Croak.it lets you communicate in your voice on the web

Croak.it is a freshly launched startup that lets you leave your voice all over the web – rather, allow people to communicate in their own personal voice on the web in three easy steps: Push. Speak. Share.

The service is available on iOS devices as well as Android and importantly, as an API enabling publishers to build voice based apps using the platform.

Some of the applications of Croak.it include:
1. Share your thoughts and ideas instantly in 30 seconds with your friends and family all over the world.
2. Use the API to incorporate voice on your own platform. Let your customers leave their feedback without any hassle and communicate with your customers more personally with voice.
3. Use the API to develop a plethora of voice based applications! For example – if you want to develop the Talking Tom Cat (popular mobile application) functionality, all you have to do is copy paste a two line script from our API and add a third line of code which changes the frequency of the voice returned to you.
4. It can be used by bloggers all over the world to instantly share their thoughts with their readers and viewers. It is a more personal way to connect with people who follow you.

Croak.it was conceptualized and started by Protik Roychowdhury and N. Srinivasa Teja, graduates of IIT Kharagpur, class of 2011. The third member of the team, Shefali Pathak, is a Junior at Drexel, Philadelphia.

An interesting concept – do croak and share your suggestion/feedback with the team.

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William Henley, geek and investment banker, highlights the biggest mistakes companies entering Indonesia make

William Henley, Founder of Tapestrix (right) with e27 Editor, Joash Wee (middle) and Richerd Chan, Hootsuite ex-Mobile Developer (left)

William Henley is a computer geek and investment banker rolled into one. After leaving corporate investment banking world in 2010, William established IndoSterling Group in 2011 as an investment holding company, actively investing in technology, digital media as well as in the consumer goods sector. William founded Otopedia.com, a prominent automotive portal in Indonesia, and  Tapestrix (TPX), a customizable, white-label social media platform for communities, corporates & brand owners.

William’s direct & blunt style of writing about Indonesian technology sector has earned him the nickname “Dr. Doom”. And all he has to say about this is, “I am just being realistic.” “Dr Doom” will be part of the panel discussing on Rise of the Emerging Markets at Echelon 2012.

Share with us your experience from your corporate, startup and also investor background.

I have more than 15 years of experience in the financial/capital market sector. I actually have a relatively strong footing in the IT sector, mainly because I used to be a tech-buff during high school. I started teaching programming in high school. Despite my early start in tech, I actually graduated from university with a degree in banking and finance and have spent most of my career in the financial/capital market sector. I started my own investment company after leaving corporate sector in 2010. The technology sector is one of the sectors I have invested in. I also invest in digital media, financial services and consumer sector.

What do you think is the biggest mistake that companies entering Indonesia make in the assumption of the local market?

I think a lot of investors are not familiar with the notion that Indonesia is one huge market that is segmented across an expansive archipelago. A lot of investors look at Indonesia as a market that can be easily penetrated. This kind of mindset / assumptions can become a very costly mistake as it takes a lot of money to conduct effective marketing activities in Indonesia.

William Henley (Founder of Tapestrix) right

When looking to expanding into Indonesia, what key points should companies look out for?

I think companies need to be fully aware of how infrastructures in Indonesia are different from other countries. A lot of things which are taken for granted in Singapore, have not gotten good traction in Indonesia. For instance: robust payment system, logistic infrastructure, broadband internet, etc.

How have you seen the Indonesia startup community mature over the years and what is still needed to continue the growth?

Indonesia startup community is still in its infancy. A lot of things have to take place before it can mature. The community needs to understand that there is no such thing as a quick fix to grow the start-up ecosystem. Things have to evolve gradually, and there is a lengthy process involved. For example, for the financial ecosystem to mature, we need to have an environment where investors can find an exit for their investments. IPO is one of the most sought after exit strategy, but in Indonesia, it is unrealistic for a tech start-up to get listed in the local stock exchange due to existing listing restrictions.

William Henley (Founder of Tapestrix) is one of the awesome speakers at Echelon 2012. This tech conference is a two-day, double-track event on 11 and 12 June 2012 with over 1,100 delegates, a demo pit of up to 50 regional startups per day and various workshops. Get your tickets now!

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William Henley, geek and investment banker, highlights the biggest mistakes companies entering Indonesia make

William Henley, Founder of Tapestrix (right) with e27 Editor, Joash Wee (middle) and Richerd Chan, Hootsuite ex-Mobile Developer (left)

William Henley is a computer geek and investment banker rolled into one. After leaving corporate investment banking world in 2010, William established IndoSterling Group in 2011 as an investment holding company, actively investing in technology, digital media as well as in the consumer goods sector. William founded Otopedia.com, a prominent automotive portal in Indonesia, and  Tapestrix (TPX), a customizable, white-label social media platform for communities, corporates & brand owners.

