BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)

Ashwin Purushottam was an Entrepreneur in Residence with Entrepreneur First, the world’s leading talent investor. His role ended in October 2020. As General Manager of Lime and Deliveroo Special Projects, Ashwin oversaw operations, government relations, marketing, business development, and recruiting. He previously also led the Business Insights team at Shopee. Having built cloud kitchens in Singapore and set up warehouses in Germany, his role is constantly evolving. Ashwin holds a BSc with Honours in Biotechnology from the University of Windsor and a MBA at INSEAD. He enjoys working on awesome quick-adoption products to create meaningful work for Indian women from underprivileged backgrounds. Show notes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/ashwin-purushottam You can find our community discussions on the podcast episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/ashwin-purushottam-on-market-launches-vs-general-managers-launch-to-profitability-and-collaborating-with-regulators

Sandra has been working in C-level positions in Fintech companies in Singapore for the last 5+ years. Before that, she worked in private-equity real estate in Malaysia and started her career in a German bank belonging to Europe's biggest cooperative banking network in 2001. She gets her energy from working with smart people towards a shared goal to create an impact and has expertise in founding and operating companies, pivoting when required in order to scale quickly, and hiring capable teams. Sandra completed both her masters and bachelors on a full tuition and lodge scholarship from the Foundation of German Business. She holds a MSc in Arab World Studies (Minor in Islamic Finance and Arabic) from Durham University (of which the first year was spent at the University of Edinburgh). In her free time, she loves to hike in the mountains and read books - preferably both with a Weissbeer. Shownotes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/sandra-ernst

In this episode, founders and VCs shared their predictions for Southeast Asia’s fintech scene for 2021 such as the hype around Fintech in Asia and the up-and-coming models in the industry. If you are interested in joining us on our next episode of SEA Tech Clubhouse, sign up now at https://www.jeremyau.com. Nominations are limited and approved on a rolling basis. You can self-nominate or nominate someone who you think would fit the bill. You can find the episode's transcript in the podcast description. Let's dive right into it. Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/sea-tech-fintech

Eddy Chan is a founding partner of “Indonesia-only” independent early-stage venture capital firm Intudo Ventures, that acts as the Indonesia beachhead strategy for dozens of leading institutions, VC/PE/hedge funds and family offices from the United States, North Asia and Southeast Asia and supports the “digital transformation” strategy of dozens of Indonesian conglomerates. Intudo portfolio companies include Xendit, Halodoc, TaniHub, Kargo, PasarPolis, BeliMobilGue, Yummy Corp., and more. He is a founder and venture investor with expertise in founding and operating companies, venture investing, business development, human resources and corporate finance. Prior to co-founding Intudo Ventures, Eddy invested in and advised startups since the late 1990s, including PayPal, Palantir, and Affirm, founded and operated venture-backed technology companies with operations in Silicon Valley and Asia, practiced corporate/M&A/private equity/venture capital law in Silicon Valley and Asia at Morrison & Foerster LLP and represented companies as an investment banker. Eddy holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a Global Law Scholar, and a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley’sWalter A. Haas School of Business. Shownotes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/eddy-chan You can find our community discussion on the episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/43-eddy-chan-on-indonesia-only-vc-sea-turtles-doing-less-better

In this episode, founders and VCs shared their predictions for Southeast Asia’s travel tech scene for 2021 such as the rise of domestic travel, future of work and transformation of the MICE industry. If you are interested in joining us on our next episode of SEA Tech Clubhouse, sign up now at jeremyau.com. Nominations are limited and approved on a rolling basis. You can self-nominate or nominate someone who you think would fit the bill. You can find the episode's transcript in the podcast description. Let's dive right into it. Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/sea-tech-travel

Brent Liang is a 3x founder ($1M ARR), recording artist, and the co-founder & executive producer of The Quest podcast along with Justin Kan, co-founder of Twitch. Born in New Zealand, raised in Shanghai and currently completing his law studies in Australia, Brent started his entrepreneurial journey at 18 making mini podcasts. He built his first company facilitating bail assistance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth in 2018, through the LawWithoutWalls program. He then co-founded Chance Myanmar, an influencer-led MOOC platform in Myanmar, and grew it to $1M ARR in 1.5 year. In 2019, Brent started his third company Logieq to help founders hire smarter, and led the first Australian team in 10 years to break into the Hult Prize Accelerator program through Dubai, London and New York to meet with President Bill Clinton at the UN Headquarter. Brent is now working alongside Justin Kan on his podcast The Quest to tell the stories of the human journey behind trailblazers such as The Chainsmokers, Mark Cuban, Steve Huffman and Bryce Hall. Here are some of Brent’s thoughts on podcasting, no-code and founder journeys. You can find Brent on LinkedIn and Twitter. Show notes can be found at http://www.jeremyau.com/blog/brent-liang-1

Chris Sirisereepaph is a partner at Saison Capital, a FinTech-focused venture capital fund, that has done especially well in emerging markets like Southeast Asia and India. Their direct investments include Grab, Southeast Asia's largest startup and super-app, as well as ShopBack, Southeast Asia's largest shopping and cashback rewards platform. Their limited partner investments include global funds like Better Tomorrow Ventures, Quona Capital and Antler. This year they invested in companies such as Bukukas, Ula, Repute and Tazapay. Chris grew up mostly in Singapore and graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelors in Engineering. His first job out of school was with Singapore’s civil service in Enterprise Singapore, the agency that oversees policies related to small and medium enterprises. These were the early days of the tech ecosystem starting in South East Asia and where his interest in venture capital started. After Enterprise Singapore, he joined SPH Ventures, a US-SEA media and consumer tech focused fund and also spent time at Grab launching financial services in the Philippines. Chris is also married and a father of a very energetic 4 year old. He never outgrew his childhood hobby of playing computer games and is glad it has now become a cool thing to do. Show notes can be found at http://www.jeremyau.com/blog/chris-sirisereepaph You can find our community discussions on the podcast episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/41-chris-sirise-on-se-asia-vc-dynamics-thought-leadership-via-investment-thesis-sharing-your-secret-sauce

Jan Gliszcynski is a Senior Project Manager and Implementation Leader at IKEA, an MNC of Swedish origin that is famed for its innovative and modernist flat-packed furniture. Jan has over ten years of experience working in the retail and logistics sectors and has led project teams in almost a dozen countries across three continents. He is currently leading a global programme to digitally optimise the workflow of over 10,000 employees and exploring a number of innovative technologies in the logistics sector. Jan graduated with an honors degree in business from De Montfort University and holds a number of professional qualifications. Jan is also the owner and administrator of the ‘Retailers and FMCGs’ groups on Linkedin, and enjoys writing contemporary business articles for Linkedin. Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/jan-glisz

