From Copier to Innovator: The Tech Titans of China with Rebecca Fannin

Fresh out of the studio, Alex Topaloski, CEO and Co-founder of Pulse ID joined us in a conversation on his company's customer engagement infrastructure powering Visa's cardholder offers across Asia Pacific. Drawing on Pulse ID's recent white paper, The Age of Knowing, Alex unpacks the three forces reshaping bank loyalty: interchange, partnerships, and intelligence. He explains why banks have solved the data problem but still struggle with engagement, walks through agentic AI architectures and the minimum effective nudge principle, and lays out why Asia-Pacific diversity demands distinct playbooks for Australia, Japan, and Southeast Asia. Closing out, Alex argues the next 12 months belong to banks that prioritize the last mile — where ROI on a decade of data investment finally lands and lays out what great would look life for Pulse ID moving forward."So we are making that transition from being a system-of-record platform for engagement, loyalty, and rewards to being a system-of-action platform that drives measurable behavioral change. And I think that is quite a big step forward. The efficiencies that clients are able to get—the outcomes, the revenue, ROIs that it can get on interactions—it's something that people are now going to start experiencing." - Alex TopaloskiEpisode Highlights:[00:00] Quote of the Day by Alex Topaloski, CEO of Pulse ID[01:13] Introduction: Alex's career journey[03:41] Pulse ID: Infrastructure platforms as invisible organs[06:26] Lifelong learning as the hardest conviction to hold[08:11] What Pulse ID does as a B2B fintech infrastructure company[09:26] Defining the era of intelligence[10:56] Two stages: data architecture, then engagement[12:56] Why super apps deliver smoother journeys than banks[16:11] Why loyalty platforms struggle to absorb new signals[17:26] Why customer engagement is the wrong primary KPI[19:41] MCP as a way to act without seeing the full data[20:26] The Visa, GCash, JCB partnership playbook[22:41] Why move-fast-break-things fails in B2B finance[24:11] Smart pricing as the hardest model to scale[25:26] Operating across Singapore, Japan, ANZ, UAE, Oman[27:56] Multiple AI brains across the stack[29:26] The guardrail principle: AI selects tools, not data[31:11] System of record to system of action[34:11] Where the moat sits when foundation models commoditize[35:56] The Asia-Pacific market diversity playbook[38:41] The boardroom decision in the next 12 months[40:56] What great looks like for Pulse ID[41:41] Book recommendation: The FountainheadProfile: Alex Topaloski, CEO of Pulse IDMain Site: https://www.pulseid.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/topaloski/Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format.

"Many of these AI advancements, where the U.S. is more on the innovative theoretical side of creating new models... China's really ahead on commercializing them, and that's their advantage. I think saying that China and the U.S. are equivalent in AI is probably an overstatement. I think the AI center of innovation continues to be in Silicon Valley. This could change—the gap is closing. I do think the U.S. is still ahead, but I think China is catching up."Fresh out of the studio, Bernard Leong reconnects with Rebecca Fannin, founder of Silicon Dragon Ventures and author of Tech Titans of China, six years on from their first conversation about the original landmark book. Rebecca traces China's transformation from copier to innovator, the decoupling of US-China venture capital and the reroute of capital flows toward the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and an AI race where China commercialises while the US theorises. The conversation moves through Chinese EV dominance, humanoid robotics, and semiconductor self-sufficiency, before opening out to a multipolar tech order with India and Saudi Arabia rising. She closes with a hopeful note on reopening US-China collaboration.Episode Highlights:[00:00] Quote of the Day by Rebecca Fannin from Silicon Dragon Ventures[01:00] Introduction: Rebecca Fannin[03:00] From copier to innovator: the global perception shift[04:00] BAT plus ByteDance: still the tech titans[05:30] Beyond BAT: TMD, ByteDance, DiDi go global[07:00] Temu and the de minimis tariff hit[09:00] Cross-border VC decouples: Sequoia, GGV split[10:00] Capital reroutes to the Middle East and Singapore[11:30] No more golden era for cross-Pacific VC[12:00] AI, quantum, semiconductor funding dries up[13:00] The 2020-2023 crackdown and Beijing's reset[15:00] Apple's supply chain dependency hard to unwind[16:00] The AI race: Chinese open-source models surge[17:30] China commercialises, the US theorises[18:30] Silicon Valley adopts 996 and Chinese-style attacks[20:30] Chinese EVs surpass Tesla and European makers[22:00] Why Xiaomi built a car where Apple couldn't[22:30] DJI, Unitree, UBTech: China's robotics dominance[24:00] Humanoid robots and the policy maker dilemma[25:00] China's semiconductor self-sufficiency push[25:30] Nvidia export controls and the SMIC question[27:00] What few in the West truly understood five years ago[28:00] Quantum computing as the long-term frontier bet[29:00] Beyond binary: India, ASEAN, Saudi Arabia, Israel[31:30] Why China's rise became the biggest tech story[33:00] Hope for a reopening of US-China collaboration[33:30] ClosingProfile: Rebecca Fannin, Author of "The New Tech Titans of China" and Silicon Dragon VenturesLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-fannin-533128/Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format.

