Podcasts
From GGV Capital, Evolving for the Next Billion interviews local champions and global giants who are reshaping the lives of the next billion internet users. Hosted by GGV Capital Managing Partner Hans Tung. Produced by GGV colleague Rita Yang. Podcasts are released bi-weekly.
Reviews
Episode 27
Today on the show we have Hou Jianbin, founder and CEO of Zuoyebang. Zuoyebang is a Chinese online learning app and the largest K12 online education platform in China.
Episode 26
Peter De Caluwe of Thunes: Building a Cross-Border Payments Network for Emerging Markets
Today on the show, we have Peter De Caluwe, the Executive Chairman and CEO of Thunes. Thunes is a B2B cross-border payments network for emerging markets. It provides transfer of funds between payment systems, including mobile wallet providers, money transfer operators and banks, in more than 100 countries and 60…
Episode 25
Siddharth Shah of PharmEasy: On Disrupting the Healthcare Business in India
On today’s episode, we have Siddharth Shah, co-founder and CEO of PharmEasy, India's largest digital health platform. Start with a vision to make health care accessible and affordable to all farmers who supplies medicines to more than 1000 cities and towns in India. The company recently proposed a merger deal…
Episode 24
Hendra Kwik of Payfazz: Empowering the Unbanked in Indonesia
Today on the show we have Hendra Kwik, Co-founder and CEO of Payfazz, a fintech platform that aims to build a network of distributed banking agents to enable a fully-digital mobile banking & payment solution for 440 million unbanked in Southeast Asia.
Episode 23
Live in Jakarta: Founders Q&A with Hans Tung
Today’s episode is a recording of a founders’ dinner we hosted in Jakarta last year. In a short Q&A part of the night, Hans answered a wide range of questions, including absolutes, trade-offs, the power of the mass market, patterns recognition across markets, and more. Enjoy!
Episode 22
Agung of Warung Pintar: How Covid-19 made mom-and-pop shops in Indonesia more open to technology
The guest for today is Agung Bezharie Hadinego, Co-Founder and CEO at Warung Pintar. The name literally means smart kiosk in Indonesian. It is a micro-retail tech startup aimed to digitalize the street vendors in Indonesia. Launched in January 2018, it currently empowers 3,000 warungs in Jakarta and Banyuwangi, whose…
Episode 21
Bonus Episode: Hans Tung on Emerging Trends, FoodTech and Advice for His Younger Self
Today’s episode originally aired on our previous guest Garry Tan’s YouTube Channel. Garry turned the tables and interviewed Hans on being a global investor in this day and age, what great founders have in common, and one thing he wants to tell his younger self.
Episode 20
George and Gaery of Tiket.com: Why We Remain Optimistic for the Travel Industry
In this episode, we have George Hendrata and Gaery Undarsa from Tiket.com. Tiket.com is the fastest growing Online Travel Agency (OTA) platform in Indonesia. We also caught up with both of them for a COVID-19 update in the second part of the podcast.
Episode 19
Garry Tan of Initialized: Saying No to Peter Thiel, Engineer turned Investors, and Betting Against Big Tech
Today on the show we have Garry Tan, the managing partner of Initialized Capital, a venture firm based in San Francisco he started with the Reddit Co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Garry is a designer/engineer turned early-stage investor. He was a partner at Y Combinator for nearly five years where he advised and…
Episode 18
Achmad Zaky of Bukalapak: Why Now is the Best Time to do Startups
On this episode, we have Achmad Zaky, the founder and former CEO of Bukalapak, one of Indonesia’s largest eCommerce site and the newest unicorn in Indonesia. The name Bukalapak means “open a market stall” in Indonesian. It reflects the company’s vision of building an online marketplace for SMEs in Indonesia.
Episode 17
Jenny Lee of GGV: Why We Invested in Agora, Post-Covid Tech Trends, Advice for Technical Founders
As a bonus episode, we also caught up with Jenny, who led GGV’s investment in Agora. We covered how she first met Tony Zhao, founder of Agora.io, the future GGV was betting on and advice for technical founders.
