e27 eChelon – Post Event Thoughts

A wise man once said, “It isn’t the capital that is scarce, but the vision”; On the one hand, we have people who’ve the wherewithal, but are lacking in the big idea department; and on the other hand we’ve people armed with nothing but ideas! Put them in a startup eco-system, we’ve one group of VC’s complaining about the lack of “quality” ideas and the entrepreneurs complaining about how clueless the VC’s are . How is it that we bring a synergy across these groups was what e27 eChelon was all about.

We had David Cohen, serial entrepreneur turned angel investor talking about what are the factors that would lead him to invest in a company. He touched upon some fundamental differences between Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors and shared on what should startups keep in mind before jumping into the funding bandwagon. The key takeaway from this session was if you want money, ask for advice; If you want advice, ask for money. To find out more, here are his slides.

Next up, we had a panel session with two angel investors and two startup-founders contrasting their thoughts and an insightful discussion from the perspective of two ends of the spectrum. Ming Yong from SocialWok and Dennis Goh from HungryGoWhere discussed on how they approached angel investors and VC’s to take their startups to the next level. Along with these intense discussions, there were some light-hearted moments as well, with an audience member asking if the investors would actually invest in these companies barring the geographical distance and this was the reaction to that.

The post lunch session had Andrew Hyde touching on a whole range of topics ranging from the coolest startups to web trends observed universally. Some of the interesting sites showcased were BrightKite, Startupweekend, domai.nr, once.im, pinboard.in and many many more…

After this, we had a talk on new initiatives which definitely triggered some interesting reactions from the crowd. Meng Wong who founded Pobox and Karmasphere spoke about the cultivating hacker culture in Singapore by starting a Hackerspace in Singapore. He spoke of his experiences with some government agencies blocking social media and his thoughts on “artifically inseminating” the eco system here. If you are interested in finding out more about the Hackerspace, click here.

With all the talks and questions from the audience being along the lines of  ”Why some of the government institution were not helping the startups enough?”, Michael Smith, developer evangelist at from Yahoo had a good retort of why do you need their hand-holding support in the first place? We live in a globalized world where communication channels aka the web is open to everybody. Then , what is stopping entrepreneurs from launching their own web startup. He spoke about his background and his thoughts on the future of web. Yahoo Hack day is another interesting initiative undertaken by Yahoo in SE Asia to help developers tap into the networks of Yahoo.

Following which, Kal from iTwin shared his nuggets of wisdom about the challenges of starting up, pitching at TC50 and suddenly garnering publicity and how to deal with it. For more of his iTwin experience, Click here.

Finally we had startup pitching sessions by  MakeAffinity, Fame and buUuk with panelists being David, Andrew, Meng Wong, Hugh Mason and James Chan who gave their thoughts on the products and how they can improve on it.

eChelon was great fun to organize, an amazing experience to meet loads of cool people from different backgrounds and we sincerely hope you guys had a great time as well. To check out the pictures of the event, Click here.

As we mentioned during the event, If you want to be part of the eChelon brand, we are crowdsourcing our logo design to the community. Please help us come up with a great logo design that reflects the true nature of eChelon, to bring together the best and brightest from the startup eco-system and be part of eChelon history :)

It’s Google Wave Time!

The guys at the Singapore Google Technology User Group, also known as SG-GTUG, are holding another one of their monthly meet ups. And this time the focus is on Google Wave, the newly launched platform which everybody wants to get on. Google Wave is an online tool for collaboration and real time communication. If you still have not heard of it, you might want to check out the demo video here. The meetup will be held on Oct 31st.

The team behind SG-GTUG has put up an interesting agenda consisting demos and technical discussions. Here are the details of the events and the session:

Program
1:30-2:00pm Registration
2:00-2:10pm Announcements by SG-GTUG
2:10-2:45pm Talk + Demo 1 — Pamela Fox: Google Wave APIs Overview (via VC)
2:45-3:10pm Talk + Demo 2 — Nazrul Kamaruddin: Hello Roboto!
3:10-3.30pm Break for refreshments
3:30-3:55pm Talk + Demo 3 — Lim Chee Aun: Pentago on Wave
3:55-4:20pm Talk + Demo 4 — Shinchi: Video Conferencing with Google Wave!
4:20-4:30pm Upcoming Google Wave Hackathon, SG-GTUG matters, prize giving, Q&A
4:30pm onwards Refreshment & mingle

### TALK 1 ###
Google Wave APIs Overview (by Pamela Fox, Google Developer Relations joining us via video conferencing from Sydney, Australia)

In this talk, Googler Pamela Fox will introduce the three aspects of Google Wave – the product, the protocol, and the platform, and then talk more in-depth on the platform. She’ll cover the range of APIs offered – from Robots to Gadgets to Embed, then show kickass demos and do a live coding walkthrough.

### TALK 2 ###
Hello Roboto! (by Nazrul Kamaruddin, GTUG Kuala Lumpur)

A rockstar approach building a simple search robot assistant for Google Wave. Brief discussion on several types of robots that you can build with the Wave API, experiences while building a robot & also a demo of GuaRockYou, a simple search robot assistant, which is available as an open source project.

### TALK 3 ###
Pentago on Wave (by Lim Chee Aun, Web Developer for Wego.com)

Introducing an award-winning board game ported to the Wave platform. This talk will reveal some background of the game, a demo of it and detailed steps on how its code is adapted as a Google Wave Gadget.