Ryan Chew is a second-generation serial entrepreneur and COO of Tribe, a deep technology innovation, talent & education platform supported by the Singapore government. Tribe’s ecosystem is supported by some of the world's leading organisations including AXA, BMW Group Asia, Citibank, Enterprise Singapore, EY, IBM, IMDA, Intel, MAS, Nielsen, PwC, R3, SGInnovate, Temasek, Ubisoft, WeBank and other partners to build up a neutral and hyperconnected innovation platform. Prior to Tribe Accelerator, Ryan served as Managing Director [Asia Pacific] and member of the Board of Director of Verlocal, a Silicon Valley startup. In 12 months, he grew the company from inception to a team of 10, helping more than 100 SMEs and freelancers turn their passion into their profession. Ryan also spent several years in the startup scene, having founded several startups ranging from gaming apps to utility apps including Fixir, an Uber for car repairs. His previous startup was accelerated by Plug and Play, Mercedes, Singapore Press Holdings, ideasinc. His first gaming mobile app was acquired when he was 21. As a serial entrepreneur, he is on a mission to help build sustainable communities that will enable promising companies to leverage on new frontier technologies. Ryan is also a Commissioned Officer of the Singapore Armed Forces [Military] and recipient of the Commanding Officer Coin. Currently, he holds the rank of Captain in the Singapore Artillery. Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/ryan-chew You can find our community discussions on the podcast episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/ryan-chew-founder-coo-of-tribe-blockchain-accelerator

Patty Smith is the CEO and Co-founder of Managerie, a platform connecting hiring managers to professionals looking to advance their careers on the basis of their professional growth goals and aligned company mission, setting up potential connections for a future hire. Managerie has attracted over 400+ candidates to support the delicate construction of high-performing teams, which balances a genuine human connection with a laser focus on dynamic professional growth. Managerie is advised by Dr. Frances Frei [HBS Professor and Uber, WeWork culture-fixer], Jared Erondu [Head of Design at Lattice], and Alex Roetter [ex-SVP of Engineering at Twitter]. Before founding Managerie, Patty built the Analytics function at Lattice from scratch. During her tenure, she owned all source-of-truth company data while the company grew from $3M to $20M in ARR and supported Series B and Series C fundraises. Lattice supports over 3,670+ People leaders to create processes of continuous performance management through their suite of People Management tools. Prior to working in HR tech, Patty worked in Operations at Apple and in Marketing at Lumosity. She graduated from Harvard Business School in 2016 and Harvard College in 2011 studying Applied Math with a minor in Psychology. In her free time [pre-COVID], Patty enjoys acting in a parody-driven Backyard Theater Troupe in San Francisco, rock climbing, and leading weekly morning workouts. Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/patty-smith

In this episode, founders and VCs shared their predictions for Southeast Asia’s tech scene for 2021 such as what investor sentiment would be like, as well as the industries to watch in their recovery phase. If you are interested in joining us on our next episode of SEA Tech Clubhouse, sign up now at jeremyau.com. Nominations are limited and approved on a rolling basis. You can self-nominate or nominate someone who you think would fit the bill. You can find the episode's transcript in the podcast description. Let's dive right into it. Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/sea-tech-clubhouse-two

Stefano Virgilli is the Marketing Director of Mitigram, the world’s largest marketplace for Trade Finance. Founded in 2015 in Sweden, Mitigram supports network creation and expansion for corporates and financial institutions; comprehensive automated quotation workflows; audit trail, analytics on asset pricing and activity data across multiple trade finance instruments. It currently facilitates more than $2.5Bn worth of transactions per month and has spearheaded over $55Bn transactions, across over 1,000 issuers and more than 100 countries. Before Mitigram, Stefano was the CEO of Pocket Money, a credit startup that aimed to bring innovation in the Lending Industry by creating a global marketplace for lenders and borrowers. He built an online community with members in 25 countries, and managed an investment of US$750,000. He was also the CEO of VOX.sg, a podcast startup that interviews startup Founders and CEOs globally and asks them about the origins of their ventures, achievements, pain points, challenges with fundraising, competition and technology. Stefano has had 20 years of experience as a veteran public speaker and strategic consultant, and specialises in empowering progressive business leaders to maximise their performance and potential of their teams through speaking, mentoring and consulting. He is a six times TEDx speaker and a keynote speaker at over 90 conferences. He has ventured in Europe, Africa, Middle East and Southeast Asia, leading and/or participating close to 30 businesses and startups. Stefano graduated from the Università del Progetto with a Diploma in Communications and Design. He holds over 80 certifications and is the most certified Adobe trainer in the global arena, having trained 14,000 participants in his career. Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/stefano-virgilli You can find our community discussions on the podcast episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/36-stefano-virgilli-on-southeast-asia-vs-europe-culture-cross-border-communication-and-surprisingly-common-touch-points

Laura Huang is an associate professor of business administration in the Organizational Behavior Unit, Harvard Business School. Prior to joining HBS, she was an assistant professor of management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Professor Huang’s research examines early-stage entrepreneurship, and the role of interpersonal relationships and implicit factors in the investment decisions of financiers such as angel investors and VCs. Her work studies the subtle signals and cues that often impact the behavioral perceptions of investors, which can lead to implicit bias in the investing process. Her research has been published in several academic journals including the Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and has also been featured in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, and Nature. She has won a number of awards for her research, and was named one of the 40 Best Business School Professors Under the Age of 40 by Poets & Quants. You can connect with Laura at https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-huang-a3861a/ Shownotes at http://www.jeremyau.com/blog/laura-huang

Jaime Ng is the Founder and CEO of MatchCasts, Asia's first audio podcast advertising and analytics platform for brands. Founded in 2019, Matchcasts is funded by Entrepreneur First [EF], a global talent investor, supporting the world’s most ambitious individuals. EF is backed by some of the world’s best investors, including the founders of LinkedIn, DeepMind and PayPal. MatchCasts makes audio podcast discovery, analytics and advertising simple for brands. It helps brands and podcasters take the pain out of finding the right podcast to create campaigns that resonate with audiences. As of 2020, Matchcasts has 1.6 million podcast titles under its database. Before MatchCasts, Jaime was a technical and data-driven Chief Marketing Officer [CMO] with over 18 years of experience working in the US, UK and SEA. She has built MarTech and AdTech platforms for top companies including MediaCorp and TripAdvisor. Most recently she led both marketing, product and technical teams as CMO in RedMart and NTUC Link. Jaime graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Economics from the National University of Singapore. Aside from her full time career, she also angel invests and writes on a blog . You can find her on her LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaimeng Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/jaime-ng You can find our community discussions on the podcast episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/34-jaime-ng-on-founding-asia-s-first-podcast-advertising-platform-leading-incumbents-vs-startups-catalyzing-change

Su-Ren Neo is currently the Senior Director for Marketing, for Twilio in the Asia Pacific and Japan region, where she is responsible for driving Twilio's marketing and brand strategy. Twilio is an American cloud communications platform, as a service company based in California. Twilio allows software developers to programmatically make and receive phone calls, send and receive text messages, and perform other communication functions using its web service APIs. Su-Ren has over 20 years of experience in leading integrated marketing and brand development across technology, financial services, and telecommunications industries, in global and regional capacities. Prior to Twilio, she drove marketing strategy with companies such as HSBC, Credit Suisse, United Overseas Bank, Sony, Qualcomm, and Singtel. Su-Ren graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Science in Economics. You can connect with her at www.linkedin.com/in/surenneo. Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/su-ren-neo You can find our community discussions on the podcast episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/33-su-ren-neo-on-trusting-your-gut-vs-uncertainty-leading-across-geographies-and-sharpening-your-marketing-play

