A pulse on the Asia Pacific region : Page 2 of 2

Security, privacy and challenges

One may ask how secure location-based data is with Pulse iD. Topaloski assures that security and privacy is a key part of their business.

“In fact, one of the things we’ve learnt is how sensitive location data is. So, the reason why we are able to help these large enterprises is because we don’t know anything about the customers that we collate location data on.”

He adds that everything is anonymised and there is nothing they know about their clients’ customers.

“By working with us, our clients are able to get the learnings of the location data and bring the services to their own customers with security and privacy without having to manage and store the location data. Because of the physical segregation of the location data and then the customer data, you are able to bring the benefits to customers of the technology without having to store the data.”

He also shares some of the early challenges he faced with Pulse iD.

“One of the key challenges for us was around setting up the infrastructure we needed to be able to contest these markets in Southeast Asia. Actually, having corporate entities on the ground being able to do that in full suite of compliance, to how you would set up a business in Malaysia vs Singapore vs Hong Kong.”

He adds that doing business around the Asia Pacific region is challenging because every market has its own nuances and is different.

“How you overcome those, it really comes down to perseverance. Just being able to break down the journey and understand what are the things that you need to focus on right now, as opposed to being on a wild ride,” he explains.

What would he consider the biggest threat to the business currently?

He replies: “I guess the threats to this business aren’t that dissimilar to that which many businesses face. And the biggest threat is, are you going to be relevant tomorrow? I think whether it’s a large business, an established bank or a small startup, the battle is around remaining relevant in the tomorrow that is being shaped so quickly. And the hurdle of how good the product is whether you’re delivering it to other businesses, or whether you’re delivering it to consumers.”

He believes that “it’s an absolute arms-race” to ensure that you’ve got a product that is significantly above market, and you are sticking true to your values and the mission at hand and you’re very focused.

“I would say that the biggest threat to Pulse iD is that we don’t focus on the right things. There are opportunities everywhere, but we cannot execute on all those opportunities and we are likely to spend a lot of time and money doing an okay job. It’s about remaining focused on what we want to do.”

Future plans

When asked if they are in discussions to secure more funding, Topaloski says they are appropriately funded at the moment to be able to grow the business.

“We do believe that funding is an important part of our growth story, but the focus just now, is going in and getting to market in the pockets of the smartphone users of our clients.”

Commenting on the future plans for Pulse iD, Topaloski views the Asia Pacific region as the market that is growing at the fastest rate and they anticipate that it is going to be growing at that rate for the next couple of years.

“So, we see a lot of work ahead of us to make our platform a best in breed platform for financial services. Globally, there are 16,000 banks and many of them are going on this journey of using technology services for merchants. We do believe we have the ability to establish ourselves as the best in breed platform in doing this and really, we will do whatever it takes to get to that point,” he says.

He shares that they are in discussions for markets outside of the Asia Pacific.

“Obviously, the US and Europe are large markets, but again it boils down to what we should be focusing on in the next six to 12 months. So, we’ve got a very defined plan within the next 12 months within our chosen markets and actually how we’re evolving the product.

“Basically, within the next 12 months, the markets we are focusing on are Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. So, within those markets there is plenty of work to do. So that’s where we are currently focused on,” he adds, sharing also that they also have an engineering hub in Kuala Lumpur.

Lessons learned from being an entrepreneur

We asked Topaloski what he would be doing if he weren’t building Pulse iD. “I’ve never really asked myself that question, I don’t really believe in a Plan B. Because it distracts from the Plan A.

“I actually like what I do, I can’t really see myself doing anything else in this phase of my life. Obviously, it is quite demanding and takes it out of you, but I haven’t really given much thought in terms of a Plan B for me because it takes all your energy just to execute Plan A and to do that well at the scale we need to do it at,” he replies.

There are three key lessons he has learned from being an entrepreneur, Topaloski says. “The first one is a genuine thirst for learning and how important that is, to be always learning. The second lesson is the ability to translate the learnings into action very quickly. And if you can get those two things right, you’re learning from what is resonating and what isn’t. And if you’re able to translate that into action within yourself and within your teams and that is a very powerful thing, because that’s when you build an organisation that is agile and can seize the opportunities and skip past the threats.”

The third and lesson he says, is courage. “Sometimes it is very uncomfortable to stand alone, when you have a scary goal. Whichever way you look at it, sometimes it’s going to come down to the courage to just go after it. Then obviously the learnings around every facet of one’s belief system gets tested in terms of tenacity, endurance, your ability to go past the pain threshold. In actual fact, it’s an absolute thrill and it’s been a very exciting few years, from a personal growth perspective it has been incredible.”

He also has advice for new entrepreneurs. “It’s a hard slog every step of the way. So, at the initial phases of building a business, do your due diligence, understand your market, size the market, seize the opportunity. Do a very detailed plan and believable go-to-market strategy. Because you’re going to need that level of detail to execute on that plan. So, do your due diligence and understand the market that you’re contesting,” he concludes.

Related stories:

MyCash Online breaks into international market

Helping grow Malaysia’s fintech ecosystem

Patrick Grove high on mobile, can’t wait to wear the yellow hard hat in 2018

For more technology news and the latest updates, follow us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn