JFDI www.jfdi.

asia 70A Bussorah Street

ASIA J O Y F U L F R O G D I G I TA L I N C U B AT O R 201000777K Singapore 199483

J F D I . 1 0 0

R E Q U E S T F O R
C O M M E N T S

JFDI.100 is a new digital business incubator programme in Singapore.

This document invites interested parties to share their feedback,

and, where appropriate, to support the programme by becoming
strategic and financial partners. It is not an offer of shares.

Principals
Soon Loo
Hugh Mason
Wong Meng Weng

31 January 2010

Document version 20100131d

 JFDI
ASIA
CONTENTS
1.  Executive Summary 3
2.  Introduction 6
2.1. The entrepreneurship ecosystem 6
2.2. Need for a new kind of incubator 8
2.3. Vision 10
3.  Objectives and Strategy 13
3.1. Sector focus 13
3.2. Value Proposition 13
3.3. Other Mentors 14
3.4. Organisational Partners 14
4.  Business Plan & Operational Framework 16
4.2. Management team 16
4.3. Corporate Structure 17
4.4. The Bootcamp Experience 19
5.  Promotion and engagement 21
5.2. Engagement of Potential JFDI.100 Participants 22
5.3. Screening Process for Potential JFDI.100 Participants 22
5.4. Track record of incubator founders & managers 23
5.5. Entry and graduation policy for incubatees 23
5.6. Project milestones and timeline 23
5.8. JFDI.INSIGHT: Promotion to Customers and Investors 26

Appendix A – Visiting Mentor Program 27

A.1. Introduction 27
A.2. Need for JFDI.VMP 27
A.3. Operations 28
A.4. Targeted SME Beneficiaries 28
A.5. Scope and Duration 28
Appendix B – Existing staff expertise 29
B.1. Wong Meng Weng – Director, Operating Mentor 29
B.2. Soon Loo – Director, Operating Mentor 31
B.3. Hugh Mason – Director, Operating Mentor 32
B.4. Juanita Sabapathy – Operations Manager 34
Appendix C – Facilities 36
Blank Page 37

2
 JFDI
ASIA
1.  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

JFDI.ASIA Pte Ltd operates the jfdi.100 programme, in which en-

trepreneurial engineers, working closely with mentors, customers,
and investors, build and launch multiple startups in batches twice
a year.

1.1. Need

JFDI.ASIA’s principals are investors and mentors who work closely

with early stage businesses in Singapore. We observe that Singa-
pore’s capacity and ambition for IDM entrepreneurship currently
exceeds the supply of local talent and commercially viable product
ideas. Singapore’s seed and Series A investors, many of whom are
themselves recent entrants, desire a larger pool of investment-ready
startups. Without increased dealflow, Singapore’s fragile early-stage
ecosystem risks starvation. JFDI.100 was conceived to meet that need.

1.2. Concept

JFDI.100 is a pre-seed business incubator. It specializes in creating

new investment-ready Interactive Digital Media (IDM) businesses
that meet a compelling market need.
Twice per year, jfdi.100 recruits up to 30 individuals from Singa-
pore and around the world, and assembles them into 10 rounded
teams. During an intense 100 days of living, working, and playing
together in Singapore, each team creates and launches an IDM star-
tup around a business opportunity identified in collaboration with
investors and potential customers. Teams build and launch product
within the 100 day period. Traction metrics describing actual user
growth and revenue numbers will quantitatively justify follow-on
funding. We encourage startups to aim for 100 paying customers,
$1,000 in revenue, or 10,000 nonpaying users within those 100 days.

1.3. Differentiation

JFDI.100 is qualitatively different from all other incubators in Sin-

gapore.

We do not compete with existing elements of the ecosystem because

we operate at an earlier stage than other seed-stage angels, seed-
stage incubators, or Series A VCs. We consider them our customers,
not our competitors.

3
 JFDI
ASIA
We build on the success demonstrated by Y Combinator1 and other
pre-seed venture incubators including Seedcamp2 and TechStars3.
Unlike traditional incubators, they do not provide open-ended incu-
bation, but focus on graduating two batches a year. This rapid turn-
around cycle allows individuals and teams to move on, up and out,
whether or not their particular project gains traction in the market
place. This “fail fast” philosophy sacrifices individual companies but
preserves talent, benefitting the ecosystem as a whole.

We engage investors and customers early. In a strategy adapted

from Agile development4, jfdi.100 involves investors and customers
from day one, before product development begins, when the emo-
tional and financial cost of redesign is lowest. This creates a collab-
orative rather than an adversarial relationship with investors, who
would much rather be co-creating than shooting down ideas. It also
creates a closer relationship with customers that will enhance the
chance of early revenue.

Our idea-generation process prioritises business feasibility. In-

stead of attempting to commercialise technology, JFDI works the
other way around: it first identifies solid commercial opportunities
through a structured ideation process, and then creates revenue-
ready startups around them. This marketing orientation has been
shown to increase the success rate. 5

Participants enter as engineers and leave as entrepreneurs. JFDI’s

intake does not consist of pre-existing startup teams; rather, we
bring in individuals who have the potential to be good engineering
entrepreneurs. They then self-assemble into teams based on optimal
fit. Recognising that immigrants represent a rich vein of entrepre-
neurship, JFDI will bring fresh foreign talent to Singapore as well as
recruiting locally. We expect many of these immigrants to remain in
Singapore and add value to the entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Playing to Singapore’s strengths as a cosmopolitan Asian hub, JFDI

builds startups that make a virtue of Singapore’s geographical and
cultural proximity to emerging Asian markets. We will reflect their
special circumstances in the commercial opportunities we identify.
For example, startups may be language-focused, or exploit the domi-
nance of mobile as a primary Internet access platform.

1 www.ycombinator.com
2 www.seedcamp.com
3 www.techstars.org
4 www.agilemanifesto.org
5 steveblank.com/about/

4
 JFDI
ASIA
1.4. Status

JFDI’s first strategic partner, MDA Singapore, confirmed its finan-

cial support in December 2009. This allowed JFDI to begin opera-
tion of its Visiting Mentor programme in January 2010.

Propellerfish.com have committed to providing ideation facilitation

services to jfdi.100. We are in discussion with large industry play-
ers about partnerships which we hope to finalize before the end of
March.

JFDI now seeks further partners willing to make commitments to

complete its financing. Full-scale operation is anticipated in April
2010.

Meanwhile, students from a local IHL have volunteered to pilot ele-

ments of the 100-day program. Pictures of those students are sprin-
kled throughout this document.

We are now gathering expressions of support from the industry and

closing specific relationships with partners and mentors.

At a grassroots level, our involvement with hackerspace.sg has al-

ready borne fruit in the form of serendipitous conversations leading
to business relationships.

The pilot batch will run in Singapore during June, July, and August
2010. We intend to finalise the set of partners and mentors for this
pilot by April 22 2010.

5
 2.  INTRODUCTION

Singapore places high priority on the IDM sector and already has
a comprehensive support structure in place for startups6. In this
section we discuss the context within which jfdi.asia operates, the
need for a new kind of incubator, and our vision for jfdi.100.

