ENTERPRISE SPARKS- Issue 11 (Jul-Sep 2016)

ISSUE

Jul - Sept 2016

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MCI (P) 074/02/2016

Pushing the frontiers of social entrepreneurship is one of NUS Enterprise’s cornerstone efforts to create an inclusive entrepreneurial environment for the community at large. We’ve been instrumental in gathering young Asian social champions through the DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia; and have been actively promoting the NUS Enterprise Summer Programme to provide students from around the region with an opportunity to understand Singapore’s entrepreneurial landscape. There have been numerous competitions for budding entrepreneurs and start-ups such as Startup Weekend Singapore, NOC HackfestSG, and Hydro Pitch Day at Singapore International Water Week. Reaching out to showcase our capabilities in prototyping, plugging into the various national events, and helping young start-ups take flight are among our continuous endeavours to keep the entrepreneurial torch blazing!

02 08 Kaleidoscope of Singapore’s Mapping Entrepreneurial Entrepreneurial Landscape Linkages in Singapore’s 04 Tech Ecosystem SVC Asia 2016 06 Brunei Prince Visits Plug-In@Blk71 Startup Weekend Singapore 2016 07 NOC HackfestSG 2016

10 Breaking Old Models of Quote Sourcing 11 Feeding the Hungry, While Having Fun!

12 NUS Water Technologies Gain Traction 13 MVP Studio Showcases Prototyping Capabilities Plugged into SWITCH

14 Home Away from Home in New York

15 Flash Forward

16 Embracing Challenges

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

KALEIDOSCOPE OF SINGAPORE’S ENTREPRENEURIAL LANDSCAPE Summer Progamme students introduced to the nuts and bolts of entrepreneurship in Singapore

Students exploring iconic locations in Singapore.

From 10th – 23rd July 2016, 47 students from 12 countries had the exclusive opportunity to discover Singapore’s rapid progress in entrepreneurship and economic development.

“How did Singapore become a firstworld economy in a mere 50 years?”

“How does Singapore remain corruption-free?”

“What can I do to become an entrepreneur?”

A series of lectures by experts, company visits, and networking opportunities with start-up founders answered these questions, and more.

Lectures by Scholars and Practitioners Students studied the city-state’s policies and paradigm-shifting entrepreneurial mindsets at the feet of leading analysts and practitioners. The initial lectures provided the context to Singapore’s economic success. They were introduced to Singapore’s people, politics and public policy, from private housing spaces to broader demographic trends. In addition, students learnt how Singapore’s scarce natural resources forced it to continuously restructure, diversify and innovate – to “use our permanent disadvantage to our continuous advantage”.

A dive into Singapore waters gave students insights into the use of technologies to maintain urban reservoirs in a sustainable way.

Later, lectures by entrepreneurs gave practical insight into starting a company.

“Failure without learning is just failure,” emphasised entrepreneur and angel investor Dr. Virginia Cha, imparting tools to learn smartly – the Business 02

Model Canvas and the Lean Startup Method. They also learned the core principles of social entrepreneurship, a social enterprise’s unique features and how to measure impact. They got to understand a start-up’s first hundred

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

A trip to the Dignity Kitchen.

days and the processes involved in building an entrepreneurial ecosystem. NUS Entrepreneurship Centre director Prof Wong Poh Kam introduced Singapore’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, and broadened their vision to see opportunities. “Every day, write down three opportunities that you see. Tune your mind to gaps in the market,” he advised. He encouraged students to start businesses for the emerging economies, given their vast upcoming potential.

Excursions to Government Agencies Classroom theories came to life, as students were brought to various government agencies and saw values of prudence, careful planning, and innovation set to work. Visits to the Land Transport Authority and the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s interactive galleries helped students visualise the steady transformation of Singapore’s transport infrastructure and urban planning. Going behind the scenes with the Public Utilities Board’s NEWater Factory and the Marina Barrage, Singapore’s first urban reservoir, students learnt how Singapore harnessed technologies to become a sustainable city. Even the National Heritage Board displayed considerable vision, engaging modern, tech-savvy audiences through new methods of crowdsourcing and mobile applications to design community trails. Each agency presented a different angle of Singapore, but all modelled a common ethos of continuous improvement.

Cultivating Entrepreneurial Mindsets Insights into the government’s economic principles were complemented by exposure to local founders’ entrepreneurial attitudes. Young social entrepreneurs use business as a sustainable tool to plug gaps in Singapore’s social sector. An example is

Debra Lam, co-founder of Society Staples, which promotes social inclusion through dragon boat team building events. The work of social entrepreneurs is significant in “(changing) enough minds on the bottom-up level to alter policies from the top,” remarked Geylang Adventures founder Cai Yinzhou, who conducts heritage and food trails around his neighbourhood, which carries a notorious reputation as Singapore’s red-light district. These entrepreneurs’ innovative solutions inspire new perspectives on weighty issues that affect society on a broader level.

Students also had the chance to catch a glimpse of veteran entrepreneurs’ spirit of resourcefulness and reinvention.

Dignity Kitchen founder Koh Seng Choon demonstrated how training – they have developed the world’s first training curriculum for hawkers – and technology – a rice scoop that can be maneuvered with one hand – can be used to enable persons with disabilities to run Singapore’s local eateries.

