Legally IT: Preparation for Mediation of IT Disputes – 7 Dec

The Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center will organize a talk entitled “Legally IT: Preparation for Mediation of IT Disputes” next Wednesday. Peter Moody and David Perkins will share their insight and discuss with the audience about the benefits and issues of IT mediation.

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Event Details

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When: Wednesday, 7th December 2011
Time: 4pm-6pm
Where: Maxwell Chambers, Anderson Room, 32 Maxwell Road, Singapore 069115 (Map)
Register here.

 

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The Singapore Venture Workshop with Martin Lear, Anuj Khanna Sohum, and William Klippgen – 6 Dec

The third edition of The Singapore Venture Workshop will be held in NUS next Tuesday. The topic will be: “What You Need to Know to Successfully Raise Money for a Tech Start-Up”. Martin Lear of BioLynx Technologies will speak on “Funding a Biotech start-up in Singapore”, Anuj Khanna Sohum of Affle Group will talk about  ”How to raise several Million dollars for a mobile media company”, and William Klippgen of BAF Spectrum will talk about “What investors look at when making investment decisions”.

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Program Details

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530pm: Networking Coffee
550pm: Welcome
6pm – 730pm: Workshop Talks and Q&A Panel Session
730pm – 8pm: Presentations by start-ups/early stage projects
8pm – 10pm: Networking Dinner and Drinks

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Event Details

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When: Tuesday, 6th December 2011
Time: 530pm-10pm
Where: National University of Singapore – University Hall Auditorium
Please RSVP by sending an email to daniel@nus.edu.sg

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Tech Gets Exciting in India, 5 Years Behind China

Mumbai street scene from Silicon Dragon ventures

The only other tech market in Asia that is halfway as exciting as China is India. It has the promise to close the gap with China but is no match yet. India’s mobile market is large, venture spending is vibrant, and high-profile IPOs such as MakeMyTrip are happening, with more on the way soon from up such swift up and comers as mobile ad service inMobi and PC help center iYogi.

Plus, India has proven it is rich in R&D and a lot more than outsourcing. Even so, red tape and poor infrastructure hold back the entrepreneurial spirit here. Investors Bill Draper, Lip-Bu Tan, and Sumir Chadha did the trailblazing in India. Today India’s venture leaders such as Ashish Gupta and Sudhir Sethi are looking for the next, new thing in mesmerizing India – the world’s second-fastest-growing economy and Asia’s third-largest economy.

At IDG Ventures in Bangalore, I met with Sethi, who is chairman and managing director and runs the tech media company’s $150 million India fund. It’s one of five funds in the IDG Ventures network established by Pat McGovern, the visionary founder and chairman of International Data Group in Boston. If a strategy works in one locale, then IDG works to bring the formula to startups in other places. China has proven to be a gold mine for IDG, where it’s made multimillion-dollar returns from early investments and successful IPOs of instant-messaging service Tencent and search engine Baidu. India could be next.

During a trip to India, I met founders of startups with advances for everything from detecting lung cancer at an earlier stage to recycling electronic waste in a cost-effective way, to bringing solar power to villagers, to offering superfast mobile searches, to three-dimensional online games, to robotic-powered vacuum cleaners. India’s also become a mecca for low-cost and sometimes jerry-rigged inventions—in Hindi, jugaad. Tata Motors’ tiny Nano car at an itty-bitty price tag of $2,500 and the Indian government-backed tablet computer selling for $35 are some examples. So is my favorite find: a Nokia cell phone with a built-in flashlight. India may not have a Google, Apple, Baidu, or Tencent yet, but it is moving into more technical work than writing software and answering phones.

Yet India’s entrepreneurial journey is at least five years behind China’s path. There’s no Jack Ma or Robin Li in sight or a big-time IPO like Youku. India lacks the entrepreneurial buzz and fast pace of China tech clusters. Indian entrepreneurship has been led by grassroots efforts, and the government hasn’t always been venture friendly.

If India is ever to break through, it needs to ditch an image as just for outsourcing or low-cost engineering and business services—a major challenge for the world leader of the booming $500 billion global outsourcing market. But India could eventually become a tech minipower and grab some of the limelight from China. Contemporary corporate centers such as Whitefield on the outskirts of Bangalore and the Gurgaon satellite city in Delhi showcase that India is rising.

