Disqus - Latest Comments for moto

Re: Report: Sequoia has emergency meeting, tells startups to try to survive downturn

moto — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 03:52:58 -0000

I know of non-dilutive grants from the government supporting engineering headcount to encourage startups to establish engineering centers in Singapore. Does this sound interesting in such times?

You basically plonk a team in Singapore, pay their payroll out of Singapore, and every 3 or 6 months, get reimbursed up to 50% of their base salary. This might be a good way to stretch startups’ existing venture-backed dollars in such tough times.

Does it makes sense? Thoughts guys?

Re: ‘Deep’ Engineering: an Endangered species in Singapore?

moto — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:38:38 -0000

jiinjoo,

I agree that there are many areas that would also be important to MNCs, such as those you mentioned. However, without core technology that is defensible, there are no customer relationships, business models, on/off/near/inshoring to speak off.

Although I was not schooled locally, I do sincerely believe that we have good 'hardware' in the form of our 2 technical universities, NUS and NTU. What we are weaker in is the image and perception of Infocomm in general.

The interim global trend may very well be such that students as a whole are losing interest in Computer Science as a genre. That doesn't mean it's a good enough reason for us to sit on our hands and do nothing about it.

Infocomm will continue to be an integral part of our lives, and increasingly so. Check out "The Uncanny Impact of Computing" by J. Srother Moore. Pure economics alone (add a dash of greed of man) will ensure that Computer Science as a subject will continue to flourish, although it may go through cyclical dips in the near term.

Re: Edelman And Brandtology Partner To Deliver Pan-Asia End-to-End Social Media Solution

moto — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:34:21 -0000

Awesome~ the perfect strategic tie up :-)

Such a solution is probably godsend to many PR agencies who have the market channels and contacts, but lack the technical solution to ease their customers' pain.

A match made in heaven~

Re: PropertyGuru Takes The Frustration Out Of Property Search In Singapore

moto — Sat, 23 May 2009 21:18:16 -0000

While there indeed may be many property site offerings around, few have done as well on the strategic partnerships front as PropertyGuru (having linked up with EBay, the above, etc).

While Homespace/Rentspace may have innovated on the interface aspect, serious adoption by agents and real estate groups is the real kicker towards success and scalability (across geographies). The Singapore market is small, and can/should serve as a test bed for all players (who I hope are thinking regional!)

My guess is that the strategic partnerships will continue to play a vital role for Upstream-backed PropertyGuru across the fragmented ASEAN market.

Re: Pitch To Joi Ito

moto — Mon, 25 May 2009 13:14:07 -0000

Due to (vocal) feedback, I've reduced the number of start-ups to 6, and increased each start-up's time to 10 minutes with Joi. Hope this helps!

After the one-on-one pitch sessions, Joi will also join the group and mingle for the last 30 minutes (on top of the first 10 minutes of networking).

I hope to see more folks on that day welcoming Joi to Singapore!

Re: Pitch To Joi Ito

moto — Sun, 31 May 2009 11:18:55 -0000

Sorry JV! My webserver went wonky and I had to swap my server to another provider. It's working now, thanks for your interest!

Re: i-POP Closes Funding Round With Mingly Corp And IIPL

moto — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:15:28 -0000

The only way in this relatively established market is through M&A - and for that, I do hope they've raised enough. Good to see this deal finally closed.

Re: Update On Singapore Entrants to DFJ Global Business Plan Competition

moto — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:27:18 -0000

I'd like to know how fast it took for the team deciding to reject the 4 proposals, and how that stacks up against the other entries from around the world.

That would be a good metric of the quality of our business plan competitions vs. the world.

Re: Update On Singapore Entrants to DFJ Global Business Plan Competition

moto — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:25:16 -0000

Touché!

"...all business plans are different and should not be grouped geographically. Different judges have their own opinions as well."

You speak correctly - all business plans have their own merits and are different, as much as judges are entitled to their own opinions and decisions.

I should clarify - I'm more interested in data points to help improve our business plan competitions - I wasn't referring to the quality of any specific business plans ;-)