I’m a huge fan of business and current affairs magazine Monocle, and its latest issue is a must-have for anybody who’s even remotely thinking about starting their own business.
The latest issue of Monocle is all about entrepreneurship and starting a business – it even comes with a supplement called the “The Monocle Small Business Guide 2009/10” that contains many great interviews with small business owners all over the world, sharing their passions and stories.
If you’re thinking of being an entrepreneur, get a copy today.
From the 16th to 22th November, participating countries around the world will be joining together to celebrate the spirit of youth and entrepreneurship during Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), and partner organizations will be conducting a range of activities ranging from simple speeches to comprehensive competitions designed to inspire and engage the next generation of entrepreneurs.
In Singapore, the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) opening ceremony will happen on the 16th November, 4pm at the HDB Hub Auditorium. The opening ceremony will kickstart more than 30 activities centered around entrepreneurship organized by some 25 partner organizations.
You have the chance to participate in this momentous event – the first 10 readers of Young Upstarts to email Beatrice Wong of Spring Singapore at beatrice_wong[at]spring[dot]gov[dot]sg will get a complimentary pass to catch the opening ceremony. Don’t miss this opportunity to network with like-minded people during this event.
Last month I had the opportunity to attend a TEDx event organized by MIT Club Singapore. Entitled “The Craftsman”, the event featured four speakers from different walks of life to share their experience and passion for their individual crafts.
I particularly enjoyed the session by Jeff Murphy, a brewer at one of Singapore’s leading microbreweries The Pump Room, who shared on his quest for a better beer:
24-year old Jeremy Parker has always been interested in the idea of creating something out of nothing.
“I’m sure this could be applied to many other jobs as well, but it definitely applies to being an entrepreneur,” says the president and founder of VoteforArt.com, “After producing films, I wanted to get involved and challenge myself by starting company in an industry that I had no prior experience in.” Jeremy had graduated from Boston University in 2007, majoring in film production. During his time in university, his feature-length documentary One Per Cent even won an Audience Award at the 2006 Vail Film Festival. After graduation, Jeremy started a high-end T-shirt line called Tees and Tats, featuring designs by world renown tattoo artists.
“I am now hooked (on being an entrepreneur).”
Drawing On a Good Idea
The idea for Vote for Art came, ironically, after his earlier T-shirt venture Tees and Tats lost out in University of Maryland Cupid’s Cup business competition run by Kevin Plank, founder and CEO of Under Armour. “We didn’t win, but after the competition I went to the campus bookstore to buy a magazine for my train ride home to NYC.” When Jeremy was looking through the bookstore, he realized that the T-shirts available looked pretty much the same. “If college students were the ones buying the T-shirts, I’m sure they would want some variety and maybe they would want to show their school pride with a little more style.” During the train ride home, Jeremy wrote up the business plan for Vote for Art.
Vote for Art, Jeremy admits, is similar to Threadless, but with a collegiate focus. Vote for Art is partnering six major universities to host graphic design contests, where winning designers will get their artwork printed on T-shirts and sold through university bookstores. The winners earn a cash reward as well as a percentage of T-shirt sales.
“What sets us apart is the opportunity we give our artists to use licensed logos for institutions that Threadless doesn’t have licensing agreements with,” Jeremy explains. “For example, Threadless couldn’t legally sell Purdue T-shirts designed by their community, while we can because of our parent company’s licensing contracts.”
“Additionally, we’ll be selling the winning T-shirts in the college bookstores.” Vote for Art will only sell designs that get voted for. Jeremy says other sites may have similar voting mechanisms, but are not always committed to the winning designs.
It helps, of course, that Vote for Art is backed large apparel company David Peyser Sportswear, which owns brands such as Weatherproof and MV Sport. “David Peyser Sportswear is an amazing company run by an amazing family. I met Alan and Eliot Peyser when I was doing work for Tees and Tats. They really helped me out and introduced me to many people in the fashion world, from manufacturers to PR people.”
“I approached Eliot with the Vote for Art idea and he set up a meeting with Josh Peyser and Alan who run MV Sport.” It was an ideal partnership for the apparel chain with its established sales channels in college bookstores, resorts, golf shops, and military exchanges. “MV Sport already has deep, vendor relationships with many university bookstores, allowing the Vote for Art platform to take a large bite out of the cool, crowd-sourced T-shirt market,” Jeremy explains. He roped in Michael Weber, a 23-year old recent graduate of University of Maryland, to do marketing and who has since become an integral part of the team.
Opportunities and Challenges
Jeremy believes that their biggest achievement so far have been partnering with some of the best universities in the country, as well as well-known art sites such as Myartspace.com. Of course, it’s also been fulfilling building and launching a robust site for Vote for Art. The biggest challenge facing the site, Jeremy admits, has been trying to getting all of the pieces and fitting them in place, from the site to the partnering school bookstores to university licensing.
As part of its growth strategy, Vote for Art will focus on partnering up with more major universities and appealing to graphic artists from all over the world. Jeremy says their platform has the ability to help artists from all over the world make money and earn national exposure for their work.
Vote for Art is currently hosting a contest to design its logo. Members of the community will be able to design and vote for the actual logo to be displayed on its site, with the final design emblazoned on all of the tees sold online and in book stores around the country. “Not only will Vote for Art members create all the products sold in our stores, but they’ll also create the brand of the entire community!”
Vote For Art is looking to crowdsource the design of their logo.
The site will officially launch in November. In the meantime, you can follow Vote For Art on Twitter.