See Forbes post, Nov. 27, 2011:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccafannin/2011/11/27/tech-gets-exciting-in-india-5-years-behind-china/

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PicoTube Wins Out of 11 Startups that Pitched at TechCrunch Japan 2011

TechCrunch Tokyo 2011 was held on November 29th.  Here are the eleven startups that pitched at the Startup Battle. The winner was Picotube, which won 10,000 Japanese yen as prize. There were other awards provided by the judges, and the winners were engraph, Crowsnest, and spoqa. So here we go.

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WishScope

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WishScope won an award at the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon in San Francisco.  People have different resources such as time, skill, and things, but often resources are not leveraged to their full potential. WishScope matches those in need with those who can provide for that need in close proximity.  Users must have a Facebook account and certain number of friends to join the site.

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Qiita

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Qiita is a platform for engineers to share their experience and knowledge about coding.  Many engineers are facing the same kind of problems everyday. Qiita wants to become a go-to resource for engineers. Soon after its release, Qiita has attracted 1,100 users and over 1,000 posts. English version of Qiita was released on the day of TechCrunch Japan event, aiming high to help engineers all over the world.

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PicoTube

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PicoTube is an alternative for Turntable.fm., now that Turntable.fm has blocked access from anywhere outside the United States. Users can create their own clubhouse and play  their favorite music using youtube video. They can choose their own avatar, and show their likes of the clubhouse by pressing the “awesome” button. Avatars grow as you receive more and more “awesome points.” PicoTube is at the invite-only beta phase at present.

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Sumally

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Sumally is an encyclopedia of all things. Users can Want or Have anything that they come across on the web using a bookmarklet for browsers.  Sumally already has 160,000 items, and more than 20,000 users globally. The added number of “want” and “have” clicks is over 700,000. New feature is the brand’s page which works like Facebook pages. Sumally just released its iPhone application.

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misoca

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misoca is an invoice management service targeting freelancers and small companies. Downloading PDF files, creating invoices, and sending out invoices by mail can all be done in one-stop. It currently provides a light plan which costs 210 yen per invoice, including shipping. Misoca is considering partnerships with coworking spaces to spread usage. It will introduce a premium package with more features in the future.

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engraph

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engraph is a social phone directory for Android created by a highschool student. Communication methods have changed from making a phone call or mailing to exchanging messages on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Using a user interface named “Friend Map”, user’s friends are displayed like a map by their closeness to the user. Engraph uses its own edge rank algorithm that reflects activities from different social networks.

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nana

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nana allows people to communicate with the world using music. By using iPhone as a microphone, users can record their voice and add different sounds to the original voice. There is a timeline of music, and user can pick up whatever they like made by other users and collaborate with them.  Voice effect features can be used to create more unique and fun music to share with the world.

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Minaome

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Minaome is a social gifting service that allows people to send gifts together. They can partner with different merchandisers to find gifts to sell on the website. Users can login using Facebook.

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Crowsnest

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There is too much information online, but not enough curation. Crowsnest organizes information based on people’s credibility. It analyzes all tweets on Twitter, and curates information by reflecting the interests of who you know.

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Spothon

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Spothon is an iPhone application that brings watching sports games to a whole new level.  It allows public viewing of a game from anywhere.  When watching a game, there are two different screens on Spothon. The first one is the timeline for the game, and the other allows user to see who else is watching the game by avatar. While watching a game, there are emotion icons that can be thrown into the stadium, making the atmosphere feel more alive.

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Spoqa

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Spoqa won many awards at the recently held Young Venture Summit. It is a social loyalty platform for smartphones. Seven out of eight people who use group buying services do not return to use the venue they visited. Spoqa aims to become a solution for this problem by having users give each other points for a particular venue. Users receive points by visiting a venue, and if they like the place they can recommend it to a friend by giving them points to use at the venue. The commission for Spoqa is 10%, which is very reasonable compared to the 50% discounts stores have to provide for group buying deals.

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Entrepreneurs : Define What’s Non-Negotiable. Define a Soul.

Ever wondered why companies fail (we are not talking about failure of ideas, which I believe is just a step towards finding something that works). Leaving reasons like market opportunities/competitive nature etc., one of the fundamental challenge is of companies not defining a soul to its activity.
And I am not talking about mission & vision statements, but a working version of ‘things we will do and things we will NOT do’. This is specifically important when the company scales up and you add team members who need to know ‘what not to do’ as part of organization culture.

In fact, think of these as ‘Non-negotiable clause’ put down by founding team. And nobody, not even the founders can negotiate these clauses.

For Steve Jobs, Design was non-negotiable.

