incub3.org

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.

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?

I read a thought-provoking article today on The Register. There is a school of thought that says you don’t have to be first in anything as being early isn’t the same as being the best. This point was made by Ming at the inaugural Incub3 talk. Andrew Orlowski makes the same point in his piece on Apple, linked above. Apple, by not being the first to the smartphone game, was able to identify and attack weaknesses in the way business was done in this field. These weaknesses are ruthlessly exposed and condemned in satisfying fashion by Brendon McLean in his vicious article.

The most accurate description of the mobile industry’s failings as a whole is that mobile handset manufacturers forgot that they were making phones for consumers, and not corporate executives from monolithic telcos resistant to change and innovation, except where it padded their wallets and bottomline. When you don’t serve your customer, you can and will lose their business, and dollars.

Even with a product as great as the iPhone, it was no foregone conclusion that Apple would make it in the smartphone business. For instance, the first generation iPhone had no 3G, no Wi-Fi, you couldn’t forward messages, and most annoyingly, there was no “copy-paste” function. Yet, even with these glaring omissions, Apple had a glorious winner on its hands. Even with tying itself to selected telcos, Apple managed to outsell many established brands.

I’m not going to join my iPhone-owning buddies in lauding the genius of Apple, I don’t even own one, but I can’t deny that its really instructive to ponder the success that is the Apple iPhone.

This post today can almost be called a stock tip. What would you do if you were one of the largest battery manufacturers in China for cell phones and were looking to diversify?

Which of the following moves would you choose to implement and secure your company’s future?

1. Research into super-efficient batteries that will indirectly help cut back on emissions from power plants.
2. Buy up electronic components manufacturers to capture more of the value-added chain in producing electronic devices.
3. Diversify and enter the car manufacturing market with one of the country’s first hybrid cars.

If your razor-sharp business acumen led you to pick option three, congratulations! Your brand of strategic leadership is worthy of a massive capital injection from Warren Buffett.

Chinese companies are not known for the build quality, or the safety, of their products. But with this baby from BYD Auto already in mass production, there is every chance that this could soon change.

We learn something new everyday. If this Financial Times article is correct, then the NOC program I just spent a year on was an utter mistake.

The article claims and shows that Wenzhou, a small city 250km south of Shanghai, and surrounded on 3 sides by mountains, is the true hub of entrepreneurship in China. In a city of 7.9 million people, there are over 300,000 small businesses. That works out to one startup for every 26 persons. The ratio is easily even smaller once we factor out the young and the old, as well as workers in large firms and civil servants. Granted we’re not talking about Web2.0 in this town, but the fact remains that local companies like Chint and Delixi undeniably a true testament to the entrepreneurial spirit of the locals.

It makes one wonder what the ingredients for nurturing an entrepeneurial hub are. Numerous explanations have been put forward by academics within China. Some attribute Wenzhou’s success to its freedom from state influence due to its remoteness, others say its the protestant work ethic. Whatever the case may be, it is definitely food for thought for Singapore bureaucrats who seek to do the same to Singapore. I for one will be planning my next holiday to China rather more differently now.