Leapfrog

This episode was partly generated by my AI-cloned voice, which narrated my essay Crypto churches and AI evangelism (though it doesn't sound like me). My new writing project Reading the Waves is here: https://readingwaves.substack.com/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit leapfrogs.substack.com

In this episode, we’re stepping away from the metaverse and AI craze and turning to the world of traditional industries. Venture capital is an often glorified job for young professionals. Will Kurniawan lived that dream for a few years before deciding to leave it behind. Rather than following the typical path for a venture investor — raising his own fund or joining a tech startup — he took an unco...

Happy holidays and welcome to Leapfrog, a podcast exploring global entrepreneurs beyond the American-centric bubble. Thanks for your patience with the delayed update, but this episode will be worth the wait!🎄🤶 2024 has flown by, punctuated by continued breakthroughs in generative AI. In this episode, I speak to Raven Gao, a philosophy enthusiast turned computer science graduate who is building a...

Welcome to Episode 7 of Leapfrog, a podcast about global entrepreneurs outside the American-centric bubble. Beijing’s regulatory crackdown on the gaming industry in the late 2010s prompted a wave of Chinese studios to seek overseas expansion. Despite their domestic success and abundant developer talent, these companies often struggled with go-to-market in the foreign land. Ada Liu , who grew up in...

Welcome to Episode 6 of Leapfrog, a podcast about global entrepreneurs outside the American-centric bubble. I apologize for my glitchy voice in this episode; my seven-year-old MacBook suffered from a water damage! Lucy Gao had been studying and working in the US for over a decade before reconnecting with her homeland. Instead of moving back to China physically, she joined the US office of TikTok,...

Welcome to Episode 5 of Leapfrog, a podcast about global entrepreneurs outside the American-centric tech bubble. Special thanks to Emma and Danny’s expert editing help! Emma Meng always seems to be excelling as an outsider. Raised in south China in the 90s, she became the first Chinese to be admitted by Cambridge to study French. After working in the fashion industry in New York, she returned to C...

Hello, this is Rita Liao. Welcome to Episode #4 of Leapfrog, a podcast about entrepreneurs who have left home and are reshaping a slice of the global tech landscape. You can read more about why I started this project in About . In recent years, many young Chinese have decided to leave their homeland for better job prospects and a greater sense of security abroad. Netizens named this phenomenon “rù...

Hello, this is Rita Liao. Welcome to Episode #3 of Leapfrog, a podcast about entrepreneurs who have ventured out of their native land and are reshaping a slice of the global tech landscape. You can read more about why I started this project in About . David Chang belongs to the generation of Chinese who came of age during the nation’s economic reforms, and whose worldview was shaped heavily by Chi...

Hello, this is Rita Liao. Welcome to Episode #2 of Leapfrog, a podcast about entrepreneurs who have ventured out of their native land and are reshaping a slice of the global tech landscape. You can read more about why I started this project in About . Hailing from a rural chicken farm in eastern China, Winston Chi sauntered into a field after school every day, picking wild berries and daydreaming....

Hello, this is Rita Liao. Welcome to Episode #1 of Leapfrog, a podcast about entrepreneurs who have ventured out of their native land and are reshaping a slice of the global tech landscape. You can read more about why I started this project in About . When Xin Yan heard about Bitcoin in 2017, he was studying electrical engineering in Israel. He soon dropped out of the masters program and joined a...