Asia Tech Podcast

[00:06] Welcome Azmul Haque Managing Director Collyer Law to Asia Tech Podcast. [03:44] Getting started in the disruptive technology, challenging the existing norms [13:56] A look at the use of distributed ledger technology. What will Blockhain mean for startups? [17:19] What are the distinctions between a utility token and an actual security? What the views of the regulators versus from a legal standpoint? [26:13] What needs to get done to allow all parties interested in purchasing utility tokens and securities to be able to participate from a legal perspective? [32:09] The concept of democratization of financial assets means intermediaries aren’t necessary. How will that framework look like without intermediaries? [39:14] Building a transactional business - do you build your own coins and ICO? [45:24] Perspective on the businesses that are starting to get built around token issuance like Simple Token. [47:12] Renaissance of the market. How is the crypto currency market going to develop?

In this week’s Asia Tech Podcast, we’re back from our travels. Michael comes back from Mumbai with a field report on cross-border investment and Graham D Brown returns to Japan from Thailand and Singapore. We talk about how India will create “100,000 startups” in the next 10 years (according to ex-Infosys CFO Pai) and how Mumbai is just one of the 30 potential startup cities in Asia. The scale and velocity of the startup ecosystem in 2018 could leave the rest of the world behind. Here’s why…

Holly Harrington is the General Manager at Taiwan Startup Stadium. Taiwan Startup Stadium, a program funded by Taiwan's National Development Council, is dedicated to bridging Taiwan startups with opportunities around world. Holly is passionate about mentoring startup founders, helping them get funded and is committed to helping them build globally relevant businesses. She is involved in every aspect of the programs that TSS develops and implements and is deeply focused on their outcomes. Holly is also the co-Founder of Everiii, a Taiwan-based firm founded in 2014 with a global mission to connect people and companies across cultures. We had an incredible discussion about Taiwan, startups and the challenges and thrills of helping teams go global! Podcast highlights: - Introduction to Holly Harrington and Startup Stadium Taiwan - Taiwan's unique startup accelerator program - What makes Taiwan a unique proposition for startup founders? - Why do startup ecosystems need to build relationships outside of their own cities/countries? Podcast notes: [00:40] Some background on Holly Harrington [04:00] How did Holly end up in Taiwan? [07:35] An experience of living in Taiwan as an American [11:03] How technology has made our life easier [15:05] How did Holly get into the startup world? [19:40] An importance of diversity and bilingualism in a team [25:26] The Taiwanese diaspora [29:05] What Taiwan StartUp Stadium does [35:47] How to participate in Taiwan StartUp Stadium program [40:20] How did Holly’s company manage to build relationships with traditional companies that aren’t innovative? [43:20] Other investment partners in Japan. Conferences in Taiwan [49:43] Promoting and building connections on conferences and trips [58:55] Learning along the way with those you help. Communication and unity between startups

We spoke to Shaun Rein about his new book, 'The War for China's Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order'. A fascinating follow up to his other books…We covered many other topics as well, including the duopoly of TenCent and Alibaba, the massive internet market in China and why it is difficult for foreign firms to succeed and how China has become a hotbed of innovation across many verticals and sectors. Shaun has been in China for almost 20 years and has seen so much change and development that informs his ongoing analyses of China, business in China and the growth of some of the world’s largest internet companies. It also gives him a unique perspective on China’s changing place on the global stage and its impact on business and geo-politics. Podcast Highlights: [00:09] Asia Tech Podcast Stories with author, founder and managing director Shaun Rein [00:56] Internet challenges in China [01:25] Background about Shaun Rein [02:40] A little bit about the previous books, The End of Cheap China and The End of Copycat China [05:24] Innovations in China especially in payment methods [10:05] 'Boots on the ground' approach [11:57] Thesis around the book, 'The War for China's Wallet: Profiting from the New World Order' [14:25] China's foray into Africa [18:00] The TenCent and Alibaba duopoly [24:00] What will be the impact of Chinese companies in South East Asia? [27:05] What were the mistakes made by the Americans? How to avoid replicating them when the Chinese come in to South East Asia? [33:41] Do you get your books translated? If you do, would you want them sold in China? [37:37] Now that China has caught up, where does it go from here? What's in store for the next 5 years? [40:18] What does 'one belt, one road' mean? [43:22] What is happening in the Greater Bay region? [48:00] The domesticity of the Chinese market

