Asia Tech Podcast

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia.

Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

[01:05] Vincent Djen, Co-founder of FashionEx Shanghai, shares more about his company, further explaining how it helps startups in the fashion industry grow by giving them insights and methodologies to avoid mistakes which helps them build solid business plan

[19:50] Vincent shares how important research is before entering the Chinese market in terms fashion, further explaining how looking at the analytics of taobao and Tmall aids a startup analyse and compare how they rank in the fashion industry for China

[30:50] Vincent elaborates more about his journey, sharing how he manages the RnD for his family bushiness and also manages his FashionEx by working more towards the business development side

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia.

Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

[11:15] If you look around Asia, what is the most exciting market you see going forward? -- Just because of it's scale, China is the place. There is no comparison to what China is doing in terms of the amount of resources being poured into innovation in China now. India is starting to rise. Indonesia is massive; but it is lacking in some of the basic infrastructure that make technical systems thrive. It's a massive problem to figure out how to offer services in a market and ecosystem that is completely different.

[32:15] How do you choose the right companies to work with? -- In the end we don't know if we've chosen the right companies. Maybe there are some we've missed along the way. We tend to look for very classic things. Does the startup have the right team? Do they have the skills to build with? Are they coachable? What is their market potential? What is their technology potential? Then we look at their prototype. This tells us a lot about whether the team is capable.

[54:13] For people listening who might be going through their own dark hour of doubt, what advice can you offer them? -- Keep your eyes open. Try to stay engaged and apply yourself. Don't just get interested in something and not do anything. You don't know where things might lead you. Don't worry too much about your status and just keep pursuing your interests. Ask for advice and don't be afraid to reach out. Also, help others help you. It's really important for founders to be visible and to be recognized as experts in their field. So be part of the public conversation.

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia.

Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

[00:43] Simon Kemp, Founder & CEO Kepios, shares how he was stunned with a statistics shared by Graham of how China, despite not being featured in the FIfa world cup, sold more tickets to its citizens than England

[20:00] SImon explains how music has evolved over the years, sharing examples from his younger days as to how limited the music options were compared to the current times where one can easily access apps like spotify to listen to different kinds of music from various cultures across the globe

[53:33] Simon shares how Asia and its culture inspired him to build his businesses here, further explaining the impact travelling has made by exposing him to different cultures and influences, activating the ability to be innovative as well

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia.

Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

[00:05] Welcome Jan Smejkal aka Your China Guy to Cross Border Kyle with host Kyle Ellicott

[01:25] What is Jan aka Your China Guy up to?

[02:45] Jan works with Startup Grind. How many chapters does it have now?

[04:45] What has Jan seen happen with the \"community\" in China specific to Startup Grind which grew from 3 or 4 chapters to 25? How did he develop that community?

[10:00] Where does Jan see the Shenzhen community today? What does he see happening in that community around startups and entrepreneurship? What\'s the pulse?

[15:45] A quick sidestory of Kyle in Shenzhen

[24:25] How did Jan come up with the name Your China Guy?

[26:45] Where is China going? With the venture markets and startups taking off, where is this situation going?

[31:10] Kyle advises you should give China a chance

[38:00] The number of people traveling in and out of San Francisco alone globally is huge but there\'s a lot more activity happening in China

[40:25] Jan\'s top 3 pieces of advice for first timers landing in China

[45:45] Jan\'s favourite travel hack

[47:00] Who is Jan\'s favourite China unicorn?

[48:00] Where can someone find more about Startup Grind in China? Go to startupgrind.com/

[50:50] Find Jan on twitter.com/yourchinaguy or contact him through email at [email protected]

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia.

Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

[13:00] In your career of studying people, what are some things people in business should know and try to apply in their daily life? -- Consider whether you're dealing with customers on the one hand, or members of your team on the other. With customers, follow them. Don't develop solutions that don't respond to a need. Get inside their behavior and don't make them do something they don't want to do. With your team, always listen. Be open and receptive to what you see.

[24:50] Let's talk about social media. What is your favorite social network and what do you think is the future of social media? -- Today social media is like a shopping mall. Younger people don't watch TV, but they are all on social. This means social media is the most effective way to reach your target audience. The problem for most companies is turning social media interest into sales. In terms of platforms, Facebook and Instagram are the two highest drivers of converting interest into sales.

[59:00] How does one get on the Forbes' 30 Under 30 list? -- The key is focusing on what matters to you. Do your own thing and find your own path. If you have a path, people will see it and come on-board. Receiving this award brought us a lot of new clients. We received a lot of media and promotion from it as well. It was also a big validation.

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia.

Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

[00:40] Ryan shares his backstory on how he ended up in Shanghai, where he is today, to what his business is and what he's doing

[24:40] How does Ryan go about the commercial aspect of his business? How does he go out there and work with partners to sell his programs and distribute content?

[44:25] "Television is gonna come back. The whole Kardashian era and the whole reality-tv era is coming to a grinding halt." - Ryan

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia.

Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

[06:56] People in the region seem to speak highly of the work you guys do at SeedPlus. You seem to check all the boxes for the ideal startup founder most VCs look for. -- Never referred to self as an entrepreneur. What entrepreneurs do is way, way harder than what we do as VCs. Having been in venture capital for a few years, have a greater appreciation for the dangers of stereotyping. Great founders can come from anywhere. Biases can lead to dangerous thinking and missing out on great opportunities. Empathy is probably one of the hardest skills to acquire as a VC. You need to have empathy with founders. Of course we are investing for financial gain; but at the same time we want to help build businesses that are good for human beings. An example of a company focusing on empathy is Amazon. Jeff Bezos has always been customer-first, customer-centric. This has not changed over the years.