“Engineering commandoes” Hope Technik similarly modelled innovation, creating compact firefighting vehicles from fire engine heads and car bodies.

However, building ties with other stakeholders is what sustains long-term change. Serial entrepreneur Allan Lim challenged the students – among whom were several aspiring social entrepreneurs – to ask what value they bring to their community. “Talk to the government, to business networks, to the ‘man on the street’”, advised the co-founder of Comcrop, Singapore’s first rooftop farm.

Creativity ultimately must be coupled with collaboration.

Experiencing a Start-up Ecosystem The context for collaboration was something that students found themselves in the heart of, in a visit to 03

Start-up founders from NUS Enterprise sharing their entrepreneurial journey.

start-up ecosystem Blk71. The aspiring entrepreneurs gained a helicopter view of the many players that contribute to the success of an enterprise from OneNorth’s infrastructure developer JTC Corporation, who shared how vibrant, connected networks were strategically built up through community-based events. Co-working spaces Blk71, the Hub, and BASH, shed further light on how spaces are designed for interaction.

Incubators Games Solution Centre and SPH Plug ‘N Play, as well as investment arms Singtel Innov8 and Infocomm Investments gave insights into the resources that go into developing a startup. Game-changing start-ups P.S. Love, Carousell and AfterYou, incubated and housed in Blk71, shared their personal journeys and how they set about creating products that they wanted to use.

Students walked away with a sure taste of entrepreneurship – strolling through the area’s latest gastropark and music performance space Timbre+ guided by its co-founder, Danny Loong – and a greater appreciation of the ecosystem builders who cause systems to grow.

Unity in Diversity The lessons ended with the students presenting their own projects, an indication of their own learning. A brilliant closing dinner concluded the programme, with the students showing off their diverse array of traditional costumes, songs and dances from their respective homes.

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

SVC ASIA 2016 Helping Social Entrepreneurs Make Impact Across the Region

All finalists of DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia Awards Ceremony on 15 September 2016.

Over the past several years, NUS Enterprise and DBS Foundation have been building up a community of social entrepreneurs and capacity builders in Asia in order to raise interest in social entrepreneurship. These efforts are bearing early fruit, seen by the significant increase in teams participating in the 2016 DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia (SVC Asia), a business plan challenge that supports social ventures that demonstrate sustainable and scalable social impact.

“This year, SVC Asia hit over 1,000 entries - two and a half times greater than the entries when we first started this challenge in 2014 – demonstrating the growing interest in this area. The quality of ideas has also improved, with many teams focusing on development needs faced in their countries. Some of these ideas will scale to address pressing social problems in Asia,” said Prof Wong Poh Kam, Director, NUS Entrepreneurship Centre.

Grand prize winner Siam Organic, Pornthida Wong (2nd left).

The two winners of SVC Asia both benefited from being part of this social enterprise community. The Grand Prize winner, Siam Organic, participated in the challenge last year, and the Jury Prize winner, OurCityLove Social Enterprise, was mentored by a previous SVC Asia winner.

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Siam Organic aims to alleviate Thai rice farmers’ poverty through its innovative Jasberry™ rice, a non-GMO product that combines the taste of Thai jasmine rice with berries’ nutritional, anti-oxidant benefits. By growing Jasberry™ rice, Thai farmers can earn up to 14 times more than conventional Thai rice farmers. As

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

Mr Paul Polman, CEO Unilever, keynote speaker,

The panelists fielded questions from the audience.

Networking & booth display.

the winner of SVC Asia, Siam Organic took home S$75,000 in seed funding.

“We will invest the prize money to help scale from our current 1,000 Thai farmers growing Jasberry™ rice to 20,000 farmers within the next three years. In particular, we plan to create an IT infrastructure to collect and analyse data on farmers’ income, yield and costs, to understand how we can support them better,” said Ms Pornthida Wongphatharakul, cofounder of Siam Organic from Thailand.

OurCityLove Social Enterprise was the Jury Prize Winner, receiving S$30,000 in seed funding from SVC Asia. The Taiwanese-based company maps data on venues, facilities and services that are friendly for disabled individuals, and also provides employment training and certification for businesses. The social venture aims to use the prize money to expand its efforts into Singapore.

This year, SVC Asia brought in two partners the Centre for Social Enterprise (raISE Singapore) and Syngenta, who provided additional prize money to social enterprises from specific categories. The raISE VentureForGood grant of S$50,000 targeted local social enterprises that address a social need in Singapore. This went to AbleThrive, a Singapore-based start-up that sources and curates quality content to help people with disabilities live more meaningful and fulfilling lives.

There were two Syngenta Agriculture Social Enterprise awards – the first for the best social enterprise and second for the social enterprise that demonstrated the best use of technology and innovation for agriculture. The first award of S$10,000 went to Kamal Kisan from India that develops tools to help small-scale farmers reduce labour-intensive tasks and increase profitability. The second S$10,000 award went to Naireeta Services, also from India.

This company has developed a rainwater

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management solution to address both drought and prolonged water-logging.

Mr Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, who is well known for championing sustainable business practices for a better world, gave away the Grand and Jury Prizes, as well as gave a keynote address.

