Finally, I found a book that echoed exactly the same view. “The Start-up of You” by Reid Hoffman (Co-founder of LinkedIn) and Ben Casnocha describes in detail on how one can map the lessons of successful entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley into their own careers in an uncertain global economy out there. It might be interesting to draw out some of the important ideas sketched out in the book.

“All human beings are entrepreneurs. When we were in the caves, we were all self-employed … finding our food, feeding ourselves. That’s where human history began. As civilization came, we suppressed it. We became “labor” because they stamped us, “You are labor.” We forgot that we are entrepreneurs.” –Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Prize winner.

The theme of the book is simple: your future success whether in career or any project you undertake, depends on understanding several entrepreneurial strategies. Society can flourish when people start to think entrepreneurially.

The book illustrated on how globalization and technology have changed the way individuals can progress in their careers. Globalization allows corporations to distribute your jobs to cheaper labour out there, for example, outsourcing American manufacturing to China. Technology has been able to simplify workflow in order to utilize less labour in jobs that used to need more people.

After the book sets the stage, it introduces us to a few interesting case studies of successful entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and mapped out the best practices and lessons that individuals can adopt to manage their own career in the same way.

Most notably, they described a “permanent beta” mindset where all of us have “bugs”. Constant upgrade and development of our skill sets with optimism will allow us to go through a life marked with new challenges and opportunities.

In the chapters which followed, the authors lay out the lessons with case studies of various successful entrepreneurs and corporate executives, for example, the entrepreneurs who founded AirBnB, Paypal and LinkedIn and Sheryl Sandberg who transitioned to a corporate career with successful stints in Google and Facebook.

In each part of the book, the authors give some practical exercises for the individual to work out an action plan. Like entrepreneurs who have to deal with uncertainties, changes and constraints in their own careers, we have to take stock of our assets, aspirations and market realities to develop a competitive advantage.

“Markets that don’t exist don’t care how smart you are. Similarly, it doesn’t matter how hard you’ve worked or how passionate you are about an aspiration: If someone won’t pay you for your services in the career marketplace, it’s going to be a very hard slog. You aren’t entitled to everything” – Marc Andreessen

Next, the authors recommend the following strategies for your career which is analogous to building a start-up.

First develop a competitive advantage based on your assets, aspirations and values while adapt to the market realities, then work out a plan A, B all the way to Z and pivot if your initial plan did not work. Then build an extensive network where you build genuine relationships and maintain the relationships you build with the people within the network.

Finally, pursue breakout opportunities and take intelligent risks, and in the end you will be able to navigate your way and build a career.

Sounds simple, but most of us are often stuck in our day jobs, focusing on the details rather than taking a step back to see the big picture. Someone once told me that an entrepreneur needs to understand that everyone works for themselves, and their objective as entrepreneurs is to facilitate employees that the objective of working for yourself and the company stays the same.

Whether you are an entrepreneur or not, you should invest in yourself, and the start-up is you.

The program supports a wide range of technology industries: Digital media, software, biotech, cleantech, ecommerce, advertising, consumer electronics, and more.

The Founder Institute is an entrepreneurship training program “run for founders, by founders” (more stories on FI here). It was set up by Adeo Ressi (TheFunded.com) with the aim of mentoring entrepreneurs by people who have started and run successful startups themselves. Previously only available in the US, The Founder Institute has expanded its program internationally in collaboration with local partners.

Applicants will be invited to take a Predictive Admissions Test, which aims to identify entrepreneurial traits. If accepted, Singapore citizens and permanent residents have to pay a course fee of S$600 (US$492). Foreigners have to fork out the full amount of S$2000 (US$1,643), but the Institute does give out fellowships of between S$500-800 per participant.

Deadline for application is October 18, 2011. To apply, click here.

To participate in the LiveSPARK Awards, entrepreneurs must be 21 years old and below and supported by their respective educational institutions. Ex-students who have graduated within less than a year at the point of application also qualify.

Top winners for both secondary/post-secondary category will win a S$1,000 cash prize, while three merit winners from both groups will win S$500.

