Our Co-Founder & COO, Sukhi Jutla, was recently listed as one the Top 10 most influential individuals in blockchain by TurgenSec along with:
You can find the list with more details here.
Our Co-Founder and COO, Sukhi Jutla, has recently joined the Women in Fintech Global Initiative as a mentor.
Run by the Department for International Trade, the Women in FinTech Global Initiative:
Along with Sukhi, other women have become mentors:
Get more information here.
Our Co-Founder & COO, Sukhi Jutla, has just been nominated for the Entrepreneur of the Year award by Women in IT Awards series.
The Women in IT Awards series aims to tackle this issue and redress the gender imbalance, by showcasing the achievements of women in the sector and identifying new role models.
Sukhi reacted to the news: “It is wonderful to be shortlisted in such prestigious awards that showcase the best talents and endeavours women are making in the IT and technology field. Congratulations to all those shortlisted and it is my sincere hope that these awards continue to inspire even more women into this field.”
Organised by business technology site Information Age, the awards were launched as a platform to celebrate women in technology. Since its launch, in 2015, the Women in IT Awards have showcased women in technology in London, New York, Ireland and Silicon Valley. This year the awards series will expand to celebrate women in technology in Singapore, Berlin and Toronto for the first time.
This growing awards series acts as a flagship and high-profile platform to support the industry in its mission to move the dial on gender.
Nominated along Sukhi in the Entrepreneur of the Year category:
You can find the full list of nominees here.
The Fintech Week is a 6-day FinTech focused event held in Hamburg (4-9 November). It is a celebration of all things FinTech and helps to showcase and promote FinTech ventures in Germany.
This year, the Fintech Week collaborated with the UK to strengthen Germany and London ties in the FinTech space.
As a result, the Depart of International Trade in the UK Government hand-picked MarketOrders.net to attend and present at FinForward, which is a 2-day conference part of the Fintech Week. The mission was to showcase Fintech capabilities and to foster collaboration and new opportunities.
Our COO and Co-founder, Sukhi Jutla, attended the FinForward event and presented on 2 panels.
The first panel discussed how Fintechs could embrace greater diversity. This was an insightful event where it was clear to see that this topic is very much at the forefront of the FinTech community. They understand that to build the tech of tomorrow we need to include everyone. Tech is inclusive and it’s important to celebrate all diversity in this field.
The second panel was about blockchain and the rise of Security Token Offerings (STO). Sukhi shared her views on how blockchain and STOs are increasing internalisation of the financial markets and shared how MarketOrders.net plans to disrupt the supply chain with the use of this new innovative technology.
Sukhi commented: ‘’It was a fantastic conference and we thank the Department of International Trade for this great opportunity. It is clear to see how progress is made when collaborations work well and it was great to see how Fintechs are thriving not only in London but in Germany too.’’
Our Co-Founder & COO, Sukhi Jutla, was invited to speak about career progression as a panelist during the Inclusive Boards: Executive Leadership Programme.
This programme was aimed at senior women leaders who came from companies including Deliveroo, Draper Espirit, HSBC, MoneySuperMarket Group and Lloyds Banking Group.
It was run as a residential programme at the Mallory Court Spa at Leamington Spa with 2 days of facilitated learning.
Inclusive Boards is the UK’s leading executive search agency specialising in diversity and inclusion at governance level. They support organisations to develop more diverse boards, senior leadership teams, and improved governance structures.
Sukhi was joined by 2 other panelists including Tamara McMillen, Executive Director of Sales at Virgin Media Business and Namrata Sarmah, Senior Director at Viacom.
Topics discussed included:
Sukhi shared her personal story of how she navigates her career progressions, from being an employee to becoming an entrepreneur and board member.
The event was a huge success and Ellen Partridge, Campaigns Officer for Inclusive Boards left this review for Sukhi:
‘’Sukhi was an inspiring panelist during the Inclusive Boards: Executive Leadership Programme, having a huge impact on senior women leaders in the room. She captured the attention of the room with her story and offered interesting perspectives on career progression, personal development, and work-life interface.’’
A few other reviews also include:
October 3, our Head of PR & Communications, Caroline Hoffmann, was invited to The Economist conference in London.
A day of learning, debating and networking, organised in the heart of London at the Royal Institute of British Architects.
One topic particularly interested Caroline: “The Psychology of Innovation”, run by Dr. Brian Marien, Founder & Director at Positive Group.