“I am grateful to know that there are people like yourselves, who are here to detect the world’s problems. The world needs it,” said Mr Polman, addressing the participants of SVC Asia 2016. “We need more people with a higher level of awareness of these problems and willingness to take leadership, to create a better world for us all. The people who have taken part in this competition are these people, which is why you are winners – all of you!”

To find out more about the DBS NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia, visit www.socialventurechallenge.asia

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

BRUNEI PRINCE VISITS PLUG-IN@BLK71 Gained insights into the entrepreneurial eco-system On 17 August 2016, Prince Abdul Malik, the second son of the Sultan of Brunei and Deputy Minister, Prime Minister’s office visited Plug-In@Blk71, an incubation space managed by NUS Enterprise and SingTel Innov8. The accompanying Bruneian Ministers, Dato Modh Roselan, Deputy Minister and Hamzah Sulaiman, Permanent Secretary from Prime Minister office and delegation gained insight into NUS Enterprise’s role as an aggregator of the entrepreneurial eco-system, its incubation programmes, and efforts made to nurture entrepreneurship among the youths.

The co-founders of one of NUS’ start-up companies, Shopback, were also present to share their entrepreneurial journey.

Brunei Prince Abdul Malik (centre), led by (right) Mr Brian Koh, Director NUS Enterprise, visits the PlugIn@Blk 71 incubation space.

Shopback co-founder Bryan Chua sharing the trials and tribulations of his entrepreneurial journey.

Founded in 2014, Shopback is currently housed at Plug-In@Blk 71.

STARTUP WEEKEND SINGAPORE 2016 Great minds ideate to solve problems Over 150 coders and designers came together over 22-24 July 2016 for Startup Weekend Singapore, held at The Hangar, NUS Enterprise’s incubator on campus.

Startup Weekend events are organised in cities around the globe, with the aim of providing an immersive introduction to start-up life: participants pitch ideas, meet co-founders, learn how to create a company, and receive advice from highprofile mentors and investors in the span of just two days.

The Weekends have attracted an immense following, with tickets for the 2016 Singapore iteration selling out one month prior to the event. This year’s session kicked off with a networking dinner and ice-breaking session, followed by advice from distinguished speakers Joel Fu (Strategy Director at sgCarMart) and Jon Sugihara (Chief Product Officer at Kodakit). Rapid-fire pitching then took place, with participants articulating their ideas to the group in under a minute each. The 50 presented pitches were narrowed down to the top 15, with teams of 4-8 being formed around each idea.

On Sunday, the teams each gave a seven -minute pitch, with an additional three minutes allotted for Q&A by the judges.

The judging panel, consisting of Arthur Brejon (Co-Founder and COO, Lazada. sg), Nicolas Chaussin (Head of Digital

Panel of judges with the winning team, Communitat. Their idea was on building a better community experience for apartments.

Innovation, Aviva), James Tan (Managing Partner, Quest Ventures) and Vishal Harnal (Venture Partner, 500 Startups), were impressed with the teams. “I had the privilege of judging Startup Weekend Singapore 2016 and was really amazed at what can be accomplished in 48 hours when you mix talent, competition, and copious amounts of Red Bull” stated Vishal.

After hearing all the pitches, Communitat, focused on building a better community experience for apartments, emerged as the winner. Sitters, a marketplace for finding baby sitters, received second place, and Empath, AI chatbot for early stage depression sufferers, came in third.

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Participants trying to get votes from one another at the Start-Up Weekend Singapore held at The HANGAR from 22-24 July 2016.

Judge James Tan advised teams to keep working on their projects, noting that the 2012 Startup Weekend Singapore winner has worked extremely hard and surmounted many difficulties. Their name? Carousell, an NOC alumni company and NUS Enterprise incubatee, which recently raised SGD $35 million in Series B financing.

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

NOC HACKFESTSG 2016 Great and enthusiastic minds creating different possibilities The inaugural <hackfestsg/>, held on 9 – 11 September 2016, saw 149 participants from 28 teams hard at work during the 30-hour hackathon to create meaningful solutions towards Smart Nation building. The event, organised

by NUS Overseas Colleges and facilitated by three co-founders from Labgoo, Yosi Taguri, Israel Roth and Lior Rozner, was over oversubscribed three-fold with 465 sign ups. Participants had to go through a stringent selection process to participate in this 3-day hacking fiesta.

[Note: hacking refers to the creation of technological solutions to existing challenges] To kick off the event, Ms Eveline Lim from IDA was invited to share more about the drive towards Smart Nation.

She explained how the government’s framework has been shifting from a “requirement-driven tender-based system” to a “problem-driven outcomebased approach” to drive nationwide innovation. “The intent here is to look at all these problems, do quick POC (Proof-of-Concept), so it’s all about rapid prototyping,” said Ms Lim, drawing similarities between the new approach and how hackathons work. She highlighted the importance of defining the problem statement in this new approach, which served as sound advice for all the participants.

