Asia Tech Podcast

Asia Tech Podcast spoke to Ethan Lou.  Ethan is a journalist and author, whose most recent book, "Once a Bitcoin Miner: Scandal and Turmoil in the Cryptocurrency Wild West", was published on October 19.   According to the book's summary on Amazon, "Ethan Lou goes on an epic quest through the proverbial cryptocurrency Wild West, through riches, absurdity, wonder, and woe. From investing in Bitcoin in university to his time writing for Reuters, and then mining the digital asset ― Lou meets a co-founder of Ethereum and Gerald Cotten of QuadrigaCX (before he was reported dead) and hangs out in North Korea with Virgil Griffith, the man later arrested for allegedly teaching blockchain to the totalitarian state." Ethan and I talked about his trip to North Korea that ultimately led to Virgil Griffith's recent guilty plea to "to conspiring to violating U.S. law by traveling to North Korea to give a presentation on how to use blockchain technology to launder money and evade sanctions." Other titles we considered for this episode: Millennial Gold Money Is a Collective Delusion

ATP was delighted to have Wen Shaw, a co-Founder and the CEO of Cooby, on the show.  Cooby enables businesses to take control of their WhatsApp and supercharge it for work. Some of the topics Wen covered: Going to California and starting his first company right after grad school Working at Facebook and Dropbox The cultural differences between Facebook and Dropbox start with their products The culture at Facebook encourages moving really fast Messenger apps versus eMail Cooby's value proposition The idea that enterprises will all adopt messaging apps Data usage and sales intelligence A look back at a massive Facebook outage Other titles we considered for this episode: It Was Not a Surprise to Anybody Messaging Is Replacing eMails Companies Want to Close Deals They Lose a Lot of Fidelity Fill In the Gaps, Wherever There’s a Gap It’s Either the Bank or My Parents

Even though we had just met, I felt like I had known Andy Tian for years.  Andy is the CEO and a co-Founder of Asia Innovations Group, which was built to become the largest global social entertainment platform.  Some of the topics that Andy and I discussed: Being born in China and raised in Queens, New York Growing up in Queens reinforced Andy's multicultural views that still resonate with him today How the excitement of being in a new place outweighs the difficulties of adjusting Joining Google in 2005 as one of China's earlier team members Running Google's mobile business in China and helping Andy Rubin bring Android to China Starting one of the first social gaming companies in 2008 and then selling it to Zynga in 2010 Asia Innovations Group was built to bring the most innovative products to a global audience Why Google really left China The importance of company culture which is simply the default mode of operation Being execution-oriented Be CEO - Be Pirate - Be Hero What is live social? Are financial services an opportunity? Other titles we considered: The Domain Was Available We're Doing Live Social Right Now We Are Just In the First Phase of Being Live Social As a Proper Husband, I Can Not Make a Shopping Decision Alone The Social Element Gives It Fun

Taku Tanaka has a plan.  In a way, it seems like he has always had a plan.  Taku is a co-Founder and the CEO of Kamereo.  This should not surprise anyone that knows him.  Whether it was the challenge of going to the University of Washington as an exchange student or joining Credit Suisse to learn more about Finance and improve his English, Taku has always taken action with purpose. Some of the topics Taku and I discussed: A strong belief in yourself is important for success His family was involved in Food and Beverage (F&B) supply chain business Always wanting to open his own restaurant Studied a lot of Japan's listed F&B businesses while at Credit Suisse Researched developing countries' F&B businesses Determined that emerging markets were a more interesting place to build Sent a cold e-mail to the founders of Vietnam's Pizza 4 Peace to try to get a job At Pizza 4P, Taku became the COO and Pizza 4P grew from 1 shop to 12 In Vietnam, the F&B supply chain is highly fragmented The founding of Kamereo - Vietnam's one-stop-shop for F&B supply chain Kamereo's potential FinTech opportunities Raising money during the COVID-19 pandemic

If you still thought that blockchain and distributed ledger technology were not ready for enterprise prime time, listening to this conversation with Brendon Howe, VP, GM Blockchain at VMware will change your mind.  Brendon spent most of his career with early-stage companies in the infrastructure and software services space, in a way, preparing for this role at VMware. Some of the topics that Brendon discussed: Developing a new product inside a large company that already has great products Understanding when the right time is to scale opportunities How DLT fits perfectly into VMware's core business as an application platform for the enterprise The importance of non-functional requirements when building any enterprise-level software Building a high-performance team in a new technology space Asset tokenization and digitization Co-innovating as a trusted business partner The interest in DLT products in Asia Some real-world examples of VMware's blockchain implementations in Australia and Malaysia Other titles we considered for this episode: It’s Not for the Faint of Heart These Are Digital Transformation Initiatives We Are Very Active Participants in our Customers’ Use Case Definition

It was good fun to talk to Ed Barker, a Senior Associate at Square Peg in Singapore. Square Peg has invested in some of the region's seminal startups, including Canva, Doctor Anywhere, Pluang, and many others. Some of the topics Ed discussed: As a youngster, Ed loved to tear down tech and put it back together His first job was repairing computers at ANZ Bank How he realized he loved technology but did not like IT Was fortunate to have his consulting roles take him to Europe, the US, Asia, and Australia Getting stuff done in a big organization is tough…need to have a 10X solution The joy of going deep on things when he gets excited about them Learning every single day Some of the things you can not know about Southeast Asia unless you are on the ground The employment of data to make better investment decisions How to provide greater access to new services Value creation versus value capture - finding the balance How to effectively use talent globally Some of the other titles we considered for this episode: Taking Things Apart and Putting them Back Together We’re Very Early in the Capital Journey The Opportunity to Fundamentally Improve People’s Lives Through the Use of Better Technology How Do We Reduce Friction?