Here is her outtake (keep in mind that everything is scientifically proven):
When we are emotionally affected by a subject, a situation, it changes the way we feel, think and behave.
Why? Because emotional regulation shifts when we are stressed.
Emotions drive all the thinking and can prevent us from thinking rationally, clearly and being open to other people’s opinions.
Stress changes the circuits of the brain and drives negative emotions. It can make us doubt, feel unconfident, incapable, worthless.
Good news, you can change the way your brain thinks, it is not as it is forever!
Thinking differently can be taught. If your brain is more amenable when we’re young, it remains amenable throughout your life. It means that no matter how old you are, you can teach your brain to think positively and regulate your emotions.
Optimists live longer – it’s proven!
I remember seeing a documentary about the power of smiling. Some scientists experimented how smiling could change our moods and, in a nutshell, they found out that smiling was obviously, a result of feeling happy, but that also smiling, as a cause, could result in making you feel happy. Indeed, if you make yourself smile more often, you’ll feel happier. It can feel weird at first, but actually smiling and laughing “easily” is like any other exercise; it takes practice!
Don’t wait to spread some good vibes and from now on, always see the glass half full and laugh at your colleagues’ jokes!
All kinds of innovation are stressful. Whether it is a new product, a new technology, a new management process or new hiring, stress can easily make us feel uncomfortable.
Here are a few examples:
A new product can lead us to be close-minded: “We’ve done it this way in my family for generations, why should we change now?”. Another way of seeing the situation would be: “Maybe this new product could make us more efficient, productive, profitable, and starts a new air of our family finally embracing technology.”
A new management process can make us feel upset and think negatively: “The company has been acquired by this big group. They’re going to merge our teams. I don’t want to talk to these guys who think they are better than us and impose us their ways of working.”. Another way of thinking would be: “I’m glad we’re merging the teams. We’re going to have even more incredible talents, learn new things and will smash our annual goals!”
New hiring could make you feel insecure: “Why did they hire this woman? She’s already got some of my missions and it’s only been a week. What’s next, taking my job?”. Another way of looking at the situation would be: “I’m glad they hired her! She’s doing some of my work so now I have more time to focus on innovative ways to improve my processes.”
The last decade has seen companies coming up with many ways to improve employees’ happiness at work. Free food, gym, parties, stunning offices, and team building activities; it all sounds lovely, but isn’t it a bit superficial? Is that really improving employees’ fulfilment?
At MarketOrders, we believe that people can only feel comfortable and thrive in a company if they feel they matter. What does that mean? It means being able to speak openly, being listened to, having their voice heard. It also means having your work and efforts recognised and praised, and your successes and achievements celebrated, no matter how small.
Innovation always brings downsides. We should be able to understand them, monitor them and take actions.
Understand how the brain functions and reacts to innovation will help it flourish. Leaders have to be aware of the psychology of behaviour and make sure their employees are feeling comfortable, listened, and happy.
Do you have an opinion? Anything you’d like to add? We’d love to hear it in the comments below!
We are proud to announce that MarketOrders has been awarded for Excellence in Supply Chain Optimisation at SME Business Elite Awards.
Ram Krishnna Rao, CEO & Co-Founder of MarketOrders, reacted to the news: “We have been working diligently for years to innovate and upgrade an outdated supply chain system. For MarketOrders to be awarded as winners for supply chain optimisation is a fantastic achievement as we have been pioneering the use of technology and digital innovations to streamline the supply chain and bring much-needed efficiencies in the gold and diamond jewellery industry.”
Sukhi Jutla, COO & Co-Founder of MarketOrders, added: “It’s fantastic to be recognised for the innovations we are bringing to the gold and diamond Jewellery industry with our pioneering work at MarketOrders, which utilises frontier technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and sensors to ensure transparency in the supply chain. This award strengthens our position as leaders in this field and it’s an honour to be recognised. Thank you.”
To find out more about the 2019 SME Business Elite awards winners, click here to access the Q3 issue of SME News Magazine (full list of the winners is page 43).
MarketOrders has been nominated for over 25 awards! Find them all on our Awards section.
Click here to see the first cover of the issue
Click here to access the full list of winners
From commodity money to the birth of fiat currency and the now worldwide popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin, money, as we know, is not done evolving or surprising us. But are these changes beneficial or disrupting something that already works? We’ll find out.
