Asia Tech Podcast

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Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

Damien is one of 3 co-founders for Backers. Based in Hong Kong, Backers is a retail showroom that sells crowdfunded products. One of the biggest challenges facing product designers is consumer knowledge. What do people really want? What works? What doesn't work? Most designers don't have the time, know-how or resources to source that insight "in the wild". Most fly by intuition and their limited echo-chambers of personal networks. That makes producing any new product a high-risk endeavor. Backers aims to help designers in that journey by taking products even from their pre-crowdfunding stage and placing them instore so real people can interact with them in the real world. This information helps designers significantly derisk the process and create a better experience for their customers.

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia.

Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

Jonie Oostveen is the founder of Arto, an online gallery that brings the kind of discovery experience you can find at a music app like Spotify to the world of art. Originally from the Netherlands but now based in Singapore, Jonie's journey into entrepreneurship started with working at large mobile telcos like KPN before later being involved in more dynamic tech organizations (Spotify, Philips Ventures, Ebuddy and Miyowa). Even though these organizations had startup-like cultures, they couldn't replace the challenge and thrill of running your own startup. In this interview we talk about the problems he's trying to solve at Arto as well as the challenges (and advantages) of being an older entrepreneur. Is a 41 year old startup founder more or less likely to succeed? Jonie successfully raised $500k angel seed to kick start Arto and is now seeking a further round of capital.

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia.

Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

Surasit Sachdev is the Founder of Hungry Hub. Hungry Hub started as a platform for the management of restaurant reservations similar to Open Table. Restaurants happily signed up for this free product / service en masse. The only problem was that the team figured out that neither restaurants nor their patrons had problems managing or booking reservations and hence it was not possible to properly build a business around this concept. Surasit was neither used to failing nor happy about it. Real entrepreneurs are persistent and do not give in easily. All of his experience in building Hungry Hub in Thailand and interacting with Food and Beverage outlets gave the team a bigger and better idea. Listen to this episode to hear about his pivot and his thought processes around it. Very interesting!

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia.

Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

I was finally able to catch up with Tanin Sammanee after not seeing him for almost two years. I remember when he first came into my office and was explaining to me that he was building Seascope as an outgrowth of some successful tools he had built for himself and his friends that were very interested in trading stocks on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. I remember thinking at the time that the model he was building was not going to work...I may have been right at the time, but I am wrong today. Tanin and his team have built some groundbreaking technology that is automating large swaths of the fund management business. If his ongoing pilots succeed, the fund management business in Thailand and the rest of the region will never be the same. Listen to this entire interview...you will not be disappointed.

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia.

Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

There are only 10 weeks left in the year, so let's take a quick look at where we are with our Asia Tech Podcast project. We've recorded 167 podcast episodes, of which we've produced 113. While we averaged 4 episodes a week, the bulk of the content came in the last 3 months when we started ATP Stories and announced the Tour. This week we're looking at the latest data from our 2017 ATP Power Rankings 2017 - your votes on who and what has contributed most to the Asian Startup Ecosystem this year. On the individual front an early shout out to Bay McLaughlin, Casey Lau, Kyle Ellicott, William Bao Bean and Gregory Prudhommeaux who are leading the individual Award for contribution at this early stage. We also discussed the remaining Award categories including Best City which is a straight shoot between Singapore and Hong Kong so far. This week we also launch our new vertical podcast - ATP Angels Angels is a weekly show where Michael interviews Angel Investors in Asia, kicking off with our friend Ned Phillips, CEO of Bambu. In today's episode, Michael shares some insights into the first batch of investors interviewed, as well as what he hopes to learn from this podcast series moving forward. We also touched on an upcoming vertical - ATP Cryto. Crypto aims to cover all things Blockchain, Ethereum and Cryptocurrency. Warning: this podcast may get a little technical so don't expect a 101. Crypto will be a podcast for crypto entrepreneurs about crypto entrepreneurs.

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia.

Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

Jerome Le Carrou left his home in the Brittany region of France when he was 21 years old to do a study abroad program in Utah in the United States. It was his first exposure outside of his small hometown and his home country. He lived in a four story dormitory for a year with students from 50 countries and this opened his eyes to the power and excitement of varying countries and cultures in the world. Between finishing his undergraduate degree and applying for graduate programs in journalism, he made his way to Shanghai for an internship and an experience that changed the course of his life and lead to his starting and founding Next Step Connections. Jerome's story is a compelling one for all entrepreneurs starting a business outside of their home country and outside their comfort zone.

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia.

Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

Private Equity is an area we have not covered before, but we had an interesting discussion with Giovanni Zangani on that topic. His journey from Milan to Ho Chi Minh City went through Europe, the United States and Hong Kong before arriving in Vietnam. Giovanni made a strategic decision to study for his MBA at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and that began his experiences in Asia. While looking for his initial job after graduating, he found a great opportunity in Vietnam and ran with it. His instincts and interests matched the market need and he focused on the Food & Beverage and Retail sectors which ended up being a sweet spot of growth for the Vietnamese economy. Listen as Giovanni gives more detail about why those sectors were his focus and why starting Maestro Equity Partners was the natural next step in his professional development. Listen as well to his philosophy around how a strong relationship helps build a sustainable partnership with his firm's clients.

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia.

Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

Ned Phillips, CEO of Bambu joins us again from Singapore to discuss his experiences and views on Angel Investing. Prior to founding Bambu , Ned started angel investing in startups in Asia. While having a decent process in place to make investments is important, Ned feels like he can determine whether or not he will angel invest in an early stage company by trusting his gut and knowing within the first five minutes of meeting the founder. Ned and I talked a lot about investment strategy, sector focus and whether it makes more sense to invest alone or in the syndicate format. Ned takes the same passion for knowledge and insight he has for company building into the Angel Investing arena. Having a discussion with him on this topic was quite interesting indeed.

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia.

Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

Florian Bonhert was born in France and moved to the United States when he was three years old...which on its face does not seem like a big deal. However, if you listen to his story, that move, at such a young age set the tone for the rest of his life. He moved back to France at the age of six and then to Massachusetts at the age of ten. He could not have known then how important this "international experience" would be to the rest of his life. Florian's global outlook, environmental awareness and pluriculturalism are core to everything he does. His ability to adapt and learn about new cultures, be open minded, learn new languages and teach others drive him to succeed across the board. He said many interesting things during our conversation, not the least of which was (loosely translated from the Chinese), "When you give someone a rose, you still have the smell of the rose in your hand"... As employee 37 of Mobike, Florian is a fascinating guy with a super story to tell.

Discover more tech podcasts like this: Tech Podcast Asia.

Produced by Pikkal & Co - Award Winning Podcast Agency.

Mike Michelini's journey started with a hard sell, free seminar on 34th street in Manhattan back in the early 2000's. As a Stevens Institute of Technology graduate, Mike was accustomed to technology and was interested in online selling...but the inauspicious beginning did not foretell the success to come. Realizing that local knowledge and local connections would help someone that was sourcing product from Asia and selling in the United States, Mike had a choice to make. Do I stay on the conventional path or do a venture into the unknown? Fortunately, he went with his gut and moved to China...and has been there ever since the trailing end of 2007. Mike has bee able to build a vibrant media business called Global From Asia, is a partner in a consultancy in Hong Kong that assists others to do business in China and has re-entered the world of transactional e-commerce with some partners as they build out Para Living...