Episode 16
Tony Zhao, CEO of Agora: Building a PaaS Company that Connects Everyone in Real Time
Agora.io is the only real-time engagement platform designed to cross borders and reach users on low-bandwidth networks and lower-powered devices. Founded by Tony Zhao in 2014, with a vision to provide high-quality voice and video as a ubiquitous platform to developers and businesses around the world, it currently serves over…
GGV Live Special
Cecilia Sun of Miss Fresh (每日优鲜): The Economics of Online Grocery in China
Online grocery is one of the most throat-cutting sectors in China. A study shows that with over 4,000 online grocery companies, only 1% is profitable, 4% can break even, and the overwhelming majority is burning money.
GGV Live Special
How Alibaba Survived SARS and Thrived afterwards – featuring its then-President and COO Savio Kwan
When the SARS pandemic struck in 2003, Savio was working as president and COO of an internet startup named Alibaba. Not only did the startup survive SARS, it launched a new business called Taobao and emerged as one of the most valuable companies in the world.
GGV Live Special
Mobilizing Distributed Teams in Crisis – featuring HashiCorp and HelloBike
This episode is the last of our 3-part-webinar series on how founders and leaders are dealing with the current global crisis. It was hosted by GGV’s Head of Talent Jennifer Holmstrom and featured Dylan Tey, Senior VP of HelloBike, […]
GGV Live Special
Coronavirus-Proof Your Cash Flow w/ Jixun Foo @GGV and Brian Gu @XPENG
With the escalated spread of the coronavirus, GGV Capital is running a 3-session-webinar series with founders around the world to help them navigate the radical uncertainty ahead. Today’s episode is the recording of the first webinar on managing cash flow at this special time, joined by Dr. Brian Gu, President…
Episode 15
GGV Fellows: Doing Startups in China as Young Global Talent
In recent years with the growing number of sea turtles returning to China, some say that sea turtle founders have lost their appeal to investor, and no longer have an absolute advantage over locally educated peers.
Episode 14
Amit and RK of Yulu: Transforming Urban India with Micro-mobility
Today on the show, we have Amit Gupta and RK Misra, co-founders of Yulu. Yulu is India’s ride-sharing startup launched in December 2017. It provides a network of over 10,000 shared vehicles, including bicycles and lightweight electric scooters, in Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai, and Bhubaneswar. Yulu’s vision is to reduce traffic…
Episode 13
Eric Yuan of Zoom: How WebEx’s Unhappy Customers Inspired Zoom (rerun)
Today’s episode originally aired in July 2018. The guest is Eric Yuan, the founder and CEO of Zoom, known for its easy-to-use and reliable video conferencing product. Zoom became a listed company in April 2019 and soon became one of the largest public SaaS companies in the world. The recent…
Episode 12
Vamsi Krishna of Vedantu: Scaling Personalized Live Tutoring in India
This episode is co-hosted by GGV’s investment colleague Madhu Yalarmathi. In this episode, we have Vamsi Krishna, CEO & Co-Founder of Vedantu. Vedantu is India’s leading online tutoring company that enables students to learn LIVE with some of India’s best-curated teachers. The name Vedantu is formed by two Sanskrit words…
Episode 11
Rajesh Yabaji of BlackBuck: Building a Startup is a Marathon of Sprints
This episode is co-hosted by GGV’s investment team colleague Madhu Yalamarthi. On this episode we have Rajesh Yabaji, co-founder and CEO at BlackBuck. BlackBuck is India’s largest trucking logistics company, often referred to as “Uber for Trucks”. In the episode, we covered creating a full-stack logistics marketplace in India, the…
Episode 10
Chen Ying of Shihuituan: Why Community Group Buy Works in China
In this episode, we have Chen Ying, the founder and CEO of Shihuituan, the leading community commerce company in China. The literal meaning of Shihuituan means plenty of things. It’s also a pun for value for money. With its network of 80,000 community influencers, the company currently serves 20 million…
Bonus Episode
Bonus Episode: Jixun Foo of GGV: Why We Invested in Telio
