Singapore, an entrepreneurial hotspot?
Before making my trip to Singapore last month I had a completely different perception from the island. I expected it to be an entrepreneurial hotspot, the Asian version of Silicon Valley.
Back in 2001 I made my first visit to the island. Then my purpose was to gather information for a case study about the Singapore-Johor-Riau growth triangle, a success story of a cross regional economic cluster and a recipe for growth to network other parts in South-East Asia. Back then I was amazed by the number of business schools, research parks, the amount of international companies, the big LCD screens on the street broadcasting the 9/11 catastrophe, the public transportation, the many local food outlets, and of course the neatness. Singapore is a very clean island. Everything in the city is carefully planned. However, last month I had to assess that nothing much changed since my last visit.
Why arguing it to be an entrepreneurial hotspot?
From the information I got via the internet, Singapore from the perspective of the Singaporean government is doing a great job. Via business portals such as EnterpriseOne, International Enterprise Singapore and Spring they’re successful in promoting themselves, thus marketing is not the issue.
At the same time the Economic Development Board (EDB) is very active in setting up and promoting the many incentives for young start-ups, eg. seed financing scheme SEEDS. For young companies is it easy to attract public funding. The most important element for securing financing from the many public fund is not the groundbreaking conceptual idea, an investor ready business plan or a even a prototype of an innovative product but rather having a third party investor, which can be a relative or business angel.
Compared to other parts in the world, a lot of courses are being lectured on entrepreneurship, venture capital and innovation. Personally, I also participated in a course on the mechanics and intrigues of venture capital. This course explained me a lot, gave me good insight in the VC scene in Singapore and got me to conclude that the island is putting a lot of effort in making the island a true stepping stone for the many young ventures of tomorrow.
Finally, having exchange programmes for aspiring Singaporean young entrepreneurs to experience working for Silicon Valley based start-ups. What more can you do to breed the entrepreneurial spirit? Go to http://www.nusea.org/ to read more.
When having all these arguments, one might argue that this place is a perfect breeding soil for young innovative ventures. Still, investors are complaining about the limited dealflow and in particular the qualitative dealflow. After all Singapore remains a very small market. Check yourself the number of billion dollar companies spun out of Singapore.
to be continued …
Hi Didier,
Thanks for the note. I wrote an earlier piece on “Finding the Golden Path: Can Singapore be a Silicon Valley”. I think that it will be interesting to look at that to see where it can be heading towards.
Thanks for the link up. We have also linked with yours in our site.
| Posted 3 years, 3 months agoThank you for your comment. Your piece clearly adds on and explains a lot.
| Posted 3 years, 3 months agoIt is understood by the Singaporean government what the recipe for an entrepreneurial environment is about and by now most (or all) of the ingredients are present that allow ventures to better control most of the risks in venture creation and kick-off, but in the end the most essential element is still missing and that are those who can (or willing to) make ‘tasty’ dishes. For a first explanation and reasoning behind this -you have called it the lack of ‘fire in the belly’, ’software’ or entrepreneurial guts- I recommend readers to check your piece.