"Five years ago, I joined a gaming company called NetDragon. Before the interview, I realized they owned Neopets, which they had acquired a few years earlier, and I thought, whoa, that’s amazing. When I checked it out, it was still alive and kicking, looking exactly the same as I had left it. That definitely rang a bell and intrigued my interest. When I joined, my main role was helping them restructure their overseas business. We spun off many of their education assets and did a separate listing. Neopets was a unique asset, hidden in plain sight, and we wondered what to do with it. We came up with the idea to spin it off as an independent indie studio focused on its revival, rather than keeping it under the newly listed education entity or leaving it with NetDragon, since most of the overseas assets had already been divested at that time." - Dominic Law, CEO of Neopets

"In the past ten years, we lost the trust of the community. Rebuilding that trust is now at the center of our strategy. We want to be more transparent about our roadmap and own up to our mistakes—why things went wrong, why there are bugs, and how we can launch better. If things get delayed, we’ll explain clearly what caused it. We’ve overpromised many times and underdelivered on almost all fronts, and we’re here to change that. Our goal is to build more realistic and practical roadmaps. If we can’t hit our targets, we’ll let the community know and explain the business decisions or reasons behind focusing on other initiatives instead. This approach has helped us reconnect and rebuild our relationship with the community." - Dominic Law, CEO of Neopets

"It was the strong community that kept Neopets alive. Even after the decline, there remains less than one percent of core super fans who have been playing nonstop for the past 15 to 25 years. This dedicated community is what sustained Neopets through the years. Although the lack of strategy and management led to a gradual downfall and people began to forget about it, there is still immense goodwill and brand awareness in the IP. That’s where we saw a huge opportunity for revival." - Dominic Law, CEO of Neopets

Dominic Law, CEO of Neopets and Jeremy Au dive into how a beloved millennial-era game evolved from early internet nostalgia into a modern revival story. They discuss the courage it took to spin Neopets out of its parent company, rebuild trust with long-time fans, and adapt a 25-year-old IP for new generations. Their conversation explores the challenges of updating old technology, the role of community-led development, and how emotional attachment can sustain a brand through decades of change. Dominic also reflects on leadership lessons from managing a turnaround, the balance between nostalgia and innovation, and why staying transparent keeps fans loyal for the long run.

Jeremy Au explains how human civilization remained mostly unchanged for nearly a million years before experiencing rapid economic and technological growth in just the last few centuries. He traces this transformation from basic survival to modern innovation, reflecting on how technology, trade, and governance reshaped human life and why Southeast Asia’s development tells a unique story.

Jeremy Au explained how startups evolve from chaos to clarity and how fragmentation in Southeast Asia creates both problems and opportunities. He used the jungle-to-highway model to describe startup growth, compared founders to David facing Goliath, and showed how innovation—like oat milk or vaping—turns small experiments into billion-dollar revolutions. Jeremy also reflected on how VCs spot talent early and why mastering Southeast Asia prepares companies for global expansion.

"Will AIs go rogue? AIs today have undergone safety experiments where, if threatened with shutdown, they attempt to blackmail, bribe, beg, or steal to survive. If we train an AI to survive and act that way, why wouldn’t it try to do those things?" - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast

"In thinking about the singularity, it is helpful to go back to its definition. It’s a concept in mathematics and physics where the existing definitions break down. The term, coined in the late ’80s in The Coming Technological Singularity, describes how, if you chart the rate of technological change using something like Moore’s Law—where computing power doubles every 18 months and costs drop in half—somewhere between 2025 and 2030, it becomes undefined. What happens at that point? What happens to society and technology? Some would say that’s artificial general intelligence, but it’s more than that—it’s about the accelerating rate of change." - Jordan Dea-Mattson, Veteran Tech Leader

Jeremy Au and Jordan Dea-Mattson reconnect to explore how Vernor Vinge’s Rainbows End anticipated today’s world of accelerating technology, reskilling challenges, and demographic shifts. They examine which predictions came true, which fell short, and how these lessons apply to AI adoption, fragile digital systems, and the need for lifelong learning. Their conversation highlights why individuals must build meta-skills, why policymakers lack playbooks, and how Southeast Asia can prepare for a future shaped by both singularity and depopulation trends.