For this bonus episode, we have Jixun Foo, managing partner of GGV Capital. Jixun recently led GGV’s investment in Telio’s Series A. Jixun shared with us why he chose to invest in the B2B eCommerce model vs B2C, his advice for founders who are solving the fragmentation of supply chain…
Episode 9
SyPhong and My Linh of Telio: Becoming a Unicorn of Impact by Serving Mom and Pop Shops in Vietnam
This episode is co-hosted by my colleague Dimitra Taslim. Dimi is on the investment team at GGV Capital. Today on the show, we have SyPhong Bui and My Linh from Telio. Founded in 2018, Telio is already Vietnam’s largest b2b eCommerce platform. It connects small traditional retailers with brands and…
Episode 8
Ankiti from Zilingo: Building an Operating System for Fashion Merchants in Asia and Beyond
On the show today, we have Ankiti Bose, the founder and CEO of Zilingo, one of the largest fashion & lifestyle marketplaces in Southeast Asia. According to Bloomberg, the latest financing valued Zilingo is at $970 million. Ankiti is among the youngest female chief executives to lead a multi-million-dollar startup…
Episode 7
Jenny, Jixun, and Hans on Southeast Asia: Big Opportunities, Aggressive Giants, Advice for Founders
This episode is co-hosted by my colleague Dimitra Taslim. Dimi is on the investment team at GGV Capital. In today’s episode for Southeast Asia, we have GGV’s managing partners Jenny Lee and Jixun Foo. They shared one thing that excites them as investors about the region, what we learned from…
Episode 6
William and Patrick of Tokopedia: From Selling T-Shirts to Driving 1.5% of Indonesia’s GDP
This episode is co-hosted by my colleague Dimitra Taslim. Dimi is on the investment team at GGV Capital. In this episode, we have William Tanuwijaya and Patrick Cao from Tokopedia. Tokopedia is an Indonesian technology company with the largest online marketplace business and its mission is to democratize commerce through…
Episode 5
Ming Maa of Grab: How We Grow a Super App in a Highly Diverse and Competitive Region
On this episode, we have Ming Maa, President of Grab, Southeast Asia’s leading super app, providing the everyday services that matter most to consumers. The conversation covered a wide range of topics; how Grab thinks about expansion (markets vs verticals), the tension between product development and scaling, what are the…
Episode 4
Live in Bangalore: Fireside Chat with VG from Udaan, Manu from Xiaomi and Hans from GGV
This episode is a recording of the fireside chat we hosted in Bangalore on September 19th. In the chat moderated by Madhu Yalamarthi, a member of GGV’s investment team, we talked about what does evolving for the next billion means for each of the panelists, the evolution of India’s startup…
Episode 3
Manu of Xiaomi: The Making of India’s Favorite Smartphone Brand
On this episode, we have Manu Kumar Jain, the global vice president at Xiaomi and the managing director of Xiaomi India. Xiaomi is currently the world’s fourth-largest smartphone brand. Besides smartphones, the company also makes other smart devices connected to its IoT platform. It is the youngest company on the…
Episode 2
Kunal and Rohit of Snapdeal: From Surviving to Thriving in India’s eCommerce Battleground
On this episode, we have Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, co-founders of Snapdeal. Snapdeal is India’s leading online marketplace. The company started out as a flash deal website in 2010, soon evolved into a leader of India’s e-Commerce sectors. In early 2017, it was on the verge of being merged…
Episode 1
Vaibhav Gupta of Udaan: on Building India’s Fastest Unicorn in B2B
For the first episode of the Evolving for the Next Billion podcast, we have Vaibhav Gupta, co-founder of Udaan, India’s top B2B eCommerce. The company connects manufacturers, wholesalers with retailers online, often referred to as India’s fastest unicorn, having achieved over $1 billion valuations in a short period of 26months.…
Season 1
Episode 41
Josh Luber of StockX: On Buying Sneakers the Same Way We Buy Stocks
