South East Asia

Embark on a captivating journey through South East Asia with CrazyTok Media podcast. Discover the rich cultures, histories, and diverse landscapes of this vibrant region.

S2E9 | She dropped out of Harvard to change the lives of 600M women in India — Achitha Jacob

What motivated Achita Jacob to shift her focus from a career in a Fortune 500 healthcare company to founding Proactive for Her, and how does she envision the impact of her work on women’s health in India?

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S2E8 | How Guan Dian built a Tech Unicorn from Ground up to address the Trillion-dollar R&D market

Imagine building a global tech powerhouse from scratch. That’s the story of Guan Dian, CMO and APAC GM of PatSnap, a pioneer in AI-powered patent analytics.

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S2E7 | How Roshni went from babysitting to owning SEA’s largest parenting empire

In this episode Hard Truths by Vertex, we have a conversation with Roshni Mahtani Cheung, the founder and CEO of The Parentinc, a pioneering parent-tech leader renowned for owning the largest content-community-commerce online platform for parents in the region.

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S2E6 | PayPal Mafia Insider on Winning In a Tough Market | Jack Selby

Join host Elise Tan in this special episode of the Hard Truths by Vertex podcast, as she sits down with member of the PayPal mafia, Jack Selby, venture investor and independent film director.

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S2E5 | Unlocking the trillion dollar Indian startup ecosystem with Nikhil Marwaha

In this episode, Nikhil Marwaha, Senior Executive Director, shares his extensive investment journey spanning early and later-stage companies in sectors like consumer, B2B enterprise, and healthcare.

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S2E4 | Unlocking the Trillion dollar SEA Startup Ecosystem – the Malaysia’s context with Chan Yip Pang

In this episode of Hard Truths by Vertex podcast, Chan Yip Pang, Executive Director at Vertex Ventures SEA & India, explores the Malaysian startup ecosystem, delving into his journey and the three phases of Malaysian tech development.

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S2E3 | Unlocking the Trillion dollar SEA Startup Ecosystem – the Indonesia’s context with Gary Khoeng

Indonesia is the largest market in Southeast Asia but with a nascent startup ecosystem, how can entrepreneurs navigate rapid growth while ensuring bottom-line profitability?

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S2E2 | Hard Truths about minting the next Indian Unicorn with Piyush Kharbanda

In this episode of Hard Truths by Vertex podcast, Elise Tan and Piyush Kharbanda discuss the challenges and opportunities in the Indian startup ecosystem, drawing insights from successful ventures like KukuFM and Kissht.

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S2E1 | Unlocking the Trillion-Dollar SEA Startup Ecosystem – The Singapore Context w/ Carmen Yuen

What are the evolving trends in the Southeast Asia startup ecosystem? In this episode of Hard Truths by Vertex podcast, Carmen Yuen, General Partner at Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India

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AV8 | Season 1 Recap And Highlights

There is a lot said about how to be an entrepreneur or how to pitch for funding, but nobody talks about what comes after starting your own venture.

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AV7 | C-suite Hiring And  Why “Business Problems Are People Problems”| Minh Giang – Newing Company

Corporates are much better than startups at hiring impactful C-level leaders and it isn’t just because they pay more. Fortunately, startups can apply the same methods and mindsets to find the right people solutions to their business problems.

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S1E11 | Truths About Automating And Growing F&B And Retail businesses In Southeast Asia | Fong Wai Hong

How do you build a business servicing a client base that operates on a fine line between survival and failure? And how do you ensure your business is not just client-churn proof but also emerges resilient towards funding challenges? Find out from Wai Hong, founder of StoreHub.

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AV6 | Recruiting The A-team And Making Them Earn A Seat At The Table

Before launching Aitomatic, Christopher Nguyen and his founding team worked together for nearly 10 years building new AI solutions over multiple ventures. As a seasoned Silicon Valley and Vietnam tech veteran he imparts his wisdom for pragmatic decision making, winning over A-team hires, and how they should earn a seat at the table.

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S1E10 | Truths About Modernising The $15B Ayurvedic Wellness Market | Ameve Sharma, Kapiva

How do you get millennials to buy something usually recommended by their grandparents? And how do you keep their attention when the product you sell takes months to show results? How do you know when you’ve achieved product-market fit?

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S1E9 | Truths About Empowering SEA’s 71M MSMEs Through Financial Inclusion | Nikhilesh Goel, Validus Capital

How do you convince billion-dollar institutional investors to trust a relative upstart with their funds in a market with so much financial turmoil?

