Are you currently fundraising for your startup? Do you have the musical talent? ie. rapping? How about learning from this fellow startup Undrip.com
Take a look at one of their fund raising videos to the angels!
Also checkout the rest of its rap videos to other VCs over here.
If you are running a startup, have you ever consider using music or sound as your marketing tool?
This video highlights what Express in Music can do for you. Last week, I met up with Jerry Chen CEO from Express in Music. I got to know Jerry during the Angel’s Gate contest. A business guy with lots of creative ideas, his business has already gain quite a bit of press attention but he was kind to accept my interview. Here’s what he have for us.
1. Share with the readers what is ExpressInMusic.com?
We are in the space of creating audio identities and sonic branding for businesses. Our automated platform system engages clients’ briefs conveniently and attracts a fair amount of inputs from musicians internationally.
2. How it works?
First, post your music brief and our algorithm will instantly let you know the amount to pay for. In fact, you can set the prize money within the range (the higher it is, the more submissions you will attract). Second, once the music brief is uploaded successfully, this opportunity is seen by thousands of talents. Like a contest model, they will pour in customized productions specific to your brief. Third, you chose the winner and only the winner is paid the prize money. This works great for startups as well because they could control their budget.
3. How did the idea come about?
I came up with this idea one day while flipping through the newspapers. There was this guy (a singer-songwriter) who claims that only his wife appreciates his original song. Nobody else appreciates and he has no avenues to let people hear his song because the music space is too congested. This gave me an idea in which I specialize in the area of marketing and selling. These singer-songwriters have their strengths in producing great music but I don’t. However, they can leverage on my selling traits. Therefore, I thought of the idea through crowdsourcing where we can leverage on each other strengths.
4. Your team?
Adriel and I founded ExpressInMusic.com. We were army buddies. Adriel has been a musician himself (with a band called “SuperNova”) for close to 10 years. He knows the technical aspects when it comes to music while I am more focus in the area of business development as I was in numerous entrepreneurship competitions during my Singapore Polytechnic days. Time flies and we have been business partners for 3 years.
5. Highs and lows so far with ExpressInMusic.com + toughest decision you have to make so far
The highs were definitely clinching our first TV Commercial job (music), our first article release on The Straits Times, our first major contract that was in the region of 5-digits.
The lows were when a group of musicians on the verge of clinching the job were dropped last minute by the client, paying web programmers (multiple) and not getting our site done even after months… It was quite a mess.
6. What would you say is the next big thing?
I would say social media is the current “in” thing. Crowd-sourcing is already present and shall be the next ‘big’ thing, that people begin to understand the power of the crowd. Why go to one person or vendor when you can get a wider variety of choice in a single platform?
Also to look out for is on ‘Sensory Marketing’. We all have our 5 senses but traditionally we focus on visual communications. It is time for the rise of audio branding. There’s more awareness now for how audio identities can bring in part of the experiential marketing aspect.
Thanks Jerry for your time and all the best.
So if your startup is considering a marketing campaign soon – do check out ExpressInMusic.com or connect with Jerry. p/s I am NOT getting any referral fees.
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This week, I had the opportunity to meet with up with the founders of Gozo Labs – Xu DaXiang and Quek Shu Yang. On a personal basis, I met Daxiang when I was in Yahoo!. He was with the search … Continue reading
Before anyone takes the plunge into the startup space. There are many considerations involved. I am not going to post why I do a startup here.
There already many articles and blog posts written about individual decisions in venturing into startups.
1. Jacky Yap - Undergraduate’s POV
2. Vanessa Tan - To study or not?
3. A presentation by Dave McClure “Why not to do Startup” - A VC POV
I would also like to share this book that I read - The Illusions of Entrepreneurship by Scott A. Shane. This book is written in the context of Silicon Valley, however I believe there are some points that we can surely learn from an Asian context. It will certainly help you to save some money and time.
Here is a link to Singapore Public Library to loan the book for free. if you are into #startups “Welcome to the space of unknown!”
With the increasing initiative of Entrepreneurship from the government and the private sector, Singapore Startups can now party like TechStars! through the Joyful Frog Digital Incubator (JFDI).