Bryan is the founder of Asian Hustle Network (AHN), Crushing it in Real Estate (CIIRE), HateIsAVirus, and a venture partner at Outlier Fund. He is passionate about bringing together communities of like-minded individuals through growing AHN to over 65,000 members in a little over 10 months and managing an active CIIRE group of over 2,000 investors. Managing a team of 25 people, Bryan seeks to uplift Asian entrepreneurs around the world with the goal of having better representation in mainstream media and upper corporate and investment ladders. Bryan and his co-founder, Maggie Chui, are also the hosts of the Asian Hustle Network Podcast and community leaders bringing onboard AAPI entrepreneurs to inspire and share their knowledge to provide the foundation for future generations to succeed. Outside of AHN, Bryan is the Director of Strategic Partnerships at StartUpGrind, Berkeley that brings together an ecosystem of VCs, angel investors, and aspiring entrepreneurs. He is also an active angel investor and real estate investor and has been featured on Bloomberg, Business Insider, NextShark CGTV, LA Times, and VoyageLA. You can connect with him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/bvpham28/ Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/bryan-pham

On 29 November, we talked to founders and venture capitalists on emerging technology trends in Southeast Asia. We learnt about which startups to join, emerging country and regional trends, and fresh takes on the latest founder, VC and investment news. Interested in joining us on our next episode of SEA Tech Clubhouse? Sign up on jeremyau.com. Nominations are limited and approved on a rolling basis. You can self-nominate or nominate someone who you think would fit the bill. You can find the episode's transcript in the podcast description. The audio quality for future episodes will be improved. Let’s dive right into it. Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/sea-tech-clubhouse-one You can find our community discussions on the podcast episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/31-southeast-asia-tech-emerging-trends-china-vs-us-as-north-star-startup-building-first-principles

Jimmy Ku is the COO of MixerBox , the premier provider of mobile media applications with over 300 million downloads and users who have spent over 120 billion minutes. MixerBox is backed by investors such as Y Combinator, Initialized Capital, Infinity Ventures, and more. Previously, Jimmy was the General Manager of Fundraise Concierge at Atrium where he helped startup founders with the process of fundraising. He spoke to over a thousand startups during 2019 and helped his clients raise over $200M in funding. Jimmy also has experience as a venture scout at 10X Capital and Grishin Robotics. Jimmy graduated with honours from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business with degrees in Business Administration and Economics and started his career as a management consultant. You can connect with him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmyku/ Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/jimmy-ku

Shaun Hon is currently a Director at Rainmaking, a corporate innovation venture studio that has built, invested and accelerated over 900 ventures globally and has a combined portfolio value of more than USD2 billion. The team has worked with over 100 Fortune 500 leading organisations such as Allianz, Barclays, HSBC, IKEA, Intel, Jaguar Land Rover, Maersk, Visa to deliver technological innovation. The firm has a presence across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the U.S. Prior to joining Rainmaking, Shaun was a Principal at TRIVE, a seed stage Venture Capital Firm based in Singapore. Shaun began his career as an engineer, helping companies such as Rolls-Royce and Royal Dutch Shell develop engineering solutions in industry. He worked in the automotive industry where he led performance design in electric vehicles for clients in multinational organisations such as Amazon, BMW, and Ford Motor Company. Shaun received his Masters in Mechanical Engineering with First Class Honours from Imperial College London on a full scholarship, where he was also appointed Team Principal to lead the design and development of electric race vehicles for Imperial Racing Green. He enjoys playing Trine 4 and Solitaire in his free time. You can connect with him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaunhon/ Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/shaun-hon You can find our community discussions on the podcast episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/29-shaun-hon-on-corporate-venture-building-compounding-relationships-and-skin-in-the-game

Niels Wielaard is the Founder and CEO of Satelligence, a satellite-based forest, agriculture, carbon and water monitoring service provider based in the Netherlands. Founded in 2016, Satelligence has over 60 clients and partners, including Mondelez, Unilever, Bunge, the World Wildlife Fund, Rabobank, Robeco, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and others. Satelligence aims to aid stakeholders in agricultural commodity production in their progress towards sustainability commitments, transparent agricultural sourcing and better investment decisions. Niels has been working in tropical forest landscapes for over 20 years and is also an expert on Monitoring Reporting Verification systems for REDD+. He was an invited member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil Working Group on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and technical advisor to the European Commission on satellite monitoring issues related to the implementation of the EC Renewable Energy Directive. Niels received his MSc in Forestry with a specialization in Remote Sensing from Wageningen University in 2003. A retired competitive swimmer, he enjoys exploring the forest with his kids, cycling, and snowboarding. Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/niels-wielaard You can find our community discussions on the podcast episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/28-niels-wielaard-on-fighting-deforestation-with-satellites-sustainability-via-startups-and-landing-your-first-customer

Peter Gumulia is currently an MBA candidate at Harvard Business School. Previously, he was Chief of Staff and VP of Strategy and Growth at GoPay, one of the largest fintech companies in South East Asia. Growing up in Indonesia, Peter experienced life as a cycle of “school, athletics, homework, and repeat." In his own words, "Discipline played an important role early on in [his] life.” This pushed Peter onto the national golf team when he was only sixteen years old. He then went on to pursue his undergraduate degree at Georgia Institute of Technology, and after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering with the highest honors, Peter joined Bain & Co as a management consultant for two years in the US, soon after which he joined GoPay. In the future, Peter aspires to build an online English learning platform in his home country. He hopes that this platform can unleash access to high-quality, after school programs for young Indonesians, enabling and empowering them to effectively contribute to the increasingly global economy. He says “My hope is that, in my own tiny way, I can help leapfrog Indonesia to an internationally competitive talent hub.” You can connect with him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/petergumulia/ Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/peter-gumulia

Chua Ee Chien is the owner of Jekyll & Hyde, one of Singapore's premier cocktail bars. The bar has been featured in various publications such as Channel NewsAsia, The Business Times and The Straits Times. He is also currently a Manager in the Investments & New Business team of Grab where he works on special projects for the Grab Financial Group. Ee Chien was previously the Head of Vehicle Solutions for Uber Singapore, driving the acquisition and retention of drivers. He started his career as an analyst, trading equity derivatives at Goldman Sachs. Ee Chien has a B.A. in Communications from Brigham Young University. He is passionate about food, finance, technology and travel and is fascinated by how the four subjects can blend and weave themselves with one another in this interconnected world. You can connect with him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/eechienchua Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/chuaeechien You can find community discussions on this episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/26-chua-ee-chien-on-f-b-overcoming-the-pandemic-building-your-side-hustle-and-rolling-with-the-punches

