e27, 3 July 2019, By Daryl Chung:
As Southeast Asia’s tech ecosystem continues to grow, there has never been a better time for local entrepreneurs to thrive.
Strong macroeconomic indicators, coupled with an increasingly digital population of 640 million, presents a tremendous market opportunity for companies across the globe to get a piece of the action in this region.
While the opportunity is a no-brainer, success is not going to be handed overnight on a silver platter. The complexity of Southeast Asia remains a key challenge to any startup founder’s arduous entrepreneurial journey here in this region.
At e27, we believe that every startup deserves a fair chance to succeed, and it is our mission to empower entrepreneurs with the tools to build and grow their business.
What this means is that we have a duty to help startups navigate the ecosystem and make informed decisions amidst their day-to-day hustle. We also want to work with active stakeholders who are aligned with our ethos and are able to support these businesses with their strategy and execution.
In that light, we are pleased to announce a strategic partnership with Blackstorm Consulting to help tech startups go-to-market in Southeast Asia.
Helping tech startups go-to-market in Southeast Asia
BlackStorm Consulting is a boutique growth consultancy firm that scales businesses through three main areas – corporate strategy, profit management, and investment management. Its founding team was formerly from a ‘startup fixer’ company called InterVentures Asia, which has advised more than 30 companies including startups, SMEs, MNCs and accelerators circa 2016.
BlackStorm Consulting will take on a supporting role to e27 by providing a wide range of consultancy services in areas such as business transformation and business growth, to the organising and management of these startups or communities.
Co-founded by serial entrepreneur and investor, Paddy Tan, “Southeast Asia’s tech ecosystem has been very promising yet complicated to understand due to many different cultures,” said Paddy Tan, co-founder of Blackstorm Consulting. “We look forward to heightening the quality and enhance the regional knowledge of startups in this community through our joint effort with e27.”
This partnership between e27 and Blackstorm Consulting aims to achieve the following:
- Co-organizing educational programmes (masterclasses, workshops, bootcamps) on various business topics pertaining to a startup’s go-to-market strategy.
- Co-producing and content and reports on topics in go-to-market strategy, industry trends and business transformation
Just as it takes an entire village to raise a child, we rely on the support of the ecosystem to raise a startup. For us at e27, this partnership allows us to stay true and relevant to our missions in a more scalable and impactful way.
“It is an exciting journey. We aim to turn the community members into a BlackStorm – a profitable and aggressive player in their specific market,” said Tan.
Beyond our go-to-market strategy
The partnership kickstarts our drive to create more value for our current services and the ecosystem. With BlackStorm Consulting as one of the providers to the consultancy and advisory arm of e27, more insights can be shared to entrepreneurs and corporations via the e27 platform.
Businesses can engage the services by BlackStorm Consulting when they are delving into expansion or encountering roadblocks along the way.
The midterm goal is to engage Southeast Asia’s founders and the startup community at large with different forms of value to complement their daily hustle. The long-term ambition is to build a dynamic and sustainable ecosystem that fulfils entrepreneurs’ needs in all stages of their journey.
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