SGEntrepreneurs - Singapore Entrepreneurs (Asia)

Events For The Week – 21-27 Mar

SGEntrepreneurs — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 10:13:15 +0000

For a one-stop to all events related to or concerning entrepreneurship, certain industry-meets-business forums and seminars in Singapore, check out our Calendar. If not, you can also follow our bite-size updated posts for upcoming events for the week.

Events range from simple get-togethers to full-blown conferences. Get to meet fellow developers, entrepreneurs, startup CEOs & founders, and meet & learn from CEOs of established companies who have seen it all.

Our aim here at SGE is to make it easy for you to pick & choose from the event buffet. Enjoy.

Here are the events for this week.

Wed, 24th Mar:

(1) Azione-Microsoft BizSpark Pitching Night

Thurs, 25th Mar:

(1) Microsoft Mix-It-Up

Fri, 26th Mar:

(1) BuzzCity Developer Garage

Sat, 27th Mar:

(1) Barcamp Singapore 5

Image courtesy of joyosity.

TWIA Episode 20: Don’t leave your baby behind

SGEntrepreneurs — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:52:45 +0000

The TWIA crew is back without Mike Foong tonight. We talked about a few events that rocked Singapore from the glitzy gala dinner for the SCS IT Leader Awards to the Google Analytics Masterclass happening in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. With investors centering in Singapore, we cover the Asian Business Angels Forum and iMatch Conference 2010 (with SGEntrepreneurs’ new event “In Bed with …” series. After that, we get back to the news of the day, with the Google-o-meter shifting to staying, Baidu’s shares dropped, the new iCity in Malaysia and finally the unfortunate incident of a South Korean couple leaving their real baby starve to death while nurturing a virtual one. You can listen to the podcast in SGEntrepreneurs here by going to the post directly.

The Events that rocked this week: The SCS IT Leader Awards & Gala Dinner 2010 (and congrats to BL with his award as Young Professional of the Year), Google Analytics Master Class, Asian Business Angels Forum (ABAF) and iMatch coupled with In Bed with the Right Investor (organized by SGEntrepreneurs).
Google, Baidu and China: With Google and the Chinese government reaching some resolution, we see the unlikely impact for Baidu with drops in their share prices.
i-City readying to nurture technopreneurs: i-City readying to nurture technopreneurs with Plug and Play leading the way in Malaysia. We discuss how Singapore and Malaysia might benefit from the growth in both ecosystems.
Couple Let Their Baby Starve To Death While Nurturing A Virtual Child: We discuss the unfortunate incident which happened in Korea and expressed our thoughts on the whole online gaming addiction.

SPRING Young Entrepreneurs Event and Idea Generation Workshop

SGEntrepreneurs — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:56:52 +0000

If you are between 17-26 years old, interested in entrepreneurship, this upcoming Young Entrepreneurs event by SPRING might interest you. Prof Wong Poh Kam, NUS Entrepreneurship Centre will be presenting the findings from the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey (GUESSS); Bernard and Gwen will also be holding an Idea Generation workshop for the audience. Educators are also welcome.

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In Conversation With Ori Cohen, Founder of Fotegrafik

Gwen — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:11:27 +0000

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.

What is your background and what were you doing before setting up Fotegrafik Pte Ltd?

My affair with Singapore began in 2002, when I was asked to move here and manage the Asian HQ of Dalet Digital Media System, a global leader in T.V & Radio Broadcast and Content Production systems. I come from a marketing and biz-dev background but I also have a long software engineering background having worked for years as lead software engineer and product manager in different small and large companies,and even a small exit at these happy 90’s selling one of my first startups at the age of 22.

During my MBA studies at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, I spent time in the US and in general traveled a lot, and I have lived in various continents since childhood.

The company started off doing stock image galleries. Why go into that field in the first place?

I was following my personal passion as a very enthusiastic photographer.

Ori Cohen

When did you branch off and set up Fotegrafik Labs, and why?

After starting the Stock Photo Agency we realized very soon that the process of acquiring, categorizing, keywording and later on searching and retrieving content by customers is labor intensive expensive and subjective since you are dealing with how human beings look at images in different ways.

My founding team and myself have a very deep technological background, we took this as a challenge to try and solve the various issues faced by large image and video libraries and buyers. The result was Fotegrafik-labs that was formed about 2 years ago, and ever since has become our main focus and area of interest.

There are many different companies and products doing something to do with image recognition. What do you think differentiates Fotegrafik?

