Startup

The Lumia series represents a significant milestone of Microsoft & Nokia’s partnership in bringing a new experience to Windows Phone users. Developers play a big role in shaping this experience with us. To allow more developers in Singapore the experience of developing on the Windows Phone platform, we announced the #WhereIsMyLumia campaign a little over two months ago. So far we have been overwhelmed by the response, with more than 100 developers applying with their wonderful app ideas. Although we couldn’t give everyone theirs this time, we are still committed to supporting you with the resources needed in the development process. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION AND SUPPORT! Look out for our upcoming campaigns and training sessions for the Windows Phone and Windows 8 platforms as well! We sincerely thank you for you support and feel free to drop us an email, a tweet or facebook message if we could help you with anything else. In meantime, here’s a sneak peak of the first few apps developed from #WhereIsMyLumia: 1. SG Promotions by Steve Teo - sg.promotions is a locator that allows bargain-hunters to find promotions in Singapore For the lite version. 2. Gradulator by Tan Jianhao Steve - Gradulator is a one-of-a-kind application that allows users to aim for the grades that they want, by calculating how much they need for their final exam! (Definitely a handy app for all students out there.) 3. Pics on Geo by Lim Hong Wei Kelvin - Pics on Geo automatically geo tags the users photos when taken. At the same time, users can see photos geo-tagged and recommended by other friends. 4. SP Render by Tan Eik Chor Christopher - This app is particularly useful for those thinking of taking a course in Digital Media. It showcases the best works by the graduating cohort of 2012, School of Digital Media and Infocomm Technology (DMIT), Singapore Polytechnic (SP), with award-winning spectra of projects. Congratulations again to all the developers who took part in #WhereIsMyLumia and got their Lumia 800! We’re looking forward to your apps and hope you have a fun time developing them. Look out for our upcoming campaigns for Windows 8 and Windows Phones as well!

You won’t find a more relevant discussion about the current state of startups in the United States than in Clt-Alt-Compete. The documentary, which is screening privately at the moment, follows the lives of 5 startup founders and their teams. While shot in the US, I think many of the issues raised, mindsets showcased, also reflect the attitudes of startups here in Singapore - minus the flamboyance and with a little less ego. I refuse to spoil the movie for you, because I’m insisting that everyone interested in the startup scene should watch it. The show is peppered with tonnes of great quotes from superstar entrepreneurs like Tony Hsieh of Zappos, Micah Baldwin of Graphic.ly, Ben Huh of Cheezburger and venture capitalist Mark Suster of GRP Partners (who is somewhat a demi-god VC author at Both Sides of the Table). Some of these scenes from Clt-Alt-Compete left a lasting impression on me, particularly: ...

Welcome to developing for Windows 8 Consumer Preview! You’ve witnessed the brand new Windows 8 experience from the Consumer Preview. Why not start developing for it now? This start-up kit will help you create exciting new experiences for Windows users globally. Let’s get started! Step 1. Check for recommended system requirements to ensure optimal development performance. If you’re all revved up to start developing apps for Windows 8, check for the list of recommended system requirements. ...

