Covering the Singapore and Southeast Asia startup and entrepreneurship scene since 2005.
May 22, 2012 by SGE
After six months in Asia, sixteen flights to eight countries, and interviews with over 100 entrepreneurs, investors, and organizers, Kira Newman of Tech Cocktail has worked with Malaysia infographic startup Piktochart to come up with this graphical summary of her impressions of the Asian startup scene. She’ll be writing more about Asia in the future. Check it out: Read more
May 22, 2012 by SGE
In cooperation with IdeaSpace and Microsoft powered by the telco Smart, JCI-Manila and Mapua Institute of Technology (Makati) have come up with an idea of converging together the creative and innovative ideas of the greatest developers, skillful designers and enthusiastic entrepreneurs to launch a startup in just 48 hours. This is the perfect opportunity to combine business and technology in order to turn fresh ideas into real-life applications.
Held in Manila, Philippines, the event starts with inspirational talks from various known technopreneurs based in the Philippines. This is proceeded by the open pitches wherein different aspirants put their best foot forward to present their excellent ideas in front of the whole audience for further evaluation. The team has one whole week to turn their idea into a commercialized product.
Check out the agenda here.
When: Saturday May 26th 2012
Where: Mapua Institute of Technology, Makati City, Manila, Philippines [a href="http://g.co/maps/6v3fm">map/a>]
May 22, 2012 by SGE
Early this quarter, more than 500 active mappers and volunteers joined forces across the Philippines in a series of Google Map Maker events that explored the benefits and fundamental steps toward building even more beautiful country maps.
The events kicked off with a Map Maker workshop in Manila, where Advocates and Regional Expert Reviewers worked alongside budding mappers. Their enthusiasm carried over to three Map Maker Summits: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, where the Filipino mapping community focused on the ways an accurate country map can lend itself to improved community planning, disaster preparedness and tourism.
The Google Technology User Group in Philippines (GTUG Philippines) have a very ambitious plan to have MapUps in 80 cities across the Philippines and would like to dedicate this activity for Philippine Tourism. Focus will be given to:
Tourist spots
Airports/Ports/Bus Terminals
Hotels and Resorts
Police Stations
Malls / Business Establishments
Pasalubong Stores
Barangay / City Halls
To kick things up a bit, they will be awarding the top mappers in the country! Please make sure you read the mechanics below for details on how to join the Map Your Town Competition.
For updates, to request for a MapUp or to conduct one in your area, please visit the Mapping the Philippines site.
Mechanics:
Interested individuals must register here.
This contest is only open to individuals based in the Philippines.
The Map Your Town competition shall start on May 16, 2012 and end 2 months later on July 15, 2012. Only approved edits during this timeframe shall be considered eligible.
MapMaker Advocates and Regional Expert Reviewers are disqualified from the individual contest.
The top 10 mappers in the Philippines will be awarded with netbooks.
For the mapper with the most number of contributions in the Philippines, PhP100,000 will be donated to a public school from his/her hometown.
May 22, 2012 by SGE
Online Advertising and Digital Marketing platforms can no longer be seen as “New Media” it has entered “Mainstream”. With the continuing decline of ad spend in many of traditional media businesses, budget spend on interactive media continues to gain momentum and at the same time delivers quantifiable results for the brand advertiser.
ad:tech Singapore 2012 is a regional event for the interactive marketing community at its 5th edition. ad:tech Singapore brings together brand advertisers, traditional & interactive agencies, portals, on-line publishers and technology providers. With the continued growth in technology and use of digital media, ad:tech offers an unrivalled opportunity to discover new practices and technologies, and to learn how many of the great names have utilized the net, built brand recognition and immersed themselves in digital technologies. Companies are realizing the meaning of ROI on ad spend like never before.
Check out the speaker list and the schedule. Read more
May 21, 2012 by SGE
Team, Big Market, Product, Business Model, Traction, Revenues, Unfair Competitive Advantage… What are investors really looking for? How much money are they willing to bet on your idea, product, company? At what valuation? What is the real “cost” of raising money? How can you maximize your chances of raising money?
If you have ever wondered:
• if you could and should raise serious money
• how to make your company look good to investors
• what the investment process looks like
And you:
• Have already been selling your product/service for 6-12 months
• Have 3-30 people teams
• Are struggling with accelerating your companies’ growth,
then you may be interested in attending this workshop “How the Hell can we raise money?”. (REGISTER HERE.)
Supported by Microsoft and co-organized by SGE and Tanguy Lesselin, a serial entrepreneur who has launched and financed companies in content management software, innovative e-commerce, and online services, as well as an angel investor, this session will see Tanguy share real life experiences, best practices and resources to help solve questions like:
• How much do you need? How much can you reasonably get? At what kind of valuation?
• What are the different investor categories? Which ones should you target?
• What are investors looking for?
• What does “investor-ready” really mean?
• Practically speaking, how do you raise funds in Singapore?
• What are the terms you want to avoid most?
To add to Tanguy Lesselin’s rich experience, an outstanding invitee, Leslie Loh, Managing Partner at Red Dot Ventures and Partner at Extream Ventures, board member of Spring Singapore, and an outstandingly successful entrepreneur, will be there to share with you his investment criteria (also check out a short video interview with Leslie by SGE at JFDI.asia’s Demo Day)
At the end, we’ll also have a Q&A section where SGE‘s Isaac, will place both Tanguy and Leslie on the firing line.
Event details
When: Thursday, 24 May 2012
Time: 6:00PM -7:30PM
Price: $45 $0 – subsidized by Microsoft!
Where: Level 22 CF-12, Microsoft Singapore, One Marina Boulevard, NTUC Centre – Singapore 018989
The session is subsidized by Microsoft. If you are interested, kindly register your interest. If you’re a startup that doesn’t fit the target as above, your registration may still be considered. As the number of participants is limited (we had 80 attendees for the previous session and many had to stand), we will come back to you within 48h to confirm your attendance.
Speakers’ biographies:
Leslie Loh
Leslie Loh is General & Limited Partner at Red Dot Ventures, an incubator and at Extream Venture, a venture fund with joint investment from National Research Foundation Singapore targeting early stage technology startups in Singapore.
Mr. Loh is also currently a board member of SPRING Singapore and was an IDA Board Member (Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore) for 2 terms from 1999 to 2003. He has always found time to contribute to entrepreneurial and ICT development in Singapore and has been invited as judges to various awards committee including ASME Entrepreneurial of the Year and National Infocomm Awards.
After graduating from Saint Mary’s University, Canada, in 1982 with a bachelor of Commerce, majoring in Finance and Information Technology, Mr. Loh co-founded in 1983 and was the Chairman and the CEO of System Access which turned from a one-man outfit to a publicly listed global banking software organization with 10 offices and 500 staff in Europe, Middle East and Asia before being acquired by SunGard Data Systems INC, USA, a leading global financial services software provider.
Mr. Loh has been awarded many times for his success as an entrepreneur: selected Winner of the ASME Rotary Entrepreneur of the Year in Singapore in 1998, he received the National Youth Award (Individual) in 1999 and, in 2006, he was awarded “Person of The Year” IT Leader Award by the Singapore Computer Society.
Mr. Loh also chairs the board for several of his investee companies including Lithan Education Group and Just Commodity Software Solutions.
Tanguy Lesselin
Back in 2003, Tanguy Lesselin had already co-founded, built, raised 6M Euros in venture financing, and sold the first company Tekora (web content management software) to a listed company. He then went on to start another one, CV Premium that became profitable from year two onwards and still enables executive job seekers to get help writing their resumes today. Tanguy’s third company, Sokoz, was the first live shopping platform back in 2008. It earned industry and media recognition, got 150K active members in just 6 months, and 350 high-end brands and pro-sellers operating on the platform. Tanguy raised 2M Euros from business angels and was nominated e-commerce manager of the year in 2010 by the leading e-commerce magazine in France. Today, Tanguy is working on a stealth startup in Singapore and also invests as a business angel.
Image credit: ParaScubaSailor
May 21, 2012 by SGE
For a one-stop to all events related to or concerning entrepreneurship, certain industry-meets-business forums and seminars in Southeast Asia, check out our Calendar. If not, you can also follow our bite-size updated posts for upcoming events for the week.
