SINGAPORE, February 8th, 2010 – Silicon Valley-based The Founder Institute, a four-month training and mentoring programme for technology entrepreneurs, announces its first-ever Spring 2010 semester for Singapore. With this expansion, the Institute will be the first Silicon Valley mentoring program in Singapore, and will now be on pace to graduate over 700 founders creating over 500 companies per year in nine cities worldwide.

The Founder Institute has appointed Singapore-based venture advisory and investment firm Battle Ventures, who is partnered with iAxil, the venture accelerator arm of Ascendas, to jointly bring their programme to Singapore and Southeast Asia-based entrepreneurs.

Run by founders for founders, this unique mentoring program nurtures aspiring and current high-tech entrepreneurs and employs a unique, team-work oriented ecosystem to foster the establishment of new start-up ventures. The programme also allows a small amount of equity to be shared amongst all participants in the
companies formed – including the experienced mentors who help grow the new businesses.

“We have discovered a formula to help passionate founders create meaningful and enduring companies in different markets around the world,” says Adeo Ressi, CEO of TheFunded.com and the Founder Institute. “We leverage leading social science methods to identify top talent, and then we offer an intense start-up curriculum focused on teamwork and guidance from leading local and global CEOs. Our unique approach has allowed the Institute to scale almost ten times larger than comparable incubators or accelerators.”
“iAxil is committed to fostering a nurturing and vibrant start-up environment that is vital to spawning innovative high-tech start-ups with the global potential and appeal,” says Mr Tan Yew Chin, Director of iAxil and CEO of Ascendas Land (Singapore). “The iAxil team of senior incubator managers will combine their
business skills; domain expertise and start-up experience with our wide network of partners to help graduates from the Founder Institute Mentoring Programme jumpstart their ventures.”

During the semesters, local aspiring and current entrepreneurs can gain access to founders and CEOs of world-renown companies, such as Philip Kaplan, Co-Founder of Blippy, Jeff Stewart, Founder and CEO of Urgent Career, Pete Deemer, Co-Founder of Scrum Training Institute, Dr. KF Lai, Co-Founder and CEO of Buzzcity and Jared Morgenstern, Product Ninja of Facebook as mentors amongst others.

“One of the greatest problems facing local entrepreneurs is the lack of credible and experienced mentors to help guide and advise them,” said Jeffrey Paine, Managing Partner at Battle Ventures. “With this programme, our entrepreneurs now have access to founders who have successfully created and run multiple start-ups
themselves and who are best placed to advise them.”

Applications for early acceptance into the Singapore semester are due on February 15th, 2010, with the final application deadline on February 28th. Anyone starting a technology company or with a dream to launch an innovative business in Singapore is invited to apply at http://www.founderinstitute.com/apply/11.
The Singapore Founder Institute mentoring programme is administered by iAxil, and is supported by SPRING Singapore under the Incubator Development Programme (IDP).

For the 1st time ever, Queen’s University in Canada is extending their arms to local Malaysian universities and youth groups to participate in the world’s largest undergraduate business plan/ entrepreneurship competition.

Youth Entrepreneurs Malaysia teams up with top Canadian business school – Queen’s University to bring ‘Queen’s Entrepreneur Competition’ for the 1st time into Malaysia.

This is part of the GEW Youth Catalyst’s efforts to bring the ‘Local – Global’ by extending international opportunities for local graduates to compete in internationally acclaimed business competitions.

Notable highlights of the competition includes its first attempt of inviting at least a submission from Malaysia to join into the competition, with teams bidding to raise funds from as much as Canadian $15,000 to jump start their enterprises. Whats even more interesting was the fact that the entries will be judged by some of the ‘Celebrity- Entrepreneur’ judges who have judged in reality shows – ‘Dragon’s Den’ and ‘Shark Tank’, both are prominent reality shows about Venture Capitalist and Entrepreneurship.

A smart partnership was formed between Queen’s University’s Entrepreneur Competition organisers with the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) Youth Catalyst in Malaysia – Youth Entrepreneurs Malaysia.

