As sensationalistic as blog titles can get, the direction of E27 is also taking a rather bold, if wholly radical and kickass path from tomorrow onwards!

We are hitting closer to the eye of the storm or more aptly, the CORE & NUCLEUS of this startup ecosystem. From tomorrow onwards, we are no longer one-trick ponys that concentrates on holding infrequent unconferences only for folks to talk shop, get excited and then go home to fend for their own brainchild by themselves.

We want to do more! 17 months since E27 Singapore was started, we see too many organizations holding metaphorical matches to light the entrepreneurship fires through events but too few actually maintaining those initial sparks. We realized that the energy of our E27 team is not bounded by the institutional policies of any university, junior college or polytechnic; not by the lack of money to fund our events; not by goverment (thankfully!) and most importantly, definitely not by any apathy but instead, raw enthusiasm from you all !

Garages & Incubators – The Nuclei of the Entrepreneurship Atom

E27 Singapore will set up and manage the first E27 “Garage” in partnership with NUS Entrepreneurship Centre (NEC). This will be an incubator with micro-funding of up to $55,000 per startup to jumpstart your ideas. Though not an actual car garage, but a refurbished bungalow, the scruffiness of this legendary house-space will not be lost in our local version. This Garage will seek to reinvent the startup incubator model in Singapore, which has traditionally been VC-driven and overly pushy on well-planned business plans, smart suits or other officialdom and pompous guidelines. Our new E27 Garage will be fittingly messy and in line with how true innovation is: unstructured, democratic and backed by the ethos and ideals of the Hacking Culture.

At this new E27 Garage, imagination will be allowed to run wild as long as it is legal. No idea is stupid, its only stupid people who reject the truly doable ones. Chip in at our Garage Wiki on your ideas and thoughts. Our focus is on software applications and media content production for online and mobile. Think GooglePlex, Facebook offices and we hope to produce a highly conducive and non-pressurising environment to spur creative freedom.

Culture has always been core to all E27 unconferences. Away with gray, Industrial-Age cubicles and windowless incubation space run entirely by bureaucrats who know s*** about your business!

Uniformity and grayness has no place in The Garage. E27 Garage(s) will be run and fronted by young, passionate folks from the same E27 community that ran the unconferences. We share your passion for entrepreneurship and can contribute as sounding boards, testing audiences, maybe even potential hires!

Spunk has to be the language to embolden crazy thoughts in a true incubator., like this grafitti art of a fist in the Facebook office. Ideas are cheap, it is both your team and that fabled killer product vision that will rule the day! We are in the process of forming an advisory board that will comprise of like-minded and adventurous mentors from Silicon Valley who do not confuse experience with snobbishness but with genuine desires to share and help.

To date, we have initial space for ~8 startups to set up shop in our Garage. We currently already have 4 teams signed up with us. Grab your chance and comment here/ email us!

We leave you today with the following poster:

Stay tuned for more details and feel free to contribute thoughts at our Garage Wiki here.