Friendster Is Out to Make Friends

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July 2, 2008

Here’s your chance to meet and interact with some of Singapore’s hottest web startups – the upcoming Unconference Singapore 2008 on 12th July is organised by Singapore Entrepreneur 27 (e27) and will feature some of the newest and brightest ideas from our sunny (and rainy) island. You’ll get a chance to gain some insight into their minds and ideas at various breakout sessions where the latest trends and issues are discussed, or you can engage them in networking and pitching sessions.

Click here to find out more, check out their wiki, or sign up here (admission is S$10).

Singapore Is Less Liveable

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July 1, 2008

Singapore’s ranking in Monocle.com‘s “The World’s Top 25 Most Liveable Cities” city guide has dropped to 22nd place in 2008 from 17th place last year, according to the cover story of its latest issue (Issue 15). The global affairs and culture magazine noted that Singapore has seen much progress in terms of civic freedom but still requires more political outspokenness here.

The Top 25 most liveable cities are:

1. Copenhagen
2. Munich
3. Tokyo
4. Zurich
5. Helsinki
6. Vienna
7. Stockholm
8. Vancouver
9. Melbourne
10. Paris
11. Sydney
12. Honolulu
13. Madrid
14. Berlin
15. Barcelona
16. Montreal
17. Fukuoka
18. Amsterdam
19. Minneapolis
20. Kyoto
21. Hamburg
22. SINGAPORE
23. Geneva
24. Lisbon
25. Portland

Cities were ranked according to quality of life, as well as factors such as global transport connections, communications, environmental initiative, crime rates, attractive architecture, strong public services and even the number of cinema screens in the city.

41 New Business Ideas From Trendwatching.com

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June 30, 2008

Trendwatching.com‘s Innovation Avalanche introduces 41 innovative business ideas that may inspire you.

You can read the article here, or download a PDF copy here.

What Kind of Business Relationship Are You In?

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June 29, 2008

This post is inspired by a chat session I had with Su Yuen, Howie and Wayne from The Digital Movement about business relationships. We were discussing the importance of business integrity and having partners that valued a mutually-beneficial relationship instead of an abusive one…

When it comes to each of your business relationships, are you a:

Dominatrix. The relationship is heavily skewed in your favour. You ruthlessly exploit your partner(s). They eat scraps off your table, and they play by your rule. Your partner(s) may even enjoy the chains and whipping.

Partner. You believe in an equal and mutually-beneficial partnership. You’re loyal to each other. It’s true love and respect.

Fuck Buddy. It’s a relationship of convenience. You satisfy each other’s needs, but it’s not exclusive. You’ll willingly sleep with someone else if they fulfill your needs as well.

Prostitute. You’ll do anything in the relationship, as long as your price is met. There’s no feeling in this – you see it as only a commercial transaction. You might even say the situation forced you to be like this.

Sex Slave. You’re heavily abused by your partner (usually a Dominatrix). You give and give and give, but usually get nothing in return. You’re lower than dirt. You wonder when your ordeal will end. You hate your life.

Moral of the story? It’s important to know what you’re going into.

Mithn Makes Things Happen Now

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June 29, 2008

Getting your first customer is always difficult, as Collin and his business partner Joe found out.

The two co-founders of Mithn Singapore had realised in 2006 that the open source movement in Singapore was growing tremendously, but few were the companies who could deliver open-source enterprise solutions and thin client solutions for businesses. Both Collin and Joe had already spent more than four years in the IT industry, and finally decided to form their own company after weeks of planning their business. Mithn Singapore was thus born, out of their love for information technology and Linux.

But business wasn’t forthcoming. They lacked contacts, and not having links to vendors in the industry made things difficult. Worse yet, they were easily pushed aside by bigger competitors. “We did not have any customers and we were not drawing any salary,” said Collin. Money was flowing out – spent on marketing materials such as posters and business cards – but none was coming in. “There were times we wanted to throw in the towel, but we were so passionate and determined to make it happen, we decided to push on.”

“One day I had no more money to draw from my bank account which meant that I had to go hungry or I had to borrow money, which I did not like,” Collin shared. The desperate Christian prayed – and an answer appeared in the form of an old friend, who called him out of the blue to ask if he was interested to do a job which involved replacing a router and modem for a magazine publishing company. When they went down, they soon found out that more things had to be done so they drew up an infrastructural proposal for them. In the end, the magazine publisher bought a server running a Linux operating system to house its data. This was 2007, and Mithn finally had its first client.

