Master of the Obvious - Latest Comments

Re: 2007 VC Rankings by Number of Deals

chleoku — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:05:50 -0000

Hey the 2008 China VC Ranking is out, on our blog, check it out:)

http://www.wealthalchemist.com/Blog/venture-cap...

James - btw, how are you doing?

Re: Life and How to Survive It

Phil — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:40:32 -0000

Thanks for the tip!

Re: Join the SingTel i-Challenge ‘08 and win S$20,000!

Arun — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:38:20 -0000

Hey! I missed the talk abt the competition.
What are the deadlines? What do we submit? What is the criteria?

Re: Join the SingTel i-Challenge ‘08 and win S$20,000!

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:40:18 -0000

at least something innovative (however it maybe) for the community...
would love to see what the entries are like

Re: Second Life almost in Singapore’s backyard

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:38:40 -0000

any idea what are their plans here in spore?

Re: Singapore, in the words of Mr. Taxi Driver

Emily — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 12:37:42 -0000

Hi, I just read your post, and i was wondering... how does the government interacts in the taxi industry?
I mean, do they control prices? Is there a specific amount of taxi? What is the price for a licence? I have alot of questions like these, and I don't know who to ask, or where to go to find the answers. If you know anything at all, about anything at all a little more specific then what you wrote (like I can't tell what is the stating fee for a taxi ride from what you wrote, and I kind of need that information too!), please write me bk, or email me, or tell me where to go on Internet to have these informations!

Best Regards,
Emily

Re: Garena raised $2M seed investment from Toivo Annus

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 03:03:24 -0000

congrats to garena for landing a great investor.
although i think the space is a little crowded but i think there is room to grow.
would love to know more about the next round of financing requirements.

Re: NTUC embarks on bold IT Transformation Project

melvin — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 06:24:01 -0000

dude.. where did u get this info to attend the briefing? is there some alert or listing u are on? I'm working in a local sme and i would love to get involved in these pitches.. can u help advise how i can get my name on their mailing list or something?

thanks heaps

Melvin

Re: Doom and Gloom across the Pacific: from Singapore to Silicon Valley

Alex — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:40:49 -0000

Couldn't agree with you more, if the government can fill up this gap during this time when there is nothing to lose, there can be alot to gain when the markets swings upward again. We've missed the boat before the .com crash, NRF probably came too late for the bull run, its not too late now to start promoting start ups and encouraging more to take the jump towards entrepreneurism.

Re: Six winners for NRF Early Stage Venture Fund

Jeff — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 23:59:00 -0000

any luck with tamarix?

Re: Olympics 2008 = The World on Center (Circus) Stage

claudia symonds — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:13:54 -0000

nice work it is a good web nice info

Re: ‘Deep’ Engineering: an Endangered species in Singapore?

motochan — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:38:38 -0000

jiinjoo,

I agree that there are many areas that would also be important to MNCs, such as those you mentioned. However, without core technology that is defensible, there are no customer relationships, business models, on/off/near/inshoring to speak off.

Although I was not schooled locally, I do sincerely believe that we have good 'hardware' in the form of our 2 technical universities, NUS and NTU. What we are weaker in is the image and perception of Infocomm in general.

The interim global trend may very well be such that students as a whole are losing interest in Computer Science as a genre. That doesn't mean it's a good enough reason for us to sit on our hands and do nothing about it.

Infocomm will continue to be an integral part of our lives, and increasingly so. Check out "The Uncanny Impact of Computing" by J. Srother Moore. Pure economics alone (add a dash of greed of man) will ensure that Computer Science as a subject will continue to flourish, although it may go through cyclical dips in the near term.

Re: ‘Deep’ Engineering: an Endangered species in Singapore?

jiinjoo — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:43:19 -0000

bleah ;p

On the other hand, I thought innovation is overly deconstructed and overly lamented. Think about it this way, "Deep Engineering" can be fundamental to MNC's survival, but it is not the only thing that the MNC need, and would probably not rank the highest in most MNC's books (think customer relationship, business models, onshore/offshore/insource/outsource etc.) Similarly, who say school isn't fun - did you see the kids face in the recent code::xtremeapps? Yes there are issues for the _venture capitals_ who wants to find "Deep Engineering" companies and startups that could be bought up / invested in so that they can be a crucial part of a MNC's portfolio in the future, but if it isn't happening, why can't they put their money on other types of capabilities?

Without understanding specifically what SOC is facing, enrollment numbers for _all_ computing schools in the world is decreasing, so I thought it is pretty much the trend. Can't we attribute it to the global shake out, that the Oracles who bought the BEAs essentially cut the "deep engineering" need instantly? that the 3 billion people who came on board in the last 10 years essentially fill in the gap? that the number of schools in the whole world is just in oversupply?

不要跟大毛比

Re: Six winners for NRF Early Stage Venture Fund

Jeffrey — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 06:56:37 -0000

Well said.

Home grown ICT sector in Singapore is regretfully small and has few venture successes.
The real innovations pretty much will come from individuals who are already entrepreneurs or about to become one or hidden within research institutes. You really need a set of investors who have seen the majority of the dealflow out there in the universe plus being a little more optimistic and less risk adverse than most to make this effort even remotely workable.

NRF may not have an IRR target in mind but a national agenda to "develop". Hence patience is indeed the word well said.