Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz Foundation (Misk) has announced the graduation of the 3rd batch of companies from its Misk 500 Startup Accelerator Program.

The 14-week program has been implemented remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The graduation ceremony will also be held remotely on May 11.

The most recent batch of graduates came from 16 companies from countries including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Jordan.

Sectors represented include physical fitness, employment agencies, and health tech.

source: arabnews

Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP) and Saudi Telecom Ventures (STV) have co-led an investment in KSA-based Nana, one of Saudi Arabia’s fastest growing technology start up.

Other investors in the round included existing investors Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC), Watar Partners and Wamda Capital. MEVP had earlier invested in Nana in 2019.

Nana is an online grocery platform that currently serves 14 cities across the Kingdom.

The marketplace platform powers hypermarkets and helps them showcase their inventory to millions of Nana users.

Buyers enjoy the luxury of sitting at home while a shopper prepares the basket and hands it to a delivery man to deliver the order.

The technology allows users to get a constant overview of the progress during the order and nana users love the brand for the flawless experience.

“We have spent the past year and a half to remove the bottlenecks in everyday grocery buying for our users.

There is a long way to go, and with investors such as MEVP and STV, we are confident of being Saudi’s leading consumer app.” said Sami Alhelwah, Founder & CEO of Nana.

“This round will enable us to expand in KSA and outside. It will allow us to focus on further improving our stellar customer experience and develop technology solutions to support our partner's growth and development.” Sami added.

Nana has tripled its turnover during the past year and partnerships with Carrefour, Panda, Spar, Farm Superstores, Manuel and many others has helped Nana offer the widest possible range of consumer packaged goods (CPG) all over Saudi. 

Commenting on the deal, Ankit Sarwahi from MEVP said “Nana keeps ticking all the boxes of a rapidly growing tech start-up.

We are delighted with the dynamism of the Founders and the frantic pace at which the Company is capturing market share.

We stay committed to and aligned with Nana’s mission of moving a substantial chunk of grocery from offline to an online environment and we are excited to see the Company walk into its next phase of expansion on the back of this fund raise.”

For Saudi Telecom Ventures (STV) this is yet another commitment to the Saudi tech ecosystem. Ahmad Alshammari, Principal at STV, added: “Online grocery penetration in Saudi Arabia has the potential to grow 18 times to reach global rates.

The opportunity to transform the second-highest consumer spending bucket is large and significant. We’re very excited to back the vision of Sami and the team at Nana; they have managed to build an intuitive product, a reliable operation, and developed valuable partnerships.

In a very short time span, Nana has emerged as the market leader in Saudi Arabia and is best-positioned to capture the greater MENA market.”

Nana is constantly adding hypermarkets partners as well as boutique food stores to its repertoire. The Company aims to deliver a hundred thousand orders every month to Saudi-based buyers and aims to reach this milestone by the end of 2020.

source: magnitt

The UAE is known to encourage entrepreneurs to unlock the potential that the nation has to offer them in fulfilling their business aspirations.

The recent reforms introduced by the wise leadership of the country to boost confidence among startups also proves that the ecosystem has matured, and is now expanding its reach in the region, with Egypt and Saudi Arabia complementing the growth.

The latest report from Magnitt indicates that the number of investments in Mena-based startups was up 31 per cent in 2019, with 564 investments and $704 million in total funding, up 13 per cent compared to 2018, excluding previous mega-deals in Souq and Careem.

"With exits at an all-time-high, including the Mena region's first unicorn exit, the region's founders, investors, and governments are seeing the returns on their efforts in the tech venture space," said Philip Bahoshy, founder and chief executive, Magnitt.

In 2019, Egypt, for the first time ever, accounted for the largest number of deals in Mena with a jump of 25 per cent, while the UAE accounted for the lion's share of total funding and a surge of 60 per cent.

Egypt is the largest and most promising startup hub of the Mena region. The government has been working very hard to open up opportunities for foreign investments. Rainmaking is working with Egyptian entrepreneurs and local ecosystem players since 2014 and has engaged more than 150 startups, provided support to almost 900 founders, and worked with nearly 70 local partners so far.

So how do Egypt and the UAE complement each other in the startup space? "Egypt provides an extensive pipeline of startups, entrepreneurs and talents, while the UAE offers significant availability of infrastructures and funding. Together, Egypt and the UAE could build an active alliance to drive innovation in the region and export innovation globally from the UAE," said Ahmed El Sherif, managing director at Rainmaking Innovation Egypt.

"We expect a big spurt of funds to support startups over the next three to four years.

In terms of industries, we are recording the greatest interest from local corporations into innovation investments in the fintech, insurtech, tourism, healthcare, industrial sectors, and impact industries."

Similarly, Saudi and the UAE complement each other a lot in the startup space. "The UAE has leapfrogged in innovations, bringing in international investors, and taking away the lead, but Saudi is already catching up," says Taha Sajid, chief technical consultant, Limar Global Tech.

