Entrepreneurs of Asia (EOA): Recent Episodes
entrepreneursofasia
Entrepreneurs of Asia is a show that interviews the founders, entrepreneurs, and investors impacting and shaping the startup ecosystem of Asia. We are looking to have genuine relevant conversations about the challenges entrepreneurs face and to share stories and learn lessons from the best.
E:39 Mak Choong Moon is Vistage Chair where he coaches over 40 CEOs and business owners each month. He has been deeply involved in Malaysian property development for close to 40 years. He is an expert in turning businesses around and selling them. His family business has been involved in private equity before it was even a well developed asset class in Malaysia. In this episode we cover various aspects of coaching and what Mak has learned as a coach for many years. We also get an update on the latest happenings in property development in Malaysia and the Legacy of Mak’s family business.Timestamps:00:00 Introduction00:31 Why Do You Need A Coach?05:14 What Qualifies One To Coach?07:56 Systems and Frameworks For Coaching32:05 Most Important Lessoned Learned From Coaching35:12 CEO major concerns for 202339:44 Property Development in 202358:50 Legacy of Makok and Masbe01:26:54 Malaysia In The Next 10 Years01:29:59 Mak's Superpower
Description: This episode is a solo episode on some thoughts I had about pricing products and services especially for early stage companies. The original thought came from listening to an old This Week in Startups episode with Marco Zappacosta (https://open.spotify.com/episode/5ylxDbTCXPzoNy8ZizCNJ3?si=c6ccf80ecf984f8f). This episode covers the general approaches to how I have thought about pricing products or services. It then covers some of the nuance that I refine into my thinking after hearing Marco Zappacosta speak. The Context (00:00:58) | The Bottom Up Approach (00:04:01) | The Top Down Approach (00:05:43) | Putting It Together & Price Discipline (00:07:56)
Accompanying Substack: https://entrepreneursofasia.substack.com/p/on-pricing-products
The second wave tech boom for Vietnam is here and it is crypto driven. In this episode Don Phan, a pillar to the Vietnam technology and investing community discusses the latest trends and developments in the Vietnam crypto space. We discuss Crypto Gaming, Axie Infinity, Yield Guild Games, Centralization vs Decentralization, Web3, DeFi and much more.
The Thai startup and venture capital ecosystem. Why is Thailand so corporate venture driven? In this episode we discuss the big trend changes in banking and the various challenges fintech players face from regulation, licenses, culture, and unique customer profiles. We also cover what it's like to be a VC in Thailand and what it takes to be a successful founder there. Lastly we discuss Pat’s Latest Project Evrynet.io along with the latest trends in crypto and DeFi.
Yi Jean Chow, Investment Principle at E.ON, and Future Energy Ventures. What is it like to work in Silicon Valley? What are the challenges, and how does a Venture Capitalist and corporate venture capital fund work? More importantly, find out why solving energy is so important for humanity and how it is related to climate change.
How do startups, family business and SME’s relate? Brian Soo’s experience tells us exactly how. As Chief Innovation Officer of Malaysia’s oldest fire safety company, Fire Fighter Industry, Brian is constantly driving change and value in it’s 47 years old business. In this episode we learn how Brian has leveraged his super powers, what defines good content, why you should be on Tik Tok, his approach to “re-founding” and how a SAAS company can sell to SME’s. Firefighter industry is a great case study for anyone who has an interest in innovation, SME’s, or family business.
Pei Fu Hsieh is CEO and Co-founder of Karbon Card. This episode, recorded towards the end of 2021, discusses Pei Fu’s background in private equity, venture building with Rocket Internet, working as a Venture Capital in early days China with Kleiner Perkins and later 01VC. We later discuss what exactly the Karbon Card is and the pain point it is solving for the India ecosystem. Pei Fu also shares his framework for decision making which is tied to his guiding principles, and he also tells us what is needed to be a successful Venture Capitalist wherever you are.
