Web 2.0 Entrepreneur

How much money do you need to start a Web 2.0 business?

• Posted by Tengku Zahasman on June 8th, 2007 filed in Web App Development, Thoughts, Entrepreneurship, Financing/funding


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There’s actually no definitive answer to how much capital you need to start a Web 2.0 business. How much you need may depend on so many factors that it can sometimes be a thousand bucks, 5 thousand bucks, 10 thousand bucks, 20 thousand bucks, or down to only a few hundred bucks. Those factors include what type of application you’re building, your own skillset, existing resources, whether you need staffs (if you need then how many of them?), whether you need an office, outsourcing, additional machines, servers and whatnot. Even though I can’t really estimate how much you need to start a Web 2.0 business, I can roughly say that if you spend more than 10 thousand bucks just to develop and launch your web application, then I think you’re overspending. And you better think of how you can mitigate your spending fast because touching that 10 thousand threshold shows that you’re spending too much on unnecessary things. Spending too much money before you even start making money is bad because that means it’ll take longer for you to be in profit. Not only that, if things doesn’t turn out the way you planned it to be, you may even go bankrupt for spending more than you need on the beginning phase.

Sometimes I find it rather disturbing when some of the new Internet startups claimed to have spent over millions of bucks just to get their Web 2.0 ideas developed and launched. That is totally unacceptable in my opinion. Even the overall cost of development, launching, marketing and maintaining of the web app should not take up to millions or even hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Why? Because we’re on the INTERNET business. And when I say INTERNET that means things that used to be 10,000 bucks in real life can be absolutely FREE in the cyber world. Consider some of things below:

- Development tools are free (Komodo Edit, PHP+Apache+MySQL, Linux?)
- Open source scripts (which are free) can be leveraged for creating your app’s blog, forum or support center.
- Communication is free via E-mail, Skype, IRC or Instant messaging.
- Outsourcing is cheap.
- Existing programming components can be reused. Think about rapid PHP frameworks and Ajax frameworks
- Google is your library for doing researches
- Advertising can be free by leveraging search engine marketings, social networks, blog marketings, forum marketings, the good-ol “word-of-mouth” marketing. Or even if you purchase advertisings on certain websites, Google Adwords, Advertlets, or other PPCs, it won’t take up so much to kickstart the hype.

There you go. I just can’t help but wonder what have some of these companies spent on that took up millions of dollars for their web application business. Internet business is meant to be cheap but highly profitable. Let’s just keep it that way… Truemors did it with 12 thousand bucks overall. They could’ve spent way less…

The future is now!

• Posted by Tengku Zahasman on June 1st, 2007 filed in Thoughts, Technology


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Five years go, not so many people realize how much Ajax is going to influence the Web development industry as we see it today. In fact at one point I thought Javascript was going to die. Before Flash was invented, many people think the Web is a boring, dull world full of text pages and non-interactive static images. But things have changed drastically since then. If people who used to socialize using the Internet were once regarded as computer freaks, today they are called the “new age” people. Calvin Klein calls it “technosexual“. Thanks to the emergence of these two powerful Web technologies, the Web has become more alive and socially friendly even to the non-tech-savvy community.

Now imagine if in the near future, people will start developing Web applications using a new technology where users can manipulate stuffs in the webpage by using their fingers on a multi-touch screen monitor. Not only that, users can also upload/download files, images and videos from/to our thumbdrives or mobile gadgets by just placing them on the screen. Had you watched the movie Minority Report, you’ll know how cool this application is if it becomes a reality. Look no further, the future is nowhere but today. I say this after watching a cool video about a new product announced by Microsoft yesterday which is known as Microsoft Surface. Check out this video to see it in action:

While the technology of a multi-touch screen has already been invented years ago, it has never been designed to be as socially fancy as this 30-inch screen “coffee table” hardware. Looks like Microsoft is bringing this to mainstream. This new technology may not seem to be directly related to the Web application industry - or at least not yet - but I bet this innovation is gonna bring a huge impact on how we write Web applications in a few years to come. Imagine how many interesting things we can do when this technology is implemented on the Web. Be prepared for the next shift

Credits to TechCrunch and Smart-Machines

Coffee houses are becoming my part-time office

• Posted by Tengku Zahasman on May 26th, 2007 filed in Ramblings


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Starbucks One Utama

Secret Recipe (can’t remember where tho)

I’m not sure when it started, but it is becoming a habit of mine recently to do my part-time work (ie building my web application) while sipping lattes or hot chocolates in coffee shops like Starbucks and Coffee Bean. Doing work at home makes me feel very lazy - it’s hard to be productive when your bed and TV are just a few steps away. But whenever I’m at a cafe, I find myself feeling more focused, relaxed, mentally conscious, creative and productive. So far I always leave knowing that I have done a lot of stuffs. At home, I find myself to be doing more readings and surfing around compared to doing the actual work that produces something. Even at this moment, I’m writing this very post in some cafe called The Black Canyon.

I’m not very sure what makes these places very comfortable to do work. Maybe its because of the people walking around and chatting which makes me feel energized and alive. It keeps me going. Or maybe because of the music they played which are relaxing and heightens up the mood. Maybe because of the caffeine from the lattes themselves which stops me from feeling sleepy. Or probably it’s the combination of all of them that keeps me coming back. I know, I know. These places are not cheap. A latte can cost you around 10 bucks each; and that’s only the small sized one, mind you. But in my opinion, if it can make me be productive, then it’s probably worth it anyway. Afterall, it beats paying for an actual office But of course it’s even better to bring along a companion or a teammate to boost up the productivity.

However, not everyone is comfortable doing work at cafes. In fact, some do the exact opposite -> reading and learning at cafes, getting their hands dirty at home. It doesn’t matter where you feel most productive both in development or learning, be it in a cafe, at home, in the library, in the office, at your friend’s aparment, it’s good to know where that place is and use it to your advantage. So go ahead and travel around, see which place gets you more work done.

Below are some the places I like to stick around:

- Starbucks KLCC, third floor, above Coffee Bean
- Starbucks One Utama, next to Nandos
- Coffee Bean in LCCT (It’s one of the places I liked most. Too bad it’s very far away)
- Starbucks Alamanda, Putrajaya
- Starbucks Jusco Cheras Selatan
- Craven Cafe, Ampang Petronas Superstation
- Starbucks Berjaya Timesquare, in front of the cinema (strategic while waiting for a show to start) and the one at ground floor (very cozy for discussions at the upper level)
- Burger King KLCC (they have a nice booth specifically for Internet surfers. Plus, since they allow refilling ur drinks as many times as you wish, you can be sure you won’t be thirsty hanging out over there for hours)