Although there are no promises from MDeC, but at least initiatives are taken into the consideration that certain funds will be proposed to be maintain and new funds will be available. The following funds that MDeC proposed to be maintained include MSC Malaysia Research and Development Grant Scheme (MGS), Pre-seed Funding and MAC3 Co-Production Fund. Lets have some fate and patient with MDeC, and hope that the government continues to drive the country growth into a better economic environment for new entrepreneurs.

Reference Link: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/5/8/business/6208729&sec=business

Dear ICON Grant Applicants,

Congratulations.

We are pleased to inform you that your application for the ICON grant has been approved.  The secretariat will be contacting you soon for the arrangement of your letter of offer.

Thank you.

Regards,

Secretariat

Upon receiving this email, the excitements is ……zero. We have waited for too long and some of our previous plans has been overturned due to the delay of ICON Grant. However, as we expected, with full preparation of our effort from going door to door to get Letter of Interest from various parties, and with the past previous experiences in presentations and answering question, although we are still nervous, but experiences really made us when through the following presentation.  On top of that, I have learnt something from my partner which I am still very lack off in QnA. So, here is some advice with some tricky questions that my partner has answered well. Thanks to him that we have gotten through this stage.

• What is your expected revenue/profit?

Tricky Part: This is the most tricky question ever. Imagine if you have told them that your expected revenue/profit will be RM1 million. Wow, such a good business to do. If your idea could generate RM1mil, everyone will have started and there is no point for you to receive this grant. This question lures you into telling an unknown figure that you yourself are so unsure. Whether the numbers you have mentioned is reasonable or unreasonable it will definitely lead you to another question that will taunt you down. “So on what basis that your idea will help you generate RM1mil? how sure are you with your analysis?”

Answer: The best answer will be telling them that you are aiming to breakeven for the first year. In any start-ups, if you are able to breakeven the first year is considerably good and reasonable. Don’t try to talk BIG here, the panels are not stupid.

• What stage are you in now?

Tricky Part: This question is to see how SERIOUS are you with your own business. 

Answer: Even you have nothing started, just bullshit them that you had something started, whatever you have done to your make your idea come true. Of course, if you have really put in your effort, tell them! Grants are only given to people with real effort put in. (In matter affect, we have done IP and Trademark for our proposed idea, we have gotten letter of interest, we have our initial work done, now is left out with the money to push the product out)

• Since your clients has shown interest with your product, why do you still need the grant?

Tricky Part: Are you trying to con our money here? The panels will try to give all kinds of reason that you do not need the grant.

Answer: Yes. Indeed that our potential clients has shown interest with our ideas, however, there isn’t a tangible product to urged them to issue us a PO (Purchase Order) yet, and that’s why we only had a LOI (Letter of Interest) instead.

Back dated to 7-9 December 2009. MSC Malaysia kre8tif is the last event I attended in year 2009. Kre8tif Digital Conference, in the mission to showcase the best work from the Malaysian creative industry, and to invite many international industry experts to share their experiences, knowledge and ideas, for instance, Mr John Stevenson’s, the Director of KungFu Panda, gave a very insightful knowledge and experiences on the making of KungFu Panda. “Story is King”, the phrase denotes that the fundamental of a successful interesting animation lies within the story. 

There is a clear cut motive that I intended for the event. My ultimate mission is to get at least 1 broadcasters contact or any potential investors so that we could sell our idea. I am not a natural born salesman, and i felt like Tom Cruise in “Mission Impossible”. of course the secondary missions will be understanding the industry’s future trends, competitors, technical knowledge and other information, etc.

However, while I was wandering around the event. Talking around, bullshitting around, throwing name cards (the ninja way). I had a very weird feelings walking up to competitors (specially the local’s one). for example, if i walk up to them, showing my name card, ask them how are they doing lately, seeking advice in the industry. Will they tell me the truth? So i tried on with one of the company, and I regret immediately, and I felt that I will never get the right answers. To me, I believed being sincere and truthful to the person i met is a kind of respect, however by showing my name card to the competitors, the information i get from them will be vastly filtered, so what’s the point of being sincere? Maybe I am too ingenuous to think that there is a day that we might had a chance to cooperate on a certain project. On the other hand, one of the most funny thing that I found out is, that some of the local companies, they complete their products first before selling it. Some gotten grant to developed a series of animations from MOSTI. but when I ask if they have secured any sales contract from the broadcasters, surprisingly the answer is ‘No’, and they told me the industry works that way. ???????!!!! WTF, I don’t believe!!! What if happens when the final product completed, and broadcasters do not like it? Anyway, they had the capital and resources. So is not up to me to judge. But I think I will do it in a different way.

Back to the mission. There is a session given by for broadcasters representative regarding on the industry. I feel lucky that the 3 largest local broadcasters has 2 turn up for the session, Mr. Zainir Aminullah executive director from Astro, Malaysia, Syafiq Al Fonse from RTM Malaysia, and lastly Tim Brooke-Hunt, Executive Head of Children’s Content for Australia’s ABC Television. I paid full attention to their talks, however, my mind keeps bothering me to “take their name cards”, “take it or you live hungry and miserable”~!!!! Right after the sessions ends. Oh gosh, people is like swarm of bees. I was just pancaked and squeezed out from the scene in seconds. I didn’t know they are even more hungrier people than me. However, I did manage to get their names cards, and we are in the process of setting appointments with Astro and RTM. Phewww~~~ Mission Accomplished.

Final conclusion, the event is a fun and awesome experience I never had before. I learnt a lot from the gurus, the competitors and the industry players.

For more information and the summary of the speakers presentation. follow this link: AnimationXpress

1. Purpose of grant: Hooraay~~~ Malaysian will enjoy high speed broadband in the near future!! However, the authorities are afraid that the broadband penetration rate will still remain low after the implementation. Hence, the objective of this grant is to generate more local contents to encourage the nation broadband penetration. Hence, your proposal and business model must be able to align with their strategy in promoting broadband uptake in Malaysia. In actual, with or without the grant, with high speed broadband, i see a lot of opportunities ahead for businesses such as IPTV and etc.
2. Amount of grant: RM100,000
3. Duration: 8 months
4. Application Flow: The application flow for ICON grant is rather different from  PRE-SEED. For Pre-seed, after submission of application, you will need to present your ideas to the panels yourself. However, for ICON, after submission, you will be assigned with a representative from the ICON community, and you will present to your representative, and your representative will present on behalf of you to the panels. There is a possibility that you will also need to do the presentation yourself if the panels has doubts and they need further information or better understanding from you.
5. Disbursement method: I hope I did not interpret this wrongly from MDEC. If I do, please do correct me. PRE-SEED disbursement will be given upfront by MDEC in quarterly basis. However, ICON will be rather different. The phases are structured in 2/3/3 format. which means 2 months + 3 months + 3 months = 8 months. If I did not interpret wrongly from the community, the first 2 months, 20% of the requested amount will be given upfront from MDEC, but the remaining quarter, you will need to fork out your money first, and claimed back as proposed. In another word, if you are requesting for max RM100k, you need to have extra RM40k to survived the first 5 months after 20k has been disbursed.
6. Type of Programme Supported: Please read the following links = (ICONapps, ICONedu, ICONity, ICONex)
7. Forms and Application: Please contact them via their email to obtain the forms and application.
8. More details please contact them personally via their email. Please download the infopack