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Asia Tech Podcast

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Apr 9, 2019 • 25min

Episode 34 – Pariwat Wongsamran – Director of StartUp Thailand (NIA) – New Economic Warriors

I spoke with Pariwat Wongsamran, the Director of StartUp Thailand, at an event at KX Knowledge Exchange in conjunction with WhatNot Innovation Studio.  Mr. Pariwat has deep technology knowledge and his working experiences at Infosys and Nok Air were great preparation for his role at Thailand’s National Innovation Agency (NIA). According its website, “Startup Thailand operates under the Ministry of Science and Technology in collaboration with related organizations, helping startups to utilize local resources for their product and service development, and local employment and revenue distribution, leading to new target industries in driving the country forward.” The Thai government has made a strong commitment to develop the startup ecosystem in Thailand in particular and also attempt to become the global startup hub in Southeast Asia.  Inside the NIA, StartUp Thailand has become one of the most important government initiatives, connecting all of the important and relevant players. StartUp Thailand excels at providing support and services for startup companies across the board.  While the system in Thailand is made of many robust sectors, StartUp Thailand has partnered with 35 universities, more than 1,000 vocational schools and a full scope of Thai corporates. Going forward, the sector focus for Thai startups will move towards AgTech / FoodTech, HealthTech and Travel and Tourism related technology companies.  These have been identified as sectors where Thailand has very strong advantages. We talked about how the ecosystem developed, who the key players are and how Thailand positions itself in the startup ecosystem both regionally and globally.
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Mar 27, 2019 • 46min

Episode 33 – Dr Julie Albright – Digital Sociologist – Synchronization of Time and Harmonization of Values

I was joined by Dr. Julie Albright, Digital Sociologist and author of, “Left to Their Own Devices: How Digital Natives Are Reshaping the American Dream” to talk about digital transformation from a social and behavioral perspective.  From her position as a Lecturer on Electrical Engineering and the Psychology of Interactive Media, Dr. Albright is a ‘thought leader on the intersection of society, behavior, and technology.’ We had an interesting conversation on the impact that hyper connectivity has on a generation that is never without its mobile device(s).  Dr. Albright “looks at the many ways in which younger people, facilitated by technology, are coming “untethered” from traditional aspirations and ideals, and asks: What are the effects of being disconnected from traditional, stabilizing social structures like churches, marriage, political parties, and long-term employment? What does it mean to be human when one’s ties to people, places, jobs, and societal institutions are weakened or broken, displaced by digital hyper-connectivity?”
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Mar 23, 2019 • 25min

Episode 32 – Quanda Ong – Gnome & Bow – What If a Bag Could Tell a Story?

Quanda Ong studied Economics and Marketing at Singapore Management University…which feels like a far cry from fashion and leather goods. Yet, he is also the founder and CEO of Gnome & Bow, the world’s first storytelling bags and wallets.  The idea is that the Gnome & Bow bags can become a new medium for storytelling.  The Gnome represents ‘fantasy’ and ‘storytelling’ and the bow (tie) represents classic design.  There is a bit of a whimsical feel to the brand that guides the design philosophy. The journey to founding Gnome & Bow was not a straight line…it never is.  Quanda’s first job out of school was a marketing role at a Private Bank.  While he remained there for two and a half years, Quanda knew this was not for him…and a year into it, he started thinking about what his real passion was. He had been considering for a while to start his own fashion brand…and bags began to be something he obsessed about.  He noticed the stitching, the lining and all of the little details.  At some point, his father encouraged him to start his own business. In the true sense of an entrepreneur, he noticed while he was working at the bank that when he wanted to buy a bag for himself, he could not find one that jumped out at him.  He decided it was time to solve his own problem and turn it into a business. Quanda did not want to start just any bag company.  He wanted to build something that was unique and scalable at the same time.  Besides the extreme attention to detail, he created a design philosophy that uses classic stories with an added twist to create unique products.  Gnome & Bow now operates in 8 countries.  Listen to Quanda tell the story of the storytelling bag company and how he uses innovative technology to scale and create a frictionless experience for his clients both offline and online.
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Mar 23, 2019 • 36min

