Welcome to Singapore!

To get to know the startup scene, you should:

• View Arnaud Bonzom’s slide presentation.
• Attend the events listed on these calendars:
  • TechinAsia Events Calendar
  • TheList.SG
  • ACE Calendar
  • Technopreneur Circle
  • See also the Rojak Calendar halfway down the Hackerspace.SG calendar.
• Attend the major conferences like Echelon, Startup Asia, and TechVenture.
• Check out recent media coverage by the WSJ, the Economist, and JFDI.
• Quora has a topic, Startups in Singapore.
• If you have questions, introduce yourself on the Open Frog forum.
• Read the blogs: e27 and TechInAsia.
• Read the FAQ: Isaac Souweine’s Singapore Startup FAQ.
• Read the ebook: Derek Sivers’s Singapore Startup Guide.
• If you’re looking for funding, see Meng’s Map of the Money in Singapore or Mava – the map of active VCs. It mentions NRF’s TIS scheme and IDMPO’s iJam scheme, among others.
• If you need a place to work, see the list of co-working spaces.
• If you’re looking to hire or to get a startup job, start at JFDI’s Hiring White Paper.
• See also represent.sg and sgstartup.info.
• BANSEA, SVCA, and TIE are industry associations of local angels, VC investors, and entrepreneurs.
• The Media Entrepreneur’s Guide to Singapore is a downloadable PDF of a book that lists who’s who and offers some advisory essays.
• EnterpriseOne is a government one-stop-shop for starting a business and obtaining grants and incentive programs.
• The Infocomm Development Authority is the government’s CTO and runs a number of industry development programs also.
• SPRING is another agency offering funding support to startups, notably SEEDS and TECS.
• Other startup communities include Open Coffee Club, Startup Club, and the SEN meetup.
• If you’re on your way out to the rest of Southeast Asia, check out Yongfook’s Startup Coworking Tour of SE Asia.

Courses

Self-taught engineers and entrepreneurs might not need any help. For everyone else, there are courses:

• Founder Institute
• Startup Academy
• Red Dot Technopreneurship Diploma
• The Testing Ground

Resources below this line are less universal.

• If you want to learn how to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem in your city, consider MIT’s REAP, read TheFamily, and buy Boulevard of Broken Dreams, the Rainforest, and Steve Blank.
• The EntrePass is a visa category for foreigners who want to move to SG to start companies. In practice it is by from the only way to do so.
• Meng is your virtual tourguide: a Google Map of Meng’s favourite spots.
• Third Wave Coffee in Singapore: a Google Map for espresso maniacs and latte lovers
• International Enterprise Singapore is responsible for helping a Singapore startup grow overseas.

For the rest of Asia, you could start by looking at:

• TechRice: [China] Blog covering analysis of china tech and deals, from startups to internet giants.
• pluGGd.in: [India] Showcase of technology and business startups from India and the Asian region.
• STARTUPS.pk: [Pakistan] Directory of Pakistani startups and related news.
• YourStory: [India] Indian online platform for entrepreneurs, dedicated to promoting the startup ecosystem.
• TechInAsia: [China/Singapore-based, Pan-Asia] Asian Tech and Startup stories.
• Roofcamp: [Philippines] Barcamp for future looking, maverick, and fearless individuals sharing and distilling ideas from concept to reality.

Worldwide:

• StartupDigest: [US] Tech startup community digest.
• ArabCrunch: [Jordan] Tech news blog and startup community for the Arab world.

 

This page is part of JFDI.Asia’s archive of Frequently Asked Questions and technical advice. For more: