Original post by JACKY YAP via e27
Start-Up@Singapore, Singapore’s largest start-up challenge has always been designed as more than just another business plan competition. Instead, it is fashioned as a beacon, a guiding light to all those who aspire to make it big in the world of entrepreneurship.
Keeping with this objective, Start-Up@Singapore organized a set of three Speaker Series over the month of November, where prominent Singaporean entrepreneurs dished out advice to start-up enthusiasts.
The first edition was themed “Product Innovation and Development” and was held at Plug-In@Blk 71. Here, Ms. Aileen Sim, founder of BillPin captivated the audience with a simple yet powerful ground rule for aspiring entrepreneurs: “Ask. Listen. Observe. Always,” which means to always be on the lookout for problems in real life and seize the business opportunities to develop solutions for these problems. Veerappan Swaminathan, Co-founder of Sustainable Living Labs elaborated upon the importance of prototyping and how it enabled one to leapfrog past the competition. Navin Kumar, head of Clean Technology Solutions, Autodesk described how one can capitalize upon design technologies available in today’s market to create powerful models of our products.
The following edition was centred on social entrepreneurship, the theme being “Making Social Impact a Reality.” Ms. Grace Sai, Co-Founder of the Hub described the four operational models a social enterprise can follow: the work-integration model, plough-back model, subsidized service model and the social needs model. Ms. Helen Lim, Founder of Silver Horizons, spoke about the importance of caring and protecting the elderly in Singapore and how her co-operative goes about doing just that. Finally, Ivan Cheng, the 13th Start-Up@Singapore Social Venture Winner and founder of Start Now, gave a powerful presentation on the wonders that volunteerism can do towards remedying social problem.
