" We are not ashamed about failing. If you sign up for our newsletter, you can see our metrics month on month. If this month is bad, it is there. That transparency creates trust. People trust you to report when things are not good, they trust you to seek help when things are not good. A lot of founders try hard to fix things internally and only when it gets to the eleventh month say they have one month left and need help, and then it is too late for anyone to do anything. Here we are saying this is what we know, where we are lacking, please help us. And it can only be good for the company." - DJ, Co-Founder and CTO of Prefer

Jeremy Au and DJ Tan sit down to discuss how Prefer grew from a bold bean-free coffee experiment into a flavor house tackling climate-threatened ingredients. They explore the evolution from naive product launches to customer-driven adoption, why B2B positioning makes more sense than B2C in food tech, and how shifting investor expectations shaped their fundraising strategy. Their conversation covers product development cycles with baristas, the science of replicating flavors like coffee and chocolate, and how climate change is forcing businesses to rethink supply chains. DJ also shares lessons on storytelling, scaling options, and the importance of founder transparency when building trust with investors.

"I think only the US and China deserve to be compared to each other, and we see that rivalry take place. Emerging markets are very different from Silicon Valley and other tech and talent hubs. Within the emerging market landscape, it is worth doing more comparisons across global emerging markets, often called the global south, such as the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, and LatAm. There are more interesting comparisons and parallels across these ecosystems. We have seen fund managers like Saison Capital spending more time in LatAm, deploying funds into Brazil and Mexico. There are valuable learnings and lessons that we can borrow from different ecosystems." - Kristie Neo, VC & Startup Journalist

Jeremy Au and Kristie Neo compare Southeast Asia and the Middle East, exploring how mood shifts, tariffs, scandals, and cultural codes are shaping technology and finance. They discuss Southeast Asia’s dampened atmosphere after 2021, the role of sovereign wealth in the Middle East, and how generational challenges meet an AI-driven job market. Their conversation unpacks scandals like eFishery, co-founder disputes in Vietnam, startup archetypes in Southeast Asia, and the global expansion of Chinese firms. They close by reflecting on how organizational cultures differ across regions and why code-switching leaders succeed.

Rob Liu, Founder of ContactOut, and Jeremy Au dive into the realities of building a profitable SaaS business, the myths of venture capital, and the role of lifelong learning. Rob shares how he scaled ContactOut by stacking insights from competitors, why bootstrapping gave him more control, and how he now invests in young founders. Their conversation also explores his shift from chasing wealth to pursuing impact, his family’s role in the journey, and the brave choice that defined his career.

"It's important for you to be a personal success first and then a professional success because that will give you career longevity and health. It gives you perseverance to make it over the long term and succeed as a person as well as an executive. I'm not a perfect person on these dimensions, but I warn myself repeatedly about those sacrifices. That ties into Ikigai, the Japanese word for the reason for being. In your career, you should think about four major dimensions: what you love to do, what you are good at, what you can be paid for, and what the world needs." - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast

"The sweet spot can move. Just because you're aiming for something doesn't mean that when you get there it's actually what you want. I said to myself I want to be a social entrepreneur and a founder. I got there. It was a good spot for many years. Then I said I want to do something else. The spot moved. When I was an MBA student I said I want to do this. I became a founder again in the US. I paid for it. Then it changed. I decided I want to come back to Southeast Asia because that's where my family is. I want to raise my kids in Singapore. So that's my choice. The Ikigai can shift. Don't look at this as static. The world is changing tremendously in terms of what you can be paid for. Two years ago you could be paid for marketing and creating a Facebook post. Today ChatGPT does it. The world will no longer pay you to write a Facebook post." - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast

Jeremy Au spoke about the dangers of chasing only professional success and why it can lead to emptiness despite external achievements. He explained the importance of balancing career ambition with personal happiness, introduced a shifting framework for finding purpose, and shared stories that highlight resilience, injustice, and the values that truly define a meaningful life.

