School for Startups at Web Wednesday HK (V80)

Thanks to the folk at Invest Hong Kong, we've lined up Doug Richard, a world-class speaker and founder of School for Startups, as part of the StartmeupHK December Week, held 2-7th December 2013 across different venues in Hong Kong.

According to his Twitter profile, @dougrichard is an "Entrepreneur, Investor, Teacher, former Dragon from Dragons Den. Founder of SchoolForStartups teaching entrepreneurship around the globe". Find them on Facebook and YouTube.

This well-known and 'no holds barred" speaker founded School for Startups to enable new and aspiring entrepreneurs to turn their big ideas into successful enterprises. As a renowned entrepreneur himself, Doug has taught, mentored and provided training to over 25,000 businesses encouraging a more entrepreneurial mind-set to improve bottom line results.

See him in action below:



Doors open at 6:30pm with the interview starting at 7:15pm on Wednesday 4th December, 2013 at Bisous Hong Kong, 9/F, LKF Tower, 33 Wyndham St, Central, Hong Kong.

The entrance fee of HK$100 includes a complimentary drink and the opportunity to meet driven internet entrepreneurs, the local design and development community and digital media folk.

Come celebrate 80 successful social mixers with us! We have some fun surprises lined up for y'all!

Sign up on Facebook or MeetUp.

Contestants for Battle of the Apps V

A wide range of mobile app entrepreneurs will be taking to the stage for our 5th Battle of the Apps, held at Bisous (9/F LKF Tower, Central, Hong Kong), 6:30pm - 9:30pm on Wednesday 20th November, 2013.

This event is open to anyone interested in seeing the latest Hong Kong start-ups in the mobile space. Let us know that you're coming - and see who else will be there - by signing up via Facebook or MeetUp.

As app development is so hot in Hong Kong at the moment, the contest has been over-subscribed. Unfortunately, we've had to turn down a few entrepreneurs but, no need to worry, we will hold another battle of the apps in early 2014.

Here are our ten brave contestants, listed in order of contest registration. (Each app description comes from the contestant themselves. If we cannot find the intro video, we have just posted a screenshot of the app).

Contestant #1 - Easy Taxi
Using a passenger’s location, the app contacts the nearest taxis to the user and allows the passenger to see which taxi has accepted their request. By showing the driver’s picture, license number and phone number as well as allowing the passenger track in real time how close the taxi is to their location, getting a taxi in Hong Kong has never been safer and more convenient. Read more on their website, follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus. Download the app from iTunes, Google Play, Blackberry Apps World and Samsung App Stores.



Contestant #2 - Maaii
Maaii is a new mobile communications app for iOS and Android devices that combines calls, chat functions and social network integration. Read more on their website. Follow them on Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Twitter, Weibo and YouTube. Download from iTunes and Google Play.



Contestant #3 - meToo!
meToo! is the world's first location based app that allows anybody to quickly create, share, comment and rsvp to microevents with friends, or like minded people nearby. It's a Twitter-like service but with event management options. A micro-event on meToo! is a small, informal and spontaneous gathering with your friends, or people nearby with the same interest, hobby or demographic profile. Read more on their website. Download from iTunes.



Contestant #4 - Spottly
Spottly is an app that aims to make it really easy for anyone to create and share their travel notes of places they’ve been to or places they want to go to. Spottly is seed investment by 500Startups, a Silicon Valley early-stage seed fund and startup accelerator founded by Dave McClure, back in April 2013. Matt Cheng of Cherubic Ventures is leading Spottly’s angel round. As of October 14, 2013, Spottly has been selected by Apple to be featured on the App Store’s “Best New Apps” in 15 countries, which includes Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Brunei, Cambodia and Laos. Read more on their website. Follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Angel List. Download from iTunes.

Contestant #5 - Flying Saucer
Flying Saucer is an Augmented Reality app that enables static objects, documents or geolocated areas to be linked to dynamic and immersive interactive content - everything from games, videos, websites, 3D animations, youtube and social media feeds can be linked by the app to objects such as a buildings statues, magazines, posters, walls and even the sky. More on their website. Follow the creator on Twitter. Download from iTunes.

