Startups, find out how you can scale at speed at IBM Connect 2015

As startups grow out of the bootstrapping phase, its growth imperatives and levers change. From raising investment to monetizing the idea quickly; from balancing product ideas to balancing cashflow; from a lean founding team to building multiple departments – today’s startups need to constantly adapt as they keep their core DNA intact.

With different challenges emerging every other day, the bets are bigger and stakes, higher. What are some growth hacks that startups transitioning to a growth-stage company must know? IBM will seek to provide these answers at its signature event, IBM Connect.

During the half-day session on September 3, Tech in Asia, in collaboration with the tech giant, will bring together a good mix of speakers ranging from inspirational founders to venture capitalists and IBM subject-matter experts, who will leave you with some great takeaways on growth hacking your startup.

More details, please!

As a startup at IBM Connect 2015, you’ll be exposed to a series of keynotes, lightning talks, panel discussions, and demo sessions where you can experience how IBM’s analytics tools can accelerate your growth by finding, reaching and engaging your customers.

On top of that, selected startups will also get the opportunity to engage in Startup Clinic, a one-to-one session with IBM experts and a venture capitalist who will evaluate and analyze your business’ top challenges, as well as provide solutions to tackle these problems.

Of course, what is an event without networking opportunities? At IBM Connect, you can get to mingle with other founders in the same stage and exchange some ideas; chat with speakers who can offer you advice; find out how IBM tools can give you the boost you need; or who knows, you might even meet a potential investor there!

Who can apply?

If you’re a CEO/Founder, COO, CIO or entrepreneur whose startup has secured at least seed funding and above, we want you!

How much does it cost to attend?

IBM Connect is free to attend, and you can register your interest by clicking on the button below.

Agenda

Venue

Resorts World Sentosa
Compass Ballroom, Basement 2
8 Sentosa Gateway, Sentosa Island
Singapore 098269

Speakers profile

Stephan Wissel, cloud development advocate at IBM

Stephan helps customers navigate the IaaS, PaaS and SaaS jungle. Working with IBM’s fast evolving Bluemix platform, he interacts with startups and venerable corporations alike, energizing development teams and mediating between business and IT.

Nathalie Benzing, COO at TradeGecko

Nathalie Benzing is the Chief Operating Officer at TradeGecko, a fast-growing Singapore startup providing a SaaS inventory and order management platform solution. With its recent $6.5M USD Series A financing, Nathalie’s focus is on driving, enabling and supporting TradeGecko’s aggressive product expansion plans. Prior to this, Nathalie spent six years as Autodesk’s Global Head of Acquisition Integration within Corporate Development. In this role and her previous one, as Autodesk’s EMEA Integration Lead, she led more than 60 merger integrations, from due diligence through to integration completion.

Dr Abhijit Shanbhag, founding President and CEO of Graymatics

Dr Abhijit Shanbhag is the founding President and CEO of Graymatics, developing a highly scalable, contextual image and video analysis platform. He was the first awardee of the Global Executive Entrepreneur investment and a recipient of Rising Star Innovator award from Singapore’s Prime Minister’s Office (National Research Foundation).
Prior to this, he was the CTO of Scintera, which he founded in 2001, and continues to be on Scintera’s Board of Directors. Scintera is a leader in algorithmic mixed-signal IC’s and is backed by some of the top venture capital firms.

Amit Anand, partner at Jungle Ventures

Amit is the founder & managing partner of Singapore based Jungle Ventures, an early stage venture firm focused on investing and building regional category leaders in Asia Pacific. At Jungle, he focuses on early stage investing in consumer and enterprise tech companies. His recent investments include India-based LivSpace, Pokkt, and Zipdial (acquired by Twitter), Singapore-based Travelmob (acquired by NASDAQ listed HomeAway), Voyagin (acquired by Rakuten), and CrayonData, Malaysia-based iMoney and CatchThatBus, Thailand-based Pomelo Fashion, and Australia-based Edrolo, amongst several others.

Paul Santos, managing partner at Wavemaker

Paul is the managing partner of Wavemaker Partners, an early-stage, cross-border venture capital firm with dual headquarters in Los Angeles and Singapore. Wavemaker aims to back the best founders in Southern California and Southeast Asia. Since 2003, it has invested in more than 150 internet, mobile, and enterprise technology startups. Wavemaker Partners is a member of the Draper Venture Network, the world’s leading venture capital collective with nine firms spread across four continents.

Rohit Dewan, chief technology officer at Viki

Rohit is the Chief Technology Officer at Viki, and oversees the product, engineering and content operations teams at Viki on top of providing general management for their offices in Asia. In addition, Rohit serves as an Executive Officer at Rakuten. Prior to Viki, Rohit was the founder of MeetHi, Inc., a social gaming studio based in Silicon Valley, and also operated a boutique e-commerce site that generated more than $1 million in annual revenue.

William Lim, SoftLayer Guru

William Lim is the Guru at SoftLayer, and in charge of identifying and developing new channels, recruiting and enabling new partners, forging new initiatives and solutions with key industry providers in order to build a comprehensive ecosystem for both IBM and SoftLayer’s partners and customers across Asia Pacific.

Prior to SoftLayer, William was a Global Account Manager Enterprise at Starhub.

Saemin Ahn, managing partner at Rakuten Ventures

As the managing partner of Rakuten Ventures, Saemin leads and evaluates investments, conducting due diligence and analyzing deal structure. Since Rakuten Venture’s inception, it has made investments in verticals including C2C marketplace, payment infrastructure technology, visual search technology, and file transfer platforms.

Prior to Rakuten Ventures, Sae was at Google for 5 years from 2008 to 2013 managing sales and business development for Asia.

Tim Greisinger, Managing Director, IBM Singapore

Tim Greisinger is the Managing Director at IBM Singapore. He currently overlooks sales, marketing, research and services operations in the country. Prior to his current role, Tim held the role of Vice President of IBM Asia Pacific, where he led an integrated, cross-brand sales force of IBM industry, solution and technical experts across the region.

Antonia Edmunds, Digital Marketing Solutions Leader, IBM

Antonia is the Digital Marketing Solutions Leader at IBM. Previously the Director of Client Relationships for Silverpop, Antonia was responsible for the overall EMEA customer base, working with strategic clients to ensure they met their marketing and ROI goals through maximising their use of Silverpop’s technologies and services.