60/40 Podcast

Prashanth is now building his fourth startup — and he says it's the hardest one yet. This time he had both the capital and the AI tools to move fast, and both made it easier to skip the hardest part: truly understanding the customer.

The destination for the startup journey has never changed: founders still need to find product-market fit. But almost everything else has. Capital. Hiring. Distribution. Even how founders build, test, and iterate has been transformed by AI.

They discuss why founders should probably raise less, not more. Why AI can accelerate bad ideas just as quickly as good ones. Why judgment—not execution—is becoming the scarcest resource. And they imagine what a four-person, billion-dollar company might look like in 2031... before revealing who's actually in the room.

Timestamps

00:00 Cold Open: Is the Startup Playbook Dead?

00:36 Why AI Changes Company Building

06:35 Why a Fourth Startup Can Be Harder Than the First

10:55 The One Thing AI Still Can't Do: Understand Customers

15:32 Should Founders Raise Less Money?

21:01 Building a Four-Person Billion-Dollar Company in 2031

26:08 How Fast Should Companies Adopt AI?

30:21 Execution Is Cheap. Judgment Isn't.

Give us feedback or nominate topics & speakers at [email protected].

Six months ago, we made a set of predictions about AI, markets, and startups in 2026. Now it's time to see how they're holding up.

Some aged surprisingly well: Google's AI search is becoming the default experience, AI specialists are going mainstream, and Canva continues its march toward IPO. Others... not so much.

Along the way, we unpack the biggest surprises of the year so far: Anthropic's stunning rise, growing skepticism around vibe coding, why AI wrapper startups are disappearing, and whether investors are underestimating how quickly foundation model companies can move into every category.

Then we’re coming in with a set of new predictions: physical AI, a Chinese breakout, video models, nuclear energy, and an AI-native creative studio that might just build the next MGM.

So who won our bingo card check-in? The answer depends on who you ask.

The views expressed on 60/40 are our own and are for informational purposes only. Nothing here constitutes financial, investment, or legal advice. Do your own research.

Timestamps

01:22 — The Bingo Card Is Open — Maria sets the format: six-month accountability round across AI, markets, and startups.

02:27 — Gemini Is the Default (In Most Places) — Aleksey's call on Google AI mode; one market where it's literally 100% right.

06:27 — The AI Wrapper Obituary — Prashanth on why wrapper companies are gone, and where the surviving moat actually lives.

09:37 — The Two-Year Runway Problem — Maria on how even regulated, data-heavy startups now have a compression clock on them.

14:35 — Vibe Coding's Accountability Crisis — Prashanth on what he's actually seeing in engineering teams and why the 90%-done first date gets very expensive.

17:08 — Anthropic's Surprise Dominance — How the company that stood up to the Pentagon became the product people stuck with.

22:34 — The IPO Pricing Clock — Aleksey's specific prediction: Anthropic raises real prices within three to six months of IPO.

31:14 — The Most Dangerous Startup Category — Wrapping up the retrospective with a fresh scan: what's most dangerous to build right now, and why 2018–2022 vintage startups face the hardest road.

36:50 — H2 Dark Horses: Video Models and Nuclear — Peter bets on large video models; Aleksey goes long on nuclear energy infrastructure as the only serious compute scaling answer.

Give us feedback or nominate topics & speakers at [email protected].

Markets are up despite an oil crisis, AI capex keeps climbing, and Asia's capital allocators are making big moves. So where is the region's smart money actually going?

Maria sits down with co-host Aleksey — global head of investment solutions at Leo Wealth — for a full market vibe check across the region. They get into the two camps dividing investors right now (are we in '98 or about to hit a wall?), why North Asia is eating Southeast Asia's lunch on capital flows, and the surprising case for nuclear energy making a comeback.

Aleksey floats a wild idea that's gaining serious traction: a compute futures market where you can buy GPU hours the same way you buy oil. They also unpack the Manus-Meta deal fallout, debate India's perennial "almost there" problem, and try — really try — to find the bull case for Southeast Asia.

Timestamps

00:00 — “If an oil crisis can’t crash markets… what can?”

00:29 — Where is Asia’s smart money going right now?

07:50 — Why Asia suddenly feels bullish again

10:46 — The uncomfortable truth about Southeast Asia’s growth story

12:47 — India vs China: why investors still hesitate

17:29 — The next big AI trade: compute futures markets

25:33 — Can Asia produce a true AI software giant?