Its a common misconception to think that image recognition is one specific area that solves all the problems in the universe. In reality, machine vision is a very large space for researchers and one technology or another doesn’t cover all aspects of this universe. A simple example is face recognition which is a very different area from barcode reading or OCR (e.g. automatically reading vehicle license plates) – these are completely two different problems that researchers and companies have built their products around for many years.

Our products are currently targeted to solve real life problems in two main areas: Media and Security. Our team comes from a strong digital media background, and traditionally we designed our products for this industry. However over time we were approached by various government security agencies and commercial security companies that were amazed by how unique and advanced our technology is and the numerous problems that it can solve in their space.

There are many advantages to our technology, I’ll name two of the key ones:

1. It is super scalable. We are able to index and retrieve images and videos from huge databases of content – and by that I mean: billions of images or hours of video, in a matter of milliseconds and without compromising on the accuracy of the results.

2. Our technology is one of the most versatile in the market today. It is as useful for image libraries (stock agencies, photo sharing, etc..), mobile devices, retail applications, security agencies and the list of ideas or requests our clients and prospects bring is growing all the time.

Please enlighten us on your image and video search technologies.

Our two main technologies are: a) A visual search platform & b) an automated image tagging system, both are offered in a license model or as a SaaS platform for developers.

On top of this platform developers (3rd party or our own) are able to develop unlimited number of applications. So far, we have already developed certain products and applications for specific clients or application. To name a few:

1. A Media Metrics service that automatically analyzes TV shows (currently Sport events), and generates a detailed report for advertisers and sponsors about the performance of their campaign and to help them estimate the ROI. e.g. A sponsor of a soccer team would like to know the amount of screen-time that their brand/logos had received, and other metrics around it.
2. API for stock photo agencies – who wish to enhance their service, by adding a visual search engine or automatic keywords to better monetize their visual assets.
3. Video analytics for security – a very powerful and cutting edge toolset for Command and Control centers and crime investigators that allows them to quickly locate suspect vehicles and people in large live installations of CCTV cameras, solely based on a visual description of an eye witness.

And more…

Fotegrafik’s products.

We understand that you collaborated with an Israeli company to develop your technologies. How did you get in touch with them (or was it vice versa)?

The connection with the Israeli company, was made possible through my academia network. I looked for a team that can genuinely complement our domain knowledge and and I was privileged to locate a great group of world leaders in the area of machine vision, in a company called RTC Vision. The synergy between the two companies was perfect – Fotegrafik brought a great deal of market knowledge and deep technology understanding and experience, and they brought their very unique IP in the form of very advanced algorithms and 15 years of prior research.

The successful combination brought us to the SIIRD Foundation of EDB in Singapore, who awarded us a generous grant that funded our mutual bi-national research for the last 2 years.

Are the technologies then co-owned by RTC Vision and Fotegrafik?

Fotegrafik has a great R&D team of very experienced engineers in our R&D office in Singapore, a team that has over the years generated its own significant IP. And indeed some of the technologies that were codeveloped with RTC are accordingly co-owned.

What was the one thing that on hindsight was the best decision you ever made for the company?

In various aspects a good decision was to base our operations in Singapore. At that time, the debate was between Israel, Silicon Valley and Singapore. Israel and Silicon Valley compete every year on who has most VC money per capita worldwide, both places are very attractive to base a technology startup, also due to availability of the superb human capital and access to funds.

However in retro perspective Singapore was very generous to us and the amount of government support came in very handy in those financially tough times, and we never had any difficulty locating and recruiting the best people around.

Xavier Lepretre from the Fotegrafik team at a conference.

And what was your biggest mistake?

Probably the biggest mistake was to reject money from investors when it was more accessible in the years 2007-2008. Those were good times and various funds knocked on our door asking to invest in the company. At that time I believed (and I would have probably done the same thing again) – that it’s wiser for the company and its seed shareholders to build significant and tangible value before accepting any money from institutionalized investors (PE, VCs, etc…).

We are all aware of what has happened in the financial markets since then, the rest is history, and we ended up with piles of IP and value but no cash in hand.

The upside of this story is that we have survived the biggest financial crisis in modern history and we came out stronger, wiser and with less competitors who didn’t make it through ;)

Where do you see Fotegrafik in one year and what do you need most to get there?

The number of business leads that we are currently dealing with is overwhelming and growing fast, and it doesn’t really fit the size and capacity of our company. In other words – we have way more opportunities that we can handle. These are of course very good problems – and I anticipate that in a year from now we’ll see a much bigger company with at least four to five times bigger staff, and very significant revenues.

