After a series of laying off employees from their Philippine operations, German cloning titan Rocket Internet has fired more employees in Southeast Asia, this time from its Singapore base. Online furniture shopping portal Home24.sg is apparently shutting down.
We hear that several employees were fired several weeks ago and today was asked to come into the office to gather their stuff as the outfit is being closed. The website is still live though but customer service calls go unanswered.
Seems like its sneaking up on Singapore’s furniture retailers to try to capture the market didn’t work.
This is a developing story and we will update if we hear back from Rocket Internet.
Here’s your chance to start monetizing your Android applications! App Developers Challenge 2012 is Malaysia’s first localized Android application challenge brought to you by Celcom LEDC (League of Extraordinary Developers Challenge) in collaboration with MyAppZil, with the full endorsement of MDEC (Multimedia Development Corporation).
Your skills and creativity could win you an all-expense-paid trip to Korea worth RM25K (USD8K) for a 1-week industrial training on application development with Ubi-Nuri, the 1st independent app store operator in Korea with more than 6,500 apps and a talent pool of 1,100 developers worldwide.
Find out more about this upcoming Launch.
Event Details of the LAUNCH
When: Wednesday 5th of September 2012
Time: 6.30pm-9.30pm
Where: Chef n Brew, Damansara Heights, 1 Jalan Medan Setia 1, Bukit Damansara, 50490 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Entry: Free
REGISTER HERE.
Making revenue in a free world can be daunting when you have to pay rent and salaries. For every rags to riches story we read here on SGE, 17 startups are doing it the old school way – with personal finance and company revenue. This session will look at startups bootstrapping across Asia and the US, and what is trending.
Bootstrapping a business is taking the untrodden path. The path with the most obstacles and unknowns. It requires unconventional thinking and a great deal of self direction. Managing Director of Futurebooks, Anthony Coundouris, shares his personal experience bootstrapping two companies, and why he declined early stage investment.
“20% of Futurebooks customers bootstrap. 85% of startups worldwide get cash from consulting.” – Futurebooks
Join for Boot Strappers Anonymous and understand what it takes to be the founder of a bootstrapped business.
- self-mastery;
- motivation and drive;
- action and measure;
- sales effectiveness.
Event Details
When: Tuesday 4th September 2012
Time: 2.00 pm – 4.00 pm
Where: Plug-In@Blk 71, Blk 71 Ayer Rajah Crescent, #02-18, Singapore 139951
Entry: Free
REGISTER HERE.
This full day session is split into two workshops: Winning Angels and Angel Investing Legal Standards 101. The first workshop aims to provide an insight into the mindsets of angel investors and equip participants with powerful and practical fund raising strategies, useful tips to win angel investors and avoid common entrepreneur pitfalls. The second workshop aims to provide an overview of the legal standards commonly used by experienced angels for early stage venture investing. It will impart basic knowledge on the key terms used in deal documents and understand valuation methods. BANSEA (Business Angel Network Southeast Asia) Board Director, Dr Wong Poh Kam and BANSEA Deputy Chairman Wong Meng Weng will be the trainers for this full day session. Read more
With more than 4,400 granted US patents and more than 9,700 patents or patent applications internationally, Kia Silverbrook is one of the most prolific inventors in history. Silverbrook has founded companies and developed products in a wide range of disciplines, including computer graphics, video and audio production, scientific computing, factory automation, digital printing, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), molecular electronics, internet software, content management, genetic analysis, MEMS devices, security inks, photovoltaic solar cells, and interactive paper.
His inventions cover a wide variety of advanced technologies, including integrated circuit (chip) architecture, internet commerce, computer graphics, cryptography, digital music synthesis, digital paper, digital printing, digital video, DNA analysis, fault tolerance, image processing, lab-on-a-chip, liquid crystal displays, mechanical engineering, MicroElectroMechanical systems, microfluidics, 3D fabrication, nanotechnology, organic chemistry, parallel processing, polymers, robotics, semiconductor fabrication and sensors.
At the fifth installment of the DTS Forum series, ETPL has the honour of inviting Mr Kia Silverbrook to share his wealth of knowledge and experience to inspire entrepreneurs, industry professionals, researchers and academia in Singapore to explore the potential of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Mr Silverbrook will speak on the following topics:
· Why there can be no guaranteed ‘formula’ for success
· Things to avoid, things that benefit
· The rate of innovation in the 20th century
· Major technologies that will shape the next half century
· Technologies which are currently over-hyped
· Why there will be no ‘singularity’
Also meet Mr Pete Bonee, Partner, Innosight Ventures who will moderate a post-talk question and answer session.