"The word I always come back to when I think of the future of trust and safety is governance. We are no longer just making moderation decisions. We're no longer just banning people or deleting posts or removing accounts. We are ultimately responsible for overseeing the health of the platforms and communities that we've created. Especially in an age of AI, I think there's a huge role for the field of trust and safety in overseeing the decisions that AI makes. In a world where we automate more of our decisions, that doesn't mean that we don't have jobs anymore. It means that our jobs change. And our jobs change to being auditors and overseers of automated decisions. And then when we find problems, we're the people who are now responsible for engineering solutions to them." - Yoel RothFresh out of the studio, Yoel Roth, Senior Vice President and Head of Trust and Safety at Match Group, joins Bernard Leong to trace how trust and safety has evolved from a behind-the-scenes function into a board-level discipline. Drawing on his earlier work in Twitter (now known as X) and his current work across the different portfolio companies under Match Group: Tinder, Hinge, and OkCupid, Yoel reframes online fraud as an economics problem — why a new face costs scammers more than a new SIM card. He unpacks why anonymity does not cause online abuse, compares the American, European, and Chinese regulatory models, and argues trust and safety belongs alongside customer acquisition cost (CAC) as a growth lever. The future, he closes with what great would look like, is governance — AI shifting practitioners from moderators to auditors.Episode Highlights[00:00] Quote of the Day by Yoel Roth from Match Group[01:13] Introduction: Yoel Roth from Match Group[04:30] Content moderation as governance, not just policy[06:30] A front-row seat to platform governance debates[09:00] Protecting public-facing employees from threats[10:30] First shift in trust and safety: regulation goes global[11:30] Shift: from reactive to proactive[14:30] 98% of Match Group's revenue depends on safety[16:30] Tinder Face Check and the case for friction[18:00] Biggest mistakes in building trust and safety[23:30] Why scammers target dating platforms specifically[26:00] A new face costs more than a new SIM[30:30] AI as decision enablement, not replacement[34:00] Detection plus intervention against AI deepfakes[38:00] Three regulatory regimes shaping the internet[40:00] What regulators misunderstand about dating apps[44:30] Why the future of trust and safety is governance[47:30] Spencer Rascoff and the CAC reframe[49:00] Resilience and mission in trust and safety work[51:30] ClosingProfile: Yoel Roth, Senior Vice President, Trust & Safety, Match GroupLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoelroth/Personal Website: https://yoyoel.com/Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format.

Fresh out of the studio, Peter Noszek, co-founder of SuperAI and TOKEN2049 join us on a conversation that maps the widening gap between Silicon Valley's creative intensity and Asia's underutilised compute infrastructure — including 900 megawatts of GPU capacity in Johor, Malaysia sitting at low utilisation because the routing layer between US demand and Asian supply simply doesn't exist yet. Peter introduces Pax Silica, his thesis that Singapore can serve as the neutral ground where fragmented AI communities from East and West converge through curated rooms, cultural bridging, and unreasonable hospitality. They explore why the Bay Area still doesn't understand Asia, the 12-to-18-month window before GPU backlogs clear, Singapore's unique "one to a hundred" positioning for enterprise distribution, and why AI agents — from Coinbase x402 transactions to Meta's agent-to-agent one-on-ones — are already reshaping how coordination happens at scale."I'm of like a hundred percent conviction that the majority of times when something is not aligned, it's a case of miscommunication. An inability of information to flow properly between people. And in this highly digitalized, highly fragmented and siloed world that we operate in, those things are usually not present. So bringing people into the same room and bringing them into an environment where they feel natural—as long as that room is curated in the right way—that's really going to open up these sort of icebreakers that then lead to creativity, to ideation, and to realizing that we're actually all trying to do the same thing and we're all just trying to make this entire pie grow bigger." - Peter NoszekEpisode Highlights: [00:00] Quote of the Day by Peter Noszek, co-founder of SuperAI and TOKEN2049[01:21] Peter Noszek's origin story[04:30] SuperAI as bridge across siloed frontier tech nodes[07:34] The Bay Area hive mind and its velocity on AI[08:27] Bay Area fragmentation versus Singapore's unified strategy[10:14] Chinese frontier models: fork on approach, convergence on distribution[14:41] The infrastructure shift from GPUs to energy[17:08] Data centres in space versus a 15-hour flight to Asia[19:15] Pax Silica: composing rooms that break the ice[22:10] The 12 to 18-month window for Asia's underutilised compute[24:13] Gulf energy, European bottlenecks, and the geography of compute[26:00] Is AI in Asian financial services still pilot theatre?[28:42] When does an AI agent stop being a tool?[31:25] Coinbase x402 and AI-agent transactions[32:47] OpenClaude adoption: Singapore ahead of Silicon Valley[33:42] SuperAI 2025 Pulse survey: the agent thesis, called correctly[34:59] SuperAI 2026's six tracks — from frontier models to society[38:26] Collaboration over competition in the paradigm shift[41:16] Five-year view: open models and agent-run logistics[44:32] ClosingProfile: Peter Noszek, Co-Founder, SuperAI and Token2049 ConferenceLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petergnoszekPodcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format. Our Official Site: https://www.analysepodcast.com

