March 3, 2011

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Students need more startup exposure, says Startup Roots Sg founder

by John Lim

Helmed by Derrick Ko (Pivotal Labs), Zaizhuang Cheng (Anafore) and James Chan (Neoteny Labs), Startup Roots Singapore is the first international chapter of the US-based Startup Roots program. The program was first started by a team of established Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who saw the need for startups to have better access to talented individuals interested in the startup life.

By starting a chapter in Singapore, Startup Roots Singapore aims to show Singapore’s best students how rewarding the startup life can be, and encourage them to get involved in the startup community. In an e-mail interview, Wong Joon Ian wrote to Derrick Ko to find out more about how Startup Roots Singapore got started, and get his take on the Singaporean startup environment.

Wong Joon Ian: How did you connect with the Startup Roots folks in the US? How did the idea of Singapore chapter come about?

Derrick Ko: I first met Himani at Y Combinator’s Startup School last October. Himani is the co-founder of Startup Roots, and the founder of Micromobs. After hearing her experiences with Startup Roots in the Valley, I knew right away that Singapore could really use a program like that. Her reasons for starting Startup Roots definitely apply here too. I pitched her the idea of a Singapore chapter, and things started rolling from there.

WJI: What problem does Startup Roots solve in the Singapore startup ecosystem?

DK: Startups have problems finding talent. Our universities are filled with talent who are not exposed to the startups. Startup Roots bridges that gap. We want to show students that startup companies are an awesome place to work in. By exposing students to our ecosystem early, we hope to create batches of students raring to work at startups when they graduate. Or start even better companies than they otherwise would have.

Startups are already fighting against insane odds. We want to help with that.

WJI: Are there actually enough startups for students to intern at here?

DK: Definitely. I was collating our list the other day and we have a list of 15 startups and counting. They can’t wait to start speaking with our Fellows.

WJI: One thing that struck me about the Startup Roots literature is the emphasis on picking out “elite students”. What do you consider an elite student? Isn’t it rather, well, elitist?

DK: Most students choose large companies by default. There is nothing wrong with that. A decent pay packet within our comfort zone is the right choice for many people. But then, there are those who make sacrifices for something they believe in. Something with a much greater upside. To quote Reid Hoffman, “Doing a startup is like jumping off a cliff and trying to assemble an aeroplane on the way down.” If you are willing to take the plunge, you are elite in our books.

We want students who are talented in their area of specialty. Students who experiment beyond the scope of academics. Students with the drive to build cool stuff. There are such students out there. In fact, we just accepted Adrian from SMU as our first Fellow last week!

WJI: Who are some of the companies that Fellows can intern with?

DK: We have a great list of startups. 2359Media was one of the first participants, with Viki and Anideo being among the most recent to come on board.

WJI: Who are some of the speakers you’ll be bringing for your speaker series?

DK: Adeo Ressi, Steve Blank, and Robert Scoble were just some of the speakers in Startup Roots Silicon Valley. Pretty amazing stuff. I can’t say who we are lining up at this moment, but we are creating a schedule like that of our own. I’m really excited about it.

WJI: What role does Jame Chan at Neoteny and Ziazhuang play in this? What is your role?

Startup Roots is much like an early stage startup; it is all about getting stuff done. We don’t operate with job descriptions. Just a common goal, similar ideals and the same wavelength.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/tanjyeyee Jye Yee Alvin Tan

    The best way to motivate university students to seriously consider the startup route, whether as founder or employee, is to prove how it can be a viable alternative career option on par with other so-called professional jobs in terms of glamour, intellectual challenge, and potential financial reward. I’m a university student-cum-startup founder myself, and most of my peers don’t even know that there is such a thing as experimenting with hacking projects in university, founding a startup right after graduation, working like hell in the right direction for 3 to 5 years, and then get acquired by McAfee for however many million dollars. The level of awareness of startups among university students is not good, and the level of misconception is appalling. Most students are really only concerned about their peers getting ahead of them; all we need to do is to tell them, “Hey, if you want to kick your friend’s ass in the career department, join/start a startup, and you can work on exciting technology, deal directly with real customers, take on multiple job scopes, schedule your own working hours, do away with bureaucratic corporate bullshit, and potentially cash out after several years while your friends are still toiling away at some posh Raffles Place skyscraper making $5,000 a month. Even if you don’t cash out, the things you learn will stay with you forever, and you would have had a lot of fun along the way. Don’t worry about not having enough money at the end of it all, most of your consumerist hedonistic corporate drone counterparts are too imprudent to save/invest anyway. They’re too busy buying cars, clothes, concert tickets, home decors, etc.”

  • http://pandamian.com Eli James

    If it counts for anything, NUS Hackers (nushackers.org) are working with Derrick and co. to make this a success – it took all of 30 minutes to convince us that it’s a brilliant idea, and much needed for the local startup scene (and we should know, being a group of students/hackers/entrepreneurs ourselves).