"People will judge you whether or not you do social media, whether you are yourself, or whether you do the craziest things. So you might as well make it work out. At the moment I saw it working out, I thought I had to do the most crazy thing I could think of that was still me. I'm not a psychopath, I still care about what people think, but it's more about being comfortable with that feeling. They're going to talk regardless, so you might as well do something cool." - Javier Lorenzana, former EdTech founder

"There were days when I wasn’t sleeping or eating. I was losing weight, and when you start laying off some of the core employees who’ve been with you from day one, me and my co-founder at the time started fighting a lot about the direction and what to do next. It was a very unpleasant memory and feeling. It feels like you’re dragging it out longer than it needs to because you have this responsibility. But once you come to terms with it, that’s when it starts to get a bit better and you can sit with yourself more. That’s when we ended up sunsetting, and after everything, I still took it hard on myself. I guess that was the start of everything that happened next." - Javier Lorenzana, former EdTech founder

Javier Lorenzana, former EdTech founder turned content creator, joins Jeremy Au to revisit their first meeting during an On Deck podcasting course and trace his journey from startup building to social media success. They discuss the creation and shutdown of his pandemic-born company Upnext, the personal and professional fallout that followed, and how he rebuilt confidence through fitness, self-work, and creative risk-taking. Javi shares how his founder mindset shapes his content strategy, why authenticity is his biggest growth lever, and how he measures long-term success through influence and connection rather than vanity metrics. Their conversation covers building product market fit for a personal brand, handling public scrutiny, and creating viral formats that blend entertainment with personal values.

"And if you really start asking the truth about yourself, why are you really doing whatever you're doing? Why are you feeling the way that you're feeling? It all boils down to the self inside of you. He has this idea of the operator and the machine, but for me, it was more about the operator inside of you. Why are you doing what you're doing? Why are you feeling the way that you're feeling? If you really drill down into it, you'll understand that it ultimately boils down to the self, everything." - Sang Shin is an entrepreneur, investor, and philosopher.

"So I thought, going to a startup is retiring from the corporate rat race, but there is another rat race. So then what is actually retirement from the system itself? You are not in the system anymore. In some form or some way you have attained a level of financial freedom, which you should be using. It takes time, you cannot just get there from day one, you have to work your way towards it. But at least you know that is what you are working towards. You are not working towards becoming a CEO, you are working towards the goal of financial freedom, which can be attained in many different ways." - Sang Shin is an entrepreneur, investor, and philosopher.

Jeremy Au and Sang Shin trace Sang’s journey from a privileged childhood in the Philippines to his evolution as an entrepreneur, investor, and philosopher. They unpack the pivotal moments that shaped his outlook, the hard lessons from building a privacy-first startup that challenged big tech, and his creation of Fafty, a belief system grounded in the idea that life is a simulation and the true goal is to elevate personal existence. Their conversation weaves together stories of youthful awakening, the realities of startups and investing, and reflections on AI, religion, and parenting as forces that guide self-transformation.

" What's important is that I encourage you to choose your pain. Life is not easy. If something was easy to do, then it is already done by a robot or on the verge of being done by a robot, and there is no value in easy stuff. If the job is just moving a chair from left to right 10 times in a row, it is easy, has no value, and I will not get paid for it. We get paid to do hard things. Those hard things are where the value comes in. Hard things by nature are painful, but you can choose your pain. Psychology shows that when you choose your pain, it feels less painful. If you do not get to choose your pain, you feel helpless. Choose the pain you want to do because that is the value you are going to create in the world. " - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast

" You have to be your own best friend. Even though we all face criticism, you have to be your own best friend. A lot of people will try to be your best friend, and that will be your tobacco companies, your whiskey companies, your nice watch. Everybody will try to be your best friend by telling you that if you do not feel secure, they will make you feel secure, and that is how they will make money. Be thoughtful about how you become your own best friend, how you treat yourself with the language and kindness you would use with your best friend. If your best friend came to you and said, I screwed up in class today because of A, B, and C, you would support that person. But if you are that person feeling terrible about yourself, would you treat yourself with the same kindness? " - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast

Jeremy Au shares why long-term career success depends on investing in health, cultivating purpose, and learning to handle inevitable criticism. He explains the link between purpose and happiness, why choosing your challenges makes them more bearable, and how treating yourself as your own best friend helps you grow despite setbacks.

Adrian Choo, CEO of Career Agility International, joins Jeremy Au to explore how AI, job insecurity, and shifting regional trends are reshaping the future of work in Southeast Asia. They discuss why Singapore is losing its dominance as a regional employment hub, how mid-career professionals are getting priced out, and why Gen Z graduates are entering the job market without marketable skills. Adrian shares how he sold skeletons to pay for university, how he pivoted from headhunter to coach, and why building career resilience is more urgent than ever. He also explains how his AI assistant "Becky" helps him think faster, make decisions, and stay ahead in a volatile job market.

