BootHK is a community for co-working, makers, and startups in Hong Kong.

Startup Boot.Camp

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Startup Boot.Camp is our first intensive program leading up to our Accelerator

We believe startup success starts by building a good business.

  • You need time to test, validate and iterate
  • You can learn faster and stay focused with guidance from people who have done this before
  • It is better to do something and learn actively than to simply listen to speeches, see demos, or read blogs.

The Hong Kong tech entrepreneurial community is small but tightly connected and we think ready to grow. We're starting with Startup Boot.Camp. Apply and be a part of growing Hong Kong’s tech community.

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Nokia Tech Meetup Feb 16th - Come see the Lumia and Hang Out

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Nokia is throwing a impromptu meetup at Boot from 8pm-10pm on Feb 16th. If you are looking for someplace to talk tech with folks and would be interested to see what the latest phone is from Finland, come on out.

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From the sponsor: Nokia is the global headline sponsor of Social Media Week and we're active around the world at the various cities to meet with people on the ground. With this event, we want to bring together like-minded people who are interested in tech and the latest gadgets. And for those who are interested, we'll be happy to demo the new Nokia Lumia 800 and get your thoughts on it. Pizza and beer for everyone, and two people will win a Nokia Lumia to take home.

Space is limited to around 40, so please RSVP here with your Twitter name, or just your name.

Bringing Down the House: BootHK Renovation Work Starts

We've been tossing around doing some basic renovation work to organize the space more efficiently. After weeks of deliberations and quoting work, we decided to just start tearing things down this weekend and jumpstart the process. 

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Everything will be done in September, but no exact timing. By getting this part out of the way, we can more easily do the other parts without interrupting schedules as much. 

For anyone that is around Sunday late afternoon or evening, or the coming Tuesday, we will be doing more work and can always use more hands. Especially Tuesday. 

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Thanks Jimmy Wong, Louie Fong, and a few others for coming by Saturday to help. 

MaD Get-together for Do Good and Do Well Entrepreneurs

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Come out and network with young entrepreneurs from around Hong Kong and learn more about the 2012 Make a Difference Award. Also available is a pitch practice with feedback.

Registration deadline is May 15th, so sign up today if you are interested.

Codeaholics Meetup Friday at 7 with Pivotal Labs

We have Ian McFarland from Pivotal labs coming straight from Singapore.

Starts at 7pm, beers and retrospectives provided by Thoughtsauce.

HackJam Mintyboost Aid for Japan

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Last night Hong Kong hackers descended on BootHK wielding soldering irons and cutting tools during the weekly BotJam meetup. They had plans (and parts) for putting together 20 Mintyboost AA powered USB chargers to send to the Tokyo Hackerspace for the earthquake victims who have spotty or no power still.

Over a dozen people learned how to solder and basic circuit board assembly. This meetup is happening regularly on Tuesdays at 8, with a wide range of projects being worked on by a solid group of people learning about all things hardware and software.

See more at http://www.hackjam.hk

BootUp 2: Writup Roundup

BootUP 2 was a major success! I think everyone is looking forward to seeing what comes out of the startups that were kicked off this weekend.
With two companies kicking along from the first one, it will be interesting to see how many of the six continue. Currently it looks like at least Hometasty.com and Grabbit.hk will be going at it, and some of the others are in discussion.

 

BOOTUP 2 DEMO DAY - SLIDESHOW

 

BOOTUP 2: THE STARTUP WEEKEND TEAMS

 

BOOTUP 2: DAY ONE OF THE STARTUP WEEKEND IS IN FULL SWING AKA AND THEN THERE WERE FIVE!

BOOTUP 2: DAY ZERO OF THE STARTUP WEEKEND

 

 

 

BootUP! 2 - Update (Change of Location to BootHK in Wan Chai)

Just a quick update for the BootUP! this weekend. We are going to hold in in the BootHK HQ in Wan Chai. Those that have been accepted for the event should have received an email confirming your spot. If you registered but did not receive a confirmation, please send an email to jon.buford at boot.hk.

BootUP! 2 - More of Everything (Feb 25-27)

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The first BootUP! was a huge success, and we are happy to announce that we are running another one with space up to 70 (!) people. M-Lab (http://www.m-lab.hk/) has kindly offered to provide space for us to run the event. Edit: The event will be held at BootHK, we had a solid turnout of applications with just enough to fill up our space in Wan Chai.

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10 Lessons From Setting Up Hong Kong's First Coworking Space

A year ago, I was working from home and StartupsHK was just a group of startup founders that met up every other week at Habitu. Step forward to now, StartupsHK is a community of startups that numbers in the hundreds of members and I'm working from BootHK on my projects. We are coming up on the third month anniversary of BootHK's first site being open, and there have been many amazing things that happened in that time and while setting things up. 

Funding

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To get BootHK open, we needed around $200,000 (USD $25,000) in total so that we could set it up and have about 3-6 months operating float. The reality is that we did it with around $120,000 (USD $15,000), which covered getting things set up, but did not allow for any float. At this point, I'm happy to say that it looks like we are running at a break even revenues and it is anticipated that we will be able to grow that so that we can start repaying some of the up-front investment that was put in.

Lessons learned:

  1. Until you have cash in hand, don't count funding that has been promised.
  2. It will take longer to finalize funding than you plan on.
  3. Sometimes support will come from unexpected places.

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