![NUSEA Entrepreneurship Talk [09/30/2009]](http://web6.l2soft.com/?emailType=resource&key=5c332483acb5149851c51153cabfc64318813a22ef24eb8f&url=20090913-001-Stefan_Lindegaard_Event_Poster.jpg)
On the 30th September 2009, NUSEA was honored to invite Stefan Lindegaard to present a talk on the topic "Why Open Innovation Matters?".
Stefan Lindegaard is a well renowned speaker, network facilitator and strategic advisor, lending his expertise to companies with regards to open innovation, intrapreneurship and the grooming of driving forces behind innovation today. He has played an integral role in the inception and management of several network groups for leaders in innovation and intrapreneurship from major MNCs such as Bang & Olufsen, Danfoss, Grundfos, Lego, Novo Nordisk and Novozymes; as well as designing and expediting sessions to cater specifically to the individual needs of companies.
His pursuits in the field of intrapreneurship have inspired other world-class companies such as Hewlett Packard and Novozymes to follow his programs in business plan competitions. Stefanâs strategic foresight, conceptual knowledge, coupled with his track record in startup development and ability to communicate effectively with his audience makes him an invaluable speaker that NUSEA is very fortunate to have speak to us today.
More information on Stefan can be found here.
The event was well-received. It had an audience of more than 40 people.
More photos of the event can be found here.
Before Stefan began his talk, Meng Kiat CHUA, the 15th NUSEA president gave the audience an introduction about NUSEA.
Check out his presentation slides below to learn more about NUSEA.
For those who did not have the opportunity to attend the event, you would definitely want to check out Stefan's presentation slides below.
Do keep a look out for an upcoming post in which Horrace OWINO, the 15th NUSEA vice-president of mentorship, would share about his learning from this event.
To those who attended the talk, NUSEA would like to extend our utmost appreciation to you for your support.
Do check out our upcoming event NUSEA Rainmakers 2009: Going Global from Day One here.
Posted by:
Sebastian NG
15th NUSEA vice-president of IT
www.nusea.org
Mentorship Session With Eng Tan
Most of the technological changes in an industry's history consists of sustaining innovations characterized by step-wise improvements in performance, for example an increase in microprocessor speed from 2.0 GHz to 2.5 GHz. Disruptive technologies on the other hand are innovations which cut short this performance improvement trajectory. The most important of these from a historical viewpoint may be the architectural innovations that carried the data storage industry from 14-inch diameter disks to diameters of 8, 5.25 and then 3.5 inches.
The 5.25-inch drive was a new architecture that had been in the market for less than a year at that time while the 8-inch had become the standard drive used by minicomputer manufacturers. The 8-inch drive was superior along the dimensions of performance which were important to established minicomputer manufacturers such as capacity, cost per megabyte and access time. The 5.25-inch drive did not address the needs of minicomputer manufacturers as they perceived their needs at that time even though it was small, lightweight and priced at around $2000.
In general, sustaining incremental technological changes appealed to established customers in existing, mainstream markets. They provided these customers with more of what they had come to expect. In contrast, disruptive technologies rarely could initially be employed in established markets. They tended instead to be valued in remote or emerging markets. This tendency consistently appears not just in disk drives, but across a range of industries.
Eng Tan is an experienced marketing entrepreneur with a proven track record of creating new businesses totaling $1 billion in value. He successfully created and pioneered international standards such as the backup tape system (DDS/DAT) and wireless (IrDA). He has a reputation for being resourceful & working within resource-constrained organizations & start-up environments. He has constantly demonstrated innovative thinking in developing new markets in security, storage, internet and wireless technologies.
He was kind enough to share with us the story of how he successfully created and pioneered an international standard, the DDS/DAT backup tape system which was a disruptive innovation within the data storage industry. The incumbent technology at the time was the size of a washing machine with a modest 200 MB in storage capacity & was based on the 3" tapes such as those seen in old James Bond movies according to Eng Tan. Large companies in the banking & insurance industries had large amounts of data that needed to be periodically & reliably backed up & stored. Their 3-inch tapes had to be stored in large air-conditioned warehouses which consumed a lot of energy. The back up & storage process was time consuming & labor intensive.
Eng Tan was working for HP, doing R&D on a disruptive technology, the DDS/DAT backup tape system, whose capacity was a staggering 1.2 GB & was roughly the size of a credit card. Its implementation would have done away with the large 3-inch tapes and given companies significant cost savings by reducing their energy consumption. In addition, the large storage warehouses would become redundant. It was a brilliant piece of innovation which Eng Tan's team rightfully assumed every company would be dying to get their hands on it.
They could not have been any further from the truth, HP's marketing department stepped out of the building only to find that no one wanted the product. Customer discovery revealed that the 1.2 GB DAT was too small. The most consistent feedback was that the new technology was not compatible, a statement that did not make sense because all that was required was an adapter to use the old machines and switch the 3-inch tapes with the DAT tapes. At this point the head of marketing did not see any future in this technology & opted to resign due to the project's failure.
"The key was to understand what our customers meant when they talked about compatibility. It turned out that the main issue had little to do with DAT tapes being too small. Companies had concerns about retraining their operators, their warehouses becoming redundant & being forced to install new software. The last concern would ultimately lead to down time which large banks & insurance companies could not tolerate. Most importantly, companies wanted the option to purchase from other vendors."
