Unsensible - The Asian Startup Podcast

The tools banks rely on to catch fraud were designed for a world without deepfakes or AI voice cloning, but those threats are growing faster than legacy systems can adapt. 

Baran Ozkan, co-founder and CEO of Flagright, has teamed up with a long-trusted friend to build an AI-native system that helps companies stay ahead of financial crime. Backed by Y Combinator and now running in 35 countries across 6 continents, Flagright protects everyday money from the scams and social engineering that older systems were not built to catch.

💡 What You'll Learn:

• How a system tells a legitimate transaction from a suspicious one
• The core tension in compliance: protecting customers without frustrating them
• Why being AI-native from day one is an advantage incumbents can't retrofit
• Where the industry is heading as AI starts to supervise itself

We use the internet every day, but 99% of our data relies on fragile, undersea fiber optic cables that are completely unprotected from accidental cuts or deliberate sabotage. Dr. Mohammad Danesh, co-founder of Transcelestial, is solving this global security threat by building an unhackable internet backbone using high-bandwidth space lasers.

💡 What You'll Learn:

• The fragility of the global internet: Why the world's reliance on a few undersea cables is a massive economic and security risk.
• The future of connectivity: How Transcelestial is using lasers to bring unhackable, gigabit-speed internet to the masses.
• Surviving deep tech: The brutal reality of "manufacturing hell" and what it takes to scale precision optics.

Psychiatrists have no objective feedback. Every other field of medicine does. Dr. Bechara Saab left his neuroscience lab at Zurich Psychiatry Hospital to fix that, and the data suggest he's onto something remarkable.

In this conversation, Dr. Saab shares how Mobio Interactive is bringing objective measurement to mental healthcare through over 1,000 psychotherapy sessions across seven languages. From proving mindfulness works via smartphone to using fMRI to show exactly which brain regions change with therapy, he's building the tools that clinicians desperately need but never had. We explore his journey from small-town surgeon's son to youngest research intern at Procter & Gamble to principal investigator in Zurich - and why he walked away from academic prestige to tackle the "greatest problem in mental healthcare."

What You'll Learn

• How objective measurement is solving psychiatry's greatest problem
• The science behind proving mindfulness works through brain imaging
• What it takes to transition from neuroscience researcher to startup founder
• Why the prefrontal cortex matters more in mental health than most people realise
• Where mental healthcare is headed and why measurement will become the standard

What if all your loyalty points, credit card deals, and travel rewards lived in one open ecosystem, built around you instead of the banks?

In this episode, we talk to David Wang, founder of Krip, Hong Kong’s first centralised credit card deals platform, now part of HeyMax, the Singapore-based startup redefining loyalty across Asia.

David shares how recognising just how much value gets lost in everyday spending led him to build Krip, a platform that helped Hongkongers spend smarter and ultimately drew the attention of HeyMax. In this conversation, he reflects on building a startup from scratch, navigating its acquisition, and finding new purpose leading the next phase of growth, all while reshaping how loyalty and rewards actually work.

What You’ll Learn:

• How Krip became one of Hong Kong’s standout fintech success stories
• Why HeyMax’s “open loyalty” model could change how you earn and spend rewards
• What founders should know before considering an acquisition
• The emotional reality of entrepreneurship, how to balance the highs and lows
• Where travel, tech, and loyalty are converging next in Asia

Women don't understand their own physiology - not by accident, but by design. It won't make money to educate them about simple changes that could improve their health. So the system keeps them suffering in silence. Pri Aggarwal is breaking that cycle.

After leaving a stellar corporate career at top multinational corporations across Asia-Pacific, the Wharton scholar founded Aura Fem Health, a holistic women's wellness platform, challenging 2,000 years of systemic negligence in healthcare. With 84% of women feeling unheard by healthcare professionals, Pri is building a safe space where ancient holistic practices meet modern science breakthroughs to serve the 9 out of 10 women silently suffering.

In this episode, Pri shares her deeply personal journey from experiencing shrinking menstrual cycles and severe PMS while climbing the corporate ladder, to discovering that simple lifestyle shifts (not birth control pills or being told to "Shut up!”) could transform her health.

We discuss the unexpected parallels between startup life and motherhood , the crucial need for balance over burnout, and the practical marketing and commercial rigour her corporate background provided in these early days.