William’s direct & blunt style of writing about Indonesian technology sector has earned him the nickname “Dr. Doom”. And all he has to say about this is, “I am just being realistic.” “Dr Doom” will be part of the panel discussing on Rise of the Emerging Markets at Echelon 2012.

Share with us your experience from your corporate, startup and also investor background.

I have more than 15 years of experience in the financial/capital market sector. I actually have a relatively strong footing in the IT sector, mainly because I used to be a tech-buff during high school. I started teaching programming in high school. Despite my early start in tech, I actually graduated from university with a degree in banking and finance and have spent most of my career in the financial/capital market sector. I started my own investment company after leaving corporate sector in 2010. The technology sector is one of the sectors I have invested in. I also invest in digital media, financial services and consumer sector.

What do you think is the biggest mistake that companies entering Indonesia make in the assumption of the local market?

I think a lot of investors are not familiar with the notion that Indonesia is one huge market that is segmented across an expansive archipelago. A lot of investors look at Indonesia as a market that can be easily penetrated. This kind of mindset / assumptions can become a very costly mistake as it takes a lot of money to conduct effective marketing activities in Indonesia.

William Henley (Founder of Tapestrix) right

When looking to expanding into Indonesia, what key points should companies look out for?

I think companies need to be fully aware of how infrastructures in Indonesia are different from other countries. A lot of things which are taken for granted in Singapore, have not gotten good traction in Indonesia. For instance: robust payment system, logistic infrastructure, broadband internet, etc.

How have you seen the Indonesia startup community mature over the years and what is still needed to continue the growth?

Indonesia startup community is still in its infancy. A lot of things have to take place before it can mature. The community needs to understand that there is no such thing as a quick fix to grow the start-up ecosystem. Things have to evolve gradually, and there is a lengthy process involved. For example, for the financial ecosystem to mature, we need to have an environment where investors can find an exit for their investments. IPO is one of the most sought after exit strategy, but in Indonesia, it is unrealistic for a tech start-up to get listed in the local stock exchange due to existing listing restrictions.

William Henley (Founder of Tapestrix) is one of the awesome speakers at Echelon 2012. This tech conference is a two-day, double-track event on 11 and 12 June 2012 with over 1,100 delegates, a demo pit of up to 50 regional startups per day and various workshops. Get your tickets now!

Link to full article

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Panasonic To Sell Nanoe TV, Which Inhibits Mold And Odor

Panasonic announced that they would ship a new TV of its Viera series. This CF5, which is planned to be sold late June has a Nanoe generator, which converts water into Nanoe Ion wrapped in water molecules. Panasonic claims that the ion suppresses fungi, mites and pollen, removes odor and realizes “Uruoi Bihada Kuukan”, which means “moist beautiful-skin field” in Japanese.

Having been pressured for years by plain-vanilla inexpensive TV from other Asian countries, Japanese TV vendors seem to lose ideas how to differentiate their rather expensive products by what features they add. And from US, there are new generation TV experiences coming which do not care hardware features but software integration over the Internet.

via AV Watch

See Also:

Ion power: chant the mantra: minus ions good—positive ions bad—minus ions very, very good for business – minus ion equipment

Panasonic To Sell Nanoe TV, Which Inhibits Mold And Odor

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In Singapore for Echelon 2012? Check out these cool events happening in the same week

It is less than two weeks to the Asia’s leading tech event of the year, Echelon 2012. Over here at e27, our team is busy making some final touches to make this event an awesome one. If you are specially flying in for the event, we’ve compiled a list of other events that is happening during the Echelon week to make your stay in Singapore an even more fulfilling one.

Pycon Asia Pacific (7- 9 June 2012)

PyCon Asia Pacific 2012 represents the third edition of the premier conference dedicated to the Python programming language in the Asia Pacific region. It is an independent, community-run, community-controlled and not-for-profit conference, serving as a perfect platform for Python enthusiast throughout Asia-Pacific countries to come together to meet with fellow Python users.

Photo: Irish Feminist Network

SuperHappyDevHouse SG #2 (9- 10 June 2012)

SHDH.SG is back! And David Weekly, SHDH’s original co-founder will be at the event.

