EVENT AGENDA
9:00 – 10:00am // Registration and Coffee
Welcome to the first ever BizSpark Summit in Singapore! Registration begins at 9am and we’ll be serving you free flow of coffee and tea throughout the event – it’s time to start networking with fellow founders and investors.
10:00 – 10:10am // Opening remarks, Microsoft Singapore
Nobuhiro Ito, Director, Developer and Platform Evangelism Group, Microsoft Singapore
As Director for the DPE group, Nobuhiro leads efforts to build a vibrant solutions ecosystem through evangelism, community engagement and technology marketing. Hailing from Japan, Nobuhiro is a Microsoft veteran who has experienced the huge wave of growth in both the Consumer and Commercial business.
10:10 – 10:30am // Microsoft Ventures Keynote
Vanessa Gao, CEO-in-Residence, Microsoft Ventures, Greater China Region
Vanessa Gao is the CEO-in-residence of Microsoft Ventures Accelerator in Greater China. The Microsoft Ventures Accelerator program was launched in Beijing in 2012, providing start-ups with free cloud services, workspace and direct market exposure. During this session, Vanessa will share about the programs under Microsoft Ventures and how your startup can benefit from it.
Vanessa was previously Industry Director of the Health Solutions Group in Microsoft’s Greater China Region and led all health-related government affairs, partnerships and strategy.
10:30 – 11:00am // What investors are looking for in 2014 [Panel Session]
From new innovations in wearable tech and the rise of Bitcoin and big data, which markets interest investors the most? Join the panel discussion to find out what investors are looking out for in 2014.
Frances Du, Director, Microsoft Ventures, Greater China Region
Ms. Du has over 10 years of work experience in private equity and venture capital in China, with additional strong experience in corporate finance, investment banking, industry and equity research.
Tan Ying Lan, Venture Partner, Sequioa Capital India
Yinglan is a Venture Partner with Sequoia Capital India. Prior to joining the firm, Yinglan headed the National Framework for Innovation and Enterprise, investing in high-tech growth ventures in the Prime Minister’s Office in Singapore. Earlier, Yinglan had been the founding Director of 3i Venturelab China and an entrepreneur in the digital media industry. Yinglan was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and is a Kauffman Fellow.
11:00am – 12:00pm // Getting to Series A – Fundraising for your startup
Dinesh Bhatia, CEO, MyHero
Capital is the financial power essential for every potential entrepreneur to scale their product and establish a foothold in the market. Tradehero, developed by MyHero, is a app that allows people to stimulate trades on the stock market without forking hard cash. This BizSpark Plus startup has raised a remarkable US$10 million funding round- one of the largest Series A rounds for a consumer startup in the region and is expanding aggresively. Participating Investors includes Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers and IPV Capital. Dinesh will share about the process of funding raising and how you can overcome the challenges.
12:00 – 1:00pm // Lunch & Lunchtime Concert by Nick Tan
We have a special treat for you! Sit back and enjoy local singer-song writer Nick Tan’s performance while enjoying lunch. Nick is no stranger to the local music scene and in the spirit of sharing about entrepreneurial endaveours, he will be also be sharing about how he launched his music career with $0. Sit back, relax and enjoy as he performs for the audience during lunch break.
1:00pm – 1:30pm // The talent crunch – Hiring, training and retaining a great technical team in Singapore [Panel Session]
A great technical team can make or break a startup’s product development and speed to go-to-market. A recurring problem we hear from founders is the lack of technical talent and the challenges in hiring the right technical people. In this session, discover what motivates a great technical team and how to go about building it from two companies who have succeeded in doing so.
Carl Coryell-Martin, Principal, Neo
Neo is a global product innovation company. Neo designs and builds mobile and Web products, creates corporation innovation programs, and transforms internal talent by pairing and teaching.
Carl Coryell-Martin has worked with agile software methods since 2000 when he implemented the practices in Kent Beck’s Extreme Programming Explained in his first startup. He was previously the Practice Manager for Pivotal Lab’s Singapore development office. Among his many projects, he built the successful BirdsEye iphone app for North American bird watchers.
Mark Glikson, Founder & CEO, Gumbuya Inc
Mark Glikson, is the CEO & Founder of Gumbuya Inc. Gumbuya is building a contextual semantic platform = “a way to make things work together, as they were intended”.Prior to Gumbuya, Mark spent 9 years at Microsoft Corporation, most recently as the General Manager of the Developer and Platform Group for Asia Pacific. In his life previous to Microsoft, Mark worked as a Chief Technology Officer, Architect and Founder always centred by how technology can transform the way people live.
Shen Qiang, CTO-in-Residence, Microsoft Ventures, Greater China Region
Shen Qiang is an accomplished leader with 20 years of engineering development and management experiences. He is the CTO in residence for Microsoft Ventures, focus on building a strong portofolio of startup companies and accelerating their growth. In the past years, he focused on telecom and internet services areas and built several industry significant services.
Qiang has the right mix of entrepreneur thinking and start-up style execution. In his rich experience, he built the technical team from scratch and then grow the team for many times, and led them to create some innovative online services successfully.
1:30pm – 2:00pm // Making better decisions with analytics
Marc Andreesen once said that “markets that don’t exist don’t care how smart you are.” Whether you’re a startup founder trying to disrupt an industry, or an intrapreneur trying to provoke change from within, your biggest risk is building something nobody wants.
By measuring and analyzing as you grow, you can validate whether a problem is real, find the right customers, and decide what to build, how to monetize it, and how to spread the word. In this session, Dibyo will share how analytics can help you make better decisions.
Dibyo Haldar, Analytics Manager, Facebook
Dibyo is an analytics and insights professional with 11 years of experience across Coca-cola, Marketics and Skype. He is currently an analytics manager at Facebook.
2:00pm – 3:00pm // Startup Showcase
Coming soon!
Looking for amazing pitches from some of our most innovative startups? After a rigorous selection process, seven startup finalists will pitch to our Microsoft Ventures team and stand a chance to pitch at Startup Asia 2014. Startups will be pitching live in front of the panel of judges and investors. So take a look how these startups deliver their pitches and get some tips for your own.
Our Partners
The event is open for Startup founders, Investors and Students, and you can register for this event here.
Follow