During my stay in Jakarta, I met Andy Sjarif, the founder of three-year-old Indonesian startup SITTI. Andy is a friendly, opinionated, and eloquent guy and is the father of two young daughters. In his early forties, Andy’s passion and energy matches that of any other younger entrepreneurs I know. He is frequently invited to speak at entrepreneurial events and has a firm opinion of what Indonesian startups should work on. His startup, SITTI, is an intuitive ad network that serves relevant ads to sites and searches according to keywords used; in short, it is a Google Adsense that’s proficient in the Indonesian language. It currently has a team of 47 staff, and is invested by thirteen angel investors in Indonesia

Andy’s description of his journey in SITTI so far:

SITTI is not all a story of success, let’s be clear on that. It is a roller coaster ride. SITTI is an idea that is highly radical technologically, but it is a boring ad network business. There is no book to teach us how we should go about starting this. Nobody can teach me on how to do this right; on fundraising, creating the technology, getting the right people and other startup issues. As a result, we made many mistakes, took many wrong turns; but at same time, we also achieved many exciting results that no one told us we could.

Andy’s entrepreneurship dates back to 1997 when he was in US. He started a CRM analytic consulting firm that helped companies with segmentation and analytics of databases of customers. This startup did not last long as Andy found the business not scalable and decided to pursue his other startup ideas. But this first startup was not all failure. Through doing it, Andy learned the ropes of running a company and it opened his eyes to the opportunities of doing an ad-serving technology that serves related ads when you visit websites or search for keywords. This is similar to Google Adsense but he had the idea earlier. And this is what eventually become SITTI is today.

The central idea was to create context out of a webpage. If a page is about shoes or fashion, the ads served should be fashion related. That’s simple logic. But back then, Google’s Adsense didn’t exist so it was tough to pitch this idea to potential investors, nobody understood. As such, I couldn’t get funding for it.

Moving on to 2010, Andy was finally able to launch SITTI in its fourth iteration after amassing investments from thirteen angel investors in Indonesia. Considering the year he wrote the first business plan, he took more than a decade before finally launching SITTI. So what took him so long? Andy shared that it was a mixture of market readiness for such a product and unfortunate events such as the dot com bubble burst, the Asian financial crisis and 9-11 that delayed him. Nevertheless, this wait made him hungrier for success and his belief in the product grew.

SITTI got off to an explosive start, serving up to 22 million of ad impressions a day in its first year and being an ad network, it could monetize well. However, into the second and third year, the monetization stagnated and the team was dumbfounded as to what caused it.

At 450 million impressions a month in the first year, we were massive, we were big. We could monetize as well. At second year, we found that we had huge inventory but couldn’t monetize as it should be. This was one of the first learnings. The formula seemed to be right, to create a contextual ability to produce targeted advertising based on Indonesian language, superior to that of Google in Indonesian language. Everything seemed to be right, so what went wrong?

Actually nothing went wrong. What we failed to consider is that in the US, 74% of Google’s income comes from SMEs. Economic Impact for Google 2010 says that over 60 billion of dollars of transaction in SMEs happened because there’s Google. Google did it, why can’t’ we? Here’s what happened in the US. A tire store in a rural area of Iowa (a state in US) has a website and uses a credit card to advertise on Google Adwords; it is a natural extension. We have 52 million SMEs in Indonesia producing more than 55 percent of the country’s GDP. But how many of them are online? So what are they promoting online? And what can SITTI do for them when they are mostly not online?

Knowing this, Andy started Nurbaya Initiatives, a non-profit movement that pooled help from other local technology companies within the commerce industry and other NGOs such as World Bank to help traditional businesses learn more about internet and how they can utilize it for their business. This is certainly a noble initiative that Andy is piloting and with the statistics he spelled out, the movement will not just speed up the growth in Indonesia’s e-commerce scene, it will also bring value to the hundreds of thousands of Indonesian SMEs who may be living by the edge. Which, of course, creates more potential customers for SITTI.

So what does he think of the startup scene these days? Here’s what Andy thinks Indonesian startups should work on:

Indonesian technology startups should stop thinking about being Silicon Valley. SV is about big new breakthrough ideas, disruptive technology. I’ve been through enough to learn that technology for us in Indonesia is about sustainability and impact. So the question is not about building the most advanced technology but it should be about how technology can create an impact to our people and our country. Call me a pessimist, but I don’t see a Steve Jobs coming from Indonesia coming out with an iPod or an iPhone. I don’t see a Sergy Brin coming up an algorithm so damn complex that nobody understands it. However, I think there’s enough talent from our startup community to do something impactful for this corner of the world.

I met Joseph Edi Lumban Gaol, founder of M-Stars Group, in Jakarta, Indonesia. M-Stars is one of Indonesia’s pioneer mobile content providers; founded in 2000, it currently employs more than 150 staff and has five subsidiaries under its wing (AdStars, VOX, dr.m, PoPs, and m360). Joseph started his career in the mobile scene in 1997 at XL Axiata, one of the largest Indonesian telcos, and rose to become a senior product manager. He held that position for two years and eventually called it quits in 1999 to start out on his own.

His startup journey

Joseph started M-Stars as an application service provider to BCA bank, one of Indonesia’s largest banks. Its service enabled BCA customers to do banking transactions through their mobile devices. That was in 2000 and M-Stars was the first to provide this service. It was not an easy start, Joseph said, because it was extremely tough to get a bank to work with any company, least of all a startup. Nevertheless, he knew he had to get through this barrier of entry to achieve a breakthrough and he came up with a way to do it. He explained to me:

Before I got the bank to work with me, I had an MOU with XL to start this new service as a value added service. With this partnership in place, M-Stars and XL (a trusted telco) then jointly approached BCA to have this service as their new e-banking channel.

As for how he got the MOU with XL, Joseph said he pitched that the telco would become the first operator to launch secure mobile banking for its customers. Plus, working with BCA, who at that point of time had eight million customers, could improve XL’s brand image and set it apart from the competition.

The breakthrough

Despite the partnership with XL and the value proposition being offered, it took nine months before the bank finally agreed to commit. This seems long but it was definitely a worthwhile wait. The partnership set M-Stars into uncharted but lucrative territory that has a high barrier of entry.

However, the partnership did not last long. M-Stars was forced to exit in 2005 as the bank wanted to control the service itself. As it was a forced exit, the terms given were not great. Joseph felt he had to sell his stake in the partnership as M-Stars had little leverage to negotiate for a better deal. He sold the whole system to BCA and cashed out. Luckily for Joseph, prior to the forced exit, M-Stars had already ventured into becoming a mobile content provider to telco companies and had already developed a substantial revenue stream. Without that, the cancelled partnership might have killed M-Stars itself.

After that, M-Stars focused on providing mobile value-added services such as ring tones, music, news, lotteries, etc. At the same time, it partnered with another bank, BNI, to provide a service similar to what it had previously offered BCA. In 2008, Joseph went on to start up VOX, a mobile micro-banking system for phone users in Indonesia that now has 12,000 merchants and around two million people who hold a bank account with them.

Intrapreneurship

Joseph is not a lone wolf, and he also encourages intrapreneurship in his company. Employees are encouraged to think out of the box and given funds and equity if their ideas are good. Companies started up from M-Stars include:

• AdStars, a digital advertising network that focuses on premium publishers in Indonesia.
• m360, a company that provides digital media training services to its clients.
• Dr.M, a service that helps digital record labels and artists manage their digital community, offline fanclub, and promotional activities.
• PoPs, a platform that delivers digital entertainment content to mobile and internet audiences.

Money troubles

A cohesion day at M-Stars

But it wasn’t all a smooth journey. Besides all the red tape he had to struggle with when dealing with banks and telcos, he told me that the finance part of starting up was especially tough. The company depended entirely on him and his co-founder’s savings to operate – which wasn’t a lot. He dreaded payday.

On some occasions I had to borrow money from family and friends when the cash flow was low, especially to pay employees. This was one of the toughest challenges psychologically, as I had to pledge my credibility to them and spend sleepless nights making sure cash flow was positive and that loans from friends and family weren’t defaulted. Remembering those days now still makes me smile.

The founders also leveraged their strong network in Indonesia’s mobile industry and did consulting projects to bring in cash. These projects generated quick cash and sustained the company till it clinched the lucrative partnerships with BCA and XL. His startup finally broke even in its seventeenth month of operation.

Through Joseph’s entrepreneurship journey, I see similarities to many Asia startups: taking up consulting and outsourcing projects to stay afloat while working extra hours to build a product of their own. I believe this approach to being sustainable and having a greater plan for your startup is very much needed for startups in this region as investment and angel funding is not widely available in many parts of Asia.

Several recent life events have led me to write this article.

Suddenly landing on the cusp of graduation from a local university, employment and work have become a real issue. It’s no longer something that can be put off.

As my peers stress over interviews and landing that dream job in a big multinational, it hit upon me: why are we doing this? Is the era of ‘bigger is better’ not over? Are we not the generation that grew up with individuality? Why then, are we orientating ourselves towards massive organisations with stoic cultures?

This is the hard truth – fewer than 13 percent of Harvard’s graduates want to work in a startup. Needless to say, this figure would be even smaller in Asia.

Having once been part of that 87 percent and having worked at a number of multinationals, I can honestly tell you that it’s not for everyone. It certainly wasn’t for me.

Change comes slow in an organisation with more than 10,000 people. Most of your job revolves around processes handed down from predecessors, and innovation is limited to that of the research department. All that talk about intrapreneurs – they’re unicorns; it’s just not happening. Of course, this isn’t reflective of all firms.

Today, I still dream of being called a Googler, but I can assure you that the vast majority of corporate life will reflect my previous experience.

With that, let me share with you the three greatest benefits of working in a startup. I reference Dan Pink’s thoughts here in describing our startup experience.

1. Autonomy

I cannot stress how amazing freedom is. As Start Now moved from just two co-founders to a team of seven brilliant individuals today, we still maintain the same culture of autonomy. There is no formal work time, no strict dress code, no need to fill MCs, and what not. In fact, one of my colleagues is remotely working in Tanzania, Africa, right now as she explores the vast African savannah.

This is a very important benefit of working in a startup. It’s not about having more time to run personal errands, or the privilege of shopping on an empty Orchard Road, but more about tailoring working hours to our own predisposition.

Our development team is the most efficient between midnight and 8am, while I wake up early without fail to clear my emails. Often, we are more productive on a Sunday afternoon than a Monday morning. Say goodbye to Monday blues for us!

And as our team grows, you can be assured that this tent pole of our firm, and of startup life, is something we will fight to preserve. It might mean us not becoming a huge firm, but that doesn’t matter – we can each work when we want and where we want. We’re all kept happy and working at our optimum, which in turn makes for a much more productive company overall.

2. Mastery of a range of skills

Working in a startup involves a whole different set of skills from most corporate jobs. In fact, I would go so far as to say that process-driven workflow is something that most of us hate. Think about it – did you ever enjoy copying lines when you were young?

Truth be told, there is still a significant amount of process work involved in a startup job; websites need to be coded and proposals need to be written. However, the difference is that the process work doesn’t frame your job. Rather, it is the mastery of a range of skills; skills that you may already have and new skills that can be developed.

We as humans have a desire to continually improve our skills. In a startup environment, we face existential crises daily. Some days it’s an outraged client you must manage, others you spend in long meetings, bouncing ideas off each other and bringing projects to life. Additionally, you are often thrown fully into managing these crises. All these experiences contribute to your skillset, and allow you to effectively master them.

3. Purpose

Lastly, and perhaps the greatest motivator of all, purpose. I am so fortunate that my startup focuses on the social sector in Singapore and our day-to-day work involves real change and impact. But beyond my firm, every startup that lasts does so because of purpose. I could rattle off a list of them, but I’m sure you already have in mind a friend who runs a small but amazing firm because he or she is making a difference in someone else’s life.

Without this purpose, there is no difference between working in a startup and a larger firm. Listed companies have the sole purpose of maximising shareholder returns and not everyone will feel aligned to this. More often than not, you end up being driven by salary. In the startup world, however, the purpose is ever present.

You don’t have to be a founder to feel it. Just by being in a small, committed team, you will feel the sense of excitement and drive as you reach for this communality in solving life’s next problem.

The startup life isn’t one for everyone. Without a doubt, you will be earning at least 20 percent less in a startup job compared to a traditional career. Factoring in risk and job instability, the cost-benefit analysis weights are even worse. Yet, even with all that, I dare say the overarching benefit of any one of the three factors is enough for you to choose the path less taken.

(Image credits)

We were happy to run our first ever Meetup in Ho Chi Minh city on the last day of February. Fifty people packed into the Lightbox cafe for a talk with Aung Kyaw Moe. Willis talked with Aung about the elements that led to the success of e-payments system 2C2P, which is the market leader in online payment in Thailand, and where the business is going next.

First, let’s look at some quick numbers:

• Since 2003, 2C2P has handled over $800 million worth of transactions. The goal is to have $200 million worth of transactions in Thailand.
• 2C2P’s revenue for 2012 was $2.6 million.
• Currently, 2C2P has 56 staff, and is hiring five to 10 new staff every month.
• Today, 2C2P is valued at $13 million.

E-payment lessons

Aung also shared with us some lessons that he’s learned along the way. Some of them, I thought, were particularly compelling.

About his company’s strength over the old-fashioned e-commerce payment method of cash on delivery (COD), Aung commented:

E-commerce players don’t really want cash on demand. It’s still a cost factor for e-commerce sites. The possibility of delivery people running off with money and the processing of the cash. That’s where 2C2P comes in, as a safer and more secure alternative to COD. Since we contracted with Laos Airlines, three years ago, they haven’t had one fraud through us.

Speaking about 123, 2C2P’s new service versus credit and debit cards, Aung said:

We’re basically a stepping stone for developing countries who don’t have debit cards. What we do is out-optimize COD.

And he talked more about the success of his business, which was my favorite part. When Willis asked Aung how easy it was to copy 2C2P, he had some great insights on relationships:

Yes. You could copy what we do, our technology is out there. But it would take at least six months to a year to get to where we are today. 2C2P is the sum of its relationships. It took us years to build up the relationships we have with our clients. We personally know all the bankers that we work with from high level management to lower level management. That is very difficult to copy.

The future of 2C2P

Currently, Currently 2C2P operates in Myanmar, Cambodia, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore. But now Aung is looking at Vietnam. He just met five potential partners in Vietnam.

You can catch the full video below, which has a bunch of juicy details and nuances that Aung covers.

Also read: 2C2P Allows Millions of ‘Unbanked’ Thais Purchase Online

How many young entrepreneurs in Asia can raise more than $500,000 in seed funding? Not many, and valuations are usually low in Southeast Asia – mostly below one million for early-stage startups.

Having more money always makes you feel safer. But not having all the money you want could be a good thing too, especially for seed-stage companies in Asia.

With limited resources, the most obvious and natural thing for entrepreneurs to do is to bootstrap. You will try to save money on everything. You start taking budget airlines, eating cheap food, and negotiating hard on wages while instead trying to attract talent by giving stock options and also motivating and influencing workers with your vision and drive. Eventually, every time you spend, you tend to spend wisely and make sure that every dollar invested brings in the ROI. Personally, I think bootstrapping is an art and it’s best learned in near-death situations.

Sometimes, companies that raised a ton of cash just hire for the sake of hiring. The general rule is that you have to plan for 18 months and scale with the money you raised. So having raised $1 million, you tend to hire more and spend on nicer and bigger offices. But most of the time, you don’t really need that much money to find the right product-market fit. You don’t need to hire a sales team for a mobile app that doesn’t even have users yet. Pumping up the burn rate is a one-way street. It’s easy to hire people but tough to fire them to reduce your burn rate. And if you do fire people, it affects the morale of the team. The point is, with limited resources, you tend to be wiser with your spending and be more careful with your cash management.

I know, readers might think that there’s no harm raising more money. But if we don’t need the money, it’s better not to raise it anyway, right? Perhaps raising more money gives a better valuation. (Say raising $200,000 at a post-money valuation of $800,000 versus raising $500,000 at a post-money valuation of $2 million). But it doesn’t really make sense to have too high a valuation from the start. Rather, entrepreneurs should be fighting for a fair valuation which will allow your startup to progress and raise the next round more comfortably and – most importantly – avoid a downround situation. If your investment agreement has anti-dilution clauses, a downround can wipe the founders out of their equity, leaving them little motivation to grind hard for the company. The higher your valuation is, the riskier it gets in having a downround if you can’t grow fast enough.

Remember that having more money in the bank raises the expectations of investors. They will want $10 for every $1 they put in. If you raise money at a $2 million valuation, you’re expected to exit at $20 million. If you can’t keep up the growth, you pissed off your shareholders — and that usually isn’t a good thing.

All in all, it’s silly for entrepreneurs to focus too much on paper valuation when raising money. It’s paper wealth, not realized wealth. Raise enough money to guide your product into a market fit. Only then is it time to raise millions to scale and expand.

Thanks to Darius Cheung for his input.

(Image: Kwickid)

We’re pleased to say that our TechinAsia Meetup Jakarta is back on track. As many of you know, our first Meetup session was postponed due to the floods in Jakarta earlier this month. According to our team there, the situation has improved and the water has somewhat subsided. So we would like to announce that TechinAsia Meetup Jakarta will be rescheduled to Thursday, February 21st.

[UPDATE: Due to personal matter, Andy Zain is not able attend the meetup. We have invited Ryu Kawano Suliawan, CEO of PT.Midtrans, to speak at the event instead. ]

We have invited Andi Boeidman from Ideosource and Ryu Kawano Suliawan from PT.Midtrans to share their thoughts on the trends that will be most vital on the web in Indonesia in 2013.

Once again, clear your schedules on February 21st – tickets are free but limited, so grab them fast while stocks last. We’ll see you there!

Agenda:

• Registration: 6.15 – 7.00pm
• [Discussion] Tech Trends in Indonesia 2013: 7.00 – 8.00pm
• Networking & Dinner: 8.00 – 9.00pm

Venue:

P.T. Microsoft Indonesia
18th floor Tower II Jakarta Stock Exchange Building
Sudirman Central Business District
Jl. Jend. Sudirman Kav. 52-53

About our speaker: Andi Boediman

Andi is the Director at Ideosource, a venture capital firm focusing on digital industries, including content, media, ecommerce and its digital infrastructures. His recent investment is Touchten, a game company that produces successful games such as Sushi Chain and Hachiko.

In his previous role as Chief Innovation Officer of Plasa.com, Andi has successfully brought eBay and Microsoft to form partnership with Plasa.com. As the key strategist, he is responsible for the company’s foundation, from envisioning the road map, creating business model to setting up the team. Some of his insight on internet, mobile, game, design and other creative industry related can be found here.

Ryu Kawano Suliawan

Ryu Kawano Suliawan is currently the CEO of PT. Midtrans, the operator of Veritrans Indonesia, an online payment processor for the Indonesian market. Midtrans has received funding from the Midplaza Group, Veritrans (Japan’s largest payment gateway and subsidiary of TSE listed Digital Garage), and netprice.com (TSE listed).

Prior to establishing Midtrans, Ryu was an Associate at TPG Capital’s Tokyo office working on investment deals in sectors ranging from financial services, real estate, to technology. Previously, he worked at Lazard Freres & Co.’s San Francisco office as an Investment Banking Analyst in the Technology, Media, Telecom Group.

Ryu was born in Indonesia to an Indonesian Father and a Japanese Mother. He speaks Indonesian, Japanese and English fluently. Ryu holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Claremont McKenna College.

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Happy 2013! We recently announced our very first TechinAsia Meetup, which will take place in Jakarta (it’s already sold out, by the way!). And now, friends in Singapore can look forward to their turn to attend one of our Meetup sessions, with one set for January 24th (Thursday) in Singapore.

Last year, we observed the upward trend in mobile apps. In 2013, there will be more apps out in the market and competition will get even tougher. Getting folks to click the download button is getting tougher too. So in the upcoming Singapore meetup, we have invited Rico Wyder of Fiksu to share with us ten mobile app marketing tips. Fiksu is a US-based company that helps mobile apps gain a loyal user-base.

If you want to know how to achieve more quality app downloads and outstanding marketing ROI, make yourself free on January 24th. Tickets are free but limited, so grab one fast while stocks last. We’ll see you there!

Agenda:

• Registration: 6.45 – 7.15pm
• Topic: 10 mobile apps marketing tips by Rico Wyder: 7.15 – 8.15pm
• Networking & Dinner: 8.15 – 9.30pm

Venue:

Microsoft Office
One Marina Boulevard
Auditorium @ Level 21
Singapore (018989)

About our speaker:

Rico heads up the global expansion efforts in the Asia Pacific region for Fiksu, the mobile app marketing experts.

Rico’s roots run deep in the mobile space as an entrepreneur and angel investor in mobile apps, m-commerce, and mobile marketing ventures including Cassiber, Foodpanda, and tenCube (acquired by McAfee).

Rico graduated from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and is based in Singapore.