Shawn Low is a co-founder at Better.com and part of the core leadership that built and integrated home ownership tech company (mortgage, real estate, insurance) from zero to over 500 million in annual revenues. Since its inception, Better has originated over 15 billion in loans and made home ownership more accessible for thousands of Americans. Better.com is backed by a story investor group, including Goldman Sachs, KPCB, Ping An,AmEx, Ally Bank and Citigroup. Better has been named to Forbes FinTech 50, CNBC Disruptor 50, and is listed by both Fortune and Crains as the best place to work. Shawn recently began the transition out of Better to be closer to family in Singapore, and he currently serves as an advisor to the executive team. Over the years, he has worn many hats at Better. In his immediate prior role as head of operations, he oversaw 10x revenue growth in two years, while simultaneously improving margins and profitability. He was responsible for the backbone of Better's global workforce comprising 2,500 plus professionals across Better Mortgage, which does sales and loan fulfillment, Better Real Estate, offshore services, and business operations and strategy. Outside of Better, Shawn is a co-founder of the Black Belt Project, a community initiative that trains kids at the Vatsalya Orphanage in India into award-winning karate black belts. He had also previously co-founded Audible Hearts, a peer to peer crisis support platform for use in Singapore. In his free time, Shawn can be found playing the New York Squash League, teaching Cantonese classes in Chinatown and cooking Singapore and delicacies in his kitchen. Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/shawn-low You can find our community discussions on the podcast episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/25-shawn-low-on-cofounding-a-digital-mortgage-unicorn-harnessing-leadership-and-life-s-non-negotiables

Haresh Tilani is a Singaporean writer, director, actor, and cofounder of Ministry of Funny, one of Singapore's top comedy brands. To date his videos have been viewed more than 26 million times and have received coverage by mainstream media around the world. He was talent scouted for the starring role in HBO's first comedy in Asia, "Sent", as Lead Actor and Associate Producer. Haresh has also co-created, co-wrote and starred in series produced for HOOQ and MediaCorp, earning awards from the Asia-wide Filmmakers Guild and the Asian Academy Creative Awards. Prior to becoming a content producer, Haresh was part of the founding team of the airlines, Scoot, and was its Head of e-Commerce and Distribution. Haresh is currently a Founder-in-Residence of the eighth cohort of Entrepreneur First (E F). EF is the world's leading talent investor and has created over 200 companies and raised more than 500 million in investments. Haresh graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a double degree in Mechanical Engineering and Entrepreneurship. In his free time, he goes for long runs around Singapore. You can connect with him at www.linkedin.com/in/hareshtilani Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/haresh-tilani You can find community discussions on this episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/24-haresh-tilani-on-breaking-barriers-in-the-media-industry-adapting-content-production-in-a-pandemic-and-engaging-socio-political-discourse

Bhargav Sosale is the cofounder of Medios Technologies, a startup building AI tools for screening retinal conditions. It deploys its algorithms on portable retinal cameras that every general practitioner can afford. Using Artificial Intelligence to analyse images of the human eye, Medios is able to safely detect Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) in its earliest stages to prevent vision loss in patients, and generate instant results for a fundus photo examination. Founded in 2017 at Entrepreneur First and backed by SG Innovate, Medios has begun working with leading hospitals to test their software. Today, Medios is being used by doctors and community health programs across India, and has screened over 30k+ patients. In 2019, Medios was acquired by Remidio Innovative Solutions, a leading ophthalmic device company based out of India. Previously, Bhargav co-founded Lisn, a music streaming app that provides users with a collaborative music streaming and listening experience in real-time. At its peak, Lisn trended on Product Hunt, was getting over a 1000 downloads a week, had over 120k songs streamed, and the app was used by over 10,000 users. Bhargav has also published peer-reviewed machine learning research in Springer, and has presented his research at the Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems [AAMAS] conference in Europe. He has graduated with a degree in Computer Science from Nanyang Technological University. Shownotes at http://www.jeremyau.com/blog/bhargav-sosale You can find our community discussions on the podcast episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/23-bhargav-sosale-on-eradicating-avoidable-blindness-with-tech-winning-against-google-s-medical-ai-ai-s-exponential-growth

Benjamina Bollag is the founder and CEO of HigherSteaks, a London-based food technology startup that uses state-of-the-art culture techniques to grow meat products from sample animal cells. Founded in 2017, HigherSteaks has already begun to make its mark on the agritech industry with multiple features in Forbes, Business Weekly and Yahoo Finance. Previously, Benjamina co-founded a London-based B2B electronics company selling to FTSE500 companies. Benjamina has also worked at Israeli 3D printing company, Stratasys, at the digital marketing division of PepsiCo's joint venture with Strauss and was the lead developer of an ed-tech startup. Benjamina graduated from Imperial College London with a masters in chemical engineering, where she completed a project focusing on the design of a peptide plant, conducting a lab based research on synthesis and liquid exfoliation of graphitic carbon nitride. In her spare time, she enjoys going on relaxing walks and reading. You can connect with her at https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminabollag/ Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/benjamina-bollag

Jeffrey Andika is CEO & Co-Founder of OtoSpector, Indonesia’s #1 online platform for used cars inspection, certifications and warranties. In one of the world’s largest car markets, OtoSpector has conducted the most retail and B2B vehicle inspections, and is currently building the largest dealer network of certified used cars with warranty protections. Their strategy is similar to rapid-growth startups like SureSale in the US and AutoInspekt in India, which is to organize and standardize independent dealers via the certification of their inventory to increase profitability and customer experience. They are backed by Plug and Play Tech Center, an accelerator and early stage investor headquartered in Silicon Valley, with portfolio companies such as Google, Paypal and Dropbox. Previously, Jeffrey spent five years consulting for BlackBox Software and SunGard Consulting Services in Dallas. Jeffrey holds Bachelors of Business Administration & Information Systems from the University of Texas at Austin. You can connect with him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jandika/ Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/jeffrey-andika You can find our community discussions on this episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/21-jeffrey-andika-on-building-indonesia-s-largest-car-inspection-platform-seizing-opportunity-in-untapped-markets-securing-tech-talent-in-southeast-asiaproduction-in-a-pandemic-and-engaging-socio-political-discourse

Pranjal Kanwar headed international growth at Xto10X, a company founded by prominent entrepreneurs, Binny Bansal, former cofounder and CEO of the unicorn Flipkart, and Saikiran Krishnamurthy, former McKinsey senior partner and Ekart executive. Xto10X helps startups transform initial business momentum into at-scale impact and turns them into world class organizations. Previously, Pranjal co-founded Secret Wish, an enterprise providing women in India's Tier 2 and 3 cities with quality intimate-wear. She also served as CEO of Carmudi, one of Asia's largest auto portals focused primarily on Indonesia, Philippines, and Sri Lanka. In the span of several years, Pranjal turned a stagnating company into a flourishing venture by doubling its initial revenue and raising significant capital and sold the business in early 2020. Her educational background includes an MBA from INSEAD and an undergraduate degree in business from the University of Delhi. You can follow her at https://www.linkedin.com/in/pranjal-kanwar-06153043 Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/pranjal-kanwar

