Leadership Series: Covid-19 – A “Near-Death” Experience in a Devastated Sector, But They’re Innovating Through It
Delegate is an event-planning platform which Melissa and her Co-Founder, Jacqueline Ye started in 2015. They describe the online platform as a turnkey events solution. It’s essentially a marketplace for people to discover vendors and services and book everything they need for a successful event. Today, they have more than 3,000 vendors and over 100,000 users on the platform, and have expanded to Hong Kong. The service operates on a subscription model for vendors. Depending on the plan they choose, vendors can get help managing daily operations, generating leads, and handling bookings.
The Impact of the Pandemic on the Events Business
When Covid-19 first struck Singapore, those in the events business – venue operators, caterers, entertainers, videographers, etc. – watched with trepidation as business declined. “Our business is predominantly in the events sector but now, there are no events to speak of, so our business partners have been heavily impacted,” says Melissa Lou, Co-Founder and CEO of Singapore start-up, Delegate. Within a month or two, as more and more pandemic mitigation measures kicked in, the grimness of the situation was felt in its entirety. While all their vendor-partners have been severely impacted by the pandemic, rendering Delegate temporarily irrelevant, Melissa and Jacqueline have found ways to keep going in the last few months.
A Different Value Proposition in a Crisis
They have had to change their strategies to cope. For example, since they can’t make revenue from events, they allow them to sell other services on the platform. We launched an e-commerce storefront for them to sell gift cards, care packs and event packages that people can buy now and redeem later. “We want to empower them by giving them access to build their own e-commerce storefront to help them get some sort of revenue and cashflow at this point,” says Jacqueline. This allows them to immediately upload their products and services to cater to users who can buy now and redeem later.
Innovation and Vendor Support Hubs
They’ve also launched an event business support hub which provides channels to resources such as financing in the form of loan products for vendors. In addition to responding with business resources and alternative monetisation channels, Delegate also created a content hub to help vendors that are mostly small and medium enterprises cope with a new way of working and doing business. It has information resources such as business templates and ideas for productivity tools. In a show of solidarity, they’ve also offered a free 3-month subscription to new vendors.
Key Platform and Team Statistics:
- Founders: Jacqueline Ye and Melissa Lou (Founded in 2015)
- Vendor Base: More than 3,000 vendors
- User Base: Over 100,000 users
- Team Size: 19 people
- Regional Presence: Singapore, the Philippines, and Indonesia
Operational Resilience and Silver Linings
“Building all this when Covid hit allowed us to think fast on our feet. It accelerated many of our initiatives,” says Melissa. Being a tech company, they are accustomed to working remotely to varying degrees and when remote working became necessary, they were able to adapt quickly and began deploying product pipelines and new offerings. The situation has also allowed our team to become more agile and to adapt our business focus. For now, they feel that in spite of the loss in revenue, Delegate will be able to sustain itself for the foreseeable future. “We want them to know that we’re here for them every step of the way,” adds Melissa.