 

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Hey folks! Today, we’re officially announcing TechinAsia Meetups 2013. What is that, you ask?

Well, it’s a series of meet-up sessions that connects internet industry stakeholders – entrepreneurs, investors, innovators – by bringing them together in a single spot each month. In 2013, we’ll hold Meetups in cities across Southeast Asia including Bangkok, Jakarta, Bandung, Ho Chi Minh, and Singapore.

At each session, we will invite an entrepreneur or industry expert to share insights, trends, and stories. We hope you can take away some awesome advice from our speakers and also build better relationships to catalyze your business growth in the future through discussion and networking with our experts and your fellow attendees.

All in all, we want to play our part in building and contributing to the startup ecosystem in this region. Our first one ever, the January Meetup, will be in Jakarta. Do check out our new TechinAsia Meetup site for lots more details, and join us if you can. For entrepreneurs who want to pitch their ideas at a Meetup session, feel free to contact us at events[at]techinasia[dot]com. We’ll see you there!

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2012 is drawing to a close. Looking back, we can see that e-commerce and e-payment were major forces in Indonesia’s tech scene this year. What happened clearly is important but the past is past and it won’t help you or your business very much if we dwell too much on history. So instead we have a much more important question: what does the future hold?

We don’t have a magic crystal ball, so instead, we have invited Andi Boediman from Ideosource and Andy Zain from Founders Institute Jakarta to our upcoming January Jakarta meetup to share their thoughts on the tech trends that will be coming to Indonesia in 2013.

Obviously, our guest speakers don’t claim to know it all. No one can. But through their discussion and also questions fired from the audience, we hope to inspire you to think about the trends that might influence your business. Clear your schedules on January 17th – tickets are free but limited, so act fast!. We’ll see you there!

Agenda:

• Dinner and networking: 6.00 – 7.00pm
• [Discussion] Tech Trends in Indonesia 2013: 7.00 – 8.00pm
• Networking: 8.00 – 9.00pm

Venue:

P.T. Microsoft Indonesia
18th floor Tower II Jakarta Stock Exchange Building
Sudirman Central Business District
Jl. Jend. Sudirman Kav. 52-53

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I recently met Douglas Gan (pictured above), someone who I would certainly call a gutsy entrepreneur. Some of you might not know Douglas, but perhaps you might recall ShowNearby which was acquired by Yellow Pages in 2010. ShowNearby was founded by Douglas and his friend Lee Chang Jin in March 2008. But this is just a portion of Douglas’s story. His journey as an entrepreneur started at age four back when he was still in kindergarten, when he was playing with toy cars and sold one to a classmate for $2. Throughout his school years, he would sell marbles, bubble gum, chewing gum, stamps, sticker albums, Dragonball and magic cards amassing a tidy sum of SGD$20,000 (about US$16,400) by 16.

Douglas recalls being inspired by the dot-com boom in 1996. His first venture onto the internet was in the world of mIRC, a popular chat client back then. He was messing with mIRC bots and scripts, which performed instructed functions. For example, setting someone as a moderator in a chat channel or providing MP3 files to users when they ask for them. But while enjoying the world of mIRC, Douglas realized it couldn’t bring in money. And that realization eventually led him to found PureHostings, a web hosting company. His server business spanned over six countries with 3,500 paying customers before it was sold to Skydio.

PureHostings wasn’t an entirely smooth ride for Douglas though. While business was great during the dot-com boom, Douglas had to find ways to scrap and survive during the bust. While he previously did sales over email, he was forced to go door to door for sales in the industrial park in Singapore to ask if people required his hosting services.

He faced many rejections but learned a lot along the way, improving his pitch with each rejection. Finally, there was one customer who told him that if he could fixed his computer, he would buy whatever services he was providing. The problem turned out to be an easy fix for Douglas, and was enough to impress the client who kept his promise. He didn’t know what Douglas had to offer, but was willing to pay for it regardless. The company had problems with its slow fax machines, file sharing, and internet connection. So Douglas helped to set up broadband internet, FTP folders for file sharing, and also provided an email service to replace faxes.

From then on Douglas was in hot demand as other companies looked to leverage on similar technologies to improve business processes. From this incident, Douglas said he learned to understand that fulfilling client’s needs makes good money.

During the dot com bust, there were few clients using his servers. So instead Douglas used the extra space to host OhGenki.com, a community forum website he founded. The site was ranked among the top 2,000 sites on Alexa back in 2003 and was acquired by StreetDirectory.com in 2005.

Douglas said that he leveraged his mIRC channels and bots to amass an initial group of community users. Knowing that most guys on the net are attracted by pictures of beautiful women (it’s the same now, isn’t it?), Douglas smartly persuaded some of the mIRC admin ladies (who were fortunately easy on the eyes) to post pictures of themselves on OhGenki. The guys enjoyed the pictures and the ladies enjoyed the compliments. The forum also had other general topics for discussion as well, and just before OhGenki was acquired, the site had generated over three million posts with over 20 million pageviews.

By 2006, Douglas was already a young millionaire. He could have retired. Bored with an aimless life, he went into stock trading and was partying frequently. Just one week before he turned 23, Douglas said he lost all the money he had ever made. He was on serious leverage across three different investment institutions with a peak of $50 million in equity trading exposure. He was supposedly bankrupt, but was saved by his father’s life savings. Douglas described that period of his life as a turning point, one which sternly reminded him not to be wasting his life. He vowed to improve people’s lives through technology.

Some screenshots from ShowNearby’s Android App

Broke and back at square one, Douglas didn’t give up. Determined, he started ShowNearby in 2007 and also two other web design and development firms in Indonesia and Singapore in subsequent years. All companies were later acquired by Yellow Pages but the comeback wasn’t easy either.

Today, Douglas angel invests and mentors budding startups from his Alma Mater Ngee Ann Polytechnic. He has also moved on to co-found VanityTrove with his lead architect from ShowNearby, Peng Kong Choy.

VanityTrove is a beauty service focusing on becoming a platform for women in Southeast Asia to discover beauty. He is 29 this year, but has gone through more than his share of ups and downs in his life as an entrepreneur. It will certainly be interesting to watch and see what the future has in store for him as well.

I like listening to entrepreneurs talk about their journeys. Like watching a movie, the storyline narrated to me will appear as pictures; I can visualize and feel what they have been through. In my recent trip to Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh city, I had the chance to meet up with Esther Nguyen, the founder of POPS Worldwide based in Vietnam. Her courage and persistence impressed me a lot, so I thought I’d share her story.

Esther grew up with her Vietnamese parents in the States. After graduating in 1998, she ran an e-commerce startup selling beauty and cosmetics in US. She didn’t have much experience in running a business and this startup functioned more like a brick and mortar business. The consumer would pre-pay, and she functioned as an agent to buy and ship the orders.

This did not last long.

She then went into green technology. During the dot-com era, green tech wasn’t popular and investors were not interested; they were only interested in dot-com companies. This initiative folded as well.

Subsequently she went on to pursue a law degree, but despite her previous unsuccessful ventures, the entrepreneurial itch didn’t go away. After law school, she set up a developer studio in Hanoi and managed it offshore from the US. This is where she got to know more about the market and opportunities in Vietnam. In 2007, she saw a big opportunity in music downloading. Music downloading in Vietnam is very popular and is growing exponentially. Pirating is widespread as there is not yet a legitimate option for people to purchase original content.

Sensing this huge untapped opportunity in the music industry in Vietnam, she went straight at it. She sold her shares in the developer studio to her partners and at age 31, packed two suitcases and left the US, her home, her parents, and friends for Vietnam. Knowing it was a big decision for her family, she hesitated to break the news to her mom until just four days before her trip. Her distraught mother said:

Your dad and I spent everything to get the family over to US, and now you’re going back?!

Last lady standing

Pops Worldwide started with three co-founders, Esther and her two friends. When they were raising funds, she told the them that they needed to relocate to Vietnam and be there to ensure things run well. Initially, all agreed. They managed to raise around one million dollars from angel investors from the valley. But one of the founders pulled out, as he didn’t want to leave the US. The other founder had a family in America, and his stint with POPS did not last long. He left six months after traveling back and forth between the US and Vietnam. That left Esther as the sole remaining founder.

Although her family speaks some Vietnamese at home, her proficiency in the language was still pretty basic. She had difficulties communicating with the staff without them laughing at her.

Besides the struggles with language, she also faced several “make or break” situations. One was a cash-flow problem where she almost failed to make the payroll. The other problem was the inability to monetize her startup. The typical telecom collaboration is a 70-30 split, with the telco taking the majority. This didn’t leave much for her and the artists she works with.

Despite the many challenges, she persisted and overcame all of them. She learned Vietnamese and is now able to communicate well with locals. She has a team of 90 staff with many of them willing to work late into the night to make sure things work in the company. She raised two more rounds of investments and expanded her revenue source to more than just telcos, but she also works with Youtube, iTunes, and Amazon. POPS Worldwide just turned profitable in the middle of this year, and the content it manages receives more than 150 million monthly views and that figure is growing at 20 to 30 percent monthly.

Does she have any advice for budding entrepreneurs?

Persistence. It is common for startups to face “near death” situations. But one needs to persist and be resourceful to make things work. That is entrepreneurship.

To find out more about POPS Worldwide, check out the video below.

I love it when big name entrepreneurs have blogs. There’s always interesting tips and stories to follow. This time it comes from Hiroshi Mikitani, the CEO and founder of Rakuten (pictured right), which is Japan’s e-commerce giant that invested in Pinterest early in May.

In his latest blog post on LinkedIn, Mikitani wrote that Rakuten’s e-commerce prowess may not have existed if he had listened to advisors who told him that e-commerce was a game he was too late to enter. He wrote:

When I began the process of founding Rakuten, I had more than one person advise me not to go into e-commerce. Many people told me the concept of the Internet mall was over, that shoppers were not interested in it. How did they know? It was, I was told, common sense. They were wrong about Rakuten, about e-commerce, and about the value of common sense.

Mikitani went on urging entrepreneurs to challenge advises given to them. I particularly like how he uses learning to walk as a metaphor to describe how an idea is never fixed, never right:

Consider a child, just learning to walk. That child will often stumble. The act of walking requires that one must lose balance and then regain it – putting one foot in front of the other. By repeating this process, you move forward. Progress in society or business moves much the same way. There is a constant forward motion, stumbling, regaining balance. Nothing is ever finished or fixed. Therefore, no one can ever declare his or her idea absolutely right. There is no absolute. Only the evolution of ideas.

If I’m interpreting it correctly, I think executing an idea is also part of the act of walking. If someone never executes, the idea will always remain a mystery, it will never fail but will never succeed either. That’s not moving forward. That’s remaining on square one. Even failure, most of time, will push you forward.

I’m quite a keen admirer of Mikitani and his Rakuten legacy. For folks who are interested, you can follow him on LinkedIn to follow his thoughts.

As a Singaporean, it’s delightful reading this article from the BBC about startups in Singapore. But I have to say that it is always the same sort of story, in more or less this structure:

1. It’s good/easy to start a business in Singapore
2. We have great infrastructure to support a startup ecosystem
3. But too unfortunately Singaporeans have little risk appetite
4. But things are improving. We have more entrepreneurs
5. And hopefully we can witness a star entrepreneur who can breed more stars. ^^

See where the problem is? It’s at point number three. Singaporeans can’t take risks. And risk is subjective, I know. Starting a business is risky? To me, maybe not. But perhaps it is for a fresh graduate with no experience and a high GPA.

And how about expanding to a new country? Now that’s risky in my view, but probably not to someone who has international experience under his/her belt. So cut the fucking bullshit and let’s take some risk, shall we? High return comes with high risk. Solve point number three, period. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Given the fact that Singapore is a small market (and it is for sure), then point one and two hardly matter. Why? When the market is small, you’re forced to expand abroad anyhow. And when you expand abroad, you have to get accustomed to the business rules and infrastructure in the country where you’re expanding. I’m sorry to say that we can’t bring our fast broadband speed, smartphone penetration, banking, e-payment system, sophisticated internet behavior, law, transport, language, attitude —- all that stuff — with use to another country. If you try, you will get fucked big time for sure.

The Singapore government isn’t blind, which is why there are programs that help local startups to explore big markets like the U.S, Vietnam, Indonesia, and China. And in China, there’s a group of Beijing-based Singaporeans helping fellow Singaporean to ease in and do business there. Judging by the actions of the folks in the Singapore government, I think they would agree with me that local companies should expand abroad. Singapore is just too small.

Speaking of local heroes, we do have them. In the tech sector, we have Mr Sim Wong Hoo, the founder of Creative Technologies. His achievements are incredible. If you want to talk money, he became the youngest billionaire in Singapore when he was 45 years of age. I personally see him as an inspiration.

Sure, we haven’t had successful cases of that magnitude for a long time. But that shouldn’t discount Mr Sim’s story which should give encouragement to young entrepreneurs. If Singapore needs any more of such stories, then make it part of your goal.

It could be you.

It’s tough but not impossible. It may or may not be in this venture that you’re running, it could be the next, or the project after your next. The point is, keep doing the real shit, keep taking risks so you have a shot to reach that height. If you get stuck at point number three, stay contented in Singapore. Chances are, you can’t be at Mr Sim’s level. Not even close.

Endeavor Indonesia [1] is a non-profit organization serving as a catalyst to unleash the potential of ‘high-impact entrepreneurs’ in the country. Who are these high-impact entrepreneurs, exactly? According to Endeavor, they are the ones who already have a proven high-growth business model from any industry with revenue of at least around $1 million. Especially for technology entrepreneurs, it is not only about the revenue, but more about the business model value. Sati Rasuanto, the managing director of Endeavor Indonesia took the Instagram business model as an example, explaining to us, “One day your revenue is $0, and the next day your revenue is $1 billion.”

So what do entrepreneurs get when they join Endeavor Indonesia? A lot. Sati claims that if entrepreneurs have $2 million in revenue, then Endeavor intends to increase that revenue as high as $20 million. Endeavor will provide its members with a global network of mentors, an advisory panel, and global connections. You can see more details here. Here are also a couple of examples of technology entrepreneurs from around the world under Endeavor:

• Guibert Englebienne; Globant, Argentina – 1,067 percent growth in jobs since selection
• Marcelo Romcy; Proteus, Brazil – 1,556 percent growth in revenue since selection

Endeavor aims to create this same success story in Indonesia. Applicants will undergo a rigorous selection process by Endeavor. The video below illustrates the selection process. Beware: being accepted by Endeavor is even harder, so goes the claim, than being accepted by Harvard University [2].

Startups who has finished seed funding rounds such as humor site MalesBanget.com, or other startups who has sustainable growth and business model in the last two to three years should be eligible for candidacy. At the moment, Endeavor Indonesia approaches and selects entrepreneurs based on recommendations. [3]

The three main criteria to be selected for Endeavor Indonesia are:

• Business innovation – the business model must have the potential to be a game-changer in the industry.
• Fit with Endeavor – the entrepreneur is open to accept feedback and advice from Endeavor, and eventually contribute and give back to the organization.
• Values and ethics – the entrepreneur must become a principled role-model who can inspire and give back to the community.

Endeavor Indonesia is the first Endeavor program in Asia, established in February 2012. The people behind the expansion to Indonesia are its seven board members, which consist of Indonesian renowned businessman Ciputra, owner of the property group Ciputra Development, and Husodo Angkosubroto from investment management group Gunung Sewu Kencana.

We should note, however, that Endeavor Indonesia is only open to local entrepreneurs. For further information about Endeavor Indonesia, please contact info.indonesia@endeavor.org.

Chen Jun’s first job after graduation was working for a huge state-owned company in Wuhan. He had majored in insulation engineering, and it quickly became clear to him that he was being groomed for promotion at the Wuhan job. In the long-term, he could expect job stability, a decent salary, and the social status that comes from being a mid-level manager at a state-owned enterprise. It’s a position many Chinese people would have envied, especially back in the late 1990s when Chen was there. But in less than a year, he chose to walk away. His salary — 800 RMB a month (equivalent to $126 now, but worth even less in the late 90s) — wasn’t high enough and he disliked the workplace culture.

He was also captivated by the boom that was happening in internet technology. In 2000, inspired by what we now know to have been the first internet bubble, he founded and launched his own startup. At the time, the joke in China was that there was a venture capitalist hiding in every tree in China, just waiting for internet startups to walk by so they could shower them in money. Chen had dreams his company would become great and that he’d be invited to speak at Harvard about his successes. But before the company had time to really develop, the bubble burst, and he was forced to close up shop.

The failure devastated Chen, both emotionally and financially. He took up temporary work at a print shop that was owned by a friend and eventually put the failure out of his mind. He got married, had a son, developed a gambling problem that caused a lot of friction in his home, and excelled in his work at the print shop.

But his dream of founding a startup hadn’t died, and after a few years, he founded another company. This one was more closely tied to his expertise in insulation, his company would sell central air conditioning. This time, he threw himself fully into the lifestyle of a Chinese boss, spending his time wining and dining important friends and officials to establish the connections he thought could help his business succeed. Unfortunately, this didn’t have much of an effect on the company, which he just couldn’t seem to get to turn a profit. Eventually, it closed up shop.

Around this same time, though, Chen Jun made a lot of money in real estate. He did this sort of by accident; he just happened to be buying a house as Shanghai’s real estate market was just starting to take off, and he quickly realized he could make a ton of money by just buying an apartment, waiting a few months for the prices to rise even higher, and then selling it. He flipped several apartments this way, and at the same time made what turned out to be a wise venture investment in another company that brought him exponential returns. Suddenly, Chen Jun, the twice-failed entrepreneur, was rich.

He still hadn’t given up on founding a startup, though, and he was excited by Alibaba’s B2B e-commerce model. He came up with a plan for his own B2B e-commerce site, and against the advice of friends, founded it. Chen was counting on a massive upswing in the market, sort of like what he had experienced in the real estate market, but it never came, or at least Chen’s company couldn’t wait for it. The company quickly lost several hundred thousand RMB, and Chen pulled the plug.

Chen was still wealthy, of course, but he wasn’t happy, and he didn’t think highly of himself. His financial success was, he felt, a fluke, and his real attempts at success — his three startups — had all failed. If this story were a movie, this would be the part where we see Chen walking the streets of Shanghai in the rain before suddenly thinking of another idea — a great one — that would lead him to his dream: a successful startup.

But this isn’t a movie, and Chen might have walked the streets of Shanghai in the rain, but the epiphany never came. Instead, Chen emigrated to Canada. He wanted to start over in a new place, and he wanted to ensure his son got a “normal” education. He also wanted to live somewhere with an effective social security system, as his failed startups haven’t left him fully prepared for retirement. He hopes to work as an engineer in Canada, and may also start a Chinese restaurant on the side.

Although the China Business News story is unfortunately light on details about how Chen’s startups operated, I think there are some lessons here for entrepreneurs. Timing is important. Luck is important. And success is not guaranteed, even with hard work and sacrifice. Sometimes you just fail, and when you try again, you fail again. It’s depressing, but it’s also reality. And I think it’s worth sharing this sort of story to balance out the stories of success we’re surrounded by day in and day out, stories that make success seem like something that is inevitable.

It isn’t. Just ask Chen Jun.

[Image via Shutterstock]

Marc adopts a “Just do it and don’t think too much about it” mindset. Of course, it is not just about blindly venturing into starting up a company. Marc reminds young entrepreneurs that being in a tech and startup environment where we embrace continuous innovations and changes, we need to be aware of what is going on in the dynamic internet environment.

Entrepreneurs need to think of how to develop addictive products and leave customers craving for more. Think – “How do I create a wholesome user experience? How can I better serve my customers? What was the reason your customers fell in love with your product in the first place?” Remember, your competitors are just a click away. You need to act fast and be even faster than the competition. Speed is very important in the internet industry; there is no other industry in which one can grow rapidly with little experience and capital, yet be a game changer.

In Marc’s words:

The success of most internet companies is based on the idea, an assertive team, and real customer value.

Ideas are important, but Marc also stresses that entrepreneurs should build a team with complementary skill sets. Upon the establishment of your team, find the sweet spot of your service and focus your heart and soul on building it. Avoid getting distracted and do that one thing right instead of dabbling in everything.

In a recent post we were reminded that all entrepreneurs should think big. You need to have a global vision, especially when you are running an internet company. There are no national frontiers, which means most web-based services can be offered worldwide. If you have an awesome product, you will be able to roll out globally.

Search for experienced and well-connected supporters for your business idea. Marc also advises entrepreneurs to explore the option of giving shares of your company to smart business angels. With the external know-how and feedback, these people are able to guide you through the first few months of your startup. You can even get, via such angels, access to networks you normally would not have access to, and also gain support in finding the first customers. Besides, with people backing your idea, it gives your startup higher credibility and a better negotiation position for potential financing rounds.

On the topic of finance, an exit of a company in the internet business is undoubtedly much easier than in other industries. Yes, it is certainly something to get excited about, but Marc cautions that it should not be the main driver of your intention to start up. Entrepreneurs should not be too focused on selling the company. Afterall, most successful exits were not planned; they were driven by their own successful product development.