Rajiv Lamba has worked in Southeast Asia, mostly Indonesia, for more than a decade. After his first successful exit he decided to roll the dice again and embark on a new business in market research and eventually founded a competitor to the famous Qualtrics survey company, SurveySensum. After getting to Rajiv and the companies he founded, we dive into the world of SAAS. We discuss the differences between SAAS in the East and West, product iterations in SAAS, how to sell SAAS, and ultimately what it takes to be successful in B2B SAAS in Asia. If you need to learn about SAAS or get caught up with the space this is an episode for you.
Chong Siong is a serial entrepreneur with experience across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. He has managed multi-million dollar budgets for Lazada’s marketing, has worked for publicly listed companies, built his own cryptocurrency startup, and most recently worked at a Y-Combinator company in the construction space. Chong shares his wealth of experience, and discusses his thoughts around marketing talent in Southeast Asia and how to structure your performance marketing team here. We also go deep in the difference between Rocket Internet and Y-Combinator. We also contrast the working cultures of Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The last section also delves into the state of crypto currency and the rise of NFTs
Did you miss Rocket Internet's global expansion train back in 2010-2012? Don’t worry, you can live vicariously through Stephen Chung as he relates his stories and lessons learned building 6 ventures for Rocket Internet whose companies have left a lasting legacy in the Asia region. For the second half of the episode we dive a bit deeper into adtech and Stephen’s experience in growing an early stage ad-tech company to its successful exit in 2019. Stephen also shares a lot of useful insights from being a builder of ventures and a person who has helped many global companies grow their user bases as well.
Why is it very hard to innovate fast in Energy and what are the barriers of growth? Walter entertains a seemingly wild idea of “space mirrors” that will power solar energy. Secondly, we get a bit more grounded and discuss how fintech in SEA will unfold between the giant platform players like Grab and Shopee and the other older financial institutions such as CIMB along with their efforts in Vietnam and Philippines. Lastly we tackle Walter’s current endeavors in mental health for minorities and how serving your labor force more holistically leads to a better society!
Are you a founder hiring? Are you a recruiter? If so, don't miss this episode. In this episode we sit down with a regional expert for the talent markets of Southeast (SEA). We discuss one of the biggest challenges facing the SEA talent market, which is talent scarcity! Should you build it first yourself then hire or hire first? Should you hire a generalist or a specialist? Should you raise more money to attract talent? If you need the answers to these questions, tune in and listen!
Part 2 of Nattapak’s Journey. In this episode we discuss the difference between working in Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia. We also compare and contrast some cultural differences between the east and west and how that affects the work environment. Lastly we discover how Nattapak founded his current startup Trash Lucky by asking the 100 million dollar question.
Nattapak is a serial entrepreneur who shares his journey on how he got started and ended up building ventures across Thailand, Philippines, and Indonesia. In this episode, we discuss some aspects of social life in Thailand, working as an engineer at AMD glory days, working in a Thai Family business, business school, and how Nattapak got started in entrepreneurship with Easy Taxi Thailand as COO and eventually being a venture builder for Inspire Ventures.
Is coworking dead? NO! In this episode Dewan Ng shares his fresh perspective of what the future of co-working looks like. WeWork? WeWho? Good riddance. The future of co-work looks bright and agile where flexible spaces will be driven by community. We go deep into the world of co-working, co-living, community and much more.
This Part 2 of Dave’s journey, experience, and lessons. Feel free to listen to Part 1 first for more context. We start where we left off with Dave’s transition to Living Social. Later we cover the nature of the startup & VC ecosystem in Southeast Asia, the importance of owner engaged companies, what's it like working in Genting Casinos, the strengths and weaknesses of the Chinese and US systems, Magic the Gathering as a metaphor for life, early stage investing and the viability of Grab’s business model in the long run.
Dave Chang, bestie, master of the high ground, and entrepreneur turned media investor; this exciting Part 1 of 2 episodes covers Dave’s Theory of Economic Bundling where we explore his thesis in the context of media from gaming, movies, music and e-commerce. We also get to hear about his experiences moving from communist China to growing up in the Midwest of America and later returning to China to be a part of group buy history with the infamous Groupon China. This episode is packed with insights and philosophy and more.
