NTC Technopreneurship Programme 12 May 2016

Content:

- What have we covered?

- Implementing Next Steps

- Pitching

Process:

Today is the seventh lesson of Mr Chia’s technopreneurship programme.

First, we went through the content and ideas that we have covered throughout the course up to this point, to help use better recall what we have learnt. This is as the remainder of the lesson is the application step of setting up a start-up, and hence it is important for us to recall our past content.

Moving Forward – Evaluate your Plan

We have to be aware and constantly reminded of our goals and vision of setting up the start-up. This is so that we can constantly realign our business plan with our personal goals, professional goals, and financial goals and not get distracted as time goes on.

We should aim to fulfil all three aspects of our goals and not neglect any of them. All of them are important deciders in our present and future.

We must also constantly take a step back to analyse our business plan, ensuring that it is on-track and feasible. We must evaluate the feasibility of our business by looking at the product/ service that we offer, our marketing strategies, and our financials.

Next Steps

-Prioritise next steps

-       Develop action plan

-       Identify community resources (CCA, etc.)

-       Stay connected

We need to be specific when creating a timeline in our action plan. This is so that we can put a date to the individual details, which will keep us on track to complete our goals. Vague action plans will cause us to lose track of time, and possibly eventually miss our datelines.

With our action plans, we are able to identify the different sources of resources we can make use of to learn and prepare ourselves to achieve our goals.

We should also stay connected to information or trends connected to our goal, through societies or social media. This will help us remain updated and knowledgeable about the latest news related to our goals.

-7 Tips for Pitching Your Entrepreneurial Idea

1.    Prepare yourselves, not just your idea

-       Investors invest first in the entrepreneur, not the business plan

-       It’s important that the investor and entrepreneur can get along

-       Investors might recommend you to other investors, and this can be extremely effective

2.   Capture the Essentials

-       Investors care more about the presentation than the business plan

-       Can you, in less than 5 minutes, explain the project, the return on investment and the growth strategy?

-       Elevator Pitch

3.   Have a plan from Day One

-       Investors are very interested in your exit strategy

-       Many investors tire after about 7 years with a company and look around for new opportunities

-       So what is your exit strategy? Are you going to sell all your shares to a new entrepreneur? Go public with the company? Sell to another venture?

4.    Do your Investor Research

-       You should find out as much as you can about your investor

-       Who has he or she invested in before? Have they been successful?  How well do they know your industry? How much time can they devote to you and your idea?

5.    Take care of due diligence upfront

-       Founder due diligence, find out as much as possible about the founder

-       Financial due diligence, find out financials of the company

-       Industrial due diligence, does the market want your product or service now or in the future? Is it legal? Are there competition?

-       It takes most investors 3 months to do due diligence on your idea. Make sure that it is not a waste of their time.

6.    Negotiate a term sheet offer

-       Term sheet offer states the terms of the investment

-       Lack of experience can make this a very painful part of the whole project.  You can go to the websites of the ACA or EBAN to learn more on this step

7.    Learn the vocabulary – it’s all there on the internet.

-       Investors like  to use technical terms

-       Have to understand terminology to not be confused and be able to negotiate

-       Book of jargons in Silicon Valley -> Valley Speak

4 Different Presentations

-       Business Plan of no more than 50 pages

-       Business Plan condensed into PowerPoint slide of no more than 20 slides (Pitch Deck)

-       This PowerPoint should be condensed down to a 2-page brief

-       A 5 minute elevator pitch

Key to negotiation is to understand the needs of both parties. This way, a consensus can more easily be reached between the parties and both sides can get what they want.

Summary

Successful Business

-       A competitive advantage is vital for long-term sustainability

-      The entrepreneur’s role must evolve as the business grows

-       Cash flow is paramount. Without it, the business cannot start of continue

-       The business is a success if it helps the entrepreneur reach his or her personal, professional, and financial goals

-       The planning process is a proven way to think through all the various aspects of starting a business without committing financial resources

Successful Entrepreneurs

-       

-Develop products and services that meet the needs of the market

-   Look for new opportunities on a continual basis

-    Involve the right people in their business

-      Help others individually or through the community

-       Seek assistance from trusted advisors, mentors, and outside professionals

-       Communicate their business concept and plans clearly and concisely to their team, their customers, and their funders

