Lightspeed Venture Partners, the multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends, has released a report on “South-east Asia: Resetting Expectations”, to give “a more realistic and focused approach” to building businesses in the region.

Disclaimer: This podcast was created with Google's AI platform, NotebookLM. These voices are completely AI-generated.

“When you live in it, you don’t see it.”My friend said this with a wry smile as she navigated the busy streets of Ho Chi Minh City. I sat beside her, wide-eyed, taking in the sweeping changes of a city I hadn't seen since 2018. I was gobsmacked by the transformation – the brand new bridges, highways, skyscrapers – and I couldn’t help exclaiming and repeating myself everytime we turned a corner into a new district, “Wow, it’s changed so much.”

Amused, she said, “I suppose you notice it because you’ve been away for so long. I live here, so it’s just grown around me, and I’ve grown into it.”

On this WiT Stories, Siew Hoon (Founder, WiT) chronicles her recent trip to Vietnam and how Ho Chi Minh City is barely recognisable since her last trip there. 

Full disclosure - this is not a "real" podcast in the traditional sense of the word. Google has a new Artificial Intelligence tool called Notebook LM that allows users to feed it any type of written data, which it will then turn into a podcast. The voices you hear are completely generated by Notebook's language models. 

We decided to experiment with the tool by showing it a recently article we posted on our website featuring Kerry Healy, chief commercial officer, Middle East, Africa, Turkey & Asia Pacific for Premium, Midscale & Economy, Accor, and how she's tackling rate integrity in the Middle East. 

Have a listen and ask yourself - if you didn't know this was generated by AI, would you have guessed anyway?

Anti-ageing, as a branch of medicine, has been around a long time. Today, the term anti-ageing is not used much anymore because it suggests that ageing is a process we fight against. Today, the terms, wellness, longevity, regenerative, are preferred because, well, the experts say we should embrace it actively and proactively.

It’s definitely a mega, global trend among the wealthy who have more to lose... literally. Retreats like RAKxa, a joint venture between VitalLife, the preventive medicine arm of one of Bangkok’s leading hospitals, Bumrungrad, and MK Real Estate, don’t come cheap.

Stream the full story for more.

Last week, I entered Singapore sans passport. I had arrived on a flight from Bangkok and at the immigration gates, when I wanted to put my passport on the scanner, I was told, “No need already. Just look at camera.”

That’s Singapore for you, clockwork efficiency.

It made me think that this is true personalisation – my personal identity verified, recognised and cleared – and it makes my life easier as a traveller.

They put their own money into the business, one of them selling his house. Together, they scraped together $1m. By 2018, their tours and activities platform was valued at around $1b, and the business continues to grow.

It’s hard to say who’s more surprised by the achievement – Ethan Lin (CEO) or Eric Gnock Fah (President) or perhaps their parents whom they talk about openly – but one thing is clear, these two co-founders are firm friends and have each other’s backs.

It’s uncanny how well they complement each other, as you will discover in this special WiT Podcast edition, marking their 10th anniversary, with WiT founder Yeoh Siew Hoon.

In one of the most open conversations, the two founders get into some pretty personal aspects of their lives that have driven Klook to its success, and how quickly their early "lightbulb moment for Klook" went from a “phone note” to financial modelling on an Excel sheet (their banking background showing here), to growing faster than they expected when the network effect kicked in. 

Have a listen.

AI, it seems, is creeping into everything. In a little café in a local neighbourhood in Penang, far from the madding tourist crowd, the young entrepreneurs running it offer “AI Fried Char Koay Teow”.

On this episode, Siew Hoon (Founder, WiT) ponders on a new-ish trend that's being called “theme travel”. New-ish because it used to be called special interest travel - people who travelled for specific interests. In this “Next Generation”, let’s call this tribe, “Themers”.

This includes runners who travel for marathons, music fans who go from festival to festival, and event-driven folks who fly across continents for experiences. 

This trend somewhat overlaps or intersects with the 'Dreamers' - those who dream of finding their little nook in the world in unfamiliar lands. And oftentimes, it's more than one nook. 

Stream this episode to hear more about themed travel, mouseholes and why Siew Hoon prefers to travel like a local.

This week, Siew Hoon (Founder, WiT) reflects on her recent stay in the tranquil village of Sheepstor, West Dartmoor, which also has a surprising connection to Sarawak, Malaysia. The Burrator Cottages, on the estate once owned by Sir James Brooke, the first Rajah of Sarawak, provides an idyllic retreat for travellers seeking a truly authentic experience.

Siew Hoon (Founder, WiT) is back in Shanghai for the first time since 2019, for Trip.com's global partner conference, Envision 2024. Experiencing first-hand the resurgence of China's tourism and hospitality scene, Siew Hoon highlights the cities eagerness to embrace tech, it's robust art scene and everything a revitalised Trip.com is doing to cater to fresh demographics.