The Joyful Frog Digital Incubator (JFDI.Asia) is a Singapore-based, privately-owned company that creates and supports digital businesses, accelerating them from start-up through investment to realizing their value.
JFDI recently partners with SingTel Innov8 (Innov8), the corporate venture arm of the SingTel Group, to bring to Asia Pacific the successful US start-up accelerator programme pioneered by TechStars. This programme will give digital start-ups intensive mentorship from industry experts plus access to mobile markets and investors across Asia.
The startup events in Singapore are moving up fast and furious. Just take a look at what JFDI together with Innov8 are offering in the next 8 months. 
Oct 11 to Nov 11 – Startup Weekends will place across different cities in Asia, for Singapore it will be on 14th Oct 2011 to 16th Oct 2011.
Startup Weekends are 54-hour events where digital developers, designers, marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products, and launch startup businesses.
Following that there will be a bootcamp in 2012:
The highlight of the programme is the JFDI-Innov8 2012 Bootcamp (Bootcamp), which is an intensive 100-day event, where teams of developers and entrepreneurs will receive S$15,000 and be guided by accomplished mentors and industry experts to help kick-start their businesses. These teams will also get the opportunity to pitch to international investors.
Finally DEMO DAY will take its place in Apr~May 2012
However the only regret I have now is that I will not be able to attend the Singapore Startup Weekends due to an Overseas Trip 
But I will be looking forward to the Bootcamp Session.
Nonetheless, Congratulations to all Entrepreneurs in Asia, our time to party has come. It is time people starts noticing startups in Asia! 
Something's boiling at 39C North Canal Road
With reference to my previous post. I like to thank Weileen for giving me the opportunity to interview him. A short bio on Weileen – He is my senior from the NUS NOC Shanghai program and have deep experiences in running startups. He co-founded 2 companies - Southbund.com and Indie Tee Room. Both startup deals in the retail industry. After which he moved on to join 2359Media as the Director of Business Development.
I prepare some questions for him and he was very kind to help me answer them.
1. Can I say that 9flats is in the short-term rental market. If it is what is your take on the outlook for the short-term rental market in Singapore or even Southeast Asia?
weileen: I think that it is more accurate to say that we are in the vacation rentals market. The vacation rentals market is doing very well. If you google vacation accommodation and browse the results, you’ll be surprised at how many businesses are sustained this way, even with smaller selections. We expect to continue doing well as in good times, holiday-goers choose to go on pricy trips, and in bad times, they choose to go on more affordable trips. We cater to all, and our users reap the benefits of our broad selection.
2. Like every other sites and blogs will ask how do you compete with airbnb?
weileen: The one word answer is service. We have 6 international offices. Germany, Spain, Brazil, France, England, and now Singapore. Being in a local timezone, speaking a local language, and with help a phone call away, is priceless.
3. Particular to Singapore, the property law is much tighter. New flats owners can only rent out one of their rooms instead of a whole flat, would that affect your users? With your experience, are there more users looking for a whole apt or just a room.
weileen: If I understand correctly, this restriction holds only for HDB flats with 3 rooms or more. It is an inconvenience, and one that was formulated in response to Singapore’s changing demographic landscape. It is certainly my hope that the authorities will view what 9flats offers as an opportunity for Singapore homeowners to defray the cost of living, encourage acceptance of different cultures, and lower the aggregate cost of accommodation in Singapore.
4. The room ransack incident with airbnb. How would 9flats avoid that?
weileen: We have the industry’s best insurance protection scheme. Our policy is underwritten by Zurich insurance and valid worldwide. It covers damages for up to 500,000 Euros. (I believe Airbnb covers 50,000 now, and it is their internal program, not underwritten by any insurance provider) - I checked this is how much airbnb covers
We have also paid out damages suffered by our hosts as a goodwill gesture prior to our insurance program going live. The figure was in the hundreds, but it meant a lot to our hosts that we protect them. We were the first company to have host protection, and then the first to have proper insurance. In many ways, thanks to the experience of our core management team in the consumer internet space, we have been ahead of the curve.
5. And how is the take up rate in Singapore like?
weileen: Too early to say. Early signs are encouraging. We have the most number of accommodation listings for our type of service in Singapore. We are working upon our early advantage to solidify our hold on both listings and bookings.