Origins of trade
Trade originated in prehistoric times. Prehistoric people bartered goods and services from each other when modern money was never even thought of.
Peter Watson dates the history of long-distance commerce from circa 150,000 years ago.
Trade is believed to have taken place throughout much of recorded human history, but not as we know it today. Commodity money, which are objects with a fundamental value like rare seashells, whale’s teeth, and cattle, was the only the way people traded for many years. And we can imagine that it was an easy way as a cow has probably the same value in England as it has in any other country, unlike today’s currencies.
As the system of commodity money evolved in many instances it then became representative money. This first stage of currency metals was used to represent stored value by the Romans.
In the 16th century, Holland was the centre of free trade, imposing no exchange controls, and advocating the free movement of goods. Visionary? You tell me!
The Great Depression was a major economic collapse that ran from 1929 to the late 1930s. There was a great setback in trade and other economic indicators during this period.
The lack of free trade was considered by many as a principal cause of the depression causing stagnation and inflation. Only during World War II, the recession ended in the United States. Also, during the war, in 1944, 44 countries signed the Bretton Woods Agreement, intended to prevent national trade barriers, to avoid depressions. At that time, governments were moving slowly towards borderless trade, which will later on, be enabled by a certain blockchain technology…
Today, trade is merely a subset within a complex system of companies which try to maximize their profits by offering products and services to the market (which consists both of individuals and other companies) at the lowest production cost.
A system of international trade has helped to develop the world economy in combination with bilateral or multilateral agreements, to lower tariffs or to achieve free trade, has sometimes harmed third-world markets for local products.
Cryptocurrency, the Trade 2.0?
The evolution of trade has brought some amazing innovations and eased global commerce, but also left behind developing and unbanked countries, until… 2008, the invention of Bitcoin and its innovative manner of using blockchain technology to enable peer to peer transactions.
What does that exactly mean for developing countries?
It means the world!
They can now transact globally whenever they want, however they want, setting up their own prices, cutting off the middlemen, all of this just by using a mobile phone.
No need for a computer; no need for a bank; no need for an intermediary; instant, borderless transactions. How wonderful?
Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology have already started revolutionising the way people transact and have opened many doors to third-world markets.
Nowadays, businesses can already buy and sell online (B2B & B2C), using cryptocurrencies on marketplaces like ModulTrade, Forra, and Shopify.
Have a look at this map to find out what shops accept cryptocurrencies around the world!
MarketOrders, disrupting the outdated processes of the gold & diamond industry
At MarketOrders, we understand that cryptocurrencies put the power right back in the hands of small and developing businesses, which is why we’ve decided to use blockchain technology within our platform.
Our marketplace enables small retailers to get the products they need faster, cheaper, directly from international manufacturers. By cutting off the middlemen, both parties, retailers and manufacturers, win, by selling and buying at the right price.
Our CEO Ram says, ‘Our retail customers and suppliers face unnecessary delays in receiving their products as the supply chain is held up with complicated paperwork and international payments taking weeks to settle. We intend to use the power of blockchain to digitise the documentation to process the products and get them shipped faster internationally while allowing our customers to use the MarketOrders native token as a way to settle payments in a matter of minutes rather than days or weeks.’
And that’s not all; blockchain technology brings transparency to an outdated supply chain system and ensure the provenance of the products and their legitimacy.
The future is now, and we’re seizing it.
Learn more about MarketOrders here.
Sources:
The Women In Tech Festival UK 2019 was held at The Brewery, London on the 17th of September where our COO and Co-Founder, Sukhi Jutla, was in attendance and also panel moderated the session ‘ Ready, Set, Start-up!’.
Sukhi commented: “This festival is important for us to attend as we believe, as a tech company, that the future of tech needs to include everyone and that includes women.”
She added: “Conferences like the Women in Tech Festival are so important to allow communities to come together and showcase female tech talent as well as providing an opportunity to network and learn about how to embark on a career in the tech field as a woman”.
Attended by thousands of people with 3 parallel stages and hundreds of hours of talks and workshops, this festival 
centred around how to support women’s careers in the tech field as well as sharing stories and challenges in the start-up world.
Sessions throughout the day were varied and included practical tips on how to jump-start a career in tech, understand how to build teams and taking care of your mental wellbeing. Sessions covered topics such as:
Sukhi moderated a panel with four incredible female women who are all on different stages in their tech journeys:
Sukhi shared her journey into becoming a tech entrepreneur
(having been a corporate worker turned life coach turned author turned entrepreneur!).
