Start-Up@Singapore Speaker Series: 9 quick insights from 9 Singapore entrepreneurs

Photo: Strtup@Singapore

Start-Up@Singapore, the nation’s largest start-up challenge has always been designed as more than just another business plan competition.

It is also aimed at shedding light on what entrepreneurship is about. Keeping with this objective, Start-Up@Singapore, over the month of November, organized a set of three Speaker Series where prominent Singaporean entrepreneurs dished out advice to aspiring entrepreneurs.

The first edition was themed on “Product Innovation and Development”, and held at Plug-In@Blk 71.

Here, Aileen Sim, founder of BillPin, gave a simple ground rule for aspiring entrepreneurs: “Ask. Listen. Observe. Always”, which means to always be on the lookout for problems in life and seize the business opportunities to develop solutions.

Veerappan Swaminathan, co-founder of Sustainable Living Labs, talked about the importance of prototyping and how it enabled one to leapfrog competition.

Navin Kumar, head of Clean Technology Solutions, Autodesk, described how one can capitalize upon design technologies available in today’s market to create powerful models of our products.

The following edition was centered on social entrepreneurship, the theme being “Making Social Impact a Reality”.

Grace Sai, Co-Founder of the Hub described the four operational models a social enterprise can follow: the work-integration model, plough-back model, subsidized service model and the social needs model.

Helen Lim, Founder of Silver Horizons, spoke about the importance of caring and protecting the elderly in Singapore and how her co-operative goes about doing just that.

Finally, the 13th Start-Up@Singapore Social Venture Winner and founder of Start Now, Ivan Cheng gave a powerful presentation on the wonders that volunteerism can do towards remedying social problem.

The final edition of the Speaker Series was held in conjunction with ACE Entrepreneurship Week. The theme was “Starting Up Young” and the venue was SCAPE Auditorium.

A panel comprising Mohan Belani, co-founder of e27, Alvin Yap, founder of TheMobileGamer, and Wu Wenxiang, co-founder of Zopim talked about what comprises the right “approach” towards starting one’s own business.

Wenxiang proclaimed that a good entrepreneur needed to be, above all else, “foolish, childish, and stubborn”. Alvin emphasized how being one’s own boss was far from a bed of roses. “You are own boss, as well as your own janitor”, he said.