Nick hanging out with SGE at Starbucks. Photo: Rusydi
Nick D’Aloisio is a 16-year-old technology prodigy.
But like any ordinary teenager from London, he enjoys rugby and cricket, doesn’t get baseball, and relishes playing sports with his friends on weekends. He loves attending school as well, possessing a deep interest in learning and wishes to do philosophy in university someday.
“I also kinda miss the environment of being in a classroom, like you know, the whole thing?” he says, as we hang out in Starbucks. He orders orange juice while I settle for a cup of cappuccino.
Here in Singapore for a few days with his investment banker dad, he was previously in Japan, where he met up with Nobuyuki Idei, the former Chairman and CEO of Sony. In Singapore, he scheduled meetings with Google, Ubisoft, and other major tech firms, as well as investors and entrepreneurs.
Nick, who grew up in Australia but now lives in London, has not been in school for four weeks, as he was exempted by the British government from attending classes. But he does plan to go back in September, once he has his company “pretty set up and self-sustaining”.
His startup is Summly, now making waves in the tech scene and drawing press coverage from major news outlets. He is quite likely the youngest individual ever, at 15 years old, to get seed funding for his venture, at reportedly over US$250k. His backer is Horizons Ventures, the venture capital firm of Li Ka-Shing, a Chinese billionaire and the 11th richest man in the world.
Nick’s iOS app (downloadable here) has just crossed the 150,000 download mark. Read more
Editor’s note (Gwen says): Yes, Kristine and I did take quite a few videos! If you have been following SGE’s live and post-event coverage of Asia’s largest launchpad for emerging technologies, DEMO Asia 2012, we have been posting several “quick and dirty”, “on the ground” video interviews with attendees here, here and here.
And with that, Kristine (and Gwen) interviews a few more people at DEMO Asia 2012 last week.
Gwen with Rebeca Hwang of YouNoodle
Kristine with Akira of UrbanCook
Kristine with Callum of Fitness Buffet
Kristine with Eugene Fabian of Microsoft. What is a huge company like Microsoft doing at DEMO? Find out!
Let’s face it. There is still a dearth of female entrepreneurs in startup land. As I walked around the booths at DEMO Asia 2012, only about ten percent of startups had female founders. But what does this mean for all of us aspiring, or current, female founders? I was fortunate to interview three inspiring women and capture their words of advice for us.
1. Being female does not handicap you.
Rebeca Hwang, Co-founder and CEO of YouNoodle
Rebeca Hwang, co-founder and CEO of YouNoodle, expressed that gender-bias is not as rampant as perceived by some. Founded in 2007, Rebeca does have some years of experience up her sleeve. She disagrees that female founders have a harder time raising funds. Read more
The oft-repeated mantra at DEMO Asia 2012 is that the Singapore market is too tiny for local entrepreneurs who want to build a sustainable business. Right from the beginning, startups must think about how they want to go global. There’s even dispute that Singapore is a good test market, given it is only one of the few developed economies in the region.
Which is why many businesses look to Indonesia, a vast market south of Singapore that is seeing rapid growth in the Internet space. To get some insights on the Indonesian market, I spoke to Antonny Liem, CEO of Merah Putih Incubator, the first digital incubator in Indonesia that focuses on e-commerce, social media, gaming, and mobile startups.
Since its launch in the middle of 2010, the incubator has seen through eight companies which developed their ideas into viable products. This makes Antonny the perfect person to talk about the Indonesian market. Read more
We all know how China is like the world’s factory. Even an article from New York Times talks about the breathtaking speed and flexibility of Chinese factories in satisfying Apple’s manufacturing needs.
With literally thousands of suppliers and manufacturers to choose from, small and medium sized businesses have an issue with picking the right supplier and manufacturer.
Tradesparq plans to solve this issue. Brian Hager, co-founder of China-based Tradesparq, tell us more. Read more
Adeo (left) with Matt Marshall, founder of VentureBeat.
We managed to catch Adeo Ressi, CEO of The Founder Institute and CEO of TheFunded.com briefly at the sidelines of DEMO Asia 2012 to get his views on the startup scene here in Asia.
Quality of ideas the same?
Although Adeo expressed in earlier interviews that the quality of ideas, whether in Silicon Valley, or Europe, or Asia are the same, he thought that it is more “fine tuned” now as The Founder Institute is operating in 25 cities. Adeo feels that there are some differences in ideas in different markets but on the whole, it’s “more consistent than you would imagine”.
He also believes that some of the most innovative ideas are coming out of Paris and the highest rate of ideas being funded are in Berlin and in Singapore, the latter due to the active involvement of the government. Read more
Gwen and I caught up with Dr Jeff Chi of Vickers Venture Partners (VVP) at the sidelines of DEMO Asia to catch his views on the startup scene here in Asia. Jeff is currently based out of both Singapore and China and he is always looking for “young talented entrepreneurs with a dream to change the world”. Read more
Helan Tan is not the stereotypical brash, zealous, and overconfident entrepreneur. Formerly employed by a bridal gown design company, she started her Singapore-based business after leaving her job as a means of attaining a more balanced lifestyle.
Her husband wanted to start a family with her. ”I didn’t want to be so hectic, working till 3am when I have kids. At the same time, I wanted to bring in some income, and carry on enjoying my interests in fashion and design,” she says.
While she has no grand plans for world domination, this lady is no lightweight. Her accessories have been featured in prominent bridal magazines like Tatler Weddings and Her World Brides, local celebrities like Fann Wong and Zoe Tay have donned her pieces for charity shows, and she has done work for television commercials and print ads for large brands like Lux, Fujitsu, and HSBC. Read more
Steve Wozniak’s criticisms of Singaporeans as rigid and unimaginative sparked a heated debate last year. There were those who could totally relate to what Woz said, while others pointed out that Singapore is a fast changing society that is starting to tolerate a bit of rebellion.
Soon after the media circus was done making a hullabaloo out of this topic, Weare.sg was born. The website has the mission of documenting the coolest people in Singapore, in the realm of entrepreneurship, culture, the arts, and any other category you can think of.
Zakayo (left) and Mwangi on a climb. Photo: Nicholas Leong
Very few Asian entrepreneurs have the audacity to do crazy things. While more entrepreneurs and do-gooders have arisen in the continent over the past decade — and that is a good sign, don’t get me wrong — many of them are found hopping onto the latest fads, daily deals one moment, SoLoMo the next.
Nicholas Leong, on the other hand, is truly one-of-a-kind.
A Singaporean commercial photographer in his previous life, Nicholas gave it all up to pursue a different path: Training the next Lance Armstrong. In Kenya.
He’s not doing this on the side, he told me while he was in Singapore a few weeks ago. Committing his life savings to this endeavor, he’s on full throttle, charging full speed ahead with his wacky idea. By the time you’re reading this, he’ll be in Africa, preparing his cyclists for their next race.
Everything started with a spinter in his feet. Read more