Views on Entrepreneurship
Jeremy advises would-be entrepreneurs to be really sure that they love their idea before starting a company. “You need to love the idea and believe that you can make it successful. Because if you don’t, the first set back will make you discouraged and make you question your business.” If the market research shows potential and you’re convinced, Jeremy says, be prepared to work.
“Nothing is going to be given to you. You have to make your own success.”
There are two case studies posed to participants: (1) revamp local F&B chain Sakae Sushi’s range of merchandise, putting it enroute to its vision in becoming a global brand, or (2) develop a marketing plan for women’s fashion brand bYSI to penetrate into the Asia Pacific market. Winners stand a chance to win a S$1000 cash prize and a one-week internship opportunity.
Where should you turn to when you need help with homework? From friends, via the Internet, of course. That was what college friends Sean McCleese and Nikhil Sreenath believed when they founded California-based StudentofFortune.com.
Back in 2005, Sean, 26, was frustrated with the lack of friendly homework help available on the Internet. During Sean’s senior year in Occidental College, the Physics major had a class in quantum mechanics where homework was due every day or two. Sometimes, his class would encounter some problems they couldn’t solve, and if the professor had already gone home for the day they were pretty much out of luck. “We didn’t need an hour’s worth of tutoring or anything – we only needed help with one single problem,” Sean recalled. With a large number of college friends who were on significant financial aid – and therefore dying for spending money – he realized there was a great combination there. “Kids with a lot of expertise who could use extra money and their classmates who needed help with homework or studying.” That was when the idea of amortized homework help came about. Sean roped in his friend Nikhil, 25, and built a website to help students get the homework help they need and earn money tutoring. StudentofFortune was born.
StudentofFortune.com
Students Helping Students
The idea behind StudentofFortune is amazingly simple. Students post questions they need answered on the site with a corresponding bounty. Those who can answer them collect the bounty. Alternatively, students can upload tutorials for others who pay to learn them. The site targets college students, graduate students – basically anyone who has some expertise in an academic area. The key to StudentofFortune, Sean says, is its egalitarian marketplace. “We don’t have any ‘ivory tower’ of (people who answer), we let anyone join the site and contribute their knowledge to the site, helping others out and earning money in the process.”
Sean, who has a degree in Physics with a background in computer science, works full time in an aerospace agency. Nikhil, with a Masters degree in computer science, also has a full-time job. Whatever spare time they have is spent on StudentofFortune. “We kept our full-time jobs while building Student of Fortune, working on nights and weekends for years in order to build the site the way that we dreamed it, not to match some sort of projected EBITDA profile or something.”
StudentofFortune is entirely privately owned by the founders, and have been built entirely from scratch without taking outside investments of any kind. “We’ve built the entire thing out of pocket, by hand, and never ran headlong into the funding rounds that can, in my opinion, stymie innovation,” Sean reveals.
“We were, and still are, extremely cost conscious about every move we make – we didn’t have the sudden influx of investor cash to spend on fancy desk chairs or anything. We’ve tried to build the most lean, effective and perfect company we possibly can because, in the end, it’s our blood, sweat and tears that make this thing work” These days, now that the site has grown, it’s increasingly getting the attention of potential investors. “I think I can look back and say that while it’s been a strange and unusual way of building a startup, I’m glad we did it.”
Right now, however, Sean says the site is focused on growing its core market – by building a strong community and staying focused on customer needs. “We spent our available hours addressing exactly the developments that would build our community and address the needs of our customers as effectively as possible.” For example, they try to avoid adding unnecessary features that bloat to the site – instead they focus on refining the core functionality of the site where there is consumer confusion.
“I know that sounds a little bit cliche but I think it’s an unusual thing in this industry. That, in and of itself, has really been a challenge.”
Views on Entrepreneurship
Sean believes that entrepreneurship should be something you do because you have to, not from the desire to get rich or famous.
There are side benefits too, especially the intangible. “I got an email from one of our users a couple weeks ago telling me that he and his wife had lost their jobs in the recession, and with a new one-year old baby, they were facing one of the most terrifying situations I can imagine,” Sean shares. “They told me how they had managed to support their family entirely through money earned off StudentofFortune. Having come up with the idea in college to help kids earn a bit of spending money, this story brought tears to my eyes.”
“I feel deeply honored and grateful that I’ve had the chance to be part of something that’s changing lives in such a way, especially when the family is earning money by helping students in need.”
The Design for Enterprise Centre, located at MICA Building, is a haven for those looking for design inspiration for their businesses.
Design is not merely about aesthetics. American designer Charles Eames, who is most famous for designing some of the most important examples of 20th-century furniture, once said that “design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose”. For enteprises, therefore, design thinking can be applied to help solve business problems, identifyand implement efficient processes, realize new potential and create tangible business outputs.
The problem is, this is always easier said than done – resources on enterprise design is not always readily available. Sure, you can spend countless hours trawling books at the National Library, or you could simply visit the Design for Enterprise Centre.
There’s a whole host of design materials and information available here for your perusal, and you can consult centre managers available onsite who can help you analyse business needs and design possibilities.
The Design for Enterprise Centre has a whole host of design materials and information available here for your perusal.
Alternatively, you can check the Design for Enterprises online portal. The portal contains case studies of local and international businesses that have successfully adopted design to their advantage, a design directory to facilitate access to design services, and even a design diagnostic toolkit for an initial assessment of where an enterprise stands in terms of design.
If you run a startup or enterprise, you owe it to yourself to learn how design thinking can help set you apart from your competitors.
Nanyang Optical's exhibit at the Design for Enterprise Centre shows how the optical store incorporates design thinking into its products and displays.
Where do you go if you have a question about startups? Answers.OnStartups.com may have the answer.
