Asia Startup Pulse

By ChinacceleratorBusiness Entrepreneurship Technology Investing

Asia Startup Pulse episodes

July 23, 2020 China's Changing Regulations on Gaming, with Greg Pilarowski, Legal Expert & Founder of Pillar Legal
Today, we have Greg Pilarowski, Founder of Pillar Legal, a boutique law firm with offices in Shanghai and San Francisco that provides legal support for technology and entertainment companies with an interest in China and the US. Before founding Pillar Legal, Greg was General Counsel at Shanda Interactive Entertainment, at that time China’s leading interactive entertainment company.
Show Notes:
02:20 Introduction to Greg Pilarowski
04:40 Working in Shanda Interactive Entertainment
07:20 The birth of the free-to-play model
10:10 Gaming regulations in China
12:22 Two key regulations that you must know
14:46 Criterium for selecting games
20:24 The regulations on gamification
21:55 Resources to secure your games approval
24:35 Do new game updates need constant approval?
25:40 How can foreign game companies enter China?
29:48 Chinese companies taking games outside of China
31:34 The acquisitions strategy of Chinese game companies
32:50 Contact Pillar Legal
Many thanks to our guest Greg Pilarowski; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com
Share, subscribe, review, enjoy!
Follow us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-china-startup-pulse/
Email us: [email protected]
35 min
July 14, 2020 Building the world's leading mobile analytics platform from China, with Bertrand Schmitt, Co-founder and Chairman of App Annie
Today, we have with us Bertrand Schmitt, Co-Founder & Chairman at App Annie, a leading mobile market data and analytics platform with data on over 8 million apps and thousands of websites. App Annie is one of the most trusted names in mobile data analytics.
Show Notes:
1:53 Introduction to Bertrand Schmitt
4:55 Early days of the mobile ecosystem and the problems within
6:28 Evolution of mobile operators' role in the industry
8:57 Centralization of content distribution in the mobile space
9:59 Apple vs Android ecosystem
10:59 Getting into the world of analytics and inspiration behind App Annie
12:26 Beginning of the China Story
14:55 Deciding to go into entrepreneurship in mobile analytics
16:30 Mobile analytics: Global problem or local (China) problem?
17:37 Perception of AppAnnie in the global market
18:57 Was China a critical element of success?
21:00 Experience of overseas fundraising from China
25:05 What triggered the move from Beijing to San Francisco
28:26 Learnings/ findings working across multiple geographical locations
32:06 Instrumental roles that made a difference to the company
33:12 Critical moment of evolution in China’s mobile industry/ecosystem
37:00 Lessons for entrepreneurs
Many thanks to our guest Bertrand Schmitt; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com
Share, subscribe, review, enjoy!
Follow us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-china-startup-pulse/
Email us: [email protected]
40 min
July 07, 2020 Unraveling Digital Ads: The Cash Cow for Alibaba, with Donna Li, Digital Advertising Veteran
Today we talk with Donna Li, a digital marketing veteran, who was part of the team that launched Alimama, the digital advertisement division of Alibaba, which is also the largest player by revenue in the digital advertising space in China.
Show Notes:
02:06 Introducing Donna Li
03:25 How did you get started in digital marketing in China
06:06 Digital marketing in China at around 2010
10:15 Transition from Yahoo to Alibaba
13:12 Advertising: Taobao’s monetization model
18:26 Alimama: Cash Cow for Alibaba
22:15 Is Amazon following a similar playbook?
25:50 New inventor: Bytedance
29:55 Advertisement as a business model for early-stage startups
34:10 Build digital measurement currency at Nielsen
35:42 Challenges for startups
Many thanks to our guest Donna Li; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com
Share, subscribe, review, enjoy!
Follow us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-china-startup-pulse/
Email us: [email protected]
39 min
June 26, 2020 From Bootstrapping to Being Acquired by SoFi and Learning From Constraints, with Mikaal Abdulla, Co-founder and CEO of 8 Securities
Welcome to yet another exciting episode of the China Startup Pulse Podcast. Our guest today is Mikaal Abdulla, Co-founder and CEO of 8 Securities, a zero-commission mobile-only securities platform that was recently acquired by SoFi. From bootstrapping the business to raising an impressive 1st round of $8 million followed by successive rounds to finally being acquired by SoFi in April, Mikaal and 8 Securities have turned a full-circle.
In today’s episode, Mikaal shares with us his experience of starting his own business after having worked at eTrade for almost a decade, his motivations, and the highs and lows he has experienced over time. We dive deeper into the lessons he learned from the prototype of the product to successive iterations that followed. We also discuss startup fundraising, learning from competitors, and the importance of taking that leap of faith at opportune moments, which could define the future for a company as it did for 8 Securities.
42 min
June 10, 2020 Scaling WeChat to One Billion Users Globally, with Stephen Wang, Former User Growth & Engagement Director at WeChat
Our guest today is Stephen Wang, who co-founded Rotten Tomatoes, a leading entertainment website focused on movie reviews and news, and most recently led the user growth and engagement at WeChat in the past 6 years until 2019. At WeChat, he managed a team of product managers and engineers to help scale WeChat from 300M to 1B users in China and around the world.
Show Notes:
2:15 Welcome Stephen Wang
2:50 How different WeChat is as a product from the western perspective
5:37 What makes WeChat instrumental for people’s life
12:42 Innovation inspired by Tencent team culture
16:10 Product design in China (Examples: Douban, Weibo and Xiaomi)
21:50 What makes China a special ecosystem for digital product development
25:30 WeChat’s killer features: WeChat payment, Red Packets, Mini program
32:35 Balance privacy protection and user growth
39:20 Skills needed for talents in Tencent
43:35 Are Chinese companies hiring more international talents
49:10 The major shift of product management philosophy in China
Many thanks to our guest Stephen Wang; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com
Share, subscribe, review, enjoy!
Follow us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-china-startup-pulse/
Email us: [email protected]
53 min
June 02, 2020 Evolution of Internet in China (1990s-2000s) and Staying Ahead of the Competition with Fritz Demopoulos, Co-founder of Qunar.com
Our guest for today, Fritz Demopoulos is the Founder of Queen's Road Capital. He has been an entrepreneur and investor within the media and internet industries for over 15 years. He co-founded Qunar.com, China’s largest travel internet company; and Shawei.com, China’s largest sports internet company. Fritz also had senior positions at Netease and The News Corporation. As an expat witnessing the exponential growth of China since the late 1990s, he brings a very unique and interesting perspective of internet in China and the determinants of success for early internet founders.