29:22 — IPO mania is returning

37:06 — The Manus/Meta controversy explained

42:47 — Rapid fire: Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia bull/bear cases

46:23 — “I don’t have a bull case for Southeast Asia”

50:54 — What markets are still underestimating about AI

Give us feedback or nominate topics & speakers at [email protected].

AI isn’t just changing jobs—it’s splitting the job market in two.

In this episode, Maria and Peter break down what’s actually happening beneath the headlines: a flat overall job market, but a 50% surge in AI-related roles—and a growing divide between those who are compounding with AI and those being left behind.

They dig into:

• Why the job market feels “fine” at the macro level—but is quietly fracturing underneath
• The rise of the K-shaped workforce: AI-enabled winners vs. everyone else
• Which roles are at risk (hint: junior, transactional, and back-office jobs)
• Why layoffs aren’t really about AI… yet
• How Southeast Asia’s BPO-heavy economies could be hit next
• And why the hiring process itself may collapse before it gets better

Plus: what individuals and companies should actually be doing right now to stay relevant.

Whether you're hiring, job hunting, or just trying to figure out where the puck is going — this one's essential listening.

Timestamps

00:00 — AI job demand is up 50% in one year

01:02 — Intro: AI and the future of jobs

06:15 — The split-screen AI economy

16:12 — Winners and losers in the AI talent war

19:21 — Southeast Asia’s BPO vulnerability

22:21 — Physical AI, robots, and manufacturing disruption

27:33 — Why job hunting is fundamentally broken

34:12 — Are companies chasing impossible AI unicorn hires?

37:41 — The new playbook for employers

38:55 — Practical advice for employees and recent grads

40:19 — Bull case vs bear case for AI and jobs

Give us feedback or nominate topics & speakers at [email protected].

Singapore is going all-in on AI.

From a Prime Minister–led AI council to billions in investment, talent visas, and national missions across healthcare, education, and beyond—the ambition is clear: become a global AI superpower.

But ambition is the easy part. In this episode, we break down the real question: can Singapore actually pull it off?

We go beyond the headlines to unpack where value in AI is really shifting—from building frontier models to deploying trusted AI systems in the real world. We explore why the future may belong not to the biggest labs, but to the fastest builders—and what that means for a small, resource-constrained nation like Singapore.

We also dig into the hard parts:

• Why talent is the entire game (and why it’s a double-edged sword)

• Whether Singapore risks becoming a nation of AI users instead of builders

• How AI could reshape jobs, industries, and the country’s economic model

• And what it would actually take to build a durable, post-AI society

If Singapore gets this right, it doesn’t just win in AI—it rewrites its future.

Timestamps

00:00 — Cold open: Why Singapore can’t afford to miss AI

00:48 — Intro: Can Singapore’s AI ambitions actually work

05:32 — The shift in AI: from models → real-world deployment

10:30 — The 3 AI primitives: memory, browser use, payments

14:24 — Why Singapore is uniquely positioned (MAS, governance, trust)

20:30 — The talent problem (and why it’s everything)

25:39 — The risk: becoming a nation of AI users

31:35 — Local innovation: why Singapore can’t miss this wave

33:50 — The AI scholars idea: start at 18

36:25 — Advice for founders: build in Singapore?

37:25 — The future of startups: tiny teams, massive output

40:44 — AI + society: building a durable, post-AI economy

43:04 — Final thoughts: policy vs execution

Give us feedback or nominate topics & speakers at [email protected].

A "research memo" set in 2028 made a splash in tech and investor circles and moved markets (at least, for one day). Part thought experiment, part fan fiction, and part collective anxiety attack — the Citrini Report imagines a world where AI drives unprecedented productivity while quietly pulling the foundations out from under the modern economy. Tech stocks sold off. Investors rotated. And a question that's been simmering for years finally boiled over: what happens when AI stops assisting and starts replacing?

In this episode of 60/40, we break down the SaaSpocalypse thesis, the market reaction, and the real state of AI agents — what they can actually execute today versus what we're projecting onto them. The software debate is real, but it's not the most critical one.

The deeper question is about people. Specifically, the ones just starting out.

When AI handles the bottom of the learning curve — the entry-level work, the low-stakes decisions, the things that used to build judgment over time — what's left? We explore what the next generation of workers is actually walking into, and which human capabilities hold their value when machines get very good at everything else.

Spoiler: it's not hard skills. It's the things that have always been the hardest to teach — judgment, relationships, taste, and the ability to lead through ambiguity.

Timestamps

[00:00] Cold open — SaaS is not dead, but the business model might be

[01:28] Intro & episode overview — markets, agents, and the future of jobs

[02:56] Breaking down the Citrini Report — fan fiction or fire alarm?

[06:51] The bull case hiding inside the doom — why some tech might actually be a buy right now

[09:13] Not all SaaS is created equal — who survives and who doesn't

[15:30] The land-and-expand model is dead. Are SaaS multiples coming back? (Spoiler: probably not)

[23:04] Asia in the AI reshuffle — South Korea, Taiwan, India, and the BPO question

[28:02] Introducing "Boring AI" — and what Prashanth has actually been building with OpenClaude

[33:37] Agents vs. anti-bot tech — how to book a padel court (or burnt ends) using AI

[40:38] Thought experiment: can AI replace your Chief of Staff?

[47:03] The omnipresent AI — why the real value isn't replacing the CoS, it's making them 10x better

[49:05] The waterfall model — who makes the 51/49 calls, and who gets the 60/40 ones

[53:33] The 22-year-old problem — what happens to the career ladder when the bottom rung disappears?

[01:02:50] AI slop, taste, and what actually differentiates human creativity

[01:04:25] The pace problem — why this shift is scarier than the printing press or the internet

[01:05:17] Reality check: we're probably at sub-1% global penetration

Give us feedback or nominate topics & speakers at [email protected].

60/40 is a bi-weekly podcast co-hosted by Prashanth Ranganathan, Peter Bithos, Aleksey Mironenko, and Maria Li.

A podcast by Tech in Asia, a member of SPH Media.

This week’s 60/40 is a peer review of one of Asia’s biggest fintech stories.

AUSTRAC has escalated its AML probe into Airwallex. But beyond the headlines, three seasoned fintech founders and investors — Walter de Oude (Chocolate Finance), Prashanth Ranganathan (Zinc & PayU), and Aleksey Mironenko (Leo Wealth) — break down what this really means.

Every financial institution has exposure to fraud.Every startup drops something while chasing growth.

The real question isn’t perfect compliance — it’s whether you’re trying hard enough, and how you respond when regulators step in.

From multi-jurisdiction scrutiny to IPO risk and investor confidence, this is operator-level analysis.

Then we zoom out.

South Korea’s new AI Basic Act signals a shift toward structured AI governance. Is regulation becoming a competitive advantage? And as AI reshapes productivity, are we entering a “Humans Optional” economy — or simply raising the bar for entry-level talent?

Across fintech, AI, and jobs, one theme emerges: Asia’s tech ecosystem may be entering its governance era.

Timestamps

00:00 – The Ferrari Problem: Is breaking rules just the cost of hypergrowth?
01:05 – What AUSTRAC’s probe into Airwallex really means
04:30 – Multi-jurisdiction fintech risk: When regulators talk to each other
08:00 – Are AML fines meaningful — or symbolic?
12:00 – How founders should respond to regulatory heat
14:00 – IPO risk: Can Airwallex move forward with this hanging over them?
23:00 – South Korea’s AI Basic Act: Asia’s first real AI regulation
26:00 – Why the US isn’t regulating AI (and why smaller countries are)
29:00 – Guardrails vs innovation: Can regulation be pro-growth?
33:00 – Humans Optional? Is AI hurting fresh grads?
37:00 – The “Superhuman” thesis: AI as productivity multiplier
44:00 – Are markets rotating away from Big Tech?
46:00 – $150B in AI capex — bubble or necessary infrastructure?
49:30 – What investors are re-rating right now

Give us feedback or nominate topics & speakers at [email protected]. Special thanks to Walter de Oude, Chocolate Finance, for joining us this episode!

60/40 is a bi-weekly podcast co-hosted by Prashanth Ranganathan, Peter Bithos, Aleksey Mironenko, and Maria Li.

A podcast by Tech in Asia, a member of The Business Times.

In the first 60/40 episode of 2026, the team breaks down one of the most talked-about AI deals in Singapore — Meta’s acquisition of Manus — and asks the uncomfortable question: what if it doesn’t go through?

We unpack why Manus sold at a reported $2B valuation, what Meta is really buying (hint: it’s not just tech), and how geopolitics, export controls, and trust are reshaping the global AI landscape.

From there, we zoom out to the surprising IPO debuts of Chinese AI darlings MiniMax and Zhipu in Hong Kong, why they’re listing earlier and at higher revenue multiples than their Western peers, and what this tells us about “sovereign AI” in 2026.

