Before leaving for Santa Clara to attend TiEcon 2016, I met many of the startups at a practice pitch at IE Singapore, put on by TiE Singapore and SPRING Singapore.
One such startup was Igloohome, which has its origins in an idea for an integrated smart locks and sensing technology at a Singapore hackathon in 2014 and has since broadened to their current smart home solution. Earlier this year they announced they received USD$1.25 million in seed funding led by Wavemaker Partners, and last month, they were one of the elite TiE50 winners at TiEcon 2016.
The following is a follow-up with Anthony Chow, CEO and Co-Founder of Igloohome.
How did you prepare for the TiE Conference?
In the few weeks leading up to the conference, TiE Singapore Chapter, in concert with IE Singapore, organised a few sessions where we could prepare and refine our pitch and get feedback from coaches and mentors from the industry.
On our part, I spent some time thinking how to best present our company’s vision, business model and products. I wanted to communicate this as clearly as possible, so spent some effort on visuals for the presentation and prepared demo locks so that the audience could see the products for themselves.
(Anthony and igloohome COO Walter Wang, at the filming of China’s start-up reality TV show, The Next Unicorn, in Shanghai in January 2016.)
What have you learnt from the TiE Singapore Chapter?
- Met great friends through the other startups that were selected to represent the TiE Singapore Chapter to attend the conference in Silicon Valley.
- Great event to meet fellow entrepreneurs and get inspired by their stories.
What did you learn at TiE Conference 2016?
Through interactions with the international participants, it opened our eyes to the work that start-ups all around the world are embarking on. The general theme of the conference is around sharing, and the amount of openness in fellow start-ups or exhibition attendees help to quickly give you new perspectives on your company.
Specifically, the TiE Conference also had quite a number of participants from India, and their stories opened up my eyes to the potential market opportunities and the challenges to tackle that market.
Also, from the activities at TiEcon itself, I had the chance to learn from other participants. Watching other teams pitch gave me a third party perspective of what works in a pitch and what may be less effective. The feedback from the mentors there during the rigorous VC connect activity helped me to think about difficult questions and how I could answer them.
How will winning this award change your startup history?
Winning the award validates the work that igloohome is working on. We know that we are building something that will change and improve the way people live and interact, and we will continue to pursue that vision with even more passion and conviction than before.
Other things you would like to add?
The journey has not been an easy one and the team behind igloohome has been relentless at bringing forth the vision of the company. We would not be here without the contribution of every one of our team members.
For more information about Igloohome, please http://www.igloohome.co/.
For information about Turning Gen Y On, my recently-published book to help leaders overcome workplace challenges with their Gen Y staff, please see http://tgyo.asia/.