Fresh out of the studio with John Morgan, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Splunk Security at Cisco. The conversation unpacks the AI inflection point reshaping security operations — from the explosion of machine data (set to more than double in three years) to the rise of the agentic SOC, where AI agents handle detection, investigation, and response while humans focus on high-stakes decisions. John breaks down why attackers armed with AI now exploit zero-days in hours instead of weeks, why security must start with observability (including the challenge of "shadow AI"), and how CISOs are evolving from technical gatekeepers into board-level business enablers. His parting message: the entire world is learning AI together — get to it with his perspective on what great looks like for Splunk Security moving forward. "The volume is increasing quite a bit. We expect in the next three years it’s gonna double. Attackers do not have a governance of regulatory and compliance restrictions on them. They just go at it and see what works. And so the volume, sophistication, speed of attacks—the only way to defend against it is to automate your responses to it. One thing that folks outside of the industry don’t maybe get is just how large the attack surface is. And how hard it is to stop—attackers need to just find one way in, and you’re trying to defend all ways in." - John MorganEpisode Highlights:[00:00] Quote of the Day by John Morgan from Splunk Security[00:50] John's path from technologist to cybersecurity leader[01:35] Leading Splunk Security: the mandate and mission[02:20] Why Cisco and Splunk have a disproportionate AI advantage[03:18] It's not the technology — it's the human beings[04:26] Why more data demands better curation and context[05:00] AI as both signal generator and attack surface creator[06:12] Where the bottleneck sits: ingestion, analysis, or response[07:10] Splunk at the intersection of observability and security[08:29] The evolving CISO role: gatekeeper to board-level risk officer[10:22] Defining the agentic SOC and where it's heading[12:00] Alert fatigue and how agentic approaches change the dynamic[13:56] Singapore Airlines: real customer outcomes from AI security[14:47] The AI arms race: who has the structural advantage[16:11] What a mature AI-native security platform looks like[17:19] How AI is changing detection from rules-based to correlation[18:35] Advice to CISOs: observe, trust, automate[19:41] The one question John wishes more CISOs would ask[20:22] The next five years — and why five years is too slow[21:20] ClosingProfile: John Morgan, GM and SVP, Splunk Security, CiscoLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmorganinc/Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format. This episode is recorded in Poddster Singapore. Here are the links to watch or listen to our podcast.Analyse Asia Main Site: https://analyse.asiaAnalyse Asia Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1kkRwzRZa4JCICr2vm0vGl Analyse Asia Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/analyse-asia-with-bernard-leong/id914868245 Analyse Asia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/analyse-asia/Analyse Asia X (formerly known as Twitter): https://twitter.com/analyseasiaSign Up for Our This Week in Asia Newsletter: https://www.analyse.asia/#/portal/signup Subscribe Newsletter on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7149559878934540288

Fresh out of the studio, Borko Kovacevic, Co-founder of Poddster and Podyx, joins us to explore how he is building the world's largest podcast studio network and the operating system behind it. He shares his career journey from nearly 17 years at Microsoft across Central Europe and Asia Pacific, to making the entrepreneurial leap and launching Poddster's first flagship studio in Dubai, followed by Singapore. Borko explains how Poddster scaled by treating operations like software — standardizing over the operational framework to run studios from UAE and Singapore to now globally across the world while building a flywheel connecting corporate brands with authentic content creators. He unpacks how Podyx, the software spinoff, hit 24 markets with zero churn on day one. Closing the conversation, Borko shares why frequency and consistency in content creation — not polish — is the single most underestimated edge in the AI era, and what great looks like for Poddster and Podyx as a global studio network and platform."So what people