On this episode we have Josh Luber, the co-founder of StockX. StockX is the world’s first online stock market for high-demand consumer goods, namely sneakers, handbags, streetwear, and watches. On the platform, buyers place bids, sellers place asks and when a bid and ask meet, the transaction happens automatically. The…
Episode 40
Renee Wang of CastBox: on Building America’s Top-Rated Podcast Listening App
In this episode, we interviewed Renee Wang (王小雨), the founder and CEO of CastBox, a global podcast platform often referred to as the “Netflix for podcasting”. It uses natural language processing and machine learning to power unique features like personalized recommendations and in-audio search. According to a report from Sensor…
Episode 39
Brian Gu of XPENG Motors: Why China’s EV Market Excites Me
We interview Brian Gu, the vice chairman and president of XPENG Motors, also known as Xiaopeng Motors, a Chinese electric vehicle company and a GGV portfolio company. The company designs and manufactures what it calls “Internet cars” which has AI technology integrated into the vehicles. Prior to joining XPENG Motors…
Episode 38
[Ask Me Anything] Hans Tung on Breaking Into VC and Other Questions From Listeners
On a special “AMA” (Ask Me Anything) episode, GGV Managing Partner Hans Tung answers questions posed by our listeners on a wide range of topics. How did Hans break into the VC world? What made he move to China and then come back to Silicon Valley afterwards? How does he…
Episode 37
Hao Wu on Making “People’s Republic of Desire”
We interviewed Hao Wu, a Chinese American film director, producer and writer to discuss his recent work “People’s Republic of Desire”, a documentary about the live streaming industry in China. Originally trained as a molecular biologist, Hao worked in tech before becoming a full-time filmmaker. He held various management positions…
Episode 36
Tao Peng, President of Airbnb China, on Redefining Travel
GGV Capital’s Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Tao Peng (彭韬), the president of Airbnb China. Prior to joining Airbnb in Sept 2018, Tao has founded a number of companies in the travel space including Breadtrip, a social app for recording and sharing trips, and more recently, CityHome, a management…
Episode 35
Jane Sun, CEO of Ctrip, on Running Asia’s Largest OTA
GGV Capital’s Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Jane Sun (孙洁), the CEO of Ctrip, the largest online travel platform in China which is listed on the NASDAQ. It’s current market cap (at time of recording) is around $23 billion. Jane has been at Ctrip for 13 years. Prior to…
Episode 34
Interviewing Our GGV Fellows
GGV Capital’s Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview two “GGV Fellows,” David Sun (a data scientist on Apple’s Siri team) and Bo Ning Han (a recent Harvard grad working on a startup in Beijing), on their life stories and their takeaways from the GGV Fellows program. What is the GGV…
Episode 33
Chinese Overseas Returnees (Hai Guis): Opportunities and Challenges
GGV Capital’s Hans Tung and Zara Zhang discuss the opportunities and challenges faced by Chinese overseas returnees (“sea turtles”, or 海归) who are interested in working in China’s tech industry. These are people who were born and raised in China, completed their high education outside of China or have worked…
Episode 32
Wang Yu of Tantan on Scaling China’s Top Dating App
We interviewed Wang Yu (王宇), the co-founder and CEO of Tantan (探探), China’s leading dating app. Tantan is social app that help young people in China connect with one another. It has a slide-left slide-right interface. Only when two users both slide right on each other can they start a…
Episode 31
Simon Zhang of GrowingIO: Learning to Grow, Chinese Style
GGV Capital’s Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Simon Zhang, (张溪梦), the founder and CEO of GrowingIO, a data analytics startup in China that helps product managers and marketers analyze mobile apps and websites without adding manual tracking codes. GrowingIO now counts over 6000 companies as its customers, including the…
Episode 30
Doris Ke on Marketing Across the US and China
