ryanteo

Just some suggestions through the tough times:

  - Talk to friends and family who understand
  - See if there are ways that the work done can be absorbed into another company
  - Drop a note to mentors/ advisors when you are professionally ready
  - Do some small projects for companies in your network who can pay on time, and hopefully also let you slowly ease into a different team and environment
  - Cut down on expenses
  - Plan your project portfolio and resume
  - Try to do at least some light exercise regularly (e.g. 3 times weekly)
  - Try to see how you close the loose ends (tough, but take as much time as you need and take into account your mental state)
  - Don't force yourself to go all out socially
  - Write down thoughts about why you think the startup failed, organize it later when you can look at it calmly
  - Don't try to over-analyse the situation
  - May want to explore meditation
  - May want to explore religion as a way of thinking about life's meaning and putting things in perspective

Thanks Leon, more healthcare hacking!

Hi, that's a great idea! Btw, I'm from Singapore and we do informal meetups among people working on healthcare technology. What we normally do is to take it a step further than just getting to know each other. We describe a pain point that each of us experiences without divulging sensitive information and we generate as many solutions and perspectives as possible within 1-2 hours. If anyone is based in Asia, would like to reach out.

Hi, Would you be okie with sharing some specific problems and painpoints over email (but leaving out confidential details)? ryan.teo@gmail.com

  We have a group of friends who are familiar with healthcare and have programming backgrounds.

I'm based in Singapore, Asia. Will be happy to share too what we've learnt about building a B2B platform for private clinics to order medical supplies.

It might be because the machine is old. Hopefully, it does have the option to generate a CSV/ XML file. From the description, it does seem to have some kind of computer connected to it and a printer.

Otherwise, you might have to parse the data from the serial port.

Hi Asingh,

  I've dropped you an email. We're based in Singapore, but we're happy to work together.

  Btw, is HealthEnclave meant for wellness or do you plan to develop it along a more serious angle?

Hi,

  We're based in Singapore and previously built www.MedF1.com, a B2B platform for medical supplies ordering for private clinics. We did a health report generator from some Quest Diagnostic lab results previously for clinic chain in Singapore. Dropped you an email - ryan.teo@gmail.com.

  Interested in work with healthcare disruptors, we can design the software (mobile, web) and hardware (Ardiuno, Linux).

A small group of us are interested in developing healthcare related apps. My email is ryan.teo (at) gmail.com.

Hi, I'm based in Singapore and we're also open to hiring foreign developers on a fulltime or project basis. You can drop me an email at ryanteo(at)ppc.com.sg if you are interested in security systems and working on hardware. Singapore is also a mini startup hub =] We also have pretty decent Indian food, a largely Asian culture and plenty of exposure to US&EU startups.. =]

Hi Yongfook,

  I think this is an excellent post on why startups should start exploring more B2B opportunities. However, do you think that since many startup founders are still relatively young with little working experience, they may not have experienced the state of enterprise software and the enterprise sales cycle?

  Being based in Singapore too (let's meet up for kopi some day.. =) ), I feel that there is a lot of opportunity in exploring industries that are considered non-mainstream and traditional by B2C. For example, marine, logistics, healthcare, fashion, PR, construction, interior design, food & beverage..

Hi everyone, happy to chime in from an Asian perspective. I'm Ryan, based in Singapore and tried to co-found an online platform for procurement of medical supplies for private clinics. Faced many of the industry's frustrations as expressed in this discussion too. Would be happy to share my experience too.

If there are any plans to expand to Asia, I would be happy to bounce ideas. I think this is a fantastic idea. I have been involved in healthcare startups (co-founded one) for the last 2 years in Singapore, so this is extremely interesting to me.

That's really awesome that you've started. Would you want to do mobile applications next or are you sticking to web applications for now?

This might be an outdated guide, but it gives you an idea of how to build a "native" looking application using CSS, HTML and JavaScript - http://matt.might.net/articles/how-to-native-iphone-ipad-app....

You might want to try embedding some videos from Khan Academy, Youtube or the online universities. That will make your website more interesting.

Great start!

Second David's links and suggestions, ping me if you are in Singapore. I'm from a startup too - http://www.MedF1.com.

We can do Teh Tarik, Teh Peng, Milo Peng, Yin Yong.. and kaya toast with 2 runny eggs =)

If you know mobile app development for iPhone/Android, Python, RoR, Haskell, Scala, web development, I'm pretty sure I can ask around.

We're based in Garag3 - http://www.garag3.com. Both NUS and SMU have pretty active communities.

Ryan

Unknowingly, all of us who use technology have been touched by your father's work. Thank you very much for his contributions to the world.

Just a comment from Asia (Singapore). It's rather difficult to get doctors or medical personnel to adopt new technologies. The nature of the industry selects people who are trained to behave very cautiously, as it concerns life and death. The healthcare industry is also very fragmented geographically due to necessary regulation. This makes it difficult to scale, as each location may have its own set of legal, medical, safety and privacy requirements. Doctors are also used to pen and paper. An example we saw when visiting our clients is the use of a touch screen tablet for taking patient's notes. Basically, it just replaces a paper notepad with a digital notepad. The doctors fundamentally do not change their behaviour or actions. However, there are changes happening with the advent of electronic medical health records and the integration of the internet to connect the various systems.

