Commentaries: Do you really need that many engineers? 🤔

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Dear Reader,

I was talking to a few journalists and founders this week, and I observed several common trends.

1) As startups become more successful, they become less warm. Or, to put it bluntly, they begin to act like jerks. It may not fully be the founders’ fault. It could be that the people they hired don’t have the same level of warmth and sincerity. A quick tip: It’s always best to stay humble, even if you’re working in a fast-growing startup or a unicorn.

2) Nice and honest founders tend to enjoy more success. It’s easier for people to put in a good word for you, and buzz like that travels far. Just ask the team from Fave (they are fundraising). It can be challenging to be the bigger person at all times, but it always pays off in the long term.

3) When you’re building a company, people-related problems are the hardest to deal with. Even some of the most successful founders hate doing it. Some general advice I learned is to not take things personally when shit happens. And don’t wait to have those hard conversations – do them as early as possible.

Also, a gentle reminder to founders who might be feeling down: You are not alone. Hang in there.

Enjoy this week’s commentaries.

– Willis, Tech in Asia

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Meeting attendees, with Indonesian president Joko Widodo in the center / Photo credit: Jokowi’s Twitter account

1. Value creation 🇮🇩
I’ve been asked about the “Grab-Indo-Unicorn” topic several times. IMHO, an Indonesian unicorn must be founded in Indonesia, isn’t that the default definition? But if President Jokowi says Grab is an Indonesian unicorn, then so be it. He’s the boss.

What is more important is that Grab is adding tangible value to the nation. As per this report, it has brought about $3.5 billion to the Indonesian economy last year. Gojek, on the other hand, contributed $3 billion to the Indonesian economy in 2018. Not many local or regional companies can claim that feat, so kudos to Grab and Gojek. Read more

2. Secretlab’s crazy growth in 2019 💺
Founded in 2014, Singapore-based Secretlab has sold more than 200,000 chairs and is valued at S$200 million. Let’s just assume that Secretlab will sell 250,000 gaming chairs by the end of the year at S$492 each (that’s the average retail price). This means that its total revenue so far – since it began operations to end of 2019 – will stand at S$123 million. Of that amount, more than S$100 million comes from 2019 alone.