In this week’s Asia Tech Podcast broadcast from Bangkok and Singapore, we discuss the growing importance of Asia in the global tech startup ecosystem. We look at the latest research data from the Google Temasek study which shows just how robust the South East Asian online economy is, reasons why Nutonomy chose Singapore as testing ground for its autonomous vehicles, and the importance of the Chinese Unicorns Alibaba and Tencent in growing the Asian ecosystem. But to kick off, a quote from Michio Kaku (co-founder of String Theory) this week, “Silicon Valley no longer has a monopoly on innovation”.

Jehan Chu was raised in New Jersey, spent some time outside of the United States before boarding at the Westtown Friends School. Academic excellence is a main tenant of this uniquely Quaker school in Pennsylvania…yet one of the main aspects of the school is its sense of community, intellectual curiosity and critical thinking. This must have mattered to Jehan, as those themes are pervasive throughout his adult life. While at university, he became interested in Web programming and then rode that interest to a job building the online presence and business of Sotheby’s in New York, followed by an opportunity to run their Client Development efforts in Asia. Jehan became more involved in the art world in Asia while at the same time becoming deeply interested in the BlockChain and Bitcoin. At some point the crypto community started taking up so much of this time and interest (He was a Founding member of The Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong and the Founder of Ethereum Hong Kong.) he started focusing full time on building the multi-faceted business that has become Kenetic Capital. Podcast highlights: [19:25] What is Tokenization? Why it matters and how it help startups [29:01] The role of the traditional VC equity in the ICO crowdfunding phenomenon [32:54] The 3 waves on how we see the ICO and Tokenization market Podcast notes: [00:05] Introduction to ATP Stories with Jehan Chu, Founder of Ethereum Hong Kong [00:20] How Jehan started with Sotheby’s and became head of Client Development in Sotheby’s APAC Region [06:36] How Jehan became more involved in the art world in Asia [10:51] Winklevoss twins became his first real touch point on Bitcoin in 2013 [13:18] Founding member of The Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong and Ethereum Hong Kong [16:15] How have you seen the growth of Blockchain since 2013 considering the interest in blockchain is much bigger now? [19:25] What is Tokenization? Why it matters and how it help startups [24:46] How do you see Initial Coin Offering (ICO) and the token market developing over time? What's your view on other peoples comment that this is a scam? [29:01] The role of the traditional VC equity in the ICO crowdfunding phenomenon [32:54] The 3 waves on how we see the ICO and Tokenization market [35:18] How will quantifying the entire supply chain of a business look like and then making it tradeable? [41:01] Thoughts about Jason Goldberg's Simple Token business [43:00] Jehan talks about his Investment Thesis [46:40] How will the crypto space progress

[09:30] How tenCube got acquired by McAfee and the state of venture capital in Asia [26:55] How did Zimplistic translate the roti-making process mechanically, electronically and in software? [31:10] The advantages of Rotimatic - a Roti maker - being integrated in the cloud

In this week’s Asia Tech Podcast, we share what we’ve learned from a year of getting out there and traveling around Asia talking to startup founders and investors. How effective are startup events really? Do we really need more demo days and speed dating to grow the Ecosystem or should we focus more on substantive conversations that help Founders and Angels connect the dots in Asia? In this episode, we also share our plans for 2018 and our inaugural podcast round tables which we’ll be bringing to a city near you soon.