2.1. The entrepreneurship ecosystem

This illustration shows our model of the main elements required to

sustain a healthy enterprise ecosystem. There are four critical ele-
ments: People, Professionals, Policy and Places. We use the model
to discuss Singapore’s entrepreneurship scene and the role jfdi.100
will play in its success.
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2.1.1. People

Teams of talented individuals are required to run new start-ups, with

skills that span technology, aesthetic creativity, finance, sales, mar-
keting, and leadership7. The importance of the founding team can-
not be overestimated: VCs like to say they bet on the people more
than the product idea.8

6 The Media Entrepreneur’s Guide to Singapore – megsg.com

7 Howkins, J, 2002: The Creative Economy: How People Make
Money from Ideas - http://www.creativeeconomy.com
8 http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/148/
When-Do-Founders-Make-Good-CEOs.aspx

6
 The word “entrepreneur” describes a wide range of individuals,
whose age and experience vary widely. Some start young: Singa-
pore’s Institutes of Higher Learning offer entrepreneurship classes9
and other programmes such as NUSOC.10 Some individuals start
older, with perhaps a higher mid-career opportunity cost.

2.1.2. Professionals

A mature financial, legal and commercial support structure is re-

quired in order for start-up businesses to flourish. Singapore is
home to a wide variety of individuals and organisations providing
professional services and capital to entrepreneurs11.

2.1.3. Policy

A wide range of policy structures are required to support entrepre-

neurial activity, from tax incentives to grant programmes to out-
reach initiatives. Numerous government agencies in Singapore are
active in this space in the IDM and other industry sectors12.

2.1.4. Places

Individuals and organisations need places where they can exchange

ideas, learn about technology trends, and discuss business opportu-
nities13. These may be physical venues, associations or media com-
munities14. Bringing people together is essential to achieve critical
mass.

2.1.5. The Missing Element

Overall, we believe that Singapore has most of the elements for a

vibrant knowledge-based economic startup ecosystem to thrive.
Where professionals, policy, and places are concerned, we believe
that 90% of the required factors are already in place; the missing
10% are already on trend to develop.

9 http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/ntc/academic/
10 http://www.overseas.nus.edu.sg/
11 Wong, Meng Weng, 2009: Map of Singapore’s
funding sources - http://bit.ly/8EQZyo
12 National Research Foundation - https://rita.nrf.gov.sg/IDM
13 Florida, R, 2004: The Rise of the Creative
Class - http://www.creativeclass.com/
14 JFDI’s founders also co-founded hackerspace.sg as
a daytime shared workspace and an evening non-
commercial meeting space in which technically
talented individuals can explore new ideas.

7
 The supply of people is the weakest link: the ecosystem lacks a re-
newable source of credible, balanced entrepreneurial teams. Those
teams need to be nurtured to put forward investment-ready busi-
nesses. Time and time again we have seen good engineers fail for
lack of marketing ability: their product intuition is weak, and they
build a poor prototype which fails to serve a market need. We have
also seen good marketers fail for lack of engineering ability. Lacking
the resources to execute an idea, competitors beat them to market.
In other words, the ecosystem lacks a wellspring of savvy startups.
That is the role JFDI seeks to play. We can build one.

2.2. Need for a new kind of incubator

We observe that Singapore’s early stage ecosystem is operating in a

condition of excess capacity: there are more investors and incuba-
tors than there are investible startups. Long term, schools, Institutes
of Higher Learning (IHLs), and changing local attitudes towards
entrepreneurship may increase the supply of entrepreneurs. In the
meantime, Singapore urgently needs a larger number of credible,
investment-ready teams to offer dealflow to its enterprise ecosystem.
JFDI.100 was conceived to fulfill that need.

In this subsection we describe several dimensions of the talent/team

shortage that currently holds back Singapore’s entrepreneurship
ambitions. We set out how JFDI will address the issue, assisting in-
novative startups in Singapore.

As mentors, we are frequently asked to judge business plan competitions and

the same pool of early stage companies are presented time and again.

A better quality and quantity of fresh dealflow is required before Sin-

gapore has a truly sustainable community of start-ups. JFDI.100 will
supply this through its rapid turnaround, high-volume approach to
business creation. By accelerating the timescale, we aim to bring for-
ward the time when Singapore’s inventors become investors and last
year’s company founders become next year’s funders.

Our mentees repeatedly mention a lack of talented individuals as holding

back their growth. First-time entrepreneurs lack role models, qualified resourc-
es, and mentors.

Fresh people and fresh thinking are needed to help the community
mature. JFDI.100 will address this by drawing in talent from around
the world to Singapore. We also train startups in business and tech-
nology best practices: outside the entrepreneurial context, these
best practices are typically passed down as part of on-the-job train-
ing. Startups by definition lack an organisational body of knowledge.
We help make up the difference through seminars and coaching.

8
We detect some cultural barriers to success, particularly around a fear of fail-
ure (kiasu) and family risk-aversion which hold back potential entrepreneurs
from committing fully. As a result, many first-time entrepreneurs tell us they
feel they have one shot (and one shot only) at trying to start their own business
before they must bow to family pressure and get a ‘proper job.’ Some try to com-
bine entrepreneurship with a day job and never fully commit to the venture
they seek to create. This is not a strategy for success.

JFDI will promote an experiment-oriented culture, similar to the

culture in scientific research: failure does not attach to the entrepre-
neur, only to the experiment, and even if a market experiment fails,
lessons are learned that can be fed back into further enterprise and
personal growth. A process of building ideas around commercial
opportunities rather than attempting to commercialise technology
ideas will reduce risk and increase the ‘hit rate.’ A transparent com-
munication process that shares the learning and the experience of
participants online and potentially through new media and TV, will
help to share the reality of early-stage business with Singapore’s pop-
ulation. We are conscious that as a newly wealthy society Singapore
is acutely sensitive to career opportunity costs. Robust financial and
public sectors offer compensation packages which make startups
seem risky by comparison. We believe that engineers motivated by
passion are less susceptible to the fear that they are not making as
much money as they could elsewhere.

First-time entrepreneurs, not having done it before, need intensive coaching

and support. Unfortunately, many of Singapore’s existing incubators are not
resourced to provide the necessary degree of advisory involvement.

JFDI’s mentors will be available and physically present on a daily ba-

sis. We will operate under a master-apprentice model: our mentors
are expected to go well beyond giving advice. They are expected to
roll up their sleeves, lead by example, and show the young entrepre-
neurs exactly how a CEO behaves. This model, in essence, transfers
the culture of entrepreneurial leadership by direct contact. We are
uniquely qualified to do this: unlike most other incubator managers,
we have direct executive and operational experience garnered from
founding and running our own startups.

Many Silicon Valley VCs have entrepreneurial and CEO / COO backgrounds.
Being familiar with all aspects of growing a startup and running a business,
they are not afraid to roll up their sleeves or even take an acting role in the
company.

Similarly, JFDI’s mentors bring a wealth of operating experience

to incubatees. The typical JFDI mentor has spent at least a decade
working as a serial entrepreneur before switching sides and acting
as an investor. Consequently, JFDI’s mentors have the uncommon
ability to analyze problems and synthesize solutions from both op-
erational and investment perspectives.

