How GameMaki came back from the brink to become a blueprint for Singapore’s startups

Startups in Singapore are caught in a bind. While located in the heart of Asia, the city has a minuscule domestic market and is surrounded by countries with varying levels of internet adoption.

Developed economies like Japan and South Korea, while tech-savvy, pose language challenges. China, meanwhile, plays by its own set of rules. US and Europe aren’t a walk in the park either.

Nonetheless, Singapore-based startups aiming at developed markets do have several possible paths to pursue.

Gamemaki offers one blueprint. It looks like a Silicon Valley style startup on the surface. Its most visible product is a mobile social network where denizens earn points for completing fun, real-life challenges. Not exactly a certain money maker.

But beneath the fun and youthful image is a serious side: It offers a gamification platform for large corporations. Limiting labels like B2B and B2C don’t quite apply to GameMaki. The company straddles both spheres in an interesting way.

Singapore is its cash cow, one that it is milking to good effect through personal connections. On the other hand, the fun stuff, GameMaki’s reason for being, largely happens in the United States. It’s sort of like an office worker who does all his fun stuff outside his 9-to-5 daily routine.

That’s not a bad thing, considering the alternative: It could take its funding from investors and burn it on a social network that may never take off. It’s what Silicon Valley startups do: Raise cash, burn it, pivot, raise some more. Rinse and repeat.

But GameMaki’s approach is sensible and works well in the Asian context.

I bumped into Keith Ng, co-founder of GameMaki, at a quiet corner in a shopping mall. While he was earning a respite from hyper-energetic kids at a youth innovation event organized by ACE, an organization that promotes entrepreneurship in Singapore, his platform was powering the gamification element of the event app: Kids answer quizzes and play scavenger hunts to win real-world incentives.

The reception to the game has been positive: Over 1,000 signups and 3,000 completed challenges were registered.

2012 has been great for GameMaki, a dramatic turnaround from the previous year where they were on the verge of collapse.

An investor had pulled out the second tranch of a deal at the last minute, causing Keith to apply for three credit cards just to do balance transfer to keep the startup afloat. The same investor even defaulted on paying for GameMaki’s office, and they almost had their water and electricity cut off.

Keith, who flirted with depression, was forced to source for personal loans while his company did some service work to ensure that it had operating capital. The staff, meanwhile took a voluntary pay cut.