ENTERPRISE SPARKS- Issue 10 (Apr-Jun 2016)

ISSUE

Apr - Jun 2016

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MCI (P) 074/02/2016

Besides sheer hard work and a burning passion, those pursuing ground-breaking innovations or building thriving start-ups are often on the lookout for opportunities and connections. They find these with us throughout the year at our regular series of events bringing like-minded folks together, or at annual ones such as InnovFest unBound 2016, InnovFest Suzhou 2016, symposiums for Modern Aging and Membrane Science & Technology Consortium and more. At these occasions, they are inspired by content which challenge mindsets, and people they meet who are from different parts of the world and different parts of the entrepreneur ecosystem. Increasingly, new opportunities are clinched at coveted programmes like Y Combinator in the US, and we continue to be motivated by those who dare to try and dare to fail, since as Henry Ford once said, “Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again.” Read on and let’s create more opportunities together!

02 InnovFest unBound 2016: Record Breaking Turnout 06 InnovFest Suzhou Promotes Commercialisation Opportunties 08 Aging-Reimaged 09 Setting Social Enterprises Up for Success

10 Robots will Rule the World

11 Dexecure Clinches Y Combinator Fellowship 12 NOC Provided the Experience and Exposure NOC’s i LEAD Programme Renamed

13 Inaugural Annual Symposium for the Membrane Community

14 Live Life with No Regrets

15 Flash Forward

16 Celebrating Failure

SPARKS interest with the latest in the start-up and entrepreneur scene within our community

INNOVFEST UNBOUND 2016: RECORD BREAKING TURNOUT Anchor event at Smart Nations Innovations week abuzz with opportunities for corporates, start-ups, IHLs and government agencies.

Mr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Foreign Affairs & Minister-in-charge of Smart Nation Initiative shares on Building A Smart Nation at the opening of InnovFest unBound on 17 May 2016.

With over 6,000 registered attendees, 350 start-up and tech exhibitors, 178 speakers, 3 stages and 32 side events, InnovFest unBound was back this year as Asia’s largest innovation festival and digital conference. Held from 17-18 May 2016, InnovFest unBound showcased Asian innovations and presented the latest disruptive technologies that have the potential to change the world.

Organised by NUS Enterprise and unBound Media in partnership with the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), Innovfest unBound 2016 was the anchor event in Smart Nation Innovations 2016 – a week-long event organised by IDA.

Lively and continuous exchanges at the exhibition and networking areas throughout the two days.

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SPARKS interest with the latest in the start-up and entrepreneur scene within our community

All presentations and discussion sessions were well attended by all parties of the community.

Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Foreign Affairs & Minister-in-Charge of Smart Nation Initiative was the Guest-of honour at the event. He mentioned in his opening speech that Singapore is trying to build up the best digital infrastructure in the world.

“I want IDA to create a national operating system for 100 million smart objects in just Singapore alone,” said Dr Balakrishnan. “ 100 million smart objects is a big enough number to provide a challenge, but because it is going to be applied in a small, focal place called Singapore, and because it will be an open platform, it will create a huge range of opportunities for application developers, service providers, companies and enterprises to leverage off. This is a worthwhile challenge and something Singapore is well-placed to do.”

The Chairman’s Reception was hosted by Microsoft at their office on 16 May 2016.

TUM Create EVA Taxi, one of three vehicles on display, attracted much interest.

Minister Balakrishnan venturing into virutual reality with Presence Pictures.

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Setting the tone for collabroative debates and discussions at the opening panel.

SPARKS interest with the latest in the start-up and entrepreneur scene within our community

UStart, an ASEAN incubator network, held its 2nd gathering at InnovFest unBound.

InnovFest unBound 2016 continues to be the platform for notable news announcements for innovation and entrepreneurship.

