StartupsHK

Pitch Night Wednesday May 16th - Haexagon Concepts, 10xEngineer.me, Note-in, and GroupIntent

Tue, 15 May 2012 19:57:00 -0700

Come out to Bisous tonight at 7 sharp and see these awesome startups battle it out for fame and prizes. See what our panel of judges think of their business models and plans. Meet and network with entrepreneurs, investors, and mentors.

RSVP here.

Haexagon Concepts: Creating new forms of storytelling & content distribution through trans-media.

10xEngineer.me: A school for next generation rockstar engineers.

Note-in: A simple and intuitive solution for making presentations interactive.

GroupIntent: A behaviour change platform that helps users achieve their aspirations.

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Judges for May 16th Pitch Night: Yat Siu, Morgan Parker, Andy Ann, Tony Chan

Fri, 11 May 2012 23:50:00 -0700

This is a golden opportunity to meet with some talented and experienced local entrepreneurs and see them grill the newest startups in town.

Yat Siu, Founder and CEO of Outblaze

Morgan Parker, Founder of Wheel2Wheel, former President of Taubman Asia and VP of Morgan Stanley

Andy Ann, Founder and CEO of New Digital Noise, DaRiZi wedding media and services, Hot Media

Tony Chan, Founder and CEO of APDealFlow

It is going to be a night not to miss if you are an entrepreneur, investor, or just find this stuff amusing.

See more details about the event and RSVP, space is limited.

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Twitter Drinking Hong Kong's 1st Anniversary Tweet Up on May 17 at Hyde - register now! #TDHK

Mon, 07 May 2012 08:09:00 -0700

Since everyone had a great time at last month's mixer mash-up we're posting May's #TDHK event here for all the start-ups that are interested in coming out to our May tweet-up at Hyde.

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May 16th - Book Launch and Pitch Night: Red Cross Benefit

Mon, 07 May 2012 06:37:00 -0700

Come and join us and Regus for an awesome night of pitching and talks from local startups and established entrepreneurs, celebrating the launch of the Regus book, Growth in a Difficult Decade – which tells the story of 64 established global entrepreneurs and offers tips to start-ups on how to succeed. We've lined up some of the most well known and experiened Hong Kong based entrepreneurs and business leaders for the judging panel, many of whom are featured in the book.

Date: May 16

Venue: Bisous, Lan Kwai Fong Tower

Time: 630-830pm

Cost: HK$100 inc one drink*

*All profits to the Red Cross

Prize: Top prize--I year HR& Payroll service from TMF Group in Asia Pacific

Special discounted copies of the book will be available to purchase on the night.

All profits from the night will go to the Red Cross.

Interested in pitching? Contact jonathan at startupshk.com

Thanks to the Premiere Sponsor:

TMF Group

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#SUMHK June 11 - Founder of MangaHelpers Talks Community and Online Publishing

Sun, 06 May 2012 13:51:00 -0700

How to successful grow a community website to become the biggest in its space, dealing with Japanese manga publishing industry, doing business in Japan in general.

We're fortunuate to have the founder of MangaHelpers.com in Hong Kong for 1-night at Startup Monday.

The meeting will be held at:

Where: BootHK, 19/F, 231 Queen's Road East, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Starts: Promptly at 7:30pm
Cost: Free to all to attend.

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Douglas Young, Founder of G.O.D. to Speak at First YDC Networking Event

Sun, 06 May 2012 07:18:00 -0700

The first networking event of the Young Entrepreneurs Council is on May 24 at Linguini Fini in Central - its free and our friend Douglas Young is speaking (video from Startup Saturday 2010 posted above)

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TEDxMongKok is on May 24: Register Now #TEDx #MongKok #HK

Sun, 06 May 2012 07:14:00 -0700

Great line-up of speakers and its free (just click the NO option when it shows the price on the sign-up page): http://www.tedxmongkok.com/

WHAT IS TEDx?

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is TEDxMongKok, where x=independently organized TED event. At our TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in an intimate group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.

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#SUMHK April 30 - Startup Weekend Global Winner AfterShip presenting at Boot HK

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 22:32:00 -0700

A Smart Guy: Hey, I have an idea better than Instagram, worth at least 1 billion.

Mr. Startup: Have you found any good developers and designers?

A Smart Guy: No.....

Mr. Startup: Signup the Startup Weekend Hong Kong in May!

Startup Weekend is an intensive 54 hour event to launch a startup - "No Talk, All Action".

The founders of AfterShip, three Hong Kong locals, will share with you an adventure of forming a startup after winning the 2011 Startup Weekend, from quitting jobs to launching the product and raising a seed funding. They will also tell you the dos and don'ts and tips to win in the coming Startup Weekend.

Strongly encourage developers, students or people who have great ideas to join the meeting. And if your startup is newly formed, please pass by and support the Hong Kong startup community.

The meeting will be held at BootHK, 19/f, 231 Queen's Road East at 7:30pm.

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#SUMHK APRIL 23RD - MIKE HASKAMP: NO GUTS, NO GLORY, STARTING A BUSINESS IN A DOWNTURN

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 09:50:36 -0700

Starting a business takes guts. The older you get, the more strength and courage you will need to do that. This coming Monday you will have a chance to hear from a guy who not only started a business in a financial crisis but did so when he was at the lowest point of his life having been laid off and divorced. So what propelled him to go against the odds and take a different direction in life despite having graduated from Harvard undergrad and Columbia MBA?

Come to #SUMHK on Monday to find out. Mike Haskamp and his partner, founded Legend Fighting Championship (Legend), Hong Kong's first professional mixed martial arts competition in July 2009. After two and a half years, Legend has held 8 events across Hong Kong, Macau and this past weekend in Jakarta Indonesia. Initially, their revenues came from ticket sales. Today, it's a combination of television licensing, sponsorships, ad sales and ticket sales.

The meeting will be held at BootHK, 19/f, 231 Queen's Road East at 7:30pm.

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#SUMHK APRIL 16 - #4SQDAY CELEBRATION AT DROP LOUNGE, OPENBAR UPDATES, XISHI MASSAGE

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 09:22:12 -0700

This upcoming #SUMHK is going to land on #4sqDay so we have decided to have #SUMHK at the Drop Lounge in Central where we all can celebrate #4sqDay in style!

Not only will there be free shots for all people who checkin (via whatever medium you like, not just Foursquare, and you may be getting a surprise if you checkin via Openbar) and happy hour that last for 3 hours (from 7pm-10pm), a masseuse will be there as well to give you a MASSAGE, thanks to Xishi, a Hong Kong startup that pioneered premium mobile massage service online! We'll see if we can incorporate massage to future SUMHK, hehe, we wish!

Besides short pitches by Openbar and Xishi, we will be giving away Foursquare swags as well! We look forward to chilling with all of you this coming Monday!

Please note that this #SUMHK is not at Boot but will be at:

Venue: Drop Lounge, 39-43 Hollywood Road (entrance is on Cochrane Street down an alley next to Ben and Jerry's)

Time: 7pm-10pm (Openbar and Xishi will speak at around 8pm)

Date: April 16th

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/335723606492466/

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Come out to our Spring Startup Mixer at FLY on April 19 hosted by @StartupsHK and #TDHK

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 18:21:55 -0700

We haven't seen everyone since Pitch Night back in February, so come on out for the Spring Startup Mixer on Thursday April 19th!

We'll have some startups from Silicon Valley in town attending, so a great chance to network, share stories, talk to angels, find co-founders and have a drink with the startup community that has grown so massively in Hong Kong and was featured in TimeOut magazine recently,

RSVP with your name/Twitter handle below, just so we know many people to expect to this free event.

Fly is on Ice House Street in Central with 2-for-1 drink specials for us and we'll be joined by the Twitter Drinking Hong Kong group who is co-organzing this with us.

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Startups: This Is How Design Works - a Visual Guide

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 07:26:00 -0700

via startupsthisishowdesignworks.com

Companies like Apple are making design impossible for startups to ignore. Startups like Path, Airbnb, Square, and Massive Health have design at the core of their business, and they're doing phenomenal work. But what is ‘design’ actually? Is it a logo? A Wordpress theme? An innovative UI?

It’s so much more than that. It’s a state of mind. It’s an approach to a problem. It’s how you’re going to kick your competitor’s ass. This handy guide will help you understand design and provide resources to help you find awesome design talent.

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Join the StartupsHK LinkedIn group with over 700+ members

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 06:21:00 -0700

We set up a group in LinkedIn to share links, contacts and information to the growing Hong Kong start-up community - so if you want to connect and meet people and learn what people are doing please join now - we validate all requests to join to keep the group dynamic and spam-free.

Click here to join the StartupsHK LinkedIN group now.

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TimeOut magazine interview with @StartUpsHK on newsstands and online now

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 05:45:00 -0700

If you want the paper version of the TimeOut article on HK's tech and social media scene it's at newwstands now - and the full article can be linked to here.

Follow the founders of @StartupsHK on Twitter:

Gene Soo: @genesoo
Jonathan Buford: @jonbuford
Casey Lau: @hypercasey
Daniel Cheng: @danielhitome

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Plukka Founder Joanne Ooi On Merging Manufacturing And Group Buying on TechCrunch

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 05:36:00 -0700

Our very own Joanne Ooi is on Techcrunch TV talking about her recently launched start-up Plukka.com and how she is disrupting the designer jewelery industry.

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The Community Gurus: StartupsHK Featured in TimeOut Magazine

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:46:00 -0700

The founders of StartupsHK - Gene Soo, Jon Buford, Casey Lau and Daniel Cheng - were interviewed by James Sibley for a feature in TimeOut Magazine Hong Kong.

Also featured in the article are some of our digital friends in Hong Kong like Digital Butter and Trufflepig.

Progressively, they gave us a PDF of the actual article so you can read online or on your tablet. Let us know in the comments what you think!