His advice to students?

It’s the perfect time to start a business because there is no commitment (think of family and kids) as of yet. So if you are an aspiring entrepreneur, just do it, and not think about it.

Credit: Pokeracademy.co.uk

Running an event is fun, especially when you’re selecting folks for a competition. At our upcoming Startup Asia event, one of the key highlights is Startup Arena, the startup pitching competition. That competition, thankfully, got quite a bit of traction. We have a couple of hundred applications so far. Some even contacted me on my mobile to apply. It is great fun to meet, Skype, and learn from fellow entrepreneurs. I must say I have learned a great deal just by going through the selection process.

But as you know, while some are selected, we can’t accept everybody. In fact, more than 90 percent of the applicants don’t get selected. While it is tough to select the right startups, it is far tougher to reject, especially if you know the person as a friend.

Unfortunetely I’ve had to reject a lot of startups over the past couple of weeks. Some asked for my reasons and I did my fair part to explain to them why. Some entrepreneurs have thanked me for my honest feedback, while others were less receptive, some even calling me a douche bag or an asshole (the exact words used). I don’t think I’m being one. And throughout all communication touch points I was being fair, not tough. I was also pretty sure that my tone and comments were fair and objective in this highly-competitive situation.

That is also, in my opinion, what we need in our growing Asia community — Someone that is direct and not afraid to speak the truth. The Asian culture doesn’t support that. I’m a firm believer in honest feedback. Simply because that’s the only way to understand how the users feel about the product. If you want nice words, talk to your mom, pop, girl/boyfriend. They will shower you with love.

But if you want honest feedback then find meaner people who actually care about your startups. I care and that is why I replied to people who asked for my feedback. Though I have to apologize to the hundreds of other startups who I couldn’t include but simply didn’t have time to contact one at a time.

Of course, I’m just one person, so take it with a pinch of salt. In fact, every bit of feedback given by anyone has to be taken with a pinch of salt. At the end of the day, you are the entrepreneur. You know your product best. Take the feedback as it is or leave it as it is… And then get back to work.

Hmm... that could be Minghao, Rick, Steven, and Charlie. Credit: Smh.com.au

Tencent’s founder, Pony Ma, once said that as an employee you love the weekends and holidays. But once you are an employer, you can’t wait for the holidays to be over because the payroll and overheads keep going regardless.

His words are true, speaking from personal experience. And with so much things at hand with our team right now, especially with Startup Asia, I confess I did fantasize scenes of putting Minghao, Rick, Steven, and Charlie in an endless job factory line with nasty pandas forcing them to work. They know I’m joking of course, otherwise this article wouldn’t be published here!

At my usual meeting/work place at the center of Singapore, it is common to see ladies giggling about what they have bought for their friends and men carrying bagfuls of presents for their children. I admit I do envy this part of their lives. It looks great — filled with laughter and happiness. But most likely that is just one small part of their lives, the tip of an iceberg that includes a lot of hard work as well.

This is the period when most people have fun while the entrepreneurs are still slogging their way through. There isn’t time to waste, and celebrations have to be kept to a minimal. I believe most entrepreneurs would think this way. You don’t have time for Christmas and holidays, and just want to keep working because seeing your startup grow gives you the adrenaline to keep pushing forward.

Of course on the other hand, you recognize that it’s good to keep the mind healthy. Taking some time off might be a good option to reflect and plan your the next move. And Christmas (which is just next week!) looks like a good period for all entrepreneurs to do that. I hope we all can strike the right balance, though personally I’m leaning towards work — with a Skype meeting for Startup Arena lined up next on the sched!

Credit: Streetbonersandtvcarnage

Let’s establish this first: We don’t have many successful entrepreneurs in Singapore, or in the Southeast Asia region. So as budding entrepreneurs, it is already an uphill battle finding the right people who can give the right advice.

And ‘right people’ means you must at least have some startup experience or at least have experience in the topic at hand. It is best if you have at least gone through the crazy roller-coaster ride of ups and downs in a typical startup lifecycle.

Throughout our journey, we have been very enthusiastic to learn from others. We take in all advice and also filter some out. Some advice is just total crap talk, especially those from corporate ladder climbers who know nothing about running a startup.

Some are easy to spot but some are not. Because often the “gurus” package their bullshit so artistically that it sounds very convincing. As entrepreneurs, you need to listen and filter such feedback. But for the inexperienced and the young, it can be very tough to spot these kinds of bullshit landmines.

I understand that the intention of giving advice is good (assuming there’s no ego boasting agenda on the part of the advisor). They want to help and that is why they spend time giving their thoughts.

But hey, it doesn’t hurt to think through real hard next time when an entrepreneur seeks your advice. Before you start opening your mouth to give your thoughts, be sure that you have the know-how to give real solid feedback, and don’t overstep your expertise. Otherwise, your advice is just another piece of trash in their minds.

Or worst, it can kill the startup as it misleads the entrepreneur off the right track. We have been through that shit. And it almost got us killed because we listened to the wrong advice from the wrong person. I don’t blame him/her because I understand that the person only meant good. Nonetheless, it is also a good thing that our team survived that hurdle. It made us stronger.

So for advisors who have no experience in the startup world. It’s better to keep your mouth shut. You can give the entrepreneur your opinion, but please be transparent about your experience if you have no experience in that particular area. That would be certainly be helpful to our growing community of young entrepreneurs.

With less bullshit advice, it makes spotting and absorbing the right nutrients easier, and makes this startup playground more fun and competitive. Getting your startup killed by listening to a piece of silly advice is just a shame. Die in the battlefield, not because of some bullshit landmines.

Credit: justinlattaway.com

A successful entrepreneur told me something this morning that is pretty true: “You’re only as good as your weakness.”

Take for example, perseverance, which could be seen in two ways. When your startup succeeds, the people around you say you have effing awesome determination. But when you fail people say you are way too stubborn.

Which is true?

I thought about it but concluded that an entrepreneur needs to know when to let go or when to keep moving forward. Letting go doesn’t necessary mean giving up your dream. Rather, it’s more about finding an alternative way to reach your goals when facing difficulties.

So how do we know when we need that change?

Besides user data or taking advice from mentors, a lot of the time my heart is the best filter and indicator of my next move. I do track user data and based on what I receive, make changes accordingly. But most of the time I make changes based on my gut feeling. So far, I haven’t gone too wrong. My gut, surprisingly, tends to be right (at least for now).

The world can say all kinds of good and bad things about your startup – “Your product sucks,” “It rocks so much that I use it everyday,” “You should change focus.”

But the thing that matters is what you believe in. It is, after all, your startup and you should know it better than others.

I tend to listen to people who have real solid entrepreneurship experience and are usually critical and not afraid to tell the truth. For folks who haven’t been entrepreneurs before, I will often discount their advice. But that is just me.

You see, even after picking up external advice, we often follow our heart anyway. And sadly most people like to hear nice things rather than the truth. These are the folks who can’t be entrepreneurs. Though nice words are encouraging, what really helps in product development is honest and painful feedback.

Take all advice and feedback with a grain of salt. Listen, filter, and then follow your heart. You know your product better than anyone else does.

You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart,

— Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address.

The former CTO of video-streaming sites Tudou (NASDAQ:TUDO) and Ku6 has reinvented himself as an entrepreneur, and now has his first app available for download. It’s a video-recording and sharing app for Android and iPhone called iSheHui.

After the huge success of Instagram and other Chinese-made photo-sharing apps – such as TuDing, which now has four million users – Zhao Liang (pictured below) is banking on video-sharing from mobiles being the next big thing.

The iSheHui app is, of course, socially engaged, allowing users to share videos to services such as Sina (NASDAQ:SINA) Weibo, Tencent (HKG:0700) Weibo, and Renren (NYSE:RENN). It claims to have very clever encoding so that video files are shrunk down to one-tenth of their actual size when uploaded whilst keeping pretty clear. That’ll be important in a country where only about 10 to 12 percent of people have 3G, and most of those are on rather limited monthly data plans.

Naturally, it has filters, so that videos can be made to look romantic or old-timey, futuristic or grungy, before uploading and sharing. And as with most lightweight social networks like this, you can follow fellow users, comment on their videos, and browse recent vids in a timeline.

Chinese tech site DoNews reports that Zhao Liang has received VC investment for iSheHui to the tune of at least 10 million RMB, though that hasn’t been made official.

Although not quite the same, Youku’s (NYSE:YOKU) recent smartphone app update also permits video uploads, showing the China’s mobile users are now ready to make and share videos on the move.

The iSheHui homepage has direct downloads of the iPhone app, because it hasn’t yet been listed in the app store, meaning that you’d need to be on a jailbroken device to install this right now. The Android app is on there as well.

Hongkiat is a design-focused weblog based in Malaysia and is founded by non-other than Lim Hong Kiat himself. The blog is ranked highly on Alexa (above 1,800) with a Google Pagerank of five. Hong Kiat also revealed that his blog generates a whopping 6 million page views per month and is profitable just by selling ad spaces.

I find his story interesting and thought it would be great to contact him to find out more about his background and thoughts. And I’m thankful that Hong Kiat is kind enough to share his story with us…

1. What’s the story behind Hongkiat.com?

Hongkiat.com was registered about five or six years back. Its initial idea was to redirect to a Blogger blog I registered. It wasn’t very active, merely an online journal for me to note down interesting websites, useful tricks, tips, and tutorials I learnt from the Internet.

Back then I was Head of Creative for a local company in Malaysia, but as the day job got more sucky I slowly resorted to spending more time updating the site than the one that actually writes my paycheck.

The more effort I put in, the more visitors and feedback I was getting in return; it also made me some sustainable passive revenue. Then one day came a crazy thought – I should be doing what I feel is right. I quit my politically ridiculous day job and solely focused on blog writing. I guess that’s how it all started…

2. What are the web statistics? Is it profitable?

Based on Google Analytics’ figures, Hongkiat.com generates about 6.0 to 6.5 million pageviews per month and is gradually increasing. On top of that, we have another 70,000 to 75,000 readers following us via newsletter, RSS feeds, and various social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc). It is definitely profitable.

3. How do you manage to rack up such high traffic? What are your tips/tricks?

I guess – ultimately – if you give them what they want, they’ll stick for a while. If you are writing content related to your visitors’ interests, they will eventually come back for more.

I like to dig into the metrics, analyzing their demographics: what people are reading, what interests them the most; are they clicking related contents for more, etc. This kind of gives me the direction of what we should be writing.

4. How big is your team?

The team is small, and I intend to keep it that way. I have three permanent editors and authors. They all work in the comfort of their home.

Aside from that, there are another 30 to 45 consistent writers and ghost writers that submit articles occasionally.

5. What are the future plans for Hongkiat?

I definitely want to expand into other areas or perhaps explore other tech/design-related niches. I have a few in mind, but have yet to decide.

6. Are you working on other stuff besides Hongkiat.com?

Aside from overseeing Hongkiat, I’m also investing in the US and Singapore stock – tech industry stocks mostly.

7. Do you consider yourself as an entrepreneur?

Yeah, why not.

To make a long story short, the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich identified the ABCC9 gene which can reduce the length of time we sleep. They even modified the genes within fruit flies and successfully shortened the time for which the flies slept. Granted, I’m not sure what that means but it reads like a free, organic, and everlasting Red Bull to me.

Our team has been extremely stretched ever since we announced our event last week. I know sleep deprivation is not a badge of honor, but I have been sleeping at an average of 4 hours and 17 minutes every night since last week. I’m counting for the fun of it but naturally, the article caught my attention since 4 hours is near to my calculated figure. Besides Startup Asia and daily operations of our blog, we’re also working on a major change which we hope we can announce really soon.

Anyways, I’m sure investors would be ecstatic if the ABCC9 genes were in-built within the entrepreneurs they invested in. That would allow them (naturally) to sleep less and work more. For entrepreneurs, the ABCC9 sounds like a sound plan too. As my friend Zaki, founder of Game Ventures, said he would like to have two of the ABCC9 genes.

Perhaps the ABBC9 should be sold as a form of canned drink to replace the not-so-effective coffee or Red Bull. It isn’t effective because my body — and the bodies of other perpetual midnight oil burners — got so used to caffeine. (And if the ABBC9 proves to work like a “steroid”, I would love to secretly inject them on my team members too.)

The past two weeks have been tough for our team — working more than 12 hours a day is certain and this will continue for sure. We’re not at all complaining. In fact, we see it as a chance for us to step up our gear and see how much we can do with so little resources. It’s fun and fulfilling as we continue to push tech in Asia forward with our small ninja team, no matter how small the steps are.

While working hard, we also understand that work never ends — Even if we were to limit our sleep to 4 hours each day. So as we work hard to tell stories on behalf of tech in Asia, we also ensure we get adequate sleep (subjective), fluid, and exercise to ensure we can continue this marathon in the long run.

Steven Goh, co-founder and CEO of mig33, is one of the most talked-about names among entrepreneurs and mobile folks in Southeast Asia. Having experience building his mobile social network empire in both the western and eastern markets, Steven is in a good position to comment on Asia vs Silicon Valley, or specifically on Singapore’s startup environment wearing both his hats. Initially, I wanted him to talk about mig33’s journey at Startup Asia Singapore. But Steven thought that wouldn’t bring much value.

Opting out of the chance to publicize or “storify” his company, Steven told me that we should talk about how startups can get from pre-revenue to capital raising and post-revenue stages. That, he feels, is more useful for entrepreneurs in Singapore. Of course, I agreed and his session is thus titled: Raising Capital, Generating Revenue, and the God Damn Exits! (see the full list agenda here)

A few of the questions I’d like to ask him:: How can a startup find the right investor in Singapore? Are Singapore-based startups, in general, attractive to investors? What’s the needed mentality/actions, in his opinion, in each of the phases mentioned? And most importantly, why are there so few exits in Singapore and what can we do as entrepreneurs to improve our chances?

On exits, I will surely be asking what Steven has in mind for mig33 in the long term. As for the short term, I’m hearing a lot of exciting things about mig33 lately. But Steven remains mum about what his company is working on. So let’s see if we can get him to reveal something live on stage. It should be fun.

Meanwhile, feel free to leave questions which you think we should ask in the comments section below.

The big battle plan? Credit: wrath85.deviantart.com

Do you have a plan for your startup? I bet most of us do. Not just one, but multiple versions. You’re not alone.

I’ve learned that having a single plan isn’t good enough. Everything changes so quickly and there are way too many variables beyond our control. Sometimes shit just happens, or perhaps we as entrepreneurs overestimate our abilities to achieve certain results. Or maybe there are certain aspects of a product that receive feedback from users and brings the entire grand plan to a halt.

Anyway, the point I’m trying to get at here is that having just one plan is risky. We need many plans to suit many many different scenarios to achieve our goals. A desperate situation calls for desperate actions. But while in a favorable situation, a bullish plan would be more suitable. You get the drift.

On our team, we’re relentlessly focused on the product and the vision. Our product is content, so we need to maintain a good quality of content, writing, and form. We also have an event coming up, and we’re working hard to keep the content quality high and also ensure a good experience for all who attend, as well as those who don’t. Our vision is to push the Asia community forward, as best we can.

With the product and vision engraved at the back of our minds, we need a solid real-time plan to get it done (i.e. a plan that changes with time, situation, and rolls with the punches). That doesn’t mean we just wait for things to happen and react. We still have to be very active about building the product and chasing the vision. That means creating awesome content that fills a need, informing the world about what’s happening here in Asia, in line with the team’s vision and reader feedback.

So far ours has been a steady growing process, interspersed with bold leaps of faith (see our recent  “fuck, just do it” post). But that’s our ‘real-time’ plan, so to speak. It may be somewhat disorganized at times but it’s what keeps our small team rocking.

When I was selling grasshoppers at age 10, a friend told me that grasshoppers can be categorized into different types — red legged, blue legged, with/without wings — and sold at different prices. To me, that felt more like a criticism or insult than feedback. I was obviously young, egoistic, and arrogant. But eventually I did categorize and sell them at different prices. It was a success.

When I was running an online tuition agency, we wanted to work with one of the bookstores on a partnership deal. Our traffic was miserable but nonetheless, we managed to meet up with one of the major bookstores in Singapore. That was back in 2005. She laughed at our traffic and saw no reasons to work with us. She was right. My partner and I worked to improve our traffic (which we would have done anyway) but also hated her for being so mean. As arrogant youngsters, we walked away without saying goodbye. It was bad and unprofessional.

When I was in college working on group projects, I always thought my ideas were the best. In some sense, that might have been true, because my group always managed to get ‘A’. But reflecting back, I realized that I wasn’t a person that was very easy to work with. I would talk down others’ ideas and even brand them as stupid or GPA-grabbers. And for people who gave their feedback on my ideas, I was very critical and insisted that my ideas was right.

Perhaps I matured along the way. Over the last two years, I have started to understand the beauty of listening to feedback and advice. Some advice is still crappy though. But I’ve learned to think from the other person’s point of view. No one is right for sure. So filtering advice is important, especially in Asia, where culture compels people to say nice things about others. The ‘truth’ is often unspoken.

I learn that if you want the best feedback — particularly in Asia — you need to ask or even force your friends or mentors to say nasty things about your startup. You need to make them feel that you’re cool with them giving you feedback or even criticizing your business.

Often, I realized that people who are mean are the best people to listen to. And I collect them along the way and keep them in my brainstorming group because these are the people who I can trust to give me honest feedback. They may be mean but they are also people who give a shit about your startup. So shower them with love and get them to criticize your startup often — it is like a free can of Redbull that keeps you sharp and on your toes.

Lee Kai-Fu at Disrupt Beijing

When Rebecca Fannin, Startup Asia author and Forbes contributor, asked Lee Kai-Fu of Innovation Works about his advice for tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, Lee gave the following three bits of advice, in his own words (for my thoughts, scroll below):

“First, don’t think your idea will change the world. But understand the trend. That is much more important. Because if you’re going into an explosive growing trend, you just have to do a good job and it will take you to the top. And if you think… you know… I’m in a flat trend but I’m going to do something that will kill all the competitors. I think that’s just going against the wind and not productive. The trend is your friend.”

“The second piece of advice is to focus on simplifying. Entrepreneurs are all smart and they all want to do everything. And they have a new idea everyday, a new product, a new feature, a new market. And that slows everything down. The model to develop a new company, especially an internet company, is to build something simple and target a very small network of people and then experiment and grow from there. The lean startup process.”

“The third thing is don’t go alone. So many Chinese entrepreneurs want to be that big boss. This is very Chinese – to be the big boss, everybody is your underling. But in a role to build a startup, it is so challenging, lonely… You want a partner who can encourage you, work with you, partner with you, and lift each other to go through troubles. You also want someone whose skill complements you. And who has an implicit strong trust in you, to really take it to the next level.”

For the full interview, watch the video below:

On Following the Trend…

Personally, I’ve got to agree with Lee’s points. Seriously, only a few dare to fight against the prevailing trend (such as, perhaps, a well-known VC like Lee).

Although I do want to point out that trend-following is also one of the best explanations why most entrepreneurs are building crappy products which are usually a mash-up of buzz words like social, mobile, and location. While it’s great following trends, it is equally (if not more) important to solve a real-life problem.

Some good examples which we have covered so far are NX28.com which helps village farmers to trade farm stocks on the internet, and XY Mobile which is bringing the Lao language onto the web and onto gadgets. Both startups solve real problems. And as long as problems are solved, people are willing to pay for the services (we hope).

Of course, Lee’s advice in the interview isn’t complete and I’m not here to point out that he is wrong. Rather, I hope that while chasing the trend, entrepreneurs should be logical enough to build something that is useful and not something that is simply just plain cool. The real cool is when you make money with a product that solves real problems.

For the scumbag mentors. You know who you are.

I love start-ups and the journey of building businesses. So I’m extremely frustrated when I hear stories from budding entrepreneurs who got conned by “mentors” who take equity just for giving their advice. Yeah, those who don’t really create value and just talk and talk and talk…

I know, there are great mentors who actually do deserve the equity. But recently, I’m hearing cases that there are several unnamed scumbag start-up “mentors” who’re on the loose, sneakily taking equity from budding entrepreneurs who know nothing about valuation and the importance of keeping equity in business. The entrepreneurs who shared their pain with me didn’t want me to mention names, so yeah… I will have to respect that.

Here’s the story in brief — there is a budding start-up that was gaining traction with a pretty neat business idea. Some “mentors” heard about it and wanted to take 10 percent  equity in exchange for their advice and with an investment of around one thousand dollars. Uh huh… so with that estimated figure, the start-up is valued at around $10,000? That valuation is ridiculous considering the amount of potential the start-up has (trust me on this).

The scumbag mentors, who certainly know that this is a damn good deal, just went ahead and signed the papers. The entrepreneurs didn’t feel too good about it but went on with the deal with fingers crossed.

