Entrepreneurs of Asia (EOA)

This week we sit down with Rajan Devnath who is Co-Founder of a company called NEVO, a work in progress. In this episode we cover the ups and downs of starting a new tech venture along with the founder journey and some of the wisdom Rajan has gained over the years from bootstrapping to growth scaling. We also get to discuss his past experiences in Rocket Internet building rideshare, exiting his first start in the Philippines, working at the silicon valley company The Studio, Manufacturing in China, the tech scene in China, and the differences between India and China too!

In this episode we sit down with YK Goon, CTO of Kakitangan, an HR SAAS platform that handles payroll, leave applications, taxes and more. We get to discuss the Engineer mindset vs the Artistic Mindset, developing software engineering talent, technical leadership and software engineering management, early Rocket Internet and its technology stack, developing products with a sales team, road mapping and advice for CTO’s.

Justin Ahn, Co-founder of Quidli, a fast convenient cryptocurrency wallet allowing you to store or use cryptocurrency as you please. We continue our blockchain discussion in this episode and talk about the nature of cryptocurrency and where its headed, the next evolution of fiat to digitalization, We also dig into Justin’s background and discuss the Asian American identity, his early work in cross border M&A advisory, Rocket Internet, business school and more.

Quidli: https://quid.li/

Crypto currencies are back and stronger than ever before. Today’s episode we sit down with TM Lee, co-founder of CoinGecko, one of the largest, if not the largest, cryptocurrency data aggregator in the world. In the first half we get to learn more about TM and his journey as he shares his philosophy on committing to developing CoinGecko for the long term, his take on side hustles, and crowd sourcing tech to scale your business. The second half focuses on CoinGecko from its main feature that exponentially helped it scale, the business model, the evolution of the technology stack, and various other applications of block chain technologies.

In this episode Yorlin Ng, COO of momentum works, shares her thoughts from the challenges of being a woman in corporate and startups, juggling those mental models with being a leader as well, the pros and cons of the corporate world vs startups, and why those topics are important for her. Those on a journey considering corporate or startups will find this episode useful to hear Yorlin’s insights which spent significant time in both worlds. The last topic is also relevant for anyone thinking how they structure their leadership roles in the company from CEO and COO relationships. 

Jianggan Li is Founder and CEO of Momentum Works, a venture outfit that has focused on venture building, consulting, media and much more. In this episode we get to hear a bit about Jianggan’s Journey from growing up in Communist China, to stumbling upon entrepreneurship as a journalist in a media company to joining the rise of Rocket Internet during the rideshare craze with Easy Taxi. You will get unique insights in what it is like to work in China, how communism has helped shape entrepreneurship in China, the current state of rideshare and much more. 

In Part 2 of Allen Ding’s session we get down to the pragmatic details of what makes a great software engineer. As you would expect the answer is never 100% straight forward and what Allen looks for in Southeast Asia has been very different than what he experienced in Silicon Valley, Netherlands or South Korea. We also cover what makes a great CTO and all the possible signals a non-technical person could possibly use to help single out a strong candidate who is good at software development or a great CTO. We also dig into shipping products fast vs collecting technical debt and Allen’s view around that and lastly here about Snappymob’s time when they were able to develop popular apps that have hit the top spots in App stores. If you want to here about

Allen’s background you can go to Part 1 here:

Spotify: https://rb.gy/qkauts

Apple: https://rb.gy/q01jb0

Google: https://rb.gy/wls0au

Amazon: https://rb.gy/docxey

Pandora: https://rb.gy/dgqs2i

iHeart Radio: https://rb.gy/fzuitf

PlayerFM: https://rb.gy/7ofkyu

listen notes: https://rb.gy/zc6ik6

TuneIn: https://rb.gy/okownw

Kicking off 2021 with the story of Allen Ding. A Malaysian based entrepreneur who runs a software development agency here based in Kuala Lumpur. In Part 1 Allen shares his story of how he was able to build a successful profitable agency well known for high quality and care. The story involves supercomputers, to silicon valley startups and companies, world class development agencies, building products that hundreds of millions of users touch, to unresolved drama that helped spur personal growth. This story spans the globe from Netherlands, to Malaysia to San Francisco, Korea and more. Don’t miss this story and stay tuned for part 2 for Allen’s practical pragmatic advice!

This episode features an amazing founder and F&B entrepreneur, Marcus Low of Table & Apron and Universal Bake House. Marcus is a tremendous entrepreneur and I would urge anyone working in or interested in the space to learn and listen from him. Marcus presents a very thorough business philosophy and strategy that has allowed him continued success despite the struggles of entrepreneurship. In this episode we briefly touch upon his story, discuss diversification vs specialization, how to create value with a soul, artistry and community, scaling craftsmanship, F&B as a team sport, the important of experience the restaurant business,  finding focus early on, technology in F&B, how restaurants use data, founder conflicts, building culture, food as an institution, food accelerators and stock options for F&B businesses, and much more. This one is long but worth your time. I guarantee it. 

This week’s episode is a talk I gave for the Singapore Tourism Board Accelerator’s Cohort 3 founders. The program is called Learning from Legends. I was invited by Found 8’s (co-working space) Program Manager - Katrin Miller, to present what I learned from my most recent interviews on the EOA platform. There is a lot of great content revolving around advice on leadership, scaling startups, raising capital and much more. The talk was moderated by Kevin Czok, Co-Founder and Venture Partner of Hotel Data Cloud. He asks very insightful questions and does a great job engaging with the content. 

Short Background On Me

[00:02:02] Lessons E1: (Culture by design, Do things That Don't Scale, Products That Scale)

[00:02:35] Can you do things that don't scale at Rocket Internet?

[00:06:47] Do Rocket Internet companies have a soul

[00:09:03] Lessons E2: (Startups Are Fragile, Consider Motivations, Go Against The Grain)

[00:14:23] Can you go against the grain in conservative cultures or industries?

[00:24:54] Lessons E3: (Grit, Being Scrappy, Customers, Customers, Customers)

[00:30:51] How to build Scrappiness and Grit into company culture?

[00:33:19] Lessons E4: (Mentors, Critical Thinking)

[00:39:21] Lessons E5: (Community, Core Value Prop, Data)

[00:44:19] Lessons E6: (Fight Where You Win, Sticky Culture)

[00:46:57] Lessons E7: (Working w/ Spouses, Micro/Macro Management, Design In the Physical)

[00:50:53] Lessons E8: (Selling Matters, Difficult Conversations)

[00:53:40] Lessons E9: (Product Market Fit, Raising Too Early, Raising Early Is Not A Science

[00:58:10] Lessons E10: (What's Your Weakness, Lead By Example)

[01:00:57] Lessons E11: (Growth In Crises, Team is Company, Deals Take Long)

[01:04:11] Question & Answer Section