"Chinese companies or Chinese operation teams are much better at doing operations on TikTok because they grew with the rise of Douyin in China. They know short videos much better than brands in other countries that are still figuring out how to deal with TikTok. Throughout their short 15-year history, Chinese brands have always operated in a fast-changing, highly competitive environment, making them more nimble. This advantage comes from the environment that trained them, not from being inherently better. Whether that is sustainable in the long term, I don't know." - Jianggan Li, Founder of Momentum Works

Jianggan Li, Founder of Momentum Works, joins Jeremy Au to unpack the evolving trade dynamics between China, Vietnam, and the United States. They compare Vietnam’s swift concessions with China’s calculated rare earth strategy, discuss the blurred lines of transshipment, and explore how Apple, Pop Mart, and Labubu reflect larger trends in global manufacturing and consumer behavior. The conversation also reveals how Chinese brands are outpacing global competitors in TikTok marketing and why luxury culture in China is undergoing a quiet transformation.

Jeremy Au speaks about the uncomfortable truth that the world isn’t fair. He urges listeners to let go of idealism, understand real-world power dynamics, and make deliberate career choices. From decoding hypocrisy in leadership to choosing when to be a small fish in a big pond, he shares how to survive and thrive by thinking both outside-in and inside-out.

"Ultimately optimistic about the long-term viability of Southeast Asia as an ecosystem. I do think innovation and the pace of technology doesn't change; it will still be a positive force for the region. There's a lot of work to be done collectively as an ecosystem, whether it's founders, investors, you and I, and the wider capital markets. I'm still pretty optimistic." - Tiang Lim Foo, General Partner at Forge Ventures  

Tiang Lim Foo, General Partner at Forge Ventures, and Jeremy Au discussed how Southeast Asia’s tech and venture capital landscape is evolving through cycles of hype, correction, and AI-driven transformation. They unpack the eFishery scandal as a clearing event, reframe expectations around exits, and debate whether venture capital remains viable in a region where only one unicorn appears every four years. They explore the split between local and global-first startups, how AI is reviving SaaS through productivity gains, and why only a few VC funds will likely outperform. Tiang also shares how fatherhood shaped his leadership style and how delayed gratification builds better founders and better kids.

"There's a lot of space in Singapore for honest journalism. I understand why people are fearful of saying certain things because of our history, but Singapore today is not Singapore under Lee Kuan Yew, when information was much more tightly controlled. The government hasn't necessarily been benevolent in opening up space—it’s been forced to do so by digital disruption. We have quite wide latitude to discuss different topics in Singapore today." - Sudhir Vadaketh, Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Jom

"What has worked really well is that as a writer and journalist, you naturally learn to form close relationships with your team and with the people you talk about, write about, and interview. You learn to form collaborative relationships with them. Not all journalists do—some have a very predatory relationship with the people they cover. The formal journalism I was trained in, certainly at The Economist Group and other places I worked, instilled in me a very collaborative approach to the people around me." - Sudhir Vadaketh, Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Jom

Sudhir Vadaketh, Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Jom, returns to BRAVE after four years to share how he built a long-form journalism outlet in Singapore. He and Jeremy Au discuss the journey from solo writer to team manager, the real risks and support systems behind independent media, and how Jom navigates Singapore’s evolving boundaries on speech. They unpack the emotional weight of managing editorial freedom, public fear of backlash, and what bravery looks like in today’s media landscape. Sudhir also explains how Jom could grow across Southeast Asia while staying rooted in local storytelling.

"Gen Zs were probably the first to be digitally native, right? Because we actually remember life before the internet. My entire secondary school life was looking out the window because we didn't have phones. I think the pendulum will swing the other way, because now all of us are more conscious about not giving our kids phones too early and trying to help them focus and not turn into zombies. Gen Zs are unfortunate in that they were the first—like experiments—if you think about when Facebook and the phone all came online. I have some hope that we can swing the other way." - Shiyan Koh, Managing Partner at Hustle Fund

"VCs have to be optimists, otherwise they cannot be VCs. If you're a pessimist, you should be a distressed debt investor. It's part of the job—you have to be an optimist. Sometimes people ask me, what do you need to see to invest? And I always ask the question back, what do you need to see? Because you're the one investing your time and effort into this. You have opportunity cost as well. It's less about what the investor needs to see and more about what you need to believe for this to be a business you want to spend your time on. Investor validation is one part of it, but at the end of the day, it's customer validation that really makes a business work." - Shiyan Koh, Managing Partner at Hustle Fund

"The internet is the best distribution system ever invented, so imagine all the businesses today that wouldn't have been possible without it. Think about that same kind of sea change now—there's going to be a bunch of businesses that were not possible without AI. That's a really exciting thing to be in, an exciting period to be alive. As a founder, you need to go find a problem that people want to pay you to solve. You can only control yourself; you can't count on other people to validate you." - Shiyan Koh, Managing Partner at Hustle Fund

Shiyan Koh, Managing Partner at Hustle Fund, joins Jeremy Au to explore Singapore’s exploration of nuclear energy, the Southeast Asia startup downturn, and how AI is changing both business and social behavior. They discuss how the government seeds long-term energy strategy, what optimism looks like in a bear market, and why human interaction must remain a priority as digital tools evolve. Together, they reflect on resilience, founder mindset, and parenting in an increasingly AI-driven world.

