Asia Tech Podcast

I was more than impressed by Prerna Jhunjhunwala's commitment to making education accessible to the masses.  Prerna is the Founder of Little Paddington – a highly acclaimed preschool in Singapore and Creative Galileo - a new-age Ed-Tech start-up transforming early learning globally for children from three to ten years.  Creative Galileo aims to accelerate a child's development of early literacy through narrative videos, gamification, and personalised learning journeys. Some of the topics that Prerna discussed: Most of Prerna's childhood was spent in third-tier cities and small villages She was in the factory every day as a 10 to 12-year-old and the workers would ask her to teach their children English and Math How and why educating others became so important to her Realizing at a young age that access to education was a privilege Starting Little Paddington Preschool when she was 24 The reason for founding Creative Galileo Understanding the importance of the teacher for 3 to 10-year-olds Licensing the most popular characters in India and how those characters keep the students engaged The six learning domains Creative Galileo's recently announced capital raise and how she expects to deploy it The CXXO Program at Kalaari Capital Other titles we considered for this episode: It Was Foolish Courage I Enjoy the Execution Bit of It When You See the Things You Imagined Happen Screen Time Is Inevitable Today

Asia Tech Podcast had an interesting conversation with Liat Beng Neo, a co-Founder at Arrow.  Arrow is fundamentally trying to simplify the checkout experience to just one tap. Some of the topics we covered with Neo included: How he initially got involved in the payments space before it was 'a thing' Cash on delivery used to dominate online transactions Working at some of Asia's most iconic startups and tech companies Some of the interesting cultural differences between LAzada, AliBaba, TenCent, and Grab The evolution of the payments space and the increased number of options today The complexity that all of these options create for online commerce The difficulty and beauty of being a first-time founder The genesis of Arrow and what it is trying to accomplish Some other titles we considered for this episode: Payment Paralysis The Whole Concept of Checkout Is Becoming More Complicated

It was back to the studio to welcome Darshan Mehta, the founder of iResearch.com. iResearch was designed to empower companies to easily, quickly, and affordably conduct insight sessions anytime and in any language. Some of the topics that Darshan covered: Growing up in an entrepreneurial household Loved case studies and that led to management consulting The realization that he was more interested in branding and marketing strategy Building iResearch to be Easy, Affordable, and Powerful The importance of insights The underlying 'why' is what makes people do things The difference between focus groups and surveys The benefits of building startups in Thailand for foreigners Fake genies Other titles we considered for this episode: I Don't Mind Problems, I Just Love Solutions The Best Tool for Anyone is Experience There Is a Real Difference Between Surviving and Striving

Yan Lee, the Founder and Managing Partner at Hive Ventures joined the Asia Tech Podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about the startup ecosystem in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. Some of the topics that Yan and I discussed: The listing of ICLK in Nasdaq and all of its associated issues Taiwan and Hong Kong's first home-grown software startup to be listed on Nasdaq The importance of having a strong management team How every startup is different Making the move into venture capital Similarities between parenting and early-stage VC investing How the structure of Taiwan's economy impacts its VC landscape Data, Artificial Intelligence, Enterprise Software, and Automation How Taiwan's startups create their edge How to combat investment myopia Working with a lot of other funds Other titles we considered for this episode: Almost Going Bankrupt 18 Times You Don't Learn This Stuff in MBA That's the Fire You Wanna Light There Are Probably a Million One Ways to Fail Everyone Is Looking to Plug Something Into Their Ecosystem It's So Culturally Nuanced We no Longer Live In a Silo

We have wanted to speak to Derek Handley for a while now.  Derek is a Founding Partner at Aera VC and one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking investors I have encountered. Some of the topics that Derek and I covered included: Picking something and going deep Building things in response to what becomes possible The intersection of technology and sustainability The art and science of living Innovation in food technology and its impact on climate The fear of losing a company one has built and doing something more impactful The feelings that founders have when they exit Wiser Conversations - How do you design and live life? Portfolio construction and being a climate-focused venture fund Other titles we considered for this episode: Architecture Is Really Just a Concept You Can Build Something to Respond to That You Have to Build Things You Are Committed to Building Is This the Contribution I am Meant to Be Making I Didn't Not Do It The World Was Still

The Asia Tech Podcast went back to Vietnam to talk to Quan Nguyen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/quannguyen89/), a co-Founder and the CEO of GIMO (https://gimo.vn/en), a fintech startup in Vietnam offering on-demand pay for blue-collar workers. Some of the topics we covered: His experience as a finance professional How corporate life demotivated him Getting an MBA and how it changed his mindset Amidst good success at work, Quan decided he needed to do something more meaningful and quit his job Meeting the co-Founder of GIMO and pivoting the business Early Wage Access and why GIMO focused on this product Many Vietnamese are left out of traditional financial services The overall state of financial services in Vietnam Financial literacy and its impact on service accessibility Partnerships and building an ecosystem Raising capital and family support (https://gimo.vn/en/insights/fintech-startup-gimo-bags-19m-in-seed-round-led-by-integra-partners-) Other titles we considered for this episode: Enjoying the Relaxing Lifestyle Parents...They Always Worry Is It Going to Die?

