Mistakes made, lessons learnt #1 — Found

This is the first article from the “Mistakes made, lessons learnt” series. Check out all the articles here.

Over the past few years, Singapore enjoyed some small celebrations in its startup scene. There has been some prominent acquisitions, as well as the setting up of new VC funds and places of gathering for like-minded entrepreneurs.

However, the brutal truth is that behind every news of success is a story of failure. As such, we decided to roll out a series called: “Mistakes made, Lessons learnt”. At SGE, we hope to do our part by enabling start-up members to learn from each other and collectively help put Singapore on the world map. Read more

TWIA #51: Varsha Rao from SingTel Digital Media

As Steve Jobs always say in his keynote, “there’s just one more thing ….” Over here in TWIA, we have managed to obtain one more special interview during Echelon 2010 (before our 50th episode). Varsha Rao, CEO, SingTel Digital Media (which manages inSing.com) discussed her thoughts on her work in inSing.com, social media marketing & the focus on localized content to engage consumers. She also shared her thoughts on Echelon 2010 conference and the case presentation on Indonesia during Echelon 2010. You can go directly to TWIA website or listen the podcast here in SGEntrepreneurs. Read more

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

Tying Together Common Threads From ad:tech and Echelon 2010

The first week of June was certainly an eventful one for the SGE team as we were attending both Echelon 2010 and ad:tech.

While Echelon 2010 possessed a distinctive grassroots vibe, ad:tech, an “interactive advertising and technology conference and exhibition that blends keynote speakers, topic driven panels and workshops to provide attendees with tools and techniques which they need to compete in a changing world” is more of an industry specific event which caters more to professionals within the advertising industry.

A few common threads have emerged to imperceptibly link these two superficially disparate events together. In this respect, it might not be a stretch to say that both the web tech and advertising industries are acknowledging a commonality in their respective foreseeable futures.

Over the next few days, we will be publishing a series of commentaries detailing the key trends and discussion topics which we picked out from both events. The post below provides an overarching view of what we will be covering over the course of the next few days. Read more

TWIA #47: Chris Evdemon from Innovation Works

How is the venture incubator space emerging in China after Lee Kaifu’s departure from Google China to create Innovation Works? What is the current trends in the Chinese market and how does it differ from Singapore. Following our special interview series in conjunction with Echelon 2010, we have Chris Evdemon from Innovation Works & a business angel in Singapore on our show to discuss this issues and his expectations on Echelon 2010. You can go directly to TWIA website or listen the podcast here in SGEntrepreneurs. Read more

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

TWIA #46: Pratyush Prasanna from Xerox & SMS Gupshup

Following on our special interview series, we have Pratyush Prasanna (@pratyushp) from Xerox and also a former founder of SMS Gupshup, a well-known SMS and microblogging mobile service in India which have a total of 20M users. In our conversation with Pratyush, we chatted with him on how he started SMS Gupshup with his fellow co-founders and grew it to the state today. We also asked him on his new challenge as an open innovation manager for Xerox and get a sense of the India market on mobile applications. He will be speaking as a panelist on “Mobile Applications: The State of Play”. You can go directly to TWIA website or listen the podcast here in SGEntrepreneurs. Read more

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

TWIA #42: Back to One with Great Tidings

The TWIA crew comes together before our co-host Michael Foong taking a hiatus for 3 months due to a very special piece of good news. While we announced the great news on the growth of TWIA and our special 50th episode that comes in the form of a live show in Echelon 2010, we do not forget the tech news that dominate the Asian landscape this week. Starting from the famous CHINICT conference in China, the crew proceeds to discuss the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S where the crew praised about the screen and followed on to discuss how Asians have managed to load the new version of Android OS – Froyo into their Nexus One. Finally, we discussed the most exciting news that rocked Southeast Asia with Yahoo acquiring Indonesia start-up, Korpol and whether location based services remained a hype from US to Asia. You can go directly to TWIA website or listen the podcast here in SGEntrepreneurs. Read more

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

TWIA #40: Nicholas Aaron Khoo from SCOGA & CNET

Following our special interview series for Echelon 2010, Daniel and Chew Lin engages Nicholas Aaron Khoo (@geekonomics) from Singapore Cybersports & Online Gaming Association (SCOGA) and CNET to a conversation about online gaming in Asia. During the interview, Nic shares his experiences on the community work in the realm of online gaming through SCOGA, his thoughts on the panel “Social Gaming – How a Fast Rising Global Phenomenon is Developing in Asia” and what he will engage his fellow panelists on that topic and also the sessions in Echelon 2010 which he looks forward to. You can go directly to TWIA website or listen the podcast here in SGEntrepreneurs. Read more

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

TWIA #39: Gen Kanai from Mozilla

An old friend of the show, Gen Kanai (@Gen), Director of Asia Business Development at Mozilla, will be coming down to Echelon 2010. He will be presenting different case studies on how start-ups utilize browser add-ons to grow and retain users. In our special interview series, we chat with Gen directly from TEDxTokyo where he tells us about the growth of Firefox in Indonesia, the interesting features which will pop up in Firefox 4.0, the issue on security of internet banking in South Korea, and what he expects from the coming Echelon 2010 conference on 1st and 2nd June 2010. Read more

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

TWIA #38: Rakuten ready for global domination?

The TWIA crew is back for their weekly discussion on the hottest web and tech news that dominate Asia. We made a glance on the recent Chlkboard Developer Event and Google I/O conference, followed by the plans of TenCent to do global Internet buys and the social networking scene in China with RenRen introducing social gaming. We also discuss the plans of Open Network to help Japan start-ups going global and UStream’s entrance to Asia. While Rakuten is heating the global e-commerce with the alliance with Baidu and acquisition of Buy.com, we also check in with our friend, Benjamin Scherrey (@proteusguy) from Proteus Technologies in Thailand and wish that our friends in tech and media there are well and safe. You can go directly to TWIA website or listen the podcast here in SGEntrepreneurs. Read more

Podcast: Play in new window | Download