"I have not come across any one business startup, who have started in either of these countries but not have their eyes on the other; Saudi for the investment perspective and the UAE for getting market exposure. It is due to the fact that in order for startups to grow, they need to have a proper ecosystem, have market adoption, get the investment for liquidity, loyal customers, all of these things are possible if you are not only restricted to one jurisdiction. Apart from less travelling distance, they share the same cultural/religious/traditional aspect and even the resources ethnicity, like most people belong to Mena, India, and Pakistan, they understand each other well, which makes them complement each other," added Sajid.

Saudi Arabia will emerge as a popular startup hub in the Mena region; the main reason is the cultural change through the national transformation drive of Vision 2030 and the ease of doing business with the direct involvement of the Saudi government through its proper structure.

"Any startups, whether local or international, if the idea is appealing and suits the local market, will get the proper guidance through different bodies. If there is a fintech startup, regulations have clarity in terms of business activities that need to be regulated or not and how SAMA and CMA are interrelated. Secondly, there is a separate framework for local and international entrepreneurs with the proper step and process flow. All this process is being driven by the Ministry of Commerce and Investment, supported by incubators like Badir and facilitators like Fintech Saudi. On the other hand, if you are an IT startup, there is digital transformation hub driven by the Ministry of communication and IT, so all the bases are covered when it comes to supporting startups," said Sajid.

Innovation remains top of the agenda for many governments from across the region.

According to Magnitt, Hub71 in Abu Dhabi was created to spur innovation in the capital with $250 million in funds to support regional and international startups scale in the region.

Moreover, also Saudi Arabia has seen a shift in policy. Multiple initiatives have eased the ability of startups to enter the country, access education and scale within the Kingdom. Only recently, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) announced a $1billion Fund of Funds (FoF) to spur venture investments.

Egypt, given its scale and educational system, remains a key hotbed of innovation, with many early- stage companies and founders solving big market issues that are local to them. "Dubai, with a first-mover advantage, continues to assess how best to encourage and foster the startup ecosystem with new legislation and support, including golden visas for founders to help develop its ever-evolving ecosystem," added Bahoshy.
source: menafn

The World Bank Group announced two new initiatives to improve access to start-up financing and e-commerce markets for women entrepreneurs, at the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Summit.

“Starting and growing a business is one of the most powerful tools for women to overcome poverty and build better lives for themselves, their families, and their communities,” said David Malpass, World Bank Group President. “Removing regulatory barriers along with obstacles to access to finance and markets can give women-led businesses the opportunity to succeed.”

We-Fi, housed at the World Bank, has so far allocated close to US$250 million to tackle challenges women entrepreneurs face in developing countries. The allocations aim to reach 114,000 women entrepreneurs. We-Fi is a powerful catalyst for additional investment, helping mobilize more than US$2.6 billion in additional public and private sector funds.

At the We-Fi MENA Regional Summit, held during the Global Women’s Forum Dubai 2020, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and We-Fi launched the ScaleX program to incentivize accelerators to support start-up businesses led by women. IFC research shows that women entrepreneurs in emerging markets face a daunting gender finance gap with only 11% of enterprises that actually attain seed funding being female-led.  New research shows that despite women leading half the start-ups that participate in accelerators—entities designed to train and support the development of start-ups to become investment ready—they continue to face greatly unequal access to capital.

The program will incentivize emerging markets accelerators to work with women-led businesses by providing performance-based payments of US$25,000 for every woman entrepreneur that raises US$1 million from investors in start-up funding. 

"We are launching the ScaleX program to help women entrepreneurs in emerging markets to access funding at a crucial stage to grow their businesses,” said Sérgio Pimenta, IFC Regional Vice President for the Middle East and Africa. “This is a win-win for accelerators, investors, and women entrepreneurs.”

The World Bank and UPS also announced today a new partnership to help women entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa region to grow their businesses by assisting them in successfully leveraging e-commerce platforms.

“By making e-commerce platforms more accessible, this partnership addresses a key constraint faced by women business leaders in reaching new markets,” said Ferid Belhaj, World Bank MENA Vice President. “E-commerce platforms create opportunities, and we must ensure these opportunities are open to women-owned businesses across the region.”

UPS will provide e-learning modules on different e-commerce topics to help women-owned and women-led small and medium enterprises seeking to expand their businesses across borders.

The project will support an estimated 750 women entrepreneurs and will train a cadre of e-commerce advisors in each country who can provide tailored assistance and coaching to businesses. The partnership will work with entrepreneurs in Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia.

We-Fi has made allocations to programs being implemented by the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, the Inter-American Development Bank.

the Islamic Development Bank, and the World Bank Group. The World Bank and IFC We-Fi programs (US$75 million in allocations) are working with private and public partners in 24 countries via 27 investment and advisory projects to enable women entrepreneurs to access finance and markets and amplify those efforts with global research, partnerships, and policy advocacy.

The Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) is a groundbreaking partnership that aims to unlock financing for women-led businesses in developing countries.

We-Fi’s partners include 14 donor governments, six multilateral development banks as implementing partners, and numerous other stakeholders in the public and private sector around the world.

We-Fi takes an ecosystem approach to removing barriers to women’s economic empowerment, addressing constraints and opportunities related to finance, market access, capacity and the enabling environment.

source: worldbank

Although it can be the most time-consuming and all-encompassing job you've ever had, running a small business offers significant benefits.

If you’ve taken the entrepreneurial leap, you will know it’s not without challenges. Yes, it can be incredibly fulfilling to set your own agenda and make a genuine impact, but it can also fill you with self-doubt and cause many sleepless nights.

Globally, the top three challenges of running a small business are: cash flow, emotional and mental health, and time management

Let’s look at these challenges and how you can overcome them.

Challenge 1: Maintaining cash flow 
If you are an entrepreneur or small business owner, chances are you have worried about money. At least 59% of small business owners experience cash flow issues which have a significant financial impact. No matter how well your company is doing, the amount of cash you have in the bank will always be linked to your future success.

Just because your company looks solid on paper doesn’t mean it can’t take a turn for the worst if clients stop paying on time or your outgoings far outreach your income.

As a small business owner, you have to plan for things not to go as planned.

How to overcome cash flow concerns: It can’t be stressed enough that building up savings before starting a business is essential. Even once your company is up and running, try to save as much of your income as possible.

Consider setting up a separate account for this money. Your client relationships can also affect cash flow, therefore (1) make sure your payment terms and conditions are clearly defined and communicated to your clients from day one since it will cover you legally if a client refuses to pay, and (2) consider asking for a percentage of your fee up front to minimize risk.

Challenge 2: Sustaining your emotional well-being and mental health 
Outside of the cash flow impact that financial challenges can create, they also affect small business owners emotionally.

In fact, 56% of entrepreneurs claim financial issues have a significant impact on their emotional well-being.

It’s not just money worries that affect emotional and mental health either. As a leader, work could potentially consume every hour of your life. Keep in mind that CEOs of major multinational companies learn to set limits on their working time so they can maintain their health and relationships.

How to protect your emotional well-being: Having a leadership role is intense, and therefore your body needs to train just as athletes do.

Keeping your body healthy will help to keep your mind positive. In your downtime, prioritize these three things: (1) rest, (2) health, and (3) fitness

Top CEOs on average spend six hours per day awake and not working. Of this, about half is spent with family. The remaining half is divided into one-third exercising and two-thirds relaxing. Spending time in nature can also help.

Just two hours per week in some sort of green space can result in greater feelings of health and well-being. Even a 20-minute daily walk through a park can be enough to produce these positive feelings.

Challenge 3: Managing your time 
With entrepreneurship comes a constant pressure to achieve and grow the business. Not to mention the sheer number of things that need to be done.

Small business owners also often fear taking time away from the business, so will put holiday on hold– sometimes for years.

If you try to do everything yourself, you will never get it all done.

Too many hours working and a lack of time off brings on fatigue, and with it comes rash or poor decision-making. And your relationships, health, and life outside of work will also suffer.

It is essential to learn how to achieve a work/life balance and manage your time, so the most important things get done well.

How to achieve a work/life balance: Prioritize. This is critical. You must learn what matters to the business and make sure that’s done first.

After this, you need to delegate. Business owners often struggle with this because they fear a loss in quality. But keep in mind this sacrifice should only be temporary. There may be a slight quality dip while the team member gets up to speed, but if you’ve hired the right person it should recover quickly.

With effective time management of work in place, make sure to schedule time for yourself for thinking and learning. You are not expected to know everything about owning and running a small business, so you need to grow into your leadership role. ‘Thinking’ time is crucial.

Consider that Warren Buffett says: ‘I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think.’

As the strategic leader of the company, you are the guide. Force yourself to spend significant stretches of time thinking, with no interruptions. Do this regularly. Put together questions to guide your thinking time so you use it efficiently.

You can even combine ideas and schedule your thinking and planning time when you’re outdoors in green space.

Other ideas for achieving a healthy work/life balance include:

• Block time in your calendar for things that are important to you and/or your family.
• Try setting an alarm on your phone to tell you it’s time for bed.
• Don’t take your electronics to bed with you; keep your bedroom a place of calm and serenity to unwind at the end of the day.

Remember that sleep is so important to your daytime function– getting adequate, quality sleep will improve your concentration, productivity and cognitive function.

Although it can be the most time-consuming and all-encompassing job you’ve ever had, running a small business offers significant benefits. In fact, 97% of self-employed professionals say they would never return to traditional employment.