Dr. Sandhya Sriram is the CEO and cofounder of Shiok Meats, a cell-based clean meat company in Singapore. Their mission is to bring delicious, clean and healthy seafood and meats by harvesting from cells instead of animals. Shiok Meats brings cell-based crustacean meats like shrimp, crab, and lobster to your table. They have been featured by The Economist, Reuters, Forbes, World Economic Forum, TechCrunch, Channel NewsAsia, TechinAsia, and Nas Daily. Their investors include Y Combinator, Big Idea Ventures, Entrepreneur First, Monde Nissin, Lionheart Ventures, Aera VC, Beyond Impact, and Boom Capital. Dr. Sandhya is also the Director & Founder of SciGlo, an edtech and event management company that serves as a one-stop solution for scientists and students globally. She is also the Cofounder of Biotechin.Asia, a virtual newsroom that covers simplified and curated research and insights for all stakeholders in the biotech and healthcare ecosystem. She had previously worked as the Senior Programme and Business Development Manager & Senior Research Fellow for the Agency for Science, Technology and Research [A*STAR]. Dr. Sandhya earned her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at the Nanyang Technological University [NTU]. Her thesis from NTU explored the role of myostatin in oxidative stress in skeletal muscle. She also graduated with First Class Honors twice from the University of Madras with a Master's Degree in Biotechnology and a Bachelor's Degree in Microbiology. Her work has been featured on Forbes Women in Tech and TEDx conferences. In her free time, she writes blog posts for Nature Biotechology, and produces influencer content at Mogul. You can follow her at www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyasriram/. Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/sandhya-sriram You can find our community discussions on the podcast episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/19-sandhya-sriram-ceo-and-cofounder-of-shiok-meats

The Insider's Guide to Venture Capital is a podcast series hosted by Chia Jeng Yang, Venture Capitalist, and myself, Jeremy Au, a serial exited Founder. Chia is a Principal at Saison Capital, a leading FinTech-focused venture capital fund, who has done especially well in emerging markets like Southeast Asia and India. Their direct investments include Grab, Southeast Asia's largest startup and super-app, as well as ShopBack, Southeast Asia's largest shopping and cashback rewards platform. Their limited partner investments include some of the top-performing funds in Southeast Asia, like East Ventures and Beenext, as well as global funds like Quona Capital and Antler. Previously he was the fifth employee for Antler, the leading global pre-team venture builder. He also both invested and launched markets for them in Europe. He was also at Rocket Internet where he helped build out an eCommerce company in Pakistan and Sri Lanka that was bought by Alibaba. On the side, he is cofounder of Shaper Impact Capital, a 60-person platform that helps early stage startups with an impact connect with resources they need for the next stage of growth. His educational background includes a law undergraduate degree from Cambridge and will be doing his Harvard MBA in the future. He likes indie music, hiking and writes about venture capital at his website, which can be found at www.chiajy.com. Find the show notes and transcript at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/insider-vc-one You can find our community discussions on this episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/18-insider-s-guide-to-vc-building-venture-backable-startups-raising-capital-in-a-downturn-and-increasing-your-valuation

Anthea Ong is the former Nominated Member of Parliament for the 13th Parliament of Singapore. In a term as NMP between 2018 and 2020, she spoke on behalf of youth activists and sex workers, proposed a national suicide prevention strategy, conducted a public consultation on the mental health landscape, made recommendations for closing our digital divide, and advocated for greater work injury compensation and other forms of support for migrant workers. Anthea is also a full-time social entrepreneur, having founded and co-created several ground-up initiatives and impact businesses, including Welcome in My Backyard, Hush TeaBar, the WorkWell Leaders Workgroup, A Good Space, Playground of Joy, and Project Yoga-on-Wheels. She also served as the president of the Women's Initiative for Ageing Successfully [WINGS] from 2010 to 2017, which helps women embrace aging with confidence. She was the founding board member of Daughters of Tomorrow, a registered charity that provides individualized coaching to vulnerable women. Prior to social entrepreneurship, Anthea held leadership roles with multinational organizations, including Pearson, New York Institute of Finance, The Terrapinn Group, and United Overseas Bank [UOB], where she expanded and solidified market leadership positions. She founded the Singapore-based education and technology consultancy Knowledge Director Group, which advised governments in developed economies on education, transformation and innovation strategies, in addition to being an inventor for an award-winning technology application. Most recently, she was the regional managing director with Omega Performance Incorporated, a strategy consulting group for banks and financial institutions based in Washington, D.C., where she double-hatted as the Asian Lead of the Global Corporate Responsibility board for its parent company, Informa. She is a published author for the anthology "My Story, My Life", by National Library Singapore, and author of "50 Shades of Love", a unique wood-cover book memoir with life coaching questions and trees. Anthea graduated from the National University of Singapore, with a Bachelor's in Business Administration, Finance, and Marketing. She is also a professional certified coach with the International Coach Federation, and has served over 50 clients from all around the world. She is also a certified yoga instructor and Reiki practitioner, and an avid traveler to off-beaten tracks like Antarctica, Mount Everest Base Camp and Siberia. You can find the shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/anthea-ong You can find our community discussion on the podcast episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/17-anthea-ong-former-nominated-member-of-parliament-of-the-13th-parliament-of-singapore

Saurabh Chauhan is a Rocket Internet veteran who has led two of the portfolio ventures in Asia. As Managing Director, he built and launched Daraz Sri Lanka from zero to over sixty employees and achieved 3X growth in gross merchandise value every year in this frontier market in partnership with strategic brands, such as Unilever and Hutch. Daraz Group was one of the fastest growing e-commerce marketplaces across five countries in APAC and was acquired by Alibaba in 2018 for an estimated $200 million. More recently, Saurabh led a turnaround for Rocket Internet's Vaniday, a beauty services platform where he successfully raised a seven-digit bridge funding from leading European investors and pivoted the business towards a SaaS enabled marketplace. Prior to Rocket Internet, he worked in management consulting at McKinsey & Company across India, U.S, Australia and Dubai. He is also a mentor at Iterative VC - a YC- Combinator style accelerator focused exclusively on Southeast Asia, where he advises startups on international expansion and scaling marketplace commercials and operations. Saurabh completed his Bachelor's in Business from S.S College of Business Studies, Delhi University and cleared level II of the Chartered Financial Analyst program. His hobbies are trekking, reading and gaming. You can connect with him at Linkedin in our shownotes at linkedin.com/in/saurabh-chauhan You can find the shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/saurabh-chauhan You can find our community discussions on this episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/16-saurabh-chauh-managing-director-of-daraz-sri-lanka

