Official video of Startup Weekend Singapore 2012
Hey everyone, the official video is out. Check it out!
Startup Weekend Singapore 2012 concludes with Team SnapSell winning the main prize!
Singapore, 12 March 2012 – After a intense 54 hours of business and product development at Startup Weekend Singapore, held at NUS Business School, Team SnapSell walked away with the main prize, consisting of an Elevator Pitch on Angel’s Gate, scholarship to Founder Institute, validation space at Blk71, as well as 4 conference tickets to Echelon. Team StarCall as well as Mystery Shopper came in as runner ups, which will get validation space at Blk71 as well. Other than that, team StarCall won the chance to have dinner with Eddie Chau, CEO of Brandtology for having the highest number of likes on their Facebook Page, winning the Facebook ‘like’ Competition.
To ensure the quality of the projects formed, what was done differently this time round from other Startup Weekends around the world was that, on Friday night, there were two rounds of idea filtering. First, participants can all submit their idea to Pigeonhole which allows the crowd to vote for their favourite ideas, after which the top 40 ideas were identified and given a chance for a one minute pitch in front of everyone. A panel of judges were put up to choose only the top 20 most potential ideas for participants to work on. This ensured that participants spent their weekend building on promising ideas.
Throughout the weekend, about 15 mentors came and spend some time coaching the team in refining their business models, best practices in app development, as well as fine tuning their pitches during the final prototype presentation on Sunday evening. Adriana, CEO of Girls in Tech, Ash Singh, CEO of Interactive.sg as well as Andy Croll came down as well to give presentations to the participants.
Startup Weekend Singapore 2012 saw an amazing level of customer validation as well as execution. Some of the teams went offsite to speak to real customer and get feedbacks so as to refine their business models, while others leverage on social media platforms as well as online surveys. Overall, the mentors and judges as well as participants were very satisfied with the event, and Simone Brunozzi, Technology Evangelist of Amazon Web Service who has been travelling to various Startup Weekend around the world, also praised the organizing team for a job well done.
About the organisers – NOC Alumni
The organisers are members of the NOC Alumni, consisting of students that completed on of the most successful entrepreneurial immersion programme for students in the past decade. The NUS Overseas Colleges programme, run by NUS Enterprise, sends students who are aspiring entrepreneurs to entrepreneurial hubs around the world. The first NOC programme started at Silicon Valley (California, USA) back in 2001, and the success of the programme has brought it to other hubs, such as Bio-Valley (Philadelphia, USA), Stockholm (Sweden), Shanghai (China), Beijing (China), Bangalore (India) and most recently Tel-Aviv/ Haifa (Israel).
The students typically spend between 6 months to a year abroad working at start-ups, while also studying at partner universities such as Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH Sweden), Fudan or Tsinghua University. After their exposure to these international entrepreneurial hubs, the students come back as NOC Alumni and contribute to Singapore’s start-up scene. To date, the NOC programme has sparked more than 70 start-ups from returning NOC Alumni.
The organisation of this Startup Weekend is yet another way in which the NOC Alumni aim to give back to the community. The NOC Alumni are also partnering with organisations like NUS Enterprise, Brandtology, Amazon Web Services, Quest VC, Gold Roast Coffee and NUS Business School, to make this edition of Startup Weekend Singapore a success.
About Startup Weekends
Startup Weekend was founded by Andrew Hyde in July of 2007 in Boulder, Colorado. The first weekend had 78 people attend and launched a random idea into a worldwide movement. In the first two years, over 80 Startup Weekends took place from San Francisco to Athens, Greece. In June 2009, Marc Nager and Clint Nelsen purchased Startup Weekend from Andrew and restructured it as a 501(c)3 Non-Profit. Shortly after, Franck Nouyrigat joined as the third Director.
Startup Weekend has quickly became a nexus for early stage start-up activity in communities across the globe. By the end of 2010, Startup Weekend had built a network of over 25,000 alumni, 150 volunteer organizers and 60 trained facilitators spread across more than 100 cities in 30 countries. In September of 2010, Startup Weekend received a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, allowing Startup Weekend to come closer to reaching its potential in attempting to understand the unpredictable science of successful entrepreneurship.
Media enquiries may be directed to:
Ritesh Angural
Mobile: (65) 90042391
Email: singapore@startupweekend.org
Being Built At Startup Weekend Singapore Right Now!
Check out these ideas that are coming out of Startup Weekend Singapore.
You can track the progress of all these teams at our Facebook page or at #swsg2012 The teams will be giving their final presentations tomorrow 11th of March 2012 6pm in this order. If you’re reading this, feel free to drop by!