Eng Tan's message to his audience was simple. As a founder of a start-up, make sure you understand your product and what problem it is you are trying to solve. More often than not, engineers & scientists get lost in the amazing technology that they are trying to build & forget all about their customers' needs. His stood by the notion that if your product solves someone's problem, then your marketing is taken care off. The product will sell itself. "Your start-up should strive to get feedback from those who are going to write the cheque. Once you get this feedback, be sure to understand it within the context of the industry, business or customer's needs."
Throughout much of the 1980s & all of the 1990s, the music industry's undisputed distribution standard was the CD. Before the CD, the standard was tapes; before tapes it was records. However, each of these standards shared one key attribute: they were secure, physical, trackable & very importantly, high fidelity loss music receptacles. If one copied a CD on to a cassette tape, there was discernible loss in recording quality & fidelity that even non-audiophiles could hear. Digital formats such as MP3 changed the notion of formats in several important ways- MP3 was not secure, not physical & not trackable in the sense that CDs or tapes were. And no matter how many times an MP3 file was copied there was no loss in recording quality or fidelity.
Despite the attractiveness of digital formats, record companies had questioned, at a basic level, how much consumers wanted a digital versus physical media; ie. did consumers desire a physical disc or tape that was packaged, had accompanying artwork, and was sold through a retail outlet that gave buyers a "retail experience"? There had been ample evidence to suggest that there was enormous demand for digitally distributed music - MP3 players were being introduced by the major consumer electronics companies; traffic to Napster & other online music destinations continued to grow; and PC manufacturers continued to advertise their PCs' multimedia functionality. On the other hand, some industry watchers proposed that digital music would make up only a small relative portion of overall music sales.
Throughout the music industry's history, the distribution structure had been built to support a physical standard. In fact, before the MP3 format exploded on to the scene, several higher fidelity physical formats were already being developed to take advantage of the existing physical distribution infrastracture. These physical formats were already being developed to take advantage of the existing physical distribution infrastructure. These physical formats included DVD-Audio (DVD-A), Super Audio CD (SACD), & Mini-Disc (MD). DVD-A was a non-proprietary format using the same media as the fast growing DVD-Video (DVD-V) market, & consumer electronics DVD players were introduced into the market in 1998. The official DVD specification was originally developed by a consortium of 10 companies including Hitachi, JVC, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, Philips, Pioneer, Sony, Thomson, Time Warner & Toshiba. SACD was jointly developed by Sony & Philips & was essentially a CD-format which enabled extremely high-quality sound fidelity. The MD, a storage medium built on optical technology, was pioneered by Sony in 1991.
Throughout 2000 & by March 2001, it appeared that DVD-A was poised to gain the largest market over SACD & MD, in spite of the hubbub over digital formats. Support for DVD was fueled by tremendous industry support & all the major media companies began releasing DVD movies in 1999. It was expected that their record company divisions would soon follow suit. Additionally, a key feature of DVD players was that they were expected to play CDs. While the SACD offered even better audio fidelity than DVD-A, its players & the medium itself were expensive to manufacture. MD was also not expected to command a large market because it was a proprietary format marketed by Sony. Because it was positioned as a home recording format with limited pre-recorded content released on it, it had some potential to compete with digital formats, but this remained to be seen. Naturally, the CD was expected to continue dominating overall unit volumes due to its low cost, availability, industry support, customer awareness, & installed base.
Clearly, Eng Tan's problem was an industry standard issue. The companies wanted a guarantee that the technology was going to be widely adopted and future innovations would be sustaining rather than disruptive. Once his company identified this, the only solution was to establish their technology as an industry standard. HP had a unique & valuable innovation making it a viable option to open the DDS/DAT format and so that other vendors could legitimately copy their technology. As they patiently waited for the standard to stabilize, Eng Tan's team aggressively worked on improving the product & its reliability, whereas other vendors' R&D was limited due to HP's intellectual property around this technology. Within five years the DDS/DAT market was worth $800 million per year, with HP in a favorable position to grab a large chunk of the market share.
Eng Tan's final words stressed the importance of making sure your product is solving a real problem or need. Seek feedback from the customers who essentially are the users of your product or service to make sure you are solving a real problem. Even then, customers often can not explicitly communicate their wants & needs, it is up to you to understand the feedback keeping in mind the context of the customer's problem.
:: References ::
Strategic Management of Technology & Innovation by Robert A. Burgelman, Clayton M. Christensen & Steven C. Wheelwright
:: by Horrace OWINO (Vice President, Mentorship) ::
It has been a while since the last update to our NUSEA website.
I apologize for taking such a long time to build this new website that I have promised. 
Nevertheless, good stuff is worth waiting for! 
While I was transferring the archive of the old website to this new one, I realized that there are tons of treasure that are worth reading.
For instance, there is this entry that talks about the origin of our Rainmakers event.
Click here to check it out.
There is also an entry on Questioning the benefits of NOC to NUS and Singapore. It is a good wake up call for us on our purpose of coming for the NOC programme.
Hopefully, after our new website is up, it will be bustling with sharing and feedback, just like its glory days.
For those who have not seen our old website, here's a snapshot for us to reminisce.
It will be gone soon, as this new website will be taking over its domain.
But don't worry. I have already made a backup of it. 
Gosh! I am starting to feel the heat, can you? 
:: by Sebastian NG ::
Mentorship Session With Gokul Rajaram :: The Google Adsense Story About Gokul Rajaram Registration
| Mentor:
Gokul Rajaram
Co-Founder and CEO, Chai Labs, Inc.
