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Incub3 proudly presents:

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More on the speaker:

Prof Tom Kosnik is a Fenwick and West Consulting Professor, Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), at Stanford School of Engineering. He is also the International Advisor for NUS Entrepreneurship Centre.

Prof Tom has an extensive experience in the field of system integration, marketing and business development roles. Currently, he is helping business and government leaders to create real time learning programs for stakeholders across their value chains, positioning products, services and brands, execute global sales and marketing campaigns, attract and develop talent, as well as to raise money.

Some of his past clients include: American Management Systems, Apple Computer; Applied Materials; BMC; Cummins Engine; Electronic Arts; Ernst & Young; Harris Bank; Hewlett Packard; Information Week; Microsoft; Nokia, Siemens, and numerous start-up technology companies.

With his experience and involvement with various start-ups over the past few years, the talk definitely is a must-go for any entrepreneurial minded students.

Do note that seats are limited, and we encourage you to register early to avoid disappointment! Click on the banner above to REGISTER NOW!

You know things are getting out of hand when gadgetry website Crunchgear starts reporting on the total instances of “iPad” appearing on various news websites. Yesterday Apple released the iPad upon a (mildly) unsuspecting world and unleashed a tidal wave that crashed Twitter (almost, again).

Why, you might ask, is the iPad the recipient of so much scorn from the tech head community? Scott Adams, author of Dilbert, says the iPad “looks like committee work to me”; Mashable lists 4 very good reasons why the iPad disappoints; and GigaOM gives a couple of true reasons why the iPad won’t make headway with business users.

If you ask me, there are 5 thoughts that are worth mentioning:

• The iPad is a device that will appeal to casual users of the web who don’t want a clunky, unintuitive computer like a regular Windows desktop. (first suggested by Daniel Tenner)
• As regular users of the web and technology, it escapes our notice that there are literally masses of people who don’t use computers to surf the web, blog, shop, and chat endlessly.
• This is the computer that can replace your old photo album, your recipe book, and even your TV. If it can overcome the potential glare issues associated with reading off the screen for hours, it can replace your kindle too.
• There was a time when smartphones were considered not powerful enough to be much use for business, and too cumbersome for casual use. The same could now be said for the iPad. It is breaking new ground.
• Apple’s bet is probably that the iPad will take root in places where nobody expected before. Who would have thought that you can have a portable electronic recipe book with full colour in the kitchen?

Now, as a thank you for entertaining the thoughts of this blogger, here is Hitler’s disappointment on learning about the iPad.

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Hi everyone here is the talk video. Some of you may be wondering why I chose Veoh rather than Youtube. Thats an interesting and necessary question, especially since Veoh is asking you to install their player. There are 2 reasons. First is that Youtube limits the length of each video to 10 minutes, unless you have a ‘director’ account. Veoh has no such limitation. Second, my research tells me that the Veoh player is small and harmless (ie. no spyware). The different video services are worthy of a blog post on their own, but that is a story for another day. Enjoy the talk!

Watch Hungry? Gothere! part 1 of 4 in Educational & How-To  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Watch Hungry? Gothere! part 2 of 4 in Educational & How-To  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Watch Hungry? Gothere! Part 3 of 4 in Educational & How-To  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Watch Hungry? Gothere! part 4 of 4 in Educational & How-To  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

In one night, the founders of two premier websites in Singapore will be sharing their entrepreneurial journey in building their own companies. They will also be discussing about the important aspects in creating a good website business and advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and web developers.

Register now by clicking here

About :

HungryGoWhere.com is Singapore’s most popular and fastest growing food website, with more than 260,000 unique visitors reading HungryGoWhere.com every month and generating more than 2.4 million monthly page views and more than 16,000 reviews from then public, containing a comprehensive search of more than 5,000 F&B outlets. Launched in March 2007, HungryGoWhere.com is now the No.1 food website in Singapore, rated by HitWise for being the top website in the “Food and Beverage – Restaurants and Catering” category. It has expanded overseas to Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney and Melbourne.