Holidiary is a place where friends can privately aggregate all of their travel/holiday activities as they happen. Everything from tweets, checkins, and photos – through a geo-tagged timeline. Later, relive they can relive the memories.
Heatr - A simple but highly useful Location Based Group Chat
HelpMe - We are building a proof-of-concept Emergency Services App for end-users and a Communications Platform for Emergency Services operators using current Web 2.0 technologies instead of the legacy, voice-call only systems in use today.
Juubs is a platform that connects people with the skills and the time to run errands to people who needs a helping hand with any tasks.
My Customers - A CRM application on iOS platform. Simple to use and the data is saved in cloud server for security.
Mystery Shopper - A Mobile Platform to help Small and Medium size business to improve their business processes and increase revenue.
Smart Tasker is a smartphone and web based solution, that enables companies to outsource field information collection ins certain place and offers flexible work opportunity to people. People can earn money with their smartphone by taking pictures and finding answers to questions.
CloudStat - a cloud statistical analysis tool
ShopperHolly - Mobile platform for Blogshop owners.
SnapSell - Dead easy way to sell stuff on a mobile-first marketplace.
TietheKnot - Untie the hassle and frustrations. TietheKnot is a platform that provides couples with ease in searching for reliable wedding services. Enjoy a fun, fuss-free and social wedding planning experience!
Sonar Finder is a smartphone and tablet game that uses sonar to find friends and places of interest. When you approach a hostile, go into periscope mode to fire a torpedo and scuttle them. Run out of missiles, and go dock at a place to be restocked. Play within your network of friends or play for random encounters.
StarCall - A platform where fans can bid for a chance to have a 1-to-1 video call with their favorite celebrities and help charities.
YouBetIWill.co - Everyone resolves to achieve goals, but many of us lose steam half way. Youbetiwill.co is an app that lets you invite friends to challenge you to achieve your goal. So log on now, set an ambitious new goal, and bet your friends that you’ll make it happen!
ExamWarriors is an upcoming platform which will consolidate all the resources a student may need to ace a class. It will allow students to search and download any document (solved assignments, past essays, class notes). It will also allow people to ask and answer topic-specific questions. Most importantly, it will allow students to create an easily-manageable private portfolio of all their past work, and choose what to release publicly. It will enhance peer-to-peer learning and advance education worldwide.
Fitho described by the founder: “Some of my close friends and ex-colleagues in India are suffering from heart attacks and diabetes and this trigger my passion to solve lifestyle diseases. Close to 130 million Indians are suffering. The most basic solution to check these diseases is to eat healthy n stay fit while being motivated to do so. We are proposing a web and mobile platform which will moniter your food intake and daily activity. The best part is apart from your friends you will be motivated and recommended solutions by doctors and fitness centers. We are following freemium model – free with ads and premium with additional features.”
WeReDe - A reward system that gets primary school children to play an educative application (parent’s desire) so that the child can later unlock his wish list progressively upon completing each milestone with sufficient points.
Fiero - A reward network that enable brands and companies to reach out to users who play games by offering rewards at their accomplishment stage.
To all SWSG2012 participants!
Hey there!
Startup Weekend Singapore is less than 24 hours away & we say why wait till then to start?
Start pitching your idea right now with Pigeonhole Live!
Pigeonhole is a cross platform solution to post your pitches online, get votes on them or vote for other pitches you like. We’ll be using Pigeonhole for this Startup Weekend to receive all your pitches. The top 40 ideas from Pigeonhole will get a spot to pitch in front of everyone at Startup Weekend so that it may be worked on over the weekend.
Here’s what you need to do:
1) Go to http://phlive.at
2) Type the event code: SWSG2012
3) Sign in via your Facebook/Twitter or LinkedIn
4) Enter your Idea/Pitch (200 character limit)
5) Vote for any other pitch in there you like (NOTE: You only get 5 votes & you CANNOT retract your votes once you have done so)
6) Come to Startup Weekend & get more people to vote for your idea
For more info about Pigeonhole, visit their site here.
This is something you should do before the event if you already have an idea. 
Get yourself ready for a jam packed weekend!
There’s a lot happening this whole weekend but here’s a summary of the key events so you can better prep yourself. Take note that we will do our absolute best to stick to these timings. Though there may be certain short delay buffers here and there, we will carry on the activities based on the schedule strictly, so please be on time!
Friday
6pm – Registration & Dinner
7pm – Icebreakers
730pm – Startup Weekend Facilitator Introduction
745pm – Talk by Andy Croll on Agile Development
8pm – Break & Top 40 ideas chosen via voting on Pigeonhole
830pm – 1 min Elevator pitch for top 40 chosen ideas
930pm – ~20 teams selected from 40 by mentors
10pm – Announcement of Final 20 pitches to be worked on over the weekend
1030pm – Team formation
11pm – First Official Team meeting. Startup formed!
