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Tales of Risk Taking from Asian Entrepreneurs

Defying Confucius

By Kira M. Newman

Introduction
Tuan Nguyen doesnt make much eye contact when he talks, especially when he admits that his mother almost disowned him. Were sipping sugary iced tea at an outdoor cafe overlooking the Hoan Kiem Lake in historic Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. Four years ago, Nguyen tells me, he had a choice to take a scholarship for graduate school in Germany. Against his mothers wishes, he decided to start a company instead. He knew that if he studied abroad and returned to Vietnam a few years later, it would be too late: I [would be] 30 years old, and I must have a family in Vietnam. And when I have a wife and I have a child ... I cant take the risk at that time because you have to be concerned about your family. I have to take a job with a high salary and I have to think about my family, not my company. So I decide to stay and take the risk. Even if we fail, well have a great experience, Nguyen reasoned at the time. His mother didnt agree; in fact, she didnt talk to him for 3 months. She thinks that I am a loser, she thinks that I am not, not, not her child, not her son; she said that my choice very stupid. But Nguyen buckled down to work on a news site called BaoMoi, which was free for users. He and his team struggled to make money in the beginning. They couldnt even pay their web hosting fees, so when the bill collectors came, they turned off the lights and pretended no one was around. But the startup received a round of investment in 2009, and they have since grown to a team of 20 aspiring to be Google News (and more) for Asia. Not only do they pay their hosting fees, but they now have a gym, a Playstation and a Wii, and lunch cooked by a chef. Thinking back now, Nguyen was inspired by the Adam Sandler movie Mr. Deeds:

Tuan Nguyen had to defy his mother to become an entrepreneur

He owned a company and said to the board members: Did you have a dream in your childhood? Do you really want to be a businessman or do you really want to be a doctor, a dentist, or a teacher? All the people said they had a dream, but they dont take the risk because they do what most people do: they study in university, find a job, and so life is very routine.

When I saw this movie, I realized I had another choice. It inspired me a lot. Many people cannot follow their dreams. I have a chance to follow my dream. Why not? Luckily, his mother finally agreed: I proved to my mom that sometimes we should take risk to start your dreams.

A Journey through Asia


Fear of failure or risk aversion, as with Nguyens mother, is prevalent in parts of Asia. Below, I investigate where it comes from and what it means for startups and, on the flip side, what motivates Asian entrepreneurs like Nguyen to overcome it. My research comes from over 100 interviews with Asian entrepreneurs, investors, and community organizers over a period of six months (September 2011February 2012) in seven Asian countries: China (including Hong Kong), Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. 1 I didnt set out intending to write this piece, but fear of failure kept coming up again and again. When I inquired about challenges for startups, entrepreneurs would cite it as an issue. Sometimes they called it conservative culture, sometimes Confucianism, sometimes kiasu, but there was clearly something there that needed to be discussed even if its ultimately dismissed as one stage in the evolution of an ecosystem. Youll see that Im ultimately optimistic about the future of Asian startups. One of the most profound things my trip taught me was incredibly obvious but nonetheless striking: theres a whole world of startups buzzing in Asia, surrounded by accelerators, mentors, communities, coworking spaces, and events that draw hundreds of attendees. Deals are made, pitch competitions are won, betas are launched. And whats more, Asia is on the rise. Though fear of failure exists, entrepreneurs are becoming less bogged down by it, and theyre gunning to compete with US startups, get investment from US VCs, and partner with US companies (think of all the Asian daily deal sites acquired by LivingSocial and Groupon). Understanding their startup culture is key for investors who might decide to fund them, or for startups who might be competing with them in the not-so-distant future. Chinas Internet population is over 500 million more than the total US population and Indonesia has the third largest Facebook presence, with over 43 million users2 (which is, by the way, less than 20 percent of its huge population). Of the top 25 most active startup scenes in the world, the Startup Genome Project ranked Singapore #7, Bangalore #9 topping Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Austin, and DC and Mumbai #20. China, with perhaps the most developed startup ecosystem among the countries I visited, is particularly hot: its total entrepreneurship activity as measured by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor spiked from 14.4 percent in 2010 to 24.0 percent in

I didnt visit India or Japan, so you can consider this piece a reflection on Southeast Asia, China, and Korea.
1

http://www.forbes.com/sites/limyunghui/2012/02/02/india-is-now-facebook-nation-no-2-behind-theu-s/.
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2011, compared to the United Statess 7.612.3 percent. 3 In 2010, the National Venture Capital Association reported Chinese investments at $6.9 billion, 10.8 percent of the investment activity outside the United States. But those are just numbers. In this piece, youll get a detailed look at the entrepreneurs of China, Korea, and Southeast Asia, on the ground. I want you to see their faces light up, feel their quavering doubts, and see bustling, emerging Asia as they see it. Ill take you from a government incubator in Hong Kong, to a trendy coworking space in the heart of Seoul, through the foggy alleys of Beijing, to the smoke-filled halls of an Indonesian incubator that happens to be owned by a tobacco company. This is where Asian entrepreneurs live and work, code and iterate, develop and design. Their stories are inspiring for anyone who knows what it means to be passionate about work. And, as youll see, theyre not that different from Americans.

Total entrepreneurship activity is the prevalence rate of individuals in the working-age population who are actively involved in business start-ups up until 3.5 years after the company is born.
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Culture Clash: Why Entrepreneurs Struggle in Asia


Boldness, without the rules of propriety, becomes insubordination Confucius The Chinese parenting approach is weakest when it comes to failure; it just doesnt tolerate that possibility Amy Chua, author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother Of all the entrepreneurs I met in Asia, James Khoo was the most uncertain or maybe he was the only one willing to admit his fears. In Malaysia, especially when youre Chinese, failure is not an option, he said flat-out. This may be one of the reasons Khoo struggled so much in the early stages of his company, secQ.me, an app that helps people send out alerts when theyre in danger. To him, working as a sole founder was demotivating, especially after he failed to advance to the second round of Malaysian startup TV show Make the Pitch. After spending 8 months on growing out your product, and your product is being rejected by a group of successful investors, you start to doubt your idea, he said. For a week, he browsed job listings and didnt feel like working. At a conference called Silicon Valley James Khoo shows o his Comes to Malaysia, however, Khoo personal security app, secQ.me heard that failure is nothing to be ashamed of; its just an opportunity to improve yourself. He was especially inspired by former Priceline CEO Jeff Hoffman, who quipped that failure means you havent talked to the right people (Hoffman is now an adviser for secQ.me). Riding on this newfound wave of motivation, Khoo earned the first runner-up spot in the Global Innovation through Science and Technology initiative, securing $10,000 in funding and a trip to the United States to get mentored at MIT and meet investors in Silicon Valley. There, at YouNoodle Camp, he took first place in the demo day competition. Eight months after we first met, he told me over Skype that the culture in Malaysia is changing and so is his attitude. The first DEMO Asia conference, where Khoo pitched onstage, took place in Singapore in early 2012, drawing over 500 attendees. A modern, multicultural city in the midst of Southeast Asia, Singapore boasts an extraordinarily supportive government (at least

for startups) and a huge tech community. But its also home to kiasu, a concept from the Hokkien Chinese dialect that means fear of losing. Singaporeans often describe themselves this way, and it goes deep into the culture, said Hugh Mason, cofounder of the Joyful Frog Digital Incubator (JFDI) in Singapore. As chief executive frog, Mason wants to help entrepreneurs give themselves permission to be creative even if it takes a little frog humor and plants in the shared office space (dubbed the forest).