Episode Notes:
02:30 Introduction to Fritz Demopoulos
03:05 Internet in China in 1997
05:15 How Fritz decided to come to China
05:44 What stood out in the Chinese business environment
07:33 The Dotcom Bubble and its Impact on China
09:12 The Major Driver of Business Growth in China
12:13 The Evolution of Early Internet Businesses in China
13:42 Appetite for Monetization
17:00 Value Addition over Monetization
18:41 User Interface in early 2000s
21:36 The First Generation of Chinese Internet Founders
24:35 Fritz's leap into entrepreneurship
26:48 Differentiating a Business and Standing Out of the Crowd
31:03 Raising Capital as a Foreigner in China
32:58 Inflection Point for China Internet that Changed Everything
35:11 China's Role in Global Tech
39:04 What keeps Fritz busy now
40:00 Fritz's Investment Thesis and Areas of Investment Interest
41:30 How to contact Demopoulos
41:55 Advice to Everyone
Many thanks to our guest; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com
Share, subscribe, review, enjoy!
Follow us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-china-startup-pulse/
Email us: [email protected]

44 min
May 23, 2020 Building from Zero for Government, Venture Capital and Tech Startups; and Lessons from Storeroom to Super App: 8x8 Global Speaker Series (3/3) with Yaw Yeo and Cheryl Goh
Today we’re bringing you the final episode of our Chinaccelerator 8x8 Global Speakers Series where we invite some of the most accomplished members of the China startup ecosystem to share key lessons for startups in eight minutes or less.
Our theme for this episode is entrepreneurship insights. Our two speakers today bring with them a plethora of experience to share with our listeners. Stay tuned for the insights from Yaw Yeo and Cheryl Goh.
[01:51] Yaw Yeo
[17:30] Cheryl Goh
Yaw Yeo is the General Manager for International Product and Business for Alibaba Cloud. Prior to Alibaba, Yaw was responsible for new market expansion in the Asia-Pacific region for Twilio (NYSE:TWLO). Yaw started working with Twilio as an investor in 2012. He joined Twilio as employee #1 in Asia-Pacific in 2014 and witnessed Twilio’s growth from a startup of 50 employees to a publicly-traded company of 2,500 employees.
Cheryl Goh is part of the founding team at Grab. Starting in Kuala Lumpur as a one-man marketing team, she has set up the marketing practise across Southeast Asia for Grab over the last six years. Today, she leads marketing in over 300 cities, covering all of Grab’s business verticals including transport, food, payments and logistics. She oversees Grab’s marketing efforts across the region, leading a team of over 500 marketers across Southeast Asia. In 6 years, Cheryl has built the Grab brand into a household name across Southeast Asia, and played a critical role in the company’s growth and progression from ride-hailing, into the region’s leading superapp. Under her leadership, the marketing team has led the development of demand shaping platforms which drives Grab’s growth using technology and automation. She also manages Grab’s social impact programme and published Grab’s first social impact report earlier this year.
Many thanks to our guests; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com
Share, subscribe, review, enjoy!
Follow us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-china-startup-pulse/
Email us: [email protected]
30 min
May 16, 2020 Being Focused, The Inspiration for Business Ideas, Why Mental Health Matters for Founders; 8x8 Global Speakers Series (2/3) with Patrick Lee, Fritz Demopoulos, and Patrick Riley
This is the second episode from our Chinaccelerator 8X8 Global Speakers Series, where we bring 8 influential speakers to share their insights and experiences in 8 minutes. We have some great speakers lined up for this episode.
[02:50] Patrick Lee
[11:48] Fritz Demopoulos
[21:54] Patrick Riley
Patrick Lee is a serial entrepreneur best known for being a co-founder and former CEO of Rotten Tomatoes (rottentomatoes.com), a leading entertainment website focused on movie reviews and news. He is an advisor to a number of startups including Casetify, ChargeSPOT, Instaread, Kiwibot, Oishii, WePloy, and Zeuss Technologies; and a mentor at a number of organizations including SOSV, Berkeley SkyDeck, Blue Startups, and Founder Institute.
Fritz Demopoulos has been an entrepreneur and investor within the media and internet industries for over 15 years. He co-founded Qunar.com, China’s largest travel internet company; and Shawei.com, China’s largest sports internet company. Fritz also had senior positions at Netease and The News Corporation
