WITNext: To all startups, first impressions count, get your story right
What do investors look out for in start-ups seeking funding?In the second discussion on Startup Skills at Echelon 2011, investors – (2nd from left) Tuff Yen of Seraph Group (USA), James Chan of Neoteny Labs (Singapore), Willson Cuaca of East Ventures (Indonesia) and William Kilppgen of Tigr [...]
Travel hot for startups, a lot of pain points to be solved
Travel is an old, complex industry with complicated structures and processes. This is what makes it a great industry for entrepreneurs because there are many pain points to solve. This was one of the key messages from travel's inaugural session at Echelon 2011, the digital start-up conference in Si [...]
Six tips for startups at Singapore WITovation Enterpreneur Bootcamp
Travel startups always have wonderfully optimistic ideas and aspirations – in fact, overwhelming positivity is practically omnipresent and often rather intoxicating.But as an industry we see startups come and go quicker than you can say “trip” (a very intentional pun, drawing on how a few year [...]
Mentoring event heads to Bangkok, hear from top travel start-ups and global brands
Want to be a start-up in the online travel space? Or find a job with a global travel brand? Then join our WITNext event in Bangkok on September 28.Yes, our inspiration and mentoring event is heading to Bangkok, the second time we are holding in the Thai capital.The first one, held last year, was wel [...]
Local Measure promises instant gratification for social hotel guests
Imagine you’re sitting at a pool bar at a hotel and you take a selfie with mojito in hand and place it on Instagram, saying, “What a grand way to celebrate my birthday.”You then return to your room and find a dark chocolate walnut cake with a card from the hotel general manager, saying, “Hap [...]
Deals fatigue settling in; some best practices to bear in mind
If you are one of the 115 million subscribers of Groupon’s daily deals email, you expect that every morning when you awake you can grab your coffee and see what offers are available in your area.You may have also noticed the utter saturation in the marketplace with the amount of deal websites that [...]
Book Your 300 Seconds of Glory in WIT Bootcamp’s Start-Up Gallery
The WIT Bootcamp taking place on Oct 17 in Singapore, is looking for start-ups (from zero to two years old) who would like to present their business to our panel of investors and mentors in the Start-Up Gallery.We are looking for breakthrough ideas and smart, savvy entrepreneurs in the digital tra [...]
WITovation Start-Up Pitch: The Beachfront Club
The Beachfront Club, a new website, aims to help travelers find hotels with “true beachfront”. WIT asks co-founder Chris Ryan, based in Thailand, for his pitch.Q: In a tweet, state what you are trying to do with this business.Create an exclusive, niche marketing club for hotels with true and abs [...]
Spottly raises US$850K, to use funds for expansion and app development
Hong Kong-based social travel app, Spottly, has raised US$850,000 in seed round funding from investors that include Silicon Valley-based incubator 500Startups, Cherubic Ventures, Gobi Partners and a number of individual angel investors.Spottly will use the proceeds to focus on growth in local mark [...]
Make meaning, not money; make mantra, not mission: Guy Kawasaki’s 10 rules of innovation
On Thursday I was in Ho Chi Minh City, at the Abacus conference, listening to Guy Kawasaki talk about “The Art of Innovation”.Actually we were lucky he made it. Apparently – and this he admitted sheepishly on stage – he overlooked the fact that, as an American, he needed a visa to enter Viet [...]
