BEAM aims to transform the startup ecosystem into a community

• ‘By-invitation-only’ community has over 400 users on its platform
• Events held in Malaysia, Singapore and Japan picking up momentum

KUALA Lumpur-based Gaptionize Services Sdn Bhd has developed a new platform called BEAM, aimed at fostering greater collaboration between entrepreneurs, investors, developers, and yes, even journalists.
 
According to founder and chief executive officer Kenneth Ho, BEAM stands for “bridging entrepreneurs and movers.”
 
“We’ve always believed that people connect through communities – a community ensures the quality of the people and the relationships between people; hence it also fosters collaboration in a trusted environment,” he said.
 
Rolling out BEAM as a mobile app platform would provide a seamless way for the startup ecosystem players to find each other and communicate easily, he told Digital News Asia (DNA) via email recently.
 
Gaptionize also developed social networking platform Gaption, where users are rewarded monetarily for sharing content on the platform.
 
Ho said the BEAM community is an “exclusive” one, as individuals can only join by invitation.
 
“Individuals interested in joining the community or registering for an account on the app are required to provide an invitation code upon registering.
 
“These codes can easily be obtained from a friend who is a member of the community or by requesting an invite from our website,” he said.
 
Gaining momentum MY, SG and Japan
 

 
The BEAM app, currently available for both Android and iOS devices, was launched only in mid-June, but there are already over 400 users on the platform, according to Ho.
 
This was probably helped by the fact that BEAM started out as events dedicated to connecting entrepreneurs in “a fun, inspiring and insightful way,” he said.
 
That idea picked up momentum, these events are now held in Malaysia, Singapore and Japan at least once a month.
 
“Our first event in Kuala Lumpur last December had over 80 attendees, which was twice what we had expected,” said Ho.
 
“Many who attended responded positively and we decided to run a subsequent event which garnered over 150 attendees.
 
“Today, most of our events average between 180 and 200 attendees, most of them from the startup ecosystem,” he claimed, adding that it is the same for its events in Singapore and Japan.
 
Currently, attendees are charged a “minimal fee” of RM15 (US$3.75) to RM20 (US$5) per event, but Gaptionize plans to monetise the app in the long-term by “finding a seamless way to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses,” said Ho.
 
“We have many ideas and plans for this and will be executing them in due time, but our current focus is on helping people connect and collaborate effectively,” he added, without elaborating.
 
Ho also declined to say how much has been invested into developing BEAM, only saying that there are no external investors as of now.
 
BEAM events
 
Meanwhile, BEAM events can be broken down into three types: Insights; Connect and Collaborate; and Fundraising and Pitching.
 
“Insights is where we interview a group of founders on their journey – we focus more on the inspiration and motivational factors rather than the strategies and technical factors,” said Ho.
 
“Connect and Collaborate is a speed-networking session where we attempt to connect as many people during the event.
 
“A Fundraising and Pitching event is to allow founders to pitch their ventures to our network of angel investors.
 
“For all of the events, we leverage on the app for seamless communication,” he added.
 
When compared with Startup Grind, a Silicon Valley-based global startup community, Ho said that BEAM’s main difference is its focus on connecting people to foster partnerships and collaborations.
 
“Plus, we fuse the event experience together with the mobile application, making it easier – and dramatically faster – for people to easily communicate post-event, and form meetups geared towards pursuing their goals,” he declared.
 
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