We had Ronen Mense on the show...wow! More of a wow was that we recorded this episode face-to-face in the Michael Waitze Media studio at True Digital Park.  What a great experience... Ronen is the President and Managing Director, APAC at AppsFlyer based in Bangkok, and the story leading up to how he got there was quite interesting. Some of the topics we covered: Ronen is the third generation of his family to be born in China Going to the University of Oregon Returning to Asia via Hong Kong after graduation One of his first jobs was selling industrial-sized milk powder in China What he learned working with the Chairman of a Chinese company Started his own mobile marketing company in 2005 Struggling to figure out app download attribution Developers had no idea where app installs came from How he found and was ultimately hired by AppsFlyer How different tech giants define privacy differently Metta World Peace and predicting Facebook's name change How marketers need to move to an aggregated world Privacy and data security as a core company principle Other titles we considered for this episode: Forgot To Ride the Milk Expansion Wave The Auditor of the Mobile Industry Self-Imposed Exile

We went back to the ADDX well about 6 months after our thoroughly enjoyable conversation with ADDX's Chief Commercial Officer, Oi-Yee Choo.  This time we were excited to welcome Darius Liu, a co-Founder and the Chief Operating Officer of ADDX.  The ADDX team is world-class and Darius is no exception...his career prior to founding ADDX can only be described as start-studded.  As for ADDX, a lot has changed since we published the initial episode in May and we really wanted to catch up. Some of the topics that Darius covered: What it was like working at GIC and having a 20-year investment horizon Worked for the establishment including the Ministry of Finance His deep domain knowledge in asset management The name change from iSTOX to ADDX The launch of structured products on the ADDX platform The excitement of building a company from scratch The next leap of competitiveness will have to be driven by tech and innovation in the regulatory space How Singapore is already laying the foundation for the next generation The Sembcorp sustainability bond as a seminal moment Fractional ownership Some of the other titles we considered: That Level of Trust Has Been Built The Amazon or AliBaba of Private Markets Really, It's About Execution There Are So Many Unknowns In the Future, We See Everything as Being Digitized So Many Stars Have to Align for All of This Stuff to Work Fractionalization Is Securitization

It was very interesting to converse with Barbara Ex, the Founder, and CEO of WhiteSpace.  WhiteSpace provides an O2O platform that provides flexible and affordable co-meeting spaces on-demand. Some of the topics that Barbara and I covered: Being expatriates to London early in her career Moving to China and starting the Asia office of JMJ Working on a huge project in Korea Having a BS and an MS in Chemical Engineering from MIT gave her the credibility needed to cross-cultural barriers Jumping into the world of entrepreneurs Why WhiteSpace was started as an on-demand collaboration space How COVID catalyzed flexible working WhiteSpace's operations, services, and technology Meeting rooms as a service The importance of listening to your customers Other titles we considered for this episode: It's Always Nominally a Two-Year Contract I Am Laughing at the Word 'Strategy' How About in 2006? Off-Balance Is a Great Place to Start When You Are Doing Culture Change The Queen of the Korean Shipyards The Couple that PowerPoints Together Stays Together It Would Still Be Better Face-to-Face

We could not have been happier to have Smita Aggarwal, Global Investment Advisor at Flourish Ventures, join us on the show. Smita is an investor that seeks new business models across South Asia and Southeast Asia in the FinTech innovation space, that drives value creation for all stakeholders.   Flourish Ventures is a venture firm investing in entrepreneurs whose innovations help people achieve financial health and prosperity. As an evergreen fund, Flourish deploys patient capital with a long-term perspective. Flourish's team is growing the portfolio built within Omidyar Network over the last decade. Some of the topics we discussed with Smita: Her early career in project finance for large corporates The excitement of being part of the new consumer banking innovations in India Setting up a rural lending business from scratch Working at the Reserve Bank of India and getting a peek into the policymaking process The hotbed of innovative business models in South and Southeast Asia The importance of financial inclusion Flourish Ventures Embedded finance The excitement and challenges of operating in frontier markets Taking learnings from one market and applying them to another So much more... Other titles we considered for this episode: I Am an Accidental VC You Might Need to Get Into Many Adjacencies Yourself There Are Some Building Blocks Essential for Every Country to Have Huge Respect for Anyone Who’s an Entrepreneur The World Around You Changed They Pivoted, Adapted…Changed