Contestant #6 - Radio Chinwag
The app is designed for you to practise speaking English and to get feedback on your language abilities from your peers and from teachers. Feedback is in the form of ratings on Fluency, Vocabulary, Grammar and Accent, as well as individual comments. You can build your own community of English learners with the same age, location or ability as you. Read more on their website. Follow on Twitter and Facebook. Download from iTunes and Google Play.\

Contestant #7 - HiBaby Diary
HiBaby Diary is the first App that allows writing and printing the multimedia diary of your baby's first year. Memories you and your family will keep forever. HiBaby Diary is a perfectly web-integrated system for iPhone and iPad that lets you share reading and writing the most important moments of your baby’s first year of life with your family and friends, in real time: text, pictures, video. Once completed the diary can be printed too in a big luxury customized book available with a choice of bindings. Read more on their website. Follow on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Vimeo, 56 (China) and Youku. Download for iPhone or iPad (different versions).


HiBaby Diary - The App from hibaby.biz on Vimeo.

Contestant #8 - Chope
Chope offers diners instantly confirmed reservations at some of the finest restaurants in Hong Kong and Singapore. Read more on their website. Follow on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus or Instagram. Download from iTunes or Google Play.

Contestant #9 - Petrol Usage Tracker
With Petrol Usage Tracker users can easily keep track of their fuel consumption. Simple and easy to use, the app provides a handy possibility to get an overview of this important household expense. Create a profile for your car and enter the distance driven and the amount and price of newly added petrol to get your average fuel spending calculated for you. The app fully supports metric and imperial units and is able to show a car's fuel consumption in liter per 100 kilometers or miles per gallon. The fuel expense can be shown in any of the world's currencies and can even be converted into another currency at the current exchange rate! Visit the developer website (S4BB). Follow them on Twitter or Facebook.

Contestant #10 - Spotdesign
Spot designs you like in the street, exhibitions and so and and share it with your friends. Post your content to buyMeDesign. Read more on their website. Follow buyMeDesign on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest or YouTube. Download from iTunes.



Good luck to all our contestants. Come see these budding entr-app-reneurs in action at Web Wednesday's popular Battle of the Apps event on 20th November, 2013.

Evernote at Web Wednesday HK (V78)

For our 78th social mixer, we have invited Troy Malone, General Manager of Evernote in Asia Pacific. [Read Troy's blog, follow him on Twitter or Facebook].

Evernote was born in 2008 and has now become "the external brain" to over 65 million users worldwide, of which around 5% pay for the premium service. [Follow Evernote on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google Plus].

Unlike many US internet companies, Evernote has managed to conquer China with over 4 million users who know the brand as "印象笔记" and access via fully-localised website (yingxiang.com).

They have embraced Chinese social media with presences on Sina Weibo, Douban, Renren as well as WeChat (ID: "yxbj100" or scan the QR code below with your WeChat app).



We will discuss how Evernote has successfully localised its cloud-based, multi-media, note-taking service to over 18 countries, including Japan, Indonesia, China and Taiwan; how they have expanded into new areas, like food blogging and business collaboration; and how they are engaging application developers with the Evernote Market, the Trunk Conference and the DevCup.

Watch their promo video on Evernote Market, their new way to engage developer partners:



Doors open at 6:30pm with the interview starting at 7:15pm on Wednesday 6th November, 2013 at Bisous Hong Kong, 9/F, LKF Tower, 33 Wyndham St, Central, Hong Kong.

Sign up on Facebook or MeetUp. We expect a good crowd so let us know that you're coming.

The entrance fee of HK$100 includes a complimentary drink and the opportunity to meet driven internet entrepreneurs, local developers and digital media folk.

Come learn why their CEO Phil Libin's goal is "to build a hundred year startup"!

Battle of the Apps V - Hong Kong Start-Ups

Calling all entr-app-reneurs!

Four months is a long time in the fast-paced world of mobile start-ups. So, due to popular demand (and a whole new slew of app launches), we have set a date for the next "Battle of the Apps" on 20th November, 2013.



This lively competition is open to application creators, developers and publishers who participate in a "pitching contest" in the heart of Hong Kong's Lan Kwai Fong party area. All apps welcome, be it on iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows, Chrome, Symbian or any other operating system (TV, tablet or smartphone).

Networking will start at 6:30pm, with the battle from 7:00pm sharp on 20th November 2013 at Bisous, 9/F, LKF Tower, 33 Wyndham St, Central, Hong Kong.

Submit your app via the form below, join the event on Facebook and spread the word on social media using the shortened URL "bit.ly/battleofapps5".

Curious to learn more? Read about BoA I, BoA II, BoA III, BoA IV and the winners of BoA IV.

RULES OF THE BATTLE
Each contestant will have 5 minutes to present their creation (slides or live demo) followed by questions from the floor. Due to time limitations, there will be a maximum of 10 contestants.

At the end of the evening, the audience will vote with their fingers (good, old fashioned, analogue stickers!). The most popular app will win great prizes and a full interview slot at a future Web Wednesday Social Mixer, with all the associated promotional benefits.

If you're a contestant, sign up to join the fray below. Otherwise, do help spread the word - using "#battleofapps" hashtag on Twitter or the shortened URL "bit.ly/battleofapps5" for other social media.

Fill out my online form.

ZaoZao Co-Founder on Chinese Dating Show

Vicky Wu, entrepreneur and guest speaker for our 77th Web Wednesday gathering, likes to go against social norms. Here she is participating in a popular Chinese TV dating show, The Choice (转身遇到TA), where instead of men picking the girls, four 'Power Women' got to chose their favourite man from 15 bachelors. [See if you can spot the ZaoZao product placement?]

Shop ZaoZao at Web Wednesday HK (V77)

We're very lucky to catch another global internet entrepreneur, Vicky Wu, whose recently moved her Hong Kong start-up, ZaoZao, to New York City to be incubated by CommerceWorks.

Sign up on Facebook or MeetUp.

In the past year, ZaoZao has won several nomimations:
*Named one of the "Crowdfunding Pioneers in Asia-Pacific" by TechInAsia (Aug 2012)
*Listed as an "Innovative 'Presumption' Brands" in Trend Watching (Nov 2012)
*Called one of the "Top 15 Hottest Crowdfunding Sites Out There" by Business Insider (Nov 2012)

Vicky is a multi-talented lady, an accomplished concert cellist, neuroscientist and former banker, so has a punchy story to tell. Her business partner (on the left in the photo below), Xiang Ling Cai, was a former fashion accessory buyer for Kering/Gucci.

Personally, I like this description of how their idea came to fruition, "Over hundreds of emails, coffee sessions and sleepless nights, they came up with ZAOZAO. Within a week, both girls quit their jobs to dedicate their energy to creating a platform that could help turn designers’ dreams into a reality, one design at a time."

The cocktail party line to describe their budding business, is "Kickstarter meets Fab meets Moda Operandi".  Or in a more wordy way, "ZaoZao is an e-commerce startup, selling one-of-a-kind pieces including jewellery, accessories and handbags in an online, curated marketplace. We are differentiated by their travelogue concept, engaging Western women in a destination-shopping adventure where they discover beautifully curated, one-of-a-kind pieces by up-and-coming Asian designers. ZAO means 'early' ('早'）and 'discover' （'找'）in Chinese." (Don't mean to be pedantic but it means 'find' or 'look for' and is pronounced 'zhao').

In just over one year, ZaoZao has attracted users from over 20 countries, contacted 500+ designers across Asia and funded over 45 projects. And now she is about to pivot the business from "crowd-funding" to "curating" Asian designers. Follow ZaoZao on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.

Doors open at 6:30pm with the interview starting at 7:15pm on Wednesday 23rd October, 2013 at Bisous, 9/F, LKF Tower, 33 Wyndham St, Central, Hong Kong.

Sign up on Facebook or MeetUp.

Download your mobile smartpass from pass.is/webwed. [Provided by Passkit].

The entrance fee of HK$100 includes a complimentary drink and the opportunity to meet driven internet entrepreneurs and digital media folk.

Do bring along any budding female entrepreneurs as Vicky is sure to motivate them to leave their cushy banking jobs for the life of a launcher!

Earlier this year, I had the privilege of interviewing Vicky Wu at Silicon Dragon Hong Kong 2013 in Cyberport which was captured and shared on YouTube.

Google Mobile Developers Hong Kong Meet-Up 2013

The Google Developers Group and Google are inviting programmers and entrepreneurs to join an evening gathering on emerging mobile trends in apps, games and mobile monetisation.

Registration starts at 6:30pm, with talks from 7pm to 10pm on Monday 23rd September, 2013 at the InnoCentre, 72 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Find the venue on Google Maps.

[CHANGE OF DATE: An update from Google, "Owing to the Super Typhoon Usagi, the GDG Mobile Developers Night 2013 scheduled initially for 23 September 2013 has been postponed to 2 October 2013. Please click this link and leave your email address if you can still join."] 

Pre-register on Google Docs (of course!).

Topics to be covered will include:

1. Android Platform Updates

2. Google+ Platform Updates

3. Google Play Games Services

4. Google Cloud Endpoints for Mobile

5. What's new in Google Apps

6. Mobile Monetisation

Personally, I'm curious to find out when they will bring Google Wallet to Asia, now that's its become available on iOS and is offering a place to collect loyalty cards (similar to Passbook) and make payments (only in the US!).