If you can't smile after signing a deal, chances are that you've been screwed over. Photo: Candie_N

Here’s a situation which some entrepreneurs would go through. They decide to take in an investor or join an incubator program. In front of them, an investor asks for “x” % of equity. The entrepreneurs then speak to different people in the community to get some advice. The opinions will be diverse. They turn to US tech blogs, which give them a totally different picture. All this adds up to a lot of frustration.

Any entrepreneur has to deal with this potential scenario and negotiate in good faith with investors. To help you, here’s a checklist of things to do before getting an investment deal.

Sit down with your co-founders to decide the value of your company.

A lot of entrepreneurs are stuck with this problem. They evade the question subconsciously because it’s one of the hardest questions for any entrepreneur to answer. How do you assign a valuation to your company? Nobody, including you and your co-founders, can decide that value so you need to have an honest and no-feelings-hurt type of discussion with your co-founders.

If you don’t have that value in your mind, don’t sign anything because chances are, no matter what you are going to do, you will regret it.

Here’s how you can do some math for you and your team: First, read and understand how dilution affects you and your startup. Then work out all the scenarios that are associated with rounds of funding that your company will need in order to be sustainable. It is an indicator to have an estimate on how much your ownership of the company (together with your co-founders) will be diluted at the end point before exit.

Yes, a lot of you want to build empires but reality is a bitch. What it comes down to is that you need to assign a value. This article teaches you how investors thinks of their shareholding differently from you and the market capitalization will help you work out the value of your company. Note that you have to do this calculation if you want money from others. Don’t expect others to calculate your valuation for you. If you can’t even do this, you should not be asking for money.

Work out a percentage equity for the investor where you will a) close the deal, b) accept the deal without feeling that you are suckered or c) walk away from the deal

Never walk into a negotiation with one value for your company and only one set amount of equity you’re willing to give away. Let’s do some math here: Say, you get $50K from an investor for 10% of your company. According to your investor, the value of your company is $500K.

For you and your co-founders, you want to give only 5%, i.e you think the company is worth $1M. Now, it is likely that both the investors and you are going to meet halfway (and halfway is not 7.5%). The halfway point is when both your co-founders, your investors, and you are happy.

A potential major roadblock would be that one of the stakeholders in the negotiations feel that they have been short-changed and it is inevitable that there will be tension and conflict in a few months when things go south. To minimize that, make a spreadsheet with a range of equity you are willing to concede to the investor to one decimal point, starting from 5 to 10% (on the x-axis) and associate the valuation of the company. Then carve out & highlight three regions: (a) the region you close the deal and you are happy, (b) the midway point where your team and you don’t feel suckered, and (c) the region that you will walk away.

Decide on the ROI you are setting for your investor

If your investors ask for more equity, the checklist that you want to have is what they can do for you. What are acceptable ROIs? First rule of thumb: do not give anything away if there is no money transaction i.e. if your investor values silly things like introducing you to big corporations as equity exchange, tell him or her to fly kite.

There must be money transaction and the next steps in how he or she will help you. A key difference between Singapore and US is the following: some investors in the US provide real value like setting up your next round of funding, helping you to scale the company with proper hires and closing deals with other companies. In Singapore, as very few investors are entrepreneurs in their past lives, you might be dealing with many investors who are previously bankers, i.e. they are totally clueless and bring no value.

Here’s a takeaway that summarizes what this article is all about: Negotiate in good faith, know your value and close a deal with investors that makes your whole team of founders happy. People will always come and offer you something. If what they offer doesn’t mean anything to you, just walk away.

In a future article, I will address what early-stage investors should look out for in deciding whether to fund a startup.

Bookkeeping, very simply, is the recording of a company’s financial transactions, which include sales, purchases, income, and payments. Here are some tips on how to get it right the first time.

5) Manage small ticket expenses using cards.

Card companies do the work for you by producing itemised statements that list the item purchased, date of the transaction and total amount spent. Use the credit cards to help you manage spend, but not as a means to spend more.