underestimate is frequency and consistency in posting content beats everything else. Because the future internet is about you being available online and you providing enough content, enough material, that the algorithms learn about you. If they learn enough about you, you will be recommended in searches, you will do better on SEO, you will become more discoverable than anybody else. And that's the part which I think people underestimate." - Borko KovacevicEpisode Highlights: [00:00] Quote of the Day by Borko Kovacevic [01:00] Introduction: Borko Kovacevic [03:17] The danger of corporate complacency & achieving success too early[07:00] The leap: why he finally decided to leave Microsoft and build something[10:13] The origin story of Poddster — not planned, born from a co-founder complaint[13:00] Building a mini studio prototype inside Microsoft; discovering the market gap[16:33] Modelling Poddster like McDonald's: 90% of operations standardized and repeatable[18:23] Building the flywheel: connecting corporates with content creators at scale[23:00] The global studio partner network — a community of 150+ studio owners globally[26:12] The roadmap: New York by September, then Los Angeles and London[32:10] How Podyx was born — a prototype to solve Poddster' own booking chaos[33:47] Why existing booking tools (Calendly, Acuity) didn't fit the podcasting workflow[36:55] Podyx metrics: $6M+ in transactions, 160 paying studios across 24 markets, zero churn[37:15] Stripe named Podyx fastest-growing vertical SaaS startup from Singapore[38:34] Founder-led sales: Borko personally onboarded the first 50+ studios on calls[42:23] Making a services business operate like software — what can actually be productized[44:48] The test for every new process: can you repeat it 10 more times across locations?[49:48] The one thing most people don't know about podcasting: frequency beats polish[50:42] LLMs and agents will train on your content — why posting consistently is the real SEO[54:14] Creators vs. corporates: fundamentally different problems.[56:00] Corporates discovering long-form: the end of scripted media interviews[58:22] The AWS-Cisco example: executive dialogue that earns trust without selling[01:03:13] What great looks like for Poddster and Podyx in the next few yearsProfile: Borko Kovacevic, co-founder of Poddster and PodyxLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/borko-kovacevic/Poddster Website: https://poddster.comPodyx Website: https://podyx.comPodcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format. This episode is recorded in Poddster Singapore and full disclosure: Bernard is an investor to Podyx.

Fresh out of the studio, Ken Exner, Chief Product Officer at Elastic, joins us to explore how Elastic evolved from the world's most popular open-source search engine into the context layer powering modern AI applications and agent systems. He shares his career journey from database programming to over 16 years at Amazon building AWS resilience practices, and now leading product strategy where search, observability, and security converge into a unified AI platform. Ken explains why context engineering is the defining discipline of the AI age, where developers become managers of agents, and how Elastic's 15-year enterprise head start positions it as the foundational retrieval layer between enterprise data and LLMs."I like to think of the future of software development is—developers will be managers of agents. They're no longer going to be ICs [Individual Contributors], they’re going to be managers. Every developer is going to be a manager of agents and they’re going to be doing context engineering. They’re going to be figuring out how to pass context and data to an LLM or an agent. And they’re going to be goal setting. They’re going to have their team of agents, and they’re going to give them goals, and they’re going to review the output." - Ken Exner Episode Highlights: [00:00] Quote of the Day by Ken Exner from Elastic[00:51] Ken's origin story: database programmer to Amazon[02:07] What attracted Ken to Elastic[02:51] Lessons from building resilient systems at AWS[04:34] How Elastic evolved from search to AI infrastructure[07:06] Elastic today: context engineering, observability, security[09:42] Why observability will be fundamentally transformed by AI[10:48] How early vector search prepared Elastic for GenAI[12:53] Context engineering: ingestion, retrieval, evaluation[15:39] The 10-year head start over purpose-built competitors[20:57] A developer's day is now all context engineering[24:16] Elastic as the bridge between enterprise data and LLMs[26:13] Agent Builder capabilities for customers[28:09] Data, tools, and context in the Elastic framework[29:39] Elastic on battleships and a Mars rover[31:00] The disorienting acceleration of AI coding models[32:07] Developers will be managers of agents[34:00] Authentication and identity for autonomous agents[35:30] Great in five years: the foundational AI layer[36:14] Disrupting observability and security from within[36:36] ClosingProfile: Ken Exner, Chief Product Officer, ElasticLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-exner-b914542/Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format.

