The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) invites Singapore’s promising mobile companies to join in an exciting mission trip. Held during July 8 – 12 2013, this upcoming opportunity will allow companies to showcase your mobile technology in Silicon Valley, USA. All consumer and enterprise mobile companies are welcome to participate.
The mission trip is centered around the MobileBeat Conference, which will take place July 9 – 10. The MobileBeat Conference is Venturebeat’s 6th annual flagship conference. It brings together the top people in the industry to explore all things mobile—the future of mobile, latest trends and the many opportunities surrounding them. The conference will provide great content and quality networking opportunities. A specialized pool of people from the mobile ecosystem, such as major carrier executives, top device makers, developers, mobile startups, analysts, investors, retailers and the media are expected at this conference. Read more
Companies thinking of entering the US market for a long time but afraid of taking such a risk may find iSTART@SV Programme a timely fit.
Organized by Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), iSTART@Silicon Valley (SV) Programme is an initiative targeted at providing guidance and assistance to Singapore-based start-ups wishing to venture into the US market, specifically Silicon Valley. Start-ups will gain access to valuable resources such as consultations, incubators, and accelerators that have established a firm presence in US’s entrepreneurial scene. A customised schedule tailored for start-ups comes equipped with educational tools such as workshops and events to guide start-ups in understanding market dynamics, and devise business strategies catered to the US market. Start-ups can also expect to have networking opportunities with potential US-based customers, investors and partners. Read more
A Singaporean quartet is responsible for Quora’s latest feature, called Embedded Quotes. It enables users to easily extract and embed full posts or snippets from Quora, a popular crowdsourced Q&A site from Silicon Valley, onto their own websites or blogs:
Engineers Kah Seng, Kah Keng, and product intern Kah Hong are brothers. The team’s remaining member, Hongping, is a software engineer who previously worked at app2u and Microsoft.
Content from Quora can be freely published on other websites, unless authors specifies explicitly against it. The startup has so far raised USD 61M in investments, with the latest round being a Series B in May 2012. Its backers include: Peter Thiel, Benchmark Capital, Matrix Partners, Adam D’Angelo, and Keith Rabois.
17-year-old Lachy Groom knows a thing or two about running full-fledged, online businesses. At 11-years-old, he started learning to code in HTML and CSS, and by the age of 13, he founded PSDtoWP, a company that turned PhotoShop files into WordPress pages. The company was sold nine months later.
Next, he started PAGGStack.com, a website that sells nutritional supplements to customers around the world. Again, he sold the company in months. By the age of 15, Lachy was already onto his third online business, iPadCaseFinder. Launched in 2010, the site lets users search for iPad cases and find out where to buy them. The website was successfully acquired.
He then moved on to his next two ideas, which he still owns today. The first is Cardnap, which is a site for visitors to buy and resell discount gift cards. The second one is TheWP.co, which builds WordPress sites from scratch and also offers Photoshop file to WordPress conversion.
Lachy now has his eyes set on Silicon Valley. He has visited regularly to absorb the culture and interacting with entrepreneurs. He has also kept a keen eye on Dev Bootcamp, a startup that turns total noobs into novice web developers in 10 weeks. Passionate about education, he hopes to one day start a company in the industry.
ON3, a first-of-its-kind nationwide startup pitching competition in the Philippines, recently concluded with the finals in Manila and the announcement of the six winners. Their prize: A three-month immersion and funding trip to Silicon Valley, sponsored by Plug and Play Tech Center.
The companies will be given five to six months of guidance and milestones to achieve in preparation for their trip to the Mecca of tech startups. While many of them are still in the early stages, you could very well be looking at the next wave of successful Philippine startups.
The competition provided an opportunity for young Philippines entrepreneurs to present their technology business ideas and be heard by the same group of venture capitalists who have funded global internet brands such as Google and Facebook, among others. Check out photos of the competition here.
Now, the final few companies have been selected and they will compete in the national final round on Thursday, 12th July during the DOST National Science Week.
Silicon Valley-based Cooliris, a company that turns digital content into interactive visual experiences, has announced today in a press release that it has received an investment from DOCOMO Capital, the venture arm of NTT DOCOMO, Japan’s largest mobile communications operator.
“I’m a good boss, I really am,” John Fearon, founder and CEO of DropMySite, tells me, in full earshot of his employee at their office in Block 71, Ayer Rajar Crescent, considered the nexus of Singapore’s technology startup scene.
He was making a point about how he’d be a bad subordinate but a good leader who is comfortable with starting things.
“I’m one of those that can go into the room and self-combust.”
With all his self-confidence (whenever he speaks at conferences, he start with,”Hi, I’m amazing”), it’s easy to assume that John, who comes from South Africa, has a string of successful businesses to stand on. Not at all.
I prod him about the number of failed businesses he had.
(Photo: John being featured in an Amazon Web Services video)
John struggles to find his words, which is a rarity. He’d lost count, but finally arrived at an initial figure: Five. Read more
Singapore is the top Asian startup ecosystem and 7th overall in the world, a just-released global ranking of the world’s top 25 ecosystems revealed.
The ranking is compiled by Startup Genome, a research project on tech entrepreneurship around the world.
Ranked according to “average throughput”, the only other Asian cities in the list of the top 25 are Bangalore at 9th and Mumbai at 20th. Sydney and Melbourne come in at 21st and 22nd respectively. Read more
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