Mithn today has a portfolio of seven to eight clients under their belt, but it had been very hard work and long hours. In case you’re wondering, as I did – Mithn is short for “making things happen now”.

There Are Now Some 77,000 Millionaires in Singapore

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June 29, 2008

This year’s CapGemini and Merrill Lynch World Wealth Report puts the number of millionaires in Singapore at 77,000, a rise of 15.3 percent over last year’s number of 66,660.

India is still the country with the fastest growth in the number of its millionaires at 22.7 percent growth over 2006, with China second at 20.3 percent.

I discussed last year’s report here.

I’m still trying to work my way into the list. ^^

Singapore’s Earliest Contribution To Science?

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June 23, 2008

Many people may not have known that in 1922, a German-born scientist of Jewish descent came to – of all places – Singapore to seek funding. He arrived off the Japanese ship Kitano Maru and the entire local Jewish community, numbering 236 members, went to meet him.

He managed to raise a total of 750 British pounds, a princely sum in those days.

His name? Professor Albert Einstein, who is best known for the theory of relativity.

You can read more about Einstein’s trips (yes, he made more than one) to Singapore here.

Image from Wikipedia.

Listed on Alltop.com!

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June 19, 2008

I received an email today from Alltop.com that this blog has made it on its Twenty Something and Startups categories.

Woot! And now to celebrate with a beer…

Should I Work First?

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June 18, 2008

I received an email from a reader yesterday asking for some advice. I thought the answer may be applicable to some of you and so got her permission to post it here:

“I was doing some research about starting my own business (however this may not happen for a few years as I lack capital and confidence) and I was wondering if there were any other sites that would provide for similar reading. (I have an idea for a business) and wish I could afford to do so now. Your article on Books Actually helped me alot and I think I might contact them to see how they developed their concept and took the step to do so. I know as any entreprenneur you must not be afraid of failure, but being a fresh (graduate) I fear that I lack the experience or technical know-how to operate my own shop. Do you suggest that I work etc for awhile so as to get a better taste?”

Hi there,

There’s really 2 parts to your question, which I am going to break down into:

1. Do I need financial resources to start a business?
2. Do I need working experience and relevant skills before starting my own business?

The answer to the first, unfortunately, is yes. Working capital is always needed for any business, even a startup. My opinion is that there’s really little chance you can bootstrap a business too much (especially in Singapore), even by having extremely low or no overheads. You’ll always need capital to start your business, and more importantly, grow it. This requires money.

The more relevant question is where can you seek the money you need to start your business – my friend and venture capitalist guy Jeffrey Paine has some advice on this. Some work first to save up for their idea, but this will take a very long time and you may get jaded along the way. Or doubt could creep in, like it did to me.

If your idea has lower startup costs (applicable for certain fields and industries), then you could just do it – if it fails you can always close up shop and work for someone instead. The good news is that many companies – at least the forward-looking ones – appreciate the experience of those who have launched their own startups or worked in a startup environment.

For the second question, working experience is not really critical for business success. If you lack technical know-how or business skills, there are ways to mitigate risk. One way is to read up on those areas you feel you lack knowledge in – go read some great books from the library (for example, Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of the Start). Another method – which I highly recommend – is to find yourself a mentor who has been through a similar path and can share their experience with you as you go along.

But if you feel that you’re more comfortable with some experience under your belt before venturing out, then my advice is to really find a job most closely related to what you plan to do in the future – even if it means working for lower pay. For example, if you plan to start a bookshop, consider working for Borders so you understand about inventory management, logistics and payment systems. On the other hand if you want to start a cafe, try your hand as a barista in Starbucks – you’ll not only learn how to make great coffee but also understand how to deliver great customer service.

There really is no right or wrong answer, but I hope this advice helps.

Guy Kawasaki’s The Art Of The Start

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June 16, 2008

I finally got down to reading Guy Kawasaki‘s “The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything“, and my only regret is that I didn’t do it any sooner.

It’s got great advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, and especially for those in the technology and web businesses. With his experience as managing director of Garage Technology Ventures (he recently launched news aggregator Alltop), his advice for those seeking funding in the chapter “The Art of Raising Capital” is priceless.

My greatest take-away from the book?

“You can’t brand crap. You can’t brand something that doesn’t work.”

This is one piece of advice I’d loved to have used when explaining to some of my ex-bosses why some of our products wouldn’t quite work out as they would have liked.

Free Word-Of-Mouth Marketing e-Book!