Procter & Gamble, the main sponsor for the event, provided not just the resources that made the event possible, they also provided the teams with challenge statements and data sets to help them get started with their hacking. “[The teams] have been asking really insightful questions. They’re bringing new ideas that we’ve not thought of before. Building off on their new ideas, we’ve actually created a lot of different

Team HIDEO clinched the first prize. Their solution, Botler, is a smart online chat bot with the ability to recognise customer needs, make suggestions, take orders, and even arrange for delivery.

possibilities, which really is what this hackathon is about,” explained Dr. Kelly Anderson, Open Innovation Manager of the P&G Corporate R&D team and mentor for the event.

After 30-hours of hacking, there was an impressive showcase of the end product by the various teams. Team HIDEO emerged the ultimate winner with Botler, an online supermarket chat bot that can automatically serve customers what they might need without being asked! Team TSA (a solution that predicts user demographics and makes recommendations using real-time data) and Team Mystic (a Telegram chat that combines IVLE API with NUS bus data to remind students of where their classes are, and suggest the best routes to get there) came in first and second runnersup respectively.

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The cheer and thrill at the prize presentation segment of Hackfest on 11 September at THE HANGAR, NUS Enterprise on-campus incubator.

The event ended on a high note, with Dr. Lily Chan, CEO of NUS Enterprise, announcing that <hackfestsg/> will happen again next year!

SPARKS ideas with different thoughts and perspectives

MAPPING ENTREPRENEURIAL LINKAGES IN SINGAPORE’S TECH ECOSYSTEM Highlighting interconnectivities between Singapore’s entrepreneurs

NUS Entrepreneurship Centre Director Prof Wong Poh Kam (3rd from right) with panelists at TechSG Insights Seminar on 26 July 2016.

To some observers, it may appear that the tech start-up ecosystem in Singapore sprung up overnight. It was only in the last few years that the number of startups in the scene multiplied. However, a closer examination reveals that the vibrant ecosystem today is the result of many years of careful decision-making by various stakeholders. Most importantly, the rapid growth witnessed in recent years is sustained by the development of rich linkages between different actors in the ecosystem. As showcased in the ongoing TechSG (www.techsg.io) initiative, these actors include start-ups, venture investors, incubators and other facilitators such as government agencies, industry associations and professional intermediaries.

Building on the TechSG information platform, NUS Entrepreneurship Centre (NEC) embarked on a joint research

project with Endeavor Insight to examine the social networks of entrepreneurs. The Singapore Tech Entrepreneurs’ Network Map uses a unique research design to map the complex, interwoven networks of connections that continue to grow between founders of Singapore-based tech start-ups. Over 250 entrepreneurs were interviewed for the project.

Between them, the interviewed entrepreneurs had founded over 300 tech start-ups.

The study traces five types of connections between entrepreneurs: a) Mentorship – a founder mentors a founder of another start-up b) Inspiration – a founder mentors another entrepreneur to start his/ her own start-up

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c) Investment – a founder makes an investment in another start-up d) Founder (serial entrepreneurship) A founder goes on to establish one or more other start-ups e) Employee spinouts – a former employee of a start-up establishes his/her own start-up.

Findings from the study were presented at a TechSG Insights Seminar by Prof Wong Poh Kam (Director of NEC) and Ms Lili Torok (Associate, Endeavor Insight).

A highlight of the presentation was the evolution of the tech start-up scene as depicted by entrepreneurial links. There was a first wave of tech start-ups founded in the 1990s up to the mid-2000s. In this period, the number of start-ups was relatively small and there were relatively few linkages between entrepreneurs. The picture changes dramatically from 2009 onwards, when the second wave heralded

SPARKS ideas with different thoughts and perspectives

an explosion in start-up formation. The density of network connections also increased substantially in this period.

The growth in density illustrates how the first wave of entrepreneurs and start-ups contributed back to the development of the ecosystem by forming linkages with start-ups in the second wave.

is well-known as a serial entrepreneur who now makes angel investments. The study reveals that his influence extends far beyond that, especially in terms of mentorship and inspiration, with multiple entrepreneurs citing him and the successful exit of tenCube as inspiration for their own entrepreneurial aspirations.

Ms Torok shared comparative findings from other Endeavor Insight studies conducted in New York and London.

In the other two cities, the dominant connection type is investment. The surveyed entrepreneurs in Singapore had proportionally fewer investment linkages, and a much stronger focus on mentorship linkages. Another interesting contrast between Singapore and New York is the educational background of founders.

The majority of the surveyed Singapore founders graduated with Engineering, Computer Sciences or other technologyrelated degrees, whereas the founders in New York are more likely to be educated in non-technology disciplines.

Another influential entrepreneur is Shirley Wong, one of the first female entrepreneurs in Singapore, who founded Frontline Technologies in the 1990s. Frontline Technologies is one of the top job-creating start-ups among those included in the study. Shirley was also a guest panelist at the seminar and spoke about the importance of forming networks in those early days when the ecosystem was not as developed as it is today.

The study highlighted several influential entrepreneurs that are strongly connected to the ecosystem via their linkages to other entrepreneurs. NOC alumnus Darius Cheung, founder of tenCube and 99.co, was singled out as an entrepreneur who has all five types of connections. Darius

Only 14% of the start-ups in the project had female founders. However, startups with female founders display higher connectivity than start-ups with only male founders. During the panel session, Shirley and Lim Qingru (co-founder of Zopim) both shared their experiences as female entrepreneurs and spoke about how women may have a different approach to forming networks and relationships.

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Further analysis of the project’s data revealed that start-ups founded by NOC alumni exhibit higher connectivity to other entrepreneurs compared to non-NOC start-ups. Similarly, startups nurtured by the NUS Enterprise Start-up Runway also report higher network connectivity. These findings support the important role of universitybased incubation and mentoring, and experiential education programmes, in enhancing entrepreneurial network development.

Start-ups located in the JTC Launchpad – Blk71, 73 and 79 – also reported higher number of connections on average compared to other start-ups. Physical clustering and co-location facilitate entrepreneurial networks. As explained

by Prof Wong, this affirms that network links among all actors, not just the start-ups, contribute to the ecosystem’s vibrancy. The important question to ask is what new intermediaries, platforms and clustering mechanisms can be developed to further facilitate growth of network connectivity.

SPARKS action with fireside chats and tips from experienced entrepreneurs

BREAKING OLD MODELS OF QUOTE SOURCING Tan Junming, co-founder of ThunderQuote, shares the genesis of the start-up and trials and tribulations of the entrepreneurial journey My entrepreneurship journey started with a discussion with my co-founder Kevin Ng on our aspirations to be more than a corporate cog and make a real difference.

After stumbling around with a number of failures and successes, we incubated with NUS Enterprise in 2015 and launched ThunderQuote in April this year (nicely coinciding with my graduation from NUS Business School) to address the problems we previously faced as business owners.

ThunderQuote aims to be the one-stop sourcing portal for business-to-business (B2B) services, helping buyers to freely source and compare quotations, while enabling vendors to grow their businesses with qualified leads.

We formed ThunderQuote due to our experience in the B2B industry, which is traditionally very much relationshipbased and opaque to outsiders. Thus, we hope to bring transparency to the industry and break away from the old model of calling up your friends to find vendors for what you need, or having to network and cold-call to find new customers.

With ThunderQuote, business owners can easily connect to trusted businesses and find everything they need to grow their business from necessary inputs to leads on our platform.

ThunderQuote has been surprisingly well-received and within two months facilitated over SGD $600,000 worth of deals, with reputable clients such as NTUC, ST Kinetics, Straits Times, SMU and

ThunderQuote founders: Kevin Ng, Tan Junming & Emil Ng.

many more SMEs on board. We were also featured in Tech in Asia, e27, Techwire Asia, and Yahoo News.

mentor Joe. The tips and advice given were crucial in focusing us in the right direction.

However, this seemingly smooth sailing journey did not come about so easily and our team had many false starts before ThunderQuote came into being. We entered NUS Enterprise with a completely different solution, which was scrapped after validation, and ThunderQuote was formed only after rounds of ideation, validation and guidance from our

Our time at The Hangar also shaped ThunderQuote, as it is precisely this environment of connections and trust between start-ups that inspired us and that we hope to replicate for all business owners on our platform.

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SPARKS action with fireside chats and tips from experienced entrepreneurs

FEEDING THE HUNGRY, WHILE HAVING FUN! Challenges of the F&B industry in the new economy Have you ever dreamt of starting your own F&B business but didn’t know how to begin? In July 2016, NUS Enterprise invited Luan Ee from Kerbside Gourmet and Timothy Han from Palm Beach Seafood to share their wealth of wisdom at a Kopi Chat. Luan Ee is a social entrepreneur, who set up Kerbside Gourmet as Asia’s first social enterprise gourmet food truck. With a BAMGAM concept, which means ‘Buy a meal, Give a Meal’, Kerbside Gourmet gives out 100-200 free meals to the needy every quarter. They focus on providing quality, wholesome food at catered events, as well as providing street vending. Timothy Han is the Assistant Manager at Palm Beach Seafood restaurant, Singapore’s oldest seafood brand that was founded 60 years ago. He is a veteran in the F&B business, having started out as a teenager washing dishes and serving food. Here are some of the interesting Q&A at this scrumptious Kopi Chat!

Please share more on the food truck concept.

Luan Ee: In the U.S., food trucks ply the streets selling their wares. I chose to take an events-based model, where we provide on-site catering at functions. The fact that our food truck is self-sufficient in terms of power and water means that we can drive anywhere and set up our kitchen. We also work with companies to do a truck wrap (the truck is wrapped with a branding campaign) and had good fun with Electronic Arts’ launch of Plants vs Zombies 2, Fox News’ launch of The Walking Dead and Barilla Singapore.

During the early days, we would be invited to drive into certain areas and sell our food, and as a struggling startup, it was very hard for us to decline.

However, we stuck to our events-based concept and it seems to have worked.

Having said that, we do some street vending in specific areas if an existing

food outlet has closed. For example, we drive into SGH once a week to sell our food where the canteen has closed.

Running a food truck keeps rental costs low. In some cases, for example when an event organiser really wants us to be there, they pay the rental fee. In other cases, where we really want to be there, for example at F1, then Kerbside Gourmet pays the rental fee. And we have situations where we share the rental with the organisers.

In addition to high rents, many F&B businesses are faced with rising manpower costs. What is your advice to tackle this problem?