Episode 31 – Jamie Skella – Esports Mogul – Prop It Up and Start Lighting a Fire

Jamie Skella and I caught up again and both of us felt like the conversation had come full circle…back to GG EZ Bar and Esports.  Jamie’s involvement in the space goes back almost 20 years…some parts of your life are just that…a part of your life and they never go away.  Jamie’s return to the esports scene is a true return to his roots…and this re-entry has only just begun.  His timing could not be better.  Esports is booming and is on pace to get even bigger. With all of our discussion about Esports Mogul, we had to step back a bit and recap the incredible growth engine that Jamie helped build at Horizon State.  The ability to change lives and improve the quality of political discourse while making it easier and safer to vote was paramount to its success. Jamie is now full on as the Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer at Esports Mogul…and we had a ton of things to talk about as he settles into his new role. It is still early days in the development of the competitive gaming industry.  Infrastructure still needs to get built.  Tools for organizing tournaments, finding talent and paying future stars are still in their infancy.  Jamie and I discussed all of this and more.  We also talked about broadcasting rights and the balance between building your own distribution and partnering with the best of breed. The Mogul business is multifaceted.  One of the key components is providing up and coming gamers a dynamic platform on which they can hone their skills and practice in true, competitive environment while earning prize money at the same time.  Up until now, most gamers have been ‘practicing for free’ and this hinders their ability to train.  Mogul also helps tournament organizers more easily find high quality participants and players. The Mogul Foundation will also be a key part of the organization.  The Foundations’s premise is to create the structure where gamers can thrive post their competitive careers.  It is here where they can get up-skilled and trained to be coaches, trainers, managers and help fill other necessary roles inside the esports industry as it continues to mature.
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Mar 23, 2019 • 38min

Episode 30 – Ee Ling Lim – Smarter Me – It Actually Amplifies Their Learning Experiences

Ee Ling is the CEO of Smarter Me, an education platform which equips children with the skillset, mindset and heartset to define their own success and happiness in the future. Based on a unique framework that combines tech skills (coding, robotics) with 21st century skills (entrepreneurship, design thinking), Smarter Me aims to empower kids and teens not only with the tools of today and the future, but with a deeper sense of self-understanding that will help them overcome any changes in the future. Prior to starting up Smarter Me, Ee Ling spent almost a decade as an Investment Banker, executing billion-dollar transactions in M&A, equity and debt capital markets. She also specialized in Consumer, Retail and Technology. We talked about the transition from Investment Banking to startup life and her move into EdTech.  Ee Ling was always planning to retire and start a school for small children, but after 10 years as a banker decided it was time to accelerate her ‘retirement plan’. She has gained quite incredible insights into the mindsets of children, particularly as they move into full young adulthood and how their perception of themselves changes. Using start of the art technology and employing integrated online to offline strategies, Smarter Me is on its way equip kids with the skillset, mindset and heartset for the future.
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Feb 17, 2019 • 42min

Episode 29 – Eric Monteil – Silapix – I Knew the Myth Behind the Artwork

Eric Monteil is originally from France and has lived in Bangkok, Thailand for precisely eight years.  He is the founder of Art Consulting Thailand through which he is developing his newest and most ambitious venture called Silapix.  Eric studied Chemistry and Physics at University and thought that what he was building was far away from his studies…but we both realized that Silapix was like a marriage of Math, Science and Art. His first job was working in a lab for L’Oreal.  However, his real passion was for hang gliding, para-gliding and micro-lites. After 8 years at L’Oreal, he decided to venture out on his own and he set up an air sports school…I thought it was interesting that his first attempt at business freedom including flying…something directly associated with being and feeling free. He did that for 5 years, got an MBA and then started another company with friends…dealing with and aggregating media and press online.  When I find out someone has started multiple companies, I always want to know if entrepreneurship was something they grew up with or if they broke a mold and released something that had been brewing inside them.  In Eric’s case it was the latter.  None of his family was ‘in business’, but he created outlets for himself by finding market gaps and creating businesses to serve them. Eric sold his second company in 2010 and when I asked him how he ended up in Thailand…he sighed.  He then started telling me one of the most interesting company founding stories I have heard in a while.  In a way, I think it is emblematic of most founders.  They are burned out and want to take some time off and get away.  Yet, they find that soon after they start their extended vacation, the can not stop their brains from analyzing their new surroundings and seeing more market gaps.  They simply can not turn off… Every journey has a definitive start…planned or not.  The real beginning of Eric’s trip started with the purchase of a motor bike in Hanoi.  He travelled through Cambodia, Laos. Indonesia and Thailand…and after a month of ‘testing’ decided to stay in Thailand.  He explains that Thailand is geographically central with easy access to two airports, convenient to get to other countries and source art and a great place to do business.  I wholeheartedly agree…:-) Eric’s idea resonated with me…he wanted to give artists an opportunity to tell their stories and give them exposure to the rest of the world.  The concept was based on the idea that if you wanted to buy art, you have to have a specific relationship with the artist.  This was the beginnings of the idea for Silapix. The large ambition is to create a platform that directly connects artists worldwide to organizations that need art to enhance their environments.
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Feb 17, 2019 • 31min

Episode 28 – Andee Chua – Head of Community, Found – I Was a Little Bit Rebellious as a Teenager