9
2.3. Vision

JFDI.100 builds on a proven formula for success at several existing

pre-seed incubators in the USA, particularly Y Combinator15, Seed-
camp16, and TechStars17. JFDI’s model also draws on recent inde-
pendent research into these precedents, extending and adapting
best practices for Singapore18.
All these precedents have in common the idea of running batch-
es of start-up companies in parallel, achieving many efficiencies of
scale. As JFDI follows the same model, we are confident that it can
deliver similar successes. By way of illustration: one of the biggest
challenges facing early-stage companies is the need for follow-on
funding. Of the 71 startups that Y Combinator funded between sum- success rate
mer 2007 and spring 2009, fourteen have received follow-on fund- Y Combinator: 14 / 71 = 20%
ing. Of the 20 startups that TechStars funded in the same period, TechStars: 15 / 20 = 75%
Seedcamp: 12 / 14 = 86%
fifteen have received follow-on funding. Also in the same period,
12 of the 14 Seedcamp funded companies have received follow-on
funding.

Re c r u
itment ation
Bootcamp G r ad u
Eng ine 100 days go-to-market Innovative
er ing
Ideation Workshops

Entrep • entrepreneurs Startups with

reneur
s • mentors • customers and
Demo Day

• product launch • revenues

• real customers are ready for
• potential investors • funding $$$
ercial
Comm s
tunit ie
Oppor

JFDI.100 operates in five phases: recruitment, ideation, bootcamp,

demo day, and graduation. The entire cycle takes six months to run,
though the core of the programme occurs during the 100 days be-
tween ideation and demo day.

Recruitment: Individuals interested in entrepreneurship from around

the world will be engaged with a free or minimal-cost online train-
ing program hosted at www.jfdi.asia. Everyone who takes part will
benefit, providing a positive promotional effect for Singapore.
One attraction is a competitive element, whereby the top thirty
participants every six months will be invited to come to Singapore to
take part in the 100-day “boot camp”. They will not be paid, but ba-
sic accommodation and living expenses will be covered. They simply

15 http://ycombinator.com/
16 http://www.seedcamp.com/
17 http://www.techstars.org/
18 Christiansen, J, 2009: Copying Y Combinator
– A framework for developing Seed Accelerator
Programmes, http://bit.ly/7THrGa

10
need to contribute talent and time. The invitation is open to anyone
aged 18+.
A travel bursary to cover the cost of up to five low-income partici-
pants will also be available and will be awarded on a meritocratic
basis.

Ideation: the JFDI management team has secured partnerships with

MNCs, investors and market research experts to identify monetiz-
able problems that could be solved by IDM technologies.
At the start of each cycle, a shortlist of around fifteen potential
projects will be generated during a series of ideation and brainstorm-
ing workshop sessions facilitated by our partner propellerfish.com.
We define specific criteria for shortlisting: ideas must be appropri-
ate for development by bootcamp teams. Amongst those criteria, a
rapid route to market and a forward commitment by customers/in-
vestors to buy/invest are high on the list. Incoming engineers, as
well as alumni from previous batches, will be invited to participate
in these workshops.

Bootcamp: this is the heart of the jfdi.100 programme.

• Selected applicants will relocate to JFDI premises. Once here,
they will be paid no salary for their time but will be provided with
accommodation, food and domestic services that mean they have
no distractions for the course of the bootcamp. They will meet
their fellow participants and go through an induction program for
the first two weeks, at the end of which they will be assembled into
balanced teams of three or four.
• Each team will select a project from the short-list of potential
business opportunities generated in the ideation phase. Teams will
then meet the investors and potential customers who were involved
in identifying the business opportunity they selected. These
investors and customers should have a vested interest in seeing the
project succeed and will be involved actively through the 100-day
bootcamp, with a clear understanding that, if the team can meet
certain metrics, investment/revenue is on offer.
• During the course of the acceleration phase, Business Mentors will
lead seminars on business basics, entrepreneurial management,
marketing, product development, and fundraising. Technology
mentors will lead seminars on agile development methodologies,
software engineering project management, and scalability.

Demo Day: JFDI’s mentors have a track record growing startups to

meet the requirements of seed-stage and Series A funding sourc-
es. We will groom jfdi.100 startups similarly. Successful graduates
of the 100 days boot camp will be referred to angel investors, BAF
Spectrum19, and awardees of the NRF TIS20, through existing chan-

19 www.bafspectrum.com
20 Technology Incubation Scheme, http://sgentrepreneurs.
com/news-stop/2010/01/05/7-incubators-selected-for-
singapore-nrf-tis-means-more-money-for-startups/

11
nels such as iMatch21 and BANSEA, 22 and through “Demo Days”23
which we will organize to conclude each 100-day batch.

Graduation: our responsibility to the startups does not end with

introducing them to investors. We continue to mentor founders
through the fundraising process for a period after the bootcamp
ends. In fact, active participation in fundraising is essential to our
business model: we expect partial liquidation at time of financing to
contribute cashflow to JFDI.ASIA.

21 www.idm.sg/imatch/
22 www.bansea.org
23 www.ycombinator.com/dday.html

12
 3.  OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGY

In this section we set out strategic objectives for JFDI.

3.1. Sector focus

The business focus of jfdi.100 is IDM and Web 2.0. JFDI’s principals
are specialists in this area; it is fast growing, and evidence shows
value can be created quickly with minimal capital expenditure.24

3.2. Value Proposition

This subsection itemises the four foundations of value that JFDI will
offer to startups: Market access, Money, Management Expertise and Men-
toring.

Market access: we subscribe to the customer-development philoso-

phies of Steve Blank25, Geoffrey Moore26, and Clayton Christensen.27
The jfdi.100 program will put entrepreneurs in contact with cus-
tomers on day one, with the intention of reducing market risk and
accelerating customer-centric development.

Money: we cooperate on a deal-by-deal basis with financial compo-

nents of the existing Singapore ecosystem including IDMPO i.Jam
incubators such as Azione Capital28, angels and angel groups, and
VC firms such as Extream29 and Walden.30 JFDI’s mentors may also
invest in a personal capacity.

Management expertise: jfdi.100’s operating mentors are experi-

enced entrepreneurs and will take a hands-on approach to minimiz-
ing execution risk during the bootcamp period. Particular priorities
will be to help the teams retain focus on generating revenue early
and pacing themselves towards being ready for a first round of seed
funding.

Mentors: JFDI.100 will offer both visiting and resident mentors.

Mentors may participate in operations, advise entrepreneurs, or
lead half-day seminars.
The principals of JFDI.ASIA will act as operating mentors for the
first batch at least. Hugh Mason’s background is in media. Soon Loo
and Meng Wong’s backgrounds are in Silicon Valley Internet start-

24 http://blog.jedchristiansen.com/2009/09/21/
copying-y-combinator-why-and-how/
25 www.steveblank.com
26 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Chasm
27 http://www.claytonchristensen.com/
28 http://azionecapital.com/
29 http://www.extream.com/
30 http://www.waldenintl.com/main/singapore.htm

13
ups. They have extensive networks in the media, publishing, gaming,
social media, and digital entertainment sectors, which will benefit
individuals and companies in Singapore’s entrepreneurship eco-
system, whether they are participants in jfdi.100 or not. Operating
mentors are described in more detail in Appendix B on page 29.

3.3. Other Mentors

The principals are in discussion with several local and foreign men-
tors. We hope to secure the involvement of folks like
• James Hong, entrepreneur and founder of HotOrNot.com
• Dug Song, entrepreneur and founder of Arbor Networks
• Patrick Haller, hacker and cultural mentor
• Joichi Ito, successful angel and entrepreneur, NRF TIS

Foreign mentors will come to Singapore under the Visiting Men-

tor Program, which is already funded and which is described more
fully in Appendix A on page 27. It will offer Singapore entrepreneurs
(whether participating in JFDI or not) access to world-class expertise.
In addition, our close relationship with the Founder Institute, which
has recently announced expansion to Singapore, gives us access to a
vast array of experienced startup talent.

