Startup of the Day - Muecs

The BizSpark startup of the day is Muecs, based in Hong Kong. You will find below an interview with Benjamin Law, Co-founder and Executive Director of Muecs. All the best to them and congrats for being the startup of the day!

Website: www.muecs.com.

Interview with Benjamin Law, Co-founder and Executive Director of Muecs

Tell us who you are and your role in the company:

I am co-founder and Executive Director of Muecs.

What did you do before creating your company?

I was doing both work and study at the same time starting in 2006. I was a software developer at one of the local software house in Hong Kong, focusing on enterprise system and government projects. After I graduated from Hong Kong Baptist University for a B.A in Computer Science, Billy Leung co-founder of Muecs and I decided to start our venture.

How do you feel being the most promising ‘Startup of the Day’ per Microsoft BizSpark?

First of all, thanks for BizSpark selected Muecs as the Startup of the Day. It’s an honor to be select as a showcase, and recognized as one of the promising startup.

What is your company’s mission?

To provide social enterprise services for companies with an easy-to-use collaboration tool which does not require any technical knowledge from users, and leverage the power of social media for customer relationship.

How did you get the idea for your company?

From the experience of developing enterprise systems like CRM, ERP etc., most of the feedback from end-users are feeling too complex and lack of communication with external. One day, Billy and I were discuses about the stuffs we worked and enterprise 2.0 in Starbuck. We started brainstorming and the idea of our product, Mulaboration was made. At the same time, I was just created Muecs.com for fun while studying in university. So we decide to move Muecs to next level, from community website to a startup company, and develop our product for enterprise.

Tell us about your funding history. Are you currently looking for funding? If so, how much?

We are self-funded, and Incubation Programme funding from Hong Kong Science Park. We are looking for 1.5M USD for product development, marketing and sales operations.

How many employees do you have? How many developers?

We have 2 for management, and 2 contractors work on development.

Are you hiring? If yes, what are you hiring and where?

We are hiring community manager for customer support and growth of our branded online communities.

Which platform are you building on? Why?

Our product is based on Microsoft technology and some open source platform.

Where do you see opportunities today in the Software/internet area?

Social Media is the most cost- effective way for companies who want to build up their branding. More Marketing firms are focusing on Internet social media for their clients company nowadays. This could bring a good ecosystem for all parties. Also it able for software companies like us to have innovative solution.

What do you think about the BizSpark Program?

BizSpark is great program for startup company, it provides the world class development software. For startup to get all server operating system and other development tools, that is a huge cost for initial spending. Right now, we can concentrate to bring up our idea as a product without worry about development resource. Also the partner networks and technical support from BizSpark are useful. If we haven’t joined the program back then, we would not know the Incubation Programme and reliable server hosting provider.

Do you have any advice for young Software entrepreneurs?

I assume you guy are expertise in programming or other technical skills. One thing you need to do is focus more on business model when you starting your new company. When question comes to business model for lots of entrepreneurs, they are not clearly to show. Also you make a product that, it made yourself want to use it first; otherwise you cannot sell it to others.

Who’s your role model?

When I think of role model, the first guy is Bill Gates from Microsoft.

What’s the ONE THING you would like readers to take away from this interview?

Our product, Mulaboration was just released in last month. We encourage anyone to create your company collaboration network in https://mulaboration.muecs.com. We have special offer for readers with coupon code: a1nov09 when you create your company network, you will get 3 users licenses with one year free in Professional Plan.