Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Nusantara Incubation Fund seeks out Indonesia’s Next Big Thing
Indonesia-based Bakrie Telecom on June 13 launched the Nusantara Incubation Fund (NIF), which plans to invest in companies that deal with mobile and web technology, as well as new media. The iniative is part of Bakrie’s Telecom Media and Technology Vision 2015, which was announced in March.
The fund has been allocated Rp 100 billion(US$11.72 million) to invest in these companies, which can range from early stage to high growth stage companies. Besides funding, the NIF would also work with the companies’ founders to provide mentoring, facilities, and links to strategic partners and companies.
“From here we expect the new Kaskuses and Koprols will be born, and they should be owned by us. Although there will be others to invest, it’s no problem,” said Anindya Novyan Bakrie, the principal of the fund.
The objective of the incubator is to facilitate the best ideas and take it to the higher level by inviting Indonesia’s technopreneurs to submit proposals, business ideas and concepts. If chosen, they will get financial support and support in order to succeed.
Among those who are in the Investment Committee are Hasan Yahya, Shinta w. Dhanuwardoyo, Eric Meijer and Jastiro Abi.
Link to full article
Startup Roots Speaker Series: Saturday With IBM And Digital Garage
After hectic weekdays this week, Singapore Startup Roots team will bring Jeff Jonas (IBM) and Ian McFarland (Digital Garage) this Saturday, 18th June afternoon. They will share their thoughts and experiences in a candid Q&A.
About The Speakers
Jeff Jonas, Chief Scientist IBM Entity Analytics Group and IBM Distinguished Engineer
Jeff will talk for 15 minutes about his first startup, going bankrupt at 18 years old, selling his next startup to IBM, innovating within IBM and what he sees next on the horizon.
Ian McFarland, CTO of Digital Garage
Ian was previously CTO of Pivotal Labs, and recently joined Digital Garage as CTO. He will speak for 15 minutes about his current hypothesis on integrated design and software development teams.
Programme Details
2.30pm: Ian’s talk on integrating design and development teams
3.00pm: Q&A with Jeff and Ian
3.45pm: Mingling
Event Details
When: Saturday, 18th June 2011
Time: 230pm-4pm
Where: HackerspaceSG, 70A Bussorah St, Singapore 199483 (Map)
Register here and bring your tickets (email or otherwise) confirmation for admission purposes.
Link to full article
The Location Based Food Hunting Game App Goes Android
PT Beabeo, the Jakarta-based developer of the food discovery app, Tasterous, launched their Android version of the application on June 13.
The mobile food discovery app allows users to find out what restaurants are nearby, post up location-tagged photos of dishes, follow friends to see what they’re eating , and it incorporates a social gaming element to encourage users to contribute. The app, which is available globally, uses the Foursquare API for users to check into an eatery, and every Foursquare location is available to Tasterous users.
Tasterous was first launched as a BlackBerry app on April 29, with Tasterous CEO Ronald Ishak promising that the app would be available for the BlackBerry PlayBook, Android OS, iOS and Windows Phone 7 by the end of the year.
The app, which is about 3MB in size, requires Android OS 2.1 and up to run.
Link to full article
Liveblogging the Tencent Partners Conference
Open is the new trends here in China, with Renren‘s open platform and 360′s lately annoucement of all-around open strategy in place, now it’s Tencent’s turn, the giant and one of the most profitable internet company is hosting it’s very first “Tencent Partners Conference” in Beijing to tout its open platform products and strategies. Technode is liveblogging the conference for your better comprehension of the burgeoning Chinese open trends.
Tencent Fouder and CEO Ma Huateng giving keynote speech:
Annoucing the RMB 5 bliion worth of Tencent Industrial Cooperation Fund has invested over 2 billion in various companies and fields, and the Fund size will be doubled to 10 billion in the near future.
The more successful our partners is, the more succesfful our open platform is.
In the first half of this year, more than 20,000 partners are applying for Tencent open platforms. One example, a 3rd party developer totalled RMB 10 million in one month.
Tencent President Martin Lau:
Tencent have done several things in the past six months, including: 1) Restructuring and adjusting for the open platform. 2) Listening to our customers.
Tencent provides with partners both huge traffic which is very attractive to developers and Tencent’s experiences in internet area.
Related posts:
- Tencent Released Q+ Open Platform, Finally
- Infinity Venture Partners Akio Tanaka Talks About Investment Strategy From Japan to China
- Pony Ma Promises Tencent Will Be Open Within 6 Months
Link to full article
Bad News for IT Guys–80% Girls Do Not Want to Marry YOU
BharatMatrimony recently conducted a survey to understand the most sought-after professionals among Indian men and women and the survey (sample size: 5000)has interesting findings:
- Finance professionals were the most favored marriage partners among Indian women.
- Fifty per cent of the women who took part in the survey, desired to marry finance professional when compared to software and medical professionals.
- Only 20 per cent of women preferred software and medical professionals as their life partners.
- Marketing professionals were the least sort after – with 10 per cent of the women voting in favour of this profession.
- 30 per cent of the men who took part in the survey preferred non-working women as their marriage partners.
- Finance professionals were the most preferred spouses, with 24 per cent votes for the males too.
The survey shows a clear decline in the choice of men to get married to teachers or professionals in education segment. Only eight percent of men preferred teachers as their life partner. It was also revealed that men were more particular about the profession of their life-partners than women.
Salary Vs. Personal Life
When it came to income expectations, nearly 70 per cent of the women expected their spouses to earn between Rs 50,000 and 1 lakh per month. But almost 20 per cent wanted to marry a man earning more than Rs 1 lakh per month. About 40 per cent believed that their profession stood in the way of getting married. Interestingly, 80 per cent felt that their profession played an interesting role for a successful marriage.
The times, they are a changing?
As far as geeks are concerned, they are better off spending more time on Facebook/Twitter. What says?
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Concept car: Smallest car in the world.
Concept car: Parx Super Car Show 2011
Parx Super automobile Show 2011, organized by the Super automobile Club (SCC) in association with Autocar India, took off to a roaring begin with excited Mumbaikars vying for a glimpse of the 60-odd super cars displayed at Vidhan Bhavan on January twenty three, 2011. The auto beauties then paraded the city’s arterial streets, covering Bandra Worli ocean Link and therefore the Western specific Highway till Santa Cruz (East) before returning to the venue, amidst a spherical of applause from guests at the show. Gautam Singhania, Chairman & Managing Director of Raymond Ltd. and Founding Chairman of the SCC led the entourage of supercars, and handed over trophies to the foremost fascinating cars at the tip of the show. The first-of-its-kind series of events in India, the Parx Super automobile Show was 1st conceptualized and arranged by Gautam Singhania in April 2009 to enable auto enthusiasts and general public to look at a number of India’s best super cars, together with Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches, Ariel Atom, Bentleys, Rolls Royce’s, BMWs, Mercedes, amongst others. he's conjointly the Founder & Chairman of the SCC, that he launched in June 2009 in conjunction with Hormazd Sorabjee, Managing Editor of Autocar India. According to Gautam Singhania, one among India’s pioneering Super automobile enthusiasts, “The Parx Super automobile Show series might be said to possess triggered the interest for super cars in India. In 2009 after we started the Club, we have a tendency to saw that interest in super cars was driven predominantly by individual passion. Today, at intervals 2 years, we have a tendency to are witnessing a growing drive amongst super automobile homeowners to participate in similar format shows, and a bigger following of auto enthusiasts who are tracking the expansion of SCC and its events in numerous cities. Such growing interest in super cars in India is incredibly encouraging. most so the Club over the past year has quadrupled its member base and therefore the range of cities it’s organizing its events in. Last year, we have a tendency to organized the show in New Delhi and Chennai, besides Mumbai. additionally, we have a tendency to held some drives to exotic locations and a few performance shows.” Adds Hormazd Sorabjee, Editor of Autocar India “As India’s leading auto magazine, it's our Endeavour to form such experiences for automobile enthusiasts and that we are delighted that the Parx Super automobile Show in mere its third year has grown dramatically.” Gautam Singhania more said, “We are receiving innumerable requests from proud homeowners of super cars across India to arrange similar shows in their respective cities. we have a tendency to hope to grow the Parx Super automobile Show from strength to strength and take it across several cities in India as potential, therefore strengthening our connect with different super automobile enthusiasts across the country. This growing interest for super automobiles in India is additionally mirrored within the increasing range of super car makers coming into the country and therefore the F1 track that's currently turning out in Noida.” The third Parx Super automobile Show in Mumbai was organized by F5 Advertainment restricted.
Odd car design style
Service Anniversary (Year one)
It was on this day when I work my first day of my now job. Been a year already! Because of my successful one year of service working with my employer they gave me a Service Award worth 250 points that can be redeemed anytime for a variety of merchandise, travel and gift cards. In our world 250 is a lot. I also have earned plenty of points from other sources I joined in this company. Like, I completed the quizzes with perfect score they gave me after we had our meeting or conference. Also my colleagues nominated me as an employee of the month though I didn't win still I get the points. That's where I get all the points I earned right now. Don't know what to get for myself from this yet. I'll save it for now. Anyways, I wish to work with them in many more years to come, in 25 years perhaps? I hope so... :)
Synthesized Communication–Even Startups Need To Get This Right
With more and more communication taking place electronically, one would think that marketing folks would be looking into each leveraging every interaction as a means of building a brand relationship. However experience suggests that there are miles to go before e-communication gets integrated into the traditional marketing plans of even leading brands. 
