Singapore Startup Ecosystem
& Entrepreneur Toolbox
V0.1 - June 2014

Disclaimer
This is a totally informal, non-comprehensive
document that I made to answer common
questions.
Opinions expressed are solely my own and do
not express the views or opinions of my
employer.
Use at your own risk.

intro
coming soon…coming soon… you?
full time job
angel investor
mentor / judge
arnaud bonzom
Hello!

s
Agenda
Visa
Outsourcing
Coworking Spaces & Offices
Networking
Recruitment
Bonus
Startups in Singapore
Hackathons & Startup Competitions
58 people you should know
Incubators & Accelerators
Startup Ecosystem
0
Fund Raising
Government

Startup Ecosystem
cc John Lord

For more information: The Startup Ecosystem Report 2012 | Facts and Rankings | Global Competitiveness Report 2013 – 2014
1
“Singapore Aims to Become
Southeast Asia's Silicon Valley”
The Wall Street Journal 2014
“The world’s easiest
place to do business”
Doing Business 2014 Report
“Best business environment
in Asia Pacific and the world”
Economist Intelligence Unit 2014
“Asia’s best intellectual
property protection”
Global Competitiveness Report 2013 – 2014
“Top 3 in the world for least
corruption in the economy”
Global Competitiveness Report 2013 – 2014
“Top 10 in Asia for best skilled
labour”
IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook in 2013
Asia’s most network-ready
country
The Global Information Technology Report 2014
“Country with best quality of
life in Asia”
Quality of Living Worldwide City Rankings in
the Mercer Survey 2011
The Startup Ecosystem Report 2012
Rankings
startup ecosystem

startup ecosystem
For more information: Singapore Economy Key Indicators | iN2015 Masterplan | Singapore in Biref | CIA Factbook
1
Facts
Population 5.40 million
2013
Labour Force 3.44 million
2013
economy
population
Ethnic Groups (%): Chinese 74.2, Malay 13.3, Indian 9.2, other 3.3
2013 est.
Unemployment rate: 2.1%
2013
GDP: $ 370.1 bn
2013
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 2.4%
2013
Per Capita GDP: $ 68,541
2013
Share of GDP (%): Manufacturing 18.6, Wholesale & retail Trade 18.2,
Business Services 15.6, Finance & Insurance 12.2, Transportation & Storage 7.0,
Construction 4.4, Information & Communications 4.0, Accomodation & Food Services 2.5.
2013
Home Ownership Rate 90.5%
2013
Mobile Phone Subscription 156%
2013
PC 81%
2013
household and social indicators
Birth Rate 0.93
2013
Residents 3,84 million
2013
Literate 96.5%
2013
Languagues: English, Malay, Tamil & Mandarin

Government
cc John

For more information: Contact Singapore
2
Oversees the registration and regulation of business entities and public accountants
The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) is the lead agency for
fostering world-class scientific research and talent for a vibrant knowledge-based
and innovation-driven Singapore.
The Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE), is a national movement by the
private and public sector to seed and nurture start-ups in Singapore
Lead government agency responsible for planning and executing strategies to
enhance Singapore’s position as a global business centre and grow the Singapore
economy
A one-stop site for enterprises looking to start, sustain and grow their businesses
Cultivate a vibrant and competitive infocomm industry in Singapore
Agencies, Foundations, Ministry, …
government

For more information: Contact Singapore
Spearheads the development of Singapore’s external economic wing
Aims to develop Singapore into a vibrant global media city as well as foster a
creative economy and a connected society
For employment pass requirements and manpower related matters.
The National Research Foundation (NRF) seeks to strengthen Singapore’s R&D
capabilities, encourage greater innovation and nurture the growth of technology-
based enterprises in Singapore.
The enterprise development agency for growing innovative companies and fostering
a competitive SME sector
government 2
Agencies, Foundations, Ministry, …

Singapore Startups
cc Mohammad Moniruzzaman

3
Rising Star
For more information: Startup Ranking| e27| AngelList| f6s |Walkabout SG | Plug-in@blk71
advertising paymentbig data
drones
hospitality
payment
e-commerce
hospitality
e-commerce media
supply chain management
online reservations
hospitality
telecommunications referral marketing entertainment
surveillance
word-of-mouth marketing
healthcare
startups in singapore