Matt Marshall kicks o the DEMO Asia conference

Other leaders are showing support in Singapore by investing in local startups. Dmitry Levit a general partner at Digital Media Partners, which has a $13 million fund for Southeast Asia was cautious and precise in our interview but still spoke strongly about fear of failure: Most of the cultures in the region to the extent I can speak to that, and I cannot usually do not let you fail all that easily. Failure is a big black cross on your life for the rest of your days, and so it takes much more courage to start something around here than it does to start something in more forgiving environments. There are subcultures of rebels, there are subcultures of folks who will defy and deny authority; in each country its different. This culture is absorbed naturally from many sources: the teasing of a friend, the injunctions of a teacher, and (often) pressure from the family. Family Pressure Weve seen many portrayals of Asian parents in popular culture lately, most of them satirical at best. In 2011, Amy Chuas Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother brought the issue of Asian parenting into the mainstream media. She calls her book a satirical memoir, but the stereotypes she expresses the chilly, obsessive, and interfering style of parenting are, presumably, extreme versions of her view of the truth. Back at JFDI in Singapore, Asian parenting is on display in a printout someone hung up of

the High Expectations Asian Father now an Internet meme, inspired by lolcats, wherein a sinister, gray-haired Asian man chastises his children on career choices and getting Bs. Such a father also made an appearance on Foxs Glee, the cutesy show about high school music theater students. The producers tried to dramatize the issue of Asian parenting with an episode that was painfully exaggerated yet heart-wrenching at the same time. Titled Asian F, it shows a young Asian boy, who aspires to be a dancer, quaver before his fathers steely criticism when he gets an A-. But the father finally comes around, and you ultimately see that he wasnt trying to blindly control his son, but save him the heartache of a risky dancing career. And most parents are probably doing the same. KiasuParents.com is a community for parents with children under 16, with articles and discussions about parenting and education in Singapore from choosing a primary school to exactly what cake to order for your two-year-olds birthday party. On the website, they defend kiasu as a good approach for parents: Here at KiasuParents.com, our mission is to debunk the notion that being kiasu is bad to begin with. Instead of being furtive about it, we will be proactive when it comes to trying to look for that external help that can give our children the extra edge as they grow up. We want to celebrate the kiasu parents who successfully adopt authoritative practices that achieve their goal of giving their best to their dearests. The literal meaing of kiasu is to be afraid of losing out, which also translates to: to want to win. There is nothing wrong with wanting the best for our children; the question is how it is achieved. Kiasu becomes derogatory only when we attempt to win at all costs, ignoring common sense and basic human decency. But parents definitions of giving the best to their dearests doesnt always accord with what their dearests want. James Chan, a principal at Neoteny Labs in Singapore, attributes some of the challenges in the startup scene to parental pride and peer pressure: Its very hard for people who are used to ... a Confucian environment where failure is not generally accepted. ... Its [parents] meeting up and saying, Hey, whats your kid doing? Hey, what are you doing? Are you married yet? What are you working at now? So that kind of peer pressure Im obviously simplifying it, but Im trying to flavor it for you, said Chan. Dozens of entrepreneurs I met said pressure from parents contributed to fear of failure. As one person described it, The fear comes from generations of Asian extranuclear family systems. You not only feel the judgment of your parents but uncles, aunts, cousins, and grandparents. Not only this but there is significant pressure to engage in festivities and family gatherings which stretch three-day weekends to fiveday outings. Work-life balance is more like work-social-family-life balance here.

Junde Yu, a Singaporean transplanted to China, said that parents do not have modernized global mindsets. Over tea at a mall in Beijing, he told me that girls are expected to marry by 25 or 26. Having a proper family thats a big thing here, he said, and you cant do that while working on a risky startup. Sounds like Nguyen from Vietnam all over again. Add to that the expectation that youll take care of your parents in their old age and the lack of a social safety net in some Asian countries and you have a recipe for caution and carefulness. Fear of failure worldwide is actually measured by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, which had this to say about Asia in 2011: Several Asian economies Japan, the Republic of Korea and Singapore also report low rates of perceived opportunities and capabilities [i.e., low confidence]. In addition, Thailand, the Republic of Korea and Japan, as well as the United Arab Emirates, report high fear of failure levels. The inhabitants of the United States, on the other hand, show a rather modest perception of opportunities, yet they also display very strong confidence in their abilities and low fear of failure. Fear of failure is only measured among those who are already entrepreneurs, a selfselected group, so the numbers for Asia arent too shocking except for Thailand. Its fear of failure rate is particularly high at 55.1 percent, compared to 31.2 percent in the United States. Ed Rubesch, who runs an MBA program at Bangkoks prestigious Thammasat University, told me that many Thai parents own a family business and his students feel a duty to take on their legacy. And students have come to him crying because they dont want to. Rubesch invited me to sit in on one of his MBA classes, so I took a boat down the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok to Thammasat one night. That session, the class split up into teams to critique each others pitch decks for their startups. We also heard a visiting entrepreneur talk about his experience starting a company and selling to customers. With every class, Rubesch is chipping away at the notion that you have to work at a big corporation to be successful. Also living in Bangkok, 23-year-old Peach Rojwongsuriya was resisting his parents injunctions to work at a big Thai business. He feared the bureaucracy, slowness, and old technology. I think I could do better, he told me. I met Rojwongsuriya at Starbucks at a posh mall in Bangkok. Wearing a white Jimi Hendrix t-shirt, he chattered in great English about keeping his startup lean, Ruby programming, and the state of ecommerce in Thailand. In other words, hes part of a modern young generation who are increasingly attracted to startups.

For him, the deciding factor was his time at a small web design studio. It was pretty scary on the first day I was complaining a lot about how I should have gone to other places because it didnt look safe, he recalls. But he learned a ton not the least of which was that many Thais are reluctant to take risks, a lesson absorbed from his American boss. Rojwongsuriya is taking his own risk now with two startups: MyColorscreen, where Android users can share and get inspiration for their homescreens, and Bucketlistly. But its not just startups that parents fear; some related industries can provoke raised eyebrows, as well. Daniel Tan, who has a respectable job as an associate at a Singaporean venture capital firm, has to fend off constant questions. My family? Theres also some resistance, he said. Their favorite saying is, Why dont you get a job at a bank? And a tech blogger I met in Indonesia told me he spent a good two years defending his job choice to his family and girlfriend. While the pressure isnt insurmountable and all these entrepreneurs are testament to that the problem doesnt stop once they make the leap. The little reminders are always there that the path theyve chosen is different, narrow, and a bit slippery. Peer Pressure In the United States, we celebrate being a little crazy. Apples famous Think different campaign starts with, Heres to the crazy ones: a hymn to counterculture but also to genius entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs. But in Asia, calling someone crazy comes with a hint of judgment: Seriously, people would think youre crazy if you wanted to say, Hey, I want to build a web app for a living. They would say, Hey, youre building a website for a living? Thats not possible. ... Its just a website. How are you going to make money? explained Hong Kong entrepreneur Daniel Cheng. Comments like this reflect a general misconception about the business opportunities in new technologies.

