Startup

To kickstart 2017, we held a special edition of “Microsoft Business Talk” at NUS Enterprise where Mr. Sarbjit Singh shared his personal experiences and insights into identifying and nurturing the gifts and passions of individuals to elevate your team’s performance to the next level. The event was well attended with over 30 participants comprising of startups, developers, and industry professionals. Based on his personal experiences, Sarbjit provided the following tips in finding a fulfilling career in life: ...

The 3rd edition of “Microsoft Startup Days” was held on 13th Jan at BASH (LaunchPad, 79 Ayer Rajah Crescent), featuring the founders of Attores, Mr. David Moskowitz and Mr. Gaurang Torvekar. During the one-hour session, they shared their entrepreneurial journey on leveraging on Blockchain technologies to deliver Smart Contracts as a Service across various industries ranging from financial services to educational institutions. They also explained how they are leveraging on Microsoft BizSpark Program and Microsoft Azure Platform to propel and accelerate their growth. The event welcomed over 30 participants comprising of a mixture of startup founders, students, developers and industry professionals. The audience was highly interested in the business model of Attores and how they are utilizing Blockchain-as-a-Service on Azure to build and grow their platform. David and Gaurang shared about their startup journey, the use of Blockchain technologies in Smart Contracts to support various industries and institutions, and how BizSpark has supported them with software resources and business networks to build traction and accelerate growth. During Q&A, guests fielded questions regarding the Microsoft BizSpark Program and Microsoft Azure Platform and how they are able to leverage these offerings to scale their businesses. David and Gaurang highlighted the benefits of the BizSpark Program which provides comprehensive software support and technical assistance, and business connections within the Microsoft Partner Network to build partnerships and collaborations with various organizations. It was a great experience having David and Gaurang share their startup experiences. A big thank you to everyone for attending the event despite your busy schedules! We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events. Recap their presentation slides HERE and Follow their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/attorescom/ for all the latest news, events and product releases! Check out our Spiffy Facebook Events to find out our upcoming activities in LaunchPad. Special thanks to BASH and TAG.PASS for being our supporting partners for “Microsoft Startup Days”.

On 2nd Dec, we held another successful edition of “Microsoft Business Talk” at NUS Enterprise where Pratima Amonkar discussed the topic of Internet of Things (IoT) whereby she distinguished fact from fiction. The event was attended by over 40 participants comprising of startups, developers, and industry professionals. During the session, Pratima shared her insights into the current state of IoT and the factors crucial for creating a successful ecosystem for IoT. In addition, she shared real-life IoT applications by Microsoft Partners such as ThyssenKrupp, Rockwell Automation, and Surbana Jurong. To find out more about how IoT is transforming industries, you can check out the following videos: ...

On 25th Nov, we held another successful edition of “ACE Microsoft Tech Talks” at ACE Ideation Centre where we were honored to have Alyssa Ong to share her insights into leading the chat bot movement with Microsoft Bot Framework. Featured in VentureBeat as one of the 100 people to watch in the chat bot space, Alyssa has been working with bots since the early days of Microsoft Bot Framework’s release, and has published multiple bots publicly since. An all-round bot nerd, she is an active member of the Chatbots News community and loves discussing bots with others. Over 70 participants attended the event which comprised of startups, developers, and industry professionals. During the session, Alysaa provided an overview on the current state of the chat bot movement in the industry and showcased several ways in which chat bots could be used to improve the delivery of products and services to customers. At the end of the session, Alyssa received a warm round of applause from the audience and everyone rushed to engage with her to find out more about the Microsoft Bot Framework. Below is a list of resources for the session: ...

The 2nd edition of “Microsoft Innovation Huddle” was held on Friday, 11th Nov, at BASH LaunchPad where technical evangelist, Gerald Goh, provided a deep dive into Docker on the Microsoft Azure platform. Despite the heavy rain and traffic, the event was still attended by 15 participants comprising of startups and industry professionals who were eager to find out more about container services on the Microsoft Azure platform. The event was well received and the participants connected with Gerald to find out more about the architecture and services available on Azure. During the session, Gerald featured an introduction to Docker and how it can help startups and developers in their deployment workflow. Gerald provided a deep drive into building and deploying a Docker file on a Ubuntu Virtual Machine, and shared insights into the Azure container service and how orchestration frameworks such as Kubernetes and DC/OS can help simplify the Docker deployment workflow for the participants. Here’s a list of reference materials if you want to find out more about Docker on Azure: Azure Container Service ...

The second edition of “Microsoft Startup Days” was held on 2nd November at BASH (LaunchPad, 79 Ayer Rajah Crescent), featuring BiTS who was founded by Jonathan Lee. During the one-hour session, they shared their entrepreneurial journey to deliver a set of solutions to businesses looking to modernize while also being less than a fraction of the market cost. They also explained how they are leveraging on Microsoft BizSpark Program and Microsoft Azure Platform to propel and accelerate their growth. [caption id=“attachment_22478” align=“alignnone” width=“1500”] BiTS Founder, Jonathan[/caption] Despite the rainy weather, we welcomed over 25 participants comprising of a mixture of startup founders, students, developers and industry professionals. The audience was highly interested in the business model of BiTS and how they improved scalability, resource management and security through Azure. They also talked about their startup journey and how BizSpark has supported them to build traction and gain customer trust. [caption id=“attachment_22482” align=“alignnone” width=“960”] Making use of Microsoft BizSpark and Azure for their business[/caption] Here are some key points which they covered during this session ...