SuperHappyDevHouse (SHDH) started in Silicon Valley in 2005. The name conveys two ideas; first that this is a ‘Development House’ where technical developers will come together to build fun projects and presents them. Secondly, the social event would be a definite time of merry making and casual networking.

ad:tech Singapore (13- 14 June 2012)

Asia’s premier digital marketing conference and exhibition. Themed “Driving Asia’s Digital Development,” the conference will feature six comprehensive tracks, seven keynotes and 36 breakout sessions. The fifth edition of ad:tech Singapore will be held on June 13 and 14 at Suntec International Convention & Exhibition Centre

EduCamp Singapore- EduCampSG4 (15 June 2012)

Educamps are informal meetups where people interested in various aspects of learning and education come and share their projects, ideas and findings. There are no invited speakers or pre-scheduled topics. The topics are decided via participant’s votes at the venue. The idea is to learn from each other’s experiences.

Educamp Singapore is organized by local teachers and education professionals from local schools and organisations. The event is free-of-charge.

iOS Dev Scout : Hackathon 2012 (16- 17 June 2012)

iOS Dev Scout Hackthon 2012 is a non-­profit developer event for iOS developers, encouraging development using native iOS SDK. The event format is “unconference” or Barcamp-­?style, featuring content from the participants themselves.

This will be a 24 hours event (overnight Hackathon) whereby participant will pitch their ideas, form team and build a working prototype or application. There will be rapid-start session at the beginning of the sessions to help developers get started with few tools and frameworks. The Hackathon will start on Saturday morning and end on Sunday morning with final demonstrations.

Time: 9am, 16 June 2012- 10.30am, 17 June 2012

Venue: Plug-In@Blk71. 71 Ayer Rajah Crescent, #02-18 Singapore 139951

Be sure to mark these dates on your calendar!

Link to full article

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In Singapore for Echelon 2012? Check out these cool events happening in the same week

It is less than two weeks to the Asia’s leading tech event of the year, Echelon 2012. Over here at e27, our team is busy making some final touches to make this event an awesome one. If you are specially flying in for the event, we’ve compiled a list of other events that is happening during the Echelon week to make your stay in Singapore an even more fulfilling one.

Pycon Asia Pacific (7- 9 June 2012)

PyCon Asia Pacific 2012 represents the third edition of the premier conference dedicated to the Python programming language in the Asia Pacific region. It is an independent, community-run, community-controlled and not-for-profit conference, serving as a perfect platform for Python enthusiast throughout Asia-Pacific countries to come together to meet with fellow Python users.

Photo: Irish Feminist Network

SuperHappyDevHouse SG #2 (9- 10 June 2012)

SHDH.SG is back! And David Weekly, SHDH’s original co-founder will be at the event.

SuperHappyDevHouse (SHDH) started in Silicon Valley in 2005. The name conveys two ideas; first that this is a ‘Development House’ where technical developers will come together to build fun projects and presents them. Secondly, the social event would be a definite time of merry making and casual networking.

ad:tech Singapore (13- 14 June 2012)

Asia’s premier digital marketing conference and exhibition. Themed “Driving Asia’s Digital Development,” the conference will feature six comprehensive tracks, seven keynotes and 36 breakout sessions. The fifth edition of ad:tech Singapore will be held on June 13 and 14 at Suntec International Convention & Exhibition Centre

EduCamp Singapore- EduCampSG4 (15 June 2012)

Educamps are informal meetups where people interested in various aspects of learning and education come and share their projects, ideas and findings. There are no invited speakers or pre-scheduled topics. The topics are decided via participant’s votes at the venue. The idea is to learn from each other’s experiences.

Educamp Singapore is organized by local teachers and education professionals from local schools and organisations. The event is free-of-charge.

iOS Dev Scout : Hackathon 2012 (16- 17 June 2012)

iOS Dev Scout Hackthon 2012 is a non-­profit developer event for iOS developers, encouraging development using native iOS SDK. The event format is “unconference” or Barcamp-­?style, featuring content from the participants themselves.

This will be a 24 hours event (overnight Hackathon) whereby participant will pitch their ideas, form team and build a working prototype or application. There will be rapid-start session at the beginning of the sessions to help developers get started with few tools and frameworks. The Hackathon will start on Saturday morning and end on Sunday morning with final demonstrations.

Time: 9am, 16 June 2012- 10.30am, 17 June 2012

Venue: Plug-In@Blk71. 71 Ayer Rajah Crescent, #02-18 Singapore 139951

Be sure to mark these dates on your calendar!

