced entrepreneurs tend to do a more balanced job.

Business ideas of experienced entrepreneurs were 12.7 percent more creative and 7.7 percent more profitable than inexperienced entrepreneurs when they were placed in that situation. Meanwhile, experienced entrepreneurs were 9.4 percent less innovative than inexperienced entrepreneurs when there was no tension between the two roles.

Furthermore, the study found that entrepreneurs with less experience tend to produce fewer ideas that were deemed novel when asked to assume the role of a businessperson, whereas experienced entrepreneurs were able to maintain their ability to generate creative ideas even when they were in salesman mode. On the other hand, inexperienced entrepreneurs produced fewer ideas that were deemed by experts to be commercially viable when they assume the role of an inventor while experienced entrepreneurs did not display any reduction in performance.

Research-Proponents-Enterpreneur-Background-Business-Success
The study’s research proponents namely: (left to right) Ying-yi Hong, Choh-Ming Li Professor of Management at the Business School of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; Siran Zhan, Assistant Professor of Management at University of New South Wales College; and Marilyn Ang Uy, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Division of Strategy, Management, and Organization at Nanyang Business School

“Being an entrepreneur is a balancing act. Although entrepreneurs should seek to produce products which are both unique and useful as well as being commercially viable, doing so can be difficult. For example, an entrepreneur may channel their inner inventor to create highly unique products, but that’s no good if they don’t consider market demand. It is essential for entrepreneurs to achieve both goals simultaneously to succeed,” says Ying-yi Hong, Choh-Ming Li professor of management at CUHK Business School, and one of the proponents of the study.

The study was conducted alongside Siran Zhan at the University of New South Wales College and Prof. Marilyn Ang Uy at Nanyang Technological University.

“We expect experienced entrepreneurs to have developed a more holistic knowledge structure in which their inventor and businessperson roles are integrated. In contrast, novice entrepreneurs who lack prior entrepreneurial experience may see their two role identities as separate and disjointed. Thus, experienced entrepreneurs tend to be capable of processing a greater amount of information in a given instance and see the big picture, which novices tend to neglect,” Hong commented.

The study was conducted with the help of 108 entrepreneurs who were in the process of starting a new venture to participate in an experiment, 40 of which were experienced entrepreneurs who had started businesses before.

“These [business] situations would have stimulated them to reconcile their different demands and as a result they become better able to distribute their attention to the related tasks evenly. In doing so, experienced entrepreneurs develop a close association between their creative and business mindsets, such that the activation of one role would trigger the activation of the other. Therefore, an experienced entrepreneur can be an inventor and a salesperson at the same time in different situations,” the researchers concluded in a press statement.

Manila, Philippines – Digital payment company Visa has announced the launch of their newest accelerator program for APAC start-ups in expanding their business reach to a global level.

The new “Visa Accelerator Program” will focus on making selected start-ups be connected with bank and merchant partners of Visa globally through commercial opportunity collaborations. Furthermore, the accelerator program is designed for start-ups that have built a consumer base in their home country, and are ready to enter new geographical and consumer regions.

“In Visa’s ongoing work with the startup community, we often see companies face challenges when taking their business from a local success story to becoming a player in multiple markets. There is a vibrant fintech ecosystem in the Philippines. At Visa, we have global expertise that can help startups take their expansion plans off the white board and into the real world. We encourage Philippine startups who want to partner with us to join this program so we can help them scale,” said Dan Wolbert, Visa country manager for the Philippines & Guam.

Areas of interest that Visa wants the participating start-ups to address are as follows:

  • Expand access to the digital economy to consumers and businesses that are underserved or cash-dependent
  • Support of small businesses as they struggle with changing technology demands and the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Leveraging the growing open data environment in the region to develop more personalized banking and shopping experiences
  • Developing new ways of moving money that aren’t dependent on traditional credit and debit cards

“There is no shortage of fantastic solutions coming out of the Asia Pacific, particularly the Philippine startup community. What’s most important to Visa is how we can support those solutions getting elevated to a stage where in a few months’ time they could be pitched as a commercial deal to a leading bank, retailer or technology company in the region. A big differentiator for the Visa Accelerator Program is our concentration on a small number of startups that are truly ready to unlock that next level,” Wolbert added.