Daniel Cheng works at a cafe in Hong Kong

And sometimes the judgment isnt so obvious. In China, Steven Cheng (no relation to Daniel) told me that other students dont necessarily look down on startups, but they may not be as supportive for as long as American friends would be. In other words, after several months of seeing you struggle, theyd gently suggest you start looking for other jobs. Or they may seem supportive of your idea, but are actually judging: You get that same superficial [positive] reaction, but you can tell that underlying they would be like,

Why arent you in banking? Why arent you in real estate? You probably couldnt find a job and then you had to start a company, said Hong Kong entrepreneur Paul Lee of Ximplar. The whole mentality is not really supportive. Its disheartening to think of all the amazing products that wouldnt have been created, the camaraderie that wouldnt have flowered, if some entrepreneurs hadnt defied this culture. Witching Hour Studios is one of those amazing startups: the three cofounders pooled their savings to start a game company, and creative director Ian Gregorys parents let them work in the attic: People think were crazy, put very simply. Singaporeans are not known for risk, theyre not known for going into the unknown, said Gregory matter-of-factly in his musical Singaporean accent. This crazy trio gave me one of the coolest and most fascinating interviews of my whole trip they were bubbling with excitement, but at the same time incredibly thoughtful. And the dynamic between them was amusing and touching: there was Brian Kwek, the quiet and earnest business guy wearing a white artsy t-shirt and jeans; Gregory, wearing a black cap and making outrageous yet insightful statements; and Kevin Mohinani, the most formally dressed of the bunch, playing the aloof but witty techie. Heres a quick illustration of their personalities, as Gregory suggests that he should win a national award for building a game: Gregory starts to answer a question with, Theyre going to hate me for this. Kwek interjects: Im going to the bathroom. [laughing] Kevin: At least hes prepared us. (Meanwhile, Im thinking: This is great; Im loving this.) Gregory continued, In Singapore, theres this thing called the cultural medallion... Mohinani: Oh, God... Gregory: This is given to huge people who have contributed to the cultural scene of Singapore. ... Games are obviously not treated as art, but ... I want to put the idea out there that games can get one of those I mean, preferably it would be me, la...

The dynamic trio of Witching Hour Studios cofounders (from left to right: Ian Gregory, Brian Kwek, and Kevin Mohinani)

Mohinani: Youre just putting your name out there, huh? Gregory: But I would love that to be open to even other people, just the idea. That means a lot to me. We sat in an artsy cafe with abstract paintings all around us, at the school Gregory had attended. As they teased each other and completed each others sentences, I was more and more taken in by their poignancy, passion, and wit. It would have been a shame if their risk-averse society had discouraged them from coming together. The Allure of Corporate Jobs Society can be so quietly influential that many young adults dont even know entrepreneurship is a possibility. That wasnt a problem for Richard Min, because he grew up in New York; but he sees it all around him now that hes moved to Korea: The biggest issue is cultural. They grow up thinking that they have to take the safe road ... become a doctor or lawyer or work in the government. Its 3,000 years of culture; any technology is not going to change that overnight, said Min, who cofounded a coworking space and incubator in Korea called Seoul Space. Min has visited Kaist, the socalled MIT of Korea, and talked with tons of smart students who dont want to think about startups.

Some of the Seoul Space gang, including cofounder Richard Min (center), welcomed me into their oce

A similar thing happens with the brightest students in Indonesia, said Indonesian entrepreneur William Tanuwijaya. As a parent in Asian culture, they educate their children to have the highest education, and then work for established company. Its very different from Silicon Valley: people willing to take the risk, creating something. He quipped that the best grads work at companies outside Indonesia, the second-best work for companies there, and only the decent ones start their own company. (He must be one of the exceptions, of course.) Even some of the older generation will admit this. Brian Koh, the middle-aged director of the National University of Singapores Enterprise program, said, Its a very Asian thing to want to have a safety net. He added, When you graduate with a good degree, its [always the mindset] to be safe, to end up in civil service or a multinational. And its not just about safety, but money and status its tough to see your nonentrepreneurial peers with higher salaries. According to HedgeSPA founder Bernard

Lee, Its a very Asian mentality ... some kids are going to face a lot of social pressure from the fact that the classmate right next to them may not have done as well in classes, but this person is making a little bit more by taking a lesser job at a multinational. Its hard to tell what effects this has, or how many startups arent getting started, but I did observe a few tangible consequences that impact the startup ecosystem in Asia. Hiring Crunch Hiring is hard. This was the refrain from everyone from a game company in Hong Kong, to deal sites in Korea and Singapore, to an events platform in Malaysia. And, as before, its not just startups. At the Seoul Space incubator in Korea, an intern had to convince her mother that her job was respectable. iGlobe Partners, a venture capital firm in Singapore, had trouble recruiting; they would finally find a great candidate for the job, then he would come back and say he couldnt take it. One of the biggest causes of the shortage of engineers is that all engineers want to become bankers, said iGlobes Daniel Tan. Over in Indonesia, the leading tech blog DailySocial struggled to grow its team. Founder Rama Mamuaya told me that many hiring interviews go something like this: People are like, Are you sure you can afford me? Yeah, were a real company, were actually making money. Yeah, but youre an Internet company, youre just a website. How do you guys make money? He adds, People still see us as a fourth-tier company, or a side project/hobby thing.

I braved Jakarta trac to sit down with DailySocials Rama Mamuaya and Rahmat Harlyadie

Students and entrepreneurs gather at Sparxup in Bandung to get the scoop on mobile commerce in Indonesia

But Mamuaya does have money; hes actually raised funds from the venture arm of a tobacco company called Djarum and started a series of conferences called Sparxup. Mamuaya took me on a road trip through farmlands to a soundtrack of Coldplay, Beyonce, and Eye of the Tiger to visit one such conference in a city called Bandung. Southeast of Jakarta, Bandung is home to the prestigious Bandung Institute of Technology. The conferences topic was mobile commerce, an area thats set to take off in Indonesia, where Internet-capable phones outnumber PCs.4 But for that to happen, startups will have to hire the best people not just the decent ones and the mindset will have to change. Zombie Startups Another interesting effect of a risk-averse culture, which I heard of in Singapore, is entrepreneurs refusing to shut down ventures that are obviously failing. Said Mohan Belani, the founder of Asian tech blog e27: You got a lot of good guys running companies that are not doing well, when they could be joining forces and building a lot more value ... I call it a zombie. People dont want to kill themselves. If you start a company and it doesnt work out after a year, kill yourself and go do something else or start something new. That thing just doesnt exist yet. Instead, these teetering startups become outsourcing shops, spending their time on other peoples projects and pushing their own to the side. Defying this trend, Belani killed off his own social gaming company, but people questioned his decision. I could hear the frustration in his voice when he talked about this; like many others, he wants to see Singapores startup scene grow.

