Two days back, I was invited by E27 and Ascendas to give a talk entitled “Why Mobile Matters & How to Take Advantage of It”. The synopsis of the talk discussed a couple of new trends that have developed over the course of last 3 years: (a) the emergence of mobile apps store, (b) the convergence between mobile and web developers, (c) the focus on deploying apps relevant to the consumers in the marketplace and (d) social media deployment thru mobile for customer interaction & engagement. How does one from another industry for e.g. healthcare and travel able to tap on the new mobile trends in engaging and interacting with consumers? We explore how social media with mobile can help other industries in searching for ways and means to connect with customers. In the talk, we also discuss the emerging trends and how to navigate and tap on the mobile ecosystem and deliver new value to the customers.

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I want to share in detail on my presentation that I have delivered last week in the Open Web Asia conference, elaborating on the 5 principles which I deemed important for those are planning to build a start-up. The talk is entitled “5 Principles for Agile & High Speed Development” and shared the Chlkboard story with the delegates there who come from all over Asia. In essence, I discuss how Facebook, Twitter & FourSquare have successfully evolved quickly with their platform and data, and how common principles can used to provide a guideline to most start-ups when planning for their new ideas and getting them to market quickly. I also discuss how Chlkboard have rapidly evolved from the start of launching a platform to moving towards fast growth via 3rd party applications.

Here are my five principles so that it can provide some perspective for those who are thinking of doing a new start-up and how to go to market in the fastest speed:

1. “In my beginning is my end” by T.S Eliot: Traditional entrepreneurship text books seem to preach in a way where it is more important to pursue idea rather than the business of the idea. While I have been teaching this approach by following a traditional curriculum, I reversed the approach when I worked on Chlkboard with my co-founder, Saumil Nanavati. We started from the exit strategy and worked backwards all the way to the idea and conception. We also identified the potential risks and challenges in the mobile industry pertaining to location based services and mobile advertising on a whole. It is also important to think about Plan B, and if you don’t reach your exit strategy, the important question which most people have forgotten to ask, “Can I turn this venture into a sustainable business running on proper revenues?”.
2. Make something Customers Need: It is important to have an sanity check on whether you are building a product for a customer or for yourself. Probably, most aspiring entrepreneurs know this mantra but prefer to fall in love with the idea. Ultimately, it is important to create a product about 70% ready and go to market to see if there is customer traction. In the early days of Chlkboard, we actually tested our hypothesis on whether our customers will need our product. We did this by offering customers free trials and also continued gathering feedback from them on what works and what don’t work.
3. Less is More in Product Development: Don’t be afraid to kill features. In the design of the first prototype of Chlkboard, we thought a lot about whether users should register a username and password so that they can use our system. In the end, to shorten the time to bring the beta product to market, we dropped the normal way of registration and used the OAuth method of signing in via twitter. It made the registration process easier for those who have a twitter account. In fact, it also lowers the resistance if we made them just keying in a few short details we need to get them on the ground running.
4. Iterate & Pivot based on feedback & analytics: This is the part where we gather the feedback and pivot if our initial product has failed. Thankfully, it did not. We focused more on listening to them on what they want. Originally we thought we made the product simple by having one twitter to one location for the advertiser. Instead, we learned later that some shop retailers will like to send promotions via one twitter account. We immediately took action and got the feature ready within a week. We also collected analytics to help our advertisers to understand their customers through the help of heat maps and number of impressions.
5. Firehose Strategy – Open the Floodgates: When we opened the Chlkboard API to 3rd party apps developers, it sent us from 30K to 400K within a span of two months. While being open, we also manage to see how apps developers can use our data and deliver the ads in the best possible way such that it is not offensive or intrusive to the end-consumer. The firehose strategy has been practiced by successful companies like Twitter and FourSquare and it helps them to know which products they do and do not need.

In essence, looking at the success of Facebook, Twitter and FourSquare, the pace in which they are working is shortening by half within the past few years. Facebook took about 4 years to hit their 1st million users, Twitter within 2 years and FourSquare in 1 year. They all opened up their platforms and allowed creative developers to make interesting applications. It is also important that they slowly retain control and create an economy around their platform. While it is still early to talk about where Chlkboard is going (given that it’s my latest venture), it is important to remember one rule in entrepreneurship: you have equal chances of success or failure depending on how well you systematically eliminate risk and overcome challenges.