Dharmesh Shah of OnStartups.com has launched a new community Q&A site for startup entrepreneurs, and have invited some of the – according to him – smartest entrepreneurs he knows to contribute to the site. Some of these entrepreneurs include: Adam Smith of Xobni, Drew Houston of DropBox, Sachin Agarwal of Posterous and VentureHacks’ Nivi.
If you need any startup advice, it’s a good place to ask.
SocialWok at TechCrunch50 - (From left) COO Vikram Rangnekar, CTO Navin Kumar, and CEO Yong Ming Guang.
Singapore startup Socialwok recently emerged as a Demopit winner to present at last month’s TechCrunch50 Conference 2009, the massive showcase of the latest cutting-edge technology startups in San Francisco. I took the opportunity to ask Socialwok CEO Yong Ming Guang of their experience there.
1. Describe for us the whole process of applying for, and being selected, as one of the startups to present at TC50.
The original aim of Socialwok‘s USA trip in September was not TechCrunch50, but meetings at Google that we have arranged for. Hence, we did not plan to apply to TC50 till the last few weeks when the application was due. As Socialwok was not in stealth mode (we did a version 1 launch in May at Unconference 2009 in Singapore), our application was turned down but we were offered a place at the TC50 Demopit.
TC50 is a two-day conference and each day there are over 50 Demopit companies. Each TC50 attendee is given two poker chips to vote for their favorite TC50 Demopit company out of a total of 100 companies over the two conference days. The Demopit winners chosen by the audience would then go onstage to pitch to the audience. There would be 2 Demopit companies chosen for each day of TC50 conference.
2. Describe to us your feelings when they made the announcement that SocialWok was selected as a Demopit winner..
It was quite the whirlwind of emotions in a short amount of time. The Demopit event ended at 2:30pm where they counted the chips from each of the Demopit companies of the day. We knew about the win at around 3pm and went backstage to prepare around 4pm. When the results was announced, we were very excited and happy about getting the opportunity to present on stage.
3. How did you prepare for the presentation? Any mentors, good advice you received?
We did not know that we were going on-stage till only 2 hours in advance. We were notified that Socialwok won the TC50 Demopit for Day Two around 3pm, and by 3:30pm we were backtage where we did a few run through of our presentation with (CTO) Nik Cubrilovic of Techcrunch.
4. What was the key point about SocialWok you wanted to drive to the judges?
Our key aim for the onstage pitch was to deliver a clear message of the pain that the Socialwok service is trying to address.
5. Which judge was the scariest? Who gave the best feedback?
Honestly, things were happening so quickly that we did not really even know who the judges were on the panel. We were too busy on the second day with trying to win the Demopit award! It was quite the blur even on stage. As we did not have much time to prepare going on stage, Vikram and I literally practiced just 3 times during the 1 hour before our actual pitch. I was focused on trying to be on sequence handling the demo and Vikram was trying his best to deliver the message while following my lead.
6. OK, that was a politically-correct answer. How do you rate the experience? Would you do it again?
Winning the TC50 Demopit also helped us be credible and get meetings with different seed VCs and angels in the Valley.
SocialWok with renowned Silicon Valley tech blogger Robert Scoble of Scobleizer.com.
7. What advice would you give to other startups who want to present at TC50? Words of caution?
Make sure you are in stealth mode before you apply to TC50. You cannot have much public information of your product or service before the TC50 event. Otherwise, they will not consider you for TC50. If you want to be at TC50, plan in advance your product roadmap so that your launch date will coincide with TC50 that occurs annually during middle-to-end of September. If you get successful at TC50, there will be a tremendous spike in web traffic to your website, make sure your service is highly scalable. To increase the effect of publicity for your service, do follow up meetings with tech bloggers who have shown interest in your product or service.
8. Final words – Do you have anybody to thank for this whole experience?
We would like to thank Nik Cubrilovic for the tips he gave in preparing us for the pitch on stage as well as Lux and Kal of iTwin for the support they gave us during the conference. I would also like to thank Mohan Belani of e27, Bernard Leong of SGEntrepreneurs, James Chan and all the Singaporean folks in the tech community for their kind tweets and referrals.
Innovation & Enterprise Week 2009 is organized by Exploit Technologies, a part of A*STAR.
Exploit Technologies is organizing the first-ever Innovation & Enterprise Week (IEW) in Singapore, a week-long extravaganza that aims to promote innovation and technology adoption amongst Singapore enterprises and support entrepreneurship. From 19 to 23 Oct 2009, IEW will feature a technology exhibition, talks, workshops, industry roundtable sessions and networking activities.
If you’re a young talent – musician, sports personality, scholar, or an accomplished entrepreneur – who happened to be born and delivered at the Thomson Medical Centre, your hospital wants you.
Thomson Medical Centre will be selecting 12 young talents (under 30 years of age) for its upcoming Thomson Talents Charity Calendar 2010 featuring children with outstanding achievements and talents who were delivered in the hospital. you could be one of them. They’ll put your face and achievements in 3,000 calendars which will be printed and distributed to partners and sold to help raise funds for its adopted charity, The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund.
If you fit the bill, contact Aelino Senitro at aelina[at]tmc-sin[dot]com[dot]sg.
The inaugural launch of Invent Singapore last year. Dr Ting Choon Meng, president of the Fellowship of Inventors (FOI), can be seen far left in the picture.
