Category: Events

Fear BizDev

~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

So JDFI 2014a is over. Check the videos here :: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO7W6ePtwM8&list=UU77igO-PM8Ww1pWCjfYdfUw

What a great event and investors are frothing to get at the startups. awesome.

I had great fun mentoring a few of them.

I have had some follow up talks post demo day and I thought I would share one tidbit.

There is always a few big companies swarming around startups looking to grow their own business via partnering with a startup. Startups are small and looking to grow so initially the thought of working with a big company looks really appealing – a growth strategy of sorts. Well – let me warn you – many times partnering or doing some sort of business development deal #BizDev can usually be worse than not partnering at all.

Some of the pros:

– Getting users
– Getting traffic without paying for it
– Getting some PR
– Being able to tell investors you are working with or have signed a deal with so and so
– Learning from a big company

But in reality what can happen is the cons:

– It might take months to bring the project online
– You will have all the red tape to sort
– You will be at the mercy of the big company development and QA schedules
– Investors will think that the deal is more important than it really is and hound you about it. Not realizing the schedule is now out of your hands
– You might find that the cost of the users was more expensive than just buying the users via marketing
– You probably won’t learn a lot from the big company cause in reality they are learning from you
– The PR is not that big of a deal – sure it helps but it won’t make your startup

I am not saying don’t do #BizDev but have a healthy skepticism for how hard it is, how it may slow you down and how it may throw you off your core business plan.

Sometimes #BizDev is better in the middle stages of a startup than the early stages.

Just saying…

It’s tough to bank on Google

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

It’s Google I/O time and it’s another conference, like WWDC, that I wish I was attending. Despite that I am not going, I still need to pay attention since Google will inevitably announce something that I will have to consider building on or for. Android is still the biggest thing to come from Google, and startups, like Spuul, have to build on android. There is still some schools of thought that say stick with iOS or start with iOS and deal with android later. However, if you are doing anything at all in Asia or the emerging markets you have to be on android. Period. But I insist that the money for paid services is still in iOS. Android users just don’t pay the way iOS users do – not even close.

Like with WWDC, Google will spend the week announcing a ton of things – I won’t even bother trying to play soothsayer since I don’t think it makes sense to. But I am more sensitive than I have been in the past at taking Google products seriously.

I think the biggest problem with whatever Google will announce is deciding which products or platforms to bank on. I see android TV is already getting some pre announcement love and folks are blessing it as the new thing for Google and it’s love affair with TV. Let me be first the first to say I hope it works cause god knows the current TV ecosystem is fucked. My money is still on Apple TV cause it works, it’s dead simple to build on and we know Apple values ecosystem lock in which means Apple TV is here to stay.

Android TV? Who the hells knows. Google TV was also heralded as the savior for the TV ecosystem and the next best thing to sliced bread for developers working around the TV. What happened to it? It was promising but in typical Google fashion it was essentially a beta that never made it out of beta. I understand why Google does this but it makes it hard to know which beta projects to depend on or bet your company’s development dollars on. Once bitten, twice shy.

I am sure some big companies can jump on every new Google dream in hopes of being the front runner and to ensure that big companies stay big but as a startup I don’t have that luxury. We actually semi invested in Google TV cause it was easy to stick to HTML 5 and HLS for a host of Smart (which we all know means hella dumb) TV platforms. Google TV was almost a reference platform of sorts and mostly just worked – wish I could say the same for the supposed Dumb TV platforms which are some of the worst shipping ecosystems of the modern day web.

But Google TV was a dud and once it looks like a dud the normal Google response is to not really kill it, that’s far too easy for them, but to let it just limp along pretending to be alive but we all know it’s actually the walking dead. Then Google got Apple envy and decided to make chromecast which on paper, plus based on sales, seems to be rocking. But some studies are showing that it’s not being used much. This doesn’t surprise me cause unlike an Apple TV, chromecast is not super user friendly. Yes it works, but it is a pain to setup and is buggy as hell. I am actually hoping that Google will re affirm their commitment to it during I/O, fix all the bugs and double down on it since I think it has legs.

As a techie though it is shocking how much Google forgot to ship with chromecast. Security for streams was not something they focused on but has improved some with updates. At Spuul we still find that HD content with encryption creates brain freezes faster than swallowing a Magnum in one go. The real shocker with chromecast though is there is no easy way to serve video ads with it. Yes – a video product from Google that doesn’t even have a premium content focus has no hooks to any of the standard video ad platforms – not even Google’s own video ad platform. I find this quite comical since if they aren’t going to focus on premium content, something folks pay for, one would think they would make it easy to stream free content with ads.

I hear Google is going to announce something new on the TV front, which I guess means Google TV is dead, but this action will call in to question what the plan is with chromecast. My guess is Android TV has different goals than chromecast so one would hope both platforms are a go and will see proper investment by Google. However, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Android TV getting all the attention while chromecast starts to whither on the vine.