-       Consider their exit strategy before they start the business

-       Set goals and regularly measure the business’ progress against them

Reflection:

In this lesson, we have learnt a lot about the skills and work that the entrepreneur should do to remain attractive to investors and to make a start-up successful. Many of the skills shown here are not just limited to entrepreneurs but we students can already use them as well, An example is to develop an action plan for any goals that we are trying to achieve to ensure that we keep on track in our development and progress. We can also make use of networking or community resources such as CCA to strengthen our connections and knowledge. The pitching and interview skills for an entrepreneur seeking investors can also be applicable to us, such as in cases where we apply for scholarship. We can find out more about our interviewer prior to the interview, and also make better presentations that are attractive to the interviewer with the skills taught by Mr Chia.

Personal Development:

Personally, I am extremely interested in the art of acing an interview. I am aware that as we promote through the ranks of the education system, we are required to go through more and more interviews to get more and more opportunities as well. To do well in an interview, we must be able to not just perform orally, but present ourselves well and in many other aspects too. I am interested and will find out the many different aspects of a prospect an interviewer looks out for and also the skills needed to ace interviews.

NTC Technopreneurship Programme 5 May 2016

Content:

- Planning for Financial Success

- Start-up business concept

- Funding

Process:

Today was the sixth lesson of the technopreneurship course held by Mr Chia. He thought us about financial planning, which is vital for success, start-up business concepts that can minimise financial costs, and ways to get funding for your business.

A financial plan is important as it allows you to gain a better understanding of potential financial risks and rewards associated with your start-up. It identifies the start-up costs and the needed funds to be acquired, and it is a plan to help guide your business decisions and monitor your results. One aspect of the financial plan is the financial statement.

A financial statement should consist of a balance sheet, an income statement, and a cash flow report.

A balance sheet is a reflection of how much the company owns, how much is owed to the company, and how much the company owes to both creditors and owners. It shows the company's assets, liabilities, and the owner's equity.

An income statement shows how much a company has made or lost for a given period of time, also known as net profit or net loss. It shows the amount of revenue made by the company and the expenses incurred by the company.

A cash flow report charts the cash that flows in and out of a business each month and projects the company's ability to meet its cash obligations on a monthly basis. It is perhaps the most important supporting document in the business plan and also serves as the most important tool the management has for contemplating and controlling the financial affairs of the enterprise.

Start-up business concept:

The business concept or model of a start-up can affect the start-up costs and the profitability of a start-up. Different business concepts or models can result in different needs, and some business concepts might incur more rental costs, salaries, maintenance costs, vehicle costs, and equipment costs than others. This can impact the profitability of the business as the operating costs can be higher. 

Apart from the financial statement, the financial plan should also consist of the sources of financing and an exit strategy.

Funding:

There are a few ways to gain funding, namely equity and non-equity funding. Equity funding is the giving away of company shares in exchange for money. Non-equity funding on the other hand, has three main methods. 

The first method is bootstrapping. Bootstrapping is to use minimal or only existing resources to operate the start-up. It can be done by using the money of the owner, or simply by doing a lot with little.

The second method is grants. Grants are money given by the government or organisations. The advantage of taking grants is that there is neither debt attached or equity lost through taking grants.

The third method is debt financing. It can be through credit, long-term loans, or loans from friends and family. This method will incur debt but they will not be equity involved.

Reflection:

This lesson has exposed me to the more financial side of setting up a business, which is easy to know but harder to understand as many of the finer points need a deeper knowledge of economics etc. It is indeed very complex to create a start-up and there is much knowledge needed to know how to run a business. I now look at entrepreneurs with a different view. I am also interested in different business models and the advantages of the different concepts in relation to operation as well as costs.

Personal Development;

Over the weekend I will research on the different business concepts in order to understand more deeply the relationship between the business concepts and the running of the business. I will try to find out more about the similarities between successful start-ups and the cause of the failure of start-ups so as to understand how to better create a start-up.

NTC Technopreneurship Programme 28 April 2016

Content:

- New Ventures Project Strategy

- Entrepreneurial marketing

- Marketing methods

Process:

Today was the fifth lesson of the technopreneurship programme by Mr Chia. We learnt about the strategies for setting up a new venture selling products, what marketing is, and how to do marketing.

