SEA of Startups

🎙 EP 9a: You Can’t Copy-Paste Trust | Chi Chi Wong on Cross-Border VC, Founder Support, and Building the Human Infrastructure Behind Southeast Asia’s Startup Ecosystem 🛰 Everyone’s chasing unicorns. Chi Chi Wong is building something rarer: real cross-border trust. This week, Kim Yeoh sits down with Chi Chi Wong — the one-man APAC ecosystem team at Huawei Cloud — to unpack what ecosystem building...

Read up on our newsletter! 🎙 Most VCs think ESG stories are too noble to fact-check. That's how you lose $600 million. — Kim Yeoh 🛰 Southeast Asia's startup ecosystem just got a reality check that makes WeWork look like a rounding error. E-Fishery — Indonesia's sustainable aquaculture darling backed by SoftBank and Temasek — somehow turned $150 million in real revenue into $750 million on paper. T...

EP 7: The Enterprise Sales Reality Check You’ve Been Avoiding | The Enterprise Sales Playbook No One Talks About: Why Your Perfect Product Still Can't Close Corporate Deals in SEA Read up on our newsletter! 🎙 Most founders think enterprise sales is about having the best product. That’s adorable. — Axel Winter, former CTO Cisco APAC 🛰 Enterprise sales in Southeast Asia isn’t a meritocracy. It’s a g...

From Apps to Infrastructure: 3 Startup Shifts Rewiring Southeast Asia Read up on our newsletter! https://seaofstartups.substack.com/ 🎙️ EP 6: The Invisible Unicorns: Why Southeast Asia's Biggest Startup Stories Are Happening Behind Your Phone Screen 🛰 The next big story in Southeast Asia’s startup scene isn’t an app. It’s the infrastructure humming underneath. In this jam-packed episode, Kim Yeoh...

🎙️ Episode Title Philippines Startup Shift with Joseph De Leon 📌 Episode Summary (100–150 words) In this episode, Joseph De Leon (JDL) shares strategic insights into the evolution of the Philippine startup ecosystem: why $5K angel checks still teach more than $5M rounds, how conservative capital is learning to take risks, and what separates founders who pitch beautifully from those who can actual...

“You can’t build AI without compute. And you can’t build trust with slogans.” — Kevin Brockland “Singapore can’t handle everything. It really can’t.” — Kimberley Yeoh Hey everyone, Last week we talked cold hard cash, where it's flowing and why seed founders are getting squeezed while unicorns feast. This week? We're going deeper. Past the money, into the guts of what's actually getting built. Epis...

🎧 Episode 4A: Funding’s Up, Startups Down? Southeast Asia’s Barbell Economy in 2025 Welcome to Part 1 of our two-part deep dive on the state of startup funding in Southeast Asia. One month into the SEA of Startups podcast, we’re marking the milestone with a special two-parter that cuts through the noise — and goes straight to where the money’s moving (or not moving). In this episode, we unpack th...

“These APIs are pretty cool… they allow people to sell quickly without having to go through bureaucratic buying processes.” — Chris Birrell 🧠 Episode 3: Deep, Narrow & Agentic — with Chris Birrell (FUNC Ventures) In this episode of SEA of Startups , we dig into the quiet revolution happening inside the software stack — where smart APIs , agentic AI , and vertical SaaS are giving focused founders...

🎙️ EPISODE 2: The Road Less Funded – Seed-Strapping with Strategy Welcome back to SEA of Startups — where Southeast Asia’s startup game gets real. No hype. No fluff. Just raw conversations with the people building and backing what’s next. If Episode 1 was our reset, Episode 2 is the reframe — and we’re calling it: Seed-Strapping . That gritty middle ground between bootstrapping till burnout and fu...

This isn’t a fluffy reset. It’s a recalibration. SEA of Startups is back — sharper, bolder, and more real than ever. In this special kickoff, co-hosts Kevin Brockland (Indelible Ventures) and Kimberley Yeoh (Producer & Co-host) share what inspired this new chapter, and what listeners can expect from the episodes ahead. This isn’t just a podcast — it’s a space for authentic conversations, layered p...

This time around, we are sharing a recent presentation that our host gave at a recent event in which he discussed the different players in a startup ecosystem and how the current environment in Malaysia shapes up. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit seaofstartups.substack.com

This week we are joined by Jeremy Au. You may know him from the BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech Podcast or from Monk’s Hill Ventures. We cover a lot of ground chatting about the VC ecosystem. I’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Jeremy Au. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone that you’d like to hear me speak to, drop me a message. — Where to hear more from...

