Investors remain bullish

Dennis Melka of East Capital Ventures said "it's booming, it's back". Michael Yap, deputy chairman of the Media Development Authority (pictured left), called it "timely". Lim Kim Hai (right), an investor who counts among his business interests an airline, said the mood in Asia was not as pessimistic as in Europe.

"There's a bigger buffer in Asia, savings are higher here," he said.

And despite the stormy skies most airlines were flying through, his airline, REX (Regional Express), is holding up well. Its profits, as of June, was up five percent.

"It's almost comforting to have this result at a time like this," he said, laughing, "and I am not broke yet." He was referring to comments made in earlier panels that it was best not to invest in an airline.

Asked why he invested in REX, he said, "I was stupid and I was naïve."

He added, "All investments are hard work. Sometimes you get stuck in a bad mistake and you try and make it right."

Asked why he hadn't yet divested his interest in REX if it was so bad, Lim said, "The irony is the current business has such good returns. If I divested, what would I do with the money. If I reinvest, would it give much better returns?"

All of them have had their share of bad investments. Melka said, "The key is to have a well-diversified portfolio and hope the winners will cover you."

Bill Liu, chairman of Stream Global (right), whose company is betting on the future of Internet TV with a new project called Future TV, took a big personal loss. "It's called structured products, it's very painful."

For MDA's Yap, the most difficult part of any investment is "always people".

"When you gave to undo the investments, handling the people is always tough. Out of every 10, you can expect two to go bad and one to go really bad."

He said it was the nature of entrepreneurs - "the people you think are good at start-ups are the ones you have trouble with, especially when it comes to large scale investments."

Asked where they would put their money on, Melka picked hard assets - "limited service hotels which give good cash flow in return". Melka was the co-founder of Malaysia's low cost hotel group, Tune Hotels which he said gave a return of 12-19%. In the US, he said, there were 10,000 limited service hotels and he noted there was a lack of such hotels in Asia.

Liu said what was needed in the travel space was a new platform that would improve the user experience which will give the consumer the ability to browse, search, book and fulfil in one. It's still not there yet, he said.

Yap said that if you are a risk taker, new media is a great idea. The barrier to entry is low, he said. For S$50,000 "you can grow a big company".

MDA has a scheme which offers S$50,000 grants to start-ups. It gives 100 grants a year and "we hope 1 out of 100 get through a major gate", said Yap.

Asked what tips they'd offer entrepreneurs, Melka said, "You don't have to be an industry to change something. Take a fresh approach and a different method."

Yap added, "Keep reminding yourself you don't know very much and be open-minded. We tend to get fossilized. The world's changing very fast so you must keep open-minded about ideas."

Lim said, "Something we neglect is common sense. Trust your own instincts. Don't be afraid to be laughed at. Don't be afraid to ask questions - the expert sitting in front of you may not know much more."