Grown in Asia

In this episode of Grown in Asia, French-American entrepreneur Christian Mongendre, Founder of Treehouse, to share what inspired him to introduce plant-based 'Fast slow food' concept in Hong Kong.

Intrigued by the city printed on his passport, Christian decided to further explore Hong Kong after years spent in France and the U.S. That's when he was introduced to his first business partner and launched Mana! Hong Kong in 2011.

In this episode, Christian also tells us how he put together his second venture, Home eat to live, his projects outside Hong Kong, and his plans for Treehouse.

In this episode of Grown in Asia, we had the pleasure to discuss with Italian entrepreneur Alessandro Bisagni, Founder of BEE Incorporations (Bisagni Environmental Enterprise).

BEE is a hybrid mix of eco-focus consulting and tech company specialising in green building. Alessandro created BEE with the vision to improve the social, environmental and economic impact of building projects. 

Over the past 10 years, he has worked on over 350 green building projects across 30 countries: from providing green building certification services, monitoring and testing services, and green materials solutions. 

BEE was also the first company in the world to complete a project under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system.

Listen to this episode to hear more about Alessandro's passion for sustainability and his entrepreneurial journey in Asia.

In this episode of Grown in Asia, we had the pleasure to discuss with Delphine Lefay Dultzin and Diego Dultzin Lacoste, Co-founders of OnTheList.

OnTheList is an online flash sales platform founded on the shared passion for fashion on its co-founders. It is a pioneering concept of Members-Only Flash Sales, offering members exclusive access to luxury brands at discounted prices. 

OnTheList is literally "turning inventory into opportunity" in Asia, both for the brands and the consumers. The success of their concept took them to expanding to Singapore in September 2018, and Taipei in early 2019.

Listen to this episode to hear more about Delphine and Diego's entrepreneurial journey and how they're Growing in Asia.

Julio Orr is an Australian entrepreneur with Columbian roots with more than 15 years of experience in the recruitment industry.

After his first experience with an international recruitment firm in Shanghai, Julio moved to Hong Kong where he held multiple roles for other international firms for 7 years.

In 2015, Julio started his first venture by co-founding The G.R.A.C.E. Group. Inspired by this first experience, Julio then launched Canopy which later rebranded in 2020 as Happyer, a rich-media career platform helping candidates to get a real view into jobs and companies.

Julio is also the founder of Morning Media, a Singapore-based employer branding and creative media house working with startups, SMEs and corporates in APAC.

Lavine Hemlani left investment bank Lazard in NYC to go a sabbatical leave during which he was inspired to start his entrepreneurial journey.

Born in Hong Kong, Lavine founded Xccelerate to tackle the tech talent shortage that threatens to impede innovation in his home city.

Xccelerate is a leading EdTech start-up headquartered in Hong Kong founded on the vision that the greatest opportunity for improving lives is education and aspires to reinvent tech education to address the colossal talent challenges in Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering, Blockchain and Design across Asia.

Christian Secci is an Italian entrepreneur and ultra-marathon runner who co-founded Pakpobox, an innovative smart locker solution for smart cities.

During this journey from Italy to Asia, Christian shares how he is always persistently bouncing, learning and responding from one failure to another without giving up. In fact, he calls them "hard lessons" and not "failure".

Being an entrepreneur who is always on the move and looking ahead, Christian shares how he has grown his business across Asia.

Jeffrey Cheng, Co-Founder of Ooosh Coworking & Catalyst Ventures, shares how his experience in advertising, education business, and clothes manufacturing, and curiosity had led him to launch a business tightly connected to the start-up's scene.

Thibaut Carminho, Co-Founder of Tartes & Pop, shares his journey from working in a marketing agency to becoming an entrepreneur, realizing a dream with his best friend Lou Campagna.

In this episode, Thibaut discusses how the brand was built, how important the logo design was to them, how the brand positioning evolved, and what it took to make Tartes & Pop what it is today: "Probably the best French tartes you will ever eat in Hong Kong..."

Thibaut also tells us where he sees Tartes & Pop in the future...