The more adult LiveWIRE Awards, held biennially, is also live. Entrepreneurs must be 30 and below and a key partner of a business that has been running for one to three years. One winner will be awarded S$10,000 for the top prize while four merit winners will walk away with S$2,000 each.

Lastly, there’s the Most Promising LiveWIRE Award, for entrepreneurs 25 and below who have been running businesses for six to 12 months. There will be one cash prize worth S$2,000.

Beyond the money, winners could attend complimentary workshops that will equip them on how to run a business. If they have plans to expand their business overseas, they could also take advantage of the Go and Trade Grant, an initiative under the Shell LiveWIRE international programme.

For more details on this initiative and how to participate, visit this webpage.

The aim of the clinic is to allow participants to engage in casual discussions with Sean around their business idea/plan/model.

The clinic is organized by JFDI and is fully sponsored by MDA therefore participation is absolutely free. Click here to stand a chance to be handpicked by Sean to meet him!

About Sean

He has been featured in GOOD, Wired, Playboy, Salon, Forbes and others, been included in Yahoo!’s Best of the Web, and has spoken at conferences, events, and coffee shops around the world. As co-founder and CEO of Bode Media Inc, Sean helped create Metblogs, the
worlds largest network of local media blogs.

As a consultant, he has helped The Groop, Jack In The Box, LAPD, Suicide Girls, Obey Giant, Shopzilla and others interact with their customers, clients, and fans online.

He also speaks frequently at conferences covering blogs, media, networks and grassroots journalism. Recently he’s spoken at IzeaFest (Orlando, FL), SXSWi (Austin, TX), Roboexotica (Vienna, Austria) and Re:Publica (Berlin, Germany).

Sean is well connected to the startup scene in Asia as one of the guys behind Neoteny Labs, a venture fund and incubator which opened its doors in Q1 2010. Neoteny Labs aims to find and grow some of the most interesting technology startups in Asia and the Middle East. It is one of seven technology incubators chosen to participate in the S$50 million National Research Foundation (NRF) Technology Incubation Scheme (TIS).

As an event organizer, Sean brought Neoteny Singapore Camp 1 (NSC1) to Singapore which brought together a fascinating mix of entrepreneurs and investors, sharing possibilities over a 2 day event. Check this out for an interesting discussion around startups from that event.

He also brought BarCamp to Los Angeles, produced the first art exhibition comprised solely of phonecam images, ran art auctions and benefits for the West Memphis Three. Sean has also been a guest blogger/contributor for BoingBoingVideo and hosted the iPhone game review show iPhun.

He is one of the founders of Crash Space, a Los Angeles hackerspace and is the creative director for the brand R5315T. Prior to all this, Sean helped build the groundbreaking contemporary art gallery sixspace exhibiting artists such as Glen E. Friedman, Shepard Fairey, Coop, Chad Robertson and others.

He also ran a record label and produced several records by Hot Water Music and Less Than Jake to name a few. He’s also managed a design firm, worked as Sr. Designer for Playboy.com and Creative Director for Victory Records.

How to score a chance to engage Sean Bonner

What participants can expect out of the clinic

Furthermore, as part of the programme, Sean may want to continue to work with the participants to develop your idea, or he may put you in touch with someone he believes you would benefit from talking to.

Event details

Duration: 1 hour for each team

JFDI will contact successful applicants to make further arrangements

Please click here for more info
Or, if you have more enquiries on the programme, please email them to JFDI: info@jfdi.asia

In the real world, you need about two weeks to work out the stage from ideas generation to execution. Here is how I will break it down for you using 2 weeks:

• Day 1 – Day 4: Sketch your ideas within the first four days on the industry you focused. Try to brainstorm without constraints and work out all possible ideas you have. The key is to make sure that you have enough ideas to be eliminated in the next stage.
• Day 5 – Day 7: From the list you have brainstormed, decide on the top 3 ideas which you think will succeed.
• Day 8 – Day 11: Do your market research, surveys and reading secondary data on your industry. One important thing is to make sure that you end up getting the final idea. Make sure you talk to people in the industry whether they are from an MNC and start-up.
• Day 12 – Day 14: Focus on the last idea you have eliminated and work out the timeline and milestones so that you can get a prototype to market within 6-8 weeks from this date.

So good luck in generating your ideas for the start-up. :)

BL: Hi Simran thank you for taking time to do this interview. What did you do before setting up Stage and Such?
Simran Kaur: I’ve wanted to own and run a early childhood centre for as long as I can remember. After graduating from NUS Business School, I started working as an assistant teacher at one of the leading international pre-schools in Singapore. I felt that it was necessary for me to be privy to the ins and outs from the bottom up in order to be successfully be able to run my own early childhood institute.

At that point, MCYS was tightening its requirements for teacher qualifications so I began pursuing my Certificate in Pre-school Teaching (CPT) while working. After about 9 months, I was offered a teaching post.

By then, I had quickly come to realize that assistant teachers were involved in and were privy to a host of varied aspects that regular teachers weren’t. We were shuttled between classes on very little or no notice when teachers were on leave and because of that, I had the opportunity to not only work with children of different age groups but also assist teachers who had diverse teaching styles and classroom management techniques.

After about 18 months, I left to pursue my Diploma in Teaching & Leadership full time. During my 2-year course, the extensive practicums coupled with the hands on assignments lent me even more insight into the field.

It was at this time that I also set up Little Angels – a behavioral management consultancy that helps parents deal with their children’s tantrums and other behavioral issues.

When I graduated top of my class and valedictorian in April this year, my lecturer and mentor said to me “If someone with your passion and aptitude for the field doesn’t go out and do something, I would have little hope for the future of early childhood scene in Singapore.” That was my trigger and with a lot of support from my husband and loved ones, I decided that there was no time like now.

BL: What inspired you to set up the Stage and Such?
Simran Kaur: Having completed my education here, I understand the rigorous nature of the school system here. However, I spent a couple of my summer vacations (while at NUS) interning at Canadian & Australian pre-schools in Japan & Thailand. These were real eye-opening experiences for me and possibly the source of my first inspirations (and revelations) that learning could indeed occur without worksheets and stressful spelling tests!

That fueled my desire to bring about a change in the way children learn here and that is also the reason why I went into teaching right after graduation.

BL: Can you briefly tell us about Stage and Such? What does it do?
Simran Kaur: Stage & Such is an exclusive lifestyle type membership for children aged between 6 months and 6 six years. We have a range of classes that develop children’s ability to question, potential to explore and most importantly their aptitude to embrace new and diverse experiences.

Each class is an eclectic mix of music, warmth and creative energy. The mix of classes we offer is deliberate in terms of heightening children’s self-awareness and confidence.

Speech & Drama focuses on developing children’s ability to communicate effectively through the arts.

Yoga serves to counter the hurry-up world of busy parents, school pressures and the generally rushed world our children live in. Techniques for self-health, relaxation and body awareness through a physical activity that’s noncompetitive encourages healthy self-esteem.

Besides its unique ability to touch upon all the right sensorial points, water is a medium that is calming and familiar to young children. Water play serves to build children’s self confidence through orientation in space and increased dexterity and motion through the strengthening of core muscles.

BL: What are the three interesting services that you think that you want new customers to know about Stage and Such?
Simran Kaur: Here are the three interesting services I will recommend to new customers:

1. Our unique packages enable members to pick and choose classes ala carte rather than having fixed commitments to a particular type of class or time. This means that a package can be used for any or all of our classes. Sessions are redeemed as you come when you come. Packages have no expiry date and are also transferrable between siblings
2. Members or potential members may book classes and/or trials through our digitally integrated “book a class” section on our website. It is a simple and effortless system that enables one to view how many spots are still available and allows for booking up to one hour before the class starts.
3. Our dedicated teams of trainers are brilliant at what they do and our small class size of 6 to 8 children lends for intimate sessions with quality learning.

BL: As Stage and Such provides education to children as young as 6 months old, how do you convince parents to bring their kids to your school?
Simran Kaur: Large proportions of today’s parents are well read and understand the benefits of early socialization and exposure to new and diverse experiences to their children.