http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/reports-downloads/2011-Reports/South-EastAsia-Digital-Consumer.pdf, page 5.
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Fear of Failure and Confucianism


The nail that sticks out gets hammered down Japanese proverb The squeaky wheel gets the grease American saying Most entrepreneurs I asked said fear of failure was higher in Asia than in the United States, and that culture plays a major role. Some of that culture can be traced back to Confucianism, and several of my interviewees mentioned the philosophy by name. Among other things, Confucianism teaches a respect for parents and society and the following of norms. As the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophys entry on Confucianism explains: Learning self-restraint involves studying and mastering li, the ritual forms and rules of propriety through which one expresses respect for superiors and enacts his role in society in such a way that he himself is worthy of respect and admiration. A concern for propriety should inform everything that one says and does: Look at nothing in defiance of ritual, listen to nothing in defiance of ritual, speak of nothing in defiance or ritual, never stir hand or foot in defiance of ritual. (Lunyu 12.1) Subjecting oneself to ritual does not, however, mean suppressing one's desires but instead learning how to reconcile one's own desires with the needs of one's family and community. While confirming that Confucianism does not encourage risk taking, Gary Hamilton, the Henry M. Jackson Professor of International Studies at the University of Washington, noted that the Chinese kinship system did historically encourage risk taking. This might explain why Chinese-influenced Asian cultures see so much small business formation. All over Asia, I was amazed by the amount of gritty, enterprising, side-of-the-street entrepreneurship: people selling everything from passionfruit and mangoes to ties to bootlegged DVDs to garlands of flowers. I passed by tailors and young clothing designers with tiny boutiques in Vietnam, and merchants hawking their fake brand-name clothes in narrow Bangkok malls; I heard stories about Hong Kong women heading over the border into China to sell powdered milk to Chinese consumers concerned about domestic food quality. I sat under the awning of a pho stall in Vietnam as the rain pattered down; the owner would be serving hot soup well into the night, collecting less than $2 per bowl. This tension between small-business entrepreneurship and high-growth tech entrepreneurship is something Asian governments are recognizing. Below, in a 2001

excerpt from the New York Times, Singapore senior minister Lee Kuan Yew explains the Confucian view of merchants and how that has affected Chinese societies: Q. Its axiomatic that the new economy is about risk-taking. You have said that Singapore needs to encourage its people to take more risks. Is there such a thing as Confucian risk-taking? A. I don't think so. But there have been merchants who have taken risks before and since Confucius and have not been venture capitalists. So risktaking, I would say, is part of Confucianist culture. At the same time, in the Confucianist hierarchy, the merchant comes last after the scholar, the farmer, and the worker. He's the chap who makes money, least to be respected in the hierarchy but the one who greases the wheels of the government. That culture spread to Korea, Japan, and also Vietnam, because they used the Chinese script for hundreds of years and only abandoned it in the last century. Even in Korea, names are still in Chinese. That has skewed the ambitions of if you have a son, you want him to be a scholar. I think that has affected the economic development of these societies. In central China I met a party secretary about 10 years ago. I met him again recently. This time, he's well read. He knows all about the Internet and venture capitalists. He told me: We have a problem. Our education breeds conformity. We've got to change that. So I believe that the Chinese are well aware of what is going on, why the Japanese and Koreans have run into these difficulties, why the American economy has taken off because of the enterprise culture and willingness to try. The problem is how to change. But changing cultures and values is not easy. As Yew mentioned, these attitudes are ingrained in education. Chinas high-pressure education system is well known with parents hiring tutors to get their kids ahead and a huge emphasis on test taking. The Korean government also believes that the countrys students are studying too much. In a 2011 Time magazine article, officials patrol the streets for students studying at cram schools after 10 pm. Cram schools offer tutoring to help students ace entrance exams and make it into prestigious, hyper-competitive schools. Korean entrepreneur Shawn Byun tells me that a popular joke says 0.01% of the population can go to Seoul National University. Korea has been accoladed for its extraordinary student performance, but in order to excel they actually have to go to cram schools, study more than anyone else, said

Byun. The mindset of Korean people is basically, If I dont go to a good school, Im not going to have a bright future. Singapores Simon Lower, who sold a startup to Motorola in 2008, is shocked at the advanced math that his young, 11-year-old cousin is pushed to learn in school. He sees a link between fear of failure on exams and fear of failure at startups. Culturally, entrepreneurship would be just the scariest thing in the world because people are terrified of failure, said Lower, whose mother is Malaysian. This is an attitude I can identify with; as a high school student, I had a GPA over 4.5 and graduated at the top of my class. But I found my academic perfectionism seeping over into my extracurricular violin playing; I was plagued by anxiety that I would mess up on auditions and performances, even though I had practiced for hours per day. Though I knew I was wrong, I like some Asian entrepreneurs could not shake the feeling that less-than-perfect meant failure. And my perfectionism is prompting a caveat here: I do not, and could never, fully understand Asian culture because I didnt grow up in it. One investor in Singapore went off the record when he talked about the socioeconomic and ethnic issues that affect fear of failure in other words, there may be variations within different types of communities. (If youd like to add some insight, feel free to email me at kira@tech.co.) But Asian startup scenes hoping to grow especially those in Chinese-influenced cultures cant afford to dismiss the issue altogether.

What About the United States?


If at first you dont succeed, try, try again American/British maxim Learning starts with failure; the first failure is the beginning of education American writer John Hersey, born in China Americans arent immune to fear of failure, as witnessed by all the attempts to make entrepreneurs accept it. Silicon Valleys FailCon is an annual conference to learn from other entrepreneurs failures, and it also hosts informal FailChat meetups. The Bmore Fail conference has a similar purpose, started partly because Baltimore is more risk averse than other cities, explained organizer Jason Hardebeck: The only way you learn is when you get an unexpected result; i.e., you fail to get the intended result. Failure is a critical component of innovation we all would benefit by learning how to fail better. But fear of failure, when it exists, takes a different form in the United States. American parents tend to take for granted the pursuit of happiness, enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, so risky endeavors are at least tolerated if theyll bring more happiness. In the eyes of Asian parents, however, happiness can take a backseat to stability and financial security. Or, as one Asian entrepreneur put it, Asian parents believe that stability and financial security are what actually lead to happiness. Happiness is not a concept I tend to dwell on, wrote Amy Chua in Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Chinese parenting does not address happiness. This has always worried me. Finally, critiques of risk taking in Asia often take on an almost moral tone. And it makes sense, because wrong decisions make you lose face and reflect on the whole family. Failure is consider[ed] a shame, not only to yourself, but to your extended family. Thats why the pressure is BIGGER, one entrepreneur wrote to me. In the United States, skeptical parents or friends might think youre crazy, but most wont complain that youre sullying the family name by idling away at your startup. Thats the odd beauty of individualism: the right to ruin your name and reputation without tarnishing anyone elses.

