1. BackScoop's founder Amanda Cua on building an engaged newsletter community
Amanda Cua is the co-founder of BackScoop, a newsletter focused on the latest happenings within the Southeast Asian tech scene. She founded it in August 2021, at the age of 19, having skipped college and discovered a gap in the coverage of tech news in the region whilst working at an early-stage startup in the Philippines.
In this interview, Amanda gets candid on
The most successful tactic she’s done to grow BackScoop
Her thoughts on community building
The edge BackScoop has over other tech news players in the region
Being a young founder
How did the idea for BackScoop hatch?
In 2020, I joined a really early-stage startup as their first employee. One of the many hats I wore in that role was B2B sales. I’ve always been a big reader and so I spent extra time reading tech news. I wanted to get sales leads and be able to convert those leads well, which meant I needed an understanding of the company and the product.
One of the challenges I faced while doing my research was that I would know how much they raised and who their investors were, but I wouldn't understand their product, their positioning and the problem that they're trying to solve. I’d find myself refreshing all these news sites multiple times a day, and reading various articles about one startup. I didn’t feel like that was very efficient.
As time went on, I came across a few realisations for myself:
There was just no easy way to stay updated with Southeast Asian tech. If you look at the kinds of stories that they cover, it was mostly about startups from Singapore and Indonesia. Even then, it was already difficult to stay updated. Working at an early-stage start-up in the Philippines, I saw how much the local startup ecosystem had evolved. I saw the companies that we were partnering with from the Philippines and I knew they were not on those publications yet.
The second takeaway I had was that there are just way too many articles to keep up with. Eventually, I spoke with a couple of founders, VCs, and friends I knew from all over the ecosystem, and everyone still shared the same sentiment as me. I realised that this was a real problem. I thought, “Okay, if I already made the decision to not go to college and continue toughing it out in tech, why not take another risk and try to solve a problem that I discovered for myself?”
Was there a pivotal moment when you wanted to pursue it full-time?
I was in a lucky position where I had a problem that I wanted to solve and a problem which I knew I had a market for. It was really just a series of small decisions and realizations over time, instead of a significant moment where I thought, “Okay, this is gonna be a huge business.” I had an idea and a solution, and I wanted to see if I could solve it.
Something that struck me the first time I read BackSchool was, “Wow, this is really different from the other tech news sites I’m subscribed to.” You use emojis, your sentences are bite-sized. Was this content direction intentional?
It was important to make sure everything was easily understandable and digestible. That's why everything’s short and the format's fun and appealing. I took a lot of experience from people working in sales and the founders I knew. They don't use complicated words all the time. So I thought, why not take that to the writing too? Why do we have to use such complicated words to say things like, “My business helps me people make payments internationally”?
Ultimately, everybody wants to keep up. I don't think it's true that people hate the news. People hate that the news is hard to understand. People are curious, and they want to understand, and they know that understanding and keeping up with tech news is helpful for their careers too.
“Ultimately, everybody wants to stay informed. I don't think it's true that people hate the news. People hate that the news is hard to understand.”
What would you say is the biggest, most instrumental thing you've done to grow BackScoop?
The most instrumental thing I've done to grow BackScoop was putting it online. We launched in August last year, and we were not posting on social media at all until December. It was only when we started posting on social media (like LinkedIn or Facebook) that we brought in a lot more of the international community.
What I didn't realize is when you started posting it on social media, the discoverability (of your content) is just so much more. It’s opened us to being discovered by so many different VCs, founders, executives and all these amazing people from huge and exciting firms.
“What I didn't realize is when you started posting it on social media, the discoverability (of your content) is just so much more. It’s opened us to being discovered by so many different VCs, founders, executives.”
Prior to that, I was distributing it mainly within my internal circle and by referrals, of course. I’d messaged my friends, my friends would message their friends… There were a couple of people who knew, let's say, someone who actually worked in tech, and then they’d pulled their friend in.
What do you cover and not cover relative to other players?
We're just focused on Southeast Asia. That could be something founded in Southeast Asia, something expanding to Southeast Asia, or something founded by a Southeast Asian person. I want to make sure everything is focused around the region, so it's relevant to the people here.