What we need most to get to that point is to convert a couple of medium size sales, which are already around the corner. After which we might feel ready for a Series A round if need, to get take us to the next level…. not to mention the M&A potentials that are beginning to surface already.

What would your biggest advice be to a struggling entrepreneur?

Three big pieces of advice:

1. Be very nimble – ‘Agile’ like the techies like to call it. Keep changing, adapting, correcting, improving – every single day!
2. Don’t underestimate the power of your network – “surround yourself with people smarter than you, and do not be afraid to ask for their help!” (quote accredited to Napoleon Bonaparte)
3. Last but not least: Don’t pay too much attention to the all the Naysayers out there – most of the are just jealous of your courage!

Thanks so much for your time, Ori! Good luck in Fotegrafik.

Image of Ori courtesy of Sir Michael Culme-Seymour.

Image, Video Recognition and Search With Fotegrafik Labs

The Joo Joo Delay And A Summary Of The Legal Wrangle With TechCrunch

Larissa — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:18:54 +0000

The latest news is that Fusion Garage’s Joo Joo has revamped its interface, and that though pre-ordered Joo Joos were supposed to be shipped by end Feb, a manufacturing delay means the device will only be shipped in two weeks time on 25th March.

Manufacturing Issue Causes Delay

The delay comes by way of a manufacturing issue discovered mid–way during the production with regards to the 12.1 inch capacitive touch screen, which is an industry first. From what is known, it seems like screen was not as sensitive as hoped to be and more fine – tuning had been required.

With the previous announcement of the Fusion Garage deal with Malaysian company, CSL, all manufacturing costs associated with the Joo Joo has been eliminated from Fusion Garage’s care. As such, Fusion Garage assures all potential customers that the company will have “no other barriers in the way of product delivery in the new timeframe”. (Cheers to that!)

Bite-Sized Summary of the Lawsuit Between Fusion Garage and TechCrunch

Despite the tidal wave of positivity that Fusion Garage seems to be currently riding on, the lawsuit filed by TechCrunch in December last year, looms like a bad cloud over their heads. With Fusion Garage’s Motion to Dismiss Lawsuit scheduled to be heard on the 5th of April 2010, here’s a quick summary of the legal wrangle before the jury arrives.

Lawsuit filed by TechCrunch

i. False advertising in violation of the Lanham act

TechCrunch’s rather questionable strongest claim ssentially accuses Fusion Garage of making misleading statements during its advertising and promotion of the Joo Joo. Moreover, it alleges that these falsehoods are damaging to TechCrunch and will continue to harm its reputation unless halted by court injunction.

ii. Breach of fiduciary duty

A breach of fiduciary duty takes place when both parties acted in such a manner so as to define their relationship as being “partners” in the business.

TechCrunch maintains that the dealings between both sides were sufficient enough to deem that a partnership has existed between the 2 companies. As such, Fusion Garage had a duty of loyalty to TechCrunch. Fusion Garage, however, violated fiduciary duty when it concealed important facts, made misrepresentations, and individualized the joint intellectual property.

iii. Misappropriation of business ideas

With this claim Arrington is essentially saying that the Joo Joo/CrunchPad was entirely his creation and that Fusion Garage played no part in its subsequent development.

On another note, nowhere in the lawsuit does Arrington stake claims regarding the core Intellectual Property rights of the CrunchPad which Fusion Garage might have incorporated into the Joo Joo. Instead the supporting evidence provided by Arrington only serves to trivialize their claims.

iv. Fraud and deceit

On this second count of falsehood mongering volleyed at Fusion Garage, they have been accused of making “representations which were material to the joint effort between both parties” but not having the intention to act on them.

Motion To Dismiss by Fusion Garage

To be heard on April 5th.

i. Claim under the Lanham Act fails

Fusion Garage maintains that the Lanham Act cannot be invoked since the alleged “misrepresentations” which they had made during the collaborative phase of their relationship were actually true and there was intention to fulfill theses promises made.

Furthermore, TechCrunch cannot prove that it sustained competitive injury as a result of Fusion Garage’s misrepresentation since the Joo Joo was launched after the public demise of the CrunchPad. TechCrunch was also not developing any rival tablet lines at that point of time.

Separately, the “false statements” which TechCrunch complains Fusion Garage made pertain to Fusion Garage’s involvement in the primary inventorship of the CrunchPad. These statements cannot file for claims for the Lanham Act since they do not constitute to material misrepresentations which are to be made on the nature, characteristics, qualities of the goods and commercial activities undertaken by both Fusion Garage and TechCrunch.

