Simple is the Reason of My Heart

Barcamp KL 2009 - Things I have learned

I set off to Subang Jaya for Barcamp Kuala Lumpur (KL) on Friday morning. I reached a day earlier to meet up with some internet specialists and organizers of Barcamp KL. The last Barcamp KL was held in the KLCC area (where the Petronas Towers are). This event was held over the weekend (4 and 5 April 2009) in Inti College, Subang Jaya. The trip turned out to be a good one because it grew to become Barcamp Southeast Asia, with other organizers from Bangkok, Singapore, Tokyo & Cambodia. This time round, we have wi-fi available, and the other thing I liked about the location is that the Inti College is located besides the Asia Cafe and also a Starbucks Cafe where I can grab a cup of grande vanilla latte.

Entrepreneurs' Basic Etiquette with Potential Investors

A couple of incidents for the past year recently made me ponder about the way how entrepreneurs in Singapore, or generally Asians handle their potential investors differently from their western counterparts. Perhaps, in terms of Gladwell's "Outliers", the cultural legacy could be the major fact that contributes to their behaviour. Since raising money in such difficult times is so much more challenging, it may also be good to provide some thoughts for those who are optimistic and willing to give it a shot. Sometimes, it's not their fault to sound that way but they have made it so difficult for the investors to really say yes, for 99% of the time, they really did not know what the other side is thinking. I decide to summarize a few general cases for them so that they don't make such amateur mistakes.

Global Entrepreneurship Week 2008 Singapore

It is 4 days away from the Global Entrepreneurship Week 2008 in Singapore. Organized by NUS Enterprise and Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE), the event will be held from 17-23 Nov 2008, and promises to a celebration of innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity. It is not just happening in Singapore as the event will bring together millions of young people across the globe through online and local activities and encourage them to think creatively and unleash their ideas in the midst of a global financial crisis. Through a coordinated effort with many different countries, during one week every year, the world will celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit in hopes of inspiring a new generation of young entrepreneurs. For those who will like to get a better idea or consider an alternative career as an entrepreneur, here are two of my recommendations for young entrepreneurs to go for this week:

Entrepreneurs and Credit Crunch

Lately, the world has been hit by global financial crisis that led to the collapse of an investment bank Lehman Brothers, the acquisition of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America and many bailouts including AIG and Northern Rock by the US and UK governments. The triggering of this crisis began from the subprime mortgage problem that surfaced during early 2007. What's the impact for entrepreneurs or small medium enterprises business owners given that there is a lack of trust among banks to lend to each other and upcoming recessions hitting most countries? It may be good to take a step back and put some thoughts on what the entrepreneur will navigate through this difficult period:

A Foundation to Fund Thinkers

Last Monday, through a last minute call from Daniel Cerventus, I met up with Mark Surman in Loof, together with Andrew and Heidi (Ford Foundation).  We have an interesting discussion on an idea or passion which I have for sometime. Not many people really know why my real passion in life is all about. The idea is to build a foundation to fund thinkers (or academics) in theoretical sciences or humanities similar to how the Medici family have funded the best thinkers in the Renaissance during the 15th century. While chatting with Mark, I thought that I should sketch out some of my ideas on the blog. Of course, I may not make the money to build it, but I hope to continue pursue the idea into reality. Even if it is within my lifetime to achieve it, I hope that the idea can spread far enough until someone can help fund and create the foundation.

An evening with Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia

Organized by Global Brand Forum and NUS Enterprise with support of IDA, E27 and The Digital Movement, I have spent an interesting afternoon in Ritz Carlton, Millenia here in Singapore to listen to a talk by Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. Perhaps, the picture on the left speaks a thousand words about how the evening transpired, since the discussion revolves around censorship, creative commons and free software movement. The event began from Jimmy talking about the lessons he learned as a social entrepreneur, the trials and tribulations of Wikipedia, his take about his competitors and also shares what the next steps for the non-profit encyclopedia in the Internet will be making in the coming months.   Here are some interesting lessons which I got from the occasion:

The IVF Drip II - Regarding Valuation on Tech Companies in Singapore

Continuing on the session that I have facilitated last Saturday, I will focus on another aspect of the discussion that hinges on the valuation of companies. Valuation of technology companies can be difficult because of a few things. First of all, valuation is a science and art. When a technology company (and I will specify it to internet companies) is in the early stages of its evolution (seed stage to series A), the valuation is more or less an art, because there are many different types of risks at play from market to execution risk. If you take the other extreme, when a company is in the mature stage (mezzanine or pre-IPO), you can apply different financial models to decide if you have valued the company better. Ultimately, the question is pretty simple but hard to find a good answer: "What is the price of your start-up?" or "What are the assets and strengths of your company that provide incentive for investors and how much do you think that they are worth?" Of course, Internet companies have the added complexities at early stages because if you carefully examine all the recent successful internet companies in the web 2.0 or social media space, you will realize that the investors are betting on the intangibles more than the tangibles. However, in Asia, as usual, the context from the Silicon Valley technology business textbooks fails because the investors have a different view on how a company is valued. So, here are some of the points which I have discussed with the floor last Saturday (12 July 2008) in the Unconference 2008 organized by the E27 team:

The IVF Drip - Realities about Raising Capital for Tech Companies in Singapore

Last Saturday, I facilitated a breakout session in the Unconference 2008 Singapore, organized by the E27 group. I have been working with them for almost three years in counting. The topic of my discussion is entitled, "What’s so difficult about valuing and investing in Internet Companies?", and the primary synopsis is to discuss valuation, business strategies and how VCs view investments in internet companies and also how to establish relationships with big companies for acquisitions. Unknown to all, this is my preparation for a panel discussion that I will be doing in upcoming trip to Barcamp Malaysia. The title of this post will be the same title that I have given to them. I called it the "Invest, Value & Fund" drip, where I am trying to alert the entrepreneurs in the tech industry some current problems about fundraising and also offering what the venture capitalists in Singapore are looking into even if their start-ups fulfill some of the textbook criteria. So, I summarize some of the issues which I have covered in the breakout session on all three areas.

The Power of Unreasonable People

If you seriously want to know what type of animal social and environmental entrepreneurs are, "The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World" by John Elkington (founder of Sustainability.org and the concept of the Triple Bottom Line) & Pamela Hartigan (Manging Director of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship) gives a very good glimpse of how these people turn their unreasonable ideals and dreams into reality. It mirrors a famous quote by George Bernard Shaw: "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." This book discusses the interesting social entrepreneurship cases from Aravind Eye Center in India, the Social Stock Exchange in Brazil, ParqueSoft in Colombia and the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative.

Is Singapore ready for Social Entrepreneurship? Two Years later

A journalist from Channel News Asia contacted me last for a really short interview (which was published yesterday) on social entrepreneurship through Singapore Angle last Tuesday. It turns out that she was doing a feature on social entrepreneurship and found an article that I have written two years ago. So, she solicited my views on whether my position on social entrepreneurship in Singapore has changed over the last two years. Thanks to the long tail effect in the Internet, something that I advocated has finally caught some attention. I have decided to write an afterword to the original article and would hope to see social entrepreneurship (or sustainable development - rebranded by the Americans from the British who are the experts in this area) to finally take off.