"The real gist of that entire situation was government please listen to people who are hurting so more free speech so more freedom of press more avenues for the people and the DPR and the government to interact and I think the big aha moment in this entire movement is finally lots of people are waking up that politics affect their everyday lives it affects every single person who's a resident or a citizen and are living in Indonesia and who love Indonesia" - Gita Sjahrir, Head of Investment at BNI Ventures

"The cost of this was extremely clear. It's the cost of what happens when empathy is not expressed in politics and when you make rules and regulations. The cost of what happened starting in the end of August until now is more than 6,000 people have been arrested. I lost count of how many thousands of people are injured. Ten people were killed. And so the cost is extremely clear. I'm hoping there's something that came out of it." - Gita Sjahrir, Head of Investment at BNI Ventures

"One person said, 'Anyone who criticize what DPR members make are idiots.' And there were others who said, 'Well, I'm okay getting this housing benefit. I think it's completely fair because my house is very far from my office in Jakarta.' That was considered tone-deaf for very obvious reasons. A really big piece that's missing here is empathy. There seems to be this lack of empathy and understanding that people are hurting. People don't have time to wait for government officials to finally do the right thing and have great results because people are literally hurting in every way—economically, health-wise, everything." - Gita Sjahrir, Head of Investment at BNI Ventures

Gita Sjahrir and Jeremy Au analyze Indonesia’s nationwide protests to uncover how economic frustration, political tone-deafness, and social media reshaped the country’s trust in government. They discuss how widening income gaps and stalled reforms triggered anger across generations, how empathy and governance broke down, and how technology became both a rallying force and a regulatory battleground. Their conversation highlights the urgent need for reform, the rise of citizen activism, and the lessons Southeast Asia can draw from Indonesia’s call for accountability and change.

"It's really about a mindset that every company is a sports team, not a family. And if anybody in a company is telling you that their culture is a family, don't drink the Kool-Aid. Remember that no matter what the HR team says, you are a family, in the back of your head always say, this is a sports team." - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast

"So one of the tricky parts I like about what Netflix has done is that they defined their corporate culture as not a family. They see it as a sports team. The reason is simple—if you are my brother or sister, if you are my family, I can’t fire you. But if you’re a sports team, we need a striker; if you’re injured, we need a new striker; we need a defender; we’re competing, and we need to do a transfer. The crux is to accept that companies are closer to sports teams rather than families, while still treating employees well." - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast

"And I think where a lot of people screw up is that because they feel like it's a family dynamic, they avoid the difficult conversation. They avoid talking about performance reviews or having hard conversations. As a result, they end up blindsiding the employee, which comes across as unprofessional. But if you think about it from a sports team’s perspective, you do the right thing. You’re a professional. You tell them early, you coach them, you give them a chance, maybe even a second chance. And if not, you set a boundary and say, ‘Let’s give you a handshake, let’s have a termination package that’s fair, let’s find you a new job at a new place, and let’s keep the relationship alive.’ The more professional you are in that process, the better." - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast

Jeremy Au discussed the founder’s dilemma of when to persevere or when to pivot, and why company culture works better when treated as a sports team rather than a family. He illustrated the points with startup case studies like Instagram, Netflix, YouTube, and Rippling, showing how companies evolved by changing either product or customer. He also emphasized professionalism in managing team changes and exits.