Invent Singapore ’09, the second such conference following a successful inauguration last year, will comprise of dynamic discussions and workshops that cover the topics of creativity, intellectual property, branding, funding and product development. The event will feature speakers such as venture capitalist Dr. Gideon Tolkowsky, managing director of BME Capital Management, Singapore creative guru Dr. Kirpal Singh, brand expert Jörg Dietzel and president of the Fellowship of Inventors (FOI) Dr. Ting Choon Meng. Dr. Ting, for those who didn’t know, founded Healthstats International which was awarded the prestigious World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneer status for inventing BPro, a watch that measures blood pressure.
Invent Singapore, a conference for SIngapore innovators and inventors.
Deng Jian Guang, Raziuddin and Aseem Thakur of Give Singapore.
If giving is a blessing, GIVE.sg wants to make it easier to bless others by democratizing the act of giving.
I first met Aseem, Jiangguang and Raziuddin of GIVE.sg at the recent TwestivalSG, part of the global Twestival movement and Singapore’s first “Tweet.Meet.Give” event to raise funds for the Children Cancer Foundation. They were also there to raise awareness and funds for a mission to bring clean water to the homeless children in Taiwan devastated by Typhoon Morakot, and were more than glad to explain what GIVE.sg does.
Inspire To Give
“Each and every day, there are people who still struggle to get clean water or fill their growling tummies. That makes us frustrated. Why can’t we do something about making the world a better place when here today, all around us in Singapore are the technological means and the resources needed?”
This was the question that the founders of GIVE.sg asked themselves some 15 months ago, on 12th May 2008. The answer, when it came, says Aseem Thakur, one of the members of GIVE.sg who looks after business development, was simple – the problem is too big for a single individual. “(But) if we stopped acting alone but rather come together and join our efforts, the result would be a social movement that amplifies the impact we can make together and magnifies it beyond the sum of our collective individual effort.”
This formed the inspiration for GIVE.sg – a platform that matches the needs of charities with the resources of a community formed for a single, philanthropic purpose. After all, what one person gives can be negligible; when an entire community gives, the impact is felt.
“Every individual effort counts,” says Aseem. “We want to make fundraising easy, fun and convenient so anyone can take part. (We’re) opening up a world of rewarding and enriching experience such that everyone can make a big difference and experience the joy of giving.”
“This is what democratizing the act of giving means – An open and collaborative effort by everyone from all social standing forming a social movement together for charitable causes they believe in,” Aseem explains.
“Our goal is to provide the tools to help charities continue their great work in the Information Age. By listening to the advice of our GIVE.sg community and the charities, we will continue to innovate and leverage on technology to provide them with the best value for all the services to meet their needs.”
It’s a new take on philanthropy; a KIVA.org that helps charities.
The GIVE.sg website.
There is, unfortunately, a frustrating lack of a clear explanation on the website of what GIVE.sg really does – a “What We Do” would be really useful. Perhaps it’s still early days – GIVE.sg is slated to officially launch on 1 November this year.
Look beyond that (and the annoying use of repeated pop-ups), however, you’ll find a sense of noble purpose. The kind that aims to change the world for the better.
The Team
The team at GIVE.sg comprises a group of young adults in their early 20s from diverse backgrounds. They come from all over Asia – lead designer Kota Matsuda hails from Japan, you have Singaporeans Gary, Donald, Khairul and Zwee of SavantDegrees who created the website, and a business development team comprising Malaysian Yu Ming, Aseem from India, Singaporeans Zhi Heng and Razi, and Jian Guang from China.
If GIVE.sg‘s team seems huge – it is. After all, it’s a community project where team members and other individuals volunteer their time and energy.
“Looking from the sidelines, starting out on your own can seem like a risky and daunting task,” Aseem said. “But if you believe in what you do, enjoy the journey of trails and tribulations, team up of friends you trust your life with – startups are very fun and an extremely rewarding experience.”
“We at GIVE.sg love working into the wee hours of every night because we know that every bit more we give, the more difference we can make at helping the people who need it most in this world.”
If you go away with only one message – GIVE.sg wants you to go away with the thought that philanthropy is not only for the rich or for when we are old, but should be part of our daily lives and a lifestyle choice we enjoy.
buUuk.com is a mobile location-based restaurant guide application for the iPhone and Android devices that helps you locate the best eating and drinking places around town. The service covers Singapore, as well as various cities in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and other countries.
BuUuk.com's opening screen.
We grabbed hold of Jon Petersen, founder of buUuk.com, for a short interview. In the spirit of all things brief, British-born Jon decided to do things a little bit Twitter-esque – in answers less than 140 characters each:
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and the team that developed buUuk.com.
28,44,45.
Malaysia, Singapore, England.
Biologist, Entrepreneur, Economist. (75 characters)
People need to eat near where they are. Restaurants need customers near where they are. (87)
4. How did you come up with this idea, or what was the opportunity you saw that prompted you to start this?
The smartphone will be your life in your pocket. (48)
5. What do you think is the key USP behind buUuk.com?
Changes regularly depending on how fast we can innovate. (56)
6. What kind of users are you targeting?
People who eat; restaurants that sell. (38)
7. How many users has the service signed up so far?
70,000. (7)
8. What is buUuk.com‘s business and revenue model?
Long term: match buyers and sellers in real time, by location and take a cut of the proceeds. Short term: last until the long term. (131)
9. What have your achievements been so far?
1) 70000 users in 10 months. 2) Building a scalable platform for providing information on location-based, real-time services. (125)
10. What have been the key challenges?
Staying sane while dealing with the telco providers. Negotiating the Apple app store maze. (90)
11. Who are your key competitors?
Time, energy and intellect. And maybe Yelp and Urbanspoon. (58)
12. Who are your investors and backers, and how much have been pumped into the company to date? Any support from the Singapore government or the various startup funds?