One of the ways a new venture selling products can gain high success is being a disruptive innovation. Disruptive innovation describes a product that starts of with slow success but has sudden exponential growth. Competitors tend to ignore it at the start, not feeling that it is a threat, but are left behind in the end when they realise too late. Not only does the performance of the disruptive product increase over time, the prices also drop sharply, giving it huge success over its competitors. An example of this is the digital camera. The digital camera started  with very low performance and little success. Companies like Kodak ignored the potential of the digital camera. However, due to the advancements in technology, the performance of the digital camera increased quickly and it made film, along with companies like Kodak, obsolete.

As a new venture, it is good to be a disruptive innovation, but a business must always look out for potential disruptive innovations and prepare itself to remain relevant.

Another strategy for new ventures is the Blue Ocean Strategy. A Red Ocean Market refers to a market with many competitors , where these competitors compete by slashing their prices. A Blue Ocean Market, on the other hand, is a market with no other competitors, hence allowing the venture to price the products as they wish. The Blue Ocean Strategy suggests that an organisation should create a new demand in an uncontested market space, or a 'Blue Ocean', rather than compete head-to-head with other suppliers in an existing industry.

The Blue Ocean Strategy is the most suitable strategy for new ventures given very little resources, and it encourages the creation of value innovation.

Beyond having a good strategy, marketing is also a very important aspect of a venture.

What is a market?
A market is a place where consumers' need for a product or service is met at the right price.

What is marketing?
Marketing is bringing a product into a market to meet the needs of customers.

Marketing vs Selling
Marketing includes selling. However, marketing starts even before a product is manufactured. Selling starts only after a product is manufactured.

How do we find a good marketing environment?
A good marketing environment must take into account the political, technological, economical, and social conditions of the area. These conditions must be understood for a business to be able to market within a suitable market, and also for the marketing of the business to be effective to the masses.

The four P's must also be considered to make a well-rounded, attractive, and effective marketing plan. 

Marketing method:

With the improvement of technology and the prevalence of the internet, the face of marketing has changed. From traditional media such as radio and TV advertisements, social media is becoming a more attractive and effective way to market. Marketing on social media incurs less cost, and can reach a larger or more specific target audience. 

Apart from lower cost, social media marketing has many other strengths too. Social Media marketing can have a viral effect, with netizens sharing the marketing product of the company. This further increases the speed and reach of marketing of the product, at little or no cost. An example of this is the Evian baby&me campaign, with the video going viral and capturing over 96M views on Youtube alone.

Social Media marketing can also capture the attention of the mainstream media, causing it to become more viral and reach more people. 

There are also social media sites that have a more focused audience, such as in art or music, and this can help you reach a more specialised audience.

Reflection: 

Today was a very eye opening session. I got exposed to many new terms for the first time, such as Blue Ocean Market or disruptive innovation. I got to understand the workings of disruptive innovation and this has made me very interested to find out more examples of disruptive innovation, as well as try to spot disruptive innovation that might still be in its infancy now. I am also interested in studying more about the mechanics of the market and the different techniques that companies employ to exploit or gain an advantage in a Red Ocean Market. I have been exposed prior to marketing using social media, and have been using it for projects or competitions like F1 in Schools. The notes given out by Mr Chia is extremely useful as it can remind me of how to make use of social media the most effectively.

Personal Development:

I will be using the weekends to research and learn more about how the market works, as well as find out about the different strategies employed by companies to gain an advantage in the competitive market. I will try to explore into deeper detail how to best use social media as a marketing tool, not as a business but just as a student or as a project group. 

NTC Technopreneurship Programme 21 April 2016

Content

- Crowdfunding

- Creating a successful crowdfunding campaign

Process:

Today was the fourth lesson of the technopreneurship course by Mr Chia. We learnt about the mechanics of crowdfunding and how to successfully make use of crowdfunding.

What is crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary contributions from a large number of people, today often performed via internet-mediated registries, but the concept can also be executed through mail-order subscriptions, benefit events, and other methods.

After creating a business model design and doing market research, the next step is to gain financial support to implement and kickstart the business. One such avenue is crowdfunding. There are two kinds of crowdfunding, rewards crowdfunding and equity crowdfunding:

Rewards crowdfunding:
Entrepreneurs pre-sell a product or service to launch a business concept without incurring debt or sacrificing equity/shares.

Equity crowdfunding:
The backer receives shares of a company in exchange for the money pledged.