Ex-Product Management Director for Google AdSense
|
|
| When:
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
6:00pm - 7:30pm
|
Where:
Caffe Neto
135 Castro Street
Mountain View, CA
|
Topic:
AdSense is an ad serving application run by Google Inc. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image, and video advertisements on their websites. These advertisements are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis.
AdSense has become a popular method of placing advertising on a website because the advertisements are less intrusive than most banners, and the content of the advertisements is often relevant to the website.
Many websites use AdSense to monetize their content & it has been particularly important for delivering advertising revenue to small websites that do not have the resources for developing advertising sales programs and sales people.
In 2005 Google earnerd about $2.7 billion in revenue from Adsense, testament to the project's huge success.
Come & find out more about;
1. The Google adsense project, its conception & execution.
2. Gokul's career path to Google.
3. Gokul's motivation to quit to start his own company despite having a comfortable position at one of the world's biggest companies.
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2238
"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are." John Wooden
John Robert Wooden (born October 14, 1910) is a retired American basketball coach. He is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player (class of 1961) and as a coach (class of 1973). He was the first person ever enshrined in both categories; only Lenny Wilkensand Bill Sharman have since been so honored. His 10 NCAA National Championships in 12 years while at UCLA are unmatched by any other college basketball coach.
During his tenure with the Bruins, Wooden became known as the "Wizard of Westwood" and gained lasting fame with UCLA by winning 664 games in 27 seasons and 10 NCAA titles during his last 12 seasons, including 7 in a row from 1967 to 1973.
UCLA had actually been Wooden's second choice for a coaching position in 1948. He had also been pursued for the head coaching position at the University of Minnesota, and it was his and his wife's desire to remain in the Midwest. But inclement weather in Minnesota prevented Wooden from receiving the scheduled phone offer from the Golden Gophers. Thinking they had lost interest, Wooden accepted the head coaching job with the Bruins instead. Officials from the University of Minnesota contacted Wooden right after he accepted the position at UCLA, but he declined their offer because he had given his word to the Bruins.
"He never made more than $35,000 a year, including 1975, the year he won his 10th national championship, and never asked for a raise," Rick Reilly of ESPN.
According to his own writings, Wooden turned down an offer to coach the L.A. Lakers from owner Jack Kent Cooke that may have been ten times what UCLA was paying him.
The basis of great leadership is to "Have a vision that is compelling & scales." Compel people with what you are doing to motivate them to go above & beyond...
Great examples of compelling Missions & Visions;
Google
"Organize the world's information & make it universally useful & accessible."
Facebook
"Give people the power to share & make the world more open & connected."
Starbucks
"To inspire and nurture the human spirit— one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time."
So how do you find your mission?
1. Find your life's passion
• Tap your inner excitement.
• Know your passions, desires & loves.
• Focus on those you admire.
2. Reexamine your deepest values & principles
3. Develop a grand vision
4. Find a specific direction
5. Align yourself with your mission
6. Get support from others
7. Persist
Selling your Vision & Mission - Stephan Lindegaard's "Can you sell?"
You have to sell your vision to internal & external stakeholders by communicating it effectively in a manner that is memorable. This is important when you need to get support from others.
"Do you want to be the bricklayer who is just building a wall, who is just laying down a brick and putting some cement on it? Or do you want to be building a monument to what humanity can achieve? Goals without a mission lack passion & deep meaning. However, goals inside a mission turn visionary dreams to reality, energizing everything you do with meaning, enthusiasm & fun."
:: by Horrace OWINO (Vice President, Mentorship) ::
http://www.ted.com/talks/tony_robbins_asks_why_we_do_what_we_do.html
"Self-fulfillment" is an idea that infected my thoughts & rapidly spread to all facets of my life just like a virus long before I set foot in Silicon Valley. I looked at my past, present & future. What was it that gave me the most satisfaction? What do I love doing most today? What do I really want to do 5, 10 or 20 years down the road? Vital things to consider as I was trying to make a decision on where to invest my valuable & limited time/energy. The past & present were pretty obvious & clear cut. The future on the other hand was cloudy & blurred to say the least.
Seven months in the Valley has cleared the fog somewhat & I credit this to numerous interactions with people, books that I have read, things that I have seen & some amazing talks like the one I am sharing with you here.
I have summarized the main points below but I would still encourage you to watch the video to get your own unique perspective (plus the guy is an awesome speaker).
THE ART OF FULFILLMENT (A summary of the main ideas)
Decision is the ultimate power.
• The defining factor to success is resourcefulness, emotion being the ultimate resource.
• If you tap the right emotions, you can do anything.
What are the decisions we are making every moment of our lives that determine our destiny?
• What am I going to focus on?
- Focus = Feeling
- Past/Present/Future
- Self or others
• What does it mean?
- Is it the end or the beginning? Am I being punished or rewarded?
• What are you going to do?
- Will I give up or move forward?
To be successful, we need emotional fitness and psychological health to deal with the challenges that life throws at us, keeping us focused on our goals.
What shapes as as individuals?
• Our state (in the moment)
- Physical & emotional states.
• Our model of the world (long term)
- World view; this shapes the meaning we draw from our experiences, the emotions that consume us and the actions we take.
So think about:
1. What is your target? (what are your needs)
- Needs of the personality;
• Certainty
• Uncertainty (to avoid getting bored)
• Significance (we all need to feel important)
• Connection & love
- Needs of the Spirit;
• Growth, so that we can...