Saturday
9 am – Breakfast
10am – Set clear timeline & plans for each team member
11am – Latest time to start developing
12pm – Lunch
6pm – Dinner, Talk by Adriana Gascoigne on Social Media Marketing trends
Talk by Ash Singh on 50 Keys to Startup Success
7pm – Continue work
Sunday
9am – Breakfast
12pm – Lunch
4pm – Start Final pitch rehersals
5pm – Dinner
6pm – Final Pitches
830pm – Judging & Prize presentation
9pm – Post to Facebook/Twitter etc. about the awesome time you had at #swsg2012
& how you hate that you have to go home.
Getting to Startup Weekend Singapore 2012
To find out how to get to NUS School of Business Mochtar Riady building, please
refer to this link for some great directions.
Once, you’re around Mochtar Riady building, look out for Sign boards or organizers with the event lanyards directing you to the 3rd Floor in Mochtar Riady Building (EMBA Lounge).
Some requests from the Organizers
1) If you have any extenstion cords, please bring them!
2) Bring your laptops.
3) Remeber, NO TALK ALL ACTION!
4) Tweet #swsg2012 & Facebook whatever you fancy over the week end.
5) Come excited, be ready to make new friends & have fun with it!
See you all real soon!
NOC Alumni,
Organizers Startup Weekend Singapore 2012
Do you have the SLAM DUNK MOVE?
By Kelly Choo, Co-founder, VP of Business Development and Strategy, Brandtology
I was very lucky to have pulled through multiple bumps on the road in what I wanted to achieve to now being part of a fast growing company in a fast growing space in the tech industry. Brandtology was taken home by a Media Analysis giant in 2011 and now part of a family of companies ready to take on the world.
Along my journey, I have been secretly extracting nuggets of wisdom from experts and experienced entrepreneurs and guarded them with my life… till now. Forced into a corner to share with eager eyed younger entrepreneurs that won’t stop Facebook poking me until I shared something, I decided to begin talking about my personal growth pains and some tips which I felt was useful.
This has given me some points to build this start-up success framework. It’s by no means complete, but I believe it would be useful in some way for some people.
It’s called the “SLAM DUNK MOVE”. No, it wasn’t inspired by any Japanese Anime or by some outstanding Asian American basketball player. It was probably due to my acronym loving country Singapore, which likes shortening every conceivable name or concept for easy memory storage.
Some/most of this stuff you would probably already sort of know (hopefully), if not please read on carefully about the SLAM DUNK MOVE:
(S)peed
One wise young-at-heart entrepreneur shared this: “It’s the fast that eats the slow, not the big that eats the small”. Speed, I believe is very important to dominate both the clients’ minds as well as out maneuvering the competition. I have seen some start-ups run too slowly and got nowhere. You don’t want to be just running on a treadmill!
(L)earning
People learn for life. If you don’t, then either you’re not recognizing what you’re learning or you’re not doing something worthwhile. Invest in your own learning by reading books and articles in different areas and topics. You never know how one industry’s ideas can inspire you for your own. Leverage book summaries or subscribe to helpful people feeds in order to get a quick scoop of the take-away points. I love to ask job interviewees what was their learning lesson in various stages and areas in their life and see some of them cringe at that question because they never thought about it before.
(A)daptability
Very few (in fact nano few) business plans will be the same at conception till they gain traction and become successful. How adaptable are the team to the idea(s) will determine if they find the right successful angle. Don’t be too stubborn for too long… nobody wants to see a dying fish in a desert. They want to see the fish grow legs to run towards the successful sea.
(M)oney
This not only refers to fund raising but also earning money for the company in terms of revenue. Yes, you do have to eventually earn revenue… you do know that right? I would say only a very few lucky companies would be able to survive what is called the “burning phoenix business model”, where the start-up burns money and doesn’t earn any revenues until hopefully one day, a hero (angel, VC or acquirer) comes along to rescue it and the phoenix raises from the ashes escaping its near death experience to become a star. Statistically very low chance of happening (I’m referring to both the occurrence of the phoenix and appearance of the hero appearing at the right time) so take that risk only if you can stomach your lunch while riding a roller coaster ride.
(D)ecisions
Someone has to decide which direction to go towards, and usually the compass doesn’t work. In fact, the map is non-existent and the compass is just spinning around crazily. Luckily, with experience and borrowed/bought experience from advisors and mentors, they can help to point you to a general direction; some even give you a nice GPS for you to follow. Eventually, someone has to make a hard decision to move forward or else the boat is stuck and will sink.