Cabcharge is another indispensable card to carry. It is easy to share with staff and means you won’t be late to a meeting because you didn’t carry cash to pay the driver. Try to make one card your primary method of payment and use a different card for personal and businesses expenses. If you mix personal and work expenses, you create more headaches for a professional bookkeeper to resolve later.

6) Manage large ticket expenses by saying ‘no’.

Delay purchases of computer equipment, and prefer leasing over purchase. Although computer equipment appears as an asset on the balance sheet, computers and furniture are in fact liabilities. They need to be fixed when they break down, carted when you move office, and thrown out when they become obsolete.

Service-based businesses should be building cash at bank, and reinvesting these cash reserves to buy people and ideas, or return money to investors. Skip the expensive gadgets and furniture. Trust me – you can live without an iPad.

7) Time wasters disguised as freebies.

Beware of getting things done for free from friends or family. It could be a time sucker in disguise. Free often comes at cost of compromising quality. You don’t have time to do things twice. If you want to accept help from friends, set a quality threshold you need to achieve, and be prepared to pay a small sum to ensure you exceed the threshold.

When you are starting out and learning, pay more money for services and be glad for the time it will save you later.

8) Time to outsource bookkeeping

Warning light should go off when you realise the monthly accounts are consuming too much of your time. Some signs include hiring more staff, exceeding $20,000 in monthly turnover, and fines from Government for late submissions. In these conditions you have a case for outsourcing bookkeeping to a specialist firm.

Training package promotion: Futurebooks is offering SGentrepreneur readers a 15% discount on half-day bookkeeper trainer sessions. Offer available until 22nd September 2011. Limited to the first 20 persons. Inquire here.

Anthony Coundouris is the founder of Futurebooks – a business offering affordable bookkeeping,business planning and business brokering to start-up companies. Anthony has a decade of experience in all walks of marketing. Collectively he has helped dozens of corporate firms build subscription models and develop an online positioning, including Caltex, Jaguar, SAS, ING Direct, FoxTel, salesforce.com, Telstra,Proctor and Gamble, Google, salesforce.com, Kraft, Citibank and American Express.

Paying heed to the following advice could stop your business from ending up like Borders -- bankrupt. Photo: ChicagoGeek

Don’t count on renting a storefront to revive the flagging sales for your online business and compensate for a weak business model: You might end up digging yourself a bigger hole. Rather, going retail may be prudent only if your online business is doing very well.

So if you’re considering whether to head in that direction, here’s a checklist compiled from the experiences of retailers who’ve made that step, and well as blogshop owners who chose not to.

1) Do you have a strong fanbase?

If your online business does not have loyal customers, then it may not be wise to transition offline. For KissJane, which aggregates blogshops in two physical locations, it can rely on the branding of its myriad of partners. Tracyeinny, on the other hand, was able to leverage on its strong fan base to offset the lack of human traffic in their first outlet in Pearl’s Hill Terrace, Chinatown.

Ng Chong Kee, co-founder of KissJane, suggests that blogshop owners build a strong niche for themselves by focusing on a particular style. Only by doing so can they differentiate themselves from the thousands of blogshops out there.

Jeannie Pang of Tracyeinny believes good customer service is paramount. Customers must feel that you’re reliable and always ready to respond to their requests and complaints.

“Accountability is damn important. If you failed or neglected to deliver a product, you’d better admit it,” she says.

2) Are you protected from getting burnt financially?

The amount of money you need to invest in going retail is no joke. For prime locations, expect to fork up around S$200,000 (US$166,653) in upfront rental, deposit (which will only be returned at the end of the lease), renovation, and other costs. Even in places like Chinatown, monthly rental can cost around S$3,000 (US$2,499) a month, in the case of Tracyeinny.

Depending on the contract, lease commitment can be as short as six months or as long as three years for many shopping malls.

So it really helps to work out the sums, know what you’re in for, and plan accordingly. Jeannie made sure she had at least S$18,000 in the bank account, or six months of rental liquidity, before committing to a lease. This precaution made sure that in the event the endeavor didn’t do well, the overall business would not be adversely affected.