Timothy: With various work permit restrictions, getting sufficient manpower in Singapore is always tough in the F&B business, and Palm Seafood also feels the pain. The only viable solution is technology and automation. For example, Palm Seafood has invested in e-menus and our waiters take orders on the iPad. We also use apps like Chope so customers can make reservations. In the restaurant business, you can also streamline various processes to cut down on existing gaps or to reduce workload. But yes, dealing with the increasing cost of manpower is a problem, and I foresee that this will continue to go up in the next few years.

Luan Ee: Kerbside Gourmet has one full-time employee – me. I am the truck driver, cleaner, social media activist and handle all the other tasks required. The benefit of running a food truck is that I only pay for additional manpower when I’m operating. My operations run on a free agent model, where I have a pool of people that I can tap upon to handle what I require. As the kitchen is very small, we can only have a few chefs working at the same time. In addition to preparing the food, the chef has to take the orders, interact with the customers

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(Left to right) Timothy Han from Palm Beach Seafood and Luan Ee from Kerbside Gourmet shared a wide range of views on the F&B industry.

and in many cases operate the cash register too. As a social enterprise, we have been fortunate to attract a number of volunteers, including chefs and restaurants who volunteer their time.

What about scaling the business?

Timothy: Palm Beach Seafood is 60 years old this year and not many F&B businesses last that long. Rather than expanding into new outlets, or adopting a franchise model, we decided to build partnerships with various different brands and expand our presence that way. This allows us to preserve the heritage of our local food.

Luan Ee: Everyone I speak to talks about the importance of growing the business.

They say “Scale or die!” However, three years on, we are still just one food truck and we are still here. Since we are a social enterprise, the objective has never been about maximising profits. Instead, I’ve focused on maximising fun – for my customers, my crew and myself!

Obviously I don’t want to lose money and need to be self-sustaining. We may still explore growing in the future, however we have a different paradigm, so scaling has not been such an issue for us.

SPARKS partnerships with industry and market leaders

NUS WATER TECHNOLOGIES GAIN TRACTION Lean LaunchPad Singapore instrumental in boost-up for water technology teams for Hydro Pitch Day 2016

The winning teams at Hydro Pitch Day during the Singapore International Water Week on 11 July 2016.

NUS start-up WaterRoam clinched the “Most Investment Potential” award at Hydro Pitch Day, held during Singapore International Water Week (SIWW) on 11 July 2016.

The start-up, housed at The Hangar, was formed by NUS students David Pong (Business School), Vincent Loka (Faculty of Engineering) and Lim Chong Tee (Faculty of Engineering). Its new water filtration system will help bring clean drinking water to rural communities and promote social change in these peri-urban areas.

WaterRoam was one of six teams from the Hydropreneur programme to pitch at the SIWW event. The rigorous 10-week programme, in partnership with Public Utilities Board, is a specialised track of the larger Lean LaunchPad Singapore (LLP) programme and designed for waterrelated technologies. Following the LLP’s methodology of customer discovery and market validation, the Hydropreneur programme prepared teams for Hydro Pitch Day through a series of sessions that also included talks by CEOs and senior executives from the water industry and a

site visit to the Changi Water Reclamation Plant. A diverse pool of mentors and advisors from SMEs and major companies in the water industry additionally provided guidance and valuable insights to the aspiring ‘Hydropreneurs’.

“LLP has been a significant value-add to our product development process and prepared us very well for the launch of our new product. We have been able to yield more concrete results as we pushed to get out of the building and seek answers to validate our hypotheses.

The programme caters effectively to the customised needs of each start-up as we get individual team airtime to present and get feedback each week, as well as an assigned mentor to monitor our progress”, shared David Pong.

Other awards presented at Hydro Pitch day included “Most Distruptive Technology,” won by Asst. Prof Olivier Lefebvre’s Project Team Electro-Fenton, from NUS, and the “Rising Entrepreneur Star,” which went to Dr Luka Fajs of Project Toxic Sensor (Baclum) from BGUHUJ-NTU Create under Assoc. Prof Robert Marks.

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Wateroam’s David Pong (CEO), Lim Chong Tee (CMO) and Vincent Loka (CTO), fielding questions from the judges. The team won the “Most Investment Potential” award at Hydro Pitch Day.

“Winning the most disruptive award at HydroPitch day has given alot of motivation to my team to pull all of our efforts in successfully developing our technology. I would recommend the LLP programme to anyone who takes a serious interest into taking their technology out of the laboratory and contribute to the progress of our society.” said Asst Prof Lefebvre.

The Sixth LLP run is currently in progress.

More than 300 participants comprising academics, entrepreneurs, and researchers have completed the LLP programme since its launch in 2013. For more information visit: leanlaunchpad.nus.edu.sg

SPARKS partnerships with industry and market leaders

MVP STUDIO SHOWCASES PROTOTYPING CAPABILITIES Demonstration to local school helps in water education NUS Enterprise’s Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Studio recently showcased its work to the Yusof Ishak Secondary School (YI), a Centre for Teaching and Learning Excellence. On 19 July 2016, YI teachers and students were treated to a demonstration by NUS Enterprise staff on the construction of an air purifier model, invented by an NUS Faculty of Engineering student. As part of YI’s Water Education Lab, the event taught the enthusiastic crowd that not only can water be used to clean or scrub air, but that NUS technologies can be inexpensive, easy to build, understand and use. Participants

sketched their own air purifiers following the demo, and plans are underway for students to build their own air purifiers in future.

