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

Tanya’s 15-year legal career at some of the world’s largest law firms has honed her ability to influence and collaborate with people from diverse disciplines and backgrounds, Tanya spent 7 years in Real Estate legal teams before moving into legal team management. Tanya spent 8 years in Corporate M&A at both Simmons & Simmons and Norton Rose Fulbright in London. Tanya founded the Ladies Investment Club in Singapore and grew a team of 40 female investors which enabled female investors to build their investment portfolio and credentials, while providing hard to access funding to female founders. Tanya went on to launch a venture capital fund for women entrepreneurs and during her time at the fund, discovered the need for both more women investors and women entrepreneurs to be supported. Tanya believes in tapping into the largely untapped capital held by women through education and empowerment to both increase wealth held by women and to drive more capital towards diverse founders. Sophia was built to facilitate both of these things through it’s platform. Outside of Sophia, Tanya is an avid cyclist and yoga enthusiast. Tanya also advises two start ups and mentors young founders. Show notes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/tanya-rolfe

Dr. Sandhya Sriram, PhD is the CEO and co-founder of Shiok Meats, a cultivated meat and seafood 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 in media including The Economist, Forbes, World Economic Forum and Channel NewsAsia. Their investors include Y Combinator, Big Idea Ventures, Beyond Impact and Boom Capital. John Tan is the founder of Saturday Kids, a curiosity school for children, and Doyobi, an EdTech startup setting out to help kids grow into original thinkers and develop a sense of purpose. He is also an investor in tech startups, in particular those reimagining the future of work and learning such as Padlet, Galileo, Contra and Beanstalk. Saturday Kids runs Code In The Community, a Google and Singapore Government-supported initiative that is the largest free coding programme in Singapore. John is an Obama Foundation Asia-Pacific 50 BRAVE 10 Leader, Transcend Fellow, and an Ashoka Changemaker. He sits on the board of Ninja Van and ErudiFi. Show notes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/founder-mission

Koh Shiyan is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Hustle Fund, a venture capital fund that invests in pre-seed software startups in the U.S., Canada and Southeast Asia. Prior to that, she was VP Business Operations and Corporate Development at NerdWallet, a fintech startup that helps users with a range of financial decisions through content, community and tools. Yiping Goh is Partner at McKinsey & Company and the former partner at Quest Ventures, a top venture capital fund in Asia. Prior to this, Yiping was the co-founder and chief product officer at MatahariMall.com, the largest omnichannel fashion e-commerce site in Indonesia, backed by the Lippo Group. Lippo Group also acquired All Deals Asia, the Southeast Asia e-commerce aggregator and group-buying platform that was also co-founded by Yiping. Mohan Belani is the Co-founder and CEO of e27, a startup and tech ecosystem platform focused on helping startup founders build and grow their companies. He is also a Partner at Orvel Ventures. He believes that startups can make the world a better place, and in order for Southeast Asia's tech ecosystem to be relevant, it needs to be driven by sustainable and impactful companies solving problems at scale. He enjoys working with Founders and helping them alleviate the challenges of building great companies specifically around the areas of talent, funding and market access. The BRAVE 10: The Singapore Edition anthology showcases the top 10 journeys of Singapore's technology leaders. We aim to inspire the next generation of leaders to tackle our region's challenges. Profits from the book sales are donated to The Codette Project, which helps minority women break into tech and improve the diversity of our startup ecosystem. Get a limited hardcover copy here at www.jeremyau.com/book Show notes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/panel-vc-outlook

Melissa Ng is the CEO of Bravely, a mental health startup that supercharges therapy by making data actionable and learning easy-peasy. Before that, she was the founder of a fully remote product design agency Melewi that worked with clients like Visa, Samsung and McDonalds (She's helped make the McDelivery app available in over 40 countries). She's also been featured on the front page of The Straits Times, as well as on Forbes, Channel News Asia, Les Echos and more. Most recently, she's been one of The Robb Report's '30 Thought Leaders' and LinkedIn's 'Top Mental Health Experts to Follow'. She's travelled to over 40 countries while building her remote businesses, spoken at events across 4 continents as a remote work expert; and the best compliment she's received is ""defiant in the face of adversity"". As someone who has struggled with mental health for most of her life — most recently while fighting leukaemia — Bravely was born out of her determination to create something that will truly make a difference for people going through the same pain and challenges. Show notes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/melissa-ng