Take these ideas to make the great challenge of running a startup just a little more manageable.

source: entrepreneur

DentaCarts, an Egyptian one-stop dental marketplace, raises $450,000 in a seed investment round led by Egypt’s AUC Angels, Saudi’s Wadi Makkah, Japan’s AAIC, and US-based global startup empowerment firm 500 Startups.

“We are in a mission to help the dentists in our region by providing them the widest range of authentic products, a premium shopping experience, and the data that can enhance their performance and profitability,” says DentaCarts' CEO, Ahmed Yahia. “The seed is a step in our journey to lead the dental eCommerce in the Middle East and Africa” he added.

Established in 2017 by Yahia and his co-founder Saad Saleh, the startup offers the widest range of authentic and high-quality dental products via authorised dealers in the region. The innovative startup did not specify how this investment with be used, but it has declared its intention to become the leader of dental eCommerce in the Middle East and Africa.

Enabling its strong efforts to disrupt the ecosystem was the Misk500 accelerator programme, where the startup participated in the programme’s first cohort. The startup aims to provide innovative solutions and overcome challenges in the industry, such as access to the market’s limited choice, over-inflated prices, and fake products that cause risk to patents’ health and safety.

The startup claims that, so far, they have served over 1,500 authorised dental clinics, and made over 10,000 delivery orders to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Kenya, and Ghana. DentaCarts consists of a variety of over 10,000 items on the platform, from monthly supplies to clinic furnishing, and it has over 100 authorized dealers onboard as suppliers.

source: thestartupscene

We all know that startups have gained massive popularity over the past few years.

They even got to the point of becoming mass-commercialized all thanks to their presence in different industries and fields. From technology to medicine, startup trends are constantly changing, which makes it difficult to predict.

For startup founders, keeping up with the latest trends can be crucial for success.

At a time when technology development can disrupt entire niches and industries overnight, being unprepared can bring an early conclusion to any business venture.

On the other side, taking advantage of the right trends can easily catapult a startup to stardom.

Running a successful startup business requires at least keeping up with the trends if not setting them.

There are, however, lots of trends that can affect a wide variety of small and large businesses.

The following ones promise to shape entrepreneurship in 2020. Consider how the following startup trends fit into your business plan.

Table of Contents           

1-Offline Retail Will Become A Side Feature

2-Subscription Services Will Continue To Sell Well

3-The Use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) Will Evolve

4-Customers Will Become Abreast of Their Data

5-2020 Is The Year of Voice Recognition Technology

6-Making Use of Voice Search

7-Extended Business Collaboration and Integration

8-Everything That Can Be Personalized Will Be Personalized

9-Blockchain Technology Will Blossom

10-Taking Advantage The Internet of Things

11-Marketing Will Become a Lot More Personal

12-Going Deep Into the Cloud Computing Era

13-Big Data Will Become An Essential Component of Digital Marketing, Healthcare, Security

Offline Retail Will Become A Side Feature

Are we going back in time?

Well, it appears so. However, offline retail is not going to change eCommerce at all. Instead, it will become a side feature of online buying. For example, we all saw that eCommerce companies have been experimenting with small retail stores and setting up experience zones in 2019.

In 2020, customers will be able to interact with the products even more before ordering them online. If you are a startup, think of all the ways you can provide this offline experience for them in detail.

Subscription Services Will Continue To Sell Well

Even though subscription growth has slowed a bit, the industry is still growing with an impressive 1% per month. Apparel, beauty, food, and lifestyle subscription boxes remain the most popular.

The market seems to attract more and more businesses and has plenty of space for new niche subscriptions.

Subscription-based businesses grow revenues 5 times quicker than other businesses. It is no surprise when subscribers place three times more orders than customers of non-subscription businesses.

The Use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) Will Evolve

AI is no longer a concept. In 2020, AI will power a sizable percentage of businesses.

It is everywhere – in your analytics, marketing tools, your customer service platforms, digital ads, and your smartphone.

Most of the people who are actively using AI don’t even know they are using it. That is because AI doesn’t look like what we once expected. It is working in the background to make processes more efficient, faster, and accurate. An AI can do various things that would normally demand human intelligence such as pattern recognition, decision-making, and creative endeavors.

Artificial Intelligence is not the same as machine learning. Machine learning refers to algorithms whose performance enhances as they are exposed to more information.

Startups that find applications for AI will succeed in 2020 as will businesses that bring the study of AI to new heights.

Customers Will Become Abreast of Their Data

Unless you are living under a rock, there is no chance you missed the recent startup trends – which are now dictated by consumers more than ever before.

In the coming year, trends like these are more than just expected. In a nutshell, consumers are very abreast of their data nowadays. So much, that they are always in need of more control over it.

The best way to adapt to this customer-centric future is by leveraging the trend with gift guides, themed polls, quizzes and content that speaks to the needs of your customers in a way that lets them manage their data.