Culture Hack: What Drives Entrepreneurs in Asia


Wherever you go, go with all your heart Confucius Isn't it a joy to acquire knowledge and put it to good use Confucius While fear of failure exists, its only one side of the story. The other is a tale of risk taking, passion, and creativity. Its a tale not unlike that of many American entrepreneurs. The section below is a peek inside the minds of Asian entrepreneurs, to find out what motivates them and how far theyre willing to go to stand up and stand out. Belonging I just didnt fit in at a big company. Its the same thing Ive heard time and time again from American entrepreneurs, except this time I was hearing it from the founder of a game startup in Hong Kong, who used to work in finance; the cofounder of a fashion startup in Malaysia, who used to work at a property development group; and the founder of a Threadless clone in Indonesia, who used to work in government. I also heard it from Henry, the cofounder of an app development studio in China called VitaStone. We met up at a McDonalds in Beijing after a little miscommunication; we had gone to different McDonalds, located within a third of a mile of each other. He and his friends wanted to do something more challenging than just be a corporate guy, he said. Its a very fruitful and spiritual experience for me. ... I want to build this into a great company [not just sell to someone else]. ... I want to build a platform that can create great products. I also heard it from Son (Sunny) Tran, the CEO of Vietnamese social network Tamtay. I already worked for other people for a long time. ... For people like me, you work for someone else, but you never feel like you fit in to that kind of culture. You always know that you would do better if you build something yourself. For a year, Tran spent his savings and borrowed $200,000 to get Tamtay up and running, before IDG invested just under $1 million in 2008. I thought about something that would have a big effect, he told me at his office in Saigon, as crows cawed in the background. When you work in business software, B2B, the reach of your company is very limited ... and actually its boring. Tamtay was inspired by Facebook, but has grown organically and customized for Vietnam. Some of that growth came from clever marketing: Tran and his team tried to educate Vietnamese people about how to use social networks by partnering with university beauty contests. Tamtay would put up photos and news about the

contestants, and lets users vote on the website. After a few schools saw huge traction, others came knocking, and Tamtay has now made around 100 such partnerships. Unlike Facebook, they also make their own games. Tamtay started with a FarmVille spinoff, but their big success was a traditional Vietnamese card game their main source of revenue in 2010. From then on, Tran said, he decided to make only original games. But he remains thankful for the inspiration from the United States. Young US people have invented some things that are really meaningful, he said. Basically I want to say that I appreciate that very much. Independence Fellow Vietnamese entrepreneur Anh Nguyen Quoc didnt want to be an employee anymore because he wanted freedom. At a cafe in Saigon, through a translator, he told me that he was delighted to make his own decisions for his startup, monitor revenue and sales numbers, and even work remotely when he felt like it. Young Korean entrepreneur Chamsol Lee had imagined this freedom long before he mustered up the courage to start a business. Doing these things without orders from outside that was our dream since university, Lee told me in slow, deliberate English. He ended up starting a location-based deal app called Lotiple (acquired in November 2011) with eight cofounders who were his peers at Kaist, Koreas prestigious technological university. This drive for independence is so strong that Rye Studio, an educational app maker in China, refuses to spend all its time on lucrative contracts with major publishers. They have made apps for companies like Editions Fei from France, but writer and designer Grant Guo said they must work on their own creations. We want to publish more stories made by ourself, he told me. We want to become a digital publisher ourself. We must have our own products, not just copy them. They have a vision of apps where children can interact through pictures and games, no matter what language they speak. We want to let every children know our Chinese story, Guo said.

Grant Guo and Miao Lu are exporting Chinese culture through games and apps

The Desire to Help Koreas Shakr Media also wants to help tell a story: the story of Korean families and friends. After a birth in Korea, founder David Lee told me, ritual dictates that parents take special photos when the baby reaches 100 days, 1 year old, and other milestones. Families can end up spending hundreds of dollars on professional albums. Shakr makes those beautiful memories accessible to more people with an Animotostyle service: it takes a bunch of static photos and turns them into a video with animation, music, and colorful backgrounds. But the most challenging part is in the details, blending design and technology: I tell the guys every day its about making magic. And one of my engineers came to me and said, David whats magic? Customer delight is so difficult to accomplish. And Ill be very honest, I dont think Ive ever done it, but its something I definitely want to do now. So its finding a way to make that magic happen, finding a way to make that delight happen, where the person just feels, Did I just do that? Wow, that was easy, and wow, Ive got a big smile on my face. Thats what were working hard to do. Singapores Gradeful 5 was also planning to help Asian parents, but in a different way. Gradeful was a tool for fathers, with ideas for activities to do with your kids and ways to store memories. Cofounder Adrian Tan, the father of a three-year-old himself, said he found personal satisfaction in having a social impact: turning quiet, uninvolved Asian fathers into awesome, engaged, beloved dads. Theres so much expectations for what at least for me an Asian dad should be. And I think, coming from the Asian culture, you have all this talk about Tiger Moms and this and that, and its really conflicting. Whats the right thing? My peers were going through that as well, and I could see that. ... I thought, we can crowdsource these ideas and test them and at least [assure] the user or the father that theyre doing actually not too bad a job. Most Asian men, at least in my experience, they dont really talk or communicate. ... They dont make small talk with you; they dont ask you, Hows your day? And then you have the new generation of dads who really want to engage with their kids. And theres this conflict when it comes to parenting because granddad says, No, that is not the way you should do it. You should have discipline. But the young father is like, Exactly, I dont want to be like you, which is why Im trying to communicate with my kid. [laughing] So there is this tension, but I think its getting better.

Gradeful has since switched to a different idea: Remember, an app for storing and sharing photo memories.
5

Besides their parenting style, some Asian cultures are also known for being hardcore gamers. According to research by DFC Intelligence, the online gaming market in Korea is expected to grow from $2.7 billion in 2011 to $5 billion in 2016. As a player in that industry, cofounder John Kim of Paprika Lab believes hes helping people, too. I think there are basically two good ways to change the world. The first is to make life easier. ... The other direction is making life more fun. For instance, play (as a verb) is a very powerful, intrinsic part of humans nature. It has been there for many, many millions of years. ... Most people learn some parts of life through playing experience. I was surprised by such a nuanced view of gaming, which is easy to dismiss as frivolous. But Kim was thoughtful throughout our meeting. Afterward, as he walked me to his office, he asked my age then quickly explained why: in Korean society, an implicit culture, knowing things about a person helps you understand what assumptions they carry, which affects how you speak to them.