3.4. Organisational Partners

JFDI does not compete with any existing initiative in Singapore but
rather seeks to work with local players, wherever existing funding
program rules and incubator priorities make that possible.
We see other incubators as our customers. We sell them investible
startups. JFDI’s revenue model is based in part on partial liquida-
tion of stock during the funding process: in each round of funding,
JFDI will sell a portion of the stock it holds in each company.

14
This is our list of confirmed and potential partners:

Name URL Description Relationship benefits

Sgentrepeneurs sgentrepreneurs.com Blog Community promotion

e27 www.e27.sg Blog and events organiser Community promotion

BANSEA bansea.angelgroups.net Business Angel Network Active investor / exit partner

Hackerspace.sg www.hackerspace.sg Community organisation Recruitment, events co-host

Founder Institute www.founderinstitute.com Entrepreneur training Mentor Partner

Azione www.azionecapital.com Established local incubator Active investor / exit partner

Expara www.expara.com Established local incubator Active investor / exit partner

Google www.google.com Gorilla Active investor / exit partner

Microsoft BizSpark microsoft.com/BizSpark Gorilla Financial, in-kind resource support

Yahoo www.yahoo.com Gorilla Active investor / exit partner

A*STAR www.a-star.edu.sg Government agency Recruitment, events co-host

Contact Singapore www.contactsingapore.sg Government agency Recruitment, events co-host

Design Singapore www.designsingapore.org Government agency Recruitment, events co-host

IDA Singapore www.ida.gov.sg Government agency Recruitment, events co-host

MDA Singapore www.mda.gov.sg Government agency Funding for JFDI VMP

SPRING www.spring.gov.sg Government agency Co-funding source, IDP scheme

Thymos Capital www.thymoscapital.com Incubator active investor / exit partner

Propellerfish www.propellerfish.com Innovation consultancy Ideation & customer discovery

INSEAD www.insead.edu Institute of Higher Learning Recruitment, events co-host

NTU www.ntu.edu.sg Institute of Higher Learning Recruitment, events co-host

NUS www.nus.edu.sg Institute of Higher Learning Recruitment, events co-host

SMU www.smu.edu.sg Institute of Higher Learning Recruitment, events co-host

Neoteny Labs www.neotenylabs.com NRF TIS incubator Active investor / exit partner

Plug and Play plugandplaytechcenter.com NRF TIS incubator Active investor / exit partner

Social Slingshot (Brad Greenspan) NRF TIS incubator Active investor / exit partner

Stream Global www.stream.com.sg NRF TIS incubator Active investor / exit partner

Intellectual Ventures www.intven.com Patent venture firm Ideation and recruitment

e27 www.e27.sg Blog and events organiser Community promotion

TechStars www.techstars.org US-based pre-seed incubator Model for JFDI

Y Combinator ycombinator.com US-based pre-seed incubator Model for JFDI

SVCA www.svca.org.sg Venture Capital Network Recruitment, events co-host

Extream www.extreamventures.com Venture Firm Exit partner

Innosight Ventures www.innosight.com Venture Firm Exit partner

Walden International www.waldenintl.com Venture Firm Exit partner

15
 4.  BUSINESS PLAN & OPERATIONAL FRAMEWORK

In this section we outline the operational issues in running JFDI

sustainably.

4.1. Capabilities

The 100-days program will operate very much like a bootcamp: in-
stead of basic military training we will offer basic entrepreneurship
training, taught by veterans who have been in the trenches them-
selves.
• At the physical level we will provide office space, food, and housing:
all the conveniences of an army barracks or college dormitory. The
goal: no distractions.
• At the infrastructure level we will provide legal, administrative,
and accounting support.
• At the training level we will provide seminars offering a crash
course in entrepreneurial topics.
• At the leadership level we will offer hands-on mentoring. JFDI
mentors will act as co-founders or acting CEO/COO figures. This
fills a gap in many startups who have good engineers but lack a
business head: we supply people who have 'been there and done
it before' and are competent marketers, in the sense of market
research and demand estimation as well as promotion and sales.
• At the product development level we will offer a structure to support
ideation, market research, engineering development, and project
management. This framework reduces execution and market risk.

This degree of structure is helpful to companies because any little

mistake is enough to kill the business. They cannot afford to floun-
der. Indeed, the typical entrepreneur fails several times before suc-
ceeding. We aim to short-circuit this wasteful process by introducing
a master/apprentice model. This is one of JFDI’s key innovations.

4.2. Management team

JFDI is incorporated in Singapore as a private (exempt) company

limited by shares. Its Management Board comprises the following
founders who meet monthly to drive forward JFDI’s affairs:
• Soon Loo, Director and Operating Mentor
• Hugh Mason, Director and Operating Mentor
• Wong Meng Weng, Director and Operating Mentor
• Juanita Sabapathy, Company Secretary

Day-to-day operations of JFDI will be managed by Juanita Sabapathy,

supported by full-time assistants covering recruitment & ideation,
boot camp operations, and reporting/finance.

16
The Management Board will be supported by an Advisory Board
which meets at the end of every cycle of operations. We intend to
draw our Board of Advisors from the list of partners above.

4.3. Corporate Structure

Each team going through the boot camp will incorporate a

StartupCo as a Pte Ltd company in Singapore. So if there are five
startups per batch, we will have StartupCo1 through StartupCo5.
The shares in each StartupCo will be allocated to individual team
members and to a special purpose vehicle specific to the bootcamp
batch: JFDI2010Summer or JFDI2010Winter, etc.
Shares in the batch-specific vehicles will be allocated to mentors
working actively with that cycle of companies and also to partici-
pants to encourage collaboration. These batch-specific vehicles will
be an asset holding company with no operating cash flows. JFDI.
ASIA Pte. Ltd will also take a stake in the batch-specific vehicles.
All costs associated with each startup’s participation in the JFDI
programme will be charged to JFDI.ASIA Pte. Ltd.
These shareholding relationships are shown on the next page. We
will finalize the legal structure after consultation with tax and legal
advisors who will be appointed shortly.

17
JFDI.ASIA ENTITY RELATIONSHIP MODEL AND OWNERSHIP DIAGRAM

JFDI.Founder1 JFDI.Founder2 JFDI.Founder3

Hugh Mason. Wong Meng Weng.  Soon Loo.
Responsible for JFDI  Responsible for JFDI  Responsible for JFDI 
operations and running of  operations and running of  operations and running of 
each batch. each batch. each batch.

JFDI.ASIA Pte. Ltd.
Persistent, long-term operating company. Maintains batch-to-batch 
continuity. Responsible for operations. Contracts with vendors, 
employees, mentors, and customers.

Batch1.Mentor1 Batch1.Mentor2
Natural Person or Corporate  Natural Person or Corporate  Batch1.Mentor5
Shell around Mentor. Mentors  Shell around Mentor. Mentors  Guest Mentor. Light 
all companies in a batch,  all companies in a batch,  involvement. May teach a 
heavy involvement. heavy involvement. seminar but refrains from 
rolling up sleeves.

