“Keep evolving, listen to your customers, give them a better experience,” says Chandni Kapoor of JFDI Discover startup eNeighbour.
1. Tell us about your startup and team – who are you, and what are you aiming to do?
eNeighbhour.sg is Singapore’s first private and free online platform allowing users to connect to the people in their neighborhood, and learn more about businesses and events in their local community.
Using eNeighbour people can access:
- Nearby activities – users will have access to information regarding all local events/activities. Data algorithms provide relevant info to relevant people in the news feed.
- Local businesses – users can submit and read reviews about local organisations, and will have an easier way to access information on these businesses.
- Crime data – by connecting with nearby police stations users can opt for occasional alerts to be used as a neighbourhood watch tool
- Rent and for sale classifieds – users can easily rent their spaces and sell their pre-loved belongings to people in their area
I am Chandni Kapoor, founder of eNeighbour and passionate dreamer of new innovations, always trying to solve real life issues. I moved to Singapore last year and have been working on building eNeighbour. My teammate is my husband who has 10+ years of IT experience and he has been helping me with this project.
2. What brought you to JFDI Discover?
We searched online for fund raising for our project and found the JFDI Discover program, which we learned is the stepping stone to JFDI Accelerate provided our project is successful. We felt the JFDI network could help us in incubating our business to the next level through connecting with great minds at of the likes of founders Hugh Mason and Meng Wong to transform it to be one of the best innovative platforms for Singapore.
3. Why did you start this business?
When we first came to Singapore, we had trouble in finding nearby recreational places and general resources, and also a place to find information on these facilities from people in our community.
We noticed many banners hung along roads and trees near parks and play areas about local events, and felt this information could be digitised. We felt that although we have our friends and family connected through Facebook, we have no connection to people who may live next door.
We heard the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and Prime Minister Lee have been encouraging people to build startups. Therefore we decided to transform our neighbourhood into a digital neighbourhood to create a platform for the transformation into a more efficient neighbourhood.
4. What were some of the challenges you faced before joining JFDI Discover?
Our main challenge was how to gauge our startup parameters and receive feedback from local consumers. We also were unsure as to how to get word out about our platform.
5. How did JFDI Discover help your startup?
JFDI Discover helped us with creating and following a set business model structure and taught us how to gauge the platform and get feedback from our targeted audience in the best way.
6. What was your favorite and least favorite aspect of JFDI Discover?
After joining JFDI Discover, we are now aware of the path to take to bring our business to next level in a diligent way. We are now looking forward to the most exciting part – evaluation – to see if we are suitable for JFDI Accelerate.
However we wished there were more online sessions with all JFDI Discover participants, as I found that most valuable to see other people’s problems and learn from each other’s experience whilst giving each other advice.
7. What is the one lesson you took away from JFDI Discover that you think other founders should know too?
Firstly, to evaluate your business in the right way. Using Lean Canvas and sufficient problem interviews, you need to keep evolving and listen to your customers to give them a better experience.
8. Where is your team planning to go from here?
We have started canvassing about our platform to people across Singapore. We are eagerly looking forward to raise capital to spread word at a faster pace and build our digital ecosystem.
9. Which resources do you look to for startup related advice? Have you read any books on startups?
We have basically viewed all TEDX videos about startups on YouTube. We’ve also read many startup related blogs, e-books, and any newspaper articles. We also enjoyed documentary stories on Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Mohan Bhargava, Richard Branson, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.
10. Who would you recommend to Discover?
Anyone who is looking to begin a startup and wants to do something innovative or solve real life issues with their products should look into JFDI Discover.
11. What was the biggest surprise for you coming out of the program?
We followed the process diligently, and we feel more confident with our startup and are now business ready. As part of the JFDI Discover program, we conducted problem interviews with locals and are now certain we have an audience eager to sign up to our platform.
12. How has doing a startup impacted your life?
It has impacted our life in a great way. We are excited by seeing more people sign up to our platform each day. Our lives have changed on a day to day basis as we now feel more motivated knowing our project can help nations in their transition to Smart Nations.
Thinking of starting your own business? JFDI Discover will help you find out if you really want to be an entrepreneur. It will reveal if your team is aligned to deliver results. And it will show you how to solve a real problem for customers who are willing to pay thus moving closer to a “problem-solution fit”.
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Cui-Lyn Huang is on the Editorial team for JFDI Asia. Currently pursuing a combined major in Computer Science & Journalism at Northeastern University in Boston, and after growing up on the little red dot. She loves to write, she loves to eat, and loves to write about eating.