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A couple of months ago, I read Daemon by Daniel Suarez, recommended by many tech pundits from the US. Similarly, I have also recommended to many people I know within the Singapore tech community. They all loved the premise behind Daemon because it is technologically feasible to see the concept behind Daemon actually brought to real life. Daemon ended with the protagonist, the detective Peter Sebeck was locked in a series of intrigue set up by the deceased game designer, Matthew Sobol, who created the daemon that unleashed upon human civilization.

The second book is split up into a couple of threads based on three central characters and the antagonists of the story. While in the first book that Daniel Suarez portrayed Matthew Sobol as an evil genius who conceived a deliberate plot that murdered many in the process, the second book took a different perspective by taking on the theme of necessary evil. Freedom explored the breakdown of our modern day civilization and the Daemon took on the establishments from Wall Street to the power brokers of multi-national corporations. While the war between the Darknet (on the Daemon front) and the establishment were on-going, Peter Sebeck was tasked by the late Matthew Sobol to go on a quest to find the Cloud Gate, similar to how modern day gamer would do in MMORPG games like World of Warcraft.

The most interesting feature of the book is the use of augmented reality and how the online world interfaced with the real world, in particular, the D-Space in Suarez’s book. Of course, if you are a fan of online gaming, you would see how the characters are ranked by gaming mechanics and level of the profession he took. The irony that Loki, one of the main characters of the book, who was known to be the deadliest of the Daemon operative, was given a level 10 sorcerer and extremely low rank of trust. One probably pondered the author’s intentions to integrate social interactions within the Internet and focused on how Daemon attempted to change and redistribute the way how the human civilization.

While the book reached a probably satisfactory ending, one might wonder if there will be a sequel. Of course, the most exciting part of the book is when Sebeck succeeded in the quest and to make a decision on the whole of human civilization. What’s the question that one might probably ask? I would let you to follow the excitement in reading both “Daemon” and “Freedom”.

P/S: This is the first fiction e-book that I have completed reading on my iPad.

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“The Tempest” is the last play written by William Shakespeare. Something recently got me to read the entire play particularly, the monologue by Prospero in the epilogue of the play. In fact, when I put part of the epilogue on my Facebook status, the quote caught the interest of Calvin and Tudor, founders of a new project called 8Squirrels. I hope that this part of you will help to provide some thoughts for those who search and live for passions in your lives.

“Now my charms are all o’erthrown,
And what strength I have’s mine own,
Which is most faint. Now, ’tis true
I must be here confined by you
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got,
And pardoned the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell;
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands:
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please. Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so, that it assaults
Mercy itself, and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardoned be,
Let your indulgence set me free.”
- Prospero, “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare

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“The End of the Free Market” written by Ian Bremmer, is the 2nd book I have purchased via the iTunes Store on my iPad. It is the second book which I have finished after my first e-book “Game Change” by J. Heilemann & M. Halperin. Bremmer’s book take a hard look at the free market and properly set the stage for state capitalism for the 21st century, with clear examples from China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and southeast Asia moving across the book. It ended with some scenarios to how state capitalism will evolve in the next 50 years.

In some sense, the book kicked off with an anecdote from the author in his meeting with China’s Vice Foreign Minister, He Yafei. The Chinese minister kicked off with a rhetorical question that have taken into the context of the recent global financial crisis triggered by the filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection of Lehman Brothers on Sep 15 2008. In his words, “Now that the free market has failed … what do you think is the proper role for the state in the economy?” Through six long chapters, Bremmer described the emergence of the new strand of state capitalism which authoritarian governments have learned to compete internationally by embracing market driven capitalism. In some sense, these governments has managed to utilize wealth creation to show their legitimacy of their rule in the country. China and Russia have successfully incorporated state capitalism after the end of Cold War.

