Participants include all-star judges Jason Hoffman, Founder & CTO Joyent, Jim Stikeleather, CIO Dell, and cloud-focused VCs from Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and TechStars. Media outreach for this event will include Forbes, Venture Beat, and various cloud journals. Join us for an exclusive first look at emerging trends in cloud, rapid-fire pitches, live demos and networking at Cloud Scale 2012.

Date:         18th October 2012
Time:        1pm – 7pm
Venue:     Plug & Play Tech Center, Sunnyvale
Address: 440 N Wolfe Rd, Sunnyvale, California

For startups looking to pitch or demo at the event, please apply here: http://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/events/cloudscale-2012/apply

For attendees, please register for a ticket here: http://cloudscale.eventbrite.com/. There is a price discount for students interested in attending the event as well! For more information including the detailed agenda, visit the main event page at http://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/events/cloudscale-2012/.

Hope to see you there!

This talk will be presented by Olswang Asia LLP, a law firm focused on the technology, media and telecoms sectors and which acts for some of the world’s biggest companies in those sectors: from Microsoft and nVidia to The Walt Disney Company and the BBC to Vodafone and Telstra. Olswang has also a long & rich history of acting for successful technology-based start-ups from their inception to the ultimate IPO or sale and the presentation and discussion session will centre around their experience in advising founders and management, covering examples such as net-a-porter and hailo as well as drawing on industry case-studies such as Moshy Monsters and LastFM.

Anthony Waller, a partner from Olswang’s London office, will lead the discussion on the established European and US markets and companies.

Andrew Stott, a partner in Olswang Asia’s Singapore office, will lead on the Asia-elements and lessons that can be learned from the European and US experiences.

Moderated by Wayne Soh from Plug and Play Singapore – Plug and Play Tech Center is one of the largest startup accelerators based in Silicon Valley and has been co-investing in early high-tech companies in Singapore, accelerate their growth and provide them with a direct route to Silicon Valley

Date:            2nd October 2012, Tuesday
Time:           3-4 PM
Venue:        Plug-In @ Blk 71
Address:   Blk 71, Ayer Rajah Crescent, #02-18, Singapore 139951
Register:   Click Here!     -or-
Copy and paste this link onto your browser:

http://www2.blk71.com/events/us-european-and-asia-technology-start-ups-trends-successes-and-basic-principles

Admission is free and refreshments will be provided.

Would love to hear from you prior to the event if you have any questions that you want me to bring up during the session!

This year, Plug & Play Tech Center supported the event by participating in the judging of the startups in a few of the rounds, and also sponsored one of the finalists the Plug & Play Acceleration Award which is a 3-month acceleration program in Sunnyvale, California, at the Plug & Play headquarters. I’m happy to announce that Phi Decks has been awarded the prize. SGEntrepreneurs have covered the award winners here.

Phi Decks

With the vision to change the way lessons are taught in class, Phi Decks is created. It is available on both the web browser and through an app that allows teachers to run an entire school in a tablet. Phi Decks replaces the need for whiteboards, smartboards, visualizer and even textbooks in schools. Teachers or students can now easily download or purchase up-to-date curriculum designed for teachers to inspire learning in their students. Phi Decks also allows creation and submission of written materials with ease, and hence enhancing the learning experiences with interactivity and vividly colourful content designed in accordance with national standards.

Phi Decks will change the way education is delivered. Phi Decks is currently under closed alpha and will officially launch in August 2012. Designed and created by a team of four passionate souls with a total of over 15 years of teaching experience. Amin, Delta, Muhammad and Nurhuda are determined to create an ecosystem of interesting resources to help teachers and tutors stimulate curiosity and teach more effectively.Schmieden Electronics is a mobile services and technology company, focused on improving the mobile experience of people through meaningful innovations.

MyFit

myFit’s software utilizes the Microsoft Kinect to enable consumers to scan themselves to create their own 3D virtual replicas with their exact measurements and appearance. Consumers can access these replicas by logging in using their myFit account while on the websites of apparel retailers, and can then use their replicas to try on clothing while shopping online, allowing them to see how the clothing will fit and look on them. This product will be contained entirely by a virtual viewing environment within the browser, never forcing the user to navigate away from the retailers’ site.