"If all you're doing is narrating what ChatGPT can do because ChatGPT is good at output, you will not have a job, you will not get paid well, you will not get promoted, and you will be a grunt for the rest of your life that will get marginalized by ChatGPT because it can produce output 24/7 at any time of the day and in any volume. Your life got harder because before ChatGPT came out, you had a normal job where, as long as you put in effort, you'd be recognized as an A player, and if you didn't, you'd be penalized. In today's world, if you put in effort, you still get rewarded, but if you don't and all you do is repeat what ChatGPT is doing, you will get an above-average score." - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast

Jeremy Au breaks down why most startups fail and what it really takes to succeed in the AI age. He explains the six patterns of startup failure, the tricky economics of service businesses, and why AI will wipe out average workers. He also explores how caring about a problem gives founders their edge and why listening, not output, is the real marker of a great marketer or executive.

"The challenge for us is growth. As we crack eight-figure revenue, how do we get to nine? What I learned is that each revenue milestone is like a new boss. Your first million ARR is one boss. Five million is very different from one million, and ten million is different again. Figuring out ten to twenty is what we still have to solve as a company." - Daniel Thong, founder of Nimbus

"Hire faster, fire faster, or hire slow and get it right. My conclusion is that it’s very contextual. For my industry, it’s unsexy and doesn’t pay that well because clients sometimes don’t pay well for essential services. You can’t get a Harvard MBA guy joining you. In my case, hiring slow and getting it right matters because the cost of losing continuity is huge. If you're managing 400 distributed workers and HR keeps leaving, workers think something’s wrong with the firm. It’s way better for me than hiring fast and firing faster, just because of the nature of the business." - Daniel Thong, founder of Nimbus

Daniel Thong, founder of Nimbus, returns to BRAVE to share how he built a profitable, tech-enabled service business without venture capital. He and Jeremy Au unpack the rise and fall of tech companies like Zilingo, examine the structural issues behind finance misconduct, and explore how AI is reshaping service operations. Daniel discusses why bootstrapping gave him more control, how he spun off a new AI startup from within, and what it takes to retain talent and stay healthy as a founder. The conversation offers a grounded look at sustainable growth, founder philosophy, and the realities of Southeast Asia’s startup landscape.

"Few months ago, we laughed about the idea of AI companions and that people would fall in love and get married to them. I was at a meeting where we discussed how the newest batch of hottest startups in California are all AI companions. Their job is to create AI-powered waifus so people can finally fall in love with somebody who loves them. Are more people going to fall in love with digital avatars and AI companions? That’s not far away—only 10 or 20 years out. What does a hundred years of that technological evolution look like? And then AI companions don’t just hang out with you—they can hang out with other AI companions." - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast

Jeremy Au explores how exponential tech progress is reshaping the future, why Southeast Asia is positioned for a surge in unicorns, and how venture capitalists evaluate founders. From AI relationships to realistic startup odds, this discussion challenges assumptions about the next 100 years of innovation and entrepreneurship.

"Let's say you want to do logistics. AI can help with a lot of optimisation, specifically with complex models. The question is, should you only use AI for search? No, you should use it to optimise freight and path costs, factoring in tariffs. I had to do a routing, and it turns out O1 and O3 reasoning engines are extremely good at this. I did a demo for a retail business—they gave me all their constraints, and ChatGPT generated a highly optimized path that matched exactly what their experts expected. They said, 'That's correct.'" - Bernard Leong, founder of Dorje AI and host of Analyse Asia

"What AI has done is it destroys the ERP. First, traditional ERPs like Oracle and SAP require you to conform your business processes to their logic. With generative AI, you don’t need to—you can customize everything through code generation. The new business model should allow every user in the company to use the app. With proper access controls, finance handles the accounting, and everyone else should not have access to the company’s P&L charts. Access control remains a very human responsibility." - Bernard Leong, founder of Dorje AI and host of Analyse Asia

Bernard Leong, founder of Dorje AI and host of Analyse Asia, joins Jeremy Au to explore how AI is transforming software development, business models, and professional roles across Southeast Asia. They break down why dev houses are losing ground, how AI accelerates coding and reshapes team structures, and why traditional SaaS and education models must evolve. Bernard shares how he replaced an outsourced dev team using AI tools, the dangers of hallucinated code libraries, and his vision for a new enterprise software model powered by prompt engineering and cloud-based trust.

