Grameen Creative Lab Lecture and Boot Camp

The newly launched NUS-GCL Initiative for Social Business (National University of Singapore-Grameen Creative Lab) will be kicking it off with a public keynote lecture by Mr. Hans Reitz, Founder and CEO of GCL on the morning of 16 March morning. Mr Reitz and his team will also be sharing GCL experiences to interested participants at the boot camp (16 March afternoon to 17 March 2011).

Making Sustainable Social Impacts through Innovation-Driven Social Businesses: A Unique Two-Day Learning Program on 16-17 March 2011

While maximizing profits and financial returns have become the key driving force for economic activities in the world, social problems continue to increase globally, to some extent even driven by the negative impact of profit maximizing businesses. It becomes obvious that we need to question whether people should benefit the economy, or the economy benefit the people. How can we redesign at least parts of the business world in order to solve problems rather than creating them? How can we mitigate greed and mistrust, but at the same time also use proven business methodologies and technological innovations to solve prevalent social problems?

One idea to address these questions is the concept of social business, which is spreading rapidly around the world. Just as many for-profit entrepreneurs and corporations have exploited business and technological innovations to provide new products and services for the higher income population segments in the advanced economies, many socially-minded entrepreneurs and corporations are creating new, innovation-driven social businesses to make sustainable social impacts among the poor in the developing world.

To catalyze interest in social businesses among entrepreneurs, corporate managers and policy makers in Singapore and Asia, the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre (NEC) is teaming up with The Grameen Creative Lab (GCL) to organize a unique two-day event, comprising of a public lecture and a bootcamp on social businesses.

Public Lecture

Topic: Social Business – Counterculture in the Economic World

Event Details

When: Wednesday 16th March 2011
Time: 915am-2pm
Where: National University of Singapore, Hon Sui Sen Auditorium, 1 Hon Sui Sen Drive, Singapore 117592

Register here.

Boot Camp

Topic: Boot Camp for Social Business

Who should attend:
Anyone interested in setting up a social businesses (including individual entrepreneurs, private companies, NGOs, foundations and governments)

Programme in Summary:
- Introduction to Social Business
- Case studies of successful practices
- Experience sharing & brainstorming session
- Innovative idea generations and presentation
- Pitching session
- Mentoring/ Feedback
- Dinner cum networking Session

Event Details

When: Wednesday-Thursday 16-17th March 2011
Where: Kent Ridge Guild House, Dalvey Room, Level 2, 9 Kent Ridge Drive Singapore 119241
Cost: Current NUS Student/Staff/NUS Alumni: S$25 per pax for 1.5 – day event. Others: S$100

(Pricing is inclusive of lunch, dinner and tea-break, and course materials where applicable)

Register here.

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Latest Startup Jobs – 23 Feb 2011

If you are reading SGEntrepreneurs, you are probably already partial to startups, perhaps having founded one yourself or are working in one.

If not, why not consider joining a dynamic startup to see for yourself what it is like working with just two other people in your entire company?

If you are looking for a job as a developer, programmer, or you want something in business development, sales, or perhaps
you are a designer and looking for creative jobs, check out these newly listed open positions at these diverse startups.

Software Engineer at Optiras Pte. Ltd.

Python/Django at Baby Carrot

Mobile Application Developer – Android at Bitsmedia Pte Ltd

PHP Developer at Couchsurfing International

Unity 3D / PHP / Java / C++ / C# at Baby Carrot

View previous post.

Visit the portal for more job vacancies.

Dedicated at startups, a job listing at Triple Point Job Board can cost as low as $25 and together with our partner sites, we have combined monthly pageviews of 0.25 million that reach individuals who love code, beautiful design, innovative businesses and creative thinking. For a job seeker who wants to work in startups, this is a perfect tool to find that position that you've been looking for. It costs nothing to browse and apply for a position.

Image courtesy of arxetures, CC.

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Grameen Creative Lab Arrives In Singapore

The Grameen Creative Lab (GCL) is dedicated to solving social problems by using business methods. It is a joint venture between Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus (founder of Grameen Bank) and serial entrepreneur Hans Reitz and run by a young team of top management consultants and corporate communications specialists.