John Kims social games make life more fun and satisfy our human need to play, he said

Wenbin Tang, the young cofounder of Beijing-based game studio VisionHacker, wanted to start a company since he was a kid. We wanted to do something for people and make something different, he told me, showing off an app where you literally have to move your head from side to side to avoid crows. I asked if he wanted the app to go global, and he said, Why not? If our product can make the user happy, we can do that to both Chinese people and US people. Another Beijing game studio, Ablaze Dream, is building a curious little game called KAPOW thats deeper than it looks. Its an Angry Birds-style game where you can fling avatars of your friends into the air, then take screenshots as they fly, collect coins, and tumble onto the ground. Then, you can send those screenshots to your phone contacts a subtle way to get back in touch with a former friend, or flirt with a girl you met. Two of the cofounders were still at Peking University when I visited China, and the third had quit his job for Ablaze Dream. Were just chasing our dreams, they said. Tiki.vn is another startup thats more nuanced than it looks. An Amazon clone on the surface, the Vietnamese site is actually innovating on the business side by obsessing about customer service. Founder Son Trans title is customer experience officer CEO, but different, he told me. Im ultimately responsible for the experience of each and every one of Tikis customers, either online or offline.

Inspired by Zapposs superb customer service, Tran doesnt mind if readers return a book simply because it has a torn page. Tiki.vn also spends extra money on protective plastic covers for the books, which are sized by a machine and verified by a factory worker. And theyve tried out different machines and plastics to get the highest-quality result. Initially funded by $5,000 of Trans savings and money borrowed from friends and family, Tiki.vn is now one of Vietnams top online booksellers. One unlikely sector where entrepreneurs are motivated by a desire to help is the group buying space. Cofounder David Tran of Vietnams nhomMua finds the most satisfaction in seeing their discount deals send a surge of customers to a local small business. I went once to see it happening, and I had chills down my spine it was just amazing. To see an empty place suddenly become full of crowds of people it feels like you can almost change the course of a business with one deal. They once made a soup chain run out of soup, a rice chain run out of rice, and a frozen yogurt shop get so busy that employees had to manually fan the dispensers to avoid overheating. For Groupon Malaysia CEO Joel Neoh, its more about the people buying the deals. When we started, we didnt believe in cloning stuff, he said. (They were originally GroupsMore, acquired by Groupon within a mere five months after launch.) What excited us was actually bringing people together to get discounts, and eventually when they experience a discount theyre going to be friends. Across the Straits of Johor, Singapore startup Third Wave Power has built a personal power station the size of a thick iPad to bring energy to people without it and make energy use more clean. The mPOWERPAD can charge laptops and phones, and it has a reading light, flashlight, insect repellant, and radio.

After a mere ve months as GroupsMore, Joel Neohs company was acquired by Groupon

Third Wave Powers personal power station stands out in bright yellow

We went to visit 23 villages in Cambodia, and you see the power and what you can actually do with this, it makes you have another reason to go after another career, said cofounder VS Hariharan, who has lived in Singapore for 20 years. He is originally from India, where he recalls studying by candlelight during power cuts. People [in Cambodia] actually dont have power with their cell phones, so they actually walk a couple of kilometers to get their phones charged and they pay a fee for charging the phone. And imagine if they didnt have to walk all the way and an entrepreneur could set up a few of these devices and you could charge 45 phones in a day from this kind of a product. ... This creates livelihood for new people. And perhaps Ill leave you with the most extreme generosity of all: Danny Oei, the founder of social network Mindtalk, quipped: You can say my orgasm is pretty much helping people. Creativity As a region, Asia isnt exactly known for creativity. Chinese copycats companies who too closely imitate foreign companies or brands are enshrined in the American press with headlines like Chinas Copycat Culture or Chinese Copycats Challenge US Small Businesses. During my trip, in China and elsewhere, I saw knockoff brands like the HP hotel (with Hewlett Packards logo), a Donuts Donuts bakery (with the familiar pink and orange colors), and Apple underwear. Steve Wozniak famously questioned Singapores creative chops in December 2011 in a BBC interview. He noted that disruptive companies like Apple are often run by young people challenging big establishment players, which is less likely to happen under strict governmental systems. Look at structured societies like Singapore where bad behavior is not tolerated. You are extremely punished. Where are the creative people? he asked. But the desire to be creative to see an idea turn into reality is still what drives many Asian entrepreneurs. One Korean game developer told me his favorite moment is when he plays a game that he imagined; another Korean entrepreneur said the most exciting part is developing an idea and actually launching it. And some Asian startups actively fight the copycat stereotype. Game studio head Wesley Bao of China told me his dream was to make globally popular games, not copy: We like to be innovative, he said. Tuan Nguyen, the Vietnamese entrepreneur whose mother disapproved of his work, set out to build his own product while many IT companies in Vietnam were doing outsourcing work. And in China itself, youll find bright-eyed young entrepreneurs like Lei Min, a 25year-old masters student at Tsinghua University in Beijing. She remembers spending 70 hours straight surfing the Internet (she ordered takeout) while her friends were

playing games or watching movies just because she was so consumed and delighted by all the new information available. I love the Internet. ... I love these Internet companies, she said, citing Twitter and other apps. I think I have some talent in information. ... Im very curious. With a team of 12, Lei is building an info-sharing platform for college students, which grew out of a digital newspaper that she and her cofounders created for fun. I think its revolutionary. ... Its a big chance, she said, sporting a red checkered shirt and glasses. I want to make this product bigger. Leis English wasnt perfect I had to ask her to repeat things multiple times but any shyness she might have felt was eclipsed by her quietly passionate curiosity. I saw a similar passion though slightly less subdued in Singapores Witching Hour Studios, that quirky trio of cofounders mentioned above. It came out markedly when I asked what their favorite part of building the company was. Ian Gregory said, Breaking my own stuff, because the ability to take things apart is very, very fun. I have a few other game design things; I purposely break them, build them up again, and make them better. I love what in Singapore you call fighting fires as in, when theres a problem, find a solution. Im very solution-oriented. That means I like to create problems for myself to solve to keep myself occupied; I get bored very easily. He doesnt let his team cut corners or release a version with bugs, he told me. Hell make them erase what they have and start over if its not good enough. Kevin Mohinani said, Once you see the whole game come together, once everybodys put in their part and everythings meshed together well and you just play the game, youre like, Wow, we built this from scratch, by hand. And its not like were just sitting there at our desk telling employees, You do it and well just take the credit. Were all there. Before we launched the game ... we were all sleeping at 5 am, we were all in the house together, eight of us hunched over computers, everybodys banging at the keyboard and getting stuff done. Its stuff like that that makes you excited. Sounds like creativity to me, Mr. Wozniak. Community Witching Hours all-nighter coding sessions show a sense of community forged over a shared vision. Working on a startup can mean joining an exclusive club, a group of people with their own language (favorites like pivot and iterate) and a sense of defying the 95 trend, a trend that is arguably even stronger in Asia than in the United States. At Groupon Malaysia, the average age is around 24 or 25, and CEO Joel Neoh enjoys being surrounded by cool young people: You have 18-year-olds running around the office not too sure what theyre doing, but they seem to be really energetic and really passionate whenever theyre given a task, said Neoh, who learns things from his

employees every day. Young people dont come with preconceptions or baggage the why not? culture here is very strong. Sometimes, the sense of community even extends to your customers. Ollie Halimatussadiah started NulisBuku as a print-on-demand service for books, and its grown into a community of writers and readers across Indonesia. Halimatussadiah organized a NulisBuku club in Jakarta where writers could launch books and share insights, and fans volunteered to start their own clubs in other Indonesian cities. They took it upon themselves to find venues, get sponsors, and alert the media, and theyve been the ones behind several hit NulisBuku initiatives. On Valentines Day, they collected love letters using a Twitter hashtag and published the collection as a book; another user collected stories about long-distance relationships. And Halimatussadiah loves to promote their work: she was proud to tell the story of an 80-year-old who wrote a 900-page book, and someone who composed two novels on his Blackberry during Jakartas infamous traffic jams.

