What the judges thought of the Malaysia Satellite

We gathered the best and the brightest in Malaysia’s technology scene to evaluate the pitches at Echelon 2011 Malaysia Satellite on April 21. We had 10 judges from across the startup ecosystem — from investment managers at government-run funds to hackers and experienced founders — looking at the 10 pitches.

Here’s what some of the judges had to say:

Ganesh Kumar Bangah, founder and CEO of MOL Global/Friendster: The pitches were above my expectations, although there were some things that can be improved especially in the business models. For sure, they are interesting models to start with, and they can do with some additional layers or even removing some aspects to make it a more viable business model. Overall, I was impressed by the ideas, which were relatively fresh and not “me too” ideas that I’ve often seen.

Dinesh Nair, Head of Infotech Industry Cluster, MDeC: The pitches were more or less what I expected. Among the problems across the board is that they need to have a clear understanding of the revenue model – you shouldn’t ah, or ooh about when asked about it because it should have been thought through. The second thing is that the founders need to double check to see what other people are doing. Among the ideas that stood out for me was what Tikam.me presented, and my only concern for them is the possible gambling element behind it. Also, I’m not really sure if people are going to pay money for premium rewards; and they should also look at monetizing the merchant side of things.

Peter Tam, director of local software innovations at Microsoft Malaysia: It’s good to see many new faces with refreshing ideas that are consumer-focused instead of the B2B services that Malaysia is strong in. The quality of pitches vary, and generally I’m encouraged by the amount of effort put into the presentations; but something disappointing to see was problems like a lack of Internet connectivity – you can’t afford to do that at this stage. Also, there were still some who read from a script instead of presentation slides. The pitch that sticks in my mind now is Posttude – it’s a spin to a problem that not everyone might be aware of, but on the other hand, the commercialisation of it may be challenging.

Johnathan Lee, manager of Cradle’s Ideas Bank: All of the pitches I judged weren’t too bad; although the biggest thing missing for me was the purpose of their pitch. Were they looking to raise awareness, or funding, or announcing a launch – I didn’t get that. All of them had decent presentation skills, and for the next time, it probably pays for the pitchers to learn about their judges in advance so they can present and communicate their message better.

Christy Lee, Executive Director, Virtuous Investment Circle: The quality of pitches were really good, and some of them quite outstanding. In fact, I’ve seen most of them present before, and some of them have improved from the previous time in terms of doing their demonstrations, presentations, and on tweaking the business model. It’s good to see that they’re progressing rapidly in their skills.

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