"Right after we graduated EF, we started building the earliest layer of accounts receivable automation, which was collections automation. These are different modules within the same AR stack that help companies send invoices faster, collect on those invoices quickly, give clients professional branded portals to make payments, check invoice status, extract statements of accounts, and apply payments to incoming transactions. We built that first, and by 2022, the entire stack was in place." - Saurabh Chauhan, Co-founder and CEO of Peakflo

"We have been doing a proof of concept with a lot of our AR clients on a voice AI agent that can be embedded in the existing workflow. It coexists with automatic email reminders, SMSes, or WhatsApps, and somewhere in the workflow, you can insert a voice AI agent to make a call, for example, seven days past the due date depending on your preference. Just like a collection officer, it has full context about the client it's calling—it knows the outstanding invoices, the total amount due, the original due date, any open disputes, and even prior conversations like a promise to pay in two weeks. It tracks whether that's an upcoming or broken promise to pay." - Saurabh Chauhan, Co-founder and CEO of Peakflo

Saurabh Chauhan, Co-founder and CEO of Peakflo, returns to BRAVE with Jeremy Au to reflect on their journey since first meeting at Entrepreneur First in 2020. They unpack how Saurabh identified pain points in finance ops during his time with Rocket Internet, how he structured his co-founder search, and how early customer interviews shaped Peakflo’s product roadmap. They explore why he rejected the social commerce hype, how Y Combinator reset his scale ambitions, and how Google’s AI Accelerator helped move Peakflo from traditional SaaS to agentic workflows. They also discuss startup fraud detection and how external stakeholders can cut through opacity.

"I always tell people, emerging VCs are like founders—they build a company from scratch. When building a first fund, you plan to design your thesis: do I make 20 investments or 40? Do I invest in a certain geography? Do I invest in America? Do I invest in Hong Kong startups? There’s a bunch of thesis work. Then you do fundraising, pitch people to put money in the fund, close the fund, get everybody to wire the money, and manage your relations with the LP over time. Now they understand the whole unicorn structure of it. The LPs provide about $99 million, and the GPs provide about $1 million. The VC will earn about 2% of this million for 10 years." - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast

Jeremy Au breaks down the hidden math behind venture capital: why only a few startups matter, how VCs double down or walk away, and what real exits look like. Using the case of Instacart and Southeast Asia IPOs like SEA, Grab, and GoTo, he explains what separates paper value from cash returns, and why timing is everything.

"Number one is the founder. We focus on the people and the founder because we operate the business ourselves, so we know what kind of people drive success. Number two is the synergy we bring to the table—whether through better COGS, operational costs using our central kitchen, improved unit economics, or logistics that squeeze more margin. When we integrate them into our infrastructure, they benefit from it. We calculate the integration impact and how quickly it can happen, depending on how open-minded the founders and team are. Number three is we avoid trendy businesses. At Daily Box, now Daily Co., we focus on comfort food and staple foods—things people consistently want." - Kelvin Subowo, CEO of Daily Co.

"What's helped me a lot during tough times is having great teams that always support me. I've had to make difficult decisions that impact people's lives and futures, but they always aim for a bigger purpose—we want to create disruption for this country. We truly believe in the Indonesian market and its people. That belief keeps us motivated. Many founders who joined or were acquired by our company see how we treat talent, and that makes a difference during challenging periods. As founders, we sometimes feel faint-hearted, unsure if we can deliver or navigate the storm, but it helps that the team has seen our progress and how we've weathered past storms." - Kelvin Subowo, CEO of Daily Co.

Kelvin Subowo, CEO of Daily Co., joins Jeremy Au to share how he built one of Indonesia’s fastest growing F&B groups after seven failed ventures. They talk through how Kelvin’s early failures taught him the realities of Indonesia’s price sensitive market, how cloud kitchens initially succeeded but quickly collapsed post-Covid, and how Daily Co. pivoted by acquiring and scaling offline food brands. They explore how founder retention, backend integration, and M&A discipline enabled sustainable growth. Kelvin also explains how Chinese brands are entering Indonesia with capital and speed, and why his team is doubling down on scale, team culture, and long-term local partnerships.