Singapore Entrepreneurs Network & Startup Organization

Project:Senso kickstarted Global Entrepreneurship Week with a talk by aspiring and established entrepreneurs entitled 'My Start-up Story'. The class in SMU was full and attendants had to sit on the ground. It was held in the School of Economics in SMU on 16 November 2009.

 

The talk started with the creator of OneTicketHub, Mr Daniel presenting his story about how he started his journey as an entrepreneur and what others can learn from his experience. He is now the business owner of one of the most booking online ticketing portal in Singapore and also expanding to other regions.

This is followed by an interactive talk by Mr Joseph Wong who is the managing director of Training Gear Asia. By starting his talk with a question and answer session on general knowledge questions that tested the IQ of the participants, he got the whole group to pay attention to points that lead to his talk. He talked about the realities and myths of being an entrepreneur, focusing on how his training company can help prepare his students to the real world of being an entrepreneur and to set plans into actions. He gave multiple analogies to reflect how tough being an entrepreneur will be and the scorecards of being an efficient entrepreneur. Thus, the need for entrepreneurs to continuously improve themselves by attending training so that they do not drown in the deep end when thrown into the ocean.

The next speaker is Mr Nicholas Chan who is the Managing Director of Azione Capital that invests in multiple start-ups funded under the Media Development Authority (MDA) and Information Communications Authority (IDA). He gave a clear perspective of the criterias that will set you apart so that he will want to part his money to invest in the idea. He also questions whether in all businesses, is an investor needed? There are other options to look at like grants and loans as well as exit plans which might mean short-term investments. He mentions that to be an entrepreneur, you need to be a dictator to drive your idea to the heads of your followers.

Last is the Q&A session where Mr Nicholas answered all queries about how one can start businesses that he invests in. In every pitching, an entrepreneur should answer the questions, "So what, who cares and why you?"

At the end of the session, all participants were invited for refreshments which gave them a good opportunity to network with the people with the same dreams and drive.