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

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