2020 Is The Year of Voice Recognition Technology

Customers were positively surprised by Apple’s virtual assistant – Siri when it was officially released in 2011. One of the most unique features was the fact that you could communicate with Siri, search the web, and complete other tasks at the same time.

These days, voice recognition technology is entering our businesses, our cars, and our homes. Did you know that approximately 40 million Americans own a smart speaker? Apparently, virtual assistants are no longer a mysterious product but a necessity in today’s lifestyle.

To succeed in 2020, startup businesses don’t need to come up with their own voice recognition software. There are plenty of options out there to develop proprietary algorithms, apps, and other functionalities using the voice technology space.

There are opportunities for voice recognition technology in business services, manufacturing, education, healthcare, agriculture, and field service. Combined with Artificial Intelligence, startups can succeed in 2020 by creating voice recognition technologies that meet the needs of a specific niche.

Making Use of Voice Search

If you are rubbing shoulders in the startup crowd, you probably hear the term ‘voice search’ more and more often. The truth is, this kind of search has arrived – and it is bigger than many other forms of search discovered before.

On the question of why this kind of search is hot, we can say that voice recognition is a technology that improves. On another note, it is a technology that is customer-centric and as a result of that, has increased in terms of popularity.

Easy to use, fast and safer for people on the go, its use cases go in line with our fast-paced lifestyle. In 2020, the customers will use their voices to search for Google, and the startups will adapt to these changes.

Extended Business Collaboration and Integration

2020 will also be the year where more startups will collaborate between themselves and open up to potential partnerships and opportunities within and outside of their niche. Most importantly, this form of collaboration can be the perfect way to boost the sale value of your company/startup and make it worth more than before.

We already saw banks partnering with fintech startups – and startups seeking help from other startups, whether with their systems, APIs or data. Going ahead, these forms of collaborations will shape up the startup trends, allowing competitors to collaborate more and sell each other’s products for mutual benefit.

Everything That Can Be Personalized Will Be Personalized

The majority of customers prefer to work with businesses that offer personalized services. Personalization can take different forms, however, the most popular varieties are coupons on customer’s locations, recommendations based on previous purchases, and communications on the customer’s favorite channel.

Another type of personalization is a “channel of choice communication strategy”. Customers are turning away from live conversations as they prefer services that don’t require talking such as social media or SMS. Automated channels are growing in popularity, with more than 40% using chatbots. Around 45% of customers are open to any channel, as long as the service is personalized.

Blockchain Technology Will Blossom

Did you know that the demand for blockchain developers is now higher than ever before? Or that they are among the highest-paid developers out there?

Whether you have laid your hands on the blockchain or still haven’t explored this opportunity, you should know that in 2020 it will be very hard to not mention blockchain as part of the growth of a startup. In fact, blockchain is definitely one of the startup trends as the industry matures and its use cases expand.

Many Fortune 500 companies have been already exploring blockchain’s potential in terms of providing security and efficiency to their everyday operations – and this is just the start of it.

Taking Advantage The Internet of Things

In 2020, IoT technology will provide startup businesses with some of the best opportunities to make an impact. The Internet of Things is a system of machines, objects, computers, digital systems and people that are able to transfer data over a network.

When every possible object is a potential computer, IoT technology has limitless applications. Until now, many entrepreneurs have tried to build their own IoT products. Some of them succeed.

As technology gets smarter and smaller, APIs and business cloud services will become more and more standardized, creating a lot of opportunities for IoT projects. By the end of 2020, the IoT market will be worth $581 billion making it one of the most lucrative sectors among startup trends.

Marketing Will Become a Lot More Personal

This trend will keep on going as the user becomes the king. In 2020, we will see more actions that convince customers and speak directly to their needs.

Digital marketing, for example, has evolved quickly that most customers now have high expectations from brands. They want brands to understand them, know their needs, and give them what they want. Customers are looking for information online before buying a product or service. Businesses that provide the right information stand to benefit.

In order to succeed and adapt to these startup trends, you will have to provide high-value and personalized content in every step of the way.

Personalization is a very important startup trend, especially in email marketing. Around 70% of marketers use personalization in their marketing campaigns in the form of purchase histories, transactional information, and other data. Personalization, however, can go beyond greeting an email receipt by their name.

In 2020, we will see the next phase of personalization – hyper-personalization. It involves an in-depth analysis of customer data to provide the best marketing messaging at the right time.

Going Deep Into the Cloud Computing Era

Cloud-based hosting environments can gather hundreds of machines to provide a secure computing environment with no or minimal downtime. Both businesses and consumers have access to cloud storage, communication tools, and other centralized services where there is an internet connection.

Although cloud computing may sound like a dispersed computing environment that the internet brought to us, it isn’t.

There are lots of companies dominating the cloud computing niche. They are reliant on a network of data centers located in protected and secure locations. These centers must communicate with users and with each other which creates the possibility for lower discontinuation and security risks.

