Asia Tech Podcast

Asia Tech Podcast was joined by Greg Krasnov. Greg is the Founder & CEO of Tonik, the first neobank in the Philippines. Tonik is backed by major international Venture Capital investors, including Sequoia Capital and Point72. Prior to Tonik, Greg co-founded many other successful Asian FinTech companies (FORUM, Credolab, and Solarhome) and a consumer bank in Emerging Europe (Platinum Bank).  An entrepreneur at heart, Greg launched his first business at the age of 18, earning his way through college through coding and PC repair. Some of the topics Greg discussed: Greg was born in Ukraine and moved to the United States when he was 16 years old Most of his early career was in finance and private equity FORUM was set up as an investment vehicle for Southeast Asia after watching what occurred in emerging Europe Reviewed GDP per capita comparisons of the penetration of unsecured consumer finance in Southeast Asia What he found was that in emerging markets at about USD 3K to 5K GDP per capita, you start to get exponential growth in the penetration of consumer finance Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines are all at that cusp of the GDP per capital inflection point Why the team decided to launch in the Philippines Putting your cash in a stash One of Tonik's corporate values is having a sense of humor Data and predictive analytics Financial literacy and why it matters Other episode titles we considered: We’re the Opposite of That A Fundamental Reshaping of the Value Chain

Asia Tech Podcast thoroughly enjoyed speaking with Bianca Ho, a co-founder, and COO of ClareAI and WATI. Bianca is an ex J.P. Morgan Banker turned tech entrepreneur.  ClareAI helps companies to have personalized conversations at scale by building customer engagement software based on WhatsApp Business API. Some of the topics covered in this great conversation: Business processes matter Where can AI technology serve enterprises better The impact of the NOW economy on the B2B landscape Expectations for small businesses are very different than large enterprises Walked through an example of how WATI can be used for a small business The emergence of a no-code, low-code movement The necessity to communicate and be close to your customers Sequoia Surge The importance of taking time out to think

The Asia Tech Podcast welcomed Shiyan Koh, a Managing Partner at Hustle Fund.  Watch the video...it will all make sense.  So many great nuggets came out of this conversation. One of my favorites was, "Great execution meeting high velocity." Some of the other great topics we covered: Built a financial services marketplace while living in San Francisco called Nerd Wallet Prior to founding Nerd Wallet, did a tour of the financial services industry including a year working at Bridgewater Associates in Connecticut Getting the right dev team in place and learning how to communicate the customer insight and customer problems effectively Leaving the United States after living there for almost 20 years Joining the Hustle Fund after being an LP in the first fund Traveling around Southeast Asia talking to founders and realizing there was definitely a need for investors that had operating experience The thing you are trying to optimize for in the early stage is learning and the faster you learn the better The Angel Squad and the importance of angel investing One of the goals is to get more women and minorities on cap tables Other titles we considered for this episode: I Was the Trains-On-Time Person The World Is Incredibly Connected In Ways That You Could Never Expect We Were Figuring Things Out as We Went Along Survival Is a Prerequisite for Success

The Asia Tech Podcast hosted Ee Ling Lim, Head of APAC Business Development at 500 Startups.  I first met Ee Ling when we recorded her first ATP episode about Smarter Me.  As the startup ecosystem in Southeast Asia continues to mature, we wanted to bring her back on the show to talk about the importance of entrepreneurship and ecosystem building. Some of the topics covered include: The sheer amount of change that has occurred since her last appearance on ATP The continuing inspiration Ee Ling gets from young (even teenage!) founders The synergies between 500 Startups and Smarter Me Customer centricity is not just a buzzword Creating value and delivering impact Empathy for Founders and startup stakeholders Maintaining an emphasis on team culture How 500 Startups works with governments that want to build and nurture startup ecosystems Corporate innovation and facilitating internal startups What will the next five years look like? Digitalization, Virtualization, Health and Wealth Security, Education, and Sustainability

The Asia Tech Podcast switched gears a bit and welcomed Bryan Falchuk to the show.  Bryan is the Founder and Managing Partner of Insurance Evolution Partners.  Bryan is an extremely talented and experienced advisor to the Insurance industry and a former C-level Property and Casualty Insurance and InsurTech executive. Bryan is the best-selling author of "The Future of Insurance: From Disruption to Evolution: Volume I. The Incumbents" and "The Future of Insurance: From Disruption to Evolution: Volume II. The Startups" Some of the topics covered in our discussion included: Moving from the carrier side to the InsurTech side The subtle differences between mutuals and reciprocals Selling technology to incumbent insurers Capacity needs to be treated strategically Communication between re-insurers, insurers, and InsurTechs is paramount Capacity, Underwriting, Reinsurance and what these terms mean Some of the incredible stories in his most recent book Purpose - The idea that you can not imagine NOT doing it Do incumbents worry about Amazon The future is about partnerships and collaboration Parametric insurance Some of the other candidates for this episode's title: I Like Fixing Things Taking the Risk Out of the Equation The Grass Is Not Green Anywhere Unless You Garden

