Updated Nov 11, 2011

My name’s Drew Sing and I am an entrepreneur with a focus on budding global opportunities.

I’ve co-founded a Silicon Valley startup while in college and have worked for startups such as Y Combinator’s Grubwithus. Most recently, I spent some time in venture capital at Driftwood Capital, an Aussie firm based out of Sydney with a focus on mining and alternative energy plays.

I’m currently playing with bringing skilled Americans over to work in Australia’s mining boom.

My goal has always been to accumulate the sharpest, most useful entrepreneurial toolbox of skills to hammer out awesome ventures. In today’s world, this includes working internationally to fully understand how the world’s economies are integrated with one another. I would jump at the chance to work in China, Brazil, or India if the right opportunity came along. In addition, I am an amateur foodie and am always up to figure out how to solve the world’s problems.

 

Experience

I’m currently working at Driftwood Capital, a boutique venture capital firm based in Sydney, Australia. We focus on growth opportunities in China and India. This gig has shown my how the dark side moves, thinks, and breathes. Seeing how deals develop or bust has given me valuable insight on how to fund-raise successfully. My development in financial modeling skills has been a useful addition to my toolbelt as well.

Before I left for Sydney, I spent some time at Grubwithus, the YC startup backed by the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital, Ashton Kutcher, and more. My focus was user acquisition channels, which meant setting up A/B experiments with Facebook Ads, Google Adwords, and StumbleUpon. Basically, I was the tinkering with costs associated when acquiring users. To be surrounded by a team that hustled so hard showed me what dedication it really takes to build value in today’s competitive environment

Retronyms

I worked as the Director of Marketing for two successful mobile development startups, Dokogeo and Retronyms. Dokogeo is a leader in geo-location with apps such as Dokogeo. They spoke at SXSW 2011 on the Future of Location Based Games Beyond Check-ins. Retronyms focuses on music production apps and has done work for companies such as Justin.TV and Adobe. I learned the power of utilizing social media to build cult followings that help market products for you.

 

My passion for startups began in college when I co-founded Hangchillparty, a web and mobile application built for the cracked-out social ecosystems of college dorms. Tt was an instant way of letting groups of friends know when you were free to socialize. This experience taught me keys to design, pitching to angels/VCs, and how to file patents.

Hangchillparty proved my creative knowhow. I was then persuaded to join Kar.ma, a social marketplace for buying and selling goods for the benefit of charity. It was here where I saw why most startups don’t succeed and the pains of raising money when the team and product just isn’t there.

If you’ve read this far, you may be wondering why I’ve hopped around so many companies. I’ve always had the goal of co-founding a startup of my own in the back of my mind, but to do this, a hodgepodge of startup experiences is important in understanding what has made companies succeed and fail.

 

Last year I had the change to work and travel abroad in Australia in New Zealand. I view the United States from an international perspective, and believe there are many opportunities abroad for recent college graduates outside the U.S.