Discover the success story of Tribe Accelerator, the first blockchain accelerator supported by the Singapore government. Our guest Yi Ming Ng is the Managing Partner of Tribe and has recently been named as one of 30 under 30 by Forbes.
Find out how blockchain can be applied to real applications to solve problems, how to find the right fit for startups and corporates to work on solutions during the accelerator program, and why Tribe started their own blockchain academy.
Discover the success story of Tribe Accelerator, the first blockchain accelerator supported by the Singapore government. Our guest Yi Ming Ng is the Managing Partner of Tribe and has recently been named as one of 30 under 30 by Forbes.
Find out how blockchain can be applied to real applications to solve problems, how to find the right fit for startups and corporates to work on solutions during the accelerator program, and why Tribe started their own blockchain academy.
Ming: (00:02)
Our biggest learning is that don't try to force fit a startup with a corporate or vice versa. Why is that? So is because a lot of times the startups, they end up working with the corporates, are startups that we don't imagine them to work with that same corporate to begin with.
Christine: (00:23)
Welcome to the Lost in Transformation podcast series dedicated to the complex world of Digital Transformation. We feature guests from large corporations, start-ups, consultancies and more, to shed light on the success factors around Innovation, Transformation, and adjacent topics.
We share first-hand insights and inspiration from experts for all the intrapreneurs, entrepreneurs and anyone curious about Digital Transformation.
Christine: (00:52)
Yi Ming is the Managing Partner of Tribe Accelerator, the first blockchain accelerator supported by the Singapore government. And he’s recently been named as one of 30 under 30 by Forbes. We talked to him about the success story of Tribe and Ming’s outlook on innovation in the blockchain space. We hope you enjoy this episode.
Christine: (01:12)
Hi Ming, good to have you with us on Lost In Transformation, thanks for joining us!
So for today’s episode, we’re curious to find out more about the journey and the success story of Tribe Accelerator.
Let’s dive right in and go all the way back to the beginning: How did the journey start?
Ming: (01:31)
So thanks so much for having me today. So the journey started I think in early 2018 when I think at that point in time Bitcoin was at the all time high of 20,000. And a lot of people were saying, Hey, is this technology a scam? Is blockchain just all about ICO and tokens and stuff like that? Anything speculated, anything there is always associated that with blockchain at that point in time. So I think there was a lot of like, fear, there was a lot of grit, there was a lot of speculations.
And I think from our point itself, we were like, Hey, why isn't blockchain just seen as a single technology? Just like the internet, just like AI, just like cloud, just like machine learning and stuff like that. But why is blockchain being tied to things that are in a certain nature itself?
So this created a lot of fearful startups, when they start talking to corporates and we really want them to solve that. I think that was a really how Tribe Accelerator started.
Christine: (02:36)
And the startups that you're working with, that are participating, what can they expect as in learnings or during the time with Tribe?
Ming: (02:46)
So I think because of the issue, we realized that there was a lot of fear and uncertainty with quite a number of corporates that we spoke with back then. And they were seeing either really good startups, they are utilizing the blockchain or is it that they are just using it as a buzzword? So what we structured as a program, it's something that allows startups to interact with the network of about 40 corporates that we work with globally from like BMW, Intel, IBM, Consensus, Archery, like this sort of top partners. Both in the blockchain space and in the traditional world to start interacting with startups that are using blockchain to solve a problem. So we come from a more problem driven approach, what is the problem that you're solving? If it makes sense to use a blockchain, then go ahead.
Ming: (03:38)
If it doesn't, please don't insert that in your pitch. So I think working with them and bringing on board leading mentors from all these corporates itself and organizations, the experts to really help us to redefine what blockchain means in the enterprise landscape itself. So today it's a six months program, two months selection and four months really getting them to start talking to a lot of corporates that they have keen interest with on a global level. Start testing out solutions, start getting more investments and traction on the product itself. So today with accelerator about 29 different companies, from three different batches within the last one and a half years. So it has a really what we set out to achieve right from the start.