While the author weaved the story with a brief history of capitalism and how the markets have failed through the madness of crowds and herd behavior following bubbles that drove economies near the brink of collapse, for example, the Wall Street Crash in 1929 that led to the Great Depression. With each crisis, the state introduced regulation into the system. It also attempted to debunk the myth that democracies and free markets are interwined and how state capitalism can still provide a semi-free market to function within a government tightly controlled environment.

By clearly demonstrating the fundamental differences between free-market & state capitalism, the author showed that the latter is not an ideology bur rather a tool for retaining political control. Policy makers do not embrace state capitalism as a knee-jerk reactions to rebuild or jump-start a new economy out of recession but rather a long term policy choice. Second, the state capitalists view markets as a tool that serves the national interests of the ruling elites rather than an engine of opportunity for the individual that is “led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention” (Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations 1776).

In the final part of the book, the author warns that the free market is likely to meet its end, when countries with such economies start closing door on trade, investment and immigrants. He also pointed that the dynamics between US and China has to be balanced without compromising their values for example in the protection of intellectual property rights and currency issues. He also made it clearly that if corporations (such as Google) has to taken on state capitalists, it is likely that Google will lose as compared in the past where the British East India Company has managed to secure control of India in the 18th century. However it does not clear up the issue on whether corporations have the propensity to be a state of its own. It’s a book that is highly recommended for policy makers and economists to get a clearer look on how economies are run in this century and where it is all heading on an macro-economic scale.

You can watch the video of Ian Bremmer giving a talk about his book here:

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眼目望低,
暗然回首,
各自追寻,
倾城之梦.

Composed on an iPad while sitting on a bus.

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Recently, I have unboxed the Apple iPad (Wifi + 16 GB) @ Hackerspace SG. Thanks to Meng Weng Wong for helping me to purchase the iPad from the US. While holding the gadget for the past two days, it is an excellent product where the loading up of apps is remarkably fast, long battery life and the feel and touch for the iBooks app is fantastic. It is actually pleasant to surf the web with an almost 10″ screen. The only gripe I have at the moment is that I can’t make any purchase of books either from Amazon Kindle or Apple Books. Still, I am currently working to configure this product (adding the Chinese components) for my parents so that they can read news, get their 4D lottery numbers and play SG Mahjong on the iPad.

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Probably, you have heard by now that I have clinched the Singapore Computer Society IT Leaders Award for the category “Young Professional of the Year”. I am deeply humbled to be bestowed the award given that its prestige and the honor to stand beside the giants before me who have won it. It came as a surprise to me when I was notified about the award. Here are some of my thoughts post receiving the award yesterday in the SCS Gala Dinner 2010.

Probably I share the story behind how I got here. I was nominated by Christopher Lim, a SPH journalist who I have met the first time when we were traveling together to Malaysia for a Nokia technology event. I shared with him the work I have done with Thymos Capital LLP and SGEntrepreneurs, as both an investor and a community organizer. What follows after, we stayed in touch via Facebook. Two months later, he messaged me on Facebook two months later after our meeting that he like to nominate me for the award. I thought that it was alright to put my name forward and believed that I might not made it into the interview round at that point of time. Probably, getting a nomination from someone independent and not within my professional circle served a fair validation to what I have worked on so far. Second, I believed that the other candidates who are also nominated for the same award are just as good and if not better that me.

Probably, the interview I have gone through is one of the most interesting experiences of my life. What made it really memorable is that I was interviewed on the same day (15 Jan 2010) when Chlkboard was launched. Before the interview, I was thinking about the launch of the product and decided that I would complete the interview to the best of my ability in front of the board. I remembered when I completed the interview, I called my co-founder Saumil Nanavati and told him that I am heading to his place to prepare the launch for Chlkboard. He asked me how the interview went. My answer is that it is the most natural interview that I have ever been, meaning that I did not hold anything back and just conveyed my thoughts in a straight and honest manner. The same goes for when Nicholas called me on the same day as well. One of the things I did tell the judges, is that I am happy to wake up every day, getting ready to work on what I want to do and how I can pursue my dreams with my passion and drive. While I was looking for the next thing to do in a transitory period last year, I thought that I was ready to give up for something stable. In the end, I come to the realization that being myself is the best way in how to move on with life. Once I figured that out, I put my mind and focus into it. That journey started with Chlkboard and many good news that come with my work in Thymos (which will be unveiled in due time).

