"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.

"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.