1718T2 Silicon Valley/Reflection/Day5

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Day 5

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Reflections

Student Name	FLYR	Blk71	Twitch	Zendesk
Adeline Jong	Andrew shared that being entrepreneur is not an end destination. Eventually you want to pursue what you are trying to innovate, disruption, change problem, entrepreneurship means to do that. It is more meaningful than pursuing the name of being a founder of startup.	The industry is shifting from product to service. They shared that companies should using non metric way of measuring their human resources. As IT people, we tend to think that we need to build everything before start something. Entrepreneurs should constantly question what we are doing and you are doing. Partnering with the right people is important. Investors would actually choose strong team rather than high revenue startups. Failing fast, get up fast and learn it fast, fail forward.	Twitch differentiates from competitor by knowing the community by name of those creators who are in partnership with Twitch. He has given me a new perspective on the streaming industry because there is value in live content because of interaction at real time. The future vision of online streaming is where there is fan engagement and control player. Some technologies incorporate in live streaming by twitch were voice AI, twitch aws.	Zendesk is able to have a comparative advantage over their competitors because they are able to scale up and accept big clients. Their revenue model is to charge per agent user using their product. They are able to build a sustainable model hence are successful in the market.
Andrew Tay	Don't get carried away from personal delusionals such as having a name card that says Founder next to your title when starting a startup. Have an idea that would be transformative instead	Even though after the failure the product maybe dissolved. But the network, the lessons will remain. So, do fail fast, fail often, but definitely fail forward.	The name twitch came about when Starcraft was a popular segment on Justin.TV. In Starcraft you players move their mouse multiple times in a short span of time, hence the name twitch.	Worry not about competition but about your own product. If your customers wants to leave let them leave.
Benedict Wee	I learn that to be an entrepreneur “you need to learn not get carried away by delusional ego and stick with a path that truly inspire you” and the first priority when starting a company is that you need ask yourself what are you doing it for? Are you here for the interest, passion or money? Are they going to lead one part of the company one day?	I learn that Southeast Asia market is a very young market with a lot of opportunities and have the ability to grow as having a market share of the local market enable to attracts companies in the Silicon Valley who will want to penetrate in and also “Never stop dreaming and look out for opportunities and learn from all these experiences“ as “Passion will give you perseverance and direction and execute on your passion”	I learn that Twitch value their creators as “You are not just a number on the spreadsheet to us, twitch bring the human factor involved which is more human related like they will celebrate your birthday” and one important quote i learn is that “Figure out what you don’t like in life so you won’t do that. It is ok to mess up but continue exploring as you wont get it right the first time”	“90% of the revenue comes from support” for Zendesk, where they are able to let their clients let them scale their business and enable customisation of pre-response to cater to different keywords of what the user types
Claire Teo	It is true many seem to say that their end goal is to be an entrepreneur, however entrepreneurial is indeed a mean to an end and as an aspirating entrepreneur, we should always ask ourselves what we want to achieve.	Today's session at block 71 made me reflect on myself. I've always told people about how I'm interested to be an entrepreneur, share ideas with my friends, go for all the entrepreneurship talks, but yet, have I actually progressed towards my goal? Like typical Singaporeans, am I just all talk but take no action? Was I afraid of the risk of failure, or do I not what I truly want for myself? What do I eventually want to achieve being an entrepreneur and what am I truly passionate about? I think these are the things I would like to take it back tonight and reflect upon it. Actions make a difference, not ideas.		there will definitely be competition if ones idea is good and I think what's important is for a company to know what is their unique selling proposition. As much as there could be other companies that may replication what zendesk is doing, they are clear about what they bring to the table which are scalability, simplicity and machine learning.
Clara Chong	“It’s meaningless to aspire to be an entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur is a means to an end.” Our career aspirations should be motivated by solving a world/local need/problem that we truly care about trying to solve, not some egoistic label of being a founder.	“Keep looking for opportunities, they won’t just come to you. You need to work hard but also look hard!” Doing your best has an added level of taking lots of initiative to find the right opportunities for yourself!	“Not a number on a spreadsheet.” Although Kevin meant this in respect to how Twitch is such a successful platform for its creators, I think it also serves as a key reminder to maintain sincere relationships with our users, employees and other stakeholders in doing any business including startups.	“The muji of customer experience software” Design is at the center of Zendesk which is what its users value. Without a great product design, users would not be able to understand the product which renders it useless.
