Escape Velocity from Singapore - possible lah?

This is not a promotion for Singlish!

Michael Smith Jr.SeedPlus.com

Things don’t have to change the world to be important

Steve Jobs 1996

Jobs quotes > Woz quotes

I can be reached:Pro-tip: adding evie to the email won’t help

SeedPlus.comSeedVC.blog

@dreampipe (till twitter dies)michael at SeedPlus.com

My background

coder (bad)enterprise sales (good)

product marketing (okay)product management (better than okay)

restaurant/pub owner (bad)evangelist (good)

biz dev (better than okay)VC (apprentice)

It’s okay not to do a startup

Don’t do it just because the cool kids are

Take a gig first at a cool companyLearn @ what you like - what you are good at

(GDP) Gross Domestic Product(GNP) Gross National Product

(GNH) Gross National Happiness (From Bhutan )

(GDT) Globally Desirous Thing

Nike ShoesRolex Watches

Thai FoodiPhones

American TV Shows

All achieved escape velocity to become a GDT

(hello thingmakers)

Can Singapore build a GDT?

The controversy

“While it might seem like common wisdom to first test (an idea) in Singapore, and then take it regionally and to the world”, he felt

that, “with all due respect to the government, […] it doesn’t make sense in today’s world”.

Why?

“Furthermore, by the time you’re done with test-bedding in Singapore, somebody’s already tested the same (idea) in China, or in

California, reaching out to North America and so forth. You’re better off starting in the US and China from the get-go.”

Food for thought:

Singapore is as capable (even more so than some places) as any other City/State to:

1. Build a tech startup

2. Launch it onto the global stage

3. Kick Ass

There is no one way to do it but let’s discuss this more

Important stuff for your success toolkitPro-tip: Taking notes is not cool

Karma People

DataFocus/SimplicityCustomer Care

Tech HelpStrategy

Karma has everybody’s address

At all times:

Be cognizant of how you treat others

You never know when you will cross paths again

You may eventually work with, be bought by or merge with competition

The world is smaller than you think

Luck is also useful but karma is the precursor

People always make the difference

Look at character as much as tech/business skills

Groom the up and comers for greatness

Despite the hype - it’s usually a marathon and not a sprint - therefore build a culture of longevity

Help people lead themselves (act like a coach)

Empower employees to make decisions

If you are a young/new management team - get help early on how to build the right people culture

Data can no longer be an side project

No matter what your product/service - data is key to your long term success

It is always better to augment decisions with data - this helps to support a gut reaction - or helps you to confirm when your gut was

wrong

Instrument everything even if you can’t deal with analysis now. Some day you will (simply store logs on S3 for later import into

Redshift for example)

Share data internally and externally if possible

Hire people who also care about data

Keep it simple, stupid

Pro-tip: Green is good. Red is bad

Customer delight is the best form of virality - Andy Rachleff (Benchmark & Wealthfront)

Very few startups make it

Very few startups become a runaway success

However, apart from creating a great product one could also focus on amazing customer service

It is imperative to cultivate a process of customer service in everything you do

Takes time to bear fruit but is the best marketing ever

Outsource your tech!

I mean your servers not your coders

Building a product is only the start

It is important to offer superior performance, uptime and to push the envelope

AWS offers the biggest cloud in SEA, the largest on the ground team and lots of help to startups

With AWS you can have global reach (GDT) from Singapore

Pro-Tip: Andrew is your man

The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do - Michael Porter (founder of The Monitor Group)

Pro-Tip: Competitive Strategy is a must read

If you are building a 1 country business then make sure it is the biggest 1 country business ever (gojek) (Massive TAM)

Pro tip: VC’s love massive TAM

If you are going regional - think cities instead of countries since this is where the masses are. (SEA is all about the cities)

Force yourself early to test new cities & determine the playbook city by city

After SEA possibly consider ANZ region as a good entry into the US or North America

Get strategy help from your network, advisors, angle & VC’s

What I asked earlier:

Can Singapore build a GDT?

No time like the present!

Struggle more, hustle less...

Q and A