Innovate, iterate or be obsolete

Rishabh Srivastava is the founder and CEO of Loki.ai - a Singapore based Data Science company. Rishabh describes himself as an independent, sustainable programmer. His work has recently been featured in the Times of India, and his research showing how Indian names may be linked to affluence and success has been widely covered. Right out of college, Rishabh only had 21 cents left in his bank account. After starting a first job as an A.I. engineer, he decided to go the freelance route and soon invested his savings to start Loki.ai, which has been profitable from day one. In this conversation, we talk about what it takes to be an independent A.I. developer, and how Rishabh’s values have been key in shaping the success of his company. We also discuss why companies rely on third parties to help them solve their machine learning / data science problems, why rent-seeking behavior is a bad thing, how to attract A.I. talent - and why everyone should have their own tribe of superheroes!

Jesse Lee is a creative entrepreneur, building his company Waemee (www.waemee.com) from Bangkok, Thailand. Before coming to Asia, Jesse - almost accidentally - became a successful influencer. Today we discuss how in 18 months he went from looking for someone to share his passion with to being almost overwhelmingly successful on a very niche market.

Philippe Beaudoin is co-founder and head of applied research at Element AI, a company founded on the belief that humans and machines can work smarter together and that this synergy can help humans focus on the tasks that they find most meaningful. An essential challenge on that path, says Philippe, is working towards transitive trust in Artificial Intelligence - by helping humans understand how AI systems work and how these systems actually use the data we feed them to make decisions.

Hiring and retaining tech talent is a burning issue for startups and companies all over Southeast Asia. Yassine Belmamoun, Co-Founder and CTO of Manatal, shares his vision on what is broken in the classical HR process. He argues that many companies don’t spend enough time making hiring a great experience for candidates, which he sees as an essential ingredient to hiring and retaining the best tech talent. Yassine also, generously, shares his own experience hiring as a serial entrepreneur and discusses the biggest mistakes he’s made and what he has learned from them. Learn more about Manatal and how they're transforming recruitment in Southeast Asia: https://www.manatal.com/ Check out French Tech Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCorJ8yX8PoAXl7p6RpXRD1Q

This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at Found8 Singapore. Beyond co-working, Found8's spaces are home to a thriving and collaborative community with instant access to innovation networks. Find out more at https://www.found8.com/

We pick up last week's conversation about attention saturation and ask ourselves: what makes for good content marketing? Recorded on location in Singapore.

The BrownBag Sessions are episodes that aren’t structured interviews, but rather recordings of conversations with daily practitioners in certain areas of expertise. In this series on Marketing and Growth in Asia, Thibault Brière and Nikolaj Groeneweg - both seasoned in the the ways of marketing & growth for startups and large corporations -  discuss the challenges, opportunities and best strategies for marketing in Asia. We’ll discuss market trends, marketing campaigns we that we particularly like or dislike - and share insights from our lives as marketing practitioners.

For this episode we flew to HongKong and sat down with Elvie Lahournère, Director of Digital and Innovation APAC at Natixis Bank. We discuss the many contrasts between Asia and the West when it comes to customer expectations, entrepreneurial mindset and the way startups and big corporations work together.

Sleep might be devalued in the “996” work culture in some parts of Asia (9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week), but one startup is looking to help people make the most of this important part of human life. Dreem – a successful Paris-based company – has developed a headband that, when combined with the resources of an app, helps people maximize this precious resource. Targeted mainly at people suffering from sleep disorders, like insomnia, it’s found applications in other settings, as well. Raphael Seghier – an old hand in Asia with a decade’s worth of experience the region – is Dreem’s head of business development for APAC. Find out about Dreem’s product and how the company has had to adjust its marketing to the consumer preferences of Asia. More at dreem.com.

Staying up to date on your skillset is critical and can be difficult, and when that skillset is tech - and you plan to use that skillset outside of your home market - it can be even harder. Paris-based global tech bootcamp company Le Wagon looks to fill that educational and training gap for workers. But come prepared to get your "hands dirty", because you won't walk out with just a paper credential. You'll have created a fully coded and functional product at the end.  Listen as French Tech Asia Pacific host Nikolaj Groeneweg talks with Le Wagon's man in Shanghai, Thibault Genaitay, as they discuss the need to keep up on tech and the special tech learning needed for the China market, given its unique ecosystem. Find out more about Le Wagon at www.lewagon.com.