Brightblu

Brightblu is making home automation simple, affordable and available to every person who owns a smartphone. Leveraging the capabilities of the smartphone, the company has provided an easy way to control your entire home environment from the palm of your hand. Through an open platform where an ecosystem of partners and developers have been created to enhance the company’s core technology with innovative ways to automate your home. Adding new features to control, monitor, and automate your home will be as simple as downloading an app on your smartphone.

Scan

Scan connects the physical world with the digital universe through QR code, NFC, image recognition and other mobile transaction technologies. While there are many apps that are used to scan QR codes, Scan is aiming to differentiate itself. It aims to do this by storing consumers’ information, such as payment or social (Facebook) information. Consumers can then “scan to like” on Facebook or “scan to buy” something. The company raised $1.7 million last year from Menlo Ventures, Google Ventures, Charles River Ventures, and Lady Gaga.

Some external coverage of the Fall Expo:

• Expo winners apply digital solutions to real world – BizJournal
• New Startups From Plug And Play Tech Center’s Fall Expo – Forbes

Event: Echelon 2012
Venue: University Cultural Centre, National University of Singapore
Date: 11-12 June
Time: Around 8am – 5pm on both days

Ever since my first encounter with Netscape in high school, I have been fascinated with Silicon Valley. From cool gadgets like Apple II to the catchy tunes of Yahoo!. From Pets.com to garage millionaires (billionaires nowadays), it is a place that makes me wonder and ignites my dreams.

Hence, when we recently won the DEMO Asia 2012 People’s Choice Award and collected our US$20,000 scholarships for the Plug And Play International Acceleration Program, it was like a dream came true. And in early April, we flew 13,642 km to San Francisco and drove 68 minutes to our new Sunnyvale office at Plug And Play Tech Center.

And that’s where we met some pretty cool people. The most interesting guy we met and heard from is Mr. Saeed Amidi. Here is the guy who incubated Google, Logitech and PayPal. And he is also currently an investor in many hot start-ups (e.g. Dropbox) in Silicon Valley.

Through the Plug And Play International Acceleration Program, we have officially launched Hoiio API for USA. Cheers =)

• Hoiio API launches in USA
• Hoiio API showcase in Demo Spring 2012

Our story in Silicon Valley is only starting. Come see us in June Plug And Play Expo and see our progress over the 3 months Plug And Play Acceleration Program. Cheers.

Join us as we have Cisco, Adobe, Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, Paypal, Smart Communications and Vodafone discuss topics on Mobile Internet, Software, Network, Network Infrastructure, eCommerce, Enterprise Collaboration, Telecom and Digital Media.

We also feature a connected car panel with BMW, Faurecia and Volkwagen to talk about innovation in the automobile space.

Date: 3rd May 2012
Time: 1.30 pm – 7.30 pm 
Venue: Plug & Play Tech Center, 440 N Wolfe Rd, Sunnyvale, CA 94085

Register here now!!

Full agenda can be found at the official CorporatePlay page here.

Through an ambitious collaborative R&D project called “Startup Genome,” created by three young entrepreneurs, Bjoern Herrmann, Max Marmer, and Ertan Dogrultan, an ongoing project was (and is) created to take a comprehensive, data-driven dive into what makes tech startups successful — and not so successful.

Out of its research came, among other things, Startup Compass: A free benchmarking tool that leverages its data to allow entrepreneurs to evaluate their progress compared to other startups in their space. The product’s overarching goal is to allow founders to make more informed product and business decisions by “utilizing a data-driven feedback loop,” according to its mission statement.

While part of the team has since split off to focus on Blackbox, an educational program and startup accelerator, Herrmann and Marmer have continued toiling away at Startup Genome, collecting data from the some-16K startups that signed up for Startup Compass — and beyond. Today, a year removed from launch, the entrepreneurs believe that Startup Genome is finally crossing the threshold, reaching a critical mass of data on the world’s top entrepreneurial ecosystems.

With its data set growing, Startup Genome is beginning to launch a thorough, comparative analysis on those ecosystems in an effort to give startups a more granular glimpse into how (and at what rate) the world’s top entrepreneurial hubs are evolving — and which are leading the way.

