The post เทปงาน Start it up, Power it up #3 แบ่งปันประสบการณ์การทำตลาดในต่างแดน โดย ดร.เจน จูฑา appeared first on The VC Group.

It is the right time for Thai tech start-ups to be at the forefront of the tech industry amid readiness of all factors in the ecosystem. There is a chance but it is also a challenge for Thai tech start-ups to latch on to it, take a risk and go, said panelists at an NForum on “Tech Start-up: Challenges in the Thai Way”, hosted by The Nation at the office of Microsoft Thailand last weekend.

Peak opportunity

The panellists confirmed that now is a time of opportunities for tech start-ups, to catch up, as there is a lot of readiness in the ecosystem. This includes technologies like cloud computing; devices, especially mobile devices including smart phones and tablets; and support from technology firms and investors, especially corporate venture capital. The important thing is the readiness of the tech start-up themselves. They have to be ready to take a risk in order to get the chances to succeed like other tech start-ups overseas.

Jay Jootar, chief officer executive of The VC Group, said tech start-ups are growing not only in Thailand but around the world. This is the fourth round of boom for tech start-ups around the world. The first round was the Silicon boom, and Intel was the successful start-up. The second round was the personal computer era, defined by the successes of Microsoft and Apple. The third round was the dotcom boom, Google and Cisco being beneficiaries.

Currently, there is another round for tech start-ups, and this time it could have a bigger impact on Thailand’s tech industry. Media is an important factor to drive inspiration.

“Now, in Thailand, there are a lot of corporate venture capitalists, who are potential investors for tech start-ups. These VCs are strategic investors who are more patient in waiting for return on investment. They have the ability to support tech start-ups with more than just investment, such through marketing and distribution channels,” said Jay.

Thanapong na Ranong, vice president of Business Development, InTouch, said that in 2007, when he was in charge of business promotion for Thai software, there were hardly any tech start-ups. Once, he was in charge of start-up promotion at Intouch, a lot of tech start-ups entered the fray. He said the current ecosystem is ready for tech start-ups, including tablets, smart phones, and app store, which are leading to a market boom at the moment.

Pratthana Leelapanang, senior vice president of Digital Business at AIS, said the company has almost 300 companies ranked from small to medium firms working as content service partners with AIS. The rapid growth of smart phones and mobile devices encouraged the growth of tech start-ups. The success of start-ups in other countries has also inspired Thai tech entrepreneurs to start their own businesses. This year is an exciting time for start-ups in Thailand.

Krating Ruangroj Poonpol, senior vice president of the products division at DTAC, said this is a time of opportunity for tech start-ups in Thailand. It is the first time in a decade when tech start-ups in Thailand have the most readiness in the ecosystem. For example, global incubators and global investors are now eyeing Thailand.

Natavudh Pungcharoenpong, chief executive officer of Ookbee, a successful Thai tech start-up that develops and provides an e-book platform, said that right now there are a lot of opportunities for tech start-ups. It is a lot more than in the past few years when he started Ookbee, with its first idea to develop an e-magazine platform that would allow readers to get it for free. He spent six months for development. It got only 20,000 users in 60 days. Currently, it has 10,000 new users per day. It has increased by 20 times in 28 months.

“There are a lot of opportunities. Tech entrepreneurs have to not only think about product development and service, but they also have to consider the business model – who their potential customers are, how to sell to them, and how to monetise them. Now, there is a lot of readiness in the ecosystems such as payment platforms and distribution platforms,” said Natavudh.

Ookbee has 150 applications. AIS Bookstore is the best one that contributes almost 40 per cent of the total revenues for the company.

“Not only telco, but now also co-working space, investors and media are going to support tech start-ups. This year is the best time for tech start-ups. There are still opportunities for start-ups to catch up with. After this, the good opportunities might be taken,” said Nattavudh.

Support flourishing

Support for start-ups from tech firms and investors is now flourishing. The two mobile operators, AIS and DTAC, have also launched their dedicatedly designed programmes to support tech start-ups in Thailand.

He said DTAC offers support to Thai tech start-ups through the DTAC Accelerate campaign, with shortcut keys for Thai application developers to world-class learning experience at Silicon Valley. The first activity of the DTAC Accelerate programme is a mobile application competition under the theme ‘Wizard of App’, to seek top app developers to get world-class learning and working experience at Silicon Valley, the world’s renowned city of the high-tech industry, along with other rewards worth totally Bt50 million. The mobile app contest is only the beginning of the shortcut to the success DTAC offers. More and more inspiring projects under the DTAC Accelerate programme will follow in due course.