These scumbag “mentors” were initially very active in helping. But the “mentoring” stopped after some time; eventually, they weren’t even replying to emails from the entrepreneurs. Classic!

And, from what I understand, none of the scumbags actually have experience in entrepreneurship or the industry the entrepreneurs are in.

Seriously, as mentors, shouldn’t you be warning the entrepreneurs about scumbag mentors (like yourself)? And why are they holding on to equity when they aren’t creating value?

They are obviously the black sheep of the ecosystem, taking away equity from naive entrepreneurs who know nothing about term sheets and are just working hard building their business.

So be extra careful, fellow entrepreneurs — This is the main message for this post.

Don’t buy into the bullshit of unknown mentors/gurus who want to take equity just by talking. Words can’t fill your stomach and sustain your business. Money can, though.

Real mentors are genuine people who really care about helping entrepreneurs to build their business. And they usually don’t take equity unless they are willing to run the business with you.

I would really like to reveal their names to warn other budding entrepreneurs away from them. Unfortunately I can’t as I have to protect the identity of the entrepreneurs who spoke with me. So stay safe and peace out!

Are you on Google+? Connect with us here.

Gorgeous Beijing (without smog)

I first visited China at age 10 and since then I have been visiting the country pretty frequently — Fuzhou (where my family comes from originally), Guangzhou, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Beijing.

I must admit, I never really liked the country. I always thought it was kinda dirty with lots of spit everywhere on the streets. My brother and I would find all sorts of excuses to avoid going to China when we were younger.

But times have changed and the country has improved drastically. From a Singaporean perspective there are still many reasons to dislike it, especially the pollution in Beijing.

To be fair, there are also many reasons to love China — specifically Beijing, especially if you’re an entrepreneur. The energy there is amazing.

For the most of this and last week, I have been hopping from café to café (usually with free Wi-Fi) for meetings. It is pretty common to see entrepreneurs pitching to investors or developers coding while drowning themselves in coffee at these cafés. Tech-related events, both in English or/and Chinese, are available to attend almost everyday. The atmosphere is awesome and for entrepreneurs in the tech space, it is easy to fall in love with Beijing.

The city is filled with foreigners too and it makes the capital a diverse place with different cultures. I have met countless Americans who have been in the city for several years. My question to them is always the same: “What brings you here in China?” While some might express concerns over their risky move into China, most of them agree that the country is exciting and bursting with opportunities.

Richard Robinson, an American entrepreneur and angel investor who have been living in China for more than 10 years echoed the same thoughts. Over a coffee session, he told me that in China, the first-generation entrepreneurs who made successful exits are helping the second and third generation entrepreneurs. There is a healthy amount of capital and mentorship flowing within this growing community. He also admitted that there is much to learn for a foreigner, especially folks who don’t look Chinese.

I also met up with James Tan, a fellow Singaporean who made a bold move to set up 55Tuan with friends he met during his time at university. He stumbled upon a MBA scholarship at Qinghua and quickly grabbed the chance, seeing it as a good way to learn more about China as a student. That is obviously one of the best decisions he has made in life so far. 55Tuan, the service he started with Qinghua classmates, is now one of the largest group-buy sites in China and is poised for an IPO by the end of this year.

He told me that if we can spend 24 hours focusing on a small market, then why not spend the same amount of time on a large market?

As a blogger, I have had opportunities to travel around Asia exploring the tech spaces in different countries. While India and Indonesia are exciting, none can match the energy in China.

China is a perfect place for serious entrepreneurs who are willing get out of their comfort zone and explore. There is so much more potential in China now and it will continue over the next decade. And that is especially true for Singaporean Chinese who are blessed with an education in English and Chinese.

The tech space in China is probably still in a semi-infant stage. There are still many gaps to fill up even though the major building blocks like search, e-commerce, and social are dominated by big companies like Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent. Nonetheless, there are opportunities for start-ups, especially in the mobile Internet space – as Lee Kai-Fu explained recently.

I’m excited to plunge myself into Beijing to learn and explore. I see myself possibly building my next start-up in China. But before anyone could do that, I understand patience is very much needed to learn and understand more about the Chinese culture and the way things work. The opportunities in China are way too addictive and for a mid-twenties punk like me, this will probably be the best learning experience I will have over the next couple of years while I’m there.

[Image credit: Flickr's Stuckincustoms]

You can create Steve Jobs figurings, though.

Last weekend at Qinghua University, Lee Kai-Fu shared some interesting thoughts on mobile and entrepreneurship in China. The conversation with the moderator (who is also a professor) and audience, like it or not, somehow focused too much on creating a Steve Jobs.

As Lee asserted that fresh graduates are unlikely to make it into his incubator program, Innovation Works, the moderator, probably for the fun of it, argued and said that there are so many talented young people in Qinghua and China who could be the next Steve Jobs.

But he later also confessed that it is tough as he hasn’t met students with the right ingredients yet. And of course, there’s also the usual criticism about Chinese culture and education, which are believed to be hindering entrepreneurship here.

Sure, that’s personal opinion. But I find it a little disturbing that Steve Jobs became the central reference point throughout a session discussing entrepreneurship in China. How about successful entrepreneurs like Pony Ma, Jack Ma, and Robin Li? Why aren’t they the “Steve Jobs of China” or at least recognized/referenced as Chinese who have built great products that serve the China market well?

Perhaps this is just an Asia thing. An interesting thing about this continent is the amount of respect we have for the westerners. And sometimes I find we have far too much respect, to the point that it borders on a lack of self-confidence on our part.

There’s no problem with idolizing or learning from the best, but it is disturbing to listen to an entire discussion about creating a Steve Jobs in China. There’s no way China (or any other country out there) can do that because Jobs came from a very different culture and had gone through certain experiences that made him who he was.

As ridiculous as it may sound, at one point, the moderator even asked Lee how he has dealt with his kids’ education and questioned if they could be the next Steve Jobs. Lee laughed and said that they are not entrepreneurial sort of characters.

Exactly.

From my interpretation, I believe Lee is essentially communicating that a Steve Jobs can’t be bred, made, or trained. You can’t create or anticipate a genius entrepreneur.

No one would have the balls to say, “Okay, we can just throw in some U.S. education, put in some cash for entrepreneurs, and inject entrepreneurship courses to create/train a Steve Jobs.”

Everything has to be organic because it is the passion that drives an entrepreneur hard; and passion is developed naturally.

Steve Jobs said the following at his 2005 Stanford commencement which pretty much sums up everything:

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.

So yeah, create your own legacy, folks.

CEO and founder of Innovation Works, Lee Kai Fu, spoke at Qinghua University this past Saturday. Besides sharing his thoughts on mobile Internet trends, Lee also talked about how Innovation Works works. Don’t expect to learn any insider secrets or magic formulae leaked by Lee and his team. He gave a pretty general introduction on how his fund works, good enough for entrepreneurs to understand how Innovation Works can help scale their business from nothing to something.

Lee began by explaining that the investing landscape has changed. He attributes the boom in elastic cloud computing, social media marketing, and open source concept which brings the costs and time required for development and promotion. He said that with 1.5 million RMB (approximately USD $235,000), it allows founders to build a team to test out a product concept for about nine months. Lee explains that a typical team includes one CEO, one CTO, one user experience designer, and seven developers.

To Lee, the entrepreneur’s sweet spot is currently in the mobile Internet. For investors, the sweet spot is in early stage investing.

Lee says that entrepreneurs should focus most of their time building their product. He says that standalone entrepreneurs usually have to handle administration matters, like accounting, legal, recruiting, and permit registration which takes the focus away from the product.

But at Innovation Works, entrepreneurs don’t have to worry about these administration issues as they are taken care of. Innovation Works also has its own in-house designers, office spaces, and legal consultants to lighten their burden.

And on product development, Innovation Works adopts the lean start-up model. Entrepreneurs backed by Innovation Works are pushed to launch their minimal viable product (MVP) to the market to collect user data. Lee says that the MVP should take around three months to develop and emphasized that it doesn’t matter if the MVP has flaws, as long as it helps solve the problem that was identified by the entrepreneur.

The key for this step is to collect user data and iterate the product accordingly. He gave a simple AB testing example: If an entrepreneur can’t decide which colored fonts to use, test it by giving half of the users color A and the other half color B. If the data (time spent on site or bounce rate) reflected that color A is better, then it is obvious that color A should be used for all users. The process of build-measure-learn will continue as a cycle of improving the product.

From what I understand, Innovation Works is very particular with two criteria when choosing its investment:

1. Explosive growth in an industry
2. Talented entrepreneurs who will be driving the vision

Once these two criteria are met (on top of its other criteria, etc), Innovation Works is happy to provide funds to let the entrepreneurs develop their products, market it at low cost, gather data, and improve the product. If the product proves to be good, Innovation Works may invest in the start-up again.

Lee is skeptical that Chinese fresh graduates with little experience can be good entrepreneurs. Of course, his remarks caused quite a big reaction from the moderator and the crowd. The moderator listed a lot of examples of drop-out/fresh from school entrepreneurs, including Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg.

While Lee said that there might be a slim chance that there are such talents in China, he feels that it is more sensible, for now, to invest in founders who are proven or at least have working experience. He urged aspiring fresh graduate entrepreneurs to gain some experience first before setting up their own business. He says that it is an uphill battle for fresh graduates with little experience to fight against experienced entrepreneurs like Lei Jun.

Lee also says that Chinese entrepreneurs need to be aware of giant companies like Tencent, Baidu, and Alibaba who might just see the same opportunity as them and crash their party.

I think many folks don’t understand how important this is. Whether you’re a geek, designer, or business developer, when you start out, it is common to be a little shy or tentative. I was a hermit crab hiding in my shell and believed that I could do more by staying put at the work desk.

But somehow the nature of my job forces me to meet new people, drink coffee, shake hands, and network. It does take some courage for a shy person but the learning journey has been awesome so far.

To me, every new relationship established provides a possible reach of new connections which could be tapped on in the future. But of course, don’t be an asshole and only befriend someone just because they might be “useful.”

I’ve learned that it is good to meet up with anyone if time permits you to do so. Whether they are successful people or someone who’s struggling, every new person you meet is a new learning opportunity. Just as you can learn a lot from successful people, there is probably just as much that can be learned by talking with those who have failed.

Many of our business collaborations come from referrals (often friends of friends) or through people we meet at events. And interestingly, people who are seen as “less important” tend to be important in some part of the journey.

Also note that not all meetings should be business focused. Rather, it is a good habit to have meetings that are focused on building/strengthening relationships. So instead of calling it your business network, call it your social network. It makes it sound more friendly that way.

I like how Mark Suster wrote about why coffee meetings are so important to entrepreneurs. He has listed six reasons to explain why and I particularly like number three — relations with journalist (and bloggers, yes i stuffed this in myself!). Somehow, Asians don’t seem to get how journalists and bloggers — not just us but also others — are helping to tell the story and spread awareness in this ecosystem. Obviously, as a blogger I could go on about this, but I’d better keep it short.

And on the point on recruitment, all of our team, like Rick, Steven, and Charlie were recommended through friends of friends. My friend Serkan recommended Rick who in turn recommended Steven. We randomly (and quite fortunately) found Charlie in the hopes of possible collaboration on a writing gig.

So there you go. Like it or not, relationships and connections are a large part of business. I’m ending off with a quote from Suster — “Go on. Get out of your fraking office and make it happen.”

Minions.

I first tasted entrepreneurship at age ten. I was selling grasshoppers (yes, grasshoppers) and didn’t have much pressure back then. The risk was low, so entrepreneurship to me at that point was still pretty attractive. And then I moved on to sell trading cards at age 15. That experience got me hooked on entrepreneurship as I learned to be a better salesman. Buying low and selling high to kids who didn’t understand the market was basically my trick.

My next venture was at age 19 when I got into the educational business. It wasn’t at all tech related, just a simple bricks-and-mortar venture. And, oh boy, did that give me some stress and sleepless nights. I figured out that as overheads increase, so stress levels increase too. And that venture didn’t make entrepreneurship very glamorous at all. But somehow, my partner and I managed to pull through. The business was sold at a low price but I confess it was an awesome ride.

Now this Asia tech blog which you’re reading is my latest venture, and stress levels are even higher. I’m starting to taste what it’s like to push really hard to hit key performance indicators (KPIs) and at the same time ensure that the team is happy and is working in harmony.

Taking investor’s money isn’t at all fun. But it does push you hard to strive for better results. Of course, I’m not bitching about East Ventures here. They have been wonderful mentors; and what you see today on the blog — our content, growth strategy, upcoming new design, and upcoming products — are driven by our team’s hard work and vision. Nonetheless, it is the self-inflicting pressure that is haunting and pushing me.

In recent months, whenever I attend events across the region, I noticed it is common for friends to come up to me and ask why the hell I look so tired. Like most entrepreneurs who have screwed-up sleeping patterns, it’s generally a given that we all look like crap. Imagine sleeping just four to six hours a day and keeping your energy levels high by drowning yourself in coffee and energy drinks. Anyone will look like crap after going through several months of that kind of routine. Personally, I figured out that it is more efficient (for me) to work to the point that my body auto-shuts off by itself. Otherwise, if I hit the hay early, I would end up rolling around in my bed, obsessing over problems and solutions.

The entrepreneurial journey is fucking painful. And sometimes I do ask myself if it’s all worthwhile and would I be happier if I were less ambitious. I believe most entrepreneurs go through that at low periods. That’s just the simple truth.

But I also figured out that while the journey can be painful, it will all become magically beautiful when it comes to an end. Whether it is a failure, a successful IPO, or via an acquisition by another company – the ending is beautiful when you look back and connect the dots.

I remember myself at age ten, drenched in sweat in a field catching grasshoppers while my schoolmates were having their meals during recess. I also remember how I was pulling my hair at age 22, shouting at employees when overheads were sky-rocketing and the sales team was struggling.

But these pain points quickly turned sweet in the end. I don’t regret spending a good five years of my life at my previous venture. I wouldn’t call it a success, but the lessons learned are invaluable.

Our Charlie Custer quoted Dave McClure last weekend in Beijing:

He described real entrepreneurship as generally being “not sexy,” “painful,” “boring as shit,” and “full of failure.” If you’re just looking to make money or get famous, he said, “Fuck it, go do something else. Don’t be an entrepreneur.”

Well said.

So be warned: we're not interviewing you just to post it on our refrigerator.

We published a piece of news today. Then we took it down shortly after. Why, you might ask? Well, it turns out that the news was released to us prematurely before the company in question meant to make the announcement. But that is not at all my problem – we didn’t fuck it up. Read on.

We got all the green lights possible. I received a verbal heads-up that we could go ahead with publishing the news when I met the founder face-to-face yesterday. There was no embargo given to us and people who have worked with us know that we respect embargo deadlines.

Anyway, I hesitated to write a post about it as soon as the founder walked off because I told him — face-to-face — that I needed time to understand his start-up and product. I couldn’t fully grasp his product when he explained it to me verbally.

It’s a fantastic product, so I went off and played with it for quite some time on Facebook. And as promised, I emailed some questions to the founder after I had tested out what his team had developed.

The founder got back to me with some pretty enthusiastic answers. It made the 24-hour wait worthwhile. I wrote a post, published it, and unfortunately it kinda went viral on Facebook.

And then the phone rang…

Within a mere 30 minutes, one of his investors called me up and asked me how that news went public. Well, the founder gave me the green light and I wrote and published it. That’s my job — I’m a blogger. I even forwarded the interview to the investor (as instructed) to show that I got all the information straight from the founder.

And then things started to turn nasty. The investor called me again, but with a harsher tone this time, saying that the email didn’t state that it was okay to publish the news. Well, I explained that the founder gave me the green light verbally. (Additionally, the founder even liked the post and said it was awesome after I sent him the published article.)

But the investor wasn’t pleased with my answer. He told me off, telling me that I went for speed in order to beat other publications to this news. That’s quite a loaded remark.

Yes, like all publications, we’re always on the lookout for exclusives, and sometimes we get them by being speedy. But we do that only when the green light is given to us. And in this case, the founder gave us the green light. And if I were to go for speed, I didn’t have to interview him or do a hands-on with his product. I could have just written and published a post about the news immediately after I learned about it yesterday.

But the telling-off continued. The investor told me that I should have double-checked with the founder before launching the post, and that I should do this in the future. To me it felt like an insult, but I thanked him and hung up the phone.

The founder was nice enough to call me and apologize. He did defend that he didn’t exactly give me the green light… but sure, everyone gets defensive when shit pops up. I understand that.

I’m writing here not just to tell the truth but also to shed some light for all founders and maybe even investors to understand how journalists and bloggers work: If you’re doing an interview with a journalist and you don’t say something is off the record, that means it’s on the record. If you give us information but don’t give us an embargo date, that means it’s on the record and you’re OK with us publishing as soon as we’re ready. If you don’t want information released before a certain date, that’s fine and we’ll respect that — ask anyone we write about. But you need to tell us that. And in this case, the founder did tell me some other things that were off the record, and I didn’t write about those – because I respect those boundaries.

We took the news down this time to be nice and because it’s not a particularly huge story, but it would have been well within our rights to leave it up, and in the future, we won’t be deleting posts just because founders or investors get last-minute regrets or let slip a piece of secret information and forget to tell us not to publish it.

The weird thing about influence is that you can get so affected and inspired even when you don’t get to see that person face-to-face. I always wanted to attend one of his keynotes to catch him live in action, and to feel his brilliance and passion for Apple, the company he started and worked so hard for. I guess I have missed my chance in this lifetime.

Fortunately, YouTube has thousands of videos of Steve Jobs’ keynotes and speeches. When I’m feeling down or jaded, one of my favorite sources of inspiration is to watch Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement address. To him, it’s just three stories from his life, but to many it’s three invaluable life lessons.

Jobs is perhaps the best salesman, designer, CEO, and visionary in the last decade. And… a great role model for many of us entrepreneurs. His vision spans far and wide, but when put into action, his products are designed in a simplistic and elegant manner. He found the right balance between art and technology, and created products that are simple to use for the many who celebrate his vision.

He is brilliant, a genius, but he also worked extremely hard to reach the goals he set. He is a perfectionist and in his own way influences people around the world to work hard to achieve their goals. Pity that I never had a chance to met him in person, but I’m feeling his influence just by watching his speech and reading his book, on the very devices he created for us, the MacBook and iPad (and, of course, the iPhone).

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

I graduated this year, but while at school I decided to start my own business and give up being a GPA go-getter. Sure, I had fear. My entrepreneurial instinct told me to do so and I did it. That was back in 2006, and it is the best decision that I have ever made. But it was Steve Jobs’ words that motivated me to push on; the phrase Stay hungry, stay foolish kept buzzing in my head as a gentle reminder to keep moving forward, seeking improvements, and not to settle in.

I’m staying hungry, staying foolish. And hopefully I can be part of a start-up community who will live on the culture and standards that Jobs has set for all entrepreneurs across the world. Rest in peace; and thank you, Mr. Jobs.

Praying is one way to get covered. But there are other ways.

With little budget, using public relations (PR) tactics to gain exposure for your start-up is one of the most cost effective promotional methods. And as a blogger, I do have some points to share with fellow entrepreneurs in Asia on how to do PR in an efficient manner.

Here are ten tips, starting from the most obvious:

1. Before you pitch, make sure that your product is ready

We often receive pitches from start-ups whose products are still in an early stage. Common bugs are fine but the core functions of the product need to be up and running at least. How else do you expect bloggers to test them? And let me warn you that it’s a definite no to just pitch in your idea without a working product.re

2. Keep the pitch short and sweet

Can you describe your start-up in a couple of sentences? Why is it remarkable? If you can’t explain, then that’s a problem. At PO, we always ask ourselves what’s awesome/interesting about news items we receive before writing them. So you need to be clear to really capture bloggers’ attention. A video would help a lot too. Services like Screenflow or Camtasia are useful for this, and are pretty simple to use. There are others here. And don’t forget to upload it to YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and try Youku or Tudou for China-based audiences. It makes video embedding simpler for us.

3. If you’re a localized clone, admit it, and focus on strengths

For clones, just tell the blogger that you’re basically a “me too” product. (Since there’s no way to hide it.) Instead, focus on your strengths. Tell us how you have localized your start-up to suit certain markets and achieve success by doing that. That’s considered innovation too and many bloggers will find that an interesting angle to work on.

4. Reply to press inquiries promptly

This will help writers get their stories out faster, rather than having to wait for your email. If you delay your reply, you also risk your email getting buried under other pitches which bloggers may tend to forget about your start-up. In short, the trick is to keep them interested by giving them what they want asap. It makes writers’ jobs easier too.

5. Building relationships with bloggers

The worst thing that you could ever do is to treat bloggers as content generator machines. Smart founders will understand that building relationships with bloggers works like magic. It increases the chances of you getting coverage, if for no other reason that if you’re friends, the writer is going to know more about your company and about your own mindset. And if they know they can easily call you and get a quote, it’s going to be more convenient for them to write stories about you than it is for them to write about some stranger’s startup.