The event was coordinated with the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), a partner of the MVP Studio. BCA helps to identify and channel industry problem statements to NUS Enterprise, the latter utilising NUS technologies to prototype solutions. The MVP Studio was established in 2015 to make NUS deep science accessible.

Mr Daniel Leong, Senior Manager, NUS Industry Liaison Office, demonstrated the air purifier to Yusof Ishak Secondary School students on 19 July 2016.

PLUGGED INTO SWITCH NUS Enterprise connected and reverberated in Singapore’s entrepreneurial frontiers From 20th – 22nd September 2016, NUS Enterprise participated in two major entrepreneurial events held in Singapore: TechInnovation, organised by Intellectual Property Intermediary (IPI), and Slush Singapore at TechVenture, organised by the National Research Foundation (NRF) and held during the Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH).

During TechInnovation, the NUS Industry Liaison Office (ILO) presented 12 technologies in focus areas such as optical sensors, cyber social networks, photobioreactors, and optical microsphere nanoscopes Some of these innovations garnered much attention from industry partners and government agencies.

ILO also showcased prototypes by its MVP (Minimum Viable Product) Studio, demonstrating how the valueadded ILO service helps accelerate the commercialisation process between academics and industry partners.

Two NUS start-ups, AeroLion Technologies, an NUS spin-off focused on the implementation of UAV autonomy technologies into commercially viable products, solutions and services, and Roceso Technologies, which offers wearable robotic solutions for the rehabilitation and assistance of patients with limb motor function impairment, were also present.

Connecting and sharing NUS research capabilities with visitors at the TechInnovation 2016.

Similarly, the buzz and vibrancy startups experienced at Slush Singapore was undeniably zestful, bringing start-ups from all walks of life together into one united community. More than a conference, Slush Singapore created an environment for connections among the various stakeholders to ignite the entrepreneurial spirit further. Five NUS start-ups in the digital space participated and showcased their latest innovations to a diverse international audience: Jublia, a business matching intelligence platform; Bolt Media, which provides business with creative talents; Versafleet, specialising in automated logistic operations; Presence Pictures, a platform to showcase their VR works and XR Vision, a disruptive facial recognition video analytics solution.

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NUS Start-up, Aerolion Technologies demonstrated the novelty of its technology in image analytics capabilities.

Co-founders of Versafleet were one of the five NUS Start-ups that showcased its innovation at SLUSH Singapore, by TechVenture 2016.

SPARKS passion with exciting entrepreneurial internships

HOME AWAY FROM HOME IN NEW YORK NOC (New York) students Janelle Lee and Joel Khoo share their experience of meeting and greeting Singapore’s Prime Minister and fellow Singaporeans

NOC (New York) students up close and personal with Mr Ong Ye Kung, Acting Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) & Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Defence at Singapore’s 51st birthday celebrations.

Being in New York for the past six months as part of the NOC programme, our experience of working at a startup has no doubt been an immensely fulfilling and eye opening experience.

However, as we embarked on our journey of entrepreneurship exploration, we found ourselves inevitably missing the familiarity of home.

In celebration of Singapore’s 51st birthday, we were thrilled as we received an invitation to the Singapore Embassy in Washington D.C. on 31st July 2016 for an evening of celebrations with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his wife.

As we were living in New York, we made sure to clear our schedules that weekend just so we could head down to D.C. for the event.

There was an air of familiarity as we stepped into the Singapore Embassy.

We are home! Huddled into the main hall, we were struck by a sea of red and white and the familiar accent amongst the conversations in the crowd.

In the hallway, the most intense of conversations were centered on the nostalgic topics of local food, politics and stories of friends and families back home. The Singlish of ‘la’s and ‘lor’s was something we had not heard for a long time – and it never sounded more pleasing. This familiarity made us realise that Singlish is a “language”

Students feeling delighted hearing and seeing Singlish words 15,000km away from Singapore.

that contained the elusive story of being Singaporean and that this culture cannot be replicated anywhere else. As we closed our eyes and basked in the atmosphere, we could not help but think of our homes back in Singapore.

PM Lee arrived with much fanfare as he stood on top of the stairs and snapped a photo of the huge group of Singaporeans that had been so eager to meet him. Amidst the hustle and bustle of the evening, the biggest highlight for us was the opportunity to speak to the Education Minister (Higher Education & Skills), Mr Ong Ye Kung. Through a deep and riveting conversation, it was heartening to realise that our Minister had such a down-to-earth attitude and had the interest of us students.

Mr Ong Ye Kung even led the way for us to meet PM Lee himself so that we could take a picture with him. Unfortunately, PM Lee had already boarded the bus that was leaving the Singapore Embassy, and we did not manage to take that exclusive picture with him. Nonetheless, we gained

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something even more special – a selfie taken by Mr Ong himself.

Before the event, all we were looking forward to were the local delights and familiar faces – little did we expect that we would have the humbling opportunity of getting up close and personal with our nation’s leaders.

