Rainmakers – How Startups Can Go Global From Day One

The folks at the National University of Singapore Entrepreneurs Association (NUSEA) in Silicon Valley are putting together a stellar event, together with Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students (BASES) and Santa Clara Entrepreneurship Organization (SCEO), in conjunction with the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW).

NUSEA’s bi-annual conference titled Rainmakers will be held on Saturday, November 21st, from 10am to 1pm (Singapore time). What is really amazing is that while the actual event will be held in Silicon Valley, the event will also video conferenced live at the University Hall Auditorium at National University of Singapore. This is great for entrepreneurs in Singapore because the conference will allow you to learn and engage esteemed speakers such as Seth Sternberg (co-founder of Meebo.com), Steve Blank (serial entrepreneur and author of the startup book “The Four Steps to the Epiphany”) and Saeed Amidi (angel investor and c-founder of Amidi Group). Check the the entire list of speakers here.

Rainmakers Events
The Rainmakers event platform has been running for a few years now. It was first started in November 2005  and the various NUSEA groups try to hold one every 6 months. Some of the past speakers included founders from companies such as Billmonk, LicketyShip, meetro, Zimbra , Doostang and even Mint! It’s interesting to note that most of the companies such as LicketyShip and meetro do not exist today. However, a substantial number of them have become really big success stories. For example,  Billmonk got acquired by Obopay in early 2007, Zimbra got acquired by Yahoo! for a whopping $300 million in 2007 and the most recent one was Mint.com getting acquired by Intuit for $170 million. Gwen from SGentrepreneurs did a really good coverage of the first event here and it is definitely worth checking out. I’m not saying that the Rainmakers event is a great platform for picking out successful startup companies, but it’s fascinating to know what a bunch of Singaporean students spending just a year in Silicon Valley can do.

While I won’t be able to attend this event as I will be in Jakarta for the Yahoo! Open Hack Day (I wish they will be streaming the event on ustream as well), I would seriously urge anyone in the web technology startup space to drop by NUS on November 21st to check out this event. Seth, Steve, Saeed and the rest of the speakers are top notch seasoned entrepreneurs who really know their stuff and have great advice to share. Kudos to the NUSEA team in Silicon Valley for pulling this off and making it available to the Singapore audience.

Before I end this post, I would like to leave you with the video from the first Rainmakers event. Enjoy!

Asian Angel Investors Coming Together in March 2010

Yes there are angel networks around Asia. They do exist, we all know it. But the connections are loose, the networks are pretty fragmented with most major pockets of angel investors residing in Singapore, India, China and smaller pockets around the rest of Southeast Asia. These investors usually invest in their own local areas, with very little opportunities for regional and cross border investments. All that’s going to change with the upcoming Asian Business Angel Forum coming up in March 2010.The inaugural Asian Business Angel Forum (ABAF) will be organized by Business Angel Network Southeast Asia (BANSEA) and is co-organized by Spring Singapore and NUS Enterprise. It will be taking place from 8 – 9 March 2010 at the Pan Pacific Marina Hotel in Singapore. It will be the first time whereby business angels, early stage venture capitalists and entrepreneurs from all across Asia gather for cross-border collaboration and investment opportunities. This will also be a great opportunity for investors to meet a variety of up-and-coming early stage startups from across the region, with the early opportunity of investing in them.

Entrepreneurs
The ones who gain the most from this event are the definitely the entrepreneurs. Judging from the amount of angel investors invited for the event and the “spare change” most of them have, we’re talking about about millions of dollars of potential investments waiting to happen. Apart from finances, there’s the regional element to it as well. If an entrepreneurs gets his company funded by multiple angels across multiple regions (that’s the whole point in bringing them together in the first place), he immediately gets to tap on a wealth of networks and market expertise across the region. This will not only aid his/her “regionalization” efforts and open up his/her product to bigger/newer markets, but will also expose the entrepreneur to new, dynamic industries and problems to solve in future (i.e. more new companies for the entrepreneur to set up in future). Interested entrepreneurs should definitely check this out and take advantage of this opportunity.