3) Is your revenue stream healthy?

Jeannie ensured that the profit margin from her online business was strong enough before embarking on her retail project. She also made sure that she had a sizable sales volume as this meant that she won’t need to pass the increased costs from the retail business to the consumers.

To generate a healthy profit margin, online retailers should not be afraid to charge a premium for their products. As a rule of thumb, a shirt that costs S$15 should be priced at around S$30, says Jeannie.

4) Have you considered starting small?

Before committing to that hefty three-year lease in a swanky shopping mall, why not take smaller steps first? If you’re confident about your brand’s drawing power, opting for less-than-ideal locations may not be a bad idea, since rental is cheaper and the lease is shorter.

Working with companies like KissJane may be an attractive proposition, since you’re only paying for a rack as opposed to the whole space, although you’d have to figure out a way to get ahead of the waiting list.

Finally, you can opt for flea markets to get a taste of what it feels like to operate in a retail environment. There are plenty in Singapore, and they don’t cost a lot to get involved in. Zouk Flea & Easy and Flea Fly Flo Fun, for instance, will only set you back around S$50 per slot.

5) Are you prepared to commit more time and effort to your business?

Sure, going retail may reap in heaps of profits, but you’ll have to work harder for it too. Vincent Goh and Tan Yi Fong of Ministry of Retail, which specializes in Korean fashion, prefer to keep their lives simple and so decided not to set up a physical store of their own. And they’ve apparently done well so far, with Yi Fong becoming one of the top five earners in her university.

In addition to managing inventory, rental, and other facets of a retail business, there’s human management, which require a lot of effort, as Jeannie asserts. She had to hire six salesgirls to manage operations and train them well since they represent the brand.

“Sometimes when they do something wrong, I go mad like a volcano!”

As a former venture capitalist I’ve been privileged to interact with numerous entrepreneurs in South Asia and play a small role in some start-up ventures. A few of these succeeded and went on to become large companies while many others failed.

Some ended up as lifestyle businesses – the living dead in VC parlance – and continue to chug along never quite realizing their original promise.

Most of these start-ups had credible solutions targeting large, fast-growing markets, had raised one or more rounds of venture funding and in every case was led by a passionate and committed founding team.

Why then did so many of these businesses fail? Indeed, why do most start-ups fail?

In Silicon Valley – the poster child for entrepreneurship – the majority of Valley start-ups tended to be IP heavy, product companies. Most failed since new product development took up too much time and money and often the products didn’t work. In some cases, the market either wasn’t ready or turned too quickly, and poor execution killed the rest.

The Asian picture is different. Most start-ups here are relatively low-tech with little IP. Many target high-growth consumer markets with either a novel business model or follow a copycat approach, localizing Western success stories (think daily deals websites like Beeconomic or Deal.com.sg).

Still others tend to be service businesses. Capital requirements are relatively low. With non-existent product risk and only limited concept risk, execution turns out to be of overarching importance.

What is execution anyway? It’s the day-to-day stuff that keeps the company moving onward and forward towards the Founder’s vision. It’s where the rubber meets the road, where strategy meets tactics and where pies in the sky confront realities on the ground. Ultimately, it means having the right people at the right place at the right time doing the right things.

I believe 60-70% of the outcome of any business venture is attributable to people, 20-30% to external factors such as market environment and the rest to dumb luck. Time and again I’ve observed that the degree to which a founder is self-aware and willing to stretch himself/herself and evolve can make all the difference between success and failure.

This is especially true in Asia, where most business founders are first-time entrepreneurs and not battle-hardened by past experiences. The smaller pool of entrepreneurial CEO talent also means that founders continue to run operations long after the start-up phase.

Here’s a very incomplete list of dos and don’ts for first time entrepreneurs to minimize their chances of failure:

Do delegate and know when to let go.