Parable of the ten talents - A question of grasping opportunities presented to you?
I was recently reading The Fall of Rome: A Novel of a World Lost when I came across an interesting part which I thought contained an interesting life lesson. One of the protagonists of the story, a disgraced and exiled noble wracked with questions about his destiny, comes across a religious hermit who shares with him the parable of the ten talents from the Bible.
If you’re not familiar with the parable, here it goes:
The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25: 14-30)
14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15 To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17 So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. 18 But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’
21″His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
22 “The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’
23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
24 “Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28 “Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29 For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Interestingly, the hermit asks the noble – what if there was a fourth servant, a man who takes his talents, uses instead of hiding them, yet loses the talents anyway? Would he also suffer the same reaction from the master as the third servant? Or would he still receive a pat on the back from the master, who’d say “at least you tried”?
The lesson I learnt here was about taking hold of the opportunities that are presented to us.
What do you do when God (or life, if you’re an agnostic) presents you with an opportunity? Would you invest it, or bury it? Will we shirk away from our destiny, by missing out life’s opportunities? If you took up an opportunity but lost, would it still be worth the while?
I ask these questions of myself every day. It’s just that I’m afraid the answers will scare me.
If things don’t change, our startups will start to wither on the stalk here despite the acclaim they get overseas. And they’ll start leaving by the droves, despite whatever carrots the local government agencies dangle in their faces.
C’mon folks – it’s ridiculous that we put aside $25 million Entrepreneurial Talent Development Fund (ETDF) to look for and seed new startups, yet cannot give any love to those who ARE ALREADY IN THE GAME.
Many books have been written about Google, but most – such as “What Would Google Do?” – focus on the search engine giant, rather than its two founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. For this book, award-winning technology journalist Richard L. Brandt (who also consults with startups) interviews current and former Google employees and senior management, competitors and partners in an attempt to divine what goes on in the minds of the two heroes revered by geeks around the world.
Would you leave a high-paying consultancy job to run a startup? Shawn Cheong and Joseph Chua did – the two 28 year-olds left global management consultancy services giant Accenture and founded myTimeWall.com, an online social networking and life-blogging service mashup.
Shawn was working in Accenture as a consulting analyst when a certain thought struck him. “I realised that people simply lose track of their lives after a hard day at work, and even though there were the occasional significant events, they were easily forgotten after 2 months. This really affected me,” Shawn says. “How can I live my life without remembering anything about it?”
He decided there must be some sort of a system that can encourage his friends and co-workers to create these events, so that he could remember them. He roped in colleague and fellow Nanyang Technological Uuniversity (NTU) computer engineering graduate Joseph Chua – and myTimeWall.com was conceived.
Social Blogging on a Timeline
myTimeWall combines blogging, social networking elements and a timeline into what Shawn and Joseph like to call ‘social blogging on a timeline’. The premise is simple: A user can create an entry of a past event (up to 10 years back) on their own ‘TimeWall’. Anyone who was part of that event, say a birthday party three years ago, can be connected to the same entry and shared on the other person’s TimeWall. It’s a great collaborative way to institutionalize social collective memories.
An example of an event shared by various participants on one user's TimeWall.
Shawn insists myTimeWall is different from timeline-based microblogging services, such as, say, Plurk. “Perhaps the only similarity is we both have a timeline.” One difference that strikes you first is that microblogging services like Twitter, Tumblr or Plurk tends to focus on the current or the ‘now’ – myTimeWall is more retrospective in nature, allowing you to chronicle events in the past. It’s not inconceivable to turn your TimeWall into a collaborative social schedule, either.
Shawn believes that myTimeWall‘s value proposition is unique. “I will say there are no direct competitors,” he declares. “The existing social networks and blogging sites can be considered indirect competitors, although we are looking into how we can leverage off them and achieve synergy instead.” It’s a bold claim. The challenge is to educate users on the difference and finding a real, compelling use to eschew other services and use myTimeWall instead.
“Our main challenge is to reach out to users and let them understand the benefits of myTimeWall.” User acquisition is a priority, Shawn admits.
To grow their service, Shawn says there are plans to creating more value-added features and integrate with sites like Blogger.com and Facebook. “This will give our users a more complete experience, and also allow their existing blogs entries and photos to be showcased on their TimeWall and shared with the rest of their friends on myTimeWall.” As for their revenue model, Shawn says there are plans to host ads from sponsors and sell virtual goods.
Views on Entrepreneurship
Shawn says entrepreneurship is a lifelong journey that has no end.
“You can always make things better and there is always new ways to improve people’s lives. We have chosen this path because that is exactly what we enjoy.”
Make your business cards stand out from the rest. (Picture courtesy of MOO).
So the networking event’s over, you’re stumbling back half-drunk from all that free booze, and you’re half-cursing your arse luck over that pretty agency chick whose number you didn’t quite manage to get. All you’ve got is a hangover and a lousy bunch of business cards from people whose faces you’ve already forgotten.
Hold on to that thought.
The truth is that your business card remains your greatest networking tool, and possibly the only thing people can remember you with (other than a good impression). So how do you ensure your business cards stand out from the rest? Here are some thoughts:
1. Have a great design.
Consider carefully the image you are trying to present to the world. Eye-catching, yet clean and simple, design works best. For example, author, entrepreneur and venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki prefers his business cards simple with large fonts.
Make your business cards a conversation piece. For example, my friend Ben Koe has a great idea of turning your business card into a name tag for events. After all, these days it’s relatively easy to create fantastic, memorable business cards. Custom printing services such as MOO provide flexibility in allowing you to choose card stock or even having different images on each card. All this is done over the web and they even ship worldwide.
