Glenn Santos from Mentors Dojo pitches on the final day.

I’ve been part of two Startup Weekends already and I must say there is nothing like the energy of founders trying to turn an idea into a startup in a scant 54 hours. Here are some things I did that helped me during the event.

1) The Pre-Startup Weekend

I made soft connections and went to tech events before Startup Weekend, asking around who’s going while I’m at it. I also caught up with a few friends who were going to the Weekend via Facebook, Twitter and through meetings offline.

I’ll explain later why I did this.

2) The Idea

 Thinking up an idea can be a struggle. Here’s what I did.

I thought about my idea way before the Weekend. I tried to find out if startups needed a better way to connect with mentors and discovered that yes, they do. Essentially, a good idea is a solution that hasn’t existed yet, but solves a problem that is bugging people.

Believe in your idea and the problem it solves. For me, I really believe that mentorship is important for young businesses to thrive. If you believe your idea and how it will change the world, that goes a long way in attracting people to your team.

No idea yet? The most popular ideas are either fun or world changing. Again, make sure that you are really convinced yourself that the problem is worth solving.

3) The Pitch Day

When Friday came, I practiced pitching my idea to real people. I realized that I can’t be afraid of sharing my idea since it will attract people to my team early on. Also, talking really loosens the vocal chords and removes a bit of the tension.

I made my pitch short since one of the odd things about the venue is that people are split into two rooms, so we needed to run or jog between them. It also helped me keep my idea nice, tight and easy to grasp. If you can communicate your idea in just three sentences, go for it.

4) The recruitment Pitch

Three things: what’s the problem you are trying to solve, what’s the solution, and who do you need. I really thought about my answer for those, which made my pitch flow much more smoothly.

Remember, the pitch is for building a team so point your guns towards the audience, which is composed of developers, geeks, designers and business guys. The first sentence matters, so get their attention. In Startup Weekend Manila, there were 60+ pitchers, so I was going against a lot of ideas.

I started with, “Your startup is doomed to fail.” Ominous (and hopefully it didn’t discourage people from their own ideas) but it got a reaction, which is what I wanted.

Calling for team members.

5) The Team

Remember those soft ties I made earlier? With a few acquaintances around, you now have a bit of support for your idea. Even before the voting, I tried to invite people to join my team already. It’s execution that matters after all, and nobody can do that alone.

Recruit people who are willing to work on the idea even after Startup Weekend, which was why I made soft ties before. I’ve found that people are more comfortable working with guys they already have a relationship with.

6) The Concept

The first night is a great time to really solidify your idea into something doable. Darius “Bubs” Monsef, a 500 Startups mentor, shared a few solid questions that you should ask the team in order to turn the vision into a product:

• What’s the simplest version of the idea?
• What’s the most engaging feature of that simple idea?
• What technology do you need to leverage to make it happen?

7) The Minimum Viable Product

Good morning, now we build! Everything you need should be already be provided by the organizers but knowing the local infrastructure in Manila, there will certainly be hiccups. We had a couple of power outages (thankfully our machines were unhurt) as well as connectivity issues.

Set up a local server and work there, deploying it after hours at home. You don’t need things to go live anyway and the judges don’t expect you to. Or bring a portable hotspot, that also works. Finally, make sure to bring extension cords for all of your team’s machines.

Start putting together a product that is simple and engaging but most importantly answers the problem you set out to solve.

8) The Validation

Once you have a product, go ahead and show it to potential early customers and get feedback. The afternoon/evening of Day Two should be all about validating your assumptions. Don’t delay this to the next day like I did since everyone will likely be very busy doing last minute commits and polishing pitches.

Note if your solution does answer the problem (you might need to explain the parts that aren’t built yet) and use your learnings to iterate and improve your product.

Our goal in Startup Weekend was to learn as much as we could about our problem and thankfully our market was right there (startups) so we could test our assumptions and get the feedback we needed. I think that would be a good goal for you as well: Aim to maximize learning and not getting a well-polished finished product out the gate.

9) The Mentors

One of the best things about Startup Weekend is that mentors come to you. Don’t waste it! For us, we got inputs from as many mentors as we can and validated out assumptions and solutions with them. They’re really there to help and they will gladly share what they know, including things you might not have thought about.

Turn their inputs into actionable tasks but defer those that you can’t implement right away or aren’t going to contribute much to solving the pain point you are addressing.

Terence Pua from Insync, a mentor, gives the I-don't-think-this-will-work face.

10) The Final Pitch

The last day is all about iterating the product based on inputs from your customers and finalizing your pitch deck. You’re given four minutes to pitch plus a two -minute Q&A.

Here’s what you need to pitch:

• Customer Validation
• Execution Plan
• Potential Business Models
• Demo, if you have one

The winning team in Startup Weekend Manila 2012, Kiddle, had a very nice presentation that integrated their demo right into the slides. It was a wise move since demoing a solution over the slow internet will kill you. The primary goal of the slide deck is to show the judges that you executed well over the weekend and that you nailed the solution in the head.

You’ve been working on the product the whole weekend so what you’re going to say should be second nature to you by now. If it isn’t, feel free to use a cheat sheet like me.

Stick to the time limit.

11) The Q&A

Be ready to answer the judges’ questions. If you’ve done your homework (and went beyond just coding a product), you’ll be able to answer them without breaking a sweat. Some of the tough ones are:

• How do you scale?
• How are you sure that people will buy it?
• You need X to make this work. How will you get X?

12) The After Party

It’s time to celebrate! Startup Weekend is over! While doing that though, plan your next steps as a team. Iron out when your next meeting will be, what you need to do now (more customer development, most likely) and who will do what. We did our first huddle the holiday after the weekend, to keep the vibe alive.