I will be watching the announcements and doing my best to read the tea leaves as to what Google makes that actually will still be going strong in a few years.

Time to update my Google minus account via my Vizio Google TV chrome browser.

Learning to scale

~ michael_msft ~ 4 Comments

No – not talking about code here since I am far from an expert in scaling systems – that’s why I hire people smarter than me.

Talking about myself actually. I like to think I am fairly organized but I will admit that generally I feel as through I am hurtling through space and time grabbing things as I go and completing them but always feeling like I am on to the next thing quicker than I want to be. So if you can picture that then you will realize that the only logical choice I have is to focus on less things since time is not going to expand and excelling at my craft requires focus. I do believe strongly that running a product team is a craft and I can only get better at with experience and focus.

That being said I think it is important to try and give back where I can. I used to think this meant going to events or trying to stay plugged into the community but the effort to stay plugged in is time consuming and I am not sure there is much gained from it except for specific situations where I have met someone that I later became friends with or worked with. So this is important but I think one can see events as the be all end all when they are not. So choose your events wisely and attend them with the goal of getting the most out of them.

Apart from spuul, my current location for perfecting my craft, I obviously still want to stay in the community but this year I decided I would channel that focus a bit. I am finding that being involved in the jfdi mentor program has been just the ticket. I don’t know how best to do it other than jump in and make myself available. I am not always in town but when I am in town I plan on spending a morning at jfdi and get as many meetings as I can in the calendar with any of the startups that want to meet. Yesterday there were six busy, but largely productive meetings.

I like the one to many method in which I can spend my time but truth be told I am learning as much as I am giving. I think anytime one has to channel their energies into helping others one will get as much from it as they give. This model is allowing me to scale my time in the community better and hopefully keep myself plugged in.

If you are unaware of the latest batch of startups you can check them out here: http://jfdi.asia/portfolio/

I won’t discuss them here but check them out – some of them have even launched their services to the public so try it and support the products. I will admit I am partial to a few – especially the ones that give me shirts. #mentorspoils

October is a special month. Lots going on in the region, spuul will be launching some kick ass stuff and I am taking a holiday to Japan!

Carry on…

TechVenture2011, Accelerate, FoundersDrinks & Tim Draper Singing in Singapore…

~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

Had an action packed Friday this past week with lots of events going on.

First up was accelerate day at TechVenture2011. I attended the full conference at TV2010 and was even at some of the VIP events but this year I was too late getting back from the states so was only able to make the accelerate part of the event.

The main thrust of accelerate besides the speakers is the pitches from various startups in the region looking for cash.

You can check twitter #techventure and #accel2011 for the stream. Some good info in there…

I can’t say I saw something drop dead cool or must have but there was a number of solid offerings. In general though you can see how Singapore keeps evolving and is becoming quite the hotbed of startup and venture activity for Asia. I still feel that apart from China and India – Singapore and SEA is the other main place in the APAC to get it going  on.

Probably my highlight for the day was getting to hear Tim Draper of dfj.com speak twice. Once during the day at accelerate and once at night during FoundersDrinks. I was very impressed with his down to earth style, his poignant examples of business, and his gracious openness with the crowds. He answered a lot of questions and stuck around to talk to pretty much anyone who wanted to chat with him. It was not what I was expecting and I was pleasantly surprised. He shared a few Steve Jobs stories which was very cool. He made some interesting points about how powerful Steve was about changing the world and how is passing will leave a big hole to be filled within the industry.

I must say I was totally shocked during the evening event when Tim performed a song he had written about the venture industry.

I happened to record it with my iPhone – you can catch it here on Vimeo. I have not seen someone this famous from the tech industry belt out in song like that. Props.

Tim had some great points about how this is the best time ever to get started building something – he adamantly encouraged folks to ignore the downturn, the pessimism and to launch full in into building things and changing the world. It was welcome advice given the state of the world these days.

Thanks Tim for coming to Singapore and imparting your wisdom, positive attitude and your song on us!

Tim shared some book suggestions – one was “the startup game” – I would link to it from amazon but I can’t get logged in. 😉

Tomorrow I hope to check Startup Weekend Singapore and JFDI.

laterz

Avalon Singapore :: F1 afterparty :: Chemical Brothers :: Boy George :: Singapore’s new worst club

~ michael_msft ~ 6 Comments

I remember watching the building going up and marveling at how cool it was – yes a casino, I don’t gamble much, but still an amazing building that has permanently altered the landscape of Singapore in a good way. Then the two glass pyramid looking things were constructed and we were all left wondering what they would be. At first I suspected a high-tech hawker center for one and the other would house all the mobile phone companies. Food and mobile phones dominate Singapore so it would only be fitting that to cap of the spectacle of the new casino – foreigners and locals alike could get the best hawker food and grab a mobile phone in the two coolest buildings in town.

