Swire Properties’ Blueprint Accelerator and Co-Workspace Shows the World Hong Kong is Serious About Startups

IMG_5521

Of all 35+ spaces that have opened since the original BootHK and The Hive (who we still hold as the gold standard that showed everyone how co-workspace is done here in Hong Kong) nothing has made us more excited about the possibilities of doing a startup in Hong Kong than Blueprint in TaiKoo Place, Quarry Bay.

Brought to life by Swire Properties and designed by PDM International mixes Swire’s deep footprint in Hong Kong (which also makes up a lot of the furniture found within culled from its many businesses like seats from airplanes and vintage Coca-Cola machines) with a well thought out workable and creative space puts many of the “property plays” that have been popping up around the city to shame. So from now on lets not focus on the amount of spaces we have in Hong Kong and focus on the ones that add value to the community.

[Read more…]

Is Acquiring Early-Stage Startups by Companies’ Wanting to Enter the Asian Market the Next Big Trend in Hong Kong?

business-handshake

There are a number of reasons why a company might want to buy a startup, whether it’s joining forces with the competition or absorbing the talent and the technology.

As for the Australia-based Crowd Mobile, buying one-year-old Hong Kong startup KissHugs was a part of their growth strategy. KissHugs had only started to build their user base and was prepping for their official launch in February when they were acquired. “We first launched in private beta in October, then in invitation beta in November for Hong Kong, Taipei and New York. We had over 10,000 users by the end of 2014 and planned to launch around mid February,” said co-founder Max Vung.

[Read more…]

5 Questions With Ivan Ng, Co-Founder of Wine Subscription Startup: VinOnly

VinOnly Wine Box

As ‘Asia’s World City,’ Hong Kong has its share of international bragging rights which includes consuming the most wine in 2012.

Still, wine consumption and knowledge are two completely different animals and Hong Kong startup VinOnly wants to change all that. We had a chat with co-founder Ivan Ng, who is a computer engineer by trade, repeat entrepreneur and wine enthusiast, to learn more about his wine subscription service.

What is your startup?

VinOnly is an online subscription service that focuses on wine appreciation and wine education. By subscribing online, our members receive two bottles of red wine from boutique wineries around the world each month. These wineries are family-owned wineries with limited production that offer good “value-for-money” wines. Each wine is selected through blind-tasting by award-winning sommeliers of the Hong Kong Sommelier Association Greater China ensuring it is handpicked for its quality, instead of its brand, region or vintage.

[Read more…]