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  • 🇻🇳🚀 Founder of The Week: Daniel Nguyen - Co-Founder of Backdrop.io and Founder of KTool.io

🇻🇳🚀 Founder of The Week: Daniel Nguyen - Co-Founder of Backdrop.io and Founder of KTool.io

XanPool lays off staff and shuts down offices in Sg and MY

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Here’s what we got for you:

  • 🚀 Founder of the week - Daniel Nguyen - Co-Founder of Backdrop.io and Founder of KTool.io

  • ⛵ SEAppets - XanPool lays off staff and shuts down offices in Sg and MY

  • 💰 SEA Deals

  • 🖼️ AI Image of the day

  • 🐣 Tweet of the day

Markets 📈

Founder of The Week 🚀

This week’s founder of the week is Daniel Nguyen! 🇻🇳

🐣 What's your origin story?

I'm Daniel Nguyen. I'm an entrepreneur based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

I love building things on the Internet. The first dollar I earned from the Internet was roughly 15 years ago when I was selling a plugin for an open-source forum software called Invision Power Board. Since then I mostly do consulting & building side projects for fun.

My main focus is backdrop.io, a B2B SaaS in Sales Enablement (I'm the technical co-founder). I'm also building ktool.io on the side.

🌍 Where are you from and where are you currently based?

I'm based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

🚀 What's your startup/side project?

I'm building ktool.io: a productivity tool for Kindle owners. It helps you read interesting content such as Twitter threads, newsletters & RSS feeds on your Kindle.

The idea of KTool first came to my mind when I was reading a discussion on Hacker News, where the poster is about to go blind.

I've been wearing glasses since I was 5. My right eye is basically blind. Doctors said there is no chance to cure it.

I was genuinely scared. Like holy sh*t, if my left eye stops working, my life is done. Since then I've been very conscious about time spent on computer screens.

That's when I started using Kindle-related products: to offload as many reading materials as possible to the Kindle.

Then I ran into multiple limitations which led me to build KTool: a tool to send anything online to Kindle. Blog posts, Twitter threads, Hacker News discussions, RSS, newsletters, your favourite manga... you name it.

I didn't start it immediately. In the beginning, I tried to validate the idea by asking on Reddit. And the initial idea was a MacOS app to send PDF & EPUB to Kindle. But after building it in public on Twitter, it's clear to me that people won't pay for it. So I kinda pivot into sending articles & Twitter threads to Kindle and got much better traction.

💻 Tech Stack 

I use NextJS + TailwindCSS on the front-end and FeathersJS, TypeScript, and PostgreSQL on the back-end.

Infrastructure-wise: I use Cloudflare Pages for front-end, Render for backend API & PostgreSQL hosting & MailerLite for email handling.

The web browser extension is a mix of TailwindCSS, Typescript, and Swift.

The mobile app is in React Native, with some native components (Swift for iOS and Java for Android)

📣 Marketing Stack

💰 How much are you currently making from your startup/side project? What's your MRR or ARR?

KTool is currently at $8544 ARR

🌊 What's your thought on SEA?

I think SEA is a great place for founders to build their startups. The cost of living is lower, and you have the ability to hire great talents without millions in funding.

💡With all of your current knowledge and experience, if you could go back to being 20 yo again, what would you build?

I probably would think more about "who should I serve" rather than "what would I build".

When thinking about what to build, it's easy to fall into the "solution in search of a problem" fallacy - where you would spend too much time on the solution, and forget to validate the problem.

With that said, I'd build products for software freelancers, startup founders, and agency owners.

I highly recommend watching this excellent talk by Patrick McKenzie 

SEAppets ⛵

1. Crypto payments platform XanPool has laid off 40 people, closed its Singapore and Malaysia offices and halted its expansion plans into Latin America due to the turbulence in global markets. They had recently raised USD $41 million and had plans to expand into Europe, North Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. The company was founded in 2019 by CEO Jeffery Liu and CTO Artem Ibragimov and has over 2 million users and partnerships with Binance, Bitcoin.com, and Bybit.

2. Fuse, an Indonesian insurtech company experienced over 200% and 360% growth in terms of gross written premium (GWP) and policies respectively in 2022 compared to 2021. They plan to expand to more countries in 2023 and use technology such as AI and blockchain to further automate processes. A new headquarter was opened in Jakarta to provide an easily accessible workspace for customers and agent/broker partners. It has over 100,000 agent/broker partners and is the only insurtech chosen by Tokopedia since 2021.

3. Capital Markets Malaysia (CMM) has launched the nation's first Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) Program to encourage investments by large public listed companies in start-ups and MSMEs. CMM is collaborating with Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) to provide access to capital and capacity building, as well as to transition Malaysia towards a greener economy. The program will also feature workshops and networking roundtables facilitated by industry leaders.

4. Singapore-based used car marketplace Carro is giving away a Hyundai IONIQ 5 electric vehicle over a seven week period. The winner will also receive benefits such as a 10-year battery warranty, a free EV home charger and personalized EV analytics. This competition is part of Carro's commitment to championing sustainability in the automotive sector. The company operates in multiple markets across Southeast Asia and is supported by Softbank Vision Fund.

SEA Deals 💰

1. Ohmyhome, a Singaporean proptech company became the first Singaporean firm to list on the Nasdaq in 2023 after raising about USD $11.2 million from the issue of 3.6 million ordinary shares. It connects buyers and sellers directly at no cost and boasts features such as 'ShoutOut' and 'Open House' to enhance the user experience. It operates in Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

2. GSM and Be Group have signed an agreement to deploy electric cars and motorbikes in Vietnam, with GSM assisting drivers to switch to electric vehicles and providing preferential policies. Both companies are committed to promoting green transportation and plan to collaborate on a booking platform. GSM is owned by the Chairman of Vingroup and has a charter capital of USD $125.7 million, while Be Group is a multi-service consumer platform with over 20 million downloads and 10 million monthly transactions.

3. Philippine startups raised over USD$1 billion in funding for the second year in a row, even with the global VC investment slowdown. Regional and existing investors invested more in the country, with e-commerce and fintech startups leading the way. This success is attributed to the growing economy, investor-friendly policies, and digitally-engaged consumers.

4. Proxtera, a digital cross-border trade and financial services company has secured fresh funds in its seed round of funding. The funding will allow the company to bring its product to more Singapore businesses and expand its talent pool. It has already launched several initiatives to help MSMEs, such as the SME Financial Empowerment program. The strategic investors are confident in Proxtera's success and anticipate it will enable SMEs to have greater access to finance and other relevant services.

AI Images of The Day 🖼️

Trump getting arrested

Tweet of The Day 🐣

I hope my 30s will be better :’)

That’s a wrap for today. See you all tomorrow! 👋

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