BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: Brunei Darussalam’s animation experts and IT start-ups – incubatees of the iCentre – can set up base in Silicon Valley, California, if they wish to, as the ‘Centre more than welcomes the idea, which will propel the Sultanate’s talents on a global stage and also help the fledging local IT industry, Borneo Bulletin reported.
This is part of iCentre’s conception: Relying on global links to establish international relationship and strategic alliances with numerous well-known venture capital organisations on other technology hubs such as Silicon Valley.
Some of the products developed by the incubatees are far more relevant in the Western market rather than locally. And the iCentre believes that it is important that their incubatees are on par with other leading IT developers or start-ups in the world.
Denny Azriman of Ambuyart Animation, one of the incubatees of the iCentre who went on a one-week trip to Silicon Valley last month, considered his visit as a “wake up call”.
After meeting with renowned animation companies and visiting production houses such as Disney, Denny said that he would re-think his business module and change the way he runs his animation business.
In light of this, Denny felt that it would be ideal for incubatees like him to stay in Silicon Valley for at least three months, as the eco-system there is quite fast-paced compared to Brunei.
“I believe that investors would be very keen to capitalise on my product,” said Denny, adding that networking trips such as the recent one to Silicon Valley are crucial to help him promote his creative arts internationally.
Liam Janin, MeSixty’s social cartographer, shared the same sentiment, saying that while in US, the incubatees had the opportunity to pitch their ideas to investors and founders of IT companies and at the same time, get professional feedback.
“MeSixty wants to move to Silicon Valley in the next year or so where we can establish a start-up and have a small team based there in order to tap into the international market,” explained Liam.
According to him, all the “big players” in the IT industry are based in Silicon Valley.
“Everyone is there … from animation experts to IT developers,” he said. “More importantly, investors are there too. In a week, we have learnt so much from these ‘big players’.”
He explained that this was why it would be a wise move for them to form a team in Silicon Valley so as push their made-in-Brunei products into the international market.
According to Liam, he had gained much experience from the trip to US.
This had also helped him prepare for the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Awards 2012, where MeSixty won a merit award in the ‘Tourism & Hospitality’ category for their social media application, ‘Chatworthy’.
The Managing Director of PHMD Publishing Company, Ak Mohd Khairi Pg Hj Metussin, who was also part of the delegation, said that it would be a huge “confidence booster” for him if he were to move to Silicon Valley, as he would be able to fully utilise his time there to possibly collaborate with other IT companies so as to make it easier to tap into the international market.
From his trip to Silicon Valley, Ak Mohd Khairi said that one thing was clear: The people there are risk takers.
“Although some entrepreneurs have failed more than five times, investors still believe in them and support such failures … (because they believe that) every time you fail, your products get better from the experiences learnt from previous mistakes,” he said.
iCentre is responsible for seeing that these IT companies transform and achieve greater heights locally and globally with products made in Brunei.
“A great example of this would be the Korean IT giant, Samsung, which (comes up with) ideas locally but markets its products internationally
“Eventually, if the locals see made-in-Brunei products being sold internationally, it would motivate other young developers to be the next IT success stories such as Ambuyart, MeSixty and PHMD Publishing,” said a spokesperson from iCentre.
The delegation’s two-week overseas programme covered IT hubs in Toronto and Vancouver, as well as Silicon Valley in San Francisco. It was organised by the iCentre and Brunei Economic Development Board (BEDB). Also joining the programme in the first few days was Dato Paduka Awg Haji Ali bin Haji Apong, the Deputy Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office.