The #Afrikoin conference is organized and hosted by iHub, Kenya’s famous and main innovation platform for web technologies. Their research arm, iHub Research, gave us a few insights on a research they have been running in East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda) on e-commerce. The first e-commerce ventures in East Africa used to focus on affluent…
Author: Martin Pasquier
Explorer and experimenter of social media, digital, and IRL stuff - Now in Singapore
The sharing economy hangover: states and ol’biz strike back on c2c startups
Every year or so, Wired publishes its “Internet is dead” rant, but we could also say it’s a healthy reminder of what are the origins of the Internet, against walled gardens, ivory towers and al the other ways vested interests keep blocking an inescapable liberation of the individual and the rise of communities (see the…
Africa is the future, but how to make it happen?
The quality and diversity of panelists and delegates of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit make it possible from Kuala Lumpur to learn a lot about distant innovation and startup ecosystems, as we’ve shown with these insights from Russia, Indonesia, New York. We’ve met also a lot of people from Africa, and have tried to connect as…
How Russia, Tanzania, Indonesia and the US analyze their own startup ecosystems
Answering the question “what is the 2nd best innovation ecosystem in the world” is both a provocation and a eye-opening. No one seems to be able to think out of what the Silicon Valley has built over the last 50-60 years (see this cool timeline from NPR). And the second “rank”, if it still makes…
Towards an entrepreneurial university
Universities are both a place for innovators to learn and grow, and sometimes an obstacle to innovation. On the one hand, companies like Google are tightly intertwined with the support from their universities, a place to grow ideas, research, patents, and to find sometimes a first driver for growth. On the other hand, many universities…
Competing or connecting startup ecosystems?
Our project and mission in Kuala Lumpur is about learning how innovation ecosystems work all over the world, starting in year #1 with 10 countries to be visited over the next 10 months during their key events. We had covered a first ecosystem when attending Austin’s SXSW back in March 2013, with a crowdfunding campaign…
Malaysia as a Startup Hub, how to take it from here?
Malaysia has, for a young country, already quite an history of building its own ecosystem, as it opened its Multimedia Super Corridor back in 1997. Now is the time – and it’s also the case for neighboring Singapore – to reach another stage, one characterized according to many by significant successful exits, so that people…
Getting rid of competition and convincing non-customers with Blue Ocean strategies
Chan Kim, Chair Professor of INSEAD Business School delivered an energic and humorous speech at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Kuala Lumpur, after Malaysia PM Najib Razak and US Secretary of State John Kerry had opened it (see wrap up of the keynote). This professor is known for a strategy called “Blue ocean”. Blue, because…
Kick-off of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit: how entrepreneurship is fit for Asia’s electrifying youth
I’m always a bit wary of politicians speeches, after all, this is their profession, even if really can be far from what they day. This morning however in Kuala Lumpur Convention Center, I was amazed and enthusiastic after Malaysia PM Najib Razak and US Secretary of State John Kerry speeches. Together, they launched the 4th…
A la découverte de l’écosystème d’innovation de la Malaisie
Nous entamons notre tour du monde des écosystèmes d’innovations de 10 mois à Kuala Lumpur, où se tient cette semaine du 7 octobre 2013 la 4e édition du Global Entrepreneurship Summit. L’intérêt de cet événement est triple: d’une part, il nous permet de commencer ce périple en Asie du Sud-Est, une région à la fois…