Participants split into groups to brainstorm their "Next Big Thing" Idea.
On the evening of 27th January 2012, Start-up@Singapore (S@S), Singapore’s largest business plan competition, launched Ideas Meet Skills for the first time.
As a meeting point for individuals with either business ideas or technical expertise, Ideas Meet Skills played matchmaker to about 100 budding entrepreneurs from Singapore as well as countries like the United States and Dubai. Participants, aged 17 and above, also underwent an idea generation workshop by Ground-up Initiative (GUI), a non-governmental organisation based in Singapore.
Many people dream of working for themselves but lack the technical skills to do so.That is not to say that a person with an idea doesn’t have any skills. But with technology changing at such a fast rate, even entrepreneurs with technical knowledge may find their expertise lacking as the demand for specialisation increases. Read more
781 individuals participated in 276 teams in this year’s Start-Up@Singapore, the national business plan competition now into its 11th year. Join us at the Awards Ceremony this May and you will get to hear the finalist pitches (Update! 11 finalists have been chosen!) and network with illustrious members of the local entrepreneurship scene. Read more
We present the slides for the talk in Start-Up@Singapore on the topic “How to write an executive in 24 hours”. It provides a comprehensive guide with examples to how one can write a 2-5 pages executive summary: (a) introduction, (b) problem/opportunity, (c) technology/service/product, (d) team, (e) route to market, (f) business strategies, (g) financials and (h) exit strategy. Read more
If you want to challenge yourself to create a totally new product idea, write an executive summary AND refine your pitch enough to present to a panel of unforgiving judges, check out Start-Up@Singapore’s inaugural 24 Hour Biz Plan Challenge. Read more
Hear from the Founder and President of 77th Street, Elim Chew; Founder and Managing Director of HungryGoWhere.sg, Dennis Goh; and the Founder and CEO of Plug and Play Tech Centre in Silicon Valley, Saeed Amidi. The session will be moderated by another young entrepreneur, Alvin Yap, Founder of TheMobileGamer (9th S@S Youth Category Winner). Find out how they came to establish themselves and their causes! Read more
After 3 intense rounds of judging over a period of 8 months, the winners of Start-Up@Singapore 2009 were revealed at the Awards Ceremony on 30 May 2009.
Open Category winner, Zimplistic with their winning invention of the Rotimatic walked away with $40,000. Winner of the Youth Category, E-Thermnity won $10,000 with their baby milk bottle that changes colour according to the temperature of their content. Read more
Out of 940 teams, 12 remain. These final 12 will battle it out during the finals this Saturday in the General and Youth categories for S$40,000 and S$10,000 respectively.
If you’re keen to monitor your heartbeat through your mobile phone or want a automated roti-maker to rival your rice cooker, check out the upcoming Start-Up@Singapore 2009 Finals and Awards Ceremony. Read more
Calling all enterprising students, aspiring entrepreneurs, curious onlookers and anyone else who wants to turn his or her ideas into the next big thing. The much-awaited Start-Up@Singapore 2009 Awards Ceremony is finally here!
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Start-Up@Singapore put together for the first time the Social Enterprise Challenge competition and panel discussion session.
By SRUTHY KUMAR (email)
19 MAY 2009— Held in the engineering auditorium of the NUS Faculty of Engineering, this focused event was the first of its kind among the series of educational events held by Start-Up@Singapore.
Aligned as an awareness-based and fun approach to entrepreneurial thinking, participants were given the challenge of finding or taking a photograph of a social problem and submitting a one-page business proposal that would serve as a sustainable solution to the problem.
The winning entries were then discussed by our distinguished panelists Ms. Elim Chew and Mr. Alvin Lim.
Ms. Chew, better known as the founder of young people’s streetwear label 77th Street, is also part of many other youth organizations such as Singapore Street Festival and PaTH (Pop and Talent Hub), advocating social entrepreneurship through the youth community in Singapore.
Mr. Alvin Lim is CEO of Bizlink Centre, which aims to give financial independence and dignity to the disabled and needy community by providing various employment opportunities.
The panel discussion was moderated by yet another gentleman knowledgeable and active in the field of social enterprise, Associate Professor Albert Teo from the University Scholars Programme at the National University of Singapore.
After having established the three components that are at the core of most social enterprises, namely innovation, social mission and market orientation, the speakers were grilled on the challenges and problems the speakers faced when raising their respective social enterprises.
“It’s not easy to run a business while helping other people at the same time. When you step into the field of social enterprise, you need to remember that you’re stepping into new ground,” said Ms. Chew about the uncertainty that budding entrepreneurs can expect when thinking of starting a social enterprise.
Speakers also shared real life stories about people they have met and empowered, who have gone on to start various social enterprises to help people and the larger society. Examples included the winners of the Social Entrepreneur of the Year award such as Jack Sim founder of the World Toilet Organisation and Kenny Low of O-School, a dance school that makes professional dancers of school dropouts, and equips them with the finances to go back and complete school.
Questions from the floor included how the social impacts of a social enterprise are measured, where entrepreneurs can look for incubation and what the panelists think about the stigma that surrounds social enterprises about being profit driven.
The discussion finally wrapped up with one interesting thought that was shared by Ms Chew about inculcating an enterprising spirit. “You don’t have to be an entrepreneur to engage in social enterprise. If you’re good at management, you can link up with another social entrepreneur to bring the organization to the next level. What’s important is that you cultivate the entrepreneurial mindset and challenge yourself in coming up with new ideas to tackle new problems.”
The day wound up with the prize presentation to the winning entries of the challenge. The first placed entry was awarded $400 and the second and third placed entries were each awarded $200 and $100 respectively.
Panelists and attendees then engaged in a dinner cum networking session during which all the speakers were able to share more of their insights on being in the industry and were able to advise the attendees on how they can involve themselves in the local social enterprise scene.
SGEntrepreneurs.com is the official blog of Start-Up@Singapore, the premier national business plan competition.
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