In the early days you’re forced to wear different hats and be all things to all people. As the business grows, hire competent professionals and step back from day-to-day operations. For instance, as a technical founder, sales may not come naturally to you, yet you have to don a sales hat, meet customers and close the first few deals.

But as soon as the time is right, hire hungry and competent salespeople, incentivize them and let them loose. I’ve seen many founders continuing to micro-manage sales and other key functions long after the business has hit a certain level of maturity. Entrepreneurs love to talk about how scalable their business model is but don’t often realize that a controlling behaviour limits internal scalability.

Actively delegating and creating an inclusive decision-making process is one of the most empowering and liberating things you can do as a leader.

Don’t course correct every few months.

Make a plan and stay with it. Yes it’s hard. After all, nimbleness and agility are your assets, but you also need to give your team the time and space to execute. Some young start-ups get into a “throw it all at the wall and see what sticks” mentality which seldom works.

Agree on a direction, set clear milestones and be patient. If things aren’t going right, then understand why, and chart a new plan after getting your team’s buy-in and communicate this to all concerned. Nothing demotivates an organization more than constantly shifting strategy and direction.

Don’t expect everyone in your company to share your passion.

People are motivated by different things. Outside of your core team it’s unreasonable to expect everyone to have the same degree of excitement and passion regarding your vision. Everyone is different and people change.

As a leader it’s your job to understand what makes each of your team members tick and find a way to link your vision to what’s important to them. This is especially true as your business grows and your 51st hire may be more interested in a good income and stable job and care less about changing the world.

Do create your own leadership style.

Photo: Tony Hue

Many young entrepreneurs are rightly inspired by famous technology leaders like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Larry Page. However, some take the role-modelling too far and try to mimic someone else’s leadership style and attempt to create a culture that resembles a far-away Silicon Valley company.

Nothing wrong with a little inspiration but the only management style that’s going to work for you is your own. Understand your strengths and weaknesses and grow into your role as a leader. Create your own distinct style of leadership and shape the culture of your company the way you want to – and in a way that’s appropriate for the realities of your operating environment.

What works in Silicon Valley rarely works in Singapore, Bangalore or Shanghai. Every company succeeds for a different, and sometimes hard to quantify, reason. There’s more to learn from other people’s failures than trying to ape someone else’s success.

Do self-reflect.

Your ability to change and stay one step ahead of your business is the single most important factor for success. Being an entrepreneur is a lonely job, venture-funded company or not, and the pressures of the business and meeting the expectations of various stakeholders leave little time for reflection or personal development and can lead to a situation where the business has grown but you are playing catch-up.

What worked from a start-up phase to a million-dollar revenue base may not help you get to a $20m top-line. Understand your strengths, weaknesses and appreciate that you – just like everyone else – have blind spots. True leadership has less to do with managing or motivating other people and more to do with managing yourself.

About the author

RJ Sridhar is the founder of Radical Shift, a Business Coaching practice based in Singapore, and works with entrepreneurs and small business owners across S.E. Asia and India. Prior to coaching, RJ was a venture capitalist with JAFCO Asia where he invested in several early-stage and high-growth businesses across the region and actively worked with management teams to scale their operations. Previously RJ developed technology products and held operational roles with industry-leading companies in Silicon Valley.  He also spent a couple of years on Wall Street as an equity analyst covering the technology sector. RJ has a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State University and an MBA from Duke University. His other interests include meditation, writing, running and travelling. RJ is a member of the Singapore Institute of Directors, a Business Mentor at Singapore Management University, a Mentor with Mentor Square and is also a member of the International Coach Federation.

Top photo: Terence Lee

From the press release:

“Global Market Finder helps businesses answer the question: who are my potential customers overseas? Businesses enter keywords that describe their product or service and select the region they’d like to explore. The Global Market Finder automatically translates those keywords into any one of 56 languages used in the selected region. It then ranks each location by opportunity based on factors like local search volume, suggested bid price, and competition for each translated keyword.”

Screenshot of Google Global Market Finder search results:

Click for enlarged version.

