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Back in 1877, Thomas Edison liked to chill out with his iPod, just as we do today. The phonograph was just one of 2,332 inventions that he patented in an extraordinary lifetime. The industries he created, from electric power to recorded music, generated immense wealth. His working style also pioneered many of the practices we…

The JFDI-Innov8 2012 Bootcamp was incredibly intense. We were strangers when we started but got to know each other very well. My family got involved, testing prototype games from several teams, writes Hugh Mason. In this post I want to share some of the background thinking and, in particular, why we’re not precious about ideas….

Clean, orderly, polite. These are the kind of words that first-time visitors to Singapore usually choose to describe the place. So I was intrigued to read that, last week, the country’s prime minister urged Singaporeans to mess things up a little. Since the amazing performance of JFDI’s startup teams turning ideas into investments in just…

Fetch Plus Inc Pte. Ltd. announced today that it has closed a S$720,000 seed funding round. The investment was led by private investors Lawrence Seah and Yeo Choon Leong and was oversubscribed by 20%. Fetch Plus is the first of eleven recent graduates from the JFDI-Innov8 2012 Bootcamp accelerator program to announce follow-on funding since…

When Meng Wong and I founded JFDI, we called it JFDI.Asia for a reason. We knew that the strength of our location in Singapore was its centrality to the Asia-Pacific region. Right now feels like springtime for startups all around us. The chance to contribute to the second Startup Weekend Cambodia as a judge at…

Ten years ago, former actor Peter Browne moved from Sydney to Singapore. His work took him from the stage, the world’s oldest medium, to working with companies at the cutting edge of mobile applications and social media. One thing hasn’t changed: the need to tell a clear story with confidence. Peter’s mentoring gave the JFDI-Innov8…

What a strange day. The beginning of something new for our start-ups and the end of the first JFDI–Innov8 bootcamp. We have a hunch there will be many more but, in the meantime, here are some quotes from people who were there: @gherry: The best time of my life @trafflers: The perfect environment for developing…

What a difference a week makes! Just 7 days ago, 11 start-up teams were waiting nervously backstage to pitch at our Demo Day. Now, every one is talking with investors and over half have offers on the table already. Of course it’s far too early to assess the full impact of the program. But with…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxiSAALg1kE JFDI.Asia CEO Hugh Mason continues the video log of the JFDI-Innov8 Bootcamp 2012. Today: reflecting on Demo Day at the Hackerspace.sg after party with JFDI.Asia Co-Founder Meng Wong, Mentor Ravi Mantha and Senior Associate Ong Chiah Li. This post is a video log from JFDI.Asia. More video content is available on our YouTube Channel.

Over 100 investors ranging from business angels to venture capital funds showed up to watch our 11 start-ups pitch this morning. By this afternoon, several investors including SingTel Innov8 were in discussion to provide funding and we expect more announcements, like those made by Kark Mobile Education and ShopSpot before demo day, shortly. Investors attending…