Over the last five years, web (and the diversity of digital technologies that accompany it) have matured, which has, among other things, succeeded in bringing down the cost (and amount of capital needed) to launch a viable business — or at least a MVP. Concurrently, this has caused an explosion in the number of software companies being created (an element inherent to Marc Andreessen’s argument that software is eating the world) and, as a result, new ecosystems are popping up all over the globe to help grow these companies, help jumpstart those that follow in their footsteps, as well as light a fire under regional economic growth.

In terms of the overall health of the global economy, these fertile startup ecosystems are essential, as they have the potential to become both regional and global engines of job creation. In the U.S., for example, companies less than five years old created 44 million jobs over the last three decades and accounted for all net new jobs created in the U.S. over that period, according to the White House. This is the undercurrent that led to the uncharacteristic bipartisan support for the JOBS Act.

As such, healthy startup ecosystems, Herrmann agrees, can be a democratizing force. Typically, startups plant themselves close to extant networks of support, be it financial capital, human capital, or technologies. Startups go where the money is — and historically, that’s been Silicon Valley, with Boston and New York City being mentioned as addenda. Yet, over the last few years, things have been changing, and today that’s more apparent than ever, as viable companies are popping up across the globe.

Entrepreneur Magazine claims that this was the overarching theme of SXSW this year — that entrepreneurs no longer have to locate themselves in Silicon Valley to build successful tech or consumer web businesses. And given this growing abundance of choice, it’s become increasingly important for entrepreneurs to be able to answer questions like, “What are the advantages and disadvantages of particular ecosystems?” and “What are the characteristics that differentiate successful entrepreneurs across those ecosystems?”

Herrmann and Marmer believe that there has been a wealth of qualitative reporting about the benefits of each ecosystem, but that, to date, there’s been very little data to support our collective intuitions.

In compiling its data, the team has begun to uncover valuable insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the world’s startup ecosystems, and as the study progresses, the founders say they hope it will continue to “yield insights for entrepreneurs deciding where to start their company, investors deciding where to allocate their capital, large companies looking for acquisition targets, and policymakers who want to make their entrepreneurship ecosystems flourish.”

Tapping into the collective idealism of all those invested in the success of these startup ecosystems, we know that the world is desperately in need of an economic revival, and thus we all hope that unleashing an “entrepreneurial renaissance” as Herrmann puts it, will help drive that evolution forward.

Attempting to play its part, Startup Genome is today sharing some of its findings on the top startup ecosystems, providing a data-based look into how they compare — starting with what it’s found to be the three most active startup hubs: Silicon Valley, New York City, and London.

Below, you’ll find some 20-odd insights into those comparisons, intended to get entrepreneurs thinking about what’s working, and what isn’t. Readers can find more on how the report defines its terms in our coverage here or on the project’s blog here. There’s also more on how it defines “Types” here.