Up and Coming Investors
Let’s face it, there are loads of rich people in Asia. Many of them want to get into investments, especially startups,  but most don’t know where to start. This isn’t just an Asian problem, but a global one. The technology startup industry is so complex and fast moving, that any interested investor would be lost in understanding the market dynamics, various platforms and technologies and the rapidly shifting mindsets of consumers. Y Combinator, an early stage investment firm, has identified this problem and wishes to do something about it. Their AngelConf event, coincidentally happening a few days before the ABAF event, will help to educate people interested in angel investing. I think the ABAF platform is a great platform to start that with. The quality of speakers attending the event (Aydin Senkut, investors in Mint.com, VentureBeat and Tapulous and James Hong, Co-founder of Hot or Not) is very high, with many good learning opportunities available for people keen on investing in startups. What’s more, it will be a good chance to get to meet other investors and entrepreneurs, which may translate to potential investment opportunities in future.

For those interested in attending the event, you can sign up here. If you’re an entrepreneur, it’s definitely well worth the cost, in my opinion.

Microsoft Wants to Teach You How to be Efficent

Ever thought how you could be more efficient at work? Ever thought of how to make your data work across platforms and across your services? Looks like the friendly folks at Microsoft have the answer.

Microsoft will be having their efficiency launch event on 19th November 2009 at Suntec Convention and Exhibition Center. Judging from the location they have picked, this looks to be a large mass, big budget event. Fresh off the Windows 7 launch, Microsoft now wants you to learn how you can make the most out of Windown 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Exchange Server 2010 to help meet your challenges, whatever they may. The event is nicely catered towards 3 main groups of people, decision makers, IT professional and developers. The event seems pretty popular, judging from the fact that the registration for some of the breakout session have already been closed, even though I just got word of it today.

If your company is using Microsoft’s services and you want to learn how to optimize them for better usage, then this is definitely the event for you. The diverse mix of topics and breakout sessions is sure to keep any Microsoft buff entertained, with intelligently planned sessions for the right audience demographic.

Interested folks can register here. More details about the event are available here. Also, you can attend the event and stand a chance to walk away with attractive prizes. Enjoy!

Cambridge University Technology and Enterprise Club Inviting Startups For Annual Technology Ventures Conference

Cambridge University (yes the one in Cambridge, UK) Technology and Enterprise Club (CUTEC) will be holding their annual Technology Ventures Conference (TVC) in June 2010. TVC, which has been running since 2004 and has been steadily growing in size, attracts high profile venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and angel investors from around the world. Past keynote speakers include Iqbal Quadir, Founder of Grameenphone and Marissa Mayer, VP of search products at Google.

This year, they are inviting startups from Singapore to participate in the event. Interested startups can contact Veronica at vmts2 [at] cam [dot] ac [dot] uk. Selected startups will get to exhibit at the event and pitch their startups in the likes of ‘Dragons Den‘.

Infocomm Industry Forum 2009 – Fostering Innovation in the Infocomm Ecosystem

IDA in conjunction with SiTF is holding their annual Infocomm Industry Forum which amalgamates great thought leaders from different industries to come together and have insightful discussions on fostering innovation in the entrepreneurial eco-system.
Get to learn about whole new world of opportunities unleashed by the new innovation paradigms and gain dynamic insights from the leading regional industry experts, analysts, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs on:
- New technology platforms and infocomm technologies like Green ICT and IPTV.
- How startups can gain competetive advantages by riding on innovative trends.
- Innovation and collaborative strategies through enterprise 2.0 application
and many more..