Gothere.sg utilizes a map-based interface for obtaining public transport directions and other information based on our own GIS data and proprietary routing algorithms. Through the site, a user can obtain directions, estimated time and cost to go from one location to another in Singapore based on the most efficient mode of public transport – bus, MRT or taxi. It also allows users to search for nearby amenities within a location including restaurants, banks etc.. The site currently serves several thousand unique visitors each day and is growing rapidly since it’s inception in May 2008.

Getting there (click on map to get Gothere.sg’s recommendation for your route)

Address: Level 2 Auditorium, University Hall, Lee Kong Chian Wing, 21 Lower Kent Ridge Road, Singapore 119077

Please contact incub3ppl@gmail.com for any clarification.

Our latest talk has been a real mixed bag. I mean this in 2 ways. Not only did we have a welcome mix of eager attendees from backgrounds as varied as Life Science majors and Programmers, and nationalities across the Asian continent, we were also lucky to have insights across a broad spectrum of the entrepreneurial experience. Zaki, our speaker, showcased enthusiasm that obscured the ardous journey of a dot-com entrepreneur through good times and the recession.

The points were few, but succinct. While emphasizing the importance of hiring the very best talent that one can afford, he also made clear that advice can come in all forms, and regardless of whether its praise or criticism, a budding entrepreneur shouldn’t take either of them to heart too closely.

The gaming industry is one which has potential beyond what one can imagine. Console games, PC games, casual browser games and now mobile games. The platform for games may evolve constantly, but gaming startups can look upon these with optimism, for they represent a future that is bright and exciting.

Thanks for the support everyone. Till next time, keep the passion burning.

We’re back for the new semester. First talk in our new series is TimeSvr. TimeSvr is one of several companies offering virtual assistants to help the busy cope with the load of tedious monotone work that we have to deal with daily. Barely into its second year, it is well received as an extremely responsive, efficient service. Based in Singapore, TimeSvr serves American and European clients. Join us as we pick the brains of TimeSvr’s founder Ali Zaki.

(click on flyer below to register)

Contrary to popular belief, recessions aren’t all about doom and gloom. Recessions, in fact, are like coins, except that both sides can be ‘up’ simultaneously. For instance, international tourism suffers in a recession, but alternative forms of entertainment such as movie-going and local tourism have been known to grow during recessions.

The human mind isn’t wired to hold the opposing viewpoints that recessions can be good and bad simultaneously, so we will tend to neglect the fact that recessions are, in fact, excellent times to fire up your entrepreneurial spirit and break out of the slump.

The startup bug has already hit Manhattan, where a growing group of laid-off finance professionals have been assigned to startups as advisers. These nascent startups or expanding firms are part of a scheme jointly launched by the New York City Economic Development Corporation and the Levin Institute of the State University of New York. Did I mention that these finance experts are working for free?

An article in the New Yorker magazine makes the case that companies of all sizes should take the opportunity afforded in a recession to grab market share. One important line describes the difference between risk and uncertainty. Economist Frank Knight said “Risk describes the situation where you have a sense of the range of possibilities and likelihood of possible outcomes. Uncertainty describes a situation where its not even clear what might happen, let alone how likely the possible outcomes are.” However, research has shown that spending on acquisition, advertising and R&D yields significant returns to companies.

There is, however, always a risk of losing your way. Dabbling in startups isn’t a carte-blanche license to do business as one pleases. Sequoia Capital, benefactor of firms like Google, Yahoo and Youtube, has been shaking up its portfolio companies by showing them a slideshow entitled “R.I.P. Good Times”. This galvanized its companies to control costs, focus on sales and retool its marketing pitch to clients.

The take-home lesson for startups is that recessions are a period of flux, where markets can change and those motivated enough to take advantage with a disciplined, focused approach, while others freeze in the face of uncertainty will ultimately come out on top.

This may be somewhat old news that has been sitting on my backburner but it rates a mention.

EBay’s revenues fell 7% to $2.04 billion in 2008. This meant that the company’s earnings yielded 41 cents per share, lower than 2007 but beating Wall Street’s estimates of 39 cents per share.