With 2020 edge computing, computation is performed on smart or edge devices instead of a centralized cloud environment. Related to the IoT or Internet of Things, edge computing is seen as an important concept for the production of physical computers and smart cities.

In the future, computers the size of your mobile phone may be able to take on workloads that only a data center can handle.

This is one of the most interesting and unexplored startup trends heading into 2020.

Big Data Will Become An Essential Component of Digital Marketing, Healthcare, Security

People think that Big Data means large sets of data. But that’s not the case here. It refers to data sets so large that computation software tools can’t handle them. In order to draw value from the data, AI or other new tools must be applied to find trends and patterns.

In 2020, Big Data will become an essential component for digital marketing, healthcare, supply chain management, industry, etc. Some of the assets that can be derived are:

• Business Process Optimization
• Predictive Analytics
• Cost-Effectiveness
• Organization Optimization
• Market Insight
• High-Performance Computing
• Marketing Effectiveness
• Behavioral Analytics

Startups that don’t accept Big Data will struggle. According to one research, data production by the end of 2020 will increase by 4300%.

As a startup founder, you must scan the horizon for new operational, technological, and financial developments to give your business the best possible chance of success. Knowing what is happening at the moment and what trends are predicted to make changes in the future is going to help you run your startup. You will be better equipped to run a business that takes advantage of favorable trends.

In the end, it is the year-on-year improvements that make the startup world great and innovative as every year goes by. In 2020, there will be many changes and the above-mentioned ones are definitely going to be in the spotlight.

So, do you know a way in which you can adapt to these trends and make use of them?

source: startupbasics

Everywhere you go, you’re in or around an ecosystem. Whether that term is referring to your company’s HR department, a group of products or services or even an entire country, ecosystem has become a catch-all for any entity that encompasses other entities smaller than itself.

In fact, according to Sloan Review, the word shows up 13 times more often in annual reports than it did 10 years ago.

So why the sudden spike in popularity? Is it just because people collectively decided the term was right? Maybe.

More likely, though, the rise of multicompany behemoths such as Alphabet, Apple and AT&T created a new world in which ecosystems are an inextricable part of daily life.

Amazon's recent entrepreneurial incentives are probably one of the most solid examples of this. The company is now offering workers $10,000 and three months of wages to quit working for Amazon and create small businesses that will deliver packages for the company instead.

Its goal is to create a unique ecosystem of businesses designed to support Amazon while still being separate entities.

This is all well and good, but what does an ecosystem actually mean for the people who start small businesses that aren’t part of multibillion-dollar conglomerates? If you’re one of these entrepreneurs, is the term "ecosystem" really relevant to you?The short answer is yes -- if you know how to take advantage of it.

The startup world is full of ecosystems that can help you get a foothold in your chosen industry. You just have to sift through all the buzz and misconceptions to get to what’s useful.

What 'Ecosystem' Means to Entrepreneurs

A healthy ecosystem is one that creates an environment where successful startups grow. Everyone needs to feel bonded to the greater purpose of the whole to create a network effect that drives the flywheel of success. As an entrepreneur, your ecosystem will consist of all of the contributors it takes to build a tech startup: investors, founders, operators, mentors, team members, corporate partners and more. Groups such as Y Combinator and Techstars are perhaps some of the more famous, but startup ecosystems also exist on smaller and local levels.

You don’t have to be plugged into Amazon’s ecosystem in Seattle or Walmart’s in Bentonville, Arkansas. Chances are that your closest metropolitan area has a budding startup ecosystem waiting for you to tap into.

However, tapping into an ecosystem and making it work for you isn’t as simple as just showing up somewhere and laying out a sales pitch.

A healthy ecosystem won’t support someone who just takes. It's about sharing experience and skills and bringing in your unique community to work with others.

With that in mind, there are some strong ways to ensure you get the most out of your ecosystem. Here are three.

1-Find your ecosystem center of gravity.

Most places have a central hub where people go to communicate, online or offline.

To find out where your industry’s meeting place is, start by checking with your local economic-development groups, which are active supporters of the ecosystem.

If that doesn’t work, you can also check with your local venture-capital firms, angel groups or even successful startup CEOs.

For me, joining a startup group called Positive Connections in college was an incredibly valuable stepping stone into the startup community.

It led me to my early customers and lifelong mentors, colleagues and friends. By finding your ecosystem’s hub, you'll be on your way to lifelong prosperity in the entrepreneurial world.

2. Schedule your participation.

According to a Gallup poll, even with a booming economy, Americans reported more stress and anger in 2018 than in the year before.

People are overworked and less likely than ever to take time out of their stressful days to go help others, which is why it’s more important than ever to do exactly that.

As an active participant in your ecosystem, it's crucial to show up. When your gathering place hosts events or asks you to judge a competition or volunteer, show up and bring others with you.

It often takes some time before you can start to make withdrawals, so take that opportunity to figure out what you actually want out of what you’re putting in. One useful trick is to end every conversation by asking, “How can I help?"