Christine: (04:29)
Wow. And for the startups that you're working with, obviously in the blockchain space, but do they need any specific requirements or what startups are you looking for in particular?
Ming: (04:40)
So we look at companies that are probably at a stage of about [...] They started as out as a blockchain company or they started off as a non blockchain company or really having product market fit or really having traction revenue by now. One thing to look at how blockchain can make their business more efficient, maybe from a security point of view or maybe from things like authentication, food safety, stuff like that. So we've encountered quite a variety of companies from all around the world applying for the program itself.
So those are the kind of companies that we work with from healthcare to food safety to locally, the second hand car page and stuff like that. So it's been an interesting journey to look at how blockchain can be applied to different industries.
Christine: (05:33)
So we've also seen like what kind of interesting startups you've had in the batches. And you've mentioned the different industries that they're coming from. Do you have a specific favorite one or one that you can share what they were working on or how they were using blockchain in their space?
Ming: (05:48)
Probably like naming a few that we received, gotten quite a bit of traction. One of them would be Mighty Jaxx. So Mighty Jaxx is a local based company that has been around for the last seven to eight years dealing with limited edition collectibles. So they work with brands like DC, Marvel, Fox, Disney to produce limited edition collectible. Take for example an Iron Man that is half skeleton, half Iron Man figure in itself. So what they do is they produce this pieces, art pieces, they call it, in about 200 to 300 to 500 pieces every single week. And they will sell it to that number and they will stop selling it and they'll stop producing it ever.
Ming: (06:34)
So there's their business model itself. So for each piece of limited edition, collectible, I think that makes them like 500 pieces. So what happens is the problem that they faced when they start selling this product itself, it's when it goes on to the secondary market, people start trading. And once in a while they will get an image from potential buyers and say, Hey, can you verify it? Is this a real piece that we are purchasing on the secondhand market, please? And I think from a customer support point of view, from just an image, they might just say, Oh, maybe the leg is a little crooked. I don't think there's a real peace and stuff like that. But can we use technology to really help them solve this problem and solve the entire pinpoint of trying to vet a culture fit, or whether a product is real or not, just digitally, just through an image, which is really hard because counterfeit products are getting better and better.
Ming: (07:33)
So what happens is, we brought in a GovTech, which is a Singapore government technology agency. They have a solution called OpenCerts. It started as an education initiative to help the students digitize their certificate so that when they travel for overseas studies and stuff, they can authenticate with a much easier process itself. So we brought Mighty Jaxx and GovTech together to look at how that certification technology that GovTech developed can be brought into Mighty Jaxx solution to authenticate the toys, because each toy can be tight with a certificate of authenticity. So I think that's something that we did. And today inserting IOT chips into the body of toys to allow people to scan with a mobile application.
Christine: (08:20)
Wow. Interesting how technology can help with the identifying counterfeits and stuff like that. Super interesting. Do you see a lot of potential for growing innovation in that field?
Ming: (08:33)
I think it definitely, I think a lot of times as I mentioned earlier, counterfeits are getting better and better today. If you go into a supermarket, you pick up a bottle of whiskey or wine, you're probably ask yourself, Hey, I'm paying so much, but is it really true? They're like the bottle. It tells me where it's made. In certain countries you don't face that issue because you trust the government system. You trust the food safety regulations. Can we say the same thing? For every country that we visit there, we pick up anything from the supermarket. Is it really from the source of origin, as data on the packaging. So, going back to the whiskey example, can we say that every whiskey that we pick up from a store globally is really from, maybe it says made in Scotland, is it really from Scotland itself? Or we really don't know. So can technology come in to solve problems like that? Can we add an IoT, sticker, chip and stuff onto the packaging itself so that this increases consumers safety when it comes to consuming food beverages and different forms of products their ingest?