Link to full article

Read More

In Singapore for Echelon 2012? Check out these cool events happening on the same week

It is less than two weeks to the Asia’s leading tech event of the year, Echelon 2012. Over here at e27, our team is busy making some final touches to make this event an awesome one. If you are specially flying in for the event, we’ve compiled a list of other events that is happening during the Echelon week to make your stay in Singapore an even more fulfilling one.

Pycon Asia Pacific (7- 9 June 2012)

PyCon Asia Pacific 2012 represents the third edition of the premier conference dedicated to the Python programming language in the Asia Pacific region. It is an independent, community-run, community-controlled and not-for-profit conference, serving as a perfect platform for Python enthusiast throughout Asia-Pacific countries to come together to meet with fellow Python users.

Photo: Irish Feminist Network

SuperHappyDevHouse SG #2 (9- 10 June 2012)

SHDH.SG is back! And David Weekly, SHDH’s original co-founder will be at the event.

SuperHappyDevHouse (SHDH) started in Silicon Valley in 2005. The name conveys two ideas; first that this is a ‘Development House’ where technical developers will come together to build fun projects and presents them. Secondly, the social event would be a definite time of merry making and casual networking.

ad:tech Singapore (13- 14 June 2012)

Asia’s premier digital marketing conference and exhibition. Themed “Driving Asia’s Digital Development,” the conference will feature six comprehensive tracks, seven keynotes and 36 breakout sessions. The fifth edition of ad:tech Singapore will be held on June 13 and 14 at Suntec International Convention & Exhibition Centre

EduCamp Singapore- EduCampSG4 (15 June 2012)

Educamps are informal meetups where people interested in various aspects of learning and education come and share their projects, ideas and findings. There are no invited speakers or pre-scheduled topics. The topics are decided via participant’s votes at the venue. The idea is to learn from each other’s experiences.

Educamp Singapore is organized by local teachers and education professionals from local schools and organisations. The event is free-of-charge.

iOS Dev Scout : Hackathon 2012 (16- 17 June 2012)

iOS Dev Scout Hackthon 2012 is a non-­profit developer event for iOS developers, encouraging development using native iOS SDK. The event format is “unconference” or Barcamp-­?style, featuring content from the participants themselves.

This will be a 24 hours event (overnight Hackathon) whereby participant will pitch their ideas, form team and build a working prototype or application. There will be rapid-start session at the beginning of the sessions to help developers get started with few tools and frameworks. The Hackathon will start on Saturday morning and end on Sunday morning with final demonstrations.

Time: 9am, 16 June 2012- 10.30am, 17 June 2012

Venue: Plug-In@Blk71. 71 Ayer Rajah Crescent, #02-18 Singapore 139951

Be sure to mark these dates on your calendar!

Link to full article

Read More

“Men want women to be in tech, women want to be in tech,” says Firodia, MD of Girls in Tech SG

Sucheta Firodia, MD of GIT Singapore Photo: Sucheta

Girls in Tech (GIT) Singapore recently held its inaugural D+D (Design and Development) day, a one day workshop and keynote event that saw a great turnout of over 140 attendees. What surprised me  most was the overwhelming male attendance (close to 50%) at the event.

At the event, I interviewed the newly elected Managing Director of Girls in Tech Singapore, Sucheta Firodia, to find out more about their plans ahead.

On GIT Singapore’s upcoming plans: Sucheta commented that GIT Singapore will not only be a platform for enablers, but also the doers. With a greater emphasis on being more hands-on, more interactive workshops, networking events and meetups are in the working. The team is looking at making their events to one that is more interactive and where attendees can apply what they learn.

She further adds on that these days, everybody is involved in the technology scene and information are exchanging at rate that is too fast to keep up with.

“The tech scene is no longer just for software developers. Everybody needs to know how things work and apply it.”

This spells great opportunity for GIT Singapore as this gives them a chance to do different events. Some events to expect in 2012 include gaming workshops and startup bootcamp, a three months intensive entrepreneurship program for young, aspiring women entrepreneurs to learn how to design, validate, and develop their business ideas.

The Girls in Tech Singapore team Photo: Sucheta

Outside collaborations with Girls in Tech Singapore. Sucheta mentioned that there has been a few companies that have approached GIT to look for people (e.g. women engineers) to recruit. GIT might be tying up with some of these companies to do a recruiting cum informative event to learn more about companies in the industry.

They are also hoping to tap on and get more involved in the tech community in Singapore. There has been interest from quite a few organisations. These companies from the cloud computing, networking, semi-conductors,  interesting startups and incubators space want to see more women entrepreneurs.

Are events open to females only?

“I hope that just because Girls in Tech is organising, there will be more women who will come and be part of it. There is a motivation. Some will be just for women, most of it will be open to all.  After all, men want women to be in tech. Women want to be in tech. It’s a win-win situation”

Most events are open to all. Sucheta adds on that both guys and girls in tech need to help each other.

Is it difficult to get guys to join an event that is organized by females? Sucheta does not  think this matters to the guys. In fact, they are actually happy to have a channel to discuss their passion. Making reference to Sheryl sandberg’s recent commencement speech at Havard University, there should be a time when there are enough women,  50% working in tech and 50% helping out at home. This balances out what men and women do .

More about the new Managing Director. Sucheta has a working experience of more than 15 years in the tech scene, in New York, Silicon Valley, Israel, Bangalore and Singapore. She currently does executive coaching at Inner edge and business mentoring at Singapore Management University (SMU). No longer coding for work, this tech and geek girl now leaves that for her hobbies.

Link to full article

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“Men want women to be in tech, women want to be in tech,” says Firodia, MD of Girls in Tech SG

Sucheta Firodia, MD of GIT Singapore Photo: Sucheta

Girls in Tech (GIT) Singapore recently held its inaugural D+D (Design and Development) day, a one day workshop and keynote event that saw a great turnout of over 140 attendees. What surprised me  most was the overwhelming male attendance (close to 50%) at the event.

At the event, I interviewed the newly elected Managing Director of Girls in Tech Singapore, Sucheta Firodia, to find out more about their plans ahead.

On GIT Singapore’s upcoming plans: Sucheta commented that GIT Singapore will not only be a platform for enablers, but also the doers. With a greater emphasis on being more hands-on, more interactive workshops, networking events and meetups are in the working. The team is looking at making their events to one that is more interactive and where attendees can apply what they learn.

She further adds on that these days, everybody is involved in the technology scene and information are exchanging at rate that is too fast to keep up with.

“The tech scene is no longer just for software developers. Everybody needs to know how things work and apply it.”

This spells great opportunity for GIT Singapore as this gives them a chance to do different events. Some events to expect in 2012 include gaming workshops and startup bootcamp, a three months intensive entrepreneurship program for young, aspiring women entrepreneurs to learn how to design, validate, and develop their business ideas.

The Girls in Tech Singapore team Photo: Sucheta

Outside collaborations with Girls in Tech Singapore. Sucheta mentioned that there has been a few companies that have approached GIT to look for people (e.g. women engineers) to recruit. GIT might be tying up with some of these companies to do a recruiting cum informative event to learn more about companies in the industry.

They are also hoping to tap on and get more involved in the tech community in Singapore. There has been interest from quite a few organisations. These companies from the cloud computing, networking, semi-conductors,  interesting startups and incubators space want to see more women entrepreneurs.

Are events open to females only?

“I hope that just because Girls in Tech is organising, there will be more women who will come and be part of it. There is a motivation. Some will be just for women, most of it will be open to all.  After all, men want women to be in tech. Women want to be in tech. It’s a win-win situation”

Most events are open to all. Sucheta adds on that both guys and girls in tech need to help each other.

Is it difficult to get guys to join an event that is organized by females? Sucheta does not  think this matters to the guys. In fact, they are actually happy to have a channel to discuss their passion. Making reference to Sheryl sandberg’s recent commencement speech at Havard University, there should be a time when there are enough women,  50% working in tech and 50% helping out at home. This balances out what men and women do .

More about the new Managing Director. Sucheta has a working experience of more than 15 years in the tech scene, in New York, Silicon Valley, Israel, Bangalore and Singapore. She currently does executive coaching at Inner edge and business mentoring at Singapore Management University (SMU). No longer coding for work, this tech and geek girl now leaves that for her hobbies.

Link to full article

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Redmart changing online grocery shopping with their market disruptive model

A personal experience of inconvenient online groceries purchase spurred Co-founders, Roger Egan, Vikram Rupani and Rajesh Lingappa to create a more efficient online marketplace for groceries and household essentials called Redmart.

Starting off as a program to simply improve his business skills, it slowly transformed into a business opportunity.

I got in touch with CEO & C0-founder of Redmart, Roger to find out more about this market disruptive company.

The beginnings of Redmart. In 2010, then MBA students at INSEAD, Roger and Vikram were extremely busy and wanted to save time by ordering their home essentials online. They found the online grocery shopping experience in Singapore was terrible as compared to what they had in New York City. With this personal pain point in mind, they thought that other people might also value their time and are looking for a more reliable service. And so, the idea of Redmart was conceived.

