Startup Ecosystem Done Right.
TweetIn 2 weeks time, we will be celebrating one of the biggest web tech events to reach the shores of KL. The sea.openwebasia.com conference will draw to Kuala Lumpur startups, investors, developers, evangelists and a whole lot more from all over the world.
So i was thinking right. What have we done so far? What kind of message will they bring back with them? Guy Kawasaki made a visit 2 years back. He talked about visiting Batu Caves and chicken wings in Jln Alor. haha As a Malaysian, I’m really proud of these things, but heres my question, when do people start talking about the companies and startups of Malaysia?
How do we compare against our neighbours to the South? I attended Unconference in 2009, and Echelon in 2010, and story is consistent. That Singapore produces startups of quality, with innovative ideas, refined products & potential for scalability. Wait a minute, so do we. BUT – They support this (and this part is really important) – with a network of human relationships stretching from Singapore to Shanghai to Silicon Valley and back .
This network provides Singapore with a not so obvious but huge advantage.
1) The ability to bring their startups global in the shortest time possible
2) bring investors to their shores, and not have their startups move away.
3) exposure to the world and vice versa, in terms of how they execute startups, following the lessons and learning from mistakes of not just Singaporeans but global level startups.
This didnt happen overnight, Singapore made investments years ago planting young interns in Silicon Valley (the folks at E27.sg remembers this, and Echelon happened 6 years later)
Now theres alot more that makes up a startup ecosystem but for the purpose of this post, i wanted to draw attention to this.
The last couple of years, Malaysia has been investing in the tangible. Financing via Preseed and Cradle, training and workshops via the same entities. I don’t think we pay enough attention to human relationships. Just because there is no obvious ROI to it, doesn’t mean its not part of the ecosystem, which I suspect is the way we operate today.
This is a call to action, that when Open Web Asia happens, we make an effort to build relationship with our international guests, to work on simple projects together, collaborate, co-invest, and etc. To be honest I dont exactly know what to do, but i do know something has to be done, and the timing is right. hence tagging all of you guys, whom I consider leaders and visionaries here and elsewhere.
Related posts:
Author: Tham Keng Yew (7 Articles)
A graduate of Michigan State University with a bachelors in Computer Engineering, Keng Yew made an exit from a PhD program to join a Silicon Valley startup (eXS Inc). Kengyew has 5 years working experience with multiple Silicon Valley startups, developing high-tech telecommunications products. Working with eXS, Kengyew has experienced first-hand, starting a company with nothing but an idea, through seed-funding, to commercial deployment with a solid product.In mid 2008 Kengyew returned to Malaysia to start up Socialwalk. The idea behind Socialwalk is to transform conferences & business events into lasting communities. Use the Socialwalk platform to facilitate networking and B2B business matching among guests and attendees. Socialwalk also provides an easy to use web-based interface (SAAS) to do online registration and ticketing. Socialwalk was awarded a RM150K pre-seed grant by MDEC to develop and launch this software. Their current client list includes events by TEDxKuala Lumpur, TiE Asia Pacific Conference 09, Barcamp, Bursa Malaysia, and more
Author: Tham Keng Yew (7 Articles)
A graduate of Michigan State University with a bachelors in Computer Engineering, Keng Yew made an exit from a PhD program to join a Silicon Valley startup (eXS Inc). Kengyew has 5 years working experience with multiple Silicon Valley startups, developing high-tech telecommunications products. Working with eXS, Kengyew has experienced first-hand, starting a company with nothing but an idea, through seed-funding, to commercial deployment with a solid product.In mid 2008 Kengyew returned to Malaysia to start up Socialwalk. The idea behind Socialwalk is to transform conferences & business events into lasting communities. Use the Socialwalk platform to facilitate networking and B2B business matching among guests and attendees. Socialwalk also provides an easy to use web-based interface (SAAS) to do online registration and ticketing. Socialwalk was awarded a RM150K pre-seed grant by MDEC to develop and launch this software. Their current client list includes events by TEDxKuala Lumpur, TiE Asia Pacific Conference 09, Barcamp, Bursa Malaysia, and more
One comment