• Contribute beyond ourselves
• Emotion
2. What is the belief system telling you to go after your target? (the map)
3. What is your fuel?
Great quotes from the talk:
• "People really start to live only when they face death."
• "Explore your web; the needs, beliefs & emotions so you can fully appreciate what drives the world, giving you the ability to give more. This is the only way the world is going to change."
:: by Horrace OWINO (Vice President, Mentorship) ::
It is an honor to be chosen by many of you to be the next NUSEA president. Through the years, NUSEA has always been working towards its vision of promoting the entrepreneurship spirit within its members. As the new president, this will be my main focus.
In the past year, NUSEA has organized its Annual Rainmaker conference that is centered around Clean Technology. We have also organised a NUSEA unplugged session to encourage sharing within the NUSEA members on each individual's entrepreneurship journey. Moving forward, promoting the brand of NUSEA is essential. We have created a presence on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networks to spread the word of NUSEA and the activities that it organizes.
In the next few months, we will be organizing an Entrepreneurship Talk at the end of September and also the annual Rainmaker event towards the end of the year. We will also be holding mentorship sessions with experienced industry professionals to share with us their experiences. We hope to organize company visits and events such as a NUSEA paintball match that builds team spirit within the organization.
I believe the future of NUSEA can only get more exciting and promising. On behalf of the executive committee, we will definitely give our best and enable NUSEA to achieve its goals.
With that, I look forward to your continual support for NUSEA.
:: by Meng Kiat CHUA ::
Min Xuan gives a presentation on Twitter attended by 14th, 15th batch from nusea along with guests at the NOC office.
Here’s the slides on slideshare.
For more, see Min xuan’s post on her blog @ http://minxuan.net/blog/2009/01/21/how-twitter-changed-my-life/
and http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/2009/02/how-twitter-changed-my-life-slideshow-by-minxuan.html
for more reads.
"This is the twitter presentation I gave to the folks at NUSEA.
My intent was not so much to convince, but to share how creativity and imagination has injected so much life and variety into a technology I once thought frivolous. It took me nearly two months to figure the real value in twitter and how to use it effectively, and my aim was to bridge that gap for others, under an hour. As we all know, converts are the greatest evangelists.
Twitter will be destructive. I have witnessed it’s influence in citizen reporting, collective behaviour, and in shifting the power back to the consumer as corporations struggle to keep up. They are afraid of this new viral creature, and until they learn how to manage it they have no choice, but to finally hear consumers out (yay!). It’s long due, and it brings literal meaning to the customer is king.
And as far as I turn to Google for everything I need to know, I soon discovered the limitation in my results - they are all set in the past. Looking back at the recent crises, it appears that broadcast media typically break the news 15-30 minutes after it is first seen among the twitter chatter. Who considers what’s newsworthy anyway? We find value in news that affect us and the people we care about, and that comes through the tweets from our circle. It won’t be long before journalists begin monitoring what’s trending on twitter to report, and I sooner or later, I’m guessing Google will want a piece of the action too. Hello Twoogle!
So after uploading the presentation on Slideshare (which was a harrowing experince due to tons of downtime), I got an email from the editorial team notifying me that my presentation’s being showcased on the Technology page. They probably saw my frustrated Tweet But no really, it’s cool for a start."
Min Xuan is set to present her sharing in Barcelona! Way to go girl! We’re looking forward to many more updates from you.
This year, RainMakers Summer ‘08 will bring together the leaders in the mobile applications and wireless space. It will consist of a keynote speech, panel discussion and also a showcase/expo of start-ups and companies within the mobile applications and wireless industry.
Click here to go to the RainMakers’ Website
Why Mobile & Wireless?
In recent years, the percentage of mobile phone and smartphone users has seen rapid growth. Coupled with the introduction of 3G and 4G wireless networks and the multi-tasking, mobility-centred lifestyle of the global citizen, more and more consumer services and functions are now able to be offered.
Yesterday, the cell phone was just for making phone calls… Today, we use it to surf the Internet, send e-mails and even pay our bills. As such, the mobile services industry presents a clear and present opportunity to be leveraged. Some burning topics that could be explored at RainMakers include:
• Is mobile convergence the way to go?
• What revenue models work for mobile applications?
• How to acquire customers / market share in the mobile applications space?
• What opportunites & challenges does the Asian (Singapore, China, India etc) mobile services market present for companies and start-ups?
• Is partnerships between mobile carriers the way to go for mobile application start-ups?
• How to overcome issues of standardisation of mobile operating systems and platforms?
Contact us
For more information about the conference, please contact us at rainmakers2008@ nusea.org. Click here to go to the RainMakers’ Website
:: by Changjie ::
Being a competitive sportsman for the better part of my growing up years, the dream of competing at the Olympic Games was a natural one. Three knee injuries later, that dream has evolved to perhaps attending the Olympic Games (one that is firmly within my control).
TiE Con represented somewhat of a similar aura for the entrepreneur in me. Being there as an attendee this year can be likened to being a spectator at the Games. You are present; you can feel the atmosphere and recognize the importance to those battling to secure funding or connecting with speakers. But you somehow your life’s work does not hang in the balance like those ‘competing’.
I think my one-year here set me up decently well to work the crowd and to connect with speakers. But the contacts made – while extremely valuable would not be the highlight of TiECon for me.
