In Conversation With Ori Cohen, Founder of Fotegrafik

You might have read our feature on visual search solution provider, Fotegrafik Labs. This time, we managed to interview Ori Cohen, the founder of the company, to find out more about the origins of the company, and what prompted them to change direction to then set up Fotegrafik Labs. Read more

In Conversation with Frank Levinson, Small World Group

The Small World Group, managed by Frank Levinson and his partner, Dean Haritos, is one of the seven designated technology venture incubators from the National Research Foundation (NRF) TIS Scheme. The technology focus of this company is on clean tech, optics and materials and it has begun operations in Singapore to start working with entrepreneurs to bring new tech companies to market. We sat down with Frank Levinson, one of the partners in Small World Group and chat with him on several subjects, from how he started Small World Group to the type of entrepreneurs which the incubator will be interested to fund. He will also share some of the earlier success stories he has with regards to incubation of tech companies and talks about the future plans of the Small World Group in Singapore. Read more

Interview With Irene Ang, Founder and CEO of Fly Entertainment

Tucked away in a nondescript industrial building along Henderson Road is the headquarters of Singapore’s first artiste management agency Fly Entertainment. Initially surprised that an agency for stars like Allan Wu and Beatrice Chia-Richmond was housed in such an unassuming location, this interviewer’s feeling of disbelief eroded when talking to Fly Entertainment’s Founder and CEO Irene Ang. The office’s understatement is an extension of Irene Ang’s down-to-earth nature, one that belies the business savviness of the entrepreneur Irene Ang in, what is arguably, the, if not one of the, most cutthroat industries in Singapore.

Irene is probably most recognizable as Rosie Phua, the wife of Singapore’s most beloved ah-beng Phua Chu Kang. As she would tell it, the role was one that she stumbled into – while still an insurance agent, Irene had been working as the ‘warm-up’ for the show ‘Under One Roof’ when she was spotted and asked to audition for the titular role.

It might seem strange that an insurance agent who entered into the entertainment industry just to meet more people (and hopefully sell more policies) was able to attain considerable achievements as an actress, but those beginnings reveal the secret recipe to Irene’s success in life – set a goal, have faith that it can be reached, pursue the goal with gusto, execute with a focus on being excellent, slam into walls, learn and do it all again. Read more

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Interview with Richard Kivel of MIT Enterprise Forum and Rhapsody Biologics

Having served as the CEO of a few biotechnology and life science companies, Richard Kivel is a seasoned business executive who also serves as a Board member in several life science companies in the US, Europe and Asia. Not only is he involved in business, but Richard also spends his time with entrepreneurial organisations like the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. As Chairman of the Global Board of Directors of the MIT Enterprise Forum, Richard will be speaking at the Singapore chapter event tonight. We managed to get him to take out some time out of his busy schedule to give us a short interview. Read more

In Conversation with Alfred Chong, CEO of 121View

A few weeks ago, we profiled the global markets that Singapore-headquartered, digital signage company 121VIEW has penetrated into.

This time, we managed to speak with Alfred Chong, CEO of the company, who sees 121VIEW’s continual growth and success as tied to the advertising industry. A serial entrepreneur, he lived and worked on companies in several countries such as the US, Malaysia and of course Singapore.

For his first company, Alfred borrowed USD 1k and grew it to one doing USD 8m, eventually selling the company. Find out his story here. Read more

Interview with Sunder Mani of I-Flapp Technologies

A few months ago, we reviewed I-Flapp Technologies‘ flagship product, I-Mtop (check out how you might Hold Your PC In The Palm Of Your Hand). This time, we managed to grab some time from its CEO and learnt that this was his first startup after working for others for 20 years, of which the last 18 were spent in Singapore, after having come from India. We find out Sunder Mani’s story. Read more

In Conversation with Saumil Nanavati, Co-Founder of Chlkboard

My fellow founder of SGE, Bernard, has just launched a new startup together with entrepreneur Saumil Nanavati who had previously successfully led a startup to acquisition. The amazing thing is, the whole thing (beta vesion) was built from scratch in 21 days! But do not underestimate the product. This new venture of theirs, Chlkboard, allows users to find nearby promotions via mobile phones and allows retail shops to reach potential customers in the vicinity by pushing out promotions to them. We speak to Saumil on this new startup. Read more

Interview with Ray Koh of PickaPoken – Bringing Poken to Singapore

If you are in the tech space and haven’t yet heard of Poken, you must be living under a rock. The little digital social business card, with its cutesy designs, reminds one of the once famous Tamagotchi, only much more useful, and targeted at business users. While Poken was catching on fast in Europe and Japan, the little device still hasn’t reached Singapore shores en masse yet, till Ray set up PickaPoken to distribute Poken in Singapore. We caught Ray to find out more about the process of bringing Poken to Singapore. Read more

Interview with Sean Seah, Co-founder of Phokki

Will the 3rd time be the charm for Seah Seah, co-founder of Phokki? Back when Sean first graduated, he joined the Defense Science Organisation but quickly got bored. So, he decided to leave and start his own startup. When that did not work, he joined yet another startup but left when disagreements on the direction of the company surfaced. Next was Phokki, which is something that is still alive and kicking today and which Sean still continues to run today. We speak to Sean about his entrepreneurship journey and the story behind Phokki – the site that connects buyers directly to digital artists. Read more

A Conversation with Purnima Kochikar, VP Forum Nokia & Developer Communities

Forum Nokia is Nokia’s global developer community and support program for mobile developers. Unlike the other smartphone developer platforms, the developer communities for Nokia has to grapple with many types handsets from Nokia that come in all shapes and sizes and cater to different markets from developing countries like the BIIC (Brazil, India, Indonesia and China) to developed economies (UK, US, Singapore). Through a private meeting arranged by Text100, I sat down with Purnima Kochikar, the VP Forum Nokia and Developer Communities, who is currently based in Silicon Valley. We discussed various issues from the trends and observations from emerging markets, mobile apps with interesting stories to tell, and the issues with rising apps stores from different providers in the market. Read more

Next Page »