Meritxell Rosich from Splaype at rehearsals.
See new web technologies that aim to make it big. In this round we have Splaype, Hanasake Pictures, Studio Ousia, Heyawanna Labs, BCZ.com, Nundino, Reventive, and Fitness Buffet launching their products. Epsilon Mobile, Playmoolah, and Ubersnap will be doing Alpha Pitches.
Live blog:
17.31
Advice on entrepreneurship:
Erwan: “There’s no easy money.” If you are passionate about a product that will change the world, go do it.
Rebeca: Get out of tech community and talk to different people.
Jeff: If you want to do it, think big. Bigger markets. Make it way bigger. If you’re an actual technologist, think harder. Do better than a daily deals site.
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17.29
Rebeca: Finding mentors and experts is a challenge in smaller markets.
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17.27
Challenges for entrepreneurs in Singapore?
Jeff: We are a developed market, while the region is mostly developing market. Singapore is small, so have to go to the region right from the start. It’s not a homogeneous region either. Because we’re developed and English speaking, one good way is to look at the global market from day one and even move to the US. If you’re a first mover, disruptive, run fast, you’ll stand in good stead.
Erwan: He sees a lot of ideas. Very few them are willing to take a risk. Mentality shift needed. Role models. One big success story.
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17.24
Which company is most fundable and are most likely to reach exit or acquisition.
Jeff: Splaype looks quite interesting. Revenue model is clear. StyleShare is really B2B sales. That’s where it might be. B2C side isn’t going to take off.
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17.20
Perspectives on duplicates and companies that copy other ideas.
Erwan says he sees a lot of that the region. He thinks its good if something is developed in the US market but brought to the region to address a need. But he wants to see more companies that are disruptive.
Jeff thinks duplicates are fine. If you’re addressing a regional markets its hard to create disruptive products as there’s a need to educate the market. Innovating on duplicates make it easier for entrepreneurs to succeed.
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17.17
Erwan wants to know if the technology for Style Share has been patented. He thinks Nundino is addressing a great need, but he likes Trade Hero better because of the gamification aspect. Ouch.
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17.16
Jeff says Nundino needs to differentiate their product better.
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17.15
Rebeca thinks Style Share it’s cool too. But in a lot of cases, the pain point is that different brand carry different sizes that are not predictable. Sizing is the key issue. Even though Style Share is cool, she doesn’t think she or any of her friends will use it.
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17.14
17.13
Erwan likes Splaype and Style Share.
Jeff likes Splaype too! StyleShare is pretty cool. Fitness Buffet offers a nice twist. Splaype believes an iPad version might scale better. Might be too reliant on Skype.
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17.11
Some of the ideas have been done before, says Rebeca. In a couple of startups she doesn’t know what pain points they’re addressing.
Erwan didn’t see many that were disruptive. Ouch.
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17.09
“How’s everyone doing today? Good?” says Adriana.
Awkward Silence.
“…Good”, she echoes.
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17.08
And now for the Sages.
Jeffrey Paine, director of Founder Institute Singapore, Rebeca Hwang, founder of Younoodle, Erwan Mace , developer relations Google. Moderated by Adrina Gascoigne, founder of Girls in Tech.
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17.05
An app that can track your progress as a photographer. Provides incentives for photographers to keep sharing.
Vague pitch though.
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17.04
Finally, we have ubersnap, a camera app for the iPhone.
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17.04
Mint + ClubPenguin.
They’ve worked with behavioral economists to craft the curriculum.
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17.03
First is Min from PlayMoolah. Last year’s Echelon winner. PlayMoolah is a finance education and management tool for kids and parents.
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17.02
Alpha Pitches next!
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17.01
It’s like an e-book maker, except that the e-book maker is published as an app. Huh?
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17.00
You can add animations, videos, and stuff to the app that’s created. Even music.
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16.58
We have Epsilon Mobile now, with Papyrus, an easy way to make a mobile app.
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16.56
Two reason they’re different from Groupon:
1) Groupon delivers many customers to one deal, Fitness Buffet delivers one customer to many deals.
2) Groupon turned down six billion dollars from Google. Fitness Buffet… would not.
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16.55
“Airbnb of fitness industry.” At a premium, fitness companies can sell their stuff on the app.
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16.54
They’re now building a mobile app for a global rollout. Aiming for 500 cities by the end of the year. How many cities are there in the world?
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16.53
They charge for a one time fee, and they get a whole list of deals from fitness companies. They can do yoga, get a gym pass, and more.
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16.52
Next is Fitness Buffet. A one-stop solution for fitness needs. It’s NOT a groupon for business.
