In this episode of Hard Truths By Vertex, I sit down with Jeffrey to explore how he turned tough feedback into fuel for growth. From starting PatSnap right out of university to leading a global tech company, he shares candid lessons about leadership, building strong teams, and navigating challenges.
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In this episode of Hard Truths By Vertex, we chat with Akshay, co-founder of Kazam, who’s on a mission to revolutionize how we think about EVs and energy.
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What motivated Achita Jacob to shift her focus from a career in a Fortune 500 healthcare company to founding Proactive for Her, and how does she envision the impact of her work on women’s health in India?
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Imagine building a global tech powerhouse from scratch. That’s the story of Guan Dian, CMO and APAC GM of PatSnap, a pioneer in AI-powered patent analytics.
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In this episode Hard Truths by Vertex, we have a conversation with Roshni Mahtani Cheung, the founder and CEO of The Parentinc, a pioneering parent-tech leader renowned for owning the largest content-community-commerce online platform for parents in the region.
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Join host Elise Tan in this special episode of the Hard Truths by Vertex podcast, as she sits down with member of the PayPal mafia, Jack Selby, venture investor and independent film director.
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In this episode, Nikhil Marwaha, Senior Executive Director, shares his extensive investment journey spanning early and later-stage companies in sectors like consumer, B2B enterprise, and healthcare.
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In this episode of Hard Truths by Vertex podcast, Chan Yip Pang, Executive Director at Vertex Ventures SEA & India, explores the Malaysian startup ecosystem, delving into his journey and the three phases of Malaysian tech development.
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Indonesia is the largest market in Southeast Asia but with a nascent startup ecosystem, how can entrepreneurs navigate rapid growth while ensuring bottom-line profitability?
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In this episode of Hard Truths by Vertex podcast, Elise Tan and Piyush Kharbanda discuss the challenges and opportunities in the Indian startup ecosystem, drawing insights from successful ventures like KukuFM and Kissht.
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Don’t miss our latest conversation with Anita Soni, founder of Cognition, on ShopTok! Discover how she helps children overcome cognitive challenges and excel in life.
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What are the evolving trends in the Southeast Asia startup ecosystem? In this episode of Hard Truths by Vertex podcast, Carmen Yuen, General Partner at Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India
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There is a lot said about how to be an entrepreneur or how to pitch for funding, but nobody talks about what comes after starting your own venture.
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In this episode we explore the story of Flexibees, a platform that is revolutionizing the way businesses hire qualified professionals and helping women professionals return to work on their own terms.
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Corporates are much better than startups at hiring impactful C-level leaders and it isn’t just because they pay more. Fortunately, startups can apply the same methods and mindsets to find the right people solutions to their business problems.
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How do you build a business servicing a client base that operates on a fine line between survival and failure? And how do you ensure your business is not just client-churn proof but also emerges resilient towards funding challenges? Find out from Wai Hong, founder of StoreHub.
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Before launching Aitomatic, Christopher Nguyen and his founding team worked together for nearly 10 years building new AI solutions over multiple ventures. As a seasoned Silicon Valley and Vietnam tech veteran he imparts his wisdom for pragmatic decision making, winning over A-team hires, and how they should earn a seat at the table.
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How do you get millennials to buy something usually recommended by their grandparents? And how do you keep their attention when the product you sell takes months to show results? How do you know when you’ve achieved product-market fit?
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How do you convince billion-dollar institutional investors to trust a relative upstart with their funds in a market with so much financial turmoil?
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Convincing A-players to join a new company in a completely new industry may sound nearly impossible. How do you create a winning team when you have no funding?
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We often think about startups as a 0 to 1 game with a team of founders working and pivoting around one theme in the hope of finding success. But that is a highly risky way to try and build VC-scale businesses.
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Are you a senior tech executive wondering how to level up with a board position? Why would they appoint you? And what would be the expectations, risks and rewards once you actually make it onto one? Find out in this latest instalment of the XA Governance Series.
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Indonesians are voracious consumers of social media, and the creator economy is set to grow massively in the coming years. As the industry grows, unmet needs in engaging and monetizing their content arise.
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Getting your team to embrace the culture you want to build is challenging especially when they are remote and distributed across the world. How do you create structures and processes without making it heavy and bureaucratic?
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What are the hard truths about building a climate tech market in a country and region where the awareness, tech and regulations are yet to mature?
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It’s hard to translate vision into reality – and especially so when you are trying to help workers build a better life. But when you see it happening, the moment is magical!
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POPS Worldwide is one of the few Vietnamese companies to successfully expand regionally in SEA. In this conversation, Esther dives into the crucial aspects of trust, attitude, and personal qualities and how she grew the company from a 4 person team in Vietnam to a 400 person team across 3 different countries.
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What are the hard truths about being a startup builder in manufacturing, and what was Vertex Ventures’ thesis for investing in such a tradition-bound and notoriously difficult space?
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When everyone is saying No, how do you eventually get to a Yes? Sheer persistence. Roger Egan, Co-founder of and former CEO of RedMart joins Reza Behnam to discuss his journey of founding RedMart
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Is speed really the right thing to optimise for? How do you actually evolve company values? And how should you design your hiring process to ensure your new hire is aligned with company values and is able to hit the ground running?