• Startup Throughput: Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Silicon Valley startup ecosystem continues to lead the way, but the gap is growing smaller every year. Silicon Valley’s ecosystem is currently 3-times bigger than New York City, 4.5-times bigger than London, 12.5-times bigger than Berlin, and 38-times larger than Boulder.
• Startup Success Rate: Proportionally, the Silicon Valley ecosystem has 22% more companies in the “scale stage” than in NYC and 54% more than in London.
• Availability of Capital: On average, Silicon Valley startups raise two to three-times more money in the first three stages of development: Discovery, Validation, and Efficiency. But in the scale stage, compared to Silicon Valley, New York City startups raise 27% more money and London startups raise 30% more money.
• Job Creation: In the Efficiency and Scale stages, Silicon Valley startups create 11 percent more jobs than NYC startups and 38 percent more jobs than London startups.
• Risk Profile: The number of high risk companies decreases steadily through the startup lifecycle, except in New York City where the number of high risk companies spikes from 45% to 67%, and has 4x more high risk companies in the scale stage than Silicon Valley.
• Product Types: Compared to New York entrepreneurs, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are 2-times more likely to build games, 50 percent less likely to build marketplaces, 23 percent more likely to be build social networks, 3.5-times more likely to be build infrastructure and 2.5-times less likely to be build financial tools. Compared to entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, London entrepreneurs are 50 percent more likely to be build eCommerce products, 35 percent less likely to be build social products, 3.5-times less likely to be build products based on user-generated content and 2-times more likely to be build project management software.
• Market Type: Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are 13 percent more likely to tackle new markets than London entrepreneurs whereas London entrepreneurs are 21 percent more likely than entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley to tackle existing markets with better products. New York entrepreneurs have the highest proportion of companies trying to re-segment existing markets with niche products. They are 30 percent more likely to build something niche than entrepreneurs in London.
• Market Size: Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley are much more “ambitious” than entrepreneurs in New York City and London. Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are 22% more likely to estimate their market size as greater than 10 billion compared to New York City entrepreneurs and 120% more likely than entrepreneurs in London. They are also almost 2x less likely to estimate their market size to be less than 100 million.
• Revenue Streams: Subscription is the most popular revenue stream everywhere. Compared to London, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are 4.4-times more likely for their primary revenue stream to be Lead Generation, 3.6-times more likely for it to be virtual goods and 2.6-times less likely for it to be the rapidly fading model of license fees.
• Perceived Competitive Advantage: Compared to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, New York City entrepreneurs are 4.3-times more likely to consider content their primary competitive advantage, 40 percent more likely for it to be niche focus, and 90 percent less likely for it to be centered around the team. Compared to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, London entrepreneurs are 58 percent more likely to consider technology their primary competitive advantage and 5.3 less likely to consider user experience to be.
• Product Development: London and NYC companies outsource 34 percent more of their product development than Silicon Valley companies.
• Adaptability: Pivoting happens much more frequently in Silicon Valley. Pivots happen 45 percent more on average in Silicon Valley than New York City and 33 percent more than London.
• Mentorship: The Silicon Valley and New York City ecosystems have more helpful mentors than the London ecosystem. Silicon Valley companies have 46 percent more helpful mentors than companies in London.
• Thought Leaders: In Silicon Valley, Steve Blank and Paul Graham are the most popular startup experts. In London, Paul Graham is by far most popular expert and NYC shows their local pride, voting Fred Wilson as their favorite startup expert.
• Work Ethic: Companies in Silicon Valley work 35% more than companies in New York City. In Silicon Valley teams work 9.5 hours a day on average vs. 8 hours in London and 7 in New York City.
• Founding Team Composition: Silicon Valley founding teams are 34% more likely to be technical heavy than founding teams from NYC. Whereas NYC founding teams are almost 2x as likely to be business heavy than Silicon Valley founding teams.
• Founder Education Background: In London most founders have a masters degree, whereas in Silicon Valley and NYC most founders have just an undergraduate degree. But NYC has 2.2x more founders with Ph.Ds than Silicon Valley.
• Founder Gender: New York City has almost double the female founders of Silicon Valley and London (80-20 vs 90/10 ratios, respectively).
• Founder Age: The average age of founders in all three ecosystems is about the same, with an aggregate average of 33.5.
• Founder Experience: Silicon Valley founders have on average started almost twice as many startups as founders from NYC and London.
• Founder Motivation: Silicon Valley has 30 percent more founders that want to change the world than London or New York. New York has 50 percent more founders that want to make a good living than Silicon Valley or London. London has twice as many founders that want to make a quick flip than Silicon Valley or New York.
• Founder Challenges: New York City startups are 3.7-times less likely for team building to be their biggest challenge, at the same time they are almost twice as likely to consider “having too much do and being over capacity” their biggest challenge.

Startup Genome is also offering a new ranking for the world’s top 25 startup ecosystems, ordered by their average throughput:

1. Silicon Valley (San Francisco, Palo Alto, San Jose, Oakland)
2. New York City (NYC, Brooklyn)
3. London
4. Toronto
5. Tel Aviv
6. Los Angeles
7. Singapore
8. Sao Paulo
9. Bangalore
10. Moscow
11. Paris
12. Santiago
13. Seattle
14. Madrid
15. Chicago
16. Vancouver
17. Berlin
18. Boston
19. Austin
20. Mumbai
21. Sydney
22. Melbourne
23. Warsaw
24. Washington D.C.
25. Montreal

Startup Genome has already brought on the support of a number of entrepreneurial enterprises across the world, including Endeavor, Mamstartup in Warsaw, Startupi in Sao Paulo, sgentrepreneur in Singapore, Metavallon and Loft2work in Greece, and Startup America in other cities around the US.

The founders are looking to find local support for each of these ecosystems, and readers interested in learning more or that have any suggestions, can contact them at contact@startupcompass.co. And to sign up for the next full, in-depth report, navigate over here.

