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PR Newswire
10-10-2013, 12:16 PM
Sharing an article, which worth a read, IMO
Stay humble, be different
INGAPORE — As a venture capitalist who invests in local tech start-ups, Mr Roderick Chia, 43, has faced his fair share of know-it-all new entrepreneurs. Filled with the guileless conviction of youth, but lacking the wisdom that comes with maturity, many resist advice given by more experienced professionals.
“Some think they know everything. And they resist when we tell them what is happening in the real world. It’s okay to be passionate about your business, but there’s a difference between passion and arrogance,” said Mr Chia, who runs his own venture capital firm Rod Ventures.
He speaks from experience, having started his own tech company after graduating in 1998 and then selling it to a listed firm shortly before the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 threw the global economy into disarray.
Mr Chia then turned investor, helping new start-ups with funding and advice so they could achieve their own exit. At the same time, he helped them with their pitches for government grants, something he had done successfully with his own company.
“After you’ve been a patient for too long you become a doctor. Since I knew how the government agencies think, (the government) asked me to help write proposals for some of the start-ups who were looking for grants,” he explained.
He soon immersed himself in Singapore’s start-up ecosystem. He is in his third year of sitting on the Executive Committee of The Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF), a body that works with various stakeholders in the ICT industry to promote emerging technologies.
A year ago, he joined the panel at the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) that chooses the start-ups that qualify for its grants of up to S$50,000. ACE is a private and public sector initiative set up 10 years ago to seed and nurture start-ups in Singapore.
The grants are given to businesses that are less than six months old.
“We are taking a risk with first-time entrepreneurs, since they don’t have a track record. We look for start-ups that have a differentiating model, a product or service that we’ve never seen done that way before,” he said.
One recent example of this is a company that produced houses for rabbits made up of an edible cardboard material. This solved the problem of rabbits who liked to bite their houses and, in the process, ingest materials not meant to be consumed.
The owner of the business had the prototype ready and secured orders from pet shops, but needed financing to bring it to market. ACE decided to fund the business.
But having a good business idea is not enough if can’t be executed properly, said Mr Chia. “The idea may be workable, but the person behind it may not be the right person to do it. For instance, some businesses may depend on certain connections or a track record before a deal can be closed,” he said.
In such cases, the panel may introduce these start-ups to industry mentors who, if they are convinced about the business model, can help open the right doors for them.
Despite such support, many start-ups still end up failing because they take too long to change direction when it becomes clear their initial business idea is not working out as planned.
“They take too long to pivot when they need to change directions. In some cases, they change too fast and don’t stick to their original idea. There’s a fine line between perseverance and stubbornness,” he said.
But he believes that failure for entrepreneurs is both important and inevitable.
Fear of failure may lead to what Mr Chia describes as the “scholar mentality” — people who have only known success in their endeavours and as such only choose the paths that they feel most confident in succeeding in.
“If you only take the safe path, how different can you be? If you are doing something truly great, something different, it is unlikely you will never fail at least some of the time.”
http://www.todayonline.com/business/sme/...-different
Stay humble, be different
INGAPORE — As a venture capitalist who invests in local tech start-ups, Mr Roderick Chia, 43, has faced his fair share of know-it-all new entrepreneurs. Filled with the guileless conviction of youth, but lacking the wisdom that comes with maturity, many resist advice given by more experienced professionals.
“Some think they know everything. And they resist when we tell them what is happening in the real world. It’s okay to be passionate about your business, but there’s a difference between passion and arrogance,” said Mr Chia, who runs his own venture capital firm Rod Ventures.
He speaks from experience, having started his own tech company after graduating in 1998 and then selling it to a listed firm shortly before the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 threw the global economy into disarray.
Mr Chia then turned investor, helping new start-ups with funding and advice so they could achieve their own exit. At the same time, he helped them with their pitches for government grants, something he had done successfully with his own company.
“After you’ve been a patient for too long you become a doctor. Since I knew how the government agencies think, (the government) asked me to help write proposals for some of the start-ups who were looking for grants,” he explained.
He soon immersed himself in Singapore’s start-up ecosystem. He is in his third year of sitting on the Executive Committee of The Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF), a body that works with various stakeholders in the ICT industry to promote emerging technologies.
A year ago, he joined the panel at the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) that chooses the start-ups that qualify for its grants of up to S$50,000. ACE is a private and public sector initiative set up 10 years ago to seed and nurture start-ups in Singapore.
The grants are given to businesses that are less than six months old.
“We are taking a risk with first-time entrepreneurs, since they don’t have a track record. We look for start-ups that have a differentiating model, a product or service that we’ve never seen done that way before,” he said.
One recent example of this is a company that produced houses for rabbits made up of an edible cardboard material. This solved the problem of rabbits who liked to bite their houses and, in the process, ingest materials not meant to be consumed.
The owner of the business had the prototype ready and secured orders from pet shops, but needed financing to bring it to market. ACE decided to fund the business.
But having a good business idea is not enough if can’t be executed properly, said Mr Chia. “The idea may be workable, but the person behind it may not be the right person to do it. For instance, some businesses may depend on certain connections or a track record before a deal can be closed,” he said.
In such cases, the panel may introduce these start-ups to industry mentors who, if they are convinced about the business model, can help open the right doors for them.
Despite such support, many start-ups still end up failing because they take too long to change direction when it becomes clear their initial business idea is not working out as planned.
“They take too long to pivot when they need to change directions. In some cases, they change too fast and don’t stick to their original idea. There’s a fine line between perseverance and stubbornness,” he said.
But he believes that failure for entrepreneurs is both important and inevitable.
Fear of failure may lead to what Mr Chia describes as the “scholar mentality” — people who have only known success in their endeavours and as such only choose the paths that they feel most confident in succeeding in.
“If you only take the safe path, how different can you be? If you are doing something truly great, something different, it is unlikely you will never fail at least some of the time.”
http://www.todayonline.com/business/sme/...-different
“夏则资皮，冬则资纱，旱则资船，水则资车” - 范蠡