Christian (Chris) Duffus is the Founder and CEO of Fonbnk. Fonbnk is a US based company that allows people in Africa and other emerging markets to use prepaid mobile SIM cards to obtain cryptocurrency assets by exchanging their mobile credits, thus providing a borderless banking infrastructure.

In this podcast we talk about:

• Chris’ journey from immigrant to investment banker to startup founder
• How Fonbnk became what it is today
• How mobile networks and SIMs work in many developing countries
• How Fonbnk uses cryptocurrency and why
• Chris’ strategy for choosing or quitting anything

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Mario Peng is a co-founder and CEO of PropertyScout. PropertyScout is a platform that reinvents the rental and purchase of residential properties for tenants and owners in Thailand by using tech, AI, and their own property consultants to remove hassles involved in the real estate process. During the COVID19 pandemic, PropertyScout has grown to be the market leader in home rentals in Bangkok.

In this podcast we talk about:

• Mario’s journey into his second start-up, Property Scout
• The business landscape in Thailand
• How Property Scout navigated through the COVID19 pandemic
• Why Property Scout has not automated the human part of their business
• How Property Scout ensures quality data to go through their AI
• The role that insurance plays in the business
• Lessons that Mario took from his first start-up that he implemented in Property Scout
• Issues that occur on the management level

Property Scout is hiring across the board including property consultants and software developers. You can email them at info@propertyscout.co.th

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Nik Talreja is the Co-Founder and CEO of Sydecar, a platform for a new generation of investors that automates banking, compliance, contracts and reporting to remove the cost and complexity of the traditional VC back-office operations.

In this podcast we talk about:

• Nik’s journey from lawyer to start-up founder
• The nonsense that keeps a fund manager from actually being a fund manager
• Why Nik went from planning on bootstrapping the business to changing his mind and raising money from investors
• What are the terms in a standard SPV that get negotiated that are the most worthless?
• The benefits of choosing Delaware as a jurisdiction
• Where the trend of democratizing fundraising and capital deployment is going
• How web 3.0 will evolve through this current murky regulatory landscape
• Lessons Nik learned selling gemstones as a child

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Steve is the co-founder and non-executive director of PropertyGuru, Southeast Asia’s largest online real estate portal. 

In this podcast, Steve takes us back to 2007(!) and discusses the challenges of changing consumers and realtors’ behaviors when people were still used to using newspaper classifieds to find real estate! He chats about the pains of regional expansion and growth, as well as the bittersweet nature of handing leadership over to his successor. This podcast was recorded live as part of a discussion in June 2021.

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Gillian is the founder and CEO of Homage, a platform that connects caregivers to patients across Southeast Asia and now, Oceania! After decades of economic growth powered by young workforces, Asian countries are now facing aging populations and lack adequate caregiving infrastructure to support it’s older citizens. Homage is bringing solutions to this market. Gillian brings a unique founder perspective, having founded a company in the US prior to moving home to Singapore where she started Homage. 

In this podcast, Gillian discusses the joys and challenges of building a business that requires moving and treating reall people (not just code)!, collaborating with stakeholders (governments, insurance businesses)  and shares highlights of the journey so far. This podcast was recorded live as part of a discussion in May 2021.

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Miishe is the founder and CEO of Jetstream Africa, the continent's leading cross-border logistics technology company that makes it easier, faster, and cheaper for global companies to trade physical goods with emerging markets. 

Prior to Jetstream, Miishe studied law at Stanford and earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard College. She started her career as a top-ranked strategy analyst for Bain & Company in New York, and has worked with global NGOs including TechnoServe, Global Partnerships, and the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology.

In this podcast, Miishe discusses  building a logistic tech business in Africa, and shares highlights of the journey so far. This podcast was recorded live as part of a discussion in June 2021.

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Iyin Aboyeji a.k.a ‘E’ is a three time founder, two technology companies and one fund. E is the co-founder of Flutterwave, a fintech unicorn that started in Nigeria, and expanded across Africa, now  helping global merchants get paid, Andela, a global technology company helping growing technology companies source and hire world class software engineering talent. E is now the founder of Future Africa, a pre-seed and seed stage fund that invests in technology companies in Africa.

In this conversation, Iyin chats with us on his entrepreneurial journey through his growing up and his initial ambitions to be a professor. We talk through his first startup, in Canada, his childhood interactions with entrepreneurship through trade in secondary school, and his childhood.

We transition to his problem and solution discovery process for andela and flutterwave, the assumptions disproved in retrospect, and his views on early stage funding in Africa. In this podcast, E talks to us about his journey, selecting co-founders, fundraising, and expansion strategy. His visions for building a future Africa. This podcast was recorded live as part of a discussion in July 2021.

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Son is the founder and CEO of Dat Bike, an electric motorcycle company based in Vietnam. Their motorcycles offer amazing acceleration, low operating costs, and of course are less pollutive than their gasoline powered cousins. Son attended UIUC on a full scholarship from the Vietnamese government, and after a few years working as a software engineer in Silicon Valley, decided he wanted to move home to Vietnam, and work on something that would improve the lives of his fellow citizens. Struck by the increasing pollution he saw during his annual visits home, he decided to work on electric motorcycles. 

Dat Bike is addressing the 4th largest motorcycle market in the world (Vietnam), and two-wheelers account for 80% of domestic travel. 

In this podcast, Son discusses the challenges of building a hardware business in Southeast Asia, and shares highlights of the journey so far. This podcast was recorded live as part of a discussion in May 2021.

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