A different perspective to Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem

My friend Jon Russell from The Next Web has recently penned that there are four issues challenging Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem: risk aversion, fear of failure, lack of big firm presence and immature ecosystem.

To his credit, he has spotted some inherent weaknesses of a diverse market fragmented not just by geography but also business culture. In a similar reflection, Michael Smith Jr from Spuul focused on the lack of enough big firms.

While there is a lot of hurrah with the arrival of 500 Startups to the region, there are several trends that might deter the growth of the ecosystem — the purpose of this article is to open a discussion on what these might be. Read more

Techstars-style GSF Accelerator to launch in India, partners with Dave McClure and Singapore’s Ruvento

GSF Accelerator, a 7-week startup accelerator involving 12 companies, will launch in October 2012. The program, which will be held concurrently in 3 cities — Mumbai, New Delhi, and Bangalore, will provide startups with mentorship, seed funding, and networks.

GSF Accelerator is started by Rajesh Sawhney, founder of GSF Superangels, a network of 30 digital entrepreneurs and investors. By the end of the program, several of the 12 startups will be picked for additional funding from GSF Superangels. Read more

Funded by heavy-hitters, DocDoc lets you see a doctor’s schedule and make appointments in real-time

The food industry in Singapore has undergone a revolution lately as online reservation services are making it easier for diners to get a restaurant table and beat the crowd.

Now, the healthcare industry in Asia could see a similar change as a multi-platform service called DocDoc makes its debut in Singapore. Lounging at a hotel room in the posh Fullerton Hotel, the team gave SGE a preview of the web app today. It enables patients to instantly search for the right doctor, look at their schedule and make an appointment right away, saving time and effort. The app will go live sometime this week.

Read more

Singapore and Tokyo-based Cinemacraft receives funding from 500 Startups

Cinemacraft, a Singapore and Tokyo-based interactive media platform startup, has announced today an investment from 500 Startups, a Silicon Valley startup accelerator.

This injection comes within months of earlier investments from Singapore-based Jungle Ventures and other angels. To date, Cinemacraft has received US$900,000 in funding, and also a research and development grant from the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), which is spread over two years. Read more

Foound Out. How To Pitch Right.

It was as if Danny and Aen foound themselves caught in an explosion of hype and activity after their pitch at the Echelon 2010 StartUp Launch Pad.

Everyone wanted a piece of them – from panelist and Geeks On A Plane founder, Dave McClure, requesting that everyone give them a standing ovation to TechCrunch’s Dr. Serkan Toto tweeting about their “world class presentation”, foound seemed to be the name on everyone’s lips.

How did they manage to earn that standing ovation from one of the harshest panelist at the event? Read more

TWIA #50: Live from Echelon 2010

Coming live from Echelon 2010 on 2 June with the largest panel ever assembled and a major announcement, the TWIA crew is in full force for the 1st time with interesting threads of discussion ever pursued. With the major announcement for TWIA that DailySocial.net (Indonesia) and Mobinode.com (China) will syndicate our show in the future, we hope to extend our show to reach further shores that provide Asia with the analysis on news which rocked the web, mobile and tech space. In our distinguished panel, we have Dave McClure (@davemcclure), Serkan Toto (@serkantoto) from TechCrunch, Mohan Belani from E27 (@mohanbelani), Gen Kanai from Mozilla Corporation (@genkanai), Rama Mamuaya from DailySocial.net (@rampok) and the full team with Chew Lin Kay (@chewlink) and Michael Smith (@dreampipe). We start with a review of Echelon 2010 with discussion on social gaming, the shift from web to mobile browser in Asia, the start-ups launch with Foound leading the way and Dave’s thoughts on how they can improve for the future. Following on, we crisscrossed through a variety of issues crossing from country to country (China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and etc.), the travel stories from Geeks on a Plane (GOAP) and take interesting questions from our audience. Finally, we wrapped up with what all our panelists wish for Echelon 2011. You can go directly to TWIA website or listen the podcast here in SGEntrepreneurs. Read more

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