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AV5 | Starting A Business With Your Partner And The Art Of The Reverse Pitch | Kevin Hoong, Oyen Insurance

Convincing A-players to join a new company in a completely new industry may sound nearly impossible. How do you create a winning team when you have no funding?

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S1E8 | Truths About Building A Billion Dollar, Profitable Content Business | Joseph Phua, 17LIVE

We often think about startups as a 0 to 1 game with a team of founders working and pivoting around one theme in the hope of finding success. But that is a highly risky way to try and build VC-scale businesses.

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XA Podcast 030 | How To Secure Your First Board Position | Su-Yen Wong And Howie Lau | Governance Series

Are you a senior tech executive wondering how to level up with a board position? Why would they appoint you? And what would be the expectations, risks and rewards once you actually make it onto one? Find out in this latest instalment of the XA Governance Series.

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S1E7 | Truths About Helping Influencers Make A Living In The $68B SE Asian Creator Economy | Paulina Purnomowati, CMO TipTip

Indonesians are voracious consumers of social media, and the creator economy is set to grow massively in the coming years. As the industry grows, unmet needs in engaging and monetizing their content arise.

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AV4 | ‘Self-Serve’ HR And Building A Remote-First Organisation | Jason Kan, Virtual Internships

Getting your team to embrace the culture you want to build is challenging especially when they are remote and distributed across the world. How do you create structures and processes without making it heavy and bureaucratic?

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S1E6 | Truths About Being A Female Leader In The Trillion Dollar Climate Tech Market | Natalia Rialucky, Fairatmos

What are the hard truths about building a climate tech market in a country and region where the awareness, tech and regulations are yet to mature?

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S1E5 | Truths About Lighting Up One’s Own Path And That Of 60M Workers In Indonesia | Nelly Nurmalasari, Pintarnya

It’s hard to translate vision into reality – and especially so when you are trying to help workers build a better life. But when you see it happening, the moment is magical!

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AV3 | Expanding Regionally – Hire Local And Trust The Team

POPS Worldwide is one of the few Vietnamese companies to successfully expand regionally in SEA. In this conversation, Esther dives into the crucial aspects of trust, attitude, and personal qualities and how she grew the company from a 4 person team in Vietnam to a 400 person team across 3 different countries.

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S1E4 | Truths About Disrupting India’s Age-Old Manufacturing Industry | Sonam Motwani, Karkhana

What are the hard truths about being a startup builder in manufacturing, and what was Vertex Ventures’ thesis for investing in such a tradition-bound and notoriously difficult space?

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XA Podcast 029 | The Entrepreneur Gene | Roger Egan, Co-Founder, Nurture And RedMart

When everyone is saying No, how do you eventually get to a Yes? Sheer persistence. Roger Egan, Co-founder of and former CEO of RedMart joins Reza Behnam to discuss his journey of founding RedMart

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AV2 | Articulating Team Values – Velocity vs. Speed | Kartick Narayan, Founder & CEO, Kilo

Is speed really the right thing to optimise for? How do you actually evolve company values? And how should you design your hiring process to ensure your new hire is aligned with company values and is able to hit the ground running?

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S1E3 | Opportunities In SE Asia And India | Ben Mathias

Vertex Ventures has been investing in South East Asia and India long before it became fashionable (!) so we know a thing or two about which sectors are on the rise.

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XA Podcast 028 | Backing Founders For Life | Allen Taylor, Endeavor Catalyst

What would you say about a VC that uses all its profits to help establish economic opportunity in emerging markets? Or one that professes to back entrepreneurs for life, rather than on the strength of their business plan?

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AV1 | How It Feels To Be An Early Employee

Hau Ly and Adrian Latortue kick off the season with a discussion about their own experiences as early employees in Vietnam-based startups.

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S1E2 | Building Nium Into A Unicorn | Pratik Gandhi, COO, Nium

Starting with a little office in a dilapidated old building to joining the rarefied ranks of unicorns in Southeast Asia, Nium has come a long way. But what did it take to keep it going even when the chips were down and fresh funding was hard to come by?

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XA Podcast 027 | Two Sides Of The Startup Investing Table

In this episode, a little reminiscent of a Shark Tank investing recap, we bring together a founder and their investor to hear both sides of the investment story.

