Why Entrepreneurs should not pay Investors to Pitch

Recently, I read that Angels Den from Europe has landed in Singapore. In their proposal, they are charging startups S$1499 upfront to pitch, and takes a 5% success fee. It also prompted response from local blogger DK that entrepreneurs should not pay investors to pitch. My stance is that entrepreneurs and start-ups should not pay investors to pitch and here are my opinions on this issue. Read more

TWIA Episode 8: In Hackerspace SG with Wong Meng Weng

In a special episode during the Neoteny Conference, Daniel and BL sat down and talk to Wong Meng Weng, one of the co-founders of Hackerspace SG. We discuss the story of Hackerspace SG and how it happened, the current state of entrepreneurship scene in Singapore, and also one of the interesting topics which Meng Weng opened the discussion in Neoteny Conference – If we are to create a Y-Combinator clone in Singapore what are the features should we adopt? Read more

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Executive Summary Workshop – Ideas, Innovation and Purpose – 24 Oct

Yes, it’s back. The third installment of the workshop is here. What is an idea? When does an idea become an opportunity? What is innovation? What is the purpose of innovation? Is entrepreneurship merely about tangible, monetary outcomes? Can starting a business lead to satisfaction in one’s life? How does one begin a business? What is the most fundamental requirement in starting up a venture: Guts? Money? Education? Team? Read more

Walden International Invests S$2 Million In Brandtology

International venture capital firm, Walden International today announced its first investment using Seed Ventures IV Pte. Ltd, a S$20 million (approximately US$13.3 million) venture fund as the vehicle. This was set up under the Singapore National Research Foundation’s (“NRF”) Early Stage Venture Funding Scheme. This S$2million (approximately US$1.33 million) investment in Brandtology Pte Ltd is Walden’s first under this new fund. Read more

A Map On Venture Capital In Singapore

In a turbulent and challenging climate now, it is unlikely to find funding via the traditional venture capital route. Wong Meng Weng, one of the Singapore entrepreneurs who have made his mark in the Valley (and now back in town) has recently created a map on the venture capital companies in Singapore. He has also presented this picture in a talk “Funding WTF” via the recent Barcamp Singapore 3. For those who are planning to seek venture capital funding, this might be a good map to look and get some perspective. Read more

Entrepreneurs’ Basic Etiquette with Potential Investors

A couple of incidents for the past year recently made me ponder about the way how entrepreneurs in Singapore, or generally Asians handle their potential investors differently from their western counterparts. Perhaps, in terms of Gladwell’s “Outliers”, the cultural legacy could be the major fact that contributes to their behaviour. Since raising money in such difficult times is so much more challenging, it may also be good to provide some thoughts for those who are optimistic and willing to give it a shot. Sometimes, it’s not their fault to sound that way but they have made it so difficult for the investors to really say yes, for 99% of the time, they really did not know what the other side is thinking. I decide to summarize a few general cases for them so that they don’t make such amateur mistakes. This post is originally published from BL’s personal blog. Read more

The Third State of Our Blog

A few days back, Gwen and Weichang notified me that our blog is finally reaching our third birthday and our official birthday is 18 July (the day which we registered the domain). Hence it is that time of the year to have the third state of our blog. Believe it or not, our blog has already made it to the third year and we are still growing. Instead of really talking about things which we did this year or not, I like to use this third state of the blog to open up how SGE has maintained its position over the years with her partners, and the many more things which we hope to do within the two years or more. Read more

The Difficulty of Developing Venture Capital in Singapore

Recently, over a supper conversation in Holland Village, a friend made an interesting observation about entrepreneurs in Singapore, “Actually, there is entrepreneurship in Singapore, but the Singaporean entrepreneurs are not here but in overseas. The market here is just too small. If you are successful in business, you should be now in China, Vietnam or Cambodia.” What he is saying is that if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to set up shop in other markets. Making a few dollars in Singapore is easy, but a few million is pretty difficult. By now, if you are planning to set up a business in Singapore, you have to accept the fact that you must go global on the very first day. I thought about this for a while and come to another conclusion as to why developing venture capital is extremely difficult in Singapore. In that process, I want to sketch out an alternative model that might mitigate some of the issues involved. Read more