Two speakers – both very aptly speaking as keynotes were what blew me away. The first was Naresh Goyal, Founder & CEO of Jet Airways. His story of going from a baggage handler in a small Indian airport to the owner of India’s first privately owned airline was truly inspirational. It might have happened in a different time, but his story was a clear reminder that success, in every definition of it, is a direct function of hard work and perseverance.
The other memorable speaker was John Wood, founder of “Room to Read”. “Room to Read” is a non-profit social enterprise that aims to bring literacy and learning to children in all the rural parts of the world. His goal is noble, like many others, but his methods and philosophy is truly exceptional and unlike any other I have seen. He believes in maximizing the donors’ dollar – more than 80% of donations go directly to the children (a staggeringly high statistic for a non-profit). More importantly, he believes these children need to be helped today and now. He answers to this belief by benchmarking his non-profit with one of the fastest expanding corporations in the world – Starbucks. In the last 3 years, “Room to Read” has opened more local language libraries around than world than Starbucks have opened coffee joints. How’s that for scalability and walking the talk? John reminded me of something I lost site of for a while – that one man can exact change in the world.
So while TiE Con was meant to be about contacts, business and understanding entrepreneurship better. It turned out to be so much more than that. It was about fanning the flames of passion and an awakening to closely held yet recently marginalized values in life.
Times are crazy but when the World starts spinning at its regular speed again, I do believe these lessons would be the ones I will carry with me through beyond my remaining time in the Valley.
:: by Sunny ::
Career choices - startup or large company?
It’s better to work for a company with a good brand name, because “if you don’t learn how to get things done, at least you learn how not to get things done.” Also, having a brand name on your resume builds a good track record when starting a company. It’s important to “raise VC funding from a position of strength,” and that is what a good track record provides. References from well-known companies, especially, have a lot of credibility.
On recruiting for startups
It’s difficult recruiting for startups. Gokul mentioned that the best people for startups are those who are willing to sacrifice cash for equity. To circumvent the problem, oursourcing is a good alternative. Though the cost of outsourcing is higher, it is offset by less time spent on managing and not having to deal with HR issues. It’s also the fastest way to get a product to market.
Speed is a vital issue. For Gokul, market research is not as important as identifying a problem and then quickly releasing a private beta to selected users. Rapid iteration of the product based on feedback is a great way to get the product right.
The importance of public relations and brand-building.
Public relations are vital to the success of many great companies, including Apple and Google. In essence, it’s free advertising. Google’s various products are also launched with brand-building in mind.
On Google’s venture into offline advertising - is it a good move?
Effective advertising is based on targetting and measurement. While it is harder to target and measure in terms of traditional media, the use of digital TV is making it easier to target TV ads through set top boxes.
Radio and print is more difficult to measure and target due to the lack of interaction. However, using recording apparatus, it’s still possible to measure the reach of radio advertisements, which leads to better measurements.
Google wants to develop the tools that ad agencies use to measure ad effectiveness. As with Google Analytics which is used to make sense of traffic data to websites, similar tools can be made available to people to make sense of the data from their advertisements.
At the same time, there is still a huge opportunity for online advertising. A majority of search traffic from Google comes from outside the US.
Startup opportunity: For markets outside the US, ad networks can be built to represent international traffic on US sites. For example, an ad network in Asia can cut a deal with US-based websites to place ads for traffic coming for Asia.
What is the mindset to work at a startup?
For Gokul, it is much more important to prioritize and decide about what adds the most value. That requires a huge shift in mindset. For example, instead of having several meetings a week, Gokul cuts it down to a meeting every week instead. His advice, is to treat it like a marathon instead of a sprint - don’t burn out trying to do too much in too short a time.
Gokul also made the difference between getting things done, and doing things. At a startup with a limited budget, you have to do things yourself to get things done.
At the same time, there needs to be a process where you need to build trust with investors. Most importantly, make sure there is transparency so that if there is a change in direction for the company, the investors are fully prepared for the transition.
Social networks and advertising
Social networks have been a huge driver for time spent online, but advertising on social networks is a challenge because it is not intent-driven like search is. Creative e-commerce-focused applications will drive monetization.
:: by Jackson TAN ::
On why Sun is giving away it’s software as open source
There are five reasons why making Sun’s software open source drives hardware sales, which is Sun’s core business
1. Zero barrier to entry for developers. Developers can create software for Solaris easily, which adds to the functionality and robustness of the OS.
2. Interoperability. Open source allows other software to run on Sun’s systems. For example, open source standards allows Microsoft’s .NET frameworks to be run on Sun’s servers. The increased flexibility offered by Sun’s hardware and open source software improves Sun’s product offering compared to proprietary software standards.
3. Lower R&D costs. Open sourcing its code allows Sun to save on software development R&D costs. Java ME, which is licensed under the GPL, would have cost Sun $2 billion to develop in house.
4. Security. Open sourcing allows for a more robust and secure code base for Sun’s software.
5. Eliminates barriers of exit for users. By using open sourcing Sun’s code, it’s easier for users to move from other platforms to SAlso, startups seldom have huge IT budgets, and using Sun’s enterprise hardware allows startups to reduce IT costs dramatically. As a result, Sun’s hardware is more cost effective for startups, which helps drive hardware sales.
With the Internet allowing information to be accessed almost anywhere in the world, the local state is increasing dangerous: the network IS the computer. And opensourcing allows Sun to tap into that trend.
On Leadership
“To grow as fast as we did, we were making mistakes left and right.”
There should always be a balance between grey hair and black hair in a startup, because experienced people are sometimes blindsided by past experiences, and make bad strategic decisions.