Remember, the purpose of Startup Weekend is to build a startup, not a project. Focus on really building it out and making a difference in the world!

Photos: Terence Lee

About the author

Glenn Santos is the founder of Mentors Dojo, which connects startup founders with helpful mentors. He also runs memokitchen.com, which helps create content for websites, apps and startups.

Andreessen Horowitz recently revealed that its investment of US$250K in Instagram became $78 million. Thats a multiple of 312. Investing in early stage ventures is indeed very rewarding yet inherently risky. It thrives on multiple high risk bets out of which one or more would achieve high rewards.

But that certainly does not mean putting blind bets on anything that comes your way. Those who believe in “Spray and Pray” kind of investing are often losers in the long term.

Most VCs through their experience would have developed some sort of an internal braincloud (mental) checklist which gets ticked during the pitching sessions. Relying on mental checklists again is risky. Some or more of those check points might get sidelined if the idea falls into one of the soft spots of the more influential team members.

So how can venture capital funds systematically mitigate undue risks?

Here is a list of risks inherent in Venture investing along with practical risk mitigation strategies and if needed a ‘Jugaad’. Jugaad is a colloquial Indian term that means a creative idea, or a quick workaround to get through commercial, logistic or law issues.

1. Risk of the unknowns

Most people think a business is after all a business whether it is hi-tech or low-tech. If it makes money, why shouldn’t one be part of it? Some argue that if one understands the need of such a product/service, one qualifies to invest.

But most would forget that it takes a lot more for a venture to succeed than just a great idea. The devil is always in the details and in execution. If you come from an e-commerce background and are offered an opportunity to invest in an orthopedic surgical device, think twice.

How would you figure out what is the right amount of field trials you need to carry out before pitching it to potential acquirers? What makes more sense – licensing the technology to an existing player or go solo?

Mitigation: Invest ONLY in areas where Fund Managers have some domain knowledge.

Jugaad: If you are excited to support an idea where the investment team does not have relevant expertise, the fund management should think about appointing an advisor who knows that domain and is willing to work closely with one of the investment team members.

2. Risk of working remotely

This is something I have learnt from my own and my partner’s experience. I am a firm believer in technology and remote working when it comes to Shared Service Environments in large multinational companies where job descriptions are clearly laid out and roles are well defined.

However, it just doesn’t work in a startup environment with the founding team sitting in a different time zone. Having a development center alone in a different time zone can create headaches and delays.

Mitigation: Invest LOCAL.

Jugaad: Appoint local advisors as representatives and enhance corporate governance measures by inviting -local independent directors to the board.

3. Risk of founder’s fatigue

Starting up is hard enough. Doing it alone makes it even harder. What would you do if the key founder throws in the towel? It is indeed very difficult for a startup to find a CEO material to pick up and run the company.

Mitigation: Invest in TEAMs not Individuals. Also, test individuals in the team by offering them less salaries than their expectations. This would be a small test for them to prove that salary is not their motivation and they understand the big common goal.

Jugaad: If the founder has a prior track record, that can be viewed favorably.

4. Risk of running out of cash

Most startups before getting proper funding are in bootstrapping mode. Spending is conservative and revenue prediction is optimistic. Who hasn’t seen those hockey sticks and the great magic of excel?

But as soon as they get investor funding, startups tend to shift modes. They think more like a real company with real overheads.There is nothing wrong with that except the fact that monthly burns suddenly shoot up to such an extent that there is not enough time left to pivot. If the idea spreads virally, it works. Otherwise, founders are happy to treat this as a learning opportunity on the scholarship provided by VCs.

Mitigation: Assess how much cash is required as per the most reasonable forecast. Multiply outflows by 1.5 and inflows by 0.5. Scott Anthony says: “It always takes longer and it always costs more.” Fund the company with at least 20% more than the number you arrive at. An early stage company needs at least 18 months runway.

Jugaad: Syndicate with someone who can do follow on investments. You are going to need that money whether the company does well or not.

5. Risk of post marital blues

It is very common to have disagreements whether it is among co-founders or between founders and investors. Being humans, conflicts are inevitable. Most of the time people manage to settle these issues with a little give and take. But there are instances where there are gridlocks and relationships become so sour that the parties can’t even stand each other.

Mitigation: Investment lead should be identified and allocated to the investment opportunity even before the first pitch. This person, through the course of due diligence, must pose some difficult questions in front of the team and observe the team’s reaction. If the team shows any signs of arrogance or denial, this must be looked into greater detail.

Jugaad: None. Stay away if you see such early signs.

I sincerely believe that there really is a science to nurturing successful startups, and that it has to do with methodically knocking down risks to get to the rewards.

Photo: Images_of_Money

About the author

Piyush Chaplot works with Innosight Ventures as VP-Finance & Investments. His current role is to source, evaluate, structure, monitor, and manage early stage investments in Singapore. He serves on the Board of www.chope.com.sg and also acts as part time CFO for some of the other investee companies. Additionally, he manages the finance and compliance functions within the Innosight Ventures group. He has more than 10 years of experience in financial and risk management roles in India, Indonesia, Australia, UAE and Singapore. Piyush is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, CPA Australia and CPA Singapore. He holds a Masters of Commerce degree from M.D.S. University in Ajmer, India. He is also a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA).

Recently, I did a talk at JFDI, a Y-combinator-quality incubator for South East Asia, where I shared how it is like to be an entrepreneur.

A lot of people tend to think: Being entrepreneur is about having a $1B+ home run in the first try. But it’s almost never the case. The best way to describe the life would be through an analogy of playing poker.