"Motivation is a triangle. It requires: Behavior: What am I going to do? Benefit: Why am I going to do it? Belief. If you don’t have those three areas of your life in concert, all the advice in the world is going to go in one ear and out the other. Beliefs are tools, not truths. The majority of our problems today—cultural, geopolitical, personal—come from the fact that we think our faith is fact, and we confuse facts for what are beliefs. Everything worth having in life is on the other side of discomfort. So if you can learn to manage discomfort through the power of belief, what couldn't you accomplish? Everything." - Nir EyalFresh out of the studio, Nir Eyal, best-selling author of "Hooked," "Indistractable," and the forthcoming "Beyond Belief," joined us in a conversation to explore how deeply held beliefs quietly shape our attention, decisions, and success. Nir shared his personal origin story of childhood obesity that revealed how we escape uncomfortable feelings through habitual behaviors, and progressed through the Hook Model that democratized Silicon Valley's habit-formation secrets for building products like Duolingo and Fitbod. He unpacks the critical insight that the opposite of distraction isn't focus—it's traction—and introduces the Motivation Triangle framework explaining why knowing what to do isn't enough without belief. Throughout the conversation, Nir demonstrates how 90% of our distractions stem from internal triggers rather than technology itself, and challenges the moral panic around AI by drawing parallels to historical fears from the written word to social media. Last but not least, he argues that beliefs are tools, not truths, revealing how our hidden convictions fundamentally alter what we see, feel, and do—and provides a science-backed path for transforming limiting beliefs into liberating ones that unlock previously impossible performance.Episode Highlights[00:00] Quote of the Day by Nir Eyal[01:02] Introduction: Nir Eyal[04:45] Hook model democratizes habit-forming product secrets[06:42] Startups sell painkillers not vitamins[08:59] Traction versus distraction defines intentional living[10:24] Distraction is behavior not medical addiction[11:28] AI triggers predictable moral panic cycle[14:21] First generation without mass starvation faces excess[16:58] Hook model: trigger action reward investment[23:26] Persuasion helps people achieve their goals[29:39] Internal triggers cause ninety percent of distractions[32:36] Indistractable readers didn't implement the steps[34:46] Motivation triangle requires behavior benefit belief[36:19] Steve Jobs willed reality through liberating beliefs[43:43] Facts beliefs faith require intellectual humility[45:41] Beliefs are tools not truths[48:32] Beliefs reshape attention anticipation agency[51:30] ClosingProfile: Nir Eyal, author of "Beyond Belief", "Indistractable" and "Hooked"Main Site: https://www.nirandfar.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nireyal/Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format.

Fresh out of the studio, Patrick Kelly, Vice President for Asia Pacific at Arize AI, joins us to explore the critical world of AI observability, evaluation, and infrastructure and how Arize AI will start their go to market across the region. Beginning with his transition from Databricks to Arize AI, Patrick explained how the company's mission centers on making AI work for people by helping teams observe, evaluate, and continuously improve their AI agents in production. Emphasizing that evaluations are the most important requirement for AI systems in 2025-2026, he revealed a striking insight: approximately 50% of AI agents fail silently in production because organizations don't know what's happening. Through compelling case studies from Booking.com, Flipkart, and AT&T, Patrick explained how Arize AI enables real-time observability and online evaluations, achieving results like 40% accuracy improvements and 84% cost reductions. Patrick concluded by sharing his vision for success across Asia Pacific's diverse markets - from regulatory frameworks in Korea and Singapore to language localization challenges in Vietnam - emphasizing the three pillars that remain constant: helping customers make money, control costs, and manage risk in an era where AI governance has become paramount. Last but not least, he shares what great would look like for Arize AI in the Asia Pacific"The mission is to make AI work for the people. It’s about getting AI working for everybody—consumers, customers, and businesses at large. Evals are the most important things that we’ve seen through 2025 and will see more of into 2026; they are the most important thing for systems to work. When I'm working with a customer, I ask: How are we going to help them make money? How are we going to help them control costs? And how are we going to help them manage risk? A lot of AI now is about managing risk."Episode Highlights: [00:00] Quote of the Day by Patrick Kelly[01:10] Bernard introduces AI evaluation and infrastructure topic[02:24] Patrick's