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 [at] nusea [dot] org. Click here to go to the RainMakers’ Website

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.

There was some miscommunication that led to a delay in the mentorship session, but that did not deter Salman Ullah from sharing his thoughts from a wide variety of topics. From being the Vice-President of Corporate Development in Google and having his own investment firm (Merus Capital) now, Salman has much experience to speak of for our benefit. My first impressions of him were that he is witty with his comments, and he has a deft ability to give concise answers to our questions. It was not only the content that we could learn from, but also his charismatic style of delivery that made me be in awe of him.

Amongst the numerous questions that we had for Salman (inclusive the impending merger between Microsoft and Yahoo!), the topic that stuck with me most was about the cross comparison of culture between Google and other huge IT-related companies. There is a public perception that there is a gulf in culture and practices between the ‘uber-cool’ Google and the ‘evil’ Microsoft. As Salman explained it, there is really no significant difference in the working patterns for both companies due to their sizes. When a company reaches critical mass, there is a need to have a structured organisation for the company to run efficiently. Google is not any much different from the other companies in this aspect. It is radically different from the start-up companies which we are all working in. At the discretion of the CEO, the company can change its direction and head towards the goal. Large companies, no matter efficient they are, will take time to realign itself when the focus is changed. Agreeing with that, I felt so fortunate to be working at such a dynamic workplace, and the size and reputation of the company does not matter to me anymore…

- Andy Teo, 13th Batch

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.

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

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.