Christine: (09:37)
Definitely. And I'm now looking on the corporate side, what are maybe some of the prerequisites for corporates to be successful at matching with the startups, in your open innovation approach?
Ming: (09:50)
I think corporates a lot of times, maybe for the last two to three years, since maybe 2015/2016, around it period, they started out with a problem driven approach, right? Which is maybe they come up with problem statements and they start looking at startups to see, Oh, what kind of startups can fit a problem statements that I have to offer. But I think the issue with that we are seeing is that when it comes from a problem statement driven approach, usually when a startup wants to apply for this hackathon or competition to bid for your problem statement, they are pivoting some form of their business model to tailor it to your problem statement. And it might not be directly relevant to their existing business. So the best startups in the market will usually not bid for this problem statements because they have existing business, existing traction, when they go out for business and stuff.
Ming: (10:47)
So why do they need to pivot their business model, just to work with a corporate. So I think it's really, at the end of the day, what kind of quality of startups do you want to attract? So today we don't want a problem statement approach, we let startups present our solution to all the corporates as long as they are within the same verticals. Maybe we bring a group of banks and financial institution to look at some startups related to FinTech. And from the corporate itself, the innovation manager or the team leading innovation or a business unit or part of any business unit, they will decide, can I work with this startup? Is there a really use case for me to bring it to anyone on my business unit that I'm currently handling? So I think the role of the innovation manager is key in the model that we work on because he will need to understand which he's probably an expert on what's going on with the company and what constellation they need as compared to additional or problem statement, which is, I believe a little trickier because usually a problem with one corporate might exist with same set of corporates, but sometimes it doesn't.
Ming: (12:01)
So, it's really a subjective and how clear the problem statement is. So, I think this sort of approach that we think that it's pretty positive based on the outcome that we have seen.
Christine: (12:11)
So you were also working with a lot of corporates globally, as you mentioned earlier. So you're having demo days all over the world from Singapore to the US, the Emirates and so on. Do you see any geographical differences in how the corporates approach the innovation concepts or what kind of mindsets they have?
Ming: (12:32)
I think someone have mentioned that the only thing that is constant is change. And a lot of times corporates, before this pandemic to the current situation that we're in, even until today, they are all looking at new innovations and how to make their business solutions better for their consumers, for their partners, for their clients, so on and so forth. So we believe that innovation will always happen and they will always be looking for solutions. We don't see that much of a big difference from a corporate perspective, global corporate perspective on innovation, because they're all wanting to look at new opportunities and they believe that startups are nimble. Startups can move faster, they can do more tests at a faster speed.
But I think what's different between all these corporates is that they have different geographic requirements. So based on the market needs itself. So maybe like, there's a food startup that we have brought to certain markets itself. They were looking at how do you track Halal food supply. So Halal food supply is probably more applicable in certain countries and less applicable in certain countries. So I think those are some things that we see from a geographic requirement.
Christine: (13:50)
So the use cases then differ for the kind of solutions that they offer. Interesting. And now, moving ahead with the current batch that you have at these difficult times, how has Tribe adjusted the collaboration or do you have any new methods in place that work well for you?
Ming: (14:11)
I think we've fully translated to a hundred percent digital, from running accelerator policy. That it's definitely positive and we still get the same kind of interaction. Of course, maybe the experience might be different having a person physically in front of you to build up that trust as compared to with digital. But I think the program milestones still can be completed, because a lot of the work that we do, before demo day, usually happens at the second or third month. So it is when the program is intensive, meeting all the corporates, meeting all the investors and stuff like that. So, I think that it's still positive and we still see quite a bit of interest from the corporate to look at more solutions and even more so, than before because today they are looking at how can I improve my supply chain of how can I look at new areas like telemedicine services and stuff like that. So I think those are extremely positive, based on the feedback that we've been getting from the corporates.