Being more than 15,000km away from Singapore, we now truly understand the phrase “absence makes the heart grow fonder”. As we celebrate Singapore’s 51st birthday, it is a timely reminder that every one of us has a part to play in ensuring the continued prosperity of our nation. Even as our one year stint to the United States has given us many new and fascinating experiences, there will always remain a part of us that longs to be home.

SPARKS interest in upcoming events and activities

JUL

AUG

SEP

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Summer Programme

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LLP Singapore: Hydro Pitch Day at Singapore International Water Week

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Modern Aging Singapore Seminar: Robotics in Healthcare

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Kopi Chat: The Inside Scoop on F & B by Luan Ee, Kerbside Gourmet and Timothy Han, Palm Beach Seafood

• NUS Enterprise at Blk71

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Kopi Chat: Lessons Learnt from Expanding Internationally

by Amy Cao, Tencent

• NUS Enterprise at Blk71

11

Research Seminar: New Metrics for Measuring University Innovation

• The Hangar at i3

12

Powerful Pitching

• The Hangar at i3

13

Modern Aging Singapore Seminar: Nutrition and Aging

• Mapletree Business City

17

Kopi Chat: Circles.Life by Co-founder, Abhishek Gupta

• NUS Enterprise at Blk71

19

Lean LaunchPad Singapore (6th Run)

22

The Journey of the Innovator Series: Start-Up Pitching 1-2-3!

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Ask NOC for SDE, FASS, FOS and BIZ students

23

An Afternoon With Dawoon Kang [Coffee Meets Bagel]

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The Journey of the Innovator Series: From The Horses’ Mouths

30

Ask NOC for SOC and FOE students

• Central Library

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NOC - Spotlight on China

• Central Library

01

NOC Alumni Speakers Series

05

The Journey of the Innovator Series: Money Talks

• The Hangar at i3

07

Kopi Chat: Female Founders: Bridging the Gender Gap

• The Hangar at i3

08

An Afternoon with Israel Roth: Co-Founder of Labgoo

• NUS Enterprise at Blk71

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Startup Autobahn

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Wicked Wednesday at N-House-Speed Dating

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DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge Asia Awards Ceremony

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Blk71-Go: Let’s Connect

• NUS Enterprise at Blk71

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Tech Innovation 2016

• Resorts World Singapore

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Entrepreneurial Link Series: Singapore X Japan

• NUS Enterprise at Blk71

• The Hangar at i3 • Marina Bay Sands • National University Hospital Singapore

• The Hangar at i3 • iCube Auditorium, NUS • The Hangar at i3 • NUS Enterprise at Blk71 • iCube Auditorium, NUS

• NUS University Hall Auditorium

• The Hangar at i3

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• NUS Enterprise at Blk71 • N-House, PGP • NUS Cultural Centre

SPARKS food-for-thought

EMBRACING CHALLENGES

Former Blk71 resident Circles.Life made headlines this past May when it launched as Asia’s first fully digital telco, offering flexible data plans targeted at tech-savvy consumers. Co-founder Abihshek Gupta joined Kopi Chat on 17 August to discuss how the company has navigated its start-up challenges and the lessons it has learned along the way.

1. Know Your Market The founders looked to their own frustrations with Singapore’s existing telco options (long queues, complicated billing, rigid contracts, etc.) to create a new experience specifically designed for the Uber and Airbnb generation.

Their solution? Simplify the process and give consumers more control through customisable plans that can be changed monthly according to their needs.

2. Invest in Your Regulators The telecommunications industry is highly connected to its regulatory agencies.

It was therefore important for Circles.

Life to forge a relationship with IDA, understand their concerns and objectives, and demonstrate its own capabilities.

Working within Singapore was also advantageous for the start-up, as the system as a whole is corruption-free and responds well to feedback.

3. Reverse the Ideation Process With three opinionated co-founders, the start-up did not suffer from a lack ideas.

But in order to ensure that their relations and focus were maintained, new proposals were defended and debated not by their originators but by the other team members. This allowed for a more objective evaluation process and ensured decisions would be aligned with the company’s vision.

4. Make Fundraising Easier In general, telcos are complicated, unsexy and require intensive funding. This can make it difficult to attract the attention

ENTERPRISE SPARKS Editorial Team

NUS Enterprise 21 Heng Mui Keng Terrace, Level 5 Singapore 119613 enterprise@nus.edu.sg www.enterprise.nus.edu.sg Company Registration No: 200604346E

Contributors: Chan Yiu Lin Ho Yuen Ping Joanna Hioe

of a serious investor. Circles.Life learned this the hard way when they received 99 rejections out of the 100 investors they approached. In order to avoid their mistakes, Abihshek advised start-ups to a) qualify their leads and b) know when to walk away by putting in place timeline checks. This way you’ll know whether you’re on target to close a deal, or whether you’re wasting time and energy.

5. Keep Innovating One advantage of being the new kid in town is that Circles.Life, in contrast to established players, is not burdened by legacy or the overhead of retail space.

This allows the company to remain flexible and move quickly, allowing it to compete with others as well as positioning it for the future, whether that be making a regional play or innovating into adjacent fields such as money transfer, IOT, etc.