In Singapore GCL has partnered with the National University of Singapore to form the NUS-GCL Initiative for Social Business. Its goals is to leverage the global resources and networks of GCL to promote and incubate innovation-based social businesses in Singapore that have the potential to generate scalable, sustainable social impacts in Emerging Markets, especially social groups at Bottom of the Pyramid.

“Every time I see a problem, I create a company to solve that problem.” ~ Prof Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Founder of the Grameen Creative Lab

Find out more about the GCL’s 7 Principles for Social Business.

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Singapore At SXSW Interactive 2011

For the first time ever in its 18-year history, the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive section of the larger SXSW Conferences and Festivals (including Music and Film) will see official Singapore representation. Supported by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), SXSW Interactive will include a Singapore Pavilion exhibition and a Singapore panel during the SXSW Tech Summit.

Having attended SXSW for the first time last year, IDA was very impressed with the “attendance, energy and insightful sharing at the various conference sessions”. They see the conference “as the best show in US for startups to expose themselves in the American market, with over 35K attendees that consist of entrepreneurs, tech enthusiasts, press and investors”.

Also, having seen some of our own make a splash at TechCrunch50 (2009) and helped some make DEMO (Fall 2010) possible, IDA decided to go further and help make the Singapore Pavilion happen at SXSW Interactive 2011.

Timeline: Singapore Delegation At SXSW

Singapore Networking Party: 14th March, evening
Singapore Pavilion Exhibition: 14-17th March
Singapore Panel @ TechSummit: 17th March

The Singapore pavilion is 40’x20’ and will house 9 companies and a small IDA reception counter.

Singapore Companies At The SXSW Pavillion

Started in 2007 (read their back story), Zopim provides live chat software.

Wordster is “a large scale project attempting to innovate the traditional semantic references (the dictionary and the thesaurus).”

Started in 2008 (read their back story), Socialico develops social apps like fantasy stock markets FameLeague and FameMark.

Sambaash provides community-driven tools for businesses.

Started in 2009, PlayMoolah helps kids attain financial literacy.

Started in 2008, was originally known as HomeCamera (read their back story). GoToCamera allows anyone to convert their off-the-shelf webcam into a surveillance tool.

Started in 2010 (read their back story) Foound is a mobile application that allows you to plan “hangouts” with friends.

Started in late 2009, Chalkboard (read their back story) is a mobile ad network.

Started in 2008 (read their back story), Brandtology provides business and brand online monitoring tools. Media Monitors just acquired a majority stake in Brandtology.

Started in 2009, 2359 Media (read their back story) develops mobile apps. Their latest product MobDis and the company just closed their Series A round.

I will also be heading to SXSW. So see you there!

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India Post Gets a Sexy Web Experience – Looking Beyond NIC [$1Bn Put To Use?]

Indian Postal Department has done something radically different that probably no Indian government organisation has ever thought of, they got a clean website. They actually got a very sexy website with a virtual experience. Check out here (http://www.epostoffice.gov.in). Though it’s the same utility as earlier but the whole experience is very web2.0.

The website is not fully functional yet and this is just preview. But whatever we can see, it looks great. IndiaPost had appointed McKinsey for a complete revamp and it seems to be paying off. The total revamp budget for Indian Postal department is said to be $1Bn over 3-5 yrs (from Aug 2009). Meanwhile, they have  a twitter presence, indiapost.nic.in is down and Indiapost.gov.in is too messy.

It took an external agency like McKinsey to make them dare to think beyond the NIC?

Also Read:
Send Email Via Post- Indian Post Office Launches ePost Corporate Service
Indian Post Office set for Brand Makeover, to sell advertising space
Post Offices to sell mobile recharge coupons – What an Idea, Sirji!

Hat Tip Anirudh

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Foursquare Grabs First Brand Partnership in India–Cafe Coffee Day

We aren’t yet sure whether Facebook places in India is officially launched or not, but Foursquare has certainly started making inroads in the Indian brand space.

On your third check-in at CCD (applicable only for Bangalore), you will get 15% discount. And if you are the Mayor, CCD will serve you a free coffee and a 20% discount on every 3rd check-in.