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Vertex Ventures has been investing in South East Asia and India long before it became fashionable (!) so we know a thing or two about which sectors are on the rise.
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What would you say about a VC that uses all its profits to help establish economic opportunity in emerging markets? Or one that professes to back entrepreneurs for life, rather than on the strength of their business plan?
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Hau Ly and Adrian Latortue kick off the season with a discussion about their own experiences as early employees in Vietnam-based startups.
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Starting with a little office in a dilapidated old building to joining the rarefied ranks of unicorns in Southeast Asia, Nium has come a long way. But what did it take to keep it going even when the chips were down and fresh funding was hard to come by?
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In this episode, a little reminiscent of a Shark Tank investing recap, we bring together a founder and their investor to hear both sides of the investment story.
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How did Vertex Ventures get started as one of the oldest VCs in the region? And what’s our secret recipe for identifying high-potential founders? Find out in this episode
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Getting started in the logistic space? Challenges and issues are on the way to success. Explore this episode to learn how to exit from your startup.
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Follow the AVV Founders and Friends podcast for insights into the early days of venture building from successful founders in Vietnam and South East Asia.
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Abby Adlerman and Sze Meng Soon join guest host Reza Benham to discuss board composition, what a board can do for a start-up and when it’s a good time to form one for a company.
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Follow/ subscribe to Hard Truths By Vertex for a behind the scenes view of the most promising startups and investment opportunities in SE Asia and India. Vertex Ventures South East Asia & India is an early-stage investor in the region’s most promising sta
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Eric Cheng, an entrepreneur who built Southeast Asia’s largest car e-commerce platform from scratch, shares his idea of start-up stages, business growth, and strategy.
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Michele Ferrario in conversation with Max Bittner about his journey of founding and building his startup, the Lazada Group.
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High quality startups spend time establishing a responsible and active Board so they don’t end up in hot water! Find out how.
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Alex Gold, MD of True Search SEA, discusses his experiences hiring top tech talent in South East Asia as well as his learnings about teams and culture
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Vicky Chai, former Group Head of People for SingLife discusses how to build a great founding team, handling crises and enabling experiments
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How did Netflix maintain its strong culture through hyper-expansion? And what are some of the lessons in that for growth-stage founders?
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Startup founders often associate government organisations with being plodding creatures, slow to adapt and reluctant to embrace change. But what if the organisation in question is a tech startup of it’s own, tasked with implementing the tools and tech needed by a future-friendly and foward-looking government? What does it take to build a culture of…
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What worked as a new startup invariably stops working as you scale, especially so with people and teams. But the changes you need to make through various stages of growth can be surprisingly simple yet very effective. Discussion Topics: Driving Change During Hypergrowth at Gojek | People and Talent Series Role of a Chief People…
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Many startups aim to be disruptive and revolutionary, but how many can claim to be changing habits ingrained in us since the dawn of evolution? In this episode, we discuss the opportunities and challenges faced by Foodtech entrepreneurs as they navigate the consumer adoption, regulatory and production challenges of changing the way we eat. Discussion…
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What do successful angel investors look for in South East Asian startups? What are they advising their investees to do in the current market environment? And how does an influential angel network like the XA Network help with business growth and sustainability? Find out in this episode with Alap Bharadwaj (Director, Google), Tony Zameczkowski (VP,…
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Have you ever wondered what it takes for a company to go public? How does the CEO prepare for the journey? What do investors look for? Find out directly from Hari Krishnan, CEO of recently-listed PropertyGuru about the steps and missteps they had on their journey to IPO Discussion Topics: From Inception to IPO: Culture,…
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Could you ever imagine your “hobby” landing you in a position to impact millions of people around the globe? Or, better yet, heading down the path to IPO on just a single funding round? Well, that’s the story of Le Hong Minh, whose interest in playing online games led him to venture into the field…
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What do you expect from a market that doesn’t have a developed ecosystem? Many investors are extremely cynical about it and rightly so.
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Want to take your offline business online? Here are some effective tips shared by Siti Nurmaisyah on the transformation of your business from offline to online.
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Building Great Co-Founder Relationships – Developing fund-raising strategy, becoming the Disneyland of social media, Evolution of Kumu from messaging to livestreaming.
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Arvind Sankaran talks about making the transition from corporate leader to a consultant. He is a successful advisor who provides strategic direction to businesses.
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In this episode of ShopTok, we’ll learn from Santosh how he found ways to keep going while trying to sell the value proposition of his nascent product.
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Peng T. Ong – Coffee or Froth? Challenges in Finding Sustainable Businesses, Matching people to the right jobs, Market valuations, Learning how to be a VC etc. to explore more listen this podcast
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Aanan khurma is talking about ecommerce platforms to jumpstart your business, Acquiring brands and building partnership, Secrets to do well on platforms like Amazon, SnapDeal, etc
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Sahil Mehta on building a profitable D2C brand portfolio. He talks about the challenges that come with market penetration and building a diverse portfolio.