Ekaraj Kongswangwongsa software industry development manager at Microsoft (Thailand), said that Microsoft (Thailand) supports tech start-ups through the Microsoft BizSpark program that provides technology, support, visibility, and community to start-ups and entrepreneurs at no charge. The three-year offer provides start-ups with access to a global community of advisers, investors and partners as well as Microsoft software and services.

Microsoft BizSpark extends special offers to help top start-ups grow their businesses. These offers are available to start-ups who are members or alumni of an Accelerator Program. The Windows Azure $60K Offer helps cover cloud-computing costs by providing up to US$60,000 worth of Windows Azure over two years, 100 per cent of Windows Azure usage for the first year and 50 per cent off Windows Azure retail for the second year. Through this offer, every dollar start-ups can save on their cloud computing costs means more money for them to spend elsewhere for hiring developers, investing in marketing, acquiring new customers. To get the Windows Azure $60K Offer, they must be a member or alumni of an Accelerator Program, developing software, less than five years old and be a privately held firm that is making less than $1million annually.

Meanwhile, Pratthana said, AIS will not focus on direct investment in tech start-ups but its emphasis is to help start-ups in the markets and enable them to meet potential customers. AIS plays an interface role between start-ups and customers.

Patai Padungtin, principal and evangelist at Builk Asia, one of the successful Thai tech start-ups, said the key factors are a repeatable and scalable business model. Before he set up Builk.com, he ran Longkong Studio. The software company stuck to the service-oriented business that could always keep developing according to customers’ requirements. He said the tech start-up business requires less initial investment. Tech start-ups can always adjust the details of their products and services during development and the market-trial period as the investment required is low.

“Tech start-ups offer a chance and a challenge because you always have an opportunity to improve your products and services, without incurring too much cost. There are many successes in Thailand right now, but there are also many failures,” said Patai.

Beware of bubble

Oranuch Lerdsuwankij (@mimee), co-founder of Thumbsup.in.th, one of the famous online media in Thailand, said the cost of establishing a tech start-up is not too high for Thai tech entrepreneurs but the success factors for tech start-up is the knowledge of grooming a tech start-up. Incubators are a key factor to assist tech start-ups to be success.

Ponthep Sethiwan, co-founder of Launchpad Co-working Space, said that start-ups in Thailand still had opportunities and room for growth for the next couple years. The issue of concern is a bubble in start-ups as the media highlights only successes such as Ookbee, Builk.com and Tarad.com. They have passed through hard times before becoming successful.

“My concern is that the young generation might be misled by the successful cases because there are also a lot of failures. Setting up and running a start-up requires a lot of hardwork and consistency to become a success. It is a trade-off,” said Pornthep.

The post It’s take-off time for Thai start-ups appeared first on The VC Group.

Facilitate foreign entrepreneurs to set up tech companies in Thailand

One of the easiest and fastest ways to jumpstart the tech industry in Thailand is by helping foreign entrepreneurs set up their businesses in Thailand. Currently, Thai law still exhibits the xenophobia mentality dating back to the 1997 financial crisis, forbidding foreigners to hold more than half the equity shares in a company.

Despite this and other labour law restrictions, so many experienced foreign entrepreneurs came here and are keen to set up their businesses here because of the strategic location and good lifestyle in Thailand. By making it easy for them to create a base here, we can become the hub for tech start-ups and industry in Asean overnight because of the natural advantages we possess.

Eliminate legal obstacles for public and private cooperation in R&D

Despite having several government R&D agencies and R&D funding activities, we have yet to see much tangible impact at an industry level. I believe one thing that stands in the way is the trust issue between public and private sectors that result from corruption.

To reduce corruption, a law has been written two decades ago to inhibit wrongdoings related to public private activities. Ironically, corruption does not go down very much. They find ways around it. On the other hand, innocent private companies are hit hard by those laws and the taboo associated with public and private cooperation.

I have personally witnessed countless publicly funded R&D projects that never reach commercialisation because appropriate cooperation with private companies cannot be established. If legal and perspective issues still remain, all public funding that goes into R&D cannot reach commercialisation and will have little or no impact to industry development.