This week we are joined by Hanif Wahid the Founder of Delyva, which is is a multi-courier delivery platform recommends the best-performing courier service for every delivery. This was a great conversation with Hanif as we talked about the founding story and how they have grown.  We talk about the importance of customer feedback in building the product and scaling the business. I’d love to know wha...

This week we are joined by Ganesh Bangah, a serial entrepreneur with a resume longer than this podcast. He built MOL Global which listed on NASDAQ and later sold to Razer and is currently focused on Commerce. Asia as well as ASX-listed Netccentric. This was a great conversation with Ganesh where navigate the evolution from cyber cafes to selling points to gaming.  We talked about acquiring Friends...

This week we are joined by Ben Bagg the Founder of Nectar Group, which is focused on enabling companies looking to expand across the APAC through as a Sales & marketing driven revenue generator. This was a great conversation with Ben where we talked about the early days of bootstrapping a lead generation business.  We talk about merging his business with a co-founder and building off of the busine...

This week we are joined by Jonathan Weins the Founder of Pop Meals, which is an F&B company leveraging tech and data to enable tailored experience with better quality and lower prices. This was a great conversation with Jonathan as we navigate the business model pivot towards physical locations.  We talk about how they are applying tech and data and bring the iteration from their software experien...

This week we are joined by TM Lee the Founder of CoinGecko, which is the world’s largest independent cryptocurrency data aggregator and has made a name as key provider of fundamental analysis on the crypto market. This was a great conversation with TM as we talked about how he came to be interested in the crypto industry and why they decided to build CoinGecko.  We talk about building a subscripti...

This week we are joined by Gil Carmo the Founder of iMotorbike, which is the leading online platform to buy or sell pre-owned Motorcycles with operations in Vietnam and Malaysia. This was a great conversation with Gil where we start with recognizing that there is no right time to start a startup, but you just must go.  We navigate through them making a business model pivot in 2021 and how they hav...

This week we are joined by Ami Sugiyama the Founder of Secai Marche, which is a B2B farm-to-table fulfilment platform that streamlines the supply chain through its in-house software which involves warehouse management and demand forecast systems. This was a great conversation where we talked about her past experience as an entrepreneur in the tea trading business and restaurant business led to the...

This week we are joined by Benjamin Croc the Founder of BrioHR, which is an HR Tech platform that automates repetitive tasks and engages employees for maximum productivity.  They currently serve over 1,000 businesses across Southeast Asia. This was a great conversation with Benjamin as we talked about his experience as a consultant leading him to recognize the pain point and ultimately decide to l...

This week we are joined by Tunku Danny Mudzaffar the Founder of microLEAP, which is a P2P (Peer-to-Peer) Financing platform that offers both Shariah-Compliant and Conventional lending. This was a great conversation with Tunku Danny where we cover the motivation behind launching microLEAP.  We talk about balancing the supply and demand sides of P2P financing and how listening to what those sides wa...

This week we are joined by Sharma Lachu the Founder of Accendo, which is a Talent Intelligence Platform company that helps organizations revolutionize how to attract, assess, align, develop, and retain top talent, both inside and outside the company. This was a great conversation with Sharma where we talked about how his childhood led to his entrepreneurial journey.  We also discuss the pivot from...

This week we are joined by Shayna Teh the Founder of Food Market Hub, which helps restaurants & suppliers to increase efficiency by centralizing all F&B backend processes in one app. This was a great conversation with Shayna where we cover the journey to launching Food Market Hub from entrepreneurial family to a fashion startup to restaurateur to present.  We talked about building the MVP, scaling...

This week we are joined by Dr Darren Gouk the Founder of AOne.  For those of you who don’t know, AOne eases digitalization of education centers with a learning center management system. This was a great conversation with Darren as we talk about going from a marketplace to a SaaS business.  Through the conversation we navigate from MVP through the various product launches and international expansio...

This week we are joined by Jason Low the Founder of Virtualtech Frontier, which is a virtualization and Metaverse enablement company that is developing engagement-driven virtual events, with virtual fairs, exhibitions, livestream events and hybrid events. This was a great conversation with Jason as we talk about the pathway he took, from becoming an entrepreneur, merging with a marketing firm, the...