Hot-housing young technopreneurs

For six teams of budding technopreneurs, starting a high-tech business may be no pipe dream. Their business plans have been endorsed by the judges of Start-up@Singapore, a national techno-venture business plan competition jointly organized by the Centre for Management of Innovation & Technopreneurship (CMIT) and NUS Business School Alumni Association (NUSBSA).

For the best executive summaries of their business ideas, the six teams each won $500 at the recent Bootcamp, a one-and-a-half day intensive programme by the same organisers where aspiring technopreneurs were hot-housed by industry players who shared their insights, experiences and knowledge on starting and growing high-tech ventures.

Among the local technopreneurs, venture capitalists, lawyers and other industry leaders providing inspiration to camp participants was Mr Ng Kai Wa, CEO of InnoMedia, formerly the Chief Technical Officer, Vice-Chairman and Co-Founder of Creative Technology. He was directly responsible for developing several well-known computer peripherals including the Sound Blaster, Video Blaster, Cubic CT Apple-compatible multimedia computer and other computer peripheral products. Mr Ng and other mentors helped the participants in their business plan formulation and educated them on the different aspects of starting their own venture.

All the 31 semi-finalist teams who attended the camp will submit their comprehensive business plans for a second round of judging on 30 March. Start-up@Singapore seeks to encourage technology-intensive and knowledge-based start-ups, in line with the government's Technopreneurship 21 (T21) Vision. It is aimed at spurring the first burst of entrepreneurial energy - forming a team and coming up with a feasible business plan. This year's competition is the second time it has been run.

Best executive summaries of business plans submitted

Company: Bajubarang.com
Team leader: Shawna Tang

Bajubarang.com is a lifestyle web boutique e-tailing Asian merchandise to the West. It offers modern interpretations of the traditional in clothing, accessories, living space and related items and is complete with contemporary features of the peoples and places of Asia.

Company: Charleston
Team leader: Brojo Pillai

Charleston develops and hosts voice applications from SMEs and Internet companies. Charleston's vision is to integrate the power of the Internet with the convenience of telephones by enabling access to web/non-web information through natural-voice via the telephone.

Company: FriarTuck
Team leader: Sevugan Alagappan

FriarTuck meets the need to optimise the planning of events by providing optimised online and offline scheduling services and turn-key software solutions to customers, such as professional sport leagues, using constraint programming technology.

Company: Lembas Co.
Team leader: Ong See Hai

The Lembas program is based on the Integrated Virtual Learning Environment (IVLE) developed by NUS over the last five years as a courseware management system designed to manage and support teaching and learning over the Internet. The international team is preparing to capture a large share of the corporate and customer training markets.

Company: Malachi
Team leader: Melvin Tan Boon Pin

Malachi is an integrated suite, collectively known as xSTREAM, positioned to fill enterprises' network needs. netSTREAM is a load balancer with user-friendly GUIs and remote control capabilities. mediaSTREAM is envisioned to be built around an algorithm, allowing efficient server usage; upSTREAM is targeted at clients who require fast file upload.

Company: Sintac
Team leader: Daniel Chua

The secure communications system for e-commerce is the only product available which provides a global roaming integrated network security architecture. It is differentiated from others in the market through its use of "Advanced Mobile IP and 3G IMT-2000" technologies and its global roaming capability.

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