In this series, I will begin writing my thoughts on startup news in Singapore/Asia. Here are the news today
With fresh funding, Snapask expands tech-driven learning across Asia
This post seems like a sponsored post or a PR piece that declared that Snapask raised a bunch of money. Anyways, the tutoring industry is HUGE in east Asian countries. Even more significant than education itself.
Personally, I love the idea of an app to "video call" a doctor. And mostly, this is similar to that. Except that instead of reaching a doctor, you reach a tutor who will help you with your homework.
This startup has legs based on just the idea itself. But will it execute well? The question is, how fast can you recruit teachers and how well can you acquire parents who will pay for this service? Are they even willing to pay for such a service without dedicated face-to-face time? And wow, 35M is a large sum of money.
Commentary: Turning disaster into a driving force
I have been waiting for a recession since I graduated. With COVID19 and the "market corrections," I have got my brokerage accounts active, and am opening one for my son too. There is an opportunity in every disaster.
This piece feels very much like a "stay positive" kind of post, and that annoys me. Pragmatically, a recession can be a positive force to shake out the weak (business). With difficulties, one can identify which areas business is vulnerable in, and either fix it. Or start over.
As my engineer always says. We build things with a plan to rebuild it X-period from now. For businesses, either you get large enough to turn yourself into a rent-seeking monopoly (like Google/Facebook/Tinder), or you rebuild.