the startups that rocked unconference 2009 - youngupstarts.com

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The Startups That Rocked UnConference 2009Posted byDaniel on 5/24/09 Categorized as Events & Happenings

UnConference 2009 organized bye2 7 has been awesome, and although it has been more than a week since

it was over, the buzz still remains. (Maybe it was all the fallout from myprevious post on UnConference

2009).

Anyway, back to business. So how do the sta rtups at UnConference 2009 compare to the startups from last

year (pictures here)? Lets take a look at the ones that presented themselves to a judging panel that

comprises ofLookerys Scott Rafer, Reza Behnam ofIDG Ventures Vietnam, Dan Neary ofSkype, and TahnJoo Chin of Hina Singapore:

235 9 M edia

One of Singapores first application developers for Facebookand the iPhone, 2359 Media also operates an

advertising network for native mobile applications. Presented to the audience was SG Malls, an iPhone

application that helps users navigate inside Singapore malls and includes store directories (for all 90+ of

them!).

eJamming presenting during Unconference 2009

startup 10-minute pitching sessions.

Mickey, Wenhan and Hong Ting from 2359 Media.

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C ounts pin

CountSpin features live falling-price auctions on consumer fashion and lifestyle products such as luxury

watches and jewellery. Price drops every second till the available quantity is sold out, providing an

interesting online retail experience and generous di scounts. Countspin was covered in a previous post.

eJamming AU DiiO

eJamming AUDiiO is an online subscription-based social network for musicians that allows them to

collaborate, create, record and play together online in real time with a near-zero latency feel on each

musicians instrument. Musicians meet, then create or join live jamming sessions with up to three other

musicians anywhere in the world. With JamCastLive, musicians can netcast their live eJamming AUDiiO

sessions over the network to fans anywhere in the world. One of the most promising startups present that

wow-ed the panel and crowd especially during its live demo. They could do with a better name, though.

Frenzoo

Frenzoo is the first-ever 3D fashion virtual world, where users (most likely target audience of female

tweens and teenagers, none of which were in the UnConference audience) can design and dress their

avatars in interactive, animated 3D. The company works with consumer fashion and lifestyle brands, such

as Goods Of Desire and May May King and brings their products to 3D virtual life. Founded by CEO Simon

Newstead, Hong Kong-based Frenzoo is bootstrapped with funds from the co-founders and creators of Skype,

Ambient Sound Investments. You can find out more about Frenzoo in an interview with SGEntrepreneurs

here.

G e n k i i

Jay Gupta of Countspin presenting during the startup pitches.

eJamming presents, sings and plays into the audience's hearts.

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Not the sushi joint. CEO Ken Brady of Tokyo-based Genkii presented the companys vision of bringing 3D

virtual world technologies to mobile devices, and highlighted Sparkle, the first virtual world for the

iPhone.

Human Networ k Labs (HNL)

Near-field communications service provider Human Network Labs (HNL) uses a disruptive location-based

technology platform for the precise location of nearby objects and people. The platform operates via a peer-

to-peer wireless network and does not requi re any infrastructure such as Internet access, mobile service

provider, WiFi or GPS. Another startup that impressed, and Twitter was abuzz with the potential

applications of such a technology.

i T w i n

The iTwin is a novel consumer device that consists of two identical, separable USB parts which allows them

to be plugged into different computers to establish a secure connection between both machines. Files can

then be accessed on one computer from the other and vice versa, through Bidirectional File Access over th e

Internet. Many of the audience were intrigued by the device, and if iTwin can overcome various security

issues, the device will have tremendous potential.

OrSiSo

OrSiSo is a next-generation social networking tool that integrates multiple social network sites and instant

messenging services to help a user manage their online lives. OrSiSos platform is built around an

aggregation engine, an integrated instant messaging platform, as well as an engine that automatically

determines the usefulness of a particular piece of informa tion to the user and which adapts accordingly to

user behavior, for a rich br owsing experience direct to the desktop or mobile. Read an interview with CEO

Thorben Linneberg here.

SocialWok

Socialwokis an on-demand enterprise social media collaboration pla tform that provides small-to-mediu m

organizations with a single application platform to manage all their social media ( LinkedIn, Twitter,

Facebook, and RSS feed interactions) and leverage social messaging to help distributed mobile employees

collaborate more effectively within and outside of the organization. Its unlikely that a small company

would allow its employees to participate in social media during working hours (especially Singaporean

ones), but SocialwokCEO Ming Yong seems convinced.

***

I personally thought that the other startups that were exhibiting at the UnConference 2009 but did not

pitch were somewhat left out by the post -event coverage in many other blogs. So here s a shoutout to some

of them:

C a r e e r A l b u m

CareerAlbum is a social career platform that allows jobseekers to easily put together online resumes,

multimedia portfolios, and professional networks to manage their careers. CareerAlbum also provides a

comprehensive online suite for corporates companies, headhunting firms to hunt for talents, run

marketing campaigns, events or competitions. Its hard to see them beat entrenched players like JobsDB or

Jobstreet, but you never know.