When I started Pluggd.in, there were a few things I defined ‘non-negotiable’ and ensure that team member understand these. For instance:

1. We will not suck up to big companies or brands {No matter what}
Even if you are a sponsor/partner, we will respect you for the association, but that doesn’t mean that ‘you own us/own our content’.

2. We will give candid/honest feedback to startups {No matter what}.
Many startups hate this stand of ours (a general FAQ is why don’t you guys just goddamn publish the f**king readymade QnA that I sent you?), but real startups appreciate it.

3. We won’t advertise/buy Google adwords/Facebook fans.
The thing is you don’t buy conversation. You cannot buy engagement. Real sites do not buy adwords. They just do things differently [thanks for reminding, Mike]

4. We aren’t going to be anybody’s mouthpiece {No matter what}.
No-brainer, but keep your agenda to yourself.
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Come to think of it – most of the successful companies or startups have a non-negotiable clause which may not be stated on the site, but it just shows up in the service. For instance, this is what I could make of some of the successful Indian startups:

1. Flipkart: Focus on delivery/experience. Do not compromise.

2. redBus: We won’t pay bribe (it’s a no-brainer to assume that when redBus bagged few government operators as customers, they must have been asked to pay bribe by the babus out there).

Non-negotiable Clause – Why You Need it?

Because you will always be tempted to chose between greatness-delayed vs. mediocrity-delivered-instantly. You, as a founder will always have an option to take the easy way out.

It takes a momentary lapse of reason to erode the soul from your company and all you will be left with is a bag of bone that you will carry. But always remember that great companies, great startups are built with a soul. And the first step to define your soul is by stating ‘What’s non-negotiable, What’s NOT acceptable’.

That’s your DNA. That’s your character. It defines you.

Let’s do an exercise – look at some of the failed companies or failed startups (especially the ones who raised a lot of money) and try figuring out their non-negotiable clause. What was one parameter you think was non-negotiable to them? If you don‘t get an answer in 5 minutes, well..you have an answer.

Always remember that companies do not die because of market realities/lack of funds etc, but they die because of lack of focus.

Focus comes when you know where not to focus.

Related posts:

1. Of Bakra, Bakri And The 3 Deadly Weapons (In Term Sheets) That Kill Entrepreneurs
2. Art of UnLearning,the must-have trait for Entrepreneurs
3. Skill vs. Luck in Entrepreneurship: Failed entrepreneurs most likely to be successful in the second venture?
4. An Investor’s Open Letter to Indian Entrepreneurs [Please Do Your Homework]
5. Rocket Singh and Customer Experience – Few Lessons for Entrepreneurs

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Leaked Photos Suggest Tencent Prepping a Skype-Like App

Click to enlarge.

Photos of a presentation purport to show a secret, upcoming Tencent (HKG:0700) product called Free Talk, which would be a Skype-like VoiP service. From looking at the slides (pictured right; click to enlarge) it’d presumably offer free calls – using mobile data instead – between phones on different phone networks, which might be disruptive to China’s three mobile telcos. If it also enabled calls to landlines, then that’d be quite a breakthrough for a local service.

Tencent is China’s social media giant, and already has apps that allow voice and/or video communication between smartphones using GPRS or 3G data – such as a recent update to QQ instant-messenger, which added video IM on some handsets; and its Facetime-like video calling service Weishi. Pure voice calling, however, is a niche that it has not yet filled. And with hundreds of millions of China’s netizens and mobile users having QQ numbers (i.e. accounts), that’s a sure way to get some traction.

It’s not clear why Tencent would make this separate from existing services, or in what way it’d be implemented. The slides mention “iPhone,” suggesting that it might be a conventional app for iOS and probably Android as well. One possibility is for it to be built in to its upcoming Android-based iQQ phones.

The two photos in question were sauced from a Weibo user – @互联网的那点事 – who’s often a reliable source of leaks in the local tech scene.

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Mobile App Squiryl Wants To Replace Loyalty Cards in Your Wallet

Squiryl is a mobile app that digitizes loyalty cards. So instead of having a bunch of loyalty cards in your wallet, all you need is the Squiryl app.

It looks like we have reviewed similar apps to Squiryl before. But Squiryl stands out because of its slick design and user experience. It makes the stamping of cards (in its own phrasing, ‘collecting acorns’) fun. It’s a branding/design gimmick but I must admit it does help to keep users stay on the app longer.

Most importantly, Squiryl makes the effort to ensure there are different tiers of rewards available for redemption. Say you’re a regular at Fisherios Fish’n’Chips, the rewards get better as I accumulate more acorns. To me, there is some sort of gamification process going on here to motivate me to keep coming back. The more acorns I collect, the better the reward. It is unlike the typical loyalty card reward which only gives you a free treat when you accumulate 10 stamps.

