SHAH ALAM: The Selangor Information Technology and E-Commerce Council (SITEC) recently organized the ninth Startup Selangor Gathering session for technopreneurs on Risk Management and Problem Solving in the e-world.
Held at the Selangor Digital Creative Centre, the session aimed to encourage and nurture young tech-savvy individuals towards building up successful businesses. This in turn is expected to help Selangor establish itself as an international trading hub and e-Commerce centre in Southeast Asia.
During the session, co-founder Jun King from CARDPOW!, a mobile website featuring the best discounts for credit and debit card users, advised, “Don’t set up a company on your own. This is simply to ensure you remain sane! As for handling problems, always survey, ask and interview people. Study the statistics and make up a story.”
He pointed out how important it was to use the Business Model Canvas (BMC). “It’s a popular tool that provides a picture of what is lacking in your business idea.”
King went on to remind attendees that learning, reading and research are indispensable parts of a business. “It’s good to read, but again, don’t believe everything. Continue researching interesting ideas and work on them. Finally, keep track of your finances. The shorter your runway, or finances, the faster you have to lift off.”
Eric Tan, co-founder of ParkEasy, strongly believes that companies must identify the problem first. “Moreover, companies often assume that one solution can be applied to all problems. It doesn’t work that way. Instead, start focusing on three aspects of a problem – the input, process and output. Then work on it.”
ParkEasy involves a lot of engineering which requires teamwork from 16 people, a relatively big team for a tech startup. The app that helps drivers book a parking spot is expected to be launched in March with services offered below RM5.
With reference to remarks made by various critics on the concept, he commented, “Critics prove that parking in the city is a problem that calls for a proper solution. Their comments are not a problem because it serves as extra input. That helps produce better output as we use it to fine-tune our product.”
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