Ollie Halimatussadiah doesnt mind being a woman in a maledominated startup scene

Amidst all that work, Halimatussadiah somehow manages to write her own books and run a fashion line for chic Muslim women thats casual, elegant, and flattering. When I met her, she was smartly dressed in a purple sweater, silver jewelry, and a striped hijab. Shes also active in the startup community as an initiator for StartupLokal, a startup group in Indonesia that draws around 300 people per meetup. And the male-dominated culture doesnt give her pause. Were dealing with boys, right? she said, laughing. Its easier because we are fewer, and they really listen to us actually especially pretty girls. [More seriously] Its easier to get the spotlight, and men also respect you. Perhaps the most poignant testament to community I saw in Asia was the trend of entrepreneurs not wanting the spotlight. Henry, the Chinese entrepreneur behind VitaStone, wouldnt tell me his last name because he didnt want to overshadow his 15person team. Wenbin Tang of Chinas VisionHacker initially asked that I attribute quotes to the VisionHacker team. Were a team; its not my company! he exclaimed. Though frustrating for a journalist, these doses of modesty were refreshing and moving.

Variety Also refreshing was the story of how Fadzli Shah Anuar, the cofounder of Malaysian startup NEST, became an entrepreneur. It all started on top of a mountain in Venezuela. Instead of taking a normal internship between semesters, he decided that his resume needed something different. So he organized an expedition to Venezuela and managed to secure funding from the Royal Geographical Society and National Geographic. And like mountain climbing, entrepreneurship is never dull. Every day is different and thats the best part of doing a startup, he said. Its dynamic. Every day is new, echoed Tae Woo Kim of Korean ebook startup Moglue. I like challenging things. William Tanuwijaya must like challenging things too, because hes tackling ecommerce in Indonesia, where theres no standard payment gateway like PayPal. And customers are still mistrustful of shopping online. Thats why his company, Tokopedia, wasnt monetizing yet when I talked to them in February 2012 even though they were doing $726,000 in monthly transactions. Thats a huge amount of money for an Indonesian company to give up, but they dont want to scare anyone away. And again, Tanuwijaya loves the dynamism: its a never-ending project, he told me, and there are always new things to do. Urgency Some entrepreneurs in Asia, especially the young ones, do it just because they can. Being our age, we have nothing to lose but everything to gain, so definitely we want to take a dive and do this, said cofounder Elisha Ong of Burpple, who is 25. Even younger, 22-year-old Tae Woo Kim of Moglue adroitly led me to his demo booth at a Korean conference and then whisked me off to a cafe for

22-year-old Tae Woo Kim shows o Moglue at a Korean ebook festival

25-year-old Elisha Ong unveils Burpple at DEMO Asia

an interview. He was inspired by the time he spent in Silicon Valley, he explained, so he decided to start a company before he had money, cofounders, or even an idea. Since Im young, I dont need to be afraid about failure, he said. He doesnt need a huge salary to support a family, because he doesnt have one yet. Later, I saw Kim confidently take the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing, unfettered by the reservations of someone with something to lose. National Pride Beyond all these motivations, a few entrepreneurs want to prove that their countries can be creative and innovative that Asia has something to offer the world. Ive always wanted to help Hong Kong grow, said Paul Lee of Ximplar, who was impressed by the energy in Silicon Valley. That is the mentality, the sentiment, the atmosphere, the romance, if you will, that I want to bring back to Hong Kong. Right now, I think Hong Kongs people have a lot of creativity and potential, but the atmosphere is heavily slanted to quick finance gains. With Ximplar, Lee is hoping to gain some recognition and start changing Hong Kong bit by bit. In Hong Kong, someone has to be the first one. ... My greater goal is to hopefully be an inspiration, he said. To do the same, China will have to get past its copycat reputation. Alice Zhang, the founder of an art gallery in Hong Kong called Mischmasch, is seeing some positive trends in the community. In the past 3 years, Ive been meeting people that are genuine about creating brands that are Chinese but sought after worldwide, to prove that Chinese people are not just about copying and cheap production people like graphic designers, artists, filmmakers, startups, video game designers, even investors, and I hope to be one of those people, she said, echoing Lee. Singapore, specifically its gaming industry, is fighting the perception that game developers arent talented. A lot of talent in Singapore are not used properly. ... You have artists that can do the Mona Lisa but youre getting them to do stick men. No one will know their true talent, their true capability, explains Ian Gregory of Witching Hour Studios. By building a stunning game, theyre doing their part to change that. And as a side benefit, people will stop asking if they outsource their development. (They dont.) I love my country and I want to do right by it, said Gregory. (His cofounder Brian Kwek added: I mean, were not nationalists, but were proud of our heritage.) Gregory continued, Im very apolitical as far as Im concerned, but I do understand what it means to feel belonging, what it means to feel what home is, and I dont want Singapore to be this faceless country that its slowly becoming.

To boost Asias reputation, some entrepreneurs are creating products unique to their culture. GantiBaju started out as an unapologetic Threadless clone, but its become wholeheartedly Indonesian. All the t-shirt designs relate to Indonesia somehow, such as the garuda (a mythical bird and the countrys national symbol), heroes of the revolution, and political satire of the less offensive variety, at least. Inspired by local designers in Bali and elsewhere, founder Aria Rajasa set out to capture the essence of Indonesian culture:

Aria Rajasa of GantiBaju doesnt mind when his startup is called a clone

Indonesia is really beautiful the history, the culture, the spirit, said Rajasa, while a mosque broadcasted prayers in the background. But the thing is not many people can see Indonesia as how I see it, and I want that to change. I want to at least have a small part in changing the perspective of Indonesia, first to Indonesians and hopefully to the world.