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June 16, 2008

Dave Balter has written a new book on word-of-mouth marketing called The Word of Mouth Manual: Volume II.

You can buy it on Amazon.com at US$45.

Alternatively, you can download a free electronic copy from:

If you’re a marketer, this book is an indispensable read (best of all, it’s free).

Increase Your Sales, Not Your Blood Pressure

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June 10, 2008

Authors Sant Qiu and Thomas Fernandez.

If you think your business needs a boost, consider attending the upcoming “Secrets To Dominate Your Niche Revealed” talk on 14 June 2008 at 1.30pm. Organised by Project:Senso, the event is held at Geek Terminal and will feature prolific authors Sant Qiu and Thomas Fernandez, who will share on a newly-launched book similar-titled “Secrets to Dominate Your Niche”.

You can register for the event here. Participation fee is $30 and includes refreshments.

Still Surfing the Web 2.0 Wave – Brightkite, Orgoo and Plurk

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June 4, 2008

There’s no end in sight in the Web 2.0 revolution.

Here’s a look at three Web 2.0 newbies that have been wow-ing the Singapore web community in recent weeks:

Brightkite – Location-based social networking that uses a Web interface and SMS messaging to log in your location and broadcast to your network of friends. The Denver-based company was featured in this year’s Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco and is currently considered by some as the most promising startup in the location-based mobile networking space.

Orgoo – Online communications startup that merges email, IM and video chatting onto a single platform, or what Los Angeles-based Orgoo calls “your communications cockpit”. The best thing is that Orgoo also integrates your existing email and IM applications (and your contacts!) so it’s a one-stop access to your online communications. This application is going to be indispensible for some.

Plurk – The current flava of the Singapore blogosphere, Plurk takes Twitter-like microblogging and mashes it with a visual timeline, viral-type “karma” activity and a huge dose of attitude. I especially love how it brings sense of style and design to technology with its Mambo-esque branding.

My money’s on Orgoo.

Emerging from Under the Radar

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June 3, 2008

CNET has a story on four new web publishing startups that recently featured at the Under the Radar Conference – music publisher AudioMicro, content tracking and licensing service GumGum, Keibi (which creates technology to moderate user-generated content) and content/news aggregator Loud3r.

Property Finds A New Home

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May 31, 2008

What: Findpropertysg, a new online portal for Singapore property buyers and sellers. The site provides home owners, sellers and real estate agents DIY (Do-It-Yourself) marketing tools to gain more exposure online for their properties.

Who: Started by Alvin Tan and Laurent Ho, two 27 year-olds who work in IT-related industries. “We had difficulties searching through messy classified ads in the papers for property advertisements and decided that there was a more interactive and user-friendly way to do it,” Alvin said.

Why: Like the founders pointed out, it’s far easier to search online than pore through the classifieds. The latest property news adds real value, while community features such as live chat makes it a little more interesting than plain vanilla, interest-group sites. Best of all, it’s currently free to use, although things may change in the future. The site is also looking at contributing a certain percentage of transactions to charity.

We say: It’s still early days – Findpropertysg is in beta – but the site should be see a lot more traffic and activity once it’s officially launched and when the local property market gets out of the current doldrums. Paying some attention to branding should help too – It’s a pity to limit its own growth to the local market, as it may scale a lot better if it includes properties in the region as well.

Shoplette Till You Drop

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May 27, 2008

Who: Shoplette

What: A social networking site for the avid shopper, where you can share about your latest buys to your network or find out what people are spending their hard-earned money on. Google Maps integration allows you to tag and show where you purchased your latest acquisition; you can even follow other shoppers a la Twitter.

Why: You’ve always wanted to know where your favourite celebrity or famous socialite bought her togs, right? Now you can.

We say: It’s unlikely to scale to a level where it can rival FaceBook as a social network, but at least it has revenue generation opportunities outside of advertising by potentially tying up with retail and commercial spaces to drive shoppers to selected shopping destinations.

Out-Of-The-Box Retail

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May 26, 2008

Who: InQbox

What: A unique rental service that allows you to lease a variety of different-sized display shelves in a urban retail concept store to sell a variety of goods.

Why: Ideal for aspiring entrepreneurs or budding craftsmen who don’t have enough capital to rent their own retail space. Experienced staff on-site means you don’t have to run your business personally. It has great pulling power amongst the youth market, so products such as fashion accessories and cutesy crafts work best for this concept.