Clarissa Poedjiono	“Being an entrepreneur is not a destination but a means” FLYR’s technology revolves around data science, travel, and fintech. It successfully tapped on the area that bridges the needs of the aviation companies and its consumers. From the visit, I learn a lot that being an entrepreneur should not be the end goal in mind but we have to have a clear idea of what changes we want to make in the society and being an entrepreneur is only one of the means to realize it.	“Fail fast but fail forward.” To open up a new start up, we must be able to capture the opportunity and always experiment responsibly and learn from our mistakes. We need to never stop dreaming without forgetting to reflect on the experiences. Moreover, Southeast Asia is already known to people in the bay to be the upcoming unicorn where the startup scene is flourishing and we have the competitive advantage of having a firsthand knowledge of what is going on in the region and it would be good to make a full use of it.	“You might not know what you want for your career but you must find out what you don’t like”. Twitch is a tool for people to have a voice. Twitch has had collaboration with universities to teach students to be content creators and it was said that the key success of being a creator is to have a branding and consistency.	Zendesk acquired a start up in Singapore that manages customer service experience. It leverages on the fact that the existing CRM software is very difficult to use. Currently, Zendesk has successfully established a worldwide presence by focusing on this area of technology.
Derrick Lee Ming Yang	Andrew was a pretty cool chap that gave me a glimpse to the airlines industry and the problems faced by both providers and consumers. All of which can be solved using technology, understanding data science specifically.	I really enjoyed networking with the different founders and the vast difference in opinions when asked about SV’s mantra of Fail fast, fail often.	It was really cool to hear about how Twitch supports their content creators down to managing the relationship itself as well as constantly enabling creators to maximise revenue.	The potential for scalability in ZenDesk is a key factor to why consumers choose ZenDesk.
Eustace Zheng	“It is always best to gain experiences revolving both large institutions & startups before starting something up yourself” this struck me really hard because we often hear advice such as starting something new as young as possible, this is something different			Worry not about the competition but instead worry about your own product, if your customer decides to leave, it means you are doing something inadequately
Felix Wu
Student Name	FLYR	Blk71	Twitch	Zendesk
Goh Jia Yi Timothy	Machine learning algorithm that can forecast and provides a flexible fare flight protection for consumers.
Goh Jin Qiang	Do things because u like it and not because of the fame
Jacquelyn See
Jamie Chew
Jared Sim	when thinking of the number of people that we employ that depend on the business, it keeps me awake at night
Jeremy Bachtiar	Look for something you want to bring change in this world. Dont be carried away by delusion and personal ego. As a startup owner, you are nothing without your people
Jolyn Yio	Andrew spoke about entrepreneurship as a means to an end, the end which is about transforming or disrupting something in the world. Instead of wanting the label “founder” on the namecard. In my opinion, Success can be determined through purpose.
Jonathan Chew	“Don’t be an entrepreneur just for the namesake because it is not sustainable, do it because you are passionate about solving a problem or making a change in the world”
Moses Fam	"It's best to stick to a path as an entrepreneur if it is your passion" There are many people who wish to be a founder for the name or their ego which is rather short sighted, rather the true meaning of entrepreneurship. Finding the importance / drive to entrepreneurship is important
Remy Ng	It is meaningless to say that you want to be an entrepreneur
Student Name	FLYR	Blk71	Twitch	Zendesk
Rizudin Bin Jalar	Entrepreneurship is going to be tough journey where one should focus on improving existing services and selling to the market. Never about the status .
Shilpa Suresh	Founders emphasise on hiring the best, most invested people for their business , not only for short term benefits but also as a means of preparing the company for future growth. On a tech standpoint, they do a great job of mixing the proven strengths of fairly nascent technologies and creating a highly reliable product.
Tan Jian Hua	Impressed by the visit to Flyr. Andrew did a really good job on explaining what the company does.
Tan Ming Sheng	Truly understand what you want to develop that you believe in it, at the same time manage your expectation well along your journey.
Tay Wei Xuan	"When asked what do you want to be when you grow up, saying that you want to be an entrepreneur is not an answer."	"Execute on passion."	"Don't focus on the things you like, focus on the things that you don't like so you know what to avoid in the future."	It is interesting to know more about the solutions that Zendesk provides and how Zendesk works closely with its customers to improve their branding.
Terence Yeo	Entrepreneurship is a mean and not an end
Wong Zhe Yin, Treasa	“Entrepreneurship is a mean to do something meaningful” - not get carried away by your own ego just because you want your own startup. Do something meaningful which you are passionate in working on; this could increase the chances of having a sustainable & successful business.
Xavier See	I feel Flyr allows people this flexibility that will ultimately reap benefits in the long run as customers are looking for such platforms to save money. This is especially so as since post recession, people are constantly looking to save money although it has been years since the financial crises.
Zhuo Yunying (Kaelyn)