Batch1.Mentor3
Natural Person or Corporate  Batch1.Mentor4
Shell around Mentor. Mentors  Guest Mentor. Light 
all companies in a batch,  involvement. May teach a 
heavy involvement. seminar but refrains from 
rolling up sleeves.

JFDI100Batch1 Pte. Ltd.
Special Purpose Vehicle representing a given 100-day bootcamp. Asset holding company with zero cash 
flow. This is the vehicle for compensating mentors. Mentors realize equity upside in successful startups 
through this vehicle. Stock in this vehicle is convertible to stock in each StartupCo.

SC1.Founder1 SC1.Founder3 SC1.AdvisorPool

Natural Person.  Natural Person.  Advisor Option Pool. 
Participant in Batch.  Participant in Batch.  Typically 2% of 
Co-founder of  Co-founder of  Common. Granted 
StartupCo1. StartupCo1. directly to advisors.

SC1.Founder2 SC1.ESOP
Natural Person.  Employee Stock 
Each founder  Participant in Batch.  Option Pool. Typically 
also gets a 
Co-founder of  20% of Common.
few options in 
the batch 
StartupCo1.
SPV, to 
represent 
intra-batch, 
inter-company 
collaboration.
20% 20% 20% 16% 20% 2%

StartupCo1 Pte. Ltd. future funding
Corporation representing the startup. There will be 5 to 8 of these per batch.
 4.4. The Bootcamp Experience

There are two cycles of jfdi.100 each year. Each cycle comprises five
phases: Ideation & Recruitment (run in parallel); Boot Camp; then
Demo Day and Graduation.

The Boot Camp phase will run for 100 days, with a couple of weeks
of setup and tear-down at each end: 4 months in total for the partici-
pants, 6 months for the admin staff and core mentors.
The following diagram shows one possible breakdown of the 100-
day period into structured phases.

Prelude Acceleration Building Execution Finale

Recruitment Web 2.0 Boot-camp Prototype/Alpha Customers/Revenues Funding
Selection Team Finalization Partners/Customers Private Funding Formalise

2 Weeks 6 Weeks 6 Weeks 2 Days

4-Day Initiation Weeky Checkpoints Weekly Checkpoints Investor Pitch

• Web 2.0 Technology Weekly Mentoring Weekly Mentoring Graduation
• Web 2.0 Marketing Weekly Lessons Weekly Lessons Exit Interview
• Web 2.0 Execution • Technology I: Web 2.0 • Technology II: Soft- Next Steps
• Pitching and Presenting • Marketing I: Positioning ware Engineering
• Business Planning 101 • Execution I: Launching • ExecutionII: Leader-
• Getting Investors • Pitching I: Persua- ship/Managing
• Getting Customers sion/Partnering • Pitching II: Investors
• Positioning • Prototyping I: Sketching • Business Plan Review
• Team Challenge • Prototyping II: Design • Entrepreneurship
2-Day Idea Generation • Finance
• Markets and Verticals • Marketing II: Go-
• Feasibility Review to-Market
• Planning and Design

Checkpoint 1 Checkpoint 2 Checkpoint 3

Formal Pitch Formal Pitch Preparing for Finale
Idea Validation Progress Update for Investor Pitch
Investors/Customers

The 100-day semester will begin with an infrastructure orientation:

in the first few days we will brief startups or handhold them through
incorporation, legal aspects, and technology infrastructure. Found-
ers will also move in to housing provided by JFDI.

Every day for the first three weeks, we will conduct half-day morning
seminars. Mentors and guest speakers will speak on entrepreneur-
ship, marketing, growth strategy, agile development, and technol-
ogy trends.

During the course of the semester mentors will coach founders

through market research, customer development, software engi-
neering project management, alpha/beta launch, customer support,
business model experimentation, monetization strategies, and pay-
ment processing. As needs dictate we will also assist startups with
international growth.

Every startup will be expected to launch during the 100 days.

19
We will convene investors at the beginning and the end of each se-
mester. In the beginning, investors will hear raw pitches, and give
feedback as to milestones they want to see. At the end, investors will
hear a progress report and updated pitches. We will continue to
coach founders through the fundraising process.

Startups that receive follow-on funding may be offered continuing

office space at JFDI premises on commercial terms for another two
months before the next semester begins.

20
 5.  PROMOTION AND ENGAGEMENT

In this section we describe the strategies and activities we will use to JFDI.ASIA Pte. Ltd.
operating company
create awareness of and applications to the jfdi.100 program. We
seek engagement from two groups: individuals seeking to participate runs
as entrepreneurs in jfdi.100 and, in parallel, customers/investors JFDI.VMP
for their businesses. These two groups will be engaged respectively Visiting Mentor Programme

through two operational programmes which we call jfdi.asia and

JFDI.100
jfdi.insight. The JFDI family of activities is diagrammed at right. bootcamps twice a year

www.jfdi.asia
5.1. Promotion to Potential Participants: using jfdi.asia public website, blog, etc

JFDI.100 will be promoted through an extensive online portal (www. JFDI.INSIGHT

market research and product ideation
jfdi.asia) and a social media campaign targeted at groups of tech- joint venture with Propellerfish.com
nical and commercial individuals. This will engage individuals in
a ‘funnel’ with four stages: Awareness, Interest, Desire, and finally
Action.

We will create awareness through original blog posts, comments on

existing stories, and by engaging the interest of blog editors.

Interest will be stimulated in appropriate individuals by a clear out-

line of what the jfdi.100 program entails on the jfdi.asia website,
setting out what individuals need to do to apply. The website will also
contain freely downloadable resources in the form of a rich media
resource kit that anyone covering jfdi.100 can use to write about it.

There will be no obligation for individuals or organisations inter-

ested in jfdi.100 to progress further towards engagement with the
bootcamp and we anticipate that many will simply wish to contribute
to the online community that is already developing around the web-
site at www.jfdi.asia31.

31 www.jfdi.asia, http://groups.google.com/group/mengcubator/

21
Over time, we expect the jfdi.asia website to develop into an online
self-guided entrepreneur’s training course, so that anyone reading
it free of charge, anywhere in the world, will benefit. However, we
also anticipate that a significant number of talented individuals will
want to actively engage with the jfdi.100 program as potential par-
ticipants.

5.2. Engagement of Potential JFDI.100 Participants

We will announce a call for participants as long as six months before

the beginning of each semester. During the pre-bootcamp period,
we will run a number of meetups32 for strategic partners and poten-
tial local participants to:
• learn about the program and set goals,
• acquire necessary skills in project management
and software development,
• review the history of new media and model IDM startups, and
• brainstorm some market scenarios for the future.

These meetups will also give us the opportunity to get to know po-
tential participants.

We will recommend readings to entrepreneurs both on the website Recommended books include:
and at the meetups. The Cluetrain Manifesto
The Art of the Long View
Getting it Right the First Time
Four Steps to the Epiphany
5.3. Screening Process for Potential JFDI.100 Participants Agile Project Management
Crossing the Chasm
The Art of the Start
Interested individuals will demonstrate their desire to take part The Portable MBA
by reading the book list posted on the site and contributing to the Founders at Work
shared portal of entrepreneurship know-how that jfdi.asia will be- Neuromancer
come through user-generated content and links to relevant resourc- Snow Crash
Diamond Age
es online. Accelerando

Individuals can apply to jfdi.100 by signing up online and submit-

ting a CV and an essay on the following theme: “Describe something
in the world around you that sucks,  how IDM technology could
make it ten times better and how you would convince the world to
pay for it”. Submissions could be in writing, in the form of a video/
animation or any other digital medium.