Mr Chia also introduced us to several different crowdfunding websites, On these sides, entrepreneurs looking for funding create presentations to pre-sell their goods, and angel  investors go onto the sites to look at and possibly contribute to the projects. The investors will get different rewards based  on their amount of financial contribution. A few examples of popular crowdfunding sites are Kickstarter and Indigogo. Singapore also has its own crowdfunding platform, run by Starhub, called Crowdtivate.

Creating a successful crowdfunding campaign:
A crowdfunding campaign should contain a few components.

- Telling a story
- Building reward
- Promotion

It is also a good idea to launch a pre-campaign or to build an audience on social media before the actual campaign. This allows a larger audience to be aware of the project before it goes onto the crowdfunding website and also allows your audience to remain updated on your progress. This can increase the amount of funding that you can get during the actual campaign.

It is also important to take care of the legal matters and taxes. Revenue and donations from the crowdfunding campaign is taxable.

Entrepreneurs should do research and pick a suitable crowdfunding platform for their needs. Some platforms like Tubestart specialise in certain start-ups and hence have a more focused audience and investors.

Many entrepreneurs also make a mistake of setting the wrong funding goal, ending in failure. It is important to remember the costs of fulfilling rewards, legal costs, marketing costs, platform fees, and to set a cushion.

Reflection:
I have previously been exposed to crowdfunding before, but not in this level of depth. I feel that crowdfunding is a very good community to support entrepreneurs and encourage innovation in the world. I will definitely be visiting crowdfunding sites frequently from now on as it allows me to keep up-to-date with the latest inventions and innovations. I can spot different and unique business models there, learn how to sell products more convincingly and understand the products and the way the people think to innovate and create them.

Personal Development:
I will be researching on my own the psychology and design behind creating convincing presentations. This is already applicable now as we frequently have projects or competitions that require us to present. Being an aspiring engineer, it might also be useful if I manage to create a product or start-up in the future. I will also research on how to best harness the power and potential of social media for marketing.

NTC Technopreneurship Programme 14 April 2016

Content:

- Business Model Design

- Business Model Canvas

Process:

It was the third lesson of the technopreneurship course by Mr Chia. Today's lesson was about business model design and how to make use of a business model canvas.

What is a business model?

A business model is a description of the operations of a business including the components of the business, the functions of the business, and the revenues and expenses that the business generates. There are different types of business models, such as a franchise, a company selling products, or a company selling a service. Each of these different business models have their own needs.

Product:

- Branding
For a company selling a product, it is important to establish a brand for the product. Branding of a product consists of many different aspects as can be seen in the picture below. It is the unique image and reputation of the product or company and is extremely instrumental for success.

An example of a company with successful branding is Coca Cola:

Coke’s strength is that is always finds a way to connect with its current customers. The brand has had to make a lot of changes since 1886 to keep up with their audience, including changing their logo over the years to become more modern and thinking of creative campaigns to keep up with the times.

The best example of a successful Coca-Cola campaign was their 2012 Super Bowl commercial. Coke is always very forward thinking about how to create a brand that can relate to their audience. Their commercials pictured two polar bears: one rooting for the New York Giants, and the other rooting for the New England Patriots. The commercials that would play depended on who was winning the game. This is a great example of how the 125-year-old brand is still able to stay current.

Marketing takeaway: Relate to your audience and connect with your customers.

Service:

- Knowledge and experience

Knowledge and experience is necessary because it is the basis of selling a service. To be able to provide a good service, the technical know-how is extremely important. It is the crux of your service and it can determine your quality of service, and the success and failure of your company.

- Labour

Another need when selling a service is additional labour compared to selling a product. Labour is needed to be able to offer services to the consumer. In some cases, it can be human labour or in other cases, machinery. An example of such is a tuition center, which has to hire teachers to conduct lessons and sell the service of teaching.

Real World Examples:

Several companies seem like they sell services or products, but it can be the opposite of what it seems. Companies can be creative and innovative in their business model, setting them apart from the rest.

When Xerox created the photocopier, not many companies could afford to buy it. Hence, Xerox turned from selling a product to a service, placing their photocopiers in office for free. Companies would pay based on the amount of pages printed, and leasing and servicing would be provided by Xerox at no cost.

- Business Model Canvas

The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management and lean startup template for developing new or documenting existing business models. It is a visual chart with elements describing a firm's or product's value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances. It assists firms in aligning their activities by illustrating potential trade-offs.

