Asia Tech Podcast

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Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

[03:11] Being a talent spotter.Geoffrey Handley explains how China has a vast talent of emerging entrepreneurs, going on to share how a company of 25 he had visited for due diligence consisted of 8 PHDs and 10 Masters degree holders

[39:33] Geoffrey Handley shares why was he blown away working with young entrepreneurs in china who have nothing to lose and explains how these young founders have a high drive to make their day better than the day before

[53:20] Regardless of what role or industry a person is in, Geoffrey Handley thinks they should explore the China market and further explains why they would be losing out out if they don`t explore it

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Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

[14:30] Simon: it\'s interesting to consider how what you see defines the reality you believe in. An exposure to other entrepreneurs early in your life likely gives you the confidence you can do something similar. Digital has changed this so much because we are no longer confined to just looking at the people around us. You can see fascinating stories all over the social media platforms today. Graham: digital then is a great leveler, isn\'t it? Look at how women in China can see people around them using these digital platforms. They no longer see the model entrepreneur as someone who is older and male.

[39:05] Simon: when it comes to scaling a business, it\'s really striking to see the barriers women face in getting access to funding. Graham: in some ways this isn\'t surprising given investors tend to back what they know, and what they know is men being successful in business. The challenge in Asia is generational. It will take a generation of entrepreneurs who exit with success and decide to go back in to fund the next crop of people. These will be the investors more likely to back women or non-traditional founders.

[44:55] Simon: the theme emerging from our conversation today is there is definitely an energy around entrepreneurship in Asia. A lot of this is just waiting to be activated. What we need to do is find out how to create the cultures to allow this energy to flourish. Graham: it seems the best thing we can do is to tell people\'s stories. Help people access inspiration.

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Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

[04:13] Azman Jaafar, Deputy Managing Partner at NameRHTLaw Taylor Wessing, shares the profiles of Angel investors, further explaining how most Angel investors are 2nd generation entrepreneurs and how Angel investors take a bet on entrepreneurs with a business model that would change the world

[10:28] Azman Jaafar explains what Angel investors should look out for when investing in a start-up, further elaborating if Angel investors should spend more time undertaking better due diligence than they would normally do

[18:36] Azman Jaafar elaborates steps taken by Angel investors to invest a company, sharing how Angel investors have their own thresholds and how referral from friends may give them a sense security to invest in a company

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Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

[12:45] What is the Bobble keyboard?

[28:00] Does Ankit think Asia is a bit more narcissistic in social media? Will places like Europe or Latin America also hop on that train or is it something unique or heavily used in Asia? Also, does Ankit feel that this social media trend will continue and if so, what\'s next after emojis?

[49:15] Right now, so many companies out there are obsessed with data to feed future AI machines. In Ankit\'s view, what is the right way to use data?

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Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

[00:45] Tell us a little bit about SuperCharger, FinTech, blockchain, and what it is you do. -- Blockchain is very much in vogue at the moment. It\'s been a huge money-maker for some. From my perspective, see it as a nascent technology with the potential to be very transformative. In Hong Kong, there is a wide variety of uses particularly in healthcare, supply-side logistics, etc. If we could use blockchain to overcome inefficiencies, we could really create more growth in our economies. Or in the developing world, if we could find a way to put land titles into the blockchain, suddenly many people are in the economy and able to participate. This is a massive boost to social inclusion.

[27:30] Turning now to blockchain, do you find yourself able here to keep from being overwhelmed? -- When you go and see a doctor, maybe they say you have a chest infection, or maybe they say it\'s pneumonia. The reaction you have will be different depending on how you understand these two things. It\'s the same with FinTech in the sense we\'re dealing with a new language for things that have been around for a long time. Of course there are differences; but what one needs to do is get away from the buzzwords. The fancy words people use obscure the underlying meanings.

[35:50] Is there a particular sector or use for blockchain you focus your attention on? -- Not necessarily. Certainly medical records, land titles, but also in the art market where you can use blockchain to establish provenience. Or using it to solve the problem of blood diamonds, or the origin and safety of pharmaceutical drugs. All of these applications will require public-private partnerships to get around the real issues with data privacy, the basic infrastructure to make it all work, etc. Blockchain has the potential to help countries leapfrog in their development.