Individual potential participants for jfdi.100 will be screened

through the submissions described above. In inviting these submis-
sions, we are not asking applicants to give away business plans or
confidential intellectual property but we will require them to tick
a box confirming a set of terms and conditions including their will-
ingness to release what they contribute under a creative commons
licence.

32 most likely at hackerspace.sg

22
This will allow us to post submissions online for evaluation partly by
the rest of the community who will get the chance to vote on them.
The postings will be anonymous to eliminate prejudice.

The submissions will also be screened and scored by the program

mentors, who will look to applicants to demonstrate that they en-
gage with the world around them, can link the issues they see to
technical solutions, can express themselves clearly in English and
that they are willing to share their ideas for discussion.

We will screen applications and select the best 30 founders to start

10 companies. We will ask them to read specific texts so that all par-
ticipants begin with a shared vocabulary.

5.4. Track record of incubator founders & managers

Between them, JFDI’s three founding mentors have supported the

development of over 2,000 SMEs during the last ten years and have
extensive networks in the USA, Europe, Middle East and Asia.

5.5. Entry and graduation policy for incubatees

As jfdi.100 is a pre-seed acceleration program, entrants are likely to

think of themselves as engineers first and founders second. We ex-
pect that when they apply, none will have incorporated. It is our job
is to help them through the company formation process.

Getting them early is important because young inventors tend to

have tremendous energy but little perspective. If they grow attached
to a particular idea, it can be hard to change their mind, even af-
ter due diligence shows that the idea needs work. We would rather
get them before they’re committed, and workshop the idea from a
market-demand perspective before pulling the trigger on product
development. 

5.6. Project milestones and timeline

The pattern of the incubator will repeat with two cycles per year, the
highlight of which will be the boot camp events during June – Au-
gust and January – March.
The following programme calendars for 2010 and 2011 show the
pattern in broad strokes.

23
4 January
Explore Public Calendar 2010
11 Funding
Write Prospectus
18
25 Get Endorsements
1 February Explore Private
Write Business Funding
8 Plan
15
22
29
1 March Begin Publicity Drive
8
15
Enroll Participants
22
29
5 April
12
19 Insight Start: 4 weeks
Go/No-Go Deadline understand the market, define the
26 themes, identify opportunities.
Recruit Investors
2 weeks prep, 2 weeks doing. and Customer
3 May Confirm Participants Confirm Housing and Other Representatives
10 Infrastructure Insight Resolution: 3 weeks who contribute
quantify market research and strategic important product
17 opportunities ideas
24
Product Ideation: 2 weeks
31 given the opportunities, identify potential solutions, and filter for revenue and implementation
feasibility. Investors and customers attend and assist with ideation.
7 June
Bootcamp Begins
14
Basic Software Engineering Training
21 build a sample web app to throw away
Business Mentors hold half-day
28 seminars
on business basics Customer Development: Sales and
5 July
Product Specification Begins Product Engineering Begins
12
19 Alpha Product Launch
Investor and Customer check-in
26 provide initial feedback
Beta Product Launch
2 August
Business Mentors hold half-day Revenue Service Begins
9 seminars Public Product Launch
on fundraising and revenue models
16
23 Demo Day
30 launch to a larger pool of investors and customers
Fundraising and Graduation
6 September assist with follow-on funding and semester wind-down

13
20
27
4 October
11 Enroll Participants Recruit Investors
and Customer
18 Representatives
who contribute
25
important product
1 November ideas

8
Insight Start: 3 weeks
15 understand the market, define the
themes, identify opportunities.
22 2 weeks prep, 1 week doing.
Confirm Participants Confirm Housing and Other
29 Infrastructure Insight Resolution: 2 weeks
6 December quantify market research and strategic
opportunities
13
20
27

24
3 January Product Ideation: 2 weeks
given the opportunities, identify potential solutions, and filter for revenue and
Calendar 2011
10
implementation feasibility. Investors and customers attend and assist with ideation.
17
Bootcamp Begins
24
Basic Software Engineering Training
31 build a sample web app to throw away
Business Mentors hold half-day
7 February seminars
14 on business basics Customer Development: Sales and
Product Specification Begins Product Engineering Begins
21
28
Alpha Product Launch Investor and Customer check-in
7 March provide initial feedback
14
Business Mentors hold half-day Beta Product Launch
21 seminars Revenue Service Begins
28 on fundraising and revenue models
Public Product Launch
4 April
11
18 Demo Day
launch to a larger pool of investors and customers
25 Fundraising and Graduation
assist with follow-on funding and semester wind-down
2 May Enroll Participants Recruit Investors
and Customer
9 Confirm Housing and Insight Program: 4 weeks Representatives
Other Infrastructure understand the market, define the themes, who contribute
16 identify opportunities. quantify, etc. 2
Confirm Participants important product
23 weeks prep, 2 weeks doing. ideas
30
Product Ideation: 2 weeks
6 June given the opportunities, identify potential solutions, and filter for revenue and implementation
feasibility. Investors and customers attend and assist with ideation.
13 Bootcamp Begins
20
Basic Software Engineering Training
27 build a sample web app to throw away
Business Mentors hold half-day
4 July seminars
on business basics Customer Development: Sales and
11
Product Specification Begins Product Engineering Begins
18
25 Alpha Product Launch
Investor and Customer check-in
1 August provide initial feedback
Beta Product Launch
8
Business Mentors hold half-day Revenue Service Begins
15 seminars Public Product Launch
on fundraising and revenue models
22
29 Demo Day
5 September launch to a larger pool of investors and customers
Fundraising and Graduation
12 assist with follow-on funding and semester wind-down

19
26
3 October
10 Recruit Investors
Enroll Participants and Customer
17 Representatives
24 who contribute
important product
31 ideas

7 November
Insight Start: 3 weeks
14 understand the market, define the
themes, identify opportunities.
21 2 weeks prep, 1 week doing.
Confirm Housing and Other
28 Infrastructure
Confirm Participants Insight Resolution: 2 weeks
5 December quantify market research and strategic
opportunities
12
19
26

25
5.7. Sustainability

JFDI.asia is structured in a way that gives individual participating

business founders and mentors a stake in the businesses created.
The management team is compensated minimally in cash terms for
operating the business and rather is highly incentivised to generate
follow-on funding and profitable exits from the new businesses that
JFDI creates. Partial liquidations and exits should make JFDI finan-
cially self-sustaining by the third year of operation.

5.8. JFDI.INSIGHT: Promotion to Customers and Investors

We are partnering with Propellerfish.com, a new product develop-

ment consultancy, to manage the ideation process. Together we will
conduct brainstorming and feasibility analysis workshops. We will
invite potential participants, alumni, and, importantly, friendly in-
vestors and potential customers to take an active role in these work-
shops.
We are also discussing with local TV producers the potential for
jfdi.insight to form the basis of a popular television series. Further
details will follow.

26
 Appendix A – VISITING MENTOR PROGRAM

A.1. Introduction

Over the course of 2010 and early 2011, JFDI.VMP will bring nine
outstanding international entrepreneurs active in the IDM field to
Singapore to act as mentors. The program includes provision to fa-
cilitate mentors’ activities while here and to maximise the return on
investment to Singapore’s IDM SME community by capturing and
disseminating their insights, experience and know-how.