### Talk 4 ###
Video Conferencing with Google Wave! (by Shinchi, Developer for Seesmic Web)

In this demonstration, Shinchi will be showing how you can create a Gadget that enables video conferencing between your participants. He will also highlight upcoming technology that will enables the saving of the conference and playback of it for future references.

For more details, feel free to visit the event page on Facebook or the main SG-GTUG site.

Yahoo! Wants to Sponsor Developers to Attend Open Hack Day in Jakarta

Yes you heard that right! Yahoo wants to sponsor 1 talented developer each from Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam to attend an all-expenses paid trip to the first Southeast Asia Open Hack Day in Indonesia, Jakarta. More details about the event can be found here.
Really? How Do I do it?

Simple, head down the the Regional Hacker Selection site and sign up from there. But note that this is limited to developers from Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam only (sorry for the rest!). Do also note that you will need a valid passport for this, with a valid visa to enter Indonesia.

Once your details are entered, Yahoo! will pick 1 lucky developer from each of these countries for the big prize. He/She will get to enjoy a 4 days and 3 nights all expense paid trip to Indonesia, Jakarta, to attend the first Southeast Asia Open Hack Day.

The deadline for this is 6th of November, so hurry up and sign up NOW!

TechStars Founders David Cohen & Andrew Hyde Speaking at e27 eChelon

So folks, get ready for e27 eChelon!

e27 is bringing you a premier startup event focusing on range of topics from angel investment to hot web technlogy trends.

Exclusively for this event, the TechStars team in Colorado are coming down to Singapore. TechStars provides seed capital and mentorship support for startups and run a summer program for emerging startups and entrepreneurs where startups get seed money upto $18,000 and get a golden oppurtunity to interact with VC’s, industry leaders and mentors.

David Cohen who is the founder and executive director of TechStars brings along with him a wealth of experience from setting up his own companies to helping other startups as an angel investor.  He enjoys helping the technological startups to succeed and move to the next stage.

David is a founder of several software and web technology companies including Pinpoint Technologies (now ZOLL Data Systems) of Broomfield, Colorado. David was also the founder and CEO of earFeeder.com, which was sold to SonicSwap.com in 2006.

Andrew Hyde who is the community manager at TechStars is the founder of Startup Weekend, Endoze Design and VC Wear (psst..try wearing one of their tees next time you pitch to an investor). He is an entrepreneur, avid community organizer and designer based in Boulder.

Together with David and Andrew, we have our own local entrepreneurs Ming from SocialWok, Kal from iTwin, Dennis Goh from HungryGoWhere & Wong Meng Weng sharing their thoughts and insights on different aspects of entrepreneurship, funding and investment oppurtunities & technology landscape.

Be there or be square!

e27 eChelon is supported by IDA and venue sponsored by NUS Enterprise

Date/Time: 24th Oct, 10am – 5 pm
Venue: #12-01, Park Mall, (how do I get here?)
Attendance is FREE

Looking forward to see you guys there!

RSVP here:

Yahoo! Launches First South East Asia Open Hack Day in Jakarta

Yahoo! Open Hack Day is finally coming to South East Asia! Check out the event details here (link here). I remember my first Yahoo! OHD experience back in 2006 when I attended the event in Sunnyvale. That was a pretty amazing experience. That was when 2 Singaporean chaps, Vincent Woon and Sharan Makhija, won 3rd place for building a plugin that integrates Yahoo! Answers into Yahoo! Messenger. Check out the video here (link here). It was the best gathering of developers and techies, under one roof, with food, drinks games and lots of coding fun in 24 hours!

Now that it’s finally here in SEA, I’m thrilled to announce that the first ever South East Asian OHD event will take place in Jakarta from November 21st – 22nd. I just checked out the ticket prices online. Assuming you’re flying down on 20th and leaving on 23rd, the prices are (as of today):

Singapore –> Jakarta: SGD$99
Kuala Lumpur –> Jakarta: RM300
Ho Chin Min –> Jakarta: 5,600,000VND
Bangkok –> Jakarta: Bt5,200
Philippines –> Jakarta: 11,200p
Jakarta –> Jakarta: FREE!

Why Are Open Hack Days So Great?

Such events are a great way to provide developers with many opportunities to learn, share and participate in conversations and get hands-on access to the tools and services that will help them reach the most relevant audiences and be successful on and off the Yahoo! network. For the event in Jakarta, it will consist of full day sessions: hands-on educational workshops, tech talks, and panel conversations with leading technologists and innovators that will cover a range of technologies from Yahoo! and beyond, followed by a full night and morning to hack on Yahoo!’s most compelling developer offerings.

Developers Really Benefit in the Long Run

While Yahoo! stands to gain greatly by getting developers to build on the platform, it’s not entirely about Yahoo! but about the developers and the applications they develop. Open Hack Day is about fostering collaboration and innovation within the developer community. At the event, Yahoo! will:
- Highlight third party developer apps on the Yahoo! Front Page
- Introduce developers to Yahoo!’s developers tools and services
- Extend outreach to developers who work with/or/for advertisers and publishers
- Bring the excitement and collaboration of an Open Hack event to South East Asia for the first time.

What’s more is that developers will greatly benefit through the event as close networks would have formed and developers will be able to build upon the Yahoo! event.

Sign Up NOW!

The details of the event are all available here. Do fly down for it because it’s worth it!