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Exclusive Interview with Paul Bragiel, Silicon Valley Comes 2 Malaysia

admin — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 01:52:40 +0000

Today, we are join by Paul Bragiel the co-founder of I/O Ventures. Paul is a veteran in the Silicon Valley start up scene and I had the pleasure of meeting him in his fantastic new incubator and cafe last year. You can check out his funky co working place at a video done by TechCrunch.

Paul brings with him year of experience as CEO of 3 companies and he was the co founder of Lefora which revolutionize forums in the 21st century. Here is his profile on Crunchbase.

For more about Paul, you can follow him on twitter @bragiel

Note: Sorry Paul, love the picture with the beard.

There Will Never Be Another 2011

Daniel CerVentus — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 00:46:51 +0000

Today is the last day of 2010. Did you make everyday count? Did you make an impact in the the world or with the people around you? I am not sure about you, but these are the questions that are constantly spring in my mind as I prepare to take the challenge that is 2011.

We are all here on the earth way to briefly. In our own way, we do touch some people around us but most of the time we are way to worry about getting own problems. If you can live 2010 again, how would you change it? What will you do to make it more remarkable?

Unfortunately, 2010 will over in a couple of hours as I write this. You will then only have 365 so days to make your mark in the year 2011. There will be another 2011, so make the best of it.

“How?” you might ask.

I am a firm believer of if you set your mind to it, you can achieve it. Most people just get distracted along the way. How many time, you write a long list of resolutions and forget about it a month later? How many goals did you set last year and you did not achieve a single one?

Make a difference for 2011. Look back at 2010 and find only ONE thing in your life to improve for 2011. Focus on that ONE thing and write it down. Because, we are constantly faced with so many distractions, write it in not more than 140 characters (ala twitter).

Post it online, post it on our Facebook page, declare it to the world. Write it in a small card and bring that everywhere to remind yourself what the focus of 2011 should be. Look at the card every morning when you wake up, every time you are free and before you go to sleep.

Focus on that very one thing and work towards achieving it. You will then have stop goal setting and just started Goal Getting.

Startup Weekend in Malaysia

Daniel CerVentus — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 01:41:29 +0000

Startup Weekend recruits a highly motivated group of developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists and more to a 54 hour event that builds communities, companies and projects. It is an amazing opportunity to connect with other passionate and skilled individuals, and perhaps even find a co-founder or two to transform your idea into reality. This event has been organized in over 100 cities across 25 countries and after 3 years Startup Weekend is finally in Malaysia and it is not just Kuala Lumpur.

Why should you join?
Basically, you have 54 hours to ignite your idea into a business.

· Co-Founder ‘Dating’ Network with like-minded people and find your potential co-founder / partner

· Education – Learn how to put together an actual strategy and get feedback on it

· Learn how to launch – figure out everything from the mission, target market, go-to market strategies, to pitch your business ideas and prototypes and receive feedback from experts

· Actually Launch a Business – Over 36% of the Startup Weekend Startups are still alive after 3 months

In Malaysia, there will be a Startup Day and a Startup Weekend which will be called Ignite Your Startup!
Ignite Your Startup! is jointly presented by the US Embassy in Malaysia and Global Entrepreneurship Sdn Bhd. It is a Global Entrepreneurship Week Malaysia signature activity.

Ignite Your Startup is a series of programs which include 3 one-day Startup Day workshops nationwide and a 3-day Startup Weekend in Kuala Lumpur. It helps create Start-Ups in a fun, interactive and results driven way. It also offers an amazing opportunity to connect with other passionate and skilled individuals, and perhaps even find a co-founder or two to transform your idea into reality!

The program for Startup Weekend.

Friday Ideas
Participants present their ideas and divide into different groups to work on selected ideas.

Saturday – Sunday Implementation
Groups work on the ideas as far as they can. Think through how to turn their ideas into reality.

Sunday Evening – Reality
Participants present their business prototypes or products or even launch their businesses!

Startup Day is a compressed version of Startup Weekend, covering key elements of the the program in a hands-on, action packed day!

Current the calendar Startup Day and Startup Weekend are as below:

Monday, Oct 18 Networking event in Penang
Tuesday, Oct 19 Startup Day in Penang

Friday, Oct 22 to Sunday, Oct 24 Startup Weekend Kuala Lumpur in Plug and Play Technology Garden.

Tuesday, Oct 26 Networking Evening, Kota Bharu
Wednesday, Oct 27 Startup Day, Kota Bharu

Thursday, Oct 28 Startup Day and Networking Evening, Johor Bharu

The registration at http://malaysia.startupweekend.org/ is not up yet so we do not know the actual price of the ticket for the events. If you are as excited as I am over this event, do head over to the FAQ for more details.

This Week in Asia Episode 58: Live from Open Web Asia SEA

Daniel CerVentus — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 03:50:30 +0000

It has been an exciting week for the Malaysia web/tech scene with the Open Web Asia – Southeast Asia conference happening in Kuala Lumpur on 13-14 July. The TWIA crew hosted a live show with Serkan Toto (@serkantoto) from TechCrunch & Brian Wong (@brian_wong) formerly from Digg and now followFormation as our guests. We touched on some hot topics with great seats about InMobi’s 8M fund-raising success, the feedback about the Open Web Asia Conference and interesting start-ups which caught our eye, how Asian start-ups should improve on their pitching so to attract investors (and Asian investors should be more harsh on feedback to the entrepreneurs here) and Serkan’s interesting prediction for Asian companies in the next few decades. A special treat for all our listeners that you can view the video of the live show here.

You can watch the This Week in Asia Live Show Video from Satoo.TV.

Photo credited to Shereen Shah and Sham Hardy: The panel comprising of (from the left) Bernard Leong, Daniel Cerventus, Serkan Toto, Brian Wong, Michael Smith Jr and Chew Lin Kay.

echelon 2010 Startups List is Out!

Daniel CerVentus — Thu, 06 May 2010 11:51:29 +0000

If you been wondering who are the startups in Echelon 2010, they have recently release the list. There will be over 40 startups around Asia including 1 from Malaysia will be at the exhibition booth. Malaysia will be represented by a ticketing solution we been using, SocialWalk.com which we used for out event TEDxKL quite recently.

As for the 10 startups launching on the day, all will be reveal on 1st June 2010.

Also Serkan Toto, the only writer for the famous web startup site Techcrunch will be joining Dave McClure and gang on the Geeks on the Plane. They will be all coming to Echelon2010.

The Founder Institute Spring 2010 Singapore and Asia Pacific intake

Daniel CerVentus — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 04:14:01 +0000

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).