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JAN - APR 2014 MCI (P) 173/02/2014
A spark is in many ways, a magical mysterious occurrence. Often taken for granted, the spark gives life to a flame, which can lead to roaring fires. In much the same way, NUS Enterprise sparks the fires of entrepreneurship. The flames are held by NUS students through entrepreneurship internship programmes in Singapore and around the world. Fires are also stoked in scientific researchers, through commercialisation of their discoveries. Finally, would-be entrepreneurs are given fuel with an environment and runway to achieve their business dreams. Our networking events, workshops and events constantly strive towards keeping the fires of entrepreneurship alive in the community. We hope you enjoy this first edition of SPARKS. May it ignite and feed your entrepreneurial dreams and passions!
02 Partnering DBS for a social cause
03 Global Startups Create Peace and Profits
04 Up Close and Personal with Steve Blank 05 Lessons from Brian Chesky
06 Sealing Research Collaborations with Industry
07 Internship Insights From Israel
08 Flash Forward
08 Useful Tinder
02
SPARKS interest with the latest in the start-up and entrepreneur scene within our community.
Red Hot
PARTNERING DBS FOR A SOCIAL CAUSE A NEW INITIATIVE OFFERING RECOGNITION AND SUPPORT FOR SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN SINGAPORE AND ASIA
For National University of Singapore (NUS) alumnus Fairoz Ahmad, it was a feeling that some things in this world were not quite ‘right’ that prompted him to take action. Seeing the existence of poverty despite significant aid efforts, he knew that a fresh approach would be required to empower the very people receiving aid. Together with co-founders Angela Sujadi and Gloria Arlini, Fairoz started Nusantara Development Initiatives (NDI). This social venture empowers rural women in Indonesia to become entrepreneurs by marketing and selling solar-powered lamps to the community. The women who have graduated from NDI’s entrepreneurship programme are known as ‘Mothers of Light’. In addition to earning a side income, these women are at the forefront of the fight against poverty, where as many as 40% of families do not have access to electricity. As of August 2013, NDI’s Mothers of Light have sold over 2,000 solar lamps across 30 communities in rural Indonesia. To support social entrepreneurs like Angela, Fairoz and Gloria, who wish to do well in business, and more importantly to do good for society, NUS Enterprise and DBS Bank have launched a new initiative – the DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia. This is a regional start-up competition that aims to raise awareness and build a culture of social entrepreneurship in Asia. The competition will be open to the public and participants from the region. NUS Enterprise serves as the organiser of the competition, including setting up the judging panel, marketing the competition to regional Universities, sourcing for mentors and managing outreach events. As a partner, DBS has committed $500,000 to support the Social Venture Challenge Asia over the next three years. DBS is mentoring the teams and will also assist with the marketing of the competition. From September 2013 to June 2014, participants will benefit from a structured learning platform to equip them with
the knowledge and skills to start a social venture. This includes networking events where they can meet potential partners and investors, mentorship sessions by experienced social entrepreneurs, and workshops to provide hands-on learning. Other events such as public talks and visits to social ventures will help to boost public education in the area of social entrepreneurship. The DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia will culminate in June 2014, with the finals and awards ceremony. “NUS has built up a wealth of experience, industry connections and international networks in the area of social entrepreneurship. This is a valuable resource for budding social entrepreneurs who need assistance in growing their social venture. Through the DBSNUS Social Venture Challenge Asia, we offer a structured and holistic approach to support social entrepreneurship. This will allow NUS and DBS to jointly influence and inspire social entrepreneurs, making a significant impact on the social innovation scene across Asia,” explained Professor Wong Poh Kam, Director, NUS Entrepreneurship Centre. “Through this collaboration with the National University of Singapore, we hope to raise greater awareness of how businesses can indeed create social impact. In the coming months, we will tap into our network to encourage and facilitate participation in the DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge from budding social entrepreneurs in Singapore and all around the region. As a leading Asian bank, DBS is committed to being a force for good in the communities we operate in and we believe that social enterprises can provide inclusive and innovative solutions in a fast-growing Asia,” said Karen Ngui, Group Head of Strategic Marketing & Communications, DBS Bank. ✦
During Social Venture Week 2013, an Impact Career Mini-Fair was organised. Five company leaders, who are pioneering impactful careers, shared their views on hiring top-performing and well-rounded individuals in social enterprises. This discussion forum was held at the National Youth Council Academy on 25 September 2013
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Bright Ideas
SPARKS ideas with different thoughts and perspectives.
