Entrepreneurs of Asia (EOA)

E:39 Mak Choong Moon is Vistage Chair where he coaches over 40 CEOs and business owners each month. He has been deeply involved in Malaysian property development for close to 40 years. He is an expert in turning businesses around and selling them. His family business has been involved in private equity before it was even a well developed asset class in Malaysia. In this episode we cover various aspects of coaching and what Mak has learned as a coach for many years. We also get an update on the latest happenings in property development in Malaysia and the Legacy of Mak’s family business.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

00:31 Why Do You Need A Coach?

05:14 What Qualifies One To Coach?

07:56 Systems and Frameworks For Coaching

32:05 Most Important Lessoned Learned From Coaching

35:12 CEO major concerns for 2023

39:44 Property Development in 2023

58:50 Legacy of Makok and Masbe

01:26:54 Malaysia In The Next 10 Years

01:29:59 Mak's Superpower

Description: This episode is a solo episode on some thoughts I had about pricing products and services especially for early stage companies. The original thought came from listening to an old This Week in Startups episode with Marco Zappacosta (https://open.spotify.com/episode/5ylxDbTCXPzoNy8ZizCNJ3?si=c6ccf80ecf984f8f). This episode covers the general approaches to how I have thought about pricing products or services. It then covers some of the nuance that I refine into my thinking after hearing Marco Zappacosta speak. The Context (00:00:58) | The Bottom Up Approach (00:04:01) | The Top Down Approach (00:05:43) | Putting It Together & Price Discipline (00:07:56)

Accompanying Substack: https://entrepreneursofasia.substack.com/p/on-pricing-products

The second wave tech boom for Vietnam is here and it is crypto driven. In this episode Don Phan, a pillar to the Vietnam technology and investing community discusses the latest trends and developments in the Vietnam crypto space. We discuss Crypto Gaming, Axie Infinity, Yield Guild Games, Centralization vs Decentralization, Web3, DeFi and much more.

The Thai startup and venture capital ecosystem. Why is Thailand so corporate venture driven? In this episode we discuss the big trend changes in banking and the various challenges fintech players face from regulation, licenses, culture, and unique customer profiles. We also cover what it's like to be a VC in Thailand and what it takes to be a successful founder there. Lastly we discuss Pat’s Latest Project Evrynet.io along with the latest trends in crypto and DeFi.

Yi Jean Chow, Investment Principle at E.ON, and Future Energy Ventures. What is it like to work in Silicon Valley? What are the challenges, and how does a Venture Capitalist and corporate venture capital fund work? More importantly, find out why solving energy is so important for humanity and how it is related to climate change.

How do startups, family business and SME’s relate? Brian Soo’s experience tells us exactly how. As Chief Innovation Officer of Malaysia’s oldest fire safety company, Fire Fighter Industry, Brian is constantly driving change and value in it’s 47 years old business. In this episode we learn how Brian has leveraged his super powers, what defines good content, why you should be on Tik Tok, his approach to “re-founding” and how a SAAS company can sell to SME’s. Firefighter industry is a great case study for anyone who has an interest in innovation, SME’s, or family business. 

Pei Fu Hsieh is CEO and Co-founder of Karbon Card. This episode, recorded towards the end of 2021, discusses Pei Fu’s background in private equity, venture building with Rocket Internet, working as a Venture Capital in early days China with Kleiner Perkins and later 01VC. We later discuss what exactly the Karbon Card is and the pain point it is solving for the India ecosystem.  Pei Fu also shares his framework for decision making which is tied to his guiding principles, and he also tells us what is needed to be a successful Venture Capitalist wherever you are.

Rajiv Lamba has worked in Southeast Asia, mostly Indonesia, for more than a decade. After his first successful exit he decided to roll the dice again and embark on a new business in market research and eventually founded a competitor to the famous Qualtrics survey company, SurveySensum. After getting to Rajiv and the companies he founded, we dive into the world of SAAS. We discuss the differences between SAAS in the East and West, product iterations in SAAS, how to sell SAAS, and ultimately what it takes to be successful in B2B SAAS in Asia. If you need to learn about SAAS or get caught up with the space this is an episode for you.

Chong Siong is a serial entrepreneur with experience across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. He has managed multi-million dollar budgets for Lazada’s marketing, has worked for publicly listed companies, built his own cryptocurrency startup, and most recently worked at a Y-Combinator company in the construction space. Chong shares his wealth of experience, and discusses his thoughts around marketing talent in Southeast Asia and how to structure your performance marketing team here. We also go deep in the difference between Rocket Internet and Y-Combinator. We also contrast the working cultures of Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The last section also delves into the state of crypto currency and the rise of NFTs

Did you miss Rocket Internet's global expansion train back in 2010-2012? Don’t worry, you can live vicariously through Stephen Chung as he relates his stories and lessons learned building 6 ventures for Rocket Internet whose companies have left a lasting legacy in the Asia region. For the second half of the episode we dive a bit deeper into adtech and Stephen’s experience in growing an early stage ad-tech company to its successful exit in 2019. Stephen also shares a lot of useful insights from being a builder of ventures and a person who has helped many global companies grow their user bases as well.