In this episode we sit down with Jaclyn Lee, Founder of the Conscious Reboot an up and coming health and wellness platform. Jaclyn details her Journey from America to Asia which sets up our important discussion on the nature of burnout, balance in startups, what coaching is and how one can tangibly approach wellness in a meaningful way. If you have been stuck lately hopefully this episode helps you get unstuck!
In this episode we chat with Daniel Torres, currently an entrepreneur in-between startup projects. Daniel has spent a solid career working in Silicon Valley and scaling ventures across Latin America to Southeast Asia. In this episode we hear a bit about this journey, meditation, building playbooks for companies like Eatigo, Zyllem, and Circles Life, We also get to hear about what Silicon Valley was like back in the early 2000’s to what Daniel sees now in 2021. In the end we get to hear where Daniel will end up whether it be the United States, Latin America, or Asia!
In this episode we get a chance to talk to Jonathan Liang, Brand Director of KSK group, and Co-Founder of the Jonathan Liang fashion brand spanning across 11 locations from Hong Kong, China, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore. In this episode we briefly cover Jonathan’s story of becoming a fashion entrepreneur, working in corporate luxury fashion under a few brands under LVMH to smaller popular brands such as IRO Paris, and the DD collective. Towards the middle we dive deep and discuss what exactly is brand and design for Jonathan, what is iconic vs trending, and if fashion is actually solving anything from a design standpoint.
This week we sit down with Rajan Devnath who is Co-Founder of a company called NEVO, a work in progress. In this episode we cover the ups and downs of starting a new tech venture along with the founder journey and some of the wisdom Rajan has gained over the years from bootstrapping to growth scaling. We also get to discuss his past experiences in Rocket Internet building rideshare, exiting his first start in the Philippines, working at the silicon valley company The Studio, Manufacturing in China, the tech scene in China, and the differences between India and China too!
In this episode we sit down with YK Goon, CTO of Kakitangan, an HR SAAS platform that handles payroll, leave applications, taxes and more. We get to discuss the Engineer mindset vs the Artistic Mindset, developing software engineering talent, technical leadership and software engineering management, early Rocket Internet and its technology stack, developing products with a sales team, road mapping and advice for CTO’s.
Justin Ahn, Co-founder of Quidli, a fast convenient cryptocurrency wallet allowing you to store or use cryptocurrency as you please. We continue our blockchain discussion in this episode and talk about the nature of cryptocurrency and where its headed, the next evolution of fiat to digitalization, We also dig into Justin’s background and discuss the Asian American identity, his early work in cross border M&A advisory, Rocket Internet, business school and more.
Quidli: https://quid.li/
Crypto currencies are back and stronger than ever before. Today’s episode we sit down with TM Lee, co-founder of CoinGecko, one of the largest, if not the largest, cryptocurrency data aggregator in the world. In the first half we get to learn more about TM and his journey as he shares his philosophy on committing to developing CoinGecko for the long term, his take on side hustles, and crowd sourcing tech to scale your business. The second half focuses on CoinGecko from its main feature that exponentially helped it scale, the business model, the evolution of the technology stack, and various other applications of block chain technologies.
In this episode Yorlin Ng, COO of momentum works, shares her thoughts from the challenges of being a woman in corporate and startups, juggling those mental models with being a leader as well, the pros and cons of the corporate world vs startups, and why those topics are important for her. Those on a journey considering corporate or startups will find this episode useful to hear Yorlin’s insights which spent significant time in both worlds. The last topic is also relevant for anyone thinking how they structure their leadership roles in the company from CEO and COO relationships.
Jianggan Li is Founder and CEO of Momentum Works, a venture outfit that has focused on venture building, consulting, media and much more. In this episode we get to hear a bit about Jianggan’s Journey from growing up in Communist China, to stumbling upon entrepreneurship as a journalist in a media company to joining the rise of Rocket Internet during the rideshare craze with Easy Taxi. You will get unique insights in what it is like to work in China, how communism has helped shape entrepreneurship in China, the current state of rideshare and much more.