Events range from simple get-togethers to full-blown conferences. Get to meet fellow developers, entrepreneurs, startup CEOs & founders, and meet & learn from CEOs of established companies who have seen it all.
Our aim here at SGE is to make it easy for you to pick & choose from the event buffet. Enjoy.
Here are the events for this week. Events are mostly in Singapore (generally 30 minutes drive from anywhere), but we also include key events from around Southeast Asia and beyond. Read more
May 21, 2012 by SGE
Grant Cardone, an international sales training expert, talks about how lowering the price of your product is often a mistake: Only one product can win the price battle. Instead, convince customers that your product is solving a real problem. Grant dishes out some advice on how you can increase the value of your product in your customer’s eyes.
May 19, 2012 by SGE
Hear it from the industry leaders.
As mobile broadband adoption continues unabated in 2012, the telecom industry is facing a new era of opportunity and challenges to deliver a smooth experience in the increasingly important mobile cloud.
Listen to the chief protagonists in Singapore and Southeast Asia, from Google, StarHub, HP, Tellabs, Samsung and other distinguished speakers discuss a way forward, as apps demand increasingly more resources on networks as well as spectrum.
How can telcos deliver a smoother experience for consumers? Will there be enough spectrum to cater to machine-to-machine communications in future? Can users enjoy a truly unified interface for cloud services on the phone, tablet and PC?
Returning in its third year, Singapore’s independent seminar on future mobile and wireless trends, UNWIRED Conference 2012 will shed light on these issues. There will also be a demo of the first Windows 8 devices this year.
In previous events, more than 160 telecom executives, developers, academics, analysts and journalists participated in highly-interactive interactive discussions with panelists who shared their in-depth knowledge and experiences with the audience.
When: Thursday May 31, 2012
Time: 1pm – 5.30pm
Where: Angsana 3F, Level 3, Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre, 10 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore 018956
May 19, 2012 by SGE
If you are reading SGE, you are probably already partial to startups, perhaps having founded one yourself or are working in one.
If not, why not consider joining a dynamic startup to see for yourself what it is like working with just two other people in your entire company?
If you are looking for a job as a developer, programmer, or you want something in business development, sales, or perhaps you are a designer and looking for creative jobs, check out these newly listed open positions at these diverse startups. Read more
May 19, 2012 by SGE
Seed Forum is a global organization hosting investor conferences in more than 30 countries and is considered as one of the most professional and experienced venues for presentations of investor ready start-up companies. The mission of Seed Forum is to create a global investor matchmaking market place for seed and venture capital without national or regional borders.
In partnership with the Business Angel Network (Southeast Asia) (BANSEA), the 5th edition of Seed Forum Singapore will take place on 7th June to connect angel investors with aspiring entrepreneurs from Europe and Southeast Asia. These innovative startups demonstrate great potential for global scalability and have been carefully screened and selected by the investment panel of Seed Forum International Foundation. The conference offers angel investors, angel and early-stage venture funds, investment companies and other key finance intermediaries a first-hand insight into this selected group. Investors will be given the opportunity to hold personal meetings with the companies in the afternoon as well as attend the Evening Reception.
Program
08:45am Registration & Coffee (Guests to be seated by 9:30am)
09:30am Power Pitches
09:40am Welcome Address and Keynote Speech: Mr. William Klippgen, Angel Investor
09:50am Keynote Speech: Mr. Cato Gullichen, Seed Forum Singapore
10:00am Keynote Speech: (Speaker TBC)
10:10am Business Plan Presentations by 8 startups
11:45am Networking Lunch
06:00pm -08:00pm Investor Evening Reception
Pitching Companies
Synaptic Technologies (Norway): revolutionizing technology for real-time web
Neckcare (Norway): the Fly, a device to measure neck injuries
Yobetit (United Kingdom): new concept betting platform
Practical Technology (Norway): innovative logistic system for the marine industry
And 4 more from Southeast Asia.
When: Thursday 7th June 2012
Registration for Seed Forum Singapore: 8:45am-1:30pm
Registration for Investor Evening Reception: 6-8pm
Where: Taurus, Level 1, Marina Mandarin Singapore, 6 Raffles Boulevard, Marina Square, Singapore 039594