AI can translate your IPO or ESG report—but can it do it right? Colin Hong, Co-Founder of DeepTranslate, reveals how his Hong Kong startup outperforms Google Translate and ChatGPT in the most high-stakes corner of translation: finance and legal compliance.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why niche AI is the only way to beat Big Tech
• The hidden 20% translation gap that LLMs miss
• How data compliance fears hold back corporate AI adoption
• Cashflow discipline and hard lessons from startup life
• Building a team with two PhD co-founders (and why the “sales guy” matters)

🍽️ From WeChat frustrations to restaurant revolution. Discover how one founder's personal pain point led to Bistrochat, now transforming how restaurants across Asia handle bookings through chat and AI

Jonathan Nguyen sits down with Hacene Taibi, co-founder of Bistrochat, exploring how a simple frustration with restaurant bookings via WeChat sparked a business that's revolutionising the F&B industry. Learn how Bistrochat consolidates reservations from multiple channels whilst building a powerful CRM that helps restaurants deliver personalised service. Hacene shares valuable insights about the true nature of entrepreneurial competition: 'It's not just a product to product competition. It's what are you ready to sacrifice for this to happen?' From coding in Phuket seven days a week for a year to strategically positioning against well-funded competitors, this conversation reveals the mindset required to build a successful startup in a competitive space.

🚀 Discover Bistrochat's expansion across Asia and why Hacene believes that in the AI age, a founder's greatest strength might be knowing what they don't know.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more interviews, investor insights, and pitch deck tips.
Visit our website to learn more about our work with Asia's leading tech startups.

► Follow Hacene

LinkedIn: https://hk.linkedin.com/in/hacenetaibi

Website: https://www.bistrochat.com/

🇭🇰 From London to Hong Kong: How Louisa Dearlove spotted a gap in Hong Kong's fashion market and turned it into Fengxiang, a clothing rental platform aimed to give women in Hong Kong access to affordable contemporary fashion and to drive sustainable fashion habits. Could shared wardrobes be the future of sustainable fashion?

In this episode, we chat with Louisa Dearlove about building Hong Kong's first peer-to-peer fashion rental platform. She shares honest insights about launching an MVP instead of chasing perfection, how she has had to adapt to the local market, and how being a generalist became her entrepreneurial superpower.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more interviews, investor insights, and pitch deck tips.
Visit our website to learn more about our work with Asia's leading tech startups.

► Follow Louisa

LinkedIn:   / louisadearlove

Website: https://www.fenxianghk.com/

Director of Accenture's FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific reveals the top tips to joining this exclusive accelerator that has helped raise $6.6 billion for alumni companies worldwide. Applications close 12 May!

Episode summary

Only 10 spots from 200+ applications. Zero cost, equity-free. Direct access to HSBC, JP Morgan, and UBS.

In this episode, Hui Jackson shares her journey from founder (e-commerce startup Souk) to running one of Asia's most prestigious fintech accelerators. She reveals the three critical traits that predict startup success: resilience, clear vision, and ability to pivot.

Learn exactly what it takes to get accepted, how the 12-week programme works, and why multiple alumni successfully pivoted from B2C to B2B after working directly with tier-1 financial institutions.

Key takeaways

• Success traits: Resilience, clear vision, and willingness to pivot
• Programme structure: 3 months, 3 stages, 3 types of mentors
• Selection tips: Clearly articulate value proposition, show POC with FS clients, demonstrate scaling plan
• Interview day: Expect 20-30 judges, come prepared, attend in person if possible
• Current trends: AI, web3, ESG, regulatory tech, and gaps in insurtech

Notable quotes

"If you're coming in with the willingness to learn, you can open up a lot of opportunities. If you're coming in with the aim to sell, then you will close off great sharing opportunities."

"The ability to pivot is very important. Some founders put blinkers on, trying to focus on improving their products, but not looking around what's happening."

"We literally got direct access to the world's top tier financial institutions meeting their senior partners, senior stakeholders."

Resources mentioned

• FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific: https://uns.sb/FILAP
• Application deadline: 12 May 2025
• Programme details: Free, equity-free, 12-week accelerator
• Global reach: Alumni from 39 countries, nearly 400 companies

About the guest

Hui Jackson is Director of the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific at Accenture. A former founder herself, she brings unique perspective from both sides of the startup ecosystem. The Lab has been running for 12 years and is considered the anchor accelerator in Hong Kong.

Connect with us

• Website: unsensible.com/podcast
• Subscribe for weekly episodes featuring unrelenting founders changing the world

🔍 Ex-Goldman Sachs Banker Builds AI That Outperforms Nvidia, Google & OpenAI | Meet the 30-under-30 founder who raised $6.6M and secured 90+ global clients in under 2 years. His AI is transforming how hedge funds invest billions—could this change the future of finance forever?

In this revealing conversation, Jonathan Nguyen sits down with Hojun Choi, co-founder and CEO of LinqAlpha, to explore how AI is revolutionising the investment landscape for hedge funds and financial institutions. Discover how LinqAlpha's hyper-automation platform is enabling analysts to function at superhuman levels, processing vast amounts of unstructured data and extracting meaningful insights that would traditionally take countless hours of manual work. From raising impressive seed funding to landing major clients like Samsung Financial Network and KPMG, Hojun shares candid insights about building a truly global AI company.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more interviews, investor insights, and pitch deck tips.
Visit our website to learn more about our work with Asia's leading tech startups.

► Follow Hojun & LinqAlpha
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hojunchoi1214/
Website: https://linqalpha.com/