6. Meet them, if possible

This point is similar to the one above. But I’m separating them to give it more emphasis. If you’re a start-up founder, try meeting up with the blogger in person. It will take the relationship to a higher level and also help you understand the blogger better; both as a person and his coverage selection criteria. If it’s not possible, try to connect via social media or by telephone/Skype.

7. Love big blogs AND the small blogs

If you’re so into the big blogs in the west. Then sure, go for it. But as you would have realized, start-ups in Asia rarely gets covered there. While you continue to submit your news to them, do give blogs in Asia some love too. (Here’s a list.) After all, it’s good for your link building — the more blogs the merrier. Plus, blogs in Asia tend to have the right audience suited more for start-ups in Asia. It will also look good on you if an investor or potential candidate google and found out that your start-up had been covered in multiple publications.

8. Keep bloggers updated with your start-up

Most start-ups disappear after getting covered on our blog. The smart founders will continue the relationship with bloggers by keeping them in the loop on the latest update about his/her start-up. My point is, keep submitting interesting updates to the bloggers. The news could be a new partnership, a new feature or a new investment received. It’s the blogger’s choice to pick up the news. But don’t spam news either. And for the record, adding Facebook ‘like’ button on your website isn’t something that we are interested to write about.

9 Build a solid About, FAQ, or Media page

Write a good FAQ page so that you can refer people to rather than have to answer the same questions over and over again. A good about us page should tell people who are in your team and a brief history about your start-up. Beautiful screenshots are certainly welcomed.

10. Press releases – make them understandable, linkable

If you’re pitching to an English blog, have basic press information available in English. It just makes life easier for both the founder and blogger. Also, publish the press release somewhere on your website in HTML format so that people can easily link them. Nobody wants to link to a Word document or PDF file.

That’s all folks. If you have any additional tips, feel free to add them via comments.

Charlie Custer and Rick Martin also contributed to this article.

[Image credit]

The Internet is a great place to start up. The overhead costs are much lower, it is easier to scale and you can operate your business from just about anywhere. But when I started out, the only big problem was that I can’t code!

Admittedly, in my short working experience, I’ve only done social media marketing and I have zero web design or development skills. So I jumped into learning Ruby on Rails, CSS, and HTML to develop Learnemy.com — the site that I’m running now.

And boy, that was really quite a task.

Having gone through this experience — from a non-techie to a somewhat tech-capable founder — I have three tips to share with fellow non-techie startup entrepreneurs.

1. Understand the tech but don’t be a CTO

Will the time spent learning how to code pay off? If you’re thinking this way, I’ll remind you that the goal here is not to become a CTO. It is for you to know enough and ship a minimal viable product out into the market. Putting out a skeleton product will definitely pay off. It will tell you know whether your product rocks or suck.

Plus, you can’t hire someone for a job scope that you don’t understand. And because you don’t know the exact job scope, you can’t tell if you’re getting bullshit when you outsource product development to third parties.

The most important outcome of learning how to code is that I’ve learned to respect programmers and their work. Too often, the calls of a marketer looking for a technical co-founder ends up on the very entertaining Whartonite Seeks Code Monkey site.

2. Learn CSS and HTML first

This is something I regret not starting earlier. If I could begin again, I would learn CSS and HTML before jumping into rails. Just by knowing how to manipulate the look of a website, you can create a really watered down product using static HTML.

Since Learnemy finds instructors based on learning needs, I made a static HTML page and used Wufoo to collect information on what my customers want to learn. With just that, Learnemy could be considered a working product.

Knowing CSS and HTML don’t make you an artist. As Picasso says, “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” So feel free to take inspiration from existing layouts and styles. Firebug is a great tool for you to do just that.

Learnemy’s homepage was inspired by Google’s homepage.

3. Learn from someone who can teach you personally

So now you’ve picked up CSS and HTML, and proved that there is a demand for your product. It’s time to dig into the back-end. When I asked people what language should I learn, the responses were something like this:

“Python is so easy! Look at him, he picked up Django in 3 weeks!” – a Python programmer

“Learn Rails! The syntax is so simple!” – a Ruby on Rails programmer

“Definitely PHP. Because Facebook uses PHP.” – a (you guessed it) PHP programmer

All these are extremely confusing to a non-techie. So my advice to you is this: learn whatever language from someone who can teach you personally.

Learning from someone who can explain to you anything you don’t understand is a great time saver. I found my Rails instructor by hanging out at places filled with programmers, like Hackerspace or tech-related events. Alternatively, you can also use Learnemy to find them.

Starting up is hard. Starting up with tools you’re not familiar with is harder, though not impossible. In addition to the steps above, always remember not to give up. Good luck, fellow entrepreneurs!

Finding an Indian VC is tougher than spotting Bender in this picture. Found him! (Image credit: Hopewell Studios)

Vineet is the founder and CEO of Teliportme, an India-based start-up. Having first called-out three major issues with the Indian start-up scene, last week he tackled the problem with mentors. Check back later for his third and final part. You can follow him on Twitter.

My last post got me some flak from friends and fellow entrepreneurs. Their take was: Why are you writing the truth? My answer is: Because it’s important. I imagine this post about the venture capital (VC) environment in India is what I would call a double-edged sword. I am an entrepreneur and I will need funds and I will reach out to VCs; yet the more I write exposés about the start-up scene here, the lesser the likelihood of my team and I getting investment. Having said all that, I feel this issue in India needs to be talked about and hopefully I can point out both the good and the bad.

There is a fundamental issue with the VC investing world which creates what I feel is a huge gap between VCs and entrepreneurs. It’s essentially that young entrepreneurs are living in the world of today wanting to build a company for tomorrow where people’s habits and ways of living have changed. But most VCs have built companies in the past using business models, and ways of thought, from the past. Typical human psychology is that we understand what we know.

“First principles”

Indian VCs also tend to keep bringing up this topic of “first principles” of business and think Silicon Valley is all fluff. By first principles what they mean is that a business should make money and have a strong business plan. And whilst I do concur with that, most entrepreneurs believe that the first principle of the web is product; generally a bad product will fail however great the business plan might be. While I have met VCs and angels who have an understanding of this, the product doesn’t tilt their boat as much as an Excel spreadsheet does. This is unfortunately true even at the seed stage. The web is massive and good products will always beat bad ones and that company will then make money. That is the truth as I see it.

Also, do not even bother discussing customer service as a differentiating factor because that will just never fly by an Indian VC – even with so many successful examples out there on the web.

I remember having met with a VC who asked me the most sensible question you would ask any entrepreneur: “What if Google does it?” My answer to that was to suggest asking Mark Pincus, Mark Zuckerberg, Ev Williams, Andrew Mason, Drew Houston, or such-like people. It seems that is a typical question Indian VCs ask, and I have made that my stock answer for that question. I recommend all entrepreneurs use that answer.

Experience preferred

Another reason why you would have a difficult time getting funding if you are a first-time founder of a web start-up in India is that there is a large onus on experience in the market in which you are trying to build your company. What this means is that if you are young and you have no experience you can say goodbye to 40 percent or more of your company irrespective of the amount the investors put in. I would love to name the VC firms that do this, but that would be too harsh. (Perhaps DM me on Twitter, or email me to find out specifics). This also means that you will never find companies that break through the clutter because you are never given a chance to do so.

Rest assured, I am not trying to make this into a rant, because we have had great conversations with VCs, and got some term sheets, but have not taken-up on any because of this fundamental lack in belief from them. But I realize that one day when the chips are down this will come back to bite us.

One good thing about India is that there is a lot of money in the growth stage. If you are decently successful you will get follow-up rounds. The money in the seed stage is typically from angel groups which are not very well organized. Some angels who are part of this group have discouraged me from taking money from such sources. The risk-taking can also be measured on a local basis – companies with an Indian focus are more interesting than a global focus for Indian VCs. This has to do with the fact that building web start-ups is already difficult in India and hence most VCs invest in enablers rather than disruptors. The exits are fewer, as very few large corporations acquire Indian web companies, so one of the most lucrative ways to exit is an IPO on the Indian stock exchange. This means you will have a better chance if you build a website that sells dogfood in India than founding the next Google.

Copycats

Indian VCs also have a fascination for copycats. This can be confirmed by seasoned entrepreneurs who know this behavior among investors. Of course, VCs will completely deny this – but the evidence is in their investments. The moment something booms in the US you will find one of these serial entrepreneur guys start a similar company and then VCs will fund similar companies. It’s like the craze for GI Joe toys when you were a kid – you needed to have one so as to boast about it to your friends.

One thing I want to caution most entrepreneurs: VCs are very good at networking so they will drop names as if Larry Page were their best friend. But be careful, as most Indian VCs have a lot less clout – or, indeed, Klout – on the international scene than they’d like you to think. The ones who do have some clout are actually in Silicon Valley, so an Indian investor’s boast of opening doors might be somewhat hollow.

If you can find a VC who understands all these issues and concerns (and one who doesn’t live in his own bubble of self-importance), and is ready to roll up his sleeves to work for you rather than just build castles in the air, take the money even if the terms are bad. I have not come across an Indian VC like that – but I am sure several exist.

On the other hand, VCs in general have a very hard job too; in a way they are like entrepreneurs. They have taken money from someone telling them they will convert that into ten-times the sum, and if they don’t they fail at being a VC. For every dozen bad decisions taken by a VC, there is typically one good decision. Just hope that you are that one good decision.

[Image credit: Hopewell Studios; get the full wallpaper version here]

Start-ups are born to solve problems and to satisfy a social or personal need. And in India, there are tons of problems to solve, and a simple task like booking a bus back home can be a real hassle.

Phanindra Sama, CEO and co-founder of Redbus, experienced this very problem in India five years ago when he was planning a trip back home for Diwali, an important festival in India. To his frustration, he couldn’t go because a travel agent told him that bus tickets were sold out. But he tried his luck with several other travel agents and realized that they actually had tickets for him.

And that got his entrepreneurial mind thinking — “Why is this agent not able to get me a seat while other agents can?” he told us. Well, assuming that the first agent isn’t a lazy bum, it’s basically a problem of not knowing how many bus spaces were left. They can be solved with a proper information system. Phanindra remarked:

Being an engineer, I thought the problem could simply be solved by creating a computer system, where all bus operators put their inventory and all travel agents picked up inventory on a first come, first served basis.

That very idea is the fundamental basis of all his products. Today, Phanindra runs three services:

1. BOSS (Bus Operator Software System) — An enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for bus operators
2. SeatSeller — A software developed for travel agents (the middleman between bus operators and consumers) to make bus ticket bookings.
3. Redbus — A consumer-focused ticket booking system.

As you might have spotted, Phanindra basically serves the entire bus industry food chain in India — from the operators to the consumers.

With an ambition this large, Redbus partners with about 850 bus operators and 50,000 travel agents across the country. Phanindra also told me that Redbus has a whopping two million regular customers and has sold more than five million tickets so far. Travelers can also purchase tickets with Redbus via the phone, SMS, or at 75,000 of its physical outlets.

Phanindra does have business rivals in India, but they are not so large in scale. “There are a few competitors, but they are very regional. None of them are a pan-India company like ours,” he said confidently. It’s always great to help improve lives while making moohlah — That satisfaction must be great.

As Redbus continues to grow in India, Phanindra is already eyeing opportunities beyond his home ground. And Asia seems to fit the bill as there are several countries which are probably facing the same problem that Phanindra’s Redbus can help solve. The Bangalore-based start-up is invested in by Seedfund, Inventus, and Helion. We wish him luck.

With Ron Conway

Yinglan is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Fostering Entrepreneurship, a Kauffman Fellow, a founder of 3i Venturelab China, and teaches the Masters program in Technopreneurship & Innovation. He now works with the Singapore Government to enhance the innovation and enterprise landscape in Singapore. He blogs here and tweets here.

A large part of my job involves meeting entrepreneurs, which I love. I meet with a staggering number of them each week. Some you can tell are lemons after five minutes, but a special few make my day (the best part of my day). I recently wondered whether there were any common traits amongst those entrepreneurs who were great.

The wonderful thing about venture investing is that it is a science where your experience is cumulative. Similar to Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule, if you’ve seen 10,000 business plans and met with 10,000 entrepreneurs, you develop pattern recognition – and it gets better the older you get, like a well-aged wine.

The great VCs – I’d name Michael Moritz and Don Valentine here; both of whom I have met personally, spoken with at length, and admire greatly (you can read more in The Way Of The VC) – all have this perceptible quality. It’s what industry veterans call ‘the smell.’

Some of the filters I have developed for assessing entrepreneurs:

1. Thoughtful listening. Does s/he watch customers and how they behave? What is the input-output ratio?
2. Do they iterate rapidly?
3. Are they good at mental arithmetic?
4. Do they validate the user-base of the product? i.e. measure high-quality repeat users or the net promoter score?
5. Do they measure figure metrics which reflect both the quality of the business and factors which they can influence?
6. Is s/he able to convey a complex business in very simple terms? (The test is to explain it to your mom and see whether she understands. If she can’t understand it, it is too complicated.)
7. Would they ‘throw a turd in the punch bowl’ and disrupt the industry?
8. Can s/he imagine doing anything with his/her life other than the chosen service or product? (Correct answer is no)
9. Do they refer to a ‘museum of mistakes’ and avoid them?

There is one last factor which I’m hesitant to put because there are numerous counterexamples – it’s that, by and large, great entrepreneurs are also great human beings. You leave a meeting with them feeling that they are nice individuals, and often like to help them. Some have this quality in them naturally.

To give one real-world example… We work with one brilliant entrepreneur who has great engineering and product skills. He’s extremely sociable, does business development naturally, and all his staff love him. Most importantly, he is very thoughtful and a great listener. (Most entrepreneurs talk too much and the signal-to-noise ratio is low). Not surprisingly, the company is preparing for a high profile exit. We wish we could clone more folks like him.

There are more key attributes, of course. Although these are the main traits which I think personally are more important. Feel free to add on in the comments.

Sleep baby sleep

Like most start-up founders, I sleep very little and run on caffeine to keep the energy going. But recently, I gave myself a week’s break to give my body some rest. It’s tough to take a break. And making the decision to say, “Yes, I need to step back for a while,” is even tougher.

That’s because there’s just too much work waiting for me to complete. But there must be some point where you stop your work momentarily just to catch a breather. And I’m glad I did. In fact, my one week break allowed me to see Penn-Olson from top down, and understand my business better. Here’s what I observed:

1. I’m not required to blog:

The editorial team actually doesn’t need me. We still broke news, and things were running per normal. But that doesn’t mean I will stop blogging. I personally find blogging fun. It is also a great way for me to learn and grow with the tech and start-up community. I usually do more than just writing though. I also manage the business side of the blog. Knowing that the team is capable to run the content side of things means I can actually channel some blogging time to focus on building the business.

2. I have an awesome team:

I wasn’t sure if the team could function without me. But it turns out they can. And they are very efficient at their roles. Business talks with other companies go on and the editorial team continues to produce quality content. Every function of the blog seems to be well orchestrated. Of course, things will be better if I’m around to oversee, and there are some additional hires that I could make to patch some holes I observed. But in general I see that I have assembled a team that I can trust and rely on. It’s a self-motivated team with a common vision.

3. The masterplan:

At PO, our team has a vision to spread tech in Asia and to make information accessible to the world. To do that, we have specific strategies that we follow — Yes, like a big masterplan. But sometimes when you’re so tied up, you tend to make decisions so hastily without having the time to stand outside of all the confusion and look at the whole project from a different angle. My one week took me out of all this confusion and allowed me to look at the plan with a cool mind. It helps me to spot errors more efficiently, and ensure we’re running on the right path.

So that’s my short list of things that I learned and observed during my break. I have enjoyed it because I finally spent some time with loved ones – and it also somehow, unexpectedly, allowed me to see things that I don’t usually see. If you’re a tired entrepreneur, give yourself a short break. You may just see things from a new angle, which could result in some valuable insights about the start-up that you’re running.

P.S: Kudos to team PO!

[Image credit]

A lot has been written by pundits on how India is a great place for technology start-ups. I have to agree and disagree at the same time. While India is a great place to start companies that sell products (though mostly lower-end gadgets and items), it’s not too hot in terms of fostering technology innovation and taking big risks.

I can sit and argue on the exact definition of the terms technology innovation and big risks – but I won’t get into all that. Instead I’ll state the fact that the most “hot” company in India right now is someone like Snapdeal, or Flipkart – which are more like business innovations than new technology.

Why is this happening? I’d identify three issues for start-ups in India. The two biggest problems that we entrepreneurs face here are access to mentors, and capital; an additional one is poor PR.

1. Bad Mentors

I have met a lot of famous and true entrepreneurs who have built multimillion dollar companies; but none are in the Internet space. The ones who pose as mentors in this web industry just don’t get it. True story: one certain mentor from a very famous mentoring organization actually told me that, “Any business that doesn’t make money on the first day is not a business.” Imagine if Google had gotten his advice! He also happens to be an early stage VC.

2. Lack of Capital

Getting access to capital is another story. The so-called best VC firms here in India will straight up ask for 35 to 40 percent of your company irrespective of your progress or the amount invested. I once asked a VC what he would bring to the table if I let him invest in the company, and he had nothing to tell me. Indeed, he seemed actually offended by that question. I am not saying that all entrepreneurs need to be funded; some can self-finance, while there is also a lot of crap out there.

But then the VCs are not getting paid to sit on their asses. Indian VC’s have not gone through their first cycle of VC exits so it will be interesting to see how these funds have fared in the past couple of years. In general, though, I am pretty sure all VCs will blame the entrepreneurs and vice versa.

3. Poor PR

Another big problem we have is access to good PR – or rather, a lack of it. PR doesn’t make great companies, but it does help. We need the hype machine. Yes, it can also have the opposite effect – but nothing grows without hype, keeping people interested, and drumming up the FOMO [Fear of Missing Out] effect. I don’t remember the last Indian company I had that feeling about. PR helps create these effects. Without it, it’s left to the product to really work its own magic, without the spin

We need these things to fundamentally change and evolve in India so that we are able to build successful technology companies. When things do change, I am sure there will be Indian entrepreneurs who will take advantage of that – and then we shall have great technology companies.

[Image source: BusinessToday]

The TechSpark event was great and its quality was comparable to other tech events I’ve attended in China, Taiwan, Indonesia and Singapore (Kudos to Shradha and team). The start-up pitches were pretty sharp too. Some of the start-ups, in my opinion, are seriously worth investing in (if only I had the money to invest myself!).

As for start-up quality, what I have seen in India seems to be a notch higher than the ones in Southeast Asia so far. How am I judging that? I’m just basing it on my qualitative judgement. Let me elaborate on it a little bit:

• Solving real problems: I didn’t see many copycat products presented in Bangalore. Many good ideas are targeted to solve specific problems in India. In other words, they create real value in society. There aren’t any bullshit products created just for the sake of being cool or just for the sake of riding popular technologies. In fact, I noticed that prior to my trip to India.
• Experience, communication: Many of these folks are very technically gifted, showing that there is a reason why Bangalore is called the Silicon Valley of India. They can communicate well in English and the pitches are clear and concise. This also means that their products can easily scale to other major markets including U.S and Europe.

Of course, take my opinion with a grain of salt. It was after all the final round at TechSparks and the start-ups had gone through a series of filtrations. The ones presented are supposed to be the brightest and the best.

Nonetheless, I came away with a lot of faith in the India tech start-up scene. They have the brains and a huge market to tap into, with a whopping population of 1.15 billion people. What I have seen is the total opposite of what I’ve heard from skeptical investors in Southeast Asia though.

So keep an eye out for India because the best is yet to come.

M-Stars is a group of mobile- and service-related companies, ranging from music content distribution to mobile payment and advertising. Some of you might remember Adstars, an Indonesia-based mobile ad network which we covered last month, with over 500 million monthly impressions.

Italo started his career as an entrepreneur in 1998. After the dot-com bubble, he started his own VoIP Service provider startup in Singapore and subsequently moved on to mobile-related businesses in 2006. That’s when he joined M-Stars as CCO.

We were eager to learn more about Italo’s story and experience. We think you will enjoy it too.

1. Could you briefly introduce yourself?

I started my first company in 1998 (around the first bubble era) — Indoitalia.com. The company unfortunately crashed along with the entire dot.com bubble burst in 1998.

And then I join Nawala Networks as a COO, which started as an webhosting company, ISP and developed into VoIP service provider company. Within three years it became one of the leading VoIP telecommunication service providers in Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

In 2003, I setup up my own VoIP Service provider in Singapore, Digitalbridge Communication Pte LT, which has been supporting Asia’s biggest names in the telecommunication industry such as Maxis, Celcom, Telecom Italia, PT Telkom Indonesia, etc.

Voice business started to saturate in 2006, and then I decided to move to the mobile value added service (VAS) business. In 2006, the founder and CEO of M-stars, Joseph Lumbangaol, convinced me to join M-Stars as Chief Commercial Officer (Joseph started M-Stars in 2000). In 2006 M-Stars was in process of expanding more on mobile VAS services, such as advertising, music label, social media and mobile payment.

