Singapore is nice, but it's not enough
I watched Sneha's e27 interview with Adeo Ressi, and one of the things he said troubled me. Like it troubled me before.
"Any startup that is outside the US and not in a large market... faces the challenge of too narrow a focus. We met some Singapore companies that are focussing on Singapore and that is a very small market." Adeo Ressi, thefunded.com.Singapore is a good place to live, it has it's faults but where doesn't? It's basically clean, efficient and the sun mainly shines. And the food is amazing. Plus as a place to travel to and from it's pretty much unbeatable.
The lifestyle, plus friends, plus a feeling that the web industry is on the verge of something and good local developers are all the reasons I stayed here and teamed up with Arun to start building the best sports league software ever (take that link Google-bot).
However it is not a place to solely focus your (internet) business on. You're never going to make everybody use your product, only a small percentage. You are not Google or Facebook. A small percentage of only 4 million people (that's 0.07% of the world's population) is a huge mistake, however much you think you can sell to the local market.
You only have to look at all the adverts on the various SPH websites, for other SPH websites, to see that a Singapore-focussed 'eyeballs' business is a super-no-go. The same for inSing.com, a corporate news portal that's subsidised by phone bills and government advertising.
You certainly shouldn't market yourself as proudly Singaporean for Singapore. Be proud but take it out to the world - be the great advert for Singapore that the F1 is. Insularity is the long slow road to defeat.
Use Singapore as a fantastic springboard to virtually anywhere in the world. It's English speaking, with strong ties to local neighbours, plus China & India. It's basically got access to the biggest markets possible. Aim at them.
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As for the rest of the interview... I was also a bit surprised that he widened the question of what he thinks of Singapore's startup scene into immediately talking about Paris. I think he may have been seduced by the Eiffel Tower. :-)