After two successful editions, “ACE Microsoft Tech Talks” is back with a deep dive into Azure Machine Learning and Modeling by Mr. Pradeep Menon, an experienced Data Science and Business Analytics professional with 13+ years of vast experience from multiple industries. The event was held at ACE Ideation Centre (28th Oct, 12pm) and drew over 40 participants comprising of startups, developers, students, and industry professionals. During the session, Pradeep introduced the fundamentals of Machine Learning and Modeling, and provided a demo on building models for specific use cases. One of the key learnings from the session was the importance of the “B.A.B.” model whereby data scientists are highly encouraged to consider Machine Learning as a tool to facilitate the following objectives: ...

Join the world’s first cross-industry, multi-level global call for innovations which will impact the way we live in Asia to create an aware & quantifiable way of life! TNB Ventures Sensing Cities Call is looking to fuel promising next-gen startups in the areas of AR/VR, IoT, Robotics, Big Data and AI. Aside from receiving seed/Series A funding & incubation, applicants will also stand a chance to be directly supported by successful market leading Ecosystem Partners & injected into their extensive infrastructure & networks. Visit https://goo.gl/Yyt3Eg to apply by 31st December!

The 2nd edition of “Microsoft Biz Talks” occurred at NUS Enterprise on 7th Oct where we were honored to have Pratima Amonkar (Director, Partner Business for Independent Software Vendors and Solution Providers, Microsoft Asia Pacific) where she shared her experiences on digital transformation and how it can help to transform existing business models and accelerate growth. Despite the rain and heavy traffic, the business sharing session still attracted over 25-30 participants from a wide range of experiences (startups, developers, students, and industry professionals). The session was very well received, with numerous participants eager to connect with Pratima and the rest of the Microsoft team members present at the event. During the session, Pratima showcased how organizations are transforming their businesses by leveraging on technologies such as Internet of Things, Machine Learning, and Cognitive Services. When quizzed about the biggest obstacle to digital transformation, Pratima shared that obtaining the trust and commitment of top management to embark on a potentially risky and disruptive organizational change exercise is the first and most important step. After securing the mandate from top management, the change agents in the organization would be able to engage multiple teams within the organization to leverage technologies to transform their existing business processes, enhance customer experiences, and accelerate growth. ...

[caption id=“attachment_22239” align=“alignnone” width=“4032”] Jon and BiTS Team – Professor Ng Wee Keong, Adam Teng, Jonathan Lee, Melissa Lim, Deborah Lee (from left to right)[/caption] 1. Hello! What’s your current role in your start-up, and how did your past experiences take you here? As the company’s founder my primary focus is growing our core team and global network of over 70 consulting professionals. A background in engineering draws me towards building solutions that optimise processes, eliminate waste and generate value. My first start-up was a high-technology water treatment company that went bust in under a year. Working for and with other multinationals, government organizations and start-ups since then has provided firm grounding in reality. I no longer look only for long-term hypothetical value. Revenue and profitability are critical elements of business success - only a handful of unicorns manage to skirt this. Lining near and long-term value up has been an exciting process at BiTS. 2. Which 3 words would describe you best? Form follows function. 3. How did you come up with the idea? And what problem is your start-up trying to solve? Out of necessity. Under a Singapore-Myanmar JV two of our largest clients were looking at multiple seven-digit proposals for enterprise resource planning systems. We used open source tools to deliver a set of solutions for less than a fraction of the cost. BiTS was a natural spin-off from this effort. Moving the know-how and technology to Singapore - a market full of SMEs that desperately need to modernize themselves. 4. How long did your start-up take to finish development? 7 months of sleepless nights to get our SaaS platform up and running. 5. What are your preferred platforms/tools? Azure, Jenkins, GIT and anything that fits in with our agile development philosophy. We use tools that encourage teamwork and accountability. This helps us to scale globally and work with a myriad of full-time and part-time professionals from around the world. 6. Have you gotten any interesting feedback from users of the app/solution? Constantly! Users are always value-adding to the platform with feedback. Many requests centre around making the user experience more intuitive. We do our best to simplify the visual presentation of data, without undermining its integrity or shedding granularity. 7. How do you keep yourself motivated, especially during the low times? Taking a moment to remember why you’re here and where you’re going. A strong vision is like an anchor - it can weigh you down if you obsess but it also helps you ride out the storms. 8. If you could go back in time when you first started, what would you have done differently? Nothing - our team and business are the result of both stumbles and successes. Hindsight is 20/20 but it’s always better to learn and look forward. 9. What’s next for you? Sustainable growth and incremental improvements. Bearing in mind we serve businesses, continuity and growth are their key pillars. Adopting a digital business solution like ours can be challenging for our SME clientele but it is critical to their long-term survival. 10. What’s one advice you would give to budding entrepreneurs? Two things that have helped me: #1 Give your start-up everything you have, it will take nothing less to succeed. #2 Plan but more importantly do. [caption id=“attachment_22241” align=“alignnone” width=“4032”] BiTS at Work[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_22242” align=“alignnone” width=“960”] Jonathan presenting at CodingGirls Event[/caption]