Singapore Entrepreneurs

Professor Wong Poh Kam, the director of NUS Entrepreneurship Centre and also an associate professor in the NUS Business School & Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy has just started a blog - Connect The Dots@Singapore to share his thoughts and opinions on different aspects of entrepreneurship, from social innovation to public policy. He started this blog from the inspiration of Steve Job’s famous commencement speech in 2005. Other than his strong academic credentials, Professor Wong is also a known angel investor with the BAF Spectrum in the community.

Here are some recommended entrepreneur reads for today: We go local about how our few friends are doing all over the world from Singapore to elsewhere. First of all, Paddy Tan, the CEO of Bak2u, has formally launched his new venture, Blog2u. Somewhere out there, Ming Yeow (founder of the Digital Movement) did an interesting presentation entitled “The Science of Designing Interactions” in the SXSW 2008 event and someone else has live-blogged about it. Recently, there’s a lot of talk on online advertising - check out the review “Online Advertising on Blogs in Singapore & Malaysia” in BL’s personal blog and another article entitled Is Contextual Advertising on its Way Out? from another entrepreneurship site in Sg.

Here are some recommended entrepreneur reads for today:

If you are interested in knowing about the internet trends and companies in China, the China Web 2.0 review has presented some interesting facts (based on a report by CNNIC) what Chinese internet users do online. For those who want to tap the Chinese market, it might be useful to read this interesting article. A new book “Silicon Dragon: How China is Winning the Tech Race” by Rebecca Fannin will be out soon and the book reviews the entrepreneurs and the ideas behind the famous internet companies in Zhongguancun, Beijing. She wrote about her book in the HuffingtonPost.

Here are some recommended entrepreneur reads for today:

If you want to know which web 2.0 companies have failed this year, TechCrunch has their list of companies for the year 2007 in Deadpool. You will also find their list of favourite articles and deals for the year as well. If this is not interesting, try this post from Valleywag who made predictions on what Google would be doing next year.

As we have heard a lot about the famous China internet entrepreneur, Jack Ma from various venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, here is a rare interview done in Inc.Com entittled, “How I Did It: Jack Ma, Alibaba.com“.

For the entrepreneurs, all of us should start planning for our next stage in 2008. John Nesheim offers some advice: SETTING YOUR PERSONAL GOALS 2008: Tips for entrepreneurs.

Here are some recommended entrepreneur reads for today:

In the world of online social networks, LinkedIn has opened up their platform to app developers (source: ZDNet). Of course, if you want a sense of the statistics dominating the online social networking market, check out The Promise of Social Network Advertising in e-Marketer. If you belong to the skeptic’s camp, you can read Molly Wood’s article on “Five reasons social networking doesn’t work”. Of course, elsewhere, Google has asked the other online social networks such as -LinkedIn, Friendster, and Bebo - Not to give up Open Social.

Locally, the 2nd Singapore PHP user group meeting happened last Wednesday. We highly recommend SimplyJean’s account of the event. If you want to hear some good and interesting tech news, do pop by the podcast of Tech65.

Here are some recommended entrepreneur reads for today:

How conservative should a CEO be? by John Nesheim tackles how one should juggle between idealism and realism for financial forecasts and other aspects of a company. We also recommend his earlier article about DO IT RIGHT: Execution with expertise is golden, as a lesson to those who have the vision but in any business today, execution is key for the management.

In the world of tech, Michael Arrington from TechCrunch wrote a preview on Google’s pre-launch of a new iPhone interface. AppleInsider talks about the coming Microsoft Office 2008 and looks at the comparison between Powerpoint and Keynote.

Here are some recommended entrepreneur reads for today:

If you are about to sign a deal with the a venture capitalist, what are the hidden tricks that you need to see in a term sheet? John Nesheim talks about the need to know the hidden tricks in a term sheet. You can also learn about the some terms which you need to seek out in a term sheet which may be harmful to you. Of course, negotiating the deal with a venture capital usually takes longer than you think and term sheets are not contracts. Finally, you can read this article about how shares are issued in a company.

Here are some recommended entrepreneur reads for today:

Many cities often wish to duplicate Silicon Valley in their own backyards, with many entrepreneurial blogs in Singapore having analyzed this possibility, and Paul Graham (based in the valley) suggesting how to do so. Now, Russia is following suit with its first IT technopark, and organization of the latest Silicon Valley Open Doors 2007 conference, may one day like what Guy Kawasaki says, be able to Kick Silicon Valley’s Butt.

Here are some recommended entrepreneur reads for the last day of the month:

Last Friday, Apple has finally released its latest version of Mac OS X Leopard. If you want a comparison between Mac OS X Leopard and Microsoft Vista, this guide by Engadget will help you in deciding your next computer to be a Mac or PC. Well, no worries, nowadays, a Mac can run windows with an Intel chip. It has made 2 million sales by today, as spoken by AppleInsider.

I often tell people who want to go into web 2.0 that one should be fast and nimble, given the last dot com boom ended in a bust. This article from New York Magazine entitled Web Bubble 2.0 may offer some perspective for those who are moving into this space.

Here are some recommended entrepreneur reads for the day:

John Nesheim offers some advice on Raising VC Money: From one or more VCs? and also offer advice to entrepreneurs about HIDDEN TRICKS: Know the terms of your VC deal.

Other good reads include: With FriendCSV, Data Sneaks Out Facebook’s Back Door from TechCrunch about data in online social networks, and perhaps, some upcoming thoughts on the coming release of Mac OS X Leopard from Chris Pirillo. If you don’t have anything on tonight, drop by E27 Garage for the FaceBook Developer’s Garage later.