National Research Foundation (NRF) revealed four large local enterprises under the Corporate Venture fund scheme. CapitaLand Limited, DeClout Limited, Wilmar International and YCH Group will each commit at least S$10 million to invest in technology start-up companies. This will be matched on a 1:1 funding support basis by NRF. This move aims to encourage enterprises to increase their innovation capacity by sourcing for new technologies and business models, as well as to enable start-ups to scale by leveraging upon mentorship, resources and networks from the more established enterprises.

“Mighty Eagle” Peter Vesterbacka from Rovio was present throughout the event.

One of many initiative displays, an autonomous vehicle by SMART. Specially curated Future Now Forums on the Future of Cities, Finance, Healthcare and Manufacturing shed perspectives on ideas and innovations that will matter.

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SPARKS interest with the latest in the start-up and entrepreneur scene within our community

Fan Filter from School of Design and Environment, one of many NUS technologies on display.

A buzz with namecard exchanges.

Ascendas Singbridge and NUS Enterprise set to revitalise Science Park.

Prof Wong Poh Kam, Director, NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, walked the stage and showed the crowd with analytics from TechSG, the most comprehensive and up-to-date platform of tech start-ups in Singapore. This included a comparison of Singapore’s entrepreneurship ecosystem with that of New York and London, as well as a comparison of the profile of start-ups funded by Venture capitalists/ angels with those spun off from NUS and research institutes. The advantage of TechSG is that it shows connectivity between the key players and ability for these players to go into the platform to make updates. More at http://techsg.io/ A new partnership was signed between NUS Enterprise and Ascendas Singbridge, to establish an innovation hub for deep technology companies, corporate accelerators and the university community, within Science Park 1. This aims to add vibrancy to the area.

Networking stretched into the night and spilled onto the streets at Ann Siang Hill.

Checkout:www.flickr.com/ photos/107110731@no2/albums for more event photos and information. Thank you for being part of InnovFest unBound 2016. Stay tuned for the next instalment in 2017.

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SPARKS interest with the latest in the start-up and entrepreneur scene within our community

INNOVFEST SUZHOU PROMOTES COMMERCIALISATION OPPORTUNITIES Opening doors for start-ups to venture into China

Professor Tan Eng Chye, Deputy President (Academic Affairs) and Provost at the National University of Singapore, delivering the Welcome address at the Opening of InnovFest Suzhou on 7 June 2016.

The 2nd annual InnovFest Suzhou conference was held on 7-8 June at the NUS Suzhou Research Institute (NUSRI).

Aimed at promoting international technologies to the Chinese market for potential commercialisation opportunities, the event drew a crowd of 480 attendees from more than 160 organisations, a 50% increase from the previous year.

Participants were treated to over 40 sharing sessions from companies such as Bosch, Flex, Canadian Solar and Atlas Copco, with topics dedicated to innovation, entrepreneurship, and showcases of new water and energy/ environment technologies.

More than 480 delegates attended the event, double the crowd size from 2015.

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SPARKS interest with the latest in the start-up and entrepreneur scene within our community

NUS-NUSRI-Kasmode and NUSRI-YihaiKerry inked licensing and contract research agreements respectively.

Networking opportunities for more collaboration.

NUS spin-off company Gcorelab amongst the 70 participants in the technology showcase.

Launch of Energy Conservation Alliance at InnovFest Suzhou 2016.

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There was also a showcase of nearly 70 diverse technologies, start-ups and projects from Singapore, Germany, the UK, USA and Canada with over 20 of these from NUS. These included familiar spin-offs GCoreLab, Medad Technologies and UltraPower, amongst others. The event also included two licensing signing ceremonies and the launches of the NUSRI-BioClub Incubator and Energy Conservation Alliance.

SPARKS interest with the latest in the start-up and entrepreneur scene within our community

AGING-REIMAGED A Modern Aging symposium to re-think the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century ageing population

The Modern Aging Symposium “Aging - Reimagined,” held on Saturday 28 May 2016 at the National Heart Centre, Singapore General Hospital, was co-organised by ACCESS Health International, NUS Enterprise, the DukeNUS Centre for Ageing Research and Education (CARE), and SingHealth.