Decisive execution, especially when you hire people to make decisions. That means not being afraid to let people go if they are not making good decisions for the company. Never be afraid to ask prima donnas to leave the company, because “people will thank you for it.”
When bad things happen, who takes the blame for it? The key is to be open, transparent and courageous. That means owning up to mistakes, and doing things to make them right.
Create an environment where people feel trusted. People should be able to work with integrity, and not be afraid of telling the truth.
Dealing with people with a velvet glove is important. “Anger no one”, and make friends instead of enemies. That means being gentle with people whom you have to let go. When dealing with errant employees and executives, it’s important to be firm but fair. It’s better to move them to another position in the company and give them a second chance if they want to stay.
On future computing trends
Computers will be increasingly replaced by access devices. With computers becoming increasingly networked and users becoming more mobile, there will be less need for full computers. Instead, mobile computing platforms will become more prevalent.
There is no privacy. Get over it. At the same time, you can be anonymous.
Don’t bet against bandwidth. Future applications will require more bandwidth, and infrastructure will support that.
On character and Life’s most important decisions
Stay grounded. Only by doing so, you can keep your success and failures in perspective. If you allow your ego to take control, you can make some really bad mistakes.
Marriage - “if you’re going to get married, you may as well be in love.” When people get married, they keep forgetting that nothing is perfect. A good marriage is when you can see past the flaws and love the other person.
The most important character traits of a successful person is Courage to do the right things, Intelligence and Smartness, Integrity, and Fairness. Also, you must be physically capable to do your work well.
On how to become a leader
Ask yourself, “why do you like working with someone?”, then distill the answers. Most importantly, trust your gut.
:: by Jackson TAN ::
Into our humble NOC office, in walk a seasoned and accomplished VC, the Vish Mishra to meet up with young aspiring entreprenuers. From the start of the session, all our nervousness melted away because Vish was all fired up to share the perils and joys of starting a venture. So here began our practical lessons:
1) Venture capital activity is highest in USA concentrating in the Silicon Valley. Here are the statistics:
$28 billion in US, $5 billion in Europe, $1 billion in India, $2 billion in Israel
This is a measure of entrepreneurial activities.
2) Characteristics of an entrepreneur:
- risk taking, wants to serve 1 set of customers very well, think global, able to build a team with complementary sets of skills
3) Some advice to succeed:
- Be passionate about an industry and do something really, really well - you need to be a deep domain expert to build your credibility as a young entrepreneur. Talk to experts and many customers of the pain that you are solving.
- Pick the best people who know more than you do
- Big pain that is not served well = Big idea
- Bring mentors or lawyers when you pitch
4) Before you marry with a VC, make sure you proof that there is a pain. Then write the story (business plan) then the only a VC will value your business.
5) Stay where your customers are. If they are in China, go to China.
6) It doesn’t really matter if you have low valuation, the key is to build your business. Higher valuation is a result of a good business executed. He repeated “Build your business”.
7) Common mistakes:
- Founders overbelieve their value proposition. Is the problem real?
- Ppl buy solutions, not technology. So focus on making a solution, not just a long list of useless specs of a product.
- Share.
- Getting the wrong people. Be honest and upright and you will attract similar people.
To this inspiring man, thank you .
:: by Hoey Lit ::
I attended the panel discussion on Investment opportunities and strategies.
The panel includes VC, private equity investor, entrepreneur and consultant, all with many years’ experience in the China market.
The panel discussed the rapid growth of the Chinese economy and the trend of it decomposing from the US and Europe economy due to China’s increasing domestic consumption.
They shared insights on the investment opportunities in the China market. In recent years, while the overall foreign investment in China is increasing, the number of US and European investments is decreasing. Besides foreign investments, China’s domestic investment pool is large and growing. In big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou, entrepreneurs can get local investor funding of around 100million RMB easily.
For foreign companies that are considering expansion into China market or entrepreneurs who want to start a business in China, they need to consider the newly published property laws, labor laws and other government regulations.
The panel also discussed the growing trend of investing on consumer product. VC firms are still focusing on investing in high-tech companies rather than consumer product companies because of the higher ROI high-tech companies generate. They consider entry barrier seriously, which can be either technical excellence or network effect. Compared to VCs, private equity funds are more interested in consumer product, because their typical expected ROI is 3 to 5 times while VCs are looking for ROI of about 20 times.
:: by GD ::
Thoughts of a newcomer to the Valley
One of the best things of being in the Valley is the rare opportunity to interact with people, entrepreneurs who have been there/done that, on a personal level and to learn from their experiences. And in a quaint coffee shop in downtown Mountain View on a wintery March afternoon, we did just that.
Role of a Product Manager
The topic of discussion for the day was Making a Career out of Product Management: Opportunities and Best Practices. So what exactly does it mean to manage a product? Product managers are a special breed of people. Essentially, they are charged with bringing the product to life: from concept to reality. The Product Manager is intricately and intimately involved in every single detail and with that, brings with it different challenges and required skills.
Outward Looking vs Inward Looking
As product managers, one of the key challenges faced is finding a balance between the issues of dealing with external business and marketing needs and handling the engineering and creative teams. Are you a more outward looking manager that focuses heavily on the business development aspect of your product or one that builds strong relationships with the engineering team? As with many things in life, there is no best way. Product managers with different styles have succeeded in creating great products. The best product managers understand this need and embrace it completely
There’s no I in T E A M
This extremely over-used cliché rings true, especially in product management. As a product manager, you are a team leader, a consensus builder. Between the inevitable complaints from the engineers that what you want done is impossible and the requests from the marketing department for a flashier product, you need to find a middle ground. At the same time, you want to make the impossible happen: to create a product that will change the world. How exactly do you do that? Communicate, communicate, communicate. Managing your team and their expectations and most importantly, bring out the best in them. Succeeding as a team only makes success all so much sweeter.