Before you go charging into designing and printing your name cards, however, you may want to check out the common business card mistakes that marketing guru Seth Godin has identified.
2. Give yourself an online presence.
Make it easy for people to search for information about you.
I highly recommend having a profile on business networking site LinkedIn, which can be a source of good sales and job leads. (I’ve previously written a short post on this.) Twitter‘s also great if you use it for professional purposes.
3. Include only the necessary.
Include only critical information so that people know what you do and how to contact you – name, address, contact numbers and website address. LinkedIn, Twitter and Skype IDs are recommended too, if you have them. Facebook? Not unless you want the world privy to your personal shenanigans.
Seriously, nobody really cares about your company’s mission statement, or that award you’ve won 10 years ago. Leave out your qualifications too, unless you’re really a doctor of the medical sort.
4. Make a good impression.
Needless to say, no matter how well-designed your business cards are, you’re not going to leave a good impression if you act like a jerk or buffoon. Remember your manners! If you’re not familiar with Asian customs, here’s a guide on exchanging business cards with Asians.
30 year-old Singaporean Jason Koh did something totally unthinkable for many in his generation – he eschewed his very respectable IT degree from an acclaimed Australian university, and a 6-year systems engineer job, to sell beancurd. Today he helps to run Rochor Beancurd House, which has two outlets in Singapore, selling one of the country’s quintessential breakfast and dessert food.
People often asks Jason why he doesn’t run his own IT business instead. The answer, he says, is simple.
“I love to interact with people and by running my own food business, I get to cook and see all sorts of people from all walks of life everyday,” he shares. “That is something I can never do when I just place myself in front of a monitor or just by meeting my office-based clients.”
That’s not to say his information technology education from the Queensland University of Technology is not put to good use. Jason is extremely active on popular microblogging service Twitter, constantly reaching out to and engaging a new generation of potential beancurd-eaters. Other than providing updates on events and new product launches, Twitter allows him to ‘keep up with the current trend and likings’. “We can also create loyal fans or followers who share the same ideas in life and food,” he says.
Humble Beginnings
The origins of Rochor Beancurd House, like the soya bean, are humble. Jason’s father, Xu Kun Ming, and his grandparents arrived in Singapore from China during the 1950s, and started a street stall selling soya bean milk and beancurd beside the Rochor seven-storey mall. From 1955 Mr Xu single-handedly touting soya bean milk from a pushcart, peddling along Rochor Road to Beach Road and Balestier Road. Hence the name Rochor Beancurd House.
The demographic of consumers who eat beancurd, Jason shares, have changed over the years. Back in the 60s, it was the middle-aged customer who liked their beancurd plain topped with sugar syrup. These days, however, it’s the choice dessert among teenagers, who are adventurous and prefer their beancurd with different flavorings. “There are many new dessert shops offering different toppings for beancurd,” he says, “Rochor Beancurd House chooses to differentiate itself by selling only traditional original tasting beancurd.” The only concession they’ve made is adding an option to serve it cold.
With 50 years experience of making and serving traditional beancurd, Rochor Beancurd has gained a relatively loyal customer base. Its beancurd has also been well-regarded in the local media for its smooth texture and taste, and Mr Xu have even been hailed by MakanSutra founder and food guru KF Seetoh as a “Singapore Street Food Master”.
Jason says the next steps for Rochor Beancurd is to work on its branding, and expansion by taking the business islandwide to provide convenience for customers. It’s currently in talks for its third outlet.
Jason’s also learnt, from his IT background and experience, how vital customer service is to the success of any business. Rochor Beancurd House’s motto is to ‘provide very good customer service at all times’. “We feel happy when we see smiles on our customers face, complimenting that our beancurd is nice and service is good.”
Views on Entrepreneurship
“I believe in my family recipe and I want to keep my father’s effort going. I want to build our family brand into a household brand in Singapore,” Jason says, matter-of-factly.
An important lesson he’s learnt is that champions take failure as a learning opportunity. “So take in all you can, and run with it. Be your best and don’t ever give up.”
“Success is a reality to those who pursue it,” he insists.
Rochor Beancurd House is located at:
a) 745 Geylang Road Lor 39 Singapore 389653
b) 432 Balestier Road #01-436 Singapore 329813
The National Research Foundation wants more high-tech incubators to set up in Singapore to spur innovation and entrepreneurship here. (Picture from Getty Images)
The National Research Foundation (NRF) recently announced a war kitty of S$50 million under the Technology Incubation Scheme (TIS) to attract both local and foreign technology incubator investors to set up in Singapore and spur the growth of early-stage, high-tech startups here. The scheme aims to provide up to 85 percent co-funding in each startup in the incubator’s portfolio up to a maximum of S$500,000. However, the incubator is required to invest the remaining amount of at least 15 percent, although there is an option for the incubator to buy out NRF’s share in the start-up within three years of investment.
The scheme is part of the S$360 million National Framework for Innovation and Enterprise (NFIE) announced in March 2008 to strengthen innovation and entrepreneurship in Singapore, and the NRF says it’s actually modelled after Israel’s successful Technological Incubator Programme. Proposals will be evaluated and selected by an expert panel formed by the NRF. Also, funded startups don’t have to be locally owned but need to operate from Singapore, and must be less than 5 years old.
According to certain sources, the NRF also revealed that while the total fund allocated is officially S$50 million, the amount can go up to S$75 million.
I agree with NRF‘s CEO Dr Francis Yeoh, who says that experienced mentors are very helpful to high-tech start-up entrepreneurs to guide them in the early and most risky stage of their companies’ development. However, the challenge is to find the right incubators that will add value to the entrepreneurship scene here, and that is going to hugely depend on who that panel comprises of.
Local serial entrepreneur Alex Toh believes that this scheme is targeting “wealthy, made-it entrepreneurs” to start and run these incubators, rather than traditional VCs. “Sand Hill needs to come down from the mountains and plough the fields themselves”, as he puts it. Yes, I can see local tech tycoon and Creative Technology boss Sim Wong Hoo signing up for this scheme already.
Another question that begs asking: what does this mean for incubators that currently administer the Media Development Authority’siJAM microfunding scheme? Thymos Capital‘s Bernard Leong, speaking in a personal capacity, said on Twitter that the iJAM incubators are close to the end of their contract with MDA on the scheme and this means those iJAM startups that decide to ramp up their operations are likely to follow up with the TIS incubators or NRF early-stage funds.
Whatever the case with MDA may be, both Bernard and Alex agrees that if the NRF‘s TIS scheme takes off, it will create more incubators that fill the 6-digit funding gap that’s severely lacking in Singapore.
BusinessWeek’s Valley GirlSarah Lacy shares a rare glimpse of the Silicon Valley ethos and culture that drives the thinking and drive of the many startups in that entrepreneurial hub. Through her narrative, she describes the factors within Silicon Valley ecosystem that make it tick – youth, drive, passion, the first Internet bust and the young, experienced Net entrepreneurs that served as mentors to a whole new generation of startups.
Contrary to the title, this book is not really about Google. It’s about the new paradigm shift in thinking that companies, brands and individuals need to adopt to deal with and survive in an increasingly connected world. Jarvis, previously the founding editor of Entertainment Weekly and currently an associate professor and director of the interactive journalism program at the City University of New York’s new Graduate School of Journalism, hypothesizes how different industries – utilities, manufacturing, transportation, retail and even insurance – would look if Google took over.
The editor of Wired and author of The Long Tail Chris Anderson comes back with a discourse on the phenomenon of free pricing as a revenue model. Despite being panned by some critics, this book is still an essential read to understand how different forms of pricing, and by extension marketing, matters for a product or service offering.
Silicon Valley startup isocket recently announced the closing of a US$2 million early stage funding round from a group of investors led by Tim Draper at Draper Fisher Jurvetson. I took the opportunity to talk to isocket founder and CEO John Ramey about the first commission-free, open platform for multiple forms of advertising that has already secured popular technology blog Techcrunch as its first customer.
isocket currently consists of only two people – other than John, there’s co-founder and CTO Zak Hassanein. “I founded isocket back in August, 2007 and Zak joined me shortly thereafter,” John says. “Both of us are successful repeat entrepreneurs, having started multiple businesses since we were 12 years old.”
In John’s last business (Maven Ventures, which he co-founded in 2005), he worked with alternative marketing for the real estate industry, employing tactics such as direct response marketing. Most of the marketing, he says, was “old media” that was very tedious and repetitive. “We started working on ways to make that process smoother, because frankly it was a pain.” As they started to solve that problem, they realized the “solution” they were working on was bigger than they thought it would be. “We decided to run with it full time, so we sold off our assets from the last business and ran with this one,” John recalls.
According to its website, isocket is an application that makes it easier to sell any kind of advertising, such as a website banner, mobile video or out-of-home digital sign. It claims to not keep a percentage of advertising sold, nor does it charge hidden fees or steep commissions. John says that isocket‘s first private beta targets “mid-tail web publishers”, websites who want to sell such advertising. They can be any site ranked from #200 to #100,000, he says. Techcrunch, their first user, is a perfect example.
Opportunities and Challenges
A key challenge isocket faced early on was basically the lack of resources to accomplish as much as they knew they could. “It was a struggle with no money or support for almost two years,” he says. “Some of the concepts we started talking about in 2007 are starting to be done by other people, so it was frustrating we didn’t have what we needed to execute them.”
John has grand plans for isocket and is glad to be working on a product that is generating a lot of public interest. “We love solving a real problem for real customers with a valuable product. At this stage, only three things matter: building the best team possible, taking care of our customers, and learning.”
Views on Entrepreneurship
John believes that entrepreneurship is a lifestyle choice, not a career choice. “There are days when it really sucks,” he elaborates. “Then there are moments that make it all worthwhile.”
“But for me, it’s not a choice – this is who I am and I can’t stop it. That doesn’t make me any better or smarter than anyone else, it just makes me different (perhaps even crazy).”
“In my mind, entrepreneurship is about self-actualization. Most people never learn who they are or where their limits lie. By biting off way more than I can chew and shooting for something huge, I’ll know what I’m capable of and who I am. It’s not an ego thing, it’s just my way of discovering.”
An important lesson John points out is this: to recognize the limits people have built into themselves. “Then get rid of them. Think different, go big, be genuine.”
The problem with search on the Internet is simply that there is far too much rubbish online.
One pet hate? Inauthentic third-party reseller websites. Worse, some of them actually mimic authentic sites, and can mine your data, hijack systems and generally make your (online) life miserable.
Here’s where SealCOS™ (Seal of a Certified Official Site) comes in: it’s a new form of identifying the correct, official websites for brands and organizations. They can apply for the SealCOS certification and, upon approval, can insert the SealCOS mark into their branding and official website platform. The SealCOS mark appears in website titles returned from the search query, offering a visible mark at the end of the meta tag that makes it simple for consumers to discern between official and inauthentic sites, helping them to cut back on search time.
