ICON Grant Finally Approved (Careful with Tricky Questions)
In my previous post I do introduced the RM100K ICON Grant initiated by government, finally is back on. My applications submitted last year Dec 2009, and we have waited approximately 4 months until April 2010 only we get a call to do a presentation. I believed the secretariats has been tortured by us for the past few months being so determined in requesting for a date of presentation. and is finally here.
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.
A grant for Contents – MSC Malaysia ICON Grant (Unofficial Guide)
According to the source from greyreview.com (The Unofficial Guide to MSC Malaysia ICON Grant) and MSC Malaysia, our PM announced the establishment of the MSC Malaysia ICON grant programme, with the amount of RM12.86 million allocation (under the second economic stimulus plan), to spur the creation of local online contents to support Malaysian broadband strategy. We get to know the grant 2 months ago, where our company is recommended to apply for the following grant during our application of MSC Status, where our strategy and business models are align with the objective of the grant.
- 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.
- Amount of grant: RM100,000
- Duration: 8 months
- 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.
- 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.
- Type of Programme Supported: Please read the following links = (ICONapps, ICONedu, ICONity, ICONex)
- Forms and Application: Please contact them via their email to obtain the forms and application.
- More details please contact them personally via their email. Please download the infopack
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Life is interesting, its all about experimenting, trial and errors and self improvments. This blog is all about my personal experience. I am full with ideas, and i will achieve every one of them step by step.
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