Since our Babies in Sync and Toddler Delight classes are adult accompanied and designed to foster parent-child bonding and interaction, parents see our classes as ideal opportunities to spend some quality family time.

Of course there are also parents who feel that classes for 6 month olds are unnecessary as their children are too young to benefit from them.

We usually encourage the parents who are skeptical to come for a trial so that our curriculum may speak for itself. Once they see their children bouncing up and down, laughing during the interactive music sessions or squinting to absorb all the new sights, smells and taste during the drama activity they usually don’t require much more convincing!

BL: What facilities that Stage and Such provide for your clients and young children who attend your school?
Simran Kaur: Each session is designed to encompass as many of a child’s 5 senses as possible. This is because young children learn best when engaged in sensorial experiences.

For our speech & drama classes, we rely heavily on open-ended material that allows the older children to improvise according to the plot of the story. This may range from hats to masks and even everyday items such as baskets, rugs and fabric.

For the younger children, the numerous puppets and toys are used to facilitate their early language development and story telling.

Our wide selection of books and craft material fuel role play, drama, story telling and prop creation.

The jacuzzi and pool at the SOHO are ideal for our water play sessions and of course the lively music and sing along sessions conducted by our guitarist is usually the highlight!

Come early 2010, we are also looking at some really exciting upgrades to the curriculum and general look & feel of the studio – no doubt these will provide even more fun learning for our members!

BL: What are the major challenges that you face in setting up such an enterprise?
Simran Kaur: One of the main challenges I faced was putting together a team that shared and supported my vision to create a club type atmosphere for children to have fun, feel safe and “hang out”.

BL: Education is a major industry in Singapore. What do you see are the trends for the growth of this industry in general?
Simran Kaur: In the last decade, technology has altered the face of education. Whether its interactive sessions using multimedia or the use of social media to communicate directly with parents and students, teaching and learning have come a long way from the chalk and blackboard days.

In order for an educational business to flourish in the short to medium term, reaching out to the consumer (parents, students) directly and responding to their needs quickly and efficiently is without doubt, going to be the path moving forward.

Today’s consumer is shrouded with choices and whether the industry like it or not, even schools are brands. The web allows for everyone and anyone to find everything they need and even customize it to their needs. This includes parenting tips, lesson plans and timetables.

How the fraternity responds to these trends is going to be the determining factor for the growth of this industry. Education providers are increasingly going need to create a brand that tells a story. That and an element of customization and flexibility in the programs that are being offered is the next wave for this industry.

BL: What are the three most important traits of an entrepreneur
Simran Kaur:

• Making mistakes and being okay with it!
• Flexibility – don’t be afraid to implement new & original ideas
• Vision – not just knowing it is but more importantly sharing it with your team and clients.

BL: Thank you, Simran for the interview. We wish you and the team in Stage & Such all the best in your endeavours. Do let us know of any new developments and news about your company.

About Simran Kaur: Simran is a leading expert in developing and executing early childhood programs in South East Asia. Her first business venture, a behavioral management consultancy called Little Angels was inspired by the hit reality TV series “Supernanny”. A firm believer that children are inherently good and only misbehave when they are misunderstood, scared or insecure, Simran continues to work closely with families to help them better understand their children and their needs.

Along with these commitments, Simran owns and runs a boutique school catering for various parent-child activities. Located in the heart of Clarke Quay, the unique “book a class online” tool coupled with the flexibility of the programs at Stage & Such is causing quite the stir in the enrichment class scene in Singapore. Referring to their students as “members”, Stage & Such offers a flexible schedule that allows members to customize their timetables
according to their hectic schedules.

An advocate and evangelist of the evolving positive image of child, Simran hopes that her programs will continue to bridge the gap between adult-child communication and expectations so that through them, she may showcase
just how capable children really are.

Bernard Leong: Hi Rick, great to have you here on SGE and congratulations on being the first 5 winners of the Nokia-Adobe Open Screen Award. Tell us about your background. What did you do before setting up BreakDesign?
Rick Treweek: Thanks! Its good to be here. Before setting up Breakdesign, I was working at a company in Cape Town, South Africa that created games and microsites for the UK music industry. This is where I met the other co – founder of Breakdesign, Stefan Wessels.