“While the SealCOS mark functions primarily as a direct branding tool, it also allows consumers to search an item and easily find authentic brands that sell that product,” said Charles Chehebar, founder and CEO of SealCOS LLC. “Say you’re looking for a new set of leather luggage; simply search ‘leather luggage SealCOS,’ and the query will return official websites of legitimate brands that offer leather luggage. Most of the time, consumers take comfort in buying direct, rather than through third-party sites that can be less trustworthy – especially when they falsely claim to be official sites.”
Consumers can easily filter search results even further by inserting “SealCOS” as part of the query, to search through only the ‘official sites’. SealCOS says its certification can ease customer confusion and frustration, helping businesses convert sales lost to these factors, as well as help companies cut down on online advertising costs by standing out next to third party and reseller sites.
Now if only someone can work on eliminating all that Russian spam I’m getting.
For more information on the SealCOS mark and obtaining certification, you can visit their website.
Johnny C Taylor Jr, the author of The Trouble with HR.
The problem with human resources, as my wife puts it in half-jest, is that in many cases its practices are hardly human (she works in the human resource department for a large multinational company).
Johnny C. Taylor, Jr, who speaks extensively on business leadership and human resource, has a new book out called “The Trouble with HR: An Insider’s Guide to Finding and Keeping the Best People“, which (as you can imagine) covers some real issues with HR. For example, one of the ten hiring mistakes he mentioned in the book, and the greatest, relates to company culture. He says:
I knew a CEO of a start-up financial services company who hired an accounting manager based on her resume. He was impressed by her skills and background and knew she could do the job. But when he interviewed her, he had doubts about how she would fit into the culture. She came across in the interview as having an edge. He sensed that her attitude could be a problem, but he was so impressed by her resume that he ignored the telltale signs and erased his own doubts. On her first day on the job, she attended a meeting where she offended three of her colleagues. Angry, she stormed out of the meeting, leaving little room for compromise. Her first day was difficult, and it went downhill from there. She was replaced after six months. While a study by the American Management Association says replacement costs vary greatly depending on the job and salary, it estimates that most searches cost from 25 percent for lower-level positions to 200 percent of annual compensation for senior executives. Those costs include executive recruitment fees and customer service disruption.
And why is this important to you as a startup, you ask. Well it so happens that in order for your startup to grow, you need to hire. And you must hire well, since you cannot afford to make any hiring mistakes early in the life of your startup.
Impact Entrepreneurship Group, Canada's largest youth entrepreneurship program.
The Impact Entrepreneurship Group is Canada’s largest non-profit, student-run organization dedicated to encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit amongst youth in Canada and becoming a starting point and catalyst for youth interested in entrepreneurship and leadership. Since 2004, Impact has developed programs both at the national and local level that reach over 10 000 young people each year. Consisting of over 100 student volunteers nationwide, Impact is dedicated to driving the entrepreneurial spirit.
Will a set-up to promote youth entrepreneurship here in Singapore work? I believe it can. There are local programmes like Startup@Singapore (link) organized by the NUS Entrepreneurship Society, but I’ve argued earlier that entrepreneurship could be taught even as early as in primary school. More can be done to channel all that youthful energy and disruptive, creative minds to productive, entrepreneurial efforts. The question is who could, or should, take a proactive role in starting a holistic, comprehensive program such as the one run by Canada’s Impact.
In any case, if you’re an aspiring young entrepreneur based in Canada, do check out some of the programs and activities it organizes:
Impact National Conference (November 20-21st 2009)
During Global Entrepreneurship Week, and as Impact’s flagship event, the annual Impact Conference attracts the 500 best and brightest high school, university and college students from leading academic institutions across Canada to learn about entrepreneurship and connect with prominent industry leaders.
Global Youth Entrepreneurship Congress (November 20-21st 2009)
Modeled after Y-Combinator in California, Impact Ventures aims to provide seed funding and a 12-week mentorship program to three entrepreneurs in hopes to bring ideas to creation.
MicroCredit Competition
The MicroCredit Competition is a nation-wide challenge amongst high schools to see how much students can fundraise using $100 in only a single week with all proceeds going to the charity of the high school’s choice.
Altimeter set to climb higher with three new partners.
Consulting firm Altimeter Group today announced that Internet pioneer Deborah Schultz, and former Forrester Research analysts R “Ray” Wang and Jeremiah Owyang will join founding partner Charlene Li in the firm’s San Mateo, Calif., headquarters, forming an incredibly formidable team.
As part of the firm’s expansion, Altimeter Group also announced the launch of “The Hanger,” a physical space intended to bring together the ecosystem of emerging technologies, thought leaders, business and service providers to innovate and bring new ideas to life.
Here’s a great e-guide on starting a business during the current economic downturn by Irish entrepreneur Feargal Byrne, the founder of e-learning software company Brain Power Ltd. He recently set up LostJobStartBusiness.com, a site that helps people who have lost their jobs to start their own business.
isocket socking it to traditional online advertising networks.
Online advertising is going to take a new twist.
New Silicon Valley startup and advertising platform isocket announces the closing of a US$2 million early stage funding round from a group of investors led by Tim Draper at Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Built by a team of experienced advertising entrepreneurs led by CEO and founder John Ramey, isocket is the first commission-free, open platform for multiple forms of advertising.
isocket recently went live in May this year via the launch of an invitation-only beta testing with leading technology blog TechCrunch, their first customer. TechCrunch announced their intention to depart from existing ad networks in favor of using isocket to power their in-house advertising direct sales.
by Sarah Lacy
by Jeff Jarvis
“, which (as you can imagine) covers some real issues with HR. For example, one of the ten hiring mistakes he mentioned in the book, and the greatest, relates to company culture. He says:
