So This Is My Why

It’s always exciting for me to introduce another podcaster on STIMY, and today’s guest has not 1, but 2 highly successful podcasts: Creator Lab: an entrepreneurship podcast & growth marketing consultancy Not Investment Advice: a weekly business podcast covering the latest in business, tech & web 3 Bilal Zaidi has interviewed some of the world's best, including people like Jim Mckelvey,...

Jamilia Grier is a privacy and regulatory attorney with over fifteen years of experience. She is licensed in New York and Connecticut and has worked in a wide range of industries including financial services, technology, hospitality, and manufacturing. She is also experienced in working with different countries and cultures and has significant expertise in cross-border transactions. She handles ma...

It’s time to meet our 5th #Web3 #NFT guest on STIMY! Mai Akiyoshi is a Silicon Valley engineer from Japan who has had a rather unconventional route littered with what one might conventionally consider to be “failures”. And it all began… with Mai applying for a sales position at a Japanese company.  The company decided unilaterally that they would train her up as a software engineer instead and it...

Ee Ling Lim leads the Global Programs team at 500 Global, overseeing the strategic development and implementation of programs for 500's network of startups all over the world. In her role, she also advises governments, corporations, and foundations in designing and developing startup ecosystems and innovation programs. Prior to 500 Global, Ee Ling was an Investment Banker with Bank of America...

Nicole Quinn is a General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, where she focuses on consumer and FinTech investing. Consumer behaviour, founder insights, and company brand are core in Nicole’s mind. Nicknamed the “Celebrity Whisperer”, she has led the Series A in Cameo and Lady Gaga's Haus Labs and seed rounds in Girlboss, Illumix and Sagely. She also invested in the Series B in Calm and Se...

Debbie Soon is the co-founder of HUG alongside Randi Zuckerberg - a Web3 platform that supports creators and collectors through: HUGhub (curate-to-earn discovery platform for NFTs), groupHUG (NFT growth accelerator), and hedgeHUG (early stage pre-mint program). Prior to Web3, Debbie was an equity investor where she managed over $1 billion of global consumer sector investments for one of the larges...

Welcome to the 3rd guest in STIMY’s NFT/Web3 series! Lily Wu is currently the Startup Partner Lead, SEA at Stripe and co-founder of WOW Pixies, the first DAO to invest in the women-led web3 ecosystem. DAO stands for decentralised autonomous organisation where rather than decision making being centred at the very top, that decision making power is given away to everyone (aka all WOW Pixies NFT hold...

Nicole Yap, co-founder of the 8SIAN NFT Collection, began her cryptocurrency journey back in 2013 when she stumbled across an article on digital currency and its future implications while she was in high school. Despite its challenges & the dodgy sites available then, she figured out a way to purchase Bitcoin (it was being sold for $60!!) and soon after, managed to buy a Chanel bag from her cr...

Welcome to the start of STIMY’s mini NFT sub-series.  Our first NFT guest is Mumu the Stan, aka MOON HMZ. She’s a young Muslim mother from Malaysia who’s an artist, poet, and published author and illustrator, while also being an advocate for diversity, inclusion, mental health and environmental awareness in the NFT space. She is the founder of MalaysiaNFT and a member of the local art collective,...

Michael Lints is currently a Partner at the Singapore-based venture capital firm Golden Gate Ventures. He joined the firm in 2013 and is currently leading growth venture efforts, which include LP fundraising and portfolio management for Golden Gate Venture's investments at Series B and beyond. He has helped to raise over USD $60M for Golden Gate Ventures and its portfolio companies, including...

Lee Williamson is the Regional Editorial Director of Generation T, Tatler Asia Group and currently oversees three of Tatler’s flagship brands: Gen. T, Front & Female and Asia’s Most Influential. He was previously the Editor at Time Out Beijing and Editor-in-Chief at That’s China and was selected as a WAN-IFRA Young Media Leaders Fellow 2020. If you’ve ever wanted to know what it’s like to work...

Vincent Wei is the Head of Growth (Product & growth) at VEED.IO, one of the fastest growing startups by revenue in the world.  He was first introduced to the world of startups when he began CodeCreate, one of Australia’s first coding school for kids, while still at university. The school generated 6-figure revenue but his next startup unfortunately didn’t do so well. Burnt out, Vincent decided...