Aside, Cafe Coffee Day is the first Indian brand on Foursquare to have their own Brand Page (http://foursquare.com/CafeCoffeeDay).

Given that CCD is probably the most visited ‘office space‘ by entrepreneurs (and Investors), expect a lot of tweeting in the coming days.

So all ye bootstrappers, keep checking-in!

Recommended Read: What Business Are you In – Case Study: Cafe Coffee Day

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The Story of Twitter

Twitter is a phenomenal success. The company redefined the way social plus media is being expressed (and consumed).

Of course, Twitter was a side project at Odeo, the podcasting startup that didn’t do too well.

Watch this entire video where Square and Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey shares how Twitter came into existence. Dorsey joined Odeo to gain a greater understanding of the consumer Internet market, but eventually learned that few people at the company, including him, were interested in podcasting.

Hacking, as they say churns out interesting ideas and if you are a technology startup, you have to build a culture of experimentation within the company. As I noted in one of my earlier articles, The Curious Employee & Seeds of Innovation, curiosity employee is a god-send gift and while big companies tend to frustrate them (with boundaries/processes), startups’ can do wonders if they nurture this beast (in a controlled manner though).

The Video: Birth of Twitter

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China's Facebook Could Be The Next Big Tech IPO

China's maverick entrepreneur Joe Chen may just have the magic touch for cashing out super rich with the IPO of the Facebook look-alike Renren he runs in Beijing. His venture investors have nearly $500 million riding on a successful public listing this spring on NASDAQ, which could be in the same league as recent Chinese Internet IPO hits Dangdang and Youku.
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A Chinese Designer brought Megatron Tank in Transformers 2 into Reality

The title is not exactly correct.  This Megatron Tank  is not as powerful as the one in transformers 2,  and even can’t move. Hoverer,  it’s still quite impressed, especially for transformers fans.  It’s made by  Chinese designer who’s called Steel Legend on Internet translated literally from Chinese . As his name implies, Steel Legend is good at designing  stuff  that would make with  steel, and this Megatron Tank was also made of steel. How much steel has been used? it’s said it weighs more than 5,000 kg, and measures 4.5m×3.2m×2.5m, but no mention about how much the whole project costs.

[Source:zcool.com.cn]

• Transformer got Shanzhai-ed in China, Built from an old truck, 9.7 meters in height

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Nokia launches Ovi Store with RCom Partnership [Operator Billing]

Last year, Nokia’s OVI store announced a few updates worldwide and one of the major announcement was partnership with operators enabling consumers to purchase apps via operator billing.

While it took some time for India rollout, the good news is that Nokia has announced partnership with Reliance Communications to offer integrated operator billing for their consumers in India enabling access to a host of paid for content on the Ovi Store. The amount will be either included in their monthly mobile phone bills or deducted from the pre-paid balance, per their data plans.

Launched in 2009, the Ovi Store has 4 million downloads per day globally and India currently sees more than 4.5 million downloads a week.

This is quite a milestone for OVi store as operator billing can do wonders to app consumption (as seen with Airtel app store). Though revenue share between operator and OVI isn’t yet known, operator generally gets around 40-50% of of the price paid by the consumer.

OVI Statistics

• Ovi Store attracts 3.5 million downloads a day, with an average of 2.6 apps downloaded per visit.
• About 90% of Ovi Store traffic converts to downloads.
• Of Ovi Store’s signed-in users, 85% are repeat visitors.
• Each active user averages 8.5 downloads per month.
• Active users represent more than 190 countries.
• Games are No. 1 among paid downloads, and apps are No.1 among free downloads.
• 40% of the content downloaded are games and 30% are apps.
• 90% of Ovi Store users have Ovi Store in their local languages.
• 400,000 new Forum Nokia developers were added in the last 12 months.
• 92 publishers have over 1 million downloads each on Ovi Store.

Top Devices in India Using OVI Store: 5230, 5233, 5235, 2700 classic, 5130 XpressMusic, 5800 XpressMusic, E63, E71, N8-00, and X6-00.

What’s your take on OVI/Reliance partnership? When will Android bring payment mechanism to Indian app developers?

Recommended Read: What Do Telecom Operators Want? [A Look At App Platform Strategy]

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