July & August 2003 | Issue 6

Dear Friends & Colleagues,

Greetings from NUS Entrepreneurship Centre and Welcome to our July and August edition of e-newsletter. We look forward to suggestions and contributions from our readers for our e-newsletter.

Please feel free to drop us a note at necbox2@nus.edu.sg.

Thank You and Happy Reading!!!

Best Regards,
Assoc Prof Wong Poh Kam, Director
Ms Gean Chu, Editor

Latest News Past Activities in May & June 2003 News on NUS-Related Venture

>> NUS Wireless Venturing Forum (NWVF)
We will be organizing the next forum on "Mobile Commerce" on 13 August 2003 at NUSS Kent Ridge Guild House Ballroom.

This forum will bring together the mobile commerce value chain players to address issues, opportunities and challenges in the following areas:-

  • Mobile Payment & Mobile Banking
  • Mobile Marketing/Advertising
  • Multi-media Messaging
  • Mobile Security & Authentication
    •

    You may register online from this website:
    www.nus.edu.sg/nec/ed/rio/mcom_reg.html
    Sign-up now to avoid disappointment!

    For forum details, visit us at:
    www.nus.edu.sg/nec/ed/rio/mcom_index.html

    The forum is supported by Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), CommerceNet Singapore (CNSG), Innovators & Entrepreneurs Association (IdEA), Institution of Engineers Singapore (IES), Singapore Computer Society (SCS), Singapore IT Federation Wireless Chapter (SiTF WiC) and Singapore Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (SVCA), with WirelessWorld as the official publication.

    >> Upcoming Techno-Venture Forums
    We will be organizing three techno-venture forums in the months of August and September.

    On 21 August, we are pleased to have Mr. Roderick Chia, a serial entrepreneur as well as a finalist of this year's EDB Phoenix Award and Immediate Past President of Innovators & Entrepreneurs Association (IdEA) to be our guest speaker. He will also give an introduction to IdEA as well as the E-Global 2003 award for emerging entrepreneurs.

    The second forum will be held on 2 September and we are pleased to have Mr. Emmanuel Daniel, our NUS Alumnus and CEO of The Asian Banker, to speak on the following broad themes:

  • Moving from a corporate executive to an entrepreneur - which of
       your power suit colleagues will break away to become good
       entrepreneurs.
  • The Research and Publishing Business in an Internet World
  • Building a business around the great industries - how The Asian
       Banker became the definitive commentator in the Financial Services
       Industry in Asia.

    • There will be another forum on 16 September by Mr. Tang Chi Sim, another NUS Alumnus and CEO and Co-Founder of Earth9.com Pte Ltd as well as Learning Chair of Young Entrepreneurs Organization (YEO).

    >> Mentored CEOs Growth Program
    As a follow-up to the recently concluded 4th Start-Up@Singapore, a new program called Mentored CEOs Growth Programme has been initiated which extends beyond the team mentoring during the competition by allowing the Mentors-Mentees to work together even after the competition has finished, for a further 5- 6 month period.

    With the new Mentored CEOs Growth initiative, Start-Up@Singapore hopes to significantly strengthen its follow-up support for budding entrepreneurs and CEOs of young start-ups by matching them against experienced mentors who can provide them with the necessary business and management expertise, domain knowledge and network of contacts, to help them jumpstart their businesses.

    Already, a good number of teams from this and last year's semi-finalists and finalists have enrolled for the pilot program which will start from August till December 2003. These include Cinexperts, CityAngel, DAS, Dorado, Eventique, Geo-X, GreenGen, Imfinity, InfleXion, MAtrika, Mojo-V, Mouldments and Unusual Ideas.

    Mentored CEOs Growth Program is open to all present or past Start-up@Singapore participants.

    For past Start-Up@Singapore participants who are interested in enrolling in the program as Mentees and for experienced entrepreneurs, VCs or business and industry leaders who are interested to join the program as Mentors, please write in to Ms How Bee Lan at nechbl@nus.edu.sg or call her at 6874-3143.

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    >> NUS-IES Technopreneurship Workshop
    On 7 - 8 July, NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, together with the Institution of Engineers Singapore (IES), ran the first Technopreneurship Workshop for about 40 engineers, scientists and other technical professionals. The program was a two-day intensive "hands-on" workshop covering the full-cycle of starting new high-tech ventures.

    Participants going on to start their own business can also take part in our mentorship scheme. This scheme matches them with an experienced entrepreneur or venture capitalist to coach them in the early phase of their business formation. Already about 10 of the 7,000 IES members, many of whom are technopreneurs or hold senior positions in companies, have volunteered to mentor the new start-ups, while a similar number has been lined up by NUS Entrepreneurship Centre through its network of contacts with venture capitalists, technology entrepreneurs, business angel investors, and senior executives.

    >> Techno-Venture Forums in June and July
    We were delighted to have Mr. Wong Taur Jiun, our Business School Alumnus and COO and Co-Founder of Intelleigen to give a talk on "Intellectural Property - Should you even bother?" on 26 June. There was another Techno-Venture forum by Mrs. Chin Tahn Joo, Managing Partner of Cross Border Venture Partners and Adjunct Professor of NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, who spoke on "What do VCs look for?" on 22 July.

    >> Briefings on Technopreneurship Minor Programme
          The Stepping Stone to Opportunity
    The NUS Entrepreneurship Centre is pleased to offer a Minor in Technopreneurship for our undergraduates to help prepare budding and aspiring entrepreneurs for an exciting, fulfilling and rewarding career. On 28 and 30 July, our centre has conducted a few briefing sessions to reach out for more undergraduates and to answer their enquiries regarding the programme.

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    We are pleased to learn that a good business partnership can also be established between a teacher and a student in NUS. A very good example is FriarTuck Pte Ltd (www.friartuck.net), which was incorporated in August 2001 with the initial investment or prize money of S$55,000 from StartUp@Singapore and Start-Up@Asia 2001, organized by NUS Entrepreneurship Centre.

    FriarTuck is a software house dedicated to developing and marketing solutions and consulting services for scheduling of events - however complex they are. It focuses on 3 areas; sports events scheduling, healthcare staff scheduling and educational timetabling. FriarTuck powers its products with constraint programming technology in addition to and in combination with Operations Research and heuristic techniques. The use of these technologies allows FriarTuck to deploy robust and cost-effective solutions that can quickly generate optimized event schedules.

    The founders are Martin Henz, an assistant professor at School of Computing, National University of Singapore; and Sevugan Alaggapan, then a final year computer-engineering student. Since its inception in 2001, FriarTuck has come a long way.

    We would like to encourage our NUS alumni, who have been involved in entrepreneurial ventures to submit a 1-2 paragraph write-up of their business ventures to contactnec@nus.edu.sg. Please include the following details: Contact person and details, business descriptions, business updates and success stories/customer profiles.

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