After checking mail in my “Inbox”, I usually review the mail in the “Junk” folder to ensure that no important message has inadvertently been routed to this folder. Upon a recent review, I came across a mail from “Webmaster” and had “Despatch of documents through electronic mode” in the subject line. Even though it seemed like this mail was in the right folder, wanting to be doubly sure, I clicked on it and was surprised to learn that it was a message from the Investor Services Division of a company where I am a tiny shareholder. The message contained an attachment – a circular informing me that all communication (including notices and copies of the annual reports) henceforth would only be done electronically and, to quote the cold officialese, that “in view of the above, it would not be necessary to respond to the attached Circular”.
Why couldn’t the company – ironically, a top player in the hospitality business, no less – have communicated to me in a manner that was more personal, friendlier and more importantly not be confused with junk or spam mail? Why couldn’t the name of the company be mentioned? Why wasn’t the subject line different and one that would make me read it? Instead, the mail was in my “Junk” folder and worse, there was the real danger that subsequent, more important communication could get diverted to that folder with me perhaps losing out? Did the letter have to sound cold, impersonal and distant? How could a leading company in the hospitality business communicate so unthinkingly?
I received an e-bill from bill@tataindicom.com. After making the payment, I received an acknowledgement from Tata-Indicom-Support@tatatel.co.in. Why the two different domain names? Why isn’t e-communication with customers an important branding tool? Were customer support and marketing two different silos in this company?
Startups too aren’t immune. The official names of startup companies isn’t as well known as the “market names” or brands they represent. So why have this unknown company name in the email id of the employees? Why not use the brand name in all communications? Still several startups make the mistake of using both the brand and the official name and some make the bigger mistake of just using the official name. For example, imagine receiving an email from infoedge.in as opposed to naukri.com!
Few governments, certainly not the Indian one, can be accused of being innovative, citizen friendly and brand conscious. Consider this:
A senior Central government functionary from Ministry of Science and Technology used to use email to communicate very courteously, promptly and knowledgeably. The only issue I had was that his official email id (even printed on his letterhead) was “dept@rediffmail.com! Recently, I was informed by the gentleman who replaced this functionary that henceforth all communication was no longer to be sent to the rediffmail.com address but to another. Only this was a Yahoo.com account! How come the Govt of India doesn’t provide an official email id to its officers? The point is not whether it can (of course, it can) or should (of course it should!) but what it reveals about the mindset behind such efforts. Isn’t anyone in Government thinking of issues like security, storage or the impression this creates of a so-called IT Superpower (even discounting for hyperbole)? Isn’t there a CIO or CTO for the government who lays down, implements and enforces such simple policies and guidelines across ministries and departments? And this is the government that is implementing the world’s most ambitious IT project, namely the UID!
India’s great leap forward will be driven by a mix of policy, attitude, procedures, technology and governance. Someone once described India as a country with its head in the 21st century and its body in the 19th. While it is perhaps natural to wax lyrical and get all pumped up about the coming Indian dawn, it is important to note that it is in the minutest of details that the devil lies. Details that, for example, harmonize activities across departments, that showcase a single brand, that highlight a common set of values and propositions.
And in spite of this nation with its millions of gods, the devil can easily trip us all up.
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Sanjay Anandaram is a passionate advocate of entrepreneurship in India; He brings close to two decades of experience as an entrepreneur, corporate executive, venture investor, faculty member, advisor and mentor. He’s involved with Nasscom, TiE, IIM-Bangalore, and INSEAD business school in driving entrepreneurship. He can be reached at sanjay@jumpstartup.net. The views expressed here are his own
[Image credit: sollang/Flickr]
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Daily Deal Site, Koovs Raises Funding From benefitsPLUS
Closed-group ecommerce site benefitsPLUS has invested in Koovs, Bangalore based daily deal site.
benefitsPLUS is a B2B player and works with corporates on their employee rewards/recognition programs. The Delhi based company creates and manages incentive, loyalty, privilege, reward and recognition solutions for brands, HR personnel, employees, dealers and distributors.
benefitsPLUS is foraying into B2C business and recently acquired snowball eRetail services. This investment in Koovs will probably give latter a foot-in-the-door in B2B segment, which is where a few niche deal sites (like open2save) operate.
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Startup Roots Speaker Series #4 Preview – Jeff Jonas & Ian McFarland
For our upcoming fourth Startup Roots Singapore Speaker Series on 18 Jun, I’m pleased to announce that we’ll be having a double “Saturday matinee” blockbuster with Jeff Jonas and Ian McFarland as speakers at HackerspaceSG. RSVPs have just gone live, and if you haven’t noticed by now, we made the switch from Eventbrite to FlickEvents Continue reading →Related posts:
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- Startup Roots Speaker Series #2 Preview – Carl Coryell-Martin
- Startup Roots Speaker Series #3 Recap – Derek Sivers
- Startup Roots Speaker Series #3 Preview – Derek Sivers
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