Finally, the invoking of the Lanham Act has been made with respect to a Michael Arrington’s (Non Party Individual) ideas. TechCrunch, the filer of the lawsuit cannot allege this false advertising claim on his behalf and in any case, such a claim cannot be made about an individual.

ii. Claim for breach of fiduciary duty fails

With Arrington having, on numerous occasions, threatened to terminate the project – “For reputational reasons, I’m forced to notify our investors the deal is off. At this point it looks like our position is to turn the project off completely”, TechCrunch surely did not seem like they were taking their relationship with Fusion Garage very seriously.

iii. Claim for misappropriation of business idea fails

Business ideas under the Californian Law are not accorded property rights. And therefore since these ideas are not considered to be property per se, they cannot be subject to common law misappropriation.

iv. Claim for fraud and deceit fails

Claim for fraud and deceit, demands specificity in terms of the time, place, and specific content of the false representations as well as the identities of the parties. However, TechCrunch did not provide this information in their lawsuit.

More importantly, Fusion Garage feels that TechCrunch cannot substantiate their claims for proximate damage allegedly suffered due to “misrepresentations” made by Fusion Garage on the prospects of a joint venture because Fusion Garage did actually have an intention to carry out the joint venture in the first place.

With this summary, we’re sure you’ll be well informed by the time April rolls around!

Follow the Fusion Garage/JooJoo/CrunchPad/TechCrunch story here on SGE: one, two, three, four.

Image taken from Engadget.

Events For The Week – 13-20 Mar

SGEntrepreneurs — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:38:34 +0000

Our aim here at SGE is to make it easy for you to pick & choose from the event buffet. Enjoy.

Here are the events for this week.

Thurs, 18th Mar:

(1) The Zenith Story – Behind The Ireland-Based Multinational

Image courtesy of joyosity.

Attracting Angels And Cross-Border Investment Across Asia

Gwen — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 21:28:51 +0000

The recent Singapore Budget 2010 announcement of a new tax incentive for angel investors is only one of the efforts in Singapore in attracting more angel investment in Singapore. The Business Angel Network of Southeast Asia (BANSEA) recently organised the inaugural Asian Business Angel Forum (ABAF) held last week over 2 days here in Singapore. The primary aim of ABAF was to talk about cross-border angel investment and to help exchange ideas and discuss the possibility of an Asian Business Angel Network (ABAN).

Barriers in Cross-Border Angel Investment

One key subject highlighted at ABAF was the lack of familiarity with foreign markets and a lack of connections there. This is a significant barrier to say an angel investor in Philippines who may want to invest in a Malaysia-based startup. But because (s)he may not know the territory very well, the kind of help and value (s)he might be able to provide is limited.

Also, some angel investors like to get really hands-on with their portfolio companies and have a rule of thumb to not invest in any company more than a 2-hour drive away. Having an investment in a company located in another country that requires a plane flight to get there is also another barrier to cross-border investment.

Facilitating Cross-Border Investments

The best way to be able to help a company grow in a market is to be familiar with the market yourself and hopefully be located within a certain distance of the company office. Another way is to engage other angel investors who are already well established in the respective markets and are based there, so you don’t have to.

Last year, BANSEA and the Angel Association of New Zealand (AANZ) did just that. They inked a new partnership to help Singapore and New Zealand companies enter the other’s domestic market.

This is an example towards facilitating cross-border investment. But the angels here are more ambitious and are looking to establish an Asian-wide network, rather than a few centered around specific countries.

Attracting Angels To Invest In Singapore

On a related note, angel investors probably saw some cheer when the Singapore Budget initiatives were announced. The new tax incentive gives a 50% tax break on investments of upward of 100k in a year, allowing the angel investor to reduce his/her tax liability and thus making it more attractive for angels to pump more money into startups here in Singapore.

This is a good thing for angel investors already investing in Singapore, with this incentive possibly being a catalyst for new investments or as encouragement to invest more so that they are eligible for the tax break.

More details of this new tax incentive will be out in June, so we will find out more about possible limitations and definitions of investments and eligible startups.

For angel investors looking to invest in Singapore, the tax incentives might also be in their favour and thus encourage more money to flow into Singapore-based companies. Consequently, the Asian Business Angel Network might then also be more attractive to them.

Asian Business Angel Forum

The 2-day Forum was filled with many good insights made by the panelists and keynote speakers, as well as saw quite a number of promising companies pitch and present at booths. Attendees comprised of about 50 entrepreneurs and 75 angel investors.