Then the news hit – one building would house another, yes we need more, LV shop and the other would house two world famous clubs. I could care less about the LV shop but was mildly interested in a real international club hitting the Singapore scene. God knows the city needs it.

So when @groovemonkey mentioned that the Chemical Brothers were coming to town to play the new venue – we decided it was time to properly check out http://avalon.sg/

Could it be too much?

Far more than giving people what they want we want to be delivering what they will want, I hope to hear people say “I first heard that at Avalon”.

Reading a snippet like that from an interview with Steve Adelman one can assume that experiencing Avalon could be well – nothing short of amazing. So let me answer the interview question for Steve – yes it is too much. Too much pomp, circumstance, attitude, lousy service, smoke, and arrogance to probably last me a life time. Hell – if I get re-incarted I might just find that it is even too much for my second life as well.

So before I dig in, let me start with the good stuff.

  • The venue is amazing. I think the external part of the venue was designed without Avalon in mind but I will give this one to the Avalon crew cause they need every bit of positive news they can get at this point.
  • The internal design is super cool too but given the over abundance of cheap Thai smoke machines – it is hard to totally grok how amazing the place looks.  I suggest they run daytime tours with the lights on in hopes of maximizing the chances of making money.
  • The sound system sounds stunningly good but since all I heard was an iPod running some genius techo playlist it was tough for me to fully appreciate the capabilities of it.
  • The hiring of many international servers, female, wearing hot outfits is definitely different that most places in Singapore but it might be helpful if they were taught to smile, fake a slight bit of politeness and pull the stick out of their ass prior to coming to work.
  • The view looking out from the club is also amazing and the internal design clearly shows this off but once again the internal haze made it mostly mute after about an hour of the club being open.

Enough of the good. Let’s get to the not so good.

  • When one buys VIP tickets once expects some sort of treatment that the minions buying general tickets would not get. Maybe a special line, a free drink or at the very least a sticker that says VIP with a powerful enough glow to be seen through the internal micro-climate that produces pollution thicker than the haze on a bad day in Beijing. The door people/glorious ticket checkers also could not explain what the VIP tickets were for either. Nice.
  • Upon entering the club, pre-haze, we found out that the VIP tickets offered us access to a top floor balcony with good views and seating. Wait – the seating could only be used if one bought about 2000 SGD worth of booze. Okay. Can we stand here then, seats with a small drink rail, and order some booze? Sure. But once people come who buy bottles we have to move you cause you have not bought a bottle. Great. So the VIP tickets don’t really offer us anything more than standing in the hallowed area while those buying bottles get better service. Awesome.
  • We head to the bar to go singles on the booze and the bartender, nicest guy working in the place, offers us some F1 bottle specials. Perfect. Of course then he is interrupted by the manager wench, the one with the biggest stick, who informs him that one can only order a bottle if one is sitting in the areas that accommodate a bottle and to sit in those area one has to order a big huge bottle that cost an enormous amount of money. So in other words the specials don’t mean anything at all. Precisely.
  • Enough of the deplorable drinking issues – by the way when we ordered our three singles drinks, 65 SGD, I had to go through yet another hazing because I had the gall to pay with my credit card. Yes – we locals like to use credits cards and most places take every credit ever invented, but the upper bar in Avalon was setup for cash – my bad again. So I hard to endure dirty looks and the service guy having to go somewhere else to run the card. I felt bad for putting them out having to pay for my overpriced drinks with my AMEX.
  • Let’s get to the show stuff. The event used to be listed here – and this was the only place showing anything remotely looking like a schedule. It actually said the show was 9pm-2am. Given that the F1 was not over till after 9 and that linkin park was playing in the field – we figured the show wouldn’t get going to 11 or later. We decided to get there before 11 just in case seating/standing was a pain. The bar boy told us that some opening act wast around 12 and that the Chemical Brother was around 1:30am. Late but what can you do. Let’s just say that by 2am the club was so full of the fake smoke that even if you were standing on the DJ platform you still couldn’t see the DJ’s. There were no announcements, no lighting changes and zero visual cues as to who was spinning. For all we know there was no one spinning – just some music playing, some smoke smoking and the lights lighting.
  • By 2:30am we decided to give it up. Pack our VIP tickets, our booze card (oh wait they dont have booze cards and are somewhat confused as to how to explain the process for coming back to get your booze) and our inhaled smoked and head home.

Disappointed? Just slightly. Appalled? More than a little bit.

Avalon needs their over payed developers/management to get actually show up to the office and fix the place before the word of mouth kills it.

One could buy some booze at the 7, hang on the clarke quay bridge and have a similar experience but for a lot less money and attitude.

Anyone know if the chemical brothers actually played last night?

#openhackindia 11 recap!

