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

Zishuang is currently spending time writing about tech startups in South-East Asia at https://zishuang.substack.com/ . More than the act of putting out his thoughts, he appreciates the feedback he gets from it. He's also spending time as a Venture Scout with Saison Capital which is an early stage venture fund with a focus on SouthEast Asia and India. In this capacity, he works with the fund to fund the best startups and understanding what verticals we should bet on. Prior to this, he was the Country Launcher at Circles.life, a startup backed by Sequoia and Founder's Fund. He also founded a few startups which was a journey of many lows that made the highs extremely fulfilling. Show notes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/cheng-zishuang You can find the community discussion for this episode at: https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/cheng-zishuang This episode is produced by Kyle Ong.

Jes Min is Co-Founder and CEO of The Recommend Group, South East Asia's #1 Home and Property Platform operating in Indonesia (Sejasa.com) and Malaysia (Recommend.my). The company connects customers and businesses to tens of thousands of the top-rated service professionals in categories like renovations, interior design, cleaning, aircon servicing, electrical repairs and pest control. Recommend Group is unique in its vision of building technology that turns services into products, by standardising prices and quality, creating a layer of trust so that services can be transacted safely online. It has served 1,000,000 homes to date in services that range from $10 to $50,000. Across both countries, Recommend empowers service professionals who connect to the platform to grow their business, collect payments and manage their team in a seamless manner. Throughout the pandemic, the company actively supported their service professionals in obtain permits to operate and advocating vaccination throughout the service worker force. Jes Min is an ex-Consultant with Bain & Company and Accenture, where she has helped multi-national companies scale their business and operations throughout Tier 1, 2 and 3 cities in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. She has also helped national sovereign funds and banks transform their technical infrastructure, as well as program managed some of the largest financial services mergers and acquisition activities globally. Her personal mission is to build technology as a method to grow incomes and alleviate communities out of poverty. Her experience in SEA and also in Africa drives her belief that small businesses play a huge role in improving livelihoods, and this underpins the mission behind Recommend Group as well. Jes Min is also a mother of 2 little children. By the ease at which they twist her around their little fingers, she strongly believes they will one day take over the world. Show notes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/jes-min-lua You can find the community discussion for this episode at: https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/jes-min-lua This episode is produced by Kyle Ong.

Reuben Noronha has spent the last few years building and scaling businesses in Asia. He founded his first company, Nivaasa, a co-living startup in India, in 2016 and ran it for a few years before selling it. He then had the opportunity to move to Southeast Asia to build and scale new business verticals at Zilingo. He enjoys the 0 to 1 phase the most and love building teams up. When not working, he spends his time podcasting, DJing, and trying to understand the cryptocurrency world. Show notes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/reuben-noronha You can find the community discussion for this episode at: https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/reuben-noronha This episode is produced by Kyle Ong.

Crystal Widjaja is the Chief Product Officer of Kumu, a social live streaming superapp platform that amplifies Filipino creativity, community, and commerce. She is currently the cofounder of Generation Girl, a non-profit for young women in STEM fifelds, an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at Reforge, an educational program for product and growth practitioners, and an angel investor through the Sequoia Scout and Monk's Hill funds, where she works with startups across South East Asia and the Bay Area. Previously, Crystal was Chief of Staff and SVP of Growth and Data at Gojek. She has been recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30 and HerWorld's Woman of the Year. Show notes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/crystal-widjaja You can find the community discussion for this episode at: https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/crystal-widjaja This episode is produced by Kyle Ong.

Cathy Liu is an analyst, designer, and aspiring entrepreneur. Her most recent projects included building the open-source platform, Help With Covid, with Sam Altman, Radu Spineanu, and a team of core volunteers. Over three months, Help With Covid attracted the work of 800+ projects and 17,000 volunteers who aimed to quickly solve some of the most hard-pressed problems during the pandemic. She was born and raised in California in the United States where she currently calls San Francisco Bay Area home. Currently, she is pursuing building her own startup. She most recently joined On Deck’s Founder Fellowship (ODF10) where she will spend 10-weeks shaping her vision into reality. Prior to ODF10, she spent her time at Intel, Didi, and CBS Interactive where she drove operations for global supply chains and designed experiences for car rentals in international markets. She takes particular interest in industries such as travel, mental health, and e-commerce. During her free time, Cathy likes to try new computer/board games, watch Asian dramas, and go to pilates classes. Cathy is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego where she holds a B.S. in Management Science and a minor in Cognitive Science. You can find Cathy on LinkedIn to follow her journey. Show notes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/qna-ondeck You can find the community discussion for this episode at: https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/qna-ondeck This episode is produced by Kyle Ong.

In this special Q&A episode, Jeremy unbundles his experiences from Harvard's MBA program. Show notes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/harvard-mba-qna You can find the community discussion for this episode at: https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/harvard-mba-qna This episode is produced by Kyle Ong.