The Asia Tech Podcast welcomed Florian Reichert, a Partner at Picus Capital.  Picus invests in early-stage technology ventures and follows a very long-term investment approach investing significant amounts throughout the lifecycle of a company. Some of the topics that were covered included: Florian has been brainstorming FinTech ideas for as long as he can remember Picus is the perfect combination of investing and entrepreneurship Why Picus focuses on early-stage investing Leveraging the network and having a great sparring partner Viewing sustainability as having a positive impact on society A growing focus on India and Southeast Asia How Asia is not one monolithic market Government support is good but ecosystems can evolve without it Already making some investments in Africa

The Asia Tech Podcast welcomed Weerada Sucharitkul, the CEO of FilmDoo to the show for a truly inspiring conversation. The mission of FilmDoo has always been to connect to the world through film.  While the method for making these connections continues to expand and evolve, the mission remains the same. Some of the topics that Weerada and I covered included: Being the daughter of a Diplomat and the impact of being a third-culture kid on cultural understanding Her role models for entrepreneurship included her Mom and Christoph Schmidt The influence media has on real life and vice versa The role of media and film in inspiring change How FilmDoo helps people discover international films The different pressures on male and female founders Getting accepted in 500 Startups Global Launch Singapore program 80% of FilmDoo's traffic was coming from language-related searches Leveraging the power of film to help with language learning and diversity and inclusion training FilmDoo Academy and the future of learning FilmDoo's fundraising status Southeast Asian School Competition at FilmDoo Academy

The Asia Tech Podcast finally had the chance to catch up with Christian Mischler, a co-Founder of Deskimo.  Christian is really so much more than that... Christian grew up in a family of educators, with no substantive business experience, yet he was always interested in business.  He started his first business in high school, building websites for Swiss-based SMEs.  While at university, Christian started his second company - making flashcards and writing summaries to help students get into university and rolled this out across Switzerland. Some of the other topics Christian and I discussed: The Swiss Army and joining Credit Suisse after graduation Worked at CS for two years and enjoyed the work, but made more money from his ventures Came to Asia with Rocket Internet to help build FoodPanda, his bosses at CS thought he was a bit crazy The great story behind the founding of HotelQuickly The birth of the Swiss Founders Fund Not living paycheck to paycheck, but not living a luxurious lifestyle How entrepreneurs see the world through the lens of opportunity, not problems The excitement of building things and working with a cool team on something new How the pandemic has changed the way people collaborate and work The evolution of Central Business Districts and the repurposing of office buildings Deskimo - an asset-light extension of a corporate office

The Asia Tech Podcast had a killer conversation with Kiran Mysore, a Principal at The University of Tokyo Edge Capital (UTEC).  UTEC is a seed/early-stage technology-focused venture capital firm associated with Japan's University of Tokyo. Some of the many topics that Kiran and I covered: Kiran comes from a 'small' city in India that helped shaped many of his views He studied engineering at university and noted that a lot of people do that in India and then graduate and figure out what they really want to do He started studying entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial models when he was 21 including Indian pioneers like Tata, Americans like Carnegie and Rockefeller (ruthless capitalism), and Shibusawa Eiichi from Japan His inspiration from Indian Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan An explanation of stakeholder capitalism What is University of Tokyo Edge Capital Deep tech is anything that is Intellectual Property led and difficult to replicate Building long-term relationships in Japan matters Operational excellences matters It is never too early to talk to your customers Portfolio companies Bugworks and OPALai The concept of adjacent possible

The Asia Tech Podcast was honored to have Helle Priess as a guest.  Helle is currently the Founder and CEO of DoersCircle.com.  Originally from Denmark, Helle has spent more than half of her life in Asia (I know how that feels!). Helle launched DoersCircle in March of 2019.  With more than 23 years of experience establishing and scaling businesses internationally, Helle is well-positioned to empower the global community of independent workers.  She is motivated by reshaping the world to support this huge and ever-growing group of independent people - the future of work. Some of the topics that Helle and I discussed: Moving to Beijing to study at university as an 18-year-old Most of her peers were more likely to go to the United States or London Always moving out of her comfort zone The biggest challenge in her career was her age...was always quite young for her position Always acted like an entrepreneur, even inside a larger organization Making the leap to self-employment The idea that being an entrepreneur is not stability driven The poor treatment of independent workers and the genesis of DoersCircle Close to 50% of the global workforce are independent doers It should be just as easy for an independent doer to get a credit card, obtain insurance, and purchase other products and services as it is for a corporate employee