Since then we started to launch a new business unit, on mobile advertising in 2008, a digital music label in 2008, music social media in 2009, and revamped mobile payment in 2009. Currently some of the business units are already being spin off to become a sister company of mstars group, such as Adstars for mobile advertising, drM for Digital Music Label, Popmaya for Music Social media, and Poploud for voice-based social media.

2. What is your family and educational background?

My father is a professor in a university, my mother is a great Italian mom with exceptional cooking skill. My brothers, sisters and me have been raised in a competitive environment. I was a swimmer until I joined the Institute Technology of Bandung as an Industrial Engineering major. It was then I quitt swimming, and focused on my study.

3. What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?

I love challenge, I love to create business, and I want to create my own path.

4. I realized a lot of your companies are mobile based. Can you explain why?

Mobile is the only reason for you to start a Internet business in Indonesia. Why ? Indonesia is a ‘mobile country’, because the [majority of] Internet users in Indonesia are on mobile.

Any Internet gadget that fits into your pocket — that will be the future. There are three reasons why Indonesia is a ”mobile country:’

• Indonesia has the cheapest mobile Internet rates, because of the telco price war.
• GPRS-enabled handsets currently are affordable for even low-end social economic [customers] because of handsets made in China.
• For Indonesians, mobile is a social status. You’ll notice most Indonesians have a very high-end GPRS-enable mobile device.

5. You’re based in Indonesia. Are there plans to expand your business abroad?

For sure we want to go global, but the Internet business opportunity in Indonesia is so huge that we need to be focused on the Indonesia market first. I truly believe, that Indonesia is going to have a very important role in Internet industry in the world for the next ten years.

6. What are you most busy with now?

I’m currently managing the commercial direction of all business units in M-Stars group — especially for Adstars, to keep leading the digital and mobile marketing service with new innovative products. We have the benefit to innovate our mobile product for the advertising industry based on our 11 years of experience in the mobile business. M-Stars is connected with all mobile operators in Indonesia, and has been working with them in many kinds of businesses.

7. Do you plan to invest in other Indonesian start-ups?

Yes, but the objective is not investing to a new business, but more to synergize with our current business unit or sister company in the group. Currently we already have ten business units/companies in the group that collaborate with each other.

8. Do you have any key figures or statistics to share?

We’ve been achieving 170 percent growth from 2009 to 2010, and it seems like this year we are going to attain a higher growth rate. Its been a wonderful three years for us.

9. Do you have any future plans to share?

We’re actively focused to enhance our group of company products. We are also going to launch new services in mobile advertising, mobile banking, and in the education center.

Social commerce sites in Indonesia are on the rise, not only for regular folks but also in the enterprise sector. Belibu.com is a newly-launched e-commerce site created specifically for entrepreneurs and small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).

Belibu has listed every small- and medium-sized business nationwide in a range of categories, to make it easier for site visitors to find what they are looking for. The service gives business information and classified ads for everything from bakeries to housekeeping agencies, laundry services to furniture sellers.

It’s not just about business either – the site also provides some inspiring tips from famous businessmen and success stories from member entrepreneurs. Each entrepreneur and SME can update their profile, add other members as friends, share their information, photos, and interact just like on other social media sites.

Eldo Wiryabrata, the project founder of Belibu, explains:

This service will be a place of interaction between entrepreneurs to transform their knowledge. And we also gave each of entrepreneurs and SMEs free advertising on Belibu.

The site is still in beta but has already built up 5,200 active members. But considering there are about 54 million SMEs throughout Indonesia, Belibu still has to do some work to do. Not all SMEs know how to promote their businesses, and some are not even aware of Internet technology. To address this issue Belibu has a special customer relations division which will find potential SMEs to join the site. The team has prepared a road map of potential cities it can expand in, going there directly to explain how the service works and how it can benefit businesses.

There is a big opportunity for Belibu to grow here, as Indonesia’s social commerce industry is just starting to develop and public enthusiasm in new technology is increasing everyday. Hopefully, this kind of site can assist entrepreneurs and SMEs achieve greater success in Indonesia.

[Source: Antara]

I AM STAAAAAART-UUUUUUPP!

Craig Mod, designer at Flipboard, has written an interesting piece for the New York Times about the differences between New York and Silicon Valley. While the story mainly talks about the two cities in the U.S, it makes me think about the growing entrepreneurial scene in Asia.

Mod’s story is about embracing the local differences rather than trying to replicate the very same model and success of Silicon Valley. The key to doing that is having more risk-takers, more entrepreneurs. This paragraph from the piece says it best:

Rather than find a way to transplant Mountain View into Manhattan, New York should provide greater support for risk-taking. Nobody wants to see New York clone Facebook. Instead, we are anxious to see the sort of Facebook that can only emerge from the unique fabric of New York.

Interesting. So where does Asia stand? I can’t represent this great continent but I do have my personal thoughts. Entrepreneurship in Asia is still slow but it’s growing. Every week we’re getting submissions on interesting start-ups from across the continent, a good indication that entrepreneurs are turning ideas into reality.

But we seriously need more risk takers, more people to fight against the fear and be their own bosses. But I realize we can’t just tell people to be risk-takers. The ecosystem and culture have to support it too. For example, Singapore is famous for giving entrepreneurs funds (with a fair share of complains from the locals) to run their ideas through the government funding scheme. It’s a good initiative that helps entrepreneurial wannabes lower their financial risk. However, the culture here doesn’t seem to support entrepreneurship.

Culture war

Many of my friends wanted to run their own business but none have actually had the courage to start one.

In Singapore, fresh graduates get about $2,500 to as much as $8,000 a month. So what’s the point of being an entrepreneur? The math tells them that it isn’t worth taking the risk. Asian parents always tell their kids to get a good degree and then a stable job — the simple success formula in life. And friends add on to the brainwashing and pressure as well.

In general, in Singapore at least, we are very skeptical about what entrepreneurs can do and achieve. And as more of your friends join the rat race, the aspiring entrepreneurs get shaken and join the crowd. It’s understandable because we all want to belong as a part of a ‘normal’ majority, not the minority. This continent never embraces failure (not yet at least) which really piles on the pressure upon would-be entrepreneurs in Asia. It sucks.

As a recent grad, I go through this shit too. But thankfully, my family is pretty supportive of the things I do, even if they don’t understand what the hell I’m doing or how am I going to make money out of my work.

Fighting along side with you

Penn-Olsonis a blog, but a start-up as well. And we’re still figuring it out too, fighting the very same battles as many of the people we cover. But I do believe that our team here is doing an awesome job for the tech industry in Asia. We cover at least three to four tech start-ups on a daily basis and write about their journey/stories like a “professional media” outlet (sort of).

No big media in Asia does that, so we jumped in and just started doing it. Why? Because we hope to help build a ecosystem for the tech entrepreneurs in Asia. Someone has to tell the story. Just as TechCrunch and VentureBeat write about start-ups in the U.S, we want to do the same for Asia. Think about it: Silicon Valley wouldn’t be the Silicon Valley you perceive without these tech blogs.

It’s a big risk. We don’t know what will happen to us in one year’s time but I do know that we’re promoting tech and entrepreneurship in a positive way. Even if we fail, someone will learn from our experience and build the “TechCrunch of Asia.” In fact, TechCrunch itself has just announced that it will be organizing DISRUPT at Beijing and will soon open a Chinese and English language tech blog in China. It’s an exciting time ahead. (more on this later…)

We need more risk takers. And hopefully we can do our part to encourage some of them by highlighting some success stories here in Asia, acting as a bridge to put them on a global stage. I’m not sure how much we can help change the culture, but we’re urging budding entrepreneurs to stand out and give it a try for once. Even if you meet with failure, you’d be surprised how rewarding and educational it can be.

If you’re a start-up founder, drop us a line. We’d love to hear your war stories.

[Image credits: Spartan, Snape, Soldier]

My journey as an entrepreneur started when I was about ten years of age. Back then, at elementary school, I was getting just SGD$0.50 per day as an allowance. My family was poor and I didn’t have the cheek to ask for more. To survive, I shared food with my friends but always tried to eat more than my deserved share. I also borrowed money and soon enough got into debt. It was sad – but the situation forced me to think outside of the box. I needed to escape the cycle.

The solution? Together with my brother, we caught grasshoppers and sold them. It was an innovative business model (from a kids perspective, anyway) and it inspired other boys to hop onto this money-making bandwagon. We could sell each grasshopper for $0.50 to $2.00, depending on its size and the color of its legs. The red-legged ones could be sold for a lot more than the blue-legged ones. And when we improved our gear, we started catching spiders and praying mantis to increase our “range of products.”

As you might expect, our school was not pleased and eventually banned all kids from catching insects, putting an end to our business. It had been a fun ride though.

So that’s how I got my first taste of entrepreneurship. After that, I couldn’t really stop. It’s been pretty tough, but a lot of fun too.

So what’s your reason?

We asked our Facebook users and here are the replies so far.

]]> http://www.techinasia.com/entrepreneur-story/feed/ 8 http://placehold.it/350x150 http://www.techinasia.com/mojostreet-location-startup-india/ http://www.techinasia.com/mojostreet-location-startup-india/#comments Fri, 05 Aug 2011 15:18:06 +0000 Willis Wee http://www.techinasia.com/?p=46387 Read more »]]>

After receiving US$350,000 of seed funding around April this year, team Mojostreet continues to work on its location-based service (LBS) idea. It remains in stealth mode, though. But we learned a little bit more about its service today after speaking to its founder.

As a Mojostreet user, you can check-in to places and share location details via social networks like Facebook and Twitter. It’s pretty much the same as Foursquare and Gowalla in this aspect. But instead of getting badges and points, users earns Mojo money – or Mojo$, as founder Kalyan M. calls it. With Mojo$, users can buy properties virtually by paying and checking-in regularly. The game is dynamic as it works like a mini property marketplace. Prices of properties change as the number of check-ins changes at a location. In other words, the higher the demand the higher the price would be. Kalyan explains:

The game will calculate and inform the user when he is eligible to own a place and how much money he needs to shell out to own a place.

The hard work and effort to be an owner won’t go wasted. As an owner, a user is eligible to collect Mojo$ through “rent” whenever someone check-ins to his location – kind of resembling the Monopoly board-game concept. But it doesn’t necessary mean that the owner will be able to milk the location by “renting the place out” forever – to maintain ownership of a location requires constant check-ins and engagement. Otherwise, other Mojostreet users can easily kick an owner out and take over ownership.

In a nutshell, users are fighting for the highest net worth in Mojostreet through property buying and leasing – like a real-life monopoly which is based on real locations and venues. The game plan sounds enticing but there’s more to it, as Mojostreet is also tied in closely with tangible benefits. Kalyan told me that there are “close to 50 premium merchants across India” who have partnered with the location-based start-up to offer these benefits in exchange for Mojo$. We also learned that Mojostreet is currently in private beta but will be launching its service in India on August 15. Kalyan also has plans to expand to Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia:

We hope to launch in all the Southeast Asian countries which are small geographically and have high mobile density. As part of the first global expansion plan for December 2011 we wish to be present in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

A Serial Entrepreneur

Kalyan is also a charter member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) and works closely with start-ups in India as mentors. This guy is seriously busy but I’m glad I had a chance to connect with him. It’s always nice to learn how successful entrepreneurs are contributing back to the ecosystem.

We look forward to Mojostreet’s launch. Meanwhile, you can sign up here if you’d like to be notified when Mojostreet goes public.

Simply put, Singapore-based start-up, Gastro Couture mashes both the online reservation and discount concepts into one. Users pay SGD$7 to reserve a space through the service and in return, they will get 20 to 30 percent discounts in the restaurant. Not a bad deal!

It’s smart because it discourages the kind of idiot who makes reservations but doesn’t ever turn up. The $7 dollar charge is a monetary commitment; a promise that they will show up. Of that fee, Gastro Couture takes $2 as a booking fee, and the rest goes to the restaurant. This arrangement makes both the restaurant and Gastro Couture happy, at least theoretically.

The service was founded by Lester Chia and Loh Zheng Rong. Lester explained to us that they always wanted to be entrepreneurs and now they finally have a chance. “Once we found a good idea, we just took it and ran with it,” he said. Gastro Couture currently has about 17 restaurants listed on their site, and the team is looking to even more on board.

Currently they have many indirect competitors. There are numerous online restaurant reservation sites that allow users to book online but don’t give them discounts; whilst there are daily deals sites that give customers big discounts but the restaurant pays a hefty price. This fragmented situation is not a great long-term solution for restaurants.

Lester explains to us:

We work long-term with a restaurant and we don’t just do a one time deal, so a person can be assured of making a booking instead of missing the opportunity once the deal is over.

The founders were funded SGD$50,000 by Spring Singapore’s YES! startup fund to test the concept. It’s new, it’s raw, and we’ll have to wait and see whether or not it can work. But if executed well, Gastro Couture could be the golden ticket empty restaurants need to fill tables day in and day out.

TechSparks 2010. Image credit: YourStory.in

We receive several event invitations on a daily basis. So when we do attend, there’s usually something that makes it stand out. Our friends at YourStory.in have worked hard to set up a series of ‘TechSparks’ competitions across India, in New Delhi, Pune, Chennai, and Hyderabad. The grand final will be held at Bangalore, often labelled the “Silicon Valley of India.” We will be heading over there to learn more about India’s start-up culture, meet up with fellow writers, friends, founders, investors — and of course readers.

So what exactly is TechSparks? It’s basically a big tech start-up competition that consolidates the very best ideas from all across India. TechSparks claims to have reached out to over 1000 entrepreneurs in the nation and the final competition will pick five ideas as winners.

A total of 20 ideas will be pitched in Bangalore to fight for the top spots. Plus, attendees will also get to learn more about Tech30, a list of 30 tech start-ups handpicked by investors and influential tech folks in India. That’s the gist of it. But you can find out more details here.

• Date : Friday, 19th August 2011
• Time : 10:30 AM – 5:30 PM
• Venue : IIM Bangalore

Like many places in Asia, India is now enjoying a boom in the tech space. It’s a fascinating shift. We can’t claim to be witnesses to it but our team can definitely feel the vibrancy and creativity of the tech start-ups we speak to from India. We expect it will be a fruitful trip, so if you’re interested feel free to join us there. Yuki Naruse, who is traveling around the world to meet up with entrepreneurs, is joining us in this trip to India too (we managed to coax him!).

On a bit of a sidenote, kudos to team YourStory for hosting the event for the second year running. It is a great service for India and for Asia’s tech ecosystem as a whole.

I don’t think so, especially not in Asia. There are just too many successful start-ups whose ideas are ripped off from the west but are then implemented in the east. Perhaps those successes are partly because the ideas are still fresh in their region or local market. But without good execution, ideas are just a concept on a piece of paper.

Consider this: We have seen a very sudden boom in Groupon clones in Asia. And while some of us find the notion of clones annoying, there’s no denying that a few of those have emerged as winners. Nevermind if the idea isn’t cool or if it is copied from someone else… Some of these clones ended up getting acquired and some made money. Their financial objectives were met.

Consider the prevailing belief that many Asian start-ups aren’t unique. Some individuals scoff at Asian companies (for the record, even Asians at times scoff at Asians) and look down on the booming tech start-up scene here. It irritates me because ‘the idea’ seems to be the only factor used to judge the founders’ abilities. But in reality investors don’t just look at the idea. They invest in people who can turn simple ideas into profits.

Being part of this growing ecosystem, we get asked the same question as well: “What’s the difference between Penn Olson and other tech blogs in Asia?” My answer: “The execution.”

In this world, there are only two roles that you can play: You’re either the leader or the follower. Speaking in a general sense, many Asians (myself included) tend to be followers. But is there shame in that? From following successful models, we learn how to innovate through execution.

The market forces us to do so because it is so different from the West. Localization itself can be a form of innovation. Baidu and Google have the same product concept but vastly different in product localization tactics. The same can be said for Sina Weibo and Twitter, Dianping and Yelp, Jiepang and Foursquare, GeoSocials and SCVNGR.

As I’m sure you already know, the idea of online social network isn’t unique to Facebook. The starting idea behind Facebook isn’t unique, and I bet Mark Zuckerberg himself didn’t know from the start that it could grow to become such a powerful social network and advertising platform. Zuckerberg and his team had the right vision and executed it well (or at least, so far). In short, his execution brought him success, not the idea.

Here are three points and suggestions as my conclusion:

1. Whether you are an investor or a journalist, the next time you look at a start-up, don’t just look at the idea. Try to understand how the founders execute the idea and aim to make it a success. That’s the real driving force of a business.
2. If you’re a copycat start-up in Asia, don’t feel ashamed about it. But don’t be blatant about ripping off ideas either. Instead, execute it well and innovate while you localize the ideas.
3. Ideas are important but are not everything. Creating a start-up isn’t only about being innovative. It’s about filling a gap and building a sustainable business out of it. It’s the cashflow that essentially determines whether a start-up lives or dies.

[Image source]

I had a chance to give GeoSocials a run through, and I like it a lot. Its gorgeous design makes it enticing and sticky, way better than SCVNGR in my opinion. Nonetheless, I still called it a SCVNGR clone as GeoSocials follows a similar concept: do challenges, unlock rewards. But Krishna Prathab, the CEO and founder of GeoSocials, argues that it’s not. Don’t worry, we didn’t have a fight or anything. It’s more of a difference in opinion and in fact that difference in views brought us closer together.

In my previous post, I questioned why GeoSocials first launched in the U.S instead of India. America is a huge market but it’s also filled with strong competitors. Krishna explains that there is a far larger number of iPhone users in the U.S compared to India. The US move doesn’t seem to be a complete launch as Krishna revealed that he is more interested to gather data and feedback for future launches in other countries. So this is basically just a trial run for GeoSocials.

Krishna also swears that while creating GeoSocials, he didn’t know that Foursquare and SCVNGR existed. It’s a little hard to believe but, yes, that’s what he said. Nonetheless, he also graciously accepted our opinion and mentioned that others have called GeoSocials a SCVNGR clone too. I asked Krishna to list down the main differences between GeoSocials and its competitors and here’s his response:

1. 

   Krishna Prathab, founder of GeoSocials

   No Check-in: Unlike Foursquare and SCVNGR who we are usually compared with, we don’t deal with check-ins nor we are confined to any known famous place, restaurant or landmark.

2. Social: The core emphasis of GeoSocials is to enable people to make relevant, “real-life” social connections with people around your location in a gaming context. The very people who we travel with every day in the same train, or a neighbor who is a few blocks away, or a fellow co-worker in our office complex who we never got a chance to say ‘Hi’ to. GeoSocials is the gamification of geo-social networking in a hyperlocal context as opposed to the gamification of check-ins.

3. User Driven: GeoSocials is completely user driven. In GeoSocials the user drives the game by dropping treasures in places where he goes. Others claim them and in the process discover fun things to do. The users of GeoSocials drive the game and the interactions in ways they deem interesting.

4. Hyper Local Context: Everything in GeoSocials happens within a radius of a few miles around you. In fact your visibility of anything in the game – including treasures, people or rewards – are confined to a specific radius. We intentionally keep it this way to make the context of GeoSocials hyperlocal to a user. The action is always around your immediate vicinity and hence instantaneous.

5. Real-life Social Networking: This is by far the biggest differentiator and one of the core ideas behind GeoSocials. Let me [explain] this with my own example, I have about 500 friends in Facebook and I hardly interact with even five of them face-to-face, in real-life. How many of us know more than 10 of our neighbors well? These are the people who actually matter to us in real life and can give a helping hand when you are in need. GeoSocials enables you to make connections with people who matter in your real life.

Okay, so that’s Krishna’s argument. We wanted to put it up on Penn-Olson, because we value what founders can tell us about the services they create. I think it’s cool that Krishna accepts others’ opinion and takes them into consideration. From what I have understood, he has already started making plans to pivot.

Very often it’s not the uniqueness of an idea that makes it succeed, but sometimes its the execution that really differentiates between winning and losing. I believe Bouncity, a SCVNGR clone in Indonesia, has executed well and is a great example of this. I wish Krishna all the best, and I hope he has similar luck with GeoSocials.

Edy Sulistyo is the co-founder of eEvent, currently leading the overall technology direction of the company. eEvent is a robust online event management service powered by game mechanics which helps users create viral events. We have previously written a detailed introduction about it here.

Edy is also a serial entrepreneur, and prior to eEvent he co-founded a consulting firm in Columbus, Ohio and began several web start-ups.

eEvent has gone through several iterations before hitting its stride. So we thought it would be interesting to hear to Edy’s entrepreneurial experiences, and share them with you here.

1. What inspired you to be an entrepreneur?

2. We know eEvent is doing pretty well now. What are some of the greatest obstacles you have faced so far? How did you solve them?

The problem was, however, that most of the features we released are frivolous features and did not add much value to the product. The features even backfired because at one point, we had too many of these frivolous features which caused us to lose our company direction.

