If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
According to the Straits Times, Sirius Venture Consulting has announced a SGD$30 million venture capital fund targeted at helping Singapore-based SMEs to grow and expand. It aims to invest in some ten to 12 companies by pumping SGD$2-3 million into each one in return for a 20-30 percent equity stake.
I’m borrowing an idea from more “traditional” media and adding an editorial calendar. Now you’ll know what stories are coming up over the next couple of months.
Let me know if you think it is a good idea.
Tags: editorial calendar, youngupstarts
Where? Geek Terminal, 55 Market Street, #01-01 Singapore 048941.
What? A cafe that combines the latest technology, free wireless and great coffee, perfect for the travelling road warrior or business executive looking for internet connectivity and cappucino. The latest Cisco Systems‘ Unified Communications System - featuring IP phones with voice and video call capability, integrated firewalls and VPN - generates major geek envy. Co-owner and trained barista Danny Pang brews up some excellent espressos as well.
Why? The preferred gathering place for Singapore’s techopreneurs and bloggers, it resembles a coffee place not unlike one along Silicon Valley’s Sand Hill Road. Spotted during a recent visit: Twinity’s Andrew Peters, Podfire Podcast Network’s Michael Cheng, and Thymos Capital and SG Entrepreneurs‘ Bernard Leong. The crazily-fun Tech65 gang also records their podcasts here every Saturday morning. Geek Terminal has even been featured on CNN.
Find out more at:
Tags: cisco systems, geek terminal, podfire, sg entrepreneurs, tech65, thymos capital, twinity
Which is smarter - surrounding yourself with smart people, or surrounding yourself with people who tell you you’re smart?
Thanks, guys!
Madam Loh in Him Heang.
I was in Penang for the first time over the weekend and had the pleasure of meeting an extremely interesting individual. The mother of one of my wife’s colleagues, Madam Loh was sprightly, energetic and bright-eyed, and overwhelmingly filled with warm Penang hospitality - all 70-over years of her.
Madam Loh arrived at our hotel and picked us up in her large MPV - there were seven of us in our group - and proceeded to bring us on a culinary and sight-seeing tour of her beloved hometown. Combining the talent and skill of Formula One racer as well as the aplomb of a typical Malaysian driver, she easily navigated us through heavy traffic on Penang’s winding, narrow roads.
As we visited the various attractions about Penang, it became obvious that Madam Loh commanded a great deal of respect and authority from her fellow countrymen. From the Penang char kway teow hawker to the durian seller, when the dynamic Madam Loh asks for something - she gets. Even the boss of famous tau sar piah shop Him Heang deferred to her, allowing her entourage (us) to buy more than 20 boxes of the famed confectionery without advance order (and ahead of other customers as well!).
It was only later that we realised Madam Loh belonged to one of Penang’s most well-known entrepreneurial families, and related to the late Loh Boon Siew. If you’re not familiar with the name, Loh Boon Siew is a Penang tycoon who started Kah Motors in Malaysia and Singapore. Indeed, Loh Boon Siew was a true young upstart. He came to Penang at the age of 12 and worked his way up from a mechanic’s apprentice to finally owning one of Malaysia’s largest business empires.
As we drove around Penang, Madam Loh pointed out various of her family’s holdings and properties. However, she shared with even more pride on their philantrophic activities, such as building and funding an old folk’s home that is currently supporting more than 300 residents, and land loaned to build temporary housing for displaced Penangites during the 2004 tsunami disaster.
It was humbling to have someone in her position show us so much warmth and hospitality.
Thank you, Madam Loh, for the amazing experience. You were the consummate host. If Penang ever needs a tourism ambassador, you have my vote.
Tags: Business, entrepreneur, loh boon siew, penang
I made a great boo-boo during a recent networking session - I didn’t bring my business cards.
Suffice to say I was crippled without them while interacting with the people present at last week’s Media Maker’s Networking Evening hosted by the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) and organised by Kaiiten Communications, and held at Geek Terminal. I also finally had a chance to meet Paddy Tan, the CEO of Bak2U and Blog2U.sg, who also blogged about this event.
I won’t go into the details about the importance of business cards - many people have already written about the topic, such as Carl E. Reid’s “10 Powerful Networking Tips Using Business Cards“, Entrepreneur.com’s “The Ten Commandments of Networking” (I broke the 1st commandment ><), or Justaguything.com’s “Powerful Networking Through Business Card Etiquette“.
PS: It was fairly evident during the event that a certain schism exists between traditional media makers - productions houses and the like - and the new media i.e. bloggers, podcasters and other digital “riffraff”. Both separated into their own groups and hardly interacted with the other.
Tags: bak2u, blog2u, business cards, networking
Or at least this is what the Singapore government is saying.
It’s all about creating jobs though. Unfortunately it’s got nothing to do with entrepreneurship.
Tags: Entrepreneurship, foreign, jobs, Singapore
What do Digg.com, Reddit.com, NeoPets and FaceBook have in common?
Other than the fact they all made, and are still making, big splashes on the Internet, these web properties were all started by young upstarts.
Technology news site Digg.com was founded in 2004 by Robert Kevin Rose, along with Owen Byrne, Ron Gorodetsky and Jay Adelson. Rose was 27 then (he later started micro-blogging service Pownce).
Digg.com competitor Reddit.com were founded by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian in 2005. They were only 22-year old graduates of the University of Virginia at that time.
Virtual pet and gaming site NeoPets was founded in 1999 by Adam Powell and Donna Williams. Powell was only 23, and Williams was even younger – she was around 21. They later sold NeoPets to VIACOM at a price of US$160 million.
FaceBook founder Mark Zuckerberg started the social networking site in 2004 at the age of 20. He became a billionaire at 23.
Moral of the story 1 - You’re never too young to be an entrepreneur.
Moral of the story 2 - The Internet is a great democratic tool. It’s no respecter of age, race, religion, sex, education or experience. Anyone can start a business online.
I didn’t used to like Twitter. After all, who could be interested in using the micro-blogging service (except for egomaniacs who think that the entire world is interested in whatever they’re doing)?
As you can tell - I’ve changed my mind. There’s great potential here for marketers.
Just think - Would you be interested in receiving this tweet:
tonyskateshop: today only - 50% off on skateboards. condition: trade in your used deck.
Or this:
dannypizza: mother’s day special this weekend - bring mom and she dines free.
I think someone would. The potential is endless.
It’s too tough to implement, I hear you say. Well, it’s also tough not having enough business.
Addendum: Here’s an excellent article from MarketingVOX on using Twitter to build brand integrity.
Young Upstarts is a business and technology blog that champions new ideas, innovation and entrepreneurship.
It focuses on highlighting young people and small businesses, and celebrating their vision and role in changing the world with their ideas, products and services, at the same time it challenges stale boundaries that restrict entrepreneurship.