Marcus Ellison is consumed with learning and innovating. He is not bound by existing rules nor others’ perceptions of what is and is not possible. Marcus believes that life is a system that needs to be figured out an approaches things in terms of experiments. He comes from a family of entrepreneurs and even went so far as to design his own major while he was in college. His first business, started while still in college, was an internet radio station that played Jazz music. He also built a successful real estate investment company literally from scratch that succeeded on his ability to hustle, learn the things he did not know and create trust and credibility along the way. Marcus is very talented and driven. He has now focused his energy on building VentureMark. After moving to Vietnam, he noticed that the Angel investment scene was not only very fragmented, but quite immature. He has set out to change all of that with VentureMark.

Jason Goldberg builds things…and he generally builds them bigger than you would have expected. Jason worked on Bill Clinton’s campaign and then in the Clinton White House, not because he was well connected to them, but because he reached out himself and asked. An early lesson learned was that you don’t get things you don’t ask for. Seeing opportunities is relatively easy, seizing them is the definition of success…and great entrepreneurs are great at seizing great opportunities. In his current business, SimpleToken, Jason Goldberg believes he is seizing a very large and transformational opportunity. The success of SimpleToken augurs a secular change in the way communities are built, given incentives to produce and compensated. Simple Token aims to be the platform that enables “Cryptocurrency to Power Digital Communities”.

[00:07] ATP stories with Jerome Le Louer [01:51] A little background history on Jerome Le Louer, CEO Wishbeer [04:32] Jerome and his first job in Thailand [07:17] First insights on Wishbeer and Jerome’s story as an entrepreneur [10:35] Jerome Le Louer talks about the importance of a local language when building a business in Asia [13:18] Wishbeer and reasons behind the launch and success of the company [15:40] Jerome Le Louer explains the process of funding his start-up Wishbeer and how it grew over time [25:30] When is the right time to start an online business? [31:04] What is the easiest way to get funding for your start-up? [37:15] What are the regulations an online business needs to deal with in Thailand and Asia? [39:29] Taxes and tax systems in Thailand for startups [42:02] Insights into the Wishbeer innovative ordering system [43:40] Summary of Jerome Le Louer's start-up and growth of the Thai ecosystem

Caspar Bo Jensen understands the highs and lows of entrepreneurship. He has seen them both…more than once. After building successful e-commerce companies in Denmark from scratch, the global financial crisis finally caught up to him and he had to shut down his businesses. Caspar Bo does not give up, however, and he learned a lot from those experiences at home and decided to join some friends in Thailand and try to do it all over again…both bigger and better. Founding Chilindo in October 2013, it was challenging from the start. Nobody had built a shopping experience like Chilindo in the region before and if it meant going to source products in Chinatown at 4AM, Caspar Bo was going to do it. Caspar tells a very interesting story of how consumers like to buy, near failure and how doing things differently can lead to sustainable success.

Rajesh Sehgal is a seasoned and well rounded investor, spending over 17 years working at Franklin Templeton India. Working with Dr. Mark Mobius since 1999, who managed the Emerging Markets Group at Franklin Templeton, helped shape his investment philosophy and inculcated a sense of rigorous investment discipline and deep portfolio optimization knowledge. Applying this to his angel investments for the last decade has given him an edge that other Angel investors would love to emulate. Mr. Sehgal’s newest entity, Equanimity Investments, continues to invests in startups and early stage businesses across sectors and geographies.

Joining Asia Tech Podcast AI today is Frederique Mittelstaedt, the founder of Automorph - a platform that aims to bring the problem solving skills of Artificial General Intelligence to the wider public. Automorph is a program that can write programs (sound a little meta?) Well, this could be the future of any app development or SaaS startup. Fred has already pioneered his own AGI programming language along with well thought out ideas about what constitutes intelligence as well as what makes many of those "fuzzy" skills that we love about being human (like creativity, art and music) something that we could ultimately teach machines.

[13:45] What's EventHub? The CEO and Co-Founder explains how her company is helping attendees of different events to network and to connect. [21:30] Discussing TechCrunch Tokyo – the 2nd biggest event to use EventHub technology. [28:45] Differences in networking culture pose a new challenge – what are the main differences in networking culture between Japan and North America?