Why poker? Well, it is one of those few card games, where you are not playing against a bank/dealer, but rather amongst the players themselves. Winning a hand is not just a matter of having the best card, but also how you play the hand (since having the best card may not necessarily lead to a win).

Lastly, it’s about knowing when to double down (put more resources), when to fold (call it quits) or when to call the other’s bluff (competitors who posture rather than being a real threat).

The slides I did at JFDI are at the bottom of the article. Here’s a summary of the talk:

1) We all start at a level playing field with almost similar start-up capital;

2) Rarely on the first round will we ever get four Aces and clean up the table right away;

3) Pragmatic approach in lowering risk would be to play each round and win a little, round over round, rather than looking for that 1 super home run. Plan to play for the long-haul;

4) Know when to fold or when to double down. Unlike a traditional game of poker, there’s a time limit to playing entrepreneurial poker. Therefore, one would have to maximize the number of rounds one can play in a finite time for best possible result;

Entrepreneurship is inherently risky, however, we can take certain steps to limit those risk factors that are within our grasp.

Interestingly, Fred Wilson from Union Square Ventures (NYC) wrote a post eight years ago, unknown to me, on how being a venture capitalist is like playing poker. An entrepreneur and a VC are partners of the same coin. Guess which is heads and which one tails?

Photo: Ross Elliot

About the author

Saumil Nanavati was the co-founder and CEO of Chalkboard, which recently shut down. As a pan-continental serial digital media entrepreneur from Silicon Valley to Asia Pacific, he manages sales, marketing, and operations at Chalkboard, the local mobile ad network.

He has a long history in all things digital, particularly cross roads of digital and advertising. Prior to Chalkboard, he was the co-founder and CEO of Sydus, which he took from incubation to a successful exit. He has managed the P&L’s in advertiser funded digital solutions for mobile and web, managed music & entertainment business within these segments, including @Sydus, the largest pan Asian advertiser funded mobile music service.

Grow fast, die young?

Does that have to be the mode for every fashion label, asks Carl Thompson, Co-founder of TradeGecko. Meet the former fashion label owner-turned digital entrepreneur who’s set himself a 100 day target to save small fashion labels worldwide.

Five years ago I launched Crowded Elevator, a fashion label in New Zealand. We started with a few boutique t-shirts and within a year we were wholesaling to over 50 retailers across New Zealand and Australia. It looked like the world was waiting for us. Then we died.

Wholesaling is no easy business. It takes a lot of time managing each section of the sales cycle. The administration required to manage inventory, orders, accounts, stockists, manufacturing and errors is completely overwhelming. If you don’t have the systems in place to handle such a workload the administration will kill all passion and ultimately the business, as it did for me.

When things went wrong for Crowded Elevator, I made a promise to myself to understand why.

I’ve spent the last few months calling 200 small to medium sized fashion wholesalers and retailers worldwide and an interesting picture has emerged.

Travis Siflinger from LA based underwear label BR4SS says “The ability to sell, produce, handle logistical challenges & ultimately collect what is owed to you is where revenue is created. Not in simply creating something cool that people like.”

“Stores don’t think to pay, you have to be like a squeaky door, keep hounding them until you get noticed. Cash flow is key at the end of the day.” Says Sam Moore Men’s founder of Sydney based label Dead Castle Project.

He’s not alone. Countless creative people working in our sector confirmed that starting a fashion label is an appealing business. The freedom to create and develop a public following is enticing. But when success comes, it cuts both ways: time and again we heard that the administration required to actually run a fashion label kills all creative passion.

Rick Buissink owner of long running retail store Texas Radio in Auckland, New Zealand has seen his fair share of labels come and go. He agrees that the late payments are standard practice “The poor designer who has had to pay up front for material and labour is now hoping that the struggling retailer who has their stock will pay them, sooner than 90 days! A vicious cycle.”

Creating a few t-shirts for friends seems to be the starting point for would-be fashion heroes and with success selling a couple of hundred, plans to expand soon follow. Growing the business means opening new markets and sales channels. Our young hero must rapidly learn new skills as retail stores quickly jump on the wave. Suddenly the label is faced with huge growing pains.

What was a hobby rapidly needs to become a real business. There are key decisions to make – like whether to sell direct to a niche market, or to become a wholesaler. But wholesaling is about logistics and numbers, not creativity and these are not usually the reasons a fashion designer went into business.

All too quickly, the volume of work involved in managing inventory, orders, manufacturing, fulfillment, returns, not to mention debt collection, can become a nightmare for a small team.

There is only so much a spreadsheet can do. There are few standards and even fewer good applications to manage any part of the process.

Business writer Michael E. Gerber writes about the myths that hold back entrepreneurs in his book “The E-Myth revisited”:

“The fatal assumption is: if you understand the technical work of a business, you understand a business that does that technical work.”

The interesting thing about the calls we have been making is how true that pattern seems but also why it need not happen. The issues that seem to strangle most fashion labels as they grow are common across all sorts of niche industries and so, it seems, are the solutions.

From hi-tech products, through personal goods – even specialist food and beverage products like wines — creative people trying to turn their bright ideas into business face the same administrative challenges.

Hugh Mason is co-author of “Brainfruit – Turning Creativity Into Cash, from East to West”:

“Running a small business with minimal capital and minimal staff places huge responsibility on a first-time fashion designer. Each area of the business must be carefully planned and executed. It’s to find 90% of your time sucked up by administration and much of that is dealing with errors, returns, quality issues, manufacturing issues, staff issues, and the most draining of all; debt collection.

Cash is like blood for any fast-growing business. If the flow gets blocked, the result is the business equivalent of a heart attack. When most small fashion labels are only making 20% profit margin, a few errors, an unhappy customer that starts sending letters from their lawyer, or a couple of returned orders can kill that small profit.”