[14:53] When you're chatting with a founder, what do you look for? -- It's really about the team. At the seed stage there are a lot of unknowns. This means the founder and the team have a much bigger impact on overall outcome during this early period. We look for qualities like mental agility, understanding context, market fit, displays of leadership, and just like pure grit. It's a delicate balance. When you come across someone who has an opinion about how the world should work, even if it's not correct, this suggests it's possible to have a discussion around making ideas work. It's also relevant to consider the context in Asia. To have an opinion implies you're willing to go against the grain. Asia is more conformist than other cultures, and this is not always great for entrepreneurship.

[45:29] A new generation of talent is wondering how they can be part of the Asian Century. What advice might you give? -- There's no better way than just being here. You can read and watch as much as you want, but it's not as good as seeing things for yourself. Singapore is a great gateway into the rest of Asia. It's good for families and it's safe and efficient here in Singapore. Immersion and acquiring a language are also fantastic ways to get acquainted with the region.

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia.

Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

[00:53] Let's start with Casey's In the making, the man behind the growth of RISE Asia in the past 4 years as it's co-host and how he met and agree to join Paddy Cosgrave, the Founder of RISE, who also founded Web Summit for Europe and Collision for US - the brain behind this vision of disrupting tech conferences for scale and impact.

[04:54] On disrupting conference/learning and development formats for the sake of the audience. Are you re thinking of how you design them? People are looking for engaging content. It's no longer that you can throw someone on the stage and expect someone to listen to them. You have to have a whole experience. It's like going to Disneyland. That's what Paddy has created with the conferences. It is like Disneyland - you see the big attractions, but you also try out the crazy hot dog, the mickey waffles, take a roller coaster ride. Some times you don't know where you end up, whom you meet. It is very spontaneous. A great example of "ENGINEERING SYNCHRONICITY" - using data science, using technology to run a conference/learning events).

[09:35] Starting up vs. Startups? Starting up in a big Corporate or a tech company is a huge trend too. #Futureofwork

[11:30] Conferences are a great way to stay competitive, upskill oneself - be it as a speaker or as an attendee or as an organiser. Let's talk about the 3 major takeaways and learnings: 1. ***How to put together a conference 2. ***Speaking at Conference - How to pitch to sign up as a speaker and speak more effectively at public conferences/ public events 3. ***How to network more effectively

21: 58 Pitfalls or failures or Lessons to be shared. Any example?

[28:23] Future of work. Role of network, the community outside of your own company, own startup? How would work differently tomorrow and the ways to keep up skilling yourself

[31:00] Biggest asset of an accelerator is it's network. The mentor network

[03:39] Why RISE is different and unique? 1. We are able to bring an amazing speaker team from around the world to Asia/ HK. Like - founder of Tinder, founder of Didi coming this year (July 2018). We are able to mix lot of the European, American and Asian leaders together on stage and not easy to inter mingle otherwise. 2. It doesn't end at 5 pm. It takes a breather and continues through the night - for what we call the NIGHT SUMMIT. So one can continue sharing what you've learnt during the day, meet investors, media, all kinds of tech people... Rise turns the entire city in a startup hub for 3 days.

RISE 2018 (4th year) is happening on July 9-12.

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia.

Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

[04:33] You describe Momentum Works as a tech accelerator. What do you do? -- Over the past two years we've changed our business model quite a bit. For many ventures, you can get a team together, get some investors, and start producing a product. The problems come next when you have to deal with customers, have to find the right people to help you expand, etc. At Momentum Works, we hunt startups. To be a successful accelerator, you can either be really knowledgeable about niche markets and products, or you act more like a pure VC where you basically just supply money. We do a bit of both.

[32:55] Do you spend a lot of time traveling to and from China? -- In 2018 have traveled there at least once every six weeks, usually to either Beijing or Hangzhou. We have to otherwise you end up losing touch with the market. What's interesting is the degree to which there is a lot of second-generation wealth in China looking for places to invest. It's very common that once people get rich in China they begin to look for off-shore opportunities for their assets. Singapore is becoming more and more attractive in this regard.

[41:30] As you continue to develop Momentum Works, what kinds of startups are you looking to have walk through your door? -- We are always open to talking to people. The people we like to work with are those who are passionate, but who also understand what's going on in the world. How is what they are doing similar to what others are doing in different markets? Having this sort of strategic openness to what's going on, to the bigger picture, really helps. It's really hard to tolerate people who lack logic in what they're doing. People are good at telling stories, but it takes logic to turn plans into reality.

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia.

Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

[09:13] Geir shares his experience when in late 90s he tried taking the existing online services and combing with the community features and his various other experiments with internet.

[24:10] Geir tells us the challenges he face in scaling live videos and how important it is for tech team to be ready for what is coming. He also tells about prototyping and how it lets a team test out and give them experience in the field they wanted.

[36:30] 20-30 years back we have seen millions of young population in China, Japan and Thailand moving from countryside to large cities. Its interesting to see how social apps are bringing them close to the roots.