Ting Zhen, our VP of Mentorship blogs!

He walks in, Blackberry in hand.

“Hi, my name is Jim…” he spoke, torso straight as a military man would.

That was my first impression of him. The “venture customer” who started many startups with early customer funding, including Cisco and GRiD Systems.

He was early; his audience was not in yet. Jiaxing, Tingzhen and I make small talks with him as we got ready for the mentorship session.

The mentorship session with Jim went well. He was very insightful when prodded with questions on his entrepreneurial experience. Top 5 key lessons which he pointed out were:

1. Hire good people and listen to them
2. Get the A team
3. Always hire people better than you
4. Watch your cashflow; you have more time to learn your lessons if you conserved cash than if you are short of it
5. Use your connection wisely, do not abuse it. This is how you build up connections.
   Pick your enemies wisely.

Jim was helpful with questions which our NOC student posted. We’re sure that future mentorship sessions would be helpful and look forward in seeing him again. There is still much to be learnt from someone known previously as one of the most connected person in the world.

Domo! Alvin Lai desu!

In the class of Technology Entrepreneurship I’m enjoying at Stanford University, I have the privilege of exploring creativity and brainstorming from Tina Seelig, the Executive Director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. Here’s an brief list of what I’ve garnered from the session:

• No bad ideas
• Build on ideas
• No hiearchy, but take turns
• No conformity, conventions and limits
• No best idea, don’t limit potential
• Wild ideas
• The facilitator and the honored participants
• Additional Tips
• Ending thoughts

Check out my take on creativity and brainstorming!

Domo! Alvin Lai desu!

With just 3 months left in the Valley, it’s a good time to look back.

Very different from a regular student exchange program, groups of NUS Overseas Colleges participants in Silicon Valley actually get a job working full time for a salary, get together to form households, rent full sized houses, buy their own cars, pay their own bills, you get the idea, it’s very much like settling down in America, for real.

The NUS Overseas Colleges program is quoted from its website to “infuse a spirit of enterprise into NUS education, providing NUS students with a globally-oriented educational experience.”

Indeed, that is true, with so many valuable components painstakingly pieced together over the years and only made possible with the work done by the people before us, with staff like Jupe forming strategic alliances with high technology startup companies for internships and previous batches of NOC students handing down contacts and relationships of worthy organizations and individuals.

Because of this we are very privileged to be able to have very awe-inspiring mentors like CEOs from Digg, Meebo, Google and so on.

The buddy system where the incumbent batch would be assigned to help the incoming junior batch to ease in and settle down is especially heartwarming, as it encourages the spirit of paying it forward, forming close friendships the process.

All these would never be easy for a single person starting up here alone (actually I know of just one, the CEO of Red Pod). We are so lucky to be able to benefit from the time accumulated fruits of labour!

But of course that’s pretty much what everybody enjoys in the process, are there other intangible and subtle stuff that is not immediately obvious to the onlookers?

Plenty!

Just being here with a couple of friends in this big wonderland called America with plenty things to do, I’ve become a more independent and resourceful person, constantly finding out the hows and the wheres to do new crazy exciting stuff.

I’ve done crazy hikes and scaled half dome in Yosemite National Park, planned and executed a successful and enjoyable outdoor camp trip where we slept under the stars, met up with a stranger who works in Intel to go para-gliding and many more!

Moving out of my comfort zone, charting out and venturing into previously unexplored places. Getting lost and finding your way around, being ever ready to take on challenges and conquer the unexpected.

I will return to Singapore stronger, better and ever ready to take on new challenges that come by my way.

Just a mere 3 months, and I’ll be back. Life will never be the same again