Include KPIs pertinent to industry development to related agencies

In addition to the legal issues, we need to refocus government R&D agencies towards industry development and commercialisation. We need to make high priority KPIs that lead to industry development, such as intellectual property licensing, commercial spin-offs, etc. We are a small country with a small R&D budget. So, all money that goes into R&D should lead to some form of tangible economic development.

Add more tech entrepreneurs to government decision-making bodies

To ensure that the government can make effective decisions that lead to industry development, we need more tech entrepreneurs in decision-making positions in government bodies, at board or management levels, to steer them in the right direction as far as commercialisation and industry development goes. So far, the involvement of tech entrepreneurs in this sphere is sporadic and immaterial. Most decision-makers are academic and technical. We need more inputs from the front line to have a government that is relevant in Thai tech industry development.

The post What the govt can do for Thai tech industry appeared first on The VC Group.

ในยุคแห่งการแข่งขันในปัจจุบัน การสื่อสารทางการตลาด และการนำเสนอข้อมูลไปยังกลุ่มเป้าหมายนั้นถือเป็นปัจจัยที่มีความสำคัญเป็นอย่างยิ่ง สื่อต่างๆที่ถูกนำมาใช้ในกระบวนการดังกล่าวก็มีรูปแบบที่หลากหลาย และมีความทันสมัยมากยิ่งขึ้น หนึ่งในสื่อที่เราทุกคนต่างก็พบในชีวิตประจำวันอยู่บ่อยครั้ง และค่อยๆเพิ่มทวีจำนวนมากขึ้นในยุคนี้ก็คงจะหนีไม่พ้น สื่อที่เรียกว่า “Digital Signage” หรือ “สื่อประชาสัมพันธ์ทางจอภาพ” นั่นเอง

Digital Signage ได้ถูกนำเข้ามาใช้ในแวดวงธุรกิจหรือองค์กรต่างๆ เพื่อวัตถุประสงค์ในการใช้งานที่สำคัญๆ 3 ประการคือ การสร้างชื่อหรือแบรนด์, การสื่อสารและให้ข้อมูล, และการเพิ่มยอดขายหรือสร้างรายได้ ด้วยเหตุนี้เองสิ่งที่สำคัญของสื่อประเภทนี้เป็นอย่างยิ่งก็คือ กลวิธีในการดึงดูดความสนใจของกลุ่มเป้าหมาย และวิธีการสื่อสารข้อความที่สำคัญ (Key Message) ไปยังผู้รับชมได้อย่างครบถ้วน แต่ทว่าเรากลับพบว่ารูปแบบในการนำเสนอข้อมูลของ Digital Signage ที่ใช้กันอยู่ในปัจจุบันนั้นแทบจะไม่แตกต่างกันเลย โดยส่วนใหญ่จะเป็นเพียงการนำเสนอ ข้อความ, ภาพนิ่ง, ภาพเคลื่อนไหว, หรือวิดีโอประชาสัมพันธ์ไปยังผู้รับชมแต่เพียงเท่านั้น คำถามก็คือว่า ด้วยเหตุใด? และทำไม? ตลาดการให้บริการ Digital Signage ในปัจจุบันจึงเกิดรูปแบบที่ลอกเลียนกันเช่นนี้ขึ้นมา แล้วทางออกสำหรับปัญหานี้คืออะไร? บทความที่จะกล่าวถึงด้านล่างต่อไปนี้มีคำตอบที่คุณกำลังมองหาอยู่ครับ

โดยระบบ Digital Signage ที่ถูกใช้กันอย่างแพร่หลายในท้องตลาดปัจจุบันนั้น มีอยู่ด้วยกัน 2 รูปแบบ คือ

รูปแบบ Standalone System เป็นระบบที่ตัว Media player แต่ละตัวทำงานแยกออกจากกัน (Standalone) จึงทำให้ในการควบคุมการทำงานของ Media player ทั้งหมดในระบบนั้น ต้องทำทีละเครื่อง และการอัพเดตข้อมูล Content ต่างๆลง Media player นั้น ต้องอาศัยการ copy ข้อมูลจาก Computer ใส่ Memory card หรือ Flash drive แล้วนำไป update ลงบน Media player อีกที ซึ่งระบบประเภทนี้จะลงทุนน้อยกว่า แต่จะพบกับปัญหาความยุ่งยากในการใช้งาน, ใช้เวลานานในการอัพเดต Content แต่ละครั้ง, และการดูแลและอัพเกรดซอร์ฟแวร์ของอุปกรณ์ทำได้ยากเพราะต้องดูแล Media player กันทีละเครื่อง