Event Details
When: Thursday 13th September 2012
Time: 3pm-5pm
Where: 30 Biopolis Street, Matrix Building, Level 4, Exploration Theatrette, Singapore 138671
NO registration link. Just turn up.
For the first time in Asia, the US event on failure, FailCon, is coming to Singapore this October 15. First started in 2009 with more than 400 attendees, FailCon now happens across the globe. FailCon Singapore is a one-day conference for technology entrepreneurs, investors, developers and designers to study their own and others’ failures and prepare for success.
The underlying message is: If you are not making mistakes, you are not striving high enough.
FailCon’s goal is to strengthen the regional startup ecosystem and promote failure as an inevitable part of entrepreneurship. Let’s work together to de-stigmatize risk-taking and failure in the region by exploring failure in an Asian context and uncovering how companies deal with failure in the West.
Speakers
The line-up so far looks amazing, with a whole bunch of people flying in from across Asia and the US.
- Lyle Fong, Chief Strategist & Co-Founder Lithium Technologies
- Ben Huh, Founder & CEO, Cheezburger
- Ho Kwon Ping, founder and Executive Chairman, Banyan Tree Holdings Limited
- Patrick Lee, Co-founder alive not dead, previously co-founded Rotten Tomatoes
- Carl Coryell-Martin, Managing Director, Singapore office of {New Context}
- Paul Bragiel, Managing Partner, i/o Ventures
- Dr. Bernard Leong, Vistaprint and SGE (view our team page)
- Gwendolyn Regina Tan, SGE (view our team page)
More to come.
Event Details
When: Monday 15th October 2012
Where: TAB, 442 Orchard Road, #02-29, Singapore 238879
Entry: Paid event.
REGISTER HERE.
This follows two other recent events on failure in Singapore: SUTD’s Fail Week and FailStock. We’re very excited to have more talk on failure in Asia. SGE’s Gwen might also speak at the annual SXSX conference in the US in March 2013 on the culture of Asian entrepreneurs and failure. Vote here if you wanna see it happen!
What started as a simple, promising technology idea has manifested into a “monster ball” game. You are overwhelmed with trying to secure a spot in the crowded market place, running ahead of your competitors, defining your “J curve”, building the ACE team, and seeking out your best allies (partners, team, investors).
Remember, you are not walking the journey alone.
For this evening, let fellow entrepreneurs and seasoned investors help you decode some of the most complex issues in running and growing an ICT start-up.
Promised to be a “hard truth” guide; watch moderator Ms Virginia Cha “grill” the panel members to bring about an exciting debate of perspectives from both entrepreneur and investor’s angle on hot start-up topics.
It will be an interactive sessions whereby audiences are encouraged to share your views and pose questions. Do come prepared for a lively discussion.
Speakers
- William Klippgen, Managing Director, Tigris Capital
- Roger Yuen, Chairman, 123JumpStart, SiTF
- Dinesh Raju, Founder, Anafore
- Xu Daxiang, Founder, around!
- Virginia Cha, Chief, Research at Institute of Systems Science, NUS
Event Details
When: Thursday 6th September 2012
Time: 6-9pm
Where: SingTel Theatrette (31 Exeter Road, Podium Block, Level 3, Singapore 239732)
REGISTER HERE.
A new report by DailySocial Research and Veritrans on the e-commerce market in Indonesia has revealed, among other things, that the country’s e-commerce market is a drop in the ocean compared to total retail sales, at only 0.7% (USD0.9 billion) out of USD134 billion.
The research project is a collaboration with Veritrans, an online payment processor for the Indonesian market. The team collected data through first-hand interviews, existing information on the Internet, and transaction information from e-commerce companies in Indonesia, which includes Kaskus, the country’s leading online classified ads site. Online shoppers. 584 of them, were surveyed as well. Read more
Cofounders of a new form of online startup incubator, nReduce, Josh Schwartzman and Joe Mellin are currently doing a world tour to visit startups that are in their nReduce online incubator. As part of the world tour, they will be stopping by Singapore to meet and network with entrepreneurs.
nReduce is a system of accountability and a community that provides feedback and support. Once you are in the network, nReduce requires everyone to file weekly video updates which can be shared with the team, advisors, and mentors. Startups can also connect with other startups in the system which can peer-to-peer mentor. This ensures that startups actually keep shipping updates every week.
Event Details
When: Tuesday 28th August 2012
Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Where: The Studio Bar, 778 North Bridge Road Singapore 198746
REGISTER HERE.
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