How “opportunity” is determined in the Google Global Market Finder is based on an “Opportunity Score”. From the FAQ:

How does Global Market Finder determine Opportunity Score?

Opportunity Score is a dynamic metric based on local monthly search volume, suggested bid, and competition between different locations in your target market. If two locations have the same search volume, then the location with the lower suggested bid receives a higher Opportunity Score. Similarly, if two locations have the same suggested bid, then the location with the higher search volume gets a higher Opportunity Score.

Aliza Knox, Google’s Managing Director of Online Sales in Asia-Pacific says, “There are 1.9 billion consumers online worldwide and tens of millions of businesses looking for products and services on the web and the Global Market Finder and Google Ads for Global Advertisers help advertisers, including the 154,000 SMEs in Singapore and 600,000 SMEs in Malaysia, convert these consumers and businesses into customers and grow their business globally.”

During a chat with the Entrepreneurship & Start-Up team at IDA, I learned that while iStart as an official initiative was only just conceptualized. Much of the work done by the office over the past year or so had all been fulfilling iStart’s goals.

What is iStart?

Aimed at ICT start-ups, IDA has undertaken a series of programmes to provide stronger assistance, facilitation and nurturing of start-ups in Singapore.

A multi-pronged approach, iStart aims to (1) increase business viability and growth in overseas markets, (2) enhance entrepreneurial capabilities and (3) train developers.

1. Increase Business Viability and Growth in Overseas Markets

The key aspect of iStart is the focus on people and connections amongst people. Under this first prong, IDA’s focus is on helping companies enter new foreign markets. By connecting and introducing companies to key organizations, mentors and industry practitioners in the foreign market, IDA hopes to help companies bridge the knowledge and network gap.

Under this goal, IDA will be bringing a pioneer group of about 10 companies from Singapore to Silicon Valley this October 2010 and January 2011.

This programme is split into three parts:

(1) First trip to Silicon Valley (18-29 Oct 2010) – meetings, pitching sessions, workshops, mentoring.
(2) Singapore – Product refinement/enhancement, offline mentoring.
(3) Second trip to Silicon Valley (10-21st Jan 2011) – meetings, events.

IDA will arrange the sessions in Silicon Valley and help connect startups to players there.

The startup just needs to cover airfare, accommodation and daily expenses. IDA will cover workshop costs, pitching costs and all other mentoring/consultation costs.

The next group trip will take place in early 2011. Locations are currently being defined. Contact IDA at IDA_Startup@ida.gov.sg if you would like to find out more.

2. Enhancing Entrepreneurial Capabilities

This goal is to help shore up entrepreneurial talent and skills to get companies here ready to go global and thus targeted at building up the business skills of the entrepreneurs so they can build products/services based on robust business models, with the ability to address the global markets.

There have been foreign entrepreneurial training institutes and programmes that have set up in Singapore which have gotten support from IDA. Founder’s Institute and Seedcamp are the two most salient examples.

3. Training Developers

Realising that technology is ever changing and schools may not be ready to train their students in new languages and platforms, IDA would be supporting more workshops and technical developer events that target undergraduates, young professionals, or even engineers that may be planning a career switch to join a start-up.

Building The Ecosystem

While providing more opportunities and supporting programmes that help train entrepreneurs and developers contribute to the building of the ecosystem, IDA also supports events like Echelon and DEMO (in the US) that gives local startups more publicity.

Ultimately, iStart is an overarching initiative on the part of IDA that has benefitted and will continue to benefit entrepreneurs and developers here in Singapore.

While we have spoken to many foreign entrepreneurs who did run startups in Singapore (here and here), British entrepreneur and investor, Hugh Mason who relocated to Singapore full time with his young family back in January 2009 recently wrote a piece with certain takeaways that foreigners might want to be aware of when coming to Singapore.

Next month marks the fourth anniversary of an invitation from Singapore’s Media Development Authority to mentor media businesses here. That invitation ultimately changed my life and led me to bring my family to this fascinating island. Three colleagues thinking of setting up businesses in Singapore have all asked me what I’d learned from my experience this week, so I made a list of what I’d do differently if I had 20-20 hindsight.

