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Huijia Phua is developing Project Skillseed, a career literacy marketplace for youths. China was an obvious market, so she set aside shame, gatecrashed a trade mission and learned how to hustle like the locals. As a born and bred Singaporean, recently returned to Singapore after four fruitful years in the US, it was an opportunity…

Paul Srivorakul and Piers Bennett are two co-founders at Ardent Capital, a Bangkok-based private capital fund that guides entrepreneurs with high potential and great business ideas down the path of wealth creation. Thailand’s start-up ecosystem is growing up fast, Paul and Piers tell JFDI.Asia CEO Hugh Mason. That’s why Ardent is now focusing on fixing…

Huge congratulations to Flocations.com, which confirmed today that it has secured S$700,000 Pre-Series Funding Led by TNF Ventures. SingTel Innov8 and Singapore-based business angel Ben T Ball also came in on the deal. The team’s roller-coaster ride began at Startup Weekend, took them through an early funding offer that would have forced them to accept…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6kyKPbXjlk Singapore— Rolling out new technologies like mobile money or NFC needs many stakeholders to make changes before they reach critical mass. As he heads out in the Frogmobile with Sista Barista to do in-depth café research, JFDI.Asia investor James Kao shares his experience of using Square with Meng Wong and Hugh Mason. Meanwhile, Ong…

They say investors want to hear about the problem first and the solution second. And that’s fine for products that solve a problem. But what about products and services that are educational, entertaining, or experiential in nature? Take Angry Birds. Bejeweled. The Harry Potter franchise. Lady Gaga. What problem do they solve? Boredom, maybe ……

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…

Thirty future entrepreneurs aged 16-20 from TYE joined us on Friday afternoon. They sat in on our weekly demo day rehearsal and it was great to see that they had no hesitation putting up their hands to ask incisive questions. Yet one of those questions left me puzzled. It made me ask: are we bringing…

My Facebook friend James Norris asks: How many of you Singaporean changemakers are on track to create global social impact before you hit 30 ? His question set me thinking. It took me until I was about 40 to realize that it’s not really my place to change the world, unless it wants to be…

Whether inspired by popular movie depictions like The Social Network, books like Sarah Lacy’s excellent Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good, or the buzz around programmes like Techstars, it seems that the idea of being part of a small team that builds something new and dynamic increasingly appeals to young Singaporeans. The Singapore Computer Society…

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