We close with a look ahead: China, Hong Kong, and India’s IPO pipelines, which markets will stay hot, and what could still derail the AI boom.

If you care about where AI, capital, and power are actually heading — this episode is for you.

Timestamps

00:00 – "We’re all talking about it as if it’s done — but it may not be”

02:10 – Meta acquires Manus: deal overview

03:45 – The revenue math: is a 16× multiple crazy?

06:00 – Why Manus sold now (and not later)

22:10 – Are AI startups selling too early? (Manus vs Groq)

32:30 – Zhipu & MiniMax IPO: what just happened in Hong Kong

39:00 – Sovereign AI and why revenue multiples look “wrong”

42:00 – Why global investors want China AI exposure

47:30 – China vs Hong Kong vs India IPO pipelines

49:00 – India names to watch: PhonePe, Flipkart, OYO

50:40 – What could actually derail the IPO boom

54:30 – Closing thoughts: Asia’s AI moment in 2026

Give us feedback or nominate topics & speakers at [email protected].

60/40 is a bi-weekly podcast co-hosted by Prashanth Ranganathan, Peter Bithos, Aleksey Mironenko, and Maria Li.

A podcast by Tech in Asia, a member of The Business Times.

For our final episode of the year — and our 20th since launch! — the full 60/40 crew gets together to look ahead at what 2026 will bring for Asia’s tech and business landscape.

Before jumping into predictions, we rewind through the biggest plot twists of 2025: Grab’s glow-up, DeepSeek shaking the global AI order, Pine Labs racing to IPO, tariffs reshaping supply chains, and crypto’s unexpected glow-up.

Then we fast-forward into the future.

From agentic app stores to AI-specialist “doctors,” from dark factories to sovereign AI races, from robotics momentum to the potential popping (or wobbling) of the AI bubble — we break down the biggest forces that will shape 2026. We debate which Asian markets will break out, which AI players might stumble, and which startups will emerge as next year’s winners and casualties.

We also revisit our best (and worst) predictions from the past year and end with our 2026 wish list — plus a few bold calls that we’ll have to answer for 12 months from now.

Timestamps

00:00 – Kicking off our 20th episode!

01:25 – Top 2025 headlines

05:30 – Biggest tech changes in 2025

12:20 – What 60/40 got right (and wrong)

19:00 – Predictions for 2026

23:00 – AI Asia power rankings

25:45 – Will the AI bubble pop in 2026?

33:00 – Startup winners & losers in 2026

45:00 – Our 2026 wish list

48:00 – Stock picks & macro bets

56:00 – Final reflections

Give us feedback or nominate topics & speakers at [email protected].

60/40 is a bi-weekly podcast co-hosted by Prashanth Ranganathan, Peter Bithos, Aleksey Mironenko, and Maria Li.

A podcast by Tech in Asia, a member of The Business Times.

This week, 60/40 sits down with Endowus co-founders Gregory Van and Samuel Rhee — the duo behind one of Asia’s fastest-growing wealthtech platforms. We unpack their latest $70M fundraise, how they built a conflict-free investing model in a region dominated by commissions, why they stayed laser-focused on Singapore and Hong Kong, and how they survived the tech winter without mass layoffs.

Greg and Sam also get candid about their co-founder dynamic, risk appetites, early failures, and yes — who really loses their cool in a meeting. Plus, a lightning round of “Superlatives” that you won’t want to miss.

Timestamps

00:00: Intro

01:50: The $70M raise and why fundraising still sucks

03:48: Singapore first, Hong Kong second, and the B2B opportunity

09:42: Fundraising in a bad VC market & reverse inquiries

14:31: The founding story: CPF shock, Grab learnings, and pensions

17:41: Why most Asian robos failed — and why Endowus is different

21:06: Trailer fees, misaligned incentives, and systemic industry flaws

32:54: Bootstrapping, employees buying shares, and ESOP culture

36:27: Co-founder dynamics: complementary skills & Monday meetings

46:32: The hardest moment: navigating tech winter without layoffs

52:01: AI as a tool, not a strategy — how Endowus sees the future

56:18: Do they think about exits? The partnership ethos

58:51: The Superlatives game + closing comments

Give us feedback or nominate topics & speakers at [email protected].

60/40 is a bi-weekly podcast co-hosted by Prashanth Ranganathan, Peter Bithos, Aleksey Mironenko, and Maria Li. Special thanks to our guests, Gregory Van and Samuel Rhee from Endowus.

A podcast by Tech in Asia, a member of The Business Times.