If needed, I can also trade acorns with other users at the acorn marketplace.

Squiryl is free for both users and merchants for now. To adopt Squiryl, merchants do not need a POS machine or any other fancy devices. All they need is a Squiryl merchant app and a phone that scans and logs the customers’ QR code.

You can download Squiryl here (iTunes link).

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But…

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Alright, I’m done with the good words – and as with all my reviews, there are always the buts…

Squiryl may look very neat now because there are just a few merchants on board. But as the list of merchants grows, the team will face the problem of how to categorize and make them easy to find. From what I’m seeing, I think that the around! app (similar to Squiryl’s service but with LBS integration) is facing this problem.

Another thing is about the competition. I don’t think Squiryl is the only solution that helps merchants manage loyalty programs. Plus, some merchants would insist on having their own loyalty programs and some might find other solutions. To me, such an app would only be really useful if, say, 70 percent of all shops in Singapore (or any city that matters to you) is on Squiryl. I wouldn’t want to keep an app that only has 20 restaurants on board.

Squiryl may have also assumed that all merchants have (or should have) loyalty programs. Some just simply don’t want it because they know it is too much of a hassle for them and their customers to manage. I just checked my wallet and I have zero loyalty cards. I don’t tend to keep them. Perhaps that is just a man’s thing. Nonetheless, I do think that loyalty card promotion is somewhat already passé. So I must admit I do have doubts if Squiryl can make things right. Good luck to the team!

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IPA Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SOLVE) Awards Evening 2011 – 3 Dec

The IPA Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SOLVE) Award Presentation Evening is happening tomorrow. IPA SOLVE aims to appreciate the contributions made by individuals or non-government organizations whose clear vision, exceptional courage, extraordinary hard work, and innovative ideas have addressed the immediate and unmet social needs in the Indonesian community. The nomination stage was held from August to November 2011. Two keynote speakers, Tri Mumpuni of IBEKA and Budi Soehardi of Roslin Orphanage, will share their insights at the event. Further details about the program and speakers can be viewed here.

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Event Details

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When: Saturday, 3rd December 2011
Time: 430pm onward
Where: Riptaloka Ballroom, Indonesian Embassy in Singapore, 7 Chatsworth Road, Singapore 249761 (Map)
Register here.

 

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Alibaba Group: Laiwang is a Social Networking Product and is Currently Under Beta Testing

There’s already quite a lot of buzz in the Chinese media that Alibaba Group is building a social network called Laiwang. There’s a minimal page up at laiwang.com and even an Android app, but both only permit a mysterious sign-in and allow no chance to register.

No one can say for sure what Laiwang is, but a leaked screenshot (below) shows that it looks a little like… uhmm… a social network. There are folks who are speculating that it looks like Google+. But we can’t say for sure until we use and see the product ourselves.

I’ve also reached out to the folks at Alibaba Group who confirmed that Laiwang.com is indeed the company’s creation. The spokeswoman would only reveal:

It is a social-networking product and is currently under beta testing. Other than that, we don’t really have more details to share right now.

The only Laiwang screenshot available beyond the login page.

Now that makes me wonder why Alibaba Group is building a social networking product. Jack Ma and friends are not stupid so it can’t be just another Google+ clone. Perhaps Alibaba Group is looking at some kind of e-commerce 2.0, or social commerce.

But then again, Laiwang is kinda late for the social party with Sina Weibo, Qzone, and Renren having already established themselves in the Chinese social networking market. That said, each of these social platforms is focused on ads and social games, not commerce. The only ‘things’ that are sold are basically virtual credits and goods.

Okay, so no one in China has really built a social commerce platform. And I’m suspecting that Alibaba Group might be (I’m speculating) experimenting on social commerce with Laiwang.com. Alibaba Group is more commerce than social, even with its cloud-based mobile OS, Aliyun.

But if social commerce is 50 percent commerce, and 50 percent social, Alibaba already has half of it in its pocket. It only needs to figure out how to integrate social and commerce as one compelling product (more compelling that Apple’s failure with Ping, which was really just a way to make people buy more digital downloads).

So it makes sense to start Laiwang as a pet project to start learning the social business. Whether Laiwang will be a social plugin for e-commerce sites, a standalone social commerce site, or a mash-up of all other social networks is still a mystery. Again, note that I’m speculating for the fun of discussion. Let us know what you make of this move in the comments below.

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