" While many people accepted late-night edits without question, I started testing the boundaries. That unexpectedly worked well and earned me respect from senior people who weren’t used to it. I remember a senior partner, known to be intimidating, approaching me six or seven months in. He said, 'Hey, there’s this project, you’ll be a self-standing senior associate running this,' and then added the famous words, 'It’s a step-up opportunity,' which in consulting means you start running. It sounded absolutely terrible, and I knew it would be a complete disaster if I joined that project." - Philipp Renner, Founder and CEO of Dr. Shiba

Philipp Renner, Founder & CEO of Dr. Shiba, joins Jeremy Au to share his journey from a global childhood to building one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing pet wellness companies. He reflects on how eight years at McKinsey, the personal challenges of long COVID, and the limits of corporate consulting led him to take the leap into entrepreneurship. They discuss the realities of product market fit iteration and the decision to pursue a semi-bootstrapped model rather than a VC-funded growth path. Philipp also shares how his toughest teenage year in Shenyang shaped his resilience and why focus on what truly matters became his personal north star, guiding him as he built Dr. Shiba from functional supplement treats into a wellness ecosystem now serving millions of customers across Southeast Asia and the UK.

" We know about the Boeing safety disasters that all of us have been concerned about. One of the issues identified was that for many years Boeing had a strong culture of safety and reliability. Most of us have grown up flying in Boeing planes, and if you and I go on a plane tomorrow, we would not care whether it is a Boeing plane or an Airbus plane. But at one point, we heard a story about a plane where a door, supposedly part of the fuselage, blew out. A teenage university student almost got sucked out and had his shirt ripped off because the air was rushing out. If he had not been wearing his seatbelt, he would have died after being pulled out of the plane. " - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast

" What’s interesting is that people rushing to get planes out on time at a cheaper budget ended up costing Boeing much more down the road, with recalls, grounded planes, and multiple investigations. A relatively small decision by the frontline manufacturer caused billions of dollars in damage to Boeing as a company because of this defect. The realization is that from a manufacturing perspective, it is important to be lean, to focus on small improvements, to let the frontline drive those improvements, and to allow production to stop when necessary. " - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast

" What’s important is that instead of just building, you build a minimum viable product, the easiest version to test your hypothesis. Then you measure the results—whether people like it, enjoy it, or whether it actually works. You look at the data, learn from it, change from it, get a better idea, and then build again to improve on it. That repeated loop is key, because when you do it faster than your enemy, you defeat your enemy. If another startup takes one month to learn and you take one day, by the end of that month you have learned 30 things more than your enemy. Your rate of learning is your ability to turn this crank over and over again. " - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast

Jeremy Au shared lessons from Toyota’s Kaizen model, Boeing’s safety lapses, and lean startup methods. He explained why small improvements, frontline empowerment, and rapid iteration matter for both manufacturing and startups. The discussion connected MVP thinking with divergence/convergence cycles and how faster learning beats the competition.

"Right now, the biggest agenda is economic reform and growing the country's economy with double-digit GDP growth. Everyone is getting back to the grind and back to the economy. Big projects are still taking time to get approval, but progress is expected after the general meeting in January 2026. It is more stable compared to neighboring countries with fewer headlines or dramas. Over the last two to three quarters, the focus has been on new economic reforms and becoming a technology-driven country." - Valerie Vu, General Partner at Ansible Ventures

"Everyone is focusing on new economic reform. We have to be a technology-driven country. There will be a new law on AI this year. A new sandbox on P2P lending is in place. A sandbox on digital assets and cryptocurrency exchanges recognizes crypto as a legal asset with a framework for at least five years. A national data center has been launched, with two more coming by the end of this year and early next year. We have been busy executing the new government’s agenda to transform and adjust our economic model to be more technology-driven with an internal, domestic focus." - Valerie Vu, General Partner at Ansible Ventures

"The most important thing is how to avoid being labeled as a transshipment. You need to hire local and show your supply chain through and through to prove that you are not a Chinese company. Some components might be from China, but this is not a Chinese transshipment or reassembling hub. If they find out that you are a transshipment hub, you are added 40%." - Valerie Vu, General Partner at Ansible Ventures

Jeremy Au and Valerie Vu sit down in Singapore to examine how Southeast Asia’s private capital markets, Vietnam’s reforms, and regional politics are shaping investor sentiment and startup opportunities. They explore slower fundraising cycles, Vietnam’s push toward technology-driven growth, and how energy shortages and tariff shocks impact manufacturing. Their discussion also covers foreign investor trust, nuclear energy debates, and the rise of cybersecurity and AI as national priorities.