และอีกรูปแบบหนึ่งก็คือ Distributed System เป็นระบบที่ตัว Media player รับส่งข้อมูลกับตัว Media server ผ่านทางระบบ Network ประเภทต่างๆ ไม่ว่าจะ LAN, WAN, 3G หรืออื่นๆ โดย Media server ที่ส่งข้อมูลจะอยู่ที่ไหนก็ได้ จะคอยส่งข้อมูลมายัง Media player แล้วเก็บข้อมูลลงบนหน่วยความจำและนำข้อมูลนั้นขึ้นมาแสดงผลบนจอภาพที่เชื่อมต่ออยู่นั้นอีกที ซึ่งวิธีนี้ต้องอาศัยการวางระบบ Network ระหว่าง Client และ Server ที่ดี รวมถึงต้องอาศัยโปรแกรม Content Management System (CMS) มาช่วยในการบริหารจัดการข้อมูล Content ต่างๆที่ถูกเก็บบน Server และควบคุมการจ่ายข้อมูลไปยังตัว Client ด้วย จึงทำให้ระบบประเภทนี้ผู้ใช้งานสามารถควบคุมและจัดการ Content ได้ง่าย และอัพเดต Content ต่างๆไปยัง Media player ได้รวดเร็ว

อีกทั้งปัจจุบันมีเทคโนโลยี Cloud computing เข้ามาช่วยทดแทนตัวเครื่อง Media server ด้วยแล้ว จึงยิ่งส่งผลให้ผู้ให้บริการ Digital Signage ในปัจจุบันหันไปใช้รูปแบบ Distributed system ที่เป็น Cloud service หรือ Software as a Service (SaaS) กันมากยิ่งขึ้น แต่ทั้งนี้สิ่งที่ทำให้ระบบ Distributed System ยังไม่เป็นที่แพร่หลายเท่าที่ควรนั้นเนื่องมาจากราคาของ Media player ซึ่งทำให้ราคารวมของระบบมีค่าสูงขึ้นเมื่อจำนวน Media Player เพิ่มขึ้น

Media player ที่ใช้อยู่ปัจจุบันนั้น ส่วนใหญ่ยังคงใช้ PC หรือ mini PC เป็นอุปกรณ์ในการจัดการส่วนนี้อยู่ จึงมีข้อจำกัดทั้งทางด้านขนาด, การทนทานต่อสภาวะแดด ฝน ความชื้น และการสิ้นเปลืองพลังงานไฟฟ้า หรือแม้ว่าผู้ให้บริการบางรายจะหันมาใช้ Signage Media Player (SMP) client เป็นอุปกรณ์รับสัญญาณพิเศษ ซึ่งมีขนาดเล็กลง ประหยัดพื้นที่มากขึ้น มีความทนทางที่สูงขึ้น และลดการใช้พลังงานลงยิ่งกว่าเดิมแล้วก็ตาม แต่อุปกรณ์ SMP client ประเภทนี้ยังมีราคาที่สูงอยู่ (~10,000 บาทต่อเครื่อง) เนื่องจาก SMP client ยังคงใช้สถาปัตยกรรมตัวเดียวกับ PC อยู่ดี

