Hope for Singapore

Dear readers,

It seems my letter last week struck a chord with the community and sparked an unexpected outpouring of reactions.

The sentiment I’m getting is that Singapore isn’t an ideal environment to breed entrepreneurs. It’s too safe. Risk-taking isn’t encouraged. The market is too small.

A friend told me how she doesn’t respect entrepreneurs from her own country as much as those from Singapore. After all, in her country, risk-taking is part of everyday life (even riding the bus is risky). Here in Singapore, being a founder is truly going against the grain.

However, entrepreneurship isn’t so much about taking risks as it is about managing them. Venture capital, for one, is a form of risk management: Instead of founders taking on all the risk, they’re sharing it with investors.

In Singapore, there’s no shortage of venture capital, and the country is also right in the middle of a fast-growing internet economy that’s projected to triple in size by 2025.

On top of that, many founders come from comfortable circumstances as well. The Netflix documentary I watched about Bill Gates revealed that the founder of Microsoft came out of a stable home with loving and well-to-do parents. He also went to a private school where he got access to a computer, which back then wasn’t readily available.

According to Shashank Dixit, the founder of enterprise software startup Deskera, another advantage Singapore has is that its talent pool is well-suited for high-value businesses. The country “offers some niche technology abilities. Singapore developers are very advanced when it comes to creating high-valued, non-commoditized stuff,” he tells me.

My sense is that there isn’t a “perfect” environment for entrepreneurship. Singapore might have some weaknesses, but it has some clear advantages.

Many Singaporean-led startups are capitalizing on the region’s growth. Carro, M-DAQ, ShopBack, and Ninja Van are just a few examples.

These startups are attempting to start businesses that make sense in their environment, and we’ll continue to provide coverage of these companies. Do subscribe to us if you’d like to support our coverage.

And as usual, check out our premium pieces from the past week:

Unicorns and near-unicorn companies

• It’s time we admit that great founders often don’t make great CEOs
• GoGoVan’s CEO on $1b merger, Vietnam plans, and concerns for the future
• Deskera chases unicorn status with its next big bet: becoming a super app
• Commentaries: Grab vs Gojek
• GoBear sees a ‘multibillion’ opportunity in bridging Southeast Asia’s credit needs

Up-and-comers

• Rising startups on Tech in Asia: cloud kitchen restaurants, an HR tech platform, and more
• Indonesian logistics startup is about to close series A round from East Ventures, SIG, SMDV
• Thai ecommerce enabler co-founded by ex-Lazadians is profitable and growing
• Ento has a creepy idea to take on Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat

Stuff you may have missed

• The state of the super-app race in Southeast Asia
• How Kopi Kenangan plans to become Indonesia’s largest affordable coffee chain

Cheers,

Terence
Chief editor