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Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

[01:35] What is Pomelo Fashion? Where did it come from and what does it do differently in fashion and e-commerce?

[21:50] Does Pomelo sell their own brand and goods or are there concessions wherein they have designer brands in there? What is their inventory like?

[31:30] Pomelo\'s retail store also serves as a showroom for the goods and products. Is there a typical customer journey wherein one comes into the store, tries a product, goes home, checks it on their website and buys it?

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Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

[01:30] For listeners who don't know, what is PeeBuddy about? -- PeeBuddy is India's first female urination device. One of the first issues we went after was the lack of friendly toilets for women in this part of the world. PeeBuddy is a device that allows women to stand and pee so they don't have to deal with unsanitary toilets. It also helps empower women who for medical reasons may not find it easy to go to toilet in a traditional way.

[27:35] What was it like to be a man selling a female urination device? -- It was a combination of difficulties. Certainly being a man talking about a sensitive issue for women was hard. At one point the BBC did a story on the product in both English and Hindi. From the English story we received lots of complements from people who were very supportive; but from the Hindi we received a lot of very harsh criticism. The trolling was really bad. There were some really filthy comments directed towards us. These nasty comments always came from men. Women, in contrast, were more suggestive and supportive. Women would help us see things we might have missed.

[41:25] Where do you see things going from here? -- We have other problems we want to try to solve. For example, menstrual cramps. It's not a good thing when young women are forced to take pain killers all the time. We want to scale PeeBuddy and really get the word out there. The work will never be complete.

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Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

[24:00] You're a recognized IoT expert. In your own day-to-day life, how wired up are you? Do you use these gadgets? -- Just bought first smartwatch. There are drawers full of things that were used once and never used again. One of the best devices for me though was the Muse headband, which is a product designed to track your brain waves. As they developed it though, they turned it into a guided meditation platform that works really well.

[29:50] When you look around Asia now, what countries do you find interesting in terms of what's going on with IoT? -- One interesting thing is what's going on with co-called smart cities. Very few of them have gone from having an infrastructure-centric focus to a citizen-centric focus. Taipei seems to have done better than almost everyone else. They've already launched something like 130 proof of concepts all around the city. Maybe 75% of these will fail, but that means 25% will succeed and give other cities new ideas moving forward. Already Taipei has some cool autonomous bus projects. This year they're launching a shared scooter scheme. The next logical path you will see is where cities focus on making the smart city concept viable for businesses. Not everyone will be able to jump down the path like Taipei.

[50:20] How would one compare IoT in Asia to the rest of the world right now? Is it even possible to do this? -- Asia is by far the biggest market for IoT in the future. There is a long tail there. It's a fascinating market and the level of innovation coming out of China right now is just amazing. Keep an eye on India over the next 24 months. Tata is coming out with systems at price points that will allow developing markets to get into the game. This is what we need to see.

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Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

We\'ve developed an entire solution to help people feel better about traveling with their pets. There are essentially two parts: 1) the physical solution and 2) the software side. The pod itself is basically a first class accommodation for pets, designed to help reduce the stress factors they face. We\'ve tried to design something that increases airflow and ventilation while reducing the amount of visual and noise stress pets are exposed to. During flight pets are in the cargo hold, which is not accessible to passengers, and not designed for comfort. With the CarePod, we try to maintain a low-intensity environment for pets during the entire duration of travel.

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia.

Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

[14:45] Recruiting and keeping talent in sales is very hard especially when you get beyond the entry level. Why would a company owner want to reward sales guys with iPads and things like that rather than just hard cash?

[24:15] When startup founders expand, they spend their time educating markets whether that be merchant partners or consumers, which is a huge risk - that\'s a huge hidden cost that can sink a business. How does Rewardz do it?

[28:00] Often, the best salespeople aren\'t very good at managing and the once who are good at managing aren\'t very good salespeople. When Sudhanshu recruits and builds his company around that, what does he look for?