A.2. Need for JFDI.VMP

Singapore was one of the foremost Asian Tigers of the 20th Century.
This growth was driven by modernization and industrialization, and
MNCs were a big part of the economy. Due to a national emphasis on
education, Singapore is now positioned to participate in the higher
tiers of the Knowledge-Based Economy: high-tech entrepreneurship,
after the model of Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley developed over decades, and was itself only one of sev-
eral theatres of U.S. venture innovation: for every Xerox PARC on
the West Coast, there was a Bell Labs on the East Coast. Now Singa-
pore is attempting to jump-start a local ecosystem. It cannot do this
alone.

Particular challenges recognised by the MDA and addressed by this

program include: providing access to global marketss for local SMEs,
securing true ‘insider’ connections in Silicon Valley for those busi-
nesses and obtaining up-to-date technical insights regarding Web
2.0 and mobile technologies which evolve on a quarterly basis, direct
from front-line pioneers.

The challenge is not just one of replicating ‘best practices’ in terms

of processes for public and private funding, skills enrichment and
technical infrastructure. Singapore also needs to internalise the
entrepreneurial culture of the most successful role-models around
the world. This culture transfer can be straightforward: local talent
should spend quality time with people who have ‘been there and
done it.’ That is what the JFDI Visiting Mentor Program is all about.

For precedents we can look to the Singapore military, which was

jump-started with the help of the Israeli military. During the 1960s,
Israeli military advisors visited Singapore and the first generation of
Singaporean commanders were trained by Israelis.

Today, Singapore students go overseas for exposure to entrepre-

neurial thinking. For instance, the NUS Overseas College program
interns NUS students at startups in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. It

27
also makes sense to bring foreign entrepreneurs and investors to
Singapore. Hence, this program.

A.3. Operations

The JFDI Visiting Mentor Program will bring high-tech and media
entrepreneurs based outside Singapore to our island for short to
medium-term visits to act as mentors.
During these visits they will spend quality time enhancing the lo-
cal ecosystem, in several ways:
• they will engage in cultural diffusion by spending quality time with
local technologists in informal settings,
• they will speak at events such as entrepreneurship conferences,
• they will enter into mentoring relationships with startups or even
join them, and
• they may invest in or start companies here.
• their experience, observations, know-how and insight will be
captured in a rich media blog on the jfdi.asia website that will
disseminate what they share.
In the context of this program, in return for free travel and accom-
modation in Singapore, visiting mentors are expected to waive fees
for their time.

A.4. Targeted SME Beneficiaries

We expect startups who have been funded via i.Jam and/or iMatch to
be the primary beneficiaries of exposure to Visiting Mentors. Other
Singapore startups, entrepreneurs, and promising technologists will
also be invited to interact with Visiting Mentors, at the discretion of
the Program Manager. Generally we intend to be inclusive.

A.5. Scope and Duration

The program will operate for 12 months beginning 1 January 2010.

28
 Appendix B – EXISTING STAFF EXPERTISE

B.1. Wong Meng Weng – Director, Operating Mentor

In 2008, Wong Meng Weng moved to Singapore after three years

in Silicon Valley, ten years in Philadelphia, and three years in Van-
couver. During this time, he founded two Internet dot-coms, led
the SPF opensource standard to successful worldwide rollout, and
learned several first-hand lessons about the operational aspects of
early-stage entrepreneurship. His two previous ventures, pobox.com
and karmasphere.com, explored the email security industry and de-
veloped reputation systems for the Internet.
He mentors several local startups and will be a principal men-
tor with JFDI. He currently works closely with BoxSentry.com, a
Red Herring Global 100 company, as VP for Strategic Development,
helping with fundraising and new product development.

Having been a long-time opensource and Agile programmer, not

to mention a regular invitee to “alpha geek” gatherings such as the
Hackers Conference, he is on good terms with many leading mem-
bers of the opensource and social media startup communities in
Silicon Valley. During his Valley years he attended Tim O’Reilly’s
Foo Camp from 2003 to 2005, and was in the room when the term
“Web 2.0” was first defined.

Thanks to this background, one of the strengths he brings is the

knack of asking: “wouldn’t this work better if –” and then suggesting
areas of best practice that the founders may not have considered,
such as a better virality model, more user-generated content, or a
simpler, more distilled product feature set for version 1. Why specu-
late when you can run an experiment?

As an angel investor, his investment strategy focuses on Internet

start-ups in the Asian region based on deeply original technologies.
These start-ups must exploit or answer a fundamental human need.
He believes that after Web 2.0, energy, and biotech, the next rich
wave of investment will be in the area of secular ethics. Since return-
ing to Singapore in 2008 he has made three investments in Singa-
pore and China. He has served as a business plan judge for iMatch,
NUS, SMU, INSEAD, and Malaysia’s Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Meng earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at the Uni-

versity of Pennsylvania (SEAS ‘97), and attended MBA school at the
National University of Singapore (2000) while simultaneously tak-
ing classes toward a Master of Knowledge Engineering. Prior to that
he passed through the GEP at Raffles Institution and Anglo-Chi-
nese School. He specializes in Internet security, data visualization,
and social media design.

29
Meng is a member of the board of directors of the Business Angel
Network of South-East Asia (BANSEA).
In Singapore, he organizes Barcamps, hackerspace.sg, TEDx, and
invite-only Foocamp events, spanning infocomm technology, ener-
gy, biotech, media, and next-generation investment sectors.
He volunteers as an EiR and mentor with Singapore Management
University, Singapore’s A*Star investment fund, and INSEAD Busi-
ness School.

30
B.2. Soon Loo – Director, Operating Mentor

Soon Loo is a successful business strategist with over 12 years of ex-

perience in technology, insurance, and real estate. Soon is currently
the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Elevation group, a
private strategy and advisory firm with a focus on Asia. Also, he sits
on the Board of Directors of IPIT, a publicly listed business trust
with a market capitalization of over half a billion US dollars. He
also serves on the Board of Directors for Izara Pte, a research con-
sultancy. Soon is also currently an adjunct faculty member of the
Singapore Management University.

Most recently, he was a Regional Vice President of the AXA Group

in Japan & Asia Pacific. At the AXA group, he managed projects in
business development and strategy for the regional office that of-
fice that oversaw the AXA Group companies in 11 countries in Asia
Pacific. He was also entrusted to manage the S$120.0 million retail-
line general insurance business for the AXA Group in Singapore.

Soon began his career in IT and management consulting. He was a

co-founder and senior Vice President of Nextdoor Networks, a ven-
ture-funded IT company in Silicon Valley. He helped the company
raise us$37 million of venture capital. Prior to that, he worked as a
management consultant for McKinsey & Company.

Soon came across coaching in 2006 and in late 2007, decided to

focus on developing a corporate coach/training arm of Executive
Coach International Pte Ltd, called AdvantEdge Coaching. His abil-
ity to work well with people, and his intensity in propelling himself
and his teams forward has gained him much respect amongst his
Life is no “brief candle” for me. It is a
peers. Clients know Soon to be warm, fun and extremely supportive sort of splendid torch which I have got
in their crafting of new realities. hold of for the moment, and I want to
make it burn as brightly as possible before
handing it on to future generations.
”What’s the best thing about coaching for you?”
 George Bernard Shaw
”The joy of working with people, and seeing people grow and achieve
their potential.”