GLOBAL STARTUPS CREATE PEACE AND PROFITS BY TOM KOSNIK, CONSULTING PROFESSOR, NUS iLEAD PROGRAMME, STANFORD UNIVERSITY
(Front row and third from right) Prof Tom Kosnik, Consulting Professor, NUS iLead Programme, Stanford University with iLead students at a workshop on 23 August 2012.
Did you know that global startups create peace as well as profits? Here’s how it works. Four co-founders who are citizens of three different countries start a new venture: two born in Singapore, one born in China, and one born in the US. They met while they were attending a university in the NUS Overseas Colleges network. Because the founding team has a deep understanding of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in three countries, the company is more likely to be successful in those countries as well. When a global start-up is successful in a country, it creates jobs for the country’s citizens, taxes for the government, and products or services that improve the lives of customers who buy them. Moreover, the founders can decide to measure their company’s performance with a triple bottom line: profits for investors, social capital for the people, and natural capital for the environment. If they do, then all three countries will enjoy the benefits. But how does a global startup create peace? Because as it grows, its employees will visit the other countries, learn to appreciate the different cultures, and build friendships with “foreigners.” Everyone in the company understands that their success depends in part on cooperating with fellow employees, business partners, customers, investors, and government leaders in all three countries.
This worldview is the complete opposite of the beliefs and attitudes some political leaders hold. For example, there has been conflict and mistrust between Chinese and US politicians for decades. One source of this Sino-US tension is competition for jobs. Some American politicians accuse China of stealing good American jobs by providing cheap labour, and then exporting cheap products that steal market share from products made in the USA. What’s wrong with this picture? Those US politicians are looking at business as a zero-sum game, where China’s gains are achieved by the US’s losses. In fact, the founders and employees of the global startup know that business is not a zero-sum game. They understand that by innovating and cooperating in all three countries, they can “make a bigger pie” so everyone is better off. Imagine hundreds and then thousands of these companies with founders from Singapore and other countries growing sustainably and creating value for the nations they serve. By demonstrating that “win-win” behaviour leads to higher performance than “win-lose” behaviour, they can help their fellow citizens to realize that the people who the politicians are calling foreigners are actually friends, family, and business colleagues. In the 1960s there was a popular slogan: “make love not war.” In the 21st century, global start-ups will inspire the slogan: “create peace and profits, not conflict.” ✦
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SPARKS action with fireside chats and tips from experienced entrepreneurs.
UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH STEVE BLANK
(L to R) Steve Blank, Silicon Valley serial-entrepreneur and academician with Prof Wong Poh Kam, Director NUS Entrepreneurship Centre at a Fireside Chat session addressing questions on start-up challenges on 10 September 2013.
Trail Blazers
Serial entrepreneur, academic, author and mentor – Steve Blank is known for wearing many hats. In September 2013, he visited Singapore to see the results of the inaugural Lean LaunchPad Programme@Singapore organised by NUS Enterprise for the first time in Asia. He also shared insights on entrepreneurial issues at a fireside chat, attended by 150 students, alumni, researchers and entrepreneurs. Here are some of his words of wisdom, as he answered the crowd’s queries: Is Singapore the right place for start-ups? I think Singapore is a great place for start-ups, as it has an incredible set of resources in science and technology. The entrepreneurial culture here is fantastic; Singapore is a gateway to Asia, which is a booming region; there is good government support; there is access to funding; and, society is getting more accepting about risk. So overall, it’s an awesome place to be an entrepreneur! Is entrepreneurship a science or an art? In the past, educators have been teaching entrepreneurship in a scientific way, focusing on a set of theories, which are put into action. I believe we’ve been teaching entrepreneurship wrong, as entrepreneurship is more like an art, where we need to teach both the theory and allow the students to practice. This is what the Lean LaunchPad programme is all about – giving students a series of tools that allow them to validate their ideas and find the right business model. Start-ups are not a smaller version of an established company. Large companies execute a known business model, where activities such as writing a business plan, financial forecasting or business development work well. However, start-ups are searching for a business model, and this needs a completely different set of tools then what business schools have been teaching. So before they pump in a lot of money into the company, start-ups need to ask questions like: Who is the customer? Will the customer pay for product? Who needs it the most? Until a start-up has validated its hypotheses, it’s just a faith-based enterprise. What are some of your mistakes and how did you learn from them? I worked in eight start-ups over 21 years and there is not enough time to share all my mistakes. However, one particular costly mistake was when I lost US$35 million as CEO of Rocket Science, a video game company. I had seen a good career up to this time, with a couple of IPOs. We were getting great press publicity, making it to the cover of Wired magazine, where we had been called one of the hottest companies in the Silicon Valley. So it was a shock to me when no one would buy our games. This taught me the best lesson: All the publicity in the world doesn’t matter until the customer tells you they love your product and are willing to buy it. Fortunately, in the Silicon Valley, we have a special word for a failed entrepreneur: Experience. So despite my mother’s thoughts of us having to leave the county or change our name (even though it was already Blank!), I managed to raise US$12 million for my next company, which turned out to be a success. So there is no shame in failure. After the Rocket Science failure, when I met my friends, their first words were, “So what’s your next company?” NUS Enterprise promotes and supports entrepreneurial learning within the NUS community, nurtures start-ups by NUS professors, students and alumni, and conducts research to advance knowledge in the policy and practice of technology venturing in Singapore and beyond. We are the foremost event organiser in the start-up space in Singapore. ✦
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SPARKS action with fireside chats and tips from experienced entrepreneurs.
Trail Blazers
FIRST TIME IN ASIA: LEAN LAUNCHPAD@SINGAPORE
Pioneering participants of the inaugural Lean LaunchPad@Singapore on 10 September 2013.
LESSONS FROM BRIAN CHESKY
Brian Chesky, Co-founder and CEO, Airbnb sharing the trials and tribulations of his entrepreneurial journey at Fireside Chat session on 25 October 2013.
Lean LaunchPad@Singapore kicked off its pilot programme in NUS in June 2013 with a 3-day bootcamp. Helmed by Steve Blank, serial entrepreneur and academician, Prof Jerry Engel, Senior Fellow and Founding Executive Director Emeritus, Lester Centre for Entrepreneurship, University of Berkerley and Prof Wong Poh Kam, Director NUS Entrepreneurship Centre saw an overwhelming participation from both NUS researchers and students. As many as 60 pioneering participants organised themselves into teams, each including at least one Entrepreneurial Lead (who drove the team), one Principal Investigator (who was the inventor or is knowledgeable of the technology that the team chooses) and one Mentor (who facilitates the learning process). These teams aimed to bring different technologies developed within NUS laboratories closer to market, in the form of a patented technology, a licensed innovation or a start-up company. Over 10 intensive weeks, teams alternated between attending class lectures, conducting interviews and updating their business model canvas. “The Lean LaunchPad programme helped us focus on users of our technologies, our core value propositions, and time/activities management. We learned and unlearned many things by talking with potential end users and related industries, as well as getting honest feedback from instructors and mentors,” said Nguyen Vu Thanh, who was part of a team that developed a mobile app for zoomable, interactive videos. Other technologies included a coronary artery disease risk assessment tool, a test for checking water quality and a medical device to assist liver surgery. ✦ Back by popular demand, NUS Enterprise is bringing you Lean LaunchPad Programme@Singapore again in 2014. This programme runs from April to June 2014
The start-up process is hard – really hard We had to build a market, find the people willing to list their accommodation and create a unique customer experience – all on our own money, as no one was willing to fund this ‘crazy idea’. At the start, we funded the company on credit cards and debt. We had a chicken and egg problem: No travellers would come to our website without accommodation listings; however, no one would list their place without travellers on the site. We had to build the business one home at a time, then block by block, street by street and city by city. I lived for a year waking up every morning with my heart pounding, wondering how we were going to survive. Fortunately in 2008, the Democratic National Convention resulted in every hotel being fully booked in Denver, Colorado. This was great for business for about a week. At the same time, we came up with another ‘crazy idea’ of Obama and McCainthemed breakfast cereals – Obama Os and Cap’n McCain’s. We made our own cereal boxes and filled them with 79 cent store cereals. As I was hot-gluing 1,000 cereal boxes in my kitchen, I remember thinking, “I bet Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs never had to do anything like this!” But the cereal became a media hit and orders were pouring in. We even sold the Obama Os at $40 a box. Although the Cap’n McCain’s were less popular, they did prove useful when we were broke and hungry. In fact, I lived on Cap’n McCain’s for 2 months during our low periods. Airbnb is a pioneer in the new sharing economy The sharing economy is the world we used to live in, before the industrial revolution took over, and I believe it is the next economic revolution. This is where ordinary people can provide a service or rent something they’re not using to another ordinary person. A good example is the fact that there are some 80 million power drills in the U.S. However, the average usage over a power drill’s life time is about 13 minutes. What would be a better option than buying a power drill would be for one person with a powerdrill to offer the service to many others. And the power of the internet can enable this. I believe that the sharing economy will catch on, as nowadays people want to own good memories and not necessarily physical things. Creating the right culture is critical Typically, as a company grows, the culture gets worse. We knew that having the right culture for Airbnb was really important. Every company’s product is a result of its culture. At Airbnb, we don’t have just employees, we have mission-focused employees. What this means is that working at Airbnb is not a job, but a calling. To make sure we hired the right people, I personally interviewed the first 300 employees of the company. Even now, I’ll make sure that I meet every employee. We want to be the world’s largest start-up, so that even as we grow, we remain nimble and innovative. ✦
NUS Enterprise promotes and supports entrepreneurial learning within the NUS community, nurtures start-ups by NUS professors, students and alumni, and conducts research to advance knowledge in the policy and practice of technology venturing in Singapore and beyond. We are the foremost event organiser in the start-up space in Singapore.
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Fired Up
SPARKS partnerships with industry and market leaders
SEALING RESEARCH COLLABORATIONS WITH INDUSTRY NUS INDUSTRY LIAISON OFFICE TOGETHER (ILO) WITH THE NUS GRAPHENE RESEARCH CENTRE (GRC) WERE INSTRUMENTAL IN THE INKING OF TWO RESEARCH COLLABORATION AGREEMENTS IN RECENT MONTHS: WITH JAPANESE FIRM FUJI ELECTRIC IN OCTOBER 2013 AND THE GERMAN BASF IN JANUARY 2014.
(Extreme left) Prof Antonio Castro Neto, Director of NUS Graphene Research Centre with other research scientists who are working on the BASF collaboration.
Collaborating with Fuji Electric for new generation of data storage using graphene Imagine faster, smaller and more durable data storage in your laptops, smart phones and tablet PCs, where future hard disk drives can store information at the capacity in tens of terabytes instead of the current capacity of gigabytes. These are potential outcomes of a new research collaboration, embarked upon by the NUS Graphene Research Centre (GRC) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Faculty of Science and Fuji Electric (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. The two parties are working on a joint research project that aims to develop magnetic hard disk media incorporating graphene for a new generation of data storage devices. Discovered in 2004, graphene is one of the crystalline forms of carbon, comprised