In Part 2 of Allen Ding’s session we get down to the pragmatic details of what makes a great software engineer. As you would expect the answer is never 100% straight forward and what Allen looks for in Southeast Asia has been very different than what he experienced in Silicon Valley, Netherlands or South Korea. We also cover what makes a great CTO and all the possible signals a non-technical person could possibly use to help single out a strong candidate who is good at software development or a great CTO. We also dig into shipping products fast vs collecting technical debt and Allen’s view around that and lastly here about Snappymob’s time when they were able to develop popular apps that have hit the top spots in App stores. If you want to here about
Allen’s background you can go to Part 1 here:
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Kicking off 2021 with the story of Allen Ding. A Malaysian based entrepreneur who runs a software development agency here based in Kuala Lumpur. In Part 1 Allen shares his story of how he was able to build a successful profitable agency well known for high quality and care. The story involves supercomputers, to silicon valley startups and companies, world class development agencies, building products that hundreds of millions of users touch, to unresolved drama that helped spur personal growth. This story spans the globe from Netherlands, to Malaysia to San Francisco, Korea and more. Don’t miss this story and stay tuned for part 2 for Allen’s practical pragmatic advice!
This episode features an amazing founder and F&B entrepreneur, Marcus Low of Table & Apron and Universal Bake House. Marcus is a tremendous entrepreneur and I would urge anyone working in or interested in the space to learn and listen from him. Marcus presents a very thorough business philosophy and strategy that has allowed him continued success despite the struggles of entrepreneurship. In this episode we briefly touch upon his story, discuss diversification vs specialization, how to create value with a soul, artistry and community, scaling craftsmanship, F&B as a team sport, the important of experience the restaurant business, finding focus early on, technology in F&B, how restaurants use data, founder conflicts, building culture, food as an institution, food accelerators and stock options for F&B businesses, and much more. This one is long but worth your time. I guarantee it.
This week’s episode is a talk I gave for the Singapore Tourism Board Accelerator’s Cohort 3 founders. The program is called Learning from Legends. I was invited by Found 8’s (co-working space) Program Manager - Katrin Miller, to present what I learned from my most recent interviews on the EOA platform. There is a lot of great content revolving around advice on leadership, scaling startups, raising capital and much more. The talk was moderated by Kevin Czok, Co-Founder and Venture Partner of Hotel Data Cloud. He asks very insightful questions and does a great job engaging with the content.
Short Background On Me
[00:02:02] Lessons E1: (Culture by design, Do things That Don't Scale, Products That Scale)
[00:02:35] Can you do things that don't scale at Rocket Internet?
[00:06:47] Do Rocket Internet companies have a soul
[00:09:03] Lessons E2: (Startups Are Fragile, Consider Motivations, Go Against The Grain)
[00:14:23] Can you go against the grain in conservative cultures or industries?
[00:24:54] Lessons E3: (Grit, Being Scrappy, Customers, Customers, Customers)
[00:30:51] How to build Scrappiness and Grit into company culture?
[00:33:19] Lessons E4: (Mentors, Critical Thinking)
[00:39:21] Lessons E5: (Community, Core Value Prop, Data)
[00:44:19] Lessons E6: (Fight Where You Win, Sticky Culture)
[00:46:57] Lessons E7: (Working w/ Spouses, Micro/Macro Management, Design In the Physical)
[00:50:53] Lessons E8: (Selling Matters, Difficult Conversations)
[00:53:40] Lessons E9: (Product Market Fit, Raising Too Early, Raising Early Is Not A Science
[00:58:10] Lessons E10: (What's Your Weakness, Lead By Example)
[01:00:57] Lessons E11: (Growth In Crises, Team is Company, Deals Take Long)
[01:04:11] Question & Answer Section
For this week's episode we do our first remote session with my good friend Sik Hoe Yong. Currently he is CEO of Knock Knock but got his early start in tech startups with Rocket Internet during the rideshare boom with Easy Taxi. He later had a fruitful rise after joining Foodpanda, Optimizing Happy Fresh before the Grab investment, Launching and making Lalamove Malaysia profitable, moving to Singapore for more food related startups until finally landing on his current role with Knock Knock a laundry and cleaning service platform. In this episode we talk about his early start from Studying in Wisconsin USA, to the pains of growing rideshare in the early days. We later talk about he we was able to help contribute to the Happy Fresh turn around by cleaning up its unit economics and pivoting it to a gig economy play. We also briefly talk about how Lalamove was so successful in Malaysia and what it would take to replicate a Happy Fresh model in this day in age in terms of resources and money. Lastly we talk about some of the darker aspects to VC in Singapore and what the VC scene is like in Singapore.