According to fellow Co-Founder, Michael Teoh, he hopes that this pilot run for the Queen’s Entrepreneur Competition can add yet another ‘International’ element to the range of business competitions which are already available in Malaysia for students to join. He was even more impressed with the university’s network of getting high networth entrepreneurs like the ones in Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank, to appear as fellow investors.

‘It was surprising to me that no Malaysian teams have ever entered this international competition, yet they have received participations from our neighbouring countries but not Malaysia. Awareness was certainly not that,’ said Michael.

QEC is an amazing event that provides priceless opportunities for young entrepreneurs. Not only do participants have the chance to receive significant cash prizes to jumpstart their ventures ($15,000 for first place, $6,000 for second, $2,000 for third and two $1,000 innovation prizes), but the finalists also have the chance to network with Canada’s leading business professionals; past judges include Clide Beddoe (CEO and founder of Westjet), Tim Wilson (President of Visa Canada), David Blanchard (Chairman of Unilever Canada), Chris J.B. Clark (CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers Canada), Brett Wilson (Dragons Den), and many others.

There is also more information on the website — www.theqec.com —!!!!

What is Queen’s Entrepreneur Competition?

Now in its 22nd year, the Queen’s Entrepreneurs’ Competition brings together some of the brightest young entrepreneurs from around the world to compete for $25,000 in cash prizes and the opportunity to appear on CBC’s Dragons’ Den. Participants also have the chance to network with Canada’s leading business professionals. Furthermore, QEC prides itself on the incredible judge to competitor ratio of 3:4– a tremendous networking opportunity and ratio of almost one competitor to one judge.

Past speakers include Bryan Pearson (President of Air Miles Canada), Brett Wilson (Dragon on CBC’s the Dragons’ Den) and Clive Beddoe (Founder of Westjet Airlines). The sixteen teams who make it past the preliminary business plan grading will have the opportunity to network with these amazing individuals and receive feedback about their business plans.

Qualification Requirements:

o Competitors must be undergraduate students and can be from any faculty or program.
o Existing proposals are valid and qualify for consideration provided the plan has not qualified as a finalist in a previous QEC competition.
o Each team entered must be a maximum of four students and one faculty advisor.
o Entrants may involve the help of other students to produce parts of their plan. These students do not have to be registered members of the group.
o Business plans must be received electronically by November 4th, 2009

Format Requirements for Business Plans:

o Plans must be a maximum of 50 pages consisting of a maximum of 35 pages of written material and 15 pages of exhibits.
o Business plans are to be submitted via email. If students have an issue with this, they should make alternative arrangements with the University Coordinators at least two weeks prior to the submission deadline.
o Business plans and appendices must be contained in one file and in a format that is ready to print. Files can be in MS Word, PDF, etc., but cannot exceed 5mb in size.
o Documents must be named as the title of the business plan.
o All business plans must be written in English.
o All entries must be typed with 1.5 spacing (double spaced is also acceptable).
o Margins must be a minimum of one inch, and font must be a minimum of 10pt.
o Candidates’ last names and schools must not be included on any pages of the business plan.
o All business plans submitted to the competition must include the “Preliminary Round Cover Sheet” as the first page of the business plan. This form is available from the University Coordinators.

Deadline and Important Date

Applicants must submit their written business plans to Yuwen Huang at yuwen.huang@theqec.com by November 4th. The 16 teams who received the highest scores on their written business plan will be notified by mid December (2009) and will be invited to attend the final competition round held at Queen’s University from January 21st to 23rd. The top 16 teams will make a 25-minute presentation to a panel of industry experts; past judges have included Tim Wilson (President of Visa Canada), Grant Rassmussen (President and CEO of UBS Bank Canada), Brett Wilson (Dragons’ Den), John Sleeman (CEO of Sleeman Breweries) and many others.

Cost:

There are no delegate fees for our final competition; all fees including meals, evening socials and our final gala are covered through sponsorship. However, delegates must pay for their accommodation and transportation to Kingston. Delegates can also stay with their friends in order to avoid accommodation fees.