  • http://pandamian.com Eli James

    The level of awareness of startups among university students are not too good? Funny, we seem to be besieged by Business students pimping their latest ‘world changing idea’ every few weeks or so. Then again, maybe it’s the crowd of people I know …

    Overheard for real: “why don’t you create an iPhone app? Don’t you want to change the world?” Sigh.

  • http://www.facebook.com/tanjyeyee Jye Yee Alvin Tan

    If it’s true that most people are talking about startup ideas already, it’s good news. Misguided or not, they have expressed an intention to dabble in startups… even if that just makes them wantrepreneurs. Where I study, literally less than a handful of people even know about startups and the startup community.

  • http://pandamian.com Eli James

    Where do you study, Alvin?

  • http://www.facebook.com/tanjyeyee Jye Yee Alvin Tan

    NUS, but the other campus.

  • http://elijames.org Eli James

    Well, I recommend that you come over here sometime. There’s a small group of people (from Engineering and Computing) who hack together, and are involved in startups, were formerly from NOC, or are just plain awesome.

  • http://www.facebook.com/tanjyeyee Jye Yee Alvin Tan

    Sure, I’ve in fact lived on Kent Ridge campus for 3 years now, and I’ve hung out at e27/Garag3 in the past attending their meet-ups and building stuff at Hackspace for like a year. I’ve also checked out NUS Hackers, looks like you guys are about hacking per se. Correct me if I’m wrong, since I’m more of a Javascript/JQuery/CSS kind of guy (what do they call those… oh yeah, UI/UX designers), though I have of course coded in Python, PHP, etc. out of necessity…

  • Shayne

    It’s not going to be easy to convince students to join the startup scene here especially when there is a lack of or poor track record…it’s ALL about the money for many young Singaporeans (can’t really blame them). But I applaud your efforts. Good luck! Hope your venture will turn out well.

  • http://elijames.org Eli James
  • http://www.thewebcitizen.com Thewebcitizen.com

    The thing about entrepreneurship is whether you have it or not, it can be cultivated ( in the very young age, taking responsibilities by starting a small project ) but the people who become entrepreneurs have the gene inside them. It is not the money that motivates them ( at least in the beginning ) but the satisfaction of creating something out of nothing. Do not forget that having a start up means that you need to do a lot of chores in the beginning, so no glam parties, no fixed office hours, no fixed working location, no stable income and if you do make a mistake you will pay the full price.

    Elias

  • http://twitter.com/jpaine jpaine

    great initiative, we at Battle and Founder Institute Singapore are in support!
    go FI!

  • http://andycroll.com/ Andy Croll

    That’s where epic amounts of founder charisma (*cough*) and ‘fun at work’ should hopefully come into play!

  • http://sg.startuproots.org Derrick Ko

    Thanks for the support guys!

    @Shayne: I agree. Finding the right bunch of students is our biggest challenge. But it’s not impossible. We have a great pipeline of students interviewing with us, which is really encouraging.

  • http://twitter.com/jpaine jpaine

    yep, its about 20% genetic

  • http://twitter.com/jpaine jpaine

    great UI/UX talent is still quite rare in sg…

  • eric

    hacker should go out more to meet more designer. esp if they are trying to make something useable and delightful.

    “Technology alone is not enough. It’s technology married with liberal arts “- Steve

  • http://www.motochan.com/2011/03/12/perspectives-on-the-sea-tech-ecosystem/ Perspectives on the SEA Tech Ecosystem — motochan

    [...] time with the Singapore chapter of the non-profit organization, Startup Roots.  You can read the recent article at e27 if you’d like more background on what we’re doing.  I see this as a long haul thing, [...]

  • http://www.motochan.com/2011/04/20/startup-roots-update/ Startup Roots Update — motochan

    [...] by James Chan on 20 Apr ’11 I just got off the team’s regular coordination call, and figured I’d take some time to update everyone on the momentum we’ve gotten behind Startup Roots Singapore after 2-odd months of work. For an overview, check out e27′s email interview with Derrick Ko. [...]

  • http://www.motochan.com/2011/04/20/startup-roots-singapore-update/ Startup Roots Singapore Update — motochan

    [...] by James Chan on 20 Apr ’11 I just got off the team’s regular coordination call, and figured I’d take some time to update everyone on the momentum we’ve gotten behind Startup Roots Singapore after 2-odd months of work. For an overview, check out e27′s email interview with Derrick Ko. [...]

  • http://sgentrepreneurs.com/news-stop/2011/05/14/startup-roots-kicks-off-speaker-series-with-joi-in-singapore/ Startup Roots Kicks Off Speaker Series With Joi In Singapore : SGEntrepreneurs

    [...] an interview with Startup Roots Singapore founder, Derrick Ko on e27, and according to Neoteny’s James, [...]

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