I’m a firm believer that, when things go well in life, you learn little. The tough times have provided most learning for me setting up an independent business in Singapore. So instead of making a list of ten things that have worked out, I’m going to list the things I’d do differently were I arriving again.

What follows is an incomplete work-in-progress by a newcomer to Singapore. I don’t for a minute claim that I can adequately sum up the country that I’ve chosen to make home in a few short sentences. If you’re local, please comment and correct me, accepting that I write in good faith.

1. GET A LOCAL PARTNER

My first mistake was that I didn’t seek out local people for the initial team I put together here. There is so much depth to the culture that local insight is essential on many levels. Singaporeans all know someone who was at school with a friend, or they did National Service with someone, who knows someone that you need to contact. The bonds that NS forges seem recognised as one of the strongest arguments put forward to continue it here.

Interconnection is one of Singapore’s social strengths and, lacking those connections, it’s easy to get left out from opportunities, not through active discrimination but simply because it will be assumed that you know what’s going on through one of the informal networks.

It’s natural for westerners to be drawn to other westerners when they first arrive. However, just because someone’s been in Asia for years and perhaps even married someone born here, that doesn’t mean they know how to get anything done. There’s a harsh but true colonial-era expression summed up by the acronym FILTH (Failed in London, try HongKong) which still applies. Westerners come to Asia for many reasons … one of which is that they don’t fit in back home. Beware.

2. COMMITMENT

When I started out, I imagined that by being here for, say, one week in four, we could keep costs down and still be part of what is going on. That just doesn’t work. People invite you to events with just a few days notice and, unless you turn up and do the networking, you don’t get connected.

It’s not just a matter of logistics and short notice. It’s about showing commitment and giving face to new friends. When you are asked at the start of every initial meeting:

How long have you been in Singapore?

… the question really being asked is:

How long are you staying?

… and it helps to answer that explicitly. It takes energy to build a relationship of trust anywhere. Locals and experienced expats in Singapore will put more energy into something that is likely to last, just like anywhere else.

3. JOIN THE CLUB … NO NOT THAT CLUB

I personally haven’t found it necessary to join one of the expensive clubs mostly peopled by expats, some of which are still quite stuffy. Jackets and ties are rarely worn in Singapore yet the underlying culture of business remains traditional. The sense of being part of things still matters.

As everywhere, people want to know who they are dealing with. This island has a history of people coming and going and trying to make a quick buck since 1819. Carpetbaggers are welcome to spend their money in Singapore, but the community won’t buy from them.

In particular, government agencies are acutely sensitive to the risk of foreigners taking public subsidies and then disappearing off with them. It has happened, so it helps immensely to create confidence with officials if you present your proposals as a genuine collaboration with local people who are present alongside you.

I didn’t fully internalise the message that regular face to face meetings really matter when I first arrived. Singaporeans love networking and it is relatively easy to get introduced to whoever you would like to see – at least once. Strangely, the country is such a common stopover destination that it can actually be easier to meet hard-to-reach westerners here than when they are at home.

Were I coming to Singapore again I’d make more use of the numerous trade associations where people in particular sectors congregate to explore common interests, even if they might compete in other areas of their working lives. Become a committee member of one of these organisations and you have a plausible reason to contact anyone.

I could attend several work-related events every night if I wanted to. It’s not just because Singaporeans like meeting new friends and contacts. Having business partners who feel like they are a consistent part of the same groups you know is a very traditional way of gaining confidence that they will be honest with you. It’s a small island and word gets around quickly.

On which subject … trade associations are also often the channels through which government agencies informally explore ideas and canvas informal opinion, because they are neutral and talking with them doesn’t run the risk of being accused of giving special access in the way that inviting meetings with individual companies might.

4. GOVERNMENT REALLY IS HANDS-ON

It took me a while to realise how profoundly interconnected business and government are here.