Penta™ เป็นอุปกรณ์ที่สามารถใช้เป็น Platform เพื่อนำมาพัฒนาเป็น Medial Player ได้ Penta™ ใช้ซีพียูในตระกูล ARM เช่นเดียวกับอุปกรณ์มือถือและแท็บเล็ตทั่วไป จึงทำให้ตัวอุปกรณ์มีการใช้พลังงานที่น้อยลงกว่า Media Player อื่นๆ แต่ยังคงทำงานได้ประสิทธิภาพที่มากเทียบเท่ากับ PC แต่มีราคาอยู่ในระดับเพียงแค่ไม่กี่พันบาท ซึ่งต่ำกว่า Media Player ที่มีอยู่ทั่วไปในท้องตลาดเป็นอย่างมาก และตัวอุปกรณ์ Penta™ ยังมีความทนทาน มีขนาดที่เล็ก น้ำหนักเบา สามารถพกพาได้สะดวก จึงง่ายต่อการติดตั้ง และสามารถจัดวางในพื้นที่ที่จำกัดได้โดยไม่กีดขวาง นอกจากนี้ ในหลายๆงานได้ รวมถึง Penta™ ยังมีพอร์ตเชื่อมต่อต่างๆมากมาย ทั้ง USB, LAN, WiFi, SD card, AV out, VGA, HDMI, Optical ฯลฯ และยังสามารถอัพเกรดซอร์ฟแวร์ผ่านทาง Over-The-Air Upgrade Service (OTA) ได้อีกด้วย จึงทำให้สามารถรองรับการต่อพ่วงกับอุปกรณ์ต่างๆในอนาคต อาทิ Touch-screen monitor เหล่านี้ได้ เป็นต้น

ในด้าน Software ภายในของ Penta™ นั้น ได้ถูกออกแบบและพัฒนาขึ้นมาเองใหม่ทั้งหมดโดยทีมงาน the VC group โดยรวมจุดเด่นของ Android และ Linux เข้าด้วยกัน การพัฒนาการเชื่อมต่อระหว่าง CMS และ Penta จึงสามารถทำได้หลายรูปแบบ โดยใช้ Open Source Protocols ที่มีอยู่หรือแม้แต่ออกแบบขึ้นมาเอง เพื่อที่จะรองรับการใช้งานแบบใหม่ๆ ที่จะนำไปสู่รูปแบบใหม่ๆของ Interactive Digital Signage ที่สามารถดึงดูดกลุ่มลูกค้าที่มีความซับซ้อนและตลาดที่มีความแข่งขันที่สูงอย่างทุกวันนี้

ด้วยเหตุนี้เอง Penta™ จึงนับเป็นนวัตกรรมใหม่ของโลกอนาคต ซึ่งถือว่าเป็นทางออกสำหรับผู้พัฒนาระบบ Digital Signage ในปัจจุบัน ที่ต้องการนำเสนอสื่อออกมาในรูปแบบใหม่ๆที่ท้าทายและแตกต่าง เพื่อดึงดูดผู้รับชมได้มากยิ่งขึ้น ด้วยอุปกรณ์ที่มีคุณภาพ ในราคาที่คุ้มค่า รวมถึงยังสามารถทำงานร่วมกันกับ Cloud Applications ต่างๆได้ จึงทำให้ Penta™ สามารถถูกปรับเปลี่ยนรูปแบบการใช้งานไปมาได้หลากหลายและไม่จำกัด ไม่ว่าจะนำไปใช้เป็น ระบบป้ายแสดงผลสื่อทั่วไป (Digital Signage Display Station), ระบบแสดงผลแบบโต้ตอบ (Interactive Digital Signage), ระบบแสดงเมนูอาหารแบบดิจิตอล (Digital Menu Board), ตู้โฆษณาแบบระบบสัมผัส (Self-Service Kiosk) หรือรูปแบบการใช้งานอื่นๆเพิ่มเติมได้อีกมากมายในอนาคต จึงทำให้ผู้พัฒนาระบบ Digital Signage สามารถสร้างรูปแบบการให้บริการใหม่ๆตามกระแสโลกที่หมุนไปอย่างรวดเร็วได้ดีเลยทีเดียว ด้วยตัว Penta™ นี้ทิศทางของตลาด Digital Signage ในอนาคตจะต้องเติบโตขึ้นอย่างแน่นอน

สำหรับใครที่สนใจรายละเอียดเพิ่มเติม ขณะนี้มีคอมมูนิตี้สำหรับนักพัฒนา Cloud Client โดยเฉพาะ เข้าไปร่วมแลกเปลี่ยน แสดงความคิดเห็น พูดคุยถึงกรณีศึกษาต่างๆ ได้ที่ Penta Cloud Client Group บน Facebook และ Penta Cloud Client บน Linkedin Group

The post Penta กับทิศทางตลาด Digital Signage ในอนาคต appeared first on The VC Group.

The early, popular open source software projects are licensed under a so-called “copyleft” licence, a play on the word copyright. If one makes use of copyleft software, one must also give away the source code of the derived work and licence it under copyleft as well. The intention of copyleft licence is to create a domino effect to ensure that all software be open source. Examples of copyleft software include the Linux operating system, and the popular MySQL database server.

