Colin Charles Agenda

News today: Genneva (gold trading company, launched by former Prime Minister Mahathir) Malaysia director charged with accepting deposits without a license.

So if you’re thinking of a Bitcoin exchange in Malaysia, think again. Bank Negara Malaysia obviously doesn’t think much of Bitcoin. How will you accept deposits without a license? 

Singapore on the other hand proves itself to be in the forefront of finance: treat Bitcoin like a product. Read the full IRAS statement. Singapore is about to get its first Bitcoin ATM soon.

For further reading, see the BAFIA 1989, in its entirety. Once again, laws that prevent innovation.

As I always do, I make last minute purchases for Christmas. It’s not because of the lack of planning, more so that I’m getting busier despite the holiday season approaching.

From 10am – 10.06am I called Machines in Gardens. No one would pick up the phone. I called iStore by C-Zone in Publika. Quick answer (picked up the phone within 4 rings), stock was available, so I reserved a few units. Within a span of 1.5 hours, I had my Christmas presents ready.

You win business by picking up the phone. 

At Harrods yesterday, there were three concessions that we spent some time around – Chanel, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton. Sales people at Louis Vuitton always seemed busy and generally left one part of their concession empty. They weren’t busy per se, just not engaging. At Chanel, you could go grab a bag off the shelf yourself. At Gucci, they paid good attention to you, spent time with you and engaged heavily. Guess who won the sales then? 

Pick up your phone. Be attentive to your customers needs. Serve in the service industry. You will be rewarded by being successful in business.

Via: Inside the mind of Marc Andreessen – Fortune Management: “I never heard the term ‘venture capital’ until I got to California. I got a job and landed in Silicon Valley, and I found out about this venture capital thing. And I was dumbstruck. ‘You mean there are people who will give you money to invent new things and start a company? Really? Seriously? It’s like wow! That’s really cool!’  And of course we got lucky.”

That was 20 years ago. There was a lot less media coverage of VC, deals, angels, etc.

What would be an interesting exercise is to see when VC firms in Asia started? Is it all pushed by the democratization of media?

The fact that today, media is cheaper – everyone and his uncle has started a publication of some sort. In tech, it seems that most of the media will only cover VC-related stories (i.e. money driven). They’ve forgotten real tech.

MAVCAP, the largest VC fund in Malaysia, only started in 2001. A mere 12 years ago! Singapore’s first firm started in 1984 – Seavi Advent Private Equity (29 years ago) – though I’m not sure if they deal with tech much.

So is this the rise of VC/angels/incubators/etc. or the rise of media?

We’ve taken a scare resource and made it infinite, an idea by Adam Curry. In the print world, you had n-number of ads. In the online world, you can place any amount of banners on your site, or there are a multitude of sites serving such banners. This is why its hard to generate revenue.

Robert Scoble brings up a great point on TWiT#423 – tech journalism is everywhere. Its hard to make good quality tech content because it costs money. A good article on how an iPhone is made involves you to head to China to visit the factory floor, and can easily cost $10,000. However when you write a (blog) post, what can you make on viewership in terms of CPM? $5? $15? It is a tiny amount which is why many tech journalists/bloggers end up repackaging press releases.

Worlds that haven’t been touched negatively seem to be fashion & cars. But tech is clearly affected.

Evan Williams gives us tools to express ourselves – Blogger, Twitter, Medium. He’s made tonnes of money as people have been willing to create content for free. How do journalists make a living? Leo Laporte suggests that the Internet has arrived – you figure out to make a living.

The problem is people doing it for free. It devalues the work of people doing it for bucks.

What about the CPM for location based ads? Today you get so many apps that give away the location, with users opting in. 

I recently read a plea by a fledgling entrepreneur trying to build a global company, who’s been through a bunch of startup competitions, “But struggling on getting grants or investments from local VCs/Angel.”

I recently saw a customer get annoyed with a service provider she had been using at length, only to rally a “hate page”. However it never garnered too much as there was an odd flair to the way she wrote.

In business or in any inter-personal relationship, attitude matters.

You may have the best private security system out there, but if you have a shoddy attitude, you will get no users. You may have the best cause out there, but if you have a shoddy attitude, you will not get followers. You may have the best piece of software out there since sliced bread, but if you take on an aggressive attitude, you may not get as many users as you had hoped for.

Think about how you portray yourself to others, and if need be, improve your attitude. People are a forgiving and forgetful lot.

Lunch with the FT: Tadashi Yanai – FT.com: “‘Scale has no importance on its own,’ he shoots back. ‘But unless you have scale, you may not be able to stay alive or competitive. Unless you have scale, you can be bought by someone else or you may go bankrupt.” – Tadashi Yanai, Fast Retailing, makers of Uniqlo.

It’s not a classic mistake to prioritise scale over profits. The above statement is spot on about scale.