Eric’s resume speaks for itself but bears some repeating to understand why Twizo is changing the security space in Singapore and eventually the rest of the region.
As both an entrepreneur and investor, Eric’s experience in the messaging and security space is undeniable. He started his first startup at age 17 and hasn’t looked back since. Through his role in Impiro as Chief Commercial Officer, Eric has taken on a leadership role at their portfolio companies Silverstreet and Twizo, to help the companies grow.
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He has most recently taken a more hands-on role at Twizo, a security and authentication software company, that provides consumer-friendly and innovative Two-Factor Authentication or 2FA solutions for companies.
When you can’t find Eric in his office, he’s likely to be looking for new recipes to cook at home or playing a pickup game on the basketball courts around Singapore.
To find out his story, read on.
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Sell us your company/service in 300 words?
Twizo is a two-factor authentication (2FA) platform that aims to make 2FA simple to integrate, flexible to use and cost-effective. With approach 2FA with a developer first approach via our free & paid solutions along with 3rd party integrations and a long list of APIs for our customers to engage with.
Traditionally speaking service providers have offered SMS & Voice-driven 2FA solutions which tend to be cumbersome or costly. With Twizo we’re trying to offer as robust a platform as possible that bring down some of the barriers to entry that both service providers and consumers alike have faced. Digital security is a problem we all face in the world and so the tools to mitigate your victimisation should be made impossible simple to engage with. On top of that, we are offering a security solution and we feel that too many of the incumbents in the industry are not offering a 2FA solution based on true encryption which is something we have aimed to address with Twizo.
Long story short? Cost effective and in some cases free, super simple to integrate with and a variety of authentication options for our partners to pick up.
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What is stopping you from having the largest company in the world?
Before we talk about being the largest company in the world we need to talk about our geographic area of focus which is the Asia Pacific and before that it is Southeast Asia and before that, it is Singapore & Malaysia. We’re big believers of the crawl, walk and then run method, which for us means we need to put a strong foundation in place before we start building a skyscraper.
Right now we are focusing on offering great technology that solves a real problem and we feel that we have made great strides in achieving that. We’re far from done with respect to our product development plan and in conjunction to that we are spending a lot of resources in engaging the community in our region so as to help educate them on the digital security threat as well as the solutions that Twizo can offer. In a lot of case at the moment digital security remains underappreciated in terms of the damage it can cause and so we feel that there is a lot that we can contribute in terms of consumer education, adoption, and general market maturity.
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If you could change one thing about the tech industry in Southeast Asia, what would it be?
We have been immensely fortunate to be active in Southeast Asia on a company level since approximately 2009 when we opened our first office in Malaysia so we have seen a lot of changes and activity in the region. Some of our management are originally from this region so they obviously come with an extremely rich and extensive background in the regional tech and telecom scene. Its been really energising to see the rapid pace of growth taking place here!
My compliments to the tech industry in Southeast Asia in that it is undergoing a lot of positive changes on its own.
Entrepreneurs are more willing to risk failure which directly impacts the scale of the ideas being proposed and problems being solved.
Governments are investing a lot of resources in creating entrepreneur friendly and tech-friendly business environment from an infrastructure and regulatory basis. Overall I think the regional tech scene is quite healthy and showing a lot of signs for growth to come. We’re very excited to be here!
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Name one person in the region, who is making a difference in Technology?
There are so many great examples of amazing founders, investors, companies, and government representatives that are making a positive impact in the region and within the tech scene. So to be honest its quite difficult to single out a single individual as head and shoulders above the pack. Like any large task, I think its a community to move mountains so the fact that so many great people are trying to contribute to the future is something that absolutely should be celebrated!
There is no doubt that the team at Grab is serving as an excellent example for tech companies and entrepreneurs in this region. What we have here is a locally founded company with a locally minded approach that is solving problems very relevant to the region. To have grown the way that they have while really understanding their market and to now be diversifying into some very interesting fields, I think its a model that both regional and global tech companies can learn a lot from.
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What would you want people to remember you for, 100 years from now?
Both Twizo and I hope to make an impact in the world beyond revenue reports and customer acquisition strategies but on a truly fundamental basis. Digital security, our interaction with our mobile phones and verifying our identity are issues that we all face and it is something that is only going to get more complicated in the future. If we can help enterprises and consumers navigate that then we’ll certainly be proud of what we did with Twizo.
Generally speaking, specific to digital security and beyond, I believe the amount of time we have is finite but the extent of the impact that we can make on our planet and on our human experience is limitless so who knows where this story will take us but we certainly have ambitious goals.
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About Eric
Eric Dadoun brings a world of knowledge, relationships and experience with him built on 15 years in the startup, tech and business world after having started his first company at 17 years old.
Eric now plays an integral role at Impiro (www.impiro.com) and within some of its portfolio companies, Silverstreet (www.silverstreet.com) & Twizo (www.twizo.com) included, in terms of driving partner relationship development, strategy and new initiatives. His strong focus on providing great value, transparency and dedication to his partners has become synonymous with his approach to business and a foundational aspect of everything he does at the group.
Eric was born in Canada and is today based out of Singapore.
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Views expressed by the interviewee are not necessarily shared by Tech Collective. Some minimal editing is done for clarity’s sake.
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