Chris Leong

Disoriented views from the rosy lens of an optimistic realist.

Tag: start-up

January 21, 2012

Silicon Valley Visit–An eye opener

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I have been in the tech circle and the entrepreneurship circle for a number of years in Malaysia. I have always regard Silicon Valley as a very special place, some sort of Mecca for entrepreneurs. My visit there was a mind boggling experience and it is a place where i would like to stay longer. Maybe to do a start-up of my own Smile

After being there, talking to VCs, angel investors and visiting the tech giants around. I came into one conclusion. IMHO, Malaysia with its plans to emulate Silicon Valley has still a long way to go. Silicon Valley is special because of the soft aspect – people. Not its infrastructure, it is something that more Government officials need to realise.

Signing off from Dubai, in a 8 hour long transit.

Happy Chinese New Year!

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June 3, 2010

Key to start-up success

I was at echelon 2010 in Singapore and attended the Dave McClure’s keynote presentation where Dave McClure shared his thoughts on the future of internet start-ups (which is getting better and better) and why large VCs are not suitable for internet start-ups. Here are his slides.

Startup 2.0: A Silicon Valley Story

View more presentations from Dave McClure.

 

The most intriguing points about his presentation are what an entrepreneur should avoid and focus on in his/her venture. Here are good points that I’ve picked up:

  • Design and marketing skills are often lacking – Hire someone if your team do not have the skills.
  • Focus on user experience and distributing your product/services
  • Less is more – Focus on what your customer wants and use that as a basis to get feedback.
  • Early market validation – don’t wait for a year before you introduce your product to your customer.
  • Frequent customer feedback – have short development cycle to get frequent customer feedback

The detailed summary of the presentation is published here.

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