Launchbyte Podcast

There are a thousand and one things for us to worry about but when you are an entrepreneur, you have to double that list because the business is you and you are the business. In “How to startup a startup” Lecture 3, Paul Graham shared the following: startups are all-consuming. If you start a startup, it will take over your life to a degree you cannot imagine. And if your startup succeeds, it will take over your life for a long time: for several years at the very least, maybe for a decade, maybe for the rest of your working life. So there is a real opportunity cost here. via Link I can testified on it. Starting a company, be it a venture funded startup or a bootstrapped business. I believe that it would consume your life. The reason is simple, its like having a kid, you see the business grow and you are attached to it. Ever work started a proj

In this show we continue talking about originality and some tips to differentiate yourself. If you have any feedback or questions leave us a note at launchbyte.com/ask. If you want to find today’s show notes, go to launchbyte.com/56 We start this show with a quote from Dr. Maya Angelou. She is hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary literature and as a remarkable Renaissance woman.1 In the video, she shares on finding her voice. Why having your own voice? I have been writing for 8 years now. From writing about my daily life to sharing my thoughts starting up a business. There are many articles out on the web that highlights the importance of content. I’m sure having great content helps. But many times, it is the personality that draws in the audience.

In this show we chat about originality, copy cats and some tips to differentiate yourself. If you have any feedback please tweet at us @launchbyte, email us at hi@launchbyte.com or ask us anything here. We would love to hear your opinions about what we talk about and if you have an interesting topic you want us to discuss. We started talking about originality because of this particular incident. Derek Low is traveler & Engineer. He was the guy who created the Ridiculously Automated Dorm during his freshman years in Berkeley. Recently he wrote an article sharing his experience flying in the first class suite on SIA which cost him S$23000 if he had not exchanged it with his miles. There were lots of amazing photos and it was a pretty detail write up

If your startup is looking to hire, how would you be writing your job description? What would you think of this? This is only some parts of the image crop because we are not able to capture the full screen. So today, Chris and I talked about this issue in this podcast. As developers this is the part that I think have gone over-board = Who we do not want You are a shallow social climber whose dream is to work for Goldman Sachs because it “looks good on your CV”. You went to an Ivy League university because it would “look good on your CV”. But you couldn’t get into Goldman Sachs (or Citibank, or HSBC) because you actually have no passion for finance, just like how you want to buy that Louis Vuitton bag (because it will “look good on your social CV”) despite having no passion for design and craftsmanship. Guess what? If you were rejected by Goldman Sachs, you will be rejected by us too. For exactly the same reasons.

We are Rebooting! We are Rebooting! We are Rebooting! Why Rebooting  and How are we doing things differently? First of all, both of us love podcasting and we been getting feedback. However we like to do more, we like to reach out to more entrepreneurs because we know entrepreneurship is a hard journey. Many things that you like to share, you would not want to share it in public. And all the entrepreneur porn that you read online are mainly written by journalist who aren’t entrepreneurs themselves. Every once in a while, friends ask us. Why do this? We want to be the real conversation for entrepreneurs. You know to talk read problems we faced and share business tips on how we can be better. Plus starting up and building a business is a tough process and we need to talk. Otherwise, it is easy to fall into startup depression. If you are a business owner

This week we talk about working remotely. What are some the benefits of working remotely? What are some ways to help your team work remotely and remain accountable? Would we recommend working remotely? Also I like to add if you are wondering what is Singlish all about. Here is the link. ‘Singlish,’ Singapore’s unique brand of colloquial English, is the linguistic product of a society whose official common language is English, but which comprises ethnic Chinese, Malays, and Indians in a ratio of roughly 7:2:1. Borrowing freely from various dialects for its vocabulary, grammatical structures and spoken accent, Singlish has evolved into a creole that often leaves uninitiated outsiders laughing, or reeling from incomprehension. Link And finally, before you click the listen button. This is our episode, which also means that Chris and I have been podcasting for a year. Than

This week we talk about work life balance. What are some of the myths we hear from people about the life style of an entrepreneur? Is it really possible to maintain this balance if you want to succeed as a business? And we share our tips for keeping yourself from burning out too quickly. All this and more on today’s show. Listen Here Resources Startup Misconceptions – Entrepreneurs Have a Better Work-Life Balance: Myths about start up work life balance? * Myth #1: Entrepreneurship is the road to happiness. * Myth #2: You can work whatever hours you want. * Myth #3: You’ll have lots of time for your personal life. Is it possible to maintain this balance: Silicon Vall

Listen Here Questions we ask ourselves * Who are the audience * Where would they use the app? * How would they use the app? * Does the user require a native experience? * Do we have the necessary resources? * Can web app be a start? Resources * Mobile First Design: Why It’s Great and Why It Sucks * Why Mobile-First May Not Be The Best Strategy After All * Why Android First is a Myth * If Android is so popular, why are many apps still release

This week we talked much about the need of business plan. Does it help you to validate your ideas? Does investors really read the business plan? Do you need a twenty page business plan? All this and more coming up in the show. Listen Here Show notes * Lean Canvas * Startup Metrics for Pirates * Do you need a business plan? * Need a business idea? Here are 50 of them * Is this really what you want to do? Hosts Chris Cai –