(U)nconventional
Be unconventional… but don’t do it till your team and investors run away from you in horror when you pitch them about your brilliant idea on “painless embedded MP3 player for your pet fish”. What I’m referring to is to think of a different market positioning compared to the company next door (and many doors thereafter). E.g. instead of being a “social photo sharing site”, could be it a “social photo sharing site for new singles?” Put a twist to it and make it unconventional, not become another me-too. That will help you occupy the “top of mind” slot in your prospects, clients and investors’ minds. You don’t want to be second or worse.
(N)ew Territory
Moving into new territory can be overcoming a personal challenge, where e.g. you were uncomfortable doing operations because you are not detailed minded, or whatever excuse. Or because you think you are not geeky enough to understand this or that technology that could help you change the way you do your business. I have seen fearless entrepreneurs who dive head on and somehow managed to land in the deep end of the pool, while avoiding getting a concussion entering the shallow end. That calls for being self-aware and being able to evaluate yourself. Perhaps taking in all challenges could be good for your own personal growth.
It can also be for entering a new market that your business needs to expand to. Consider working with partners and even clients to help give you a head start instead of just going alone and blindly.
(K)nowledge
Having knowledge of the market and your competitors are very basic things that I think you already know about. However, sometimes it can be blinding as we actually believe that just because we spend 31,415 hours surfing the web to gather the intelligence, we believe that it has to be correct and complete. Doing actual competitive testing and talking to their users and partners is a good way to supplement your understanding and knowledge of the industry and the competitors. Understand, iterate your plans, execute then test again. Repeat.
(M)entors
Find and retain mentors in different areas of your life such as business, general management, people skills, finance, {insert your hobbies or interests here}, etc. A mentor need not be a person with a long white beard or wise lady of the forest to teach you something. In fact, anyone you bump into could potentially be a “mentor” that teaches you something although small. Learn from others’ mistakes so you don’t repeat them, again and again and again. Find trusted “coaches” who are willing to speak to you about your work and personal life, that can ask you objective questions so that you can find the answers yourself eventually. These could be your friends from a different company or your girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse. Basically, find someone who cares.
(O)pposition
Find and keep people or organizations that are opposed to you and/or your ideas. They could be the very ones whom would save you from any entrepreneurial fairy tale and bring you crashing down back to earth, and then taping your feet tightly on the ground. These could be people in your company and external people whom you need to check with on a regular basis. No point having a room full of “yes-men” and “yes-women” that their only vocabulary to you is “yes” or one of its variants. It could be very devastating to you and the company.
(V)ision
Not everyone can have the same vision of Steve Jobs or Bill Gates and should have that kind of visions. Everyone has their own part to play in the eco-system, whether big or small. The key here is to be happy with your vision and to enjoy the process of getting there. Sometimes visions change, but that is ok as long as you know why you’re modifying it. Hopefully not because you find it too difficult to achieve, but because you have the gut feeling and the feedback that you need to adapt.
(E)xecutive Team
The core founding team and the middle management make or break the company. Easier said than done, but try your best to find a good mix of people for your team. I subscribe to the phase “strength in diversity” because it helps give different perspectives. If you are new “fresh out of college” start-up, then you should consider finding more experienced team members and look for incubators that could really value add to your executive team’s thinking and direction. It is said “given the right team and wrong business model, the team will make it right” and that I believe is a major key to success.
I hope I have done justice to these points and to the people whom have taught me these. I am grateful to be a lifelong student of entrepreneurship. Maybe one day these ideas and more would expand into a book.
Use them wisely and for your own situation. Adapt it to meet your own unique demands in whichever market or industry that you’re in. Some of these could also apply to your everyday life.
Have you found your own SLAM DUNK MOVE yet?
ABOUT AUTHOR:
Intrigued by the widespread influence of Social Media on society and organisations, Kelly took up a teaching assistant role in the 1st Asian Facebook development course. Before that, he was involved in computing security in the Singapore Armed Forces. Whilst studying in UPenn/ Wharton, he also worked as an IT consultant and was involved in launching two start-ups in the US, as well as advising a few more. Kelly holds an Honors Degree in Computing (e-Commerce) with a minor in Technopreneurship from the National University of Singapore.
If you would like to contact me for comments, feedback or just want to add to my growing number of online contacts that I do not know personally (yet), you could try emailing me at slamdunkmove@gmail.com or adding me as a friend on Facebook and Linkedin. Everything written here is of my own personal views and do not reflect the views of Brandtology and anyone else.
