So it ends

And so we have finally reached the end of the journey.
It was a surreal experience, everything culminated to this day. And this day provides not only the chance to pitch to 3 people (and probably the audience), but also a test of my presentation skills.
Coming from an "incredibly fast speaking" country, time and again was I reminded how people could not catch whatever I was speaking. My enunciation was commented on even during the mock pitch to Ken at CET which was just a few days earlier. Hence I was pretty conscious of this and worked to address this problem.

And during the 1.5 minutes of my own showtime, I hoped the audience was able to catch everything that I wanted to say. I received some positive feedback from some friends in the audience, and I am proud of it.

Thinking back, there are some key lessons picked up from today's event:
1. Do not attempt to memorize your scripts. Chances are that you will forget some lines, and once you do your mind will automatically freeze. Instead, remember key points and just trust that your mind will be able to automatically arrange a script for you.
While preparing for my 1.5 minutes of fame, I learnt this lesson the hard way during my practice runs. It felt too rigid and I felt stuck at times. Hence I tried the 'keyword' approach and it felt better. One problem with the 'keyword' approach, is that one may tend to over elaborate or engage in long-winded sentences. Such problems simply require lots of practice, and I am glad I was able to scrap through.
On hindsight, I liked how I challenged myself to speak while a video was running. This meant pacing myself with the video - I cannot mention points too early nor too late. I am really glad I was able to make it happen. Nonetheless, there were still some regions 

2. Each pitching is different. When pitching to VCs, they are primarily more concerned with the business aspects, whether the market is suitable for investing. Having a proof-of-concept model helps to convince them the functional viability of the product, but having a good business proposal convinces them of the business viability of the product. 
I felt that, while my video was nice, it wasn't particularly targeted at VCs? My video would apply better as a marketing pitch to would-be consumers though. Xpesum probably got a lead on us because their business viability was way more convincing than ours. 
On hindsight, while I probably knew about this theoretically, I did not had a chance to experience this first-hand. Today's presentation showed me first-hand some ways how to be more "VC-pitch-friendly".

3. There is some truth behind "not more than 2 engineers in a team". Even though my team has only 3 people, and I did most of the coding job - which means there's only 1 "engineer" (my teammates also chipped in the coding job), I could empathize if there were 3 engineers. While having more engineers might allow for greater ideas, during the coding proper there might be clashes and stuff. And since usually only one person can be working on the prototype at any one time, having more than 3 engineers would just mean one engineer might have any significant contribution.

4. You have to believe in your product. I can't emphasize this even more. So much time and effort was spent in the semester trying to iron out what our product actually is and what it should do. We were torn between choosing the right market audience for our product, and how to even define 'right'. Technically, although our final product is still somewhat similar to the first idea we generated, there were several times during the year where I was certain that we kind of "pivoted" in our market audience. Nonetheless, I found such discussions useful. The good thing about having all 3 of us being friends means that we could talk things out unabashedly and we could be direct. This really helped in decision making. But once our decision was made, and once I was convinced in the product, that made selling the product and developing it much easier - since your heart and mind has believed in the viability of the product.
On hindsight, there were several times where I simply said "I'm fine with anything". That wasn't really a good thing and it added no real value to the team. I probably did that because I wanted the project to end, but in reality that meant I was trying to "cheat" myself. Luckily, the idea went in the correct direction that I wanted, and hence I didn't find myself doing a product that I didn't like.

These are probably the 4 main non-technical key points that I learnt (of course I definitely learnt much more in terms of technical skills). 

Looking back, I am glad I was "forced" into this course. 

A Long Break to Virtual Reality

It's been a while since I last blogged - kept postponing and procrastinating, and before I know it, weeks have flown past.
And this is something to take note of. If we are lax in our scheduling and sticking to a proper routine, we might end up getting too distracted and hence not completing the tasks that are required of us. This certainly applies not only to IEOR - but also to our projects, homework and even life (maintaining relationships also require consistent effort).

So right now, I am in a triplet team, and all from Singapore - due to a certain distribution of people in the class. While this might probably allow us to skip the "ice-breaker" parts and get right down to work, we lack the cultural and skill diversity that comes with including members from other countries. Nonetheless, I am fortunate to have 2 other capable and self-motivated individuals - we should be able to get this project down, and I hope this would strengthen our friendship even better. (Truth be told, I did not really work with them that often back in Singapore, so this can also be a chance for me to know them on a deeper level)

I remember that finding the idea was difficult. While ideas were plenty, getting an idea that was remotely feasible was harder. While we had lofty aims, we understood the realistic constraints that we are bound by - there's a fine line between being ambitious and plain stupidity. It is through the brainstorming sessions that strengthened the notion of "picking your battles" - one recurring theme in the various entrepreneurship talks and sessions that I have attended.
A friend once said:

You can do anything, but you can't do everything.

