Transplanting the Silicon Valley Experience to Singapore

摘要

A rare breed of Singaporean has managed to make it big in Silicon Valley. Besides high-profile Creative Technology. Interwoven Inc is one success story of which many people probably remain unaware. Peng T ONG, founder of the enterprise content-management provider in 1995, led it to a successful listing on NASDAQ four years later. The company value exceeds US$390 million in market capitalisation. Before Interwoven, Ong co-founded Electric Classified Inc, the creators of Match.com. Answering the call of family, Ong returned to Singapore in 2000. Despite facing a dearth of local expertise in developing commercial software, he set up Encentuate, an enterprise-access security firm. Now headquartered in California, the start-up caters to customers in industries from healthcare, biotechnology, and government to financial services. A board member of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore and the Action Committee for Entrepreneurship, Ong sees an urgent need for the country to create high value-add companies in the fast-moving global market. The founder and chair of Encentuate shares with INNOVATION'S Lay Leng TAN his candid views on the challenges entrepreneurs face.