Asia Tech Podcast

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Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

Alex Duncan is the founder of KAWO. In Alex's own words, KAWO is "like Hootsuite but for the Chinese market". That means KAWO is fine tuned to China's unique social media landscape - covering Weibo, Wechat and the demands of its advanced 600 million social media users. Despite the relatively later explosion in the Chinese social media scene, Alex is no latecomer - he's been in Shanghai since 2007 when arrived aged 23 with a backpack, a few words of Mandarin and little more than a desire to have an adventure. He's been there ever since. This episode of ATP Stories is a unique insight into what it takes to establish a successful startup in China and the challenges facing foreigner entrepreneurs entering that market.

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Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

Yu "Taz" Tazawa is the co-founder of BnA (Bed n Art) - a concept hotel Japan. BnA provides guests with ability to live inside and experience installation art. Local artists who need exposure design and create the rooms around unique themes, themes which guests love. BnA has already been featured by a number of Japanese TV programs, as well as in Elle Decor magazine who rated them as one of the 3 hotel experiences you "must try" in Japan. We also discussed the challenges of entrepreneurship in Japan and also the relevance of Taz's multicultural background in giving him the confidence to thrive in unknown environments.

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Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

Karena Belin, Co-Founder of WHub, is a pillar of the Hong Kong Startup scene and passionate about technology, entrepreneurship and fostering the ecosystem. Deeply immersed since 2013, she has taken on engagements as speaker, mentor and judge at events and organisations such as the Chicago Booth GNVC, Google EYE, NexChange (FinTech), IFLR Conference, RISE Conference, Tech Open Air Berlin, Techstars StartupWeekendHK & Startup Next Pre-Accelerator, global Merlin YPO program and Poly U Entrepreneurial Mentorship Network. Karena and her team are focused on making a difference in people's lives. WHub was originally started to solve a hiring and talent discovery issue in the Hong Kong Technology Startup ecosystem and quickly grew to be a centerpiece of the entire space. Influenced by Simon Sinek's New York Times Best Seller, "Start With Why", WHub manifests its passion by building the tools necessary to support and promote tech entrepreneurship in Hong Kong. The passion that Karena Berlin has for the Hong Kong Technology Startup scene is palpable throughout this conversation.

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Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

Felix is the Managing Director of The Finlab, a corporate FinTech Accelerator which is a joint venture between United Overseas Bank (UOB) and SGInnovate, previously known as Infocomm Investments. Felix was one of the pioneers of the Singapore startup and internet scene and started building funded companies as far back as 1995. His two most famous companies were SilkRoute and ECNet, which we discuss at length. The stories about the founding, growth, funding and ultimate demise of these companies is compelling and an interesting tale of being a bit too early. Felix was a Computer Science graduate and represented Singapore in the South East Asian Games in the sport of Fencing.

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Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

Last week we asked Asia to help us identify and showcase the people and organizations that have helped grow our dynamic startup ecosystem in 2017. At the time of writing, 719 people voted across 6 categories. Who's leading the votes? Who's hot? Who are the surprises? In this week's Asia Tech Podcast we share insights on the who's who of our 2017 vote.

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Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

Steven Liew is accomplished on many levels and yet humble in his desire to continue learning and improving. This helps make him perfect a fabulous partner for his co-Founder and wife Devin Tan. Together, via an entity they have dubbed "Cosmic Cafe", they mentor and invest in startups. They help entrepreneurs turn their ideas and visions into successful companies. Steven and I talked about Angel Investing and how all of his combined experience and business exposure has allowed him to excel in this space as well. Steven is thoughtful, considered and yet very comfortable with the early stage risk that he takes. When you listen to him speak, you can understand how much he has thought about his own ideas, but also how open he is to learning more and getting better. Listen as Steven and I talk about how he became an Angel, why he loves doing it and how the power of a strong network of Angels benefits his investing and that of others as well.

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Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

Kyle Ellicott is one of those entrepreneurs who has the knack of spotting a trend before it becomes "a thing". He started his first business aged just 14 selling computers to small companies who wanted to get online. He then helped grow ReadWrite - one of the first online publications covering innovation starting back in 2003. ReadWrite has evolved since those early days also spawning an accelerator which has raised over $130 million for its cohorts. So when Kyle makes a calculated bet on IoT and expanding their presence in Asia (particularly Hong Kong and Shenzhen China), entrepreneurs take notice. In this interview we talk about Kyle's journey as an entrepreneur since those teenage years to what excites him now in IoT in Asia.

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Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

Edmund Lowell and I had a multifaceted discussion about all three of the entities in which he is involved. FlagTheory.com, the SelfKey Foundation and KYC-Chain. Edmund started a company while still a student at Northeastern University in Boston and that grew into FlagTheory.com. Reading Tim Ferriss "The Four Hour Workweek" convinced him that he could run his company and live anywhere, so he chose Asia...When I asked him where he lived, he jokingly responded with "Seat 1A"...clearly a man that spends a lot of time on airplanes. We had an amazing and very lively conversation on the blockchain and many things Crypto (Heck, it is the first installment of ATP Crypto so anything less would have been shocking!), including ICOs, Tezos, and the concept of Self Sovereign Identity.

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Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

We spoke to Vincent Sethiwan on the newest floor of Launchpad in Bangkok, Thailand...Launchpad is meant to be 'the perfect blend of a professional office, a co-working space and a creative space.' I think it lives up to its billing. Vincent conceived of this space while trying to build his own company...a game company and software development house that was originally run out of his home and a coffee shop an Central World. Vincent learned many lessons while he was building Charged Concept / Magic Box and Launchpad...not the least of which was, 'do not try to market two concepts at the same time'. He explained the struggles he had initially simply getting people to understand what a co-working space was...even mentioning that some people would walk by the space and surmise that he was running a new type of furniture shop. He also talked candidly about the pressures of being the third generation of a successful family and his drive to succeed and build something big...using the experiences he gained from working in a rice processing factory, working at IBM and getting a combined BS / Masters degree at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. This was a truly great story...

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Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

Thomas Pouplin is Co-Founder of Ikkai with partner Yasmine Djoudi. Ikkai aims to make people less busy and students richer by connecting students with the short term staffing needs of Japanese companies. This is an area overlooked by traditional Japanese recruitment agencies due to a combination of tradition and fear of trying something new. Thomas and Yasmine are based out of Fukuoka, Japan's designated "Startup City". In this interview Thomas shares insights into how they arrived in Fukuoka, how they set up business there including applying for government grants and startup visas, and also reflections on their business growth.