:: by Heng Fai ::
Here are the lessons that anyone interested in product development should be thinking about :-
Judgement/ Decision Making -
It is inevitable that as a product manager you would be faced with hard challenges. And problems would not have a clear solution. At times like those, the product manager has to consider many factors like externalities, team feedback, economics, etc and has to make the decision. It seemed to me that making such trade-offs or judgement calls is more an art than a science.
Leading with influence rather than authority -
Good product managers build personal rapports and credibility over time with their teams. They invest not only in the products but in people as well. I am fortunate to have people in my office who lead with influence and I am proud to work with them.
Always Over-communicate -
It seems very obvious but sometimes overlooked, meetings are the heart beats of a company. All meetings should be documented and there always should be objectives behind having a meeting, list of action items after having the meeting.
:: by Aseem ::
When I first heard about the ABC 2008, I thought it would be the perfect fit for what I am trying to achieve here in the Valley - get a global perspective on successfully doing business in Asia.
It came at the end of an extremely intense period of finals, case competitions and the like. But it was well worth the trip up to Berkeley on last Saturday afternoon.
I missed the morning sessions but heard the Keynote by Stephen Pratt, CEO of Infosys Consulting, was extremely insightful. I think it would be useful to find out if transcript.s or recordings of the session are available online.
The second keynote by Laura Tyson, Professor at Haas, was much more than what I expected (and I expected a lot!!). She provided an amazing analysis of how China and India are shaping as business and investment opportunities.
Some keypoints I pulled out of Dr. Tyson’s session include:
1. China vs India’s Growth
China has been a great investment opportunity not only because of their double digit growth, but the fact it has sustained this growth for close to 30 years. When compared to India, who really only started its push toward this new phase of economic development in the 1990s, it had a good 15-20 years head start.
2. Concerns with China’s Economy
Dr. Tyson pointed out that China does have some fundamental concerns related to the political situation as well as it huge over dependence on trade, and particular trade with the US.
China’s trade balance surplus with the US has been likened to each (poor) Chinese lending every (rich) American about US$4000. Now that’s something to ponder over, huh?
Check out this article that is related to it: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200801/fallows-chinese-dollars
The currency controls also means that the Yuan is severely under valued at this point. A good opportunity to invest in the RMB, maybe?
Check out also:
- “China as a Fragile Superpower” the book by Susan Shirk
3. Cisco’s Decision to Base its “East HQ” in India
Recently, Cisco opened it’s Globalisation Center East in Bangalore, India. In discussing Cisco reasons for picking India over China to situate this state-of-the-art facility, Dr, Tyson framed nicely the competitive advantage India seems to have over India. They include:
- India being the largest free-market democracy The fact that India transition so seamlessly through a rather unexpected elections turnout really underscored the health of democracy and socio-political climate (albeit its many other issues) in India. This truly lends for stability and investor confidence.
- large skilled & English-speaking talent pool India’s ’subsidiary official language’ is English and the urban workforce is very proficient in the language. Coupled with the technical education of the Indian institutions makes this very appealing to tech companies like Cisco.
- reasonable IP protection system & courts that are active (to some extent) One big draw back China had for Cisco (and other research intensive companies) is its poor IP/copyright protection infrastructure. This is a relative strength for India. Also, the judicial system and presence of courts to file for action against IP violations in India also lends to a perceived lower risk of investment
- a growing middle class of more than 100m (still not where China is though)
Challenges for India included it’s poor physical infrastructure, the fact that 70% of its population are still rural, the more pronounced poverty situation and the restrictive labour laws.
All in all, the ABC 2008 was a very engaging and enriching session with its relevant speakers and panel sessions. It is definitely an event I feel should be on NUSEA’s calendar every year.
I also picked up a prospectus for the Haas MBA…So that’s a new possibility in itself too.
:: by Sunny :: On Friday, May 02, 2008 at 7:11 PM PDT,
Kevin Walsh<Kevin Walsh says:
Sunny, An interesting read and I’m glad to see the Blog postings coming alive again! good luck with your future efforts. kevin
On Saturday, March 22, 2008 at 11:34 PM PDT,
Guan Dian Guan Dian says:
I attended the panel discussion on Investment opportunities and strategies. The panel includes VC, private equity investor, entrepreneur and consultant, all with many years’ experience in the China market./r/n The panel discussed the rapid growth of the Chinese economy and the trend of it decomposing from the US and Europe economy due to China’s increasing domestic consumption. They shared insights on the investment opportunities in the China market. In recent years, while the overall foreign investment in China is increasing, the number of US and European investments is decreasing. Besides foreign investments, China’s domestic investment pool is large and growing. In big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou, entrepreneurs can get local investor funding of around 100million RMB easily. For foreign companies that are considering expansion into China market or entrepreneurs who want to start a business in China, they need to consider the newly published property laws, labor laws and other government regulations. The panel also discussed the growing trend of investing on consumer product. VC firms are still focusing on investing in high-tech companies rather than consumer product companies because of the higher ROI high-tech companies generate. They consider entry barrier seriously, which can be either technical excellence or network effect. Compared to VCs, private equity funds are more interested in consumer product, because their typical expected ROI is 3 to 5 times while VCs are looking for ROI of about 20 times.