Where: InQbox is present in Raffles City Shopping Centre, Suntec City Mall and Parkway Parade in Singapore, as well as 1 Utama and Sunway Pyramid in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

You can email them at info@inQbox.com or call +65 68389067 for more information.

IBM Encourages CEOs And CTOs To Take The Bus…

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May 21, 2008

What: The IBM Mobile Express, a retrofitted bus showcasing IBM‘s SME business IT solutions that will travel and make door-to-door visits to SME businesses islandwide.

When: 15 -24 May 2008

Why: “Many SMEs do not have the time nor the knowledge to get in touch with the latest technologies available in the market to help them reshape and remodel their businesses for greater success. The IBM Mobile Express can save them cost and time to learn new technologies with better efficiency, and prepare them for more business challenges,” said Mr Chua Thian Poh, President of Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCCI). The SCCCI collaborated with IBM on this initiative.

We say: If Ali doesn’t go to the mountain, the mountain will have to go to Ali. It’ll be a treat to see SME bosses take the bus for once, too.

Make an appointment with the bus or find out more here. Read the official press release here.

Mobile Concierge At Your Service

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May 20, 2008

Who: Digital Concierge 2Go®, by Cellcity Pte Ltd

What: A local mobile digital concierge service – which includes a mobile application, WAP application and a website – that allows users access to useful information such as maps, a Yellow Pages directory, an entertainment guide, real-time flight information, weather forecasts and more. After its launch, the service will even have hundreds of discount vouchers that can be used at selected retail stores, restaurants, pubs, nightclubs and tourism outlets – so all you mobile warriors need to do is flash the digital vouchers on your phones for an instant discount.

When: Official launch slated for June 2008

Why: The mobile application is an offline client so users can still access information without going online, which helps to minimise data charges. Expect location-based services as well as social and business networking features in the next edition. Hopefully later versions will work on more mobile phones – currently only one Samsung phone (the U700) is supported and not a single Motorola one at all.

Try Digital Concierge 2Go® here.

Tech65 – New Geek Media.

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May 17, 2008

tech65

The Tech65 crew celebrating the recording of their 65th podcast. (From L-R): Jerrick, Daniel, Farinelli, Kai Yi and NTT.

Who? Tech65.org, featuring Tech65bits and Channel65.

What? Tech65 covers the latest consumer technology news through their weekly videocast channel Channel65 and podcast channel Tech65bits, from a uniquely Singaporean perspective.

Why? The Tech65 crew – co-founders Daniel Tsou and Jerrick Lim, along with Wong “Farinelli” Renhao, Chinmay “NTT” Pendharkar and Kai Yi – brings an almost irreverent, wacky feel to amateur tech journalism. Think Gizmodo on a video/audio channel, or CNET on LSD.

We interview the boys after the break.

Continue

Getting Sirius With Singapore SMEs

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May 15, 2008

According to the Straits Times, Sirius Venture Consulting has announced a SGD$30 million venture capital fund targeted at helping Singapore-based SMEs to grow and expand. It aims to invest in some ten to 12 companies by pumping SGD$2-3 million into each one in return for a 20-30 percent equity stake.

Geek Terminal: A Hub for Technopreneurs

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May 14, 2008

Where? Geek Terminal, 55 Market Street, #01-01 Singapore 048941.

What? A cafe that combines the latest technology, free wireless and great coffee, perfect for the travelling road warrior or business executive looking for internet connectivity and cappucino. The latest Cisco Systems‘ Unified Communications System – featuring IP phones with voice and video call capability, integrated firewalls and VPN – generates major geek envy. Co-owner and trained barista Danny Pang brews up some excellent espressos as well.

Why? The preferred gathering place for Singapore’s techopreneurs and bloggers, it resembles a coffee place not unlike one along Silicon Valley’s Sand Hill Road. Spotted during a recent visit: Twinity‘s Andrew Peters, Podfire Podcast Network‘s Michael Cheng, and Thymos Capital and SG Entrepreneurs‘ Bernard Leong. The crazily-fun Tech65 gang also records their podcasts here every Saturday morning. Geek Terminal has even been featured on CNN.

Find out more at:

www.geekterminal.com

How Smart Are You?

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May 12, 2008

Which is smarter – surrounding yourself with smart people, or surrounding yourself with people who tell you you’re smart?

BLOG2u Featured Blogger

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May 12, 2008

Young Upstarts was featured by BLOG2u as a Featured Blogger.

Thanks, guys!

Madam Loh

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May 6, 2008

madam loh

Madam Loh in Him Heang.