The team from CareerAlbum.

http://sg.jobstreet.com/http://www.jobsdb.com.sg/Singapore/http://www.careeralbum.com/http://www.careeralbum.com/http://www.e27.sg/unconference/2009/http://www.socialwok.com/http://www.facebook.com/http://twitter.com/http://www.linkedin.com/http://www.socialwok.com/http://www.youngupstarts.com/2009/04/13/orsisocom-helps-you-organize-your-virtual-life/http://www.orsiso.com/http://www.orsiso.com/http://www.itwin.sg/http://www.itwin.sg/http://twitter.com/http://www.humannetworklabs.com/http://sparkle.genkii.com/http://www.genkii.com/


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E l e v y n

Kuala Lumpur-based Elevyn is a social entrepreneurship site with a heart it is a platform for

communities, NGOs and entrepreneurs to set up online shops that support a worthy cause. A percentage of

the sale of every item sold thr ough these online shops goes directly to fund a chosen cause. You can read a

previous interview with Mike Tee ofElevynhere.

Fff foundtape

An audio social bookmarki ng service, Singapore-based Ffffoundtape lets you discover missing MP3s

around the web, bookmarking it for later listening, and make playlists to share with friends. Since theres

no transfer of data involved, theres little chance for Ffffoundtape or its users to get their pants sued off for

copyright infringement.

Foldees

Kuala Lumpur-based Foldees is the greeting card version of popular online t-shirt design site Threadless.

Foldees.com solicits greeting card designs from the public through various competitions it runs, which it

then prints and sells. You can also read a previous interviewwith Lau Chak Onn, founder ofFoldees.

Foliohouse

Currently under development, Foliohouse is positioned as a community that is targeted at professional and

aspiring digital media talent. Foliohouse will take the form of a social network site, jobmatching for the

creative industry as well as feature competitions across digital media genres. A Phokki wannabe, perhaps?Hard to tell what their USP will be until they officially launch.

Herwan of Ffffoundtape.

http://foliohouse.net/http://foliohouse.net/http://www.foldees.com/http://www.youngupstarts.com/2009/01/29/foldeescom-crowdsourcing-greeting-card-design/http://www.foldees.com/http://www.threadless.com/http://www.foldees.com/http://ffffoundtape.com/http://ffffoundtape.com/http://www.youngupstarts.com/2009/02/01/elevyncom-crafting-a-way-out-of-poverty/http://www.elevyn.com/homehttp://www.elevyn.com/home


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JKonnect

A web platform that promotes event sponsorship as an effective and viable means of mar keting, JKonnect

enables companies to aggregate and compare event sponsorship opportunities based on their characteristics

(target audience, demographics etc) to generate a better ROI for their sponsorship dollar. The platform can

also recommend event organizers suitable sponsors to approach based on their compatibility with the

marketing and promotional needs of the companies. It is currently under development.

K l o u t

Klout measures a Twitter users influence across the social web, and discover people who have the mostinfluential online networ ks and car ry word-of-mouth. During a demo, I saw the names of those who

influence me the most on Twitter, as well as those I influence, plotted on a graph. Very nifty, and I can see

how this service will help those in the social media and marketing space. Read an interviewwith Jonathan

Chua, a co-founder ofKlout, over at SGEntrepreneurs.

M obile Sorcery

Mobile Sorceryprovides MoSync, an integrated collection of tools for application development for mobile,

The boys from Foliohouse.

JK Thng of JKonnect (right).

Kevin and Aung from Klout.

http://www.mobilesorcery.com/mosync/overviewhttp://www.mobilesorcery.com/http://sgentrepreneurs.com/http://www.klout.net/http://sgentrepreneurs.com/singapore-entrepreneurs/2009/05/14/interview-with-jonathan-chua-co-founder-of-klout/http://twitter.com/http://twitter.com/http://www.klout.net/


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handheld devices. MoSync is a cross-platform tool that allows the easy porting, updating and creation of

applications from one mobile platform to another (Windows Mobile, S60, Java, Android etc), which can

radically cut application development time and cost across different mobile platforms.

S m a r t L o a n s

SmartLoans is the first-of-its-kind, free-to-use online mortgage comparison service for the Singapore market

that allows users to easily search for, compare and enquire about home loan packages available across eight

different Singapore-based banks. It utilizes advanced web technology to intelligently filter, calculate and

tabulate results to a single page for easy comparison. SmartLoans was covered in a previous post.

TheM obileGamer

TheMobileGamer (TMG) aims to makes mobile gaming truly mobile. Its free mobile application GameMo,

allows users to try mobile games out before they pay for them, direct from their mobi le devices. It is also a

gaming social network.

Vinod Nair of Smartloans.