Star
online grocery
travel
e-commerce
property
e-commerce
e-commerce
e-commerce entertainment
virtual stock market simulation
social networkspayment
tourism
3startups in singapore

Exits
For more information: Tech in Asia| VentureDex
Singapore
HQCompany Cash (USD) Date Acquired Acquirer
200,000,000 2013-09-02
Singapore 2013-07-23n/a
Singapore 2013-07-23n/a
Singapore 2013-07-17n/a
Singapore 2013-04-04n/a
Singapore 2013-04-0148,000,000
Singapore 2013-03-19n/a
Singapore 2013-03-19n/a n/a
Singapore 30,000,000 2014-04-xx
3startups in singapore

58 People you should know
cc Stefan Lins

Entrepreneurs
John Fearon
Gilcrux Holdings
Thomas Clayton
Bubbly
Steven Goh
migMe
Jani Rautiainen
PropertyGuru
Alexis Horowitz-Burdick
Luxola
58 people you should know 4
Erwan Mace
bitsmedia
Clement Wong
BeMyGuest
Emi Takemura
Peatix
Suresh Shankar
Crayon Data
Darius Cheung
99.co

Entrepreneurs
58 people you should know 4
Roger Egan
Redmart
Turochas “T” Fuad
Travelmob
Ismael Chang Ghalimi
Stoic
Chip Wilcox
Temasys
Communications
Royston Tay
Zopim
Dinesh Bhatia
TradeHero
Razmig Hovaghimian
Viki

58 people you should know
Venture Capitalists
Vinnie Lauria
Golden Gate
Ventures
Hugh Mason
JFDI
Amit Anand
Jungle Ventures
John Tan
8capita
Khailee Ng
500 Startups
Stefan Jung
Monk’s Hill
Ventures
4
Hian Goh
Northstar Group
Kuanhua Hsu
Gree Ventures
Koichi Saito
IMJ Investment
Partners
Alex Lin
IIPL

Venture Capitalists
58 people you should know 4
Paul Santos
Wavemaker Labs
William Klippgen
Tigris Capital
Yinglan Tan
Sequoia Capital
Jeffrey Paine
The Founder
Institute
Frank Levinson
Small World
Group
Edgar Hardless
SingTel Innov8
Saemin Ahn
Rakuten Ventures

MNCs
Joseph Ziegler
AWS
Casey Lau
Softlayer
Nicholas Tan
Microsoft
Jessica Duns
PwC
Guillaume Sachet
MediaCorp
58 people you should know 4
coming soon (ii)
PayPal
coming soon
3M
Amit Chopra
Google
For more information: AWS | Softlayer | Microsoft | PwC | MediaCorp | PayPal | Braintree | (i) & (ii) ebay careers
coming soon (i)
Braintree
Stefan Jacob
Cola-Cola

Connectors
Kristine Lauria
Walkabout SG
& thelist.sg
Epi Ludvik Nekaj
Crowdsourcing
week
Dave Lim TM
Coca-Cola
Gwendolyn
Regina Tan
Tech in Asia
Son Le Thanh
Startup Grind
58 people you should know 4
Christian
Geissendoerfer
Yoose
Sangeet Choudary
Platform Thinking
Meri Rosich
Quality Time Lab

4
Mohan Belani
e27
Willis Wee
Tech in Asia
Catherine Shu
TechCrunch
Julia Wood
CNBC
Newspapers, TV & Websites
Kaylene Hong
The Next Web
Jacquelyn Cheok
Business Times
58 people you should know

Networking
y
o
u

networking 5
works with various stakeholders in the ICT industry to promote emerging
technologies and ICT-related issues.
an organisation for business people who run small and medium enterprises in Singapore
a regular, open and informal meeting place for people involved in startups to meet.
a forum for interacting and learning from successful entrepreneurs and industry professionals
provides a platform for female executives and entrepreneurs to learn, grow and connect
bringing the Mobile Community Together
a global organization focused on the engagement, education and empowerment of
influential women in technology.
the Startup Leadership Program brings together entrepreneurs in cities around the
world, and provides an education and lifelong network.
a global startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect
entrepreneurs. Startup Grind is powered by Google for Entrepreneurs
Associations