Frederick Daso is a LinkedIn Top Voice and has written 100 startup profiles for Forbes.com. He has profiled startups ranging across enterprise tech, eSports, Fintech, HRTech and EdTech. These startups are backed by renowned VCs such as Y-Combinator, 500 Startups, Accel and Craft Ventures. He has over 350,000 followers on LinkedIn and his LinkedIn newsletter, The Startup Conversation, has over 100,000 subscribers. Frederick is a full-time aerospace engineer at Boeing in the Engineering Career Foundation Program. He was previously a Venture Fellow at Rough Draft Ventures, General Catalyst’s student-led team funding student entrepreneurs in tech, and Castor Ventures, a smart, simple fund for MIT alumni to add venture capital to their portfolio, while investing in MIT-alumni led companies. Frederick Daso has completed his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Aerospace Engineering from MIT and has been admitted into Harvard Business School's 2+2 program. In his spare time, he can be found playing video games and spending time with his family. You can follow him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/frederickdaso/ and connect with him at [email protected]. Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/frederick-daso You can find our community discussions on this episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/15-frederick-daso-senior-contributor-forbes-and-software-engineer-boeing

Nisarg Shah is the cofounder and CEO of Affable.ai. Founded in 2017, Affable.ai is a Singapore based startup leveraging artificial intelligence to run highly effective influencer marketing campaigns. Their Machine Learning and platform helps brands like Shopee, Huawei, and Chanel engage with the most authentic and relevant influencers. Affable is backed by Decacorn Capital, SGInnovate, Entrepreneur First and strategic angels from organizations like Google and Microsoft. Affable is also the first EF startup to be funded by Startup Singapore Equity scheme, which stimulates and accelerates private investments into local startups with intellectual property and global market potential. Before starting Affable, Nisarg built scalable automation systems at Goldman Sachs while working with their technology department in Bangalore. He also previously founded another company, Visualive, which was an AR platform to help consumers visualise 3D product models in their surroundings before buying them online. Nisarg graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, majoring in Electrical Engineering and minoring in Computer Science and Management Studies. In his spare time, he researches and writes for his highly-subscribed newsletter about Unique Business Models, a short weekly summary of how different companies like Duolingo , Unsplash and Robinhood actually generate revenue. You can follow him at www.linkedin.com/in/nisarg259/ and his newsletter is at bit.ly/ubm-ss. These links are in the show notes. Shownotes are found on https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/nisarg-shah You can find our community discussions on the podcast episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/14-nisarg-shah-cofounder-ceo-of-affable-ai

Jeremy reflects on his journey from personal loss in high school, studying SATs in the army, to securing a spot at UC Berkeley and the experiences there that culminated in his decision to attend Harvard Business School. He also shares his most formative lessons such as meeting Clayton Christensen, the professor who developed the theory of disruptive innovation, consulting for a large Turkish retail brand as part of his FIELD program and on-campus life. You can find the show notes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/jeremy-mba-pt1 You can find our community discussions for this episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/13-jeremy-au-harvard-mba-class-of-2017

Looi Qin En is the co-founder and former COO of Glints. Founded in 2013, Glints is now the number one tech-enabled recruitment platform in Asia for employers to build successful teams. Their mission is to help all people and organizations to realize their full human potential. They were the youngest founders to have raised venture capital in Southeast Asia. They are backed by VC firms such as Monk's Hill Ventures, 500 Startups, Wavemaker Partners, Golden Equator Capital, MindWorks Ventures, Fresco Capital and Singapore Press Holdings. They have been featured on Forbes, Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Yahoo News, The Straits Times, Business Times, Today, Tech in Asia, e27 and Channel News Asia. Qin En led people operations and grew the user community from zero to 250,000 across Singapore and Indonesia, managed enterprise accounts and led the internal human capital strategy. At the age of 15, he wrote his first research paper on predicting personality through social gaming and went on to publish 12 more human-computer interaction papers in international peer-reviewed conferences and journals. He fostered student entrepreneurship as a partner with Dorm Room Fund, associate lecturer at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Entrepreneur In Residence at Entrepreneur First and advisor to the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Singapore Management University. He has worked in management consulting at Boston Consulting Group, founded and sold the web design agency Half Grand and has been a brand strategist at Training Edge International. Qin En graduated with distinction in two years from Stanford University, majoring in Management Science and Engineering. He was honored with Forbes 30 under 30 and Entrepreneurs 27 under 27. His hobbies are high intensity cardio and watching action movies. You can follow him at his social media profile online in our show notes. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/looiqinen) Show notes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/looi-qin-en You can find our community discussions on the podcast episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/12-looi-qin-en-co-founder-and-former-coo-of-glints

Successful founders and investors have shared their reflections in other episodes. This podcast is a time capsule from 2018 where I shared my personal journey with GroundBreakers on tackling America's childcare shortage and founding CozyKin, an early education platform for new and expecting parents. We grew rapidly across Boston and New York and raised $8 million of venture capital funding from pre-seed to Series A. CozyKin was eventually acquired by Higher Ground, a global education leader that runs Montessori-inspired education services across USA, Europe, and China. Show notes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/groundbreakers-jeremyau You can find our community discussions for this episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/11-jeremy-au-ceo-co-founder-of-cozykin

Professor Randy Howard Katz, the Vice Chancellor for Research at UC Berkeley and the United Micro Electronics Corporation Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. He is a pioneer who helped develop many of the wireless tools and fast, reliable, computer storage, we take for granted today. Katz is well known in the computer industry for his development of RAID computer storage systems in the 1980s with Professor Emeritus David Patterson, and then graduate student Garth Gibson. Short for Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks, RAID storage today is a $25 billion per year industry sector that allows the storage of data in multiple places across an array of many small, parallel computers for quick retrieval and protection against loss or corruption of the data. He is also known as the scientist who brought the nascent internet to the White House. In the 1990s, he set up the email accounts of former President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, and built the original whitehouse.gov site, which has been the main portal into executive brunch ever since. Katz has also helped shepherd other innovations into common usage, wireless computing, wide area wireless networks for mobile devices, cloud-based applications and cloud storage and ways of managing and protecting computer networks. He currently is involved with the RISElab – Real-time Intelligent Secure Execution — where he collaborates on projects that use machine learning to control complex infrastructures like buildings, energy, and transportation systems. He is focused on exploiting "serverless computing", a way to harness lightweight, low cost, stateless virtual machine images typically found in cloud computing environments to perform long-running data-intensive computations. He has published over 250 referee technical papers, book chapters, and books. His textbook "Contemporary Logic Design" has sold over 85,000 copies and has been used at over 200 colleges and universities. He has supervised 43 Master theses and 31 Ph.D. dissertations (including one ACM Dissertation award winner and eight women) and leads the research team of over ten graduate students, technical staff and academic visitors. His recognitions include thirteen best paper awards (including one "Test of Time" Paper Award, and one selected for a 50 year retrospective on IEEE Communications publications), three best presentation awards, the Outstanding Alumni Award of the UCB Computer Science Division, the CRA Outstanding Service Award, the Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award, the Air Force Exceptional Civilian Service Decoration, the IEEE Reynolds Johnson Information Storage Award, the ASEE Frederic E. Terman Award, and the ACM Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award. Katz has also had a profound impact on engineering education at Berkeley, and has been recognized for his dynamic teaching and mentoring with numerous honors, including the campus's distinguished Teaching Award. He has been a frequent instructor in the freshman seminar program, teaching courses on the history of communications technologies. Katz is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has also been inducted into the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame. He was awarded the IEEE James H. Mulligan, Jr. Education Medal in 2010. He received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University, and his Master and Ph.D. degrees from UC Berkeley, all in computer science. Katz lives in San Francisco with his wife, psychologist Zoi Eliou and his two rescue dogs, Benji and Lulu. He is an avid Giants fan and amateur actor and playwright, a voracious reader of fiction and history and enjoys board games. Show transcript: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/randy-katz