Mr Chia also introduced us to the Business Model Canvas, which is used as a template to plan businesses. The template is filled with many different categories with many questions to fill. This allows us to look and set up a business model from many different perspectives, not missing out any major part of the business model that could potentially prove fatal.

Reflection:

In this lesson, I have realised that there is much more to business that i originally thought. I was exposed to more of the running of a business and it is not as shallow and easy as it seems to run a business. I was also exposed to the many ways business make themselves stand out and end up  more successful than other similar ones. It has inspired me to think and find out more deeply about brands and businesses we see daily, because many of them have a different business model to what it seems. An example of this is Macdonald's. Many, including me in the past, thought that it was a food-and-beverage business. However, much to my surprise, it actually is a real estate business. Many of the business we see in our lives have unique business models we usually do not assume they have. However, after we  research and learn about them, our perspective on the world is greatly changes, just like our assumptions of their business model has. 

Personal Development:

I am also aware about personal branding of a person, and after this talk, it has influenced me to further learn and understand personal branding. It is a very important skill to have and to know, and I feel that it can be applicable for me in the future too. Having good personal branding can allow prospective employers and others to get a better idea of you and hence it can increase your chances of landing a job or scholarship etc. I will attempt to learn about and might embark on personal branding after this lesson.

NTC Technopreneurship Programme 7 April 2016

Content

- How do we innovate?

- Customer Development

- The Lean Startup framework

Process:

Today was the second lesson of the technopreneurship programme held by Mr Chia. First, we started off appropriately with learning about one of the most important skills, not just in setting up a startup but in life as well, the skill of innovating.

How do we innovate?
Innovation is the thinking of and establishment of new ideas, methods or product. As Mr Chia said, one of the main problems faced by most people is that they set limit or thought confinements for themselves. These assumptions limit the thinking of the individual as they will hence streamline their thoughts along these false and unnecessary assumptions.

Why do people assume and how do we deal with it?
Only when we know why we assume, then we can learn how to get rid of our assumptions. Making assumptions are part of the human survival instinct. Making assumptions is an innate habit in all humans that have kept us alive. This same tool which makes us more efficient makes us less innovative as well. We have to learn and understand the situations in which we assume so that we can avoid doing so and thus innovate.

However, when we innovate, we must also be realistic. To innovate is commonly known as to 'think out of the box'. This box refers to the assumptions we make when we meet a problem. However, what is not commonly told is that another box exists. This box is the box of real world constraints. Our solutions must be practical. There are things we are unable to compromise, such as the laws of physics. To innovate, we must think outside our box of assumptions and within the box of real world constraints. Sometimes, this space can be extremely small and hence, it is often necessary to perservere before finding success.

Being able to innovate is not enough. We must have the knowledge of entrepreneurship to successfully put our innovation into effect. In this lesson, we started off by learning about customer development and value proposition.

There are four phases to customer development:
- Customer Discovery
- Customer Validation
- Customer Creation
- Company Building

He also told us about the 'Lean Startup' model, used by companies to improve their idea or product.

The objective is to accelerate this feedback loop with minimum resources.

The first step of of the Customer Development framework is Customer Discovery.

Customer Discovery is finding out more about the wants of the customer, hence allowing the company to adjust its products or services to the tastes of the consumer.

The next step is Customer Validation

This step is a presentation to customers, so that the customers will be able to understand what you are doing, and hence give feedback or decide whether to support you. There is a validation board for companies to present their ideas or products:

Most importantly, our ideas or products must have good value propositions in order for them to be attractive. 

Reflection:

I find the part about innovation extremely useful and applicable in my life, even from this point in time. Many a time, I find myself unable to come up with innovative ideas or solutions. Upon reflection, I do realise that it is often my assumptions that cause such problems. I will keep Mr Chia's advice in mind when I approach problems in the future. Although the rest of the lesson is not yet currently applicable, I will also keep them in mind as it might be useful for me in the future still.

Personal Development:

After this lesson, I have gained an interest in entrepreneurship. Over the weekends, I will be exploring on my own the basics of starting, as well as maintaining, a start-up. I will also try to explore the relationship between the Singapore Government and start-ups, as well as the impacts of start-ups on the economy. I hope that through this, I will be able to broaden my horizons and understand more about entrepreneurship.