Singaporean government agencies are rightly concerned that businesses should be independent and that they do not become semi-detached organs of the public sector living from one subsidised project to another. That is a hard balance to achieve on a small, highly-interconnected island, a strength of which is its ability to direct strong policy from the centre.

The hands-on nature of government makes it easy to inadvertently run across someone’s plan, or to leave out people who could help make your own plan move forward. Were I arriving again, I would create more opportunities to informally discuss my ideas one-on-one with civil servants. I would do more of what we did to launch JFDI.asia, where we published our plans openly and invited comment, making it clear that we did not want to duplicate what was already being done and instead would prefer to partner with organisations that shared our values.

Of course, you can’t make an omelette without cracking eggs and (mixing my metaphors) you are bound to step on a few toes when you start to dance. Here, as everywhere, there are folk who seek to build private empires. They don’t want to build win-win solutions and won’t collaborate. However, a surprising number of people and organisations are very open to collaboration if you listen to their priorities first and only then politely explain how your ideas complement rather than threaten them. The best way of all to strike a deal is for such an organisation to discover what you are already doing and decide it wants to jump on your bandwagon.

…continue reading the full piece at Hugh’s blog.

This piece has been republished with the author’s permission but we have only extracted the first part as it’s a really long read!

Image Credit: SarahDepper

About The Author

After reading Physics at Bath University, Hugh became a science TV producer with BBC and later set up Invincible Films, a successful independent TV production business making primetime shows for broadcasters around the world in addition to large-format digital media content for science centres. In 2001, he co-founded Pembridge Partners to provide finance and advice to marketing, media and technology companies. Hugh moved to Singapore with his family in 2009 where he works with a wide variety of marketing, media, and technology enterprises to help their owners create, build and realise value. He also co-founded and is CEO of JFDI.asia, a digital business seed accelerator.

Hugh’s writes at his personal blog and can be found on Twitter and LinkedIn.

When you become your own boss, here are the glorious days that await you.

Gotcha!

This video was featured in our latest newsletter sent a few days ago which shared what Being The BOSS is really like. If you want to receive our newsletter in your email inbox every Monday, sign up here.

Image Credit: Kumar Appaiah , thelonelyisalnd

Everyone wanted a piece of them – from panelist and Geeks On A Plane founder, Dave McClure, requesting that everyone give them a standing ovation to TechCrunch’s Dr. Serkan Toto tweeting about their “world class presentation”, foound seemed to be the name on everyone’s lips.

How did they manage to earn that standing ovation from one of the harshest panelist at the event? By answering all the right questions and more importantly, putting their ideas across clearly and consisely such that the audience could immediately understand who they were, what their product was and of course, how their solutions were beneficial for their target group.

Hitting The Right Notes And A Standing Ovation

Indeed, Aen shares in the COMA blog that the “slides were deliberately kept simple to reflect the values and messages of the foound brand“. Whilst other teams struggled with faulty equipment and poor internet connection, the team ensured an effortless and smooth presentation by relying on slides instead of a video presentation.

Moreover, the pitch hit all the right notes because it answered all the right questions.

Foound:

(The [timings] listed will allow you to view the exact section of the video where the points were made.)

1) Identified the problem and showed how it affected them personally such that it was in their interest to solve it [40.15 - 41.25h]

2) Proposed a solution to the problem outlined [42.28 - 45.35]

3) Defined their customer profile

4) Showed how their product was differentiated from their competitors’ offerings

(Foound starts pitching at about 39 min 30 seconds into the video.)

In addition to this, throughout their pitch, their speaker, Danny, had a varied pitch and timbre which kept their presentation interesting. Most fundamentally, they were prepared and spoke with brevity and clarity. The last 3 points being the most critical becauase poor presentations often mar a great product as observed for some of the other startups.

Practise, practise, practise.

Of course, it also helps to research on who your team is going to be pitching to; how else do you think that they were prepared for their now (in)famous straightlined rebuttal “no way any normal motherf***** is gonna do this check – in sh**” which was made in response to the comparison with popular mobile location-based “game”, Foursquare?

