BUSINESS “Tham Yuen-C Net start-ups revisited Ince the heady otcom days ofthe , Inte 19908 and early 20005, the Inte Has matured hanging the arena ‘ick Web sarcupe Along with old terms like “doveom” and echnopreneu", oday's Invert tarps hve also shed much ofthe business fund marketing hype that ame with the terry before "The new wave of starups are generally Ieaner nd moe focused ‘DigitalLife Roundtable discussion last sweok a group of angel Investors incubators and Sar-ups got together to {alk about how the stat-up fin invesument landscape has changed and how ican yuenct@sph.comsg Neotem venture fund ad neato, Mohan Bolan, the doctor of 27,2 grouping of erat pees and investors at ‘range networking sessions Sed inst evens, Darius ‘Cheung (rat in pot), under of Tendube, a moble secur THEN ANI More affordable technology is ‘making it possible for start-ups to start with less and keep ‘operating costs down Its now easier to start an Internet ‘company as compared to during the ‘dotcom boom, but harder to get ih from a lousy idea ‘The main reason for this change: ‘maturing of technology. “More affordable technology has :made it possible for start-ups to start ‘with less, while achieving more. By exploiting the free open-source programming tools available online, Starv-ups have been able to cut down the cost of development, said James (Chan, an investment manager with [Neoteny Labs, a pan-Asian venture fund and incubator, ‘with storage and bandwidth costs coming down, it has also become a Jot cheaper for Web start-ups to keep ‘operating costs in check Being able to get customer feedback through the Web, even as a product is being perfected, makes it Easier for companies to tweak their offerings, making them more attuned to the market ‘As a result they ean get ‘up-and-running with just hundreds of thousands of dollars, compared to the millions that they would have needed a few years ago. “This has also brought about a change in the landscape of venture financing Many startups are now funded by professional angel r§ Capital requirements are definitely an order of magnitude smaller. ‘uth Kama, an ontepreneur Investors to alate stage and only move on to venture capital rms when they have a product already in the market ‘These early-stage angel investors 1 longer have to pony up milions fo fund a start-up, While t would take about $5 milion inthe past to fund a Start-up from the time it starts tothe time i gots a product inthe market itnow costs only about $500,000. “Capital requirements are finitely an order of magnitude Smaller” sad Sutha Kamal an "The makeup of start-ups ha also changed. In the past Web ompanies were mostly started by the business types and MBA degree holders They would come up wilh a idea, draw up a business plan and then pitch fo investors for ‘money to develop thei ideas, "These days many startups ae ‘he resis of engineers and developers who have good idea, Sind then work on the product fi Sand perlect it before they stat Hooking or investors More on page 34