Founder’s Institute (FI) Running for 2.7 years now, is a “global network of startups and mentors that helps entrepreneurs launch meaningful and enduring technology companies”. Founded by Adeo Ressi, an entrepreneur himself, FI aims to help entrepreneurs worldwide with the vision of helping launch 1,000 technology companies per year worldwide. Just finishing its fourth semester, Singapore is one of the first countries to have FI in Asia (if not the first) and I’m lucky to have been part of it. [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“497” caption=“Founder’s Institute Singapore 4th Semester”][/caption] I formally joined the second semester as I have some ideas that I wanted to cultivate and it was a challenge that I wanted to conquer. Every week for four months, we were introduced to a new founder that will talk about a specific topic. There were tons of awesome founders that I met from really cool startups from the US and VCs from all over the world. I had the opportunity of meeting Phil Libin from Evernote and Aaron Patzer from Mint. They both had really solid talks and it was great meeting successful people talking about their previous failures. Those are the stories you rarely hear. Three months pass and sadly, I wasn’t able to graduate as I wasn’t ready to incorporate. Incorporation is one of the requirements to graduate the class and is one of the last milestones. Of course, your idea will be evaluated as it’s one of the first milestones aside from your commitment and dedication to the program. Founder’s Institute is of course always compared to other incubators or accelerator programs and Adeo himself has a good answer in one quora thread. They have positioned themselves well and it’s really up to you to find out if the program has value for you. For me, it was a good primer in knowing what to consider when forming a company. For first time entrepreneurs, the basics is always something we won’t know especially if we don’t have a business background. The network is another great value that is not so obvious to outsiders. Starting a company is a hard and lonely path; having a circle of supporters and friends is essential in ensuring your success. I’ve seen the FI family grow in Singapore and the diversity of people just makes the stew even more interesting every semester. Since the second semester, I’ve been supporting FI through my work in Microsoft. Being the lead for the BizSpark program in Singapore, it was just natural to work closely with the guys behind SGFI. Providing them with all the benefits and other cool stuff that BizSpark and Microsoft has to offer for startups. If you want to know more about FI or BizSpark, check out their sites and if you’re in Singapore and interested to know more, feel free to ping me.

Startup Asia is the years first big startup conference here in Singapore. Held February 2 and 3 at the Singapore Post Centre. Their tagline of ‘Pitches, Demos, Founders, & NO B.S." is quite straight forward as a reference to other startup events. From the details page alone, you can see that they have an impressive set of guest panelists, investors and attendees from all over Asia. Mobile giants, Gree and Dena as well as several Japanese and Chinese investors. A lot of local players as well representing different industries and sides of the startup world were present. ...

This is way COOL! From Nokia’s official site. On Monday 28th November Nokia Lumia 800 with Windows phonehttp://nokia.ly/uBVXxw brought deadmau5 and the world’s most advanced 4D technology together and created an amazing free light show at Millbank Tower, London. Millbank was plunged into darkness with the iconic tower acting as the canvas for a never-before-seen spectacular. Each of the 120 metre high building’s 800 windows were covered with vinyl as 16 powerful projectors, stationed 300 metres away on the other side of the river, beamed 3D images onto the structure. Huge butterflies flew across the London skyline and the tower was twisted, pulsated and even fell down. Billed as the “future of live events” the spectacular show was accompanied by music from super producer deadmau5, who created exclusive remixes for the performance — adding the 4th dimension. ...

What does cloud computing got to do with iOS, android or WP7 mobile applications, social networking campaign, digital signage and large interactive touch display panel such as Microsoft Surface? Imaging the scenario where you launch a marketing campaign and suddenly see a surge of visitors using your application. Well done mate! oh wait up…..what is it that you say? your server is down and out because it can’t handle the load?…..my heart is with you dude, maybe next time, try cloud computing :) ...

?? Startup Weekend just finished yesterday with forty five passionate people attending and twenty ideas shared. Seven teams were formed with the goal of refining their ideas and making it to reality. Congrats to everybody who came and we hope to see your awesome startups soon. Here’s some words from Marc Nager, director of Startup Weekend on his Asian trip and when he’s coming back to Singapore. [vimeo]http://vimeo.com/16353962[/vimeo] You can find out more about Startup Weekend at http://startupweekend.org/ http://singapore.startupweekend.org/ and find out how Microsoft helps startups at http://www.bizspark.com/

We are excited to announce our first ever Startup Weekend Singapore! Click here for full details. What is Startup Weekend? [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8AG8SNyuTU[/youtube] Marc Nager, Director of Startup Weekend Global Operations will be coming out for the weekend to help facilitate the weekend and share his experience after being to dozens of successful Startup Weekends around the world. A big thank you to Dennis Phua and Jeffrey Paine who have really been leading the efforts and all the wonderful sponsors and supporters SGEntrepreneurs and IDA Where? Microsoft SG, 1 Marina Boulevard, NTUC Building. When? 29 - 31 October 2010 Click here to register now!