Anyone who is interested to participate, please go to www.theqec.com

The committee from Canada and Youth Entrepreneurs Malaysia do realise that the dateline is tight (On 4th November), however, this is a trial run in Malaysia and all university groups who have already compiled or competed with their business plans in local competitions are encouraged to use the same materials and apply.

All the best to all the teams!

E27 present StartUp Garage with Malaysia Entrepreneurs.

EXPERIENCE HOW TO PITCH and GROW Your START-UPs!

Venue hosted by Plug ‘n’ Play Technology Garden.

An event, packed with ‘Sharing on Best Practices, Tips and Predictions on How You Can Bring Your Business to the Next Level!’

An event that will feature speakers who have;
- Been successful in obtaining business grants for start-ups
- Has tested the best business models, practices and methods to grow your business
AND
- Has gone through the failures in which we all do not want you to do!

Learn about PITCHING Your Business Ideas and Networking with fellow Entrepreneurs and Investors!

LEARN how to PITCH your ideas to the Press and the Online Media Channels!

Get them Interested!

Come join us here!

*Food, beverages and networking sessions provided

Listings of Speakers:

9.30 a.m. – 10.30 a.m. – Arrival
10.30 a.m. – 10.45 a.m. – Welcoming speech – Daniel Cerventus – Entrepreneurs.my
10.45 a.m. – 11.00 a.m. – Keynote address – Mohan Belani – E27 Singapore
11.00 a.m. – 11.30 a.m. – Michael Smith – Yahoo South East Asia
11.30 a.m. – 12.00 p.m. – Francis Dass – NST Malaysia
12.00 p.m. – 12.30 p.m. – MDeC Presentation
12.30 a.m. – 1.00 p.m. – Tham Keng Yew – SocialWalk
1.00 p.m. – 2.00 p.m. – Lunch & Networking (Lunch corner – GEW)
2.00 p.m. – 2.30 p.m. – Nicholas Yeap – From Zeroes to Heroes
2.30 p.m. – 3.00 p.m. – William Du – Ingenious Hous
3.00 p.m. – 3.30 p.m. – JitSiong E27 singapore
3.30 p.m. – 4.00 p.m. – Closing & Wrap Up

Looking forward to seeing you all there.

Cradle Investment Programme in collaboration with MIRC, will be organizing a
talk entitled “How Cradle can help fund your Innovative Ideas” to further
explore many innovative ideas by talented individuals like you!

How will you gain from this talk?

The objective of this talk is to provide valuable information and tips on
how you can get CIP Catalyst funding of up to RM150,000 to help you develop
your innovative ideas into commercially viable products.

Come and find out how Cradle Investment Programme (CIP) and its CIP Catalyst
grants can help you on your way.

Date: 26 August 2009 (Wednesday)
Time: 9.00am – 12.00pm
Venue: Seminar Hall, Level 12, Wisma MCA, 163, Jalan Ampang, 50450 Kuala
Lumpur

Programme:

8.30am Registration
9.15am ‘Introduction to Cradle Investment Programme (CIP)
By Encik Rizal Alwani, Manager – Competency Building Unit,
Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd
10.20am Break
10.30am ‘How to Apply for CIP Catalyst’ by Encik Rizal Alwani
11.30am Q&A Session
12.00pm END

*note: while every effort has been made to ensure that the programme
outlined above is accurate at the time of printing, CIP reserves the right
to alter the programme depending on unforeseen circumstances.

Admission is FREE, but there are only sixty seats available, so please
register your attendance by filling in the registration form attached and
emailing it to: enquiries@cradle.com.my

Hurry Up!!!

Time is running up for the Asia Pacific Future 100, The closing date is this 31st of August and you fill up the forms at their site.

Malaysia Entreprneurs and Youth Entrepreneurs Malaysia are nominating 3 people and that seem to be all the nominations coming from Malaysia.

If you know change maker that fit the criteria, do let us know or nominate them yourselves.

The annual “Asia Pacific Future 100” program is a platform to provide young and inspiring entrepreneurs from Asia as role models to our youth to raise entrepreneurship awareness in Asia Pacific.