It is the perfect example that you can re-ivent yourself and adapt to any career changes as long as you are willing to keep learning new skills.
If you missed it you can watch this short clip (on LinkedIn) where the panellists concluded by sharing their top tips for attendees to take away (with thanks to Kate Wood for the footage).
We’re very proud to announce that MarketOrders Co-Founder, Sukhi Jutla, has been shortlisted in the Digital Entrepreneur of the Year category at the Digital Entrepreneur Awards 2019.
Digital Entrepreneur Awards (DEA) celebrates the best of the UK’s digital business ecosystem.
A wealth of amazing organisations, businesses and individuals entered the awards demonstrating outstanding innovation, creativity and talent.
The finalists have been announced by Business Live and Business Cloud!
The awards, now in their 15th year, cover 20 categories encompassing every area of today’s digital business ecosystem from enigmatic leadership to forward-thinking development and cutting-edge creative.
The winners will be announced at a glittering ceremony at The Principal Hotel, Manchester on November 21.
Finalists in the Digital Entrepreneur of the Year category are:
Adam Frisby, CEO, InTheStyle
Somayeh Aghnia, Founder, Geeks
Sukhi Jutla, CEO & Founder, MarketOrders
Mark Roberts, Co-founder & CEO, Beer Hawk
Gareth O’Rourke, Founder, CHO Fashion & Lifestyle
Adeem Younis, Founder, Single Muslim
Louis James Davis, Davis Co Holdings Ltd & VST Enterprises
MarketOrders Press Release:
MarketOrders Co-Founder Shortlisted for National Digital Awards
Today, MarketOrders COO & Co-Founder, Sukhi Jutla, has been shortlisted as a finalist for the Digital Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2019 Digital Entrepreneur Awards (DEAs).
MarketOrders is an online marketplace designed by entrepreneurs, for businesses. Specialised in the gold and diamond jewellery industry, MarketOrders disrupts a traditional sector by using new technology which benefits both suppliers and retailers.
Created in 2016 by serial entrepreneurs Ram Krishnna Rao and Sukhi Jutla, MarketOrders aims to empower high street retailers by helping independent retail jewellers to get the products they need faster, cheaper and directly from global suppliers.
The DEAs are the only national awards dedicated to championing digital entrepreneurialism and innovation across the UK.
Sukhi Jutla reacted to her nomination: “It’s an honour to be named a finalist in the most competitive category in these digital awards. As the world continues to evolve and be shaped by new digital technologies, it is immensely rewarding and to be named as someone who is contributing to these exciting changes and being a part of leading this conversation of change in the digital landscape especially through my work with MarketOrders.net”
The finalists beat off competition from hundreds of businesses that entered, across 20 award categories.
The awards, now in their 15thyear, cover categories encompassing every component of today’s online business ecosystem – from enigmatic leadership to forward-thinking development and cutting-edge creative. Categories include Social Media Campaign of the Year, Most Innovative use of Video or Animation and the coveted Digital Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Previous winners of the awards span a range of sectors, from retail giants like Sainsbury’s and PrettyLittleThing to smaller, more agile digital specialists like Social Chain and Clicky Media.
Among the judging panel are Jacqueline de Rojas, president of techUK and chair of the Digital Leaders Board; Heather Waters, enterprise manager at NatWest; Vikas Shah, CEO of Swiscot Group and Susie Ma, founder and CEO of Tropic Skincare.
One of the UK’s true tech heavyweights joins the judging panel this year. President of techUK and chair of Digital Leaders, Jacqueline de Rojas serves on the government’s Digital Economy Council and is an advisor to a number of fast-moving tech companies.
Commenting on the DEAs, de Rojas said: “We are known as a nation of innovators and of entrepreneurs. It is quite simply a privilege to judge the technologies and innovators at the frontier of change.
“The UK is a nation of technological significance and shining a light on entrepreneurship in this space is a way of investing in our digital future.
“I have seen the smallest of changes make the biggest of differences and I am delighted to see the creativity of our digital entrepreneurs fixing real-world problems that are worth solving.”
Visit the DEA website for a full list of finalists or for details on how to book a table at the final ceremony.
You can find the official DEA release here.
Fingers crossed!