Valerie is Vietnam Country Head of Venturra Capital, a Southeast Asia focused venture capital firm investing in early-stage technology-based businesses headquartered in Jakarta. Venturra’s primary investment focus is on internet companies, in sectors such as e-commerce, financial technology, marketplaces, healthcare and education amongst others.  Valerie began her career at Deloitte U.S. where she provided clients in the asset management industry with the tax and deal advisory services. Raised by an entrepreneurial family, Valerie is fascinated by breakthrough technology and product innovation. She then joins the digital transformation of Southeast Asia by joining Venturra to empower and support entrepreneurs throughout their journey. On the side, Valerie is managing Launch Vietnam Startup, the largest Vietnam online start-up community with more than 50k members. Launch started out as a playground for startup founders, investors, and like-minded talents who are contributing to Vietnam tech ecosystem. Launch’s main mission today is to foster entrepreneurship and innovation through sharing startups journey together, growing together, and succeeding together. She hosts weekly session of “Founder Stories” on Launch Vietnam Startup to deliver knowledge and insights to the Vietnamese tech community. Valerie was born and raised in Vietnam and was a first-generation college graduate of Temple University with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration. She loves traveling, volunteering for educational initiatives, and learning new languages. She is currently learning Mandarin Chinese, her 5th language, after Vietnamese, French, English, and Spanish. Show notes at: www.jeremyau.com/blog/valerie-vu You can find the community discussion for this episode at: https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/valerie-vu This episode is produced by Kyle Ong.

Anna Haotanto is the Partner & COO of ABZD Capital and the CMO of Gourmet Food Holdings, an investment firm focusing on opportunities in the global F&B industry. She is also the founder (former CEO) of The New Savvy – Asia’s leading financial, investments and career platform for women.  Anna is part of the founding committee of the Singapore FinTech Association and was in charge of the Women In FinTech and Partnership Committee. Anna is the President of the Singapore Management University Women Alumni. Anna is also part of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry Career Women’s Group executive committee. Anna invests and sits on the board of a few startups. Anna’s story is featured on Millionaire Minds on Channel NewsAsia. She hosts TV shows and events, namely for Channel NewsAsia’s “The Millennial Investor” and “Challenge Tomorrow”, a FinTech documentary. Anna was awarded “Her Times Youth Award” at the Rising50 Women Empowerment Gala, organised by the Indonesian Embassy of Singapore. The award was presented by His Excellency Ngurah Swajaya. She was also awarded Founder of the Year for ASEAN Rice Bowl Startup Awards. She was also awarded the Women Empowerment Award by the Asian Business & Social Forum. Anna has been awarded LinkedIn Power Profiles for founders (2018, 2017), Tatler Gen T, The Peak’s Trailblazers under 40 and a nominee for the Women of The Future award by Aviva. She was nominated and selected for FORTUNE Most Powerful Women conference in 2016 (Asia) and 2015 (San Francisco, Next Gen). Anna is on the panel for Singapore Computer Society for Best Tech Company to work for and Digital Proficiency Program.  Anna was awarded Top Student (Salutatorian) for UOB-SMU Private Banking course. She completed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) FinTech course. Anna spearheaded and founded the Women Alumni group at Singapore Management University. She graduated from Singapore Management University (Finance and Quantitative Finance), Hwa Chong Junior College. She held leadership roles – she was the founding member and Vice-President of the Quantitive Finance club, the Soccer Captain and the Vice-President of the Dance Society. Show notes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/anna-haotanto You can find the community discussion for this episode at: https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/anna-haotanto This episode is produced by Kyle Ong.

In this bonus episode, Jeremy answers Q&A from his four interns, Adriel Yong, Tan Yong Quan, Lyndon Lee & Pooja Sinha on Clubhouse and the future of Audio storytelling. Show notes at: https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/clubhousevspodcasts You can find the community discussion for this episode at: https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/clubhousevspodcasts This episode is produced by Kyle Ong.

Jenna Hua is the founder and CEO of Million Marker, a health-tech company that empowers people to detox their lives through mail-in test kits, lifestyle audits, and counseling. Harmful chemicals are present in food and drinks, plastics, and everyday products. These chemicals have been linked to infertility, IVF failure, child development, obesity, diabetes, and cancer. Million Marker is the first and only company that makes it easy for everyday consumers to learn about their toxic chemical exposure, and provides scientific and actionable solutions to minimize future exposure. A registered dietitian and environmental health scientist by training, Jenna completed her Bachelor's of Science in Nutrition, Master of Public Health and PhD in Environmental Health Sciences at UC Berkeley, and postdoctoral fellowship in chronic disease prevention at Stanford Medicine. Jenna's past research has focused on how our surrounding environment impacts our behaviros and health. An ardent believer in disease prevention, Jenna wants to provide personalized preventive strategies to everyone to lead a healthier life. Show notes at: https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/dalia-katan You can find the community discussion for this episode at: https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/dalia-katan This episode is produced by Kyle Ong.