The team from TheMobileGamer.

http://www.gamemo.mobi/http://themobilegamer.mobi/http://www.youngupstarts.com/2009/04/07/the-real-group-announces-smartloanssg-makes-shopping-for-home-loans-easy/http://www.smartloans.sg/http://www.smartloans.sg/http://www.mobilesorcery.com/mosync/overview


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Tagged as:2359 Media, CareerAlbum, CountSpin, E 2 7, eJamming, Elevyn, Ffffoundtape, Foldees,

Frenzoo, Genkii, Human Network Labs, iTwin, JKonnect, Klout, Mobile Sorcery, OrSiSo, Singapore,

SmartLoans.sg, SocialWok, startups, TheMobileGamer, Unconference 2009

6 C O M M E N T S

Thanks for the link love.

Great coverage on the startups at Unconference 2009.

Compared to last year, this year was by far better not only in the quantity of startups, but also in the

quality. Its just too bad that the majority of the game-changing startups in my view (eJamming,

HNL, etc.) are not based in Singapore but either ar ound the region or abroad.

Regardless, its always encouraging to see entrepreneurial activity here.

Hey Daniel! Thanks for this summary. I wasnt able to be at Unconference this year b ut your post

gave me an idea of how exciting the startups this year were. Time to start checking out the ones that

caught my attention

Excellent post Daniel.

Unconference is about the start-ups not about MDAs gaffe and the hostile crowd, which

unfortunately became the main talking point and this is great content.

@Jonathan Wong: No worries my pleasure! As for your comment on overseas-based startups, yeah

thats one of the reasons why I wrote my previous post on UnConference 2009. Baby steps, baby steps.

We just need to take them quickly.

Interviews with Klout, Ffffoundtape, TheMobileGamer (TMG) and SocialWok are on the cards.

Unfortunately I wasnt able to talk to every single startup present at the UnConference this year. If I have

missed you out, please drop me an email and I ll be more than glad to give you a shoutout.

For more on Unconference 2009, you may want to check out:

1. UnConference 2009: Our pick of startups byTODAYs Hedirman Supian,

2. Unbrief lessons from UnConference 2009 byArmchair Theorist,

3 .After UnConference Singapore 2009 by SGEntrepreneurs, and

4 .UnConference 2009 Singapore by FreshBakedWeb.

Jonathan W ongMay 24, 2009 1 0 : 3 6 p m

Reply

Su YuenMay 25, 2009 1 : 4 7 a m

Reply

Chi-LoongMay 25, 2009 1 : 1 0 p m

Reply

DanielMay 25, 2009 1 : 5 4 p m

http://www.youngupstarts.com/2009/05/24/the-startups-that-rocked-unconference-2009/comment-page-1/#comment-3402http://www.youngupstarts.com/2009/05/24/the-startups-that-rocked-unconference-2009/?replytocom=3400#respondhttp://www.youngupstarts.com/2009/05/24/the-startups-that-rocked-unconference-2009/comment-page-1/#comment-3400http://www.techgoondu.com/http://www.youngupstarts.com/2009/05/24/the-startups-that-rocked-unconference-2009/?replytocom=3371#respondhttp://www.youngupstarts.com/2009/05/24/the-startups-that-rocked-unconference-2009/comment-page-1/#comment-3371http://bitbot.wordpress.com/http://www.youngupstarts.com/2009/05/24/the-startups-that-rocked-unconference-2009/?replytocom=3361#respondhttp://www.youngupstarts.com/2009/05/24/the-startups-that-rocked-unconference-2009/comment-page-1/#comment-3361http://armchairtheorist.com/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/unconference-2009/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/themobilegamer/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/startups/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/socialwok/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/smartloanssg/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/singapore/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/orsiso/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/mobile-sorcery/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/klout/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/jkonnect/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/itwin/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/human-network-labs/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/genkii/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/frenzoo/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/foldees/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/ffffoundtape/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/elevyn/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/ejamming/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/e27/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/countspin/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/careeralbum/http://www.youngupstarts.com/tag/2359-media/http://www.freshbakedweb.com/http://www.freshbakedweb.com/2009/05/unconference-2009-singapore/http://sgentrepreneurs.com/http://sgentrepreneurs.com/events/2009/05/20/after-unconference-singapore-2009/http://armchairtheorist.com/http://armchairtheorist.com/2009/05/20/unbrief-lessons-from-unconference-2009/http://blogs.todayonline.com/techtalk/author/hedirman-supian/http://blogs.todayonline.com/techtalk/2009/05/unconference-singapore-2009-our-pick-of-startups/http://themobilegamer.mobi/http://ffffoundtape.com/http://www.klout.net/


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@SuYuen: We missed you too! Yes please do check out some of these startups.

@Chi-Loong: Thats high praise coming from a content creator! Thanks!

Sounds interesting.. when will unconference 2010 start? Also wanna join

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