Special offer for e27 members: Get the tickets on a discounted rate of 100 dollars. Click Here to Register

Program Synopsis

Keynote Address
Guest-of-Honour: RADM(NS) Lui Tuck Yew, Acting Minister, Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts

Enterprise 2.0: Leveraging Social Media to Promote Workplace Innovation
Organisations are leveraging on Enterprise 2.0 applications to develop collaboration strategies within and outside the workplace. Blogs, wikis and social network sites, coupled with community-building practices, help organisations to leverage on its relationships to promote more effective information sharing and innovation.
Mike Gotta, Principal Analyst, Burton Group

Case Study 1: ICT Innovations powering YCH
YCH Group has won numerous awards, including the National Infocomm Award in 2008, for their innovative use of infocomm technologies. Their use of technologies such as RFID, Business Intelligence & Web 2.0 helped to transform their operations, grow their business and remain competitive in the global market. It is now a leading logistics player in the Asia Pacific region.
James Loo, Chief Information Officer, YCH Group

Successful Technology Start-Ups: An Israeli Perspective on Surviving against All Odds
Many Israeli technology companies have traditionally entered the largest technology market in the USA through the IPO route, even before establishing market demands. Vertex and Technion Seeds Incubator, Israeli’s most reputable privately own Venture Capitalist Fund and Incubator will share their expertise and experience in nurturing and producing successful technology start-ups.
Ms Yifat Oron, Partner, Vertex Venture Capital

IPTV – Delivering Innovative Services to Your Television
As broadcasting and communications services rapidly converge, the vision of personalised, interactive, next generation multimedia applications and communication services available seamlessly across diverse platforms is finally becoming a reality. The TV of the future will get more personalised and connect to everything from home networks to a plethora of services on the Internet.
Dr. Mark Randolph, Fellow of the Technical Staff and Director,Motorola Innovation Centre

Business Model Innovations: A Global Perspective
In today’s global economy, the competitive edge often rests not in product or service innovation, but in the business model itself. Many have recognised the importance of innovating around business models as a complement to product innovation. Companies can prepare themselves and enhance their competitive edge through business model innovation to stay ahead of the competition.
Professor Göran Roos., Managing Director, Intellectual Capital Services Ltd

The Art of the Start: Culture and Passion
The USA has the infrastructure and culture of creating a sustainable pool of technology start-ups. Many of these start-ups share a passion to make a difference to the world, resulting in many innovative products and services. Yet there are common misconceptions of success to be achieved in crowded consumer space of web 2.0, social networking and whether such red ocean space can produce world scalable products.
Michael Sha, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Wikinvest

Singapore’s Infocomm Industry: Towards the Innovation-based era
The Singapore infocomm industry has undergone rapid transformation and development over the last 10 years, in keeping with fast changing technology and global trends. As a new era of innovation continues to power the global economy, the Singapore infocomm industry needs to keep pace with these changes and innovate to sustain growth and remain competitive in the future.
Ms Tan Yen Yen, Chairman, Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation

The Role of Innovation in the Infocomm Ecosystem
Singapore has experienced rapid infocomm-enabled and innovation-led growth over the years. Innovation plays a key role in sustaining growth and developing a vibrant infocomm ecosystem, through encouraging sophisticated demand for infocomm, fostering creation of innovative services and knowledge capital, and strengthening Singapore as an economic hub.
RADM(NS) Ronnie Tay, Chief Executive Officer, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore

Case Study 2: Innovative Intelligent Transport System by LTA The Land Transport Authority (LTA) is the key government agency tasked with planning the long-term transport needs of Singapore. To meet ever-increasing demands on transportation, LTA has invested heavily in technology for traffic management, to help achieve its vision for a people-centred land transport system. LTA’s efforts has resulted in the implementation of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) to enhance traffic operations and management, as well as other e-services for motorists such as One.Motoring. LTA’s ITS won the 2008 National Infocomm Award for the Most Innovative Use of Infocomm Technology (Public Sector).
Mrs Rosina Howe-Teo, Chief Innovation Officer & Group Director, Innovation & InfoComm Technology, Land Transport Authority of Singapore

Panel Discussion: Bringing Innovation to the Market
A high level panel comprising government and industry stakeholders will discuss the essential building blocks of an innovation ecosystem that can deliver breakthrough of ideas and technologies. The panel will also discuss how Singapore can leverage on its unique strengths to assemble these building blocks and position itself as an innovation hub of the future.
Moderator: Robert Chew, Chairman, IT Standards Committee Council (ITSC)