Other open source software projects are offered under “permissive” licences. Software under a permissive licence is not so strict in enforcing the derived work to be open source. In other words, one can use software with a permissive licence to build something without having to give away the source code of the resulting software. Not surprisingly, software under a permissive licence becomes more and more popular nowadays due to its flexible usage condition. Examples of software under a permissive licence include Apache web server, FreeSWITCH telephony server.

Many softwares that are in everyday use of consumers are also powered by open source software. Popular browsers like Chrome and Safari are powered by WebKit, an open source Web rendering engine that was first released as an open source project by Apple, then joined by Google and Adobe, among others.

In Thailand, open source is not much in widespread use among either enterprises or start-ups. In corporate IT, few enterprises go beyond OpenOffice, an open source office suite that aims to replace the proprietary Office suite applications. In start-ups, the situation is not that much different. Most of the start-ups that I came into contact with build their services using proprietary software stacks as opposed to open source ones.

Should we be worried? After all, Thailand seems to have many successful and talented start-ups that have won many awards and even funding. Is it possible that we don’t need to use open source software to succeed as a start-up?

I strongly believe that to build truly world-class tech companies like Google and Facebook, we need to have a flexible building block as a base. We might be able to create fancy websites and mobile services with bells and whistles using proprietary technology. But to create innovative breakthrough services, open source software gives us more flexibility and freedom to convert our imagination into reality.

I believe that successful Thai start-ups will become even more successful if they know how to leverage the power of open source software.

Jay Jootar is CEO of The VC Group and Lecturer at College of Management, Mahidol University.

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Venture Catalyst Group has changed its role from being only a local venture capital fund assisting technology entrepreneurs to grow their businesses to becoming a strategic partner to drive the ecosystem of tech start-ups.

Jay Jootar, founder and CEO of The VC Group, said last week that The VC Group would look for tech start-ups with potential, then invest in them and incubate them. After the start-up can be scaled up, The VC Group will look for new parties to invest in the company and spin it off.

“In a few years, we plan to spin off two more companies that are related to cloud computing. One is about a cloud client and the other is about cloud infrastructure,” he said.

As a venture capitalist for a decade, Jay said the tech start-up ecosystem is now growing.

The ecosystem consists of a pool of technical talent, investors and entrepreneurs.

“Normally, there are two main investors in tech start-ups. They are individual investors and financial institutions. There are two main models of investment. The first is to invest with funding and second is to invest with technologies,” he said.

However, the venture capital model in Thailand is still different from the West. Investors in Thailand are mostly concerned about value investment and profit rather than technology innovation.

Meanwhile, there are few tech entrepreneurs in Thailand and most of them are system integrators and made-to-order software developers rather than innovators that can come up with their own products and services with their own intellectual property.

“In Thailand, we have a lot of technical talents and investors. But we still lack tech entrepreneurs. The VC Group is bridging the gap between them with our skills, resources and efforts,” he said.

The VC Group aims to build tech entrepreneurs for the ecosystem. The company will incubate companies by recruiting both talents for their technical teams, such as programmers, engineers and systems engineers, and tech entrepreneurs who will be assigned as project managers to turn product development into a business.

“In Thailand, we have technical talents and we have investors. There is a gap between these groups. We need the ‘tech entrepreneur’ with technical skills and the ability to run tech as a business. They have to work with all stakeholders including the technical team, customers or users, and business partners or suppliers.

“So, the thing we do is to recruit technical talents to train them to become entrepreneurs. The tech entrepreneur is the missing piece in growing tech start-ups in the long run,” he said.

To build the pool of tech entrepreneurs, instead of looking for new tech start-ups and injecting funds in them, the company will recruit technical talents to work with the company and give them training and real practice on both sides of technical skills and coordinating and management skills.

“In a few cases, we also invest money in tech start-ups,” he said.

The group runs four core businesses – embedded systems, cloud infrastructure, cloud applications and telecom systems.

The embedded system business has developed a cloud client called Penta Box that is set to replace dumb PCs as a part of the IT solution offered to corporate users. It has joined with Foxconn Technology Group to set up Power-All Venture to develop Penta Box to sell through distributors worldwide.