Andrew Ive is the Founder & Managing General Partner at Big Idea Ventures. Big Idea Ventures is a hybrid venture firm with a VC arm and accelerator program. It runs the $50M New Protein Fund, which is the world’s first and largest plant-based accelerator fund. The fund is backed by giants like Tyson Foods and Temasek, the Singaporean government’s VC arm. They focus heavily on plant-based protein startups and 10 percent of their money is allocated for cell-based endeavors. They have launched physical accelerator programs in New York City and Singapore. They aim to back over 100 companies. Their first investment was the cultured shrimp company Shiok Meats. Shiok Meats is based in Singapore and has already done successful taste tests of its minced alternative “shrimp” in dumpling form. They have been featured on The Economist, the World Economic Forum and Techcrunch. Andrew is focused on supporting entrepreneurs to solve the world's biggest challenges. He formerly launched and grew businesses at Procter & Gamble. While in his dorm room at Harvard Business School, he took a new product idea, raised angel funds, established a manufacturing facility in China as well as a sales force to sell his first solo product line into major US retailers. In his second Silicon Valley based company Open Shelf, Andrew raised $20M+ from VCs to focus on the data challenge between retailers and their vendors. That company was also acquired. Andrew has focused on innovation, developing high-growth business opportunities and serving as a business advisor in multiple verticals. He served on the Board of the Small Business Council of the Department of Trade and Industry advising the UK Government on entrepreneurship and high growth companies, the National Science Foundation on startup grant awards, the Investment Task Force and the Center for Policy Studies, and the UK think tank Small Business Council. He also served on the board of Tufts University’s School of Nutrition. Andrew is also an author and currently has a bestselling book, ‘Choose Your Startup: Funding Your Company’ in the startups and entrepreneurial categories on Amazon. He holds a BSc from the University of London and an MBA from Harvard Business School. His first product design, the X-IT Ladder, is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. He is passionate about climate change, animal welfare and sustainability. His favorite hobby is writing and has ten books that he’s working on. You can find him on Twitter @TheFundingGuru Shownotes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/andrew-ive You can find our community discussions on the podcast episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/10-andrew-ive-founder-managing-general-partner-big-idea-ventures

Nurul Jihadah Hussain is the Founder of The Codette Project. Operating since 2015, The Codette Project is a nonprofit ground-up initiative to improve access and opportunities for minority & Muslim women in technology. The Codette Project runs classes, workshops, panels, networking sessions and social events regularly, including Singapore’s only women's hackathon. She wants to create better communities, networks and opportunities, and to diversify what success means in society – to prove that success can look like anyone. She is one of 115 global community leaders selected into Facebook's inaugural Community Leadership Programme. Nurul also sits on the Gender Advisory Panel for Accelerating Asia Ventures, an independent and award-winning startup accelerator in Singapore. She has led on multiple steering committees at Yayasan Mendaki, the leading self-help group in Singapore uplifting the Malay & Muslim community’s resilience, education and adaptability. She is the Chairperson leading a team of experienced founders to help create better ecosystems and support for minority & Muslim entrepreneurs. She had previously been on the steering committees for CLF Labs, a platform for youth in organizations to adopt intrapreneurship, as well as Digital Transformation for the the Malay Muslim voluntary sector. Nurul graduated with an honors Master of Arts in Arabic and Politics from The University of Edinburgh and a Master of Business Administration from Singapore Management University. She has worked in higher education, Japan and Singapore’s banking system. Her hobbies are reading fiction, cooking and crochet. You can support her work by going to www.thecodetteproject.com Show notes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/nurul-hussain You can find our community discussions for this episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/9-nurul-hussain-founder-of-the-codette-project

Hsu Ken Ooi is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Iterative. Iterative is a Y Combinator-style accelerator focused exclusively on Southeast Asia. In their latest batch, they chose the top 9 companies out of over 300 startup applicants. The domains range across proptech, fintech, direct to consumer and logistics. In 2009, he co-founded Decide.com with Hsu Han Ooi, Brian Ma and Ian Ma. Decide.com was an early machine learning company that predicted the future price of consumer goods. It raised over $16M total funding and was acquired by eBay in 2013. Since then, his other tech executive roles include being the Chief Product Officer at Workmate, an on-demand blue collar staffing platform in Southeast Asia that has raised over $10M total funding. He was formerly VP of Product at Weave. Weave was a platform that delivered a personalized professional introduction every week and was part of the YC summer batch of 2014. Hsu Ken has a Bachelors of Science in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Washington. His hobbies are books, cooking, and football. You can find him on Twitter at @hsukenooi. You can find the show notes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/hsu-ken-ooi You can find our community discussions for this episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/8-hsu-ken-ooi-co-founder-managing-partner-iterative

Amir Salihefendić is the founder and CEO of Doist, the remote-first company behind the productivity app Todoist and Twist, a team communication app. Todoist keeps track of all your tasks, projects, and goals in one beautifully simple place. It syncs across all your devices and integrates with all your favorite apps. This app is for people who need less chaos and more peace-of-mind. Todoist has helped millions of people complete over 1.5 billion tasks in 150+ million projects. Todoist is the top-ranked productivity app. It is Google Play’s “Editor’s Choice” with 4.7 stars across 187K+ reviews. It is on the Apple store as a featured app with 4.8 stars across 30K+ reviews. The Verge reviewed Todoist as 9/10 and “The best to-do list app right now”. Doist is a remote-first team with 75 employees collaborating across 18 timezones and over 20 different countries. Doist has published the leading guides and best practices for starting, managing, and scaling a remote team from the world’s most successful distributed companies. He graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science at Aarhus University. He was born in Bosnia, grew up in Denmark and is currently splitting his time across Barcelona, Spain and Santiago, Chile. He is a dad of two and enjoys football and surfing. He speaks Bosnian, Danish, English and Spanish. Find the show transcript at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/amir-salihefendic You can find our community discussions for this episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/7-amir-salihefendic-founder-and-ceo-of-doist