KSK group is a growing conglomerate led by CEO Joanne Kua. In this episode we get to learn more about Joanne as a leader and what it takes to build a conglomerate. KSK group was born out of the sale of one of Malaysia’s largest insurers Kurnia Insurance. We discuss their flagship project, 8 Conlay, as a property developer, and discuss the current state of their tech startups they have seeded, Sunday, a full stack end to end insurtech company, and Carmana, an second hand auto marketplace. Lastly we discuss KSK groups current initiative the Platter food accelerator, Asia’s first food accelerator.
Joanne as a Leader - 00:04:32
Joanne's Early Career in London - 00:16:45
Brief History Family Business - 00:25:11
Selling Kurnia Insurance - 00:28:29
KSK Group is Born (going private) - 00:32:53
The 8 Conlay Legacy - 00:38:10
The Conlay Project - 00:39:32
KSK Tech Startups (Sunday & Carmana) - 00:48:05
The Platter Food Accelerator - 01:02:00
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to inherit a business that is generating close to USD200 million dollars a year? For this week’s episode we get a unique insight into Benjamin’s Teo’s family business and how his initiatives in innovating Paramount Corporation led him into incubating one of Malaysia’s top co-working spaces. Often there are a lot of misconceptions about inheritors of family businesses. Ben’s humanistic touch and insights sheds light to this space and gives advice on navigating complex family business relations, to succession planning, and sharing his journey of finding his own purpose and motivations when he could have gone for a much easier life and path. Lastly we dive into the current state of co-working in Malaysia and discuss the broader landscape and Co-labs plans to keep growing in the space.
This episode gets very tactical as we sit down and chat with Francesca Chia, Co-founder and CEO of GoGet. If you are looking for advice on different types of pitching from grants to raising money(00:04:23) this is an episode for you. Fran also shares her early experiences raising money from 500 Startups to the latest advice from her most current round (00:14:21). We further discuss product market fit (00:24:56) and how that affects the time to raise capital and when to monetize (00:41:46). We also discuss other topics from technical founders, blitzscaling, grit/determination, and the definition of success (00:54:22).
In this amazing episode we talk to Renyi Chin, co-founder of myBurgerlab, we discuss the extremely important topic of Shake Shack vs In-N-Out [00:05:06] , how Renyi discovered hospitality [00:15:11] , the culture of service and hospitality around Asia [00:20:05], and the evolution of the F&B industry of Malaysia [00:10:18]. Half way through we get personal with Renyi, and learn about his experiences in America, how he leads as an introvert, his favorite foods and ratatouille moments [00:32:12] . I especially love our conversation around the idea of “best foods”. Towards the end we discuss building a culture of understanding, communication, and accountability along with the future of F&B [00:54:31] , and myBurgerlab’s expansion plans[01:07:39] . Lastly we talk about how to handle difficult conversations[01:29:33] .
Part 2 kicks off by talking about building company culture for a restaurant and how both Micro and Macro management are critical components for Copper and Chef and leader for the food side of business. Both Zeehan and Chai discuss the importance of paying attention to no only the customers but what external factors affect them in building a great user experience. Later on we get to hear about the behind scenes of how tiring it is to work at Michelin Star restaurants, and we get to understand why some countries get more stars and some countries don’t. Zeehan and Chai do an amazing job on breaking down the food culture and what needs to happen before we see more Michelin stars in Southeast Asia. Lastly we directly hear how Covid lead to the closing of Copper but at the same time having a silver lining in the future for the founders new ideas on what they will focus on in the future.
Building Company culture of a restaurant [00:01:20] | Micro vs Macro management [00:02:50] | Creating an amazing user experience [00:07:16] | ABaC and Oud Sluis Experience [00:11:20] | Different flavors of Michelin Star Restaurants [00:20:20] | How can countries get more Michelin Stars [00:22:02] | Food Culture [00:24:19] The idea for Copper its evolution [00:29:38] | The impact of the pandemic and the future [00:42:08]
If you want to know what it's like to run a restaurant, raise a family, and work with a husband or wife this is the episode for you. This episode highlights the story of the co-founders of Copper restaurant which ran successfully for more than 6 years. Early in the episode we hash out what it's like working as a husband and wife team, while raising a family, and starting a new restaurant. We then quickly dive into their early careers before they started Copper from their culinary training, to how they got started in the business, their values, and motivations and much more. Towards the end we get a taste of the early experiences of a young chef breaking into Michelin star restaurants and the value of hard work and ethics.
Brief Background of Chai and Zeehan [00:02:14] | Can a Husband & Wife work together (values, communication, defined roles) [00:05:50] | Running a business while raising a family [00:12:34] | Early experiences of Chai & Zeehan [00:15:36] | The Food Scene Europe vs Asia [00:41:08] | Early experiences in Michelin star restaurants [00:49:23] | Work Ethics [00:56:17]
Kevin Tan, currently Executive Director Europcar has a fascinating background. Since graduating UC Berkeley he joined the family business, Wawasan TKH, where he built his business chops where he was eventually able to buyout a subsidiary of the family business for his own, the Europcar Franchise for Malaysia and Thailand. Previous to Covid, due to ride hailing and travel, the car rental business has been booming. In this episode we discuss the dynamics of family business from learning how to innovate in a family business structure, how to navigate complex family relationships along with succession planning and more. Later in the episode we go much deeper into the world of car rentals and how Kevin was yet again forced to innovate and pivot the business in these trying times. If you want to learn about the future of travel and more go ahead and listen!
UC Berkeley Experience [00:02:32] | San Francisco experience during the financial crisis and after [00:05:32] | PC culture [00:11:28] | Family business framework [00:17:15] | Innovating a family business [00:31:48] | Europcar market size [00:42:33] | Trends of travel industry [00:46:26] | Marketing a car rental business [00:49:57] | Asset Heavy vs Asset Light business models [00:48:31] & [00:56:38] | Technology in Car Rental [00:59:31] | Pivoting the business [01:00:43]
Continuing from Part 1 we dive deeper in to Andrew’s story of entrepreneurship. In Part 1 we left of where Andrew was ready to leave the Boston Consulting Group which was life changing experience. Little to his knowledge then his next chapter would be just as profound if not more. In Part 2 we learn more about what it is like to work with the World Bank and Global entrepreneurship program Endeavor. We further learned how Andrew was able to leverage a consulting gig into the world of startups. This episode also takes a deep dive and we get to see behind the curtains of what it was like to work at Lazada before and after the Alibaba acquisition. We talk at lengths about Rocket Internet Culture vs Alibaba culture and Andrew’s development journey in becoming a competent leader which allowed him to become CMO of Lazada within 6 months of joining the rapidly growing organization. We extend the conversation further and discuss the innovations of e-commerce in the Asia region and compare it Amazon and the differences between the two regions. Lastly we dig into some more recent topics of what 500 startups is up to and about Sequoia’s more recent 1 billion USD fund raise for further investment in SEA. Lastly the most impact question discusses learning how to build self confidence and guarding against self-assurance.