The company also develops cloud platforms to co-provide with Internet data centre service providers to provide cloud systems for customers across industries and sizes of businesses.

“We are also working on cloud application development. Due to the rapid growth of mobile devices that drives huge demand for personal clouds, we will offer such a service for them this year,” he said.

The firm is also a partner of telecom service providers to provide the system for making telecom systems with quality service.

“We have done this for two years. We have some customers in the United States. We work through our partners,” he said.

These four core businesses play a role as the place for technical talents to practice, join in and be incubated until they are ready to be tech start-ups. VC Group then will transform itself to being a strategic capital company to spin them off, fund them and scale them up to become sustainable tech businesses.

The post Strategic partnership from VC appeared first on The VC Group.

The Penta^TM Application Framework offers one of the powerful tools called “Smart Remote^TM” that is used for communication between Penta^TM and PC, Smart Phone, and Tablet. Such feature enables such devices to become an Adaptive Remote which can change its user interface to accommodate such application. A cool Card game is a perfect example of such feature. In this case, the screen connected to Penta^TM shows the pot whereas the players’ smart phones display players’ hands. Not only does the feature allow multiple users to interact with the application at the same time, but also developer to design the application in the most efficient interactive way.

Another interesting example is to use Smart Remote^TM for developing Interactive Quiz application that uses main screen to show the problem set and enables the students’ smart phones to participate the quiz. Since the teacher has solely control the contents of each display, only the result of the quiz can be anonymously displayed on the main screen for more discussion.

For device control purpose, Penta^TM can manage appliances, such as lighting control devices, security camera, etc., over the Smart Remote^TM. If user can access Penta^TM from the Internet, all these devices are automatically upgraded to Cloud-capable devices without connecting to any extra device.

In the same way, non-Wi-Fi-capable devices can be transformed to Wi-Fi-capable devices by connecting to Penta^TM which has the access to Wi-Fi. For example, a computer screen can be displayed on the projector connected with Penta^TM over Smart Remote^TM.

There are more features in Penta^TM to be explored. Next time we will talk about how Penta^TM completes the Digital Signage solution. For more detail and update about Penta^TM, please visit and join our Facebook group discussion and LinkedIn group

The post Smart Remote: New dimension for interactive application appeared first on The VC Group.

These three species consist of technologists, tech entrepreneurs and tech investors

Technologists are the people who build technology systems, or engineers, programmers and developers. Tech entrepreneurs are those who build companies around technology systems. The most successful tech entrepreneurs who evolved from technologists include Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Larry Page. Tech investors invest in tech firms, and though not always, but many tech investors evolve from tech entrepreneurs or executives in tech firm. Don Valentine, Mike Markkula and Guy Kawasaki are cases in point.

In Silicon Valley, the tech ecosystem was initiated by an investment of Sherman Fairchild, a tech-entrepreneur-turned-tech-investor in Fairchild Semiconductor, a start-up formed by eight technologists from Shockley Semiconductor. From that point on, three species were present and the evolution of the ecosystem was taken care of by mutation and crossbreeding among the species. Technologists became tech entrepreneurs then became tech investors and so on, until it became Silicon Valley, as we know it today.

For a long time in Thailand, we had many capable technologists. However, our environment was not suitable for them to mutate into tech entrepreneurs. The government has no clear and effective policy on creating technology-driven industries. There are few jobs in the industry that can utilise their expertise to the fullest. Capable technologists have had to channel their talents elsewhere, like academia, management, finance, etc. In fact, few actually became tech entrepreneurs, so our tech start-up ecosystem is stuck at the first species.

Due to the recent global tech boom, we are starting to see more and more of the second species – tech entrepreneurs. As foreign companies start diversifying their investment in search of talent and customer base to synergise with their businesses, we have started to witness more young energetic people receiving investments to start their tech start-ups. This is like a spark of light in an otherwise dark and moonless night, as far as the Thai tech industry goes.

It is still too early to celebrate. We have seen booms and busts in the tech industry, the dot com bubble and so on. It is becoming very fashionable among start-ups to get funding, build a company and then sell it. There are so many cases where companies that get sold later wither away and eventually get disbanded.

