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.

Why is it very hard to innovate fast in Energy and what are the barriers of growth?  Walter entertains a seemingly wild idea of “space mirrors” that will power solar energy. Secondly, we get a bit more grounded and discuss how fintech in SEA will unfold between the giant platform players like Grab and Shopee and the other older financial institutions such as CIMB along with their efforts in Vietnam and Philippines. Lastly we tackle Walter’s current endeavors in mental health for minorities and how serving your labor force more holistically leads to a better society!

Are you a founder hiring? Are you a recruiter? If so, don't miss this episode. In this episode we sit down with a regional expert for the talent markets of Southeast (SEA). We discuss one of the biggest challenges facing the SEA talent market, which is talent scarcity! Should you build it first yourself then hire or hire first? Should you hire a generalist or a specialist? Should you raise more money to attract talent? If you need the answers to these questions, tune in and listen!

Part 2 of Nattapak’s Journey. In this episode we discuss the difference between working in Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia. We also compare and contrast some cultural differences between the east and west and how that affects the work environment. Lastly we discover how Nattapak founded his current startup Trash Lucky by asking the 100 million dollar question.

Nattapak is a serial entrepreneur who shares his journey on how he got started and ended up building ventures across Thailand, Philippines, and Indonesia. In this episode, we discuss some aspects of social life in Thailand, working as an engineer at AMD glory days, working in a Thai Family business, business school, and how Nattapak got started in entrepreneurship with Easy Taxi Thailand as COO and eventually being a venture builder for Inspire Ventures.

Is coworking dead? NO! In this episode Dewan Ng shares his fresh perspective of what the future of co-working looks like. WeWork? WeWho? Good riddance. The future of co-work looks bright and agile where flexible spaces will be driven by community. We go deep into the world of co-working, co-living, community and much more.

This Part 2 of Dave’s journey, experience, and lessons. Feel free to listen to Part 1 first for more context. We start where we left off with Dave’s transition to Living Social. Later we cover the nature of the startup & VC ecosystem in Southeast Asia, the importance of owner engaged companies, what's it like working in Genting Casinos, the strengths and weaknesses of the Chinese and US systems, Magic the Gathering as a metaphor for life, early stage investing and the viability of Grab’s business model in the long run.

Dave Chang, bestie, master of the high ground, and entrepreneur turned media investor; this exciting Part 1 of 2 episodes covers Dave’s Theory of Economic Bundling where we explore his thesis in the context of media from gaming, movies, music and e-commerce. We also get to hear about his experiences moving from communist China to growing up in the Midwest of America and later returning to China to be a part of group buy history with the infamous Groupon China. This episode is packed with insights and philosophy and more.

In this episode we sit down with Jaclyn Lee, Founder of the Conscious Reboot an up and coming health and wellness platform. Jaclyn details her Journey from America to Asia which sets up our important discussion on the nature of burnout, balance in startups, what coaching is and how one can tangibly approach wellness in a meaningful way. If you have been stuck lately hopefully this episode helps you get unstuck!

In this episode we chat with Daniel Torres, currently an entrepreneur in-between startup projects. Daniel has spent a solid career working in Silicon Valley and scaling ventures across Latin America to Southeast Asia. In this episode we hear a bit about this journey, meditation, building playbooks for companies like Eatigo, Zyllem, and Circles Life, We also get to hear about what Silicon Valley was like back in the early 2000’s to what Daniel sees now in 2021. In the end we get to hear where Daniel will end up whether it be the United States, Latin America, or Asia!

In this episode we get a chance to talk to Jonathan Liang, Brand Director of KSK group, and Co-Founder of the Jonathan Liang fashion brand spanning across 11 locations from Hong Kong, China, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore. In this episode we briefly cover Jonathan’s story of becoming a fashion entrepreneur, working in corporate luxury fashion under a few brands under LVMH to smaller popular brands such as IRO Paris, and the DD collective. Towards the middle we dive deep and discuss what exactly is brand and design for Jonathan, what is iconic vs trending, and if fashion is actually solving anything from a design standpoint.