Thinking About Organizing Your Own Startup Week?

Thailand Entrepreneurship on Rise: The path to Asia’s First Startup Week Why Thailand Startup Week matters — six weeks of planning, five days of knowledge sharing, one hustling community. One month ago a team of startup community leaders came together to host Thailand Startup Week (THSW) — a five-day celebration showcasing a series of free knowledge sharing events to grow the local entrepreneurship community. At that time I was still relatively new to the Thai startup ecosystem, newly assigned as Co-Lead, and remember vividly sitting on my bed with laptop in hand, eyes scanning at the final master plan and thinking: “How on earth did we do this?” It was overwhelming how much amazing support we voluntarily received on short notice to plan out over 40 events across Bangkok, feed over 600 people, and connect everything together in a fun and purposeful fashion. So how did we get it done? Happy faces from our first event of Day 1 to kick off Thailand Startup Week 2016 “Planting the Seed: How to know if your idea is worth developting” with Pippo Pramewith, CEO of Storylog.(For those of who do not know learn more about Startup Week here or watch this video from Boulder Startup Week) The Journey of Thai Startup Ecosystem The Thai startup community started with very little. There was a dearth of venture capitalists (VC), along with no accelerators, angels, incubators, tech startups with funding, co-working spaces, media coverage, or government support. However, in 2012 something changed. “Entrepreneurs were frustrated with the lack of support, of having to read everything on tech blogs, having to fly to Singapore and beyond for conferences, investors, good startup programs, hackathons and meetups,” said Amarit Charoenphan, a well-known leader on the Thai startup scene and Co-Founder of HUBBA Thailand, Bangkok’s first co-working space. “Then (they) come back to Thailand and find nothing. Lots of tech entrepreneurs were struggling to grow and gain acceptance in the Thai and Asia business community. Two of those people were Charles and I, so we started HUBBA in 2012”. According to Charoenphan, there were a few key players who were also keen on implementing change back in 2012. Krating Poonpol: A startup veteran who recently returned from Silicon Valley and launched Disrupt University, the first education program for startup founders in Thailand. Today he is a venture partner at 500 Startups. Patai Padungtin: Winner of several regional pitching competitions for Builk, which has since grown exponentially in Thailand. Oranunch Lerdsuwankij: Thumbs up blogger with aspirations for a startup focused media platform, which today is known as Techsauce. Together they created Thailand’s first tech meetup called Startup It Up Power It Up #1. The group planned to host 60 participants — however a whopping 180 attended. Snapshot from 2012: A packed room during Startup It Up, Power It Up #1. (Photo: Khantipol Photography)“We met, we talked, we jammed, and we began collaborating together to create the startup ecosystem and community that we all wanted to live, work and be a part of. That led to collaborations like Startup Weekend Bangkok/Chiang Mai, Startup Next Bangkok, and now Thailand Startup Week. The rest is history” — Aim Charoenphan Making Our Mark According to THSW16 Co-Lead Phornthep Thrakal: “The startup scene has exploded with quite a few investors (now) showing faith in entrepreneurs in Thailand.” “We have a very united tech community that gets together for everything, for example, 3500 people came together for Techsauce Summit” added Charoenphan. The numbers prove this as well. Check out this infographic recently published by techinasia: Also see this and this for more updated information on the Thai startup ecosystem. In 2016 alone, the Thai government announced to invest 570 million USD to boost the startup ecosystem, including deregulation and increased incentives, while another 300 million USD of venture capital will come from banks and telecoms. TRUE Corp also announced the development of True Digital Park, a 200,000 sqm digital hub for innovation. Thailand has the potential to become one of the hottest entrepreneurship hubs in Southeast Asia. It is the second largest economy in the region, possessing enviable infrastructure, logistics, a centralized international airport, and is generally considered a dynamic destination culturally (living, food, people, travel, the works). Thailand Startup Week was a natural addition to this growth. THSW16 Day 5: Creative juices flowing during Design for Non-Designers creative workshop“An event like Thailand Startup Week enables the younger generation to network and interact with their peers and successful entrepreneurs. It gets them to enjoy this culture of experimentation, failures, and learning all for the sake of solving real problems or pain points,” Thrakal elaborated. “It’s vital that as an industry we encourage more talent to join in and Thailand Startup Week helps us do that.” Entrepreneurs do not always have the means to attend conferences, workshops, and the like. What most people probably do not realize is during THSW16 participants received free access to speakers and entrepreneurs, an opportunity that would normally cost 2,000–6,000 baht for a typical workshop. This was the rewarding part — giving people not normally able to afford all of these workshops and lessons access to the necessary tools and experience sharing to succeed. Events like Thailand Startup Week will continue to not only encourage more budding entrepreneurs in the region to get involved or get started on their idea, but will also serve as a foundation for attendees of all industries and ages to discover more resources, gain support, and continue to nurture Thailand’s relatively young — but rapidly growing — ecosystem. Lalitha Wemel, Regional Manager of Startup Programs APAC at Techstars agreed, “There’s a real need of entrepreneurs (and aspiring entrepreneurs) in every city around the world to connect with those who are going through what they’re going through, to share stories of struggle and success, and most importantly, to feel that they’re not alone. Connection can do amazing things. Startup Week helps create that space for them” Thailand Startup Week 2016 was powered by HUBBA Thailand, Techsauce, and Techstars, while our core volunteer team consisted of community leaders across the Thai startup ecosystem. The rich connections and diversity within this talented team allowed us to work efficiently and get stuff done at a high speed. Pictured from Left: Nithima Ducrocq, Operations Santora Nakama, Devan Singaram, Founder & CEO TribeHired, Remi Ducrocq, CEO KYKLO, Nick Raushenbush, Co-Founder Shogun, and Harprem Doowa, Co-Founder of frank.co.th.Here is a quick look at what THSW16 accomplished: “What most people probably do not realize is during THSW16 participants received free access to speakers and entrepreneurs, an opportunity that would normally cost 2,000–6,000 baht for a typical workshop” Our Community Leader Pantila Debhakam with Uber Thailand Marketing Manager Tanawat Chomtong “The entrepreneurship spirit here is contagious! Thai entrepreneurs are known to be cockcroach startups because they have gone through recessions, coups, bombs, floods and crazy street protests. They are diehard, hungry and very business savvy. We also have some of the best creative and design talent in the region.” — Aim Charoenphan So what is next for Thailand Startup Week? We have been very honored to host Asia’s First Startup Week and elevate Thailand’s spot on the entrepreneurship map. With greater regional ecosystem reach, collaborations and additional planning time, Thailand Startup Week 2017 is going to be bigger and better! Dates TBA. In the long term, we hope to expand to other cites outside of Bangkok such as Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen, and Phuket. there are a lot of great events that focus on teaching and exploring entrepreneurship around the region. Startup Week brings a little extra something into the mix by focusing on both learning and celebrating at the same time. DO IT. See this post for some of my personal takeaways from organizing Asia’s First Startup Week. Pictured from Left: Oko Davaasurn, Director APAC Startup Programs Techstars, Lalitha Wemel, Regional Manager Startup Programs Techstars, Yossi Hasson, MD of Barclays Accelerator Africa, Amarit Charoenphan, Co-Founder Hubba Thailand, Phornthep Thrakal and Teri Horn, Co-Leads THSW16, and Amarit Franssen, Co-Founder Appman. If you would like to get involved in Thailand Startup Week 2017, whether it be as a volunteer, speaker, sponsor, location host, or other awesomely creative idea, give us a shout:[email protected]/* */www.facebook.com/THStartupWeek See you at #THSW17