3. Become a super-connector.

In nearly every startup ecosystem, there are gaps. Play an active role in identifying those gaps and filling them in. Start the organization that you think is missing, and make it a goal to attract more VCs or build bridges between local corporates and startups.

Maintain a customer relationship-management tool that acts as a matchmaker for investors, mentors and founders, and when new folks show up to the ecosystem, embrace them and connect them to the old guard.

Being a super-connector takes time, but the return on investment is worth it.

According to a report from Impact Hub, 84 percent of entrepreneurs valued the sense of community that came with an ecosystem.

For many companies, collaboration in the community ended up resulting in more income and a better product.

By being the entrepreneur responsible for bringing this collaboration about, you can become a pillar in your community and a trusted collaborator in your own right.

So while ecosystem might be an overused term, don’t let that keep you from taking full advantage of the actual entrepreneurial ecosystems available to you. With work and the right collaborative attitude, you can tap into the power of your own and make connections that will last a lifetime.

source: entrepreneur

Even revolutionary ideas need a little help to get rolling. When an entrepreneur has a new business vision, he or she usually needs to raise money for development, marketing, and talent management. Unless the startup founders are high rollers with years of experience, they will look to venture capital and angel investors who will guide them through the first round of funding, the seed stage. 

There are a few guidelines that founders should listen to carefully in order to raise seed capital and grow their startup. First and foremost, leaders should be prepared before meeting with prospective investors, and have a list of references who will back the idea.

Founders should get creative with funding, always willing to put themselves out there beyond a comfortable limit. 

What Is Seed Capital?

Seed capital rounds differ from proceeding rounds quite significantly. More than a few players are involved, as multiple funds invest an average of $200 to $700K each.

In addition, there are usually a few individual angel investors who invest more than just financially in the company. Angel investors usually get to know the founders and have an interest in the business that transcends the necessary belief in a high return on investment (ROI).

Some distinguished angel investors include serial entrepreneurs and former CEOs who have a track record of bringing businesses public. 

The seed stage “plants the seed” for a startup to thrive, in order to launch business operations and show revenue data for the next rounds of funding.

Above All, Be Prepared

Business leaders need to have specified projections and hard numbers ready on demand for venture capitalists before diving head-first into the seed capital round.

A compelling business plan will include strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis (SWOT). Founders need to have a thorough understanding of how venture capitalists make investment decisions. 

Venture capitalists will need to know exactly how much funding a business will need and specific plans for allocating investment resources.

A detailed cost projection will need to be explained and defended. In order to uphold credibility and shield oneself from entering an unfair deal, founders should have a strong idea of how much of the business they are willing to give up.

They should also have a clear concept of the interests and goals of the investors, and an understanding of the capital structure of proposed funding.

Many upside provisions are confusing and if not understood can prevent founders from realizing future profits. 

Everything should be based on hard numbers that give best-case and worst-case ROI scenarios to founders.

The numbers will ultimately drive negotiations for the VC's percentage stock ownership.

Rob Go, partner at Next View Ventures, a seed stage investment firm, recommends on the company website that leaders develop a list of supporters prior to meeting with venture capitalists. Founders should identify references and make sure that they are on board, understand the business idea and know what to say when questioned by investors. 

Gather Committed Investors

Wait, isn't winning over investors what seed capital rounds are all about? Yes; however, this will be easier if businesses have established themselves prior to seed fundraising. Human psychology has shown time and time again that if someone else already went through the decision process, another will be more comfortable in making the same decision.

No one wants to be the first one to take a risk, even risk-loving venture capitalists. Founders should solidify investor commitments.

This way, when prospective investors make contact, the committed angels can confirm their decision to invest X amount in the startup.

Founders may strategically shoot for relatively small commitments, around $20-$50K.

They should also consider giving reasonable provisions on these promises, such as “provided that the funding round is at least X and reasonable terms are met.” This will make early investors more willing to negotiate, given the downside protection. 

Put Yourself Out There

If a founder doesn’t have mentors and angel investors as contacts, they cannot be afraid to get out there and go to the VC community directly.

Networking is the most essential tool and skill that an entrepreneur needs, ahead of business acumen.

Gagan Biyani, the co-founder of Udemy, a platform for online courses, told his story of seed funding wherein he was initially rejected by over 30 top investors. He wrote on the Udemy blog: “I went to every conference I could and literally killed myself while there.

I attending tons of networking events and met as many entrepreneurs and investors as I could."

Startup mentorship programs and incubator firms are open for applications. Y Combinator and TechStars are two well-known programs that churn out a mass of successful startups.

Many programs choose applications that receive on-premise coaching and a small investment to get the businesses off the ground, in turn for a percentage of equity ownership.

Ways to Plant Seeds

In the technology age, it's easier than ever to reach angels, who enjoy using social media channels and interacting with enthusiastic entrepreneurs.