journey from Databricks to Arize AI[03:20] Arize AI's mission: making AI work for people[04:00] Understanding agentic systems and their complexity[05:18] Observability, evaluation, and development framework explained[06:27] Creating continuous feedback loops for AI improvement[07:00] On-premises and air-gapped deployment capabilities[08:00] Open Telemetry and Open Inference standards[09:08] Evaluations are critical for 2025-2026 success[10:36] Booking.com case: real-time production AB testing[14:36] Phoenix open source and Open Inference: entry to Arize ecosystem[16:00] Travel industry use cases: Skyscanner and Flipkart[17:53] AT&T case: 40% accuracy improvement, 84% cost reduction[19:36] 50% of production agents fail silently[20:26] Korea and Singapore MAS launches AI risk management framework[22:08] Arize AI CEO's 10 predictions for AI 2026[22:41] Cursor for X: AI engineering everywhere[24:06] Context and session state matter critically[26:27] Harness: new buzzword for agent orchestration[34:13] Three pillars: make money, control costs, manage risk[36:00] Asia Pacific diversity: India to Japan[37:12] Language and cultural nuances in evaluations[38:00] ClosingProfile: Patrick Kelly, Vice President, Asia Pacific, Arize AILinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-kelly-aab6168/?ref=analyse.asiaPodcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format.

By popular demand, Michael Smith Jr., co-host of The Generalist podcast, and Daniel Cerventus Lim, semi-retired entrepreneur and community builder in Malaysia, return for another candid deep-dive into Southeast Asia and India tech landscape. Fresh off India's record-breaking IPO wave that's drawing regional companies like Pine Labs to redomicile, they dissect what this exit boom means for a Southeast Asian ecosystem still struggling with venture returns. Michael delivers his characteristically unflinching take on why "the year of [insert country]" never materializes beyond Singapore and Indonesia, while making the provocative case that most VCs fundamentally misunderstand B2B distribution strategy—specifically how hyperscaler marketplaces like AWS and Microsoft provide the GTM playbook that separates successful exits from perennial fundraising. Daniel shares emerging insights from the SME acquisition space, revealing the stark reality that traditional businesses are "seeing black" while venture-backed startups continue "seeing red." Together, they debate whether we're witnessing an AI infrastructure bubble that will pop or simply taper, examine why Southeast Asia leads globally in AI adoption despite the disconnect with venture outcomes, and question the fragility of cloud infrastructure after recent AWS and CloudFlare outages. The conversation culminates in a sobering assessment: the region has achieved a remarkable $300 billion digital economy milestone, but the path forward may require accepting longer timelines, smaller profitable exits over unicorn dreams, and modernizing traditional businesses rather than building the next ByteDance."If you don't think we're gonna get there, then you should all get outta tech because we're gonna get there. And if you're gonna get there, we barely have the horsepower to do the Google Docs that we have today, let alone the world I just described." - Michael Smith JrOn AI Assistance - “If you can get 90% of the stuff done, I just need to say yes or no. And that is like my [ideal state]." - Daniel Cerventus Episode Highlights: [00:00] Quotes of the Day by Michael, Daniel & Bernard[02:12] Record India IPOs signal redomiciling trend from Singapore[03:53] Pine Labs exit provides significant Southeast Asia returns[04:41] Indonesia's venture funding freeze despite strong exit activity[11:29] Year of whatever narrative never materializes for any country in ASEAN[15:05] AI infrastructure bubble debate: does it pop or fizzle?[18:42] OpenAI's unprecedented growth speed creates new tech pantheon[21:00] Recent AWS and CloudFlare outages highlight infrastructure fragility[24:00] AI agents remain in early stages of development[28:00] Real-world robotics models still lack adequate data foundations[34:00] AppPoint's dual NASDAQ-SGX listing demonstrates successful B2B strategy[38:00] B2B marketplace strategy provides essential distribution for startups[44:00] Reflections on eConomySEA 10th Year Report 2025[53:00] SME market offers modernization opportunities with lower risk[54:00] Southeast Asia modernization surprises many American visitors[56:00] SME acquisition market shows profitability versus startup losses[57:00] ClosingProfile: Michael Smith Jr., Tech Evangelist from Oracle & Co-Host, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smittysgp/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGeneralistsPodcast Daniel Cerventus Lim, semi-retired entrepreneur, Community Builder in Malaysia and TEDxKL founder. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cerventus/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/80164351656Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format.