Trends in the startup space

Jasmine Koh

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[Jasmine Koh:] So, trends in the startup space at the moment. There is a bit of uncertainty in the market because of the current economic conditions.

Lots of startups are looking internally to retool a lot of their services to deal with potentially less investment in the space, and... because of the uncertainty in the market, I think a lot of startups are also looking at trimming down a lot of their budgets.

This is generally not the most welcome news. However, it's also an opportunity, I think, for startups to look at how they can best provide services to their customer base as well as provide value to their shareholders and investors.

One of the, I suppose, positive things about the current environment is that from an investor perspective many of them can look at purchasing shares at a better value. There has been a trend of revaluing a lot of startups. We had gone through a phase of overvaluing of startups at the start – at the boom – of that startup phase, but now there's a bit of a correction there and I think startups that actually survive this period are actually going to be really well run and really well valued startups.

So, clients are generally coming to us more for business-as-usual type legal work. So, things like terms of services, SaaS contracts, supply contracts. They're looking at shoring up their legal position.

We still see clients coming to us wanting to raise capital. Startups are always in that phase of wanting to raise capital and there is still some capital in the market as well, so I would say startups shouldn't be disheartened by the current economic conditions.

Lots of startups are also leveraging government grants, so that is also a good way for them to be getting some capital into their startups.

So, they're, I think, the biggest issues keeping clients up at night. Startup founders and investors alike – the current uncertainties in the economic market. Lots of people are sitting tight on capital. However, I think that there is still capital in the market.

I also think that, you know, startups are resilient. They've gone through the pandemic and many of them have come out the other side, and so having managed to pull themselves through the pandemic, I'm sure this is another period that they'll be able to overcome, and also I think for startup founders it's really important to think about the long game.

It's quite common to have economic cycles – booms and busts – and many successful startups were born during difficult economic times.

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