We heard the same story from well-known New Zealand fashion label WORLD:

“Fashion brands have always and will always find it difficult survive in any economic environment, WORLD has had its fair share of luck but stoic faith in the labels philosophy and hard work are what has kept WORLD going for 23 years”, Benny Castles, Menswear Design at WORLD

Looking at it from the retailer’s angle, there are also frustrations. Lots of people like the idea of setting up their own boutique and they usually kick off sourcing their stock from a couple of wholesalers or they know well. Understanding the market and forecasting trends is difficult. You are guessing what is going to sell well.

You want an ecosystem of brands that complement each other well and set your shop apart from the rest. Maintaining good relationships with your wholesalers is key and most issues arise around account confusion. Who owes who what?!

Calling all these people across the fashion world has been a kind of therapy. It’s been reassuring to find that the challenges I faced as a rookie entrepreneur trying to do what I loved were the same challenges faced by so many others. It’s also been inspiring. In fact it has given me a mission: to put right what I now recognize were common “supply chain issues” that hold back creative people across our industry.

That’s why I, and my business partner Cameron Priest, launched TradeGecko and joined the JFDI-Innov8 2012 bootcamp here in Singapore. It’s a 100 day digital business ‘accelerator’ that is taking us from an idea for a new kind of stock and inventory management system for SME fashion companies, through building a working prototype. On 4th May we pitch it to a roomful of investors.

We want to help labels get back their creative freedom by automating the sales cycle. No more creating order sheets, no more time sucking spreadsheets, no more chasing accounts, just one central control system to manage the core of any wholesale business and create transparency between wholesalers and retailers.

We want to equip fashion labels with the same kind of power that big brands have to manage their supply chain, increasing cashflow and taking away the growing pains that so often kill creative passion and businesses.

Doing all that in 100 days is exhausting but also very focused. We have had a great response from industry players who have spoken with us so far but we still need more fashion wholesalers and retailers to work with us to get this right. If you would be willing to share your experience and give us your advice, please get in touch.

About the author

Carl Thompson
CMO / Co-Founder and all round great guy
SG +65 9157 9674
US +1 41599 27909
http://tradegecko.com/ - Inventory & Order Management For Smart Brands.

Image Credit: Thing Three

Facebook has over 850 million users worldwide. Out of that, a total of 194 million users are from Asia at the end of March 2012. Most of these users from the Southeast Asia region – 97 million or 54% of the total Facebook users in Asia. Some other observations on the latest Facebook in Asia statistics:

1. In early February 2012, India surpassed Indonesia to become Facebook No. 1 Nation in Asia. Back in January 2011, India has 16.9 million Facebook users. Now, the country has over 45.9 million Facebook users.
2. In addition to India, Japan has been growing impressively in the past 1 year or so. Japan started the year 2011 with 1.8 million Facebook users. Today, there are over 8 million users in Japan.
3. South Korea has been growing with double digits figure. The country is now ahead of Pakistan in the Facebook in Asia list.
4. Among the top ten countries, India, Japan, and South Korea has been the high-growth Facebook nations since early 2011. Throughout 2012, Facebook will be focusing on these three countries for users acquisition, as the Big Blue of the social web aims to reach the 1 billion users mark.
5. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Mongolia, and Laos also posted double-digit growth in Quarter 1 of 2012.
6. Growth in countries like Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Taiwan are growing at slower pace, likely due to saturation effect. For example, Facebook penetration in Malaysia is over 70%.
7. Between January and March this year, the total Facebook Asian users grew by 7%. However, the quarter-to-quarter growth rate has been on a downward trend since Quarter 1 of 2011. Facebook is expected to grow with single digit figure throughout 2012.
8. Total Facebook users in Asia will sail pass 200 million in Quarter 2 this year.

Images: Grey Review

About the author

Yung Hui Lim is the founder of the Grey Review, a blog focusing on tech startups, web application reviews, and social media in Asia and product manager at MOL, one of Southeast Asia’s largest Internet companies.

The sun was beating down on me. The Austin weather at SXSW is simultaneously cold and scorching. Some words come out of my mouth, but I’m not sure what I had just said. Whatever I said, it seems to have gotten a negative reaction.

‘Don’t give me another one of those we’re X for Y type of pitches. Talk to me like I’m an normal person!’

He was referring to my first elevator pitch attempt, “Gushcloud is like Task Rabbit for social media marketing.” But when I tried it at the last event, it seemed to work well!

Quick, think fast.

I brush it off and try again to illustrate what Gushcloud is with a relevant example (read our feature on Gushcloud).

“Sure, so what business do you do?”

“I build live chat software for businesses.”

Crap! B2B business! Can I cram it into the B2C example that I’ve been using all along? I’m starting to feel uncomfortable. I have a beer in hand and I take a swig.

“Look he’s sweating already!” Laughter all around. The man and his posse are watching me, the helpless guy trying to explain what his startup does. I stubbornly try anyway to fit a square peg in a round hole with my rehearsed example.

“Let’s say you want consumers to know about your live chat software for business. Using Gushcloud, you can create a task in a matter of minutes….” As I’m speaking, I start realizing how silly the example sounds. Why would ordinary people want to find out about live chat software when its targeted at businesses? I realize my final attempt is doomed to failure.

He interrupts me.

“Listen pal, why don’t you try your pitch again via email.” *hands me business card* His posse isn’t laughing anymore – they feel embarrassed for me…. (to be continued)

The SXSW experience

That incident happened at a Y Combinator networking session at SXSW and it was full of YC alums and related people and I had experienced my first real crash and burn in a while. This was my second day at SXSW 2012. It’s one of those scenes that will most definitely be acted out when the Gushcloud movie comes out after we hit 500 million users (The day will come!).