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

It is monday and I spent fri,sat, and sun helping with OHD India 11. What an awesome event.

Sure there were glitches, hiccups and plenty of chaos but that is also the part that makes it all that much better when the end result turns out to be so awesome. I think there were over 600 attendees, 100 plus hacks submitted, 100’s of helpers, mountains of food, open bar, swag and lots of smiles all around.

Some flickr photos…

more on Twitter… in fact the topic trended for a few days. Some will say due to the issues but I think it was due to how busy the place was and all the chatter in and outside of the event.

All I know is I met a lot of good people there and talked to a lot of them who told me many times how much fun they had.

General list of hacks here

Congrats to the winners, some flying to NY, and a huge thanks to all the people who helped at the event.

laterz!

 

On the road again…

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

I have not been blogging much – I think it was mostly out of respect for the japanese tragedy. Blogging or writing anything about myself or what I was doing paled in comparison to the real world and what people in Japan were contending with. Blogging was silly.

On top of that been super busy at work, traveling like a mad man and working on lots of little interesting projects. All good – just slammed.

Koprol team been rocking – check the blog.

Been on a string of speaking gigs lately – The Mobile Marketing Conference. Also been lucky to get some nice quotes – Abs-Cbn Article. Hats off to all the hard working yahoo! folks who make it possible for me to enjoy the limelight.

Have another trip to the USA coming and some more speaking gigs – work is just a super fun place right now. Feeling amazingly fortunate.

Just a side note – why does it take me longer to enter America as a US Citizen then it takes to me enter Singapore where all I possess is a lowly employment pass? America needs some help but I feel totally at a loss to decide in which ways I can assist. Singapore might feel small and boring at times but I am stunned by how progressive the place is with the net connectivity, the ease of dealing with taxes and the growth – stunning.

I picked up an iPad in sing just after the iPad 2 was released. My gf is using it like mad now since my bro, @groovemonkey, picked up an iPad 2 for me in SXSW. I hardly used the iPad 1 but I can’t get enough of the iPad 2. Writing this column on it now using iA writer. Love this freaking app. I am also on a plane, in economy, drinking a Jim beam black and ginger ale (sing air rocks for having this booze), but I feel comfortable flipping open my smart cover and banging away on the fake keyboard. I never opened my laptop in economy since it is just too much a pain in the ass.

I have tried the galaxy tab, the xoom (doomed), and some of the clones. Nice if you want the notion of what a cheap pc clone was in the 90’s but just not that elegant. I can’t get emotionally invested.

Apple set the bar high – good luck to the others trying to beat it. Competition is amazing but it stuns me how msft has no play in tablets. Poor Balmer.

And yes – I used to have a newton.

I thought it was amazing.

Peace

My 7 minutes…

~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

Gotta take it while u can. Today Koprol was on TechCrunch: http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/09/southeast-asia-one-thing-yahoo-has-done-well-tctv/

Awesome.

Thanks Sarah!

If you want to see more about SparxUp – go here: http://www.sparxup.com/

More on Indonesia scene: http://dailysocial.net/

My slides from SparxUp: http://www.slideshare.net/dreampipe/sparxup

Podcast on Asia : http://thisweekinasia.net/2010/11/this-week-in-asia-episode-74-the-indonesia-internet-juggernaut/

long live Koprol!

Indo Indo Indo!

~ michael_msft ~ 2 Comments

Been a crazy couple of days and a few more busy ones to go.

Been at the Sparxup event which has been awesome. Just check out Sarah Lacy over at TechCrunch for all the latest coverage.

I presented during the morning session and if you are interested my deck can be found here.

Monday we have a minty launch event and a blogger meet up at night at Loewy. All great stuff.

The volcano action has been a bummer and I hope it clears up soon and the area returns to normal. Lots of people are in a bad sort over this and I feel for them.

I always get asked about Indonesia, since I spend a lot of time here, and people wonder what the biggest issue might be for Indo’s long term success. I have one word for you but as always a picture is worth a thousand words:

traffic

I have been coming here for about 10 years and regularly for the last 18 months or so and the traffic is getting worse and worse.

It is not uncommon to waste an hour or more getting from one part of town to another. Even on the weekends now the traffic is getting bad – for sure the whole snarl has to be a drain on business.

It will take years to fix it but there is not even any signs of anyone doing anything about it. Everyone cuts corners. There are carpool lanes but you can rent someone along the way to make it look like you have a carpool. There are bus lanes with cars in them. There are pillars that were once erected for tollways or overpasses but they were never completed. There is no work being done on a subway or an above ground train.

Jakarta will suffer if something is not done soon but I fear the government will not be able to tackle it and corruption will force more failed attempts. I think immediately they should instigate some sort of central congestion based pricing cause we all know money will be the only way to impede the issue even a slight bit.

I love Indonesia but the traffic is starting to grind on me the wrong way.

more soon!