Many lesser-known VC firms focus on local entrepreneurship funding, in counties and communities outside big startup hubs like San Francisco and New York.

Additionally, founders may consider the newly popularized crowdfunding method for raising seed capital. Kickstart.com and many others now act as a platform to match investors and startups.

The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or JOBS Act of 2012, lifted restrictions on investing in early-stage companies so that the common person could have the opportunity to invest.

Companies that aim to raise less than $1 million in total capital can do business with aspiring investors.

source: investopedia

The dawn of the 5G era has arrived. While it might seem too soon to go out and drop serious money on a 5G phone, major carriers such as Verizon have already switched on their 5G networks in a number of American cities, including New York Detroit and Atlanta.

The technology offers huge opportunities, especially for startups.

Think of it this way: If you wanted to connect 10 devices to the internet a couple of years ago, you needed a router.

But large-scale organizations with hundreds or thousands of terminals had to invest serious money in sophisticated networking technology to support their network needs.

Going forward, 5G eliminates that problem. It doesn’t require a router, and the towers can handle a million devices within a square kilometer.

The development of 5G technology is similar to the invention of the internal combustion engine.

It changes the rules of the game, and the massive fall in latency and increase in bandwidth will make new business models possible.

 More processing will happen on the cloud rather than at device level, exponentially reducing software and hardware costs. And by freeing up the lower end of the electronic spectrum, 5G will make it easier to build a massive network of IoT-connected devices.

The opportunity for telecommunications companies to harness the 5G market is obvious, and they’re moving fast to roll out their networks and get staffs ready for changes.

For example, the FCC is working with the National Wireless Safety Alliance to train the 20,000 skilled workers it will take to maintain towers.

On the other side of that, companies that manufacture routers and provide cable internet services are going to come up against some struggles, but that doesn't mean all doors will be closed to them.

The swift transition to 5G will allow new players to move into old industries and adopt disruptive business models.

For example, consumers didn’t buy into Google Glass when it was launched back in 2013. People didn’t see the point, and the company botched its marketing strategy.

 But lower-latency connections and the higher bandwidth that 5G affords will make AR and VR hardware more viable as cloud processing gets faster, making room for innovations that at one time seemed too much like something from The Jetsons.

 Mojo Vision and Focals by North are already demonstrating the new potential for a once-mocked form of technology.

Further, the adoption of smart glasses, smart contact lenses and other AR devices will drive software developments.

New devices open new opportunities for software developers to shape the way consumers interact with technology and the world around them. 

Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon are likely all working in secret on new operating systems for smart devices, but it will be interesting to see which new apps and tech take off and flood the market.

But 5G won’t just shake up the consumer market.

Smart devices and sensor technology have serious industrial applications, so you can bet that oil pipelines, factory floors and warehouses will soon be putting them to good use. The diminishing costs of connected devices will also make it easier to leverage technology to drive real innovation in business models that need it most.

Startups need to prepare if they want to reap the full benefits of the 5G revolution, and they need to start now.

Here are three tips on how to get started.

1. Build 5G into the company culture.

Eleven million people will be using 5G smartphones worldwide by the end of 2019, according to research from Statista, a figure that's expected to hit 627 million by 2022.

That’s a 57-fold increase across the span of three years, and the dizzying speed of that change means that employees will need solid support to adapt. 

Training schemes and clear communication strategies are vital for getting everybody on board.

Business leaders can’t assume that everybody will understand what 5G means for the company.

They need to make the innovation a part of the company culture to ensure that everybody buys in.

2. Get everybody on the same page.

Every aspect of a business will be affected by 5G.

A lot of moving parts will need to be coordinated, and old management systems and ways of doing things might have to be abandoned to make companies more agile. Audi has already started working in that "out with the old, in with the new" philosophy by using Wi-Fi to connect the robots on its assembly line, but it has also started testing 5G and expects to roll it out across its German operations in the coming years. 

Companies in other industries can learn from this example, too.

They should set up the processes that will enable them to make a success of 5G technology and make sure every department adapts in response.

3. Open new channels for employee support.

According to Korn Ferry research, demand for skilled labor across the world is expected to exceed supply by more than 85.2 million people by the year 2030. Company leaders need to support their employees to ensure they don’t suffer the consequences of that shortage.

There will always be a learning curve for employees adjusting to new technology and processes in business.

Structured support before, during and after the change will ensure employees stay motivated as 5G technology makes its debut. Amazon, for example, is retraining a third of its employees to help them learn automation, machine learning and 5G, ultimately preparing them for the way of the future.

Make a note, too, that training is one part of the change, but employees need to feel like collaborators, not students.

They need opportunities to give feedback and help shape the process.

The widespread adoption of 5G technology will transform the business world over the next three to four years, so companies that want to experience the benefits need to get ready now.

The future, in the case of 5G, depends on the present.

source: entrepreneur