I am currently sipping my macchiato latte at pacific coffee company at Vivo City. Yeah.. they have nice plush sofa there.. and I just kind of like lounging around there with my laptop….
Archive for the ‘Ideas’ Category
Inefficient Latte Market
Sunday, April 11th, 2010Modern way of hailing a cab
Sunday, March 28th, 2010
Just wanted to blog this down.. before I conveniently forget about it. Yes.. sometimes I get wierd ideas on how to make the world a better place.. 
Recently, due to my failing memories, I lost my phone. The result was that I got myself a new android and new iphone.
And I was thinking to myself… why do people need to hail a cab through the traditional phone line? Surely, it is much more convenient for someone to just whip out their i-phone/g-phone and click on the option to say that they would like to hail a cab and have their whereabouts information effortlessly integrated to the Taxi reservation system?
It is a win-win for both sides.
Consumers.. no longer need to specify their location (as the phone GPs can do the work for them). They save big on both time and mobile charges.
Taxi Companies … no longer need to spend money on telephone receptionist to handle the calls. The system can automate the entire cab hailing process.
Hey.. in the future, it might even give rise to paid hitch hikers. I remembered once when the government actually made it mandatory for all cars entering the CBD to have 4 passengers… there was actually a central pick-up point for people to gather.. so that cars with insufficient passengers can just load up these strangers….
Surely, a driver who is on the way to Clementi wouldn’t mind stopping by and picking up a passenger who is going there for a few extra bucks? Win for the driver (money), Win for the hitch-hiker (cheaper ride) and win for the environment (less CO2)! A triple win-win-win!
Android -> The death of SMS Modems
Monday, June 15th, 2009I was looking at my android phone when I thought.. hmm.. this will be the end of all those Waveo, etc.. sms modems. I mean.. wouldn’t it be easier to just write an service on your Android phone that recurring polls a Web Service for SMS Messages to be sent? Upon detecting it, it will automatically send the SMS Message.
Anyway, I should be writing something like this soon. I find it exceedingly irritating to keep typing in the small Android keypad to sms my customer. I need a more efficient messaging platform.
Publishing PDF online – Scribd
Thursday, April 30th, 2009Social Media with Email Marketing
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009Was looking through some online marketing magazine, when I found an interesting article that advocated the mixing of social media with email marketing strategy… Hmm.. maybe there is something I can leverage on?
http://www.mediabuyerplanner.com/2009/04/23/social-email-campaigns-to-increase-nearly-400-in-2009/
I find it quite interesting, as recently, I was exposed to CNI business school who were willing to pay 1-2k for a solitary blast to eHoteliers database. I guess.. this shows the importance of a targeted group of clientele. I think Social Media.. might be the next easy thing to get a targeted group of clientele. Provide something useful.. and sure.. people should flock there.
Was thinking of Cinema timings and locations. Why not build a site that allows people to very easily locate the nearest cinema showing their favorite shows? Currently, the navigation is pretty unfriendly… On top of it, maybe we can leverage on Facebook for dissemination of the app. The app can also let people review the movies really easily.. and surely.. we would much prefer to read our friends’ reviews over those posted by some crap people.
Anyway, started getting my intern to GeoCode the cinemas in Singapore….
Reid Hoffman Rules of Investing – TC
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009Just read something interesting from Tech Crunch…
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/19/reid-hoffman-my-rule-of-three-for-investing/
Got some really interesting insights from my good friend who started StreetSine.
——————-From StreetSine———————
Bro,
I understand what he is saying and agree to it if you’re building the next facebook or flickr. Macham like whatever Google does, it must scale WORLDWIDE.
But building something for niche areas and niche customer segment is a different ballgame altogether. Especially in the Asia Pac region. The geo-political situation, data representation, culture and needs are completely different in each country. There is no economies of scale for your web app. You need to customize it to serve a relatively small population. SG is a small place, and so is Malaysia, or Thailand or HK or even Australia, etc…
When the potential audience is small, the focus will be fundamentally different.
——————-From Me———————
Hmmm… so you are saying… that the business model right from the start one… is only relevant for Singapore Start Ups?
While for the states… community and users are all that matter?
BTW, facebook is still bleeding and is in need of funding… despite over 400 mil revenue.
——————-From StreetSine———————
Business models are far more important in SG (or more accurately, if you’re starting up something niche either in geographical or services sense).
2 things don’t change. One is a company closes down due to negative cashflow or being out of capital. Second is, assuming that the the business finds a sustainable business model, it is often different from the original one that is envisage.
If you put the 2 things together, funding takes a very critical role. Its a fact that the business will have to lose money on a constant basis until the business model is found. So the qn is, how long do you’ve before you will be forced to abandon it?
How long depends on (a) the development cost and burn rate and (b) the confidence of the investor to continue putting money. Now, if you compare SG and Worldwide, the development cost per potential customer is significantly higher due to lack of economies of scale. To put things worse, the confidence of the investor is also lower (or investors are more impatient) due to the smaller potential.
(Note that investor can be anyone, including ourselves)
Bottomline is, niche has far less time to play with compared to facebook. So if you assume business model change takes the path of A (initial conception) -> B -> C -> D -> E (right one), then you had better start with C or D in SG because you don’t have the luxury of waiting for the right model before you’re forced to close down. (Note: business model experimentation and changes take as much time whether you’re creating facebook or SG services)
Therefore, IMHO, getting the business model approximately right (rather than precisely wrong) is far more important in niches where there is no economies of scale.
That’s my thesis
Showcasing Windows Live Writer Technology
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009Price: Free
Date: 16 Apr – 21 Apr
Traveling overseas
The key idea is basically:
Share Advertising
Sticky Content to get recurrent visitors (by pulling relevant data)
Easy to Use
Interesting Facebook Plugin of Singapore Movies
Sunday, March 29th, 2009Hmmm… was thinking.. maybe it can be quite cool to have a facebook plugin that allows you to list the singapore movies.. and tag your own personal reviews which will be visible by all your friends too…. They can also …. through that plugin… start dating their facebook pals on movie outings!
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/03/24/netflix-creeps-into-facebook-with-netflix-updates/
Carpooling Concept – Cool
Sunday, March 29th, 2009Hmmm… I was reading this article when I thought… how cool it would have been if such things were available when I am in my primary school… I study in a pretty affluent secondary school… Definitely will have a lot of people carpooling.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/25/zimride-a-carpooling-startup-that-actually-makes-money/
E-Coupons
Sunday, March 29th, 2009
During my university days, I actually tried to do a start up with 2 other friends I got to know in a technopreneurship class. Well, those were the times when the dot com boom was still raving… and everybody had a start-up idea somehow. We too had ours. We wanted to do a discount site. A site which will agglomerate all the coupon vouchers of Singapore. NTUC, Carrefour, etc… always take up half page ads in newspaper to lure customers in with special buys…. but what happens if say.. the customer lost their copy of the newspaper? Wouldn’t it be nice if they can just go to a e-coupon site to print out the coupon and claim the discounts? Wouldn’t it be nice… if we can sign up at a site to say what kind of products we frequently purchase and be notified of it once it comes on sale?
E-coupons are coming alive once again in the States… maybe its time to start something similar in Singapore.