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16.50
I can see the profits that others made on stocks too. There’s also the ability to chat with other traders, exchange information, and ask for advice.
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16.50
Why would I share this information for free if I’m making money? And, how can you verify I actually made the trade I made.
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16.49
16.48
I see transactions made on a stock by the community. I can see trader sentiments.
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16.47
I can track trades, stock information, and feed from other traders. I can follow traders I like.
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16.46
Nundino… sounds like Nandos…
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16.45
Next is Nundino, a social network for traders. Sounds similar to TradeHero.
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16.44
Audience looks bored.
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16.43
They also have Qrius, an “award-winning” search technology for business information. An AI that’s location-aware. Hmm I wonder what award?
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16.42
This pitch has all the latest buzzwords.
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16.41
That looks like it is built with WordPress and plugins.
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16.41
BCZ.com offers a website builder. But the screenshot shows wordpress. Hmm…
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16.40
And… they’re back.
BCZ stands for business connection zone.
It’s a professional social network, e-commerce platform, news aggregator, website creator and more.
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16.40
16.38
Awkward moment of silence as they sort out some technical issues. The spaghetti is still on the whiteboard. It’s slowly coming off.
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16.37
Out comes a black trash bag placed on the floor, plus a whiteboard on a stand. On them are three paper targets. The presenter is holding what looks like spaghetti on a plate.
And yes: he throws them against the target.
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16.35
Next is BCZ.com, an all-in-one platform for businesses. “Their presentation is going to get messy”, goes Tim, the host.
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16.35
Hmm the mike seems to cut off when the time is up. Clever.
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16.34
Monetization: They’ll work with airlines, tour guides and folks in the tourism industry to publicize their services as an option for users to select when planning their activities.
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16.31
Upon entering the site, you’ll see a bunch of activities you can participate in. Once you select an activity, it tells you which of your friends are also doing the same thing. It does this by tracking your friends on Facebook.
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16.29
Leo from Heya! Wanna..? is up next. It’s an app that makes planning activities fun. It also helps people discover fun activities around them. Users can submit their own activities or join existing ones created by other users.
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16.27
Check out our complete coverage of DEMO Asia here: http://bit.ly/A5yLHu
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16.26
This dude Ikuya is experienced. CTO of Gractalist, which IPOed in 2006. His other company was acquired.
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16.26
Phroni has already been tested on several apps in Japan. It’s now a Firefox Mobile add-on. They’ll provide an API eventually to integrate their solution into iOS and Android apps.
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16.25
A machine learning engine determines which keywords are relevant. They plan to insert ads into keyword pages.
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16.23
The plugin allows search in wikipedia, Google, youtube, flickr, and more.
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16.22
Yeah, I agree that search for stuff on the iPhone is a pain in the ass. The company wants to resolve that by developing a browser plugin that automatically includes affiliate links to relevant keywords.
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16.21
Next is Studio Ousia, also from Japan. Their product is Phroni, which simplifies the process of search on mobile phones from seven steps to one. They’re now setting up.
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16.19
“It’s ammmazing..” he says in a low growl. Gotta love the Japanese.
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16.18
Style Share has been adopted by Japanese fashion retail brand United Arrows. It’s been tried over 1M times.
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16.18
16.17
You can also share your coordination online with your friends. Mimicking a real shopping experience.
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16.16
It works even with clothes on Google Images.
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16.16
It’s a personal coordination system that allows you to create an avatar. You can change hair style, face type. You can drag and dropped clothes onto the avatar. Using algorithms, the shirt wraps around the avatar. Nice.
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16.14
Wow the presenter has an entry music! “Suddenly I see..”
“Online shopping sucks”. I sorta agree.
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16.13
Hope you’re enjoying our coverage so far! Next is Hanasake Pictures (not a film company), with their web app, Style Share. It’s very cool.
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16.12
A juggler comes out of nowhere at the end. Nice.
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16.12
The video shows an actual test user — a kid — interacting with the mum. They aim to monetize through monetization, subscription, e-commerce. They’re also developing a white-label version.
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16.10
The content is synchronized, they can both see activities like games and video at the same time.
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16.10
16.10
Using the app, parents can play all sorts of games with kids. Like tic-tac-toe. You can also read or sing lullabies to your kids.
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16.09
The app shows when users open Skype.
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16.08
Attention span of children are low. Splaype hopes to retain their attention span while parents chat with their kids.
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16.07
Let’s welcome Splaype! It’s a hard to pronounce name.
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16.01
Hi everyone, we’re now looking at the companies pitching in the web technology category. Stay tuned!
This post Live blog: DEMO Asia pitches by web technology startups appeared first on Tech in Asia.