This article was republished with permission from the author’s blog.
Andreessen Horowitz recently revealed that its investment of US$250K in Instagram became $78 million. Thats a multiple of 312. Investing in early stage ventures is indeed very rewarding yet inherently risky. It thrives on multiple high risk bets out of which one or more would achieve high rewards.
But that certainly does not mean putting blind bets on anything that comes your way. Those who believe in “Spray and Pray” kind of investing are often losers in the long term.
Most VCs through their experience would have developed some sort of an internal braincloud (mental) checklist which gets ticked during the pitching sessions. Relying on mental checklists again is risky. Some or more of those check points might get sidelined if the idea falls into one of the soft spots of the more influential team members.
So how can venture capital funds systematically mitigate undue risks?
Here is a list of risks inherent in Venture investing along with practical risk mitigation strategies and if needed a ‘Jugaad’. Jugaad is a colloquial Indian term that means a creative idea, or a quick workaround to get through commercial, logistic or law issues. Read more
Malaysia's digital economy is similar to Singapore and Brunei.
Recently, I was invited to speak on entrepreneurship and consumer Internet trends in a private event hosted by Penn Olson during Startups in Asia, which happened from 2nd to 4th February.
In this article, I will highlight additional perspectives to shed greater light on the ideas presented during my talk, which gave the audience a better grasp on the consumer internet space in Southeast Asia. Read more
If you can't smile after signing a deal, chances are that you've been screwed over. Photo: Candie_N
Here’s a situation which some entrepreneurs would go through. They decide to take in an investor or join an incubator program. In front of them, an investor asks for “x” % of equity. The entrepreneurs then speak to different people in the community to get some advice. The opinions will be diverse. They turn to US tech blogs, which give them a totally different picture. All this adds up to a lot of frustration.
Any entrepreneur has to deal with this potential scenario and negotiate in good faith with investors. To help you, here’s a checklist of things to do before getting an investment deal.
Professor Dr. Wong Poh Kam here provides an overview of role of Venture Capital and Angel Investors in teh-startups scene in Singapore. It has been republished here with permission. A more detailed version of this will be published in the Annual SVCA Directory 2011/12
High-technology entrepreneurship has been identified as an important driver of Singapore’s knowledge-based economy, and increased policy attention has been given to encouraging the formation and nurturing of high-tech start-ups, especially those with significant intellectual property (IP). To this end, in 2010 the National Research Foundation (NRF) engaged me, as director of the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, to conduct a study of high-tech start-ups in Singapore. While the survey covers many aspects of the high tech start-up dynamics, including characteristics of the founders, their sources of technology and funding, growth strategies, performance and challenges, this blog highlights some salient findings on only one aspect of the survey: the performance of start-ups that have received funding from venture capitalists or angel investors versus those that did not. Read more
A recent survey by the National Research Foundation has revealed that close to 5,000 new tech startups were registered in Singapore every year since 2006, or just under 10 percent of all new enterprises.
The proportion of tech enterprises below five years old has gone up as a result. Read more
Filed under Funding, Innovation & Technology, News Stop, Technology, Venture Capital & Private EquityTags: NRF TIS, Singapore Government, techVenture, Techventure 2011, Temasek Holdings, teo chee hean, venture capital, Venture Capital & Private Equity
As a former venture capitalist I’ve been privileged to interact with numerous entrepreneurs in South Asia and play a small role in some start-up ventures. A few of these succeeded and went on to become large companies while many others failed.
Some ended up as lifestyle businesses – the living dead in VC parlance – and continue to chug along never quite realizing their original promise.
Read more
Filed under Dummy's Guide, Entrepreneurial Mindset, Featured, ToolkitTags: Beeconomic, DEAL.com.sg, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, international coach federation, jufco asia, mentor square, radical shift, singapore institute of directors, SMU, venture capital
The second of the special episodes that line up for Echelon 2010, we have Jeffrey Paine, from Founder Institute and also a managing partner at Battle Ventures. We speak to him regarding the opening of Founder Institute and how the course has been ongoing in Singapore for the past few weeks. As Jeff is moderating the panel “Mentorship, Investment and New Funding Models” in the coming Echelon 2010, we discuss with him on the issues which he might cover and also his thoughts on the current trend where the micro venture capital model is becoming a new wave in creating start-ups with low cost and high effective return. You can go directly to TWIA website or listen the podcast here in SGEntrepreneurs. Read more
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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
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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Filed under Media, Technology, WebTags: HackerSpace, Hackerspace SG, Paul Graham, Startup Incubator, Ted Christansen, This Week in Asia, TWIA, venture capital, Venture Incubator, Wong Meng Weng, Y Combinator, Y Combinator Clone
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