networking
ake
For more information: Networking Singapore | e27 | iNSG | SiTF | The List | Tech in Asia
Events
Meet 50 world class speakers, investors and prominent tech corporates. Asia's 60
hottest startups showcasing their products, all in Asia’s largest technology conference.
Asia’s technology networking platform – creating value for tomrrow.
a city-wide open house event for technology startups. Check out the spaces, see
how the companies work, and meet the people behind the innovative companies of
Singapore.
The biggest innovations in Fintech. FinovateAsia will be postponed until 2015
Tech in Asia's signature Startup Asia Conference, showcases newly launched and
product-ready tech startups born in the region.
Most Fridays from 6pm to 8pm, a random collection of geeks, entrepreneurs,
investors and creatives gather to eat cheese and change the world at JFDI.Asia’s
Innovation Campus.
brings together one of the largest collection of startup entrepreneurship-related
events in Singapore
5

Hackathons & Startup Competitions
cc Sebastiaan ter Burg

hackathons & startup competitions 6
For more information: the list |
Hackathon & Bootcamp
AngelHack is where startup teams go to validate new ideas, meet great people, and
get mentorship/funding for their startup dreams. The biggest hackathon
competition in the world!
a series of global hackathon contests organised by PayPal. Competitors are required
to solve a local problem by coding. Winners of the first prize of each contest get
an axe as the trophy, and admission to the world finals where competitors compete
for the $100,000 grand prize
Lean Startup Machine provides participants with a valuable framework of tools,
techniques and resources designed to help early-stage companies identify key
customers and iterate their products quickly. =
Urban Prototyping (UP) Singapore is a new movement where people from the
public, private and people sectors come together to tackle the wide range of social
and environmental challenges facing our cities.
a global grassroots movement of active and empowered entrepreneurs who are
learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures. It is the
largest community of passionate entrepreneurs with over 1800 past events in 120
countries around the world in 2014.

Startup Competition
For more information: the list
Organised by Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF), is to provide
recognition to innovative ICT Application / Solution which are developed locally.
Imagine Cup is the world's most influential student technology competition.
Seedstars World is an exclusive Worldwide Startup Competition to discover the best
Startups in emerging and fast growing economies.
Satellite is the preliminary stage of Echelon where shortlisted startups will pitch at
one of the 12 Satellites across Asia. Key investors and community leaders will judge
startups and there will be one winner for each city!
Meet new developers, explore new APIs, and put your hacking skills to test against
other developers from around Asia. Plus, you can win some cool prizes! if you
wanna offer your API for this hack day, please contactWillis[at]techinasia.com
Having seen more than 3500 teams and 10,000 participants taking part in the past
14 years, S@S has established itself as a credible and competitive platform, helping
entrepreneurs make the critical transition from paper to product.
6hackathons & startup competitions

Incubators & Accelerators
cc David Siu

incubators & accelerators 7
For more information: FindTheBest | Y Combinator
A biomedical incubator that catalyses the commercialisation of innovative
technologies. We nurture and develop projects with the aim to bring ground-
breaking research to the market through start-ups.
The Founder Institute is the world’s largest entrepreneur training and startup
launch program, helping aspiring founders across the globe build enduring
technology companies.
The unique programme helps entrepreneurs and corporate intrapreneurs to
build innovative, scalable and profitableventures with deeper insights,
leveraging The Art of The Start, principle and methodology with immersive sessions
with successful practitioners and coaches from Silicon Valley, Asia-Pacific and
Singapore.
Local Y Combinator
A 10-month long capacity building program, Ideasinc invests time and resources to
go in early and discover rock-stars, transforming ideas into actionable solutions and
products.
JFDI.Asia operates the longest-running, most successful seed accelerator program in
South East Asia.
We take teams of entrepreneurs from idea to investment in 100 days, with greater
than 60% success raising an average S$650,000 per team.

