Why is Singapore not yet a superstar in churning out startups?

I am perhaps a perfect example of why Singapore is not yet able to churn out many startups as other places such as Silicon Valley and Israel. No doubt these are the rare few superstar nations that are able to do so, but Singapore, with its small size, surely it's citizens are able to rely on each other and create jobs for themselves? Instead, much of our economy relies on foreign MNCs for our ricebowls.

As a budding entrepreneur, I then ask myself, why have I not yet started a business?

(1) Technology. It all goes back to our history during our founding years. Singapore, while known for its high-tech industries prevalant today, was not always of a high-tech nature. This is very unlike that of Israel, where children are being inculcated into the importance of education since a young age. I once knew of a entrepreneur who started learning coding at age 6. That would never happen in Singapore. It was in our history for kids to help their parents in F&B or trading businsses. Both of which did not require much technological know-how. Even at times of war, it was our government who went after the British to supply us with weapons. Singapore has also been far less experienced in warfare. Contrast this with Israel's need for their own innovation in warfare and aerospace.

(2) Marketplace. While we have just about 5 million citizens (talk about a small domestic country), we were fortunate to start off as a well-connected entrepot hub. There was almost little need to create our own technologies back in the 1960s. Trade was the door to all wealth. That explains why youths are drawn to enter the finance industry instead of engineering.

(3) Talent pool. Face it, even with the flood of early-stage funding given by the government, there is a lack of mentors who genuinely wish to grow startups. Singapore once had a close-knitted community spirit, similar to that of Israel's Kitbutz system. However, with the government's push for public housing, former village mates lost contact. This led to the downhill in our social fabric. Want help from a community? It is much harder to find like-minded youths with the entrepreneurial (coupled with engineering skills).

So..how are things in your city?

True enough - Although some would contend that the annual Malay wargames are proof against (1), you're right. After all, isn't the joke, "The Singapore military only needs to operate for up to 7 days. Why 7 days? That's how long it takes the UN to respond!"

Singaporean culture and upbringing often results in two things, in my - somewhat limited - perspective: - we're often raised by what we can do, not what we can't. Obedience is rather well taught. - kind of stemming from the former - Singaporeans tend to be a bit more risk averse. Helps when you're trying to stem risky behavior - like crime and drugs. On the flip side, you don't get quite as much entrepreneurship.

Of course, these are merely observations. Feel free to correct me.

I'm currently living in Cleveland, Forbes' #1 worst city to live in. While I, personally, have a startup, I grew up in Rhode Island. I got motivation for the startup (freshbag - www.thefreshbag.com) from the local incubator (launchhouse). It's incredible what a good incubator environment will do to build buzz!

If you have the passion - perhaps you can start an incubator in Singapore near SMU (there's the LKY competition - 'near' being a relative term of affiliation. Good luck with getting real estate space there if you tried!), some of the polytechnic institutes, or NUS (although the latter has more competition). What do you think about that?

That being said, incubators take years to fully form. And you're a cat-herder, never able to really control everyone. On the flip side, you'll encourage a lot of awesome ideas. All the potential...

that is true. we were taught to do well in school. I know that this phrase has been repeatedly used to describe our youths, but it holds a lot of weight. How many of us would have dared to risk scoring below 200 for our PSLE to explore building up a nice webpage, or a nice storefront for our Neopets shop? All these experiences are actually the start of programmers.

I am guilty of being caught up with the grade chase, having gone through a good secondary school followed by JC, and now Uni. I find it too late for me to realise this only now. But i am not disheartened. We need more superstart stories like the acquisition of Brandtology and Beeconomics to let the youths realise..it is never too late to start.

thanks for your recommendation on the incubator system! in fact, Singapore is starting to pick up in since last year. There is now a Singapore chapter for Startuproots. Perhaps we are on to something in the next 5 years :)

thanks for the reply!!! really appreciate it

There is a very high risk averse mentality in SG that can be attributed to a few things, one of which is the gov't here. Think about this, you really can't even get a credit card (based on credit) until you begin to earn enough in salary. I think it's about S$3k or so a month before you quality to charge anything. This alone will deter many singaporeans from taking the plunge of starting something on their own.

I've been to a few events around the startup culture here and am disappointed in the quality of companies I see pitching. Both in terms of the team and idea.

There are a few things here trying to upstart a entrepreneurial culture: e27 has weekly/monthly events, SGentrepreneurs has other events to bring together like-minded ppl and discuss ideas/companies etc.

Quality developers here want $. As mentioned in other comments, its high risk averse here and everyone just wants to get paid. Housing can be pretty expensive. Coupled that with the fact that a Honda Civic will cost you about US $100k and you too value cash > risky possibility.

perhaps its the ease of the paper chase + high personal expenditure (housing and car) that is the problematic combination.