I was in Penang for the first time over the weekend and had the pleasure of meeting an extremely interesting individual. The mother of one of my wife’s colleagues, Madam Loh was sprightly, energetic and bright-eyed, and overwhelmingly filled with warm Penang hospitality – all 70-over years of her.

Madam Loh arrived at our hotel and picked us up in her large MPV – there were seven of us in our group – and proceeded to bring us on a culinary and sight-seeing tour of her beloved hometown. Combining the talent and skill of Formula One racer as well as the aplomb of a typical Malaysian driver, she easily navigated us through heavy traffic on Penang’s winding, narrow roads.

As we visited the various attractions about Penang, it became obvious that Madam Loh commanded a great deal of respect and authority from her fellow countrymen. From the Penang char kway teow hawker to the durian seller, when the dynamic Madam Loh asks for something – she gets. Even the boss of famous tau sar piah shop Him Heang deferred to her, allowing her entourage (us) to buy more than 20 boxes of the famed confectionery without advance order (and ahead of other customers as well!).

It was only later that we realised Madam Loh belonged to one of Penang’s most well-known entrepreneurial families, and related to the late Loh Boon Siew. If you’re not familiar with the name, Loh Boon Siew is a Penang tycoon who started Kah Motors in Malaysia and Singapore. Indeed, Loh Boon Siew was a true young upstart. He came to Penang at the age of 12 and worked his way up from a mechanic’s apprentice to finally owning one of Malaysia’s largest business empires.

As we drove around Penang, Madam Loh pointed out various of her family’s holdings and properties. However, she shared with even more pride on their philantrophic activities, such as building and funding an old folk’s home that is currently supporting more than 300 residents, and land loaned to build temporary housing for displaced Penangites during the 2004 tsunami disaster.

It was humbling to have someone in her position show us so much warmth and hospitality.

Thank you, Madam Loh, for the amazing experience. You were the consummate host. If Penang ever needs a tourism ambassador, you have my vote.

Always Carry Business Cards

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April 29, 2008

I made a great boo-boo during a recent networking session – I didn’t bring my business cards.

Suffice to say I was crippled without them while interacting with the people present at last week’s Media Maker’s Networking Evening hosted by the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) and organised by Kaiiten Communications, and held at Geek Terminal. I also finally had a chance to meet Paddy Tan, the CEO of Bak2U and Blog2U.sg, who also blogged about this event.

I won’t go into the details about the importance of business cards – many people have already written about the topic, such as Carl E. Reid’s “10 Powerful Networking Tips Using Business Cards“, Entrepreneur.com‘s “The Ten Commandments of Networking” (I broke the 1st commandment ><), or Justaguything.com‘s “Powerful Networking Through Business Card Etiquette“.

PS: It was fairly evident during the event that a certain schism exists between traditional media makers – productions houses and the like – and the new media i.e. bloggers, podcasters and other digital “riffraff”. Both separated into their own groups and hardly interacted with the other.

If You’re an Entrepreneur, Rich And Foreign – We Want You!

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April 29, 2008

Or at least this is what the Singapore government is saying.

It’s all about creating jobs though. Unfortunately it’s got nothing to do with entrepreneurship.

These Web Entrepreneurs Started Young

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April 26, 2008

What do Digg.com, Reddit.com, NeoPets and FaceBook have in common?

Other than the fact they all made, and are still making, big splashes on the Internet, these web properties were all started by young upstarts.

Technology news site Digg.com was founded in 2004 by Robert Kevin Rose, along with Owen Byrne, Ron Gorodetsky and Jay Adelson. Rose was 27 then (he later started micro-blogging service Pownce).

Digg.com competitor Reddit.com were founded by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian in 2005. They were only 22-year old graduates of the University of Virginia at that time. They were only 22-year old graduates of the University of Virginia at that time. But now the scenario has changed totally. According to Reddit statistics the number of users also increased enormously.

Virtual pet and gaming site NeoPets was founded in 1999 by Adam Powell and Donna Williams. Powell was only 23, and Williams was even younger – she was around 21. They later sold NeoPets to VIACOM at a price of US$160 million.

FaceBook founder Mark Zuckerberg started the social networking site in 2004 at the age of 20. He became a billionaire at 23.

Moral of the story 1 – You’re never too young to be an entrepreneur.

Moral of the story 2 – The Internet is a great democratic tool. It’s no respecter of age, race, religion, sex, education or experience. Anyone can start a business online.

Twitter – The Potential For Marketers

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April 19, 2008