Michael Milne is Co-Founder of Kaishi Partners, a recruitment firm for the startup ecosystem in South-East Asia that he launched alongside Ben Poh 5 years ago. He started his career in 2007 working in BD for a tech startup in London that was acquired by DHI, before moving to Hong Kong in 2009. In Hong Kong he started his recruitment career focused on hiring for PE funds investing into China, before transferring to Singapore in 2012. In 2015 he hired his first talent within VC, and with those candidates' encouragement started Kaishi the next year.   A University of Southampton graduate whose dad is a tech entrepreneur, he's a proud husband and dad of 3 boys. Show notes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/michael-milne

Former intellectual property litigator turned in-house counsel for an international conglomerate in the areas of telco, utilities, construction, hospitality, land & development, NGOs and more. Host and producer of the So This Is My Why podcast, that features inspiring people about how they found their why and turned them into reality. Past guests include Olympians, Michelin-starred chefs, FAANG executive, retired four star general & Chief of Army, Hollywood actresses, US late night TV executive, prominent VCs, founders and more. Fun fact: The podcast was featured multiple times on the Late Late Show with James Corden (see here)! Show notes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/ling-yah

An ex-Google pioneer of 9 years, with an expertise in launching new products and building ecosystems from the ground up (0 to 1 to 10 to 100). These include launching Google Assistant, Progressive Web Apps, Accelerated Mobile Pages and Firebase in APAC from zero to 100s of partners and millions of users. Prior to this, he launched Youtube in APAC. His last role at Google was to Head Google Search for the APAC region. Prior to this Anuvrat was a Strategy consultant with OC&C Strategy Consulting in London and an Investment Banker with WP Carey in London/New York. Anuvrat has a triple masters in Engineering, Economics and Management from the University of Oxford. He is a local Singaporean who went to Victoria School (Top 10 student in O Levels) and Victoria Junior College (4A's in A Levels). Show notes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/anuvrat-rao

Kim is cofounder and Artistic Director of The Improv Company and has taught and performed improvised theatre for ten years. He has studied improv in Chicago, London and Oxford under some of the most venerated instructors still alive, and as a former board member of the Applied Improvisation Network, he is engaged in keeping up with current trends of improv training, facilitation and performance. As Artistic Director of the Company, he ensures the quality of the Company’s instruction and performances. Over a thousand people have had their first contact with improv through the programs he designed for the Company, and it was his vision, determination and desire that led to the establishment of a thriving improv scene in Singapore, including the internationally acclaimed Singapore Improv Festival. Show notes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/kim-tan

Hannah is the author of Founder to PM and the CEO and Founder of TheShareWay. Founder to PM is the first detailed guide on how ex-founders can land their first product management jobs. TheShareWay is a directory of companies that donate food and raffle items to nonprofits. Previously, she worked in Product at Oscar Health and started her career as a management consultant at Deloitte Consulting. Show notes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/hannah-yang

Todd Schweitzer is co-founder and CEO at Brankas, the leading Open Finance technology provider in Southeast Asia. Todd has held senior roles in private equity and management consulting, spanning technology, the public sector, and financial services. Todd and co-founder Kenneth Shaw launched Brankas in 2016 to address the technology gaps that hindered fintech-bank partnerships. Brankas provides Open Finance technology to banks, insurers, mobile wallets, alternative lenders, and other suppliers and users of financial services APIs. He holds dual Bachelor's degrees with honours in Economics and International Studies from the University of California, Irvine, and a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Show notes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/todd-d-schweitzer