Defying Confucius
Come on Asia...Take More Risks! urged the CEO of 8 Securities, a Hong Kong-based finance startup. Not taking risks for fear of failure alone must be overcome in Asia, he wrote. In the US, people wear failure on their sleeve like a badge of honor. But attitudes wont change after reading an article. Reducing fear of failure, in a positive sense, means building an entrepreneurial ecosystem and an entrepreneurial culture and, as second-tier cities in the United States know all too well, that takes time. No one becomes Silicon Valley overnight. But there are signs that the culture is changing: a Korean entrepreneur whose former boss encouraged him to quit to start a company; a Chinese entrepreneur who said urban families are more supportive of startups than their rural counterparts; a young Singaporean entrepreneur who feels lucky that his parents support him, saying, We can afford to try, and even if we try, to fail, and we fail forward and move fast and pick ourselves back up again. Many entrepreneurs I asked think fear of failure is decreasing in Asia. Singapore is one of the most proactive societies to encourage more risk taking, among those I visited. And it was doing so even back in 2001, according to that New York Times interview with senior minister Lee Kuan Yew: Q. How can you encourage your young people to take more risks and feel that failure is acceptable? A. Failure is the stepping stone to success. I think it's going to be a very arduous business of changing the mind-sets and value systems of parents, uncles, cousins, nephews its the total society. The Singaporean government runs bus ads about starting companies, and offers entrepreneur visas: the EntrePass for startups less than six months old, and an employment pass for older companies, both of which allow entrepreneurs to bring their spouse and children. Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverins stint living in Singapore after the release of The Social Network movie has increased the mystique of Internet companies. And in the Arab Street district of Singapore amidst funky cafes and rows of tailors selling rainbow-colored fabrics youll find Singapores first kiasu-free zone. Its HackerSpaceSG, a coworking and events space where you can stumble upon startups, freelancers, meetups, and the occasional party. In Singapore, the culture is always perfection, and failure is always looked down upon; its not well-received to be a failure, said HackerSpace cofounder Justin Lee. What were trying to promote is something like: just do it; if it fails, lets try again.

And thats really the essential basis for entrepreneurs, which is fail fast, fail often, and one day youll be successful. In HackerSpace, its like, Hey, dont be afraid to try things out, dont be restricted by the laws and other rules, so to speak, and treat HackerSpace as a safe haven to do anything you want. People dont have to be afraid of being looked down upon, ostracized for being a failure, he said. Lees own family is not really supportive. But yeah ... whatever, he added. Another kiasu-free zone is the National University of Singapores Overseas College program. It sends students to Silicon Valley, as well as Philadelphia, Beijing, Shanghai, Stockholm, India, and Israel, to study entrepreneurship-related courses while interning at a startup. Some veterans of the program are bringing their lessons from the Valley back to Singapore and starting their own companies, such as Burpple (mentioned above). NUS Enterprise director Brian Koh talked about the traditional mindset of wanting to work at a multinational corporation or in government. But I think thats changing, he added. We have students that come up that really want to make it on their own. Over in Indonesia, things seem to be changing, as well. Tech writer Goutama Bachtiar told me that parents in smaller cities still want their children to become full-time corporate employees, but major cities like Jakarta and Bandung are different. GantiBaju founder Aria Rajasa agreed: Entrepreneurship in the eye of a lot of people is considered cool ... it shows really much in the young generation. The college graduates that I talk to are really like, Yeah, I want to go to be an entrepreneur; I dont know what I want to make, but I want to be an entrepreneur. Thats a really cool change that were making. DailySocials Rama Mamuaya tells college students, Do it now. Its okay to fail. In Malaysia, Dash Dhakshinamoorthy founded an organization called StartupMalaysia, which hosts events, has an annual competition, and helps connect entrepreneurs with investors. The goal is to help Malaysian startups go global. Dhakshinamoorthy also told me hes hoping to dispel the notion that a failed company equals a failed entrepreneur. Chinas Kai-Fu Lee, the founder of Innovation Works and a past VP at Google, travels around giving lectures to packed auditoriums about entrepreneurship, while recruiting engineers to work for him. As one entrepreneur in China explained, The new generation is a little bit different, our attitudes to the life become more and more aggressive now. Success Stories To get a startup ecosystem going, you need a virtuous circle: as great startups are created, more investors come to the area; with more investment available, building a

startup becomes more attractive. When these startups succeed, the founders often become mentors, and they help even more startups succeed, which breeds more mentors. Key to that virtuous circle are success stories: examples of highly successful entrepreneurs that the media can write about and would-be entrepreneurs can tell their reluctant parents about. In the United States, we have tons: Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram, and many more. In Asia, the success stories are fewer and further between, but theyre starting to emerge. Among them are TicketMonster in Korea and Ensogo in Thailand (both acquired by LivingSocial); JobStreet and GroupsMore in Malaysia; tenCube (acquired by McAfee), JobsCentral (acquired by CareerBuilder), mig33, and ViKi in Singapore; and Koprol (acquired by Yahoo!), Detik, and Kaskus in Indonesia. Excitement Whatever else you can say about Asia, theres definitely a lot of excitement. Entrepreneurs all over China and Southeast Asia sang a similar tune: Asia right now is the best place to be doing a startup. Just dont ruin the party for us! Jon Buford, Makible (Hong Kong) This is the best time to create a high-growth company because Asia is booming. Theres huge market interest, excitement, and energy about becoming an entrepreneur Dash Dhakshinamoorthy, StartupMalaysia (Malaysia) We'll see quite a bit of activity over the next five years. The rising affluence of the middle class in this region ... it will only keep growing and it will probably keep growing a lot quicker than America James Chan, Neoteny Labs (Singapore), who owns the domain SiliconStraits.com In 10 years, Asias going to be the center of the world at least thats what Asians believe Rama Mamuaya, DailySocial (Indonesia) And entrepreneurs are particularly rosy about their own countries: This is a great time, especially in China. A lot of young people, they just find that this is a huge opportunity. Because we also have seen many entrepreneurs that make a big fortune and big impact on society Henry, VitaStone (China) In China, theres a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of money going around as well, especially this year [2011] in mobile ... a lot of excitement, a lot of buzz Junde Yu (China)

Are they all overoptimistic, the same way every big city is claiming to be the Silicon Valley of X? Perhaps. But if their optimism can help wash away fear of failure, it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Koreas Richard Min said, This tsunami is coming. Those motions are not going to stop. If he and the others are right, we should all be watching the eastern horizon.

About Kira M. Newman Kira M. Newman is a senior writer at Tech Cocktail interested in startups, innovation, and new trends. In 2012, she returned from a 6-month whirlwind tour of Asia, where she met tons of welcoming, inspiring, and infectiously passionate entrepreneurs. Kira has been published in the Huffington Post and Social Media Monthly. Follow her on Twitter @kiramnewman or email her at kira@tech.co. About Tech Cocktail Tech Cocktail is a media company and events organization for startups, entrepreneurs, and technology enthusiasts. Since 2006, its goal has been to amplify local tech communities and give entrepreneurs a place to get informed, get connected, and get inspired. Tech Cocktail dedicates itself to covering news, how-tos, up-and-coming startups, and industry trends online, and hosting events in over 20 cities in the US and abroad. Special thanks to: Jeff Clavier for his comments and feedback; Rama Mamuaya for taking me on a road trip through Indonesia; the many entrepreneurs who inspired me to write this report; Zenzi Communications for helping me produce it; and the team at Tech Cocktail for their genuine support and enthusiasm.

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