Even though Asia is in full growth mode, the United States (US) is still the Mecca of the technology world as far as innovation and market strength is concerned. With that in mind, 10 technology startups from Singapore recently made the pilgrimage to Silicon Valley via an intensive introductory programme that aims to leverage the tremendous potential of the world’s largest economy.

Called iStart@Silicon Valley, the newly initiated programme was organised by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) as part of its broad purview to help local companies get acquainted with and gain a foothold in the international marketplace.

The companies that participated in this bootcamp cum networking programme gained an in-depth understanding of business-related issues in the US as well as the opportunity to undergo a series of pitching and mentoring sessions from successful founders of US startups and connect to various industry partners and organisations.

For Mr Jimmy Tan, Managing Director of GSA Technology Group, the whole experience was an eye-opener. “Personally, this programme has given a much broader perspective of the infocomm sector challenges and raises the bar on how our company should develop, position and market our solution when we go international,” he said.

GSA Technology Group is focused on research and development in Open Source and Web 2.0 technologies for education with a strong base in Singapore. “The social, cultural and business interactions from the programme have set me thinking about how a Singapore company should move forward to stay ahead in the field of information technology,” he said.

"The social, cultural and business interactions from the programme have set me thinking about how a Singapore company should move forward to stay ahead in the field of information technology."

- Mr Jimmy Tan, Managing Director, GSA Technology Group

From a macro perspective, he sees that with constant exposure, Singapore will be able to replicate the spirit and culture of Silicon Valley. “This will happen once we have a critical mass of successful infocomm companies and entrepreneurs in Singapore, and it will not be too long before we can have our strong panels of mentors and VCs to propel the local infocomm sector.”

For Skydoor, an imaging company, the iStart programme helped expand their horizons and “literally changed” their corporate lives. “It was like a jolt of lightning embedded with a business primer,” said Mr Kenneth S. Brown, Managing Director and Chairman, Skydoor. “We came to the Silicon Valley in mid-October as a Wiki of Imaging Knowledge Company, and now we have the opportunity to be two companies, both potentially large and fundable through the VC community.”

"We now have the tools to meet the demands of attacking the US markets with local and recognised legal, accounting, banking, and other service partners."

- Mr Kenneth Brown, Managing Director and Chairman, Skydoor

Apart from the informative seminar sessions, Skydoor found that the contacts they made were of the most value. “We now have the tools to meet the demands of attacking the US markets with local and recognised legal, accounting, banking, and other service partners,” said Mr Brown. “But as important as anything, we have now been introduced to a group of Silicon Valley consultants, who have helped us hone our business plan and who so believe in the result, that they have agreed to take either all or 50 per cent of their compensation in shares in
our company.”

Mr Greg Hauw, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Ohanae, which builds Universal Cloud ID security software to ensure users that their logins cannot be guessed, phished, or stolen and their endpoint environment meets privacy and security requirements for cloud computing, found the mentoring and pitching sessions very useful. “Training was a culture shock, but I can now pitch with confidence and conviction,” he said. “Sessions with high profile mentors were very useful and helped with our pitching strategy for US-based venture capitalists.”

"The IDA i-Start@Silicon Valley is a must for any Singapore-based IT company wanting to enter the US market. This is a jump-start programme covering what I have learnt in the past 10 years."

- Mr Gregory Hauw, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Ohanae

Mr Hauw highly recommends the programme for aspiring companies. “I have prior market entry experience with the US market where my previous startups raised a total of US$18 million from Singapore investors and established North America operations in California,” he said. “However, we did not receive adequate market entry assistance and we ended up making many unnecessary execution errors.”

“The IDA i-Start@Silicon Valley is a must for any Singapore-based IT company wanting to enter the US market. This is a jump-start programme covering what I have learnt in the past 10 years.”