The top 3 things startups in Asia need to succeed

Photo credit: Lookup.

I recently overheard someone lamenting at a social gathering that it’s easier to meet someone who works at a startup than to find a date these days.

While it’s a sad reality for the dating scene, it speaks truth about the growth of the startup ecosystem in Asia. We are seeing great optimism for the startup scene here – a sentiment echoed by Eduardo Saverin at a recent tech conference in Hong Kong.

Positioning yourself as the “Uber or Airbnb of XX” is simply not enough. Ideas cannot stand the test of time if they are merely an enhanced version of an existing offering. For example, a mobile app of an accommodation booking site can easily be replaced by another startup that offers travellers faster access, larger inventory and a better user interface.

While I do not have the ‘secret sauce’ for startup success, I come back to the wise words of Albert Einstein,

“If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about the solutions”.

Every startup worth their money knows that truly understanding the problem is critical to any future success.

Almost a year after launching Amadeus Next to work with travel tech startups in the region, here’s my view on the factors that can influence a startup’s success.

Invest in the digital connection

When was the last time you used your PC to book a ride, pay a bill or order takeout? Asia’s lead in mobile adoption has established it as a mobile first economy. Mature countries like Singapore and Malaysia are tracking multiple device adoption while countries like Indonesia and Philippines have bypassed desktops, with many of their citizens’ first online interactions via mobile.

As our electronic devices and online profiles continue to become an extension of us; every online connection that we make, to every app that we download, creates an opportunity for data collection and analytics.

This advancement in interconnectivity and data growth has inspired many startups’ innovations. It also gives startups phenomenal insights into consumer behaviour and decision making. And going back to Einstein’s famous words, you need to understand the problem before you come up with a solution.

In addition to having an innovative idea, customer experience will also impact the crucial uptake of your offering. Invest in the development of your mobile offering by focusing heavily on UI and UX, as this is what makes you stand out from the crowd, and keeps customers coming back.

Don’t underestimate the ongoing investment needed to improve the mobile experience though upgrades and enhancements.

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