"I actually think that cancer tries to evolve, it tries to trick the body. Going about it one way is not the best way, we should have a tool of arsenals. That’s why we are really excited about this approach, because the mechanism and the way we are doing it is so different. It is meant to be useful on its own but also potentially complementary to whatever is out there. Our goal is not to make another approach redundant. What we are trying to do is create this extra vertical option that could be complementary with other treatments in the future against cancer." - Joshua Wang, Founder and CEO of VerImmune

Jeremy Au and Joshua Wang reunite after three years to explore how biotech startups navigate scientific breakthroughs, funding challenges, and leadership growth. They discuss Joshua’s work at VerImmune on repurposing the immune system to treat cancer, the shift in early-stage global biotech financing from founder-led ventures to the “professionalization of entrepreneurship” via venture studio models, and the lessons learned about resilience, communication, and leadership under pressure. Their exchange also touches on early detection, cultural attitudes toward disease, and how AI is reshaping biology into an engineering-driven field.

"So they have a 7x, 10x, 12x capital efficiency. It does not mean every investor benefited equally or that the founder necessarily made a lot of money. In most cases, the founder did make a lot and retained much of their cap table. You build companies across this range and then see what sorts of businesses cluster in the more capital-efficient corner. That is in direct contradiction to your thought about embedded finance being an evil thing to do, because the most capital-efficient businesses are either straight-up FinTech enablers or platforms with significant digital financial services on top of them." - Dmitry Levit, General Partner at Cento Ventures

"We have started seeing the beginnings of recovery. In the middle of 2024, and especially fintech in the Philippines, started dragging the ecosystem out of [Inaudible). It is not visible in top-line numbers, but if you remove all the other [Inaudible), fintech is going back up. We lost all the secondaries and IPOs, with the last secondaries being eFishery’s, famously. What we do have now is a bit of data that I still have not figured out how to track, and that is the liquidity that happens post listing, such as take-privates. You have noticed a couple of billion-dollar companies going from public to private, along with a wave of block trading in public companies as investors realign their positions after seeing how public markets treat Southeast Asian assets." - Dmitry Levit, General Partner at Cento Ventures

"The unicorn religion. The mechanics, the gears that locked to each other, were the belief that the large consumer population in Southeast Asia would produce multi-billion dollar outcomes, which brought people from around the globe who made it their specialty to fund creation of unicorns. Availability of such funding automatically created unicorns where they should not have been, and that created a generation of investors whose business model was to sell into unicorn rounds. The first successful step-ups and bits of liquidity happened in 2015 and 2016, thanks to those initial unicorn building rounds in Southeast Asia. By 2017, those who learned these lessons raised their first funds, and from that point it was off to the races. Now these folks have lost their narrative, so they are no longer investing. No wonder we are resetting to that previous level of activity, minus the interest rate effect and minus the COVID effect." - Dmitry Levit, General Partner at Cento Ventures

Jeremy Au, Shiyan Koh, and Dmitry Levit dissect the collapse of eFishery, the breakdown of Indonesia’s growth narrative, and the systemic risks that resurface in Southeast Asia’s venture ecosystem. They explore how IPO failures and inequality capped consumer demand, why bad faith actors gained visibility, and how boom-era fads like embedded lending and play to earn unraveled. Their discussion highlights how funding has reset to 2016 levels, why board oversight is crucial, and where opportunities in agritech and supply chain digitization still remain.

