Open House! N-house 16/17 Sem 1.

Once every semester, for two times a year, N-house organizes its flagship event: Open House @ N-House. It’s an evening where the NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) programme proudly showcases the startups formed by its alumni to the NUS community, where past, present, and potential NOC students converge to mingle in like-minded company, where the NOC staff can witness the fruits of their efforts in running the NOC programme.

More than anything, the Open House @ N-House is an exhibition for the nucleus of NUS’s entrepreneurial community. More than just a showcase, it’s a place for NOC’s alumni-formed startups to partake in a giving back of knowledge and opportunity, and for the uninitiated to learn about the culture of entrepreneurship that NUS Enterprise has so carefully cultivated since its beginnings in the 20th century (before year 2000 lah) — even before the first NOC college was opened in 2001. It’s an opening to the doors of opportunity for the keen, and a window into NUS’s startup ecosystem for the intrigued.

With photos, we take a look at the goings-on on the night.

Beside Luke Chong (L), founder of TotallyHotStuff, a piece of living history. Prof Teo (R), as he’s affectionately (or normally) known, is the director of the NOC programme, and has overseen its development from its very beginnings. TotallyHotStuff, the brainchild of Luke, a graduate of the NOC Stockholm programme, is a retail chain of lifestyle products particularly of the quirky and creative kinds, and has to date opened 9 stores throughout Singapore.

Ah, Carousell. No introductions needed. Just joking. Carousell, founded by a trio of NOC Silicon Valley graduates, is an online marketplace for both new and used goods. They recently raised $35 million in Series B funding. Seen here represented by their Head of Partnerships and Marketing, Jia Jun, and her team.

Jin Zhe, a graduate of the NOC Silicon Valley programme, promoting his startup, Mooder, a social media network that focuses on emotions and empathy.

Here we have Sze How, a graduate of the NOC New York programme, promoting his startup, SuiteLyfe, a mobile platform for booking staycations at premium hotels across Singapore at low prices. To date, it’s gotten 16 hotels on board, and is looking to expand.

Jian Liang, an alumnus of the NOC Beijing programme, showcasing his startup, Trabble, a personalized chat-based concierge service for travellers.

In this happy camp are Eugene and his partners, some of whom are soon to depart for their respective NOC programmes from Shanghai to Silicon Valley, showcasing their startup, ExchangeBuddy, an online repository of personal stories by students on international exchange programmes.

In the background stands Jake, a recent alumnus of the NOC New York programme, who was at the event to promote his startup, RateX. RateX is a browser extension that allows online shoppers to conduct overseas transactions at better (i.e. lower) exchange rates than conventional methods.

Here we have Charmain, a graduate of the NOC Stockholm programme, listening attentively to a query by an interested guest at the event. Her startup, Pear Comms, recently launched QuickDesk, a customer relationship management (CRM) platform that aims to make maintaining client relationships as easy as A-B-C.

Also listening attentively was Shi Wei, the Performance Marketing Executive of Moneysmart.sg, Founded by Vinod Nair, an alumnus of the NOC Silicon Valley programme, Moneysmart.sg is an online advisory that aims to simplify financial advice.

If you haven’t noticed by now, listening attentively is an important trait for entrepreneurs. Thus, seen here also listening attentively was a representative of Funding Societies, a small-and-medium enterprise (SME) loans platform that raises capital via crowdfunding. Co-founded by Kelvin Teo, an alumnus of the NOC Bio Valley programme (now defunct), Funding Societies recently raised US$7.5 million in a series A round led by Sequoia India.

After all that attention-giving, something had to give. Here we see a guest at 99.co’s booth losing his attention while entering contact details on the computer, despite the best efforts of Gail, the HR manager for 99.co. 99.co, a property listing portal that aims to disrupt the real estate sales industry in Singapore that raised US$1.6 million from Sequoia last year, is co-founded by Darius Cheung, an alumnus of the NOC Silicon Valley programme.

Yet here we see a paragon of attention-giving: a posse of guests looking intently at an intern from AfterYou, an online portal for homeowners to find, hire, and pay domestic helpers. Founded by Fitzkhoon Liang, an alumnus of the NOC Stockholm programme, the 10-month-old startup was recently featured in the Straits Times.

That was a lot of photos.

A 1-minute pitch was held by all exhibiting startups during the event.

Some more photos.

A cheery moment: Fitzkhoon Liang (L), founder of AfterYou, and Peck Ying (R), an alumnus of the iLEAD (now called NOC Singapore) programme, who’s currently running her startup, PSLove. PSLove is an online shop that sells feminine care products — its latest offerings are MenstruTrack, a calendar app for tracking menstrual cycles, and MenstruHeat, an all-natural adhesive heat-pack that helps to ease cramps and backaches.

Smiles of relief: Jessendra (L) and Yu Ann (R) of the current N-House RA team, who organize the weekly events at N-House throughout the semester. Open-House @ N-House for this semester was jointly headed by RAs Xander and Zhi Yang. Hadi, also an RA, took this photograph. Jake, also an RA, was busy promoting his startup, RateX. Jasmine, also an RA, was taken by a work trip to Silicon Valley at the time of the event. Busy people, RAs.

Money talks: RateX was a popular draw on the night. Singaporeans. Cost-savings. Go figure.

What a crowd: always a popular event, Open-House @ N-House provides a great opportunity for startups to reach the NUS community, and vice-versa, for the NUS community to find out about startups from NUS.

And that’s a wrap. A big, big thank you/么么哒/tack-tack/toda (as thank-you’s are said in the US, Chinese, Swedish, and Israeli NOC colleges ;-)) to all the startups that came back to showcase; it is with your giving back, that the NOC community grows from strength to strength.

Stay tuned for the goings-on of next week’s Wicked Wednesday event — Fireside Chat with Top Startup Investors.