of a single layer of carbon atoms, which is revolutionising several industrial sectors. This collaboration looks to explore how graphene may complement current hard disk media technology. Due to the prominent properties of graphene, it is envisaged that when applied in hard disk drives, graphene has a role of providing a protective layer, allowing for the magnetic heads to approach closer to the hard disks. This brings about higher data capacity within hard disk drives that can store a much larger amount of data with smaller hard drives. This research project is led by Professor Antonio Castro Neto and Assistant Professor Barbaros Özyilmaz fromGRC and Mr Lawrence Ng Wah, Senior Manager, Research and Engineering Department, Fuji Electric (Malaysia). The collaboration sees GRC integrating graphene layers with conventional magnetic media in a number of steps. Fuji
Electric will conduct necessary assessments to ensure the new product is suitable for commercialisation, including corrosion, durability and capacity tests. NUS is the sole proprietor of this new technology. Developing next generation organic electronic devices with BASF The Graphene Research Centre (GRC) and BASF have partnered to develop the use of graphene in organic electronic devices, such as organic light emitting diodes (OLED). The goal of this collaboration is to interface graphene films with organic electronic materials for the creation of more efficient and more flexible lighting devices. The NUS team at GRC will be responsible for the synthesis and characterisation of the graphene. The researchers have already developed a patent-pending methodology for the reliable growth and transfer of high-quality graphene films onto different flexible substrates that can be used in solar cells and lighting panels. BASF develops and provides organic active materials that allow for its integration into a device, jointly with graphene films. The scientific aspects of the collaboration at NUS are coordinated by Prof. Loh Kian Ping, a leading chemist at GRC and Head of the Department of Chemistry at the NUS Faculty of Science. For the OLED project, the goal is to develop a robust process of transferring and incorporating graphene in OLED devices. The researchers have to overcome the key challenge of working with atomically thin films of graphene and interfacing these films efficiently with organic materials. If successful, incorporating graphene into OLED and other devices based on electronically active organic materials will allow for inexpensive, flexible and more efficient gadgets. ✦
The Industry Liaison Office (ILO) within NUS Enterprise handles technology transfer and promotes research collaborations between NUS, industry and other partners. ILO drives the university’s industry engagement and partnerships, manages NUS Intellectual Property, commercialises NUS intellectual assets and facilitates the translation of new discoveries and inventions.
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Fire Starter
SPARKS passion with exciting entrepreneurial internships
INTERNSHIP INSIGHTS FROM ISRAEL BY COLIN PANG (NOC ISRAEL BATCH 5, JUL - DEC 2013) INTERN AT WIX.COM
Known as the Start-Up Nation, Israel is home to the largest number of start-ups per capita in the world. Over the past two decades, it has gained a sterling reputation worldwide for producing high-tech start-ups renowned for their cutting-edge expertise in software, IT, communications, medical devices and life sciences. I served an internship with the NUS Overseas College (NOC) Israel Programme from July to December 2013, and was based in Israel’s business capital, Tel-Aviv, a hotbed for innovation and entrepreneurship. Living there, one cannot help but marvel at the dynamic energy in the air. Almost every day, there is a plethora of start-up events, meet-ups and hackathons at the many co-working spaces that saturate the city, the prominent ones being Google Campus Tel Aviv and HUB Tel Aviv. TelAviv also has a few dozen start-up accelerators that constantly produce top-notch start-ups often looking for multi-million dollar exits. Hence, it’s no surprise that according to a recent study by Startup Genome1, Tel-Aviv is the 2nd most vibrant startup ecosystem in the world, second only to Silicon Valley. Bucking the usual Israeli start-up route of getting acquired are an increasing number of start-ups that have chosen to go public. The most prominent IPO of the year was Wix.com, a leading website development platform. Raising a total of US$127 million, Wix made its Wall Street debut on the NASDAQ in November 2013 with a rough market valuation of $750 million, making it the largest Israeli company to go public in the US since 2007.2 This IPO and the other IPOs for 2013 are indicative of a healthy trend that the start-up community in Israel is slowly looking beyond just creating early-stage companies to be acquired, towards a growing desire to build global brands. In my 6 months in Israel, I had the opportunity to work at Wix.com as a Marketing intern. Like most other Israeli companies renowned for their technical prowess, Wix has a very strong R&D