Photo: Redmart.com

With no experience in e-commerce or retail, the founders bravely ventured into the unfamiliar market, with the help of experienced advisors in the industry. The team believed that their fresh perspective offers an advantage in an industry that has seen little innovation for quite some time.

Roger adds on that scaling an e-commerce business, especially for groceries, is not easy. The team was fortunate to have a team of experienced advisors to help with  their business. Their advisors have all successfully scaled their businesses and offer experience that very few people in the world have.

Operations (logistics and warehouse management) is the crux of our business. Two of their advisors have built their bleeding edge, proprietary logistics platforms from scratch. These platforms are the envy of the e-commerce world.

Toivo Annus, Skype Co-founder, has been especially helpful and committed to RedMart’s success. Not only has his advice been 100% on point, he has connected us to many very helpful partners and investors. We are very grateful to have such helpful advisors that are truly passionate about RedMart’s success.

The Founders with their Redmart delivery van. Photo: Roger Egan

The founders believe in giving autonomy to people. While the team collaborates closely, there is too much work to worry about what the other is doing.

“We hire people that we can trust to get the job done and believe in giving people as much autonomy as they can handle. There is no fear of failure at RedMart. We believe that mistakes are ok and learning by doing is the only way.”

Roger believes that Redmart’s market disruptive business model will be better for consumers in the long run. Redmart has some big, powerful competitors. However, they believe  that their Direct-to-Consumer model offers certain sustainable competitive advantages that will enable tjem to compete with the big boys, even with much less resources. The team aims to use innovative technology, data analytics, and more efficient order fulfillment to stay ahead of the competition.

Another edge that Redmart has over some of its competitors is their strong relationships with large manufacturers and the support they are providing to help protect the company from any negative reactions from  large retailers.
At Echelon 2012 Startup Marketplace: We’ll be raising a Series A round soon and are looking to meet investors with e-commerce experience that can help us scale our business.

Redmart will be exhibiting at Echelon 2012 Startup Marketplace. The team pitched their product at the Singapore Satellite in April.

Link to full article

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Redmart changing online grocery shopping with their market disruptive model

A personal experience of inconvenient online groceries purchase spurred Co-founders, Roger Egan, Vikram Rupani and Rajesh Lingappa to create a more efficient online marketplace for groceries and household essentials called Redmart.

Starting off as a program to simply improve his business skills, it slowly transformed into a business opportunity.

I got in touch with CEO & C0-founder of Redmart, Roger to find out more about this market disruptive company.

The beginnings of Redmart. In 2010, then MBA students at INSEAD, Roger and Vikram were extremely busy and wanted to save time by ordering their home essentials online. They found the online grocery shopping experience in Singapore was terrible as compared to what they had in New York City. With this personal pain point in mind, they thought that other people might also value their time and are looking for a more reliable service. And so, the idea of Redmart was conceived.

Photo: Redmart.com

With no experience in e-commerce or retail, the founders bravely ventured into the unfamiliar market, with the help of experienced advisors in the industry. The team believed that their fresh perspective offers an advantage in an industry that has seen little innovation for quite some time.

Roger adds on that scaling an e-commerce business, especially for groceries, is not easy. The team was fortunate to have a team of experienced advisors to help with  their business. Their advisors have all successfully scaled their businesses and offer experience that very few people in the world have.

Operations (logistics and warehouse management) is the crux of our business. Two of their advisors have built their bleeding edge, proprietary logistics platforms from scratch. These platforms are the envy of the e-commerce world.

Toivo Annus, Skype Co-founder, has been especially helpful and committed to RedMart’s success. Not only has his advice been 100% on point, he has connected us to many very helpful partners and investors. We are very grateful to have such helpful advisors that are truly passionate about RedMart’s success.

The Founders with their Redmart delivery van. Photo: Roger Egan

The founders believe in giving autonomy to people. While the team collaborates closely, there is too much work to worry about what the other is doing.

“We hire people that we can trust to get the job done and believe in giving people as much autonomy as they can handle. There is no fear of failure at RedMart. We believe that mistakes are ok and learning by doing is the only way.”

Roger believes that Redmart’s market disruptive business model will be better for consumers in the long run. Redmart has some big, powerful competitors. However, they believe  that their Direct-to-Consumer model offers certain sustainable competitive advantages that will enable tjem to compete with the big boys, even with much less resources. The team aims to use innovative technology, data analytics, and more efficient order fulfillment to stay ahead of the competition.

