radical candour from a deep generalist
Was awesome to have Bernard back and in the interviewer chair again.
https://analyse.asia/2016/09/02/episode-133-seedplus-southeast-asia-michael-smith/
Enjoyed the interview and of course I am wondering on behalf of his audience when we get to interview Bernard about his trip to the US.
Hopefully soon!
I have to admit I am not plugged into it enough.
I watch Scott and his winner/loser video every week – this stuff is pure gold :: https://www.l2inc.com/winners-losers-snapchat-hits-a-snow-storm/
Was interesting to see him mention the Korean app – snow, which is the same Naver folks who brought us Line :: http://www.bustle.com/articles/173843-snow-a-snapchat-like-app-with-filters-will-take-your-selfie-game-to-the-next-level
So basically we have a straight up SnapChat clone that is targeting only Asia which in certain pocket countries can work. Not saying it is a novel strategy but certain companies can pull it off.
What I also find interesting in this NYT piece is the opinion on the Korean tech scene ::
“For the longest time, the holy grail for a lot of Korean founders was to get U.S. market share,” he said. “They all failed, and failed because there were so many issues. There was no American working culture, they didn’t have a network in America, they didn’t speak English.”
“With the rise of China and China’s infatuation with Korean culture, it’s breathed new life into Korean start-ups and founders,” Mr. Chae said. “This is a market that happens to be a lot bigger than the U.S., that seems to be more welcoming for Korean technology and culture than the Western world ever was.”
It’s a great point – why bother with the USA at all if one can essentially focus on Asia and win it? With the growth of SEA region, the 4g penetration coming in India and all the other fringe possibilities like the Middle East – an Asian startup could essentially go big in every place but Europ and America and due well enough to not care.
I see Singapore has a pretty amazing tech HQ – the equivalent of USA’s Delaware for startup incorporation but I often wonder if Taiwan, Japan and Korea ramped their startup tech game in hopes of dominating Asia would that be more powerful than the Chinese brands trying to do the same thing?
I think the core issue still for pure Asian startups focusing on Asian markets is exit strategies – do they sell to American companies? Is there a go-to stock exchange besides the USA they can list on? Going forward as the startups scene keeps heating up I think the I can’t raise seed, I can’t raise an A will start to turn into – where do I go public?
Hoping one of these regions can figure out a market to list on that works for the Asian scene.
As stated before here, http://www.nokpis.com/2016/08/15/jobkred-cool-stuff-made-in-singapore/ ::
I am interested, mostly due to the pain of always been running product companies in Singapore needing to hire people, in the intersection of recruiting, human resources and how tech might make the situation of recruiting, hiring and retaining people. There are so many angles to this and so many opportunities to make money.
So given the interest there is also demand and a lot of companies in Singapore taking on the challenge.
Another you may or may not know is :: http://snapjobs.sg/ . Trying to marry jobseekers and companies quickly via a mobile app.
Since my background is video I try to stay up on the OTT, video and ad tech space.
Here is one for you that’s made in Singapore that is bringing programmatic ad buying to the TV space.
I think the best PR for a VC firm is the stories of the companies that the fund has invested in. There has been some PR about SeedPlus and of course we have a lot more stories to go but today I would like to highlight AppKnox. I met the CEO back during his JFDI tenure and I have to admit I did not get to stay up on it once I was unable to commit my time to the JFDI program.
Then I joined SeedPlus and was back to working with AppKnox. The company is a perfect fit for what we are trying to do at SeedPlus which is to take a strong tech product and export it around the globe. And that is exactly what we are doing.
Feel free to reach out if you want to know more about SeedPlus or AppKnox.
Found something quite useful for startups – an online store of employee and HR docs for a reasonable price.
Check it :: http://www.annecaronconsulting.com/#!how-it-works/eu5ik
A lot of startups don’t have proper HR docs and this is a nice way of solving that problem.
I am interested, mostly due to the pain of always been running product companies in Singapore needing to hire people, in the intersection of recruiting, human resources and how tech might make the situation of recruiting, hiring and retaining people. There are so many angles to this and so many opportunities to make money.
Here is one company in Singapore, https://www.jobkred.com/, and their take on solving the problem.
Here is a rent read on the space :: https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/07/hr-2-0-is-the-poster-child-for-the-next-wave-of-saas-innovation/
I love the indie developer scene and respect the work it takes in being a one man shop shipping a globally desirous product. Look no further than DUE – a smart reminder/task app carefully crafted in Singapore.
You can also find other stuff here :: http://www.cleanshavenapps.com/
Another one for you :: http://nutonomy.com/
It’s obvious to most that at some point cars will drive themselves and I will be the first one to sign up to have a robotic taxi drive me or my family around Singapore. Singapore is pretty cutting edge when it come to the future of smart cities and level 4 automated driving so it was fun to get to me nuTonomy to hear about how they are able to do this.
Hopefully we will get to use their cars at some point in Singapore but my guess is they have some serious global ambitions for their technology.
Gonna start highlighting some cool companies you may not know about that are made in Singapore.
Love seeing the intersection of art, workspaces and tech.
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