Bernard Leong: What is the story behind why you and your team set up BreakDesign?
Rick Treweek: I think the main reason for setting up Breakdesign was the passion we had for the work we did. Whilst working for another company we often did not like the fact that we had to push things out the door before they were nicely polished. So the only way to control this was to set up our own company.

Breakdesign was initially a web design company. The turning point in our company was when we released our first game in Flash Lite called Dawn Of The Fly, the game was created for fun to test this new technology. We released the game for free on a couple of sites and it spread to over 178 countries generating a lot of interest in Breakdesign . Still to this day if you search flash lite games on google our game comes out number 1 out of some 18 million hits.

Bernard Leong: What is the Barking Seed platform about which the first beta game which you are launching soon?
Rick Treweek: Barking Seed is going to be totally rocking! Basically it is a games community that is driven by people playing flash lite games that are “Barking Seed Enabled”. Every time you play one of these games you influence your profile in the community. The community will feature a massive scoring api that goes across all the games so the stats will be one of the main components of the world. For example, the most active country, most used weapon (device) etc. This is the very basics of the system, it will be growing a lot. The first game we will be launching is called “That Roach Game”, we have a thing for creating games with bugs!

Bernard Leong: What are the three most interesting features on the Barking Seed platform that you like your users to know about?
Rick Treweek:It’s hard to say which three stand out the most as I think each person will have a favorite aspect in the community. For me I guess the best features are that you can play for a country (You can change who you play for which will affect the country scoreboards). The fact that each time you play a game it adds to your community profile enabling you to play more games. Lastly I would say that all your games that you own will always be available to download from the community so even if you lose your device it would be easy to get all your games back.

Bernard Leong: What are the challenges in developing Flash related software on mobile phones? Do you foresee Flash being adopted by the other vendors (Google, Apple and Microsoft)?
Rick Treweek: I would say the biggest challenge is when working on client projects, the education that is needed for clients to understand the true power of flash lite.

I really think that Flash Lite is still going to explode in the market. We have always been big supporters of this tech and are constantly surprised by how few developers have sunk their teeth into it. It has such great potential not to mention the speed of development time compared to other technologies out there. I would say the biggest thing it offers is bridging the gap between creatives and technical developers which has always been very separated before. Flash Lite has already been adopted by many other vendors but I think to this day Nokia is one of the biggest and best supporters of Flash Lite.

Bernard Leong: What is your experience in working with an MNC like Nokia?
Rick Treweek: It has been a great experience. I think that in an environment like this it takes a small company that can be flexible to really show the power of devices from an MNC like Nokia.

Bernard Leong: What are the tips that you would give to start-ups which want to engage with Nokia or submitting a plan to take part in the Open Screen fund?
Rick Treweek: I would say the biggest tip would be to start developing something in Flash Lite. Once you have started you will be amazed by the capabilities and how easy it actually is to do something on a Nokia device. Once you are comfortable, get some cool ideas together and submit it to the Open Screen Project Fund. It really is a great opportunity for developers to get their ideas off the ground.

Bernard Leong: How does BreakDesign benefit from Nokia’s ecosystem at the recent One Connected World event in KL?
Rick Treweek: I would say the biggest benefits from these events is meeting other developers and getting a chance to network and chat about ideas.

Bernard Leong: What are the three most important traits of an entrepreneur?
Rick Treweek: It’s hard to just say three but if I had to choose 3 top points from my field it would be: (i) Passion, (ii) Try new things, and (3) Keep it fun.

Bernard Leong: Rick, thank you for your thoughts. Let us know any new & upcoming developments with BreakDesign. On behalf of the team, good luck for your ventures ahead.

Photo: Rick Treweek, co-founder of BreakDesign, winner of the Open Screen Project Fund in Nokia One Connected World event

BL: Hi Ross, great to have you here on SGE. Tell us about your background. What did you do before setting up wego.com?
Ross Veitch: Thanks Bernard for the opportunity to talk with you.

