Singapore Entrepreneurs

Recently, over a supper conversation in Holland Village, a friend made an interesting observation about entrepreneurs in Singapore, “Actually, there is entrepreneurship in Singapore, but the Singaporean entrepreneurs are not here but in overseas. The market here is just too small. If you are successful in business, you should be now in China, Vietnam or Cambodia.” What he is saying is that if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to set up shop in other markets. Making a few dollars in Singapore is easy, but a few million is pretty difficult. By now, if you are planning to set up a business in Singapore, you have to accept the fact that you must go global on the very first day. I thought about this for a while and come to another conclusion as to why developing venture capital is extremely difficult in Singapore. In that process, I want to sketch out an alternative model that might mitigate some of the issues involved. [ Read More ]

Here is an interesting question for most people. Let’s suppose that you are doing a start-up and you have enough funds to sustain the entire team and product development. So, one day, you finally meet up with an angel investor or you decide to go and look for investors. Without hesitation as a brash youth, you tell the guy that you don’t need his or her money but you want his or her contact in later stages. Is that a wise move? It may be interesting to examine the different schools of thought on this simple question. [ Read More ]

In Singapore, other than the government, business angels & venture capitalists (series A is non-existent), private investors are another source which people can seek funding from. These private investors have most likely made their money through traditional industries and banks and usually have a portfolio in property and investments (hedge funds) which can make money. They differ from business angels and VCs because they have no prior expertise or experience in that technology area you are in. Sometimes, out of the blue, they will seek out a technology company to invest in. However, if you are a technology company, I don’t think that it is a good idea to seek out a private investor. Here are some reasons why a private investor can be a pain in the neck. [ Read More ]

Continuing “The Art of Valuation” series, we give a brief review of the valuation methods that the entrepreneurs can use to value their companies before engaging any investors. [ Read More ]

Some of you might be following our incubation and seed funding initiative for Interactive Digital Media (IDM) startups, and might also have noticed that the page with the overview of this initiative has been taken down. But we assure you that this does not mean that it has been called off. Rather, we have decided not to publicize an as-of-yet, finalized initiative. In the meanwhile, if you have an innovative and disruptive technology or IDM service, please do drop us an email. (IDM might include “web 2.0″, technological gadgets, etc..)

Can Singapore produce a world-class startup? Our newly minted resident contributor, whysgentrepreneurssuck, expounds on the lacklustre venture capital industry in Singapore and how we are doing it all wrong in our quest to fund the next big thing.

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When should an entrepreneur fundraise or bootstrap? Mícheál Collins, our guest contributor from Collins Kumarasinghe Associates and MBA Graduate from INSEAD, offers seven interesting questions for the entrepreneur to work out which route they should take in setting up their own business enterprises. [ Read More ]

When an investor puts money in your business, how much involvement do you expect him or her to have with you? Venture capitalists and business angels have different expectations on their investments and will devote their time depending on certain conditions and factors associated with the venture which they fund. It is important for you, the entrepreneur to understand how to manage the expectations of the investor. [ Read More ]

Building the interactive digital media (IDM) hub of Singapore, encouraging the possible creation of a Web 3.0 industry, the Media Development Authority of Singapore has pledged S$500 million over the next five years to doing this. The launch of the IDM Jamboree will allow you to take a peak into MDA’s plans, feature announcements of the IDM funding initiative, as well as industry demonstrations, call for collaboration and discussion on R&D projects. Dr. Vivian Balakrishan, Second Minister, Information, Communications and the Arts is the Guest of Honour. For more details… [ Read More ]

Getting a venture capitalist (VC) or a business angel to put money in your enterprise is only the first step. Closing the deal is really the most difficult part of the whole process. You can take months or even years just to get the important piece of agreement to get the money from your investors. The first document which the entrepreneur will see is the term sheet. Here are some guidelines to what needs to be include in the term sheet. Of course, as an important rule, get a lawyer friend to help you out. [ Read More ]