"Private equity versus venture capital, venture capital grew out of the private equity class. When you think about it, there's public equities, there's private equity, and private equity is private vehicles funding private companies. Venture capital is a specialized subset of private equity. From a media perspective, coverage tends to focus on venture capital because private equity buys stable, mature businesses that have already been built, whereas venture capital is more exciting to write about. You have heroic founders who go out there telling you that everybody's going to get married to AI soon. Don't worry about it, enjoy it, it's good for you. There are also many spicy startup failure stories for 19 out of 20 startups, which are far more interesting compared to some private equity fund buying Toys R Us and maximizing profitability from it. I think there's a different media exposure component to it." - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast

"India and Southeast Asia are still struggling because we have different languages. English is not the same as Thai, Vietnamese, or Filipino. It's disaggregated—different languages, disaggregated materials, disaggregated market sizes and applications, and disaggregated GDP per capita. This makes it very hard to train AI every day. Chinese AI is being trained by a billion plus people in China, and Americans, all 300 million of them, are training the American AI along with Western-educated folks. So it's actually hard to build a pure play AI company out of Singapore structurally."  - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast

Jeremy Au explored how talent, policy, and capital flows shape startup ecosystems across Southeast Asia, India, and China. The discussion covered talent strengths and weaknesses across countries, the role of industrial policy and government subsidies, the challenges of building large language models outside the US and China, and the impact of US China geopolitical tensions on venture capital flows.

Jeremy Au explored why venture capitalists hunt unicorns and how Southeast Asia fits into this global race. He discussed the Asia Partners golden age thesis, the importance of technology stack progression, and how localization shapes billion dollar outcomes. The conversation compared the US, China, India, and Southeast Asia, broke down country strategies, and examined how ideas migrate across ecosystems.

"We cycle at 7 PM to midnight, and it's such a weird thing to do because in America you would never cycle at night. There's a safety issue, and you don't have park-connected networks that are well lit. Culturally, you just never do those activities. When I was younger as a teenager, I thought Singapore was bad because it was not fun. You can't do anything, there are high taxes on alcohol, high taxes on cigarettes, and so many restrictions in Singapore. So there's a big push factor. It's like Singapore is Singapore incorporated, the government is too corporate centric. These push factors make the pull factors of America strong." - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast

"Applying for jobs in the US from Singapore, one of the key things is I first started off with LinkedIn and I realized how slow things are. By the time it reaches the US, LinkedIn is already too late sometimes. The greatest struggle was having to answer the question, do you need a visa to enter the US, and that became a screener. Most of the time you get instant rejection, and after two days you just get rejection from the companies you applied to. The greatest struggle is understanding the space from Singapore and the second is getting past the visa. Singaporeans have the H1B1, which is a non-lottery visa that allows you to work in the US with minimal costs, and only 20 percent of the pool of visas are used. That is the greatest challenge in these two parts." - Anonymous Guest

"Just the fact that if you're a startup, you have to fight for attention and fight for media. People end up using very external-oriented dynamic ways to get their message out there. You can’t rely on humility and say, my product is good but here are the bad things, and we’re only 2 percent better than the competition. Everyone will wonder why they should buy the product. Instead, people say, we are disruptive, we will destroy this occupation, the world will end because of my company. That level of salesmanship is very important. Silicon Valley is not just a technology ecosystem, it is also a salesmanship ecosystem." - Jeremy Au, Host of BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast

Jeremy Au and an anonymous guest discuss the challenges of pursuing career opportunities in the United States from Singapore. They talk about how visa rules limit options, why overseas LinkedIn applications often fail, and the appeal of Silicon Valley’s innovation cycles. They also cover cultural differences that require stronger self-promotion, and why resilience is needed when adapting to life abroad.

Jeremy Au broke down how venture capital funds design LP decks, allocate capital, and differentiate themselves in competitive markets. The discussion covered portfolio construction math, capital call strategy, the role of opportunity funds, and how funds highlight unique value-adds like founder wellness programs.