So what does this award mean for me? I prefer to view it as an encouragement for the future that I am building in the process. To me, as the years go by, the best way to think about awards & accolades is not to think about whether you will win them. As of life, I find that I learned more from failures and less from successes. What is important to me now, is that I can put all the heart, dedication and focus on what I work on and do my best in everything that matters, whether I am working on my start-up or helping the community from time to time.

Photos of the Awards Ceremony

Photo taken by Nicholas Khoo

Photo (by Nicholas Khoo): Standing along side with Rear Adm (NS) Lui Tuck Yew (Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, Singapore), Alphonsus Pang (President, SCS), and the other distinguished winners for the SCS awards which include Peter Ho, Head of Civil Service.

Update 1: You can now read the official citation in Singapore Computer Society IT Leader Awards 2010, and the video attached here:

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I have received my Google Nexus One this morning and have decided to unbox it in Hackerspace SG along with Ruiwen. We did a Qik video on the whole unboxing of the Google Nexus One. Ironically, the whole video is filmed using the Qik application on my iPhone 3GS. On the whole, the whole experience has been really great from opening the box and setting up the phone immediately in Singapore. Upgrading the phone OS to the recent version was very fast and we managed to get a few apps quickly working: Facebook, Twidroid, FourSquare, GMail and Maps. We also did a test with Google Goggles as well.

Google Nexus One Unboxing @ HackerSpace SG 1

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Recently, I was invited by my collaborator, Assoc Prof Michael Netzley from Singapore Management University to speak to his students on the course module “Digital Media Across Asia”. The talk focus on a basic introduction to social networks and its applications to corporate communications for his students. While putting the whole talk together, I wanted to bring forward a couple of insights thru the observations and analysis (with Michael and Nicholas Khoo) that I have done on a couple of social networks in Asia, for e.g. mig33, QQ, CyWorld and demonstrate what a good set of best practices will be. We also tried for the first time do a recording of the talk and it allowed me to learn how to integrate as a slidecast on Slideshare.

A couple of things which I like to elaborate as we did not manage to steer the conversation during the class if you have heard the slidecast:

• Online vs Offline engagement: One of the lessons which I wanted to steer the students to think is the issue of how to merge the online and offline worlds in terms of user engagement, discovery and interaction. We discovered that the success of social media tools did not come from the platforms trying to gain users by online invites. Instead, their approach also utilized an offline strategy. RenRen (formerly Xiaonei), the facebook clone in China, adopted a direct marketing approach by offering offline incentives such as free food and drinks to draw classes from universities and schools to sign up to the social network. In a similar social media marketing conference which I spoke as a panelist recently to brand-marketers & small-medium enterprises, I explained a similar approach used by the Right Spin (a PR company) who created the HTC flash mob event in Raffles Place. Basically, they got a group of people who burst into dancing that caught the public perplexed and at the same time, uploading tweets, photos and videos into various social media platforms that spread the word around quickly.
• Facebook has beaten CyWorld for the South Korea in early 2010: A new datapoint emerged in the beginning of Jan 2010. Facebook, in a very stealth way, has just displaced CyWorld to be the top social network in South Korea. This is probably the first crack in the East Asian bloc where a foreign social network has successfully toppled the incumbent. What is the reason? One probable reason is that a lot of Korean users are playing social games or tapping 3rd party applications on an open platform which CyWorld has not deployed out yet. I probably wanted to pose the question: is the beginning of a domino effect that may hit Japan soon given Mixi and Gree are in dead heat for the 1st place?
• Can the micro-transactions model work in Western based social networks?: We know that Facebook is now on the verge to deploy a beta-tested version of micro-transactions in the platform. The question as posed in the discussion by one of the students during my talk: does reverse engineering of an idea from the East will work in the West? I probably think so, given that Silicon Valley have been holding a lot of conferences of virtual goods and currency and talking about these models which are successful in the Far East. In fact, with the help of the mobile smartphones like the iPhone and Nexus One, it may be the beginning of an era where Western social networks may successfully monetize in their own homeground.

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