Not yet checked – in? Find out what Foursquare is and why Mashable has described the game as the breakout mobile app at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference.

Alternatively, for an introduction on what an effective Elevator Pitch consists of, read this.

Images courtesy of COMA and Karteha.

What is iLead?

iLEAD is a new manpower development initiative by IDA. It aims to ensure that Singapore’s infocomm manpower capabilities keep pace with technology changes and Singapore remains at the forefront of technology development. iLEAD fits nicely into IDA’s overall manpower strategy, from encouraging interest in students through competitions and various scholarships, to schemes to encourage upgrading in infocomm professionals.

iLEAD will help sharpen and deepen the infocomm knowledge and capabilities of the professionals in Singapore and build a pipeline of infocomm experts in high-end, niche areas.  IDA will partner key players in the infocomm industry to grow and groom infocomm leaders and experts in the following niche technology areas:

Application Development: Digital User Interface Application Development, Software Architecture, Service-Oriented Architecture, Games Programming

Cloud / Grid Computing: Virtualisation, Utility Computing, System Performance Management

Green IT: Virtualisation, Data Centre Architecture

Infocomm Security: Cloud Computing Security, Mobile Security, Embedded Security, Virtualisation Security, Identity Management, Digital Forensics

Network Engineering: Network Design and Architecture, Network & System Administration, Broadband Application Development & Testing

By coming aboard as iLEAD partners, companies can tap on the scheme to build up the capabilities of their existing employees as well as take in new trainees in these niche areas. Such capability building will be done via local and overseas work attachments and specialised professional courses.

What is the Support Provided?

Attachments

IDA and iLEAD partners will co-fund attachments in local or overseas multi-national companies, infocomm local enterprises, research and development centres and academic institutions. These attachments will range from a minimum of 3 months to a maximum of 12 months. A summary of the support provided can be found in the table below:

Training Programmes

Local courses continue to be supported under IDA’s Enhanced CITREP (Critical Infocomm Technology Resource Programme). For overseas programme, IDA will co-fund training and certification fees, as well as airfare and living allowances, with the sponsoring companies.

What are the Trainees’ Obligations?

Attachments

At the end of the attachment, the trainee will have to work as a full-time trainee in either the company which provided the training, or any infocomm or end-user organisation. The work undertaken must be in the area of specialisation of the attachment, and must be for the same duration as the training period.

For example, if the trainee participated in an attachment specialising in green IT lasting for 6 months, he will have to work in this field for at 6 months in order to fulfil iLEAD’s conditions.

Training Programmes

For overseas training programmes, trainees given funding support for courses and certification will must complete the course, as well as pass all examinations within 12 months from the certification commencement date.

Trainees given support for certification only will have to pass all examinations within 12 months from the certification commencement date.

In addtion, all trainees will be required to work in either their respective companies, or in any infocomm or end-user organisation, in the area of specialisation of their training. For courses or certification that are under 1 month, the trainee must work as a full-time employee for 3 months. For courses or certifications that are longer than 1 month, the bond period is 6 months.

What are the Obligations of the Companies?

Companies interested in iLEAD need to design the training programme, and update IDA by submit regular training reports. These reports will need to be signed by the trainer as well as the trainees.

Companies must note that trainees on attachment who are subsequently hired by the host company will no longer be eligible for the training grant.

Companies or trainees who do not fulfill their obligations may be subject to penalties.

Who Can Apply?

The iLEAD scheme is open to Singapore Citizens and Singapore Permanent Residents. Applicants can be either existing employees or people currently on attachment, and can also include fresh graduates (defined as people with no more than 3 years of work experience).

How to Apply?

The application process should be initiated by companies. Companies will have to first design a training programme, then submit the relevant details to IDA via the iLEAD Partner Proposal Form. Only after IDA has given in-principle approval can companies source for trainees; this is followed by IDA’s final approval, the signing of the agreement, and the commencement of the programme.

For more information, companies can contact Kiranjit Kaur or Norhikmah Sohoi.