101.05_Feature.pdf Download this file

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#SUMHK March 12th - Simon Newstead: Impossible is Nothing (Getting Angel Funding in Hong Kong and Singapore)

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 04:02:00 -0800

You have a great product or idea, and you need some cash to make it happen. But where do you even start? I'll share practical tips on what to do and what not to do when pitching Angels in HK/SG, and how to find them in the first place.

Through it I'll chat about my totally unsuccessful and then ultimately successful experience raising an angel round here. It should be a fun discussion.

The meeting will be held at BootHK, 19/f, 231 Queen's Road East at 7:30pm.

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#SUMHK March 5: Transitioning from a Bootstrapped Niche to Venture Backed Success

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 04:49:00 -0800

Most startups want to raise capital, but what about what happens after you do? Unfortunately there are fewer guides and talks about what to do after you raised the money and have to transition to a venture backed success.

Hear about the exciting adventure of Telerik, a successful developer tools vendor, that started as a small niche player in the European backwaters. Learn how they raised venture capital from a prominent firm and grew from a tiny company working in a small warehouse to 500 employees with offices in seven countries. See how the founders had to learn on the fly, particularly when acquiring companies and entering new markets. Telerik has started the difficult process of transitioning from the start-up phase to building a "real" company eyeing an eventual IPO. Learn from all of our mistakes! The story will be told by Stephen Forte, Telerik's Chief Strategy Officer and Richard Campbell, a member of the board.

The meeting will be held at BootHK, 19/f, 231 Queen's Road East at 7:30pm.

Stephen Forte

Stephen Forte is the Chief Strategy Officer of the venture backed company, Telerik, a leading vendor of developer and team productivity tools. Involved in several startups, he was the co-founder of Triton Works, which was acquired by UBM (London: UBM.L) in 2010 and was the Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Corzen, Inc., which was acquired by Wanted Technologies (TXV: WAN) in 2007. Prior to Corzen, Stephen served as the CTO of Zagat Survey in New York City (acquired by Google in 2011) and also was co-founder of the New York-based software consulting firm The Aurora Development Group. Stephen is also a Certified Scrum Professional, PMP, and also speaks regularly at industry conferences around the world. He has written several books on application and database development. Stephen has an MBA from the City University of New York. Stephen is also a board member of the Scrum Alliance. An avid mountain climber, Stephen leads a trek in the Mt. Everest region every fall to raise money for charity. Stephen lives in Hong Kong with his wife. @worksonmypc

Richard Campbell

Richard Campbell has been involved with microcomputers and software since 1977. His career has spanned the industry both on the hardware and software sides, from manufacturing to sales, service, game development, line-of-business software and large scale systems. He's been deeply involved in creating new businesses around software, hardware, services and products in a huge range of roles, including technical, management and financing. During the halcyon days of the DotComBoom he was a consultant to venture capital firms providing technical due diligence and architectural direction.Today Richard is on the board of directors for Telerik (www.telerik.com), a leading vendor of development, team productivity, automated testing tools, UI components and content management solutions in the Microsoft space. He is one of the co-founders of Strangeloop Networks (www.strangeloopnetworks.com), developing an appliance for web site performance. He's a partner in PWOP Productions, creating a variety of multimedia programs including ".NET Rocks!, the Internet Audio Talk Show for .NET Developers," (www.dotnetrocks.com) a podcast produced twice a week for more than 150,000 listeners in 120 countries.

@richcampbell

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#SUMHK tonight: HKSTPC Incu-App Programme

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 20:45:28 -0800

There is a new kid on the incubation block here in Hong Kong.

The Incu-App Programme out of the Science Park (HKSTPC) is a new take on the model with strategic partnerships with the major market players in the web and mobile industry, including ASTRI, CITIC Telecom, Cluster Tech, Microsoft, Nokia, WTIA, Samsung and 6waves Lolapps to provide one-stop services to the incubatees in the Incu-App Programme. This programme is tailor-made for start-ups developing web/mobile apps or portals. The 18 month program connects companies with strategic partners, provides free co-work space at the Science Park, and gives access to supporting (matching) funds of HKD $300,000.

As usual, the meeting is at BootHK, 19/f, 231-233 Queen's Road East in Wan Chai and will start at 7:30pm.

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DMCA for HK - Speak now or forever lose your rights.

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 03:04:00 -0800

The HK government is currently working on a DMCA for Hong Kong that is being lead by industry feedback without any significant balance from content creators and private citizens. If we don't give feedback now, we will be stuck with less rights than we have now and it will be our own fault. This impacts both companies and individuals.

What can you do?

You can find the whole thing here, including some responses to the last round of consultation:

http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr10-11/english/bc/bc10/general/bc10.htm

http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr10-11/english/bc/bc10/papers/bc10_d.htm

Give well thought out responses and tell anyone else that hasn't heard of it.

Any submissions for feedback needs to be submitted by March 2nd.

Image courtesy xkcd

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