The symposium was attended by over 200 students and professionals from a wide range of backgrounds.

The event featured academics, doctors, and industry experts sharing their views on ageing from sociological, clinical and business perspectives. This included the greatest challenges and opportunities for ageing societies in Asia, and how private enterprises could step in to fill these gaps.

One of the more popular segments was the sharing by senior role model Mr Ismail, a nurse working in SGH, who spoke about his “extended” retirement experience. His fun and cheerful demeanor was very infectious and a nice reminder to everyone that being a senior is a continuum of active living and learning.

Duke NUS Prof Angelique Chan spoke on her research findings on the issues and challenges facing an ageing society in the 21st society. The presentation highlighted the impact of shifting demographics in Singapore and the rest of the world.

A/P Fung John Chye from NUS SDE complemented the topics with his talk entitled “Ageing and the Environment”.

Dr Phillip Yap, who is a leading authority in dementia research, showed some touching videos of dementia patients and shared how elders’ inner lives are transforming human communications.

Mr Alex Loucks of Rising Tide shifted the gear to the entrepreneurial angle and the opportunities that emerge in the business world due to ageing populations.

Yeow Kee, co-founder of 2015 Modern Aging runner-up SoundEye, shared his journey as a start-up benefiting from the Modern Aging programme.

More than 200 participants comprising students, academics, seniors and professionals attended the symposium focusing on the issues and challenges facing the ageing society in the 21st century.

themselves to solve the problem statements in their workplace.

The symposium is one of the highlights of the second run of the Modern Aging programme. First announced last year

by Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Modern Aging Singapore is a competitive accelerator which combines a comprehensive business development curriculum, focused workshops and industry mentoring for businesses catering to the elderly. Funding will be awarded to the top proposals at the final pitching session on 25 November 2016.

Modern Aging Singapore also leverages world-leading university research and technologies by bringing these together with innovators and entrepreneurs. This highly focused initiative offers Singapore the opportunity to have global impact on ageing populations.

For more information visit: modernaging.org/programs/singapore/

The event ended with the winners of SGH’s Clinical Improvement Projects presenting their projects on innovating

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Director NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, Prof Wong Poh Kam welcomed participants to The Modern Aging Symposium “Aging – Reimagined” on Saturday 28 May 2016.

SPARKS interest with the latest in the start-up and entrepreneur scene within our community

SETTING SOCIAL ENTERPRISES UP FOR SUCCESS Opportunities to network and gain insights into challenges faced by society In the lead-up to the DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia, NUS Enterprise organised a series of workshops to build community with, impart practical wisdom to, and provide diagnostic feedback for social entrepreneurs.

Team formation workshop Match Me Up (30th March 2016) brought together eager entrepreneurs and skilled social enterprise contributors-to-be in cosy start-up hub Blk71. Idea stimulus sheets and key social themes plastered on the walls were catalysts for conversations on what we can do to make things better. Participants readily pitched their ideas to improve society reaffirming the organisers’ view of a growing interest in social change in Singapore.

Targeted educational workshops Business Model Design & Validation (for budding entrepreneurs, 9th April 2016) and Purpose-Driven Approach to Business Model Design (for social enterprises in operation, 15th April 2016)

by Ms. Prisca Lim and Professor Wong Poh Kam respectively drilled the fundamentals of starting a social enterprise into participants.

Knowing one’s purpose is key to sustaining an entrepreneur in the long run. “Is [your purpose] about you making the impact? Or is it about the impact itself?” challenged Prof Wong, and veteran entrepreneur. For effective social impact to occur, a social entrepreneur needs to be keenly aware of the community she desires to serve. “Leave your assumptions at the door,” advised Ms. Lim, facilitating a customer role play exercise. Ultimately, social impact must be a central part of the business model’s design. “Impact has to be intentionally integrated in the business model from day one,” explained impact investor Tom Schmittzehe, in an impromptu interview

Mentors sharing views on the growing interest in social change in Singapore.

with Ms. Lim. The participants, many of whom were social entrepreneurs themselves, had rich insights to exchange on their respective journeys and how they work to overcome challenges.

The series of local workshops aptly ended with a Check in Session with Mentors (23rd April 2016) where teams had the opportunity to receive diagnostic feedback from experts on how to take their ideas forward. The experience from social entrepreneurs Audrey Tan (PlayMoolah) and Ivan Chang (Start Now.), consultants and advisors Yeo Keng Joon, Kong Yuet Peng and Laina Greene, capacity builder Jeanette Kwek (DBS Foundation), and social innovator Benjamin Tan (*SCAPE) helped steer social entrepreneurs in the right direction.

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Strong community and teams, expert advice, incisive feedback: all three are essential ingredients to set a social enterprise up for success. What is the impact of these efforts? The DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia finale will reveal more.

The DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia Finale will take place on 15 September 2016. Please visit socialventurechallenge.asia for more information on the competition and updates.

SPARKS ideas with different thoughts and perspectives

ROBOTS WILL RULE THE WORLD Be worried now Imagine a robot that does everything for you. It cooks all your meals, ferries you to and from work in your own car, and even tucks you into your bed at night.

The prospect of having a robotic army in the coming future may raise some eyebrows, but Peter Ho from Hope Technik warns against dismissing this possibility too easily.

“It is coming,” he said.

Peter is Chief Executive at Hope Technik, a high-tech local engineering company that is involved in mechanical electrical software that creates innovative products that run the gamut from Red Rhino fire trucks and automatic guided vehicles, to creations that are launched into lower space.

Speaking at InnovFest unBound 2016 on the Robotics of the Future, Peter pointed out the extremely rapid pace in which technology has advanced within a short span of time.

Back in 2004, it was a challenge for autonomous vehicles to drive independently across a desert, where there were no obstructions. None succeeded then.

Yet, by 2015, Google and A*STAR have developed self-navigating automated vehicles. Google’s self-driving cars successfully navigated sharp turns in San Francisco and traffic in the city. Locally also, A*STAR developed Alphard that made autonomous travel possible in urban environments.

None of the robots succeeded, “fortunately enough” Peter said. Yet, what’s to say that this will not be successful in the near and coming future?

new robotics era, the future would see to the creation of robots similar to slaves that can “do everything for us”, which he dubs as “iSlaves”.

Making reference to the success of the development of autonomous vehicles, something that had once been unthoughtof, Peter’s reminder was to “(not) forget how we asked a car to drive across a desert (then), and no one succeeded… but now we know where we are”.

With capable robots that may even have abilities that surpass humans, there may hence be a “change in where the power is”.

In light of the rapid pace in which technology has advanced, Peter says, “we have to be worried”.

Combining artificial intelligence and hardware would reap potentially frightening results.

In 2015’s DAPRA challenge – a renowned R&D focused challenge by the US Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA) – robots had to autonomously venture out on their own, and were expected to do complex actions. The robots had to drive golf buggies, climb stairs, and pick up tools to drill holes in walls, and thereafter go through the holes to automatically locate gas leaks to replace them.

What then is the definition of artificial intelligence? Peter cited the example of how a computer, given the game of Tetris and only one instruction to get the highest score possible, was able to beat the game at Level 999 within four days. This feat was achieved through independent learning, without any guidance on what “long rectangular blocks are” or knowledge on the fundamentals of the game of Tetris.

Following this, Peter predicts that in this

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At the same time, he points out the emergence of a new economy for technological enthusiasts. Peter remarks on the upcoming robotics era as something that will “no longer be just a software or an application that resides in a computer, and is no longer just the internet of things”. On this new playing ground, there will be “no more incumbents…or big boys”. Instead, it will be an open and exposed game for those who innovate and create, “a new era that is going to grow fangs”. Peter points out that it will be a very complex system of systems.

Indeed it may be time to be worried.

SPARKS action with fireside chats and tips from experienced entrepreneurs

DEXECURE CLINCHES Y COMBINATOR FELLOWSHIP i LEAD and LLP alumni accelerate for growth Inian Parameshwaran, an NUS School of Computing alumnus, shared that his interest in starting a company was strengthened after completing the NOC i LEAD programme.

When his final year project at the Systems Security lab showed signs of being useful to the industry at large, he decided to stay on as a Research Assistant to further develop the technology.

Initiatives like the Lean LaunchPad Singapore Programme and the Vasco Grant helped him prototype and get some initial feedback during this phase.

Inian convinced Murali Ramanujam, also an NUS alumnus, to join him in this venture and worked closely with NUS to bring the technology they developed to market.

The company solves a common problem for web developers by optimising websites for fast and reliable loading on different mobile devices and network conditions, improving the user experience. Dexecure uses cutting-edge browser features to help businesses develop incredibly fast websites. It is continuously evolving its algorithms to close the gap between the mobile web and native mobile applications.

Dexecure’s secret recipe, Inian revealed, is the robust re-writing of JavaScript and HTML developed by the team.

Dexecure changes the website code in order to speed it up and automatically loads JavaScript without blocking rendering of the page, leading to a drastic improvement in time taken for content to display on the screen. It also automatically generates multiple versions of the page specifically optimised for each browser. Each version of the page leverages different browser features to make the website as performant as possible. Hence by focusing on frontend optimisation, Inian sees Dexecure

Murali Ramanujam (left) and Inian Parameshwaran (right), Co-founders of Dexecure.

working very well with other Content Delivery Networks, like CloudFront.

sales and marketing efforts to gear up for the Demo Day in July.

While Y Combinator (YC) offers an intensive accelerator fellowship programme, Inian felt that the YC Fellowship would be a better fit for Dexecure at this early stage as he would be able to secure guidance and mentorship, tap into YC’s network, and quickly achieve product-market fit. In addition, the start-up will receive US$20,000 as part of the programme.

The terms of the programme are very founder-friendly too — if Dexecure goes public or achieves a private valuation of US$100 million, YC would then take a 1.5% equity stake in Dexecure.

Working at The Hangar by NUS Enterprise has also benefitted Dexecure. Inian shared, “Our time here has been amazing so far! The very fact that we are in the midst of other companies working hard on their start-ups has inspired us to push even further to achieve our vision. The atmosphere is very vibrant — there are events happening all the time at The Hangar and recent events like the Pricing Workshop have been very relevant to us”.

Inian and Murali have headed off to the Bay Area for the kick-off event in Mountain View, and will be scaling up

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SPARKS action with fireside chats and tips from experienced entrepreneurs

NOC PROVIDED THE EXPERIENCE AND EXPOSURE Kelly Choo shares the trials and tribulations of the entrepreneurial journey I attended the NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) Programme in Philadelphia, graduating from NUS in 2008. It was after that that I co-founded Brandtology together with Eddie Chau and Alvin Chan. Over the next few years, we grew the company to be the leader in the Social Media Intelligence space, and were acquired by Isentia (then Media Monitors) in 2011.

Eddie and Alvin went on to found Neeuro, serving as Chairman and CEO, respectively. When they found out I was leaving Isentia, they invited me to join as CMO in order to further strengthen the founding team.

Neeuro aims to be the “Fitbit” for mental health and cognition. Through neuro-technology and gamification, we help you think faster, remember better, process information faster and keep your mind sharp. The Neeuro Memorie app and the Neeuro SenzeBand headband provide a unique combination of brain-stimulation games paired with an Electroencephalogram (EEG) Headset that creates a feedback loop. The headset accurately measures your brain’s performance while playing the games,

and helps you keep track of your progress and overall improvement.

Being in a start-up that combines both hardware and software is very challenging. It took us more than 2 years to perfect the hardware and software components. Also, the field of Digital Health is relatively new and so our team has had to constantly adapt and innovate along the way. But I believe that being part of a team which tries to achieve something meaningful to help impact people in positive ways-such as having a new and healthier mind-drives the passion in us.

When I first started this entrepreneurial journey back in my younger days, I lacked adequate experience in both the start-up and corporate world. The NOC experience helped me understand that I needed to learn and experience more, made me appreciate an entrepreneur’s struggles and celebrations, and connected me to fellow alumni with the common bond of going through the programme. After Brandtology was acquired, I spent those years picking up structure and processes, something which I believe has made me a better “start-up person”.

Kelly Choo, NUS Overseas College (Philadelphia) alumnus who co-founded Brandtology and Neeuro

NOC’S i LEAD PROGRAMME RENAMED As Singapore is gaining traction in attracting entrepreneurial talent, the NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) has renamed its i LEAD programme to NOC Singapore as of July 2016. The renaming reflects and establishes Singapore’s status as a leading global entrepreneurial hub.

The programme continues to promote development of local entrepreneurship with a regional perspective. Students can look forward to an exciting stint with a high growth start-up based in Singapore,

a semester’s stay at our entrepreneurialthemed residence N-House, and a twoweek overseas immersion in a selected overseas entrepreneurial hub.

What is NOC? NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) is a programme specially for NUS students with the academic ability and entrepreneurial drive to develop and hone start-up best practices around the world. Students will have the opportunity to be immersed as interns in start-ups

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from one of nine leading entrepreneurial hotspots across the globe, study at prestigious partner universities, explore potential business ideas, and be actively involved in building a company. iLEAD was developed as the local version of NOC in 2008.

SPARKS partnerships with industry and market leaders

INAUGURAL ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM FOR THE MEMBRANE COMMUNITY NUS Membrane Science and Technology Consortium (MSTC) deepens industry and research connections The NUS Membrane Science and Technology Consortium (MSTC) convened its inaugural Annual Symposium for members of its Industry and Government Affiliates Program on 31 March 2016.

The event brought together MSTC Faculty Fellows and IGAP Members for an exchange of research needs and capabilities. Attendance included representatives from 15 IGAP Members and 5 Observers plus almost 25 MSTC Fellows and representatives from NUS Enterprise and NUS Industry Liaison Office.

Prof. Gary Amy, MSTC Coordinator, gave an update on the evolution and status of the MSTC and IGAP. Each attending IGAP Member and MSTC Fellow made a snapshot presentation of membranerelated research needs and expertise, followed by a synthesis discussion of convergence areas and potential bi-lateral and multi-lateral collaborations.

Invited presentations by the National Research Foundation and Public Utilities Board by Dr. Lean Weng Yeoh and Mien Ling Chong, respectively, focused on relevant research funding opportunities and programmes, emphasising industryacademic collaborations.

Other talks were in the areas of the new Separation Technologies Applied Research and Translation (START) Centre, energy and water related sectors. On the day after the Symposium (April 1st), there was a half-day tour of NUS membranerelated research facilities including the NUS Environmental Research Institute, the Membrane Research Group, and the Centre for Water Research.

Prof Amy Gary, Co-ordinator, Membrane Science & Technology Consortium updated members on the development of the research and capabilities.

A member of the audience addressed funding opportunities in membrane research.

SPARKS passion with exciting entrepreneurial internships

LIVE LIFE WITH NO REGRETS NOC spirit fuels entrepreneurial passion

By Samantha Yan

(L to R) The twins – Samantha Yan and Shane Yan pursued their passion to set up Savoir Asia Consulting Pte Ltd in 2014.

I really enjoyed my role with the HR consulting organisation I was with but finally decided that I wanted to focus my attention on helping others gain clarity and happiness through finding their potential and motivations.

“How did you choose your area of focus?” one may ask.

The six years in my previous company were instrumental for the conceptualisation of Savoir Asia Consulting. It allowed me time to explore my interests, in which themes of people and happiness kept surfacing. As Chairperson of the company’s recreation club, I discovered my love for bringing people together and creating purposeful activities that are aligned with corporate objectives. Wildly positive responses and feedback from the events made the hard work worth it.

Research from the University of Warwick in 2014 affirmed my beliefs; employees who were happier at work are 12% more productive while employees who were unhappy were 10% less productive.

Happiness-at-work research also found that those who were happier at work are 150% more likely to be happier and fulfilled in other aspects of their lives.

Savoir Asia Consulting Pte Ltd was born in the second quarter of 2014. With a slogan “happy individuals make happier organisations” we are dedicated to

enabling the growth and development to keep you positive and re-energised. of individuals to help the organisations The following is a list of other tips. they work for succeed. “Savoir” is a French word that means “to know, to learn and to find out.” Through facilitation, 1. Find the right partners – Find customised training, teambuilding and partners that have the same vision coaching, Savoir Asia’s programmes equip as you, that you can work with and individuals, teams and their organisations get things moving. And if there with the languages, skills and tools to is no alignment, don’t stay in the achieve elements of ‘happiness’. These partnership for too long. That will only elements include self-awareness, resilience, hurt relationships and waste time. motivation, engagement, communication, teamwork, alignment, achievement, and 2. Develop trust and allow for productivity. Our latest project is a careerconstructive feedback – If you and sharing platform to help individuals find your team cannot trust each other the information they need to make their and don’t have a culture of feedback career decisions. to help each other grow and develop, something is not working.

Naturally, it was not an easy process.

Everything that I was accustomed to in a 3. The importance of research larger corporation – processes, systems, – It is important to do your own manpower support, and marketing research and not be carried away by materials – no longer existed. Everything someone’s promise. had to be created from scratch. In all that freedom to create came plenty of decision4. Stay focused – It is important making and also heavy responsibilities. In to pivot but not okay to scatter and addition, finding the right partnerships spread and stretch your resources too were not easy. thin. Understand the key thing you are focusing on and use it as a basis to NOC gave me first-hand experience in make decisions. being the only employee for an education start-up that was trying to penetrate 5. Recognize that passion must the Chinese market in Shanghai. The be fueled – Passion alone does not experience covered the full spectrum from sustain a business. One needs to find business development, sales and marketing ways to make the business sustainable. to human resources, logistics, operations, and IT. It taught me the importance of 6. Have your key pillars and know personal branding and being resourceful the value you bring to the table and flexible in navigating through – In the core team, an expert and a uncertainties. There were also plenty of sales/marketing person is key in order networking opportunities. For example, to be sustainable. while volunteering with the Shanghai Singapore Business Association under the 7. Be clear on the different roles Shanghai House of Entrepreneurs (SHEN), – Be clear on each individual’s role.

I became friends with Anne, now one of One person can be wearing many hats my business partners. but it is essential to understand when one should be wearing the various What are some tips for aspiring hats. start-ups? The dos and don’ts?

There will be times when the road gets 8. Don’t just think, do – Don’t just rough, and it can be demoralising. Don’t stop at thinking because it can keep give up. Find yourself mentors, talk to you from doing. more people, and set goals. Validate your assumptions and pivot when you need to.

Tap into the ecosystem and see if there are fellow like-minded start-up companies you could work and partner with. Do remember to celebrate the small wins.

These little acts of encouragement help 14

SPARKS interest in upcoming events and activities

APR

MAY

JUN

01

Book-Keeping Workshop

• The Hangar i3

05

Start-Up Validation Programme: 19th Run

• The Hangar i3

09

Workshop: Business Model Design & Validation [for budding entrepreneurs]

09

The NOC Connection - April 2016

15

Workshop: Purpose-Driven Approach to Business Model Design *in partnership with raiSE* [for social enterprises in operation]

18

Pricing Workshop

• The Hangar i3

18

Kopi Chat@NUS with Dave McClure and Kamran Elahian

• The Hangar i3

22

SG Start-Up Cup 2016

23

SVC Asia: Check-in Session with Mentors

• Blk71

28

Syte Digital Health Conference Singapore

• The Hangar i3

29

SG Start-up Cup 2016 (Quarter/Semi/Finals)

03

Customer Discovery/Market Validation - Briefing for Participating Companies

• The Hangar i3

04

Sharing Session with Racer Technology

• The Hangar i3

06

Sharing Session with Ray Business Advisors

• The Hangar i3

10

Philip Yeo Innovation Fellows Programme MAD Talk

17-18

InnovFest unBound 2016

17

NOC Israel 5th Anniversary Celebration

• Ann Siang Hill

19

Lean LaunchPad Singapore Information Session - Innovating Robotics

• The Hangar i3

20

Friday Challenge

25

Kopi Chat@NUS with Duncan Clark

28

Modern Aging Symposium: Aging - Reimagined!

• National Heart Centre Singapore, Lecture Theatre (level 8)

02

Philip Yeo Innovation Fellows Programme MAD Talk 2

• Singapore Management University

14

NUS Orbital 2016-Mission Control 2

• The Hangar i3

16

Cyber Security Threats - Are You Prepared?

• The Hangar i3

17

Workshop: Common Pitfalls Brands Encounter in Content Marketing

• The Hangar i3

15

• Blk71 • The Hangar i3 • Blk71

• 71 Ayer Rajah Crescent

• Futsal Court at JTC Launchpad

• Blk71 • Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre

• The Hangar i3 • The Hangar i3

SPARKS food-for-thought

CELEBRATING FAILURE While failure is gaining greater acceptance in Asia, Dave McClure and Kamran Elahian embrace it! Dave is the founding partner of 500 Startups, a VC firm and start-up incubator, while Kamran is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Global Catalyst Partners.

These two industry veterans spoke at NUS Enterprise’s Kopi chat event on 18 April, to a room packed to the gills with individuals from the start-up community.

Here are some of the interesting questions asked: Would you invest in a company with a single founder?

Dave: My preference is for there to be at least two co-founders. This means the company will have greater functional expertise, in areas like engineering, design and marketing. You need to be able to prove that you can not only build the product, but sell it too. Creating a successful company is hard. There is no easy way to do it, and you need to solve a series of unexpected problems. Having someone else there with you can help.

Kamran: Some people think that if you tell someone your idea, they will steal it.

This is nonsense. Ideas are relatively easy to come by. The challenge is to become the person who takes the idea, develops it further, validates a product, finds investors, finds the customers, scales the company and so on.

How should entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to you?

My suggestion is to go through someone that I already know. 500 Startups has made 120 investments in Asia of which about 20 of them are in Singapore. So finding a past investee is the best route.

And when we meet, just be a normal person. Don’t be psychotic!

Kamran: While it’s important to persevere, do not be a nuisance. If you have sent me an email, follow up politely a week later if I don’t reply. I only invest in companies that have some social value, no matter what is the expected return.

And I’m not referring to the traditional sense of ‘social’. For me, the world’s biggest social enterprise is Google. It has put all the knowledge at our fingertips for free.

Dave: I’ve been pitched at some crazy places – twice in the toilet and once on the dance floor. I don’t advise doing that.

ENTERPRISE SPARKS Editorial Team

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If you could travel back in time and give your younger self advice, what would you say?

Kamran: I’m very happy with where I am now, so I don’t think I would do anything differently, even if I knew about it. I started 10 companies and three of them failed. I even got fired twice! It’s okay to fail. I learnt so many things from all my failures. The only thing I would tell you is to follow your heart.

Dave: I would have liked to know more about what the VC industry really is like.

I always knew it was an imprecise and unpredictable area. But I didn’t realise how much so, until I entered the VC sector. It’s not as organised, logical or rational as I thought it would be. Basically you find smart people, give them money and then wait for good stuff to happen.

It occasionally does.

Contributors: Chan Yiu Lin Elizabeth Lee Jananie Audimulam Joanna Hieo Samantha Yan