As a kid growing up in Bendigo, Australia I was a bit of geek with an early interest in computers and bulletin boards. At age 18 I went off traveling and ended up in London working in factories and bars until I realized that my old computer skills were enough to land a series of jobs in the trading rooms of London banks. Back in Sydney a couple years later I worked at Tourism Australia, initially as a number crunching Strategic Analyst/Planner and then as Internet Strategist where I worked on the first australia.com site. In 1998 Yahoo! hired me to come to Singapore to setup operations for Yahoo! Southeast Asia and to manage the production and engineering teams which I did for 6 years until 2003.

During my time at Yahoo! I was exposed to the travel meta-search business through Yahoo!’s acquisition of two companies in the space; FareChase in the US and Kelkoo in Europe. I thought the product was extremely compelling from a consumers point of view and that Asia was well suited to the price comparison model because of the highly fragmented nature of most Asia-Pacific travel markets compared to those in the US or Europe. Bringing travel meta-search to Asia was one of several ideas I had on a list of possible “Life after Yahoo!” projects.

Around the same time my present day business partner, Craig Hewett was working at InterContinental Hotels Group running eCommerce for Asia-Pacific and through his exposure to the fast growing US meta-searchers was having much the same idea as I was. I mutual friend who knew we were both thinking about the space brought us together. At the time I was in the middle of taking a year off to travel, trying to get fit and lying on the couch reading. Craig talked me into getting off the couch and to getting involved with him in what became Bezurk.com. Some time later when Craig and I realised we needed adult supervision we were fortunate to have Martin Symes who had extensive experience in online travel and with building organizations, join us as CEO.

BL: Before wego.com, we understand that it was called Bezurk.com, how did the name change come about?
Ross Veitch: Bezurk as a brand had a number of challenges associated with it, not least of which was that most people had trouble remembering how to spell it. Also, if english is not your first language, as is the case for a large majority of our target audience, then it is difficult to remember at all because the word probably doesn’t mean anything to you.

Because of these difficulties we decided to rebrand prior to kicking off our consumer marking efforts. The calculus was basically that it would cost way more to build up ‘Bezurk’ as a brand than it would to acquire the domain wego.com, rebrand, and market “Wego” as a brand. So we switched from Bezurk.com to Wego.com

BL: Can you briefly tell us about wego.com and what does it do for the consumers?
Ross Veitch: Wego.com is an online comparison shopping service for flights, hotels, rental cars, packages and other travel products. We help consumers save both time and money when booking travel by quickly searching 100+ different travel websites on behalf of the user and showing the prices available at each so the user can find the best possible deal. Importantly we show both the supplier direct pricing from the airlines and hotel chains as well as the best deals you can get via a travel agent or aggregator website. We’re sometimes referred to as a travel meta-search engine and sometimes as a travel search engine (TSE).

BL: What are the three most interesting features on wego.com that you like users to know about?
Ross Veitch: Real-time filters and sliders. After searching 100+ websites for a given query it’s not uncommon for us to return thousands of different products and price points which would normally be completely unmanageable. Fortunately Wego provides a set of filters and sort options that let you quickly zoom in of the best flight or hotel option. e.g. You can adjust a price slider to show only hotel rooms between S$100-$200 or only flights departing before 12noon or only hotels where you will get Starwood Rewards Points. These handy tools are all built with AJAX so the results set can be quickly manipulated in the browser without having to refresh the whole page each click.

Hot Deals Newsletter Singapore readers should check out and subscribe to our weekly newsletter which is a compilation of all the best travel deals that we’ve seen each week. Because we work with all the major players in the Asian travel industry and spend all day searching their websites for deals we are in a very good position to know about hot deals the minute they break. Our weekly newsletter actually started life as an occasionally email we’d circulate internally and to friends and family to alert them to particularly good deals.

Wego Hotels Guest Satisfaction Index To help users decide which hotel to book we recently added a Wego Guest Satisfaction score for each hotel that we search. This score is calculated based on semantic and sentiment analysis of hotel reviews and opinions from across the web. That is, we analyze what a user is talking about in their comments, how strongly the sentiments are expressed and then we roll it all up statistically into the one number. We have some very cool new features in the pipeline that further extend these concepts.