WARNING : This episode may have some trigger points as we talk about things like depression, suicide and death.  Sabrina Ooi is the co-founder and CEO of Calm Collective Asia - a community that was established during Singapore’s first circuit breaker to talk about all things mental health in Asia. To understand how Sabrina ended up establishing Calm Collective Asia, it’s necessary to dive into her...

London has plenty of incredible food. Italian, Greek, Middle Eastern.. And the bakeries are something to behold too. So it makes sense when you’re in town to try some of its best offerings and Beigel Bake should certainly be at the top of your list! Which brings me to today’s guest: Daniel Cohen, Managing Director of Beigel Bake Limited - one of London’s most iconic Jewish beigel shops, located al...

Nnenna Nwakanma is the Chief Web Advocate at the World Wide Web Foundation.  She is also a Nigerian FOSS activist, community organiser, co-founder of the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa. In 2018, she was chosen as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in the field of digital government and has over 15 years of experience working with the UN in areas such as the in...

Neal Freyman is the Managing Editor at Morning Brew, a new media company that provides informative and digestive business news to over 3 million subscribers. He oversees Morning Brew’s flagship product - a daily newsletter, as well as the weekend light Roast edition and native advertisements.  The Morning Brew happens to be one of my favourite newsletters so I was excited to dive into the behind-t...

Daniel Flynn, co-founder of Thankyou, is one of Australia’s most recognisable & successful social entrepreneurs. He is the recipient of EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Southern Region) and Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs. Thankyou was conceived while Daniel was still in college and he learned, to his horror, that there were 900 million people who didn’t have access to clean wat...

Lauren Hom is a California-born designer, illustrator & hand lettering artist with a 250k strong following on Instagram. She is known for her use of bright colour palettes & playful letterings and has worked for clients such as Starbucks, YouTube, TIME Magazine, Google and AT&T. She has also been recognised by Communications Arts, the Art Directors Club, the One Club, the Type Director...

Ansgar Koene is the Global AI Ethics & Regulatory Leader at EY, Senior Research Fellow at Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute at the University of Nottingham, a Trustee at 5Rights and chair of the IEEE Working Group P7003 Standard for Algorithm Bias Considerations. Today with Ansgar, we’ll be talking about all things artificial intelligence. AI is an inescapable part of life. Whether it...

Esther Hochman Wojcicki is an author, journalist, educator, vice-chair of the Creative Commons Advisory Council and founder of the highly regarded Palo Alto High School Media Arts program (the largest journalism program in the States).  She is also known as the “Godmother of Silicon Valley”. And has raised 3 daughters, regarded as some of the most successful women in Silicon Valley.  There’s Susan...

Have you ever thought about taking a sabbatical? Or have taken one yourself? If so, then this week’s STIMY guest will be of interest to you.  DJ DiDonna is the founder of the Sabbatical Project, which is the first-of-its kind research into when and why sabbaticals are being taken by professionals, and how they lead to positive outcomes and an opportunity to tap into their inner self.  DJ shares hi...

Hawker Chef Chan Hon Meng is a Malaysian-born, Michelin-starred chef who is best known for serving the world’s least expensive Michelin-starred meal. He won his first Michelin star back in 2016 for his $2.50 soy sauce chicken noodle dish, and proceeded to do so for the next four consecutive years. Since then, his chicken rice store has exploded from one store in Chinatown to a franchise restaurant...

Austen Allred is the co-founder & CEO of Lambda School: a virtual coding school that is completely free to attend, until its graduates earn at least $50,000/year. Lambda School is betting on its student’s success as its success, and has seen its graduates go on to work as developers in Fortune 100 companies and prominent startups including Google, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs and more. But even pr...

David Grief is the CEO of David Grief International Consultancy Pte & former Senior Clerk at Essex Court Chambers - known as one of the UK's most prominent commercial sets with a multimillion-pound turnover.  Described in a recent TIMES article as a “giant among clerks”, David has spent over 40 plus years managing barristers’ chambers including at Gray’s Inn Chambers, 17 Old Buildings, Lin...

Ooi Boon Hoe is the current Director and Chief Executive Officer of Jurong Port Pte Ltd, which is one of Singapore’s two main commercial terminal operators. In this episode, we explore how Boon Hoe went from working in the military, where he obtained a 1st Class Pass from Britannia Royal Naval College, was a recipient of the Singapore Armed Forces Overseas Training Award, and a Singapore Armed For...