SXSW 2012 is one of those marathon events that places an elevator pitch to the ultimate test. It lasts seven days, with multiple events happening simultaneously with multiple panel sessions and a trade show.

It’s hard not to find yourself repeating what your company does at least 400 times and that’s where it gets interesting — you have a real opportunity to hone your pitch in a span of a few hours and test multiple ideas to see what works. It’s like Lean Startup methodology for elevator pitches.

I call it the “Minimum Viable Pitch” (MVP).

Like creating a startup, there’s always a temptation to over-elaborate in a pitch just as there is a temptation to cram features into a first release. I’m guilty of both. But really, what you want is to start off with a MVP that is interesting enough, such that it opens the door for a deeper, more involved conversation.

I tried 15 different versions of my one-line pitch before settling on one that worked for me during the trade show. How do I know that worked? Well the people I spoke to became interested, engaged and eventually for some – mind-blown.

Here’s my process for a MVP approach to crafting an elevator pitch for a networking event:

0. What is your networking objective? This pitch must eventually lead you to be able to either meet that objective or at least impress a person enough to remember you.

1. Start with a one-liner that has a hook, the part that makes people do a double-take. Sometimes it has to be done in two lines. Depends on how easy it is to articulate your business.

2. The second part is the illustration that makes a person go, ‘ah I see, I know a little bit about what you do’. The effect is to build on the first statement to showcase what your product does.

Armed with a basic understanding of what you do know, its time to contextualize it to the person you’re speaking to, his industry and relevant experience and craft the next hook.

What does this mean? If you’re speaking to an investor, what would be the next sentence that really impresses him? If you’re speaking to a potential customer, what would be the next line that just makes him want to sign up? Unlike most elevator ‘how-tos’ I see out there, I don’t think there’s a one-size fits all elevator pitch.

A lot of entrepreneurs pitch to just one or two target audiences, often investors. So the usual blurb is 1) one-liner, 2) pain point, 3) market opportunity, and so on. This won’t work in a networking event. There’s too little time to make an impact and a rehearsed pitch for investors just won’t work.

3. The contextualization.

Example: To a potential customer.

‘Are you familiar with brand x?’

Person: ‘Yes I know them.’

‘Well they spent a lot of money last year to build this application, but they couldn’t get anyone to play with it after weeks of Facebook and Google ads. Five days before their deadline, they came to us and we created a task on Gushcloud that drove people to play with it. They had more than 4000 people playing with the app by the 3rd day. What kind of business needs do you have?’

Person: ‘Well, I don’t really have any needs at this point of time, but that’s a really cool idea. I’ll definitely keep that in mind.‘

Sometimes, people are really not interested in how fantastic your product is simply because its not relevant at that time. But its never a wasted opportunity because that person could refer you a valuable lead down the road.

The MVP approach to a networking event elevator pitch requires you to build upon what works and rapidly contextualize it to your immediate audience with the intention to meet a networking objective. Obviously what I outlined above is not a one-size fits all approach.

It’s important to know your objective because that determines how many lines you need to to be able to have that call-to-action. The main point is to always know what’s the response you’re looking for and you GOTTA TEST each line to make sure you illicit the correct responses in the real world.

It’s not everyday you get to pitch to investors. But you should be prepared for that day!

But, but, What if I FAIL??

Here’s a continuation of my earlier story:

….

“Listen pal, why don’t you try your pitch again via email.” *hands me business card* His posse isn’t laughing anymore – they feel embarrassed for me.

*I take the business card and hand him mine.* I feel embarrassed but I know this is not the time to retreat into a dark corner and die. I put on my most confident smile.

“Thanks man, appreciate the card. You know what? Sometimes, this just happens, even to the best of us,” he says, “it’s one of those stories you live to tell.” I see the group nodding. You can tell that everyone has been through the same kind of embarrassment at one point or another. I move in for the graceful exit.

‘But hey, I’ll love to drop you that pitch email. This was funny and I bet you guys will remember it too,” I said, “So tell me more about the service that you offer?” The conversations carry on and I learn about his services. Later that hour, one of his posse members comes up to me, gives me smile and shrugs, “Sometimes it happens. But you learn.” We then carry on another conversation about what he does and how interesting it is.

Point: It isn’t the end of the world when you fail. What’s the worst that could happen? You’re not proposing to them for their hand in marriage. Take things in your stride. If you have a tendency to stumble – know your exit strategy. Is it a name card and a thank you or a self-deprecating comment with a comeback? Adopting the MVP model of pitching means that failures are bound to happen, but you will get better and better.

Be prepared, be awesome, go out there and conquer the world!

Lead photo: jasonbolonski

Prior to co-founding Gushcloud in March of 2011, Vincent was the Managing Partner of The Barnett Group, a digital-focused integrated marketing agency in Singapore with a unique proposition in youth community marketing and cross-media campaigns. Gushcloud is Vincent’s 3rd business, Vincent is also a partner in Big 3 Productions, which specializes in media production, 3D television content and more recently, augmented reality applications. Vincent graduated top of his class from Singapore Management University as the Valedictorian of the class 2009.

The best place for social entrepreneurship?

“Where’s the best place in the world for a social entrepreneur to live and build a social enterprise?”

That’s a tough question. It appears there are two schools of thought when it comes to attempting an answer: Get close or go big.

Some people believe that a social entrepreneur should be physically near to her target market. If she is working on poverty alleviation, then perhaps she should be in a city like Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Or if she is fighting air or water pollution then perhaps Dhaka, Bangladesh. That certainly makes sense for a number of social entrepreneurs.

