Angels Den Asia will hold its first speed funding event in which entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to investors in three minutes at the Standard Chartered Bank on Battery Road, on March 23.

When it kicks off, it will have to compete with a peculiar Singapore mentality about entrepreneurship.

What struck him during his bi-weekly visits here was Singaporeans' heavy reliance on the Government.

'There is almost an expectation of government support, and with that expectation comes a sense that people don't feel the need to work the hours that they do in the States and get it absolutely right.'

At the same time, he says bluntly, the proliferation of government grants to start-ups gives entrepreneurs an excuse to wave away ideas of seeking angel funding.

His current tally: 32 government initiatives to help start-ups, including some that offer capital of up to $50,000.

If you can navigate your way through the minefield, he says, then Singapore is one of the best countries in the world to set up a company.

'But the corollary is also quite painful. It could be argued there's too much support...$50,000 almost promotes a sense of laziness.'

To him, the relative ease with which start-ups can secure handouts from the Government also paints an unrealistic picture of investor funding.

Investors in China, for instance, are often keen to support start-ups, but offer paltry amounts of just a few thousand dollars, and expect entrepreneurs to work with it.

In Britain, almost half of the entrepreneurs fund their start-ups with credit cards, at an interest rate of 28.8 per cent a month, while others turn to the traditional 'friends, families and fools'.

There are a handful of government grants in Britain but very few receive them, Mr Morrow says.

As a result, entrepreneurs are forced to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. They learn how to take a small amount of money and multiply it.

Mr Morrow subscribes to the theory that pain is a good incentive to push entrepreneurs towards success.

With their own money on the line, European entrepreneurs have displayed a greater hunger to succeed than he has seen among those here.

'People here are still passionate, they still want it to work. But because there's government support, it takes the edge off what it means to succeed.'

Although the Government recognises that start-ups must succeed for a successful economy, it behaves like an overprotective parent, he says.

'There has to be a little bit of pain for them to be successful. Some day they actually do have to fly the nest.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.

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