To overcome this, we went back to the company vision and mission, reviewed everything, and decided to eliminate all of the frivolous features. We then tune in to our existing users and build a single value proposition that actually solves our customers’ real problems.

3. You’re based in U.S and also have a team in Indonesia. How does that work? What’s the strategy behind this?

4. What’s the big plan for eEvent?

5. I understand you guys have made countless changes before arriving at your current stage. How has pivoting worked for you guys and why is it important for fellow entrepreneurs?

In our case, before we got to this point, we have made at least four major changes to eEvent. This actually helped us to be closer to our customers, identify their real problems, and most importantly win their hearts.

6. Who are the people that are inspiring and mentoring you?

There are also many successful entrepreneurs that have either directly or indirectly taught me very important lessons in life. My other co-founders also stay positive regardless how bad the situation is, and that itself is inspiring and encouraging.

7. What would be your three tips for fellow entrepreneurs?

1. Build a product that can solve a real problem, preferably the problem that you face daily.
2. Listen to your customer very closely. Don’t assume anything because your opinion is most likely will be wrong
3. Focus! don’t try to be everything for everyone. Focus on what you can be best at, and do so one thing at a time

In the Usahaku app there’s the “Jual Pulsa” (Sell Phone Credits) feature that allows phone users to run a business selling phone credits from all phone operators easily – which they could do from their phone, 24 hours a day. This credits-selling program is free of charge – users just have to register and follow the instructions. For this program, Bakrie Telecom collaborated with the tech company Qualcomm’s Wireless Reach and the Grameen Foundation, a global micro-lending foundation for poverty-striken people.

At the launching of the Usahaku app, the President Director of Bakrie Telecom, Anindya Bakrie, explained in the statement:

This “Usahaku” application suite is a part of our commitment to help improving Indonesia’s living standards through technology that is available and affordable.

In addition to “Jual Pulsa”, there is also the “Info Kerja” (Job Info) feature in Usahaku. This feature provides information about job vacancies in Jakarta and surrounding cities. To access this particular feature, Esia phone users must subscribe at a cost of only IDR3000 (35 cents) per week.

Both features on the Usahaku app suite currently can only be downloaded onto “Esia Fun To Go” C52 and C55 series handsets. But in the future, Bakrie Telecom will embed these applications in others handsets too.

Mobile applications that try to improve people’s quality of life are indeed a good initiative from Bakrie Telecom. Moreover, Bakrie’s products are quite affordable for Indonesians on low incomes. Recently, the handset manufacturer Nokia launched some apps that also aim to raise the quality of life – their Nokia Life Tools suite.

Today it serves 18,000 customers and 375,000 users to create animated and interactive charts for web and enterprise applications. FusionCharts serves big name clients including Google, LinkedIn, and U.S President, Barack Obama.

We spoke to Pallav Nadhani, the man who started FusionCharts at age 17, in an effort to find out more about his story as an entrepreneur. His thoughts are below:

Work hard, play hard: Pallav in a pirate hat

1. Could you briefly describe your personal entrepreneurial story?

I was born in Bhagalpur, a small town in India and then I shifted to Kolkata (a metro city) when I was almost 15. My father was running a web design business in Kolkata. I worked with my dad for a few quarters and picked up valuable lessons in client engagement, web designing, and tools of the trade. During that time, I got to meet other web designers and programmers, which helped me pick up things fast. I then came across ASPToday.com which used to pay a good amount of money for writing innovative articles. I joined them in the end.

While at ASPToday, I had to prepare charts in Microsoft Excel for my school work – and it was only after doing web design that I found these charts very boring and dull. And since I had been working with Macromedia Flash (Adobe Flash now), I started exploring how to marry that to business data to create better charts for web. After a few weeks of coding, I made an animated and interactive charting system, though it was very crude.

I wrote an article on that and it got published. I got $1,500 from the article (and another article that I subsequently wrote for ASPToday.com itself). That was my seed capital for my business, and it also marked the start of my entrepreneurial journey. Developers who read that article liked it and kept on asking for modifications and enhancements. This is when I realized that a product could be created out of it.

2. How was it to be a CEO and Founder at age 17?

For the first three years I worked alone – I did all the coding for product, built websites, wrote documentation, created marketing collaterals, did customer support and anything that was necessary to run the business. This was necessary at first, and I was learning things as I went along. Secondly I had no capital (and nobody would have trusted their money with a 17 year old). But this was crucial as it allowed me to focus on things which were most important.

Since I had to do everything, I needed to prioritize the right things. And this also helped us to learn how to run a lean operation (we’re still just over 50 people today, serving 18,000 customers and 375,000 users in 110 countries).

Since the article was published, I knew that developers were willing to pay money to modify or enhance the solution. So rather than doing one-to-one customization for different users, I went ahead and built all such flexibility in the core product itself, and started charging a very little licensing fees for it. It was just $15 back then.

This allowed me to get some money, pay for the servers, and also do some online marketing. We used a lot of free marketing options online (free articles, directory listings, forums, etc.).

Since there was no rent (I was working from home) or salaries (I was the only one) to be paid, the costs were always under control. That allowed me to save a lot of money in the first three years of the business. Then we incorporated, opened our first office, and started hiring. This was in 2005.

The first few interviews that I went through, nobody joined me. They couldn’t trust a 20-year-old guy to run the company (who sets the interview timings himself and opens the door when they come to office for interview). Then I learnt that I had to project a more professional approach and sell the company vision to others.

I created an interview pitch where we highlight that we are one of the few Indian product companies. All others were service companies where their projects are used by a handful of people, and they cannot even claim that ownership tag outside of office (because either the project is internal, or its confidential).

We sold the vision that how products created by to-be employees would reach thousands of users (yes, at that time we never thought we could reach hundreds of thousands of users), and seeing the traction people started believing it and joined FusionCharts.

3. As an entrepreneur, is age a big concern?

Initially it was, as people wouldn’t trust me with their careers, or with their applications using our products. But the Internet is superb at helping you hide it – the right website, presentation, information and pitch takes people’s attention off your age.

In the first few years, we tried to hide the fact that FusionCharts was run by a 17-year-old entrepreneur, and projected a big company image (or at least tried to…) by having a typical “About us” page that beat around the bush (“we are a leading…information technology…visionary…experienced management… “). Now we project a very personal image clearly reflecting that we’re an Indian company and these are our people.

4. FusionCharts came a long way. What are the three most difficult obstacles you faced in your journey so far?

• Finding right people: Both technically and culturally.
• Keeping them motivated and engaged: I always was a nerd, so “people development” was new to me.
• Setting processes in the organization: I had never known what a process was because I have never worked for anyone yet.

5. What are your thoughts about the tech and entrepreneurial scene in India?

It’s on fire now! There’s so much energy and enthusiasm in India at the moment. So many e-commerce plays are happening and growing. Small teams/individuals have started building products (or apps) that have the capacity to go global.

Experienced NRIs (Non-resident Indians) are returning from the valley and joining these companies, or starting their own. People who’ve made money through exits are investing in other start-ups (I also do angel investing). There’s a huge consumption story in the big Indian middle class (300 million people, that’s the size of entire USA).

Nonetheless there are still cultural challenges. For example, many people are scared of joining start-ups as they’re worried about their marriage/career. Failure is still a stigma in India and people want to develop horizontally, being a jack of all trades, rather than a specialist. India lacks high-end talent and entrepreneurs are finding creative ways to solve it.

6. Any exit plans for FusionCharts? Did anyone try to acquire FusionCharts?

This cannot be foretold. Things flow, and if you find its good, you just become a part of the flow.

7. What are your three best tips for entrepreneurs?

• Focus is very important. Doing too many things at the same time, especially when you’re starting up, is a sure shot way to failure.
• Marketing your company and product is as important as building the product. It should start before the product development starts. Don’t leave it to the end.
• Release early, release often. Don’t wait too long for an individual release as the tech industry moves very fast.

8. Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg?

Steve Jobs: His attention to details and usability for each product is something we aspire to attain.

If you have seen Dragon’s Den, you will roughly understand what the program is. But The Angel’s Gate goes the extra mile by putting the show on TV, web, and mobile platforms, giving entrepreneurs ’360-degree’ coverage and exposure. So, if you have a really cool business idea and the guts to pitch it to millions of people – and successful investors – then The Angel’s Gate is certainly for you.

Here’s how three different platforms are going to work hand-in-hand:

• TV – Pitch, receive funding from The Angels Gate Fund, and advice from industry giants
• Web – A crowd funding platform for start-ups and also receive advice from industry professionals
• Mobile – Real time updates and interaction for viewers while on the move

The Angel’s Gate is now open for registration, and entrepreneurs can apply here. It is advisable to send in pitches soon as early submissions will stand a better chance to be featured in the show. The Angel’s Gate will go live on prime-time TV in September this year.

The list of judges includes Dr. Finian Tan, Chairman of Vickers Venture Fund (a key investor in Baidu.com, the largest search engine in China), Mr. Sat Pal Khattar, Chairman of Khattar Holdings, Mr. William Klippgen, Executive Director of BAF Spectrum (key Investor in PropertyGuru.com), and Mr. Patrick Grove, Founder and CEO of Catcha Group.

The project sounds exciting and promising as The Angel’s Gate brings entrepreneurship to mainstream Asia. Hopefully it can also encourage more Asian youths to pursue their dreams as entrepreneurs.

The folks over at Interactive.sg are the brains behind The Angel’s Gate.

(Thanks Rumpelstiltskin for the heads up)

• Kauffman Foundation is one of the largest foundations in the United States devoted to entrepreneurship.
• Kauffman FastTrac is a hands-on program that gives entrepreneurs the tools to plan, manage and run their companies. Participants will work on their own business ventures throughout the program.

The program has generated numerous success stories which has helped many entrepreneurs achieve success. Here’s a video overview with a little more information about the program.

This program is made possible by US Market Access Center and IDA. We were also told that this is the first time that the Kauffman FastTrac program will be conducted outside of North America,  giving entrepreneurs in Singapore and Asia a chance to take part in the program.

We don’t have the exact dates for the program but we’ll update you when we learn more. Send an email to ida_startup@ida.gov.sg if you’re interested to learn how to build your own start-up with Kauffman FastTrac.

Last night, together with a group of tech friends in Singapore, I attended a meet-up session with Arvind Rajan, the APAC Head at LinkedIn .

It was a casual session, and also a way for Rajan to understand the technology (and political) scene in Singapore and Asia. Rajan briefly shared a little about LinkedIn’s history and how he ended up in Asia. The rest of the session was totally casual, no scoops (unfortunately), and no hard-sell PR bullshit (thumbs-up go out to the folks at Edelman for an event well done).

When politics was the topic on the table I was mostly listening quietly, but I got a little more active when tech and entrepreneurship became the talking point. I was very glad that Arvind was open to share his experience as an entrepreneur.

He started his journey as an entrepreneur at age 22 dealing with electric cars, and eventually his company was acquired. He also founded Grassroots, an interactive public affairs firm that develops marketing and influencer programs for Fortune 500 companies. It was eventually acquired by Edelman.

I was surprised to discover that LinkedIn is the first major corporation he has ever worked at. He explained that he took on LinkedIn’s APAC role because he enjoys working in a start-up-like environment. And now that LinkedIn Singapore is hiring, the company is busy building a team and taking on exciting new challenges.

For fellow entrepreneurs, I noted the tips that I heard from Arvind’s discussion and have summarized them below:

1. Be fair, not tough

I shared with Arvind that in my previous company people respected me but at the same time were scared of me. I played the “slave driver” role while my partner was the connector and the person to go to when there were problems. I explained that it is difficult to balance being tough and being a friend. Arvind’s advice was to be fair. Employees need to know that decisions are made out of logical business reasons and have nothing personal against them.

2. Set targets, monitor

Whenever a new employee joins the team, it is important to communicate the goal. What do you want a new member to achieve in the next 30 to 45 days? Communicate that to him. He will have a better view of what is expected. It sounds like no-brainer but it’s something that a lot of companies aren’t doing.

3. Hire fast, fire faster

Hiring fast is tough. But firing fast is tougher. Often, entrepreneurs and managers have a gut feeling if someone isn’t working well within a team. But we often ignore and dismiss this gut feeling which only drags the problem further. If someone isn’t working well, communicate with him the gap between your goal and what he is currently achieving. If needed, dismiss him straight if the goal wasn’t met. Of course, tip number one applies. Arvind emphasized the need to treat employees with respect, even when firing. Check out this article from TechCrunch too.

4. Build value, not for acquisition:

A lot of start-ups are built with the aim to be acquired. But Arvind said that acquisition is just one out of many exit options. There are just too many variables like competition and market need that would affect the chance of being acquired. In other words, getting acquired isn’t something that can be controlled. He said that start-ups should first build value and make the company profitable. With the foundation established, there are many options available like IPO, expansion and even acquiring other businesses.

• Mr. Robert Yap Min Choy, Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer, DFS Group ltd.
• Mr. Patrick Liew, CEO, HSR Global Ltd.
• Mr. Epifanio Quahiansen, Associate Director, Asia Site Services, Procter & Gamble Japan K.K

(Submit you ideas here)

Attention mobile app developers and entrepreneurs. Singapore’s largest mobile service operator, SingTel, has organized iChallenge11, a mobile app competition that aims to find the next big mobile app for enterprise.

This isn’t just a business plan competition. With a right idea, you have the opportunity to leverage on SingTel’s assets and customer reach to build and launch a mobile app in style.

Starting yesterday, iChallenge11 kicked off yesterday, inviting mobile developers to submit ideas in the following app categories:

• Asian Business Traveler: Mobile apps that increase cost transparency, improve productivity, and make every minute overseas count.
• Date Driven Enterprise: Mobile apps that use data to find new customers, uncover business risks and hone new product features.
• The Business Exchange: Mobile apps that help companies exchange opportunities, surface and close sales and partnership leads.
• Office on the move: Mobile apps that make it easy for workers to get things done and to collaborate wherever they are.
• Mobile Agent: Mobile apps that enable individuals to work while on the move, including real estate agents, financial services advisors and car sales representatives.

Click here for more information on iChallenge11. Concept submission will close on June 30 July 8, 2011. There are 12 prizes of SGD $1,000 and four prizes of $20,000. But the financial prizes might not be worth as much to some as SingTel’s assistance and expertise.

At The Startup Centre, India

Vijay Anand is an entrepreneurially-minded professional with more than 13 years of hands-on experience as an entrepreneur, an advisor, and a columnist at Entrepreneur magazine.

He recently founded The Startup Centre, an India-based accelerator for early stage start-ups, and also a hub for initiatives related to tech, design and entrepreneurship.

We communicated with Anand who kindly shared with us his thoughts on the start-up scene in India. Catch what he has to say below.

Could you share with us what’s the start-up culture like in India?

I came back to India, in 2004. With an entrepreneurial background, I was trying to figure out how people went about starting companies. It was surprising to see that there were very few start-ups in India. A good number of companies were still enjoying the tide of the outsourcing boom. Soon enough, we met a couple of niche product companies, and things have taken off from there.

The start-up climate here has shifted dramatically – and most of it was thanks to events and meet ups that took on informally. With the birth of Barcamps, Open Coffee Clubs, Mobile Mondays and the likes, India’s entrepreneurial scene is set on fire. The country still has majority of its tech startups based out of the cities such as Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Delhi and Mumbai, but some of these cities see as high as 700 new startups each quarter. It’s a dramatic shift from how things were in 2004.

How are entrepreneurs in India like?

Indian entrepreneurs have gone through a cycle of learning phases. Initially quite a number of companies were heavily influenced by the west, especially Silicon Valley. Entrepreneurs tend to aim for the world. Unfortunately, there was neither customers/infrastructure, nor the kind of capital required to build ventures like Twitter and Facebook in India.

In recent years, feeding the local demands became the focus. I’d say today that it’s a mix of both. Most Indian entrepreneurs are extremely hardworking folks, who understand the domain they are operating in and a good number of them are also exposed to other markets – either by virtue of them working there for a while, or having an education abroad. So these are the people who add value when it comes to making India a global marketplace.

What is India lacking as a start-up nation?

If I have to pick one, it would be exits. India is still seeing growth, but no major exit yet. There are a ton of things that get related to that problem – employees don’t value equity, and hence you need capital, and capital is hard to come by, and good talent is hard to attract.

But fundamentally a good number of this gets tied down to the fact that exits aren’t happening – at least not in the numbers that we would like to see. That said, quite a number of organizations like accelerators, venture firms, and specialized firms are starting to focus on helping start-ups gain fast adoption. Hopefully we should start seeing the fruits of these efforts soon.

Which are some of the promising tech start-ups in India?

There are quite a few interesting companies in India. The well-known ones are Slideshare and Zoho, which have grown to become global brands. There is a company named Flipkart that has replicated Amazon’s awesome customer support infrastructure and took India by storm. There are also companies such as Tenmiles (most probably the potential 37Signals of India), Deskaway, Interviewstreet and a few that are working on the hardware space.

How do you see the India start-up scene in five years time?

Several years ago, India as a country was losing talents, as it was difficult for folks to find opportunities in the country. Much of that has changed – like the way it has changed in China. From what I have read, close to 150,000 people returned from the US last year, and a significant number of them are looking to start their own ventures. Not all of them will be in the tech space, but entrepreneurs are a strong force, to bring about change and economic growth in India. We also see quite a few companies in India, growing to massive size with significant market caps within the local markets.

Exits would inspire more start-ups, and also an infusion of capital into early stage investment. I do expect much of this to happen in the next five years in India. Definite signs of this will appear in the next three years to come.

We were at Tokyo, Japan on Monday where I shared my humble story with fellow entrepreneurs. I don’t claim to be a successful entrepreneur because I’m still very much in the middle of this learning journey, slowly crawling toward success, inch by inch. Nonetheless, I’m glad to share my experience thus far.

Here’s a recap with the slideshow below:

My first entrepreneurship experience started at age 10. The first business turned out to be a wacky one: Grasshopper trading. My elder brother and I had to catch grasshoppers to make sure we had enough money for recess. We even came out with a price list for different types of grasshoppers. A red-legged grasshopper would cost around $1.00 and a blue-legged grasshopper costs about $0.50 (see slide 4). We even expanded our business to praying mantis, lizards and spiders. That was a load of fun.

At age 15, I was buying and selling trading cards. It was easy money because most kids didn’t have a good grasp on the cards’ market price. Buying low and selling high was the simple strategy I followed religiously. The experience taught me the basics about how to make a profit as a middleman.

At age 19, my partner and I started an educational business that matches students with home tutors. We made enough money to open an office where we could conduct group lessons for students. Each student would make us about $80 per month and each class has an average of six to eight students. The business gave us substantial and consistent monthly revenue. We broke even after eight months but growth was unfortunately limited. The business was also recently sold after fighting for nearly five years. Thinking back, the five years taught me the most about building a business – people management, strategizing and sweating for sales. After that, I decided to head towards the Internet industry.

Penn Olson was founded when I was 23. With all the buzz about social media , I got interested and thought blogging about what was happening in Silicon Valley would be the best idea to get my learning gear going.

I only learn when I ‘pen’ down my thoughts, and it is ‘awesome’ to learn. That was how the name ‘Penn Olson’ was derived. Penn became a person that taught me about social media and technology and “he” continues to do that, even up to today.

Besides blogging, we used to manage marketing campaigns for brands. At slide 12, the picture shows one of the campaigns we did for Singapore Airshow in 2010. The plane wasn’t actually flying but it was still considered to be the world’s first tweetup on a plane. Our marketing gimmick received coverage from various media. Money was okay but unfortunately, we didn’t like to deal with marketing and public relation stuff. There are just too many bullshit to deal with.

Again, we were put at the crossroad. The blog lost its direction and it forced us to decide and define our position. As I read and write about Silicon Valley , Mashable and TechCrunch play huge roles in my journey to understand the tech business. I was inspired. Both blogs were founded in 2005 and are integral parts of the Silicon Valley ecosystem. I looked at Asia and realized there isn’t a blog which dedication could match Mashable or TechCrunch’s. No blogs in Asia is serious about covering tech and start-ups in the region. I saw an opportunity and hopped on.

I didn’t just dive straight in, though. I threw a question on Twitter to gather feedback on what people want to read. A number of our readers was urging us to write on technology in Asia which confirmed that there is indeed demand. Soon, Penn Olson’s very first Asian-focused article was published and the feedback was great. We continue to write about Asia and knew we are heading the right direction as readership grows and we receive our first investment from East Ventures.

While the entire Asia is under our radar, we nailed down our primary focus on China , Indonesia, India and Japan.

Despite focusing on four countries in Asia, we still face problems. Unlike the U.S, Asia is diverse in language and culture. Mashable and TechCrunch have the luxury to focus on one market and one culture with resources far greater than ours. U.S itself is a big enough market for blogs to thrive. This is a problem that we’re pondering on.

I ended my sharing session with three things learned thus far:

1. Asia: It is the next big thing. Instead of moving to Silicon Valley, is there a higher chance of success if Asian entrepreneurs stay put in Asia?
2. Pivot: Change is the only constant. Keep changing and don’t be afraid of changes.
3. Focus: While we pivot, the goal an entrepreneur wants to achieve remains the same.

Image Credit: @kigoyama

1. iTerms (Winner for most Edgy Award)

Problem: Terms and conditions (T&Cs) are usually lengthy. Most users simply skip to the end and click “next.” It causes users to miss out the most important clauses.

Startup’s Solution: Create an algorithm to pull out the significant clause for users to understand the T&Cs better.

2. KitCat

Problem: In Japan , companies only see the credibility and experience (everything on the resume) of a potential employee. The system neglects people with potential but without experience.

Startup’s Solution: KitCat follows a Train, Test and get Hired approach. For example, a users could learn CSS3 and HTML5 and achieve badges (level 1, 2 and 3), to certify his credibility. KitCat will also recommend them to companies for hire.

3. QLive (Winner for Startup Weekend Tokyo)

Problem: If you attend a speech at an event, there is often a tendency for people to ask irrelevant questions. At times, speakers may not know what questions are being asked.

Startup’s Solution: “Quality Q&A, No Hassle.” People can vote for the questions they like, and this process promotes the most popular question. Questions could come from social streams, like Twitter and Facebook as well. It’s a sort of Digg for Q&A. The team’s URL is qlive.co and its demo video is here.

The team won Microsoft Kinects as well. We spoke to them briefly after the event, and you can watch that video here.

4. 10 Minutes

Problem: It is often too difficult or too time consuming to learn about a specific topic of interest.

Startup’s Solution: 10 Minutes is a web community that allows users to request instructional videos on topics from other (knowledgeable) users. For example, someone curious about web design can request a design expert to make a video on cross browser compatibility. The community then votes on video topics to increase the chances of the video being made.

5. Mysic.fm

Problem: You have many music files, but it’s cumbersome to copy them to multiple devices.

Startup’s Solution: Use Dropbox and a browser-based music player so that you can listen anytime/anywhere, without having to bring the music with you. There is no manual copy to other devices.

6. Coordy (Winner for Best Presentation)

Problem: 79% of people who buy clothes online end up unhappy with them (according to Coordy). This is because it is hard to visualize how you would look like with while shopping for clothes online.

Startup’s Solution: An iPad application that allows user to drag and drop clothes to test certain articles of clothing and how they fit with others. The application is customized to your body fit and size.

7. Colish (Winner for Most realistic Product and Best Presentation)

Problem: We usually can’t find a suitable partner with the same values to share a house (yes, like living together). End up, we often have to live with people whom we might have problems communicating with.

Startup’s Solution: Using Colish, people are able to find partners with the same perspective, professions and people whom they think they can get along to share a house.

8. JAWANT

Problem: Most Japanese e-commerce site don’t except overseas shipping. There is also a problem for non-japanese speakers who can’t understand how to make a purchase on a Japanese e-commerce site.

Startup’s Solution: Create a platform to allow Japanese merchants to list their products online and in English. Non-Japanese speaker could search for made-in-Japan products through JAWANT. For example a search on Japanese anime, “One Piece” will reflect several “One Piece” related products. If nothing was found, users can request for the product. JAWANT aims to be a market that connects Japan and foreign countries.

9. MeeTune’s Share Future (Winner for Most Investable Idea)

Problem: We don’t know specifically when our friends are free to hang out or have a meeting.

Startup’s Solution: MeeTune works like a “schedule book mobile social network.” It provides time grids to visualize when your friends are free. All you need to do is call up for a meeting, straight from your iPhone .

10. PointUpp

Problem: In Japan, people usually have to carry numerous point cards around. It’s a hassle.

Startup’s Solution: PointUpp places all these point cards into an mobile app. The team would need to partner with retail stores to sync their point system with theirs.

Jonny Li, the organizer of Startup Weekend Tokyo

#1 Pivot fast: If you keep doing the same thing, you will just keep getting the same results. If a problem arises, find the root cause and make changes. There is no such thing as keeping things constant. At Penn Olson, we change a lot even up to now.

#2 Don’t be stupid, ask: There isn’t a point to guess when you can actually ask. We changed our focus to Asia because we asked what readers want. If your product has a problem, ask your consumers why it sucks. Chalkboard made a lot of critical changes just by asking. I also often ask my team members if I have done/manage certain things in the right way. Thanks Rick.

#3 Network, network, network: Tech guy or not, you have no reason to hide in your dormitory or office. Start by stalking others on LinkedIn, send emails, and do some real meet ups. That’s how I get involved in the tech community and I’m still meeting and connecting. It is never a waste of time. The connections you make might come handy in the future.

#4 Be humble: A little air of arrogance is needed in an entrepreneur. But keep it in check to avoid offending others (no one likes an asshole). I learned through the hard way (yes, I used to be an asshole) and realized that things are so much better when you’re humble. My straightforwardness somehow presented me as an arrogant person and it took me sometime to change.

#5 Listen: Being humble comes with listening. Listen to feedback, especially the bad ones. If someone bothers to criticize, it shows that something is really wrong and he cares to tell you what went wrong.

#6 Don’t listen: When someone gives you feedback, ask yourself if he is an expert, a poser or a wet blanket. I’m not asking you to walk away from posers and wet blankets. Listen, be truthful to yourself and get the relevant content. You know your business best.

#7 Help others: No matter how busy we are, we do our part by helping founders to connect with investors and mentors in Asia. It is our vision to help build a connected Asian tech community. We also get non-tech-related emails that seek advice on jobs, the Asia market and contact recommendations. We usually help if we can.

#8 Speed, timing, openness: Build and ship fast. Forget about keeping things in stealth. Embrace the open concept.

#9 Work hard, play hard: You need to have a healthy mind to run a healthy business. Work isn’t everything. Exercise, drink some booze and dance wildly to keep your mind sharp. I have been cranky lately but some sleep and beer did the trick to get me back on track.

#10 Stay lean and focused: What’s your current performance indicator? It could be web visits, building a team, getting users or revenue. Have a list of goals (focus just one or two) and ask yourself if your resources are being put into good use to achieving them. Eliminate things that are slowing you down and focus on the important matter first. It’s easy for me to write and even easier for you to read. But staying focused can be tough when there are so many noises and expectations from different stakeholders (including your mom and dad). I had this problem in my previous start-up.

There you go, my 10 lessons learned and more to come. What’s yours, entrepreneur?

Fahima, Founder of Virus Communications and CEO of Virtual Consulting, is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Indonesia.

She was named as one of the “10 Intenational Young Creative Entrepreneurs” by the British Council in 2007 and was also featured in Business Week as one of the “25 Asia Best Young Entrepreneurs.” In the same year, she also won the Femina L’oreal Best Mum award.

And the awards just kept coming. Last year Swa Magazine featured Fahima as a “Young Woman Future Business Leader.” She was also featured as one of the “Top 40 Below 40 in Indonesia” by Fortune Magazine.

We’re glad that Fahima took time out with us for an interview. Her story, as we expected, is very inspiring.

1. Thanks for joining us! Could you briefly share with us your journey as an entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurship is in my blood, it runs in the family. In 2006 I started my entrepreneur journey, I was 27 at the time. Together with my husband, we decided to leave the advertising industry to form Virus Communications. People said it was a crazy decision because we quit at the same time. But I think there will be no crazy result without a crazy (daring) start. And it proved to be the right decision, Virus Communication grew fast, and we went in at the right timing too. We also had the right partnership.

Virus was originally a traditional marketing communication company, but two years down the road we did a SWOT analysis for the company, and decided to focus on both online and digital. It was the right decision, again, because the industry was hoping for a consultancy that was able to connect digital marketing and communication in one language.

Another reason why we decided to shift on to the online direction was because we had a strong partner, Virtual Consulting with NukmanLuthfie as CEO at that time.

Once we decided to go online, Virus grew even faster and bigger. We won important pitches from big clients, and even won a regional pitch for a big international brand. Because of this sudden growth, I needed full support on infrastructure, financial and human resources. Not long after that we decided to merge with Virtual Consulting in which I am now the CEO and owner along with my husband.

2. What is your current focus now?

We’re a digital business solution. So for us is going to be about business solutions through digital channels. Its true that there are social media agencies, advertising agencies, online advertising agencies, web agencies out there, but basically we are all that combined. And we’re adding advanced technology into it. We have the ability to combine it all. So, the solutions we offer are business solutions, not just campaign solutions. Advertising talks about campaigns, social media talks about how to handle brands in social media, and PR talks from the PR point of view. We’re combining them all so it becomes a ROI-measurable business solution.

3. What are the key factors that helped you to attain success?

I believe in faith: I’m a part of that faith, and I follow that faith. I will never understand and comprehend the keys to success. But from my experience, there are some things that could be learned. First is family: It’s the root, as my family helps shaped my character. Second is environment: Working environment, friends environment etc. The current situation that I have right now is a result from a chain of luck and hardwork that I call faith.

4. What are three key tips that you would share with budding entrepreneurs?

a. Make sure we understand the business we’re about to start. We need to have the knowledge, have the skills, and understand what lies ahead.

b. Totality. Don’t start with many businesses. Instead, try to understand where your strength lies. We start with one business and we make the business “life”. Spend our life for this little child of yours.

c. We have to be clever managing finance. Especially if we talk about a growing business. A healthy cash flow is very important. Because the pulse of a business lies in cash flow. Many people think too much about spending, forgetting the cash that goes in is equally important.

5. Are there any things you wish you had known earlier, which would have helped you with your business?

My background is in traditional advertising. So when I first decided to jump into online, there’s so much to learn about the business in order to strengthen my strategic thinking. If I had online knowledge earlier, I’d have more time to explore other stuff. For example, if I knew online communication at the beginning, I could have learned more about web development and web strategies, as they are important when recommending business solutions to our clients.

I also wish I knew more about finance. As I said earlier, the root of the company is in its financial health. When we understand finance and know how to manage our money, it would be a good foundation for entrepreneurs to bring the company ahead.

6. Any future plans ahead?

To be able to well-executed a digital strategy, we have to have a good investment in technology, and that’s what we are working on now. For example, like making an investment in CRM technology.

Personal future plans, in a few years’ time I’d like to start a career as a socialpreneur. I have a clear picture of what will it be but I will only share once things become more concrete.

7. Any web applications and/or gadgets that you cannot live without?

Blackberry, iPad

8. Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs?

Zuckerberg.

I came across this infographic by focus.com that shared about the anatomy of a newborn tech company. Catchy headline it is, I clicked and went through the information. The anatomy turned out pretty true, especially on coffee spending, at least from personal experience. I could easily relate with the content and I knew I had to write about it for the many start-up founders reading our blog. Besides understanding the “whats” of a new tech start-up, there are two takeaways for founders reading this:

(1) If your cost of operation and personal spending are above what were stated, chances are, you’re not maximizing your resources. This is of course assuming your start-up hasn’t gone black.

(2) The infographic stated 3 main problems in a start-up. As far as I believe, time issues are probably excuses rather than problems. Many start-ups out there are waiting for their hockey-stick growth while doing the same things for years. We can’t achieve a different result by repeating the same plan. Pivot fast and make things happen. Waiting and pointing fingers at “time” is plain suicidal. More below…

STARTUP

Admittedly, I’m a culprit of “waiting for things to happen.” In my first start-up, my partner and I were so obstinate (and perhaps arrogant) about turning our plans to reality. The truth is, some so-called grand vision just can’t work. The market wouldn’t lie.

For us, we had problems attaining our hockey-stick growth because the business model is flawed. It is dead fixed by the consumers and players. Changing it means we have to go about a revolutionary shift which we couldn’t find for years. We were just plain naive as we expect the same plan to work if we actually strive hard enough. End up, we spent more than 4 years before deciding to sell the business and move on with our lives. Not the best ending, but definitely a painful and fruitful lesson learned.

My live notes:

10.05 am: Live blogging from the GMIC’s Gstartup event. The moderator and judges are up on the stage. There are quite some big names over here:

• Moderator: Edith Yeung, Founder, BizTechDay
• Cyril Ebersweiler, Partner, SOS Ventures; Founder, Chinaccelerator
• Ye Wang, Founder & Product Director, Innovation Works
• William Bao Bean, Venture Advisor, SingTel Innov8
• Jui K Tan, Partner, BlueRun Ventures
• Yen-Lu Chow, Founder & Managing Director, WholeTree Ventures; Director, BANESA
• David Lee, Venture Partner, SK Telecom Venture, Ex-Google Venture

10.12 am: In a pitch, David Lee said that the experience of the start-up team is what investors value a lot. He also commented that it is a lot easier to create a start-up these days. Yen-Lu Chow also echoed that the team credential is of extreme importance. Communicating the vision of a start-up is important because investors have to be able to “see” your vision to be able to invest. William advised start-up founders to practice their pitches with their friends. Make the pitch concise! Bottomline: People, people, people. The team needs to know how to execute at the right timing.

10.23 am: Talking about worst pitches: Chow shared that he hates start-up founders who talk about exits and valuation. The emphasis should be placed on building the company. William advised founders to scrap the market analysis slides and go straight to the gist. He said that investors, at least for him, have short attention span. The key idea has to be communicated effectively before the investor loses his attention. Cyril gave a broaden sense for pitch. The ‘pitch’ starts from the very first email and also getting the right referrals to support your credential.

10.30 am: On getting investors’ attention: Founders should network more often – meeting people, building the network. Get the investors’ attention by knowing their friends. It’s always good to have someone they know to recommend you. While finding an investors can be tough, don’t settle in for an investors whom you can’t work well with.

Summary: These are the regular tips, but crucial points to land your first investment. For founders, getting a good team with the right expertise and experience would certainly build investors’ trust. The pitch has to be well-prepared and straight to the point. Founders shouldn’t talk too much about valuation and exit strategy. Instead, the foundation work should be emphasized.  Share your grand vision with the investors but keep things in perspective by sharing baby steps towards achieving your early milestones. Money shouldn’t be the only factor that founders look at. How the investors can bring you to the next level is also equally important. Last but not least, even if your product could be the next Facebook or Google, an investor wouldn’t invest as long as he doesn’t like you. Again, it boils down to people.

About: “Zennström is best known for his success in Skype, where he held the position of CEO from Skype’s inception until September 2007. During that time, Skype became the global leader in Internet voice communications, with more than 309m registered users within five years. In 2005, Skype was sold to eBay Inc for $3.1 bn, the largest European venture capital exit to date. In 2009, Niklas was part of the investment consortium that bought Skype from eBay and has now re-joined the Skype board. Skype posted Q3 2009 earnings of $185m and 521m registered users.”

For start-up founders, this is a good chance for you to understand what it takes to attract investors. Zennström’s investment firm, Atomico, has over 40 investments in three continents , particularly focusing on the technology sector. One thing for sure, Zennström values innovation a lot. A successful clone wouldn’t be attractive enough to get an investment, at least according to his thought about China

Register for the event here.

AnyWinners is a contest that tests the value of the dollar and also one’s entrepreneurship skills. With just $100 for a week, teams will compete to make the most money through enterprising initiatives. With limited time and money, the competition puts the teams into a harsh and competitive “business environment.”

AnyWinners is organized by the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s student group at Singapore Management University (SMU).

CEO of SMU Ventures, Ivan Chang, said, “The competition seeks to spur creativity, guts, wit, and hard-hitting game tactics in contestants, which are qualities needed to be a successful entrepreneur. AnyWinners also tempts the audience with its catchy prize of a trip to the competition’s next Asian destination.”

Yes, you got it. The winners will also be invited to compete and stretch their skills in a whole new environment. It sets the bar higher for potential entrepreneurs.

Launching on April 1, 2011. Registration will close on the first week of May 2011. The contest will be held over one week in June 2011. There are much to gain as AnyWinners will take you through a seven-day journey of thrill, enterprising adventure, and a race against time.

Participants must be residing in Singapore and below 30 years of age. You can read the fine print here or join here now. Good luck.

It is a nice list but without Asians. I admit… our achievements haven’t been quite groundbreaking compared to the West but we are really working our way up.

As of now, I would pick Alibaba Group’s Jack Ma as my favorite entrepreneur in Asia. Qihoo’s Zhou Hongyi is also another entrepreneur worth mentioning. It is quite a feat for China Daily to name him the “new economic figure” for the next ten years.

There are also several successful Asian entrepreneurs featured on Businessweek and Inc.. They are certainly worth a look too. One of the up and coming entrepreneurs, Leon Ho, founder of Stepcase who recently had his startup covered on Penn Olson was also featured in Businessweek. In fact, we have featured a total of 32 Asian start-ups in the last three months. More to come, we promise.

Enjoy the stories and let us know your favorite entrepreneur via comments below.

If you like this infographic, you would probably enjoy our article: Why I want to be an Entrepreneur?

]]> http://www.techinasia.com/top-entrepreneurs-of-the-last-century/feed/ 3 http://placehold.it/350x150 http://www.techinasia.com/taiwan-tech-start-ups-and-culture/ http://www.techinasia.com/taiwan-tech-start-ups-and-culture/#comments Fri, 04 Mar 2011 03:27:05 +0000 Willis Wee http://www.techinasia.com/?p=27973 Read more »]]> When we talked about Asia and Chinese Internet start-ups, we definitely cannot miss Taiwan. If you haven’t already known, renown tech brands like HTC, BenQ and Asus all originated from the country.

I had a chance to join a start-up event in Taipei last year and was amazed by the Taiwanese enthusiasm and creativity. It made me felt like I was in Silicon Valley. I also had the chance to meet Jamie Lin (image below), founding partner of appWorks Ventures, who took some time to share with us his thoughts on Taiwan’s tech start-ups and culture. But first, allow me to introduce Jamie.

Jamie is a successful serial entrepreneur. His first start-up, Hotcool.com, was founded back in 1999 when he was still a student. In 2006, while he was at New York, he founded Sosauce.com, a famous online community for tourists. He also founded 3D gaming site, Musegames.com and participated in various start-ups such as Richi, ezTable, Frenzoo, PathMotion and WhoWhatWhy.

In between his entrepreneurial endeavor, Jamie also had two short stints at venture capital where he had a good ride with HSS Ventures and All Asia Partners. His first investment also went on to IPO. He is now with appWorks Ventures, a venture capital fund which focuses on Chinese Internet start-ups and mobile phone applications.

1. What’s the start-up culture like in Taiwan?

Taiwan used to be a very entrepreneurial place. If you look at all the word-class high-tech companies, such as Foxconn, TSMC and HTC, most of them were created in the past 30 years. But for a various reasons, in the last 10 years, people started to become less adventurous and fewer people would choose to start companies. For those who do start their own companies, especially Internet-based companies, most of them are just doing it out of passion and most are just trying to survive financially. Before appWorks, there weren’t any VCs backing Internet start-ups in Taiwan, and it almost never occurred to them that they would one day be competing with their global counterparts.

2. Does Taiwan have all the infrastructure needed to succeed as a start-up nation? What is Taiwan lacking?

If we’re talking about building an Internet ecosystem, Taiwan has some of the ingredients needed to succeed as a start-up nation. We have very good talents. Taiwanese engineers are very well-trained, highly productive and their salaries are just 25% of those in Silicon Valley. We have a very advanced and vibrant e-commerce sector — it accounts for 1.1% of our GDP and that ratio is much higher than US, Europe or Japan. We also have great Internet and mobile user penetrations and customers are generally willing to pay.

Taiwan has very strong international computer and mobile devices brands, which could serve as a great distribution platform for young Internet companies here. However, we lack of Silicon Valley-based mentors. Successful entrepreneurs who have been there and done it could mentor and aid early-stage start-ups to scale faster. For example, people like Dick Costolo (CEO of Twitter) whom has brought the microblogging service to the next level. Last but not least, we also need more VCs to back Internet start-up ideas and the government to alter laws for more flexibility in the online space.

3. What are some promising tech start-ups in Taiwan?

I will name just two:

(1) Richtor : An innovative online virtual currency trading platform start-up, which also just won 2010 Redherring 100 Global Award.

(2) EZTABLE : EZTABLE is a platform which helps users to book restaurants online. It had a great 2010 and is currently raising funds to scale globally this year.

4. What are appWorks’s investment criteria?

I usually look at the problem a start-up is trying to solve first. It’s crucial because it also represents the size of the market. Once we defined that, the market has to be big or at least fast growing. After which, I’ll understand more about the team, especially on their insights to solve the problem they have identified. The team needs to have the insights, skills and attitude to solve the problem better than others. Lastly on the solution (the product). It is important for start-ups to understand their competitors and differentiate from the crowd.

5. Can you give us your 3 best tips for budding entrepreneurs?

(1) Pick the problems you’re passionate about solving, especially the tough ones.

(2) Be obsessed with your domain and your competition.

(3) Get out of your comfort zone and explore all the things you’re not familiar with — be it female fashion, art or music instruments. You’d be amazed how these things can give you inspirations in solving your problem better.

Also catch: Urbanesia and Indonesia’s Tech Start-up Scene

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