Worldwide Map of Penis Sizes

Ever wanted to try a bigger dick?

With this map, now you know where to move to!

Or better, how about the exact average penis sizes by country?

9 Startup Lessons Learnt From a Serial Entrepreneur

http://www.women2.org/9-startup-lessons-learned-from-a-serial-entrepreneur/

Awesome technology - Oblong Industries

This is some pretty cool technology. No more just what you see in the movies.

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

My Experience with Spring YES! Start-ups Funding

Two weeks back, we received word that we have got Spring funding. We were awarded the Spring Sg YES! Startup Fund. This scheme matches $4 for every $1 we put in, to a max of $50,000.

When we were pitching to Spring, I told my partner, Z, that if we ever got it I'll pop my wonderful tasting Cava (which i painstakingly brought back, and can't bear to drink) which I brought back from Barcelona in celebration. That was 3 months ago. For me, its the pressure. Self-induced pressure. Being on your own, your vested interest is in the company. I will want nothing but success for my company. The opportunity cost is high, and its sort of like an "all-in". The funding came in at a time when we were quickly running out of money. The Spring money serves to allow us to expand the business and acquire more users. The journey is a steep uphill from where I'm standing. So I'll save the cava for when I'm up on the hill.

Now, a little bit more about the YES! startup funding.

This scheme is for 1st time entrepreneurs and under 26. 1st time entrepreneurs mean you must NOT have registered a company before. So even if you registered a company and did not act on it (meaning just registered for fun), it's considered that you are not a first time entrepreneur anymore. You can ask Spring about this if the above scenario applies to you, but chances are quite low for you to be considered a first time entrepreneur.

If you're over 26 or not a first-time entrepreneur, grab a business partner who fits the criteria.

Now about the idea. I'm under the impression that Spring values tech companies. One of their four main criteria is that the business idea has to be innovative. Now what is innovative? I was always under the impression that it is mostly tech, but here's a list of the companies under YES! Startup, and you can make the conclusion yourself. Most of the companies in the SMU incubator are tech companies as well. That said, I know of two F&B ideas that Spring have funded, so as long as you have an interesting twist to a traditional model, you should try to apply for it.

What if you don't know nuts about technology? I have no tech background as well, so don't let that stop you from starting a tech company.

The other criteria which is top of their list is feasibility. The business of course, have to make sense monetarily. Every business is in it to make money, even social businesses (they need to make money to continue their social cause). So you definitely have to be able to make money, which is the priority. Read this inspirational Richard Branson interview.

The next important thing is to have something to show for. When we went to Spring, we already have about 9 restaurant partners on board, with some names bigger than the rest. To them, they want to see your idea being validated. That means having partners on board your business. This would greatly help your funding chance.

One mention about the green lane through the institutions (SMU/NTU/NUS/Polys). If you have a business idea and you go back to your institution and they support it, it will be considered "green-lane", meaning Spring will fund your business if your school supports your plan. Of course, you will still have to go through some formalities. We decided to go to Spring direct instead of through the school because of the short lead time that we had. We estimated that if we went through the school, it would take much longer because the institutions' reputation is on the line with the start-ups. We had an experience back in Feb when we pitched to them another idea, and we figured the time spent to make the required changes to the plan was too long after they shredded our idea. While we founded Gastro Couture eventually - which was our 2nd idea -we put the other idea at the back of our minds, and then decided that we would go to Spring direct for Gastro Couture.

These are just some thoughts and experience to getting Spring funding. If you want to know about something which I didn't cover, feel free to drop me an email!

Life's too short to not try something funky, so learn more about Spring YES! Start-up funding.

Great time of my life

revisited these videos after Kei from Lester & Kei's Adventures started talking about it again. One of the best, if not the best, time of my life.

What to do when a Giant comes onto your turf

An awesome post from Mark Suster. Love his posts.

In this post, he talks about why you need not fear when a giant comes eating into your startup's lunch. Much to fear? Fear not, he says.

What age is too late to start a company?

No age is too late. But apparently the ideal is by 29.

Read here.

Determination

Mercata vs Groupon

Everyone knows the success of Groupon, the darling of the next generation internet boom that spawned clones all over the world. But how many of you know that group-buying is not a recent phenomena? Group-buying started in the 1990s during the dot-com boom, with Mercata taking the lead, raising tens of millions of dollars and shutting down barely a few years later.

Group-buying is a great idea. Back then, Mercata focused on consumer electronic goods on a national level. This essentially competed them against all the big boys, Wal-mart included. And they failed. Wal-mart have their own sort of off-line group buying power, and it was a tough fight. Andrew Mason took the group-buying model, twisted it and fitted it to the local scene, and it became a huge run away success.

On the overview, its the same idea, but why did one succeed and the other fail? If you ask me, timing of market entry is key. But the point here is strategy. Groupon focused on the local scene, bringing small retailers and interesting vendors out onto the internet. Many of us use it to buy deals which we have never heard of, but find it to be real interesting (For eg, Groupon Sg recently featured a B747 flight stimulator). Mercata, on the other hand, focused on consumer and electronic goods which at the national level, was already cluttered with shops selling those products. The consumer and electronic goods manufacturer definitely would not take a loss marketing their product on a site simply because they have their own marketing team. Groupon, on the other hand, targetted those vendors who could take a short term loss on deals for online publicity in exchange for long term gain.

While timing of entry into the market is everything, so is strategy.

**UPDATED - A few hours after this post, Groupon files for a US$750 million IPO. Read about it here.

Inefficient Communication

Here's a lesson which I think should not be repeated anywhere, and it has got to do with communication. I was emcee-ing for a roadshow over the weekend, and this picture sums up the problem of inefficient and ineffective communication. Basically, the manager felt I wasn't communicating effectively the way he wants it, and he went through the whole food chain to get to me.

This should never be repeated anywhere in any organisation. I believe direct communication is the most effective and efficient form of communication.