100 young entrepreneurs and social Changemakers under the age of 30 years will be selected for a one- year fellowship and their stories will serve as inspiration to foster an entrepreneurial culture among our youth.

We believe that contrary to the common perception there are not just 2 or 3 young successful entrepreneurs in Asia, but that there are many young entrepreneurs and social changemakers realising their dreams and ambitions. For that reason we annually identify 100 of those young people, who will be profiled through blogs, interviews, videos and speaking engagements in schools and universities to showcase their entrepreneurial endeavor and to highlight that with passion and dedication youth entrepreneurship could be a desirable career choice for many of our youth.

Malaysia Entrepreneurs under it’s sister organization Youth Entrepreneurs Malaysia is currently on of the participating partners in this search.

We are looking to nominate outstanding youth in the area of social enterprise and if you have any suggestion please drop us an email at editor [at] entrepreneurs.my or nominate yourself at the FYSE site.

What is TEDxKualaLumpur?
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx.

TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.

Our event is call TEDxKualaLumpur, where x=independently organized TED event. At our TEDxKualaLumpur event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.

For the very first TEDxKualaLumpur, we have invited a list of interesting speakers to share their ideas and experience with the crowd.

Proposed Schedule
2.30 pm – Registration
3.00 pm – Welcome Address
3.05 pm – Intro by TED Curator Chris Anderson
3.10 pm – Yasmin Ahmad the Film Maker
3.30 pm – Dr. Bernard Leong of SgEntrepreneurs
3.45 pm – TED Video
4.00 pm – Roshan Thiran of Leaderonomics
4.15 pm – Dhakshinamoorthy “Dash” Balakrishnan of Warisan Global
4.30 pm – TED Video
4.45 pm – Kid Chan of Kid Chan Studio
5.00 pm – Krishnakant Mane
5.12 pm – TED Video
5.30 pm – Arief Aziz of TEDxJakarta
5.45 pm – Devan Singaram of Unreason
6.00 pm – Event End

Selected Profile of Speakers.

Yasmin Ahmad is a movie director of films such as Sepet , Gubra and most recently Talentime.

Kid Chan is a renowned photographers of celebrities in Malaysia.

Dash is the founder of Warisan Global, Host of Global Entrepreneurship Week Malaysia.

Roshan Thiran is currently the CEO of Leaderonomics, one of the fastest growing consulting firms in Asia

Dr Bernard Leong is the founder of Singapore premier entrepreneur site, SgEntrepreneurs.com

Devan Singaram is a co founder of the Unreason movement and co-founded the social enterprise Elevyn.com

Krishnakant Mane is sight impaired open source accessibility advocate from India.

Venue Sponsor

Plug and Play Technology Garden.

We have closed off registration. Only the first 100 will be notified via email

hashtag : TEDxKL

We have reached the end of 2008 and it has been one year filled with entrepreneurial goodness. Time again to reflect what has happened and strive to a better, a great year in 2009.

We at Malaysia Entrepreneurs (MYE) are truly grateful for our supporters and we would like to invite you all to join us for a End of the Year party this 18th of Dec 2008 at Level 12, Wisma MCA 7.30 pm.

This event is jointly organized by our partners at Itrain, Mirc and Mobig.

Entry is free and dinner will be provided.

Sign up at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=37393454860 

In conjunction with the GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP WEEK that takes place from 17-23 Nov 2008. Money Tree Malaysia , alongside Taylors University College, Giordano & Open University Malaysia are organising an Entrepreneurs Challenge between 18-22 Nov.

This Challenge is targeted at youths aged between 16-22 who are keen at pitting their “entrepreneurial minds” in a series of activities which would determine if they have what it takes to become entrepreneurs.

This team event (each team must have 3 members) will be run ala Apprentice meets Amazing Race. The Challenge/Race comprises 3 Legs + 1 Final Leg. At every “leg” of the race, the winning team for that leg will receive some rewards, while teams which perform poorly will be eliminated. Cash prizes, internship programs + other goodies await the winning team

For more information, call 7954 4514 (Evelyn) or write in to uvwong@moneytree.my for more details