But then there are those of us who think that a social enterprise with the greatest potential for global impact requires a very specific type of climate to flourish. In my research, I’ve identified a few factors that deeply matter: Access to talent, access to funding, access to markets, a good business climate, and a supportive culture. From that perspective, highly developed cities rise to the top.

When I asked my social entrepreneur friends to attempt an answer they threw out the following: Boston, Cambridge, Copenhagen, Delhi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, London, Manila, Mumbai, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Singapore, Stockholm, Vancouver, and many others.

Most said there is no single ‘best’ place, which makes sense. But the same people also identified Silicon Valley as the best place for entrepreneurs, at least in general. So perhaps there is an answer?

The best place to be will certainly vary for any particular social entrepreneur. It will depend on what industry they’re in, what stage of growth they’re in, how they reach their customers or beneficiaries, whether they’re suitable for social investment or not, and a whole host of other factors.

But for a general answer, my search led me to three top choices: London, Silicon Valley, and Singapore.

London is home to some of the world’s most prominent social powerhouses: The Young Foundation, Social Innovation Exchange, School for Social Entrepreneurs, UnLtd, among others. It is certainly a contender.

Silicon Valley is the world’s poster child for entrepreneurship. It has an extraordinary amount of talent, money, and energy.

But Asia is the future. I place a lot of weight on this claim. If you’re a social entrepreneur thinking ten or more years out, Asia cannot easily be ignored.

So let’s talk about Singapore.

Two years ago, I was on a trip around the world with one of my mentors. He was consulting; I was trying to determine where I should base myself as a young social entrepreneur. At the tail end of our trip we landed in Singapore, ostensibly only for a very brief visit. I ended up staying for two weeks to research the social innovation and entrepreneurship sector. It was nascent, but extremely impressive.

In fact, within two months I had moved to Singapore to do capacity building in the sector. This is after one of Singapore’s most prominent social entrepreneurs telling me point blank to stay in the United States where there were “more opportunities to do good”.

Perspective is a funny thing.

All that said, let’s try to answer the question.

I’d wager the best place to be today is Silicon Valley. It’s just too much of a juggernaut to beat–the ecosystem to build (social) enterprises is very well developed.

But that’s only my answer for the short-term.

Long-term, I’ve placed my bets on Singapore. I have hope the climate will continue to improve for several reasons, but for one the government is set on building Singapore’s entrepreneurial and philanthropic sectors. That’s encouraging.

And I believe it’s already a fantastic place for social entrepreneurs. Here’s why:

Access to talent

• Very high standard of living which draws talent in (and keeps it)
• Liberal immigration laws for foreign talent

Access to funding

• Asia’s first social stock exchange
• Tech-focused social enterprise incubator being built with S$1.25M initially available
• S$1M (US$0.8M) social innovation challenge
• S$588k (US$466k) social enterprise competition
• Growing venture philanthropy and impact investing community
• S$300k (US$238k) grants for social entrepreneurs focusing on employing disadvantaged Singaporeans
• S$200k (US$159k) grants for enterprises focused on volunteerism or philanthropy
• S$50K (US$40k) grants for brand-new startups
• #1 in Asia for philanthropy and #1 in world for concentration of millionaires

Access to markets

• Geographically situated between three of the largest markets in the world: China, India, and Indonesia
• Airport rated #2 in world with multiple discount airlines flying the region

Good business climate

• #1 place in world to do business
• 80% of population is English-literate and much of the other 20% can speak at least the basics
• Very low corporate income taxes and zero tax on first S$100,000 for first three years
• No capital gains taxes
• Tied for #1 for lack of corruption
• Government bodies work very actively to support enterprise: EDB, SPRING, MTI
• #1 at protection of intellectual property

Supportive culture

• Approximately 150 existing social enterprises
• Dedicated social enterprise association
• Multiple dedicated social entrepreneur co-working spaces
• Multiple dedicated academic institutions: Lien Centre, LKY School of Public Policy, Grameen Creative Lab
• Online community-edited directory for the social sector (“a Wikipedia for people who care”)
• Established degree program in social entrepreneurship at polytechnic level
• Widely circulated sector-focused publication Goodpaper.sg that is read in over 650 cities
• Five million residents and 9.7 million annual international travelers concentrated in a very densely populated space (with an amazing transportation system) creates a unique melting pot of ideas

The downsides

• Capable local talent is in high demand
• Very small domestic market of 5 million
• Financing for small to mid-sized social enterprises may currently be difficult past pre-seed stage, especially until the Impact Investment Exchange opens and the venture philanthropy community grows
• Very risk-averse society
• Singaporeans are effectively indifferent to social entrepreneurs (only 2% can correctly identify a single social enterprise)

But none of that should hold a talented social entrepreneur back.

Things would really start to get interesting if 100 additional foreign social entrepreneurs built their companies here. Or a 100 additional locals decided to do the same.

Further, the Singaporean government and/or social investors could massively accelerate the development of Singapore’s social enterprise ecosystem by:

• Creating a Startup-Chile type visa and funding support program
• Investing in a privately run Unreasonable Institute type incubator
• Investing in a privately run The Hub Singapore
• Bringing B Corp or similar legal structure to Singapore

All in all, I think Singapore is a great place for social entrepreneurs now and will likely get much better. It even has a shot at becoming Asia’s “Social Silicon Valley”. Perhaps one of several around the world. Time will tell.

What do you think? Where would you like to live and build your social enterprise?

This article is republished with permission from his blog.