Grind Culture in Silicon Valley vs Management Consulting [00:02:26] | The World Bank & Endeavor [00:05:46] | Is business school a good value proposition for startups? [00:14:43] | Lazada Pre-Alibaba [00:21:09] | Becoming a competent leader and CMO within Lazada : [00:30:17] | Lazada Post-Alibaba acquisition [00:34:50] | The future of E-commerce in Asia | Leaving Lazada [00:52:13] | 500 Startups in Southeast Asia [00:56:00] | Sequoia in Southeast Asia [01:00:00] | Self-confidence vs Self-Assurance [01:02:02]
Extra Material: This Week In Startups - Episode1094
Aizat Faiz, the story of a child of a global diplomat, who failed high school programming [00:14:51] , and never graduated from university [00:21:42], hacked his way into open source communities [00:25:37] , and eventually hacked his way into facebook’s most prestigious team, the growth team. The little known story of a Malaysian startup acquisition that ended contribution to hundreds of millions of Facebook’s user growth[00:32:43] . What is the Facebook growth team[00:40:56] ? Time at Facebook; Making enough money to live for for more than 20 years without having to work[00:41:56] . The tales of struggle and burnout in Silicon Valley’s hustle culture, and rising from the ashes [01:00:43] . Key lessons from Facebook; the importance of data for startups [00:56:05] and so much more. This is an episode you don’t want to miss.
In this episode our guest from Episode 1, Kevin Hoong, helps interviews Alexander Le the founder of Entrepreneurs of Asia. In this episode you will learn about why Entrepreneurs of Asia was started [00:03:00], thoughts on the format and style [00:07:41] , Alexander's early career before and during Rocket Internet [00:17:16] , the culture of Rocket Internet [00:30:33] , complexities of having an Asian and American identity [00:49:40], how to come back from major failures[00:40:21] , and a framework on how to iterate your life and career [01:02:37] !
Andrew Gnananantham, EiR of 500 startups and Lazada Malaysia's ex-CMO shares his tale of growing up in small town Ipoh to how getting into debate transformed his life from changing his thinking, opening doors to new cultures and ideas, traveling the world and eventually landing a job at the Boston Consulting Group.Early Childhoold [00:02:47] | Challenges as a minority in Malaysia [00:12:28] | The power and benefits of debate [00:12:28] |Getting into BCG [00:45:31] |. Stay tuned for Part 2 which covers how Andrew pivoted his career from consulting to tech and startups by joining Lazada. Part 2 will discuss the future of e-commerce and what Lazada was like before and after the Alibaba acquisition.
Amy Zheng, Co-founder of Amazing Grazes shares her "Amazing" journey from her early days in Communist China, life as an economic immigrant, what it is like to go to Harvard University, getting a job at the World Bank, and breaking into management consulting. All of this culminates into her co-founding Amazing Graze, an international multimillion dollar food startup, that only raised money one time.
- [00:01:59] - Life in Communist China
- [00:07:11] - Life as an economic immigrant
- [00:14:59] - Views on China today
- [00:16:34] - Under Graduate years
- [00:24:31] - Early Career
- [00:29:25] - Harvard years
- [00:40:40] - The World Bank
- [00:46:54] - The Boston Consulting Group
- [00:58:46] - Co-founding Amazing Graze
Have you every bought anything on Zalora before? Have you ever wondered what it would be like competing against a company like Grab? Why is the food space such a huge focus for all the super apps today? Joon Chan shares his epic journey from Rocket Internet early days when there were no investors willing to put more than a few million dollars of investment in any tech startups, there were no major fashion players online, rideshare was born, and the early innovations of food tech startups began all in Southeast Asia. These are some stories you don’t want to miss!
In episode-2-part-1, Joon Chan, Co-founder of Cooked Global and veteran of Rocket Internet, shares what it was like for him growing up in Malaysia and the early experiences that helped define his later career in venture building across Asia. Part 1 explores the themes of different thinking, risk taking, and creating better opportunities from situations that don't seem ideal. Joon's background and context will help give a better understanding of what it took later on to scale big ventures such as Zalora, Easy Taxi, and Food Panda and to eventually co-found his own profitable food delivery business.
In our first episode of Entrepreneurs of Asia, Kevin Hoong, Director of Anthola talks about his experience in how he was able to get into Airbnb and eventually help scale Airbnb across Asia. He also shares his experiences and discusses his views as a Venture Partner for the venture builder Hype and his mentorship experiences with 500 startups and the Singapore Tourism Accelerators. Lastly he discusses his decision to leave the tech world and move back to traditional businesses to help drive innovation in the insurance industry.