This week we are talking about whether you, as an entrepreneur, should you be blogging. Why blog? Who are some interesting blogger/entrepreneurs? Does it affect your start up? All this and more coming up in the show. Listen Here An entrepreneur should blog Chris and I believe that entrepreneurs should blog because: * It can act as record of your thoughts: If you blog and you make an attempt to read back your old posts, you might be laughing off right now, thinking what were you thinking at the time of writing. A blog can be like a history book, learning from your mistake. * An opportunity to build conversations and relationships with the readers: Blogging is a great channel to build feedback, but I would like highlight that it is a fine line between writing a good piece vs always promoting your content. Readers are looking for stuff that can hel

This week we are talking about Building a Team for your Start up. What are the skills you need in your team? Can you outsource some of these roles? Why would having it done internally be better? All this and more coming up in the show. Mp3-Listen Here Here are some of our sharing? What kind of talent are you recruiting? * Developers? * Sales? * Growth Hackers? * Designers? We believe that it depends on the stage of startup you are in. At the start it is likely your focus would be on the developers. As you moved you, you might like to get marketers and sales staff. We believe the challenge is not in determining the talents that you need but more to finding the right team member? Where do you find them? * Events, would be a great place to start. * Facebook Group, such as

This week Chris and I discuss about startup game plan. It is not a 20 pages kind of business plan but rather a single page plan that sets the direction and vision of the company. This game plan we believe is the building block of building a company. You may have a great idea but with execution done wrong. Everything would go to waste. But can a game plan guarantee the success of your startup? The answer is no but it can certainly help you is building your roadmap. What are the things needed in a game plan? * Vision: To be the largest social network for pets? * Financial Projections: To prepare for 18 months or have a 5 year plan? * Goals: Different goals at different stages? * Resources: Your team? money? and connections? * Time frames: Build a company to sell, exit in 3 years? or to build a one hundred years company like Evernote? * Stages of a Start up: Product building stage? Sales stage? or Growth stage? Different tasks a

If you are planning to start your own business, you would usually be faced with the issue of raising capital. Many of my friends who are starting out faced the same issues too and they usually have the following questions in mind: * Should I bootstrap or should I be raising capital? * If I raised capital, how much equity should I give out? * How do I value my company now? * Who are the investors? * Will I lose control of the company? These are some of the questions that you have in your mind too. This week we open up and we discuss about the pros and cons of raising venture capital. We also look at the difference between VC funding and Angel Funding. Worth Reading * Flipboard founder on venture capitalists: “Take their money” *

This week Chris and I go crazy with WWDC. We tear down the features and discuss what it means for both developers and users. * Listen Here Shownotes * WWDC: The Verge has come up with a 10 minutes video covering all the gist of the keynote. * iOS: Lifehacker gives the most concise summary for all the new stuff on iOS 8. I love the new Photos app on iPhone and it does steals away a bit of limelight from Googleplus photos. * Yosemite: From Lifehacker, everything you need to know about OS X 10.10 “Yosemite”. Hosts Chris Cai – @anttyc Bryan Lee –

This week, we have Tomboy Tarts and Weileen to talk about how we can grow our audience with SEO. * Listen Here * Google Hangout Tools used for SEO * Mozbar * WooRank Tools used for Content Marketing * See how your blog post turns up on Facebook *

This week, Chris and I shares our view on the coup in Thailand and how social media is affecting the situation. We also talked about Facebook is rolling out a “Privacy checkup” feature which I just caught it on my feed. If you have a moment, I love hear your views about how we do? Good, bad or should we stop doing this to break your ears. Tweet us Listen Here Tech News Of The Week * Facebook gets serious about privacy with “checkups” for all, change to “Friends only” setting * Big surge in mobile data usage as Thailand goes into day 2 of military coup *

This week, Bryan attended his first overseas wedding on Sat, so we had our podcast recorded late. We put our focus on Microsoft in Home Automation and Xiaomi “The China Apple”. Listen Here Tech News Of The Week * Microsoft * Flappy Bird * Xiaomi * Apple * GrabTaxi Hosts Chris

This week, we talk about the rumours on Apple buying Beats, Google Maps update and Should I continue with Nightly now that Yahoo came up with a News Digest app. Listen Here Tech News Of The Week * From BBC Apple ‘in talks’ to buy Beats for $3.2bn 2 . From Google Google Maps adds Uber * From TechInAsia Yahoo News Digest * From Vulcan Harvard grad wows the world with 3D make-up printing. * From Twitter Opinion

This week, We talk about the Facebook F8 Developer Conference, Is the tablet market dying?, how about Twitter’s growth? Is it more important to make money or to have user growth? And finally, using reddit to express your feeling and emotions. Listen Here Announcement We are launching a new video podcasting channel. Check out some of the background works in place. Tech News Of The Week * From Cnet – Samsung launched new audio products * From Ben-evans – iPads and tablet growth * From VulcanPost –

This is the last episode of the Bootstrappers series. Previously, we talked to Ian Tay from Pixaroll about finding users who would pay for your product, Kyaw Lin Oo from EventNook about working on side projects to boost your confidence, and Jerome Chan from Ideas Incubator and Petfie about following your heart. Last but not least, let’s talk about the money. Bootstrapping is particularly difficult because founders need to survive on the little money that they have. For Vincent Teo and Ang Qian Ling, who used to work in advertising firms, having a budget is really important, especially when they have few resources. Here, e27 chats them up about being selective when it comes to new ideas, and the constant wonder if they could grow any faster if they have more money. Listen Here SoundCloud You can find h