BL: How does wego.com deliver value to the consumers who are interested to source for travel deals?
Ross Veitch: Wego helps users save time, save money and make smarter decisions when shopping for travel.

BL: There are both direct and indirect competitors, for e.g. travel search engines which focuses on large domestic markets in China and India or indirect competitors like Google, Yahoo! and Bing. How does wego distinguish itself from them?
Ross Veitch: Wego actually powers travel search services for both Yahoo! and Microsoft in Asia and as you would imagine, they are very important partners for us. We also have a healthy relationship with Google to whom we provide travel feeds that they use to enhance their Maps and Local products.

There is a basic chicken and egg issue involved in getting a travel meta-search business off the ground. You need content partnerships with all the big travel companies to offer users a compelling product but to get the travel companies interested you need a critical mass of users in markets that the travel companies want to reach. Our solution to this dilemma has been to partner with the large portals in order to bring the critical mass of traffic and to adopt a multi-market regional approach such that we can always offer a travel company an audience that is attractive to them. This strategy has worked quite nicely so far.

BL: How does wego.com generate revenues to sustain itself?
Ross Veitch: Wego’s primary business model is very similar to that of Google’s search business in that we get paid referral fees, a ‘Cost-per-Click’ (CPC), by the travel suppliers that we refer users to.

You will also see display advertising placed throughout our site which we sell primarily to the larger travel brands but also to an increasing number of non-travel advertisers such as banks, credit card companies and luxury goods marketers, who are wanting to reach an online savvy audience with high disposable income.

Like many consumer web sites we’re also plugged into the Google ecosystem with an additional source of revenue coming from their Adsense for Search program which places relevant text ads next to our organic search results.

Finally we also get paid by licensing and integration fees by companies and organizations who license our travel search platform and have it customized so it can be offered to their own users as part of their own website.

BL: What are the major challenges that you have encountered while you were writing the story for wego.com for the past few years?
Ross Veitch: Start-ups are messy by their nature and this is particularly true when it’s your first starup as this was for both Craig and I. Without getting into all the details it’s fair to say we made more than our fair share of mistakes early on that ended up costing us a lot of time, money and effort to resolve later on.

Due to the time it took us to clean up some of the early mistakes eluded to above, we ended up having to personally fund the business for a lot longer than we had originally planned before going out to raise external funding. This put considerable pressure on Craig, Martin and I as we had a staff of about 20 by then. This was a very stressful period but in retrospect was beneficial in that the business was a lot more mature by the time we eventually did our investor roadshow and as a result we were able to secure a higher valuation and better quality of investor than we probably would have if we’d gone out earlier. It all got a bit touch and go there for a while though!

BL: What are the three most important traits of an entrepreneur?
Ross Veitch: It sounds cliché but determination to succeed (however you personally measure that) and a genuine passion for whatever it is you are trying to do are what I think are probably the most important traits for an entrepreneur to have.

Without the determination to keep going and stay focused there are no shortage of obstacles, set-backs or distractions that will prevent you from achieving whatever it is you originally set out to do.

Having a passion for what you are doing makes doing it day after day a whole easier than if it’s just a job. That’s not to say that it’s any easier just that it’s a lot more interesting and sometimes fun. Most importantly if you don’t have passion for what you’re doing then you’re unlikely to inspire the best people to work for you, to partner with you or purchase from you. Passion is infectious and is critical ingredient for any startup.

Of course being smart, having a good idea, a well developed network, ready access to funding and supply of talented employees don’t hurt either but I suspect these are all of only secondary importance in determing the ultimate success or failure of a venture.

As a final thought I recommend that any tech entrepreneurs check out the writings of Paul Graham, Guy Kawasaki and Marc Cuban, all of whom offer great advice for anybody contemplating a startup.