Photo: AIM Neutron

About the author

James Norris has founded, co-founded, or established 3 social enterprises, 8 organizations, and 5 clubs which have collectively ran for 60+ years (first at 15). He has helped with developing a venture-backed 100,000 sq ft for-profit museum meets theme park startup, and is assisting the Polymath Foundation in building a physical university for 10,000 young Leonardo da Vinci’s.

Whether it’s in an interview in the trade magazines, in the college newspaper or on TV, CEOs of successful businesses like to paint a picture that belies the truth.

In some cases, it’s a romantic veneer over how hard they work, or how calculated they go about their management and this exists in part because the public wants an easily-digestible story of how to achieve results, or that it generally makes for a good uplifting reading.

Nobody likes to read a story of a struggle that includes constant repetition, problem-solving, manufacturing defects and late deliveries — it’s just “boring”. Read: Can’t sell newspapers or fill a business school auditorium.

The reality of it is much harsher yet simpler.

Read on for five common myths you’ll come across in interviews from successful CEOs (which you have to take with a generous pinch of salt):

1. Explain it to me like I’m a 3 year old (Spare me the details)

Whether it’s in a movie scene or an actual boardroom, the CEO wants a situation explained to him in simple terms, and looks like he isn’t knowledgeable or interested in the rocket science details of the matter.

Reality: No boss or for that matter, CEO of a large corporation gets to run the show without a clear understanding and comprehensive grasp of the product the company is selling. At the very least, there is a particular expertise that the CEO possesses that is an integral part of the process. Perhaps the boss might not know how to actually execute on biotech manufacturing in a lab but he knows how to sell or market it to the customers. No one “stumbles” into the role of leadership without qualities that make a difference.

It would be a mistake to believe the CEO is just a smiling figure-head for the company.

2. I was lucky to have hired the right people (So I don’t work as hard as I do)

CEOs like to attribute some of their success to the luck of the draw, especially towards the key employees whom they have brought into the team. It paints the picture that the folks you hire would suddenly go over and beyond the call of duty, and outperform in roles that ends up alleviating the boss from micro-managing the day-to-day processes in the firm.

Reality: For most bosses out there, hiring the right people to play the different important roles in the company, from Human Resources, Sales, Marketing to Distribution is one of the most difficult tasks in building a great company. More often that not, the hiring process stalls not because there isn’t a desire to expand, but rather there’s a dearth in available qualified professionals adequate to perform the job well.

No great employees happen or are hired by chance.

3. Have a great product and everything else will fall into place

It is not only CEOs who spout this mantra, but business journals and marketing specialists say it everyday. “Build a great product and the customers will naturally come”, “Product Product Product” are the three key components of a successful company, and “Iterate Until Your Product is Great” are just some of the common phrases you hear in business forums.

Reality: By placing emphasis only on launching a “great” product or focusing only on product development, other key drivers in success are conveniently glossed over. Sure, a product that serves a market need, and does so well, SHOULD attain market acceptance and consumption but that is not a given outcome.

Businesses should not expect customers to come just because of a great product. Having a marketing strategy, developing relationships with reliable and trustworthy counter-parties, planning out scaling and distribution capabilities are just some of the other ingredients one needs in order to be successful, even if your product is not “great”.

A great product is great, but execute like you don’t have one.

4. I am a genius and I have the Midas touch

CEOs like Steve Jobs have been given God-like status for their leading roles as the face of an innovative company, with their vision and genius the key reason for a game-changing product, for a profit/loss turnaround, for whipping a company into the new millennium amidst the changing global landscape. Their words are lapped up like gold, and fans and readers hang on every word they say.

Reality: The CEOs who have not been successful can tell you that a plan without the right execution is just that – an unrealized plan. Steve Jobs deserves the accolades that he gets but much credit also go towards the exceptional folks put in place who worked on aspects including software development, sourcing for manufacturers, etc.

Without execution, a vision is just a dream.

5.You need to fail many times before you succeed

Words often said to encourage those who have not succeeded, or worse, failed previously and continue to do so. CEOs have indeed failed at times along the path to success and proudly show their “battle scars” to the adoring audience, shareholders and business school students.

Reality: It is less important whether you have failed before or how many times you have failed that prepares you for success, but what qualities you possess when the moment of opportunity comes your way. You can continue failing in future endeavours if you never learn the lessons from the previous ones.

Similarly, you can equip yourself with the right tools in place before you embark on a project, so that the current doesn’t become the failure that prepares you for the next one. These tools can range from having the right specialists in the team, market analysis, funding, roll-out strategy.

You don’t need to fail first, in order to know what you need.

Final Thoughts

You might be wondering why the image associated with this article shows a Lego figure of Bruce Wayne as Batman. The reason and analogy is simple: Unlike what hasn’t been portrayed in the movies, Bruce Wayne as the CEO of Wayne Enterprises has an understanding of science and technology which not only allows his company to succeed, but also to clandestinely produce the gadgets that Batman utilizes.

Bruce Wayne as Batman is one of the few “superheroes” who do not have supernatural gifts/talents so all of his fighting capabilities come from physical training, and being prepared beforehand, before any potential “failure”. (Batman’s skills don’t come from him just being angry)

So what I wanted to say in light of this topic is:

While it seems cool, Bruce Wayne doesn’t sleep all day.

This article was first published on Senatus.

Images by DidWee and noppyfoto1

About The Author

Kien M Lee is the founder of SENATUS, an online and offline professional and social network for the Aspiring. It is an exclusive community in which membership is by invitation only.

As someone with a creative background but interacting on a daily basis with local entrepreneurs and startups, I’ve found an interesting dialogue that often repeats itself: creatives looking to connect with entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs who have a lack of creative talent within their businesses.