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S1E1 | Building An Enduring VC W/ Kee Lock Chua, CEO Vertex Holdings

How did Vertex Ventures get started as one of the oldest VCs in the region? And what’s our secret recipe for identifying high-potential founders? Find out in this episode

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AVV Founders And Friends Podcast: Trailer

Follow the AVV Founders and Friends podcast for insights into the early days of venture building from successful founders in Vietnam and South East Asia.

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XA Podcast 026 | Board Composition With Abby Adlerman And Sze Meng Soon | Governance Series

Abby Adlerman and Sze Meng Soon join guest host Reza Benham to discuss board composition, what a board can do for a start-up and when it’s a good time to form one for a company.

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Hard Truths By Vertex: Trailer

Follow/ subscribe to Hard Truths By Vertex for a behind the scenes view of the most promising startups and investment opportunities in SE Asia and India. Vertex Ventures South East Asia & India is an early-stage investor in the region’s most promising sta

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XA Podcast 025 | Eric Cheng On Building A Leading E-Commerce Marketplace | Founder Series

Eric Cheng, an entrepreneur who built Southeast Asia’s largest car e-commerce platform from scratch, shares his idea of start-up stages, business growth, and strategy.

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XA Podcast 024 | From Inception To Acquisition: Tracking The Journey Of A Successful Start-Up With Max Bittner

Michele Ferrario in conversation with Max Bittner about his journey of founding and building his startup, the Lazada Group.

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XA Podcast 023 | Board Fundamentals For Startups With Carmen Yuen And Ferish Patel | Governance Series

High quality startups spend time establishing a responsible and active Board so they don’t end up in hot water! Find out how.

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XA Podcast 022 | Alex Gold On C-Suite Hiring, Self-Awareness And Culture | People And Talent Series

Alex Gold, MD of True Search SEA, discusses his experiences hiring top tech talent in South East Asia as well as his learnings about teams and culture

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XA Podcast 021 | Relationships, Experimentation And Founding Teams With Vicky Chai | People And Culture Series

Vicky Chai, former Group Head of People for SingLife discusses how to build a great founding team, handling crises and enabling experiments

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XA Podcast 020 | Resilience, Change And Culture With Shweta Shukla | People And Talent Series

How did Netflix maintain its strong culture through hyper-expansion? And what are some of the lessons in that for growth-stage founders?

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XA Podcast 019 | A Startup Approach To Nation-Building | People And Talent Series

Startup founders often associate government organisations with being plodding creatures, slow to adapt and reluctant to embrace change. But what if the organisation in question is a tech startup of it’s own, tasked with implementing the tools and tech needed by a future-friendly and foward-looking government? What does it take to build a culture of…

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XA Podcast 18 | Driving Change During Hypergrowth At Gojek | People And Talent Series

What worked as a new startup invariably stops working as you scale, especially so with people and teams. But the changes you need to make through various stages of growth can be surprisingly simple yet very effective. Discussion Topics: Driving Change During Hypergrowth at Gojek | People and Talent Series Role of a Chief People…

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XA Podcast 017 | Opportunities And Challenges In SE Asian FoodTech W/ Andre Menezes, Fengru Lin And Saurabh Bajaj

Many startups aim to be disruptive and revolutionary, but how many can claim to be changing habits ingrained in us since the dawn of evolution? In this episode, we discuss the opportunities and challenges faced by Foodtech entrepreneurs as they navigate the consumer adoption, regulatory and production challenges of changing the way we eat. Discussion…

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XA Podcast 016 | XA Network And The South East Asia Angel Investing Landscape

What do successful angel investors look for in South East Asian startups? What are they advising their investees to do in the current market environment? And how does an influential angel network like the XA Network help with business growth and sustainability? Find out in this episode with Alap Bharadwaj (Director, Google), Tony Zameczkowski (VP,…

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XA Podcast 015 | From Inception To IPO: Culture, Economics And Timing W/ Hari Krishnan, CEO Of PropertyGuru

Have you ever wondered what it takes for a company to go public? How does the CEO prepare for the journey? What do investors look for? Find out directly from Hari Krishnan, CEO of recently-listed PropertyGuru about the steps and missteps they had on their journey to IPO Discussion Topics: From Inception to IPO: Culture,…

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XA Podcast 014 | One And Done: Building A Profitable Company On A Single Funding Round W/ Le Hong Minh, Founder Of VNG Corporation

Could you ever imagine your “hobby” landing you in a position to impact millions of people around the globe? Or, better yet, heading down the path to IPO on just a single funding round? Well, that’s the story of Le Hong Minh, whose interest in playing online games led him to venture into the field…

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XA Podcast 013 | Active Intelligence And The Early Days Of VC In SEA W/ Hian Goh, Co-Founder And General Partner, Openspace Ventures

What do you expect from a market that doesn’t have a developed ecosystem? Many investors are extremely cynical about it and rightly so.