I had an interesting conversation with Andee Chua, the Head of Community at Found in Singapore.  Andee says that he was a bit rebellious as a teenager.  Thinking that he did not want to go right to ‘work’ after school, he decided to break into the world of international modeling.  Frankly, this sounds like a much harder path to me! Andee rocked up to Fashion Week in Milan and through sheer perseverance and talent secured a position in the biggest show of the week, with Giorgio Armani.  Even after winning a spot in the show, the other models told him that there was no celebrating until you have actually ‘walked the show’.  There are actually instances in which the designer decides at the last minute that your ‘look’ is no longer necessary and you are out.  Sounds like capital raising with a venture capitalist to me!  Lots of lessons to be learned in unexpected places. Found is a co-working community, founding in Singapore back in 2012, previously known as ImpactHub Singapore.  It is a network of innovation campuses where ambitious entrepreneurs and corporates find coaching, expertise, and partners to create future-ready solutions. As the Head of Community, Andee’s goal is to optimize how to make the three Found locations cohesive and bring the members closer together.  How can he find synergistic opportunities for them and make them more productive and grow even faster. Finally, we talked about personal branding, a topic that Andee recently wrote about which you can read here…
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Feb 17, 2019 • 33min

Episode 27 – Sebastien Gaudin – CEO, The CareVoice – Patient Experience is a Proxy for Quality of Care

I spoke to Sebastien Gaudin from Shanghai, a self categorized ‘pure healthcare person’, with over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and a Doctor of Pharmacy from the University d’Angers.  He is the co-Founder and CEO of The CareVoice. Sebastien worked with Sanofi across the globe in many impactful roles from Finance and Marketing to helping launch new products and running their diabetes business in China.  Sebastien knows the healthcare space.  He has been at the forefront of the digital healthcare revolution in China and has worked closely with the government to train the next generation of leaders in this space. Sebastien makes the case that the Chinese government is very smart and openminded when it comes to facilitating public / private cooperation. There is also a burgeoning demand from Chinese care receivers for better health care service and better information.  While there used to be a strong concentration of care at only the biggest public hospitals, now more than 50% of Chinese hospitals are private. Sebastien talks about the shift from Business to Consumer only to B2B2C and how the privatization of healthcare drove this to his current SaaS model. Most recently, CareVoice launched StartUpCare…healthcare insurance for startup companies, co-designed with PingAn Health.
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Feb 17, 2019 • 35min

Episode 26 – Angeline Tham – CEO, Angkas – Set an Objective, Aim High

Angeline Tham was born and raised in Singapore…and did her university studies at the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University. Going to school in New York was very different than growing up in Singapore and opened her eyes to a lot of things…noting that if she had not gone overseas, she may not have joined the startup world at all. After graduation, she joined J.P. Morgan. It was a great experience but lacked some fulfillment, particularly as some of her clients were building and running their own businesses. After a decent stint at J. P. Morgan, she left banking to start a company with one of her closest friends, Qiuyan Tian. Leaving banking was never going to be easy, but venturing out with a her close friend, someone she trusted completely made the transition that much easier. Angeline moved to the Philippines and took a role with Softbank that gave her a good introduction to the venture capital side of the business…helping them look for investments in Indonesia and the Philippines. Later she join Grab via her work at Softbank and started the ‘two wheel’ business’ for them in the Philippines, including transportation and delivery. All of this prepared Angeline to start her own business again.  Angkas, which is a local word for pillion riding, is both a transportation and delivery business on motorbikes.  The Angkas app has been downloaded over 1MM times and the company has on-boarded 20,000 biker partners.
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Feb 17, 2019 • 30min

Episode 25 – Scott Thomas – co-Founder, Creatively Squared – Styled and a Sense of Emotion

The post Episode 25 – Scott Thomas – co-Founder, Creatively Squared – Styled and a Sense of Emotion appeared first on Asia Tech Podcast. Scott Thomas is the co-Founder of Creatively Squared.  Scott is originally a scientist and was advising government and corporates on how to behave more like a startup, prior to starting this venture.  While in that role, he found that sometimes the individuals were all in on this, but the institutional inertia made it harder.  One of the first things he tried to do was separate the teams he was working with from their day job to really start having impact. Interestingly, now that Scott is building his own business, he finds that these people are perfect hires as they get the latitude and freedom to innovate in a way that many not have been possible at a larger institution The inspiration for Creatively Squared grew out Ruth Stephensen’s search for a creative outlet and started with an Instagram community she built. She would hold thematic weekly contests and asked people to post their photo to her Instagram group. The quality of the content was so good and the community grew very quickly. He and Ruth determined that there were a lot of people out there that had the time to do some really creative work and there were brands that could not keep up with the amount of content that needed to be created. Creatively Squared decided to try to match them. They have now built up to 20,000 content creators on the platform.

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