Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is the backbone of the economy, making up 99% of all enterprises in Singapore. Tech SMEs, like other SMEs, face challenges in securing the funds and talent for growth and business expansion. Home-grown Inspire-Tech overcame many of these challenges by harnessing its engineering capabilities and innovation to pursue growth. Over the years, the company enhanced its product portfolio to offer enterprise-grade security software to help businesses improve their productivity and workforce efficiency. It has also expanded abroad to the United Arab Emirates, India and the United States. Founders Sharon Teo and Charles Goh – now married to each other - were finalists in an NUS start-up competition with their idea for a B2C location service based on wireless application protocol for consumers to search for services and dining suggestions while on the go.  Then in their 20s, the adventurous pair were encouraged when two angel investors liked their idea and provided the funds for them to start a business. Ahead of Its Time Although location services are pervasive today with smartphone technology, Inspire-Tech’s idea was considered ahead of its time as mobile internet was not widely adopted then. Very quickly, the founders realised they could not build a critical mass of users to attract advertisers to make the business viable. Teo, Inspire-Tech’s chief executive officer, recalled: “The idea was not going to take off. We either had to close down or pivot the business.” On the bright side, the development process revealed that consumers liked to use SMS to search for information as the technology was cheap and accessible. Teo and Goh decided to focus on SMS technology, creating a software product for businesses to communicate more effectively with their customers and their employees. That marked a new B2B direction for the company and the birth of its EasiSMS enterprise messaging platform, which has since expanded to cover the WhatsApp messaging channel and to push notifications on mobile apps. EasiSMS turned out to be a successful product, with more than 1,200 customers and 100 million messages sent worldwide on the platform since 2003. Try Fast and Fail Fast Continuing with its innovation, Inspire-Tech developed a new product called EasiShare, a secure enterprise file sharing solution. This product emerged from its experience of working on an online storage system for a government agency in Singapore. EasiShare is now widely adopted by large companies and government agencies in Southeast Asia, as well as the United Arab Emirates. Similar to how EasiSMS was created, EasiShare also benefitted from the experience of a failed project. Earlier in 2009, as smartphones were becoming popular, Inspire-Tech began developing a property search mobile app. It was again ahead of its time as the market was not ready for such an app. But the engineering team gained a lot of knowledge in the mobile user’s experience to search and contribute content, which it applied to building EasiShare. “Part of the advantage of being an SME is the agility to innovate, to try fast and fail fast,” Teo explained. “We never undermine a new idea that didn't take off because we can always take away something as a learning, a skill that makes us ready for the next bigger challenge.” For its next innovation phase, Inspire-Tech is working with technology partners to build more features and expand the functionality of EasiShare. The company also has a multi-cloud data management product and has begun offering digital marketing consultancy services. Organic Growth Recognising that SMEs had problems getting financing, Inspire-Tech reinvested its earnings to fund innovations including investing their own savings into the business. Throughout the years, they have been focussed on building software products that are scalable and can be sold globally. “We are not limited by geography.” Using a network of resellers and distributors, Inspire-Tech expanded overseas including the United States. It has also set up offices in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and India. Teo felt that these markets appreciated the quality of Singapore-branded products and thus found it easier to expand there. Multicultural Talent Setting up operations in the UAE and India had a silver lining. It attracted talent to work for it. In fact, its multicultural team of about 30 employees include several from Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe who work remotely.  As the strength of its innovations lay in having a diverse team to contribute ideas, expertise and market knowledge, the company had to be creative in attracting people to work for them. This included meeting people from around the world through technical forums and outsourcing small projects to them. Some of them became employees or freelance technical professionals. “As an SME, we face challenges in attracting talent to even come to our door. But when you throw a technical challenge out to a marketplace, like a technical forum, you meet people who share your interest. From there, when you correspond, you may find out that he or she is a potential talent.” Working towards Excellence Staying grounded in the difficulties that tech SMEs experience, Teo advised that SMEs should not think small, but “to aspire to work towards excellence regardless of your resource constraints”. “My advice is to really look at the business in totality rather than just purely focus on technology. This includes the need to pay attention to different aspects of business when you're trying to grow, like human resources, branding or even financing.” Instead of hiring human resources or marketing specialists, she recommended outsourcing these business functions as these consultants bring their expertise and experiences of working with other SMEs to contribute ideas, which could then be implemented in the company, she pointed out. Most of all, she stressed the need for tech SMEs to leverage the uniqueness of being small. “Being small, you are more agile, and your agility allows you to try out new things and innovate. You have this advantage over the MNCs.”