As The Fintech Times in September celebrates the Women in Fintech we take a moment to hear more from some of the leading female leaders in Asia. One of them is Lennise Ng, who is from Malaysia and is an expert in fintech, specifically in digitising and financing wholesale trade.
Lennise is the CEO & Co-Founder of Dropee – a B2B eCommerce platform that enables wholesalers to be closer to their customers on both online and offline channels. She is also working closely with various leading companies in Malaysia to accelerate their corporate innovation via FNC Labs. Lennise is very passionate about entrepreneurship and innovation. Since graduation, she has been working within the tech ecosystem from venture-building accelerators to multinational tech companies. Lennise is also the 3rd-generation of a traditional family business that manufactures and distributes rubber products. Combining the two worlds, Lennise then started Dropee to address the issues of a growing wholesale business and how technology can speed up its growth and improve customer experience. A start-up cheerleader by heart, Lennise is currently an active mentor for various start-up events and hackathons.
Lennise Ng, describe your career journey
I started my entrepreneurship journey at 19 with a business partner to start a talent management company. Long story short, the company died but I learnt I had a knack in business. I finished up my higher studies and then proceeded to work for a few companies (both big and small) within the start-up tech ecosystem. The idea for Dropee came about when I left the tech space to go into my family business. It was then I noticed that there’s a need to innovate the B2B wholesale sector. Fast forward to today, we’re currently servicing more than 2000 wholesale businesses across Southeast Asia – working closely with them to implement B2B eCommerce within their companies.
As a recognised thought leader and a female, what difficulties have you faced in your career?
Not enough women representation during conference sessions. Whenever this happens, my ideas tend to get drowned out in the crowd, or dismissed without further discussion. Having more diverse representation, not only gender-based, would cultivate more holistic discussions.
What are the future trends and predictions you see happening in the region?
I see that the future of B2B trading and wholesale businesses is all about bridging the gap between the offline and online experience. During Covid-19, many businesses have sped up their digital adoption using Dropee. It became a necessary move for them – after all, necessity is the mother of innovation.
On entrepreneurship (in general), I do see more diversity and inclusion across various industries. However it is still going to take some time.
What advice and recommendations do you want to give future female entrepreneurs and thought leaders who are based in Asia?
I’ve got two pieces of advice for our future female entrepreneurs and thought leaders:
- To learn, unlearn, and relearn. We live in a time where things move rapidly and it is more crucial than ever to be more adaptive.
- Pick your battles carefully; your aim is to win the war. There’s no way to have everything under control when running a start-up. Every start-up entrepreneur goes through many ups and downs, especially during its early stages. Therefore, it is important to not get side-tracked on minor issues and focus on tackling the ones that matter in order to win in the long run.