Another point would be the costs involved. Everyone seems to charge some insane multiple once it's healthcare-related, even though it's just the same hardware/software.

I guess there's a lot to talk about and discuss, drop me an email if you are interested. I'm also pretty sure the DrChrono guys (I've seen them post on HN before, I think) can chip in with a few insights from their end.

When designing systems for doctors, you really need to talk to them and watch them use your product/platform/software/website. There are a lot of idiosyncrasies/terminology involved which an outsider is unable to grasp easily.

Oops, I wanted to submit this, but realized that you did already.

Yeah, wonder why this post did not get on the front page. I find it more useful and interesting than all the posts that contain merely opinions.

Maybe for small teams and microISVs, you could merge the advice from Patrick's article too: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/04/20/building-highly-reliable...

Hey Peter,

You could take a look at FreeTheApps.com. http://mixergy.com/free-apps-interview/ There's an in-depth mixergy interview on how 2 guys outsourced iPhone app development on Elance, often under $3k and they're doing about $80k in monthly revenue. Pretty interesting for your budget =) Maybe you could email them direct, they seem pretty friendly. They also have an e-book called "How to Make Profitable iPhone apps with No programming experience".

Haha, that's how I got one of my first introductions to programming too, through the Starcraft map editor. It's kind of fun learning through a game.

Many years later, for a group assignment on entrepreneurship, we submitted a custom map in Warcraft III that simulated competitive strategies among startups. We basically played Warcraft III in class while our lecturer was smiling approvingly. One of the most fun lessons in university..

"Teach yourself programming in 10 years" by Peter Norvig (http://norvig.com/21-days.html)? There's Alice and Squeak. Funnily enough, I actually think I was more fascinated by the map editor in Starcraft than the game itself. (Of course, I've only started picking up a little bit of programming recently.) I think for slightly older kids who would have fun building robots and physical things that can do tasks, there's Lego Mindstorm.

Other than that, there are 2 books which cover kid prodigies which might be applicable. "In Code - A Mathematical Journey". [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Mathematical-Sarah-Flannery-Dav...] It's the story of Sarah Flannery, who got interested in cryptography at a young age due to her family environment.

Another interesting book is "The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkin. [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Learning-Journey-Optimal-Perform...] Josh Waitzkin was an American chess champion, before burning out at around 20. He then picked up Taijiquan, becoming the Taijiquan world champion.

http://desksnear.me/ - Would this help you? Keep going!=) You might want to try exercising regularly (running, basketball, swimming..) and hanging out with friends who are not necessarily doing startups. It helps to keep you rooted to the rest of the world who are not interested in startups.. =)

Not malaysian, but Singaporean. Haha, KL sounds good for a short break, will email you if I'm dropping by =)

Thanks for the offer! We must introduce our food to the HN community.

Hi Alex, nice work and congrats on your first step =) Have you ever thought of specializing in showcasing just educational games/ flash games? I think it would be very valuable and it would easily catch on among parents/young kids. You could also link it to educational resources like Khan Academy, etc..

In that vein, another microfinance institute I can think of is http://wokai.org They focus on MFI projects in China.

A Singaporean startup called give.sg has been getting a lot of local press recently. It allows people to create fund-raising campaigns easily for their causes, while they take a small percentage of donations for processing fees. http://give.sg

For mindmapping, has anyone used Compendium before? I used it for mindmapping a project, it's rather useful. It's rather flexible and you can create sub-mindmaps easily.

You can also use it for brainstorming sessions and problem solving as a team (project on a screen and let everyone see it). http://compendium.open.ac.uk/institute/download/download.htm Available for Windows, Mac, Linux and free

Hi, You might find these websites more useful in terms of substance and practicality. uxmovement.com - Usability articles designshack.co.uk - Well-written articles on design www.alistapart.com - Web design

I guess you'll also be interested in the presentation of information and statistics. I recommend Edward Tufte's books. I second the recommendation of Steve Krug's book, probably one of the most practical and well-written guides.

For typography, I found these articles quite good as an introduction: Basics of Typography http://designshack.co.uk/articles/typography/8-rules-for-cre...

If you have Illustrator, you can design some pretty nice text http://designshack.co.uk/articles/graphics/an-in-depth-guide...

This is a pretty good introduction to some classic fonts: http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/articles/25-classic-font...

Have fun! (I'm also picking up skills to be more well-rounded) Ryan =)

Thanks!=) I'll look in that... Did not know there were so many options available.

Hi, I'm also new to this, but I found the following useful (apologies for the weird formatting):

Books Web design Steve Krugman - Don't Make Me Think (and the sequel)

  Presenting information
  Edward Tuftes - http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi
  Highly useful books about presenting statistics and information visually

  I find that the articles on these websites focus more on the basics.
  A List Apart - http://www.alistapart.com/
  Design Shack - http://designshack.co.uk/

Photography It would be good to pick up some photography (even with a point and shoot), if only for the simple reason to provide some photos in your blog/marketing materials.

Inspiration Carbonmade.com Deviantart Flickr http://dribbble.com/ http://forrst.com/ http://lookslikegooddesign.com/

Other related topics You might also read up on User Interface Design (UX, UI..).

This quote might be useful A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery