Asia Tech Podcast

The Asia Tech Podcast was humbled to have Dayana Yermolayeva join the show.  Dayana is a co-Founder and the CEO of JiPay, an app for families to manage their household spending. Some of the topics we covered included: Being from Ukraine and growing up in the UK Doing a really cool, triple degree program at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Universita Bocconi, and the University of Southern California Having a well-developed worldview as a result of living in many countries Coming from a family of entrepreneurs Consulting or investment banking? Being a pilot and flying over the Grand Canyon Domestic workers saving money for their families Helping them save and invest Does gamification help teach about saving money? $1 MM of top-ups monthly Some other titles we considered for this episode: I Did Not Think I Would Become an Entrepreneur So Early And Yet, the Employers Are Still Pretty Happy Once You Have Something to Say, the Age Thing Kinda Goes Out of the Window I Came to Singapore With No Network, No Connections If I Did It Once, I Could Do It Again This episode was produced by Isabelle Goh.

Asia Tech Podcast was joined by Dan Bognar, the Group Vice President & General Manager, Asia Pacific & Japan at DocuSign.  We don't need to explain what DocuSign is, right?  Anyway... Some of the topics Dan covered: Consulting for almost 10 years before joining the tech world Taking measured career risks Living at work, not working from home Digitalization and never having to put ink on paper anymore Blockchain's evolution and more efficient ways to sign contracts No-code, low-code in the enterprise Surging demand during the pandemic Working with startups and creating immersive experiences Hybrid document signing Demand for mobile and optimizing for it Other titles we considered for this episode: You're a Young Kid...You'll Figure It Out I Had to Get Involved With All These Dot Coms We’re Not Afraid to Disrupt Ourselves We Want People to Agree From Anywhere Being Able to Do It From Anywhere Is Such a Beautiful Thing This episode was produced by Isabelle Goh.

The Asia Tech Podcast was joined by Andrew Forman, the Founder and CEO at Givz.com.  Givz is the eCommerce marketing platform that grows sales, creates social impact and reduces discount dependency. Some of the topics that Andrew discussed: Attending Harvard Business School and networking in a multi-college environment How investment banking helped him learn about starting a business The real impact of discounting and customer expectations Customers' response to GroupOn Data analytics and customer behavior How Givz works and the impetus for starting it Changing the Givz model and getting the team to come along for the pivot The online implementation and how Givz works offline as well Creating an infrastructure for brands and charities to work together The normalization of QR codes in the United States Some other titles we considered: The Pandemic Saved the QR Code There Is an Element of Luck Placing Yourself Strategically Is 90% of the Battle It Was the Beginning of the End, I Knew... This episode was expertly produced by Isabelle Goh.

The Asia Tech Podcast was so happy to be joined by Dr. Ritu Verma, a co-Founder, Managing Partner at Ankur Capital Fund.  The Ankur team believes "great entrepreneurs coupled with the essential business building blocks leads to great companies." Some of the topics Dr. Verma covered: Beginning her career as a Physicist The excitement and challenge of moving to Vermont for school The benefits of moving out of your comfort zone at a young age The subtle change in how the world perceives Impact Investing How Impact Investing leads to a better world Seed-stage investing compared to later-stage investing Leaning into her science background to help make better investment decisions Asia as a leader in climate impact investment How the investment landscape has changed in India in the past 10 years Women in technology and STEM Other titles we considered for this episode: It Was an Adventure, so That’s What Was Great About It This Is a Sort of Space That Makes You Dive Deeper Being Thrown off the Cliff to Think The Sheer Joy of Seeing Interesting Things Come Up It’s Exciting Having the Tools for Innovation I Learnt About Telegram on a Sunflower Seed Field The episode was expertly produced by Isabelle Goh.

Asia Tech Podcast reached out to Corey Wilton, a co-Founder of Mirai Labs (Pegaxy) after reading a post he wrote on LinkedIn. Some of the topics Corey discussed: Started his first business when he was 16 years old Wanting to be a fighter pilot Learning about bias at a young age Deciding not to go to university and doing door-to-door sales His first business success in customer support focused on ICOs during first crypto boom Moving into the F1 Delta community and learning about crypto asset lending Building his own 'guild' to see what needed to be fixed Automating asset lending to allow for smoother asset transfer and profit sharing among players Intending to release Pegaxy to a small audience while building a 2 year roadmap Struggling to control demand for Pegaxy after its beta release Business fundamentals DO matter Profitability and business sustainability are more important than short-term hype Other titles we considered for this episode: I Was Trying to Harbor a Strong Mind You Just Need a Thousand Horses and One Wallet I Just Kept Telling Myself “Its the Next Door” It’s Easy to Get Jaded When You Have Still Done Nothing Hitting the Lottery Is Not Always Good Are We Also Passengers on a Train? The audio on this episode was expertly edited by Isabelle Goh.