Why should these communities connect more?

Here’s 5 reasons:

1. At the bottom of it, both creative professionals and entrepreneurs value idea-creation and execution. Having this common denominator guarantees a meeting of minds.

2. Entrepreneurs often have the ideas but not necessarily the ability to execute them. Creatives do what they do because they have great execution skills. What better match could be made?

3. It’s not just about creating business opportunities. It’s also about collaboration, cross-pollination, prototyping and making better products together. What’s stopping the Singaporean startup scene from growing, is the creative thinking and processes that are tacit in the day-to-day practice of creatives,

4. At the end of the day, creatives and entrepreneurs are in the same business ecosystem. It is in the enlightened self-interest of both sides to ensure that the other succeeds. With great creative contributions to businesses, businesses can take their products and services to a higher level. And when businesses do that, they’ll call on the creatives to help realize more product offerings, and the cycle continues.

5. Because we can have more fun together. Who knows what will happen when creatives, hackers and entrepreneurs get together in a meaningful and engaged way?

At Relay Room, we’ve come up with a concept help increase interaction between the creative and entrepreneur scenes:Creative Mixer.

Creative Mixer brings together creatives, hackers, entrepreneurs into a single space to redefine creativity. The first event, held on 15 Dec 2011 at Smartspace, saw a whopping 88 people attending. At each event, we invite eight speakers to enlighten us with bite-sized presentations on creativity across their diverse fields.

Because we believe in collaboration between entrepreneurs, developers and creatives in design, photography, film, architecture, animation/illustration and writing, we would love to have you join us, to create a new, synergistic community of “creative entrepreneurs”.

Creative Mixer 2.0 is happening on 28th March 2012 at Sinema Old School. Registration can be made at www.flickevents.com/creativemixer. More details at www.creativemixer.co.

About the author
Sarah Cheng-De Winne is a media & performing arts professional. She is also the Business Development Manager of creative agency Relay Room.

As a young start-up, our appearance on a show called “The Potential” (aired on Channel U earlier this month), which gave entrepreneurs some air time to pitch their products, had a significant impact on our website traffic and revenues.

While the application process, auditions and the actual shoot required days of hard work and rehearsals, the exposure that BoxInBlue.com got out of it was indeed worth the effort.

There is definitely nothing to lose to be on national TV. However, we realized that it is even more important to determine what we want to achieve in that ten minutes of airtime. Just as many of the Angel’s Gate participants have admitted, we do not go into the show expecting a million dollars of sales revenue (or million-dollar funding in the case of Angel’s Gate), but instead be able to maximise this airtime to bring our message across.

Here are five tips and key takeaways that I got from the experience, through the auditions, to the actual show.

1) Do research about the audience of the show

This can be done in several ways — some of the channels have media kits that provide demographics of their viewership, or you can do a quick survey on your Facebook Page on who watches that particular channel and speak to them in greater detail.

Based on this information, you can then adjust your messaging and angle to the producers of the show, during your auditions, on how your business will be interesting to their audience. Producers will love it that you have done research for the project because the last thing they want is people who are not committed to the show and potentially drop-out.

2) Understand the TV station and the show

After finding out about the audience, you have to think about what appeals to the producers. If the show is on Channel NewsAsia whose primary target audience are professionals and executives, they obviously want people to look and sound very intelligent.

If the show is airing on a Channel 8 weekday afternoon slot, you will be presenting to Mandarin-speaking housewives, and you will need to be able to speak that language and appeal to that audience with some showmanship.

Ultimately, you have to understand that it is still TV, and they are going after ratings, so keeping that in mind is going to help you a lot during the auditions. You can see this in many shows where some participants are completely different from the others and should not have made the cut, but due their appeal to the audience, producers will still let them through (e.g. 14-year old with a passion for starting a business even though the business idea is weak).

While this entrepreneur may be passionate, it is obvious that he was not as prepared as the other contestants (see video above: 11m 30s).

3) Go to the auditions prepared

Once again, producers love it that you care about being on the show. Other than showing off that you have done research, another great way to let them know that the show matters to you, is to be absolutely prepared with your pitch.

Treat the audition as if it is the actual show and bring along your presentation tools, be it a live demo, or brochures that will interest them. ‘Wow’ them at the auditions and give them no reason to think that you will not do the same with their audience.

4) Be clear on your objectives of being on the show

Being on national TV has significant benefits, but there can be also pitfalls (for example, being at the mercy of their editors who will decide which ‘role’ you will play in the show. If you fall down when the tape is rolling, I guarantee you they will air that). Throughout the duration of the process, you need to bare in mind what your objectives are, and work towards those objectives.

Here are some possible reasons (there are too many to list all):

a. Free publicity — Keep mentioning your “call-to-action” like “Visit our website: ABC.com”, or even wear a T-shirt with your corporate URL.

b. Get to know the producers better — Even if you don’t make it for this show, if they like you, or if you keep in contact with them, you may get called up for another.

c. Gaining street cred — The fact that you are able to tell customers, suppliers or even investors that your business has been on national TV gives an image that you are not a “fly-by-night” company and makes it much easier to do business.

5) Most importantly, have fun!

I cannot emphasize this enough. Ultimately, you don’t get too many opportunities to be on TV in your lifetime and since you’ve already decided that it’s worth doing it for your company, keep an open mind, and whatever happens, try to have fun and cherish the experience!

About the Author

Scott Leaw is the founder of BoxInBlue.com, an online store that provides design focused home decór and lifestyle products. They carry brands from independent design houses around the world such as Bluelounge, Quirky and many more. BoxInBlue.com has been the goto website for unique housewarming gifts since their launch in 2011.