Asia Tech Podcast

The post Episode 14 – Shlomo Freund – Free Financial Self – There Were Real Birds in the Background appeared first on Asia Tech Podcast. Shlomo Freund lives in a town between Haifa and Tel Aviv…sometimes. He, his wife and his daughter (OK, she is only 2 years old, but work with me.) are perfecting the ‘slomad’ lifestyle. They are location independent and when they do choose to live outside of Israel, it is generally for a month or more… When they travel, they like to live the life of the locals and they like to assimilate slowly…hence the term slomad. No bus tours and no tourist traps… Shlomo runs a few businesses and this dovetails nicely with his primary focus, which he calls ‘Free Financial Self’. This is a business that teaches freelancers and solopreneurs how to plan for, create and maintain financial freedom. This is a noble goal as it is something most budding entrepreneurs ignore. Shlomo openly blogs about the growth and decline of his own net worth. He also advises people about investing, the benefits of diversification and how to avoid correlated assets.

The post Episode 13 – Sebastian Roervig – Grab Financial – People Freaked Out, You Survived appeared first on Asia Tech Podcast. Sebastian Roervig left Denmark when he was only 19 years old.  He decided to opt out of University at home and decided, instead, to try to get into school in California.  This ended up being a lot harder than he had expected… He discussed the challenges and obstacles of trying to exist on his own in a place he had only visited with his family prior.  He encountered obstacles both systemic and some he basically created for himself. While the word ‘journey’ tends to be a slightly over-used, this is not true in the case of Sebastian Roervig.  From feeling uncertain, isolated and alone in California, his journey to stability has taken him to Boston, the Philippines, Pakistan, Paris and Singapore…all the while freaking out his parents and friends back home. Objectively, he has not only survived…he has thrived!

The post Episode 12 – Justin Liang – CEO, Inspace XR appeared first on Asia Tech Podcast. I spoke with Justin Liang about the vision and goals for Inspace XR.  Justin is a passionate and compelling speaker and deeply interested in how virtual reality, augmented reality and XR technologies change people’s lives for the better. Justin is the CEO and Founder at Inspace XR, where the vision is to change the way buildings are designed, constructed and maintained, employing cutting edge XR technologies and improve people’s lives. The Inspace XR team is working with the world’s leading architecture, engineering and construction companies in developing Augmented and Virtual Reality applications. They also work closely with Universities to educate students that XR technologies are not only useful for games, but also for design. In April 2018, Inspace XR released River Fox, software that allows Architects and Interior Designers to create photo-realistic, interactive VR from CAD in 1 click.

The post Episode 11 – Nathanael Noiraud – Founder, CEO N-Strategy Consulting Services appeared first on Asia Tech Podcast. Nathanael Noiraud is an entrepreneur at heart…consumed with building businesses and helping others do the same.  One of his earliest forays was being recruited to build out the Gameloft business in Southeast Asia.  It was an experience that would change his life. Firmly ensconced in the Asian business world and learning the specifics of each market microstructure lead directly to Nathanael starting his own business, N-Strategy Consulting Services. Nathanael and I had an in depth discussion about the challenges of expanding even the most successful business into Asia.  What is localization?  Why does diversity matter at all levels of an organization?  Do colors really matter? (Yes, they do!) Having a strategic vision is not enough…one needs to have a deep and broad level of experience to truly help others expand into Asia AND the operational expertise to make it happen.

The post Episode 10 – Anson Bailey – Head of Consumer and Retail, KPMG ASPAC appeared first on Asia Tech Podcast. Anson Bailey has spent the last twenty years working in both industry and professional services covering strategic consulting across a number of countries in the Asia Pacific region including Australia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand across a number of different sectors. Anson joined KPMG in Hong Kong in 1999 and is currently a Partner based in the Hong Kong office supporting the business development efforts across the KPMG China Practice. He is part of the Regional Consumer Markets Practice Leadership team and the High Growth Tech & Innovation Group based in Hong Kong as well as being a member of the Global Technology Innovation Centre. Anson has been active in driving a number of thought leadership and executive briefings for senior executives covering the consumer markets arena with recent reports released including Global Mobile Payments, Luxury experiences in China, Consumer Currents, Global Reach of China Luxury, Product Sourcing in Asia Pacific, The Consumer Executive Top of Mind Survey and MNCs in China.

The post Episode 09 – Till Carlos and Eva Louise Dressel – 80% of Success Is What You Choose To Work On appeared first on Asia Tech Podcast. Till Carlos and Eva Louise Dressel work together, but rarely see each other.  They have been doing this for three years, or so…and it all seems kind of normal. Interestingly, while they were raised very close to each other in Germany, they first met in Rio de Janeiro.  Eva Louise was working in Rio and Till was traveling there to see a client.  A mutual friend suggested they meet, which they did do, but they only started working together later. Till has chosen Vietnam as his base, while Eva Louise basically uses Germany…but she travels frequently to New York and other parts of the world.  They both love exploring… Fortunately, for me, they were together for a few days in Krabi, Thailand for a face to face work session.  We had a truly superior conversation and focused a lot on a new product and business they are developing called Englishletics.

The post Episode 08 – Christina Hsiang – Startups Greater Asia – Asian Expansion and Why Asia Matters appeared first on Asia Tech Podcast. Christina Hsiang was born in Taiwan, but moved to Toronto when she was 7 years old.  Christina and her family moved back to Taiwan a half-decade later, where she attended high school and started applying for university in the United States. Always interested in both technology and international business, Christina decided to study law to develop a specialized set of skills and knowledge.  This allowed her to tie together all of her interests and set her up nicely to found and develop StartUps Greater Asia. Our discussion led us to some of the following topics: 1) Asia is expanding, rapidly.  Most people in the West can not conceptualize the speed and acceleration of this expansion. 2) Some companies (both startups and corporates) are beginning to realize that to continue to grow and maintain relevance they need to expand to Asia, but have no idea how to do that. 3) Companies started, developed and domiciled in Asia will expand regionally and globally, increasing their footprints, relevance and dominance.

The post Episode 07 – Benoit Meneau – CEO & Co-Founder, Plizz appeared first on Asia Tech Podcast. Benoit Meneau’s introduction to Asia was in Hong Kong during SARS.  He was doing an internship in Hong Kong from his university back in France. Benoit studied Management with a specialization in Finance.  His thought process was  that companies will always need someone to understand and organize their finances.  He also believed that analyzing a company’s finances was (and is) the best way to understand its business. After more than a decade of organizing the finances of other companies, Benoit wanted to take all of the things he had learned and put them work building his own business. In the end, there was always an entrepreneur inside of him trying to come out.  Solving the finance and accounting problems for SMEs was his platform and it manifests itself in Plizz.co.

The post Episode 06 – Thorsten Neumann – Chief Technical Officer, SmartPesa appeared first on Asia Tech Podcast. Thorsten Neumann grew up in South Africa and started his first company when he was 17 years old.  With a deep understanding and interest in Computer Science and Mathematics, Thorsten naturally gravitated to Finance…where his skill set is uniquely powerful. He helped build ‘Global Trader’ into a business and platform that launched innovative financial products and equity derivatives in 23 markets and 19 currencies.  His knowledge of the way the financial world intersects with technology is quite unique. Currently the Chief Technology Officer of SmartPesa, we had an amazing discussion about a wide array of financial and technology topics.

The post Episode 05 – Qiuyan Tian – Founder Hive-Up – Eliminating Tunnel Vision appeared first on Asia Tech Podcast. Qiuyan Tian was born in Singapore and spent her formative years (Do people still say that?) in Toronto, Canada.  Her father was hired as a professor at the University of British Columbia, so off the family went to Canada. At the University of Toronto, Qiuyan studied Actuarial Science and Economics and headed back to Singapore as a fresh graduate.  She took a role at Goldman Sachs and after almost four years, gave in to her entrepreneurial tendencies. She learned a lot from her first venture, including almost an entire lifecycle of a business in a relatively short period of time.  She also learned the value of having “fresh pairs of eyes” around and she filled that need (among others) with the interns from Next Step Connections.