The Asia Tech Podcast welcomed Irene Umar and Evan Spytma of YGG SEA into the studio at Seven Peaks Software in Bangkok.  Irene is a co-Founder and and Indonesia Country Manager and Evan Spytma is a co-Founder and the CEO of YGG SEA. With the coming IDO of YGG SEA, we wanted to have them on the show to discuss: How Evan originally met Gabby Dizon, a co-Founder of YGG The early days of play-to-earn Investing in games and launching them on the YGG platform A Prime Brokerage model for NFTs? YGGs original investment coming from IVC Does GameFi accelerate DeFi Preparing the next generation for the metaverse The YGG SEA IDO and CopperLaunch Moving from a governance token to a utility token Semiotic.ai Irene and Evan's trip to a Buddhist temple The bonus conversation! Some other titles we considered for this episode: Can't You Feel the Love? Did You Collect Your Unicorn Milk? The Guild Really Is Just Phase 01

The Asia Tech Podcast enjoyed chatting with Kenneth Lou, a co-Founder, and CEO of Seedly.  Seedly helps make personal finance relevant and simple for the masses. Some of the topics that Kenneth covered: Growing up in an academic environment that nurtures entrepreneurs Starting Seedly in a dorm room at NUS almost 7 years ago Somehow always being passionate about finance Meeting his co-Founder in Silicon Valley Getting initial funding from East Ventures Starting Seedly as an expense tracking tool Seedly evolving into a community and content platform Seedly Personal Finance Festival 2022 A couple of other titles we considered: Is It a Project? How Do You Save and Invest?

The Asia Tech Podcast had a great conversation with Anita Jiawen Sadasivan, a co-Founder and Chief Wellbeing Officer at MindFi.  MindFi's mission is to transform the narrative around mental health in Asia.  Anita is a pretty incredible entrepreneur, mental health advocate and powerful pole dancer. Some of the topics we covered: Anita's educational background in mental health and her passion for pole dancing Winter blues and seasonal affective disorder Coming back to Singapore to take care of her father The connection between physically fit and mentally fit The signs of sliding into depression The founding of MindFi Corporate interest in the mental health of employees, but not knowing where to begin The Y-Combinator experience Using Data, AI and Algorithms Finding joy in helping others and building a passionate team Other titles we considered for this episode: That's Just Part of My Journey Companies Benefit with Mentally Healthy Workforce There Aren't Enough Mental Health Specialists to Go Around Seeking My Own Answers The audio on this episode was expertly edited by Isabelle Goh.

The Asia Tech Podcast had an exciting and in-depth conversation with Ben Harburg, a Managing Partner at  MSA Capital. He serves as the CIO of Emerging Technology Markets and leads global growth for MSA’s portfolio companies.  MSA is a global investment firm that invests from seed-to-growth stage investments across consumer, enterprise, core technologies, and healthcare. The firm was established in 2014 and manages $1.7 billion in capital across multiple funds. Some of the topics that Ben covered: Did a Fulbright for a year in Germany studying Islamic Sciences and Oriental Philology Traveled to Egypt as a 13-year-old Grew up as an ex-pat, so had a global perspective from an early age China is an innovation leader across multiple tech verticals Alibaba's expansion strategy does not work Investing in the GoJek of Iraq The difference between emerging markets and emerging technology markets How the United Arab Emirates built a platform for long-term entrepreneurial development A large and growing appetite for tech startup investment in Africa Other titles we considered for this episode: Touching Down, I Remember the Heat There Is an innovation Pendulum

The Asia Tech Podcast loved having Mario Peng in the studio at True Digital Park (We now have another studio at Seven Peaks Software!) to talk about PropertyScout.  We had Mario on the show back in September 2020 during the earliest stages of PropertyScout and with all of the changes and growth the company has experienced, we had to have him on again for an update. Some of the topics we covered this time: There were over 150,000 listings on PropertyScout at the time of the recording Multiple listings and some of the challenges PropertyScout is solving around co-broking ProperyScout's core is the transactional marketplace The importance of setting up standard operating procedures The necessity of a culture of trust and transparency Building versus buying specific skill sets Developing a technology platform for exponential growth Doubling down on property management Delivering a great customer experience requires solutions to multiple problems Fundraising can be fun!