Another edge that Redmart has over some of its competitors is their strong relationships with large manufacturers and the support they are providing to help protect the company from any negative reactions from  large retailers.
At Echelon 2012 Startup Marketplace: We’ll be raising a Series A round soon and are looking to meet investors with e-commerce experience that can help us scale our business.

Redmart will be exhibiting at Echelon 2012 Startup Marketplace. The team pitched their product at the Singapore Satellite in April.

Link to full article

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Squiryl, mobile social loyalty platform, launches BlackBerry app to penetrate Indonesian market

In an interview with Squiryl last month, Co-founder Mulyadi Syariffudin shared about their plans to expand into the Indonesian market in June. Today, the team has launched their BlackBerry mobile app and is all set to target Indonesian merchants and customers alike.

e27 caught up with Mulyadi to find out more on their plans in Indonesia.

What were some of the issues faced when entering into the Indonesian market?

We were faced with such as skillsets needed on the BlackBerry platform.

For example, while it already was hard enough to get a good BlackBerry developer, to get a good BlackBerry UI designer was almost impossible. The other main issues would be the market readiness. While Indonesia has a considerable market penetration for smart phones, a lot of these users do not really have subscriptions to data plans.

The Squiryl Team

However, even though it is still too early to tell, we are already seeing signs from report about the Indonesian market being more social and that they embrace technology and startups more readily. Whether on the user or merchant level, and we’re hoping this would bode well for Squiryl.

How are you  planning to market Squiryl to the Indonesian market?

We have started our team in Indonesia and are currently already talking to a few merchants. For Indonesia, we are going to be much more aggressive from the get go. This is due to the fact that the market is much bigger, while the overhead related to manpower is much lower.

How has traction been like for the iPhone app?

We have been seeing slow but steady growth. Our download numbers has just passed 15,000 and the active users are just slightly below 6,000. However, as we all know with all startups it is always a chicken and egg question. So with bigger merchants coming onboard, we will naturally see more users and usage. We are in the phase of finalizing with a few name chain brands. Hopefully, with their coming on board, the users will increase as well.

Link to full article

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Squiryl, mobile social loyalty platform, launches BlackBerry app to penetrate Indonesian market

In an interview with Squiryl last month, Co-founder Mulyadi Syariffudin shared about their plans to expand into the Indonesian market in June. Today, the team has launched their BlackBerry mobile app and is all set to target Indonesian merchants and customers alike.

e27 caught up with Mulyadi to find out more on their plans in Indonesia.

What were some of the issues faced when entering into the Indonesian market?

We were faced with such as skillsets needed on the BlackBerry platform.

For example, while it already was hard enough to get a good BlackBerry developer, to get a good BlackBerry UI designer was almost impossible. The other main issues would be the market readiness. While Indonesia has a considerable market penetration for smart phones, a lot of these users do not really have subscriptions to data plans.

The Squiryl Team

However, even though it is still too early to tell, we are already seeing signs from report about the Indonesian market being more social and that they embrace technology and startups more readily. Whether on the user or merchant level, and we’re hoping this would bode well for Squiryl.

How are you  planning to market Squiryl to the Indonesian market?

We have started our team in Indonesia and are currently already talking to a few merchants. For Indonesia, we are going to be much more aggressive from the get go. This is due to the fact that the market is much bigger, while the overhead related to manpower is much lower.

How has traction been like for the iPhone app?

We have been seeing slow but steady growth. Our download numbers has just passed 15,000 and the active users are just slightly below 6,000. However, as we all know with all startups it is always a chicken and egg question. So with bigger merchants coming onboard, we will naturally see more users and usage. We are in the phase of finalizing with a few name chain brands. Hopefully, with their coming on board, the users will increase as well.

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Silicon Dragon Entrepreneur of Beijing Award Goes to Borqs CEO Pat Chan