Carlos, CEO of Human Network Labs (HNL), has a knack for putting people at ease that, coupled with his rich history in entrepreneurship, which he shared with us, made for a very interesting session.
His advice to all of us was “not to embark on the entrepreneurship track” and throughout the session, he expounded his reasons.
I don’t believe in narratives, especially when it comes to learning - thus I have listed the lessons I came away with from the session with him:
-Being able to communicate with people is paramount to becoming a successful entrepreneur
–>An entrepreneur should try to serve the needs of people and provide a solution to their needs and the best way of finding out these needs is through interaction
-Start early on the path of entrepreneurship, and expect to fail
–>Use initial startups to gain experience and hone your skills
-Be an expert in what you do
–>You must have the expertize in the area of your start-up, or you might end up losing the plot
-Getting the right individuals to form the team is vital
–>A great team leads to better innovation, a greater sense of belief in the idea and better execution and chance of success
-Ensure that people you explain the idea to come away with the same vision, especially if they’re possible team members
–>Get people to tell you what they think you told them once you have explained your idea to them to ensure they are on the same page as you
-An entrepreneur leads an ‘abnormal’ lifestyle
–>Friends and family might not understand your reasons, so be prepared to lose some of them
-Don’t bother about trivials, such as name, during initial stages
–>HNL is just a temporary name for them. The initial stages should be about developing the product and getting it ready
In hindsight, I would definitely say that there is no substitute for the impact of hearing them directly from the horses’ mouth. However, I hope the lessons were useful.
:: by Dhawal ::
It was always easier to laugh at the hardship you have gone through after you succeeded. That’s the feeling I had throughout our meeting with Carlos, a young and charming entrepreneur who shared his stories with ease and humor.
The opening was a kind of expected:” entrepreneurship is the hardest thing to do and it’s a painful process. People may laugh at you, and you lose friends and even family members along the way, yet the chance of success is extremely small.”
We clearly knew the high risk of entrepreneurship at the bottom of our heart. 1 month into the NOC Program, I started to reflect on this whole issue about entrepreneurs, specifically undergraduate/fresh graduate entrepreneurs.
Carlos pointed out that only the smartest people could make a successful entrepreneur. I could not agree more on that point. Look at the deal for an entrepreneur: virtually no fund, neither man power nor contacts, bearing in mind the 99% failure rate of start-ups; I guess faith, wisdom and decisive moves were of paramount importance for him/her to pull it off.
I doubted what an undergraduate possess besides passion. There were definitely successful cases like facebook, yet undergraduates were generally in a disadvantaged position due to lack of experience and skill set. Exceptional individuals like Zuckerberg created another successful story in Silicon Valley; however we need to recognize the huge amount of work that he did in his college years which paved the road.
Luck also counts in this quest for entrepreneurship. How much of that weighted for the 1% successful
At the moment, web application still seems to be the more feasible option for undergraduate entrepreneurs. There is relatively low barrier to entry and the ideas will make or break it.
The toughest thing is to make the first step. Giving up almost everything to endure a 5-6 years hardship of unknown results is not easy for most people. That huge risk, on the other hand, is also the power generator of excitement about entrepreneurship.
:: by Yingtuo HU ::
Many startups believe that advertisements are a good way to make money. However, apart from the big players there is not much space for others to make money. So looking at advertisement as a monetizing model is not a good idea.
He also talked about “deportalization”. Previously people went to sites like yahoo and altavista. There, it was possible to find about information about many things (stocks, movie listings, weather, etc.), catch up with friends and families, have an email account, etc. However, it is different now. People visit blockbuster for movies, ebay for buying/selling stuff and amazon for buying stuff. Which is one reason why facebook opened up its API: Companies can now place their application on facebook. Users of facebook will now visit facebook to get everything done.
There is a large market for TV based advertising. However, it will not be as valuable as online search of the future. Companies involved in search are doing plenty of research to find out more about the people who use various services online. These would involve metrics such as how long an individual hovers his/her button over a link or button, which part of a page a person views, how long they view it, etc. Once it becomes possible to figure out the demographics of the users based on this statistics, it will be possible to target advertisments to this particular market. On the other hand, many people in a family could be watching the same TV (the parents, a son and a daughter for example). The father might be interested in cars while the wife might be interested in clothes while the son might be interested in computers or hardware. Hence it is difficult to target advertisments that will interest everyone.
The following books were recommended for reading:
Recommended readings:
• Good to Great by Jim Collins
• Search
• Innovator’s dillemma
Finally, this bit will be of interest to NUSEA.
Satish said do not start a company with the end goal of starting a company. Instead, find out what you are passionate about. See if someone else is already doing it. If someone else is doing a good job in the field of your interest, consider working with them. As for looking for new ideas, look at companies that have failed. Some would have failed because it of poor management or team. There are some that failed because they were ahead of time. Look at the current trends and see if that technology is feasible now. For example, mobile phones were ahead of their time. Hence most companies failed when mobile phone technology was still at its infant stage. Once it became feasible to mass produce phones cheaply, it became a great product to sell. Another example is ebay. Barter trade has been around for thousands of years. With the advent of the internet, it is possible for hundreds of people to participate in the trade. This would be simply impossible before internet use exploded.
Warmest Regards,
Anis
:: by Alvin LAI ::
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