Entrepreneurship. In the end, your success will speak for itself.

In the end, your success will speak for itself. - Patrick Bet David.

Love the quote.

Best Motivational Video for Entrepreneurs

The life of an Entrepreneur in 90 seconds. Tag an entrepreneur.www.patrickbetdavid.com

Posted by Patrick Bet-David on Saturday, October 31, 2015

Seoul attracts young entrepreneurs back

[Source] http://www.inc.com/magazine/201112/the-returnees.html

Interesting article that touches entrepreneurship in Seoul.

Part of the reason why youngster flock back to Seoul.

"Choi thought about starting a company after graduation, but he had a problem: His student visa had expired. He didn't have the $1 million in cash necessary to qualify for an investor visa, so he figured his only option would be to get a job and hope that his employer would sponsor his application for permanent residence. He went on a dozen interviews at American medical-device companies, but none were interested, and he finally enrolled in a master's program at Cornell to stay for another year. When it was over, he gave up on the States, returned to Korea, and took a job at the pharmaceutical division of SK, one of the country's largest conglomerates."

Of course, Government's initiatives are the key factor.

Fundings

Over the past two years, the South Korean government has launched a series of policies designed to help people like Choi. The Small and Medium Business Administration—South Korea's version of the SBA—has created hundreds of incubators throughout the country, offering entrepreneurs free office space, thousands of dollars in grants, and guaranteed loans. 

Internet Infrastructure.

In the 1990s, the South Korean government invested heavily in the installation of fiber-optic cables, with the result that by 2000, Koreans were four times as likely as Americans to have high-speed Internet access. Koreans still enjoy the fastest Internet in the world while paying some of the lowest prices. The easiest way to feel like an outsider in this country is to board one of Seoul's subway cars, which are equipped with high-speed cellular Internet, Wi-Fi, and digital TV service, and look anywhere but at the screen in your hand.

 Government's participation in bridging the economy.

Last December, Shin was summoned to South Korea's version of the White House—the Blue House—for a meeting with the country's president, a former Hyundai executive named Lee Myung-bak. In attendance were the CEOs of many of the country's largest companies—LG, Samsung, SK, and half a dozen others.  

----

Looking back at Malaysia, those 3 key initiatives aren't really addressed by the government properly.

Internet infrastructure is terrible. The typical home broadband connection is still at ~1Mbps, and signal lost happened all the time.

Well, having said that, maybe entrepreneurship isn't part of the interest of the government after all.

Entrepreneurs can change the world

Saw this video at HallwaysGarage and thought of sharing with all of you.

Its true. Most of the time, great ideas are simple ideas that can solve our daily problems; Most of the time, great ideas are our childhood ideas.

Remember a quote from the speaker at Tertiary Tech Conference (TTC) that I went to few months back:

If your idea is not simple, most likely its not a great idea; If your idea cannot be described in a short phrase, most likely it will not work out.

Foound

"This is not checking in, because frankly, why do you want to check-in alone when you can start hanging out with friends on Foound. - Danny Tan"

I like the closing by Danny, the founder of Foound.

 If you look closely on the existing applications, like 4□.. which does nothing in bring people together, or solving existing real-world problems. They are just new play-toys which (most) people try and forget about. Of course there are still many out there who uses these apps. But personally, me and the tech friends around me has stopped playing with FourSquare after few weeks of testing. Ok, this is not my main point of this article. Read more on this topic at newsweek.

What attracted my attention to Foound is it's idea of solving problems that we all face everyday - Trying to organize a gathering.

Is there any existing solution? Yes, there are... Facebook event? Google Calendar? But they don't help you link up with your friends who is not those platform.

I think what fundamentally makes Foound a useful app is that

• It helps answer basic info that people will want to know about a hang-out
• When, 
• where, 
• who is going...
• It helps bridge people from different platform
• Facebook, 
• email, 
• sms...

Was talking to Danny few weeks back at Tertiary Tech Conference (TTC), and asked him about Foound for Windows Phone 7/Mobile and Android. He said the team has plans for Android, but not Windows at the moment.

Can't wait for the Android app!

Heres another media interview video.

Foound interviewed by InLab Ventures

More links:

1. http://foound.com/
2. http://blog.foound.com/
3. InLab Ventures media interview with Foound

p/s: I think start-up ideas should be something like this, solving existing real world problem instead of introducing new options to the world.

Accelerate 2010

Went to Accelerate 2010 at Suntec :)

Here are some of the photos taken for some of the events in the afternoon.

Keynote 3: Design Thinking in Asia,
by Richard Kelly, Associate Partner, IDEO

Mobile M2M Connectivity from People to Devices

Social Computing: Research Insights and Influence on Android & Healthcare

The MeeGo Platform and n-Screen Services Deployment through Intel AppUp Store

HTML 5
by Scott Refer

HTML 5
by Scott Rafer

New User Interfaces

The Desserts :)

random thoughts

There goes my Saturday. Went for a meeting with a friend at Prudential, Newton around 12pm. Came back for class at 2-4.15pm. Then cook instant noodle for lunch. Then watch Qixiang play games - just to nua... wahlah... its 6pm already. Haih. Feel so sien, so 颓废.

A lot of things in my mind, a lot of things that I want to do, but none of 'em are academic related. Thoughts that has been running in my mind:
1. Develop the Windows Mobile app that I have in mind.
2. Find friends who have the same interest to start up a small web-based company.
3. Further develop on the start-up ideas that I have in mind.

...

Haha, sounds like entrepreneur ideas.... reminds me of the entrepreneur talk in LT19, NUS - "why you should NOT be entrepreneur" by hungrygowhere.com founder.

why should NOT be entrepreneur
1. Give up easily
2. Have no business plan
3. Plan too much
4. You hang around people just like you
5. You cannot make decision
6. No working experience and no capital
7. No faith and do not believe in God

full text at Google Doc.

Ah, yeah yeah, I know I know, I think too much, should just sit still and finish off my last Sem. :[

ah~~~

NTU - SCE Graduate behind Successful Joint Start-Up

SCE Graduate behind Successful Joint Start-Up

Ang Jun Han (first right) together with his team members from Gothere.sg.

Ang Jun Han graduated with a degree in Computer Engineering in 2008 and is now one of the four responsible for what appears to be a popular service that is able to assist the general public to effectively plan their commute in Singapore, at a glance. Gothere.sg, formed in May last year, specialises in Geographical Information System (GIS) and Location Based Services (LBS), and is currently collaborating with the Land Transport Authority to develop a user friendly travel advisory for public transport journeys.

An easy to use free internet application Gothere.sg has received rave reviews from the press, and was recently singled-out by Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, in the 2009 Budget speech, as an example of an innovative local start-up. Through the site users can obtain directions, estimated time and cost (which would include ERP charges) to go from one location to another in Singapore based on the most efficient mode of transport. The application can also search for amenities nearby such as restaurants and banks. With more than 15,000 hits per day, the Gothere team has expanded the use of their application to mobile phones.

The application is available at the following site: http://gothere.sg

Media coverage:
http://www.asiaone.com/Business/SME%2BCentral/Prime%2BMovers/Story/A1Story20090123-116792.html
http://www.todayonline.com/articles/285813.asp