Sharon Lourdes Paul - Contributing Writer
Sharon is currently pursuing her final semester at the Singapore Management University, and co-leads the StartupRoots Singapore programme 2012. Apart of these formal pursuits, she's fascinated with the harmonization of separate components to form palatable creations. Current raves include UX, customer development, architecture/space design, and cooking. Spot her at her blog and @sharonlourdes.
The writer's posts
Efforts made by Singapore government to nurture the nation’s entrepreneurship scene have finally rippled down to the private sector.
With the extension of the National Research Foundation’s Technology Incubator Scheme (NRF-TIS), eight new incubator-funds have emerged last year. Among them is TNF Ventures (TNFV), which held an official launch last Friday.
The fund is founded by several veterans, consisting of a good mix of entrepreneurs, senior corporate executives and venture capitalists, mostly in the IT industry. Read more
Filed under Funding, Innovation & Technology, News Stop, Technology, Venture Capital & Private EquityTags: David Su, Eddie Chau, Foo Jixun, NRF TIS, Shirley Wong, Singapore, Steve Ting, Tan Yen Yen, Terence Tan, TNF Ventures, TNFV
As a student bitten by the wanderlust bug, Flocations sure calls out to me. It is a travel discovery app that aims to help visitors discover new places based on a predetermined budget.
Throughout the JFDI-Innov8 2012 Bootcamp, the Singapore-based team had been iterating their product, with much focus on improving its user experience. They overhauled their entire site last month. Here is a round up of three key features they have:
Read more
Having presented at last year’s Launchpad at Echelon, FetchFans is a familiar name in Singapore’s startup scene. The team has progressed since then, and found themselves amidst the jungle in the JDFI Bootcamp this year.
FetchFans has a single purpose: To fetch fans for franchises worldwide. It achieves this with a SaaS solution that delivers scalable brand control for the franchises.
According to founder and managing director Carmen Benitez, brand franchises are in desperate need to use social media. Within that context, they have two concerns: Read more
Let’s face it. There is still a dearth of female entrepreneurs in startup land. As I walked around the booths at DEMO Asia 2012, only about ten percent of startups had female founders. But what does this mean for all of us aspiring, or current, female founders? I was fortunate to interview three inspiring women and capture their words of advice for us.
1. Being female does not handicap you.
Rebeca Hwang, Co-founder and CEO of YouNoodle
Rebeca Hwang, co-founder and CEO of YouNoodle, expressed that gender-bias is not as rampant as perceived by some. Founded in 2007, Rebeca does have some years of experience up her sleeve. She disagrees that female founders have a harder time raising funds. Read more
Filed under Entrepreneurs, Featured, Innovation & Technology, Interviews, TechnologyTags: Female Entrepreneurs, Lee Min Xuan, Pascale Helyar-Moray, PlayMoolah, Rebecca Hwang, stylerocks, women entrepreneurs, women in IT, YouNoodle
With the surge of smartphones, we are undeniably moving towards a “mobile-first” world. In this space, majority of the mobile companies that took stage on DEMO Asia 2012 aimed to help individual users connect better to the physical world.
Dr Gopi Kudrup, CEO of Telekom Malaysia R&D, highlighted how the prospects of mobile are limitless. However, it was disappointing to see that majority of the startups presented only incremental innovations.
With big players such as Apple having monopolistic power, Arnon Kohavi, Founder of Yarden VC, challenge the general audience to think big. Regardless of where we start our company; a startup should aim to do something disruptive and break existing monopolies.
Here, we give a low-down on whether some of the mobile startups embraced such an outlook. Read more
Filed under Innovation & Technology, Mobile, TechnologyTags: arnon kohavi, DEMO, DEMO Asia, DEMO Asia 2012, flexiroam, George Mobile, gopi kudrup, lobangclub, secq.me, thatzcard, vitaltrak
The slate of consumer technology startups at DEMO Asia 2012 is almost “jungle” like, hailing from different industries.
The industries covered include sexy trends such as video and social, to hardware that have less online hype. There were also medical, education, and even environmental startups.
This is in contrast to the convergence towards two main trends (gamification and loyalty apps) among social media startups.
The quality of the startups occupy extreme ends of the spectrum too. Below, we go through each category to give you a run-down of how innovative they are. Read more
Filed under Entrepreneurs, Innovation & Technology, TechnologyTags: API, business.me, ctrlworks, cutechat, DEMO, DEMO Asia, DEMO Asia 2012, fiett, greenpost, Hoiio, hoiio live, intraix, oosome, pixtelz, qooco, vIOS, virtual instruments online studio
Witness the new products that hope to define the mobile landscape. In this session, Asial Corporation, Evvolution Technologies, Mobilewalla, Flexiroam, 2359 Media, VitalTRAKS, GClue, Thatz International, SecQMe, and George Mobile will be launching new products.
Read more
Filed under Innovation & Technology, Mobile, TechnologyTags: 2359 Media, Asial Corporation, Evvolution Technologies, flexiroam, GClue, George Mobile, MobileWalla, SecQMe, Thatz International, VitalTRAKS
Take a look at promising technologies that intend to break out big with consumers. In this session, Qooco, Innova Technology, Business.me, PixTelz, Hoiio Live, and Greenpost will be launching new products. CtrlWorks, SGK Group, OOsome, Swordfish, Intraix, and Fiett will do Alpha Pitches. Read more
Filed under Innovation & Technology, Technology, WebTags: business.me, ctrlworks, DEMO, DEMO Asia, DEMO Asia 2012, fiett, greenpost, hoiio live, innova technology, intraix, oosome, pixtelz, qooco, sgk group, swordfish
This is the fourth article from the “Mistakes made, lessons learnt” series. Check out all the articles here.
Company & founder: Gina Romero
Biggest mistake made: Failing ask for help from others when confronted with an unexpected big offer
Most memorable setback: Missing out on a potentially big deal – to be the main wireless Internet infrastructure supplier for a housing estate. Read more
This is the third article from the “Mistakes made, lessons learnt” series. Check out all the articles here.
Biggest mistake made: Assuming that everyone will think highly of his idea and participate.
Most memorable setback: Having only two clients in the first year of business. Read more
Filed under Featured, Great Business Ideas, Innovation & Technology, Interviews, Retail, Services, TechnologyTags: inspiring entrepreneurs, mistakes made lessons learnt, Ng chin leng, SingaporeBrides, singaporemotherhood
