Joyce Tay is the Chief Strategy Officer at StartupX, a Singapore-based innovation, venture, and startup enabler. Joyce has been in and around Southeast Asia's startup ecosystem for over a decade — as a founder, as program head for Block71 in Singapore and Indonesia, as director of Startup Weekend Singapore, and as a builder of some of the region's most active startup communities, including HyperX, the world's first sustainability hack accelerator. She co-founded StartupX in 2018.

About This Episode

Joyce Tay, co-founder of StartupX in Singapore, shares what makes corporate-startup relationships different in Southeast Asia — from powerful conglomerates to community-first ecosystems — and how to make them actually work.

What We Cover

• The most misunderstood thing about corporate-startup relationships
• Why managing attitudes and expectations comes before everything else
• How StartupX structures its corporate engagement process
• How conglomerates in Southeast Asia impact startup ecosystems
• StartupX's unfair advantage: community first, quality delivery always

Timestamps

(00:00) Introduction

(01:50) Joyce's journey: founder, Block71, StartupX

(09:30) The Singapore startup ecosystem: tight, global-first

(13:00) The biggest misunderstanding about corporate-startup relationships

(22:00) How StartupX structures a corporate-startup engagement

(33:00) How conglomerates in Southeast Asia impact startups

Key Takeaways

1. Challenge the "why" before designing the program — vanity vs. genuine challenge changes everything.
2. Corporate-startup relationships are a marathon: mindset change, quick wins, and long-term trust take time.
3. Community-first is StartupX's real edge — insight, credibility, and access no corporate-backed operator can buy.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• StartupX: thestartupx.com
• Block71: block71.co

Where to Find Joyce Tay

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joycetayhj/

Where to Find Yaniv Corem

Link in bio: sleek.bio/yanivcorem

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yanivcorem

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