TH E N U S EN T R E P R E NE U RI A L S PI RI T
Mr Keith Tan
Nation
The National University of Singapore plays a unique role in the development of successful tech start-ups. The AlumNUS finds out how, and speaks to three graduates whose businesses reflect NUS’ involvement. BY THERESA TAN n the recent 2016 BNP Paribas Global Entrepreneur Report, which polled over 2,600 multimillionaire entrepreneurs worldwide, Singapore ranked sixth among global economies that entrepreneurs consider as presenting the best opportunity for starting and running a successful business. While this is not exactly a new finding, it is a significant one — because just over 15 years ago in 2000, Singapore ranked 20 out of 21 countries for entrepreneurial propensity in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) study. In 2010, Mr Scott Anthony, the managing partner of American growth consulting firm Innosight, moved to Singapore to oversee the company’s new incubation and investment arm. In a February 2015 article in Harvard Business Review, he wrote that his move faced ridicule then, when he was hard-pressed to name a notable startup from Singapore apart from Creative Labs — which had made news in 2006 when Apple paid it US$100 million for infringing its ZEN patent rights, but by 2007 had delisted from NASDAQ. (It was subsequently delisted from the Singapore Exchange in 2013.) Of course, Mr Anthony could not name gaming peripherals giant Razer as a notable exception, although this
sexy success story did begin with a Singaporean and National University of Singapore (NUS) alumnus, Mr Min-Liang Tan (Law ’02), who founded the company in the United States in 1998 with venture capitalist Robert Krakoff. Razer has, to date, attained a cult-like status among gamers all over the world, having stayed true to its motto: “For Gamers. By Gamers.” However, Mr Anthony could, five years on, list a multitude of reasons “Why Singapore Has Become An Entrepreneurial Hub”, as his article is titled. One reason is that, like Silicon Valley, Singapore has strong research institutions and not many restrictions by way of non-compete clauses. Another is that like Israel, Singapore is a small country with limited natural resources and is therefore forced to be innovative when it comes to economic ideas — both countries have liberal immigration policies, for one. And both have compulsory military conscription for men, and the military provides ripe ground for innovation, he says, quoting the book Start-up Nation by Dan Senor and Saul Singer. Mr Anthony also highlighted the venture capital investment available in Singapore, which went from US$30 million in 2011 to over US$1 billion in 2013. The Singapore government has played a huge role in creating low barriers to entry for foreign talent to
grow innovation from Singapore. A new business can be registered in a matter of hours. English as the working language is a huge plus, as is the efficiency for which Singaporeans pride themselves. But the real honey must be the range of grants and related programmes made available via the National Framework of Innovation and Enterprise (NFIE), birthed out of the National Research Foundation (NRF), a department of the Prime Minister’s Office set up to strengthen Singapore’s R&D capabilities. NFIE was established in 2006 as a comprehensive national programme to grow innovation and entrepreneurship in Singapore. It comprises seven schemes, one of which offers Singapore-based startups a matching grant of up to 85 per cent of capital (capped at S$500,000 per company) and the guidance and active mentorship of the Technology Incubator. The Incubator then has the option to buy over the start-up within three years. Mr Anthony certainly isn’t the only one who has moved to Singapore to capitalise on the investment opportunities. The most high-profile of these is Mr Eduardo Saverin, a co-founder of Facebook, who has been based in Singapore since 2009 and has invested in five tech start-ups so far, Continued on page 12
THE TECH SECTOR CAN BENEFIT FROM HAVING PEOPLE VIEW START-UPS AS A LEGITIMATE CAREER OPTION. PROGRAMMES SUCH AS THE NUS OVERSEAS COLLEGE ARE CHANGING THIS PERCEPTION. Mr Keith Tan
(Arts and Social Sciences ’15), 26, is the co-founder of Start Now, a site that offers a full suite of tools for social enterprises. Founded in 2011, Start Now was bought over by local company Goodtizens in Nov 2015 for S$378,000. Mr Tan is now back at Plug-In@Blk71 with Start Now co-founder Mr Ivan Chang and a third partner Mr Kuriakin Zeng, working on Wonderlabs, a company that helps start-ups set up, test and validate their products within a very short time.
TECH FOR GOOD Tell us about your journey to forming Start Now. How did NUS Enterprise play a part?
Ivan [Chang] and I met when we were classmates in Sec 1. At 14 we founded our first business — which dealt in apparel printing and corporate gifts — with just S$72. We sold it when we were 19 for a six-figure sum. In 2011, we had an idea that stemmed from a personal problem — trying to find a place to volunteer. We thought, what if we created a platform to connect volunteers to volunteering opportunities? And the idea of Start Now was born. We shopped around for incubators to incubate us for the YES! Startups Grant. All the incubators rejected us because they did not believe that volunteerism could be a viable business model. However, at the time NUS Enterprise had just started the Social Venture Lab to incubate ideas that tackled social issues (social enterprises). That’s how we ended up being incubated at NUS Enterprise.
Start Now is described as “civic technology” — what does that mean? “Civic technology” is technology that seeks to stimulate or create civic action – like taking part in social causes by way of volunteering, donating, crowd-funding or micro-financing. Our mission was to connect people to causes. Originally, our platform strove to connect volunteers to volunteering opportunities. Later on, we moved to create white-label software such as volunteer management and donor management software to government agencies and non-profit organisations (NGOs) to help them engage volunteers and donors to create change. We also set up a division that ran campaigns to promote volunteerism as well as campaigns for corporate clients.
How did Wonderlabs come about? We started Wonderlabs as the key vehicle
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Wilson Pang
to scout for new ideas and entrepreneurs that we could seed invest in. We also want to help entrepreneurs avoid the pitfalls we experienced: waiting too long and developing too much before testing ideas in the real world. I met Kuriakin while we were students at Singapore Polytechnic. After I graduated from NUS, I worked with him on a social change project for the Enactus Organization. After Kuriakin graduated from Harvard, I roped him in as a partner and Chief Technology Officer at Wonderlabs.
Did being in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) encourage the entrepreneurial streak in you?
NUS did not cultivate that entrepreneurial streak per se, but it was a great place to pursue entrepreneurial activities, and build on my initial interest in pursuing this as my career. As for FASS, the type of critical thinking and open debate that is the foundation of the social sciences is highly applicable to the technology sector. When much of what we do is to disrupt the status quo, it helps to have a healthy distrust of norms and a critical mind to question the present state of affairs.
What is your view of NUS being a “hotbed” for start-ups and enterprises? Is enough being done to encourage entrepreneurship?
I think the vast majority of NUS students still graduate and aspire to join a large company with a stable career path. The tech sector could definitely benefit from having more people view start-ups as a legitimate career option. Programmes such as the NUS Overseas College are changing this perception. People in Singapore aren’t used to the potentially turbulent nature of working for a start-up where your entire organisation could go bust in 60 days.
JAN– MAR 2016
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