Simply put, we had to balance between:
1. Wanting to do something cool and impressive
While it may be simpler and easier to produce a standard staple like "mobile games", we wanted to stretch our limits and provide some additional "social" or "skill-based' benefits with our work
2. Our current skill sets
We are well aware of the our lack of coding capabilities. However, we are willing to learn and we are a bunch of people who can pick things up pretty well.
3. How much time do we have to pick up new skills and develop the idea
We do not have an entire year nor do we have a full 6 months. The product has to be something that we can pick up quickly - meaning we should be able to find tutorials easily and spend less time "figuring out" how to code, and go straight to the more value added parts of the project.
4. What other commitments do we have
We have other commitments beyond IEOR - such as studies and other extra-curricular activities.

So end of the day, we decided on a developing a tracing app which potentially extends what current tracing apps do. By exploiting the augmented reality capabilities of Seebright, we aim to provide a seamless tracing environment for budding artists - as close as it can get to tracing via tracing paper.

Video Link: http://youtu.be/rvLeALaa9bk

Hitting a Brick Wall

Despite the really disruptive schedule (my team was entirely unable to go to CET office and hence our architects only entered the CET offices on Monday), this challenge is interesting as it "trains" our team's communication.

Converting a visual item into "voice" description, which then has to be transcribed into words. Pictures speak a thousand words, and evidently we are not able to write a thousand words, hence it is a challenge to conceptualize the airplane model in just words.

This also teaches me one thing: Pictures and Diagrams are significantly more effective than just plain words.

Nonetheless, this task is a relatively "solo" task. Although we are in a team, there isn't really much synergy between the team members. To succeed in this role, each team member simply has to be competent in their roles (to be able to describe the airplane, to be able to transcribe and to be able to follow instructions), and the project would be achieved. 
However key thing is: each member has to be excellent/great in their role.
This is something which we can pick up when selecting team mates in the future, and also deciding what kind of project to pick up.

Video Log Link: http://youtu.be/wO1LMmvPsvM

Rejection Therapy Issues

So..... rejection therapy was .. interesting (what a boring word)
I mean, when do you get to do such crap things everyday?

Definition of "things": Asking people ridiculous things and hoping for the best, even when you would probably disagree if you were being asked the question from a random stranger.

A good experience nonetheless, and several new lessons learnt:
1. How effective your question depends on the reason (aka the story) that you provide, if the story is convincing and reasonable, that makes an "unrealistic request" more reasonable. (Somehow "birthdays" seem to make a good reason)
2. Sometimes something as seemingly easy as asking for someone to "be your friend" can be met with resistance. So don't assume!
3. The definition of "unrealistic" differs between culture (and individual) - one man's meat is another man's poison. What might seem unrealistic to us might not seem unrealistic at all to another. For instance, giving free food.
4. There are some arguments that you cannot negotiate with - such as safety. I tried negotiating to make my own coffee but the barista just mentioned "for your safety" - there's nothing I can do.
5. And some people give off the vibe of "do-not-ever-try-to-negotiate-with-me".
6. Rejection therapy takes practice, and after a while it can be quite fun to try to negotiate and solicit a "yes" for your probably retarded question.

7. Oh, and girls might have an advantage for getting the things they want. Bonus points if they are physically attractive. Time to build my body (:

End of the day, you still have to go and ask. Each person is different, and you never know what they will reply until you ask.

A short and sweet post. Thanks!

Video Log: http://youtu.be/92OKoGq5Yl4

Success : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_dEBWuyyfw&feature=youtu.be
Fail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMciXa_kV8Y&feature=youtu.be

Maiden Experiences

Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (IEOR)

Unlike most of the other traditional classes that I have been taking, I had not a single idea how this IEOR 190c course would be and where it would take me. All I knew was to turn up at 100 Lewis with an open mind, and lucky I did.

Expect the unexpected.

Entrepreneurship has always been intriguing me, but the inertia was too great and to lay a finger on it. Now that I have been flung right into the deep of it, this would definitely be a good opportunity to work on something.

It is amazing to meet people with unbridled imagination and overflowing amounts of confidence and drive. First thing that struck me; these are really amazing people with capabilities beyond mine. And then the age old lesson: If you can't beat them, join them. And join them I will.

The first step is always the hardest.

The first challenge saw me working with a group of people I never envisioned to meet in Singapore. I was lucky to be able to get a group early in the lesson, and hence had the luxury of having group mates that I had no idea existed. Some of them had experience in the start-up scene, and during the discussions enlightened me to some of the nuances of entrepreneurship such as funding, and importance of market analysis/research.

One thing about this module is the huge scope it encompasses. The "do-it-all" mentality meant there seemed to be no clear or predefined route other than "make mistakes and learn". Nonetheless, one still needs to have a general direction to progress forward and our team sought to find that for the first presentation - and it matters because it will decide the tone, delivery and content of our presentation.
I shan't elaborate on the presentation as you would have probably seen our uber presentation (:

Till then. There will be more experiences, for later!