Shiyan Koh: Singapore Studies Nuclear Energy, SEA Startup Pessimism & AI Waifus – E608

"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.