6. Did the noc experience help you in managing 9flats?
weileen: Absolutely yes. NOC is a badge of your ability to survive in a thoroughly different culture. That is very important at 9flats, where we have staff from over 2 dozen nationalities. If you can’t get along with someone who’s in your face all the time, or can’t bridge the gap between yourself and someone who is deferential and self-effacing, you lose.
8.Would it be a plus fo you to expand into china as well?
weileen: That certainly goes without saying.
9. Unlike others, since you graduated you have been in the startup space. Why join startup and not MNC?
weileen: This can be a long topic. Briefly, it was the area of my greatest interest at graduation. Over time, my passion has only grown. Now I can’t imagine myself working at an MNC at all.
10. Advise to juniors and any discount to our readers?
weileen: I don’t like to give general advice. If you’re keen to talk, drop me a line at weileen.ng@9flats.com. I’ll do my best to reply.
Weileen was very kind to arrange a small NOC special.
Leave 9flats Asia team a message on it’s facebook page.
“I want to stay with 9flats because …”
Sometimes matters in life come to a standstill. You are at a lost of what to do and you just need a little push before you get pass the wall.
The same goes for cycling, I ride hard and fast but sometimes it feels so heavy and the bike just would not move. So what I did was to stop. Rest. Think about the positive and slowly get back into action. Plus there are always encouraging friends supporting me.
Since I am back into startup , I was thinking maybe I could be blogging about how fellow entrepreneurs are running their startups, what are the difficulties they faced how they overcome..etc I believe this kind of posts will allow me to learn from them and motivate me to push on further. I hope it will do the same for you.
"angmo" meaning English
But importantly, I hope through blogging I could further improve my writing ability:) Maybe I should start with my contacts from NUS NOC
Singapore!
Since I started my startup journey, there are so things buzzing each day. One thing is for sure the support for entrepreneurship in Singapore is certainly rising. Beside the funds that are available for startups (Spring, iJam), there is now also mentorship opportunities available from experienced entrepreneur even you are not funded. In the past, having an business mentor was only available to a startup when you are funded.
But through E27 - the sort of like “techcrunch” of Singapore (sometimes even better coz of free stuffs) I had the opportunity to register for the Startup mentorship with Vinnie Lauria. Sometimes when you are too in love with your product, you need someone from a different perspective to pull you back into the world of reality.
A brief intro to Vinnie.
Vinnie lives in San Francisco, CA and co-founded Lefora Forum Hosting, Lefora was later acquired by CrowdGather in the summer of 2010 with over 100,000 communities on the service in less than 3 years. He also started and organizes the 6,500+ member Silicon Valley NewTech Meetup, which is a monthly forum for hot startups to present their technology. Currently Vinnie is also a mentor for the Founder Institute, which is a global network of startups and mentors that helps entrepreneurs launch great technology companies around the globe.
Met Vinnie on 19 Sep 2011, together with my partner zyy. Spent the first few minutes introducing ourselves than it was straight into mentorship. We gave a short presentation to Vinnie and with vast experiences in helping out startups, he was very quick to pick out the issues that we might faced during execution. Also begin a frequent traveller, he was able to share his experience on how our product could possibly work in other parts of the world.
3 advises that he gave to Intraix
Here I like to thank Vinnie for his inputs, and it will certainly help us to reduce the amount of pitfalls we will face.
p/s I would like to give credits to Jacky. In fact I got to know about the mentorship program first from Jacky’s blog. He is an upmost entrepreneurial guy and currently writes for e27
14 Sep 2011 was the last day I received my final pay check from the company. I said goodbye to the stable income and hello to #startuplife” again. 2 years ago I tried to build a startup with my buddy zyy. We failed! but along the journey we learn so much more.
Now, after spending some times in the Power Generation industry and working for a leading generation company in Singapore. I have gain deep understanding about the energy market in Singapore & Asia. With this experience together with my partner experience in building efficiency. We are back again together as a deadly combi!
With this I hope everyone can learn from failed my startup experiences.
So what is our new startup about? What are the problems we will face this time round? and Are we able to overcome them? You can see our new startup development here
