How focusing on brand humanity helped these hypergrowth startups

Two decades ago, smartphones as we know them didn’t even exist. Yet today, they are capable of everything from augmented reality to AI-assisted voice control.

The point here is that there is no halting the march of technology.

Photo credit: khunaspix / 123RF

For startups, that means leveraging tech to keep up with the competition. After all, it’s estimated that by 2025, technology solution startups will make up 44% of innovation sources, compared to 10% today.

The boardrooms and product teams of the most innovative and successful startups worldwide – including Airbnb and Grubhub – understand the importance of using tech to power growth.

This was a running theme at the latest Tech in Asia Conference, which took place at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore on September 21 and 22 last year. One fireside chat, led by customer engagement platform Braze, brought together Endowus CEO Gregory Van and ShopBack chief product officer Justin Lee to discuss strategies that companies can employ when scaling up with tech.

Tackling early-stage “growth pains”

The moderator, Braze vice president and general manager for Asia Pacific Julia Lee, started with a question: What are the challenges that startups face in the early stages of their growth, particularly amid the recent uncertainty in the tech sector?

For ShopBack, which gives cashbacks to shoppers across Southeast Asia and the Asia Pacific, a key issue when it first launched in 2014 was the lack of reliable data.

“A big way of how we approach problem-solving is the empirical approach. The challenge in the early days is that there’s just not enough data, but you just keep at it, gathering data, and it guides your course of action, your story, and your vision,” Justin explained.

Justin Lee, chief product officer at ShopBack / Photo credit: Tech in Asia

Van, who co-founded Endowus in 2017, agreed, saying that when making decisions with a lack of data, startups can first take a rational hypothesis and run with it. However, companies must also stay subjective about the results. Otherwise, they could get off track, he cautioned.

“Having a very strong moral base and knowing what your company is trying to do – and trying to be the best at that thing – will keep you centered as you keep on moving through your journey,” he added.

Customers first before tech

As hypergrowth startups, Endowus and ShopBack are focused on not just technology but how they can use it to serve customers better. Justin says putting users and their needs first is key. Because of tough macroeconomic conditions due to inflation and rising interest rates, companies have to deliver even more value to keep customers.

Brands must select tech partners that can offer services and innovations that help them keep up with the growing demands of customer centricity. “Can they scale as you scale and bring in new capabilities to allow you to keep perfecting your craft?” Justin asked.

For Van, “it’s really important when you’re building technology that you go to where the customer is. That’s how technology helps you scale.”

Gregory Van, CEO of Endowus / Photo credit: Tech in Asia

He also emphasized on the importance of creating hybrid experiences – in other words, balancing machine automation and human interaction – and understanding what customers are comfortable with and what the market is willing to accept. This is because how consumers adopt technology can differ for various products and services.

“With Braze and other software, we can automate a certain amount of that experience, and at some point, pick up that phone and speak to our clients as well to bring them into the digital age of investing and what we believe is the future of wealth management,” said Van.

Additionally, as organizations grow bigger and with so many tech solutions around, paralysis can creep in. Justin’s advice: “Progress is better than perfection, and action is better than imperfection.”

Enabling human experiences

During the tail end of the panel discussion, Julia turned the conversation toward “brand humanity,” which, from Braze’s perspective, is about forging human connections between consumers and the brands that they love.

Ultimately, both Van and Justin agreed that utilizing modern technology is about staying agile and relevant in the face of macro challenges and establishing a growth culture built on human connections.

At Endowus, Van pushes for technological improvements that allow the company to be faster, more transparent and operate at a lower cost. “In the initial phases, it was extremely unhuman. What we’re trying to do is to replace some services that can be technology-enabled to be better,” he said.

“Technology’s role is to fix those particular services, but to leave the humanity part to humans, to help us live in the way that we actually want to live in the real world. If technology can do that, the creativity it would spur would really be endless,” Van shared.

His final piece of advice? Don’t be obsessed with adopting every piece of cutting-edge technology. That’s because “the customer doesn’t actually care. Doing the right thing at the right time is important.”

Braze is a leading comprehensive customer engagement platform that powers interactions between consumers and the brands they love. With Braze, global brands can digest and process customer data in real time, orchestrate and optimize contextually relevant, cross-channel marketing campaigns, and continuously evolve their customer engagement strategies.

Access the firm’s 2022 Global Customer Engagement Review here.

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This content was produced by Tech in Asia Studios, which connects brands with Asia’s tech community. Learn more about partnering with Tech in Asia Studios.