7
Plug and Play Singapore officially commenced operations in March 2010 with the
goal of accelerating entrepreneurial companies, increasing their access to the
dynamic resources of Silicon Valley and increasing the chances of commercial
success
MediaCorp is launching its own strategic investment vehicle called The
Mediapreneur. The two arms of The Mediapreneur include the Investment Fund, to
help startups in seed or series A capital and the Incubator Programme to provide a
media-centric environment for start-ups to test their business ideas and products,
develop a proof-of-concept and define a go-to-market strategy.
Local Y Combinator
incubators & accelerators
For more information: FindTheBest | Y Combinator

Fund Raising
cc 401 (K) 2012

fund raising 8
For more information: map of the money | Tech in Asia | NRF – Technology Incubation Scheme | Something Ventured | U.S. VC Firms Betting Big on Asia | How Startup Funding Works
Meng’s map of the money

Coworking Spaces & Offices
cc Federico

coworking spaces & offices
For more information: Tech in Asia | e27 | Business Time | woolf works | iAxil | ShareDesk | Coworkify| Desknear.me | LiQUIDSPACE
9
WhereSpace Cost (SGD)
Blk 71 #05-16 Ayer Rajah Crescent
hotdesk resident
500 600
384 512
Singapore Science Park or at One-North
113 Somerset Rd
344B King George’s Avenue
Blk 71 #02-18 Ayer Rajah Crescent
75 High Street
#02-01 - 176 Joo Chiat Road
TBC TBC
550 600
750 900
Sponsor 100
256 512

Recruitment

recruitment 10
Co-founders / Full Time Employees
the matchmaking site for start-ups
For more information: INSEAD | NUS | SMU | SUTD
an online matching platform to discover entrepreneurs who are looking to join a
startup or are seeking a business partner to join them.
a platform built specially for young talents and the employers looking for them.
focus to create a better leverage and platform to help Startups in Asia find the right
talent fit within their growing and emerging business.
the leading job portal in the region, we are Asia’s preferred destination for job
seekers.
connects the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful.
More than 300 million members worldwide
more than 16 offices in seven countries (Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, India,
Indonesia, Thailand and Japan)
simply speaking – getting the right people, at the right time, for the right price, who
can actually do the job!

10
Glint’s Calendar of the Interns
For more information: Glint | INSEAD | NUS | SMU | SUTD
recruitment

Visa
cc Icars

visa 11
For more information: Ministry of Manpower | Help me to find the right pass | Apply for Permanent Residence
Employment Pass
The Employment Pass allows foreign professionals to work in Singapore. It applies to foreigners who earn
a fixed monthly salary of at least $3,300, and have acceptable qualifications. Employers must make
applications for Employment Passes on behalf of a job candidate. Any change of employer will require a
new application. read more
EntrePass
Foreign entrepreneurs who would like to start businesses in Singapore should apply for the EntrePass.
read more
S Pass
Working Holiday Pass
Training Employment Pass
Mid-level skilled foreigners (e.g. technicians) who wish to work in Singapore may apply for an S
Pass. read more
Foreigners undergoing practical training attachments for professional, managerial, executive or specialist
jobs in Singapore should apply for a Training Employment Pass. read more
The Work Holiday Programme (WHP) allows foreign university students and recent graduates, between
18 and 25 years old, to come to Singapore to live and work for up to six months. read more

Outsourcing
cc Thomas Hawk

outsourcing
For more information: taskarmy | GroupTalent | Skills Hive | Amazon Mechanical Turk | peopleperhour
12
The #1 marketplace for graphic design, including logo design, web design and other
design contests.
Access over 2 million skilled freelancers from around the world. Find rated web
developers, mobile programmers, designers, writers, translators, marketing pros,
virtual assistants and more.
Explore Work. We're proud of our global network of talent. Here's a glimpse of the
over 56,000 Work Collections added by our gurus.
Find freelancers and freelance jobs on oDesk - the world's largest online workplace
where savvy businesses and professional freelancers go to work!
The place for people to share things they're willing to do for $5.
We connect over 11,466,372 employers and freelancers globally from over 247
countries, regions and territories.
DesignCrowd is an online marketplace providing logo, website, print and graphic
design services by providing access to freelance graphic designers and design
studios around the world.
7 Marketplaces

Be smarter than your lawyer and venture capitalistVenture Deals
Everything else Tools and blogs for entrepreneurs
LSM
The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create
Radically Successful Businesses
Hong Kong Intro to the Hong Kong Startup Scene
Technopreneurship and the Early Stage Ecosystem in China in 2013China
12bonus
Few more links