How did you get this started?
The idea started from home. My business partner Fenni Wang’s dad brought home these tools when he retired from his renovation business and dumped them in the storage room because he didn’t want to throw them away. Naturally, he thought these tools would come in handy at some point. I wondered if there could be an alternative use for the items and that’s when I thought of Rent Tycoons. If every household contributed to this pool of resources maintained by Rent Tycoons, imagine the high product variety there would be available for users. This translates to a low-cost business structure.

How has the response been?
Very good! Since we started in October 2011, we’ve had over 100 registered users with over 200 items listed. We also have over 6,000 unique and frequent visitors, and have processed many successful transactions. Testimonials have been positive too so we expect more Singaporeans will be using our online renting platform.

What are some of the oddest items people have put up for rent?
We’ve had people renting out Swarovski crystal decorations, an OSIM massage chair, cars for use in Ho Chi Minh and Bali, as well as laser tag remote-control tanks. We also have a regular business that rents garment steamers for their fashion events.

Share with us some other product rental ideas?
We cannot process rentals for products like boyfriends but based on a market survey we did last December, people would pay to rent party costumes, chocolate fondue, bouncy castles, as well as console and board games.

Any expansion plans in the horizon?
Service-wise, we’re working on providing paid online advertising and an e-cataloging service, where we’ll list users’ items and promote them to the relevant target market. When we have built a large base of active users in Singapore, we’d like to invite investors to partner with us to bring Rent Tycoons to other parts of Asia. 
 

How did Girls in Tech become such an enterprising organization?
It started out as a casual powwow amongst industry friends, namely the minority in tech—women. It was meant to be a sounding board to help address any workplace concerns we had and for us to bounce product feature ideas off each other. We were on a mission to give female developers, designers and marketers a voice and encourage younger generations to embrace technology and the start-up world as a viable career path. Before I knew it, five years had passed and Girls in Tech has grown to over 38 active chapters across the globe including Singapore, where we’ve recently launched.

Why did you decide to move to Singapore?
The truth is my boyfriend lives in Singapore. He has lived between Hong Kong and Singapore for the last nine years and a long distance relationship would’ve been tough so I decided to relocate to give the relationship a true shot. I also knew that the Asian economy was doing very well and Singapore was becoming the next Asian tech hub specifically for start-up cultivation so I thought it would be a great place for me to learn. I wanted to launch Girls in Tech Singapore and network within its active and curious, yet small start-up community. There is a lot of potential in Singapore and I would love to play a role in planting the Silicon Valley seed here.

What was your first professional step into the world of tech like?
I wasn’t even that interested in jumping into the tech space. My background was in marketing for entertainment and big consumer brands, and that was where I thought I would end up. Then I moved to San Francisco and became fascinated by the tech/start-up space. We were onto something big and I wanted to be a part of it! My first start-up experience was at a company called GUBA, a user-generated content site much like YouTube. I was absolutely immersed in this trend-setting company that has such an active, nimble and creative culture, and going to work everyday was more of a positive addiction than a bill-paying activity. It was fun and to this day, I remember every moment of my experience and how it has influenced the rest of my career to present-day.

What would you like to see change in Singapore’s tech scene?
This is a good question and as much as I want to be diplomatic, it’s more important to be honest and blunt—the Singaporean tech community needs a leadership injection. I believe that some of the smartest people in the world live in Singapore and are fully capable of launching their own startups and developing interesting and innovating products. However, the culture here underscores and aligns credibility and honor with graduating from a prestigious college and jumping head-first into a MNC. It’s almost frowned upon to take such a risk in starting a company without any built-up work skills and experience. I’d like to share with the Singaporean tech community of my life mottos: Embrace risk. It’ll enable people to become more entrepreneurial, innovative and good leaders. Building a company is not easy; it’s scary, but if you believe in yourself, are passionate about your product idea and are not afraid of failure, anything is possible. Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to launch Facebook.

Who do you look up to in this industry?
Normally, I would call out a couple of my mentors or women who’ve influenced my life in past years but this time, I want to talk about the developers. The tech industry would be absolutely nothing without developers, coders, engineers. We should be fully indebted to them and their true talent and dedication to coding and building cool new products that make an impact on society, changing the world.

What fascinates you most about technology?
Technology is so scalable. From one minute to the next, a product can be built that will connect or entertain someone in the US and simultaneously, someone in Singapore. This product can span across multiple geographies in a very short time. It is also amazing to me when technology is crowd-sourced or when people are able to collaborate on products virtually. The accessibility to the cloud and connectivity of the world or “globalization” as we like to call is changing the way and speed with which we do business. Another thing I love about technology is its convenience. Devices are smaller, information is spread faster and communication is more seamless. With tech, the world is constantly innovating and at a rapid pace too, in an effort to optimize life—make things more convenient for people like you and me. Technology has enabled me to think in a “the sky is the limit” manner. Things that I never in a million years would’ve thought could be created are now in existence.

What can we expect from Girls in Tech at Social Media Week Singapore?
I will be moderating a panel on “superstar women in tech”. Since female entrepreneurs in tech are even scarcer in Singapore than they are in Silicon Valley, I would love to showcase the powerful and passionate women that have taken the plunge to launch their own tech companies. We will discuss the trials and tribulations of launching a start-up, the best practices in building a company along with other topics like fund-raising, recruitment and networking. 

Adriana Gascoigne will be moderating the Girls in Tech Panel Discussion and Launch Party at Graze as part of Social Media Week Singapore. For more info on Girls in Tech Singapore, check out their official Facebook page.
 

What do you think of the start-up scene here?
Singapore is amazing. There was no other place in Asia that even made our shortlist. It delivers a great place to network with like-minded individuals and provides excellent access to events and resources that can help start-ups get off the ground.

What’s wrong with the online travel market right now?
Searching for and booking travel online is a chore. It’s time consuming and frustrating and, even at its best, it’s a middling experience. From my perspective, travel sites simply stopped improving a few years back. Consumers have been trained to expect less.

How would you like to see things change?
I’d like to see the market move from a supplier focus to a customer focus. It should be fast and simple to search for flights and hotels. All crucial information for making a decision should be at consumers’ fingertips.

Are there any travel sites you do like?
Among the smaller players there are some more interesting sites. Hipmunk is trying to do things differently. Another favorite, more narrowly focused on members’ only deals in the luxury market, is Jetsetter.