Congratulations to Pat Chan (left) of Borqs for winning this year's Silicon Dragon Entrepreneur of Beijing Award. News of the award was retweeted by Intel Capital to its more than 7,000 followers on Twitter.
Here's the press release, from PR Newswire:
Borqs International Holding Corp (Borqs), a leading global end-to-end Android+ and Cloud software solutions provider, recently announced that company CEO and President Mr. Pat Chan was honored as the recipient of the 2012 Silicon Dragon Entrepreneur OF BEIJING Award. Speaking at the awards ceremony on May 31 in Beijing, Mr. Chan shared his entrepreneurial experiences and Borqs' development story with other entrepreneurs from well-known mobile internet enterprises including Renren, Innovation Works, Dangdang and Yesky. Mr. Chan also highlighted Borqs' expanded global market development strategy. The award not only acknowledges Mr. Chan's personal entrepreneurship, but also reflects Borqs' numerous achievements in mobile internet Android+ software and services platform solutions in recent years.
Accepting the award, Mr. Chan said: "I want to express my thanks to Silicon Dragon for awarding this honor to me and my team. This is proof of Borqs' successes in the five years since we began in 2007 and the recognition we have received from the Silicon Dragon judges and some of the technology industry's most senior and respected individuals. Through five years of active exploration and practice in the mobile internet field, Borqs has accumulated a great deal of experience in providing Android+ software platform and service platform solutions for mobile internet while maintaining a healthy growth rate. Looking to the future, Borqs will continue to uphold its commitment to its customers around the world. We mean to become a representative for creativity and openness in the mobile internet industry, and Borqs will continue to leverage the innovative abilities of our outstanding staff of technical professionals to spur development throughout the industry."
We are very pleased to see Mr. Chan and his dynamic team continue with great strides in developing innovative solutions to further drive growth and openness in this industry," said David Xu (center, photo), Partner, KPMG China, the audit, tax and advisory services firm that sponsors the Silicon Dragon award series.
Mr. Chan, one of Borqs' founding members, has also been honored to receive the High-Caliber Talent from Overseas Award from both the national and the Beijing governments. Mr. Chan has brought over 20 years of executive-level experience in wireless communication and the information and ICT sector to Borqs. With Mr. Chan's guidance, Borqs has leveraged its strength in innovation and R&D to make a series of landmark achievements in the Chinese market. Internationally Borqs has established partnerships with operators in the US, the Asia Pacific region, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Borqs has entered into strategic alliances with the world's leading OEM manufacturers and chip vendors to provide commercialized Android+ software solutions. Under the guidance of its richly experienced management team, Borqs will continue to provide its customers with superior user experiences supported by scalable, stable and advanced back-end technologies.
About the Silicon Dragon Entrepreneurs Award
Winners of the Silicon Dragon Entrepreneur Award must meet the following criteria for selection:
"Must haves"

• An innovative product or service in a tech or related area: mobile communications, e-commerce, social networking, Internet, online games, cloud computing, outsourcing, cleantech and healthcare
• A dynamic, passionate CEO/founder with some international company experience and/or education at a top university
• A high-caliber management team with fully staffed positions for CTO, CFO, Sales and other top executive posts
• Raised at least one round of venture capital from a prominent firm
• Reported fast growth at least two years in a row for startup or emerging company
• A market leader, with sizeable market share that can be documented by an outside industry source
• Profitable or on a quick path to profitability
• A highly qualified board of directors from the industry
• English-language fluency
• A surprise factor such as a major milestone or accomplishment that seemed impossible

Rebecca A. Fannin, the well-known journalist and author of "Silicon Dragon", established the award in 2010 through the news, events and thought leadership group she leads, Silicon Dragon Ventures. "The award aims to showcase the latest developments in Asian entrepreneurship and encourage the continued growth of an innovation ecosystem in the region through sharing best practices," Ms. Fannin said At Silicon Dragon events held in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and key innovation hubs, founders, investors and leaders of companies from key industries such as venture capital, IT and social networking are invited to share their experiences and entrepreneurial spirit.

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Japan’s GREE Gears Up For E3, After a Shaky Month at Home

GREE, Tokyo Game Show

Our readers may recall that last year’s Tokyo Game Show was a coming out party of sorts for GREE (TYO:3632), as the company turned more than a few heads with its gigantic floor display. Now that E3 is just around the corner (June 5 to 7), and GREE has just announced what they’ll be showing off at the show.

GREE will be in the South Exhibit Hall showing off a variety of social mobile games and its new GREE global platform. Among the yet-to-be-released games that it will be exhibiting are Driland, a card battle game; Wacky Motors, a car racing title; Closet Wars, a fashion game from Crowdstar; a Resident Evil title from Capcom; and Gang Domination.

GREE has been making progress in its effort to break into the North American market, after doing so well initially in Japan. Its global gaming platform just went into open beta, and its first North American title Zombie Jombie recently cracked the one million downloads mark. Perhaps most notable of all in recent months was the company’s $210 million acquisition of San Francisco-based game developer Funzio one month ago.

But of course, as you probably have heard by now all is not entirely rosy for GREE and other Japanese social gaming companies these days, with government regulation of ‘kompu gatcha’ at home in Japan throwing its stock for a loop, as our friend Serkan Toto has explained here.

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