and product team that are the brains behind its highly intuitive drag-and-drop website creation platform. But what is special about Wix is also its superiority in its marketing efforts, which was the reason why I was keen to work for it. Working in Wix Marketing opened my eyes to various best practices of digital marketing and also offline marketing (radio and television) in different geographic markets. Even though Wix is far bigger than most of the companies my NOC peers worked for, I still got my taste of the start-up life through the dynamic innovative culture that permeated through the company. The atmosphere at work is always very fun-loving, casual and open. I especially loved how the company had intra-company hackathons where people from various departments could come together to form teams and work on self-initiated projects. Within the Marketing Department, we would also hold bi-monthly enrichment sessions, where individual colleagues would give talks and share interesting trends or knowledge that could add value to the team. Perhaps it is a very Israeli trait, but I also observed how everyone in the company had strong opinions and was unafraid to voice them. My Israeli colleagues were very direct, sometimes to the point of being blunt. Whenever there were any meetings, endless questions would be raised. Coming from an Asian culture where employees often defer to superiors to the extent that they self-censor and usually do not ask many questions, this open and flat Israeli culture was an eye-opener. Another strikingly Israeli trait I observed from working in Wix and through my interactions with Israeli entrepreneurs is their strong “can-do” spirit. I was amazed at how fast things were done once they decided on something. NOC Israel was certainly an unforgettable experience and strongly recommended for those seeking a work experience in a truly innovative and open culture. ✦
(Front Row: Third from Right) Colin Pang with his Wix.com colleagues at the company’s Christmas party in 2013. Sources 1: http://blog.digital.telefonica.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Startup-Eco_14012013.pdf 2: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/wixcom-debuts-ipo-with-hopes-of-other-israeli-firms-following-20131106-01228 NUS Overseas Colleges offer entrepreneurial internships for specially selected NUS students keen to be working in start-ups. In addition to the internship in leading entrepreneurial and academic hubs around the world, students enroll in entrepreneurship-related courses at highly prestigious partner universities. The programme is available in Silicon Valley and Philadelphia, USA; Shanghai and Beijing, China; Stockholm, Sweden; Bangalore, India and Tel Aviv/ Haifa, Israel.
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Flash Forward
SPARKS interest in upcoming events and activities
SOMETHING IS ALWAYS BREWING WHERE ENTREPRENEURS GATHER. MAKE A NOTE OF THESE EXCITING EVENTS AND HAPPENINGS.
WHEN
WHAT
WHERE
22 Feb
ASEAN-Silicon Valley Entrepeneurial Network (ASVEN) Conference
Stanford University
26 Feb
Investor Day@Blk71
Blk71
28 Feb
Innovation & Enterprise Awards 2014 – Closing of application and nomination
3-6 Mar
Lean LaunchPad@Singapore – Info-Sharing Session
NUS
15 Mar
NUS Open Day 2014 – A Peek into NUS Overseas College Programme
UTown
19-21 Mar
DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia Boot Camp
NUS
7-8 Apr
Lean LaunchPad@Singapore Boot Camp
NUS
14-16 Apr
Innovfest 2014
Kent Ridge Guild House (pre-conference) & Grand Copthorne Waterfront (main event)
8 May
Investor Day@Blk71
Blk71
24 May
Start-Up@Singapore Final & Awards Ceremony
UTown
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Useful Tinder
SPARKS food-for-thought.
Lo gic
In t
u iti o n
WHEN ASKED HOW A FOUNDER COULD CHOOSE BETWEEN INTUITION AND LOGIC…
“This is a personal choice that each founder will need to make on his/her own. Having said that, entrepreneurs need to have some craziness, which is why individuals from dysfunctional families often make great entrepreneurs, since they thrive in uncertainty, chaos and conflicts. So when the accountant says: The company is going out of business on Tuesday, the Founding CEO will reply, “I need to raise $1 million by Monday night!”
STEVE BLANK, SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR
WHEN ASKED FOR TIPS FOR SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS: ALWAYS BUILD A MARKETABLE PRODUCT “Serving a good cause and having a social mission is absolutely no reason or excuse to have a substandard service or product. If you think people will buy your organic fair-trade sourced cotton bags at 20% more than the market price just because they were made by at-risk women in war zone areas - you are in for a surprise. While socially conscious businesses do strike a chord in the hearts of the consumers, having a dedicated customer base needs more than just a heartfelt story. Your product needs to be better or equal to the best products available in the market at that price.” Enterprise SPARKS Editorial Team NUS Enterprise 21 Heng Mui Keng Terrance, Level 5, Singapore 119613 Email: enterprise@nus.edu.sg Company Registration No. 200604346E
SAURABH SHARMA, CO-FOUNDER, MILAAP.ORG
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