The global slowdown has eBay execs worrying their pants off. Not only is the company spending more on marketing while laying off workers, it also sold off bookmarking site Stumbleupon back to its founders which it bought in 2007 for $75 million. Now eBay has also decided to divest its ownership stake in Skype by listing the company in 2010.

Dealbook states that eBay has been involved in 69 deals over the years worth a total of $12.6 billion. Of those 69, eBay was buyer in 57 of them. Some, such as its acquisition of Paypal for $1.4 billion made excellent sense, while it now seems apparent that others did not.

Dealbook’s graph shows that eBay’s shopping spree at the time of the 2001 recession served it in good stead, yielding progressively higher share prices until this effect tapered off in 2005. After that, successive increases in acquisitions didn’t do its share price any good.

Despite all this doom and gloom, eBay recently acquired a controlling stake in South Korea’s largest auction site GMarket for $1.2 billion. GMarket is an aggressive company in its own right as well, but who can resist the overtures of the internet’s retail behemoth. GMarket is serving Singapore and has been endorsed by Yahoo to become the spiritual successor of the now-defunct Yahoo Auctions.

It now looks  as thought eBay is regaining its focus and buying only what it needs, rather than what it wants. That’s excellent advice for any shopper.

Aggregating feedback to rank content according to popularity isn’t a new idea. Digg, delicious and reddit are just a few of the most popular ranking websites. It seems only natural that the next step in the evolution of website rankings should be personalized rankings.

If this trend passed you by, don’t fret. Its still early days. The more interesting startups out there that utilize this concept of personalized content ranking are still in beta, or even alpha-testing stages. My6sense is a little iPhone app or Firefox add-on that learns your preferences as you use its RSS reader/aggregator. It then serves you the most relevant snippets from the sea of information that you use daily.

Taking a slightly different tack is Headup. Headup’s Firefox add-on highlights keywords from websites that you view. When you hover over these keywords, the connections that exist between say, your musical tastes and that of your friends is shown, as well as any musicians that you may also like. This allows you to view content that is most interesting to you and to see the connections between yourself and your social circle.

My6sense’s strength lies in its ease of use. Its creators claim that you don’t need to even choose any preferences or settings. All you have to do is surf as you normally would, and the add-on’s algorithm will learn your preferences. Its definitely a great help to those who need a hand dealing with the deluge of information that we are fed daily. Headup on the other hand, helps users make connections where previously there were none. You might learn, through Headup, that your strait-laced, no-nonsense schoolteacher buddy is actually a great fan of Guns&Roses, or you may discover the links between Guns&Roses, Deep Purple and Aerosmith.

I would personally love to see a combination of both services in one package, but that is an entrepreneurial opportunity for another day.

When a new technology that impacts the lives of many is first introduced to the world, it is common that there will be groups that fall through the cracks and miss out on the revolution. Lets call this the fish that got away, after fish that slip through the net.

Everything from the MacBook Air, the ASUS Eee PC, to Coke Light, SUVs, and even Twitter, were made to satisfy the needs of customers who were underserved by the mainstream product offering. There are always fish that fall through the net, when a new innovation is introduced to the world. Let me share 2 examples.

The latest group to illustrate this is the auntie community. In Singapore colloquially referred to as “tai-tais”. The aunt who doted on you as a child, who showered love on you because she didn’t have any of her own. They are now proudly served by Savvyauntie.com. Not usually considered a significant enough group to have dedicated websites, this is  changing.

Everybody has a friend or 2 who only uses their mobile for the most basic purposes. Anything more than calls and text messaging might as well be attaching a GPS unit to a tribesman’s lionskin headdress. Happy provides prepaid calls and sms cheaper than any telco, making it a dream come true for anyone with an aversion to hype and gimmicks.

The times when the only people that mattered on the internet were young, pimply, english-speaking males with a penchant for technology are gone. What other group now underserved, undervalued and under the radar do you think will be the fish that we catch when we cast our nets again?