Our Top Five Startup Ideas

One of EME’s favourite taxi conversations is discussing what startup ideas could work in Myanmar. As investors, we meet with many startups and ecosystem players and have a birds-eye view of what is happening (and not happening) in the startup world. In this post, we’ll be sharing some of the business opportunities we see in the market that we’d love somebody to take a crack at. 

In our previous post on the Startup Idea Matrix, we talked about how startups succeed by trying out new strategies in new industries. In Myanmar, there are many tried-and-tested startup strategies from abroad which haven’t been implemented here yet. In particular, we see a lot of opportunity in subscription-based models, which are inherently more sustainable than transaction-based models. Mobile payments players like Wave and OKDollar are beginning to find traction, and startups should capitalize on the emerging opportunity for frictionless digital payments.

As a disclaimer, each of our proposed ideas would require a lot of additional market research, brainstorming, product testing etc, and success is definitely not guaranteed. Yet that’s what makes them worth trying! Without further ado, our top startup ideas are:

• B2B English e-learning platform: General e-learning platforms will take a while to get off the ground, because of low digital literacy and high customer acquisition costs. However, there is a need for English-speaking staff, especially in the retail, hospitality and tourism sectors. A focused B2B platform could offer employers online English classes for their staff (potentially with one-on-one tutoring added in) at a price point much cheaper than Wall Street English. 17zuoye and VIPKid have successfully pioneered this model in China.

 

• Mentor network:  Think of an online professional-development startup to help young graduates get ahead. The platform could offer mentor matchmaking, candidate prepping, and even paid referrals for job interviews / client leads. Wirepitch is trialling something similar in Singapore.

 

• Online dating site: There’s no Myanmar-language dating site, and most online dating attempts happen through Facebook, which isn’t really designed for that purpose. In a country with relatively conservative social norms, there exists an opportunity for a platform that emphasizes safety, trust and fun. This could be a freemium model, like successful overseas examples Tinder and OkCupid.

 

• Meal prep subscription: For those busy urbanites who don’t want to cook, a startup could delivery weekly meal kits with fresh, local ingredients and recipes (think Blue Apron). The market would probably initially be expats and middle-class locals, but could also expand to a monthly basic staples subscription (oil, rice, beans etc) for more thrifty shoppers.

 

• Clothing subscription service: People want to wear new clothes without the hassle and expense of buying them. White-collar office worker could subscribe to a service that sends them a selection of new outfits every month, which they can choose to buy outright after the month. Logistics and price point would be key, but it could be an interesting spin on the traditional ecommerce model. For Her Myanmar is already doing a version of this for beauty products, and overseas examples include Stitch Fix and Frank and Oak.