What we usually cover are the most and biggest forms of news. We don't do investigative journalism, because I feel like the most important thing in keeping up with a fast-paced startup ecosystem is understanding who the players are, what are they doing, what their business models are and things like that.
What edge do you think BackScoop has over other publications in a fairly crowded space like tech media?
The Southeast Asian landscape has evolved so much. People were starting to look at Southeast Asia as its own market (rather than a part of Asia), and they needed a publication that only covered SEA. Because the ecosystem was so small before, a lot of the other tech publications couldn’t focus their coverage on just Southeast Asia.
Secondly, because there is so much content today, people were starting to struggle to keep up. And that's why BackScoop is important: it's this one source that has everything on Southeast Asia, which none of these platforms is able to do.
Readers know that there's a real person behind the business, rather than feeling like they're talking to a website.
Thirdly, people's time and attention spans are not what they used to be. Each article on BackScoop is one to two minutes long, and the entire newsletter is probably seven minutes or less. Having something very concise is really important to people, and not what other publications get to do. If they’re going to spend 10 minutes of their time, they’d rather do that on a valuable deep dive into their industry.
Lastly, while I don't focus on community building as an arm of my business, I always try to be responsive. I think that's something that's also very key. The (readers) know that there's a real person behind the business, rather than feeling like they're talking to a website.
I love what you said about community building. A lot of people reverse engineer that and while I think there is some sort of success in terms of what you can do, it’s great when it happens organically.
I’ve never told myself, “I have to spend two hours today building the community.” There are people who are actual community managers who can definitely do that but I think the real beauty is when you don't try to do that and it happens. I just write the newsletter and reply to the people who message me. And if there’s a milestone one of my subscribers achieved that I knew they were striving for (e.g. “I’m trying to get into a VC, thanks for the newsletter), I’ll send them a message.
If there's anything I ever tried to reverse engineer, it was trying to figure out how do I bring BackScoop to more people. It was never about how I can reverse-engineer the community and make people love it.
I’ve never told myself, “I have to spend two hours today building the community.” I think the real beauty is when you don’t try to do that and it happens.
When did you realise there was traction with BackScoop? Was there a pinch-me moment?
We launched on August 16, 2021: that's when the website went live, and when people started subscribing. We got a few thousand subscribers in the first few months. That’s when I first felt like it was working. There are a couple of unicorn founders who subscribed and I'll say that was a pinch-me moment. I still get surprised if someone approached me at an in-person event.
Have you been seeing some subscribers outside of Asia?
We have subscribers from top global VC firms, who are either based outside of or within Asia. We also have this subsection of subscribers who are Southeast Asian but have been away from the region for a long time (whether that’s for work or university).
Has BackScoop evolved from that original vision that you had for it in August 2021? And if yes, how has it changed?
It's definitely changed. The initial vision was so much more tech. When I started BackScoop, I saw it as a media platform that shares all types of news that people would want to read, delivered in a convenient way in one place… like a better Flipboard. It was this complicated thing in my head that would use a lot of data and AI. Looking back now, I realised that the important thing is to be able to solve a real problem people had.
When you're starting anything, you always have this massive vision. What was clear to me from day one was that I wanted to make a Southeast Asian tech newsletter. What was not clear to me was: what would this look like after four or five years. In reality, you don't have to think that far ahead, because your customers will teach you and tell you what that’s going to look like.
“People have fallen into the trap of feeling like they have to incorporate so much tech into your product. You could actually create something very meaningful without AI and ML. You don't need as much tech as you think - that's just something I learned.”
What does your day-to-day look like? Do you have a favourite task or hat that you wear?
Generally, my mornings are spent answering messages on emails or LinkedIn, reviewing the (newsletter) metrics and planning what I’m going to do for the rest of the day. During the rest of the day, it's more of actual work. I’ll work on the acquisition side of the business (i.e. how do we get more subscribers) and work on some sales items because we're now launching advertisements in the newsletter. I also take most of the virtual meetings I have towards the afternoon, and around late afternoon to evening, I spend that time writing. I try to keep my days to a very similar structure because it helps the writing process and it makes me a little more productive.
I can't say like there's a favourite. Writing is just so fun for me. I also love (working on) the acquisition side. My favourite part is that I get to do a lot of different things.
What’s something you’ve learnt as a founder/having run BackScoop?
People, even me, have fallen into the trap of feeling like they have to incorporate so much tech into their product. You could actually create something very meaningful without AI and ML. You don't need as much tech as you think - that's just something I learned. (laugh)
Did you know that you want to raise money off the bat? And has managing investors and other stakeholders changed BackScoop as a product?
I was confident that I could bootstrap BackScoop, but (getting an investor) was an opportunity to worry a lot less about expenses. So, I just raised a small amount of money and made sure the terms are fit for me. I think the key is finding people who align with and believe in what you're building. There's this idea that your investor is going to try to pull you in a lot of different directions, but that hasn't happened to me so far.
It seems like something you're committed to building in public. Could you share a bit more about that?
I always enjoyed reading about founders who built in public. Obviously, there are some good stories and some bad stories there. (laughs) Regardless if they made it big or not, I still liked the fact that they were sharing. I told myself that when I started my own thing, I want to be open about it.
Building in public is great because it allows me to share what I’m trying to build and hopefully allow people in my network to see the real work that goes on behind BackScoop. Being someone who is not from the “typical” tech background - i.e. I’m a girl, I didn’t go to college, I don't have an Ivy League degree or multiple years of experience under my belt - I thought that was also an interesting angle to share.
Being someone who is not from the “typical” tech background - i.e. I’m a girl, I didn’t go to college, I don't have an Ivy League degree or multiple years of experience under my belt - I thought that was also an interesting angle to share.
Something that comes up in a few interviews I’ve seen of you is how surprised people are to know how young you are. Is that annoying to hear, or is it something you think is an asset?
I don't think being young is always a great thing. Of course, there are challenges but I believe there are lots of unique assets that come with it. Personally, I felt like my youth was an asset because it's one of the reasons I was able to start a tech newsletter, to begin with. If I was much older, I don't know if I would actually have. Also, because I'm young, I think a lot of people have been actually very supportive and nice and helpful to me. Being young also means I have a lot more energy and am able to work longer hours. And whenever there's a setback, I remind myself, “Hey, I'm still young, I've had time to learn.” Being able to tell myself those things helps me keep going. I think if you're older, it might be easier to beat yourself up for your mistakes, which keeps you from pushing forward and learning.
Do you see yourself as a risk-taker?
I think it only gets easier to become a risk taker once you actually take the first risk in your life.
When the pandemic happened, I felt like the paths that I had in mind got destroyed completely. Going to university, having that college experience; I couldn’t walk on those roads anymore. Joining a startup didn’t feel like a risk because I had nothing else going on then, but choosing not to file an application for university after a year (because I was learning so much at work) was the first real risk I took. I saw a new opportunity once again with BackScoop and decided to work on it full-time.
I don't think I've ever been more fulfilled and happier with what I'm doing now. And to think I used to be so closed (off) to a lot of things! I think I'm a lot more open to just trying new experiences. Yesterday, for one, I joined a karaoke contest at the last minute right when they were about to end.
In your position as a founder of a tech newsletter, what’s a trend that you're most excited about in the Southeast Asian tech scene?
I'm excited to just see the kinds of companies that have been able to expand well across the region. Because Southeast Asia is so localized, what works in Indonesia might not work in the Philippines or in Vietnam. For example, I've heard that in Indonesia your credit score isn’t counted for or affected by BNPL, but in other markets they are. Expanding across the region is tough because every market is so different, and I’m excited about startups that are able to do that.
What’s next for BackScoop?
What I've been able to learn a lot from the past few months is a more refined version of what we want to be. First, how do we go deeper into Southeast Asia? Now that we’ve helped people stay informed with tech news, what's next? It might be other products, services, or content formats (written or not). I'm still not 100% sure what our next product will be, but I know that our long-term view is going deeper into the niche (Southeast Asian tech space) we’re already in.
And what’s next for Amanda?
What's exciting for me is that I'm still 20. People sometimes forget that I actually had to grow up during the pandemic, whether that’s getting my first job or becoming a founder. I’m excited to figure out things like, do I move out? What other hobbies do I want to pursue? Who do I want to be friends with? With the world opening up, I've been spending more time getting to know a lot of people and that’s been very fun for me.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. Subscribe to Hatched in Asia to stay up to date with must-know women founders, creators and creatives in Asia.