"When you have a personal mission in your life and you let it shine in a way that you live and breathe it, people are attracted to it. People see the dedication and the passion, and they want to help in many ways."​ - Geoffrey See Geoffrey See is the founder and chairman of Choson Exchange. Over the past 12 years, he built the leading grassroots-led organization driving economic change in North Korea. He has trained over 2000 North Koreans in entrepreneurship, economic policy and law. He has also distributed teaching materials to over 10,000 North Koreans. His work has introduced a generation of North Koreans to international practices. He has also contributed to enterprise reform, the establishment of special economic zones, and the reforming of legal property rights. Geoffrey also advises the South Korean government on the Kaesong Industrial Complex, a joint manufacturing zone, collaboratively built and manage by North and South Korea. His work has been written up as a Harvard Business School case study, which he helps teach to Harvard MBAs in the Global Capitalism class by Professor Sophus Reinert. He has survived two near-death experiences in his work in North Korea. Geoffrey is a Kauffman Fellow in venture capital. He is also passionate about technologies for financial inclusion and data. He co-founded CirCO, the leading co-working space business in Vietnam. He also helped establish HGX, a securities exchange in Singapore built on blockchain technology. Most recently he is at Trusting Social, providing identity solutions for the unbanked in emerging markets, through AI and facial recognition technologies. He also worked as a management consultant at Bain & Co. in Boston on big data retail and private equity. Geoffrey graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Economics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He also did and completed a Master of Arts in East Asian studies at Yale University. He was also an exchange student at Tsinghua University. On the side, he enjoys current affairs, running and traveling. You can follow him on Twitter @Geoffrey_See. Find the show notes and transcript at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/geoffrey-see You can find our community discussions for this episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/5-geoffrey-see-founder-and-chairman-of-choson-exchange

Elaine Truong is the first product technical product manager at Facebook Singapore. Facebook connects 241 million Southeast Asians and one interesting difference is that 94% use Facebook through mobile. She's worked on connecting people in developing countries to the internet, 5G and virtual reality as well as the latest products by Facebook and Instagram. Elaine mentors startups around the world on product management and development for the Facebook Accelerator program. She is also on the Products A to Z committee at Grace Hopper Conference and is an advisor at #BuiltByGirls. She had previously launched Facebook's telecom infrastructure project and the associated Community Labs globally in partnership with Nokia, Intel, and telcos to promote open source hardware for telecom infrastructure solutions. Elaine is also an active tech community builder and an investor in startups and venture capital funds. She is on the board of SoGal Foundation, the largest community for over 100,000 female founders and investors across 50 chapters around the world. SoGal focuses on supporting diverse founders and funders to close the diversity gap in entrepreneurship and venture capital. She shared her product learnings with entrepreneurs in Cuba, Indonesia, Mexico, UK, and Singapore. She has cofounded Sprouts, consultancy to coach Singaporean startups on regional expansion to Southeast Asia. Recently, she coached Vouch.sg, a local Singaporean startup that builds localized chatbots for Southeast Asia. Prior to Facebook, she advised an IIT Bombay team that invented a device that costs less than 1 USD to eliminate smoke emissions from firewood cookstoves. It offers increased energy efficiency, reduced cooking time, and lowers harmful emissions. The pilot projects in Mumbai distributed over 2000 units. The team was a semifinalist at the DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge, featured as a Next Generation Startup by Inc. Magazine and was a Kairos Society Top 50 company in 2014. Elaine is a member of the selective Sandbox community, a mobile society of trailblazers. They unlock human potential by bridging geographies and disciplines to create opportunities for meaningful conversation, collaboration, and discovery. She is also a global fellow at Kairos, a community that builds and funds companies to make life more affordable. They focus on critical life stages where old industries have failed to meet the needs of everyday individuals around the world. Elaine was born and bred in Los Angeles. She has a Bachelor of Science in Materials Engineering at UCLA, the University of California: Los Angeles. She enjoys traveling, reading, and learning Mandarin. Read the show notes and transcript here at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/elaine-truong You can find our community discussions for this episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/4-elaine-truong-product-technical-program-manager-facebook

Vardhan Kapoor is the Business Strategy Manager for Deliveroo, overseeing the development and deployment of the organization's strategy across Singapore. He also co-founded the company's Global Sustainability Committee. He is passionate about seeing the technology industry evolve in an increasingly sustainable manner. For those in the know, Deliveroo is a food technology company present in 13 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Asia. It was the Financial Times fastest-growing European company at 2017 and 2018 and is one of Europe's highest valued startups. Deliveroo in Singapore has over $45 million of revenue, 6,000 writers and 4,000 restaurant partners as of December 2018. He’s also a mentor at Big Idea Ventures, a hybrid venture fund that invests in and accelerates alternative protein companies. The fund has raised over $50 million and invested in over a dozen startups across New York and Singapore. He also advises startups in the sustainability and social impact space. Prior to Deliveroo, he worked in management consulting and Monitor Deloitte across the UK, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Russia. He holds a Master of Science in Law and Accounting and is a Bachelor of Arts in Law and Anthropology from the London School of Economics. He is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and International Institute of Communications Young Leader. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts in the UK. In his free time, he enjoys reading, writing, and cycling. For the show notes and transcript, go to https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/vardhan-kapoor You can find our community discussions for this episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/3-vardhan-kapoor-head-of-strategy-deliveroo

Chia is a Principal at Saison Capital, a leading FinTech-focused venture capital fund, who has done especially well in emerging markets like Southeast Asia and India. Their direct investments include Grab, Southeast Asia's largest startup and super-app, as well as ShopBack, Southeast Asia's largest shopping and cashback rewards platform. Their limited partner investments include some of the top-performing funds in Southeast Asia, like East Ventures and Beenext, as well as global funds like Quona Capital and Antler. Previously he was the fifth employee for Antler, the leading global pre-team venture builder. He also both invested and launched markets for them in Europe. He was also at Rocket Internet where he helped build out an eCommerce company in Pakistan and Sri Lanka that was bought by Alibaba. On the side, he is cofounder of Shaper Impact Capital, a 60-person platform that helps early stage startups with an impact connect with resources they need for the next stage of growth. He runs good-admissions, a Harvard Business School admissions advice platform where all proceeds go to charity. He also angel invests in marketplace and consumer startups in emerging markets like Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Egypt. His educational background includes a law undergraduate degree from Cambridge and will be doing his Harvard MBA in the future. He likes indie music, hiking and writes about venture capital at his website, which can be found at www.chiajy.com. Find the show notes and transcript at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/chia-jeng-yang You can find our community discussions for this episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/2-chia-jeng-yang-principal-at-saison-capital

Kwok Jia Chuan currently leads payment product policies for Google. Previously, he was Deputy Director in the Singapore government's digital transformation office. He led a product team working on digital payment and identity products. He also led the project for PayNow, one of the world's first government-created peer-to-peer payment systems. He led its national adoption from 0% to over 75% in two years. PayNow now transacts over $12 billion annually. Today, Singaporeans now commonly say "I'll PayNow You," just like how Americans say, "I'll Venmo you" or " I'll PayPal you." He also happens to be a graduate of the London School of Economics and MIT, and is recognized as a World Economic Forum Global Shaper. With Jeremy Au, he co-founded Conjunct Consulting, Asia's leading social impact consulting platform, that has delivered services worth millions of dollars. You can find the show notes and the transcript at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/kwok-jia-chuan You can find the community discussion on our podcast episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/1-kwok-jia-chuan-global-lead-payments-product-policy-at-google