Christine: (15:14)
And you also mentioned you're now on batch three, since you started, which is not a completely new experience. Did you learn anything new or like what was your biggest learning from batch to batch basically?
Ming: (15:28)
I think our biggest learning is that don't try to force fit a startup with a corporate or vice versa, why is that? So it is because a lot of times the startups, they end up working with the corporates are startups that we don't imagine them to work with that same corporate to begin with. And the reason is because a lot of times the problem .... the corporate plays an extremely important role and corporate innovation managers will need to take on that rule to start looking at what startup makes sense for my business itself. And because for large MNCs, they're just doing so many projects internally and it's hard for a startup to really understand, what they actually mean because there could potentially the needs. Like one global insurance company came to us and say, Hey, can I work with one of your startups that is looking at authentication of the products? And we're like, Hey, aren't you an insurance company, would you want to work with a FinTech related solution?
Ming: (16:26)
But they say, Oh, we do like, as an insurance company, we do art pieces. We insure art pieces globally. So can your startup put the same IoT, put the same chip into my art piece? So then when I worked with global art houses, I can give them better security of the product itself and I can better ensure my product and calculate my risk because now I have technology in place to track where a product is actually going. So things like that, we found this is quite interesting itself.
And that's why I say "be open", that's what we always tell new corporates. They're coming in, look at startups and if there's nothing that fits you okay, it doesn't matter. Maybe this batch is not the right fit, but there are more exciting companies. You just need one. It's like a [inaudible] venture investment. You just need 1 of the 10 that aligns with what you are trying to do. I think that's good enough. Like they're not here to come in to say, Oh, I want to work with 5 out of the 10, like 10 usually doesn't happen. So as long as they have 1, that they are interested with, I think that's good enough.
Christine: (17:32)
Interesting. And, also next to the core business that you're obviously doing, you're also running a Blockchain Academy, right? With scholarships for developers. Can you share more about that?
Ming: (17:44)
So we've been working with a lot of these corporates, and a lot of these larger tech startups and starting to deploy more blockchain solution over the last two years itself. And the biggest problem for them, it's always, Hey, like where do I find the blockchain developers, that are good? And a lot of times they come with a really high cost itself. And today is how do we train the blockchain engineers to help defeat the demands of the next 3 to 5 years as we move forward with the entire blockchain industry itself. And that's why we started this scholarship program where we went with different protocols, blockchain protocols to train developers in the market itself, firstly to offer the protocol and opportunity to target more talents, young talents, to upscale existing developers.
Ming: (18:39)
Maybe they are software engineers, maybe application engineers, but they want to understand more about blockchain. And this is the opportunity to say, Hey, maybe test out my protocol. It's actually easy to use and easy to deploy solutions. So I think this opportunity is to match talented developers to good protocols itself. It's something that we think that it's definitely positive and you're generating a lot more, developers who have a protocol skill, they start building more depths, as in decentralized applications. So when you start building more of such applications, you need more developers to feed 30 months of this applications to keep them going forward. So I think working hand in hand with them, to set up this scholarship, it's something that we really felt it was extremely positive.
Christine: (19:25)
Nice. Has it just recently started or how was your experience with it?
Ming: (19:30)
So we finished the first batch of developers. We are working with Zilliqa itself. So Zilliqa is a Blockchain protocol which came out from the National University of Singapore. So we've been working closely with them over the last 6 months to develop this curriculum. We finished the first batch back in March. And now we are looking at the second batch itself enrolling to our application. So for anyone that is interested, feel free to reach out to us itself for more information on this.
Christine: (20:01)
Cool. And next to that, I mean you're doing a lot of business, then you have the Blockchain Academy and you've also recently launched the Singapore Blockchain landscape map, which represents basically the application of blockchain technologies in different industries. What is that about?