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Today, we are talking to Darpan Seth, founder of Nextuple, which is his second business after a successful exit with his first one.
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Growing your business takes a lot of time and energy. Listen to the global experience leader Sharad Lal on scaling a business with just a few big clients.
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Sneha Visaria on Building a New Brand in a Mature, Low-Margin Industry, How did the business started, perience with exhibitions, Differentiating with your competitors etc. Explore now!
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Nidhi arora on challenges in monetisation, Testing the idea with no cost, Expanding features based on the customer input, Tools can help you create and accelerate your business, Explore now!
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Mridula shridhar on beating large franchises at their own game, How Kido Enterprises started, Challenges come as the business grow, Advices for entrepreneurs (B2B or B2C), listen now!
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Azmul haque on carving out a profitable niche within a highly competitive market, Finding talents and keeping them motivated, Listen now!
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Tania Misra On Turning Your Art Into A Business, Outsourcing but creating income for women, From corporate work to building art business, Experimenting gets you further, listen now!
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Are you a budding entrepreneur who thinks you need to have the perfect idea to get started? Or someone with a great idea who’s unsure whether you can actually build it? And then you aren’t even getting started. Who knows how many good ideas died that way
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Articles about entrepreneurship make it sound almost as though you start a business, work hard on it for a few years and then reap the results, as if it all goes in a smooth straight line. But reality isn’t like that. Entrepreneurship is more often like a
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A great piece of advice by Shagun Malik is to make sure that your pull is far stronger than the push. In this podcast, she talks about how to avoid burnout when growing a business
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Priti agarwal on how my employees helped me pivot, How was the implementation of The Catalyst started, What led to the pivot, Key Lessons and tips for pivot, listen now!
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Sandeep Mittal On Transforming A Service Business Into a SaaS, What to prepare for transformation, Lesson learned and tips for transformation, Listen now!
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Bradley Jacobs On Getting Started With Your Freelance Consulting Business, Step Uno in starting freelance consulting, How to overcome the fear and reduce the risk, listen now!
Don’t take it from us, take it from s
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Listen to Vani Gupta, who is sharing some remarkable tips for small business entrepreneurs on how they can stand out in the big market & increase their revenue rapidly.
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Joe Rhew On Using A Sabbatical To Build Your Business, When should you take a sabbatical? Package your portfolio and show tangible work, Listen now!
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ShopTok is a weekly show for and about small businesses. Follow ShopTok to get inspired and motivated with practical tips and advice from everyday entrepreneurs who’ve bootstrapped themselves to success.
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We host Abheek Anand from Sequoia Capital and get under the hood on what drives the legendary venture capital firm forward. Abheek talks about how the firm focuses not on what could go wrong but could go right, the incredible market upside of backing missionary founders, and what makes Southeast Asia more like Silicon Valley…
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We are honored to host Steve Chen, Co-Founder of YouTube, and an XA Board Member. Hear from the internet hall of Fame on working with legends such as Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, and Elon Musk at PayPal, creating and building YouTube, the importance of being deliberate about a multi-market strategy, and the promise that innovation…
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We host Wisnu Nugrahadi, Co-Founder & CEO of Sampingan, an XA Portfolio company. Hear from Wisnu on the importance of connections and friends in an entrepreneurial journey, navigating a tough 2020, and the future of work in Indonesia!
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We host Ian McKenna, Co-Founder & CEO of Infradigital Nusantara, an XA Portfolio company. Hear from Ian on his entrepreneurial journey from day zero to solving digital payments pain points for Indonesia’s schools, why he’s excited about startups in Indonesia, and his love for “hard” sci-fi! Do check out Infradigital at Infradigital Nusantara.
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We host Jussi Salovaara, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Asia at Antler. We hear his unique take on startup success in Asia and Southeast Asia, Antler’s rise globally, and how he focuses on lifelong learning. Having evaluated thousands of startups, Jussi’s breadth and depth of understanding across the early-stage space in unparalleled – leading to one…
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In partnership with Tigerhall, We host Maya Hari, VP & MD, APAC at Twitter. We have a wide-ranging conversation on diversity and how our ecosystem can do better, scaling leadership styles and advice to aspiring startup founders.
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We host Akshay Bhushan, Partner and Head of Southeast Asia with Lightspeed Ventures. Akshay talks about his journey through the venture, unique insights on founders, why he believes Southeast Asia is the future and much more!
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We host Fengru & Max, an awesome founding team at Turtletree Labs, an XA Network portfolio company. They walk us through their unique company, how they came together, phenomenal advice on reaching out to experts in their industries, and what makes them so bullish on Southeast Asia.
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We host Will Hanschell, Co-Founder & CEO at Pencil, an XA Network portfolio company. Will walks us through his journey to being an entrepreneur, advice for founders and investors, and delves into his thoughts on Southeast Asia, the way he learns, and the best piece of advice he’s received.
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Alap hosts fellow XA Network members Chirayu W. and Tony Z. for a laidback chat about seed and angel investing in Southeast Asia. Expect great insights, surprising admissions, and some fun towards the end!
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