It was really enlightening to talk to Oussama Labib, the CEO and Founder at aeqlia, an all-in-one team development platform.  Oussama found his calling early in life and it is obvious that he is in the right place from his super positive attitude.   Some of the topics that we covered: Oussama was born to French-Moroccan parents who had migrated to France for their education As a teenager, he knew he wanted to work in the Human Resources field Spent a year in Bora Bora working in the hospitality business while at University Commuting with turtles versus commuting on the Paris metro Upon graduation from business school, bought a plane ticket to Singapore with a friend and started looking for a job Rose quickly to a leadership position at Ikea The reason he left his job to start his own business Why aeqlia was founded and why Oussama focused on EdTech aeqlia is an Arabic word that means mindset Companies are organized by teams, but most learning is focused on individuals Experiential learning increases retention Game-based learning is NOT Gamification Building highly personalized team development journeys Did Oussama coin the term "Instant Learnification"? The four stages of becoming a high-performance team Other titles we considered for this episode: The Point Was to Travel I Don't Look at My Choice as Weird It Makes My Life a Little Bit More Purpose-Driven Hit Repeat Every Single Day It Was the Best Year of My Life I Knew I Was No longer Going to Close Doors Myself It Sets the Bar Quite High Ideally, This Is a Never-Ending Process

"The Irony Was Not Lost On Me" (a potential title for this episode...) was something Victor J. Chow, the Founder, and CEO of 3 Square,  said to me when we were discussing his return to Taiwan.  Victor's parents emigrated to the United States from Taiwan, settled in Connecticut, and built a successful, if not sprawling, food and beverage business. Like many children of successful immigrants, Victor wanted to carve his own path and made his way to Wall St... Some of the topics we covered in more depth: The expectations for the eldest son in a traditional Asian family His lack of interest in his family's business and his path to Wall St. His desire to head back to Taiwan was announced to his family more than it was discussed with them Victor's desire to have a concrete plan for something to do in Taiwan led him to a scholarship to study Mandarin After graduating from an intensive Mandarin course, starting a Montessori-style cram school Created two branches of the school and sold the business 5 or so years later Had been conceptualizing a 'digital food court' network for years Launched 3 Square - An optimized and upgraded version of a cloud kitchen Each kitchen is built to handle multiple brands and food styles With one shopping cart, you can order from all the brands at one location Uses data and data analysis to determine the optimal restaurant locations Raised $1.2MM seed round to get started and is now raising more to expand in Taiwan and North and Southeast Asia Some other titles we considered for this episode: I Am Going to Go Back to Taiwan and Check It Out It’s Foreign, But Not Totally Foreign All of a Sudden, I Am Teacher Victor The Irony Is Definitely Not Lost On Me I Will Humbly Say That I Am Not That Surprised

I had so much fun recording this conversation with Rosina Mazumder and Yawar Mehboob, two of the four co-Founders of Arogga, Bangladesh's online pharmacy.  You may hear us joking about Rosina's 'audio technician' at the beginning of the episode...that is actually Yawar, her husband and Arogga's CFO.  Rosina is the CEO of Arogga.  The other co-Founders are Shamim Hasan, the CTO and Fahad Hossain, the COO...quite an unbelievable team. Some of the topics that were covered: Both originally worked at investment banks in London Left that life to become entrepreneurs in the world of cake and publishing Rosina worked with Facebook on “She Means Business” When COVID hit, took some time to reassess what they wanted to do Got introduced to the world of startups in their native Bangladesh This wife and husband team really work together well and have complementary skillsets Arogga - a service that delivers medicine directly to your door In Bangladesh, the pharmacy market is quite fragmented and disorganized Complicating the customer journey is the fact that 20% of medicine in Bangladesh's pharmacies are counterfeit Building a strong company culture Managing through 40% month over month growth Word of mouth matters, so service has to be key What it means to be role models and also learning from the younger generation of founders Other episode titles we also considered: It Was Really Interesting Going from Corporate to Creative Authentic, Less Expensive, and Convenient There's Just Enormous Opportunity Right Now What Has Been Amazing for Us Has Been the Word of Mouth I Have Five Stents in My Heart There Is a Definite Sense of Pride

Paul Salnikow, the Chairman and CEO of The Executive Centre joined the Asia Tech Podcast to discuss flexible work and what started as a niche product has grown into the centerpiece of not only the future of work but how we work today. Some of the topics that Paul covered included: Why he decided to attend Sophia University in Tokyo and the impact it had on his career Working for a Japanese real estate company and getting sent to London to help open the office there How the real estate market microstructure in London sparked the idea of a 'hotel for companies' Moving to Hong Kong and setting up the office there The founding of The Executive Centre after the Japanese real estate company decided to pull back from its foreign businesses The evolution of The Executive Centre and the role that technology played How the clientele has changed over time The launch of the iPhone and the impact on office space usage WeWork became the largest tenant in London and Manhattan! The demise of WeWork, the hubris of its founders and investors, and why it ultimately failed The future of work and flexible working spaces Other titles we considered for this episode: The Desks Shrank Your Entire Office Existence Is In Your Telephone I Had to Make Hong Kong Work or I Had to Pack My Bags Technology Has Been the Most Important Driver of the Emergence of Flexible Office Space