The only essential principle for adopting social media is the strategic objective i.e. why are you using these social media tools for your start-up? It can vary from companies to companies. If you are not sure which one to use, at least first register your URLs to create accounts for Facebook Pages, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr first. Do not tap on them until you figure out exactly what you want to do with them. The backlash can be worst if you have started using these tools without an objective. Each tool can be specifically tapped to focus on one specific objective, for example, engaging customers’ feedback, providing documentation on how to use the product and talking about the design and the issue that your product is trying to solve. So, here are our 6 essential social media tools for start-ups:

Blogs – Blogger/WordPress: You can always start a corporate blog to talk about your product/service. There are many reasons why you should have a corporate blog. Remember the objective. The essential rule is not to plug your product too much. Don’t talk about your company, but focus on the people within the company, or you or your team’s thoughts about the industry in general. Intangible good will generate via corporate blogs usually spread via word of mouth marketing or the blog becomes a must-read for those who are in the industry. Here are two ways: either you do a http://blog.yourcompany.com or register the blogs on blogger or wordpress. If you are greedy, you can grab typepad, tumblr, posterous and many other blogs out there.

Rich Media Content Sharing – Flickr/YouTube: Sometimes, if you want to provide screenshots or do a video documentation of your product or service, a good way to use the distribution channels via rich media content sharing sites. The reason why you put it up in the public channel is not necessary for people to view. As a start-up, since you have relatively low amount of funds, make use the bandwidth of Flickr and YouTube and then utilize the power of social networking tools to share across platforms thru your friends, family and fans. You can always consider alternative means of photo (Picasa, Facebook Photos, Phlook) and video sharing (Vimeo, Viddler, Tudou, Youku).

Social Networks – Facebook/Linkedin/Ning: If you are unable to build a platform to get a community, make use the power of the social networks to spread your message. If you want to have a small social network for specific purposes, create a simple one via Ning. If you want to share via social bookmarking tools, then spread it via shared links in Facebook. Of course, you can create a Facebook group to organize your customers, or better, create a Facebook Page to illustrate the profile of your company, engage your customers, share links on content and also do social advertising within Facebook. The same principle can be applied to Linkedin, MySpace (particularly if you are in the entertainment industry and wants to expand into the US market), China based social networks (51.com, Kaixin001, RenRen – former Xiaonei) CyWorld (Korea) and Mixi (Japan).

Micro-Blogging – Twitter/Plurk: The streaming of information about the latest product from your start-up can be facilitated in real time through the help of micro-blogging, text-based messages with the maximum of 140 characters. Twitter is currently the most popular way of spreading information. Well, if you are in Singapore, you can give Plurk a shot as well, which is micro-blogging with a timeline. However, do not always send out tweets that concerns the company. One advice given by social media experts is that you stem your thoughts as a specialist of the industry and at times, provide tweets regarding the industry as a whole. Make use of auxiliary services such as bit.ly for URL shortening and link tracing to check how many people are clicking thru your tweets to see the site or Twitpic to show pictures via twitter. Alternatively, try Tweet.SG and SGBeat for local presence.

Aggregators – Digg: If the founders within your company get a feature in a notable blogs, a immediate strategy is to submit it to Digg. If you want to turn one of your blog posts, audio podcasts or video with the assistance of viral marketing, the best strategy is to use Digg or other related aggregators that will broadcast your message quickly. Of course, the key of using aggregator is that you have an interesting story to tell. The best way to work with this, is to keep trying different means and ways to send out ideas about the products and services on your company. In Singapore, you can also try using Ping.SG as an alternative.

Forums – HardWareZone, Comsenz or your industry-centric forum: Unlike the West, the bulletin board services (BBS) in the form of online forums are still popular. You should probably post on issues relating to your area of work. The same strategy can work in China (Comsenz) since online forums are more popular than social networks and blogs there as well. The strategy of writing in discussion forums is the same as in what has mentioned in blogs. In fact, in the area of web development, and if your company specialize in creating new plugins and modules for the platform, you might want to get into the discussion forums and chat with fellow developers. Sometimes, someone might take notice of your product and spread the word.

Of course, the tools are always ready for your disposal, but the key is how you use it to maximize publicity and marketing for your start-up. Of course, I have not included analysis tools to track social media presence.