Some of the speakers and attendees at ABAF had also attended and spoke at the Technology Commercialisation Forum and The Enterprise Connection dinner as part of InnovFest, and some also went on to attend and speak at iMATCH and In Bed With The Right Investor.

Image courtesy of Bert K.

Local Wikipedia for Social Change and Entrepreneurship

Gwen — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:43:31 +0000

Concern.sg is a community-edited encyclopedia dedicated at the social change organisations and non-profits. While primarily focused on Singapore-based organisations, there is also global coverage in terms of Singapore-linked initiatives.

There are many topics listed there, but the few that might interest you are: Social Enterprise, Social Entrepreneurship, Social Innovation and Social Finance.

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The Zenith Story – Behind The Ireland-Based Multinational

SGEntrepreneurs — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:10:50 +0000

The NUS Entrepreneurship Centre (NEC) brings to you Brendan O’Regan, the entrepreneur behind Ireland-based Zenith Technologies. Hear how he grew it from from a single person organization to one with over 320 employees with multinational offices.

Abstract of Talk

Brendan O’Regan, Founder and Owner, will give insight into how and why Zenith was formed. Zenith Technologies Ltd is a multinational privately owned company based in Cork, Ireland, focused on the provision of automation solutions and associated services primarily for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. The solutions utilise cutting-edge technologies and are fully compliant with current US FDA validation requirements. Outside Ireland, the company operates offices in Singapore, India, Germany, UK, & USA.

The discussion will also outline the key drivers behind the business and the challenges that were faced in growing from a single person organisation to the current multinational presence of over 320 professionals. He will also highlight his views on where the Pharmaceutical business is heading and what Zenith is doing to deal with this changing environment and continue with its growth strategy.

About The Speaker

Brendan O’Regan, Cork born & bred, started Zenith Technologies (ZT) back in 1998 with two people in a spare room in his home. Zenith Technologies Ltd is an indigenous Irish company, based in Cork with offices in Dublin, UK, Germany, USA, Singapore & India.

As an undisputed & trusted provider of Automation Solutions to the global manufacturing industry, ZT have built an enviable reputation in Life Sciences. Our primary focus has been in the highly regulated pharmaceutical/biotech sectors, where automation & validation are intrinsic requirements of the manufacturing process.

Prior to founding Zenith, Brendan was a founding partner of Proscon Engineering, a modular process technology & automation build company. Prior to that he worked as a Project Manager implementing various Pharmaceutical production facilities projects in Ireland & Europe. Brendan’s early career involved living in Limerick, Dublin and Amsterdam, executing design and configuration of Automation Projects for large scale industrial facilities.

He graduated in Instrument Physics from Cork Institute of Technology in 1978 and was a finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2008, International category. He lives in Cork, is married with two adult children and has a keen interest in all things Maritime, Cinema, Technology & Motorcycle related.

Event Details

Date: Thursday, 18 March 2010
Time: 6:00 – 7:30pm (Light Refreshment will be served at 5:30pm)
Venue: National University of Singapore, I³ Auditorium, 21 Heng Mui Keng Terrace, Level 1

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Azione-Microsoft BizSpark Pitching Night – 24 Mar

SGEntrepreneurs — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:58:15 +0000

Azione-Microsoft BizSpark Nights is a series of events held once every two months. It aims to provide entrepreneurs an opportunity to network with mentors and investors. You can take the opportunity to pitch your business ideas and gain insights from industry experts and investors or simply use the chance to liaise and learn during the networking segment.

Besides this, you can choose to be part of Microsoft BizSpark, a programme which provides you with software support. Feel free to look for Chris Ismael during the networking segment.

Event Details

Date: Wednesday, 24th March 2010
Time: 7-9pm
Venue: One Marina Boulevard, Microsoft Singapore, Level 22 CF-12

Please register by 18th March.

Programme

6:30pm: Registration
7:00pm ~ 8:00pm: Pitching and QnA segment by 5 startups (please register beforehand)
8:00pm ~ 9:00pm: Networking

Judges

Mr. Bill Morrow; Founder of Angels Den, Europe’s largest equity funding facilitators
Ms. Valerie Lim; Founder and CEO of Gateway 21, a management consulting firm
Mr. Chris Ismael; Developer Evangelist, Microsoft Singapore

Mentors

Mr. Jeffrey Paine; Founder, venture advisory and investment company
Mr. Nicholas Chan; Executive Director of Azione Capital, venture capital firm
Mr. Paddy Tan; Founder and CEO of BAK2U, antitheft and lost & found software company