For the Thai tech industry to have a solid future, young tech entrepreneurs need to start thinking long term. They should set a goal of building a company that lasts, such as Google, Apple and Samsung to name a few. It only after this that we can attract tech investors – the third species – to help perpetuate the ecosystem by putting more money into the industry. Only then can we have a sustainable tech ecosystem that pushes Thailand towards the status of a developed country.

The post The origin of tech species appeared first on The VC Group.

To sell through partners, therefore, one of the most crucial activities is selecting the right partners, which can separate great success from abject failure. This article reviews four important criteria that startups should look at in selecting the right distribution partners.

Coverage: The first factor to look at in partners is whether or not they are already selling something to your target market. The ideal partners are those who have established trust with your intended target market. Because they already sell to the target market, they know very well about them and can assess the degree of interest the potential customers might have on your product. They can pinpoint the accounts that have the highest probability for you to focus on. In addition, as a trusted supplier, they are in a position to recommend new innovative things to their customers much more effectively than an unknown upstart.

Skills: Good distribution partners should be able to also help you with front-end technical work that comes with each customer project. This type of work grows with the number of customers and projects. If they cannot help on this, startups with minimal resource will be drowned in front-end work and all resources will be taken away from the core development. You will end up doing projects instead of building products. You will end up in a vicious circle I explained in a previous article on project vs platform.

To be able to help startups with front-end technical work, the partners should have sufficient in-house technical skills. Startups should focus on training and enabling the partners to do the front-end technical work instead of doing it for them.

Resource: Besides coverage and skills, your partners should also have enough resource, both in terms of personnel and finance, to help bring products to a wider market. The more resource each partner has, the fewer partners you need to have to penetrate the market. In turn, the fewer partners you have, the more efforts you can put in each partner to help them succeed in selling your products.

Focus: Last but not least, the ideal partners should focus on your products. No matter how good they are in other factors, coverage, skills, and resource; if they do not put their focus on your products, then they will not help you grow the revenues. From my experience, partners will focus on your products if they perceive the products as strategic to their businesses. This can be because they believe the products will become a major revenue source in the future or because the products help enhance their existing products into a leading position. Whatever the case might be, you should ensure that your partners have focus that justify putting in your scarce resources to support them.

Jay Jootar is CEO of The VC Group and Lecturer at College of Management, Mahidol University.

The post Selecting the right partner to boost revenue appeared first on The VC Group.

There are quite a number of stocks labelled under the category “technology” in the Thai bourse. When we look closely, the majority of “technology” stocks fall into these major categories: 1) carrier and service provider, 2) contract manufacturing, 3) system integrators and trading houses, 4) software houses and content providers, 5) equipment manufacturers. In my personal opinion, the types of companies that Thai start-ups could and should aspire to become are number 4 and 5, which are driven by innovation and creative capabilities instead of capital and connections.

Except for large-cap mobile operator stocks, the remaining Thai tech stocks can be considered a sideshow compared to the blue-chip stocks, which command the majority of trading volumes. Most Thai investors have limited knowledge of technology business. It is no surprise that they choose to invest in businesses that they can understand more easily than those they find esoteric like tech businesses.

In addition, value investment, which is an increasingly predominant school of thought for stock investment in Thailand, (the major proponent includes Warren Buffett, once the richest man in the world), are not very helpful for tech stocks either. It champions stocks that are underpriced in some ways, eg price below book value, high dividend yields, low price-to-earning multiples. Even though tech stocks are not explicitly forbid as value investment, they are usually viewed as speculative and avoided by value investors. We hardly hear of value investors talking about investing in tech stocks, let alone championing it.

All in all, Thai stock markets are not particularly tech-stock friendly. Tech companies that are qualified to get their companies listed in Thai markets should be aware of that. They might be able to get their companies listed, but the trading volume and the liquidity are questionable. Stock price can also be subject to speculation, as investors lack a good understanding of the business. Tech companies looking to go public should also explore overseas stock markets as well.

In any case, I really hope that in the end, tech companies find a good exit in the Thai stock market. It is much cheaper to go public here than overseas. Also, that’s how other successful tech ecosystem operates – US, Japan, Israel, China, Korea all have active tech stock investment. I think that if we have a case of home-run tech stock, the investment scene will drastically change in favour of tech companies. Whatever the school of thought is, if there is a case for a great return on investment, investors will accommodate their thinking and allow themselves an alternative theory.

Jay Jootar is CEO of The VC Group and Lecturer at College of Management, Mahidol University

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