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XA Podcast 012 | The Roxy Dynamic: Building Great Co-Founder Relationships W/ Ronald Ros And Rexy Dorado, Co-Founders, Kumu

Building Great Co-Founder Relationships – Developing fund-raising strategy, becoming the Disneyland of social media, Evolution of Kumu from messaging to livestreaming.

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XA Podcast 011 | Coffee Or Froth? Challenges In Finding Sustainable Businesses W/ Peng T Ong, Co-Founder And Managing Director, Monk’s Hill Ventures

Peng T. Ong – Coffee or Froth? Challenges in Finding Sustainable Businesses, Matching people to the right jobs, Market valuations, Learning how to be a VC etc. to explore more listen this podcast

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XA Podcast 010 | “Sequoia’s Relentless Focus On Endurance” W/ Abheek Anand, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital

We host Abheek Anand from Sequoia Capital and get under the hood on what drives the legendary venture capital firm forward. Abheek talks about how the firm focuses not on what could go wrong but could go right, the incredible market upside of backing missionary founders, and what makes Southeast Asia more like Silicon Valley…

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XA Podcast 009 | “Building For Billions” W/ Steve Chen, Co-Founder, YouTube

We are honored to host Steve Chen, Co-Founder of YouTube, and an XA Board Member. Hear from the internet hall of Fame on working with legends such as Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, and Elon Musk at PayPal, creating and building YouTube, the importance of being deliberate about a multi-market strategy, and the promise that innovation…

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XA Podcast 008 | “The Future Of Work In Indonesia” W/ Wisnu Nugrahadi, Co-Founder & CEO, Sampingan

We host Wisnu Nugrahadi, Co-Founder & CEO of Sampingan, an XA Portfolio company. Hear from Wisnu on the importance of connections and friends in an entrepreneurial journey, navigating a tough 2020, and the future of work in Indonesia!

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XA Podcast 007 | Ian McKenna, Co-Founder & CEO, Infradigital

We host Ian McKenna, Co-Founder & CEO of Infradigital Nusantara, an XA Portfolio company. Hear from Ian on his entrepreneurial journey from day zero to solving digital payments pain points for Indonesia’s schools, why he’s excited about startups in Indonesia, and his love for “hard” sci-fi! Do check out Infradigital at Infradigital Nusantara.

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XA Podcast 006: Jussi Salovaara, Co-Founder & Managing Partner Asia, Antler

We host Jussi Salovaara, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Asia at Antler. We hear his unique take on startup success in Asia and Southeast Asia, Antler’s rise globally, and how he focuses on lifelong learning. Having evaluated thousands of startups, Jussi’s breadth and depth of understanding across the early-stage space in unparalleled – leading to one…

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XA Podcast 005: Maya Hari, VP & MD, Twitter APAC

In partnership with Tigerhall, We host Maya Hari, VP & MD, APAC at Twitter. We have a wide-ranging conversation on diversity and how our ecosystem can do better, scaling leadership styles and advice to aspiring startup founders.

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XA Podcast 004: Akshay Bhushan, Partner At Lightspeed Ventures

We host Akshay Bhushan, Partner and Head of Southeast Asia with Lightspeed Ventures. Akshay talks about his journey through the venture, unique insights on founders, why he believes Southeast Asia is the future and much more!

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XA Podcast 003: Fengru Lin & Max Rye, Co-founders At Turtletree Labs

We host Fengru & Max, an awesome founding team at Turtletree Labs, an XA Network portfolio company. They walk us through their unique company, how they came together, phenomenal advice on reaching out to experts in their industries, and what makes them so bullish on Southeast Asia.

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XA Podcast 002: Will Hanschell, Co-Founder & CEO, Pencil

We host Will Hanschell, Co-Founder & CEO at Pencil, an XA Network portfolio company. Will walks us through his journey to being an entrepreneur, advice for founders and investors, and delves into his thoughts on Southeast Asia, the way he learns, and the best piece of advice he’s received.

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XA Podcast 001: Alap Hosts Tony & Chirayu

Alap hosts fellow XA Network members Chirayu W. and Tony Z. for a laidback chat about seed and angel investing in Southeast Asia. Expect great insights, surprising admissions, and some fun towards the end!

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