Category: Tech

Southeast Asia Could Hit $5 Trillion Growth Mark: McKinsey’s Lin – Bloomberg

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Looking forward to this:

Southeast Asia’s been home to almost half of the biggest growth drivers in the past half-century. To keep investors interested, it’ll have to make the right moves across technology, education and infrastructure, according to Diaan-Yi Lin, a senior partner at McKinsey & Co.

— Read on www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-28/southeast-asia-could-hit-5-trillion-growth-mark-mckinsey-s-lin

Stripe in Singapore

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Wrote about this yesterday :: https://seedvc.blog/2018/09/27/stripe-to-open-singapore-hub-following-245m-fundraise/

Saw this on LinkedIn today :: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6451084223817310208

1) Stripe’s fourth global engineering hub will be in Singapore

2) This hub will build completely new products, and further develop the underlying infrastructure powering Stripe

3) 200 million Southeast Asians will come online in the next two years

Gotta love those SEA stats but what really interests me is #2. New products.

People have been chatting about PayPal and Stripe competing but that has been going on for a while. What is more striking for me is where is Square when it comes to Asia? As of today – completely non-existent.

Stripe to open Singapore hub following $245m fundraise

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Stripe to open Singapore hub following $245m fundraise

From the Stripe Blog :: https://stripe.com/blog/singapore-eng-office

If this doesn’t put Singapore on the map in the global tech arena – then not much will.

Stripe is huge and they have chosen Singapore as an engineering hub.

This continues my hypothesis of why Singapore has already won the hub if SEA region and has vaulted past Hong Kong.

Why? Look at all the global companies with their hubs here and more and more will come and probably do more engineering than just sales and marketing.

Singapore is safe, fair, family friendly and the government is pro tech.

This also helps bolster one the trends I am have been trading on – the TTS. Trailing Tech Spouse.

Companies like Google, FB, AirBnB and now Stripe – move executives to Singapore and with them comes their spouse who often is also in tech. Thus bringing more experiences talent to the region but primarily Singapore.

Super exciting.

Also:

The Basecamp Way – Bryce Roberts – Medium

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

A good read. Something founders should always consider.

The Basecamp guys usually bash VC’s as evil and the root of all startup problems but I don’t agree.

However I do agree with the premise that NOT all companies should raise money. It is not the only path.

Always find it funny when founders are surprised that a VC would say to a founder – don’t raise money. You don’t need to.

VC money should be used to make the outcome bigger by a huge factor than if you didn’t raise money.

Basecamp is a rarity in this day and age and some of the biggest exits for founders are when they don’t raise money.

Everyone has a different need or use case but founders should always think of all options.

The Basecamp Way – Bryce Roberts – Medium

a16z Podcast: Technological Trends, Capital, and Internet ‘Disruption’ — a16z — Overcast

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Love hearing Fred and just his candid take on so many subjects.

Also some pragmatism around crypto but at the same time very interesting ideas of where it can go. 

The post 40m mark talks about digital goods and things crypto can unlock. Crazy stuff but still possible.

I read Fred and always admire his experience and just straight talk about the VC industry.

Go listen.

a16z Podcast: Technological Trends, Capital, and Internet ‘Disruption’ — a16z — Overcast