" But you see the situation with actual wars, right? Once somebody starts, they expect a quick assault to win the war and take the enemy's territory. But typically, it ends up in a war of attrition, where everybody spends a lot of money and resources with very little result. When that happens, you need to find an excuse for everybody to de-escalate because promises were made to stakeholders that there was a reason to launch this, and admitting defeat would be a humiliation for many. Especially since many of these companies are still founder-driven, a defeat could mean losing credibility as a founder. If you look at the messages from every platform, each one says they are committed to defending market share and that competitors are irrational. But if everybody says the competitors are irrational, then I don’t know. " - Jianggan Li, Founder & CEO of Momentum Works

"In July, Alibaba committed to invest 50 billion yuan into subsidies over one year. Alibaba owned the second-ranked food delivery platform Ele.me, which historically held 25 to 30 percent market share. This time, they used their biggest weapon, Taobao, the daily shopping app with 400 million active users even before the war. They created an entry point on Taobao where customers could instantly buy food, bubble tea, gadgets, and more, all delivered within 30 minutes. That move triggered the war, and it has been bloody." - Jianggan Li, Founder & CEO of Momentum Works

"Talent migration has always been happening. Internal migration is not as restrictive as it was 20 years ago. The Hukou system still exists, but there are many ways to get around it, and in cities like Hangzhou it is much easier to obtain a local Hukou. With the housing price issue, governments are more incentivized to grant registrations to migrants so they can take up housing. Many factors are driving this migration." - Jianggan Li, Founder & CEO of Momentum Works

Jeremy Au and Jianggan explore why China business environment is locked in cycles of over-competition that destroy margins and push firms to seek growth abroad. They trace how JD, Meituan, and Alibaba’s food delivery war escalated into billions of yuan in subsidies, why regulators hesitate to intervene, and how clusters like Shenzhen and Hangzhou still thrive despite intense rivalry. Their discussion highlights collapsing product margins, subsidy-driven chaos in the EV sector, and the role of provincial governments in fueling excessive competition. They also examine how talent migration and generational shifts are reshaping workforce dynamics, with younger Chinese workers increasingly prioritizing lifestyle and aspirations over hardship-heavy careers.

"I meet with founders very often, and I have not met anyone this entire year who can raise easily—zero. The amount of pleading everyone has to do just to get a term sheet, even at early stage, is crazy to me, including for businesses so early that showing profitability at this stage is unrealistic. You’ve been around for a year or so, and they say you should be profitable now? Amazing. Or the one saying, can you get to 1 million ARR within your first year of launch? " - Gita Sjahrir, Head of Investment at BNI Ventures

" A lot of Indonesian founders think being a GP is glamorous, where you just raise money, invest, and collect management fees. I always say a GP is also a founder because they have to raise for something that hasn’t existed before. Even if you raise for Funds One, Two, Three, or Four, Fund Five has not existed when you are raising for it. In that way, a GP is also a founder, and if GPs and founders can look at each other like that in this emerging market, there will be better collaboration because people just need to communicate better. " - Gita Sjahrir, Head of Investment at BNI Ventures

" Indonesia announced stronger than expected economic growth, yet with falling auto sales, rising unemployment, and a decrease in foreign direct investment, many were forecasting lower numbers. We still ended up above 5 percent, which confused a lot of economists and normal people alike. When we think about Indonesians, it is important to recognize the diversity of people. Unfortunately, there is a concept that they are either in extreme poverty or billionaires in USD with nothing in between, but in reality there are many people in between. " - Gita Sjahrir, Head of Investment at BNI Ventures

Jeremy Au and Gita Sjahrir unpack Indonesia’s turbulence, from corruption scandals and startup economic uncertainty due to the collapse of eFishery. They contrast Singapore’s stability with Indonesia’s volatility, explore how weak rule of law erodes trust, and discuss how scandals damage both founders and investors. They also analyze the role of boards, GPs, and operating partners in strengthening Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem.

" 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.