GGV Capital’s Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview Doris Ke, a marketer and writer who has had an interesting career across the US and China. Doris grew up in China and went to the US for college, where she attended Bard College in New York. She started her career at…
Episode 29
Orion Zhao of Moka on Being a Sea Turtle Entrepreneur and SaaS in China
This is a cross-over episode between us and Founder Real Talk, which is a biweekly podcast hosted by GGV managing partner Glenn Solomon. Glenn and Zara interview Orion Zhao (赵欧伦), the co-founder and CEO of Moka, a fast-growing HR SaaS startup in China. Moka helps companies increase the efficiency of…
Episode 28
Chuhai (出海): Why Chinese Entrepreneurs are Targeting Emerging Markets Across the World
GGV Capital’s Hans Tung and Zara Zhang discuss the trend known as “Chuhai” (出海), or Chinese founders targeting emerging markets outside of China, such as Southeast Asia, India, Latin America, and more. As the mobile Internet market in China reaches saturation, an increasing number of Chinese entrepreneurs are now eyeing…
Episode 27
George Yan: From Microsoft China to Clobotics
GGV Capital’s Hans Tung and Zara Zhang interview George Yan (严治庆), the founder and CEO of Clobotics, (扩博智能). Founded in 2016, Clobotics is a computer vision startup that seeks to make traditional industries more intelligent. It is headquartered in Shanghai and Seattle with offices in Beijing, Dalian, and Singapore. It…
Episode 26
Yan Li and Token Hu of NIU on the Journey to IPO
The founders of the electric scooter company NIU discussed how their product became a lifestyle brand, and what it was like to take a Chinese company public on the NASDAQ.
Episode 25
Tony Fadell, "Father of the iPod", on Finding the New "New" Thing
The inventor of the iPod discusses why China might have a “last-mover advantage”, the qualities he look for in entrepreneurs, and how to discover the next game-changing technology.
Episode 24
Ashley Peng of Xiaobu: When Chinese Millennials Become Parents
Ashley Peng is the founder and CEO of Xiaobu (小步), a mobile platform for parents in China with kids aged 0-6 years old. Ashley discussed how she was inspired to start Xiaobu by her own journey as the mother of a young child, why millennial parents in China need a…
Episode 23
David Li of YY on Pioneering Live Streaming in China
David discussed his evolution from a philosophy major to a journalist to an Internet entrepreneur, what it’s like to take a Chinese company public in 2012, and how YY came to spearhead innovative features of modern live-streaming products such as in-app tipping and virtual gifts.
Episode 22
How We Think about LATAM vs Other Emerging Markets
We discuss our recent investment in Yellow, a leading micro-mobility startup based in Brazil, which recently raised $63 million in Series A led by GGV Capital.
Episode 21
Toby Sun of Lime on Scooters and the Future of Transportation
Toby Sun, co-founder of Lime, on why scooters could be a game-changer, how Lime envisions its partnership with Uber, and whether Lime sees itself as a “super app” going forward.
Episode 20
Jixun Foo of GGV Capital: Behind the Scenes of China’s Venture Deals
Jixun Foo, Managing Partner at GGV Capital, tells the stories behind some of China’s hottest venture deals including the merger of Youku and Tudou, Yunmanman and Huochebang, as well as why he invested in HelloBike.
Episode 19
Grant Horsfield of naked Group: Creating a Lifestyle Brand in China
Grant Horsfield on his journey from rural South Africa to rural China, and how he is trying to redefine the word “lifestyle” in China.
Episode 18
Zilin Chen of BingoBox on the Future of 'New Retail' in China
Zilin Chen is the founder and CEO of BingoBox, China’s first scalable cashier-free convenience store.
Episode 17
Unpacking Xiaomi’s IPO
Why can Xiaomi be thought of as an “Internet company” instead of a hardware company? Why should people stop comparing Xiaomi to Apple? Was Xiaomi’s IPO valuation justified? What does the “Xiaomi ecosystem” mean?
Episode 16
Justin Kan of Twitch and Atrium: From Builder to Entrepreneur
Justin recounts the pitfalls he has gone through during his startup journey, whether it was the right decision to sell Twitch to Amazon in 2014, and what gets him excited about his new venture Atrium.
