One of the greatest woes in startup ecosystems across the world is the shortage of technical talent. Top-notch coders are like the hot girls at parties – few in number, yet in huge demand.
Coders who have equally good management skills are an even rarer sight. Chok Leang Ooi, co-founder and CEO of UX design and software development firm Agility, has met too many early-stage startup founders who have stalled their plans simply because they were unable to find the right CTO. “Every technology-focused startup is always going to need a good CTO in order to take the company to the next step, especially once they figure out their product-market fit and need to grow rapidly,” he says.
Ooi, who was born in Malaysia, has previously spent some time in Silicon Valley and New York’s startup scenes. Over there, he found that while ideas and funding were in abundance, many startups were still being held back by – surprise, surprise – the lack of talent.
Not just any development shop
Instead of feeling stifled by the shortage, Ooi saw an opportunity, and he decided to found Agility to fill in the gap. He is quick to emphasize that it’s not just “a vanilla outsourced development shop, which just takes requirements and implement as is” – he describes Agility as a startup product development company that partners and works with their clients closely:
They come to us with their ideas and visions, and together, we help them build that into wireframes, a minimum viable product, and eventually into a real product and a real business. In other words, we help these startups make things happen. Because we have been in the trenches ourselves and have worked with so many other startups across industries, our clients trust our expertise and judgments.
Their name reflects the agile software development process that they have mastered working with around 50 startups over the past three years. Ooi claims that this is their other advantage over other development firms. “In an industry where new trends and changes happen so rapidly, our value is in helping our startup clients stay ahead, which means we have to operate nimbly and be able to go to market quickly,” he explains. “Hence, we thought the name ‘Agility’ best reflects this principle.”
He admits that while several of the startups that have enlisted their help have failed, it is part and parcel of being in this industry. He notes that when they move on to found or join another startup, many actually bring Agility along to their next venture, which is an affirmation of the team’s ability.
Some of the bigger names that have gone on to success include personal finance site NerdWallet, sustainable fashion site Modavanti, and Boston-based SparkCommerce. Ooi shares that they have also recently started work with certain heavily-funded startups, but would only reveal their names in the months to come.
See: Should non-technical founders learn how to code?
Filling Asia’s talent gap
After finding validation in the US, Ooi is looking to bring his brand of agile development to Asia. He and his partner Trung Ngo – both born in Southeast Asia – have been keeping a keen eye on developments in the region:
I signed up for a Geeks on a Plane trip that took us through Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, and Indonesia. On that trip, every startup that we visited gave us a presentation. Through their presentations, we started to identify that the number one challenge they face that keeps them up at night is talent.
Not replacing the role of the CTO
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