Patrick Riley is the CEO at GAN and Managing Partner and Co-Founder of GAN Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital fund. Most recently, he was on the executive team at Techstars, where he oversaw its business development. He started his career working for W.L. Gore and Associates and moved into the leadership of the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C. Patrick left the Red Cross to manage the West Coast sales and operations for a venture-backed healthcare company that had an exit before joining Techstars and GAN.
Many thanks to our guests; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com
Share, subscribe, review, enjoy!
Follow us on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/the-china-startup-pulse/
Email us: [email protected]
34 min
May 08, 2020 Fundraising during COVID-19: Dos and Don’ts, Transforming Crisis into Opportunity with Design, and How to Survive COVID-19 as a Travel Company; 8x8 Global Speakers Series (1/3) with Edith Yeung, Yiying Lu and Abel Zhao
Welcome everybody to another episode of the China Startup Pulse. We have a special one today. We are back with our Chinaccelerator 8x8 Speaker Series this year with eight influential speakers from all over the world to share their insights for startups in eight minutes.
In this week’s episode, our speakers will share their experience and insights as to how startups can weather through the storm that is the Coronavirus pandemic. Our three guests bring different perspectives given their diverse backgrounds.
[02:13] Edith Yeung
[11:47] Yiying Lu
[18:36] Abel Zhao
Edith Yeung is a General Partner at Proof of Capital and advisor to 500 Startups. Previously, she was the GM at Dolphin Browser where she helped the company grow from 0 to 150 million app downloads. She has also led operation roles at several Fortune 500 companies.
Yiying Lu is one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. She is the artist behind the globally celebrated Twitter Fail Whale and the dumpling emoji. She has worked with hundreds of tech startups and entrepreneurs around the world, sharing her experiences and educating them about creative innovation.
Abel Zhao is the co-founder and CEO of TravelFlan, an award-winning AI and big data solutions company, empowering Fortune 500 companies including Samsung and China Mobile.
Many thanks to our guests; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com
Share, subscribe, review, enjoy!
Follow us on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/the-china-startup-pulse/
Email us: [email protected]
28 min
May 02, 2020 China’s Ambition on Electric Cars and The Brutal Competition, with Tu Le, Founder and Managing Director of Sino Auto Insights
Our guest for today, Tu Le is the founder and Managing Director of Sino Auto Insights, a Beijing-based business intelligence and advisory firm that specializes in helping mobility companies develop tech-focused and innovative products and services. With over 20 years of experience in the industry from pure automotive to pure tech and finally combine both experiences together in China, he has very interesting insider perspectives to share with us.

Episode notes:
02:03 Introduce Tu Le
03:04 Define Mobility
03:45 How mobility impacts other industries
05:20 How China becomes one of the largest markets for mobility
08:40 More adoption of electric motorcycles in China
12:54 The brutal battle between the traditional automakers and new technologies-powered EV brands
17:53 Xiaomi and Apple to join the competition
20:25 Will few leading players occupy the whole EV market in the end?
22:40 Tesla gets massive support from the Chinese government
24:55 Supply Chain for production
29:00 Startups that traditional automotive players like to work with
34:55 Opportunities to achieve profitability
37:30 Contact Tu Le
Many thanks to our guest Tu Le; host Oscar Ramos; producer Eva Shi; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com
Share, subscribe, review, enjoy!
Follow us on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/the-china-startup-pulse/
Email us: [email protected]
40 min

About Asia Startup Pulse

From the publisher's feed

The Asia Startup Pulse Podcast, previously known as China Startup Pulse Podcast, is an original weekly podcast for anyone interested in understanding the innovation, business, and tech landscape in Asia. We bring the best of the Asian startup ecosystem, showcasing entrepreneurial stories, insights from thought leaders, and dissecting the strategies employed by tech giants.

Share Asia Startup Pulse

Sign up to save your podcasts

Asia Startup Pulse

Asia Startup Pulse episodes

About Asia Startup Pulse