Ming: (20:19)
So we've been working closely with Singapore Government Agency looking at the growth of technology ecosystem in Singapore. So blockchain landscape map was actually a representation or a brief snapshot of what Singapore can offer to the world from a blockchain standpoint. I think a lot of times people are always saying, back then before we did this launch in May, we were saying, Oh, there's a blockchain ecosystem in Singapore, but what does it actually mean?
Like, is it really more like digital asset kind of companies? A lot of things. People are saying, Oh, is it only the banking and financial services they are using blockchain, because those are the things that people often hear. But what about healthcare? What about supply chain on a mobility? So we wanted to give a representation of what Singapore has to offer on a global scale of this sort of companies that are revolving. So there are like global corporations, startups, investors, industry associations. So these are some stuff that we've been seeing over the last one to two years and we decided to put them all into a map with the support of the IMDA itself. So I think that they received quite a bit of traction for us itself. So we're pretty positive and hopefully we get to do it again next, this year.
Christine: (21:43)
Super interesting to see, in what kind of different industries actually blockchain is applied and maybe some you wouldn't have recognized or thought of.
Sebastian: (21:52)
I'd be very keen to understand where you see the biggest opportunities going forward with everything that is changing right now and potential new use cases arising. What are you excited about for the next two, three years?
Ming: (22:08)
I think in the entire space of digitalization of services, products, and looking at new technology has rapidly accelerated that with the current situation that we're in. I think a lot of people are starting to use digital solutions, payments, remittance, thinking of how can I do more stuff they are traditionally been doing at the comfort of my home. So I think that shifts a lot of changes and that brakes s a lot of barriers that we used to face in the past.
When you thought through maybe the older folks, they will say, Oh, I can go to the wet market. Like, why do I need you to shop at home? I can pay by cash. Why do I need to use this like QR code payment itself? That's one stream that changing really fast.
Ming: (22:58)
Everything is extremely positive. And the other stream is a lot of corporates, because once in a while we get to use to our solutions. We get too comfortable with the one that we are doing and humans are habitual creatures. So we often forget that there's always the next level of improving some solutions or some product, for better user experience. So I think this and the situation that we're in right now actually accelerates the process of us going for more innovative solutions using new frontier technologies like blockchain, AI and stuff, to drive more efficient products, more secure solutions.
So I think that's something I'm extremely excited about. And probably three to five years, we look back at where we are today, we might say, Oh, this actually started the new wave of rapid utilization of new technologies that I believe are better for the global organizations that we work with.
Sebastian: (24:04)
So most of the companies from your first three batches seeing increased adoption or a better market because of the current situation?
Ming: (24:12)
Good question. So one of our startups that we work with, from the second batch itself, they are in the space of telemedicine, so today they've been working I think seven days a week without much res, because the business is just booming. People are starting to say, Hey, I really don't need to hit out to the clinic. I can stay at home, like they can first speak to the doctor in the comfort of their home until the doctor decides to say, Hey, you need to visit a clinic and then they move on to a clinic. So I think the first assessment can be done at home. We don't need him to hit out to their clinic, to the hospital, which is already busy in such times.
Ming: (24:58)
So I think that just having that alternative and also their medicine can be delivered to them within like 90 minutes and stuff like that. So everything is much more efficient. You can work at home while waiting for your medicine delivered to your place. Previously demanded that was like, I need to visit a pharmacy. And potentially they have to wait like 30 minutes to 40 minutes sitting there just waiting for them to dispense my medicine. But today, yes, they will take 90 minutes to deliver to you, but within that 90 minutes you can do something else, and in the comfort of your home.
Christine: (25:34)
Cool. Interesting. That's an interesting outlook also on the innovation landscape and what you're doing. Ming, thanks so much for taking us along the journey and super interesting. Thanks again.
Ming: (25:46)
Thanks so much for having me.
Christine: (25:49)
Thank you for listening to this episode of “Lost in Transformation” with our host Sebastian from MING Labs. If you enjoy our podcast, please subscribe to our channel and leave us a review on iTunes. Join us next time for another episode of our podcast.