Episode 15
Eric Yuan of Zoom: From Immigrant to Top CEO
Eric was recently named the Top CEO on Glassdoor, with an approval rating of 99%, and was the first person of color to win the award.
Episode 14
Jenny Lee of GGV Capital on Being a VC in China
The story of how Jenny Lee set up GGV Capital’s China presence over a decade ago as someone who didn’t grow up in China, and rose to become one of the world’s most powerful women in tech.
Episode 13
Yasheng Huang of MIT on the Future of US-China Trade Relations
We discussed the recent trade tensions between the US and China, how geopolitical factors affect the global tech industry, and how China’s growth story compares to that of India and other developing countries.
Episode 12
Yinglian Xie & Fang Yu of DataVisor: Fighting Frauds with Machine Learning
We discussed why China is a great market for SaaS businesses, what it’s like to be female founders in a highly technical space, and how DataVisor uses a unique approach—unsupervised machine learning—to fight frauds.
Episode 11
Bertrand Schmitt on Starting App Annie in China
We discussed why Bertrand, a native of France, chose to move to China despite the language and cultural barriers.
Episode 10
Nathan Blecharczyk on Lessons from Airbnb’s China Expansion
On the first live show of 996 Podcast, we interviewed Nathan Blecharczyk, Airbnb’s co-founder, Chief Strategy Officer, and Chairman of Airbnb China.
Episode 9
Brad Bao of LimeBike on Tackling America’s Last-Mile Problem
Brad Bao is the founder of LimeBike, a fast-growing bike-sharing startup in the US. He discussed why bike-sharing—a genre largely invented in China—can work in the US.
Episode 8
Miranda Qu of Xiaohongshu on Powering E-Commerce with Community
Miranda Qu is the co-founder of Xiaohongshu (“Little Red Book” in Chinese), the world’s the largest lifestyle platform that integrates community and content with e-commerce.
Episode 7
Yi Wang of Liulishuo on Teaching English with AI
Why did Yi choose to leave his comfortable job in Silicon Valley to start a new venture in China? What challenges must “sea turtles” overcome to successfully start a company in China?
Episode 6
Lin Bin on How Xiaomi Engineered its “Surprise Comeback”
Lin Bin, the co-founder, president, and head of mobile for Xiaomi, reveals the secret sauce of one of the most valuable private companies in the world, which is reportedly going public later this year.
Episode 5
Tao Zhang of Dianping on Merging with Meituan and the “Groupon War”
Tao Zhang on navigating ferocious competition in China and how to deal with giants like Tencent & Alibaba
Episode 4
Liu Zhen on ByteDance’s Global Vision and Leading Uber China
Liu Zhen discusses ByteDance (Toutiao)’s global vision and leading Uber China
Episode 3
Kai-Fu Lee’s Journey From Google China to Sinovation Ventures
Kai-Fu Lee’s Journey From Google China to Sinovation Ventures
Episode 2
Andrew Ng on China’s Ambitions in Artificial Intelligence
Andrew Ng discusses China’s ambitions in artificial intelligence.
Episode 1
Jerry Yang of Yahoo!: Why I Believed in Alibaba
Jerry Yang of Yahoo!: Why I Believed in Alibaba
Sharing of gems from people who have been there done that
"Super and real stories filled with gems and nuggets for startup founders to learn from! I have been listening for over 12 months now and always looking forward to new episodes of insights and knowledge from some of the smartest people in the world."
Entertaining, insightful and actionable! 🔥
"Whether you’re well established as a technology innovator, or just getting started on your entrepreneurial journey - this is a must-listen podcast for you! Hans and the entire GGV team do an incredible job leading conversations that cover a huge breadth of topics related to the ins and outs of building a thriving organization amidst an ever changing technological landscape, and life you can be proud of - from leaders who have actually innovated on the front-lines themselves. Highly recommend listening and subscribing!"
Amazing Show with Great Questions
"I love how the show has both in-depth analysis of the business and authentic human story of the people who’re building that. Keep up the good work!"