Soon holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the

Harvard Business School. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from
the University of British Columbia. As a pastime, Soon enjoys mov-
ies, books, and his computer.

31
B.3. Hugh Mason – Director, Operating Mentor

Hugh specialises in building wealth in the creative sector through

public sector programmes. He also is an expert in TV/Film, Design
and Online business support. He was invited by the MDA to Singa-
pore in 2006 to mentor IDM SMEs and has since advised more than
30. Hugh relocated to Singapore full time with his young family in
January 2009.

Hugh Mason co-founded London-based Pembridge Partners LLP in

2001. Acting as its first Managing Partner, Hugh coordinated the
team that led to Pembridge raising, or directly investing, more than
S$50 million in innovative marketing, media and technology busi-
nesses, and providing advice helping to build value in over 2,000
Small- to Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, Singapore
and Netherlands.

Proven ability to assess the commercial potential

of start-up and early stage companies:

The sobering experience of investing his own wealth in other peo-

ples’ businesses through Pembridge has given Hugh a vivid picture
of the issues surrounding growth in sub-sectors as diverse as Design,
Music, Television, Film, Animation, Games, Public Relations, Adver-
tising, Direct Marketing and Sales Promotion. Since 2001 Hugh has
personally invested in the 12 UK SMEs, achieving three exits made
on target, seven active investments and four exits with limited posi-
tive or near parity return.

Short CV:

Following training as a documentary TV producer-director with

the BBC, Hugh Mason founded and grew a multiple-award-winning
broadcast TV production company. Finding himself as interested in
the business side of running a creative company as he had previ-
ously been making films, Hugh co-founded Pembridge Partners in
2001. Instead of making complex stories about science accessible to
non-specialist audiences, Hugh now applies his strategy, ideas and
communication skills to help Creative Industries Small- and Medi-
um-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to visualise their futures, set a path for
growth and plan their way to success.

2002 – present: Founding Partner of Pembridge Partners LLP.

Pembridge provides finance and advice exclusively to creative indus-

tries SMEs to help their owners build and realise value. Pembridge
has raised or invested directly over £25m (s$50) since start-up, en-
gaging with over 2,000 SMEs in the UK, Singapore and Netherlands.

32
1995 – 2002 Founder and Executive Producer, Narrateo Ltd.

Narrateo is an independent broadcast TV and online production

company with clients such as Discovery Channel US/UK, BBC, Na-
tional Geographic and Channel 5. Hugh won two Royal Television
Society awards and a BAFTA nomination.

1990 – 1995 Freelance broadcast television Producer-Director

Working with BBC Television and Uden Associates Television Ltd.

1986-1989 BSc (Hons) Physics with Physical

Electronics, Bath University, UK

1985–1989 Sponsored Student Apprentice,

GEC-Marconi Research

Aged 18 Hugh was selected by GEC-Marconi for its prestigious spon-

sorship programme. Hugh worked full-time for the company for a
year before going to University and then through summer vacations
at the research laboratories. This gave him hands-on experience of
research issues as diverse as HF Radio path loss over the sea, Digital
Radar, Synthetic Aperture Radar, Application Specific IC Design
and a prototype domestic data bus.

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B.4. Juanita Sabapathy – Operations Manager

Director
Oct 2009 – Present Narrateo Singapore Pte Ltd

Co-founded this project management business, which provides op-

erational support for a wide range of companies and clients, typi-
cally interntional start-ups.

Business Support Executive

Oct 2008 – Oct 2009 Sumeria Search Pte Ltd

Responsible for office and IT management and problem resolution.

Also in charge of coordination of new setups, maintenance and re-
pair for the Singapore office. Responsible for vendor relationships
and assessment of vendor services

Administrative Assistant (Admin Exec)

Feb 2008 – Oct 2008 Lehman Brothers Singapore Pte Ltd

Independently managed full spectrum of administration for 38 sen-

ior and junior members of the Foreign Exchange team based on the
trading floor. Providing timely and accurate travel arrangements,
claims processing, scheduling of meetings/events as well as ad-hoc
logistics, scheduling and materials support for client presentations
and inter-office events.

World Wide Wealth Support (Admin Exec)

Jun 2007 – Feb 2008 World Wide Wealth, XL Results Foundation

Fulfilling all administrative, reporting, event management and man-

agement of day-to-day functions, working with Head of World Wide
Wealth. Designing and maintaining reporting systems, documenta-
tion systems and communications for division’s functions meticu-
lously, as well as full spectrum of secretarial support.

Administrative Assistant (2 mth contract)

Apr 2007 – Jun 2007, Event Management
Group, ESPN Star Sports

Responsible for travel arrangements, raising payment vouchers, co-

ordination, design of brochures, website updates and coordination
with overseas offices on event guests during Asia X Games 07. As
sole member of team in Singapore, coordinating with events team
stationed overseas to learn procedures and policies and fulfilled all
administration for a time-sensitive event

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Assistant Protocol Officer
Feb 2006 – Feb 2007, Protocol Dir, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Administrator of The Two Hundred Secretariat (small exclusive

club for diplomats, senior civil servants and industry leaders) includ-
ing membership matters, monthly social events, records and website
updates. Operational aspects relating to Congratulatory Messages
from Singapore to foreign countries, Appointment, Introductory
and Farewell Calls for foreign Ambassadors, planning, organisa-
tion and coordination of Istana functions. Coordinated Spouse Pro-
gramme for 4 First Ladies during their visits to Singapore, including
accompanying all official and personal programmes.

Assistant Technical Cooperation Officer

May 2002 – Feb 2006 Technical Cooperation
Dir, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Operationalised up to 35 overlapping training programmes year-

ly with 12–30 foreign government participants per programme,
achieving and/or surpassing aims and targets for each programme
by working closely with agencies, foreign governments and service
providers

Customer Service Officer/Admin Officer

Jul 2001 – May 2002 Singnet Pte Ltd

35
 Appendix C – FACILITIES

JFDI operates in a sector that merely requires no special facilities

beyond a quiet space, air conditioning and reliable power/internet
connections to work. Accordingly, jfdi.asia does not intend to build
or operate any physical facilities of its own. Rather, we intend to
focus on building the intangible elements of community, skills and
role models that we believe are needed to increase the supply of en-
trepreneurs and viable startups in Singapore.

There are several operational elements required to sustain JFDI and

the facilities we propose for each are summarized below:

Recruitment/engagement of talent: this is very largely an online process

and will be mediated through our online presence at http://jfdi.asia
together with partner’s websites. We are opening discussions with
Contact Singapore to explore whether that organization’s existing
network of staff and offices could also help to recruit individuals,
perhaps through awareness raising seminars.

Ideation/opportunity brainstorming: this is a once-per-quarter process

that merely requires meeting space. We intend to use the meeting fa-
cilities of one of our partners (most likely Microsoft or hackerspace.
sg) for this function.

Bootcamp: this requires living facilities for 20-30 people in 8-10

groups of three individuals. We propose to source a provider will-
ing to offer a group of serviced HDB apartments or similar for this
purpose.

Mentoring, administration and community meeting space: Our partner-

ship with hackerspace.sg means this is already in place from this
independent, community supported space that has proved highly
successful within its first two months of operation.

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t his page in t e n tiona l ly l e f t bl a n k

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