This Startup Genome continues to be an awesome “Startups helping startups” enterprise, and the more data the group collects, the more founders and entrepreneurs across the globe stand to benefit. So, if you run a tech company, check out Startup Compass, as it will not only help you gain insights into your own business, but also contribute to the project’s data set and to amassing more quality comparative data on the world’s startup hubs.

The mission at PwC’s Accelerator is to help European based high tech companies become global companies. We believe we can achieve results by bringing PwC’s extensive network of VC’s, global international corporations, experts, services provides government agencies to each of the companies we serve.

PwC’s Accelerator involvement will be three-fold:

• For young European start-ups, PwC’s Accelerator will offer a wide range of services including coaching, housing in its new 900m2 facilities, limited financing, etc. in order to help it accelerate to a pan-European level.
• For European companies that have developed a breakthrough technology with immediate applications at a worldwide level or for European companies that are already showing significant market traction on their home market, PwC’s Accelerator will offer a wide range of services.
• For Non-European companies that wish to address the European market, PwC’s Accelerator wishes to offer an ideal entry point where absolutely everything in terms of logistics is provided for so that the company can focus on developing its business.

PwC’s Accelerator powered by Plug and Play Tech Center

Becoming a global company will not only involve access to significant capital but intelligent capital. We are all aware that Europe is currently ill equipped to solely finance large rounds of financing for young fast growing companies. We are therefore keen on connecting the companies we serve to the world’s epicentre of Venture Capital investing: Silicon Valley. In this effort, PwC have entered into an exclusive partnership with Plug and Play, an accelerator that houses over 330 startups from all over the world in a building of 15,000m2 in the heart of Silicon Valley. This unique partnership with Plug and Play aims to grant innovative companies access to funding, markets and extensive expertise. The overall goal of PwC’s Accelerator partnership with Plug and Play is to build a two-way bridge between Luxembourg, Europe and Silicon Valley so as to help these high tech companies succeed in their overseas journey by offering the right business solutions and business contacts on the ground. It will also contribute in the creation of the first European community of professionals that will assist in the acceleration of European high tech companies wishing to become global companies. It will do so by promoting a culture of entrepreneurship, coaching them in dealing with the cultural gap that exists between Europe and Silicon Valley and handholding them in their transatlantic negotiations.

For more information, check out: http://www.pwcaccelerator.com.

“Consumers are being bombarded with virtual currency today like we’ve never seen before. We get them from games, websites and reward programs. Soon most of us will have 5 or 10 different types of online currency. You likely have a handful already. First Meta provides a safe environment for you to mange and trade these goods; we work closely with game publishers and other issuers of currency to offer a sanctioned environment for trading” says CEO Autumn Radtke who joined First Meta in January. The company, which already has stable revenue, is using the newly secured capital to build the next generation of its virtual goods exchange and expand support to new platforms.

Virtual Currency trading is somewhat similar to forex trading and it’s already a large business in Asia. “We believe as gaming becomes more mainstream so will secondary trading. We’re here to help the new generation of game companies and currency issuers participate in revenue and avoid the black market fraud problems associated with unsanctioned trading.”

“First Meta is in a fast growing and exciting industry and we are looking forward to working with the team to succeed in Asia and beyond”, added Jupe Tan, VP International Operations of Plug and Play Tech Center and Director of Plug and Play Singapore.

About FirstMeta:

First Meta a Singapore based technology company was founded in 2007 with the goal of providing virtual financial services to end users of games and virtual worlds.

About Plug and Play Tech Center:

Plug and Play Tech Center officially commenced its Singapore operations in March 2010 with the goal of accelerating entrepreneurial companies, increasing their access to the dynamic resources of Silicon Valley and increasing the chances of commercial success.

About National Research Foundation:

The National Research Foundation (NRF), set up on 1 January 2006 as a department under the Prime Minister’s Office, seeks to strengthen Singapore’s R&D capabilities, encourage greater innovation and nurture the growth of technology-based enterprises in Singapore.

For more information please contact:

Autumn Radtke
CEO
First Meta
Email: autumn@firstmeta.com

Wayne Soh
Business Development Manager
Plug and Play Singapore
Email: wayne@plugandplaytechcenter.com