Start-Up@Singapore Official Launch Kicks-off With A Bang
MEETING STORY by Audrey Ang
More than 350 people gathered at the NUS Hon Sui Sen Auditorium on 6 October for the Official Launch of Singapore’s largest business plan competition. Gracing the event as Guest of Honour was Minister of Trade and Industry Mr Teo Ser Luck.
The highlight of the evening featured a star-studded panel discussion with Mr Teo Ser Luck, Groupon Singapore’s CEO Karl Chong Timbre’s founder Edward Chia and Soyato’s co-founder Alan Phua.
Supported by the pigeon-hole system, the panel discussion proceeded smoothly. This technology displays the most popular questions from the audience on a big screen for the panelists to address at their own pace.
The panel discussion revolved around entrepreneurship, its struggles and rewards. All four panelists sought to encourage the practice of entrepreneurship among the audience. Dubbed “the road less travelled”, entrepreneurship is often not a first-choice option taken up by Singaporeans.
Chong, Chia and Phua all faced the similar problem of convincing their parents that they would not be taking up the job of an accountant or banker and instead would enter into the realm of business.
“Singapore has a risk-adverse culture and parents are often not supportive of their children starting their own business,” explained Mr Teo, when asked about the lack of entrepreneurship in Singapore.
Mr Teo mentioned the upcoming governmental initiatives to curb this mentality and promote more entrepreneurial activity. Apart from the usual grants, he plans to create more platforms and resources, to support young entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurship is not all about making money. Edward explained that businesses should be “fulfilling a gap in society”, and shared on how he managed to tap on the abundant resources provided by the government to drive his business forward.
Mr Teo encouraged Singaporeans to look beyond the shores of Singapore towards the global market. He explained that the Singapore market is very small and urgedSingaporeans to take opportunity of the highly globalized world.
After the series of questions and answers exceeded the given time, it was adjourned abruptly, despite more questions from the audience.
Nicely summing up the agenda of the evening, Edward offered the take-home line, “It’s about doing it! Not talking it!”
Start-Up@Singapore seeks to promote entrepreneurship through organizing business plan competitions. “We want to provide aspiring entrepreneurs valuable resources and a beneficial learning journey. This is what makes us different from other competitions. We do this by ensuring that all our mentors and judges are of top quality and we provide relevant courses to our participants,” said Vivek, 13th Start-Up@Singapore Lead.
The closing date for the submission of business ideas is 22Jan 2012.
More than 350 people gathered at the NUS Hon Sui Sen Auditorium on 6 October for the Official Launch of Singapore’s largest business plan competition. Gracing the event as Guest of Honour was Minister of Trade and Industry Mr Teo Ser Luck.
The highlight of the evening featured a star-studded panel discussion with Mr Teo Ser Luck, Groupon Singapore’s CEO Karl Chong Timbre’s founder Edward Chia and Soyato’s co-founder Alan Phua.
Supported by the pigeon-hole system, the panel discussion proceeded smoothly. This technology displays the most popular questions from the audience on a big screen for the panelists to address at their own pace.
The panel discussion revolved around entrepreneurship, its struggles and rewards. All four panelists sought to encourage the practice of entrepreneurship among the audience. Dubbed “the road less travelled”, entrepreneurship is often not a first-choice option taken up by Singaporeans.
Chong, Chia and Phua all faced the similar problem of convincing their parents that they would not be taking up the job of an accountant or banker and instead would enter into the realm of business.
“Singapore has a risk-adverse culture and parents are often not supportive of their children starting their own business,” explained Mr Teo, when asked about the lack of entrepreneurship in Singapore.
Mr Teo mentioned the upcoming governmental initiatives to curb this mentality and promote more entrepreneurial activity. Apart from the usual grants, he plans to create more platforms and resources, to support young entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurship is not all about making money. Edward explained that businesses should be “fulfilling a gap in society”, and shared on how he managed to tap on the abundant resources provided by the government to drive his business forward.
Mr Teo encouraged Singaporeans to look beyond the shores of Singapore towards the global market. He explained that the Singapore market is very small and urgedSingaporeans to take opportunity of the highly globalized world.
After the series of questions and answers exceeded the given time, it was adjourned abruptly, despite more questions from the audience.
Nicely summing up the agenda of the evening, Edward offered the take-home line, “It’s about doing it! Not talking it!”
Start-Up@Singapore seeks to promote entrepreneurship through organizing business plan competitions. “We want to provide aspiring entrepreneurs valuable resources and a beneficial learning journey. This is what makes us different from other competitions. We do this by ensuring that all our mentors and judges are of top quality and we provide relevant courses to our participants,” said Vivek, 13th Start-Up@Singapore Lead.
The closing date for the submission of business ideas is 22Jan 2012.