•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

When he first set foot in Singapore 18 months ago as part of a world tour to find out how people in various countries used Facebook, Eduardo Saverin was struck by the sight that greeted him.

“I got out of Changi Airport and was amazed by the line of trees and saw how clean and green Singapore was,” said the co-founder of the most popular social networking site in the world.

“Then I discovered the various entrepreneur programs and the long list of government funding available for start-ups,” he said. “I decided I must live here.”

Up until now, the 29-year-old entrepreneur has famously kept a low profile in the city state. Last Tuesday, he broke his silence by giving his first public address at a dinner event organized by the National University of Singapore (NUS).

No media interviews, he had told the organizers. But he gamely answered a dozen or so questions during and after his speech, called Democratizing Entrepreneurship.

Among them: What is his favorite food in Singapore?

“Chili crab, which I try to eat often,” he said.

He was the inaugural speaker for the Global Entrepreneurial Leadership speaker series, launched by NUS Enterprise, the body set up by the university to commercialize the technology developed by its researchers, as well as to help people, mostly alumni, become entrepreneurs.

He spoke at a dinner called The Enterprise Connection, a networking event to bring together industry partners and entrepreneurs looking for opportunities to collaborate.

Listed by Forbes magazine as one of the world’s youngest billionaires, the boyish-looking co-founder of Facebook, who is worth upwards of US$1.6 billion (S$2 billion), drove to the dinner at the NUS Kent Ridge Guild House in a two-door rust-coloured Bentley.

Dressed in a jacket and an open-collared shirt, he spoke for about 30 minutes to some 200 people, before he took questions for another 20 minutes.

The key message in his speech: There’s nothing like success stories to kick-start more successful tech start-ups.

Singapore is already a conducive place for tech start-ups, he said, with easy access to government funding, and strong infrastructure.

But that’s not enough.

Experienced senior executives from successful tech start-ups are needed to mentor local entrepreneurs, as well as the presence of successful tech start-up firms that act as role models, he added.

“This is what differentiates Singapore and Silicon Valley in California,” he said, answering a question on whether Singapore has a conducive environment for tech start-ups.

In his speech, he also urged local technopreneurs to capitalize on Singapore’s close proximity to the world’s largest-growing Internet markets of China, India and Indonesia.

Add Brazil and Russia to this mix — collectively dubbed the BRICI countries — and the opportunities are immense. There will be more than 1.2 billion Internet users in BRICI countries by 2015, up from about 700 million today, he added.

Local technopreneurs should eye these potential markets to pitch their new innovative services, he advised.

After falling out with Facebook co-founder and Harvard schoolmate Mark Zuckerberg, Saverin has been on the hunt for interesting projects to invest in. He received an undisclosed settlement after leaving Facebook.

A Singapore-based company he has invested in is Anideo, which focuses on the monetisation of social networks.

He has also invested in two start-ups in the United States, Qwiki and Jumio. Qwiki is a Web service that responds to search queries with interactive multimedia presentations rather than links, while Jumio is an online payment company.

He wants to be remembered most for being a technopreneur and a mentor.

“I’m trying to use my knowledge for the next, and the next, start-up. Facebook is difficult to top but I’m trying to do that. One of my goals is to help other start-ups.”

He travels frequently to talk to technopreneurs as well as to look at tech start-ups. During the dinner, he had little time to eat as a steady stream of developers and investors lined up to talk to him.

After dinner, he stayed till about 11pm to talk to developers and see their products on exhibit.

When someone asked him how to promote entrepreneurship to Singaporeans who fear failure, he said determination and hard work are key to success.

“I grew up in Brazil. When I went to the US, I could not speak English. But I went to school anyway, sat in class and tried to pick up the language. I just tried my best; sometimes I was made fun of but I just pushed on. This experience builds character.

“Remember, it’s not about the idea that you have to execute. It’s about having the passion and a hunger to succeed.”

Reprinted courtesy of Straits Times Indonesia. To subscribe to Straits Times Indonesia and/or the Jakarta Globe call 2553 5055.